by Ben Onslow
“Nick gone?” she asks.
“Got something on.” I’m making it up. I’ve no idea why he left suddenly like that.
Mum leans back against the wall. My mum’s pretty young for a mum, still slim, dark hair and brown eyes like me. When I was at school the two of us spent half our time in the Principal’s office discussing why I should be allowed to stay. She said I never helped my case by sitting slouched in the chair saying things designed to set the prick off again.
I put my glass on the top of the leaner.
Mum finds a coaster, picks up the glass puts it on the coaster, then wipes up the ring of moisture.
“What were the Willises doing here?” I ask.
“Looking at NavMaps.”
“Who was that with them?” I figure Jacob will want to know that too, doesn’t like jobs done half-arsed.
She leans forward and whispers as if it is a secret.
“Carlos Vincent; sounds Australian, said he was a mate.”
So, even the Willises have mates, and they’re mates who are still allowed to travel.
“Why’s he here?”
“On holiday. Was here on Saturday morning too, that’s what I wanted to tell Fitzgerald.”
“What about the other guy?”
“Didn’t get his name, sounded Australian as well.”
“Ela!” Jacob’s voice calls. There is an urgent sound to it. A branch brushes against the bedroom window. Dark water slides down the outside of the glass.
Ela slides out of bed. Something’s wrong. Accidentally kicks her Com. Pulls the pyjama top tight around her and creeps to the door.
Jacob calls again. Louder, in pain.
In the gloom a bulky shape, too big to be Jacob, rushes towards her, hood pulled down low over his head, dark pants, pushes her hard back into the bedroom. She staggers against the bed. The shape turns away and boot’s pound on the carpet.
She waits, listening. Hears the boots run towards the dining room and out the back. Cautiously she moves into the hallway, turns on the light. Sees Jacob lying on the floor like a bundle of rags, feet against the wall, body crumpled, half twisted, just inside the front door. It’s open.
Jacob looks back at her. “Knocked me over. I’ve hurt my hip, can’t move.”
Ela kneels down. A cut above his eye is bleeding. Blood congeals on the carpet. He’s lost his glasses. They’re lying by the skirting board. Gently Ela touches his arm, not wanting to make anything worse.
A vehicle goes down the drive, away from the house. She tries to see it. But dark creeps in through the open door and she can’t see anything through the rain. She shuts the door then locks it. The house echoes emptily. Only the two of them again.
“Why were you up?”
“I thought I heard something.”
“Should I try to help you stand?”
“No, I’m best like this. Ring for the Evac.”
Ela nods. Runs to her room. Feels around beside the bed, tries to find her Com.
She connects.
“How is he now?” asks the woman on the other end.
She goes back in to Jacob. Kneels down again. His eyes are closed, his breathing shallow.
“He keeps dropping in and out of consciousness. What should I do?”
“Get a pillow and blanket. Keep him warm until we can get the EvacHover to you.”
Ela puts the Com down again. Runs into the spare bedroom and strips the blanket off the bed. Finds a pillow, goes back to Jacob. Puts the pillow under his head and then the blanket over him.
His eyes open again.
“Someone was inside the house. Where did he go?”
“He ran outside. I heard a vehicle.”
“Did you see who it was?”
She shakes her head. “No. What was he doing?”
“Searching the office.” Jacob grabs her wrist. “You have to do something for me before the ambulance gets here. Go into my study and look in the fireplace. There’s a shelf inside the chimney. Find the box that’s there. Lock it in the car. Keep it with you, don’t leave it behind. And don’t stay in the house by yourself.”
He tries to sit up, flops back. “You need to read the documents in the box. Get Jack to read them too.” She nods but Jacob grabs her arm again to make sure she’s listening. “Don’t stay here on your own and get Jack to help you. Take him to the waterfall.” Jacob’s eyelids flutter, drifting off, he opens his eyes again. “Both of you need to read the documents in the box. You go with him tomorrow like we planned. The two of you have to keep things going for me. Promise to get Jack to help you, get him to read the documents and take him to the waterfall,” he whispers again, his voice weak, tailing off, unconscious.
Ela pats the hand holding her arm, hears the Hover land outside on the lawn.
7.
Jack
Tuesday 14th Feb 2051
2:10 a.m.
My Com buzzes. I’m asleep so it takes a while to answer. Once I’m almost awake I have trouble finding my jeans on the floor. Then more trouble with the pocket the Com is in.
“Fraser,” I croak, still trying to get the thing the right way round. Sounding groggy, sounding like I’ve just woken up and couldn’t find my Com.
“It’s Ela,” says the Com.
I’m suddenly awake.
“What’s wrong?”
“Jacob said to call you. He’s been hurt.”
Ela tells me about a break in at Jacob’s place and Jacob ending up in hospital. I can hear the way she’s working to keep her voice under control.
“Where are you now?”
“Outside Jacob’s house on the veranda.”
“Is anyone with you?”
“No, and it’s really dark and I can see the door is open and I know I shut it and locked it before I went to the hospital. I don’t know what to do.”
She’s alone. It’s exactly what Jacob said not to let happen. And she’s standing outside Jacob’s house when someone could be in it.
It doesn’t sound like the brightest place for her to be.
I figure she needs some help. “Get into your ESD and keep the doors locked. If anything happens before I get there, leave. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
I turn into the driveway. Drive towards the house. Pull up by the steps. Slide to a halt. My headlights shine on the veranda and the old chair sitting there. Beside the chair the front door is wide open, darkness spilling out.
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?” I ask.
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,” says Ela. “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 just waits in the rain getting wet, watching me, doesn’t say anything, 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. Or they could be waiting in there for us. Not that likely.
“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.”
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. Walk down the hallway. Carefully push open the door of each bedroom and turn the light 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 too.
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. And 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.
“Jacob’s house is 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 VidScreen 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. Have to use my Com. Jacob’s is 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. Still real quiet, 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, her cloak almost touching the floor. 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 – seems to need something to do.
I find the ice in the freezer. Tip it into 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 i
n the ESD, 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 Txts 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 then 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, I’ve reached the end of my duties. I move on.
“See you in the morning,” I say, and she nods again.
Ela reaches down beside the bed. She picks up her Com and checks for messages. So tired. Her eyes hurt, and her legs ache, the different noises, the strange situation, Amon, Jacob getting hurt.
She sees a Connect flash. Another Txt from Amon she guesses. Not going to read it this time either. She puts the Com back on the floor and lies down.
The cat jumps up onto the pillow. She strokes the soft grey fur until he settles into purring stillness.
8.
Jack & Ela
Tuesday 14th Feb 2051
9:30p.m.
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, in the same type of clothes as yesterday, real short dress, boots, long blue cloak, makeup, hair done.