Fatal Connection (10 page)

‘If they had a swim as well, they could’ve been doubly poisoned. Eating dodgy fish
and
skin absorption.’

‘If they drank the water, maybe they copped it three times over.’

The detectives continued around the crag until Lexi stopped and jerked her thumb towards the rock face. ‘This’ll do. Look. It’s not so high and there’s a good few toeholds. Like a training wall. Are you up for it?’

‘If you are.’

‘As easy as walking up steps. Come on.’ Surveying the rock, she said, ‘I’ll go first. Watch where I put my hands and feet, and just do what I do.’

Agile and confident, Lexi began to scale the crag as if she had Velcro on her hands and feet.

Determined not to disappoint his partner, Troy pretended to be equally confident. He dragged himself up by his fingers while his toes scrabbled for purchase. His knees scraped against the unforgiving surface. He had the stomach-churning feeling that he was about to fall backwards and land in an embarrassing and untidy heap on the ground. But he tried not to show his unease.

From above, Lexi called, ‘Slow but sure’s okay.’

‘More slow than sure,’ Troy muttered as he went
up another few centimetres. The weight of the rucksack on his back was slight but it still added to his sense of unbalance.

Already at the top, Lexi lay down and peered over the edge. ‘Left hand up a bit more and to the right. There’s a good grip.’

‘This is the only time I’ve wished I was a spider.’

‘Barbequed, you’d make a good meal.’

Feeling the strain in his shoulders and knees, Troy heaved himself higher.

‘I’ll be able to give you a hand in a minute,’ Lexi said.

To hide his discomfort, he carried on talking between breaths. ‘I hope this is worth it. I hope there are some suspects up there for me to question.’

Lexi looked around. ‘No, but it’s a nice place for a refreshing dip.’

‘I’ve just had a thought,’ Troy said, climbing within range of Lexi’s dangling left arm.

‘Yeah?’

‘How are we going to get down?’

‘The same way – but it’s harder going down. Much, much harder.’

‘Oh good.’

With his partner’s hand gripping his right wrist firmly, Troy felt supported. He soon covered the final
part and scrambled up onto the lip of the rock, joining Lexi.

There was an inviting pool of water, ideal for private swimming. Its surface wasn’t a perfect mirror, though. At one side, water cascaded down the cliff and sent small ripples across the secluded pond. At the other side, the overflow spilled out. The reflection of the sky and cliff-face quivered.

Wearing gloves, Lexi took a sample of the water. ‘I wish I could analyse all this stuff here and now, but I need a lab.’

To their left was one of the numerous caves in the scarred cliff. A little water dribbled out of it too. With care, they could get to it.

Noticing that Troy was eyeing the cave, Lexi said, ‘I’ve got a torch. Fancy exploring?’

‘Now we’re here, we might as well take a look.’

Lexi bagged the water sample and, at the same time, extracted a powerful, handheld torch from her backpack. They had to walk very close to the edge of the rock to access the cave. It was a narrow passage between the vertical drop on one side and the pool on the other.

When they reached the mouth of the cave, Lexi turned on the torch.

Troy paused. He would not be able to go in
without trampling through running water. ‘Time to get my kit on, I think.’ Quickly, he slipped into the protective overalls from his rucksack. Then, together, they entered the cave, soon leaving the reassuring sunlight. The sound of running and dripping water echoed all around. Centimetres above their heads, the roof seemed to press down on them.

‘Spooky,’ Troy whispered. Uncannily, the word rebounded off the walls and came back to him.

‘Exciting,’ Lexi replied.

The light beam picked out seeping water, slime and glistening rock formations. To someone like Keaton Hathaway, the place would have been a wonderland.

As they walked forward, Lexi fanned the spotlight from side to side.

‘What’s that smell?’ said Troy, crinkling his nose.

‘Bats, I think,’ Lexi answered. ‘You’re getting a whiff of their toileting arrangements – which are short on etiquette and hygiene.’

‘It’s north of disgusting.’

‘Yeah. But, to be fair, if they were awake, they’d probably think we were revolting as well.’

