“Mrs Duxton told you that?” Curtis said. Though he believed Mistle – after all - Dux had betrayed him as well.
“I had to clean and cook for her, isn’t it? So one day I took a knife to my room, isn’t it? When she came to tell me to clean the floor at midnight I sliced her throat, doesn’t she? I dragged her body out to a shed and hid it under a wheelbarrow, doesn’t she? Next day I goes to the ferry. The police came and took me here. I want to go home, please, isn’t it? I will obey the Master. Take me home.”
She began crying and couldn’t even wipe her own tears away. Janux reached over and smoothed her wet cheeks with her hand. “It’s all right,” she said. “Don’t worry, we’ll find a way to get you out of here.”
“Yes, please, I will do anything. I don’ like it here, please.”
“Okay, Mistle, but listen to me,” Curtis said, knowing there was no way they could get her out of prison. “If we are going to help you then I want you to try and remember. Did you ever hear anything about Roscoe Chamonix when you were at Xlesky Street?”
Mistle’s eyes became fixed as she stared right through Curtis. He and Janux waited patiently.
“He was a half-brother of the Master, isn’t it? My breeding mate tol’ me that. He tol’ me the Master was looking for Roscoe’s killer, don’t he? I said go to Lion - he knows. Lion came to our house, don’t he? He wanted something. The Master tol’ me to go to my room and stay there, don’t he? Don’t come out until Lion has gone.”
Curtis and Janux exchanged glances. “Do you know why The Master said that?” Curtis asked in a gentle voice as he smiled at Mistle.
“The Master say that Lion wanted me - he could tell how he looked at me. The Master always tell me to go to my room when Lion came. He was scared, don’t he? Lion was very strong and the Master was afraid, doesn’t he?”
“So why did you tell your breeding mate to go to Lion? Why would Lion know what happened to Roscoe?” Curtis now wondered if Mistle had heard about what happened to Lion at Chamonix Beach.
“I want to go home, don’t it?” Mistle said.
“Please answer the question, Mistle,” Curtis said, not smiling now but deliberately looking at her with a stern expression.
“Lion met me at the beach one day when the Master was away. He tol’ me he hated the Master and he hated Roscoe too. He wanted to kill them both, don’t he?”
“Did he say why he hated them?”
“No, but we lay on the beach and he made me feel happy sometimes. He tol’ me that one day we could go away somewhere, don’t he?”
“But not why he hated The Master and Roscoe?”
“I don’t ask him why,” she said, looking at Janux this time.
“Sly Onyx is a pig,” Janux said as they drove back to Tahatika Road. “To deny her a child when he knows it’s all she ever wanted.”
“True, but then she could have married a Human, I suppose. Presumably she knew about the law banning Ryxin couples from having their own children.”
Janux laughed mirthlessly. “I don’t think she was told anything about the world outside her home. All she knew was to obey her elderly masters who pretended to be loving towards her. From what I’ve heard those adopting couples don’t like their child slaves to get an education or they might find out how exploited they are. I’ve heard the children are continually fed lies about just about everything. The worst one is how much they are loved and how lucky they are to have a home. They grow up believing there are hundreds of starving children begging for food on the streets and dying of starvation and all kinds of diseases.”
“But wouldn’t they know this was a lie when they went out to the village or to other places?”
“That’s just it, they’re usually not allowed out at all. Their whole childhood is spent within the walls of their homes - preparing meals, sewing, cleaning the house and washing the clothes. Their parents deliberately keep them away from public places for fear the children will get wise and leave home for good. Some still do but they don’t get far. Ryxin leaders get them back and frighten them into obeying their parents. Even the boys they train to kill for them don’t get told about their Ryxin powers for fear that they’ll use them to get away or seek revenge.”
Curtis realised with a sense of shock that Janux was a lot more worldly wise than he was. Most of his life had been spent in the Human world with his parents telling him it was better to obey the rules. He recalled his father telling him as a child that it was safer to blend in. Once Humans start to notice your differences they watch you all the time, he often said. So his parents weren’t prepared to risk their own safety and sense of belonging.
