AVA'S THOUGHTS WENT TO THE HOUSE where they found Madeleine’s body. No—that wasn’t what Anthony was referring to. Ava collected her thoughts and focused on what was in hand.
“The girl. She’s been off the radar for a while. She came back to the house. I was curious as to why. Others were also interested; Defence people I believe.”
The wrinkles on Anthony’s forehead tightened.
“Our interest?” Ava continued. “Maybe there was some connection to her mother’s work. Maybe there was some unfinished white anting. Maybe the girl knew something that could help us. More plants would be good.” Half-truths were second nature to Ava.
Anthony showed little interest in the manufacturing process and they’d neglected something. His wonder drug couldn’t be produced synthetically because of the complex chemical structure. They needed more plants. They needed thousands of the plants. They needed to protect their small plantation and locate more plants.
“Of course, Mrs Rose wouldn’t have told me that we had a shortage. But I’m sorry I’ve been so focused on the marketing side. Can’t we just start up a plantation somewhere?”
“Why do you say that?” Ava was muddled.
“Well, the horticulturist just advised us that our plantation isn’t looking good. As though the plants had been poisoned. It’s not good timing due to the seedling process—we’ll have to address that before we run out of stock. She also advised that it’s a rare plant and she wasn’t aware of where to find any.”
“That’s a problem. We need seeds to start a plantation.” The girl should’ve been kept alive—they needed her to find where the plant originated from. If she knew. Mrs Rose would have been thorough in destroying any information leading to the location of the plant. Ava shouldn’t have let her desire for revenge get in the way of the company but that was her second priority, she was still trying to draw out somebody.
“So you believe they were defence personnel?” Anthony asked.
The automatic lights switched on, triggered by the greyness filling the room. She looked at her husband.
“Yes, love. They wore blue jackets with DoD on the back.”
“But why is the Department of Defence interested in the girl?”
“I don’t know, love. Maybe it was something else.” More automatic half-truths. “She wasn’t by herself. There was a man with her. Anyway, we took precautions. We sedated the defence people and jammed the drone communication so our actions weren’t recorded by any police or defence drone technology.”
“Good.”
“But there might have been CCTV cameras capturing our activities. If there were, they might not have been jammed by our signal.”
Anthony was shaking his head. “My initial reaction is that it’s a bit over the top. I suppose once a spy always a spy. Not a simple rock-up-and-knock-on-the-door scenario. But I leave these things to you. I understand it’s the age we live in now: continued surveillance, espionage. We’re lucky we have you.” He joined his hands together and looked at her. “Are you concerned about the CCTV recording devices?”
“Lit a fire. The smoke will get to them first. Then back to dust for the people. They were hiding in a bunker and hopefully, the heat will have rendered any recording devices null and void as I think the fire rating of the bunker was low—it was more of a shelter than a bunker. But now I realise we may need the girl. We’ll have to find another solution regarding the plants.”
“This is where you concern me, Ava, your complete disregard for human life. Maybe I should get you to tell me what you did in your years with the secret service. But then maybe I’d prefer not to know. I’ll trust you on this and assume they won’t trace the deaths to us.”
“Just another tragic event for the family: first the accident, and now a fire. The fire investigators may or may not find the bunker—it started raining, so there might not have been a lot of damage.” Of course they would find the bunker. Defence would want to know the status of the people in the bunker. But she needed to pacify her husband.
“But it all depends on the level of the investigation and whether the police and DoD are involved. I doubt that the Country Fire Authority will request a coroner to investigate the fire—they do sometimes. Remember, the property was meant to be vacant. They may just blame vandals and leave it at that. Lots of people have devices nowadays that interfere with drone surveillance. Defence may not want to explore it any further either. But they were after that man for some reason, which could be a problem.”
Anthony nodded in semi-agreement. “We’d best wait and see then.” He sat down. “Do you think the car accident was suicide? We were putting a lot of pressure on that family.”
Why was he bringing that up? “Waste of energy, my love. It’s all behind us now.”
