After an hour, Janux heard the sound of a vehicle approaching. She sneaked a look out of the small window and gasped. The silver jeep was turning into the driveway. Then she remembered the side door to the garage. She raced down the steps and checked the door. It was unlocked and to her consternation there was no key in the lock.
She searched all around for the key, looking on ledges and under paint tins, but to no avail. Then the sound of the jeep’s door slamming sent her racing back up the steps. She grabbed one of the oars and moved back, as far away from the steps as she could. Seeing an old tarpaulin covering some boxes, she crept under that, hoping with all her heart he didn’t think of coming to the garage.
Richard’s warning had convinced her that Baxy and others were on the hunt for female Ryxins who’d been born with the telepathy gene. Janux knew they’d call it putting down the vermin or feeding them to the fish. Then they’d swill down more beer from their tankards and laugh heartily as if it was all good sport.
Janux waited under the tarpaulin, wondering why everything was so quiet. She strained to hear a noise – of anything – but the silence was total. She pressed the winder on her watch which lit up the screen. 11.20 a.m.
Then without warning she heard the garage door quietly open.
“I know you’re in here, pretty lady. Now come on out. You’ve got a visitor who’s come especially to see yah. Ha ha.”
Janux’s worst fears were real now; she knew for certain it was Baxy. Then she heard his clumping footsteps on the steps. “Come to Poppa,” he said in a cajoling voice, striding down to the back where she was hiding.
A memory came to her about how pure-blood Ryxins had an acute sense of smell and could sniff out their prey anywhere. She held the oar out in front of her like a lance. The footsteps stopped right in front of her hiding place.
In a second he had ripped the tarpaulin off her and stood there, laughing, his huge arm muscles bulging, leering down at her, smirking with satisfaction. “It’s time to party now, babe. Let’s have a good time while your boyfriend’s away. I’ve even bought some refreshments.” He pulled a hip-flask from his back pocket, unscrewed the cap and took a long swallow. “That’s better. Now you have some – here.” He held the open flask out to her and she could smell whisky.
“I don’t want your poison,” Janux said, tightening her grip on the oar. “You’d better get out. Go on.”
“So you want to play it the hard way, eh?” Baxy put the hip-flask back into his pocket and made a lunge for her.
But Janux was ready. She thrust the oar at him, catching him in the stomach and he lurched back.
“That was a mistake,” he growled, reaching inside his jacket and bringing out a huge, shiny knife which he held out in front of him as he slowly walked towards her. “This is my favourite hunting knife. Now you better do as I say, harlot, or your weakling boyfriend might not recognise you next time he sees yah.”
Janux was afraid but a kind of steely resolve took over. He thrust at her again, the knife in one hand and the other trying to grab the oar from her grasp. But Janux was fast and she struck him a glancing blow on the shoulder. He staggered and then ran at her like a charging bull with the knife pointing at her face. Janux held her ground while Baxy’s strength gave him the advantage and he fended off the oar and took hold of it with one plate-sized hand. She pulled like a mad-woman but within a few seconds he had wrenched it from her hands and flung it to the floor of the loft. She could smell the whisky on his breath as he approached, sniggering, his right hand waving the wooden-handled knife from side to side.
“Come on, baby, we’re going to party. I told you, don’t be shy. A sweet little thing like you should know all about how to have a little fun.”
“Get out, you creep,” Janux said, trying to keep her voice calm and steady. She could hear the wind howling outside as if there was a storm coming. And then there were loud plops of rain falling on the tin roof above their heads. The garage roof must’ve had some loose sheets of tin because they creaked and rattled as the wind picked up. Suddenly a great clap of thunder made the garage shudder.
For a moment Baxy hesitated and Janux saw real fear in his eyes. “What’s the matter? Scared of a little rain,” she said, taunting him.
