Diamond Eyes (51 page)

‘You washed it?’ Ben asked.

‘It was hardly coming into the house as it was, Ben-Ben.’

‘Fair enough. Pull up a seat?’

Mira heard her sigh and walk away instead. Mellow began pacing the deck, her footsteps tapping a similar tune to the one set by Ben in the foyer of the Drift Inn.

‘Break it to me gently,’ Mellow pleaded. ‘The truth, the whole truth … You know the deal.’

Ben took a seat beside Mira and spent the next few minutes explaining about how they’d met and taken a day trip that ended with him in jail for kidnapping.

‘She’s an inmate?’

‘Client,’ Ben corrected. ‘She’s blind, but —’

‘Stop right there! You had me going for a while, but nobody owns a car if they can’t see to drive it; and a hot pink Beetle at that? That’s a fashion statement, Ben, and who needs a fashion statement if they can’t see to bask in it?’

‘The car isn’t hers, Ma. It belongs to Matron Sanchez.’

‘But she saw the piano. Explain how she did that if she’s as blind as a bat?’

‘Even bats can see in their own way,’ Mira defended.

‘She can see some things,’ Ben explained. ‘I was just getting to that. She can’t see you or me at the moment, but hopefully next week —’

‘Oh, stop. She’s either blind or not. If her eyesight is only blurry then just say so. I’ve had it up to here with the way you keep dodging the truth. It’s not healthy for you. Or for us.’

‘That’s what I thought at first too, but Mira is legally blind, not totally blind. She can’t see well enough to recognise anyone or anything around her.’

‘Oh, like cataracts when you get old?’

‘Like a thick fog,’ Mira replied.

‘She can also sense movement,’ Ben explained. ‘A bit like shadows, only today Mira saw a shadow commit murder — and now the person responsible wants to make sure she doesn’t tell anyone.’

‘You’re serious?’

‘I’d swear on your Bible.’

‘Since when did you start believing in God again, Ben?’

‘I can recognise a miracle when I see one, Ma. Can you?’

He touched Mira’s arm and she shuddered, knowing what he needed her to do. She closed her eyes and rubbed them, preparing herself for the agony of broad daylight … then swiftly and determinedly took off her sunglasses.

‘Sweet Mother of Mary!’ Mellow’s footsteps moved closer to Mira.

‘Please hurry,’ Mira pleaded. ‘Light hurts me incredibly.’

She tried not to squint, and around her the house vanished. Scrubby trees appeared in the same blink that the purple sand turned blue. The ocean rushed away, taking the beach and coastline with it, and a whale lay dead and sunbaked in its wake. Two dark skinny hunters, boys really, poked at it with their spears, while a third climbed onto its back and slid down to its tail with silent shouts of glee.

‘What’s wrong with her?’ Mellow asked.

‘What is her gift is a better question,’ Ben replied.

Mira took that as a cue to put her glasses back on. She fossicked in her bra for Karin Sei’s painkillers, dissolved two under her tongue and rubbed her temples, wishing the pain away.

‘Okay, so what is her gift?’ said Mellow.

‘That’s complicated. The docs don’t know exactly how her eyes function yet, but they’re working on it. Or they would be, if we hadn’t stumbled across the murder and become witnesses.’

‘You saw the murder too?’

‘Indirectly. The two docs who were with us have already been captured, and their two assistants were killed right in front of us, so no doubt we’ll be framed for their murders as well when their bodies turn up.’

‘Ben, this is horrific! Have you contacted the police?’

‘You know how I feel about cops, Ma. Besides, the killer’s already taken steps to frame us, and the cops are no doubt siding with him. How do you think they’re going to greet me if I call them?’

‘That depends. Do you know who the killer is?’

Mira nodded and Ben confirmed it.

‘Then you have to tell someone!’

‘We are, Ma. We’re telling you.’

‘I mean someone who’s got the authority to do something!’

‘That’s the plan — we just don’t know who yet. We have to find somewhere to lie low, figure things out. I was thinking of a camping ground maybe, over the border, one that allows dogs. Mira has excellent hearing, but I want to take Killer with us so she can get some rest — if that’s okay with you?’

‘Sure, but you don’t have to leave. I can bring someone here; someone who already knows you.’

‘Oh, yeah? And who would that be?’

‘I think he introduced himself to you as Pete.’

‘Pete the P-I-G? You’ve gotta be kidding me?
He’s
your new boyfriend?’

