Dangerously Placed (10 page)

Nix ran a hand savagely through his brown hair, making it stand up in wild spikes.

‘I can't believe it – you're compromising your own safety to make sure some guy you barely know doesn't get a bad work experience report! I mean, who
gives
a –'

‘Dude, calm down!' Joel put a restraining hand on Nix's shoulder. Nix blinked, breathing heavily. I stared at him. I'd known Nix since we were kids, but I'd never seen him get like this.

‘Listen.' Nix wasn't shouting any more. There was a kind of dangerous calm about him now. ‘I need you to tell me this Dale guy's name and address.'

‘His name's Dale McCarthy. I don't know exactly where he lives – somewhere in Blackwood Heights.'

Nix nodded.

‘I'm going to see what I can find out about him. You coming with me, Joel?'

Joel stepped outside.

‘Later,' he said to us.

‘And Alex,' added Nix as Joel loped off down the driveway, ‘I'm … I'm sorry I yelled at you, okay? But you've really got to start taking this whole thing seriously. This is murder we're talking about.' His green eyes bored into me for a moment. Then he turned away, leaving the three of us staring after him.

‘
Me
take things seriously? That's pretty rich, coming from Mr Flippant there,' I muttered as we went inside.

‘Yeah,' sighed Sky. ‘But you know, he does take things seriously every now and then. When they're important to him.'

‘Like when?'

‘Like …' Sky thought for a moment. ‘Well, you remember there was that detective game at Virtuadventures, back when Nix started working there?'

‘
The PI Files
,' I supplied.

‘Yeah. When Joel actually turned out to be good at it and got close to Nix's top score, Nix started going in and practising every day – never shut up about it. He was pretty damned serious then, I can tell you.' Sky turned to deadlock the front door. I frowned, wondering if she
might have got her facts mixed up somewhere. After all, I'd absolutely blown Nix's top score away after a week of playing
The PI Files
, and all he'd done was grin.

Later, though, as I sat in the lounge room helping Sky do a SWOT analysis on her relationship with Robbie the delivery guy and listening to Ki talk about her school supervisor visit at the lab and how Mr Guildenhall had nearly puked over her microscope when she described all the bodily fluids she'd analysed that week, I kept thinking about what Nix had said. Maybe he was right on this one. What if Dale knew something crucial, something that could help the police catch the murderer? Wasn't it my responsibility to ensure that they got that information? At the very least, I should try to persuade Dale to talk to the police himself. Then, if he refused, I could still call Montague and Hargreaves and let them know that Dale was hiding something …

‘Alex! Do you see this?' Ki pointed the remote at the TV, turning up the sound.

‘… of the victim in the Simulcorp murder have been released.' A sombre-faced newsreader stared at us from the screen. A picture of Grody with the words ‘Simulcorp Murder' hung in the corner above her. ‘The deceased, forty-two-year-old Pierce Brian Grody, was Head of the Marketing Division at the multinational company best known for its innovative Virk virtual workplace system. Police confirmed that Grody, who had recently struck a landmark deal with
robotics giant Avatar, died after being strangled at the Virk portal near his home in Brighton on Tuesday evening.'

A larger picture of Grody filled the screen. I frowned at it. It was definitely him – there was no way I could forget that face, so terrifying both in life and death. But somehow it was different, too: the red hair less fiery, the nose a little beakier, the skin around those cold, pale eyes a touch more furrowed. Could he have tweaked his virtual image? Obviously you could change some things about the way you looked in Virk, like the way Budi changed his sarong every day. But I hadn't realised you could change your face, too. Grody was supposed to have been a technological genius, though – maybe if you were skilled enough, you could change anything you wanted. I wondered if that was what Budi had meant when he told me about Inge's ‘artificial enhancements'.

‘Police declined to comment on what could have prompted the killing, but speculation is rife that Grody's death may have been work-related, amid rumours he mistreated colleagues and intended to use the profits from a planned second deal with Avatar Robotics to gain a majority share of Simulcorp stocks. A suspect taken into custody over the murder yesterday is said to have been released. And now to finance news …'

‘You didn't tell us Grody was trying to take over Simulcorp,' said Ki, turning the sound down again.

