Light At The End | Book 1 | Surviving The Apocalypse

by Benson, Tom

  “I couldn’t live with—”

  Norman placed a big hand gently on her arm. “Please, don’t fret. If it makes you feel any better, you can be a part of the decision-making process. We know your colleague was murdered by a person from our group, and that person does not belong among decent people.”

  “Promise me that you won’t do anything rash, Norman.” Anne’s plea was heartfelt.

  “You have my word, Anne.”

  Steph said, “I think what we have to do is threefold. First, we have to set up a … for want of a better word, an inquiry, which will consider all the facts. Secondly, we have to isolate our suspect for interview. When we have an admission of guilt, we consider our options, and I don’t think rehabilitation is among them. Third, we have to decide how to deliver the appropriate punishment.”

  Dawn said, “What if our suspect denies guilt and we’re dealing with … what is it, circumstantial evidence?”

  Norman said, “Steph, if you and Dawn produce a list of every passenger from our coach, we should be able to cross off all those beyond suspicion and highlight the possible suspects. I guarantee you it won’t leave many names.”

  “Now, you’re talking my language, Norman.” DC Anne Brown was animated. “Please do what Norman suggested, Dawn. Write it on a single sheet of notepaper, and we’ll take it from there, and there is one detail I can confirm.”

  All three of the others gazed at the policewoman.

  Anne whispered, “Your list will be short, because however Norman’s suspect got the bracelet, the person we’re looking for is a woman.”

  15 - Positive Actions

  Dawn, Steph and Anne sat together to go over the information they had. They were the first three women removed from suspicion of Ken’s murder.

  Steph said, “I know it could be a mistake to rely on the connection to the bracelet, but it’s the only thing we’ve got to go on. I think we should start digging a bit deeper with Patsy Mayne, our prime suspect.”

  Anne said. “I agree, Steph, and I would like to be a part of the whole process, including any interviewing.”

  Dawn said, “Anne, you’ve been one of the quietest people in our entire group since we ended up in the tunnel. Are you sure you’re okay—and you said you worked closely with Ken?”

  “I was feeling the effects of being in that tunnel, but I’m fine now. We’re out of that world of darkness,” Anne murmured. “I am, or was a police officer, Dawn, and though I was Ken’s colleague, I can be objective.”

  Steph said, “I think you’d be useful to the team, Anne, because apart from you and Ken working on the forest murder cases together, knowing the right questions might produce useful information or responses.”

  Dawn said, “For an author, you seem to have a good grasp of this situation.”

  Steph said, “Among other things I write thrillers and suspense, Dawn. If an author’s work is to be credible, it needs to have decent research. I’ve spent a lot of time in courts, talking to police officers, and occasionally thinking like a murderer.”

  “Wow, I never thought of your work that way. What next then?”

  Anne said, “May I suggest, if we’re going to sit in a small group to deal with this issue that we continue to do it here in the cafeteria and not in some secret little room. It’s the sort of activity usually referred to as hidden in plain sight.”

  “Right,” Dawn said. “We stay here, so we appear to be discussing something as we’d regularly do. Would you like me to find the others so we can get started?”

  Steph said, “Bill wants to be involved and I think it would be right to include the man who saved all of us in the first place.”

  Fifteen minutes later, the inquiry team were sitting together.

  Bill said, “How are things going so far?”

  Steph said, “I went down the list of names earlier with Dawn, and apart from ourselves and Anne, we haven’t ruled out any others. We can safely discount all the men because Anne told us that she and Ken were actively hunting for a woman.”

  Bill said nothing but watched the reaction of the others.

  Anne said. “I apologise to all of you but I had my reasons. You see if you have twenty-odd people you suspect and you’re not trained to deal with these things, you’ll naturally keep the status quo, even if you don’t trust anybody.” She paused. “In the tunnel, if several people knew that we had a killer and it was a woman, we might possibly have tipped off our suspect by people staring or asking questions.”

  Steph nodded. “There’s no need to apologise, Anne. I can see your logic and you’re right.”

  “I agree,” Bill said.

  Paul said, “Surely if it’s a woman who can overpower a man then we don’t have many to choose from here?”

  “Yes,” Anne said. “In one murder case a few months ago, there were traces of nail polish on a victim’s clothing. That particular man had realised too late that his life was in danger, and he must have fought back. The scene of crime for the next two victims showed no signs of a struggle, which threw us a bit in our investigations.”

  Bill said, “Wait a minute, Anne, if you had so much information, you must have a description.”

  Anne nodded. “The person we were hunting is one of two woman who had escaped from a police vehicle when in transit. Both were pale-skinned, in their mid-thirties.” She paused. “The prime suspect was known for her ability to disguise herself, which made facial recognition difficult in our investigations. Both escapees are known to be violent.”

  “In that the case,” Bill said, “we have to be sure to have enough people on hand to overpower her when she’s approached.”

  “Right,” Paul said. “We’re looking for a pale-skinned woman in her mid-thirties. We must be able to cut down the suspects. Surely records of arrests or incarceration would have had useful details?”

