The Game Changer

by Louise Phillips

  Adam had already allocated four members of his team to the task of re-interviewing Amanda Doyle’s and Robert Cotter’s family and friends. He had also dropped off the note with Forensics. There wouldn’t be anything back on it for a few hours, or possibly not until the next morning.

  The team had been re-interviewing the family and friends for a couple of hours but, so far, nothing fresh was coming in. Something had to break soon.

  It was too late to phone Madden’s office, and his private number went to voicemail. On the second attempt he left a message. Tomorrow morning, if he had to, he would sit outside the guy’s house and stalk him. Within twenty minutes, Madden’s PA phoned back, saying Madden would see him at his home at noon the following day.

  ‘There will be two of us,’ he told the girl. ‘I’ll be accompanied by Detective Lee Fisher of the NYPD.’

  That, Adam thought, should give the smarmy bastard something to think about.

  Someone – or a number of people – was holding back information. It was late, and he didn’t like the idea of leaving Kate alone in the apartment any longer. Tomorrow would have to take care of itself. Right now, someone needed him more than his job did.

  Addy

  WATCHING THE BLACK SMOKE AND FLAMES POURING from the buildings, Addy pulled out his mobile phone, already knowing he wouldn’t get a signal.

  ‘I didn’t know you had a phone,’ Donal said, sounding disappointed that Addy hadn’t mentioned it.

  ‘There’s no coverage.’

  ‘You should have told me.’

  ‘Donal, we’re going to have to go back. They might need our help.’

  ‘It could be a trap. There are bars on the windows at that end. They’re probably all dead by now.’

  Addy wanted to tell him to stop being so bloody melodramatic, but what was the point? If anything, it confirmed his suspicions that Donal was inclined to think in a fantastical way, being barely an eleven-year-old. ‘It’s almost dark,’ was all he said in reply. They didn’t have any torches, and even though the mobile phone was useless, Addy couldn’t risk running down the battery using it for light. ‘Which is closer,’ he asked, ‘the commune or your hideout?’

  They both heard the commune bell ring out.

  ‘That’s the special code, Addy.’

  ‘What code? Is it a warning about the fire?’

  ‘It could be, but they also use it for the drill.’

  ‘What drill?’

  ‘When Saka thinks it’s time.’

  ‘Time for what?’

  ‘He calls it the eternity bell.’

  Kate

  KATE DIDN’T TURN ON THE LIGHTS. THE SEMI-darkness seemed to calm her thoughts.

  When the doorbell rang, she wasn’t sure what to do. Everything felt like a threat now. In the hall, she pressed the intercom, asking, ‘Who is it?’ Nobody answered. She tried again. Still no response. Rushing to the living-room window, she looked out on to the front steps, hoping to catch a glimpse of whoever had been at the door, again feeling like a prisoner in her own home.

  She hadn’t realised how late it was. The streetlights were already on. When she pressed her face to the glass, the only person she saw was a male cyclist, the same man who had cycled past the apartment before. As the window fogged, she told herself someone could have rung the intercom by accident, but when she heard the key turn in the front door, panic set in.

  How someone had managed to get inside the communal hallway didn’t matter, or how they had got hold of a key. The only thing that mattered was that they were close. She was glad she hadn’t turned on the lights. The darkness would give her time. She had to think fast. They would be inside in the next couple of seconds.

  Her legs felt wobbly, her head hot and sweaty, and as multiple thoughts rammed through her mind at the same time, she put most of her bodily reaction down to fear, until her eyes began to black out, and her limbs turned to jelly, and she collapsed in a heap on the floor.

  The Game Changer

  CENTRE OF LIGHTNESS

  20 Steps to Self-enlightenment Programme

  The fire didn’t take long to get going, or to control. Shock is an effective tool. The group will solidify through fear and an aspiration of protection. They will mourn those who perished, but they will look forward.

