STRANGE BODIES (a gripping crime thriller) (28 page)

‘What about Dr Burne’s computers? Wasn’t there something … oh, yes. She was sent some photos of the murder victims, the Richardsons, and you couldn’t trace the source.’

Nicholas thought back to that day in his office … the day he interrogated Verity.

‘She’s taken extra precautions and it hasn’t happened again. She, um, has come across relevant information about Gray and Nash, pointing to a motive. Incidentally, they are lovers.’

‘I’ll wrap this up now, let you get back to your investigation. Shoot your report through to Patrick later today. Pat, keep me in the loop. Goodbye.’

His image winked out and Pat Underhill said, ‘Anything comes though from the UK during the day, let me know. Good work.’ He closed the transmission.

Nicholas thought about taking a minute or two to contact Verity but decided it would be too distracting. He needed to get back to the conference room. And he needed coffee.

Verity shooed her loving family out after an hour, pleading tiredness. After Amy’s ministrations she felt almost normal again, no pain in her shoulder and she could walk, carefully, on her strapped ankle. As a precaution she engaged full house security then went up to her shielded attic.

From the Levinsky/Steiner files she knew four of the board members were murdered and when and where. Now that she knew what to look for, who to look at, it should be easy. First, travel patterns. She wondered just how far back she had to go. The last board meeting of InterPharm had been about ten years ago. She decided to make some assumptions at this point. It helped her think to talk to the computer. Merlin was nothing if not logical, but sometimes he surprised her by taking an unexpected lateral step. The Intelligence part of AI was sometimes alarmingly intelligent.

‘Good morning, Merlin.’

‘Good morning, Verity. I do hope you are recovering well from your injuries. In fact, you look
very
well this morning. I’d say the Commander had something to do with that.’

Verity rolled her eyes. ‘You’re a blasted pervert, Merlin. Now, if you don’t mind, let’s find a murderer. Please retrieve and display travel records for Sir Marcus Havington for say, the last five years. Additional information … only those when Orlando Gray was with him. Also retrieve any information on individual travel by Gray, with or without Nash. Destinations and dates only will do.

‘Next task. Can you hack into InterCat and HOLMES?’

‘Does the Pope shit in the woods? It’s easy enough to get in; I assume you don’t want traces left so I’ll tippy-toe. What information do you need?’

‘You’ve got all that InterPharm data. I want to know what happened after they were arrested. Obviously some of them got away, but who went to trial and were they sent to jail? If so which jail and are they still there? As much of that information that’s retrievable. And your sense of humour is deplorable.’

‘I don’t actually have a sense of humour yet but I’m getting there. I just borrow phrases that you humans think are funny, but I’m starting to get a glimmering. Here’s the travel information … where do you want it?
’

‘Desk screen one and also to my
Tyle
. Hold the transmission to Nick until I get it sorted and collated. Speaking of transmissions, any attempts to gain access here?’

‘No, no way. All my transmissions are now tightly re-coded with encryption to the nth level of difficulty. Someone’s had a few stabs at Jeannie but the new safeguards seem to be holding. Very clever, very sophisticated though. I suspect every ping is gathering info. I’m letting that happen … we can backtrack them eventually.

‘Here’s some of the information you wanted from HOLMES. On your
Tyle
again. Still nothing on InterCat but that system is down again.’

‘That’s rapid tiptoeing, Merlin. Thanks.’

Verity scrolled through the details of the trials of the three InterPharm board members who were not quick enough or not smart enough to get away in time.

Peter Ashton, the chief accountant, was murdered in jail in his first few weeks there. Blake Grantham and Walter Hill were still in jail. Merlin had gone a step further and had somehow tracked Ernest Yarrow to Ireland, still alive, at the moment. But the photo of Ashton … there was something about the eyes, the shape of the jaw.

‘Merlin, split screen three. Put up images of Peter Ashton and Orlando Gray, points of similarity. Any connection, blood connection?’

‘Didn’t I say, oh, sorry. Gray is Peter Ashton’s son. Mother Cordelia Gray. Married when she was three months pregnant with the boy. After Ashton was murdered she reverted to her maiden name, took the boy, young man I should say, and went into seclusion … let’s see … in Scotland. He was seventeen, brilliant according to his scholastic records.’

‘Gray’s father was murdered in prison?’

‘Yes, this is what I’ve found.’

Ten years earlier - Prison island, North Sea, UK.

