Diamond Sky (Diamond Sky Trilogy Book 1) (24 page)

This time the girl did not answer. She just sat on the edge
of her bed weeping.
Emmy
felt bad, but there was
nothing else she could have said. It was the truth; David
Armareth
was a killer. She turned to leave and when she was just at the doorway, the
girl called out to her.

‘I know your name,’ she said. ‘You thought I would never
guess, but I did.’

Emmy
turned her head to look back
before leaving.

‘You know nothing about me.’

She turned back and as her hand touched the door handle she
heard the girl speak again. Only one word was uttered, but it was a word that
the girl should not have known.
Emmy
did not look
back again. She walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. Without
even noticing it, she was crying too.

Chapter 27

The silence could not have lasted more than a couple of
minutes, but to Lucas it seemed like an age. He wanted to break it, but could
not think of what to say.
Emmy
had just lost her
grandfather and now everything she worked towards was also in jeopardy. The
problem was that he really did need to speak to her. With the professor gone,
she was the only one who could possibly figure out what was happening to his
town and help do something about it before it was too late.

As the observatory disappeared from sight in the rear view
mirror, she let out a sigh of relief. He knew just how she felt. When the
professor was in control, it had always been an imposing, yet inspiring place.
It was a seat of great learning and a beacon to scientific progress. Now it was
little more than a fort, a secure prison under control of the military.

‘She knows my name,’ said
Emmy
.

‘Huh?’ replied Lucas.

The pickup truck was passing the field by the billabong.
Despite his own experience of the place being very different to the one
suffered by Ned, Lucas still felt nervous as he scanned the countryside for
signs of the remarkable animals. As such, he was slow to latch onto his
passenger’s attempts to initiate the conversation that he had previously hoped
for.

‘The girl that brought HIM to the
observatory.
What was she called?’

‘Lucy.’

His thoughts were still focused outside of the car. He
wondered if the poison that turned Wally into a killer was the same that made
David
Armareth
kill too. If it had already spread
from the town to the observatory then he may be too late to stop whatever
it
was.

‘Lucy knew my name.’

‘I expect she heard it whilst she was up there. Maybe the
captain told her.’

‘You don’t understand. She knew my
name
. The only
people I have given that information to are you and Charlie. I know for a fact
that he has never spoken to her.’

She fixed him with her sharpest gaze.

‘Are you accusing me of something?’

‘I’m not accusing you. I was just wondering how well you
know this girl. Is it true that she was staying with you at the station?’

‘It’s not like that. Her room at the Fox was burnt to
cinders. She has nowhere else to go. I couldn’t leave her to sleep on the
street.’

She relaxed her stare and looked out of the passenger side
window.

‘You must keep a lot of sensitive information at the
station. Has Val finished computerising your records yet?’

‘She did all of
that months
ago.
Everything is backed up and securely password protected.’

‘And the paper originals?’

‘Obviously, we kept most of the files. Sometimes it is more
convenient to have a hard copy close to hand.’

‘So I take it that my file is still sitting at the back of
an unlocked filing cabinet somewhere.’

‘All sensitive information is kept under lock and key. But
to answer your question – yes, your file is still held on record.’

She shook her head with frustration.

‘Jesus, Lucas, don’t you see what has happened here? This
girl was clearly in cahoots with
Armareth
. She
obviously looked at my file to find out information for him. If you had taken
the stalker warnings more seriously...’

He knew why she had broken off mid sentence. To accuse him
of being lax with data protection at the station was one thing, but even grief
could not make her accuse him of contributing to her grandfather’s death.

‘You have her all wrong, you know,’ he said. ‘Any
relationship she had with
Armareth
was purely out of
sympathy and I doubt very much that he would have talked to her about you.
She’s a good person. She’s recently lost somebody close to her too.’

Emmy
looked at him, but did not
ask the question.

‘Her father died a little over a week ago,’ he continued.
‘She’s grieving too. It’s not right that she is being kept like a prisoner by
that idiot of a soldier. As soon as I get back to my office, I am going to
contact the courts and petition for her release.’

