Lethal Outbreak (10 page)

‘But she’s hardly been on the radar,’ Lexi said, on the way to intercept Fern Mountstephen, one of the technicians from Shallow End Laboratories. ‘She’s got a cast-iron alibi. She was at a gym on Sunday evening.’

‘Yeah,’ Troy agreed. Then he added, ‘I’m thinking that through.’

‘She was a Friend to the Integrated Games.’

‘I’m going to ask her about that.’

Lexi sighed and changed tack. ‘It’s a bit of a coincidence that Oriana Skillicorn talked about targeting hospitals at the meeting last night and today … ’

‘Exactly. The third demand to segregate hospitals. But it doesn’t make her our murderer for certain. For one thing, she’s not enough of a scientist. But someone else might be doing her bidding. Someone who heard her TRAPT talk or someone she’s met since. Somebody who knows enough science.’

‘Like Fern Mountstephen?’

‘Maybe.’

‘Or it really could be a coincidence.’

Troy smiled. ‘You don’t believe that.’

‘No.’

Troy and Lexi heard the loud snarls and growls from the stadium even before they entered. ‘You wouldn’t want to live near it, would you?’ said Troy, almost shouting above the racket.

‘I wouldn’t mind,’ Lexi yelled back. ‘It gets the adrenalin going.’

They had been informed by the surveillance team that both Precious Austin and Fern Mountstephen were at Shepford Speedway. As they went in, the revving of motorcycles became deafening. The tapes went up and four bikes hurtled down the oval track. Under floodlights, the riders slid round the first corner almost sideways, tyres kicking up clouds of orangey-brown dirt.

‘Let’s walk round till we see her,’ Troy yelled at his partner.

Lexi did not shift her eyes from the race. She merely nodded.

Troy imagined he’d have to hold Lexi back from grabbing a bike and having a go.

The speedway riders went anti-clockwise four times around the sand-coloured track. The race was all over in just over one minute and, for a while, the noise level eased. But the next four riders were already appearing from the tunnel. Engines soon began to snarl again. As Troy and Lexi moved through the crowd, another contest began and one of the motorcycles threw up particularly dense clouds of dirt over the spectators at both ends of the stadium as it broadsided into the bends.

Lexi looked down and noticed that orange specks had settled on the sleeve of her coat. She nudged her partner and pointed out the stain.

Troy nodded. There was a lull in the proceedings and he took advantage of the quiet to speak without shouting. ‘Same colour as the marks on that piece of cardboard.’

‘Like grains of sand,’ Lexi said. ‘Whoever arranged the second demand might have taken the dirt home from here.’

There seemed to be an interval in the tournament. The two detectives weaved through the spectators more quickly. Without the distraction of the speedway heats, Lexi paid more attention to faces in the crowd.

They spotted Fern Mountstephen in the east stand with a group of friends, all sipping hot drinks from plastic cups. Judging by the smell, some contained alcohol. Precious Austin was not among them. When Fern noticed the detectives, her expression changed rapidly from merriment to displeasure.

‘Sorry to interrupt,’ Troy said, ‘but we need a chat. It’d be better to go somewhere … quieter. More private.’

Fern groaned but agreed. Coat spattered with grime from the track, she led them to the stadium café which was almost deserted. Clearly, spectators had made their way back to trackside in anticipation of the next round of races.

They sat down at a table and Troy began. ‘How did you get on with Precious Austin when she was still working at the labs?’

Fern shrugged. ‘Okay, I guess.’

‘Have you seen her since?’

‘Now and again, yes.’

‘Here tonight?’

She hesitated for an instant. ‘No.’

‘When was the last time?’ Troy asked.

‘Earlier this evening, as it happens.’

Outside, engines began to rev up once more.

‘What about Oriana Skillicorn?’

‘She was with Precious. In the restaurant down the road.’

‘I’m guessing it was a major-only one?’

‘As it turns out, yes.’

‘Did you eat with them?’

‘No. I was just there. We didn’t arrange to meet. I sat with them for a few minutes – just to be social, you know. They’re a bit … ’

‘What?’

‘Prejudiced. Against outers.’

‘And you’re not?’ said Troy.

‘Didn’t you see my friends?’ She nodded towards the east stand. ‘Two majors and five outers.’

‘You’re quick to tell me that. Why do you think I’d be interested?’

‘Because you’re investigating a major versus outer thing. It’s got nothing to do with me because I like outers. Obviously.’

Troy pretended to be puzzled. ‘Hang on. You think you’re a suspect. Why?’

‘Because, as it happens, you’re questioning me.’

Troy smiled. ‘We don’t confine ourselves to suspects. Most of the time, we talk to people with useful information.’