  Anne said, “One of the reasons we had so much difficulty with the case is that we believe our suspect had reconstructive surgery after escaping from custody.”

  The others at the table turned towards the policewoman.

  Anne continued, “Ken was supposed to meet an informant at one of the sightseeing stops on the tour, and after a chat with you earlier today, Dawn, it struck me … where else but the Bird of Prey viewing area? You said that the group always goes off in different directions up there.”

  “What do you know about the murderer or the informant?” Bill said.

  Anne said, “Both the murderer and the informant were female.”

  “Hold on,” Steph said. “You said Ken was supposed to meet this woman.”

  “Yes, but he didn’t know what she would look like.”

  Dawn said, “What if the murderer got wind of who the informant was and murdered her?”

  Paul said, “Wouldn’t that mean that the murderer might already have been on the coach?”

  “Not necessarily,” Steph said. “Chloe told us that somebody had been living rough in the forest and moving around regularly. What if the murderer had been living in the forest, occasionally over the past few months? That could be how she came up with the idea of where to deal with her next victim. She would be aware of the coach excursions and how they operated.”

  “Right,” Bill said. “Having murdered people there she might have decided it would be a good place to lure the policeman who was closing in on her?”

  Steph said, “Perhaps she intended to deal with Ken in the forest during the scheduled stop, but then the whole world went to hell in a hand-basket. She might have changed her plan and blended in with the coach passengers.”

  “I think you’re onto something,” Anne said. “We are considering that the murderer replaced somebody on that Bird of Prey viewing area, but let’s consider something else. What if she was a passenger all along, and she and the informant were one and the same person.”

  “I don’t understand,” Paul said, his brow furrowed.

  Steph said, “If the murderer had reconstructive surgery and was also
good at disguise she could blend in, but Ken’s face was so well-known, he couldn’t, and he’d be keen to meet up with an informant. All the murderer had to do was lure him out here into the wilderness. She’d have him in an area where the murders had taken place, and it would feel like a double challenge.”

  Anne nodded. “What you’re suggesting is that the murderer posed as an informant to draw Ken out here, not just to meet him, but to kill him as part of her tally of victims?”

  “Yes,” Steph said. “Remember, it was on the Bird of Prey viewing site when the first panic phone call was made to one of our fellow passengers, and then we all got back to the coach as quick as we could.”

  Bill said, “I like where you’re coming from with this idea. I agree that the murderer might have intended to kill her nemesis in the forest during the visit. She was foiled by world events, other tours being cancelled and everybody on our tour returning to the coach in haste?”

  “I’d agree with that too,” Dawn said. “In that viewing area, we regularly have to shout to get people back who go wandering off.”

  Anne said, “We need to know the true identity of the woman who is wearing the bracelet that Norman described.”

  Dawn said, “We should follow the common turning point being that viewing location.”

  The other people at the table looked at Dawn.

  She said, “Except for Paul, everybody on the coach went with me up to the Bird of Prey viewing point. When we returned to the coach, we had the same number of people we had on the way up.”

  “Are you sure?” Bill said.

  “Yes, because I distinctly remember, Paul said that Calvin was the last one down the hill and out of the forest.” Dawn looked around the other faces. “The killer must have arrived on the earlier coach and hidden in the woods. She could have stayed out of sight, knowing that Ken hadn’t been on the first coach of the day with her. It stands to reason he’d be along later, so the killer had to wait in the forest nearby and select a lone woman from our tour.”

  “Of course, in our first day out we’re not yet accustomed to passenger’s faces and suchlike,” Paul said. “The murderer would have been aware that there would only be the early coach and then ours for picking up stragglers using the hop on-hop off option. The site is a popular location and people do go wandering.”

  Steph was nodding. “Dawn, didn’t you say your machine went a bit crazy when you entered that name, Patsy … something or other?”

  “Yes, and due to the tablet being damaged we’re lucky to get any information from it.”

  Anne said, “What if she booked herself on more than one coach?”

  “I didn’t consider that, Anne, but you’ve got a good point. If she did that to ensure she had a seat to get to the forest, it would mean her name was registered in the system. She was not individually listed as one of our passengers.”

  Bill said, “We need to identify this woman and then find a way of separating her from everybody else so that we can interview her.”

  Dawn said, “Who should be involved in that?”

  Bill said, “I’ll be happy to take part, and I’d suggest Anne is there.” He nodded towards the policewoman.

  Anne said, “I told these two girls earlier, I want to be involved, and I think Norman would be useful because of his first hand knowledge of the bracelet.”

  Paul said, “Both Norman and Anne have some connection to victims, so wouldn’t that be a … what do you call it … a conflict of interest?”

  “We’re not in the real world anymore,” Bill said. “Anne is a trained police detective, and Norman is the only person who would recognise the bracelet taken from his friend’s body.”

  “She’s a dangerous individual,” Dawn said. “Maybe we should have somebody else with us.”