Anthony raised his eyebrows. “Okay, will not waste any more precious thoughts on that one.”
Ava got up and walked over to the window. Anthony only saw what he wanted to see. He would have no idea how she researched and strategized to eliminate the family. Finding that there was a pending recall notice for their model of car had made it easier. It was just a matter of compromising the car’s computer system. It worked so well, Anthony had convinced himself that it was all an accident—in some ways, it was.
<°)))><
Ava was also annoyed with herself. She had jeopardised their business. She didn’t know they were dependent on Mrs Rose—that they didn’t know where the plant came from. And now she was doing it with the daughter. Had the girl known where the plant grew? Too late now. Sweet revenge, but in future she needed to get her emotions under control. Love, revenge. One triggered the other.
She could sense Anthony’s chair turning. She turned to look at him.
“I wonder who the other person was,” he asked.
“Probably the defence connection. But let’s leave it to the fire investigation team. I imagine the investigation may take some time, and there is little chance they’ll connect us to the dead bodies. Besides, no one would imagine people who set fire to barns would be connected to a pharmaceutical company.”
Anthony turned his chair back towards his desk. Ava walked over and placed her hand on his shoulder. “But so we’re one hundred percent sure, I’ve got our boys scouting around the area on trail-bikes.”
“That’s good, love . . . it is the survival of the fittest.” Anthony placed his hand on his wife’s hand. “We have found a way to blot out this faulty trait—the desire for a religious belief, this God Gene. It is an aberration of evolution. We need to press forward for our secular world. Yes, it is the survival of the fittest and there will be casualties. But let us still be careful and cover our tracks while we rid the world of their desire for a religious fix.”
Their lips touched.
Ava stood up and looked at her husband. “I’ll use my investigative credentials to visit the site at the appropriate time, if need be.”
With her act now done she could now look down at the photo of Madeleine and nod. Revenge. Yes, such a strong emotion. But with no plant, no business. Maybe it’s time to return to their homeland. Sadly no, she still needed to find the man and the transporting device.
28 – A pill with a symbol
THE GREYNESS OF THE COMING NIGHT was stretching over the woodlands and stony rises. A group of shrubs enclosed their hiding place. Different blends of green, different types of plants.
Isabella’s pace of life had certainly picked up. There’d not been much time for reflection. Madeleine’s mum scared Isabella and she was thankful for Lucas. She knew they needed to get to the authorities and give themselves up. What would happen to Lucas if they did that? Shadows were appearing.
“Lucas, do you see those shadows behind the bush over there?”
“No, but I’ll go and check.” Lucas stood up.
Shadowy figures . . . a visit by the imps would be next. Isabella took the foil packet out of her backpack pocket and grabbed a pill. It was time for a pep-up. Isabella stared at the tablet. She had never noticed the marking on it before. She shined her phone’s torch on it. The marking was small but you could just make it out.
“What you looking at, Bella?”
“Just something on this tablet . . . never noticed it before. I think it’s the symbol for uranium or something like that. Makes me nervous about taking the pill now—it may be radioactive.”
“Can I have a look?”
She placed the pill in Lucas’s hand and shone the torch on it. “That’s a coincidence. I had this symbol on a poster in my . . . room. It’s an atheist symbol.”
“You’re joking.” Isabella wasn’t a hundred percent sure what atheism was but knew it was the opposite of what she believed.
“Nope.”
“Mum must not have known about this. She worked for the company that makes this drug. Not sure she would’ve been keen on an atheist symbol being placed on a drug she worked on.”
“I’m sure there’s nothing to it. But you must get a buzz knowing your Mum had a big involvement in helping people get better and things like that. But can I ask . . . why do you take the tablets?”
She sensed his caring nature. “Because I was depressed after Mum and Dad died. I wasn’t coping. It was like I was swamped by negative thoughts. There was also another death in the past, a school friend, and I was still struggling with that. I saw the doctor and he decided to put me on some pills. I told him that I had a preference to take my Mum’s radioactive pills.” She laughed.