When Baxy heard the storm coming he couldn’t breathe. It was just like when he was eight years old and severely punished for disobeying his dad’s command. His mother had tried to protect him but his father had hauled him into the kitchen and strapped him until he couldn’t sit down. Then his father had taken the collar off the dog and put it around Baxy’s neck, dragged him outside and chained him up to the dog’s kennel. He had to sleep in the smelly kennel that night while the dog was given his bed. His father told him he needed to learn to obey him just the like the dog did. Then he’d got drunk and made fun of Baxy, walking past the kennel and laughing as Baxy crouched inside. His father even put a plate of dog biscuits down for him while the family dog had Baxy’s meal.
The night had been freezing cold and a storm had come in from the sea and raged all night and all the next day. The rain had teemed down, making the kennel damp and ice cold. Only after his father had gone to the pub the following afternoon did his mother come outside and bring him back into the house. He’d been blue with cold and almost unconscious.
Janux watched as Baxy stood there, his face pale, and his whole body rigid as if he was frozen solid. “You’d better be going,” she said, but it was as if she hadn’t spoken.
“Master Onyx needs me,” he said, groaning, with a distant look in his eyes. “My beloved master is sick and he’s calling me to come.”
Then he turned around, his face white as a sheet of paper and stumbled down the steps and out of the garage to his jeep. In a moment she heard the engine roaring into life and he was gone. She ran to the window and watched Baxy race the jeep down Tahatika Road, weaving drunkenly. Janux wondered how he could feel any empathy for a man like Sly Onyx, let alone serve him so faithfully.
CHAPTER 19
Curtis and Jack found Briar Manse without any difficulty after following the instructions given on Kieran’s website. The building was surrounded by a grey concrete wall just high enough so people couldn’t look in. On top of the wall was a row of metal spikes. Someone had spray-painted the words KIERAN SAVES in white on the side of the wall. Probably some disgruntled father, Curtis thought. The entrance door was metal, strong looking, painted a dull red with rows of studs a few inches apart. There was a button, under which was a sign in black letters announcing:
HOME FOR CONVALESCING MOTHERS
PRESS BUTTON AND SPEAK CLEARLY INTO THE INTERCOM
Curtis pressed the button, expecting the same kind of response as at the Lenixx Street house.
This time a man’s voice answered. “State your name and business.”
“My name is Curtis McCoy and I’m here to enquire about Sheela.”
“What is your interest in Sheela?”
“She’s a close friend of Jack Garvey who is accompanying me.”
“What do you mean by close friend?”
Jack pushed himself in front of Curtis. “I was her mating partner. I want to know how she is and see our baby.”
“Mating partners have no visiting rights and Sheela needs time to recover so that she can ready herself to produce another baby for the noble Ryxin cause.”
“Please let me in, just once. I want her to know I haven’t forgotten about her. I want to make sure she’s all right and happy.”
There was a pause and then a different voice spoke, in a flat unemotional tone. “You are automatically banned from seeing her. Her welfare is nothing to do with you. As a breeding partner you have done what had to be done in order to produce a Ryxin baby. You are mistaken if you think we will change our law just for you. I suggest you forget all about Sheela. She belongs to the breeding programme now and that is her life for at least ten more years. She is young and can produce some fine healthy babies. She will be well cared for a
nd once she has recovered will have a new breeding partner. That is our way. You must go about your own business.”
“But what’s happened to our baby? The one I’m the father of?” Jack was not going to be put off so easily.
“The baby is in The People’s Nursery with all the others. He will have no identity other than that given to him by us. The baby does not belong to Sheela or to you. He will grow up to become whatever we want him to become for the good of the Ryxin people on Earth. That is his destiny.”
Jack turned away from the wooden gate in tears. Curtis could see he was broken. His face was unshaven and gaunt looking and his body had a starved look.
“Come on, Jack. We’re wasting our time here. We must get back to the ferry and the island. There’s a storm coming and there’s no more we can do here. But don’t worry – the bastards haven’t beaten us yet. We’ll think of a way to find Sheela and your baby. I want to get Luxinda out of their clutches too and the baby we made together once it’s born.”