She came to an abrupt halt as the torch illuminated something unnatural.

It was a small collection of tools. Immediately, Lexi
went over to the spot and peered at it without touching anything. A pickaxe, two sieves, a drill, three hammers, two cold chisels, several buckets, various containers, a couple of spades and two grimy hard-hats. At the bottom of two of the buckets, something metallic gleamed like silver – or mercury.

Lexi took several photographs of the hoard and each time a blinding flash illuminated the cave for a split-second.

‘I want all this stuff in the lab,’ she said. ‘Especially the hard-hats. But …’ She looked at the bulk of the mining equipment against the size of her backpack. ‘No chance. I’ll need a return visit.’

‘I don’t think anyone climbed up here with this lot on their backs,’ Troy said.

‘It’s not impossible,’ Lexi replied, ‘but I take your point.’

Troy couldn’t see very far into the dark cavern, but he said, ‘Maybe there’s another way out – and in.’

‘Huh. This isn’t Shepford central zone, you know.’ She flashed the torch beam down the cave to the point where it veered upwards and to the right. ‘No obvious doors.’

Troy smiled. ‘You never know. Maybe there’s a lift around the corner.’

Lexi laughed. ‘All right. Let’s go and see.’

The cave was about three paces wide and, as they wandered down its length, it seemed to get narrower. Maybe it was an optical illusion. Maybe claustrophobia was making them feel hemmed in.

Troy shuddered with the cold, the dark and the damp. ‘I’m glad I don’t work down a mine,’ he said. ‘It’s …’

‘Unsettling?’

He shrugged. ‘Weird. Natural, but it feels unnatural to be here. Like we’re invading someone else’s world. Maybe it belongs to bats, not people.’

‘Talking of bats …’ Lexi said.

‘What?’

‘The smell’s not so yucky.’

Troy nodded.

The air was fresher and their voices did not echo so much.

They carried on, aware of a slight draught and a faint, eerie glow ahead. Around the next curve, the torchlight caught a dangling rope coming from a shaft above their heads.

‘Hey presto,’ Lexi said. ‘Not a lift, but nearly.’

Troy groaned. ‘We don’t have to climb all the way up a rope, do we? The rock’s a Sunday stroll in comparison.’

Squinting at the sunlight a long way above them,
Lexi replied, ‘No, I don’t think so. There’s something up there. A big basket maybe.’ She pulled on the rope and the object at the top of the shaft began to descend. ‘Ah. Our lift’s on its way. In fact, you carry on pulling and I’ll go back for those tools. At least some of them.’

Leaving Troy in the circle of daylight, Lexi dashed back to the mining equipment. She made two trips, holding as much as she could, before Troy lowered the basket to the floor of the cave. It had a crude door and space for two people. A little spare room was enough for Lexi’s evidence of illegal mining.

‘I think we stand in the basket and haul ourselves up on this other rope,’ said Troy.

‘Looks like it,’ Lexi replied. ‘There must be a pulley at the top. Hope you’re feeling strong.’

Actually, they heaved on the rope together and the basket rose slowly and unsteadily, lurching drunkenly towards the sunshine.

Between deep breaths, Lexi said, ‘You know what I think?’

‘No.’

‘Not perceptive enough, then.’

‘What?’ Troy asked.

‘If this thing hadn’t been used for years, it wouldn’t be this smooth.’

The sunlight was getting brighter, burning their eyes.

‘This is smooth?’ Troy said with a smile.

‘Just think what it’d be like if it hadn’t moved in sixty years or more.’

‘That figures.’

The basket clunked against the winch and came to a sudden halt, before it emerged from the pothole. In front of them, though, were a few rough steps cut into the rock, leading up to the grassy top of the cliff. They pulled back the door of the cage, mounted the steps and found themselves on Loose End Edge.

To the north, they could see the sea. To the south were the Ethyl Products buildings. A few paces away from the vertical entrance to the mine, they could hardly see it. The winch barely showed above ground level.

