Thieving Fear by Ramsey Campbell Page B

along a narrower street and then down one that might be narrower still. All at once his height dropped inches, followed by twice that. 'Going down?' he said.
    Charlotte tried to find the sight of his lean face smiling up at her as comical as he might intend, but it made her less than eager to descend the steps. 'This is it, then.'
    'It's worth a whole lot more than I paid for it back when.'
    'I wasn't putting it down,' she said and ventured onto the first step.
    It was dark in the cramped stone yard at the bottom, and darker beyond the door Glen unlocked. As she waited for him to switch on some light Charlotte had the unwelcome fancy that he was about to encounter an intruder in the blackness. She heard a beeping that suggested Glen was trying to summon help on a mobile phone, but he was switching off an alarm. In another moment the hall lit up, and he looked out of the doorway. 'Are you OK on the steps?'
    She felt less so with each one she took. 'I didn't drink that much,' she said, wishing that were the problem, whatever it was.
    The click of the latch reminded her how she was shutting herself in. The short hall was decorated with Cougar posters as if, she felt unfair for thinking, Glen anticipated a visit from their bosses. Past the bathroom and a bedroom where a double bed lay low in the dark, the main room managed to contain a leather suite and a home cinema system with a plasma screen, as well as bookshelves and a hi-fi and a desk bearing a computer. Glen crossed the room to a panelled kitchen largely occupied by fitted units and a pine table with six chairs. 'Sit anywhere you're comfortable,' he said.
    'Can I open the curtains?'
    'Handle whatever you like.'
    Was she hoping for a sunken garden? When she parted the black curtains they revealed French windows, but these opened onto a subterranean brick enclosure where a round metal table and four chairs were surrounded on three sides by boxes spilling blossom. 'What do you think?' Glen called.
    Charlotte retreated to the farthest leather chair in case at that distance the enclosure could be mistaken for the edge of a darker garden. It couldn't, and she was thrown by her desire for the illusion. 'It's neat,' she had to say. 'You must be quite a gardener.'
    'I'm not. My girlfriend was.'
    'Oh dear, are you going to have to learn?'
    'That's one option. You any good with that stuff?'
    'I don't think any of my family have much to do with the soil.'
    'Pity,' Glen said and stayed quiet while the percolator did its work.
    Charlotte's last remark echoed like an unwelcome voice in her head for no reason she could grasp, unless it was reminding her that she was under the earth, except that she was nothing of the kind. 'You've made a lot of your space,' she said.
    'It's my burrow for sure. The girl I mentioned, she used to say it was like some animal's home in a fairy tale. Guess which animal.'
    'I really couldn't say, Glen.'
    'OK, well, you haven't seen it all yet.'
    Before she could think of an answer he carried in two mugs, each advertising a Cougar million-seller. Having handed Charlotte How You Can Save the World , he planted Know Everybody's Secrets next to the chair he took opposite her and sat forwards. 'Anyway, let's get to the important stuff,' he said. 'Your cousin, yes?'
    'I'd very much like to offer her a deal.'
    'We haven't seen any rewrites yet, have we?'
    'She's committed to them, and I'll give her any help she needs, on my own time if I have to.'
    'We may not have so much of that, the way things are shaping up.' He took time to swallow a mouthful of coffee and said 'So you don't think it's going to call for too much of a favour.'
    'I think together we can come up with a book that'll sell the way you thought it could.'
    'I guess that's good enough for me. I'll back you when you talk it up. How much are you looking to offer?'
    He'd lowered his head as he put down his mug, and yet she felt watched. 'As much as we reasonably can,' she said.
    'Go ahead, give me your