Murder in the Dark, page 13
He walked up the hill to the equipment centre, leaving just the Professor sitting by the fire with Penny and me. She waited until she was sure Paul was out of earshot, and then fixed me with a steady gaze.
‘This investigation was my last chance to be a success, and it’s all gone wrong.’ She shook her head slowly. ‘I have to salvage something from this mess … Because the next generation of hot young things is never far behind. The scientific community is supposed to be all about adding new things to Humanity’s store of knowledge … But in reality it’s always “What have you done recently?”. And unless it’s big enough and new enough, they throw you on the scrapheap without even a second thought for who you used to be. I’m damned if I’ll go quietly into the long night of retirement! Not while my mind is still sharp.
‘I’m going to take one last look at Terry and Robert’s notes, see if there might be anything significant in them that we missed. Then I think I’ll get some sleep, too. It’s been a long day. And night.’ She looked at me coldly. ‘Feel free to stay on guard. That worked so well the last time.’
She heaved herself up on to her feet and headed for the equipment centre. She passed Paul coming back, heading for the tents, and they murmured quietly to each other before continuing on their way. Penny looked at me.
‘It’s good that these people feel they can unburden themselves to us.’
‘I thought so,’ I said.
‘Is it just me, or did the Professor seem a bit despondent? And really, really bitter?’
‘Disillusioned, certainly, when it comes to the academic world. And definitely bitter about what’s happened to her career … But to be honest, I’m getting that from all of them. A sense that all their careers were going down for the third time, and this investigation was their lifeline. They weren’t only chosen because they were geniuses. It mattered just as much that they were desperate. And possibly, expendable.’
‘Like us?’ said Penny.
‘Oh, that goes without saying in our line of work. But I don’t think anyone here was ever going to get what they wanted. There are no Nobel Prizes to be found in that hole. It’s just a mystery that may possibly be beyond human comprehension.’
‘Are you including yourself in that?’ said Penny.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I’ve seen my share of marvels and mysteries, horrible things and terrible places … And sometimes the smartest thing you can do is walk away.’
‘I don’t think we have that option here,’ said Penny. ‘We need to figure this mystery out, or there’s a real possibility none of us will be here by morning.’
I looked at the tents. ‘You know, just once on these kind of cases … Just once I wish that when I tell people to stay together they’d stay together. It’s not rocket science! It’s always the ones who go off on their own who end up getting killed. Why does no one ever listen to me?’
‘Because you’re always too reasonable with them,’ said Penny. ‘People don’t respond well to reason.’
‘Humans!’ I growled.
‘We could always discuss mating rituals …’ said Penny.
‘Later,’ I said.
We sat together for a while, listening to the crackle of the flames in the fire and the unnervingly complete quiet of the night outside the camp’s circle of light.
‘It’s hard to come up with any plans,’ I said finally, ‘when we can’t even be sure what it is we’re fighting. Or if there actually is anything to fight. All we know for sure is that two scientists have died. I am seriously considering phoning the Colonel and having him send me a really nasty bomb, so I can drop it into the hole.’
‘To blow up the hole?’ said Penny.
‘No,’ I said. ‘To persuade whatever’s at the bottom of the hole to stop messing with us.’
‘Ishmael,’ Penny said carefully, ‘is there any particular reason why you’re so reluctant to call the Colonel? I know you don’t like asking for help, but wouldn’t we be better off with a small army of heavily armed reinforcements to secure the site and protect these people?’
‘I’m not phoning the Colonel,’ I said, just as carefully, ‘because he told me not to. Apparently there’s some big head-butting jurisdictional fight going on, between the Organization and Black Heir, as to who should have control over the hole. I don’t know any more than that, because that’s all the Colonel told me. Except … that while the Organization and Black Heir might be co-operating for the moment, that could change at any time.
‘The Colonel was very firm that I shouldn’t do anything that might make the Organization appear weak. If I admit failure and call for help, Black Heir could use that as an excuse to kick the two of us out and put in their own people. And the Colonel informed me that if that were to happen the Organization might well decide they don’t need my services any more … I would be cut loose and set adrift, with no more protection from the suspicious and inquisitive world.’
‘They can’t just let you go!’ said Penny. ‘Not after everything you’ve done for them!’
‘Of course they can,’ I said. ‘The only thing the Organization and I have ever had in common is that we’re useful to each other.’
Penny looked at me for a long moment. ‘Would you really put these people’s lives at risk rather than lose the Organization’s protection?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘But what if I make the call and the Colonel says things don’t sound bad enough to justify sending any help? I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to look bad to the Organization. I can’t call him until I’ve got something important enough to compel him to take action.’
Penny shook her head slowly. ‘I always thought the Organization was above that kind of petty politics.’
‘Me too,’ I said. ‘But when you get right down to it, the Organization has to work alongside all the other secret groups that deal with cases of the weird and uncanny. Mostly they all stick to their own particular areas of expertise, but there are bound to be cases where they’re ready to clash over some particularly tasty prize. Of course, no one wants a civil war … unless they can be sure they’ll win. And let’s be honest, Penny, what good would reinforcements do, anyway? By the time they could get here, any number of things could have happened – including the hole’s disappearance. We’re the ones best suited to working out what the hell is going on here.’
