by Meg Buchanan
It takes Ela a while to get out of the Eco. I guess she’s deciding whether it’s me in the Land Rover or if she should be taking off. She’s in that cloak she was wearing when she arrived this afternoon. She pushes the hood back. Hair tumbles everywhere.
“Are you all right?” Nice of me. I have my moments.
Ela nods then waves at the house. “I know I shut the door and locked it.”
“Have you just come back?”
Ela nods again. “I waited with Jacob until the EvacHover arrived then drove to the hospital.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t hear anything until after they hurt Jacob and I heard him call out,” she said, still hugging that cloak. “I got up and someone rushed past me and took off out the back.”
“Where did he go?”
“He ran outside. I heard a vehicle go down the drive away from the house.”
“Did you see who it was?”
She shakes her head. “No.” She turns around and looks at the house. The cloak swings with her. Raindrops soak into it. “I don’t think anyone’s in there now. I haven’t seen or heard anything since I arrived. But I know I shut the door when I left. Someone has to have been here while I was away.”
Then I remember I didn’t link my Com to hers.
“How did you get my link?” I ask.
“Jacob gave it to me after you left. I didn’t know who to call, and you’re the only person I could think off, and Jacob said to get you to help me.”
“That’s okay,” I say because she sounds like she’s apologising, worried she did the wrong thing. I stand there in the rain trying to decide what to do. There’s no sign of movement inside. “We have two choices, call the police, or go inside now and see if there’s a problem.” Ela nods then waits in the rain getting wet, watching me. She doesn’t say anything, just stands there holding the front of her cloak together like she’s cold. My decision then. I look back at the house.
Ela’s Eco has been lighting it up for a fair while, so we won’t be sneaking up on anyone. “We should go in and look round,” I say in the end.
Ela nods, a bit hesitant. I get my rifle out just to be on the safe side. We go up the steps trying not to make any noise. The key is in the lock.
“I hid it under the chair after I locked the door,” says Ela.
“Whoever got in must have been watching.” She nods again and bites her lip. I reach past the door frame. Turn the light on in the passageway. There is blood on the carpet. My heart starts yammering.
“It’s Jacob’s blood,” whispers Ela, when she sees me stop. “That’s where he was knocked over. The cut above his eye was bleeding.”
“Right.” I keep going. I walk down the hallway carefully pushing open the door of each bedroom and turn the lights on. Ela follows me. The first two bedrooms look the way they should. Neither of the beds are made, but I figure Jacob and Ela were in a hurry when they left. The bed in the third room is pulled apart.
I look a question at Ela.
“I took the blanket to keep Jacob warm while we were waiting for the Evac,” she says quietly.
I nod, and we move on. I push open the door to the dining room. Reach in and hit the light switch. Light floods the space. The room is a disaster. Everything about it is wrong. It looks like it has been put inside a giant concrete mixer, churned and then tipped out. The table is turned over and lying on its side, the china and glasses from the dresser are all over the floor and broken to bits, the cushions on the chairs have been slashed, and the curtains and curtain rods pulled down.
“It’s all ripped apart.” Ela sounds shocked.
“Yeah.” We go through to the lounge and it is just as bad. The couch is shattered. The bookcase tipped over. The books scattered on the floor. The TV screen has been hit by something and is lying there on its back like a black sheet of glass with a huge insect sitting in the middle. Even Jacob’s old computer is on the floor in pieces. Senseless. Everything is here, but it has all been smashed. It even smells of destruction. I connect with Fitzgerald. I have to use my Com. Jacob’s phone has been ripped off the wall and destroyed. It looks like a chair leg was used to smash it.
Ela bends down. Her cloak puddles on the floor. She picks up the mug Jacob had his tea in.
“You might be destroying evidence,” I say.
“I guess so.” She puts it down again.
The police car comes down the drive. Fitzgerald climbs out of the driver’s side. The house is lit up like a Christmas tree and me and Ela are standing in the driveway.
“What’s happened?” Fitzgerald asks, looking at Ela.
“I found the door open, and I know I locked it before I left,” she says.
