Three of the other policeman in the room had gone over to the billiard table. Mitchell watched them as they set up the balls and chalked their cues. They had no interest in Yates and himself.
‘I’ve read them,’ said Mitchell. ‘What did you leave out?’
‘Our young lady is now in possession of a good quality hat.’
Mitchell tasted his whisky. The liquid slid across his tongue and down his throat. He savoured the flavour. ‘Is she now? That complicates things, if she knows how to use it.’
Yates laughed. ‘Well, I think she knows you put a hat on your head. And she’s not stupid, kids today know how to bypass their riffies. And that means she can disappear if she doesn’t want us to track her.’
Mitchell looked him in the eye. ‘Any reason to think that she might do that?’
Yates shrugged and drank down the rest of his beer. He wiped the back of his hand across his lips. ‘No, no particular reason. Though I do notice that, despite the safety element, there is an underlying resentment in the general populace towards twenty-four-hour personal monitoring.’
Mitchell reached into his pocket and, without lifting his hand above the level of the table, put something on the seat within reach of Yates. His DS didn’t even glance at it.
‘Is that for me?’
‘You went to see Mrs Lomax, right?’
‘You know I did.’
‘I got into that room, the locked one.’
‘And you decided to bring a shoe. That’s very innovative of you.’
‘Just get it checked out. How long since it was last used and whose DNA is on it.’
‘All right, just going to get a refill.’
Yates went to the bar and he got himself another beer. He watched the billiards game for a short time. Mitchell finished off his whisky. His watch said it was only nine-thirty, but there were always more books to read and it was the best way to fill the time. Yates eventually wandered back and sat down again. This time he moved further in on the bench and pulled the shoe closer. Mitchell got up. ‘I’ll talk to you tomorrow.’
‘Roger that, sir.’
Yates
Yates sat in the booth for a few more minutes and then squeezed the shoe into his coat pocket. He left his half-drunk beer on the table and headed into the foyer. There was a small door into the cupboard under the stairs, and there he sat down in front of the terminal screen. He punched in the code for Ria MacDonald.
There was a pause before it rang at the other end and another twenty seconds passed before the screen cleared. Her hair was slightly dishevelled and she was in her dressing gown. In the background he could see her bed. She only had the one room.
‘Harry.’
‘Ria. You settled in for the night, or do you fancy a drink?’
She put her head on one side and looked at him suspiciously. ‘What do you want, Harry?’
‘I just want a drink with my favourite forensics officer.’
‘Yeah, like I really believe that.’ She pursed her lips for a moment. ‘You know forensics people do talk to each other. We even gossip occasionally.’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘You and one of the witnesses, last night?’
Yates smiled. ‘I just thought there might be more information that I could get out of her, with a more thorough interview.’
Ria laughed. ‘You are a bloody terrible liar,’ she said. ‘Where are you?’
‘Ashburne Hall.’
‘Is your lord and master going to be with us too?’
Yates did not fail to notice that she had agreed to come tacitly. ‘Just you and me. I’m paying.’
‘You certainly are,’ she said, and reached for the off switch.
‘Oh and Ria—’ she paused ‘—bring a large handbag.’
Chapter 10
Chloe
Chloe’s back had been really hurting that morning. She couldn’t lie on it anymore. The lumps continued to grow. It wouldn’t be long before it would be impossible to hide them underneath her clothes. At this rate it might only be a couple of days.
She understood now why she was so hungry all the time.
For a time, she wasn’t even sure how long, she just stared at the clock. Not seeing it. It was all so unreal. The thoughts kept circling in her mind. The way she was changing meant she was a freak, but if she was a freak why had the hospital let her out?
If she had been infected by the freak when they tried to abduct her, then perhaps it wouldn’t have shown up—the infection took time to get established. It had been less than 24 hours and she knew it took weeks or months.
But her changes had been going on much longer. The first time she had noticed herself being particularly hungry had been weeks ago. And in that case an S.I.D infection should have shown up easily and they would not have let her out. But that also meant she would have had to have been exposed a long time ago and she couldn’t think of any situation where it might have happened.