Both of them pulled on latex gloves. Then Lexi went back down to the basket and handed the mining gear, one piece at a time, up to Troy. He laid them on the grass. Lexi had already placed the two helmets in evidence bags in case any strands of hair fell out. She did not want to lose vital evidence. She called to him, ‘That’s the lot. Whoever’s been using this pulley might’ve abandoned it after the deaths, but we’ll see.’ She held up a tiny spy camera and
fixed it to the top of the shaft. Then she joined Troy on the exposed cliff.

A few metres away from the hole, there was a rough track. It went along Loose End Edge and back towards Ethyl Products. Further along, there appeared to be a long gentle slope downwards, but it wasn’t suitable for a car. Lexi studied the surface of the ground. ‘No tyre impressions. Probably no one’s driven here for a while and the weather’s got rid of any evidence.’ She called Tight End Crime Central and requested an off-road vehicle to collect the buckets, hard-hats and the rest of her precious hoard.

Troy removed his protective clothing and packed it away.

Arms aching and hair buffeted by the wind, they both sat down on the grass and waited.

Crime Central’s computer did not recognize the track as a road, so an automatic vehicle could not be programmed to pick up the two detectives from Loose End Edge. Instead, a driver from Tight End picked them up in a manual four-by-four. Troy smiled to himself as they bumped along the track.

‘What are you grinning about?’ Lexi asked him.

‘You. You’ll be north of happy now.’ He nodded towards the rear of the jeep where the mining tools were stowed. ‘You’ll be able to fill a spreadsheet five times over with all that.’

‘Yeah. Lots of lovely data. Is the shiny stuff at the bottom of the buckets a residue of mercury? DNA in the hard-hats. Skin or hair? When and where were they bought – and who bought them? Are there any fingerprints or were they only handled by outers? And that’s just the start.’

‘Busy day ahead.’

‘And night,’ Lexi added.

‘You’ll be a mine of information.’

Lexi groaned. ‘I’ll have some of the answers by morning. Not all.’

Troy shook his head. He felt guilty for attempting a joke one day after his father’s funeral.

‘Two people over to the right,’ the driver announced. ‘Do you want to stop?’

‘Yes,’ both of the detectives said at the same time.

Lexi was out of the door even before the four-by-four had fully stopped. As usual, her ability to sprint gave her the lead. With a major’s superior stamina and strength, Troy would catch up only when she began to tire.

Lexi shouted, ‘Stop! Detectives!’

Ahead, two girls took no notice and kept running along the edge.

Troy guessed that they were majors because Lexi was closing fast. He stumbled slightly over a rock but stayed on his feet, following his partner.

Just as Lexi reached them, one of the girls screamed and, as far as Troy could see, simply disappeared. The second girl came to a halt and Lexi dived to the ground.

Putting on a burst of speed, Troy charged towards them, guessing that the first girl had fallen down a mineshaft or a pothole. When he got there, she was dangling from the lip. The fingers of her left hand were clutching the rock but slowly slipping. Lexi was holding her right hand, but didn’t have the strength or the grip to save her. The girl was panicking, kicking out uselessly with her legs. Still screaming.

Troy bent down and grasped her left wrist with both of his hands. He nodded at Lexi and together they hauled her out of the hole. They dragged her away from danger and then lowered her arms so she was sprawled on the grass, still in shock. Then they waited for the terror to subside.

The driver carefully steered the jeep, positioning it between the two girls and their escape route.

The girls shared a distinct likeness. The younger one, probably about thirteen, stood motionless and seemed almost as petrified as the girl who had fallen. She was a year or two older.

Troy plonked himself down next to her and touched her shoulder. ‘You’re safe. Thanks to Detective Lexi Iona Four.’

‘And you,’ she mumbled.

‘What’s your name? Both of you.’

‘I’m Shea Pickup and that’s my sister, Ursula.’

‘You’re majors?’

‘Yes.’

‘What are you doing here?’ Troy asked.

Shea swallowed before answering. ‘I … er … had a history lesson. The teacher told us they used to dig for gold here.’