  “Don’t worry about that aspect,” Bill said. “I have an idea to take care of our security. Our next issue is working out how to separate our suspect from everybody else without making her suspicious.”

  Anne said, “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before, but there is a unique physical recognition feature we can check, although it’s difficult.” She paused. “To ensure we are operating fairly if it’s okay with the rest of you guys I will wait until after this meeting and I’ll only tell Bill about the feature.”

  They all nodded agreement.

  Following an afternoon briefing, Des went on duty in the Control Centre accompanied by Bill who was to be next to learn enough to help out with the shifts. Three people went to the kitchen to help Ramona, and everybody else was involved in the first phase of a large project.

  Harry and Victoria had jobs for all of their workforce. To prepare the glass corridor for laying out in sections, it was first necessary to clear a pathway through the centre of the passage, but not lose any vegetation which was uprooted in the process. Victoria demonstrated how to replant the vegetation to cause the least damage to roots and foliage. A guideline of tape ran the length of the corridor to produce a reasonably straight path, and then the task was accomplished by working in pairs.

  When a few metres had been cleared, four people set about flattening the loose earth in the freshly made central path. The glass corridor was rapidly becoming two distinct, long areas for cultivation.

  There were six hover-boards for individual use within the installation. They were one-metre square and easy to manoeuvre. Three cargo versions were available for carrying stores or equipment. All of the simple devices were based on a recreational model, propelled by a compact power-pack, compressed air and adjustable directional thrusters. At two metres wide and three metres long the cargo hover-boards were ideal for use in confined spaces like the power installation and the tunnel road. All three large boards were used to ferry water containers from the main admin area along the internal road to the corridor because a lot of rapid replanting was expected. Harry organised teams on both sides by designating what had the priority by way of greenery. Waste was to be at a minimum.

  Within half an hour of the task starting, every available person was involved and working for the greater good. The two soldiers were alongside people who only a few days before had been enjoying a day-by-day tour of the Scottish Highlands.

  Bill said, “I’m ready for you to commence my education.” He looked around the assortment of dials, lights, switches and monitors of the Control Centre.

  Des nodded to a shelf containing old-fashioned paper manuals. “Those books have rarely been opened, but this place has always been too important to let it fail. All records are easily accessed via the four monitors on the separate work stations along the console.”

  “Can each one access the same information?”

  “Yes, or alternatively, you could have four people on here all looking at something different.” He slid his chair along to the station in front of Bill and pressed a button. “There, you can select all the data to maintain the facility.” He flicked another switch. “Here, you can check up on individual sections of the installation, and if you select this one, you can enjoy the views from our exterior cameras.”

  “Okay, I’ll spend time with you or Tracey for a couple of shifts each day until I’ve learned the basics, and how to alert one of you two to an issue.”

  “Do you have any knowledge of hydro-electric installations?”

  “Not much, apart from knowing how important they are and that back about a hundred years ago, this was the first of its type.” He grinned. “I understand that the whole set-up works on pumping water through the turbines,” Bill said. “So, as long as you have a water source, like the loch, and your pumps are working efficiently, this place will produce electricity?”

  Des laughed. “That’s a pretty simplistic description, but I admire your honesty. Our pumps are reversible which was one of the things that created the kudos around this place when it was built.”

  “Reversible pumps, so that means the water can be pumped in either direction?”

  “Yes, but, of course, having the
installation built out of sight inside a mountain was already a big deal. For the first fifty years, we were producing a lot of power and supporting the national grid. It may sound strange but, though we supplied electrical energy for more than half of Scotland, we were dependent on an outside source for this installation’s power.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes. I know it sounds unbelievable. Back then, we generated electricity, and it left here to go via transformers, power lines, sub-stations and then to localised town transformers. It was then passed on to the end-users.”

  “Are you saying that this place was actually an end-user, so you had to send it out and draw back what you needed?”

  “Yes, at least until about the year 2035. Two of the engineers who worked here designed a miniature network which syphoned off a fraction of the power the plant produces. It went into a series of local transformers and a single sub-station, and back in to us.”

  “How far away is that sub-station?”

  “It’s located in a chamber near the main doors at the end of our internal tunnel road. For security, it was decided to keep it inside the mountain, which means that it was safe from sabotage. It’s largely maintenance-free.”

  “Are we talking about maintenance-free in terms of years, and not months?”

  Des nodded. “Yes, and now, I hope you enjoy learning as much as I’ll enjoy teaching you about this stuff. Let’s look at the output levels and performance of the single turbine we’re using.”

  The two men commenced their first shift together to improve Bill’s knowledge of hydro-electric power. The idea of every person becoming multi-skilled had appealed to the entire group. As with anything in life, there were folk who had preferences for certain types of work.

  There wasn’t an abundance of gardening equipment. There was sufficient for Harry to delegate two members on clearing and turning over sections of the earth, all ready to receive what would arrive from Harry’s Place. As the areas were measured and prepared, Harry took a few people into the tunnel and boarded his train.