He lay face down in the showers, the cold salt water showers that never left you feeling really clean. The thin gritty soap that was supposed to neutralise the salt but didn’t, lay close to an outstretched hand. That hand was no longer part of the body and neither was the other one that lay in its clasp. When they finally found him and turned him over, even the most hardened reeled back in shock and horror. It was a particularly brutal and savage murder, the guts spilling out and writhing like a nest of snakes on the cracked tiles.

He had been strangled with a twisted strip of sheeting. A gaping wound in his groin showed where his penis had been severed and stuffed into his mouth after the tongue was removed. It was hard to tell what had been done to the prisoner while he was still alive; the still dripping shower had washed away most of the blood by now but small circular burn marks around the groin and beside the eyes suggested he had been tortured. He had been sodomised with a piece of broom handle. There was no sign of his tongue.

Was he tortured to reveal some knowledge? Did he have something someone wanted? Was it a warning? There were some desperate men on this island, though no convicted murderers. Mostly white collar crime, petty theft, black marketeers; there were forgers, fraudsters, a couple of blackmailers—not really hard men, only desperate because their previous lives had often been ones of comfort and privilege. They would do almost anything to gain even the smallest sliver of that former life … extra rations, another blanket, books. Luxuries like that were jealously guarded, even fought over, but until now no one had been killed for them, well, not as obviously as this though some sudden deaths were borderline.

The puzzle was that Prisoner Ashton, Peter, ID No. SI2-7610-Q20897, had nothing like that, nothing that would trigger his hideous torture and death. It was clear that death was always intended, the type of injuries made that obvious. He and the two other board members, Grantham and Hill, had only been at the prison farm for a month, not long enough, surely, to have attracted such enmity. The prison boss wasn’t going to like this one little bit.

Verity paled while reading this grim story. ‘Motive, there’s the motive, his father. Someone ordered this death, but why. Who could have done it? Just look at that pair, Grantham and Hill. They’re weedy types. Merlin, your thoughts?’

‘The only logical answer is one of the guards. Money, or threats perhaps. Looking, looking. Ah, yes. A senior prison officer, John Rushton, resigned a month later, he and his wife moved to Canada, transferred a large sum of money too, well hidden I might add, travelled around then disappeared. Searching, searching. Aha, connections. He is Robyn Turner-James’ cousin.’

‘You think he, they, are dead too?’

‘No idea. And there’s this. In the Levinsky files there’s a brief notation … he kept a sort of diary, just points, no details. One of the notes, written just after the murder of Ashton said, “
Conrad’s gone too far this time, that wasn’t necessary. A warning, that’s all I suggested.”
And here’s another thing … that young c-tec, Jet Blanchard, was trying to get into HOLMES. He was almost there but would have been detected so I gave him a little nudge.’
A chuckle emanated from the speaker
. ‘He was surprised at how easy it was.’

‘I’m guessing someone suggested a beating; either Turner-James extended that to murder, or we have a very sadistic guard. That’s what ties Gray to the murders, revenge for his father’s death.’

Verity didn’t bother to ask how Merlin had accessed the files from Levinsky’s computer. They were on her
Tyle
and so would be automatically linked to the AI. Come to think of it, also on Nicholas’s too. She’d send him a message anyway.

Adams nearly ignored the insistent pulsing of his personal phone. Impatiently he pulled it out and when he saw it was from Verity, read the message.
Sending evidence to your Tyle. Look under file named Merlin. Love Verity.

He opened the file and quickly skimmed the contents. And there it all was … laid out on a platter, the all important motive they’d been trying to find. Not a disgruntled shareholder, not the remaining board member, Ernest Yarrow, but a son’s vengeance for his murdered father, a man whose only crime it appeared was to have been an innocent member of the InterPharm board.

And there was the travel pattern too, neatly laid out and documented. It fitted, it fitted every location where the dead ex-board members had been found.

Verity thought there was not much more she could do now that the motive and murderers were known. Well, they had fallen off the map but surely that was temporary. She thought for a minute or two then spoke. ‘Please track the ATV Gray and Nash are travelling in, or were in. My guess is they would have ditched it. Everything since they left, please.’

‘Anything else while I’m at it … back rub, manicure, three-course dinner. By the way you seem pretty sharp today … comes of having a sex life, I’d guess.’

Verity blushed bright red. ‘Christ, is nothing secret around here! You aren’t supposed to snoop in my bedroom.’