But they might have let her go if the Purity told them to. Somebody had tried to grab her twice, the way they had taken Melinda. It wasn’t random. So the Purity, and the police, wanted to catch the kidnappers and had let her go so she could be bait. But that meant they were risking everyone else with her infection.
Would they do that?
And that brought her back to the fact that she had been declared free of infection in every recent test. Despite the obvious.
Eventually she had come to her senses and got herself moving again, but it was hard. She had eaten breakfast in silence with just her mother there, and she was still starving when she’d finished.
Her parents hadn’t commented on what had happened last night. Chloe wasn’t even sure they knew she had been involved in the events at the chip shop. Nobody had come to interview her, but they must have known because of her riffy. Bait. That’s all she was, just bait. What was in the news was that a man had threatened customers in the chip shop, and that he had been shot dead. Chloe could read between the lines: he had come for her but screwed up. He got himself arrested and perhaps someone had shut him up before he revealed anything. She shook her head. It was just like being in some kind of TV show.
‘Seriously, I just can’t believe it,’ said Ashley, as they passed through the gates and headed up towards the school between the trees that flanked the road.
‘Can’t believe what?’ said Chloe.
Only the most stubborn leaves still clung to the trees. The ground was carpeted in brown mush.
‘I can’t believe they’re letting you walk to school.’ Chloe was amused by Ashley’s outrage. She was probably more concerned about herself. ‘I mean, it’s like they don’t care if the kidnappers try again.’
Kavi, on Chloe’s right, leaned forward to look at Ashley on the other side. ‘Don’t you get it?’
‘Get what? The fact that they don’t care?’
Kavi glanced up at Chloe; she shrugged.
‘Chloe’s bait.’
It took Ashley a noticeable amount of time to get it, and then she came to a stop. ‘You’re not serious?’
There was less catcalling and name-calling from the other students this time. Perhaps they were remembering how dangerous Chloe could be after the discussions in the Purity lesson. Or maybe she just wasn’t interesting enough anymore.
‘It makes sense, Ash,’ said Chloe. ‘They want to find the other girls, now maybe these people are after me and maybe they’re not—’ as if ‘—but if they are, the police want to be able to catch them. Maybe catch them in the act.’
‘Yeah, but you could get hurt.’
‘That’s already happened,’ said Chloe with a laugh. ‘They’re keeping an eye on me. When the other girls disappeared it took a while to notice. But they’ll be tracking me all the time, so they’ll be on the scene with drones and all sorts. Their priority is to find the other girls. I’m okay with that.’ Chloe headed up the steps into the school. Ashley and Kavi started after her, hurrying to catc
h up.
‘You’re okay with it?’ said Ashley.
‘Oh yes. I’m sort of hoping they succeed, because if they take me to where Mel is, I’ll pull that place apart.’ She knew her words were just bravado, but it shut Ashley up. At least for a while.
The morning lessons dragged. Finally the lunch bell went and the three of them slipped out to their bench beside the forlorn-looking trees. There were a couple of evergreens among them but their dark foliage didn’t make the area any more cheerful.
Chloe sat down gingerly. The back of the bench didn’t reach up high enough to touch the lumps in her back, but the whole area was tender. Chloe got her lunch out of her bag and looked at the meagre sandwiches plus an apple from the garden; unfortunately it hadn’t been a very good crop this year and the apples were tasteless.
Chloe could hear small animals moving beneath the leaves behind them: a hedgehog, a squirrel, and a couple of birds. Her stomach rumbled just thinking about eating them. She shook her head and focused on the sandwiches. As long as she didn’t start eating people. She was happy to note that, despite her hunger, her friends didn’t register as food. Although Ash’s lunch did.
‘Still hurting, Chloe?’ said Kavi.
‘It’s just backache.’