‘I didn't know,' I said slowly. ‘I did read something in
a magazine about unusual shareholder changes when I was researching Simulcorp before my placement, but I didn't think much about it.' I looked at Sky and Ki. ‘The question is: where are all these rumours coming from?'

Considering how tense our last conversation had been, I was surprised when Nix rang after lunch on Sunday and invited me to Aqualand.

‘Aqualand? Why Aqualand? I haven't been there in years.'

‘Well, I have something to show you there, but don't you think it'd be awesome anyway? Look out the window for once, Alex!'

I looked outside. The sun was blazing down. I had to admit, Aqualand did sound kind of tempting.

‘Okay,' I said. ‘I'll be there in an hour or so.'

‘I'll meet you by the dolphins.' Nix hung up.

I was just about to leave the house when Kiyoko turned up on the doorstep.

‘Before you ask, I have no idea whatsoever about what's going on,' she told me as I let her in. ‘Nix just rang
and told me we were all going to Aqualand, and that he felt it would be appropriate for me to accompany you, given the possible presence of your stalker.'

‘Don't call him
my
stalker, Ki,' I said, pulling on my sneakers. ‘It makes it sound like I've employed him to follow me around.' But I was glad to have her with me as we set off.

We found Nix by the dolphin pool, where feeding-time antics were entertaining the crowd. He was laughing at two high-fiving dolphins, his hands in his pockets, his bright ‘Don't Try This at Home' t-shirt helping him stand out from the crowd. Weirdly, I found myself feeling almost envious of him. He looked so … carefree. I realised that it had been quite a while since I'd felt that way myself. Even before Grody's murder I'd been kind of stressed, working to get the Simulcorp placement on top of the usual school stuff. Not that I felt sorry for myself or anything – I liked the pressure, the feeling that I was working for something important. There was just something about Nix's face that made me remember that life could be … well, different.

We made our way over. Nix welcomed us with a smile.

‘Hi Ki,' he said. ‘Alex.'

‘You seem to be missing a sidekick,' observed Ki.

‘Joel had to work at the shop. No need to feel too sorry for him – he told me nothing brings the hot chicks down to a surf shop like unseasonal warm weather.'

‘Charming. We made it here without being abducted, I hope you'll notice,' I told him.

‘Which just shows the wisdom of having Kiyoko with you,' said Nix, his eyes twinkling. ‘That withering stare she does would scare anyone off. Yeah, that's the one I mean.'

‘So, are you going to tell us what we're here for?' I asked.

‘All in good time,' said Nix, looking at his watch. ‘And we seem to have a little up our sleeves, so why don't we have some fun in the meantime?'

And we did. It was like being a kid again, walking around looking at the sharks and stingrays, eating fairy floss and eyeing off the sideshow games. Even Ki seemed to be enjoying herself.

‘You know, I never realised you were such a fan of sweet stuff,' I told her as we watched Nix target-shooting with a water pistol. Ki had just started on her second stick of fairy floss, and passers-by were giving her strange looks. I couldn't exactly blame them – it's not every day you see a sixteen-year-old in dark plum lipstick and an ankle-length black velvet dress eating bright pink fairy floss.

‘Only when it seems appropriate,' said Ki, pulling off a little wad of floss. ‘There are times when it can be most enjoyable – perhaps even healthy – to allow oneself some of the pleasures of childhood.' She looked at me meditatively. ‘You should remember that, Alex.'

‘Me?' I blinked at her. ‘You're the serious one, Ki!'

‘Externally, perhaps,' Ki murmured.

‘Heads up!' Nix handballed the mini football he'd just won at the water-pistol stand my way. I caught it, still trying to work out what exactly Ki meant. ‘I was actually going for the big, fluffy bunny they had at the top – I thought it'd go perfectly in your room, Ki.' He grinned. Ki returned him a small, indulgent smile. Obviously humouring Nix counted as one of the pleasures of childhood for her.

‘Sky'll be here in a few minutes,' Nix told us, taking back his football. ‘Shall we stroll on down to the entrance?'

Ki set off in front, weaving her way through the crowd. Nix fell in beside me.

‘This is for you.' He handed me a heavy, lumpy object as big as my palm and covered in what appeared to be spatters of blue and grey paint. I stared at it.

