Fatal Connection (9 page)

Tight End Crime Central was housed in the oldest building in the town. Standing outside it, looking at the ancient structure with its warped and weary oak beams, Lexi murmured, ‘It’s …’

‘Full of character?’ Troy suggested.

‘Huh. That’s not what I was going to call it,’ Lexi replied with a grin. ‘Worn out, perhaps. But they tell me their equipment’s okay. Come on.’ She led the way to the entrance.

Inside, it felt like hang-gliding. Or at least like a hang-gliding computer game. Troy and Lexi were
standing in front of a large screen as the moving image swept over the countryside. But they didn’t know if they were soaring over a crime scene or simply experiencing a virtual, exhilarating and unsettling flight over a wilderness.

‘This feels weird,’ said Troy. ‘A white-knuckle ride without white knuckles.’

‘You should do the real thing. Hang-gliding’s breath-taking. The closest you’ll come to being a bird.’

Keeping his eyes on the passing scenery, Troy said, ‘Here’s that wood with the mystery black hole.’

Lexi stopped the onward flight and magnified the image. The large boulders and trees cast shadows and stopped a lot of light penetrating the feature. Even so, Lexi said, ‘It’s a pool. It’s got to be. See? There’s a lighter patch at the top, next to the cliff. That’s where it’s churned up by the waterfall.’

‘That figures.’ Troy paused before adding, ‘And we know Miley stepped on rotting wood and went swimming. Look. There’s no path. To take a dip here, she’d have to go through the trees.’

‘Yeah, but we’re a long way from proving she was here,’ Lexi said, nodding towards the frozen picture. ‘She’d have to scramble over the rocks as well.’

‘Exactly. That’s probably what’d make it attractive. It’d be hidden from anyone in the valley. Not that
there’s likely to be anyone. Anyway, the stone and trees would shield it. We can only see it because we’ve got a bird’s-eye view.’

‘Let’s carry on,’ said Lexi. ‘I want to scan the whole area.’ She set the video in motion again.

The overflowing water from the secret pond ran into a brook. Downstream, some white specks caught Troy’s eye. He cried out, ‘Stop! What’s that?’

‘Not sure.’

‘Like small pieces of paper floating in the water,’ he said.

‘Yeah.’ Lexi zoomed in until the resolution neared its limit and began to blur the image. She shook her head. ‘I can’t make it out.’

‘Nor me, but if I had to guess …’

‘What?’

He studied the image some more and then answered, ‘I don’t know, but they could be dead fish.’

Lexi glanced at her partner and then back at the screen. ‘Could be,’ she stressed. ‘Could be something else.’

‘But if they
are
dead fish, it’d be …’

‘Significant.’

‘North of significant. It’d mean something happened upstream from here. Possibly a poison.
Possibly near that pond.’ He looked at his partner and said, ‘We need to go and see it in the flesh.’

‘Yeah. Tomorrow. When we’ve got daylight.’

‘We can see if there’s any sign of Richard and Alyssa camping somewhere near. Even better if there’s a trace of them fishing in the stream.’

‘And I can hunt wrinkled peaches.’

Troy sighed. ‘I still don’t know how Keaton Hathaway fits into all this.’

‘Perhaps he doesn’t,’ Lexi said. ‘We’re getting ahead of ourselves. I want to finish the film.’

‘Okay.’

At the second bay, even smaller than the one they’d visited earlier, there were a few more of the white specks, but the images still did not have enough definition to identify them.

‘I bet Terabyte would have a higher resolution camera,’ Lexi grumbled. ‘He’d enable us to count the scales on the fish, if that’s what they are.’

Troy smiled.

‘Anyway, that’s that,’ she said. ‘We’ve flown over the whole area.’

‘Methodically.’

‘Yeah.’

Troy gazed at her but did not say a word.

‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.

‘I know what I’m missing now.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Keaton Hathaway. He’s not the type to just buy rocks and minerals. He’ll have collected and logged each one himself. He’s as methodical as you. That’s the important point. Every single one will be in his notebooks.’