Chloe noticed a movement and turned. Ashley was sitting there holding out her lunch. Chloe had to resist the temptation to simply grab it all. ‘What?’ She made a point of starting in on her own sandwiches.
‘Just take it, Chloe,’ said Ashley. On her other side, Kavi had her lunchbox open and was offering the contents to Chloe.
‘You need this more than we do.’
Chloe opened her mouth to argue, then changed her mind and stuffed the sandwich into it. She swallowed it hard and fast. She grabbed the boxes from her friends. She didn’t mean to snatch but that’s what she did and they didn’t complain. Chloe emptied the contents into her own box and handed the empties back. She gulped it down as fast as she could.
Her friends didn’t watch her eating. Ashley stood up and took a step away. She kept her eye on the path towards the school. Kavi watched the other direction, towards the back exit. Almost as if she was expecting Mel to come walking back.
For five minutes Chloe focused only on the food. She had a bottle of water and used it to wash the food down faster. Mouthful after mouthful.
She finally settled back and realised what she had done. ‘Oh God, I’m really sorry.’
‘Was it nice?’ said Ashley, holding her empty lunchbox almost accusatively.
‘Look, Chloe, we figured it out you know,’ said Kavi. ‘You’ve been like this for weeks, and you’re getting worse. We think the kidnappers are trying to get you because of what’s happening...’ Kavi’s voice trailed off. Her hands were shaking. And Chloe realised she was going through the same thing she had for her family. ‘You should have told us, Chloe.’
‘I didn’t know.’ They deserved more. ‘I only realised myself this week.’
The three of them were silent for a while. When Ashley finally sat down again, Chloe did not fail to notice she sat so close their knees were touching. It almost brought tears to her eyes.
‘I wouldn’t mind if you didn’t want to be around me,’ she said.
‘You really are stupid,’ said Ashley. ‘We’ve been through this before. You haven’t. We know what’s going to happen to us when they decide to admit—I mean, you were willing to be our friend despite everything. We owe you.’
‘What about you?’ said Chloe turning to Kavi. ‘You okay with this?’ Kavi reached out and took Chloe’s hand in hers. Touching bare skin to bare skin. Ashley noticed and grabbed Chloe’s other hand. Chloe felt like she was going to cry.
‘Don’t you dare start,’ said Ashley. ‘If you start we’ll all end up doing it. And that would just be stupid.’
Kavi shifted a little. ‘Does anybody else know?’
‘Miss Kepple knows.’
‘Fucking hell,’ said Ashley. ‘And she hasn’t reported you?’
‘Not really a surprise,’ said Kavi. ‘Considering.’
Chloe sighed. ‘You noticed that as well? Is it that obvious? Is there anything else I should know about me?’
Ashley laughed. ‘Honestly, Chloe, everybody knows. Couldn’t you tell the way she looked at you?’
‘I didn’t realise.’
‘God, sometimes you’re stupid.’
Then Ashley started laughing, and Chloe couldn’t help herself hearing Ashley, and even Kavi giggled.
Chapter 11
Yates
The unmarked police car pulled up in an alley. In the side mirror Yates could see the people and cars moving backwards and forwards on the main street behind him. He glanced at the screen showing a map rather than Lament’s fake face. He was grateful for small mercies.
‘He calls himself Greedo,’ said Lament’s bland voice.
‘Are you serious?’ said Yates. ‘Doesn’t anybody have a sensible name?’
‘His real name is Bob Randall, but I suppose he just wanted to sound a little more exciting.’
‘Whatever. How do I recognise him?’
‘He favours a hoodie rather than a hat, but is not wearing it right now,’ said Lament. ‘If you look at the map, I’ve highlighted him a couple of streets over.’
‘Is he on his own?’
‘If you mean does he have customers, you can see there are others near him.’ As Lament spoke one of the riffy dots vanished then reappeared. ‘I don’t think they’ll give you any trouble.’
