Diamond Sky Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3

by David Clarkson

  ‘He’s clearly confused by the sudden transition back to reality,’ said Emmy. ‘It’s best if he rests for now and I’ll go and report this incident to the professor.’

  ‘The pro-fess-or,’ said Mike, as if struggling to come to terms with the word. ‘That was why I came back. Something has happened to the professor; I saw it.’

  Emmy and Charlie exchanged a look of scepticism. Mike did not bother trying to explain it any further to them. He pushed Bradley away and staggered across the room to the door.

  ‘Baby steps,’ said Emmy. ‘It may take a while for you to regain full control of your reflexes so you would be wise to take it easy.’

  Mike turned around and when he saw Emmy laughing his face turned sour.

  ‘Your grandfather is dead,’ he said bluntly.

  Emmy could not believe what she had just heard. Was this some sort of a sick joke? She strode over to Mike and pushed herself right up into his face.

  ‘This is not funny,’ she barked at him. ‘I’m going to go see Pops and when I come back, you are leaving this facility for good.’

  She nudged her way past him and when she got to the corridor Charlie caught up with her.

  ‘Emmy, wait up,’ he said. ‘Mike’s not thinking straight at the moment. I’m sure that he did not even know what he was saying.’

  ‘I’m not interested in excuses. You know what today means to me and my family. How can anybody be so insensitive, whether they meant it or not? To cap it all off, now I have to go and make today even worse for my grandfather.’

  The pair of them took long, quick strides to carry them to the professor’s office. When they got there, Emmy knocked on the door. There was no response from within so she tried the handle.

  ‘It’s locked,’ she said.

  ‘Does he normally lock it?’ asked Charlie.

  ‘Never; something’s wrong. Oh God, you don’t think that what Mike said could be true, do you?’

  She felt panic rising in her chest. The emotion she had been bottling up all morning was starting to overwhelm her. She tried the door one more time, but the handle did not so much as budge. There were heavy footsteps coming down the corridor behind the pair and they were soon joined by Bradley. The soldier was holding a gun. Emmy was horrified to see the firearm.

  ‘What the Hell is that for?’

  ‘Captain’s orders,’ replied Bradley. ‘Mike said that your grandfather was not alone.’

  Emmy thought back to what Sammy had told her: “you have visitors”. She looked around for the other soldier, but he did not come. She explained about the locked door to Bradley and he seemed completely unfazed by the obstacle.

  ‘Stand back,’ he ordered her.

  She duly obliged and could only look on as a passive observer whilst the lieutenant kicked down the door. He tried to take the lead, but she forced her way past him and ran into the room without any regard for her own safety. Her grandfather was slumped in his chair and she knew instantly that all life had deserted him. His skin, already grey and pallid with disease had taken on an even lighter hue and his lips had started to turn blue. So fragile and decayed was his body in life, that it was quicker than most to succumb to the onset of rigor mortis.

  Once Bradley gave the all clear, Charlie entered the study and went to Emmy, placing his arm around her. He knew her well enough to know that words would be of no use in this situation.

  ‘Is this window normally open?’ asked Bradley, from just behind the grieving scientists.

  ‘Huh?’ replied Emmy, still struggling to comprehend what had happened.

  ‘The window,’ said Bradley. ‘If somebody was in here they may have used it to get out. Would the professor normally leave it open?’

  ‘Never,’ replied Emmy. ‘Even when the heat gets stifling in summer, he always prefers to use the air-con.’

  As the realisation that she had used the wrong tense to describe her grandfather set in, Emmy finally gave in and allowed the tears to flow. Charlie squeezed her more tightly, but the soldier remained cold and detached.

  ‘In that case, we must assume that the perpetrator used it to escape. I need the pair of you to stick with me. Until we know that the danger has passed, we cannot take any chances.’

  Bradley closed the window and locked it securely. He then gestured for the scientists to get to their feet and to follow him. As they did so, a loud bang echoed from outside. Emmy thought it was the sound of a car backfiring. It was the first time she had ever heard a gunshot and therefore had no frame of reference to gauge it by.