‘You can’t go through life judging every cop by the ones who failed to investigate the robbery properly.’

‘Oh, I think I’m fairly safe to judge
him.
He pulled me over for no reason!’

‘A random check, he told me. Besides, look at it from his perspective: he saw a young guy in a hot car driving fast over the bridge from Likiba, and nobody goes there except developers, staff from the nuthouse and transients thieving from the worksites.’

‘He also headed the team that nabbed me for kidnapping!’

‘A mistake. He knows that now. Who do you think got your car back so quickly after it had been sent to Brisbane?’

‘For charges that have now been dropped! It certainly took him long enough!’

Ben began to pace the deck; from the heavy pace of his stride, Mira could tell he was angry — angrier than she could ever have imagined him being. It wasn’t directed at her, though.

‘You haven’t answered me yet,’ he demanded. ‘Is this the guy you’ve been seeing?’

‘It’s not a sure thing yet, Benny. Was I wrong to save you the worry until now?’

He didn’t answer, and there was a long, tense silence. Mira wished she knew something to say or do to help ease the friction between them.

‘Let me call him,’ Mellow pleaded. ‘He’s not long gone, so he can be back here in ten minutes.’

‘With a hundred of his mates, I’ll bet — and handcuffs.’

‘He doesn’t need to know why he’s coming. I’ll just tell him I need him.’

‘You’d lie for me? And risk losing him too?’

‘I won’t be lying! I don’t want to be dragged through another court case any more than you do, and I certainly can’t bear to see you locked up again. But I’m sure Pete would listen to your side without prejudice. I know him. If he’d been stationed here six years ago, who knows how things might have turned out? Her footsteps took her closer to him. ‘Please, Bennet. Don’t do anything to make yourself look guilty while you still have a chance to prove that you’re innocent. Not again!’

He stayed silent for a longer moment, then strode back to Mira and crouched beside her. ‘What do you think?’

Mira shrugged. ‘I think you were right. Officially, I’m a ward of the state. The worst they can do is send me back to Serenity. I used to think that was torture, but …’ She reached out to find his face. ‘… it was much worse knowing the police had locked you up because of me.’

‘So you agree I shouldn’t trust them?’

‘Well, I don’t trust them, but I didn’t trust you at first either, and how wrong was I about that?’

‘What about the docs and Matron? Do you trust them?’

She shrugged again. ‘Up to a point I do.’

‘Don’t listen to her!’ insisted Mellow. ‘Remember where she lives!’

‘I’d rather stay focused on who she is and why we trust each other,’ Ben said.

‘You can’t do that,’ Mira argued. ‘Your mum loves you, I can hear that much. You should trust her more than me.’

‘Trust me,’ Mellow pleaded.

‘This affects her too, though, Ma.’ Ben clutched Mira’s hands together in his. ‘Maybe I could borrow against the house again to hire a lawyer? A better one than last time. Or blow the whistle to someone high up in the military police?’

‘Either way,’ Mellow argued, ‘there’ll come a time when you have to trust somebody.’

‘Blind faith?’ Mira said. ‘At Serenity, Ben, you convinced me to fight my demons sooner rather than later. Now your mum’s trying to convince you to do the same thing.’

He sighed heavily, then patted Mira’s hand, but she withdrew it from him and caressed his cheek.

‘All right, Ma,’ he said finally. ‘If you really trust your friend with my life, then call him.’

G
eneral Garland hurried into the windowless room where Doctors Zhou and Van Danik were waiting. She dismissed the four guards and a nurse, leaving her alone with the two men.

‘Are we prisoners?’ asked Zhou.

‘On the contrary.’ Garland inspected the bandage helping to immobilise Van Danik’s freshly stitched forehead. ‘I’ve come to make you an offer.’

Van Danik frowned and pulled away from her. ‘Does it involve a firing squad or a jail term if we decline?’

‘Hardly. I need you to come with me. Are you both fit enough to fly?’

‘That depends.’ Zhou glanced towards the guards posted outside the door. ‘Where are we going?’

‘To the labs at Sandy Creek. If Kitching’s got the girl, I suspect that’s where he’s headed.’

‘If he doesn’t shoot her first!’

‘Dr Zhou, I can assure you that I’m fully informed of the situation. If you’re right about her, he can’t afford to hurt her — not yet. He needs access to proper medical facilities first.’

Van Danik laughed. ‘No offence, General, but why would he be so stupid as to go to the lab when he knows we’re on the loose and ready to blab on him the first chance we get?’