‘Verity, as you said, you made me, you and Marcus set the parameters. And one of the imperatives was to guard you from all harm, you and Adelaide, and by extension, anyone close to you. I can’t do that if I’m locked out of anywhere in and around this house. Your implants are just tracking devices. I can’t actually read your mind, but I always know where you are. Incidentally, are you going to arrange one for the Commander?’

‘We’ll see. But, hell, I’d forgotten just how all pervasive you are.’

‘Verity, I’m a machine, a very clever one but I am asexual so I don’t really care what you get up to in the bedroom. Now as far as this latest attack goes I was temporarily blinded by a very clever … in your terms … masking device. It took me a few nanosecs to realise what was going on. I apologise for my lapse. I’ve taken steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again. He’s a clever man, your murderer. As clever as you, but twisted. A shame, to have wasted a first class brain.’

‘Yes, a near genius with electronics. So we’re in agreement as to who we are after.’

‘Of course. It should be obvious to everyone by now.’

‘So what can I do now? I’ve sent everything I’ve found so far to Nick, sorry,
you’ve
found,’ she corrected at a remarkably human sounding
ahem
from the AI.

Chapter 38

Verity sat bolt upright in bed, suddenly awake. After last night with Nick she hadn’t expected to wake until late. For a few seconds she savoured the thought of what they had done and tingles ran through her. Then she realised something was wrong and heard a faint buzzing sound. She reached a hand out for her watch on the side table and could feel it pulsing, a danger signal. She looked across to Nicholas who was sleeping peacefully but she had to wake him … now.

‘Nick, Nick, wake up,’ she shook him roughly, no time for gentle rousing. ‘Nicholas, please, wake up.’

He looked at her and smiled sleepily, ‘What is it? Is it …’

She interrupted him. ‘Quick, get up, get dressed. There’s an intruder in the house. Hurry.’

She tried to engage her bedside unit but it seemed to be dead, not responding to her input. She picked up her clothes which had been rapidly discarded the night before, grabbed her bag and remotes and said ‘Come on, we have to move.’

‘But aren’t we safe in here?’

She said, ‘I don’t know, probably, but I don’t know for how long and I’ve got no eyes here. It’s been jammed. Something’s jamming us here.’

Nicholas had struggled into his pants by then, grabbed his watch and phone and still half asleep, followed Verity into the bathroom. She took a tiny remote from her bag, one he hadn’t seen before and touched it to a section of the wall. It slid up revealing a tube like the one they’d used before.

‘Where are we going? Up or down?’ She didn’t bother replying just grasped him and the t-bar firmly.

Seconds later they were in front of the shimmering wall he remembered from his last visit here. Another second and they were sealed inside the safe room.

‘Merlin, eyes and ears, all interiors and exteriors, please.’

‘
I see we have intruders, Dr Burne. Hello, Commander.’

Nicholas was still trying to wake up, to come to grips with what was going on as he buttoned his shirt. His bare feet were chilled by the cool smooth floor but looking at Verity who was still clutching her clothes to her and was seemingly oblivious to her nakedness, he realised she was shivering.

As the wall screens came to life with scenes of all the downstairs rooms and the exterior courtyard he said, ‘I think you’d better get dressed, love. It’s a bit chilly in here.’

She looked at him blankly, then down at her self. ‘Damn, I haven’t got time for this.’

‘All the time in the world, I have the situation under control. I have identified the intruders as Orlando Gray and Lara Nash. They obtained access in the company of Marcus Havington.’

Verity, dressed now in jeans and shirt, snarled, ‘Listen this isn’t some blasted Victorian drama … can we just stick to plain language for now, thank you, Merlin.’

She added, ‘And do something about this room, please. My feet are bloody freezing.’

‘Tut tut, language, miss. There, warm floor coming up.’

She suddenly realised what he had said. ‘They’ve got Marcus! Give me a precise run down on what’s happened. And why is Jeannie not responding?’

‘To answer your last question first, Jeannie is, how can I put it, in thrall. Mr Gray has an electronic jammer, quite a handy little device, effective enough to keep her fascinated. It’s actually a variation of his earlier hypnosis device, and quite cleverly done. He would have known Marcus had safe entry to all the houses. Came in through Adelaide’s house. She’s out with her doctor. I may be able to neutralise it … ah, yes, I see, very ingenious.’

‘Just find them and get them up on the screen please. Why can’t we see them yet? They must be downstairs. I want to see what they’re doing.’

