The Number 8 (23 page)

“Don’t worry about that. The company will pay for your journey to Christchurch and accommodation until the day that your flight leaves.”

That’s acceptable
, Dante thought.

“The final thing is that we had to bring up the bungy jumping excursions to, well, now,” he said shrugging.

“But, it’s raining. Do they allow that?”

“No, but it’s set to worsen and there’s only about a two-hour window of decent weather and it’s right now, so we have to go,” he said gesturing for them to follow him.

“I can’t, I have to look this up, it’s important,” Dante said, looking at Asmir.

“Mate, are you kidding me? The computer will still be here in a couple of hours and this chance won’t.” He leant in closer and whispered, “Do you really think anything is going to change in the next two hours?”

Dante didn’t answer. But he allowed himself to be dragged away by Ryan and Asmir.

He should have told Asmir what his predominant thought was, because that may have changed things.

Yes, Az, I think everything could change in the next two hours
.

Chapter 43

There were three major bungy jumps in Queenstown and Dante was headed to the one furthest from town. It was also the least extreme. It was situated on an older bridge over a river. There were two options: get wet or don’t. That meant when you jumped off the bridge the instructors would adjust the bungy cable so that you either touched the water, or stayed above it. It was already raining so Dante decided that he may as well choose the “get wet” option.

Asmir had chosen the much larger and much more expensive option. It was a 134-meter drop and the free fall took about eight and a half seconds, which didn’t seem like a long time, but Dante was sure it would feel like hours. It was situated between two large hills. They were barren except for a small river that was barely visible from the bungy platform.

Most had joined Asmir while only five had decided to join Dante. That didn’t matter to Dante. All it meant was that they had less time to wait and he could get back to verifying his theory. But as it turned out, that is not what happened at all.

After his exhilarating jump and losing his T-shirt as the cord ripped him out of the water forcefully, Dante and the others got on the bus to return to Queenstown. They got on the bus only to be told that the engine was malfunctioning and they had to wait for a repair van to come and sort them out. Dante sat at the back with Annie watching the jumps over and over.

“How were you so calm? You just smiled at the camera and swan dived right off!” Annie said.

“Trust me, I wasn’t calm. But if you really think about it, what would have standing there for an extra twenty, thirty seconds changed? Wasted time, Annie, wasted time,” he repeated.

“I guess, but I was just trying to psyche myself up to go through with it. But, I take your point. I did it after all,” she smiled.

They waited patiently for over an hour. But Dante’s fidgeting had kicked in after just five minutes. He was biting his nails and his leg was going crazy. Somehow, this seemed like it had been planned.

Asmir was back at the hostel now. He was sitting at the computers waiting for Dante. He hadn’t got a text or a call and, with what had happened, he was starting to get worried. Becki was keeping him company as she had all afternoon. He had nearly bailed on the bungy when he had seen how far down it was. From way up there the river looked like the tiniest little sliver dissecting the land. He had been in the first group and so had Becki, which had helped him a great deal. She refused to take her turn before him because she knew that, if she went first, chances are he would have wimped out. When he had finally jumped, the fall had felt like it would never end. His stomach felt like it would burst through the top of his head at any moment and his eyes watered uncontrollably. But he did it and he gave Becki most of the credit.

“It’s no use waiting around here for Dante. You heard Ryan, our tour is over. Let’s go and make the most of the last day here,” Becki pleaded.

“What do you have in mind?” Asmir asked, not really prepared to entertain any idea she was about to propose.

“OK, let’s take the gondola to Bob’s Peak. The views up there are meant to be out of this world. What do you say?”

“Becki, it’s raining right now. There’s nothing to see. And did you say Bob’s Peak? That can’t be the real name. Who would name…”

“It’s barely drizzling and yes, Bob’s Peak. Let’s go!” she said again, grabbing him by the arm and making a beeline for the door.

He wasn’t in the mood for this at all, but he did want to spend as much time with Becki as he could before they left New Zealand, so he let her drag him away.

