‘Ben?’ The voice came from outside. It sounded tinny and hollow. ‘You can stop struggling. There’s no point. You’re in a special space I’ve created for you. You can’t get out. I’ve given you enough air for about five more minutes if you stop struggling, less if you don’t.’
I thrashed desperately, searing pain shooting through my legs and shoulders as I bruised them against the walls. I was buried alive. A red haze of pure panic threatened to send me spinning into unconsciousness. I fought to breathe; fought to stay awake.
‘You bastard!’ I screamed. ‘I’m going to kill you!’
‘I don’t think so, but at least you’re showing some fight. You’re the first one from the group who’s said that to me.’
‘Fuck you, you sick piece of shit!’
‘The meek shall not inherit the earth, Ben, and your weakness makes you one of the meek. Goodbye.’
‘No! Don’t you leave me here! Wait!’ I struggled again but it was getting harder. My lungs were screaming with the effort of breathing. I started to cry, sobbing into the darkness, then I screamed for help, over and over again until the horror faded away.
‘Hey! Hey! Are you all right? I don’t know what’s wrong with her.’
The voice penetrated my consciousness at some level and I struggled to open my eyes, but I couldn’t seem to manage it. The vision had left me weak and impotent.
‘She’s fainted, you idiot. Coming face to face with a corpse can do that.’
‘She’s with me.’ I heard Ed’s voice coming closer. ‘What happened?’
‘Hey Dyson, Muggins here tripped over his own big feet and we nearly dropped the body. This woman reached out to stop it from sliding off the stretcher but when she saw the body she fainted.’
‘She’s a friend of mine.’
‘Do you want me to call her a doctor?’
‘No,’ Ed said. ‘She’ll be fine. Here, help me get her back to my car. She’ll come round in a minute.’
I felt arms under my legs and arms and they hoisted me back to Ed’s car and manoeuvred me into the passenger seat.
‘You might want to get her seen to.’
I felt the cool of Ed’s hand on my forehead, gently brushing my hair out of my face. It always surprised me how gentle he could be.
‘Cass? It’s Ed. Can you hear me?’
I nodded.
‘Open your eyes. I’ve got a drink of water for you.’
I prised my eyelids open and peered at him through my lashes. He pushed the rim of a cup against my lips. I grabbed it with a shaking hand and took a small sip.
‘Are you OK? Do I need to take you back to the hospital?’
‘No hospital!’ I whispered the words but I wanted to shout them. The water was making me feel better and my head was starting to clear. I opened my eyes properly and stared up at him.
‘It wasn’t my head.’
‘Touching a corpse is pretty scary.’ Ed patted my hand.
‘Yes it was but –’
‘Shhh, rest.’ He slammed my door shut and walked around to the driver’s side.
I battled to stay awake. As he slid into the seat I reached out and grabbed his arm.
‘Ed, you need to listen!’
He turned to look at me.
‘It wasn’t the body, I had a vision.’
‘In a cemetery? I thought you said they were peaceful places for you?’
‘No!’ I practically yelled the word at him in frustration. ‘I touched the body and had a vision. I saw how your victim died.’
CHAPTER
21
‘What’s going on?’ Dave walked up to the car and stuck his head through Ed’s window.
‘Cass had another vision.’ Ed looked across at her. He’d put the passenger seat right back and tucked her up in a rug. She’d fallen asleep.
‘So someone died here? Handy I suppose, not far to go.’ He gave a half-laugh.
‘No, the pathologist and his offsider had a stumble and nearly dropped the body. Cass reached out to stop it from sliding off the stretcher and when she touched it she had a vision.’
‘What did she see?’
‘She fell asleep before she could tell me.’
‘You really think she’s legit?’
‘I know she is. I’ve seen her in action before, remember?’ Her talent saved my life.
Dave ran a hand through his hair and heaved a frustrated sigh. ‘What does she normally see when she has one of these vision things?’
‘She sees, feels and hears whatever the victim experienced in the couple of minutes before they died.’
‘That’s incredible! You’re telling me that she saw and heard everything he saw and heard? Why the hell are you letting her sleep? Do you realise what else this means?’
‘Stop right there. Cass hasn’t agreed to help us.’
‘She could help us crack it! Man, you’ve got to wake her up.’
‘Last time she helped me she nearly died. Something tells me she won’t be that keen. And I can’t wake her up. After a vision she goes into a really deep sleep, and even if I succeed she won’t make any sense until she’s rested anyway. You’re going to have to wait.’
‘Christ!’
‘I’m going to take her back to my place. Her mum is driving up. I’m already going to be in a world of pain when she finds out I took Cass out and she had another vision.’
‘Want me to come and save you?’
Ed suspected Dave wanted to be around in case Cass woke up. ‘Nah. You’d better head back to the office and fill Arnott in. Don’t tell him what happened with Cass. I’ve got enough credibility issues without him thinking I’ve brought an unofficial psychic into the case.’
