Dangerously Placed (20 page)

‘So you think Christina had logged in to the office and was hiding in there, having just killed Pierce?' Budi was panting again.

‘You said yourself that she was fired before they put in a lot of the login protocols,' I said. ‘What if she still had a valid retina scan? The codes are a good backup, but they're probably not impossible to find out. And Mr Grody's Virk Room must have been set up to accept more than one logged-in identity at a time if he was using a second suit to pass himself off as Yasuo. So Christina could've gone into his Virk Room, waited until Mr Grody changed out of his second suit, and put it on herself. That way, she could watch what was happening in Virk and choose a time when no one was likely to see him being attacked. He used the Virk Room's bathroom as his changing room; she could have been in the main part of his Virk Room all afternoon without Mr Grody ever having suspected there was anyone near him in realspace.'

‘It does sound possible,' agreed Budi. ‘But what I don't understand is
why
she would have wanted to kill Pierce.' He winced as I increased the pace even more. Christina was nearing the bus stop.

‘I don't want to sound mean or anything, but I got the impression that a lot of people around the office really didn't like Mr Grody. Not that I'm saying that's enough to make anyone want to murder him, but everyone did agree he could be pretty nasty. It's not a big stretch to think that he might have done something
really horrible to Christina, is it?' I actually had a pretty good idea of what that something might have been, but I couldn't be completely sure yet.

‘No, I suppose not. It does all make sense, Alex, but there's still some room for doubt there. You sounded so sure back in the memorial gardens.'

‘She came to his funeral, Budi.' I squinted up ahead. Sure enough, Christina had stopped beside the bus shelter. I scanned around for buses, but to my relief none seemed to be heading this way. We still had time up our sleeves. ‘Would you have gone to the funeral of a man who was briefly your boss ages ago, and not a nice one, either? And even if you did, would you leave as soon as they began to shovel the dirt over his coffin? It was like … like she wanted to make sure he was dead, or something.' I looked over my shoulder at Budi, who had slowed down and was wincing with every step. ‘Come on, Budi! You're fitter than this, surely!'

‘It's not a matter of fitness, Peaches,' said Budi, biting his lip. ‘It's just that if I'd known I was going to do this much power walking, I wouldn't have worn my best sandals!' He pointed down at the black beaded straps encircling his feet.

‘I see what you mean. But you'll just have to –'

‘Oh,
that's
not good!' exclaimed Budi suddenly, pointing in front of him.

A bus was turning right from the intersection ahead of us, heading straight for the stop where Christina was waiting.

‘Damn!'

‘Shall we run and try to get on it?' asked Budi.

I stood still, in an agony of indecision.

‘I don't know – what if she sees us? She could be armed … But there's no way of knowing where she'll get off the bus …'

‘Then let's run!' shouted Budi, taking off at top speed despite his sandals. I sprinted after him. The bus was slowing. Now it lowered itself down to let passengers off. Christina stepped in. We were never going to make it.

‘Damn it, Sky, where are you?' I yelled, scanning the traffic, but there was no sign of her little yellow car. Budi was still running, but the bus was shutting its doors. He stumbled to a halt, doubled over and puffing as it rumbled away. I yanked my phone out of my pocket as I drew up beside Budi.

‘The bus's number is 173. I'll ring the police and tell them,' I panted. ‘Maybe they can get a car to stop the bus before Christina gets off it. Maybe.'

‘We were … so close …' wheezed Budi. I dialled 000.

Suddenly there was a loud honking behind us, and we spun round to see a bright pink van with ‘Beachside Blooms' painted in fat green letters on its side swerving through the traffic towards us. Curses and emphatic hand gestures erupted from the nearby cars as the van screeched to a halt and the passenger door was flung open.

‘Hop in!' called Sky, grinning at us over Ki's shoulder.

I didn't wait for a second invitation. Leaping in, I squashed up as far as I could to make room for Budi and pulled him in after me.

