by Malcolm Rose
“Probably not,” Luke replied. He took a deep breath. “Anyway, to business. I guess you know what this is about. Mr Garrett’s told you three people called Emily Wonder have died in suspicious circumstances in the last six months.”
She nodded. Waiting for Luke to say more, she grasped each finger of her left hand in turn with the thumb and forefinger of her right hand. It was probably a habit and it emphasized the length and odd shape of her bony hands.
Luke knew that if Jade were with him, she’d argue that Emily was bound to be edgy, maybe even terrified. But Luke had to be more suspicious than that. She might be tense because she was Q. She certainly knew more than most about how to make a forensic investigator struggle. “I’m afraid The Authorities don’t have the resources to give you and every other Emily Wonder a bodyguard. I’m sorry. You need to be careful.”
“How did they die?”
“I can’t say,” Luke replied.
“How can I watch out if I don’t know what to watch out for?”
“Whoever did it didn’t leave much by way of clues.”
Emily nodded. “They were weaponless and motiveless. That’s why you asked me.”
“I’m telling you about it because the only motive seems to be the name of Emily Wonder.”
She took a deep breath. “So you’re looking at Emily Wonders not just as potential victims but possible perpetrators.”
Clearly, she was sharp as well as serious. “Yes,” he admitted.
Emily toyed with her long misshapen fingers again. “And I’m more likely to be a suspect than a victim because I know criminology.”
“Have you been absent from school recently? I can get Malc to log on to school records, but it’s easier if you just tell me.”
Apparently unwilling to answer, Emily paused uncomfortably. Finally, she said, “As you can tell, just by looking at me, I’m ill. I’ve had to have quite a lot of time off.”
Luke was too tall and wiry to be considered a classic male. But no one would ever think of him as ugly. Emily was sadly unattractive, with her bulky lower jaw, extreme height, and deformed bones. Sympathy in his voice, he asked, “What’s the problem?”
“Get your mobile to scan my face. He’ll tell you.”
Malc recognized the shape at once. “The bone structure is highly characteristic of lipodystrophy. It is a rare genetic disorder in which a patient is born without any body fat. The condition causes hormone imbalance, resulting in excessive growth and distortion of facial bones.” Unlike Luke, Malc could not mix compassion with facts.
“He’s right,” Emily added. “Fat’s a vital body organ, keeping us healthy, but I don’t have any.”
She deserved pity, Luke thought, but he doubted that she would want him to make a show of it. “I’m sorry,” he said. Then he tried to carry on normally. “What do you do with all this time off?”
“Lie in bed, sleep and groan, mostly,” she replied, as if annoyed that Luke hadn’t taken in the severity of her condition.
“You don’t travel?”
“Huh. If only I could,” she exclaimed.
Luke had no way of checking because The Authorities didn’t keep a file of cab use, but there was no doubting that she was seriously ill. He asked, “What’s it like to be an Emily Wonder?”
“Tedious. Everyone expects me to be a good singer and I have to put them right all the time.” She shrugged helplessly. “Talent’s got nothing to do with your name.”
Luke stood up. “I’ll tell you what. Next time I see the singer, I’ll ask if she’s any good at criminology because she’s got the same name as Emily Wonder at Edinburgh School.”
At last, Emily heard something worthy of a smile. “Good idea. I’d like that.”
Before leaving Edinburgh, Luke asked to see Clint Garrett again in private. Luke said, “I got the impression you thought Emily was really bright but wouldn’t make a young FI. Why’s that?”
The instructor took a deep breath. “You saw her. You should be able to guess.”
In a soft voice, Luke said, “She’s not expected to live long enough to take the final qualification exams?”
Plainly upset, Mr Garrett nodded. “It’s cruel. A tragedy. She’s a good girl. Very clever, very brave. But her prospects aren’t good, according to the medics.”
Saddened, Luke muttered, “Pity.”