Ed pulled out of the cemetery. He figured he had about half an hour until Anita Lehman arrived. With a bit of luck he could have Cass tucked up on his couch and conscious before then. It was bad enough having to face the music about leaving Cass in Jewel Bay without Anita also thinking he was exploiting her daughter to help on a case. She was likely to assume he’d only brought Cass home to his place so he could use her gift.
He half-walked, half-carried Cass inside and got her settled. She was semiconscious and trying to talk.
‘Shhh. You don’t have to tell me now. Let me make you a cup of tea.’
‘I don’t want tea, I need to tell you …’ She tried to sit up and focus on his face but she was battling to keep her eyes open.
‘It’s all right, just sleep.’
‘Mum?’
‘I’ll look after her when she gets here. Don’t worry.’
She murmured something he didn’t quite catch but it sounded a lot like ‘good luck’. Her head lolled against the cushions and her eyes fluttered shut.
Ed sighed. For the first time in a long while he really wanted a drink. He hadn’t touched a drop since the Fleurieu Killer case. He hadn’t really missed it until now. The prospect of working another case with Cass by his side was making him feel a range of emotions he wasn’t up to dealing with. Thankfully he didn’t have any whisky in the house. He settled for a coffee and sat in the armchair opposite Cass, watching her sleep.
A loud banging on the front door had him sitting up and blinking blearily. He looked across at Cass. She was still out to it. The banging resumed and his brain kicked into gear. It would be Anita Lehman.
He jumped up and jogged the short distance to the door and threw it open. Anita was looking both pissed off and anxious.
‘Hello, Mrs Lehman. Come in. Cass is asleep.’
‘Call me Anita. You don’t have to resort to being formal just because you jilted my daughter.’
Ed winced. He’d forgotten how blunt Cass’s family was. He was never going to die wondering what any of them thought.
‘This way. Can I get you a cup of tea? It might be better to let Cass sleep, she’s pretty exhausted. She’s in the lounge room.’
‘She’s been sleeping on the couch?’ Anita gave him a look that clearly told him how far he’
d dropped in her estimation.
‘No, of course not. Last night she slept in my bed … without me.’ The last two words came out in an awkward rush. She was making him feel like an apologetic schoolboy.
They walked into the lounge room and she stood, staring at her daughter. The dark shadows under her eyes told part of the story.
‘She looks awful,’ Anita whispered. ‘What happened?’
‘Cass didn’t tell you?’
‘She told me someone broke into her flat and hit her on the head.’
‘Yes, someone vandalised her apartment. She came home and surprised him. She’s got a nasty bump on the head and a few bruises from the struggle.’
‘She must have been so scared.’ She walked over and gently brushed a strand of Cass’s hair back from her face.
He nodded, turning away to make some tea. The anguish on Anita’s face was too raw for him.
‘What made you go to the hospital?’
He jumped. He hadn’t realised she’d walked up behind him. ‘I went to see how she was.’ He kept his back to her.
‘But how did you know she was there? Did she call you?’
‘No, she didn’t.’ He poured water into the teapot and swished it around to warm the pot.
‘How, then?’
He sighed. There was no keeping anything from the bloody women in Cass’s family.
‘I had her name flagged on our system.’
‘Why would you do that? Cut the crap, Ed. The break-in wasn’t random, was it? And while you’re at it you can tell me why my daughter has fresh grass and mud stuck to the soles of her shoes when she’s supposedly been resting in your apartment since yesterday.’
CHAPTER
22
I woke up to the murmuring of voices. I didn’t open my eyes straightaway, choosing to lie there, halfway between sleep and wakefulness, and listen to the rise and fall of the conversation. I was warm and comfortable and memories came back to me of when I was a small child and Mum and Dad would take me to parties at their friends’ houses. I would always end up sleeping in a strange bed in a strange room and the last thing I would hear before I fell asleep was the murmur of voices. The next thing I knew I was being picked up and carried to the car half-asleep. Would someone carry me this time? I sighed and blinked my eyes open. Mum and Dad were long over, this was no party, and I wasn’t five anymore.
The vision from the cemetery crowded back into my brain. It was horrible. This was the first time I’d experienced being buried alive, but that wasn’t what was freaking me out the most; there’d be plenty of time for the gruesome details to haunt my nightmares for weeks to come. What was really making me sweat was the realisation that I’d discovered yet another new dimension to my talent.
How could I have spent my life knowing so little about the gift I’d been given?
Last year I’d discovered that if someone touched me while I was having a vision they felt the pain and horror of what I was experiencing. It was like some kind of psychic shock wave. Now I’d found out my visions weren’t confined to locations. I’d always thought I had to be standing at the place where someone died to experience their death. Now I knew that if I touched their body the same thing happened. It made some kind of weird sense. A person’s body was the precise place they’d died, after all.
The revelation was both amazing and horrifying at the same time. Even though I’d been experiencing people’s deaths for years, I hadn’t had to deal with the reality of their bodies before. The thought of touching corpses made me want to throw up.
I had to tell Ed what I’d seen. What would happen when he knew the details? I was scared to know the answer but I couldn’t not tell him. What I knew could help him catch the sick bastard who’d buried that man alive. But when I told him would he want me to work with him on the case? Would that mean I’d be expected to touch more dead bodies?
