Heart Stopper (20 page)

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Did it matter that it was a woman he would be killing? Did it matter whether she was attractive, charismatic, kind?

The diplomat swam laps of the pool, his arms pumping the questions into the water. There were a multitude of women like her in his country who would suffer as much as dying, as would the men, and the children.

He hoped the man was in control. He had 4 days before the device arrived. He couldn’t practice with the real thing. That was one of the risks he would take. That it would all work out on the day.

They had 8 days.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

In her dream, she was sitting on the boulder by the river watching the water flow at her feet and the traffic overhead. She turned and Kathy was beside her, sitting on the rock. They watched the bodies float by, nameless, smooth movement then jagged as they bumped off the tree trunks resting on the riverbed. Kathy got up; she pushed Priya’s hand away and walked into the river until she disappeared. Priya was in the bog pit, lying face up to the midnight blue sky. She was aware of lying on something, something warm. She felt under her with her hand, but she knew even before she touched the arms and chests and legs. She was screaming as she woke, flailing at the covers, clawing at the edge of the pit, seeing even as she climbed out of the dream, the faces beneath her.

She was still struggling as Reyna pulled back the cover, freeing Priya’s arms. Reyna was saying her name. She heard Catherine too. She opened her eyes and the daylight hurt. She closed them again, squeezed tight, kept them closed. She curled up into a fetal position. Her mouth felt thick and dry.

“Here, take some of this.” Priya heard Catherine say. She felt Reyna take her hand. She felt the cold of glass pressed against her other hand. She opened her eyes. Reyna was sitting on the bed beside her. She looked ragged, the sharp lines of her face softened with fatigue. Catherine was standing beside the bed holding a glass of cherry colored liquid to Priya’s hand.

“Go on, my dear, I put in a mixture of things that are good for shock.” Catherine said.

Priya grasped the glass and took a swallow; it tasted of cherries with a startling aftertaste of bitter. She grimaced, but drank all of it.

Catherine sank into the chair beside the bed. Priya closed her eyes again and the three women stayed in silence for a few minutes. Then, Catherine got up.

Priya said, “I’m sorry I came here. Now I’ve put you both at risk.”

“You did the right thing. I tried ringing the Cop station last night after you’d gone to sleep, but I couldn’t even get through,” Reyna said.

“Well, I for one am glad you didn’t get through,” Catherine said, “Not after what’s been on the news.”

Priya looked from one to the other. Reyna was silent. Catherine smoothed back a strand of hair that fell across Priya’s forehead.

“Come in to the kitchen when you’re ready.” Catherine gestured at Reyna to follow her then turned and left the room.

Reyna squeezed and released Priya’s hand. She got up and smiled at Priya before leaving the room.

∞

Priya washed her face. She was unable to look at it in the mirror. She rinsed her mouth out with the mouthwash but the bitter taste remained. Someone had left clothes neatly folded on a chair in the bathroom. They must have been Catherine’s jeans, they fit her loosely and she didn’t have to roll up the legs. The navy sweatshirt had California Berkeley emblazoned across the chest, the memory of another college sweatshirt swamped her, and she sank onto the floor clutching it to her. She muffled the sobs in the folds of fabric as she lay on the cold tiles. She heard a knock and a quiet voice asking if she was okay and Priya said she was fine as she dragged herself up the sink. She washed her face again and left the bathroom a few minutes later.

Catherine and Reyna were sitting at the table when Priya joined them in the kitchen. She gratefully accepted the cup as she sat down at the table, the aroma of coffee strong in the air, diluted by the waft of breeze through the open patio door. The radio was on and the voices squabbled over the evils of the European troika that had taken over the running of Ireland.

Catherine said in a gentle voice, “It was on the morning bulletin on Galway Bay FM. They found the body yesterday evening and named him as Michael Walsh.” She paused as Priya flinched then continued, “Priya, they have released your name as a person of interest. They are saying that witnesses saw you running from the building.”

“Did they say anything about the men?”

“No.”

“How would anyone know who I was?”