Chapter Eleven
In the cab, Malc recited the post-mortem findings on all three victims. It didn’t take long because there wasn’t much to report. EW1, textile designer in Dundee, died in July, unknown natural causes. EW2, food technologist in Woburn, killed in December, stabbed by an unknown implement that did not leave any residue. EW3, retired gardener in York Nursing Home, died in January, poisoned by hydrogen cyanide generated by burning unknown substance.
A chemical laboratory had analysed every vial of oil in York Nursing Home and they were all perfectly innocent, all perfectly safe. The traces on the drawer containing the vials led only to the nurses. If a visitor had placed the fatal bottle of oil in EW3’s section of the drawer, the intruder must have used gloves and left only one contaminated vial. Enquiries at the company that made the sauna oils, Luxury Health and Beauty, had drawn a blank. It was exactly what Luke expected and dreaded. He had grown used to blanks and unknowns in this case.
Malc had also received the agents’ statements on all living people called Emily Wonder. He had plenty of time to read out the roll call to Luke because, on its way to Milton Keynes, the cab made a large detour around a blocked corridor at Northampton.
There was only one report that grabbed Luke’s attention. The youngest of the three Emily Wonders in London had gone missing. It was nothing new for people in London to vanish for a while – and sometimes permanently – but this eleven-year-old girl was called Emily Wonder. That made her special, very different from all of London’s other missing people. Luke decided that he would investigate her disappearance as soon as he could.
The cab slowed as it entered the dangerous network of crisscrossing freeways in Milton Keynes. On the northern side of the town, there was a large monument to the endangered cat family. The tall column was made up of interwoven concrete cats. Once, it had been a striking feature of the community, but vandals and weather had eroded it. Now, it was hard to distinguish a leg from a tail, and a few heads had been removed altogether. Beyond the concrete cats, the neglected theatre and ski centre were covered in dirty snow. The food warehouse had a huge hole in one side where bandits had attached sticks of dynamite and blown away the bricks to get access to the store.
Luke’s identity card was always in credit because he worked hard. He could get everything he wanted. But, in the south, it was often more difficult to find a job than join a group of bandits. In many towns, identity cards had ceased to become the local currency. Force, cunning and a desperate form of courage had taken their place. Milton Keynes was a far cry from Sheffield, Dundee and Edinburgh.
Luke paid a visit to the forensic scientist who lived in the one safe part of town and learned straightaway that she hated her name.
“I’m sick of being Emily Wonder,” the thirty-year-old said angrily, “and I’ll never sing a note. I could, but I won’t. That’s my protest. It’s a nightmare. Every time I use my identity card, I get it. ‘Emily Wonder? Really? You’re amazing,’ or, ‘Emily Wonder. I’ve heard of you. Not exactly my thing but... Hold on. I’ll just go and get my mate. She’s a huge fan of yours,’ or, ‘Emily Wonder? You don’t look much like her. Still, give us a tune.’ I can’t stand it.”
She’d been to most of the northern cities – attending courses on forensic science and taking a break from Milton Keynes – and she’d also been called to Woburn recently to gather evidence about a disturbance in the prison. She’d heard of tetrodotoxin and knew its sources, but she’d never worked on a case where it was a suspected poison. Trained in chemistry, she knew how to generate cyanide gas as well.
Plainly, she had the knowledge to murder the first t
hree Emily Wonders. Because she’d travelled, she might also have had the opportunity. And because she detested having the same name, she had a motive.
Even so, two things did not add up in Luke’s mind. He was not persuaded that the forensic scientist was a serious suspect. Afterwards, talking to Malc, he explained, “First, she didn’t try to hide the fact that she’s got the know-how and maybe had the chance to kill. She didn’t try to cover up being annoyed. Second, she’s got it in for the opera star, not the others. If she got to breaking point, she’d go for Emily the singer.”
Luke could not face another long journey to another seedy city. He conducted his next interview by telescreen in his hotel room. The information technology instructor in Bristol looked very similar to the superstar singer, with five years added on. Unlike the forensic scientist, she was tense because she already knew about the three deaths. She said she’d come across them while she was searching on-line databases to discover her family tree.
Luke was puzzled. “Family tree?” he queried.