One of the screens flicked briefly.

‘Impatient! Yes, there they are. That jammer was a little more effective than I realised, masking their location very nicely. That’s an interesting approach he’s taken, Verity. Might be worth a closer look. Have a look at screen two.’

Figures and diagrams started streaming across and down the screen, too fast for Nicholas to make any sense of even if he had the faintest idea of what it meant. Verity looked for a few seconds then said, ‘Just store it for now. Let’s get this wrapped up first.’

‘I suppose you want some heroics, bit of gung-ho stuff. Confront the villain, force a confession … that sort of thing, eh?’

‘Less of the badinage, Merlin, just get in closer. I want to see what they’ve done to Marcus. The picture’s still fuzzy.’

‘He doesn’t seem to be harmed. They’ve put him on one of the dining chairs, not restrained at all. I think he may be drugged—look at his eyes.’

Nick said, ‘Or hypnotised? We can get them for abduction, kidnapping, undue coercion, maybe illegal drug use. The charges against this pair will take an hour to input.’

She turned to Nicholas who was sitting at her side. ‘I think we can clear up all your backlog tonight.’ Her smile was almost feral now, eyes glowing with excitement.

‘Can I make a call from here?’ he asked. ‘I want to get the house surrounded, sharp-shooters in the gym and on the roof opposite, call up some sky-eyes, give it the works. This bastard’s not getting away. Or her either.’

‘Yes, use that comm,’ she pointed to the console to her left. ‘But first, come here.’ She crooked a finger and when he slid close enough dragged his head down for a deep kiss.

He grinned stupidly. ‘Danger really revs you, doesn’t it. I think I’ll take you sky-diving; that should do amazing things to our …’

‘Never mind our sex life. Just call up the troops. As soon as you’ve done that, what say we get down there and mix it with those bloody murderers. They’ve got Marcus and I want them to pay for that. Personally.’

He turned away to make the call, stressing the urgency of the matter, asking for stealth. His position gave him enough authority to call up whatever reinforcements he deemed necessary, for which he was thankful.

Then he rewound what she’d just said and reacted. ‘Hey, who’s in charge here, miss!’

She gave him a you’re-my-hero look, ‘Why, Commander, you are, of course. Did you bring a weapon with you?’ she said, so innocently.

‘You know bloody well I didn’t. Now you’re going to tell me you have some up here.’

‘Right again. Merlin, unlock the weapons vault please.’

A section of the wall slid away revealing a large chamber, a showcase of weapons, ranging from crossbows to a small rocket launcher, semi-automatic machine guns, rifles, stun guns, laser guns, an old wooden truncheon, an ancient blunderbuss, a possible elephant gun and countless pistols, knives and just about anything else that man found it convenient to kill or damage man with.

‘Christ on a rocket, where did you get this lot!’

‘Marcus, of course. It was his father’s collection and he’s added to it. See, the newest stuff is in that case. Take your pick. I’m taking a dart gun.’

‘Oh, no, you can forget that. This is police work. No way you are going down there. You’ve already been injured once.’

‘And how do you propose to get down there?’ she asked sweetly. ‘I think you’ll find it impossible without me. Won’t he, Merlin?’

‘Oh, no, I’m keeping out of this. Sort it out then get back to me. But I’d suggest you do it quickly. Gray is about to force his way into your study.’

They turned and looked at the screen then and could see a slightly fuzzy picture of Gray shoving Marcus against one of the large abstract screens in the hallway.

‘Can we get audio on this … and why is this image still blurry? Can you stop him from getting in there?’

‘I’m working on it. You’re starting to sound like Adelaide. I’ve just rescinded Marcus’ permit to enter that room, but Gray’s device just might get him in anyway. It’s quite fiendishly clever the more I go into it. Layer after layer of security and coding. What a shame the man is warped. His brain is as good as, well, almost as good as yours, Verity.’

‘We’ve got to get down there, Nick. We can’t wait for your men. Merlin, outside eyes please. All screens active. Any sign of the cavalry yet?’

Nick took in the view from the sky-eyes. Even at two in the morning the traffic was busy, then he noticed the several cars turning into the street, more into the narrow lane at the back of the house. Men jumped out and rapidly set up road blocks, flashing arrows directing traffic away. Audio was on but all he could hear were muted traffic sounds. When one of the cameras zoomed in he could see Fraser and York in body armour. Jacobsen joined them, they conferred, heads together then headed to Amy’s house.