And then she remembered,

“My jacket, I didn’t have it when I ran. They must have found it.”

She jerked her head up,

“Are they looking for me because they think I killed him?”

Reyna said, “They haven’t come out and said it. The news report was vague, but they said the police were searching for you for questioning. We first heard it on the 10 o’clock bulletin. Catherine has set up the TV, but it is difficult to get any channels up here, and she hasn’t got cable. Just the Irish language station coming through. You don’t speak Irish by any chance, do you?”

Priya shook her head. “The few words I have wouldn’t get me anywhere.”

Reyna said, “We’re going to watch it anyway and see if anything comes up on the lunchtime news. And we’ll see if the noon bulletin on the radio has any more information.” She looked at her watch and got up to turn up the volume on the radio. “It’s almost noon.”

Priya felt a wave of panic. The voices on the radio were now arguing about mortgage debt forgiveness. Her heart jumped when the familiar jingle played to announce the start of the news bulletin. And sank as the newsreader spat out the juicy details of a murder in Galway and the search for an Irish woman of Indian origin who had been a friend of the murdered man and had also worked with the recently deceased American doctor who had brought investment, jobs, and prestige to Galway through his cutting-edge involvement in the medical devices industry. The woman bemoaned the lack of detail in this breaking news story, but hinted at more to come from unnamed sources. She ended the piece by mentioning that Dr. Priya Joseph had recently lost her mother and was known to the Gardai prior to this murder.

“They’re making it sound like I’m some crazy woman who the Gardai have known about for a while!”

Catherine was looking worried. She nodded and sighed. “It’s believable. If I hadn’t met you, I would probably have thought… With all that has happened to you in the last few years. It’s just going to get worse when they find out about the other things. And they’re going to find out, they’re going to dig and what they find is going to add to the picture of a woman unbalanced by grief.”

“You two don’t think I killed Michael, do you?” Priya’s voice was rising with an edge of panic.

“Of course not. And we all know now this isn’t a coincidence nor was Daniel’s death an accident.” Reyna’s voice was firm. Catherine nodded.

Priya said, her voice barely audible, “Why did they not just kill me? Why Michael?”

Reyna said, “I don’t know.” She paused, her forehead crinkling. “But if the police are looking for you and you’re on the run, then you’re not trying to dig up any more on Daniel’s death.” She sat back and rubbed her forehead. “It would never pass as a coincidence if you died so soon after Daniel. But, if you were pushed over the edge and…” She broke off and paused for a moment.

Reyna continued, “No one would have been suspicious about Daniel’s death because it seemed like a natural death. When I got his text, I would have just gone back to Catherine’s and then contacted him the next day. If we hadn’t ended up back at his place that night, I would have found him on the Saturday probably. I wouldn’t have thought there was anything more to it than a heart attack. It was the fact that we went there that night, that I left you there and I thought you and he had been together, that made me suspicious. Even after that, when we got the package he sent. The things we found out since, it all comes back to him dying of a heart attack, which is throwing us off.”

Catherine asked, “We’re saying again that someone killed him and made it look like a heart attack? Is that even possible?”

Reyna smacked her palm on the table. “I know it sounds crazy.”

The sound jolted Priya. She clenched her fists. “And meanwhile those bastards get away with it?”

Reyna asked Catherine, “Does anyone know that you live here?”

“No. I don’t think so. Daniel never said it to anyone as far as I know, he probably just mentioned Connemara in general, I’d say.”

Reyna turned to Priya. “Ok, I would say they don’t know where you are at the moment. Neither the police nor the men who killed Michael. I don’t know how long it will take them to work it out. We can’t sit around while they do that.”

Priya said, “You are both going to be in trouble, and in danger. They are going to work it out. The bus driver would remember me; the guy at the pub will definitely remember me. They’ll put it together, that Catherine, and you, live in Connemara.”

Catherine shook her head. “They’ll look for Catherine Fairer if they do go down that line. The house will still be under the name Leo Turner.”