After another twenty minutes of waiting, the repair truck arrived. Another five minutes later and the repair man had fixed the problem. This told Dante that it was something easily rectifiable and, therefore, something easy to tamper with. But he wasn’t focused on who had done this. All he cared about was getting back to the computer.

The rain had slowed but the wind had picked up. The bus slithered back towards Queenstown. As they entered the town, Dante glanced to his right. He saw the cable cars moving up and down the mountain. They were swaying from side to side.

Dante remembered thinking,
I’m glad I’m not up there right now.

Chapter 44

“This seems like a really bad idea right now, Becki. Look at those things, they’re moving, a lot,” Asmir said, pointing up at the cable cars.

“Oh, live a little Asmir. It’s perfectly safe. Follow me.”

And against his better judgement, he followed her onto the cable car. The doors closed and he immediately sat down. It was cold in the giant plastic box and it smelled like wet dog. The seat was so uncomfortable that he got up almost instantly. He was seconds away from opening the doors manually and getting the hell out of there. But he was too late. The cable car coughed and spluttered to life and they were off. The rain wasn’t the issue any more, it was the wind that was scaring him now. He could hear the high-pitched whistle as they edged closer to the exit. Then, just as they breached the building housing the cable cars, they felt the raw, untamed power of the wind as it struck the side of their car. It swung them a good three meters before finding a rhythm and evening out.

They rode towards Bob’s Peak, trying to enjoy themselves despite the wind. The view really was special. They had a panoramic view of the entire area. He could see their hostel clearly and he could look out across the lake and beyond. The wind had whipped up the waters and it was anything but calm. He couldn’t spot a single boat that had been brave enough to venture out in these torrid conditions.

A small white bus that had just pulled onto the road that was parallel to their hostel caught his eye.

Looks like D’s back
, he thought.

Dante was cold, wet and on a come down from the adrenaline kick the bungy jump had given him. What he really wanted was a hot shower and a cup of hot tea, preferably with a lot of sugar. But, before any of that could happen, he had to scour the internet for any articles that featured both Marco and Viktor. He was sure that they held the key.

Annie had left him to go upstairs and dry off. Sopping wet and getting crazy looks from the others using the computers, he sat himself down in the corner chair. He didn’t want to drip all over the floor, so he began to type furiously, signing on to the hostel’s internet and then typing in Viktor’s full name and what he knew of Marco’s.

The first few websites were dead ends. It seemed there were a lot of people named Viktor Swan, which was strange to Dante. Plus, not having Marco’s surname made everything a lot more complicated. The first couple of pages of Google had nothing. Dante clicked on the third and yet again the top four were not what he was looking for. But the fifth was a newspaper article written fifteen years ago. The moment he clicked on it, he knew he had struck gold.

They were much younger, maybe six or seven, but it was definitely them. Viktor and Marco stood together smiling, with their arms draped over each other wearing matching school uniforms. But they weren’t the only kids in the photo. There was a third little boy. He was a small, pale little boy who was standing with them but was being very much shunned. He was stood at the edge of the duo, almost lurking.

The caption under the photo said, “Jasper Napier was killed last night while following his friends across train tracks near his home.” Dante assumed they meant Viktor and Marco.

The article went on to explain that Viktor and Marco had crossed the tracks just before the train. Jasper had tried to follow them, but had tripped and fallen right in front of it.

At the bottom there was another link to a related article. This one focused on the case. It seemed Jasper’s family were claiming that Viktor and Marco were not Jasper’s friends. Instead, they claimed the boys had bullied him all throughout school and to be accepted by them Jasper would have done anything they asked. The family claimed Viktor and Marco made Jasper wait to the last moment before running out in front of the train. They believed the two boys were responsible for his death.

But, as was often the case, there was no proof. The two boys got away with it and disappeared. Clearly they had taken very different paths after that. Viktor had become a violent, arrogant troublemaker and Marco had gone the other way and thrown himself head first into academic work.