‘I think I see where you’re going with this.’

‘Yes. If he collected any in the last couple of weeks, they’ll be missing from his records. They’ll be on the torn-out pages. If we find out which ones they are, they might tell us where he’s been.’

Lexi nodded. ‘Not bad for a major. Some minerals only come from a few specific places. Leave it with me. I need something interesting to do tonight. It’ll take an age but it’ll be easy because all his journals were scanned into here.’ She tapped her life-logger. ‘I’ll check the list of his rock samples against his notes. A process of elimination will tell me if there’s a mismatch.’

‘Good plan.’

Lexi couldn’t wait for a sleepy major to report for duty in the morning. She went to Troy’s hotel and met him in the restaurant. ‘You were wrong,’ she said. ‘Having spent all night with Keaton’s notes, I’ve decided he wasn’t as methodical as me. He’s more. Totally obsessive. I’ve been through all his diaries – going back years. I found lots on all his mineral samples – where he got them and when – except for one.’

Troy put down his glass of pineapple juice. ‘Spit it out.’

‘The gold.’

Troy nodded. ‘He’s not the type to miss one out, so it’s got to be on the missing pages. He got it in the last couple of weeks.’

‘Yeah. Gold.’ Lexi smiled triumphantly. ‘I’ve been doing a bit of research while you’ve been flat out in bed. It used to be extracted by dissolving it in mercury. Not any more because it’s illegal and dangerous.’ She raised her eyebrows.

‘Where did this happen?’

‘Three or four places around the country. But one of them is …’

‘Well?’

‘Are you ready?’

‘Yes.’

‘In the caverns of Loose End.’

‘Ah.’

‘Some of those holes in the hillside are disused gold mines, apparently. My information tells me they haven’t been worked in living memory.’

‘Meaning they haven’t been worked officially?’

Lexi nodded. ‘The mining industry pulled out when they became unprofitable – not enough gold left. It doesn’t rule out someone mopping up the small amount that big business couldn’t be bothered with.’

‘And doing it with mercury?’

‘Illegally, yes. It’s a possibility.’

‘So, to get a chunk of gold for his collection, Keaton Hathaway could have come up here and bumped into a dodgy outfit using mercury.’

She nodded. ‘Maybe he got in their way or threatened to report them.’

‘And, one way or another, he got a fatal dose of their mercury.’

‘It’s more believable than dodgy squirrels,’ she said. ‘So, swallow that fried pig’s blood, grab your crampons and ropes, and we’ll get going.’

Gazing out of the window as the car approached Loose End Sports Centre, Troy snapped an instruction at the on-board computer. ‘Stop here!’

Dutifully, the car pulled off the road and came to a halt.

Puzzled, Lexi said, ‘What’s up?’

Troy pointed to the left. ‘A football pitch.’

Lexi was still bewildered by her partner’s behaviour.

‘So what?’

There wasn’t even a proper game in progress.
Eight players were having a training session: passing, running and shooting.

‘You know what I most want to do right now?’ said Troy.

‘Catch a poisoner?’

‘Apart from that.’

‘No. What?’

‘Kick a ball around – in honour of my dad. It’s something we did a lot when I was little. It’d make me feel better.’

‘You want to play sentimental games when we’re on a case?’

Troy smiled at her. ‘Yes and no. I’d
like
to, but I won’t because that’d hold us up. The idea helps the case, though.’

‘Does it?’

He told the car to resume its program. ‘Miley Quist. She loved her grandma but, like my dad, she passed away. So, what did Miley do? She did something that, according to her dad, made her feel better. She wouldn’t have kicked a ball around. I bet she did something in honour of her free spirit of a grandmother. We know one thing she did was to go swimming. A special swim, I should think. Perhaps one her grandma did when she was young.’

‘Yeah. But what are you getting at?’