‘You know, for someone who isn’t a scientist, you do talk a lot of sense sometimes,’ said Paul.
I looked up with a start. I hadn’t heard him stop off to listen to us, on his way to the tents.
‘Something we can do for you, Paul?’ I asked, just a bit pointedly.
‘I’ve done all I can for now,’ said Paul. ‘The hole is behaving itself, and I’ve got to get some sleep before I collapse. Has the Professor come back yet?’
‘Where from?’ said Penny.
‘She said she was going to take one last look at the hole before turning in,’ said Paul.
I quickly rose to my feet, and so did Penny. I looked up the hill to the hole, starkly illuminated by its extra lights. There was no sign of the Professor.
‘She couldn’t have been that stupid, could she?’ said Penny. ‘To go there on her own after everything that’s happened?’
‘There’s something about the hole,’ I said. ‘It gets to people.’
Penny looked quickly around her. ‘I don’t see her anywhere.’
I headed for the hole, and Penny and Paul hurried after me.
‘The Professor was determined to get something out of this investigation while the hole’s still here,’ I said, not looking back at the others because I didn’t want to take my eyes off the hole. ‘She needed something she could present to the Government to justify her presence here. But what could she have been planning to do?’
‘Probably something desperate,’ said Paul. ‘Because what else has she got?’
I felt a sudden urgency and pressed on ahead, leaving Penny and Paul behind. When I got to the hole, it looked exactly the same. No sign that the Professor had been there, or tried to do anything. Penny and Paul caught up with me, and we all stood together, well behind the safety line. The hole stared calmly back at us, its flat black surface giving nothing away.
‘She couldn’t have gone in, could she?’ said Penny.
‘She didn’t cross the line,’ I said. ‘Look at the grass in front of the hole. No fresh footprints.’
‘You’ve got good eyes,’ said Paul.
‘Usually,’ I said.
‘Can you see any traces in the grass to show where the Professor might have gone after she left here?’ said Penny.
I looked, but the whole area had been so trampled over it was impossible to make out anything.
‘We have to find the Professor,’ I said, ‘and make sure she hasn’t done anything stupid. Or dangerous.’
I led the way back down the hillside. The camp lay open and empty before us, brightly illuminated by the perimeter lights. There was no sign of the Professor anywhere.
‘Maybe she’s inside her tent,’ said Penny.
‘She would have had to pass right by us when we were sitting beside the fire,’ I said. ‘And I didn’t see or hear anything.’
Penny looked at me. She didn’t say anything, because she didn’t need to. It was becoming clearer all the time that my senses weren’t as sharp as usual.
‘Could the Beast have sneaked into the camp and carried away the Professor?’ said Paul.
‘I would definitely have noticed that,’ I said.
When we finally reached the tents I looked at Paul, and he pointed to the one on the far left. I strode over to it, ripped open the flaps, and stuck my head in. There was just enough light for me to make out a single sleeping bag, opened but not slept in. No personal belongings, not even a change of clothes. That’s what happens when a secret Government department drags you away to work for them without any warning. I stepped back, let the flaps close, and looked at Penny and Paul.
‘She’s not in there.’
‘Could she have left the site?’ said Paul. ‘Maybe tried to get to your car?’
‘It’s locked,’ Penny said immediately. ‘And I’ve got the keys.’ She stopped, and slapped her pocket hard to hear them jingle. Just to reassure herself. And then she frowned, and looked out into the dark. ‘Perhaps she heard something moving around, like we did earlier. But she’d have had more sense than to go out into the dark on her own, wouldn’t she?’
We moved over to the nearest part of the perimeter and stood between two lights, looking out into the night. It looked back at us, cold and silent and unfathomable. I couldn’t see a thing, and when I strained my hearing against the hush I couldn’t hear anything either. Penny looked at me.
‘You are not going out into the dark after the Professor,’ she said flatly.
‘I wasn’t planning to,’ I said. ‘Not without some evidence that she’s out there.’
‘There’s nowhere left to look in the camp,’ said Paul.
‘Maybe she’s in the toilet,’ said Penny.
We looked past the tents, to the single portable cabin. The door was hanging open.
‘All right,’ said Penny. ‘Maybe she sneaked into one of the other tents.’
‘I’m pretty sure Mike or Ellie would have made one hell of a fuss about that,’ I said.
‘What if she wanted to look at the bodies?’ said Paul.
We inspected the tent where I’d put Terry and Robert.
‘The tent flaps are still closed,’ I said. ‘She would have had to leave them open if she was still inside.’
‘She has to be somewhere!’ said Penny.
A woman screamed, shrill and piercing, and then the sound cut off abruptly. I spun round, to look at the hole. And all I could think was: Something’s got out …
Mike’s head emerged from his tent, bleary-eyed and confused.
‘What is it? What’s happening?’
‘Something’s happened at the hole,’ I said. ‘Stay here!’
