by Malcolm Rose
“Well, make sure you’ve entered that into the files. I want it clear that I’m struggling to find any evidence against me. And re-examine every single detail of Crispy’s case. I want to know if he was in on this operation. Is there anything in there that smells remotely of cats?”
Malc answered, “We have not collected any significant data on odours.”
Luke shook his head. “Who set up your language-recognition program? Whoever it was needs a good kicking.”
“It was developed by an IT company and installed originally by Rick Glenfield.”
“Really?”
“That was when he was an IT instructor. My programming has undergone further development and improvement since then.”
“Not enough, apparently,” Luke retorted. “I want you to check Crispy’s details for anything that links him with cats.”
“Processing.”
Really, Luke was already convinced that cats would not connect the killings of Crispin Addley and Ms Kee. If Crispy had come into contact with cats, Malc would have detected it already. He would have found cat hairs on Crispy’s clothes or in his quarters. Luke was merely delaying his next interview. He was putting it off for as long as possible because he was dreading it.
****
Luke could have got plenty of information on rattlesnakes and their venom from Instructor Cadman but he thought that Georgia would be more friendly and open. Besides, ever since Ella Fitch had mentioned that Mr Cadman was an outstanding archer, he had become a suspect because he was probably capable of executing the shot that had killed Crispy. Georgia Bowie was not under any suspicion so she would speak more freely. He also knew that, sooner or later, he was going to have to talk to her about pairing.
Georgia was a likeable eye-catching girl with a great sense of fun and never-ending hair, but there was one huge problem with her. She was not Jade Vernon. It was almost painful for Luke to be with her because she reminded him of what might have been if Jade had opted for the same scientific path. If she had, Luke could have been well on the way to pairing with her by now.
Back in Year 7, he’d tried to get Jade into science by hacking into her exam scores and fiddling them, but her altered marks were so much better than Mr Cadman’s expectations of her that the instructor had ordered an investigation and discovered Luke’s interference. Luke’s computer skills had secured his place in the line outside Ms Kee’s office once again.
He was mature enough now to know that his hacking tactic wouldn’t have worked anyway. Jade wouldn’t have changed course for him. Her endless enthusiasm for music and fierce independence were two reasons why he loved her. But it wasn’t just Jade. He was equally strong-willed. He wouldn’t change his choice of career, either.
When Luke met Georgia at the reptile house in the Biology Labs, he decided to pretend that he hadn’t heard about Ms Kee’s intention to pair them. The subject was too painful to raise.
Behind the glass, a warning buzz was coming from the rattler’s tail. Like Luke, the snake was feeling irritable.
“I thought you had to provoke snakes quite a lot – like pick them up or stand on them – before they could be bothered to attack.”
Georgia smiled and nodded. “That’s right. But there are exceptions, like this one.” She waved her hand towards the case containing the eastern diamondback. “It’s a really bad-tempered beast. You just have to look at him a bit funny and he’ll go for you. Given the chance, he’d chase you down the corridor if you made a run for it. They’re very unfriendly, very poisonous.”
“Do you find them in the wild?” Luke asked.
“Some rattlers are quite common down south, but not this one. They’re only found in captivity – unless one or two escape, of course. Up here and further north, you don’t get many rattlers in the wild, no.”
“Just as well, I suppose,” said Luke. “Is it easy to milk their venom?”
“Easy? No. Wearing the right gear, though, some people risk it. I once saw Mr Cadman milk one. He got it to bite on a special beaker so all the venom dribbled into it. Horrible sight. You wouldn’t get me doing it, body armour or not.”
Luke was beginning to take an interest in Mr Cadman. He was a good archer and he had rattlesnake venom. “Do you know anyone else who’s done it?”
“They’d have to be mad, brave, suicidal or stupid.” With a grin, she shook her head. “I guess the stupid ones only do it once.”
