The Island of Dragons (Rockpools Book 4)

by Gregg Dunnett

  Amber didn’t see how this connected to her original question, but she didn’t interrupt. Billy’s answers had a way of getting there via routes she never expected.

  “I drove back home, to Littlelea. I thought they might find their way there, even though it’s miles away. But they didn’t, I waited the whole night, and the next morning. And then I went to get the ferry – we all had return tickets. I prayed I’d find them there, alive. But when I got to Goldhaven I looked all over the port, and I couldn’t see them anywhere. When I got on board the boat I looked all over there too, but I couldn’t find them.” He stopped.

  “And?”

  “And I couldn’t leave. I felt like I’d abandoned them. I saw my face on the TV in the cafe, and I didn’t know what was going on. I thought they were probably dead but I had to try to find them. I ran back down to the car deck to drive off the boat, but the car was totally boxed in by then, there was no way I could get it out. So instead I just ran off the boat, just before they closed the bow doors.”

  “No one saw you leave?”

  “I guess not. I wasn’t even trying to avoid the ferry workers, but they were all up the other end of the ship, so no one noticed me. But then I was stuck. I went into the terminal to see if I could rent another car, but they had a TV playing and that had my face on too, and then I saw the police saying the explosion was from a bomb made out of a pressure cooker. Then I was completely freaked out. I just didn’t know what to do. What it all meant.”

  “What did you do?” Amber asked after a moment.

  “Well I realized I wasn’t going to rent a car anymore. And I worked out I didn’t need to search for James and Oscar. That somehow they planned the whole thing.”

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  “How did you get here, it’s miles?”

  “Oh that was quite fun, actually.”

  “What?” Amber stared incredulously. Then she shook her head and grabbed a cookie. She took a bite. “Go on.”

  “Well, I knew that coming here was the best thing I could do. Dad had finished most of the inside by then, and he’d started sleeping over, so there were blankets, and some food. But I didn’t have any transport, and like you say, it would take miles to walk, and someone might see me.”

  “So what did you do?”

  “You know the boatshed in Goldhaven? Past the old ferry dock?”

  Amber raised her eyebrows. “No.”

  “Oh, well there’s a boatshed there, and there’s a few old kayaks and things stored there. I took one of those.”

  “I thought you said the water was freezing cold.”

  “I did, but I wasn’t going to get wet. It was calm and still, and paddling for seven hours made me pretty warm.”

  Amber sighed. “OK, so you stole a kayak and paddled here. What did you do then?”

  “I didn’t steal it, I borrowed it. Dad took it back, the owner will never know I used it.”

  “Alright, you borrowed a kayak. What then?”

  “I did the only thing I could do. I just waited. I figured either you or Dad would come and find me soon enough. Dad had to wait four days before the police weren’t parked outside the house. I’d pretty much run out of food by then.”

  Amber looked around, at the computers set up. One of the screen was still showing the camera feeds from the lane she’d driven down.

  “And all this?”

  “I told you. I got Dad to bring all my old computer gear. I needed to protect myself in case the police come looking.”

  “But you can’t… I mean you can’t just stay here. Why can’t you go to the police? Tell them it was James and Oscar who did it. Tell them about this pressure cooker?”

  “It’s not the police, it’s the FBI,” Billy reminded her, and she glared at him.

  “OK. I can’t. Not until I have evidence. I don’t really know why James and Oscar framed me, but they obviously expected me to blame them. They’re ready for it. And they’ve been clever.”

  Amber shook her head in confusion. “How?”

  “Look at this.” Billy grabbed one of his laptops, and spent a few moments opening a saved webpage. “This is from James’ Facebook page. He posted it on the night we broke into the compound. It must have been planned out in advance.”

  Amber looked at the screen, which showed a series of photographs posted to James’ account, with the caption: Chilling at home. There were three of them in the images, James, Oscar and the other girl – Billy reminded Amber she was called Jennifer. They were sitting on a sofa, watching a movie and eating potato chips.

  “I’ve checked the metadata for the images, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Billy looked morose. “They changed it, so it has the right date and time for that night. Of course it’s not difficult to change the metadata, you just program the camera with the date and time you want it to imprint on the images. But even so, there’s three of them that will claim they were in Boston when it happened. Plus James and Oscar left their phones there, so their cell records will look right too. Like I said, they were clever.”

  “You’ve still got to try! You’ve still got to tell them. You’ve got to put your side of it.”

  Billy took a while answering. “I keep wanting to. But think about it. What’s actually going to happen? That bomb killed the security guard, and I’m the only person linked to it. That’s murder, as well as domestic terrorism. In fact, I researched it, and because of how it happened they’ll class it as aggravated murder. The sentence is life without parole. Plus they’ll think I faked my own death to escape, which is going to make me look even more guilty. And I don’t have any proof that James and Oscar were ever here, while they’ve got loads of proof they weren’t. If I go to the police now, I’ll go to prison, and I’ll never get out.