“I know it’s unusual,” she replied, “but some of us are still curious about where we came from. You leave your parents behind when you go to school. It’s like... I don’t know... shutting a door on your history. I got a fix on my grandparents and their parents. Now, I’m going another generation back. It’s not easy.”
Luke was surprised. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard anyone use the word ‘grandparent’. It wasn’t something that people talked about. It wasn’t considered important because it was all behind them.
Luke knew he was the result of the pairing of the astronomer, Elisa Harding, and his doctor father, Peter Sachs, but he had no idea where his parents were now. He’d never asked Malc to consult the right records. He hoped that they were alive and well. When they’d handed him over to the school at the age of five, he had been disconnected from them, like every other new student leaving their mother and father. If Luke’s little sister hadn’t died at such a young age, he would have kept in touch with her as she went through the same school. He would have liked that. And it was normal for some brothers and sisters to stay in contact. For most, that was the extent of it. The Authorities took the place of a family. Yet Luke had a secret wish to meet his mother and father again. One day, he imaged saying, “Here I am. It’s Luke. This is how I turned out.” He liked to think that they’d be proud of their son. He liked to think that they’d enjoy meeting Jade as well. It was just a dream, though.
The Emily Wonder in Bristol was intent on researching her own dream, her own roots. Plainly, she didn’t think of the activity as a waste of time and effort, even though most people would find it mystifying and pointless.
“It’s interesting,” Emily insisted. “It’s not too difficult to trace back from a mother to grandmother – because you’ve got the family name and birthplace to work on – but grandfathers and further back are really tricky. There just isn’t the software and archives to do it. If I’d got an uncommon family name, it’d be less of a problem.”
Luke decided to drag her back to his case. “I’m into fish more than families.”
“Oh?”
He watched her image carefully as he deliberately confused the vibrio bacterium with a fish. “Yes. Vibrio’s a favourite.”
Emily stared blankly back at him from the screen projected onto the wall. She did not react to the mention of the poisonous bacterium that produced TTX and she did not correct his mistake.
Behind Luke, Malc began to point out his error. “Vibrio is not a...”
Luke put up his hand. “Never mind. Have you heard of situs inversus totalis?”
“Is it a fish?”
Luke smiled and shook his head. “Someone said you’d been up to York recently.”
“York?” Emily frowned. “I’m sure it’s very nice, but I haven’t been there. I don’t know where you heard that.”
“Oh. How about Woburn?”
“Yes. I took a small group of our most troublesome students there. A prison visit. It’s supposed to put them off crime but... I don’t know. They never think they’re going to get caught.”
Luke nodded. “Why did you choose Bristol anyway? It’s...”
“Rough?” she suggested.
“Yeah.”
“I’m here because it’s rough. It’s places like this – and these sorts of kids – that need good instructors. I think I can make a difference. If every decent instructor went to Birmingham or further north, what’d happen to children down here?”
“Point taken,” Luke replied. He believed that she was harmless. More than that, she seemed to be too caring to be a murderer. He didn’t have to warn her to be careful because she was already aware of the risk of being an Emily Wonder. Instead, he said, “I’d better let you carry on climbing your family tree. Thanks.”
Luke watched the image fade and let out a long sigh. “Tomorrow morning,” he announced, “I’ll go back to Sheffield.”
Malc asked, “For what purpose?”
“I need to have a chat with Barbara Backley. And Sheffield’s in the middle of the three murder scenes so it’s as good a place as any to base myself.” He decided not to add that he was missing Jade again. “After that, back to London. It’s worth looking into the Emily Wonder who’s disappeared.”
****
It was Sunday and Luke could not work on his bizarre case endlessly. He needed a break so, when Jade suggested that they take advantage of the diabolical weather and go ice-skating, Luke agreed at once.