They were now on the outskirts of town and Lucas drove them
down a side road to get to the garage.
Emmy
still did
not know about the other murders and he did not want to burden her with that
knowledge until after they had gotten this visit over with.

The door to the workshop was still open. Lucas got out of
the truck first and walked around to open the other door for
Emmy
.

‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ he asked her.

‘I need to know,’ she replied. ‘If he has been keeping a
photo of me, I think I have that right. Besides, I want to know who this man is
that is supposedly in the picture with me.’

They walked inside together and let their eyes do the
searching, whilst remaining standing in the centre of the room.

‘Do not touch anything without speaking to me first,’ said
Lucas. ‘Those Americans have no jurisdiction down here, but this is still a
crime scene.
My crime scene.’

She nodded, but then completely ignored his request by going
straight over to a cabinet by the office and picking up a framed photograph.

‘Do you ever do as you are told?’ he asked.

‘Not if it’s by a man,’ she replied.

Knowing the futility in trying to argue with her, he simply
followed her over to have a look at the picture for himself.

‘Is this the one?’ he asked.

‘I guess so,’ she replied.

She seemed confused and what little colour had been in her
face, paled further. Lucas took the photo frame from her.

‘This isn’t you.’

‘It is HIM though, isn’t it? I’ve never seen him so young,
but the eyes are unmistakable. How could I not have known about this; why did
Pops not tell me?’

‘I don’t know, but I think this picture does have something
to do with why he was watching you and why he did what he did today. I think
you should go back to the car whilst I check out the rest of this place.’

‘No, whatever is here, it concerns my family and I want to
see it.’

She took back the photograph and entered the office. He
hurried to keep pace with her. He noticed the calendar before she did. The date
was clearly marked in red ink and he thought this could be used as evidence of
pre-meditation in the crime.
Emmy
had still not seen
it and was looking through the track listings on a CD case.

‘I’ve seen enough,’ she said. ‘Will you take me home?’

‘Of course,’ he replied.

Before leaving, he shut all of the doors and put up a closed
notice in the window. They then returned to the truck and he drove them back
the same way they had come. When he was about halfway to the observatory, he
turned onto the dirt track leading to the billabong.

‘What are you doing?’ asked
Emmy
.
‘Why aren’t you taking me home?’

‘There is something I need you to see,’ he told her. ‘Before
your grandfather died, he was helping me with one of my cases. It may even have
something to do with why he was killed.’

***

Bradley found Mike in what was previously the professor’s
study. It was the same room in which he had come across the old man’s body just
hours earlier. The corpse had been removed, but an air of death still pervaded
throughout the room. There was also a faint smell of vomit.

‘Are you alright?’ he asked, whilst remaining standing in
the doorway, not wishing to enter the actual room.

‘Of course, I’m alright,’ his friend replied. ‘Why wouldn’t
I be?’

The captain was sat behind a large oak desk. His arms rested
on the wooden surface of the desk and there was a wastepaper basket down beside
his feet. A smear of fresh vomit was visible around the rim of the bin.

‘I’m just not sure that you should be in here,’ said
Bradley. ‘It is a crime scene, after all and well; it’s also a bit creepy.’

‘Don’t worry, I haven’t touched anything. I was just taking
a look around and I felt like I needed to sit down.’

There was an open file on the desk. He could have been
mistaken, but Bradley did not think it had been left out earlier when he
discovered the body.

‘Maybe it’s best if we leave this place for forensics. Were
you given a time for when the team is going to arrive?’

‘Team?’

‘I assume base is going to send in some people to clean this
mess up. Hell, we aren’t trained to deal with this kind of shit. What did they
say when you called?’

‘I don’t know. What I mean is; they didn’t give an exact
time. I guess they’ll send someone over in the next few days.’

‘Well, I hope it’s sooner rather than later. I cannot wait
to get away from this place. Is there anything you want me to do in the
meantime? I could talk to one of the witnesses.’