A muffled voice was issuing from my phone.

‘Police, please,' I said, putting it up to my ear again. ‘Sky – follow that bus!'

‘Anything you say!' Sky beamed over at Budi as she veered off into the stream of cars again. ‘Hi! I'm Sky. Sorry – if I'd known Alex had a friend with her, I would've made Ki sit in the back.'

‘Why
are
you here, Ki?' I asked. ‘Not that I'm complaining or anything – I think we'll be needing your strategic skills.'

‘It's my lunch break,' said Ki. ‘Sky and I were going to try out the new wholefoods cafe on Windsor Street.'

‘And I had to take the van so I could do the deliveries afterwards,' explained Sky. ‘Robbie's still out of action after the bee sting.'

‘I see. Oh, by the way, this is Budi, my mentor,' I added. ‘Budi – my best friends, Sky and Kiyoko.'

‘Oh, you're Budi! We've heard so much about you. I love your sarong!' gushed Sky.

‘And I love that crochet dress,' grinned Budi. ‘It's daring and old-school at the same time!'

‘Could you guys give the mutual admiration a rest for a minute?' I demanded. ‘I'm on the phone here! Yes, hi – my name's Alex Thaler, and I need to speak
to Detective Sergeant Montague or Detective Sergeant Hargreaves at the city precinct, please. It's in relation to the Pierce Grody murder case.'

‘Please hold,' said the voice at the other end.

‘Are we to assume that you believe the murderer is on this bus we're pursuing?' asked Ki, steadying herself against the dashboard as Sky made a wild swing into the right lane.

‘Yes, we – oh, hello! Detective Sergeant Hargreaves?'

‘This is Senior Constable Rivers, Alex,' said a familiar voice. ‘I'm afraid the detective sergeants are interviewing someone right now – can I take a message?'

Dale! He must have been showing them the footage.

‘Yes! Or maybe you can help. I'm in pursuit of a bus – it's the number 173 heading west from Brighton on Kennedy Road – and there's a woman on it, Christina, uh …'

‘Wilkinson,' Budi supplied.

‘Christina Wilkinson. She's a former Simulcorp employee, and I have reason to believe she murdered Pierce Grody.'

‘Crikey,' said Rivers, then seemed to remember that he was supposed to sound professional. ‘I have to advise you not to try to apprehend the suspect, Alex. She may be dangerous.'

‘I know that – she beat me up!' I frowned into the phone, clutching at Ki's arm with my free hand as Sky made a tyre-grinding right-hand turn. ‘What I need is
for you to get some officers down here right away. She could get off the bus at any … Wait a sec. She's getting out. Sky, stop the van. And try to do it quietly!'

Sky managed to pull up at the kerb without any screeching of brakes. We watched Christina walk up the street a few metres and stop at a security gate outside an apartment complex. She keyed in a code on the gate's number pad and it swung open. I motioned to Budi to get out of the van.

‘We've found out where she was going,' I told Senior Constable Rivers, looking around for house numbers as I followed Budi. ‘We're in Kroeber Street, number twenty-six.' I crept up to the concrete wall at the front of the block of apartments and peered carefully through the gate's bars just in time to see Christina disappear into a glass-walled foyer and up a flight of stairs. ‘One of the top apartments. Hang on.' The others had clustered around me. We watched with bated breath for a sign that Christina had entered one of the apartments. For a moment there was nothing, and then a light flickered on in one of the windows. ‘The first floor, left apartment as you're looking at them from the street,' I told Rivers.

‘I can see it on the map. A patrol car will be there in a couple of minutes, and I'll let the detective sergeants know too. Just keep your distance, all right? Keep an eye open and let us know if the suspect leaves the apartment, but do not try to apprehend her. Understood?'

‘Understood,' I said, and shut the phone. ‘He said
we should keep watch in case she leaves,' I told Sky and Budi, who were watching me expectantly. Ki was busy taking notes on her phone again.