  Chapter 24

  Lucas received the call shortly after midday. It was by far the most important job of his career; not one, but two homicides. The bodies were found by a neighbour who heard the gunshots. They found not only the victims; Sheila Coppersmith and Tom Fisher, but also the corpse of the killer; Walter Coppersmith, who turned the gun on himself after murdering his wife and her lover. It could not have appeared more clear-cut. Lucas, however, was not so easily convinced.

  It would be unprofessional of him to attend the crime scene on foot, so he took the pick-up truck. He could have borrowed Val’s car, but the former seemed to convey a greater air of authority. The doctor arrived at the Coppersmith house at the same time as Lucas and judging by the descriptions the policeman was given over the telephone, pronouncing the victims dead would be a mere formality. Libby Valentine, the neighbour who found the bodies, was waiting outside of the house.

  ‘You go on inside,’ Lucas told the doctor. ‘I want to have a word with Mrs Valentine first.’

  The sun was yet to reach its highest point and Libby sat with her arms wrapped around herself as she suffered the chills brought about by shock. Lucas took a blanket from the truck and placed it over the woman’s shoulders before taking a seat next to her on the porch.

  ‘Have you called Bill?’ he asked.

  ‘He doesn’t like it when I call him at work. He usually goes for a drink with Wally after he finishes. I guess he won’t be doing that anymore.’

  Her voice was detached and emotionless. Lucas had been called upon to deliver bad news in his time, but he had never had to deal with anything like this before. Grief affects the heart and with time it can heal. This was an entirely different type of trauma. It penetrated much deeper than flesh or even emotion. There were some experiences that scarred the soul.

  ‘You shouldn’t be on your own right now. If there is nobody else you can call on, I will get the doctor to take you up to the station. Val will keep you company until Bill gets home.’

  She nodded, absentmindedly.

  ‘Don’t you want to question me; isn’t that how this works?’

  ‘All in good time. You’ve been through a traumatic experience. I will do everything in my power to help you get through this. Do you understand?’

  This time she nodded with more conviction.

  Lucas waited for the doctor to come back out before going inside the house. As part of his training he had been required to attend an autopsy examination to see how he would react around a dead body. Back then the hardest part of the task was coping with the smell. He expected it to be the same inside the house, but the bodies were still fresh and the air conditioning kept the interior cool. There was a slight odour, but it was of the lingering discharge of the shotgun blasts rather than from the ruptured flesh of the newly deceased.

  The victims were in the bedroom. Sheila was clothed in only a dressing gown and Tom was wearing pants, but no shirt or shoes. His watch was on a bedside cabinet. Lucas could not tell if the pair of them were caught before or after committing an adulterous act, but it made little difference to his investigation either way. Six months earlier he had caught the lovers in the middle of a sexual act in a lay-by on the public highway. He gave the pair an unofficial caution, but refrained from bringing charges as he hoped that the experience of being caught would be deterrent enough to them continuing with the illicit relationship. Obviously, it had not. Needless to say, this was no
t an isolated incident.

  Blood stained the back wall of the bedroom right up to the ceiling. Some had run down onto the carpet, but most of the liquid was soaked up by the mattress, which now looked full and bloated like a sponge. There was a photo frame laying picture side down at the foot of the bed. Lucas took out his handkerchief and turned the frame over, careful to touch no more than the tiniest corner. The glass front was not cracked, but it had thumbprints embedded at either side in congealed blood. Inside was a portrait of Walter and Sheila on their wedding day.

  There were other trinkets and mementos scattered throughout the room, which hinted at happier times in days gone by. Sheila possessed a large collection of jewellery, bought by her husband to mark various occasions and events. Her tastes were expensive and Walter spent a large portion of his wages on keeping her happy. They were married for nine years and with a close to twenty year age gap, she had been just nineteen when the union was made.