“Soulless bastards.” Jack followed Curtis away from Briar Manse and back to the ferry terminal.
“I don’t believe they’re really soulless. They just like to put up a front of being like that to fool us. It seems to me they know exactly what they’re doing. They’ve got it all sussed, mate.”
“Watch where ya going, stupid,” a voice barked in Curtis’s ear when he and Jack were boarding the ferry.
Curtis looked straight into the face of Spryz Frurster, who was coming down the gangplank having just come from the island.
“Well, well, it’s the weakling half-blood,” he sneered while Curtis stepped aside, “and pretty-boy Garvey. Ya better get back and tend to ya own kind. I’m telling ya, they might need ya protection – know what I’m saying?”
“What do you mean?” Curtis said.
“I don’t help sissies.” Spryz grimaced at them, then turned and climbed into a cab waiting at the rank.
Curtis looked at Jack. “What the hell’s going on, mate? C’mon, we’d better get on board before it leaves without us.”
“I’ll never leave you alone again,” Curtis said. He reached across the bed for her and she snuggled against him.
“It was my own fault,” Janux said. “I wanted to get my pistol from the cabin, and when I ran out of petrol he must’ve seen me at the garage filling up.”
“You could’ve been killed, my darling,” Curtis said, holding her close. He knew that in some way he’d let her down. It was true he loved both her and Luxinda but could he really count on Luxinda? She was having their baby, sure. But hadn’t she turned him away and chosen to stay in the Ryxin Breeding Programme?
He thought of Marzy and the baby they’d never been able to have together, then imagined Luxinda’s swollen womb holding their child. He couldn’t allow others to claim this child. It was unthinkable and he knew this was driving him, perhaps more than his self-claimed love for Luxinda.
He turned and looked at Janux. Her eyes were closed and her face slightly tanned and beautiful. She was no different from the day they’d first met here at his house when she’d come to ask his help and became his first client.
“I’m all right,” she said. “The storm came just when I needed it. He’s afraid of them – I found that out. So much for soulless pure-bloods.”
“I think the soulless part is rubbish,” Curtis said. “Just because they have a cruel, tough way with anyone who isn’t the same as them doesn’t mean they don’t have souls.”
Janux was looking up at him. “I wonder why they haven’t figured out that some of their own relations also have the telepathy gene. Are they going to hunt them down and kill them too?”
“So you have been doing some serious research,” Curtis said.
Janux smiled and Curtis kissed her. His desire for her was like heat running through his whole body and he knew he loved her with a fierce kind of protectiveness. He could feel Janux responding to him while he stroked her body and kissed her all over. Then he made love to her gently but with the full strength of his passion.
Later they lay in bed, and the moon and stars glowed down on them through the opened curtains.
“What did you find at Briar Manse?” Janux said in a sleepy voice.
“Just what we expected - impenetrable walls and locked gates. They claim all the babies born belong only to them. The mothers are there just to recuperate before being placed back into the breeding houses like hens. They are being used to produce more fodder for the Ryxin hierarchy and their offspring will only ever grow up to be uneducated slaves.”
“Any more leads?”
“No, and I’m meeting Aidan tomorrow. You’d better come too. He wants me to go to the prison with him to visit his father.” Curtis didn’t want to admit he didn’t have anything to tell Aidan, except his suspicions and the failed attempt to speak to Spryz Frurster. Baxy Hurzy had an alibi although he seemed the most likely candidate. Especially since Janux had said he pulled a dangerous-looking hunting knife on her and was obviously about to use it.
“I’m sure Nayxana was murdered because she had the gene and The Controller has been sent to fix the problem,” Janux said, sitting up in bed and staring straight ahead. “So where is this creep staying? Anyway I’ve asked Lodax to get a copy of Baxy’s list for me. She’s meeting me at the Blue Planet in the morning.”