“Isn’t Jacob home?” asks Fitzgerald.
“He fell and hurt his hip. He’s in hospital. I’ve just come back from there.”
Ela sounds a bit shaky.
Fitzgerald turns to me. “What do you know about this?”
“There was an intruder. He hit Jacob and Ela saw him leave.” I turn to Ela. “That’s right, isn’t it?”
Ela nods.
“Why didn’t you call us when it happened?”
“I was too busy waiting for the Evac,” says Ela.
“Did you recognise him?”
“No, it was dark.”
“Have you been inside?”
Ela nods. “Someone has destroyed the kitchen, lounge and dining room. It’s all a mess. Everything’s broken.”
“Has anyone touched anything?”
“We opened the doors and turned on the lights,” says Ela quietly.
Fitzgerald walks towards the front door. “There doesn’t seem to be any signs of forced entry.” He’s gazing at the lock.
“No, the key was in the lock when I arrived,” says Ela. “Jacob keeps it hidden under the chair.”
Fitzgerald rolls his eyes. “I guess that saved his door frame. Okay, let’s go in and see.” In the dining room, he slips his pen through the handle of the broken mug. “If anything is going to have fingerprints, it will be this. It looks like someone threw it across the floor.”
“How do you know if you’ve got the owner’s fingerprints or the fingerprints of the person who did this?” I hear Ela ask quietly, not mentioning she picked up the mug I notice. I’m a bit curious about what’s going on with her. She isn’t acting like the typical Elite, all confident and throwing her weight around. I can see she’s pretty uncomfortable talking to Fitzgerald. I can’t see why she’d be nervous around the police. She still doesn’t look like the type who’d be into drink driving, smashing stuff, or fighting at parties.
“We try to match them on an electronic data base.” Fitzgerald walks around the house.
“Do we start tidying up?” asks Ela.
“Not yet. Try not to disturb anything. There’s not much I can do here tonight. I’ll send someone in tomorrow. And you shouldn’t stay here on your own.” Fitzgerald says this to Ela and then looks at me.
I take the hint. “It’s all right. I’ll sort it. She can stay at the pub. Mum won’t mind.”
*
After Fitzgerald leaves, Ela is standing in the dining room. She’s looking at the mess. Her hood has fallen back and she’s holding her ponytail with both hands, twisting it around and around.
“Thanks for coming,” she says.
“That’s okay.” I walk back into the kitchen. “I could do with a drink.” I open the fridge, get a bottle of Jacob’s lemonade and find two glasses.
Ela picks up a chair and puts it down on a clear space on the floor. She checks three other chairs, but they all have broken legs. In the corner of the dining room she finds one that still has all its legs intact, but the back is broken off. She puts it facing the first chair. I help her turn the table upright. She isn’t taking a lot of notice of Fitzgerald’s instructions to leave things the way they are. She doesn’t talk. She seems to need something to do.
I find the ice in the freezer. Tip it i
nto the glasses. Fill them up with lemonade and put them on the table. The ice cubes click against the side of the glass, and bubbles form on the edges.
I sit on the chair with the broken back, pick up my glass as Ela sits down opposite. “Cheers.” I raise the glass to her.
“Cheers,” she echoes back and takes a sip.
“Is Jacob badly hurt?” I ask.
“His hip is broken, and he’s got a cut on his head. He won’t be out of hospital until the end of next week.”
“I can keep things going here until he gets back.”
Ela nods. “Yes, Jacob said to ask you to do that.” She takes a sip of the lemonade looking sort of lost.
“It’s been a bad night then,” I say, filling the silence.
Ela nods. “I can’t work out what to do.”
We sit there.
“Did Jacob say anything about what he wants us to do?” I ask.
“He still wants us to go where he wanted us to go yesterday.”
“Okay.” I swirl my glass watching the bubbles.
Ela looks at her Com. “It’s nearly morning.”
I put my glass on the table. “Come on. I’ll take you to the pub.”
*
We go in separate vehicles, Ela in the Eco. No point in leaving something that expensive sitting around. Someone could smash it too. We get to the pub, and I open the back door. I’m carrying Ela’s bag for her.