‘I think we should send a team to Miley’s grandma’s house. Maybe somewhere inside there’ll be a photo or a map or something about a special swimming place. Maybe that place will be around here. And that’s why Miley stepped on a wrinkled peach.’

Lexi nodded. ‘Okay. You speak in riddles sometimes, but it eventually makes sense. I’ll get onto it.’

Both of them had a backpack. In hers, Lexi had a full forensic kit from Tight End Crime Central. She had also borrowed protective gear for Troy because, as a major, he would be vulnerable to mercury poisoning. She’d put it into her partner’s rucksack. Knowing they could be out in the wilds for some time, they’d packed water and food. Attached to the side of each backpack was a small machete.

Just before the car came to a halt behind Ethyl Products, Lexi checked a message from her colleagues at Tight End. She looked at Troy and said, ‘Good that you’ve brought an overall and gloves.’

‘Why?’

‘The post-mortem on yesterday’s rotting fish. The toxicity people tell me it had far more mercury than was good for it.’

‘Couldn’t that be down to Ethyl Products?’

‘No, or there’d be lots more. Those blackbirds – and seabirds paddling in the bay – would be dead. Anyway, the analysis says the river water’s clean. You could drink it, like the company claimed. The fish must have got poisoned somewhere else, floated out to sea and then the tide dumped it on that beach.’

Troy got out of the car and pointed to the north. ‘Somewhere out there could be our murder weapon.’

‘It could have been an accident. But, either way, you’re the one in danger. You’re the major.’

‘I’ll sidestep any shiny metals.’

‘You can do what you like with the metal, except breathe its vapour. But that won’t be an issue in the open air. Mercury compounds – probably invisible – are what you’ve got to avoid touching or swallowing.’

‘I’ll steer clear of anything invisible,’ Troy said drily.

They set off towards the cliff that marked the eastern edge of the valley, in the direction of the copse and hidden pool. There wasn’t a path so they had to make their own. The journey felt like a cross between walking and wading. Now and again, Lexi checked the coordinates on her life-logger to make sure they were going in the right direction. Coming up to an unruly thicket, she held a machete in her left hand
and pointed with it. ‘I think we need to aim a bit more to the right.’

‘Okay.’

Once they’d hiked and hacked through the bushes and brambles, Troy said, ‘Let’s take a break.’

‘Already? You’re supposed to have more stamina than me.’

‘Not that sort of break,’ Troy replied, reaching for his mobile. ‘If there’s a signal out here, I want to call Horatio Vines.’ He glanced down at his phone. ‘It’s enough.’ When he got through to the man in charge of organizing the Tight End art and craft festivals, he said, ‘I want to ask about the jewellers who come to your fairs. Where do they get their gold from?’

Horatio hesitated. ‘Now that’s easy. They buy it, as you would expect, from legitimate gold dealers.’

‘Is any of it sourced locally?’

Horatio chuckled. ‘I’m not aware that the streets of Tight End are overflowing with gold.’

‘But you are aware that obstructing an investigation by withholding information is an offence?’

‘Yes.’

‘So do you have anything to add about artists getting gold from dodgy sources?’

‘No.’

Troy finished the call and said to his partner, ‘He knows something about black-market gold.’

Surprised, Lexi asked, ‘Did he admit it?’

‘No.’ Troy put his phone away and continued the trek. ‘He said the people who sell stuff at his fairs buy their gold from legitimate dealers. He wouldn’t say that unless he knew there were illegitimate ones. He’d just say “dealers”. So he’s protecting his stallholders who’ve got gold from the back of an unmarked van.’

‘Perceptive,’ Lexi said with a smile.

The grasses, heather and brambles came up to their knees – sometimes up to their waists – and clawed at their legs, making the hike laborious. From time to time, Lexi would stop and examine the plants, looking for damage. ‘No evidence of anyone else coming this way but, after a couple of weeks or so, maybe there wouldn’t be any.’ She glanced around. ‘Anyway, someone could have walked two or three metres to either side and, in this jungle, we wouldn’t spot the signs.’ She pulled a long string of goose-grass away from her trousers where it had gripped like Velcro. Then it clung to her hand and sleeve. She brushed it against a shrub to get rid of it. ‘Horrid stuff.’ She took a drink of water and then said, ‘Let’s keep going. Unless you suddenly decide to make another phone call.’