  “But you can’t just sit here forever, pretending to be dead.” Amber’s happiness at finding Billy alive was slowly being replaced by a frustrated understanding of just how much trouble he was in. She remembered her interview with the FBI, the woman agent had seemed calm and decent, but there was no doubt she was serious. Of course they would prosecute him. They had plenty of evidence. In their minds he was guilty.

  “The FBI agent knew you, by the way.”

  “What?” Billy frowned, surprised for the first time in the conversation.

  “She met you, when you got involved with that case with Olivia Curran. Years ago. She said you were eleven the last time she saw you.”

  “I didn’t meet any FBI agents on that case. What was her name?”

  Amber searched her mind. “I don’t remember. West. Agent West.”

  “Jessica West? Detective Jessica West? She was with the police, not the FBI?”

  Amber shrugged. “I guess she changed. Anyway, she knew you. I just thought I’d tell you.”

  Billy frowned but didn’t reply.

  “So what are you going to do?” Amber said again, a while later. “You can’t just wait here forever.” She was feeling the pressure now, she had to get the car back to Kelly. She had to explain to her mom why she was still on the island. But her own issues paled to nothing when she held them up against Billy’s.

  “I’m not quite waiting here forever. I was waiting for you, because I’ve got a sort of plan.”

  There was a change in his voice, and Amber snapped to attention.

  “What plan? What can I do?”

  Billy didn’t answer her, but instead got up again and walked to the fore cabin, she saw inside it was still a mess of cardboard boxes and sails. He picked up one box and brought it back. He opened it in front of her. She recognized some of the contents.

  “Oh no. Not this again.”

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Years before, when she had first met Billy the two of them had started a detective agency. For her part, Amber was simply bored with her life, and wanted to capitalize on the notoriety that Billy had already established with his involvement in the Olivia Curran case. And it was kids’ stuff, barely serious – although once t
hey managed to attract one client, a rich, batshit-crazy old woman, the attraction of getting some of her money had kept Amber interested. One result of the madness that followed was that Billy had developed an obsession with collecting all sorts of spy gear. He had listening devices, covert trackers, and a pile of software on memory sticks and CDs that she didn’t understand at all. And while it had seemed cool to her for a while, she’d quickly lost interest. She knew that Billy probably hadn’t, but it was a couple of years since she’d seen any of it, but now here it all was, piled up in the box.

  “What’s this?”

  “It’s my old kit I kept. Back from when we had the detective agency.”

  “I know that. I mean what do you want to do with it?”

  Billy didn’t answer at first. He pulled out what looked like a cellphone charger from the box, but one which, Amber knew, would also secretly record and transmit audio from wherever it was plugged in.

  “Ideally I’d get you to buy some new ones. These are a bit old now.” Billy went on. “But they should still work.”

  Amber didn’t reply, and Billy went through how they operated, showing her one cell phone charging device that secretly listened in to conversations, and another that was able to actually record video.

  “But what do you want me to do with this?” Amber interrupted him.

  “Lily’s got this house. In Boston. I need you to find a way to get inside, and set all this stuff up.”

  Amber was silent for a few seconds. “Why? You said it wasn’t her that did it.”

  “I know. But she’s back with James. So he’ll be there. And he might say something incriminating. If he does, I need to record it, and take it to the FBI. That way they might believe me.”

  “Why would he say something incriminating? Does she know about it?” Amber asked, but Billy shook his head.

  “He might say something though. They must talk about it, and it might give us a clue as to what this is all about. Something we can focus on. Of course it would be better to set up it all up in James’ rooms, but I can’t think how you’d get in there, plus Oscar might find it. He’s very suspicious.”

  “Well how am I supposed to get into her place?”

  “Just go round there. Say you need to speak to her. Say you’re feeling sad about me dying or something, and heard that we were together. She might be feeling sad too.” From the look on his face Amber realized that Billy really needed this to be true.

  “But how do I…” she waved a hand over the box of electrical covert gadgets. “How do I install it? What do I do?”

  At once Billy seemed happier again. He showed her what to do. How the phone-charger devices were the easiest, you just had to plug them in, they were pre-programmed to record and transmit, whenever they picked up sound, and you could even dial into them remotely. They drew power directly from the mains. But that wasn’t all Billy wanted.

  “The hardest thing is this, but it’s also the most important.” He held up a USB stick.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s really good. You need to install it on her laptop, and it will let me see everything she’s done, plus I can get more audio, wherever she takes the laptop. But…” he hesitated a second.

  “But what?”

  “Well, you need to be careful. She doesn’t have the quickest laptop, so it’ll take about two minutes to install, and while it’s running, it’ll be visible what you’re doing. So you need to make sure she doesn’t see what you’re doing while it’s installing.”

  After that he pulled out another box, this time one from a store and in it was a new cell phone. Billy explained it was a pre-paid cell that wasn’t tied to anyone. In theory they should be able to use it without danger of it being tracked, though to be on the safe side he’d installed peer-to-peer encryption, whatever the hell that was. But there was one more thing, something that he didn’t seem to have prepared. Billy asked her to buy him a new computer. He scrawled down a list of specifications, telling her to have it delivered to the Silverlea Surf Lifesaving Club, where his Dad could pick it up and deliver it to him, in case the FBI were monitoring her purchases.