Luke did not merely feel sorry for himself. He also felt sorry for Georgia. He could tell that she was wondering whether she should say anything about their likely pairing. She was probably not sure if Ms Kee’s death would change anything. She might even feel threatened by his friendship with Jade but she wouldn’t imagine for a moment that Luke would resist pairing. Refusals were unheard of. If Luke defied the Pairing Committee, Georgia would take it as a terrible insult. She’d done nothing to deserve that. She was really nice. Luke could never forgive himself if he hurt her. Yet he could never give up Jade.
Trying to keep his mind on the job, he asked, “Have you ever heard of an illegal trade in endangered animals – like cats?”
Georgia frowned and shook her head.
“Are there people who’d get so upset over it, they’d do anything to stop it?”
She shrugged. “The workers at the animal park, I suppose.”
“No one here in school?”
“I don’t know. Ask Mr Cadman. He’s into that sort of thing.”
“Thanks.” He turned to leave, but then changed his mind. He opened his mouth to say something about their relationship but he couldn’t think of anything that wasn’t hurtful to her or embarrassing to him. Instead, he muttered, “See you,” and walked away awkwardly.
Chapter Thirteen
It was late evening and, ignoring Malc’s protests, Luke had left his mobile behind. He was sitting on the sofa with Jade in her apartment. The deep blast of sound from her speakers seemed intent on pushing them backwards against the opposite wall. When the piece ended, it left Luke breathless. “Brilliant,” he cried.
“But,” Jade said, turning towards him, “there’s something on your mind. I can tell.”
Luke thought about denying it only for a moment. There was no point because Jade would see through him. He nodded.
“These horrible murders?”
“More than that. I’ve just seen Georgia.”
“Good.”
“Good?” Luke queried.
“You’ve got to sort it out with her sometime. You did talk about pairing, didn’t you?”
Luke hesitated.
“Typical boy!” Jade exclaimed. “Avoid the issue and hope it’ll go away. Well, it won’t. I’m going to have to talk to Vince. He won’t go away either.”
“It’s okay to say we’ve got to talk, but what do we say?”
“We tell them the truth. What else?”
Luke shuffled uncomfortably. “And what’s the truth?”
“Well, we can’t do anything about the law. The law’s the law. You should know that, Investigator Harding. So, like everyone else, we go along with the pairing...” She put up a hand to stop Luke interrupting. “We can’t destroy the system but it can destroy us, so we become good citizens, but we tell Georgia and Vince that... well... you and me, we’re... soul mates, or whatever you want to call us. We can still see each other.”
“That’s it, is it? You want us to be friends. Just friends.”
“I didn’t say that. It depends what we do when we see each other, doesn’t it?”
There was disappointment in Luke’s eyes as he replied, “It’s not the same as being paired.”
****
Vince was preparing for bed with a heavy cold and mixed feelings. The telescreen news had announced the death of his favourite instructor but not its cause. Around the school, everyone was muttering about another murder. Why else would Luke Harding have been summoned to her quarters? A forensic investigator would not have been called to the scene of an accident. Vinc
e couldn’t believe that she’d been killed over the theft of a few cats. He hoped not. More than that, he was desperate to believe that her fate had nothing to do with cats because, if it had, he could be next.
He left his clothes in a pile in his bedroom, sneezed violently twice, and went to the bathroom. If it weren’t for Ms Kee’s death, he would have been cheerful. He’d done her some favours and he was getting something in return. He had mentioned to her that he’d had his eye on Jade Vernon for some time and Ms Kee had agreed that she’d make a fine partner for him. He was sure that he would be paired with Jade when they both reached The Time. Of course, he was concerned that Ms Kee’s death might untie the knot but the Chair of the Pairing Committee was so orderly and strict in everything she did that he expected her to have left instructions.
He showered away his worries and his aches and pains, and then dried himself on a big warm towel. Bent over the sink, he began to clean his teeth.
His mouth was full of foam when he heard someone burst into the room. He was so stunned that he could do nothing but straighten up. He was still holding the toothbrush in his mouth when he saw the powerful raised arm and something coming down towards him. Yanking the toothbrush out of his mouth, he was about to scream when the thing – whatever it was – exploded into his chest. The toothbrush spilled from his hand onto the floor.
