Kittyhawk Down

'Who… I was… are you…?' Casement said.

Ellen moved toward him and said gently, 'May we come in, Mr Casement?'

Casement recovered and said, 'Is anything wrong? I was on the Net,' he added, glancing at them in turn. 'I don't think Kitty's home yet, actually.'

He wore tracksuit pants, slippers and what looked like a pyjama top under a fleecy striped football jumper. His hair was badly tufted and even as Challis watched he tugged at a clump of it. Maybe he'd made a bad on-line investment, Challis thought.

'Actually it's you we've come to see, Mr Casement,' Ellen said.

Frowning doubtfully, Casement took them to the kitchen. 'This is the cheeriest room at night, hope you don't mind. Tea? Coffee? Something stronger?'

He was washing his hands as though to stave off the inevitable, and when Challis told him the reason for the visit, he stopped fussing at the sink and collapsed into a chair. 'Oh no, oh no.' He looked up. 'Shot?'

'Yes.'

'This Munro character did it?'

'Mr Casement,' Ellen said, 'I realise this is a distressing time, but I have to ask you what your movements were this evening.'

Casement turned to her, jaw open, making a massive effort to comprehend her. 'Me?'

'Yes.'

'I was here, working.'

'On the Internet?'

'Yes. Why?'

'You didn't go out at all?'

'No.'

'Do you have a separate phone line for the Net?'

'Yes.'

'Did anyone ring you this evening?'

'Not that I recall. There's an answering machine.' He crossed to what appeared to be an all-purpose corner of the kitchen bench: notices fluttering from a little pinboard, Rolodex, scrap paper and pens, phone and answering machine. He pressed a button and the machine beeped and they heard Kitty Casement say that she'd be working late.

Casement sobbed and swung away, returning to his chair at the table.

'Did you go out this evening?'

Challis saw a change pass across Casement's face, dazed grief giving way to incredulity. 'You're checking me out? That's a bit harsh.'

'No it's not,' said Challis evenly. 'It's statistically likely, and we're obliged to ask.'

'If you bastards had arrested Munro this wouldn't-'

Challis cut in. 'Can you think of anyone else who might have wanted to harm your wife?'

'Apart from Munro? No. He's the obvious one, so why are you questioning me? Leave me alone. Go on, piss off and catch-'

Ellen touched his arm. 'Is there anyone we can contact for you, Mr Casement? Friend, neighbour, relative?'

'I'd rather be by myself,' Casement said, diminished by the night and the solitude that was coming for him.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

It was fully dark and Pike was in a real state when he got to Lisa's. They let him in, Venn was there, and they were high as kites as usual.

'Well, if it isn't young Bradley,' Venn said, when Lisa ushered him into the sitting room. Donna scowled at him. Lisa herself could have been a bit warmer. They were all looking at him like he was a bad smell.

And he wished Dwayne wouldn't keep saying the same thing each time he visited. 'Change the record, Dwayne,' Pike said, keeping his voice light and cheery, rubbing his hands together dryly. The place smelt of dope and dirty clothing, like they hadn't been out for days. Probably hadn't. When was he last here? Yesterday? Day before? They were really coked up, so he said, 'Looks like I've got some catching up to do.'

And that's what he did for the next hour. Smoked dope, drank Jim Beam, and when he was well blissed out, ticking over nicely, too sluggish to move, he caught Venn exchanging glances with the Tully sisters. 'What?' he slurred.

'We got some new stuff for you to try,' Lisa said.

She went out and came back with a syringe. 'This is good stuff.'

'What is it?'

She tapped the side of her nose and grinned like she was really pumped about something. 'Wait and see, lover boy.'

He liked the way she said that. Then she sat on the sofa, patted the cushions. 'Come on, your turn, we've had stacks.'

Gratified, Pike collapsed onto the sofa next to her and flexed his arm, tied it off with a length of rubber tubing supplied by Donna, tapped a vein.

Lisa got closer. Her thigh was warm against him. 'Now,' she breathed, 'want me to do it for you?'

That was an ultimate act of love and he nodded and watched her slide the needle in and depress the plunger. He tore his eyes away and, waiting for the rush, said to her, 'Lisa, I'm sorry I jacked up about that intervention order you took out on me.'

'That's all right.'

'Shouldn't of forced you to go through all that stuff in court again. I could see you was really cut.'

'No drama.'

Then she walked away from him and joined the others, all three of them now standing in a line, watching him as if from a great distance.

'What?' he said.

'It's not working,' Lisa said.

'Give it time,' Venn said.

They continued to watch. Pike tried to move but was too sleepy, too relaxed. The stuff in his veins wasn't doing anything, however. There was a kind of discomfort, that's all, maybe a faint burning sensation, very faint.

From far away he heard Donna hiss, 'It's not working.'

'It has to work,' Venn said. 'It's battery acid.'

They watched, and Pike thought, acid? Haven't had a good acid trip in a while.

He felt drowsy, but jumpy too, and tried to focus on their faces. 'Talk to me.'

'You're a pest and a nuisance, Brad,' Lisa said.

'Don't say that.'

'You been following us around,' Donna said. 'Stalking us.'

Hurt, Pike said, 'Haven't.'

Venn was all sharpness and hard angles. 'You're a maggot, a dog. You dobbed me in to the cops.'

'No way.'

'You're going to die, Brad, and good riddance,' Donna said. 'There was real acid in that needle.'

'What a blast,' Pike said.

'No, I mean real acid, like we did experiments with in the lab at school. From that car place Dwayne works at,' Donna said nastily. 'It's going to eat your insides out.'

The truth got through to Pike eventually and he stirred, rising from the sofa. 'I need to go to the hospital.'

Venn pushed him down. 'No way known.'

'Not till you tell me what you done to Jasmine,' Lisa said.

Pike glanced at them one by one. 'Is it true?'

'Is what true?'

'You put fucking battery acid in me?'

'Yep.'

'Take me to the doctor. Please.'

'Not till you tell us what you did to my niece,' Donna said, the words 'my niece' giving her a little prideful lift.

'And not till you tell me you dobbed me in to the cops,' Venn said.

Pike thrashed around on the sofa, in fear and pain now, and said, 'It was an accident, all right? We were mucking around and something happened.'

Lisa's eyes narrowed. 'What kind of mucking around?'

'On the carpet, you know, playing horsey and that, tickling and wrestling and that.'

'You had sex with her,' screeched Lisa.' You had sex with my baby.'

'I never.'

'You did.'

'Yeah, you did, Brad,' Donna said.

'She went all floppy on me. I think her neck got broke,' Pike said. 'Anyway, you shouldn't of left her with me. She wasn't my kid. What do I know about little kids? It's all your fault, fucking slag.'

Lisa groaned. 'Where is she?'

'Don't worry, I give her a decent burial. Over by the boardwalk.' Which crossed mangrove swamps and was an area of crabs, gluey mud, sucking tides and scraps of plastic and paper.

Lisa began to sob, her hands over her face.

'Take me to the hospital. At least call an ambulance,' Pike said.

Venn looked at the women. 'The acid's not working.'

'I told you that,' Donna said.

Venn went out and came back with a baseball bat and swung it at Pike's head. It struck him obliquely and curved downwards at a tangent to splinter against the edge of the coffee table. Pike grunted, swayed, fell to his knees. There was blood. He felt bad, inside and out, and looked up blindly through the blood. 'Don't hit me. I told ya, I'm sorry, okay? Get me to the doctor.'