‘What is this?'

‘It's a Giant Moon Rock. You know!' He grinned at me. ‘A thing you eat, like a gobstopper.'

‘You mean it's a giant lump of sugar?'

He nodded.

‘I won it. Thought you might like it – I remembered how you went through that entire bucket of Chupa Chups on year seven camp.'

‘You know, I'm –' I stopped. I'd been going to tell him I wasn't twelve years old any more, but then I realised how ungrateful that would sound. It was kind of a nice gesture, after all. ‘I'm kind of amazed to find
you and Ki have a love of sugar in common,' I finished instead.

‘Hey, I'm full of surprises,' said Nix, peering over people's heads to keep Ki in sight.

‘Thanks for the rock.' I tucked the heavy lump into my backpack.

The crowd was dense here. We walked slowly, shouldering our way between excited kids and tired parents.

‘So how's your placement been going, Alex?' Nix asked. ‘Apart from the murder stuff, I mean.'

I looked up at him as I turned a little to avoid the Dragon Punch machine. He seemed genuinely interested, his green eyes intent beneath his wild brown hair.

‘I've been taking it seriously, if that's what you mean.'

Amazingly, he actually looked a little embarrassed.

‘I'm sorry about that,' he said. ‘I was just … concerned about you, you know?'

I was touched.

‘Thanks.' I smiled. ‘The rest of it's been pretty good. They're letting me work on a marketing proposal for Impression – you know, the jeans company?'

Nix nodded. ‘What do you have to do for that?'

I told him. I was surprised to discover how much he understood about the things I'd learnt at Simulcorp. Up until then, I hadn't really thought about the fact that his placement was kind of similar.

‘I guess you've been learning some of the same stuff, huh?'

‘A little,' said Nix, handballing his footy up into the air and catching it. The crowd had thinned out now we were near the entrance. ‘I mean, obviously there are things that don't come into your end of it, like how to actually make an actor look like a zombie, but we have to work on the same principles of marketing. I think our CGI department does similar things, too, just not for virtual applications.'

‘Yeah, I guess they would. I was supposed to go and see what the CGI guys do on Wednesday, but things were so messed up, I didn't get to. Hopefully I'll go this week, though.'

‘I'm doing that kind of thing this week too. They have this room where they can do markerless motion capture, which is –' He broke off as his hand slipped. The mini football shot sideways and hit a woman who was walking past us with a toddler in her arms.

‘Oh!' The woman blinked behind her thick glasses, startled.

‘I'm so sorry!' Nix bent swiftly to retrieve the ball, the picture of sincerity and concern.

‘Oh … that's okay!'

‘I hope I didn't hurt you?'

‘No, not at all,' the woman assured him, obviously thawing under the charming smile he shot her. Nix tickled the little boy.

‘And are you all right, big guy?' he asked.

The toddler giggled, and his mum beamed at Nix. You could tell she was thinking something like:
What a nice young man!

Nix turned back to me, still smiling, as they walked away.

‘What is it?' he asked.

‘What do you mean?'

‘You're looking at me funny.'

‘Oh.' I squinted at my feet for a moment, confused. ‘I don't know. I was just thinking.'

He raised an eyebrow, but I could hardly explain to him that it was weird, seeing him from that woman's perspective. Fortunately, Ki and Sky were already heading towards us.

Nix began to laugh as Sky came to a halt in front of us, and I couldn't find it in my heart to admonish him. I thought people had been staring at us a lot when Ki was eating fairy floss, but Sky brought our stranger-fascination level to a whole new plane.

‘Is there a reason for this get-up, Sky, or are you just wondering where the fine line between daring and arrestable might be?' I asked her.

Sky looked down at the yellow platform sandals, tight denim hotpants and barely there, sunflower-print bra-top she was wearing in surprise.

‘I was hanging out with Robbie from work,' she explained. ‘It's not that bad, is it? I was going for, like, a “summer fun” look. Because of the weather.'

‘Oh, I'm sure Robbie thought you were
lots
of summer fun,' Nix told her, still grinning like a madman.

‘I think the fact that Sky dresses to suit her mood rather than in the manner prescribed by her peers indicates an innate wisdom and appropriate self-esteem,' said Ki.