He could hardly blame them now that he was aware of the dark side of Ryxin life. The ones who had stayed aloof from Human culture were mostly considered to be rebels and criminals who refused to adjust to Human ways. And once the Ryxin Breeding Law was passed, thousands went into hiding. They didn’t consider that marrying a Human was the answer to their problem of wanting a family. Not for them to water down their blood by mating with smug Humans who knew they were the only ones permitted to breed like rabbits and be proud of their kids. Who did they think they were anyway?
“Sly likes to be in total control,” Curtis said, “as I’m sure you’re well aware.”
“That’s why I don’t trust him. Coming round to your place and pretending to be all friendly -that doesn’t wash with me. He must be up to something,” Janux said, “but what is it and how can we find out?”
“I’m thinking about Mistle. She must have been having an affair with Lion. I wonder if she’s heard about what happened to him?”
“She didn’t say anything about it.”
“No, but Mistle is smarter than we think. She may want us to believe she doesn’t know.”
“Why?” Janux asked.
“I think we need to find out more about Mistle’s background,” Curtis said as they turned into his driveway.
CHAPTER 27
In the morning Curtis and Janux drove up to Rocky Point on the north eastern edge of Muritai Island, a far different place from the golden beaches of the eastern shore. The population here had always been sparse since the point jutted out from the island and was exposed to wind and storms. There had once been a bed-and-breakfast here, run by an elderly couple long since deceased.
But they were looking for Spoonbill Cottage where a Mr and Mrs Stellica had lived alone all their married lives. Then, after reaching the required retirement age of sixty-five years, they took advantage of a new Human law allowing them to adopt a so-called abandoned Ryxin child of five years old. Humans had realised that to allow this was to their advantage. They didn’t want to have to look after hundreds of elderly Ryxin couples who had never been allowed to have their own children and who hadn’t wanted to adopt a Human baby. The original Flim-Flam Law had meant that any babies born to Ryxin couples ended up being farmed out to Homes for Abandoned Babies. At least this is what Humans were led to believe. In actual fact the breeding programme was already in place, and the visible complications of childless elderly and homeless babies gave the Ryxins a way of encouraging the adoption law to go through, thereby setting up the final step in the chain of slave production. As they explained to the lawmakers, this law gave the children homes plus serving the purpose of keeping elderly Ryxins in their own homes for much longer, thereby freeing up the health system for Humans.
“There it is.” Janux pointed to a weatherboard house standing forlornly in a field overgrown with gorse bushes. “Obviously no one has lived there for years. Look, part of it’s been burned and boarded up.”
“Yes, and it must still belong to Mistle,” Curtis said. “The land must be worth a bit.”
He parked on the side of the gravel road and they both headed for the house which was surrounded by a dilapidated wire fence badly in need of repair. The house was equally run down. The paint, once green, was faded and flaking off everywhere. Some of the windows were broken. What was left of an old tractor cou
ld just be seen underneath blossoming gorse. There was also a leaning shack with netting on one side that had probably housed chickens. Curtis tried to imagine the place they way it must once have been. But the whole area was desolate and had a lonely feeling about it. He shuddered as they neared the house.
“What are you hoping to find?” Janux said, poking at the back door with a stick she’d picked up. The door creaked and budged a little but didn’t open.
“The concept of adopted child slaves is new to me. I thought if we came here we might understand a little about how Mistle ended up like she is.”
“I’d say total control all the way,” Janux said, finally stepping aside and allowing Curtis to give the door a hearty kick, “by the power mongers who like to think they rule this land.”
“Come on,” Curtis said as the door gave way and allowed itself to be pushed back enough so they could get in. “Let’s see if we can get an idea how these people lived.”
They walked into what must have been the kitchen. An old, yellow-topped Formica table still stood there, surrounded by four chairs, their legs covered in bubbles of brown rust.