She follows with her Com and a white box file that looks all smudged with soot. She got a couple of texts while we were at Jacob’s. It looked like she just checked who sent them then deleted them. Then she turned the Com off as if she was too tired and just didn’t want to know. We go up the old timber stairs to the landing and through the lounge to the passageway.
The cat is acting lonely and curls around our legs, almost gets stood on.
As we pass each room, I point. “Laundry, bathroom, toilet, study.”
I come to the bedroom at the end of the passage, walk in and put the bag on the bed.
“Your bedroom. If you want to have a shower, there are towels in the ensuite.” I point to the door.
Ela nods. She’s twisting that ponytail again.
Nothing I can do about that, and I’ve reached the end of my duties. I move on.
“See you in the morning,” I say, and she nods again.
Chapter 5
NEXT MORNING, I see Ela come into the bar. Mum needed me to shift some barrels, so I left Ela a message on the kitchen bench. Said I was going to Jacob’s to check everything was all right, then I’d be in the bar, I’d meet her downstairs at ten.
She was all right last night. More like when she was a kid. Worrying about Jacob, tired and scared. Now she’s back to looking airbrushed like an Elite. She’s in the same type of clothes as yesterday, a real short dress, boots, long blue cloak, makeup, and her hair done.
I guess I can ignore the Elite thing. I can look after her, act like a big brother again for a while. Take her to see Jacob and check what else he wants done.
I see Mum say something to Ela, then walk across to the end of the bar and push open the doors. She stands and yells into the murk and the noise.
“Hey Jack, your date’s here.”
That’s my mum the smartarse. Then she goes back to Ela.
“He’s not my date,” I hear Ela say as I get to the door.
“I know,” says Mum. “Did you have a good sleep?”
“Yes, thank you.” Ela glances around the dingy surroundings, looking a bit uncomfortable. Everything is clean, but there’s a smell of alcohol and old smoke. Maybe I shouldn’t have got her to meet me in the bar. She’s probably never been in one before.
Mum leans on the wooden top. “So, you’re staying with us for a few days.” Ela nods. “How’s Jacob?”
“I called him. He said he’s all right, but he’s very tired. We’re going to see him now.”
“Give him my love.” Mum wanders off to serve a guy at the end of the bar. I go over to Ela. We nod. Ela bites her lip, probably thrown by the date comment too.
I look over at Mum. “Patsy, how about some service here?” I say to get my own back.
She pauses before taking a glass and filling it with ice, crystal clinking. Then water. Not quite what I expected.
I look into the other bar, not at Ela, and see the Willis brothers turn up like they do, breakfast pies in hand. They have their morning routine. It sets them up for the day. Go down to the dairy, get a pie for breakfast, and go to the pub for a beer to wash it down. No two guys with them this time. Nothing to report to Jacob there.
Mum is watching me. “You’ll be careful, won’t you? It’s getting dangerous, and you’re putting yourself right in the middle.”
“Yeah,” I say. “Don’t worry about me. I’m tough.”
She shakes her head. She blames the whole tough thing on Dad. For the first year after he left, I stayed with him in Australia. That was when we were still allowed to travel. It can’t happen now. Anyway, Dad would drag me around the mine sites, and he did a fair bit of drinking and fighting before he met Yvette. Then he cleaned up his act. Mum reckons the first bit rubbed off.
*
“Where are we going?” says Ela when we’re outside.
“Curley’s first. Then visit Jacob. After that if Jacob still wants us to do it we’ll check those drill sites.”
I’m leaning against the Land Rover, arms folded, one boot resting on the bumper. Ela’s Mum’s Eco is sitting there looking all sleek and shiny and out of place like Ela. We’re just about to get in the Land Rover when I see Scott walking towards us.
“Hey, Fraser. Hi, Katie,” he says. He’s small, short and skinny with long hair tied back behind his neck.
I guess from behind Ela would look a bit like Katie though Katie tends to wear a bit more skirt, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in one of those Elite cloaks.
