by AA Bell
We’ve been through every register last week, Symes argued silently, and every note and coin was spanking clean already. Remember how long that took? Do you really think it’s worth spending the rest of the day here?
I do if you do.
What the frun? Chloe demanded Get in there!
Symes nodded and Moser did too.
‘Follow me,’ Mira said with a signal to Ben. ‘We’re going in.’
PART FOUR
Crossed
Few cross the river of time and are able to reach … beyond the realm of death
Horace
TEN
Mira hurried forward with Ben close on her heels. Two of the uniformed cops held position at the rear of the building near the loading bay, which was truckless and still locked down, while the other two headed for the far side of the building. Moser and Symes made their way up through the car park, escorting Chloe to the main customer entrance. As they reached the front corner, a ghostly limo sped into the driveway, jumping the kerb and skidding to a halt in front of them. Out leapt a male chauffeur, but not in time to open the rear passenger door as it burst open and ejected the balding passenger. He rushed at Chloe, waving hands and cigar, as if swatting flies from the air.
What’s the trouble this week? Mira read from his lips. You’re not evicting my customers again, Detective?
Mr Greppia, so glad you could meet us, Moser said.
Never a problem, Detective, but can you please explain why you have dragged my niece into this?
I dragged myself, Uncle Gregan! Someone’s been using our shops to launder counterfeit money, and I think you know about it!
I’ve heard the rumours, child, of course I have. I’ve assisted this investigation at every step, but not at the cost of our customers. Come, detectives, can’t we please attend to any fresh issues without frightening off the local families?
As if to prove his point, Mira saw another ghostly woman appear through the door with a shopping trolley that seemed to overflow with as many children as groceries.
I frunnen told you, Chloe ranted, oblivious to the mother approaching.
Language! Greppia scolded.
The ghostly mother frowned sternly at Chloe too as she rolled past them with her children to her station wagon.
Detective, please? Greppia pleaded, tugging at fistfuls of his remaining hair. Can we not take this discussion inside to a back room?
Symes nodded. So long as you don’t mind if Clyde takes a closer look at those cash registers.
Greppia tugged at his hair again and seemed to wail, open mouthed, like a gulping goldfish. If that’s what it takes, so be it. Leave your jackets in your car so you look like service repairmen. I’ll have my staff close the aisles and bring the cash trays in to us, or you can search wherever you need to satisfy yourselves there are no hidden compartments.
Most gracious, Symes replied.
‘What’s going on?’ Ben whispered.
Mira motioned him to follow again. ‘Chloe’s Uncle Gregan is here — bald guy, cigar.’
‘Yeah, that sounds like Gregan. He has a son, Greggie, who works here too as the assistant floor manager. Pushing brooms, mostly. Much taller, though, and more hair.’
‘No sign of him yet, but Gregan’s certainly upset. He doesn’t like conducting business in public, and I have to agree. Chloe needs anger management or maybe some time at Serenity in a straitjacket.’
‘Or maybe she has reason to be upset with two friends dead, two in custody and a bunch of cops who can’t protect her father’s businesses from criminals?’
‘That’s most gracious of you,’ Mira replied, as she led him through the front door of the shop that had ruined his life, ‘considering what’s been done to you.’
‘Most gracious?’
‘I learned it from Detective Symes just now. I used it correctly, didn’t I? You’re being kinder than expected?’
‘Sure, I guess, but I’m only trying to understand what really happened — to see things from Chloe’s perspective, same as I’ve always tried to do with you. What’s unexpected about that?’
‘Nothing, I guess.’ Mira stopped with a huff inside the door and asked if he wanted to grab a trolley so they didn’t look too out of place. From the sounds around her, the store was growing busier with more women and school-aged children.
While Ben fetched the trolley from the racks nearby, she kept her eyes on Chloe’s ghostly group as they diverted to the two furthest checkout aisles, each of which supported two cash registers. All four registers were painted white and adorned with plastic flowers and a faded memorial photograph of a fuzz-ball-headed man, while the other ten registers nearby were painted in store colours, which Ben soon confirmed to be black and green. To Mira, though, the whole scene was hazy shades of purple.