To Vince, it didn’t feel like a knife. That would have slid smoothly into his body. This impact was like a slow bullet. The blunt implement tore a hole in his chest, bounced off a rib and punctured his left lung which collapsed like a balloon. As he staggered back from the ferocity of the strike, the second blow shook his sternum before coming to a stop in his heart, rupturing his right ventricle and atrium. This was the fatal wound. Escaping blood filled his pericardial sac and pleural cavity. At once, Vince was seconds away from acute heart failure and inevitable death. He sucked in air frantically and then let out a dreadful cough of foam and blood.
The third stabbing caught him as he fell. The fourth and final blow landed heavily in his quietened torso as he lay on the floor, just before his eyes closed.
****
Luke was lying in bed, looking up at the heavens, hands behind his head. Sleep was as distant as the shining stars. Not that the night sky above him was the real thing. As usual, he’d asked Malc to project the image onto his bedroom ceiling.
He’d always had a vague memory of a crazy night before he’d started school, when he was still with his parents. That meant he would have been less than five years of age. For some long-lost reason, his mother and father had taken him and his poorly sister outdoors on a cold and clear night. Instead of sleeping in a warm and bland apartment, the four of them had spent the night in a field, wrapped up together in thick blankets. The sky had been vast and gorgeous. Luke had adored the feeling that they were being really naughty together. Yet something told him now that a great sadness had lurked behind the thrill.
Luke was the product of the pairing of an astronomer, Elisa Harding, and a doctor, Peter Sachs. Luke hoped that his parents were still alive. He had no idea where they were. His last recollections of them came from the painful time when little Kerryanne gave up her fight against disease, even before she reached school age. Luke recalled his mother’s misery and his father’s fury. At the time, Luke hadn’t understood his father’s mood but, looking back, it was simple. Peter would have been angry with himself because, as a doctor, he should have had the skill to cure his own daughter. He must have thought that he’d let her down at a ridiculously young age.
As soon as his mother and father had handed him over to the school at the age of five, he had been disconnected from his family, like every other new pupil. The Authorities had become his new parents. Luke liked to think that, one day, he’d meet his real parents again. But for now he had to be content with the calming influence of the night sky decorating his bedroom ceiling like sparkling diamonds on black cloth.
Malc’s neutral voice cut through the dimness. “I detect that you are restless. Do you want me to review the case notes?”
Still motionless, dragging himself back from his mixed memories, Luke said, “Yeah, it’s as good a time as any, I suppose.”
In the dark, Malc was reduced to a faint flashing red light on the set of drawers to Luke’s left. “At this stage, I am required to summarize...”
“I know. But you and me, we’re going to do things a bit different. I’m going to summarize. You’re going to listen and tell me if I miss anything out.”
“That is an abnormal procedure but it is acceptable if I filter out any deductions that are incorrect or based on inadmissible evidence.”
Beneath his miniature planetarium, Luke watched the North Star glistening on his bedroom ceiling, but seeming to be 500 light years away. That was like the solution to the two murders. The answer should be close enough to reach out and grasp but it seemed to be light years away.
“Instructor Bromley,” Luke began. “Motive unknown, but he had plenty of time to shoot Crispy at four thirty, go to the gym, take a shower and then bump into Rick Glenfield at six o’clock. He claims to be a skilled archer. And he could’ve passed Ms Kee – literally bumped into her – on his way to his classroom this morning. He might even have had some candle wax on his clothes, judging by all those candles in his quarters. No known access to snake venom, though.”
He paused and then continued, “Let’s get it over with and do me. I’ve got the shooting skill and you weren’t with me at the time of Crispy’s murder. Our best piece of evidence – the arrow – has got my fingerprints on it. Apparently, I could have the motive of competition. But I don’t. I might’ve wanted revenge on Ms Kee because she wasn’t pairing me with Jade, and because I took a few punishments from her. I was nowhere near her when she was poisoned but you didn’t have me in your sights all the time so you think I had the opportunity. It’s all pure junk, of course. And I’d never ask a rattlesnake to spit in a bucket for me.”