‘Well …’

Lexi laughed. ‘Who this time?’

‘No. I want to speak to the receptionist at the fish breeding centre in Tight End, but it’d be better to go and see him instead.’

‘Why him?’ She took a swipe at some brambles with her machete.

‘He was wearing a small gold badge.’

‘Him, and how many others?’

‘I know. Maybe it’s nothing, but …’ He glanced at her and added, ‘There’s no harm being thorough and methodical.’

‘Huh.’

But the next call came to Lexi’s phone. One of her colleagues at Shepford said, ‘I think we might have what you wanted. An old booklet on hiking near Loose End – with a map. It was in a drawer at Miley Quist’s grandmother’s place. Someone’s even marked it with a red cross and written
wild swimming
in the margin. I’ll scan it and email you a copy.’

‘Thanks,’ Lexi replied. ‘It’s urgent. Can you send it to my life-logger right now?’

‘It’ll be on its way in five seconds. Literally.’

Lexi nodded at her partner. ‘I think we’re in the right place. Miley Quist’s grandmother had a map of the area. I’ll tell you in a few seconds.’ She
manoeuvred herself so she was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with her partner. That way, they could share the image.

As soon as it was transmitted, they both peered at it, unsure. Lexi zoomed in on the red cross and the comment in the margin.

‘That’s it,’ she said. ‘Look. It’s the same place. It’s that hidden pool under the cliff.’

The old-fashioned sketched map was very different from the drone’s coloured overhead imagery. Scratching his head, Troy replied, ‘Could be.’

‘It was once known for wild swimming.’

‘By Miley’s grandma anyway.’

‘Yeah. If she was the one with the red pen.’

Troy nodded. ‘I bet it was different back then.’ He pointed to the blank space on the map where they had left the car. ‘No factory for one thing.’

‘Maybe this is the same map that Alyssa and Richard had. Anyway, come on,’ Lexi said. ‘We might have our crime scene – at last.’

Troy stepped forward and immediately froze.

A large snake reared up in front of him. It was amber with a brown zigzag along the length of its body. Behind its head was a dark V shape. It let out a loud and long hiss.

‘It’s okay,’ Lexi whispered. ‘It’s an adder.
Poisonous but not very aggressive. Painful but not fatal. Not usually, anyway. And it only strikes when it’s disturbed or alarmed.’

Heart beating fast, Troy stared into the adder’s eyes. ‘And what is it right now?’

‘Good point. Disturbed
and
alarmed. Normally they run away, but this one hasn’t – so you’d better let it be the boss. Back off slowly. If you don’t threaten it, it’ll just slither into the undergrowth. Probably.’

Troy took a slow step backwards and the snake watched him intently.

‘For a snake that’s not aggressive,’ Troy said softly, ‘this one looks mean.’

‘You invaded its personal space. What do you expect?’

He backed away some more.

The adder relaxed, sank to the ground and disappeared into the vegetation.

Troy let out a sigh.

‘Let’s go this way,’ Lexi suggested. ‘Give it a wide berth.’

‘Okay.’

They made a detour around the snake’s territory, not knowing if they were about to invade the space of another. Perhaps one that was even more hostile.

‘That’s the problem with nature,’ Lexi said with a
smile. ‘For every cuddly marmoset, there’s a poisonous snake.’

‘Given the choice, you’d prefer to be a snake handler than a monkey minder.’

‘That’s true,’ she said. ‘I like a challenge.’

They slashed at the scrubland in front of them loudly, hoping that the noise would scare away any more snakes.

They slogged northward for another forty minutes until they reached one of the freshwater brooks fed by a waterfall. They stopped and looked around.