  The need for guidance and for things to make sense will be swelled, with an increased commitment to finding a better way, and a deeper desire to leave the constraints of earthly life behind.

  Time is now required for reflection. After that, the death speech will be shared. They understand what the bell means. They have been warned that some day all of this could happen. The next time they hear the bell, it will add more fear, and desperation. They will wonder if the final moments are close by, the ones they have been told to prepare for, the ones they believe we will share together.

  Saka will be taken care of, too. He was never more than a front man, a name to hide behind, a fool of an idealist that the Game Changer picked up along the way, and a whimsical individual at that. He has played the role of sympathetic leader, and will now be nothing more than a convenient get-out clause. Like everyone else, he was fed the information the Game Changer wanted him to know. His demise will be the concluding message: if you love Saka, you must follow him.

  (Page 1 of 1)

  Kate

  WHEN KATE WOKE, IT WAS EARLY MORNING. SHE looked around her, composed at first, realising she was at home, then remembered her fear from the previous night and her blackout. She heard movements in the kitchen. She told herself it was Adam, that it must have been a bad dream. Looking down at her body, she realised she was in her pyjamas. She couldn’t remember getting into bed. Had someone undressed her? What time was it? Reaching out for her mobile phone, she saw it was coming close to nine o’clock. Adam always left for work before eight. Whoever was outside was putting on the radio. The volume was loud. If it was Adam, he wouldn’t have it on that high. Would he?

  Her legs felt like lead as she tried to get out of the bed, then her head did that thing again, and the room began to spin. She was going to be sick. Running into the bathroom, she pulled up the toilet seat, going down on her hunkers to throw up. Whoever was in the kitchen, would they have heard her? She ran the cold tap at a trickle, putting the hand towel under it. It felt cool against her forehead. She started to feel better. It was then that she heard the footsteps. The bedroom door opened. She leaned back against the wall, as far from the door as she could, even though she knew it was pointless.

  It was only when she saw his face, realising with relief that it was Adam, that she allowed her body to give up and she collapsed on to the floor.

  ‘Jesus, Kate,’ she heard him say, ‘what’s wrong with you?’

  The next time she came to, she was back in bed. Adam was standing over it. When he realised she was awake, he told her that Sophie, Charlie’s childminder, would be there in a few minutes, and that he had called the doctor. It would be a couple of hours before he arrived, but in the meantime, she was to keep taking as much fluid as she could.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘I don’t need a doctor. It will pass.’ She hadn’t the energy to say any more.

  Then she heard him say he needed to pick up Lee Fisher from the airport. He would check in on her later. That she wasn’t to fret. That everything would be okay. All she had to do was get some rest, and he repeated, ‘Keep taking fluids.’ Her head felt heavy on the pillow. She closed her eyes again, and then she heard Sophie’s voice. She was talking to Adam. After that, she heard the apartment door close. It will pass, she told herself. Get some rest, and everything will be okay.

  Addy

  THE NIGHT IN THE BOATHOUSE, OR HIDEOUT, AS Donal liked to call it, gave Addy plenty of time to mull things over. The so-called burial ground would have to wait, and whether Donal liked it or not, they were going back to the commune. Addy needed him to get around the place via the pipe chambers. He had been missing for far too long for others not to ask awkward questions.
If something bad was going down, Chloë and Aoife were the priorities – it was that simple.

  When Donal woke, he didn’t argue about going back, and Addy wondered if he had spent a pensive night too. For the first time, he really thought about how the boy must feel, knowing his mother was in the commune but that he couldn’t be around her. Beside that, Addy’s issues about Adam paled into insignificance.

  In the daylight, it didn’t take them long to retrace their steps, but by the time they reached the commune buildings, the fire had long gone out. They kept their distance, but they were close enough to see some of the senior members by the burned-out quarters talking to each other.

  ‘We need to hear what they’re saying,’ Addy whispered to Donal.

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘Get closer.’

  ‘It’s not safe.’