“You have included several unsubstantiated claims. Filtering.”
Luke sighed and gazed at the stars for a while. “Instructor Thacket. Disliked Crispin Addley. No known alibi for four thirty, possibly on a run. She is likely to be useful with a bow. Like almost anyone – particularly staff – she could’ve jabbed Ms Kee on the way into work, but no known motive and no snakes up her sleeve.” Luke hurried on before Malc could object on the grounds that they had not searched in her clothing. “There are quite a few others we’ve barely started on – Rick Glenfield, Ella Fitch, Instructor Cadman. Mr Cadman had both weapons but no known motive. I haven’t found out yet if he had the opportunity, but he teaches all about dead bodies so he’s well qualified in murder. It’s important to note that Rick Glenfield’s got a rattlesnake. For the record, Shane’s also got a fascination with snakes.”
Luke’s shiver could have been a lingering remembrance of that cold night spent outdoors or it could have been an after-shock of seeing the victims’ bodies. “The murders aren’t necessarily linked but they happened so close together, they probably are. If that’s true, the use of two such different weapons is totally weird. Most killers stick to one favourite. If I can figure out why Demon Archer used an arrow and snake venom, I get a great big juicy lead. That’s if Demon Archer is just one person.” He took a deep breath. “What else? There’s nothing to say Crispy was involved in smuggling cats but Ms Kee definitely was. That reminds me, Malc. Wherever we go and whoever we meet from now on, I want you to scan them for cat hairs.”
“Logged.”
“I wasn’t convinced that Crispy was the intended target at first but that telescreen message suggests he was. Demon Archer knew he was having a prohibited relationship with Olivia Pang, and is smart enough to lure him out with a message that looked like it’d come from her.”
Malc added, “You and Rick Glenfield would have that ability.”
“And a few others, I should think. But I’m interested in the IT instructor-turned-caretaker. He acted cool a
bout being demoted but he’s feeling sore, I reckon, and his self-respect is probably rock bottom. And how about this for a theory? Glenfield goes to the firing range almost every day, according to Ella Fitch. If Crispy and Olivia used to meet there, he might have seen them together. That would lift him above me on the list of suspects because he’d know about Olivia and I didn’t. He could’ve come up with the idea of a fake telescreen message from her and I wouldn’t.”
“Unproven.”
“Yeah, I know. And it doesn’t tell me why Glenfield would want to murder Crispy.” Luke’s eyes followed a meteor’s streak of light across the virtual sky. “There’s plenty of other little things going round up here,” he said, tapping the side of his head, “but you’d say they’re imagination, not fact. So, I’ve covered all the things you can use.” He tucked his hand back behind his head. With his long black hair touching the wall, his heels overhung the bottom edge of his mattress. His height had always made him an outstanding figure at the school. “Tomorrow, I’m going to speak to Glenfield again. I want to know what he was doing before Ms Kee died. And then there’s Mr Cadman, expert archer and snake-handler. It’s time I leant on him.”
“Physical contact is not recommended.”
“Open dictionary, Malc. Lean on means put pressure on.”
When Luke finally closed his eyes, it wasn’t the faces of the victims or suspects that came to him this time. It wasn’t even an image of little Kerryanne. He couldn’t recall the baby’s appearance. It was Vince Wainwright who haunted him.
Chapter Fourteen
Jade knew better than to call Luke during breakfast. His fingers and chin would be dripping with pomegranate juice and he always got annoyed at any interruption. As soon as she thought he would have finished eating, though, she established a link with Malc.
“You know I said I’d talk to Vince?” she said to him through the mobile.
“Yes?” Luke waited anxiously.
“Well, I can’t,” Jade replied, “because I haven’t seen him around. Someone said he was coughing and spluttering with a cold but he’s not even answering messages.”