“Look at that,” Janux exclaimed. Above the old bench was a framed picture of the planet Ryxin. Next to it was a framed photo of Oro Garvey, Earth’s first Ryxin leader. He had always been revered by Ryxin people, except for those who didn’t agree with his decisions. Mr and Mrs Stellica must have been fans of this balding, bearded man who looked down on them with a serious yet wise expression.
“That’s something we never had at home,” Curtis said, realising that while he was being brought up in a largely Human world, there were others like the Stellicas who had held fast to their Ryxin heritage. “Perhaps that’s why they lived in this isolated place.”
“You mean, like exiles from the Human world?” Janux was prising open a kitchen cupboard. “Oh, my Kieran,” she said, jumping back. “I hate spiders.”
“Not all Ryxins could assimilate easily, if at all,” Curtis replied, striding into a small bedroom, probably Mistle’s. On the wall was a disintegrating poster with the words:
KIERAN IS OUR SAVIOUR
Another said:
BLESSED BE KIERAN
“Come and have a look at this,” he called. He pointed to a bedside table.
On it was the body of a headless, baby-sized doll. Janux looked under the bed and gingerly picked up the doll’s head from the floor. “It reminds me of Mistle and her doll.”
Curtis felt uneasy. He had never experienced first-hand the emotional effects of the strictly enforced Ryxin Breeding Law. But he thought now about Mistle and the baby-doll she had been rocking and talking to when they visited that time. Perhaps she had learnt this behaviour from Mrs. Stellica.
“I’ve seen enough. Come on, Janux, let’s get out of here.”
As they drove away Curtis felt like getting drunk again at The Deer’s Antlers, but with Janux in the car he drove back home. The first thing he did was to pour a large glass of whiskey. “Do you want one?” he said, holding his glass up to Janux.
“That place really got to you, didn’t it? Okay, I’ll join you. I don’t feel too good myself.”
They sat at the kitchen table, mulling over what they’d seen. By the time the bottle was half empty Curtis knew what he wanted to do next. “Come on, Janux. We’re going to Lighthouse Drive to see Claudette Peace. I want to ask her a few questions.”
“I’m feeling a bit under the weather,” she said, staggering to her feet.
“It doesn’t matter about that. I need you to come with me.” He grabbed her hand and began pulling her after him towards the door.
“Hey, that hurts. I’m coming, aren’t I? Anyway, I think you’re drunk too.”
“Sorry, love, but I told you I need you to come with me and you are my assistant after all.”
“Your head is full of women,” she said. “They’re all mixed up, and sad and bad. Are you trying to find out where 17 is?”
“I like you a lot,” he said, wishing he didn’t, “but rules are rules. The handbook, remember?”
“So if it wasn’t for the handbook we could almost be like a married couple?”
“Let’s not think about that right now.” Curtis started the car and drove to Pohatu Cove where he steered the car along the coast road and then through some of the streets. They were filled with smart holiday homes and simple baches.
“I think I love you,” she said, reaching over and placing her hand on his.
“I know I love you, and trying to keep my PI rules makes me want you even more. But you’re my client and I’m trying to solve this case. Don’t you see that?”
“Do you want me to go back to Chamonix Beach?”
“No, I still don’t think it’s safe for you there. Let’s wait until all this is over and see what we both want then.”
“I feel safe with you,” she said. “But there’s something I’m not sure of.”
“That’s good, feeling safe. That’s how I want you to feel. So what are you not sure of?” Curtis stopped the car outside 18 Lighthouse Drive.
“It’s 17. I know you fell for her in a big way. She really messed with your head.”
“I suppose so, but that’s over now. It was a business arrangement.”
“Not for you though. I know you still love her.”
“Listen, Janux, I can love more than one woman, you know. On Ryxin men were allowed up to three wives. That’s how Ryxin men are made. They just are. Now come on, let’s go inside and see what Claudette has to say.”
Curtis rang the bell, and after about five minutes the door was opened by a young Asian girl who looked to be about sixteen.
“Yes?” she said.
“I’ve come to see Claudette Peace, the House Controller. Is she here?”