Is this where your brother died? asked Moser.
Mira couldn’t read Greppia’s reply because his back had turned to her, but she saw him tug his hair and usher customers through the four ‘suspect’ checkouts by providing their unchecked items for free. He also sent the remaining queued customers aside to other aisles with a promise of ten per cent discounts for their inconvenience, and as he chained off all four registers personally, he hung up the signs ‘for servicing’.
‘I wish I could see what you see,’ Ben whispered. ‘What’s happening?’
‘Not much, but I sure hope he’s guilty of something, because this mess just cost him a small fortune. The store was full of the usual morning school traffic.’
Glancing to the four end registers again, and to the seven-year-old memorial photo of Theo Greppia, she realised that Ben’s life had fallen apart right there — in that spot — whether he’d been there at the time of the robbery or not. Beyond them, she saw a tall man sweeping floors, who fit the description of Gregan’s son, Greggie, who watched with interest as his father led the detectives and Chloe past him into an aisle and deeper, towards the fridge section and warehouse.
Mira took a step to follow, but noticed a stand of daily newspapers, and temptation overwhelmed her to glance back through time to witness the robbery itself — so long ago, counting the time it had taken to convict and release Ben, but she didn’t need to ask him about the date. She could read it clearly enough from the ghostly memorial.
Behind her, she heard the glass doors slide open and felt a gust of warmer air sweep in, along with a new commotion as her hand reached inconspicuously to adjust the shade controls. She heard Ben cry her name, and the unmistakable sounds of a fist fight.
Cold hands seized her roughly from behind, and she caught the scent of whales humping. Somewhere nearby, she also heard a man laugh — like the cackle of a kookaburra.
She screamed, but a hand clamped over her mouth and nose, making it hard enough just to breathe.
‘Let her go!’ Ben shouted, then she heard a thud and the wind knocked from him.
‘I’ll take those.’ Pobody stole her sunglasses.
Still struggling, Mira clenched her eyes shut against the painful flashback through time from purple haze to blue. She smelled the unmistakable zap of electricity through air into skin, and heard Ben hit the ground, shuddering.
‘Nothing to see here, folks,’ announced Patterson, ‘just escapees from Serenity.’
Mira kicked and screamed as they bundled her out of the store, across the street and up into their tall invisible vehicle, but with Ben incapacitated, she was no match for two strong men as they handcuffed her wrists and ankles. A century ago, the road had been a bullock track and the store little more than a hut, but to Mira, the road was as wide and sounded as empty then as it did now. It seemed as if everyone was inside the shop.
Pobody cuffed her wrists and secured them over her head to a hook, then they hefted Ben through the opposite door to land beside her. Groaning and weak, he seemed to be slumped on his injured shoulder with his head almost in her lap, but there was nothing she could do to help or comfort him. She kicked out with both feet, striking the ba
ck of the seat in front of her, judging that it was the driver’s seat and that she might be able to dislodge it, but a fist buried into her stomach, driving the wind out of her.
‘That’s enough of that,’ Pobody warned her. ‘Or we’ll light up your boyfriend again until his balls glow.’
‘Let her go,’ Ben croaked hoarsely. ‘She’s blind … No harm to … anybody.’
‘I disagree,’ Patterson said from the front passenger seat. ‘Next time you find one of our bugs, you’d better be sure to get all of them. It goes like this …’
Mira heard a button click, and then her own voice, replayed electronically: ‘They were in here yesterday. I saw Pobody put something under your mother’s car.’
‘That’s an interesting trick,’ Patterson said, ‘for someone who’s blind.’
Pobody clicked the ignition key, but the engine failed to kick over.
‘Get a move on!’ Patterson ordered.
‘It’s not me,’ Pobody argued, ‘it’s this bloody car! It won’t start!’
Tapping at Patterson’s window interrupted them and Mira heard an electric window winding down.
‘You’ll need a mechanic to fix that,’ Lockman said. ‘Need a ride, ma’am?’
‘Yes!’ Mira lashed out with both feet again, forcing a grunt out of Pobody.