‘Speak to the Aboriginal guy. I doubt he saw anything
important. If he has nothing to add to the investigation, you can send him
home. The girl’s situation is a little more complicated, but I’ve decided to
release her into Lucas’s custody.
Emmy
already spoke
to her and she seems clean.’

‘
Emmy
; since when have you trusted
her judgement?’

‘Just do it, lieutenant. And I would also prefer it if you
didn’t disturb me for the rest of the day. I’m still feeling the effects from
that astral journey this morning.’

‘Whatever you say, captain.’

He stepped over the broken remains of the door and as he
left the study he could hear sounds of retching behind him. It was obvious that
Mike was not okay. Everything about the captain suggested that he was far from
his usual self. In fact, to Bradley, it seemed as if his friend and superior
officer had been poisoned.

***

‘This is a joke, isn’t it?’ said
Emmy
.

‘It’s not a joke,’ replied Lucas. ‘You have to believe me
that something is not right with these animals. They possess almost human-like
intelligence.’

She looked at the small kangaroo in front of them as it
grazed on the
spinifex
. It was beautiful, elegant,
but nothing more than it should be. There was nothing strange and unusual about
it that she could see at all.

‘This is really not funny.’

‘Like I said; it’s not a joke. You should have seen what
happened to Ned’s
ute
. They bashed up his car and
drowned his dog. He’s an experienced hunter and did not manage to get off a
single shot. It scared him real bad.’

‘I thought you said that they were
nice
super
kangaroos. You could at least try and make your story consistent.’

‘He threatened them, what were they supposed to do? Besides,
Ned and I are not the only ones. Lucy had an encounter as well; on Saturday
night. It was a good thing too, because if she had been in her room she would
have been burned alive. That was the night of the fire.’

Emmy
remembered that night well.
What the policeman did not realise is that she had been the cause of the fire.
She thought back to the events beforehand. There had been something about the
animals. Their energy had circled the entities in the field in an unnatural
way.

‘Did you say that Lucy was in this field on Saturday night?’

‘Not this one. She was a little closer to town, but the
animals were the same or similar, at least. Whilst they attacked Ned, they
interacted with her in a much more positive way. I found her in the morning and
they were very protective of her. They wouldn’t let me go near until I had put
down my gun.’

She rolled her eyes.

‘I get it now; kangaroos are in favour of tighter gun
control. You don’t have to keep pushing that message. Tell me more about Lucy.
What was she doing in a field in the middle of the night?’

‘I don’t know the ins and outs of it, but basically she used
to spend her summers as a child camping under the stars with her father. She
has brought his ashes on this trip with her and I suppose that she wanted to
have one last camping trip with him.’

‘She took his ashes to the field?’

‘I guess so, but that isn’t important. The kangaroos are
what matters here. I didn’t want to tell you so soon after losing your
grandfather, but there have been other killings today?’

The words pierced straight to her heart. Her immediate
thoughts were that
Armareth
was behind these killings
too. How many more people had he murdered?

‘You remember Walter Coppersmith?’

The name was familiar to her. Pops often joked that a lady
named Coppersmith was the only resident of the town that would outlive him.

‘I’ve heard the family name before. Was he the one
murdered?’

‘No, he was the killer. He shot his wife and a man she had
been having an affair with. He then turned the shotgun on himself. The motive
is clear, but something about the case still does not add up. I think his
behaviour was influenced by some outside force.
The same
thing that has been affecting the wildlife in these parts.
Not just the
roos
, but snakes too and I have a story about a chicken
that you will never believe.’

‘Let me guess; did it cross the road, perchance?’

‘Actually, it vanished.’

She was beginning to lose her patience. Why did he have to
pick this of all days to lose his mind?

‘I’m sure your chicken will turn up. Most probably on
somebody’s plate. One minute it’s a bird, clucking and laying eggs and the next
it’s pie filling. Who knows how this happens? Maybe it’s magic or maybe it’s
just cookery. I don’t really care. Now will you please take me home?’