Reyna cut in. “We need to be fast. We have to work out why somebody would be willing to kill two people and destroy another. What in all the things we looked through? We need to finish going through the stuff. We’re just not seeing something.”

The female voice on the radio was now droning out the death notices for the Galway area.
Would they add Michael’s name
? Reyna got up from the table and snapped off the radio.

Priya felt the guilt punch in her solar plexus.
What had she missed
? And then she remembered something else and slumped further down in the chair.

 
“I left the papers in my car. All the stuff Daniel sent and the notes I made. And the Excel sheets from my PhD.”

“Where is your car?” Reyna’s voice was patient.

“I left it in the Jury’s car park. It’s close to Michael’s apartment. I went straight from work on… yesterday.” She couldn’t even remember what day of the week it was. Saturday. No, the concert was on Saturday. So Sunday.

Reyna got up.

Catherine said, “I’m coming with you.”

Reyna shook her head. “We can’t leave Priya here alone and we can’t take her in with us.”

“And you will take much longer to find the place. Besides, do you know how to get into a locked car?” She turned to Priya. “I presume you locked it, and the keys were in your jacket.” Priya nodded, but was too tired to correct her about the keys. They had fallen somewhere. Catherine continued to Reyna, “Also, your rental car is too obvious. We’ll need to take my car, and it is stick shift.”

“And you know how to get into a locked car?”

“Yes.”

Catherine thought for a moment and then said, “We’ll have to park in the little alley on the other side and I’ll get to Priya’s car and open it. I’ll only have few minutes because the alarm will go off. Get the papers and get back to the car. Nobody is going to look twice at an old lady.” Catherine smiled at their expressions. “I’ll dress like one.”

Reyna looked at Priya.

Priya said, “She’s right.”

She looked out at the patio. A brown speckled bird loitering at the far end hopped towards the door, stopped, and cocked its head. It flew straight up into the air bursting into a harsh birdsong as it rose.

Priya said, “Leave me the financials you were looking through. If that’s ok?”

Reyna nodded. “Maybe you’ll see something I couldn’t.” She looked out at the track leading through the forest at the back of the house. “You should stay upstairs. You’d be able to hear better.” She looked back at Priya and hesitated. “Maybe, we could put you in the back seat and you could crouch down when we’re in town?”

Priya shook her head. “Too risky. For all of us. I’ll stay alert. You should too.”
 

∞

The sound of birds singing and squawking occasionally broke through, sometimes from the forest, and sometimes from the patio. She sat in a chair by the window in the bedroom upstairs. The one with Reyna’s things in it. Files covered the bed.

Priya tried to concentrate on the financial details Reyna had collected from the Research Company. Her eyes wandered every few minutes and she stared at the tops of the trees bending in the drizzle that moved in waves over them, at the potholes in the track twisting through, at the crows that perched on the bows of the telephone wire strung from post to post.

Reyna and Catherine had been gone for thirty minutes. They had driven off in Catherine’s station wagon that grumbled out of the galvanized steel barn as if woken from a long nap. The worry was evident on both their faces despite Priya’s repeated assurances that she would be fine. Priya had refused any thoughts though they tried to force their way in through the fog. She had locked all the doors and climbed the stairs, her steps heavy. She felt the dregs of whatever was in the tablets Reyna had given her, but she was calm. She thought that was probably the effects of what Catherine had mixed in the glass for her.

Priya looked through the papers stacked in boxes beside Reyna’s bed.

The sudden silence outside attracted her attention. The birds had found a reason to stop their noise. She opened the window and listened, willing her heart to slow and the blood to clear from her head, trying to tune in under the absence of natural sounds. She heard the vibration before the noise of the engine and before she saw the movement between the trees. It was about 500 yards away. The slightest of sounds and the slightest of motions, but it was enough. The car was crawling. She rapidly calculated the distance the car would need to cover before it would emerge from the shaded entry to the clearing and reach the back of the house. Just enough time to get out the front and into the forest below the front of the house. She assumed it wasn’t the Gardai; they wouldn’t be creeping around if they had tracked her down. She was not going to sit and wait for the other possibility to break down the door.