“Yes, but Claudette has been sick. That’s why I’m here, to help her. Does she know you’re coming?”
“Yes,” Curtis lied.
The young girl looked hesitant, but then opened the door wide. “Come in and I will tell her you’re here.”
“Perhaps we can go to her room,” Curtis said, afraid Claudette would turn them away.
“We are only permitted to have one person at a time in our room. That is a house rule,” the girl said as if by rote.
She ushered them into a small waiting room. From somewhere at the back of the house a baby was crying. Then there was silence.
They waited for about twenty minutes before the Asian girl returned. “Mrs Peace is here now,” she said, bowing and exiting the room.
When Curtis saw Claudette he gasped. Her face was puffy and bruised looking. She had a healing cut on her top lip and a blue area around her right eye. Her face looked a sickly pale yellow and she wasn’t smiling.
“Why are you here and who is this young woman?” She looked at them as if they were complete strangers.
Curtis was shocked by the unhealthy change in her. “You know me - I’m Curtis and this is my friend, Janux Lennan. We’ve come to see you. Let me help you to sit down, Claudette,” Curtis added, noticing she could barely stand. “What happened?”
“I had an accident. That’s all.” She was looking towards the doorway.
“I’ll shut the door so we can talk privately,” Curtis said getting up.
Claudette immediately looked frightened. “No, it’s all right. No one will listen.”
Just then the Asian girl returned with a tray on which were three cups and a pot of coffee.
“Thank you, Yang,” Claudette said, and the girl smiled at her and left.
“Did you know a Mrs Duxton?” Curtis asked her.
“Yes, all the House Controllers know each other. We have to go for training every so often, over to the mainland. There’s quite a few working over there.”
“Did you know Mistle Onyx has been jailed for the murder?”
“Yes, but there’s something the Human police don’t know,” Claudette said, her voice very low.
“Is this place bugged?” Cur
tis whispered.
“I think so,” Claudette whispered back.
Janux immediately got up and began looking - under the chairs, behind the pictures on the walls. Finally she pulled something out from under a vase on a nearby table and showed them. It was a small electronic listening device. Curtis took it from her and stuffed it into the end of his right boot.
“If we talk quietly it won’t pick up anything,” he whispered.
Claudette leaned towards them. “Mistle shouldn’t be in jail,” she said. “Dux and I became friends because she knew I was a writer and she liked to write too. One day she told me she was born a half-blood Ryxin but her Human mother didn’t like her extra toes and insisted on having them removed just after she was born. Her parents knew a plastic surgeon who did it all in secret so that there was no trace of where the extra toes had been. Dux didn’t want to risk getting married and having kids - she knew they’d be born with Ryxin traits. She told me that’s how she got involved in the RBP. They advertised for a House Controller for a Home for Abandoned Babies in Xlesky Street. They wanted a Human so she got the job. All she had to do was show them her hands and feet. They didn’t ask for her birth certificate. She found out later what the RBP was really up to and why having a Human at the desk was a good thing. They said it gave them a better cover for what they were really doing. We’re all sworn to secrecy, but she loved kids and that’s why she stayed. She got to help look after some of them at least for a little while before they went to the pre-adoption houses and military training centres.”
Curtis looked at Janux who smiled at him. They both knew that now there was a chance to get Mistle out of prison. Once the authorities had been notified that Dux was really a half-blood Ryxin then the inter-Ryxin Crimes Act would have to be enforced, meaning the murder would now be outside Human law jurisdiction. The Ryxins must punish their own in their own way, or not, according to whatever they decided.
Curtis was almost certain the Ryxin authorities would not even bother to deal with the killing of Dux. She wasn’t known to be Ryxin and even when they found out she was, proven by her birth certificate, they probably wouldn’t care. In their eyes she wasn’t considered important enough even for tears, let alone justice. They would just blame her parents who had opted to turn their backs on their own species when they had their baby’s feet doctored to make them look Human.
Aliens in Godzone Page 14