‘Where’d you come from?’ Patterson demanded.
‘I was just about to ask you gentlemen the same thing. A little rough for taxi drivers?’
‘Military police, kid. Now hand over the toy before you hurt yourself.’
‘MPs, huh? So where’s your ID?’
‘Under my seat. If you let me bend forward …’
‘No point reaching for the Desert Eagle,’ Lockman said. ‘Saw it, swiped it, sold it on eBay. You should check your rear-vision mirror more often, grandpa.’
‘And young bucks like you need to learn when to keep your nose clean! Armed or not, there’s nowhere you can go we can’t find you.’
‘Ooh, I’m trembling — not a safe thing with my finger on a Glock trigger, and I’m a stickler for gun safety. So let’s just hand over the keys for the bracelets, or the rest of us might get to see precisely how few brains are in your head.’
Mira heard the tinkle of metal keys changing hands twice, then Ben cursing the size of his hands as he struggled to release himself.
‘Do her next, mate,’ Lockman said. ‘Then slide out this side. My Hilux is back there — with the muddy plates. Get in and buckle up tight.’
Ben coughed to catch his breath. ‘But my car is …’
‘Rigged. I saw them mess with it while I was messing with theirs. Look, trust me or nobody. Your decision.’
‘Trust him for now,’ Mira said as Ben leaned across to unlock her, and within seconds they were out of their abductors’ vehicle.
‘Mistake,’ Patterson said as Lockman slammed the door behind Mira. ‘There’s never going to be anywhere safer for you than with us, Miss Chambers.’
‘We’ll see about that,’ Lockman said. ‘It’s your turn for the bracelets.’
Lockman’s diesel engine jolted to life, soon followed by a rock version of Beethoven’s fifth symphony on electric guitar with drums and a synthesised orchestra. The beat caused Mira’s heart to race even more than it had been.
Cramped between the two solid men, she could not only smell the musky tension in the cab, she could also feel it through their invisible bodies, rubbing shoulder to shoulder on either side of her. Electric now, the beat of the music seemed to be driving them faster to get away. She wished there’d been a back seat but Ben described it as a single cab truck, loaded up with something big and bulging under a tarp in the back.
‘You followed us?’ Ben complained the moment Lockman skidded around the first turn.
‘Actually, I followed them.’ The calmness of his voice seemed in stark contrast to the racing melody, the volume of which switched down unexpectedly. ‘They followed you.’ He shifted up gears, bumping Mira’s thigh with his hand. ‘Excuse me,’ he said, as if the need to touch her thigh while changing gears made him feel awkward too. ‘I wasn’t expecting passengers.’
‘Tough luck,’ Ben said. ‘So they rigged my car? With what — a bomb or another bug?’
‘I didn’t have time to check, but I doubt it was anything you’d enjoy. They seemed prepared to take you dead or alive, ma’am. Now why would that be, do you think?’
‘Beats me,’ she replied. ‘You’d be surprised how many people do evil things when they think nobody is watching. Who can ever explain it?’
‘Usually by motivation. As my gran used to say, evil is either active or passive, and that little scene was definitely active — the most common motives for which include greed, lust or jealousy. So which would you bet on?’
‘All three probably,’ Ben said. ‘Look at her. She’s eye candy.’
‘Yet they also took you. Nice try,’ Lockman said, swerving hard left around a bend and causing Mira to lean all the harder against him. ‘Unless you did something to provoke wrath or envy, I’m betting on greed — and something to do with you, ma’am, since they weren’t too gentle with him. Question is: what is it that you’ve done or got, that they want?’
‘That’s none of your business,’ Ben said. ‘But if those are Mira’s glasses in your chest pocket, I’ll thank you to give them back to her.’
‘Every intention of it. Here you go, ma’am.’ He tapped them onto her hand as he changed down gears to take a sharper corner in the opposite direction. ‘Do they help much?’
‘Surprisingly, yes. But that’s not really any of your business, is it?’
‘Perhaps, but you folks could be a little more grateful. Did I help you back there, or not?’