‘He doesn’t know you’re on the loose. The two men he assigned to find you were actually
my
men. As far as Kitching knows, you’ve been caught and they’re bringing you to him.’

‘How’s that supposed to reassure us?’ asked Zhou. ‘You could be about to deliver us right to him.’

‘And why didn’t your men try to stop him earlier if they were working undercover for you?’ Van Danik added.

‘Undercover is undercover,’ Garland said with a frown. ‘Do you want to help save Miss Chambers or not?’

‘Of course,’ Zhou said. ‘But she’s safely stashed away now. How can he get to her?’

‘Time is short. If you want to play twenty questions, we’ll have to do it in the air. This way, gentlemen. My pilot is waiting.’

‘Let him wait,’ Zhou said. ‘We won’t tell you where she is.’

‘You don’t need to. I can tell you where she isn’t. She isn’t at Serenity — I’ve just been there — and until she is, she’s fair game for Kitching.’

Zhou and Van Danik exchanged panicked glances.

‘If you’re suggesting this is a rescue mission,’ Zhou said cautiously, ‘what’s the catch? The military doesn’t throw money, time or assets at anything without expecting something in return.’

‘Kitching is my mistake and my responsibility,’ Garland confessed. ‘I need to catch him — preferably in the act of selling military secrets.’

‘Mira isn’t a military secret,’ Van Danik argued. ‘She’s a civilian, and a remarkable one at that.’

‘Kitching also has your data and equipment,’ Garland countered. ‘Is Miss Chambers really so remarkable that you’d forgo retrieving all that?’

Zhou exchanged another look with Van Danik.

‘Yes,’ they replied as one voice. ‘She is.’

Waves clapped the beach, the dog barked and seagulls squawked along the shoreline. In the midst of it, Mira could hear Ben’s mother inside the house, muttering about the phone call and how long she’d been waiting on hold.

‘Do you think she’s still mad at me?’ Mira asked.

‘Actually, I think you won her over as soon as you sided with her.’

‘But you didn’t tell her everything about me.’

‘She’s not ready. One tidal wave at a time is hard enough surfing.’

‘Oh …’ Mira’s heart sank. ‘I’m sorry. I suppose I am really just a wave that crashed on you.’

‘Hell, no!’ He hurried to her side, careful not to touch or startle her. ‘You’re very special to me, Mira — just as your poet trees are to you.’ He took her hands in such a delicate manner that she barely flinched. ‘Even more, I hope.’

A warmth spread through his hands to hers, filling her with an emotion that she couldn’t describe.

Tugging her gently to her feet, he pulled her a little closer and her inner warmth swelled to a glow.

‘I have some news, though, and this is going to be very difficult … for both of us.’

‘More difficult than having Colonel Kitching try to kill us?’

He didn’t chuckle as she’d hoped he would, and her glow turned to worry.

‘There’s no easy way to say this. I’ll have to show you.’ He led her around the table to the railing, wherethe breeze played with her hair and the knee-length skirt of her dress.

‘I went home again — to
your
home,’ he explained.

‘Without me?’

‘Yes, this morning,’ he confessed. ‘Your operation is scheduled for Monday, and I thought the docs would need you all weekend, so I didn’t know when you’d get a chance to go back. I wanted to find a keepsake for you … help keep your goal feeling close and alive.’

‘Oh, Ben! That’s so sweet, but there was really no need. I’ve already learned how to carry my home in my heart. It’s how I’ve survived all these years.’

‘That’s good, Mira. That’s very good.’ He patted her hand. ‘I need you to hold onto that because I … I … found this.’

He leaned away momentarily and she heard something move from the table, then he placed a cold familiar shape into her hands — so very tenderly, as if it were made of the most delicate glass. She explored it for a moment with her fingers until she found the thumbtack Braille. ‘"To see a world …"’ Her expression darkened. ‘You broke this? You didn’t remember it was from my favourite tree?’

‘I broke nothing, Mira. I fell in love with that place too, I swear. I … I found that on the ground. I’m so sorry, Mira; so very, very sorry.’

‘Hey, don’t be.’ She cupped his cheek and smiled. ‘Those trees throw down branches sometimes after rain or high winds. It’s sad but inevitable.’

‘I wish that was true this time, but there’s nothing natural about …’ She heard anger flare in his voice so sharply she could almost smell it, ‘… this atrocity!’

Her heart raced. ‘What do you mean?’