But this article sympathized with the family. Halfway down the article there was a picture of a man being held back by security in the courthouse. His eyes were wide with rage and he was bearing his teeth. It was the father of the victim. But, most worryingly, Dante had seen him before. He had seen him every day of the trip. He was younger in the photo, with more hair and less suntan, but he knew who it was. It was the bus driver, Ben.

Asmir was halfway up to Bob’s Peak now. It was 450 meters from the cable car’s base in Queenstown. The cable car was really swinging, so much so that Asmir was feeling a little bit of motion sickness coming on. He didn’t usually have an issue with movement. He was fine with boats and cars, which told him that this thing was really rocking. Becki on the other hand was perfectly calm and seemingly enjoying herself. She was peering out of the cable car, her arm resting on the window.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she said, unblinking.

“Yeah, wish it wasn’t this windy though…” Asmir said, dulling the mood.

“We’re nearly there,” she smiled.

“Not really, there’s still a while to go to the summit.”

“I’m not talking about the summit.”

Dante was dripping everywhere now. He wanted to call someone and tell them what he knew, but he still had no proof. The article he was reading focused on the bus driver who had vowed to get justice for his son. For ten years he had fought the legal system and tried to get the verdict overturned but failed. But the article also detailed that two weeks after the jury ruled against the family, his wife had taken her own life. So the crime had not only taken his son’s life, but also his wife’s. Dante understood why he had fought so hard.

But five years had gone by since the last news article had been published on the bus driver, whose real name was Simon Napier. He had supposedly disappeared into thin air. But it was now clear to Dante that Simon Napier had been planning this spree. Dante had only spoken to him twice and he had told Dante that he had been driving this route for a few years. To have planned these murders so intricately, knowing where the best places were to kill his targets and make them look like accidents, would have taken years of preparation. It was a genius plan really.

Dante scrolled down, he wanted to see if there was anything else he needed to know. His eyes came to rest on a photograph. It was maybe ten years old. Five years after the trial and five years before Simon Napier went off the grid. It was a picture of his whole family, or what was left of it. His wife was dead by this point, but he had children. He had two daughters. They were around the same age and like their father, they looked distraught.

Dante had had an inkling about the bus driver. Finding out it was him merely confirmed his theory. But this picture changed everything. His body was not ready for it. His palms started to sweat, his heartbeat went through the roof and his first instinct was to reach for his phone.

Annie and Becki were Simon Napier’s daughters.

Chapter 45

“What do you mean?” Asmir asked her, “We’re going to the summit. Right?”

“I am, but you’re not,” Becki said, turning to face him, her face entirely changed now.

“Where the hell am I going then?” Asmir asked, a little frightened now.

“Oh. You are so naive…” she laughed before pulling the emergency stop lever.

The cable car squeaked to halt, flinging Asmir to the floor. The car trembled and swung on the cord, but Becki remained standing having braced herself early.

“What…what the hell?!” Asmir spluttered, his mouth filled with blood from the fall.

“Ah, damn, I was hoping this would go down without you bleeding. Are you happy? I’m going to have to clean that up now,” she said calmly, pointing at the droplets of Asmir’s blood on the floor of the cable car.

He looked at her, stunned into silence.

“This is a shame really, I started to enjoy your company. This was meant to have been ended a while ago, but my sister…”

“At the lodge…you wanted me to get swept down the river.”

“That was the plan, but big sis had to get in the way. She wanted to do it right, she wanted it to happen here.”

“Sis…Sister?” Asmir gasped.

“Oh, that’s what you’re surprised about? Funny, I thought you’d be more interested in why you’re about to die, but hey, I’ll indulge you. Yes, Annie is my sister.”

She grabbed what looked like a crowbar out of her handbag and began to pry open the doors to the cable car.

“What the hell are you doing?” Asmir blurted out.

“Oh this? Don’t you worry, it’ll be over soon,” she said flapping her free hand at him.