Fern looked doubtful. ‘What do you want to know?’

‘You were a Friend to the Integrated Games. What was that all about?’

‘I thought it would be a good thing to support. I don’t know what I was going to be asked to do. It would’ve been some sort of stewarding job.’

To Troy, it seemed like an easy way to deflect suspicion by appearing to approve of the mixing of majors and outers.

Four noisy engines revved simultaneously as the next heat got underway.

Troy asked, ‘Do you come here a lot?’

‘Quite a lot. It’s really exciting. When you’re allowed to watch.’

‘Can Lexi see the sleeve of your blouse – or whatever? Just pull the coat up a bit.’

Fern did as he asked and Lexi took a photograph of the buttoned cuff.

‘What’s this about?’

Lexi said, ‘I’m going to need to see all your tops.’

‘As it turns out, I didn’t bring them all with me,’ Fern replied with venom.

Lexi ignored the sarcasm. ‘No problem. We can go back to your place.’

‘But … ’ Disappointed, she glanced in the direction of the track.

‘We’re investigating three murders,’ Troy said. ‘I think that trumps a night out with mates at speedway.’

Fern sighed. ‘I suppose so.’

‘Well?’ Troy whispered impatiently in Fern Mountstephen’s bedroom.

‘There’s one here,’ Lexi told him quietly as she completed the recognition analysis on her life-logger. ‘It’s a buttoned cuff from one of her blouses and it’s as good a match as Dominic Varney’s. Both fall within error limits.’

‘And she could easily have dropped a couple of specks from the speedway track onto the card. She said she goes a lot.’

‘It’s brick granules, apparently,’ Lexi told him. ‘That means clay to me. But … ’

‘What?’

Unsure how much Fern would be able to hear from downstairs, Lexi kept her voice quiet. ‘She’s got all these outer friends.’

‘She comes across as friendly but, behind that, there’s something severe about her. Are they really friends or is she acting – like Dominic Varney?’

‘You’re not convincing me.’

‘I reckon our guy keeps a low profile. She fits. She doesn’t go to TRAPT meetings, doesn’t spray graffiti on walls, and she stays close to outers. That could all be wool she’s pulling over our eyes, so she looks way south of guilty.’

‘Huh. Having a good alibi for Sunday night keeps her profile very low.’

Troy nodded. ‘I’ve asked Terabyte to go through every bit of the Shallow End computer. All night, if he needs it. I want him to find out exactly what happened last Sunday at about eight o’clock.’

‘What’s on your mind?’

‘Probably nothing. I just think we could use some Terabyte magic. For now,’ he said, ‘we need to know if she’s got a secret lab in here somewhere. With a vial, sticky tape that oozes acid, and bits of card with messages spelled out on them.’

‘I’ll send an emergency request for a search
warrant to our lovely new commander. Maybe it’ll get him out of bed.’ She smiled and added, ‘I hope so.’

‘Our reason’s flimsy, but the stakes are so high he’s got to give us permission. Hasn’t he?’

Lexi shrugged. ‘We’ll see.’

The temporary commander disagreed. His message was plain.
There’s far greater reason to issue a search warrant for Precious Austin’s house than Fern Mountstephen’s.

While Troy talked to Fern, the best that Lexi could do was to download the plan for the original building. And the first thing to catch her eye was that the main schematic showed a cellar.

Fern was complaining, ‘You’ve just invaded my wardrobe … ’

‘With your permission,’ Troy stressed.

‘Now you want to poke around everywhere else! Don’t you need some sort of warrant … ?’

‘That’s if we wanted to be thorough and, if necessary, break things open. We just want to take a quick look. You can give us permission to do that. You can escort us, if you want. I don’t know why you’d refuse, unless you’ve got something to hide.’

‘It’s getting late.’

Troy smiled. ‘I bet you’d still be at the speedway if it wasn’t for us.’

Fern sighed wearily and then said, ‘All right. Come on. I’ll take you upstairs again and work our way down.’

‘Thanks. It’s good of you,’ Troy replied, following her.

Ten minutes later, having peered into every room and explored her garden shed by torchlight, they were no wiser.

Lexi said, ‘There’s one place you haven’t shown us.’

‘Oh?’ Fern seemed surprised.

‘This house has a basement.’

‘Does it? Well, I’ve lived here for four years as it happens and I haven’t seen one.’ She spread her arms. ‘I mean, where is it?’

The plan of the building didn’t help. The place where there was supposed to be access to the cellar had long since been bricked up and become part of a cloakroom.

‘I think we’ve come to a dead end,’ Troy admitted. ‘Nothing else we can do unless we get a search warrant.’