  It was only when she was driving away that the weight of it all hit her. She’d driven there, a tiny bit of her wondering if there was some mistake, but mostly needing to be sure, to allow herself to truly begin to grieve. She was leaving with her world blown apart, having agreed to a crazy plan that she didn’t understand, and seemed utterly futile. Yet with no idea what else to do.

  Back at home – her old home at least – her mom was surprised to see her, but Amber explained how she’s failed to get on the ferry, and instead needed time to think, to get used to the fact that Billy was gone. It wasn’t hard to keep her face downbeat and somber, as if he really was dead. The truth was he might not be dead, but he was truly in a heap of trouble, and there seemed little chance of him getting out of it. Worse, if she really was going to do what he asked, then surely she would be guilty of aiding and abetting a felon. She didn’t know what the penalty for that was, nor did she care to look it up.

  Instead, when she was in her room, late that night, she typed in the specifications for the computer Billy had asked for. And then, after a few moment’s shock, she called him on the burner phone.

  “What is it? Have you done it already?”

  “No! I’ve just seen how much this computer costs.”

  “Oh. Right. Yeah, it’s the cheapest I could find.”

  “It’s seven thousand dollars. For a computer.”

  “I know. But you’ve got your savings, after Dad bought us back out of the business.”

  “I know I do. But I only have seven thousand dollars left.”

  “That’s why I choose that computer. I could really do with a slightly better one, but I can boost that one with bits I have here…”

  “Billy! It’s seven thousand dollars. Do you really need a computer that powerful?”

  There was a silence, and she could imagine him, sitting there, surrounded by nothing but marshland, a little bubble of tech, protecting him from the full weight of the Government’s justice machine. She didn’t understand it, but she realized he was pitifully out-gunned.

  “OK. I’ll get it.”

  “Make sure you send it to the Silverlea Surf Lifesaving Club. You’ve done work for them before, so it won’t look suspicious.”

  Amber nodded, and then told him she would do it now. Then there was a moment’s silence.

  “Thanks Amber,” Billy broke it after a while. “Thank you for believing in me.”

  Then the line went dead.

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  There were four long hours on the ferry the next day to think about it. Five if you included the bus there and the wait to board. Amber used them to try to make sense of what she was doing.

  There was no doubt she believed Billy. At least, she believed he hadn’t been behind the bombings. She wasn’t beyond imagining that he could have been involved in some kind of campaign against Fonchem – the fact that he agreed to fly his drone over the site demonstrated that. But a bombing was a million miles further than he would ever go. There was no way. Whether or not James and Oscar really were the guilty parties though – she only had his word on it, and she knew he’d been wrong before, maybe on more times than he’d been right. At the same time, inviting him to dinner, and using a pressure cooker, which they encouraged him to touch – well that was just weird and too much of a coincidence given how one was used to house the bomb. Plus of course they had traveled with him to Lornea, at least if Billy was telling the truth. But she had no idea why they had attacked the site – and while it was possible the final attack had been to frame Billy, that couldn’t have been the reason behind the earlier bombings. So what did all that mean? Billy seemed to have no answers for those questions. He didn’t even seem that interested.

  Was it possible they would talk about what it was all about in Lily’s house? Might they incriminate themselves? Possible, she supposed, b
ut it seemed crazy unlikely.

  But should she get involved? Was she really going to risk her own future to do something that seemed incredibly unlikely to even help? What if she got caught? What if this Lily bitch saw her plugging in the listening devices, or fiddling with her laptop – assuming she could even get in the house, or even find the laptop? Would she call the police – the FBI? And what would they do? Amber didn’t like to think about that, so instead she focused on the more immediate problem of how she was supposed to do it. All she had was an address for where Lily lived, and Billy’s insistence that she had to put the devices in the kitchen, where Lily charged her cell, and where she spent most of the time.

  She went the very next day, taking the metro, with the listening devices hidden in her purse. She walked up and down the street where Lily lived twice before daring to walk up the path. On top of her nerves she couldn’t quite believe the size of the place, a huge house, right on the waterfront. But that was exactly what Billy had described. It was early evening. Amber hoped that Lily would be alone, she probably had only one shot at this.

  Amber hadn’t been sure if Lily would remember her, and it seemed for a moment she didn’t. She opened the door and frowned, the lines in her forehead creasing. Amber noticed the slight shadows under her eyes. She looked less perfect than before.

  “Yes?”

  “Hello Lily.”

  Lily suddenly made the connection, but obviously struggled with the name, so Amber told her.

  “It’s Amber. I’m Billy’s friend.”

  “Yes, I remember.”

  “I wonder if I could speak to you. Just for a moment.”

  Lily looked uncertain, and for a second Amber thought she might close the door in her face, but she didn’t. Amber pressed on. “Please. It’s… I wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t important.”