“Hey Scott,” I say. “This is Ela.”
Scott leans against the side of the Land Rover and takes a good long look at Ela. “Where’s Katie?” he asks.
“It didn’t work out.”
“Really?” asks Scott. “I might have to go to the University after all.”
I give a bit of a snort. He’s not Katie’s type even if he thinks he could be.
“This is Scott,” I say to Ela. She gives Scott a little smile.
“Are you Jack’s new girlfriend then?” asks Scott hopefully. I wish he’d shut up. Bloody Scott has two interests: my now ex-girlfriend and motorbikes.
“Just a friend.”
Scott doesn’t shut up. “Might have to get in a fight when I go to University,” he says seriously to Ela. “That’s how you get Katie’s attention, isn’t it?” he asks me.
“Seemed to work.” I change the subject. “Scott was in the same class as me,” I tell Ela. “He’s a mechanic for DoE.” Ela nods and smiles at him again. I get him onto discussing motorbikes.
“What are you riding at the moment?” I ask him.
“A Yamaha ASB.”
“Nice.”
“Yeah, I’m doing a bit of motocross.”
“Me too.”
“What bike have you got?”
“A Kawazaki DFT.”
“I had an ESD.”
We are spouting bits of the alphabet at each other. The motorbike talk takes a while. Ela waits patiently. When Scott is about to leave, he has a thought.
“I’m having a party at the flat Saturday night. Do you want to come?”
“Might do.”
“It should CatchFire.” Scott sort of pauses, waits for me to say something. When I don’t, he says, “I meant it will be good. See you Saturday then, maybe.”
He walks down the street, turns to wave at us. Ela watches him leaving.
“Shall we go in Mum’s car?” she asks when he’s down the street a bit.
“Nope, it’s not a useful vehicle you have there, Miss Hennessey.” I go to the Land Rover, open the driver’s door. I saw her mum�
�s car bounce from rut to rut on the loose metal on Jacob’s driveway. “It won’t get us up to Curley’s house.” I climb in. “I can’t see how it managed Jacob’s drive even.”
“It did all right.” Ela climbs into the Land Rover too, all legs and cloak, shuts the door with a bang. The leather seats are worn through. The cracked piping is probably cutting into her legs through the cloak.
“Does this run on bio gas?” she asks doubtfully and looks at me with those eyes. “It looks too old. It looks like it needs diesel.”
Getting her own back. Fair enough. I’ve just criticised her Mum’s Eco.
“Yeah, Dad switched it over.” The dog gives her shoulder a bit of a sniff.
“That’s Monsanto,” I say. “He’s coming with us.” I check my rifle is in the rack. There’s a sleeping bag and primus on a shelf. Jackets and coats are piled on the floor. Monsanto lies down on the pile, rests his head on his paws. I slam the door, lean my elbow out the window. Then I hear a familiar soft whomp, whomp, whomp and three StealthHovers materialise in front of the pub. They slowly come down and park in the middle of the road.
“Fuck,” I say softly as the wings of the Hovers rise, and VTroopers pour out each side. Silver Vs on the front of the uniforms. Their helmets, boots and long coats are all black. They form a circle around the Hovers lasers held ready.
Three VTroopers go into the dairy across the road.
“What’s happening?” asks Ela, looking over at me, all frightened eyes and dark hair.
“The Department of Eugenics in action.” I’m pretty bitter. The VTroopers come out of the shop escorting Lucinda, Nick’s brother’s girlfriend, her head down, blonde hair hanging over her face. Whatever Fitzgerald and Nick’s dad were planning for Joe and Lucinda, they haven’t moved fast enough. Her hand is on her cheek like she’s been hurt. She’s walking slowly, reluctantly. Her mum runs out behind them screaming and clutches at the arm of one of the VTroopers. He turns and hits her with his gun. She flops to the ground, and Lucinda looks back frightened. The VTroopers push her towards the nearest Hover.
“What’s she done?” Ela asks when the Hovers have gone. Like she thinks this has to be Lucinda’s fault. Typical Elite attitude.