‘You did,’ Ben conceded. ‘And we are grateful, but …’
‘We don’t trust you either,’ Mira said, ‘and if you don’t quit calling me ma’am, I’m going to borrow a guide dog and train him to bite you.’
‘A guard dog would be a better idea.’
‘I had one of those,’ Ben argued. ‘Your colonel shot him.’
‘Oh yeah, sorry. I did read that in one of the briefings. As it happens, I have a mate not far from here who breeds shepherds for the army. Usually has some for sale to the public — unless you’d rather high-tail it to the nearest cop station?’
‘Not even if I was desperate,’ Ben said, shifting his arm around Mira. ‘It was the local cop here who sent me up the river the first time.’
‘Yeah, I read about that, too. Funny, there wasn’t any mention of what special interest the army had in either of you in the first place, aside from being volunteers for the docs’ latest science project — and you know, security for that is my business.’
‘Then you’d better ask them,’ Ben said. ‘If they chose to leave you in the dark, it’s hardly our place to fill you in.’
‘Fair enough. I suppose I’d have greater cause for concern if you did blab it to me.’
‘Forget it,’ Ben said. ‘Aren’t you on holidays? Or was that a cover story, just as Mira guessed?’
‘What difference does it make now?’ he asked, taking another corner at speed.
‘One was a lie,’ Mira replied.
‘I haven’t lied to you, ma’am. Not ever.’
Mira dug him in the ribs with her fingernail. ‘Quit calling me that.’
‘Ow! Hey, first names don’t come easy to a grunt who’s born and bred military.’ He accelerated down a ramp onto the freeway, as the atmosphere seemed to intensify unexpectedly.
‘What am I missing?’ Mira whispered to Ben.
‘Nothing,’ he replied. ‘I just want to be sure whose side he’s on. Born and bred?’ he asked. ‘That equals loyal to the death, right?’
‘Not if it means abetting traitors, but I’m pretty sure I’ve proven that already in Kitching’s playpen.’
‘Playpen?’ Mira complained as he accelerated into a faster lane. ‘Kitching tortured you!’
‘Put
it this way,’ Ben said, ‘if I asked you to stop right now, would you let us out?’
‘Here?’ Lockman chuckled. ‘Are you kidding?’
‘No better place to hitch a ride with all this traffic, each way.’
‘I wouldn’t advise it. Aside from the fact that you’re in urgent need of a field dressing, there’s no telling how fast those guys can get themselves into another vehicle — until they turn the corner and bag you. Next time, you can bet they’ll be ready for anything.’
Ben swore under his breath. ‘Don’t kid yourself. You’re abducting us too.’
Brakes squealed and small stones skittered as the Hilux slewed sideways across two lanes to a wide bay reserved for break-downs.
‘There’s your kerb,’ Lockman said as the truck came to a halt. ‘I’ll even hail an ambulance — save putting another civilian at risk by hitching, but if you’ve misjudged me as a con, pal, you’re not going to last long.’
Mira heard sincerity in his voice and caught Ben’s arm as he moved to climb out ahead of her. ‘If we did stay with you,’ she asked, ‘where would you take us?’
‘Anywhere you want. I’m kitted up for camping and this is a four-wheel drive, but whatever you do, scratch Serenity off your list — and Straddie. The ferry is a bottle neck.’
Mira laughed. ‘Serenity is the last place I’d go!’
‘Worth a call to each, though. Let your friends and family know they’ll need to be wary of strangers for a while.’
‘Mel is going to love that,’ Mira said, wondering how much worse their day could get.
‘Ma doesn’t need to know yet. The day is young and the problem can still resolve itself.’
Lockman laughed. ‘Have you got a stash of pixie dust you haven’t mentioned?’
‘Better,’ Ben said. ‘We’ve got money. We can buy a yacht and sail out beyond their reach.’
‘Only if you can pay cash. Make no mistake, for her sake. It’s not too difficult for any guru-hacker, PI or investigative journalist to peek into your finances — and those guys threatened you with everything they had. You’d be dumb to underestimate them, even if their first shot was only with a taser.’