‘You know, I think we’ve come too far,’ Troy said. He pointed upstream. ‘I reckon it’s up there somewhere. In amongst those trees.’

‘Let’s see.’ Checking their coordinates, Lexi nodded. ‘We must have walked past without even noticing it. But we’re not too far out. We’ve just got to go back upstream a bit.’

‘Exactly. It’ll be easier walking beside the water – or paddling through it.’ He nodded towards their boots. ‘Waterproof shoes.’

Lexi shrugged. ‘I’m an outer. I don’t mind. But it might be risky for you. Let’s keep to the rocks on one side or the other. But first …’ She got out her forensic kit and knelt down. ‘I want a sample of the water to test for mercury back at the lab. And DNA to find out
what sort of bacteria it’s got.’ She peered at the apparently clean water in a vial and popped it into an evidence bag. She marked the bag with the exact coordinates of the sample and stored it in her rucksack. Then she stood up.

They set out for the clump of trees at the base of the cliff and – they hoped – the secret, wild-swimming pool.

After five minutes, Troy came to a halt. ‘Look.’

Lexi was already reaching for two more evidence bags and pulling on latex gloves. ‘I’ll collect them.’ She bent down to scoop out the two small fish floating in the stream.

‘From the air,’ Troy said, ‘they could look like pieces of white paper.’

‘Maybe you were right. The thing is, what killed them?’ She held them up by their tails and slid them into transparent bags. ‘I’ll find out. No problem.’ She glanced at Troy and said, ‘For now, though, it means you shouldn’t go in the water. In case it’s mercury.’

‘If it is, it can’t be Ethyl Products’ doing. This is a different river. It doesn’t go past the factory. It comes from the cliff, probably running through one of the caves.’

‘Yeah. Where someone might be scavenging gold by dissolving it in mercury.’

Lexi was about to move on when she hesitated.

‘What?’ Troy prompted.

‘A bit of fishing line and a hook. See?’ She bagged that as well.

‘Catching things here would be risky. Whoever it was didn’t see any sick fish or they wouldn’t have done it.’

‘Maybe they weren’t sick at the time, or at least weren’t showing symptoms.’

Hiking beside the stream was sometimes easy, sometimes an awkward scramble over rocks. Lexi took occasional samples of water and dead fish as they went. Soon, they found themselves under the shade of trees and within the sound of tumbling water. And Lexi had something new to hunt. A mushroom shaped like a wrinkled peach.

She found it after about five minutes. A large branch of an oak had snapped off a long time ago and was slowly rotting on the ground. The fungus was growing on two different parts of the wood. While Lexi took photographs and samples, Troy gazed over her shoulder and said, ‘That’s supposed to look like a crinkly peach? Weird.’

‘Yeah. Not very convincing. But nice in its own way.’

‘More like a pink sponge.’

‘I see what you mean. But more important, it’s
here. Which means Miley Quist might have been here.’

Troy nodded.

‘It’s so distinctive to look at, I don’t really need its DNA – just a photo – but I’ve got some anyway.’

They made their way towards the sound of falling water.

The stream was running over a large rock, about five metres high. They stood at the bottom and looked up. Positioning himself so the water did not splash him, Troy said, ‘It’s a giant overflowing basin. I reckon it’s the wild-swimming pool up top.’

‘Let’s walk around it first. Find the easiest bit to climb.’

Within a few seconds, Troy came to a standstill and smiled. He wasn’t looking at the rock, though. He’d spotted something among the trees. ‘That’s interesting.’

Lexi followed his line of sight to a small heap of charred branches. Nodding, she said, ‘Someone’s been here.’

Troy glanced around. ‘The land’s flat and smooth. Nice spot for camping.’

‘And a fire’s good for cooking.’

‘It fits,’ Troy agreed. ‘Maybe Richard Featherstone and Alyssa Bending stayed here, fished and barbequed their catch. A poisonous picnic.’