  Apart from Sheila, Walter’s other passion in life was Elvis. He had a collection of original vinyl, some of it more valuable than his wife’s jewellery, which he kept stored safely away in his shed. A framed picture of ‘the King’ from his ’69 Comeback Special stood in the centre of a bookcase. Clad entirely in black, the great man was dressed appropriately as he watched over the devastation from afar. Beside the bookcase was the door to the en-suite bathroom. It had been left ajar and beyond it was a sight that Lucas feared the most. By entering, he would see not only the body of a killer, but of a neighbour too.

  Walter’s life ended on a toilet. Perhaps this was simply a matter of convenience or maybe it was a final homage to his hero. The shotgun rested between his legs and his thumb still touched the trigger. He was dressed in his overalls, an outfit that Lucas had seen the man wear many times as Walter often went to the pub straight from work. The wedding band and a tattoo of a hawk on his wrist were also uniquely Walter’s. These were the only means of identifying the body. The corpse’s head had been blown clean away.

  After cordoning off the house with police tape, Lucas’s next port of call was the Sly Fox. Walter did not possess a firearms licence. There were only two people in town that did. One was Ned and the other was the rightful owner of the weapon that was used to commit the heinous crimes.

  ‘Oh God,’ was all that Mindy could say upon hearing the devastating news.

  Her knees became weak and she had to sit down behind the bar to steady herself. The pub was empty of customers and Lucas displayed the ‘closed’ sign in the window immediately after entering.

  ‘I realise this is tough for you to hear right now, but there are some things I have to know. Wally has been here today, hasn’t he?’

  ‘Well, yes, but how did you..?’

  Lucas realised just how difficult for Mindy this was going to be. He removed his hat and pulled up a stool opposite her.

  ‘Wally did not own a gun. I believe that the murder weapon was stolen.’

  ‘Yes, but...’

  As her voice trailed away, she leant down and checked under the counter.

  ‘My shotgun; it’s gone. Oh my God, this is all my fault.’

  ‘It’s not your fault. Did Wally buy a drink when he was in here?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Was he calm?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘If he was calm and he stopped to buy a drink, it means that the crime was pre-meditated. He would have found a means to do what he did no matter what. I assure you that you are completely free of any blame. Whatever reasons were behind this, those reasons were between Walter and his wife.’

  He carefully studied her reaction. She winced as if tortured by the knowledge inside her head.

  ‘How long have you known?’

  ‘Since last Christmas. The pair got a little merry and couldn’t resist hooking up outside for a quick fondle. They didn’t see me down in the cellar, but I could see them. At first, I thought it was just the drink, but when I heard him bragging about bedding a married woman to his mates a few weeks later, I knew it was something more.’

  Lucas carried a notepad, but he did not use it. Nor did he tape the conversation. He trusted Mindy and he knew she would not change her story once she had told it.

  ‘Did you tell anyone?’

  ‘My job is to listen to my customers. I do not spread gossip.’

  If the circumstances had been different, Lucas may have smiled at such an obvious lie. This was the first non-truth she had told, so he decided to let it slide. He believed she had kept her secret in this instance.

  ‘What about Wally: how did he seem to you when he was in here earlier?’

  ‘He seemed a little odd. When a man wants whisky at ten o’clock in the morning, something has driven him to it. I suspected it might have something to do with Sheila, but I did not think that he knew of the affair. Frank had called him up earlier and told him not to go to work. Do you think he saw Tom going into his house?’

  ‘I don’t know. Was he in here last night?’

  Mindy rolled her eyes.

  ‘No, but last night is a different story entirely. I almost called you up at one point. For a moment it was very close to kicking off.’

  ‘What happened?’

  She got up and walked to the fridge behind the bar. It was lined with bottled beers and ciders. Most of the locals preferred their drinks on draught, so it was not fully stocked. After picking up a bottle, she offered another to Lucas.

  ‘Not when I’m on duty, but thanks.’

  She removed the screw-top and sat back down before taking a much needed gulp of alcohol to calm her nerves.

  ‘Last night was the poker final. As with last Thursday; Jimmy managed to make himself the centre of attention.’