I sprinted up the hill. Paul and Penny hurried after me, but I soon left them behind. I could hear Mike calling Ellie’s name outside her tent, but there was no reply.
When I got to the hole, the Professor was standing over another body, her face full of shock and horror. It took me a moment to understand the body was Ellie’s, because the head was gone. Not just removed: there was no sign of it anywhere. And just like Robert’s missing arm, despite the severity of the injury the wound was unnaturally smooth and there wasn’t a trace of blood anywhere on the grass surrounding the hole.
Penny and Paul finally arrived, struggling to get their breath. Penny made a low sound as she saw the headless body, and grabbed hold of my arm. Paul just stood there. Mike arrived a few moments later, breathing hard.
‘Ellie’s missing!’ he said. ‘She’s not in her tent!’
‘We know,’ I said, as gently as I could.
Mike looked at the headless body. He tried to say something, but couldn’t. As though all the breath had been punched out of him. He dropped to his knees beside Ellie and started to cry, great heaving sobs that shook his whole body. Penny put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but he didn’t even know she was there. I turned to the Professor, and she started talking without taking her eyes off the headless body.
‘I went to Ellie’s tent, because I’d had a marvellous new insight I wanted to discuss with her, but the tent was empty. I was heading back to the equipment centre, to check out my idea, when I heard something moving up by the hole. By the time I got here, Ellie was already dead.’
I stopped listening, intent on my own thoughts. How did Ellie leave her tent and get past me without my noticing? Why did she leave her tent in the first place, though she said she was exhausted? And why come to the hole, after what it did to Robert? Did it call her? Or did someone persuade her to go?
‘Why didn’t anyone stop her?’ said Mike. He’d stopped himself crying through an effort of will. His voice was so steady it sounded almost emotionless.
‘We don’t yet know what happened,’ I said. ‘I think you should go back to the fire, Mike, while we try to work this out.’
‘I don’t want to go,’ said Mike. ‘I don’t want to leave her.’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘But there’s nothing you can do. She’s gone.’
I looked at Penny, and she tried to help Mike to his feet. But she couldn’t move him. Paul stepped in to help, and between them they got Mike on his feet and heading back down the hill to the fire. He didn’t have the strength to fight them.
‘You should go with them,’ I said to the Professor.
She shook her head. ‘I need to understand what happened. You were supposed to be on guard! How did she get past you?’
‘It’s the hole,’ I said steadily. ‘It has to be the hole. Just by being here, this unnatural thing forced into our reality is affecting everything around it. Messing with our minds and our senses … None of us have been thinking clearly. The hole is hiding things from us.’
The Professor flinched at the anger in my voice. She turned away to look at the headless body again.
‘We are sure this is Ellie? I mean, without a head …’
‘Those are her clothes,’ I said. ‘And this close, I can smell her scent.’
‘Her perfume?’
‘More than that,’ I said.
She looked at me, puzzled, but didn’t press the point. I knelt down beside the body. The neck had been severed with impossible precision; there was nothing to indicate the teeth or claws of a Beast at work. It had to be the result of sudden contact with the edge of the hole. Just like Robert. There were no signs of damage anywhere else on the body and no defensive wounds to the hands or arms, which suggested she never got a chance to protect herself. But why would Ellie go so close to the hole, after what happened to Robert? She’d been so disturbed by his death, and the manner of it, that I would have bet good money she’d never go near the hole again.
‘What was she doing here?’ said the Professor.
‘I think somebody brought her here,’ I said, getting to my feet. ‘Someone went to Ellie’s tent, woke her up, and persuaded her to come here.’
‘Why would she go?’ said the Professor.
‘Either this other person was very convincing, or it was someone she trusted,’ I said. ‘But who could it have been? I was with Penny. And Paul was with us when she screamed. So that just leaves Mike – who came out of his tent right after the scream – and you. Where were you, Professor? We looked all over for you.’
‘Ellie wasn’t the one who screamed,’ she said quietly. ‘It was me. It was just such a shock …’
‘But where were you before that?’ I said.
‘I went to check the generator was working properly,’ she said. ‘After what you said about how defenceless we’d be if the lights went out, I thought I should check. It’s set up some distance behind the tents. That’s why you didn’t see me.’
I let that pass, for the moment. I hadn’t been seeing a lot of things.
‘Ellie would have trusted Mike,’ I said. ‘She might have come here with him, if he’d asked. But why would he do something like this?’
‘He wanted her to love him,’ said the Professor. ‘We all saw that. Maybe she decided she didn’t. So he brought her here …’
‘But how could he have persuaded her to go somewhere she was so afraid of?’
‘To face her fear?’ said the Professor. ‘Particularly if she was having trouble sleeping. Mike would understand how her mind worked.’
‘So would Paul,’ I said. ‘He could have asked her for help with a scientific problem. He was with me when we heard the scream, but since that was you no one has an alibi … And then there’s you, Professor. We couldn’t find you anywhere, and you had the authority to order her to go with you to the hole.’
‘Why would I do that?’ said the Professor.
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Is there anything you want to tell me, Professor?’