‘Cass, you’re awake!’ Mum’s voice drew me out of my panic. She perched on the couch, folding me into a hug. ‘I’m so glad you’re all right. You gave me such a fright.’
‘Just a bump on the head.’
‘A bit more than that. Ed said someone’s got it in for you. You should have told me.’
‘I told you about the car on Friday night, remember?’
Ed was hovering in the background. I shot him a look. He’d clearly been running off at the mouth.
‘There’s nothing to prove it was the same person, and I didn’t want you worrying for nothing.’
‘It didn’t turn out to be nothing.’
‘No.’ I looked over at Ed again. I needed to talk to him about my vision but I didn’t want to get him into trouble with my mum for taking me out to a crime scene when I was supposed to be resting.
‘Um, Mum, I need to talk to Ed in private for a minute.’
He walked over and threw himself into the armchair. ‘It’s all right, Cass, I appreciate your efforts to be tactful but your mum’s already noticed that we’ve been out today. She missed her calling. She would’ve made an excellent detective.’
Mum took my hand and stroked it gently. ‘What happened at the cemetery, Cass?’
My tongue felt like it was stuck to the roof of my mouth. ‘I had a vision.’
‘A vision? Did someone die there? That’s weird,’ Mum said.
‘No, no one died there.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘I don’t either, Mum. It happened when I touched the body.’
‘You touched a dead body?’
‘Yes, and I experienced how he died when I touched him.’
‘What the hell were you doing touching a dead body? Was that your doing?’ The last comment was fired at Ed with a look of pure venom.
‘It wasn’t Ed’s fault. It was an accident,’ I said.
‘How do you accidentally touch a corpse?’
‘It doesn’t matter, what matters is that I saw how he died.’
‘Can you tell me what you saw?’ Ed said.
I shivered. I hated this bit almost as much as reliving a death. Describing it to someone else forced me to replay the memories rather than just shoving them into the dim recesses of my brain.
‘Some sick person buried that poor man alive. He suffocated. It was awful.’ I felt my chest tightening at the memory.
‘Take it slowly. Was the killer there?’ Ed asked.
‘What, underground?’
‘No, I mean did the victim talk to the killer before he died?’
‘Yes, he could hear him. I don’t know how. They could hear each other.’
‘A male killer?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you see him?’
‘I couldn’t see anything, Ed, I was buried remember?’
‘Yes, I meant before that.’
‘No, the vision started in the box or whatever it was.’
‘What did they say to each other?’
‘I, um, the victim, yelled a lot. He threatened to kill the guy who’d done it to him.’
‘Did the victim call the killer by name?’
‘No.’
‘But they seemed to know each other?’
‘Yes. The victim’s name was Ben. He felt really … betrayed by the killer. He definitely knew him.’
‘Did the killer say anything you can remember?’
‘He said he’d built the space especially for Ben and that there was no way he was getting out.’ I frowned and closed my eyes, trying to remember more. ‘He quoted something from the Bible, too.’
‘Can you remember what, Cass?’ Mum said. I opened my eyes. Ed had a pad and pen in his hand and he was frantically taking notes.
‘Something about the meek not inheriting the earth.’
‘That’s a perversion of one of the eight Beatitudes of Matthew. It actually goes, Fortunate are the meek for they shall inherit the earth,’ Mum said.
My mouth fell open and I sat there staring at her. ‘Since when do you read the Bible?’
‘I went through a relig
ious phase when I was a teenager and in denial about my own talent.’
‘No way! Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘I didn’t want to encourage you to disown your own talent by admitting I’d done the same thing.’
‘But Mum –’
‘Um, ladies, can this wait? I really need to hear everything Cass has to say while it’s still fresh.’
‘Sorry,’ I said.
‘Did the killer say why Ben was “one of the meek”?’
‘He said something about Ben having a weakness.’
‘That would fit. Is there anything else?’
I sighed. This was the bit I’d been dreading. It brought back memories of a cold winter’s day a year ago when I’d first relayed a vision to Ed and his partner Phil. ‘Yes, I’m afraid there is, Ed. The killer said something about Ben being the first one from the group to put up a fight.’
CHAPTER
23
‘The first one in his group? She definitely said group?’
Tuesday morning found Ed and Dave huddled around a table at the café closest to their office, trying to kick start their brains.
‘Yeah, she did.’ Ed took a slurp of his coffee and grimaced at the burnt taste. He missed Enzo’s in Fairfield. Maybe it was the fact that everything moved at a slower pace there. Maybe it was the better water or the skills of the barista. Whatever the reason, the coffee ran rings around the evil swill he was forcing down his throat.
‘It’s gotta be the Narcotics Anonymous group. That puts Smythe on the top of my list of likelies. It can’t be a coincidence that the body turned up the day after we talked to him. I reckon we spooked him,’ Dave said.
‘If you’re basing your hunch on who we talked to it could just as easily be Taylor’s mother,’ Ed said.
‘You think she killed him because he was a naughty boy and kept him in the freezer for a year?’ Dave laughed. ‘Overzealous parenting gone bad?’
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