‘Bob is cleared for Amy’s security, Nick. She told me he’s going to move in with her after Christmas. That must be where they’re going. Come on, we’ve got to get down there. Please.’

Nicholas sighed inwardly. He knew damned well he couldn’t get out of here without her and he was buggered if he was going to stand back on this one. ‘Fine. Let’s go.’

‘I promise I’ll be careful. You’ve seen me in action; you know how good I am. I’ve tossed that bastard a few times.’

‘Yes, and doesn’t he hate you for it. I’ve seen the looks he’s given you, while he’s pretending to be a good sport. Gives him more incentive to hurt you now.’

‘Well, you haven’t managed to beat him yet. So how about you take on Nash and I’ll sort out Gray.’

‘How about we get down there and see what happens. Verity, this is serious stuff, a dangerous situation and you’ve only fought on the mats.’

She said, soberly, ‘Nicholas, you are forgetting. I killed that man in the car park.’

‘No, my love, no. You knocked him out, disabled him—Gray killed him.’

‘Even so …’

‘Might I suggest you talk about this later. You are wasting time arguing. Somebody needs to get down there. I can’t completely neutralise that device so you are going to have to take it away from him. He’s heavily armed by the way, a Beretta stunner, a dart gun, a laser scalpel. She’s got a stunner too and a knife.’

Nicholas looked at Verity. ‘I’ll have a word with Fraser then we’ll go. Can I get police frequency on this. Oh, silly question. Thanks, Merlin.’ When Fraser answered he brought him up to date then said, ‘I want everyone to stay in position till I give the word. You can’t get in here so there’s no point in trying, Bob.’

Verity paced up and down impatiently waiting for him to finish. ‘I can get us into the study from here, if you like. Might give us more of an element of surprise.’

Nicholas had given up trying to second guess her, just figured she had escape hatches all over the place but it wouldn’t surprise him if Merlin simply magicked them out of thin air. He thought for a few seconds. ‘If Jeannie is out of action, can we open the study door? Doesn’t she control the house electronics and security?’

‘I’ll take that. Yes, that’s true but locks are easy to override. Just your palm print will open that door from the inside.’

‘Can we split up? One of us in the study, one coming from behind them. I don’t know where all your escape hatches are.’

‘My wormholes,’ she laughed. ‘Unfortunately only space not time.’

As Nicholas looked at her blankly, Merlin started an explanation.

‘Einstein-Rosen bridges, or Schwarzschild wormholes connect areas of space theoretically allowing near instant travel between …’

‘Save it, Einstein. It was a joke. Yes, I have a direct access to the study from here. Merlin, bring up the schematics, please. Let’s see which would be best to use.’

A three-dimensional holo plan of the house appeared in the air between them showing a cylindrical tube hidden in almost every room. Looking at it he realised how … most walls had either built in cupboards or shelving which disguised the extra space needed for the tubes. He pointed to the one in the dining area, which offered concealment until the hallway was reached. The three figures were still in the hall trying to gain entry to the study.

‘If you take that tube,’ he pointed to it, ‘you can come up behind her. She’s got a knife but it’s sheathed. With a bit of luck you can stick the dart gun in her ribs, take her by surprise. Merlin, can you activate the screens in the study down there, give me a look at where they are?’

‘Done. And I’ve re-activated Jeannie, she’s un-thralled, as it were, but I’ve kept her in stealth mode for now, she’ll respond only to the three of us. You know, I could probably find a way to zap that pair, save you the bother.’

‘Where’s the fun in that,’ said Verity, with a gleeful grin. ‘Let’s get going.’

‘Just one thing before we go.’ His turn to crook a finger. She stepped across to him, a question in her eyes. His arms wrapped around her as he said, ‘I love you. Let’s get them,’ then swooped down for a kiss before she could speak.

It was quiet downstairs. As Verity worked her way along the dining room wall towards the hallway she heard Gray.

‘Dammit. It’s one of these screens. One of them opens, which one is it? Come on Marcus, I know you’ve been in there. How do we get in?’

‘I think you’ve taken him too deep—he’s really out of it. And I don’t think stickin’ the gun in his neck is gonna help either.’

‘When I want your bloody opinion I’ll ask for it, which will be never! So shut up.’

Adams could see and hear them from inside the study. He used the sub-vocaliser to contact Verity. ‘He’s put the gun in his waistband and I can’t see a knife in her hand.’