To Snatch a Thief

CHAPTER EIGHT



Hunter arrived more quickly than she’d thought, surprising her in civilian clothes and a night’s growth of beard on his chin. He was dressed casual in jeans, bluey-green silk shirt that shimmered as he moved, under a black suede jacket. His boots were of butter-soft leather.

‘Did you touch anything down there?’ he asked, as soon as she opened the door. ‘Anything at all?’

Skye shook her head, relieved beyond words to see him. If someone had told her a few weeks ago that she’d be on-her-knees grateful to have a snatcher in her home she’d have laughed in their face. ‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘I let myself in, saw them, had a wobbly moment or two, then took Alexei outside.’ She flicked a glance towards her brother sitting cross-legged on the floor, lost in his programme. ‘Then we came up here and I called you.’

Hunter was all business. ‘And you’re sure they’re dead?’

‘Oh, yes. M-Mi…’ She couldn’t bring herself to say their names. ‘The boy’s, they were… their faces were…oh, God.’ She clutched a hand to her stomach.

‘Stay here while I go down and see for myself. What’s your landlord’s name, I’ll have to wake him?’

‘Um…it’s… I can’t think straight.’ She pressed her fingers to her temples where the buzzing was building again.

Hunter gripped both her arms, gave her a light shake. ‘Get it together, Skye,’ he ordered, none too gently. ‘If you want to help those people, get your head straightened out and start thinking like a cadet.’

‘I’m sorry, you’re right.’ Taking a deep breath, she nodded. ‘I’m okay now. Um, it’s Herzl, Victor Herzl. He’s slime,’ she added, with feeling.

She was less shaky by the time Hunter returned, speaking rapid-fire orders into his klip. She imagined a squad was scrambling at HQ. ‘No, the scene hasn’t been compromised,’ he was saying. ‘Nothing’s been touched. I’ve told the landlord to keep the door locked until you get here. Luckily it’s early so the building’s quiet, but I want two uniforms in the street to keep sightseers and the media at bay. Yeah, looks like the same MO… Yep, same as the others… They look like they just stopped living.’

Breaking transmission, he strode into the flat, casting an eye around its shabby interior. ‘These places should be condemned,’ he scowled. ‘How long have you lived like this?’

Her chin came up at that; a spike of anger that speared through grief. It might be a dump, but she kept it clean. ‘Beggars can’t be choosers, sir,’ she snapped back. ‘We can’t all afford Italian shoes.’

‘What? What are you talking about?’

She brushed past him, flicking her eyes to his feet. ‘Just an observation. Excuse me, I have to get Lexie a drink.’

For a moment he just stared, then dragged his hands over his face. Dropping into a chair, he blew out his cheeks. ‘Jesus, it’s freezing in here. Have you got any coffee?’ He gave a tired sigh. ‘You caught me not far from here. I didn’t get home last night.’

‘Slumming?’ She couldn’t resist.

Seeing his eyes glint dangerously, she let it go. ‘I haven’t any coffee left, but there’s tea,’ she said. ‘No milk though.’

‘I’ll pass. How well did you know the victims?’

‘Not intimately.’ Skye handed Lexie the drink, then began picking up toys to give her hands something to do. ‘We weren’t bosom buddies or anything. It was more of a business arrangement really. It suited us both. Her partner bolted when Tommy was born, so the money came in handy. She looked after Lexie when I went out to work…’ She paused when he arched an eyebrow.

‘I did do some legitimate work,’ she said stiffly. ‘Casual kitchen stuff, cleaning if I could get it.’ She threw the last car in a box in the corner. ‘They threatened to foster Lexie out when I got sentenced. I was so scared I’d lose him; we’re all we’ve got. Shiralee stepped in. I owe her.’ Tears pricked behind her eyes for the first time. ‘I’ll take him to school today, keep everything normal for him, but after that, I don’t know what I’ll do.’

He leaned forward, his forearms resting along his thighs, his hands loosely clasped. ‘Have you thought maybe it would be better for both of you if you let the authorities take him? Do you get any time for yourself, Skye?’

A rap on the door spared her from giving Hunter her opinion. She doubted he would have liked it.

He stood to open it. Dawson was outside.

‘Lieutenant,’ she said, acknowledging Skye with a curt nod. ‘The landlord’s not happy about us questioning his tenants. Says having snatchers all over his premises gives the place a bad name, and he’ll sue if he loses rent through it. He’s kicking up quite a stink, sir, actually. Wants to talk to you personally.’

Skye watched Hunter’s face darken. ‘Dawson, go back and tell him we’re not happy about having to investigate multiple suspicious deaths,’ he ordered. ‘Remind him they occurred on his miserable premises. Tell him until cause is determined, everyone is a suspect - including him. Oh, and tell him,’ Hunter added as the private turned to leave. ‘I’ll be contacting environmental heath about the state of this place. If he wants to talk to me about that, he can do it at HQ.

