Part 23 (1/2)
The door was banged a second time, only this time more insistently.
”Screw it,” Jane sighed and walked to the door before Danny could stop her. She threw the door open hard enough to take a chunk out of the plaster on the inside wall and stood there staring at a man whose face she recognised but couldn't put a name to.
”Zerneck?” Danny exclaimed from behind her.
The name suddenly clicked into place for her and she remembered the reporter who had tried to ruin her reputation and out her as a fraud to the world. ”Randall Zerneck, the man who brought down a killer and saved a country.”
”I guess you're not keeping up to date with current events,” Zerneck smiled humourlessly. ”Commander Barrett was the real hero. I was working for him the whole time.”
”Really?” she asked, immediately regretting the question as his face frowned mockingly.
”What the h.e.l.l are you doing here, Zerneck?” Danny demanded.
”Looking for answers. Barrett has got me on a short leash.”
”How so?”
”Your civilian aide, Croft. I found her body but didn't report it. Barrett says that he can tie me to the scene and a whole lot more if I don't play ball.”
”He wouldn't go that far, would he?” Jane asked.
”Look at where we are now,” Danny replied snidely as the thought of his boss's face crossed his mind. ”There's a warrant out for me and he had you committed.”
”Fair point,” she conceded.
”Who told you we were here?” Danny asked Randall.
”I had no idea that you two were here. I got an anonymous phone call to come to this cabin and a promise of answers; I suppose that we're the only ones left with the motivation to keep looking for them.”
Jane didn't allow the pressures of gender programming to make her feel guilty as Danny sorted through the cupboards preparing a meal. They had been on the run all evening and despite the late hour, they found themselves surprisingly hungry. Randall was slumped in an armchair across from her in the open living area.
The reporter was still clutching a bottle of whisky that he'd found in a cabinet and it was now almost half empty. While her ability had been compromised at the school, she still trusted it enough to believe the reading that she was getting from him. She was almost sure that he didn't pose a present threat to them; he was just another lost soul looking for answers - the three of them had that in common. The big question, of course, was just who had sent him here in the first place, and, for that matter, who had known that she and Danny would be here in the first place?
She started to run through the suspects in her mind. Most of Danny's team were either confirmed dead or suspected so. The fire at the school had burned with such intensity that Danny had told her that the medical examiner would be sifting through the remains for some time trying to determine just who lay among the ashes. If this was a movie, she wouldn't be shocked to find that someone who she'd previously thought of as dead should suddenly put in a miraculous appearance.
Holding Kline's pen had shown her that it had been his hands that had taken so many lives, but there was still an unshakable feeling that this was not over.
She busied herself with nosing around the cabin. The place was spotless and minus the mouldy aroma that she would have a.s.sociated with such a building. The layout was functional, if a little cold, and it was hard to get a feeling of any particular person within these wooden walls. She was sure that not all old people would be p.r.o.ne to the acc.u.mulation of stuff but the cabin felt bare and devoid of its owner.
She eased her way further inside, pus.h.i.+ng open doors gently so as not to let Danny know that she was prying. It wasn't just her general curiosity that drove her on - there was a powerful need to understand what was happening, and she wouldn't be pa.s.sive anymore.
She found the master bedroom and stepped inside. The furniture all looked handmade and there was a large double bed carved from oak. A chest of drawers stood against the far wall and there were some antique photo frames on top. The sight of the first personal item caught her attention and she crossed the room quickly. The images showed what looked like the same man through several ages. An infant boy was standing proudly naked on a beach somewhere with a wide grin as though daring the world to defy him. An older child was flying a kite with fascination deeply etched across his face as the bright plumes twirled and danced on a summer's soft breeze. There was a young man in graduation robes smiling proudly at the camera, a world stretching out before him with bright promises of tomorrow.
In all the images, from boy to young man, his face seemed happy, but there was a darkness in his eyes that glowered from within and it scared her a little.
”Snooping?” Danny's voice startled her from behind.
”A little, sorry,” she admitted. ”Are these the only photos in this place?”
”Honestly, I don't know. This is the first time that I've been up here and Nathan has always been a little camera shy. I always figured that his..., our..., lives were a little more private than others.”
”I'd like to meet him, you know, after this is all over. You're a lucky man to have someone to fight for, Danny; don't ever forget that.”
”It's a shame that it took me this long to realise it. I only hope that it's not too late,” Danny said shyly. ”I have got one photo,” he said, perking up. ”I..., I kept it with me, but hidden from everyone.” He took out a small pa.s.sport sized photograph from his wallet and handed it to her.
The man in the image was the boy from the photos in the room, the eyes told her that. He looked familiar and it took her a few moments to try and dig through her mind to place him. ”I know this guy,” she mused. ”Or at least I've met him somewhere before. What does Nathan do?”
”He's a fireman.”
”Was he at St Joseph's?”
”I didn't see him there, but I guess he probably was. I mean, every fire fighter in the county would have been called in.”
She tried to focus and dredge her memory for inspiration but the answer danced tantalisingly out of reach.
”What's going on?” Randall asked, joining them a little unsteadily. ”Hey, I know that guy,” he said, looking at the photo that Jane held.
”From where?” Danny asked puzzled.
”Well the hair's different and he looks younger but he's a gravedigger up in Brightford of all things. I met him when I was chasing down a dead end lead about the original Crucifier case. The guy scammed me with some bogus info. I guess everyone's looking to play everyone else.”
”Wait a minute,” Danny said, holding up his hands. ”That can't be right.”
”Oh, I never forget a face, Inspector; it's a curse of the job. Alexandru ... that was his name. He's Hungarian. He was looking for a pa.s.sport for his sister. I lied and told him that I could get Ramsey to organise one for him.”
”Ramsey, that's where I know him from!” Jane suddenly exclaimed. ”That guy was Ramsey's personal a.s.sistant, Jonathan Banks. I remember now....” Her words trailed off as the enormity of the situation thundered home with dizzying speed.
”Now just hold on a minute,” Danny interjected with pa.s.sion. ”This is Nathan, Nathan Earl,” he said angrily, s.n.a.t.c.hing the photograph back from Jane. ”We've been together almost two years!”
”No, Danny,” Jane said quietly. ”That's our monster. Martin Kline might have been the hands, but this is the puppet master.”
”Bulls.h.i.+t!” Danny spat and Jane could see his personal mind fighting with his cop's brain for supremacy.
”Then who the h.e.l.l is he?” Randall demanded and it was then that Jane's mind exploded with the answer.
It was an answer that seemed so utterly absurd, but in her heart she knew it to be true as the cogs turned and slipped into their notches with expert precision. She had grown up as an only child and had never had any reason to think otherwise, until now. ”He's my brother,” she managed before she fell away and the darkness took her.
”Hi, Sis,” the voice greeted Jane as she slipped beyond the veil. There was no light here only darkness and time stood still, oblivious to the conventions of the world outside of these borders. She was drifting on air with no ground below and no sky above, only his floating voice for company.
”h.e.l.lo,” she replied from inside her mind. ”We're alone here, aren't we?”
”You should know better than to ask silly questions by now, Janey.”
”Why?”
”Why what?”
”Why everything?”