‘So, you bunked off school and came to see for yourself?’

‘Yes.’

Troy looked up at Ursula, catching a brief expression of uncertainty on her face. ‘With your sister?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did you find any?’

‘No.’

‘Nor me. But you’ve convinced me you don’t know where the mines are.’

‘How?’

‘By falling down one of them.’

Shea refused to smile. She had been thoroughly
shaken by her ordeal. After all, she had been a few fingertips from death.

‘Why did you run?’

‘There’s a
Keep Out
sign. Dangerous cliffs or something. We thought we might be in trouble.’

‘That fits.’ Troy gazed across the green valley for a few moments, thinking. Then he extracted a bar of chocolate from his pocket. He popped a chunk into his mouth and offered the bar to Ursula and Shea. Ursula refused but Shea took a piece. She did it automatically. Instead of eating it, she simply fiddled with it in her hand. ‘Do me a favour, all right?’ Troy said to her.

‘What?’

‘Don’t come back. Seriously. It’s not safe. You’ve found that out. And it might be even more dangerous for majors than it looks. I don’t want any more people getting hurt. Okay?’

‘Okay.’

Troy glanced up at Ursula. ‘And you?’

Avoiding eye contact, she nodded.

‘Did either of you see anyone else?’

‘No. It’s a bit freaky up here. All alone.’

‘What’s your teacher’s name? And which school is it?’

‘Er … Mr Oates. Tight End High.’ Shea hung her
head and muttered, ‘You won’t tell our parents, will you?’

‘That depends.’

‘On what?’

‘A couple of things,’ Troy said. ‘First, you stay away from here.’

‘What else?’

‘I’d prefer not to have to go and ask your history teacher about his lesson. I don’t want to waste my time – or his. So, why don’t you tell me what really brought you here? If you tell me the truth, I might not have to talk to your parents.’

‘Would you really go to see Mr Oates?’

Troy jerked his head towards his partner. ‘Lexi’s known for being thorough and methodical. She’d insist.’

Head bowed, eyes fixed on the piece of chocolate, Shea seemed surprised to see it in her hand. On auto-pilot, she put it in her mouth and sighed.

‘Tell him,’ Ursula said. Her voice was so hushed that the wind nearly took it away.

‘I don’t want to get … anybody into trouble.’

‘If they haven’t done anything against the law,’ Troy said, ‘you won’t.’

Shea wiped her forehead. ‘I’ve got a friend – an outer – and she gets all sorts of bling. You know.
Jewellery. She asked me if I wanted … but we don’t have that sort of money.’

Troy needed to know the name of her friend, but he didn’t ask. He didn’t disrupt her flow.

Shea manoeuvred the chocolate to her left cheek and continued. ‘I was … curious. So I followed her. This was days ago. Not today. She was carrying quite a big bag. Made me … even more curious. She came here. Straight past the danger sign. She met someone. A man. Quite tall with white hair. Maybe he was old. I don’t know. I couldn’t see. They went off along the ridge.’

‘And what did you do?’

‘I turned back. They’d have seen me if I’d carried on. I did a bit of online research and found out about the gold. It made sense.’

‘Then, this afternoon, you got Ursula to come with you and take a look around.’

She sighed again. ‘Yes.’

‘And you found nothing.’

She nodded.

‘What’s her name? This outer girl.’

The two sisters exchanged a glance. Shea swished chocolate around her mouth without thinking or enjoying it. Ursula whispered, ‘Zoe Olivia Three.’

‘All right,’ Troy said. ‘I think we’ll leave it at that.
I hope I don’t have to talk to you again. Or your family. But if there’s anything you haven’t told me …’ He left the threat hanging in the air.

Both girls shook their heads.

‘And don’t go near Zoe Olivia Three. Don’t contact her. If you did, it’d be perverting the course of justice and that means more than talking to your parents. It means a prison sentence.’

Troy looked into the sisters’ faces. They were both suitably sheepish. ‘Okay. Let’s get in the car. We’ll give you a lift – and make sure you’re well away from here.’