  ‘We can’t stay here,’ Addy said, almost as if he was thinking out loud. ‘I need to find out what’s happened, and you’re going to help me.’

  ‘I’m scared.’

  ‘Donal, don’t worry, it’ll be okay.’

  ‘You don’t know that.’

  ‘Listen, if something bad is about to happen, we need to find your mother too.’

  ‘She doesn’t care about me, not any more.’

  Addy wasn’t sure what to say next, so he said nothing, as they watched the members walk away from the burned-out shell. He sensed this was their chance.

  ‘Donal,’ he whispered, ‘tell me again about that bell ringing last night. What exactly does it mean?’

  ‘It can mean different things, but the main one is the calling.’

  ‘Calling?’

  ‘It’s a sort of dying.’

  ‘You can’t have a sort of dying.’

  ‘People die, but then they come back to life.’

  Addy remembered the speech he had eavesdropped on in the main hall, the one about changing form. ‘Do you mean like a resurrection?’

  ‘I don’t know, but yeah. Sometimes they talk all messed up. I don’t know what they mean.’

  ‘Donal, I have a friend in there. Her name is Aoife, and we have to find Chloë too. We need to make sure they’re okay, so we have to go inside.’

  Addy looked at the commune building, thinking about the day he had arrived, travelling over with Sarah on the boat. ‘Donal?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Do you know a woman called Sarah? She isn’t well. She thinks a doll is her baby.’

  ‘I know her.’

  There was something about the way Donal answered that made Addy suspicious. ‘Are you holding something back?’

  ‘That woman.’

  ‘What about her?’

  ‘She’s with Chloë.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘They’re both in the infirmary.’

  ‘Why didn’t you say so before? Why didn’t you say you knew where Chloë was?’

  ‘I thought if you knew where she was, you’d leave me, and I’d be on my own again.’

  ‘Donal, you’re going to show me the way into the pipe chambers. Do you hear me?’

  ‘I know where you can get a phone signal too.’

  Addy wanted to throttle him, and the boy must have seen it in his face because he started to plead: ‘I would have told you, Addy, honest, I swear.’

  ‘Why didn’t you?’

  ‘I didn’t know you had a phone. Not until I saw you take it out last night. There’s only one place you can get a signal.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘At the old church – it’s the nearest point to the mainland, and if you climb into the spire, you can get the signal there.’

  Addy tried to keep his voice calm. ‘Donal, we’re going to go into the pipe chambers together to work out what the hell is going on. Then we’re going to find Chloë and anyone else who needs our help. Do you hear me?’

  ‘I hear you.’

  Kate

  BY TEN O’CLOCK, WHEN ADAM WAS DUE TO MEET LEE Fisher at the airport, Kate’s morning sickness had passed. She told Sophie to contact the doctor and cancel the call-out. She said she would be fine, and that she could manage on her own now that she felt better. She opened the fridge to find that Sophie had stocked it up. When Kate thought about the previous day, she realised she had barely eaten since breakfast, and most of that hadn’t stayed down. She needed to take better care of herself: she had another life to consider.

  Her head still hurt, but she did as Adam told her and kept drinking, then showered and dressed. As she made her way into the study, Sophie was about to leave and she gave Kate a dubious look but, thankfully, she didn’t say anything. Kate wasn’t sure she had the energy to argue.

  The questions from the previous day were still going around in her head, and once inside the study, she looked at the transcript of the latest note. Then her eyes fell to the copy of the witness statement on her desk. Remembering the similarities between Amanda Doyle’s letter and the previous notes, she picked up the statement, pondering on the elided word ‘it’s’. By itself, it was of no relevance, being a common shortcut, but the longer she looked at the wording, the more convinced she became. If she was right, her earlier suspicions would be well founded, even if the questions of ‘who’ and ‘why’ remained unanswered.

  When her phone rang, and she saw a blocked number, she thought about ignoring it, but instead, she pressed the answer button, relieved to hear Aoife’s voice at the other end.