‘Perhaps we'd be more unobtrusive in the van,' she suggested.

So we all squeezed back into the van. Sky moved it a little further along the street to get a better view of number twenty-six, and we watched the apartment while I filled Sky and Ki in on the events at the funeral and my suspicions about Christina.

By the time I'd finished answering their questions about it all, more than five minutes had passed and there was still no sign of the police.

‘Where are those guys?' I asked, biting a thumbnail.

‘Maybe there are roadworks nearby,' suggested Sky.

‘Wouldn't they know about that kind of thing?' I glanced at the rear-vision mirror, but no one was coming from behind us, either. ‘I just can't help feeling that Christina has something planned. When she left the memorial garden she had a kind of purposeful look.'

‘If only we had binoculars,' sighed Budi.

‘Imbecile,' said Ki.

We all turned to her, startled.

‘I was referring to myself,' she explained calmly, producing her phone from the folds of her black mesh skirt. ‘I should have thought of it earlier: we do have binoculars, or at least something that performs the same function.' And holding up her phone, she switched on
the camera and zoomed in on the apartment window.

At that distance, even Ki's steady hands couldn't keep the image from shaking a little, but we could definitely see more. I squeezed in closer so Budi could see too. The windows had security bars across them, and in between them, we could see Christina crossing the room. She was talking on the phone. As we watched, she put the phone back on its cradle on the wall and stepped out of view. When she returned, she was dressed in jeans and t-shirt, her hair was dark again and she was carrying a large blue suitcase.

‘She's making a run for it,' I breathed.

‘It certainly appears so,' agreed Ki.

I looked around at the others.

‘Don't you think we should do something?'

‘The police told you not to try and catch her,' Sky reminded me.

‘I know.' I started on the other thumbnail. ‘I'm just worried that if she gets away again, it'll be for good. She was probably ringing a taxi before. What if it arrives before the police do?'

‘We chase her again,' suggested Sky.

‘Or take the registration number and let the police chase it,' said Budi.

‘Yeah. Yeah, you're probably right.'

There was a pause.

‘There is one argument counter to those ideas, however.'

We all looked at Ki.

‘Well,' she said, ‘let us suppose – and I think it's highly likely – that Alex is correct and this woman is a murderer. It then seems somewhat irresponsible of us to allow her to continue to interact with society. Suppose we let her take a taxi and she injures, or even kills, the driver? Or suppose we leave the police to pursue her once she's left in that taxi and it becomes a high-speed chase, endangering other motorists and pedestrians? It seems to me that the safest course of action would be to keep her here.' She turned to me, putting down her phone. ‘We don't have to apprehend her – we merely have to delay her departure.'

I nodded.

‘That makes sense. But how can we hold her up for a few minutes?'

Ki said nothing. She just turned in her seat and gazed into the back of the van, where half a dozen bouquets, carefully wrapped and slotted into identical compartments, sat perfuming the air.

‘Okay, Sky, remember to keep the bouquet in front of your face,' I said as the four of us crouched by the wall. ‘She probably didn't get much of a look at you the other night, but it's better to be safe than sorry.'

‘Easy for you to say,' muttered Sky, holding the huge bunch of roses a little higher. ‘This is a hundred and eighty dollars worth of flowers that I'll have to pay for
if anything happens to it. There'd better be one of those rewards for information leading to an arrest.'

‘You may be saving someone's life,' Ki reminded her. ‘That's worth more than a hundred and eighty dollars, Sky.'

‘She's looking at her watch,' reported Budi, who was holding Sky's phone, now on camera as Ki's had been, over the top of the wall. ‘We need to hurry it up.'

‘Okay, here goes.' Sky stood up and stepped over to the intercom by the side of the security gate. Then she took a deep breath and pressed the buzzer for apartment four. We couldn't be sure which was the one Christina was in, but one and two seemed likely to be the ground floor apartments.