‘The sun’s going down,’ Lexi reminded her partner.
‘Back soon,’ he said to the troubled supervisor.
SCENE 23
The remains of the sun sent a yellow beam across the sea from the horizon. It was just enough light for Troy and Lexi. Near the edge of the cliff, there were several notices giving details of organizations that could offer advice and help. There was also a wire fence and a warning notice. A long way below, there was nothing but vicious jagged rocks.
Troy checked out the fence. ‘That’s not going to stop anyone determined,’ he said.
‘You’re right,’ Lexi replied, stepping back and taking a short run at it. ‘I’m going over.’
‘You’re what?’
‘Going over the fence.’
‘Careful.’
‘I didn’t know you cared.’ Sprinting past him, she flew over the fence in one athletic leap.
‘Why are you …?’
Heading for the overhang, she pointed to a spot one stride away from the sheer drop. ‘Collecting evidence,’ she said, quickly putting on latex gloves. ‘See that bit of blue material on the gorse? If I’m not mistaken, it matches Tiffany One’s coat in the photographs.’
‘That’s thin ice you’re skating on,’ Troy called after her. ‘Watch out. Crumbly cliffs, remember.’
She stepped carefully towards the bush, the piece of fabric and the cliff. ‘One day, I’ll make an interesting fossil,’ she said as she peered over the unnerving rock face. She took a breath of sea breeze, plucked the material from the prickly gorse and immediately made for the safety of the cliff-top path. ‘But not yet.’ She clambered back over the fence and held out the small piece of fabric. ‘Hard to tell in this light but I’ll check the colour with the photo. If there’s a flake of skin, this is a shortcut to her DNA. Then we don’t have to find where she lived.’
SCENE 24
‘That woman I found on the missing persons’ list,’ Lexi announced, ‘isn’t L4G#4. Her DNA profile is nothing like.’
‘What about Tiffany One?’ Troy asked, unwrapping a sturdy chunk of black pudding.
Lexi sat back and closed her eyes, just about to enter another period of meditation. ‘Waiting,’ she murmured. ‘Relax. Patience required.’
Twelve minutes later, her life-logger vibrated and she stirred slowly.
Troy called out, ‘Rise and shine.’
Refreshed, Lexi sniffed. ‘What is that?’ She looked at the remains of Troy’s breakfast and let out a groan. ‘Yuck.’
‘Black pudding. Shiveringly good.’
‘What’s in it?’ she asked. ‘Smells revolting.’
‘It’s a sausage made of pigs’ blood, onions and oatmeal. Or something like that.’
‘A sausage made of blood? Disgusting.’
‘At least it doesn’t crawl around like your insect food. It’s not a baked spider or whatever.’
‘Spiders and scorpions aren’t insects. They’re arachnids.’
‘All right. Let’s call them bugs, then.’
‘Or invertebrates,’ she replied, reaching for her life-logger, ‘but that would include some major favourites — like prawns. Not as tasty as a bowl of caramelized mealworms.’ She read from the screen and smiled. ‘Hey presto. The DNA on the blue material is a pretty good match with L4G#4. We may only have her heart, but I think we’ve got her name. Tiffany Clara One.’ Straightaway, she began to update her spreadsheet. ‘One homeless man, one transplant error and two suicides. That’s probably one real suicide and one that the victim definitely didn’t perform himself.’
‘That’s called murder. And it happened to both Dmitri Backhouse and Jerome Eleven. We’ve got a whole load of other charges as well. Unlawful killing in the case of Olga Wylie, burglary at her house, probable abduction of Jerome, mutilation of bodies for sure, prevention of proper burial or cremation of three of them. I bet we’d think of some more if we put our minds to it.’
‘I doubt they’re the only victims,’ Lexi said. ‘When we get the bad guy and the clinic, I reckon there’ll be lots more we don’t know about yet. Lots more offences. Your first case is going to set some sort of record.’
‘If we crack it.’
‘You’re with me, remember,’ Lexi replied. ‘We’ll crack it.’
‘We’ve got plenty on the victims. But the culprit? That’s a dead horse I’ve been flogging. Going nowhere.’
Lexi smiled. ‘Things don’t look good when your best suspect’s not even in the right country.’
‘But …’
‘Yeah. I know. We don’t have total proof she’s …’
Troy got to his feet. ‘I’m going to take a look at that interview with Sergio Treize.’
‘Why? What’s it going to tell you?’
‘Maybe nothing, but you never know. There’s something I want to check out.’
Using a giant screen at maximum resolution, Troy put the video recording on fast-forward until he got to the part where he suggested that Charon Angel could be scouting for body parts. Then he ran the interview at normal speed.
There was a convincing expression of shock on Sergio’s face as he exclaimed, ‘What?’
Out of camera-shot, Troy’s detached voice said, ‘For medical transplants.’
Sergio replied, ‘I find that hard to believe.’ Then he turned his head to the side and stroked his chin for a few seconds.
‘That’s it!’ Troy cried. He stopped the clip and ran it backwards in slow motion until he reached the frame he wanted. There, he froze the action. Stepping up to the screen, he said, ‘Look at his wrist.’
Lexi shrugged. ‘It’s a watch. A traditional Swiss one.’
‘I’ll zoom in on it. See? Can you make it out? What time does it say?’
‘Er … A quarter past one or thereabouts.’
Troy nodded. Jabbing his finger towards the digital clock in the corner of the large monitor, he said, ‘Thirteen sixteen.’
For a moment, Lexi was silent but then she also jumped up. ‘The same time zone as us. Sergio Treize wasn’t in Switzerland! He’s local.’ She hesitated again before grabbing her mobile. ‘I’ll call Terabyte.’
Troy scrutinized more images from the video call while Lexi reminded Terabyte about the interview with Sergio Treize. Then she asked, ‘Did the call definitely come from Switzerland?’
She put his response on loudspeaker.
‘Yes.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Absolutely. I traced it and it was definitely Swiss. But …’
‘What?’
‘Well, I suppose …’ Terabyte went quiet for a moment. ‘It’s possible Switzerland wasn’t the source. If someone was being devious — really devious — they could’ve been anywhere in the world and relayed it through Switzerland. You’d need a lot of insider knowledge.’
‘The sort of knowledge a website administrator might have?’
‘I guess.’
‘Thanks, Terabyte.’ She put her phone down and concentrated on the screen again. ‘You had a feeling he wasn’t in Switzerland, didn’t you?’ she said to Troy. ‘You were right. But, thinking about it, this is all about Sergio Treize. What’s it got to do with Charon Angel?’
‘Look at his sweatshirt. The image on it.’
‘Yeah. I think it’s … Let me check.’ Lexi tapped some keys on her computer, running image recognition software. ‘Yes, it’s a band sweatshirt. The group’s called Kaktus Changer — death metal from Iceland.’
‘And, according to Terabyte, what had Charon — Sharon Angie — been buying?’
‘Icelandic music.’
Troy nodded. ‘Exactly.’
‘There was something else,’ said Lexi. ‘She bought car parts online and she lives in a place called Wengen. But, listen to this.’ She read from some tourist information on the Swiss village. ‘It has a tranquil atmosphere because it is a rare example of a European resort that is free of cars.’ She looked at her partner and said, ‘Why buy car parts when no one’s got a car? Don’t tell me. You think Sergio Treize, Charon Angel and Sharon Angie are all the same person — and they don’t live anywhere near Wengen.’