I waited for Nix to say ‘You would!', but suddenly he went tense.

‘Quick – get out of sight!' He pushed me behind a cut-out of Sasha the Sea Lion, Aqualand's mascot. Sky and Ki hurried after us. Nix peered out over Sasha's flipper.

‘What is it? The stalker guy?' I asked.

Nix shook his head, making room for me to look.

There at the entrance, clearly looking for someone, was Dale.

I stared up at Nix.

‘How did you know Dale was going to be here? Wait – how do you even know what he
looks
like?'

‘You told me his name and suburb, remember?' Nix put his head next to mine so he could keep Dale under observation. ‘Yesterday I looked him up – there's only one phone listing for McCarthy in Blackwood Heights. So I took a train up there to get a look at the guy, and before long he came out of his house and went down the street, checking over his shoulder and generally doing the whole suspicious character bit.' He glanced at me, and I saw a glimmer of Friday's anger back in his eyes. ‘Your man Dale isn't well-versed in subtlety.'

‘He's not “my man”,' I muttered.

‘So naturally I followed him,' continued Nix, apparently ignoring me. Dale was still standing in the gateway looking lost. ‘He went to a park and got out his phone. I listened in from behind a tree.'

‘You stalked him?' I gaped at Nix, trying to decide whether to be impressed or horrified.

Nix grinned.

‘Hey,
he
may not be subtle, but my skills in that area verge on ninja-like.'

‘Says the man who scored a week's detention for painting his buttocks in school colours and mooning the Under 15 football team,' snorted Sky.

‘Showing school spirit isn't
meant
to be subtle, Miss Cynic. And I'll have you know I managed to hear his whole conversation. He told the person on the other end of the phone that he had more information to hand over and that he'd meet them here at three o'clock today. The other dude must have been pressuring Dale, because he started whining on about how it was difficult to get any more info and how someone in the office was getting suspicious of him.'

‘He must've meant me,' I said.

‘Yeah, I think so too.' He turned worried eyes on me. ‘At the end, he said: “No, I couldn't do that to her!”'

I gulped. Surely Dale wouldn't hurt me? It was hard to believe, but it was also hard to believe he'd be giving information about the office to some dodgy character – and that was obviously true. I'd known Nix a long
time. He could be juve at times, but he never lied. Even when the truth could get him into trouble, as it often had.

‘He's on the move!' Nix grabbed my arm, pulling me after him as he shot out from our hiding place. Sure enough, Dale was striding towards the shark pool, his phone pressed to his ear. I stumbled after Nix, looking back for the others. Ki was keeping up, holding her long skirt bunched up in one hand, while Sky tottered along behind in her platform heels.

The hourly shark show had just started, and latecomers were still jostling for seats on the concrete steps that rose up around one side of the pool. Dale made his way to the far end of a row near the front, where a grey-haired man with a moustache was sitting next to a small girl with pigtails. Dale sat down beside them and shook the man's hand.

‘Okay, we need to get closer so we can find out what they're up to,' said Nix.

‘We might be able to hear them if we conceal ourselves at the side of the steps,' suggested Ki, pointing. She was right – Dale was only a couple of metres away from the edge of the concrete, where a rail protected spectators from the sheer drop to the pavement below. There was space for us to crouch down beside the wall. We hurried over, keeping low.

‘Sheila, the oldest of our great whites here at Aqualand, is over four-and-a-half metres long,' the shark show presenter was saying over the loudspeakers.
I sneaked a look up over the edge of the steps. Dale and the moustachioed man were talking, but there was no way I could hear them over the noise of the crowd and the commentary.

‘Can one of you guys go up there?' I asked, ducking down again. ‘There's a free spot between us and Dale – someone could sit there and try to listen in.'

‘Well, it can't be me,' said Nix.

‘Why not?'

Nix looked a little chagrined.

‘He spotted me behind the tree yesterday after he put his phone away. I pretended I was taking bark samples, but I'm not sure if he bought it.' There was a pause while Sky and I stared accusingly at him and Ki rolled her eyes. ‘What?' he demanded. ‘Even ninjas get caught occasionally!'

‘Okay, so it needs to be Sky or Ki,' I said.