“We’re going to need to prioritise,” Curtis said. “I also want you to interview the Vascos’ neighbours in Kekeno Street, remember? I’ll drive you.”
“Okay, so the prison first, then the cafe and then interview the neighbours?” Janux yawned and stretched out her arms and legs.
“Let’s go over it in the morning,” Curtis said as they cuddled up close.
“Mmm.”
CHAPTER 20
Curtis switched on the radio just in time to hear the last few words of the local news.
“A woman has been found dead in her home in the suburb of Massacre Bay. Police have said it appears she has been unlawfully killed, but will not release any further details until a post mortem has been completed. The woman’s husband, a travelling salesman for Hi-Tech, government surveillance equipment, arrived home from the mainland yesterday evening and discovered his wife’s body.”
Curtis frowned. How many more murders were going to occur on this island? He and Janux had to get to the bottom of this and fast. He strongly suspected the woman would have been Ryxin and her husband was obviously Human. Ryxins were never employed by the H-government. At least that meant the police were required to investigate the case. But this was small comfort to Curtis, who knew the reputation of the H-police when it came to the murder of a Ryxin. They were renowned for arresting the nearest culprit and spending as little time and money as possible on any further probing. If the victim had been a Human female it would’ve been a totally different story.
“I’ve postponed my appointment with Aidan,” Curtis said over breakfast. “I need to have something to tell him and Oskin when we go to the prison. Also we must try and prevent any more deaths of these innocent women.”
“We’ll know more when we see the list. I’m meeting Lodax at 9.30 a.m.” Janux bit into a piece of toast spread with peanut butter.
The phone in Curtis’s study began its shrill ring and he leapt up to answer it. When he came back to the table he was scowling.
“What’s wrong?” Janux poured them both coffees from the plunger.
“That was Constable Melvyn. He reckons this latest murder is a carbon copy of the other two – a knife straight through the heart. Only this time the pet dog was killed too. It must’ve been trying to protect the poor woman.”
“Where did it happen?” Janux asked.
“Ngaio Road, down by the sea,” he said. “They had money, the constable said, and she was lying in the middle of a beautiful, white shag-pile carpet. Apparently the scene was horrific. I think Constable Melvyn is unimpressed with the way his superiors are handling these cases. He told me the crime scenes are ph
otographed and cleaned up quick smart.”
When they reached the cafe Lodax was already inside, sitting down at the far end.
“I’ll stay near the front and watch the road,” Curtis said.
He observed discreetly while Janux went over to Lodax, an attractive looking woman with long, wavy auburn hair tied back into a ponytail. The two women began talking immediately, heads close together when the waitress came to take their orders. Curtis turned his attention to the footpath outside. There were the usual women shoppers, some wheeling trundlers, a few elderly men shuffling along, and mothers with youngsters trailing behind them.
After about fifteen minutes Lodax walked past him out of the shop and made her way quickly up the street.
“I’ve got the list and my name’s there,” Janux said in a low voice, sitting down beside him at the table. “Lodax is really worried now. Baxy has demanded she find another woman to stand in for her so she can go on holiday. She has no idea who to ask. Most of the women she knows are afraid of him and wouldn’t want an intimate kind of business relationship with him, even if it’s temporary.”
“I can understand why. I take it this is a photocopy?” Curtis took the list Janux handed him.
“Yes, she has a photocopier in her house and ran it off while Baxy was in the shower. I’ll order us some more coffee.”
Curtis could feel his whole body tensing while he read the list of names, especially when he saw Janux’s. It was like a death sentence and now the reality hit him. Two had been crossed off, presumably because they were already dead - Nayxana Vasco and Saeran Marwry. Oonagh Bleyis wasn’t on the list. Perhaps her death was for a different reason. Beside each name were their addresses and the times when their husbands were likely to be out at work.
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