Yates got out of the car and slammed the door behind him. Facing away from the main street, he unclipped his gun and checked it. He reviewed his options. He could go out onto the market. There would be more people to give him cover, but if this Greedo had any lookouts that would make him easy to spot. Or he could take a back route, but again, they’d see him even sooner. Yates glanced up. All the buildings in this area were only about three storeys high and they either had flat roofs or at least a ridge you could walk round.
He turned back to the car, opened the door and leaned in as if he was talking to an occupant. ‘What if I went over the top?’
There was a pause. ‘You could do that, but there is no easy way down on the other side, and it’s not like you’re some superhero.’
‘Lot of help you are.’ What he really needed was backup, but they were always stretched so thin he’d be lucky if he got anybody in the next few hours.
‘Can I make a suggestion?’ said Lament.
‘What?’
‘I could be your partner.’
Yates laughed. ‘Oh yeah? What can you do? Change traffic signals on them?’
‘Better than that,’ said Lament. ‘I may not have legs.’ The car engine started up and Lament rolled forwards, Yates jerked away and the door slammed shut. The side window rolled down. ‘But I do have a car.’
Yates thought about it. ‘All right. I’ll go round by the main road, when I’m getting near them you come at them from the other direction. Distract them.’
‘Yeah, that’s the plan.’
The window rolled up and Yates headed out towards the main road.
The street was busy but not so much that he had to dodge people as Yates made his way past the storefronts. There was a cafe, with a few patrons, but this wasn’t one of the better areas. The people here didn’t have a lot of money, the place just happened to be in the centre of some population groups. This was an area where the criminal classes thrived.
Yates glanced down the first side road. As he crossed it he saw the car slide across the next junction down. This might just work, he thought. He kept his head down not just to hide his features, but the wind had a biting edge to it, a precursor to the vicious cold of winter to come.
The place had a butcher and a baker, both empty of stock, closing up for the day. If they had had anything to sell that morning, it was all gone now.
Yates glanced ahead and then cursed as he locked eyes with a giant of a man. He recogn
ised Big Jim Cotton at exactly the same moment that Big Jim Cotton saw him.
Big Jim wasn’t the brightest star in the firmament, but he possessed the natural talent of perps to recognise trouble when it was heading his way. He turned and ran.
Yates accelerated after him. He could only hope the wirehead would notice and act accordingly. Big Jim had already disappeared into the next side street before Yates had managed to close the gap by any significant amount.
He pounded round the corner and ran straight into what felt like an iron bar as Big Jim elbowed him in the chest. He stumbled back as waves of pain rippled out from his ribs. He drew in a painful breath. As he pulled himself together, Big Jim was off again, shouting a warning down the alley.
Yates forced himself into a run again. Each step sent a spike of pain through his chest. At the very least the bastard had bruised a couple of ribs. Maybe even cracked one.
He looked up at a blast of noise at the other end of the street, as the police car pulled round the corner with its horn letting rip. Big Jim was still running and closing in on a small group. They were exploding away from a man pulling his hoodie over his head and throwing his knapsack across his back.
Big Jim was just coming up to Greedo as he took in Yates pounding towards him, and then the car still blaring its horn in the other direction. Yates wasn’t sure there was much Lament could do; the anti-collision system in the self-drive would stop him from deliberately running down a pedestrian. But he could probably scare the bastard.
Apparently Greedo decided the car was full of police and it would be better to take on the one alone. As the perp started towards him, and Big Jim realised he had to slow down and turn back, Yates came to a stop. He reached inside his coat, pulled out his gun and aimed it at the oncoming man.
‘Armed police!’ shouted Yates, and thought, not for the first time, it was ridiculous they still had to use the pre-plague weapon protocols. So he improvised. ‘And if you don’t stop right now, you fucking lowlife, I’m going to blow your bloody head off.’ Better.
Greedo came to a stop and raised his hands. Big Jim came puffing up beside him.
‘And you, Big Jim, just lie down on the floor. You know the drill.’ The car rolled up behind them. Lament cut the horn and, after a moment’s echo, the street became silent.
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