  ‘He was playing?’

  ‘How could I refuse him? After you barred the Carlton boys, somebody had to take their place and Jimmy was the next in line.’

  Lucas cursed his stupidity for not foreseeing this. He should have been watching out for Jimmy, not letting the boy get pulled into a life of gambling.

  ‘How much did he lose this time?’

  ‘Lose?’ replied Mindy, with notable surprise in her voice. ‘Jimmy didn’t lose. In fact, he won every hand. I have seen nothing like it. That boy could beat a leprechaun in a coin toss. I have never seen anybody so lucky.’

  ‘Are you sure it was luck?’

  ‘That’s what people started to ask last night. The poor kid was accused of card counting. Is that even possible in poker? Anyway, it doesn’t matter, because I know Jimmy and if anything, he is honest.’

  ‘So what happened?’

  ‘Well, that’s the thing. The losers were all angry at having their money taken, but Jack Fareshot wouldn’t let it go. He squared up to Jimmy and I thought he was going to give the kid a beating. That was when I was going to call you.’

  ‘But he didn’t...’

  ‘That’s right. Jimmy actually called him out. It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen. In front of everyone, Jimmy calmly told Jack that he was not going to hit him. Then it got really weird. Jimmy told Jack that what he was in fact going to do was to back away, pick up his coat and leave. He then added that in the morning, Jack was going to knock on Mick Hennessey’s door and apologise for spilling beer over his wife’s new shoes.’

  Lucas scratched his head.

  ‘That last part makes no sense.’

  ‘Actually, it made the most sense. As Jack struggled to put his coat on, he bumped into the back of Mick, who in turn, spilled his beer all over his wife’s new shoes. Like I told you; it was weird. It’s like the boy knew what was going to happen before it did. Maybe that’s how he won the poker; he knew what the cards would be before they were even dealt.’

  Lucas did not see the funny side.

  ‘I have to go,’ he said, picking up his hat and standing to leave.

  ‘What about the...murder?’ The word felt uncomfortable. Even saying it aloud did not make it seem real.

  ‘Yo
u’ve been very helpful, but there are other lines of enquiry that I need to look into. I’ll let you know if I have any more questions.’

  He got into the pick-up truck and rode it back to the station. As he drove, he went over Mindy’s story in his head. It was finally becoming clear to him. Somehow, Jimmy could see the future, but he was not the only one. Wally had acquired the ability too. That is how he knew about the affair. Perhaps he saw the shootings in his mind and felt compelled to make the vision a reality. Whatever was causing this phenomenon was not isolated to these two cases either. It had started elsewhere, inside the mind of a much simpler creature.

  ‘Val, can you get me the report on the snake attack from last week?’ he asked, as he entered the station.

  His secretary was in her office with Libby and a local boy who had not yet reached his teens. The two guests were laughing with each other despite the ordeal the former had gone through earlier in the day. Val came out to meet Lucas and carefully closed her door behind her.

  ‘I’ve been waiting for you to come back,’ she said. ‘I have something to show you that you are simply not going to believe.’

  ‘Can it wait? I am still attending to the double murder investigation.’

  ‘No, it can’t. You have to see this.’

  She pushed her door open and invited the boy out to join them. He was carrying something in his hands. It was a smart phone. Lucas did not like them. He thought that technology often proved to be a barrier to communication rather than an aid.

  ‘Okay, but this had better be quick.’

  ‘Go on; show him,’ Val urged the boy.

  The boy swept his finger over the screen of his device and then handed it to Lucas. It was set to video playback mode. At first, Lucas thought it may have something to do with the shootings, but the footage was older. It was from the previous day. Lucas watched on with limited patience as the display showed a surprisingly clear image of him getting out of his car and chasing a chicken along the street. Even he had to admit that it was mildly comical and he wondered if it had already been posted on YouTube. A small timer at the bottom of the screen indicated that only seconds remained and he was about to hand it back to the boy when he witnessed the impossible, although not for the first time.