Looking relieved, Fern showed the detectives to the door.

Walking away, Troy said, ‘We’ll put her under the closest possible surveillance overnight. I don’t want her to go to the toilet without us knowing.’

Lexi screwed up her nose. ‘Not a pleasant image.’ Then she added, ‘I’m going to analyse that third demand.’

Troy nodded. ‘Good. I’m going to have a think and, if I can, catch a nowhere-near-enough amount of sleep. Then … who knows?’

Lexi glanced at him. ‘You want this sorted out first thing in the morning.’

‘Don’t you?’

‘Sure,’ Lexi replied. ‘It’d be good to wrap this bit up neatly for the new investigator.’

Troy’s smile was grim. ‘I’d rather hand over a solved case with nothing to do but charge the bad guy.’

Lexi shook her head. ‘I’m not sure we’re even close.’

Saul Tingle had not left Shallow End Laboratories. He sat with Julia Neve Nineteen in the computer room and watched the scruffy young man from Shepford Crime Central as his fingers flew across a keypad, delving deeper and deeper into the programming.

Neither of them knew enough about computers to figure out what he was doing. They had to trust him. But both of them were anxious. This man – almost a boy – could cripple the workings of the laboratories if he deleted or altered one line of the intricate operating system.

Terabyte turned round, pushed his hair behind his
ears and said, ‘Any chance of a beer to keep me going? This is thirsty work.’

Julia nodded. ‘I’ll take care of it.’ She left the room.

‘You don’t have to watch me, you know,’ Terabyte said. ‘I’d probably finish quicker if I didn’t have spectators.’

‘Nervous spectators,’ Saul replied. ‘I’m here because I need to see that the system’s okay for next week. It’s vital to our safety and our entire business.’

‘I know,’ Terabyte replied as he got back to work. ‘You’ve made that point three times already. I’m treating it with respect. It’s a bit flabby, though.’

‘Flabby?’

‘Yeah. There’s the original set of instructions and hundreds of additions. Patches on patches. Really, you want to scrap the lot and start again from scratch. Keep it tight and neat. It’ll be faster and more reliable that way.’

‘I think we won’t touch it just yet,’ Saul replied. ‘Not while we’ve got … other things on our minds.’ He thought he heard a noise and he glanced at the door.

‘It self-checks,’ Terabyte told him. ‘When I’m finished, I’ll run a system-wide scan to make sure it’s as good as it can be.’

‘Good.’ But Saul still looked tense.

When Julia came back in with a large glass of dark ale for Terabyte, the unit director nearly jumped out of his chair.

‘Only me,’ she said.

Saul wiped some sweat from his brow. ‘I’m not used to working through the night. It’s quiet. Creepy.’

Terabyte downed half the beer in a single swig and then continued to delve into the complex codes.

It was an hour and a half later – just after he’d finished his third beer – when he sat back and said, ‘That’s it! I need to talk to Lexi and Troy.’

Saul jolted upright. ‘What about? What have you found?’

‘First,’ Terabyte replied, ‘I need to talk to them in private.’ He got up and left the computer room to find a place where he could call his colleagues in confidence.

Still drowsy, Troy sat on the edge of his bed and listened carefully. In Crime Central, Lexi was much more alert as she took part in the three-cornered conversation.

‘Right. I don’t know if this is what you’d got in mind, Troy, but there’s a difference in the way the lab’s computer recorded Sunday night’s raid into the high-security lab. Normally, when someone goes
through all those decontamination chambers, the software enters the time and date automatically in one type of format. I’ve gone back over weeks of data and it’s always the same. When the first door opens, the time gets recorded to the nearest tenth of a second. I don’t know why – it’s not necessary – but that’s what the system does. You get an entry like 09:55:17.2. Last Sunday, the door opened at 19:58:00.0 and, on the way out, it was 20:32:00.0. Now, what are the chances that someone went in and came out exactly on the nearest minute? Not even missing it by a tenth of a second.’

Troy shivered. He had begun to suspect trickery and Terabyte’s discovery made him wish he’d checked before.

Lexi said, ‘You’re suggesting someone entered the time and date manually – to the nearest minute – and the computer filled in the missing figures with zeroes.’

‘I can’t think of any other explanation,’ Terabyte replied.

‘So the doors didn’t open at all. Someone just made it look like they did.’

‘Good work,’ said Troy. ‘Exactly what you’d expect if someone wanted to provide themselves with a perfect alibi for Sunday night.’

Terabyte laughed. ‘That’s what’s let them down. The times are too perfect.’

Without wasting another moment, Troy said, ‘Let’s find out where Blaine Twenty-Two is, Lexi. I’ll meet you there.’