‘You can’t stay here,’ he said, on closing the door. Although his face was blazing with anger, Hunter lowered his voice. ‘Not with what’s happened downstairs. Up until now the victims of this…whatever it is, have been further to the west with a handful in the north where conditions are truly pitiful. But it looks like its spreading.’

‘We’ve nowhere else to go.’ It was the simple truth. ‘I’m struggling to pay the rent as it is.’

He paced to the window, running a hand over the stubble on his chin before turning to face her. ‘You need to know some things,’ he said.

‘Okay, but I have to sit. My legs feel kind of wobbly.’

‘Look, this isn’t for public knowledge,’ he began, taking the seat opposite. ‘We don’t want an all out panic on our hands, but I think you should be aware of the facts.’

Kid’s programmes finished, Lexie wandered over. ‘Have Mitch and Tommy finished the game yet?’ he asked, giving Hunter a long hard stare. ‘Are we going to school?’

‘Soon, Lex. You can play with your toys for a while. I have to talk to the lieutenant about something first, okay?’

For once he didn’t argue. ‘Kay.’

When he was settled she rounded on Hunter. ‘What are the true facts, then?’

‘With the first few terminations, natural causes were assumed; they didn’t send up any flags to alert us to anything untoward. No autopsies were performed, the pods collected the bodies and they were disposed of in the normal way. Then they started piling up. We got interested. What the media weren’t told is that forensics found minute particles of a totally unknown substance in each of the victim’s throats.’

‘Were they druggies?’

Hunter shook his head. ‘At first we thought that, but whole age groups were involved. Kids, oldies; it didn’t fit, and drug squad had no intelligence of any new illegal on the market. And anyway this was something way, way different. Toxicology on food and legal medication samples in the victims homes came up negative. So how were those people ingesting a deadly toxin?’

‘They breathed it in? Oh, God. Is it here… in the air?’ Stupidly, she covered her mouth with her hand and started towards Lexie.

‘No.’ He waved her back down. ‘Obviously we took air and dust samples but also we ruled out airborne pathogens because nothing was found in the nasal passages or airways. It entered the throat through the mouth.’

‘So, how did they get it?’ Her heart thumped unevenly as a second, colder chill ran down her back. ‘You think somebody gave it to them?’

‘If their food source wasn’t contaminated, that’s the obvious conclusion. But did they take it willingly, unaware of its consequences, or were they forced?’

‘Why would anyone want to hurt Shiralee and the boys?’ Moisture threatened again. As his eyebrows pulled together in warning, she willed them back.

‘I don’t know. We’ll need you to do a formal statement, but in the meantime try to remember anyone she might have talked about, anything she mentioned that seemed odd at the time.’

‘I-I will…I don’t know who she … With me being away, I…’ Her voice hitched. Two tears spilled down her cheeks and plopped into her lap. ‘S-sorry.’

Sitting directly opposite, Skye saw the exact moment his eyes changed. Startled, when he leant forward, took both her hands in his, she tried to pull away. He only gripped harder, hurting her fingers. ‘Listen to me, Skye. A gut feeling tells me this is only the tip of the iceberg. Trust me, you and your brother are in danger if you stay around here.’

‘Y-you’re scaring me.’

‘I mean to.’

Her breath caught, but she couldn’t look away. When she eventually nodded, he released the pressure, ran a thumb over the back of her hand. ‘I may be able to help. I know somewhere you could possibly go, and someone who would help with your brother – nothing official, she’s a friend,’ he added as he saw her brindle. ‘If you agree, I’ll make some calls. For the present, I’ll organise an advance on your salary – I should have realised you’d be short of cash.’ He ran a weary hand over his hair. ‘Before my grandfather’s day, people were looked after by the government. Now we’ve licensed beggars on the street and kids like you are forced into crime. Progress? I don’t think so.’ Frowning, he turned the full power of his eyes on her again and she felt the hairs on her neck prickle. ‘Now the snatcher in me’s curious,’ he said, tilting his head. ‘I’m wondering how, if you’ve no money, you’ve been managing to feed yourselves?’

It was amazing how he had her grateful to see him one minute, the next spitting mad. ‘If you must know, I’ve been bringing stuff home from staff amenities,’ she hissed. ‘They restock the infrawaves between shifts, so if there are stale pizzas or burgers, they let me have them. That isn’t illegal is it…sir?’

Hunter’s laugh rolled out, causing Lexie to glance up. ‘I’m really not sure.’

In a move that had her wanting to bite his hand, he reached out and mussed her hair like she was ten years old. When she ground her teeth, his grin only widened. ‘But I’ve a feeling taking you on is going to prove one hell of a challenge.