The boating lake at Graves Park was completely solid. Swans were looking at the transformed water in bewilderment. The rowing boats had been dragged out of the lake and lay on the bank like beached whales. Hand in hand, Luke and Jade glided across the frozen surface as effortlessly as Malc hovered at Luke’s shoulder. The place wasn’t crowded but several groups of people were taking the opportunity to skate. A mother and father, with a baby in a pushchair, were watching their older son testing his sense of balance on the ice. Not yet school age, he giggled aloud every time he fell down. Two girls were shouting to each other and screaming whenever a boy on the path threw a snowball at either of them. At the other end of the lake, four boys had made a treacherously slippery slide from one bank to another. They were running over the snow-covered grass, jumping onto the slide and skidding all the way across to the opposite edge.
Leaving Jade for a moment, Luke skated towards the end where the boats had been arranged side-by-side.
The small boy, still unsure on his legs, waved his arms and began to totter again. Out of control, he veered unexpectedly and then fell right in front of Luke.
To avoid hurting the toddler, Luke leapt into the air and flew over him. Luke dropped back down onto the ice, lost his balance and crashed into the bank, shin first. He let out a cry of pain and sprawled onto the cushion of snow at the edge of the lake, his head narrowly missing one of the rowing boats.
Rolling over with a groan, his face ended up centimetres away from a sizeable and sturdy icicle dangling from the prow of the boat. Immediately, he forgot about his bruises.
Chapter Twelve
Kneeling beside Luke, Jade asked anxiously, “Are you all right?”
Luke nodded. “Fine.” Sitting up, he grabbed the icicle in his gloved fist and wrenched it from its moorings on the lip of the boat. “What’s that?”
“Nice, isn’t it?” Jade replied. “I think icicle is the technical expression for it. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“It’s a hefty spike.”
“Are you concussed or something?”
Luke weighed it in his hands and then examined it. Sharp at the lower end, strong and broad at the top. “It could be a dagger.”
“A dagger? No. Not unless you’ve got a very warped mind.”
“Like the sort of mind that goes around killing people called Emily Wonder?”
“All right. To someone like that, it’s a dagger.”
“Malc,” Luke said. “I want some fresh
pork for an urgent forensic test.”
“Pork?” Jade cried. “Now I know you’ve got concussion.”
****
Luke collected an icicle from a bare branch of the tree outside his hotel and dashed inside with it before it melted. He had already laid the leg of pork on the table. “When they test the damage bullets and other weapons do to people, they use dead bodies. If they haven’t got any, they experiment on pigs,” he said. “A pig’s not that different in structure to a human.”
“This is a valid experiment,” Malc confirmed.
Luke lifted up the icicle, sharp end towards the meat, and drove it down as if he were stabbing the animal. The glassy point penetrated the tough skin and slid easily into the flesh. The improvised weapon hit the leg bone, glanced off it, and came to a halt only when it pierced the skin on the underneath and struck the tabletop.
Luke let go of the icicle and said in triumph, “There you are. A very clever dagger. Strong enough to do the job but, once it’s in a nice warm body, it just melts away. No fingerprints, no trace at all. It’d mix with the blood and body fluids. People are seventy-five per cent water anyway, so a bit more isn’t going to be noticed, not even by you.”
Malc agreed. “Correct.”
Luke eased the transparent blade out of the joint of meat. “Scan the wound and compare with EW2’s injury.”
Malc positioned himself over the leg of pork, measured the hole, and examined the damage done to the skin, the underlying layers of tissue and muscle. “The formation of the lesion is the same in both cases,” he stated.
At last. Luke believed he had eliminated one unknown. Smiling broadly as he dropped the icicle into the sink, he said, “I think we know what killed EW2 in the wood.”
“Not proven,” Malc replied, “but highly likely.”
Returning to the leg of pork, Luke added, “I think we know what’s for dinner tonight as well.”
****
Having got used to the slums of the south, Luke regarded Jade’s quarters as fantastic. The whole building seemed spotless, warm and elegant. Her apartment was perched, ten floors up, on a hill overlooking Sheffield. Beyond it lay the boundary of the Peak District. Right now, the peaks and geothermal power station were cloaked by a blizzard. Below, the city bustled. Cabs cleaved their way through the whitened corridors and freeways, taking people to restaurants and entertainment or sports centres. Inside, Jade’s sound system occupied the whole of one wall. She had taken the edge off the immaculate apartment with her usual clutter.