  ‘Aoife, are you okay? No one has heard from you or Addy in ages.’

  ‘Addy’s okay, but I’m …’

  ‘You’re what, Aoife? You don’t sound too good.’

  ‘I’ve been finding some things difficult.’

  Kate thought about the girl’s previous problems, and her eating disorder. ‘Is everything all right?’

  ‘I don’t want to talk over the phone.’

  ‘Is Addy with you?’

  ‘No. I need to see you, Kate. I need to talk to you face to face.’

  Kate could hear the desperation in Aoife’s voice, and she recognised the shakiness from their earlier sessions. ‘Tell me where you are and I’ll meet you. Are you at home?’

  ‘No. I can’t go there. Can I meet you somewhere else?’

  ‘Sure. Hold on. I’ll get a pen and you can give me the address.’

  ‘Can you be there in an hour?’

  ‘Yes.’ She had no idea if Adam had managed to get the full surveillance back in place, but the location wasn’t far, and Aoife sounded desperate.

  She hung up and dialled him. ‘Kate, I’m at the airport. Fisher’s flight has been delayed. How are you feeling?’

  ‘Better, a lot better.’

  ‘Has the doctor arrived?’

  ‘No, and he won’t be coming. Sophie cancelled the call-out for me.’

  ‘Kate, something isn’t right. You’ve been so unwell. There has to be a reason for it.’

  Telling him over the phone wasn’t going to work, so instead she said, ‘Aoife just called.’

  ‘Aoife? Did she mention Addy?’

  ‘She said he’s fine, but she wants to meet me.’

  ‘That surveillance will be back in place this afternoon.’

  ‘I’ve already agreed to see her in an hour. It’s not far.’

  ‘Kate, you shouldn’t even be out of bed.’

  ‘I’ll be careful, and I’ll see what I can find out about Addy too. I can’t put my life on hold because someone is sending harassment notes.’

  ‘I don’t know, Kate.’

  ‘I’ll ring you when I get back. I’ll be fine.’

  ‘As soon as Fisher arrives, we’ll be going to see Malcolm Madden, but call me whenever. I’ll pick up.’

  ‘Adam, there’s something else I need to tell you.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I might have made another connection. Do you remember the similarities between the notes and Amanda Doyle’s letter?’

  ‘What about them?’

  ‘The PIU state
ments have similar variances.’

  ‘The report from the script expert wasn’t conclusive.’

  ‘I know that, but it doesn’t mean I was wrong. Amanda Doyle’s letter was too short for a full analysis, but the statements are longer.’

  ‘I don’t know, Kate. You can’t think she made all that stuff up?’

  ‘I’m not sure what to think any more.’

  ‘I’ll put a call through to PIU and push them in whatever way I can. In the meantime, I’ll get the statements looked at by that expert. If we find something solid, PIU will have to give us a name, protection of identities or not.’

  Adam

  ADAM HADN’T HAD ANY PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS about what Lee Fisher would look like, but when he saw the tall, dark detective, wearing a scuffed leather jacket and jeans, his hair tied back in a bun, with a tight beard shielding his rugged face, he felt awkward in his shirt, trousers and smart jacket, holding a white sheet of paper with Lee’s name on it.

  ‘Do you want to drop off your bag?’ he asked, when Lee was closer.

  ‘No, Adam, I’m cool. I travel light. It makes getting away a whole lot easier.’

  He guessed Lee was joking, but he hadn’t the full measure of the guy yet.

  ‘We have a scheduled visit with Malcolm Madden before the next brain-storming session. Are you up to it?’

  ‘Sounds good to me.’

  In the car, Adam took Lee up to speed, including Kate’s theory about the missing-person reports, John Sinclair’s statement, and how the cult theory could be a runner. He also spoke about the possibility of the cult being tied into the 1980s studies, as a means of empowerment, if Madden or someone else narcissistically driven had sought a shift of power.