Part 12 (1/2)

Amber came out of the office. In her hands was a fax, which she read and then pa.s.sed to Alex. Alex skimmed over the text and handed it to Paulo before opening the door. A woman in a cream-coloured suit was stepping out of the taxi and looking expectantly at the hostel.

'Before we hand you over, I'll just go and make sure this lady checks out,' said Alex to Tiff. He strode across the drive, his hand outstretched in greeting.

Tiff watched him balefully. 'You won't take my word for anything, will you?'

Amber met Paulo's eye. He gave her a long-suffering look.

Alex came back. 'Yep. She checks out. Going somewhere nice, Tiff?'

Tiff took her case from Hex. 'Nicer than this dump. Somewhere you creeps could never afford.'

She walked awkwardly out to the waiting taxi, her suitcase dragging a wake through the gravel.

Alex came back in and shut the door. His face broke out in a big grin and he punched his fist into the air in triumph. 'Yes! Let's get going.'

17.

SECRETS.

'All clear,' said Paulo.

Alex dropped to one knee in front of the door to the bothy and slipped a probe into the keyhole. He let his eyes zone out as he felt his way, gently flipping the tumblers of the lock.

It was stiff; it wasn't coming as easily as he'd hoped. Alex could feel himself getting frustrated. He took a deep breath and slowed down. You couldn't rush something like this. Think calm, he said to himself, and feel your way. You never know when it's going to go.

He felt the satisfying click as the bolt inside the lock pulled back. He turned the handle and the door swung open.

Paulo dived in after Alex and closed the door. Inside, the bothy was like a small, spa.r.s.ely furnished cottage, the kind you saw reconstructed in museums. A fireplace was dusted with ash. An oil lamp stood on the simple wooden table. Two rough benches stood by the fire. A was.h.i.+ng line stretched across the room for drying wet clothes.

'So what secrets is this place keeping?' said Paulo.

'Secrets that have to be locked away,' said Alex. 'Search everything.'

Paulo started with the fireplace. There was a pile of wood to the left-hand side. He lifted a few pieces.

The middle was hollow. There was something inside, wrapped in a blue plastic bag. Paulo pulled it out and unwrapped the plastic. Inside were lots of small Ziploc bags; hundreds of them, each about ten centimetres long. 'Alex?'

Alex looked up from the narrow bunk at the other end of the room. 'Interesting but not incriminating.'

Paulo peered into the hole again. 'There's another lot.' He pulled out a green plastic bag. Inside were more Ziploc bags, this time yellow. 'Hmm. Two colours of bag. Two products?'

'Probably,' said Alex.

Paulo rewrapped the bags and put them back. He moved on to the fireplace and poked the ashy remains with some tongs. It didn't look like it was all wood ash. There were charred sc.r.a.ps of cardboard cardboard that had been cut into small pieces. He swished away the ash at the back. Here was something. A few small lumps of royal blue plastic, as if something had melted.

'Alex they've been burning cardboard here. And something else.'

Cardboard, thought Alex. Why did burning cardboard ring a bell? It came to him. 'Paulo, remember that gamekeeper at the lodge who made a fuss about the ketamine box? He said he was going to make a bonfire. What if he was going to come up here and burn it? What if this is where they get rid of the evidence?'

He squatted down beside Paulo to look.

Paulo sc.r.a.ped at the pieces of melted plastic but they were fused to the hearth. 'They've been burning this too. They've cut up something. Maybe more packaging. Doesn't look like it burns very well.'

Alex went back to searching the other end of the bothy. 'That still isn't very much. It's not worth locking the place for.'

Paulo straightened up and looked further along the wall beyond the chimney. There was mortar dust on the floor. And shards of stone. As if something had sc.r.a.ped the wall. He looked carefully up the outside of the stone chimney. One of the stones looked loose.

He pulled it out and mortar dust sprinkled down. He'd have to be careful not to leave signs he'd been there. A nice footprint would certainly give the game away. He reached in with his fingers. And touched a wooden box. 'Alex!'

Alex hurried over as Paulo brought out the box and laid it on the floor. It was about the size of a box of tissues. The top was sc.r.a.ped as if it was taken out and replaced frequently.

Paulo lifted the lid. Inside were pale rubber gloves and green surgical masks.

Then he saw Alex's face change. 'Hombre, are you OK?'

Alex nodded slowly. Suddenly he remembered what he had seen; the missing piece of his experience while he was drugged. His voice came out as a whisper. 'This is what I saw. This is what's been bothering me all this time. When I saw the men in here that night they were wearing masks and gloves. But you don't need masks and gloves to gut deer.'

'But,' said Paulo, 'you do need them if you're pouring large quant.i.ties of dusty pills into bags. They must bring the pills up here in the carca.s.ses then decant them into smaller packets for distribution.'

'These must be covered in evidence,' said Alex. 'Dust from whatever drugs they've been decanting. We can bring the police up to search the place.'

There was a sharp rap on the door. Alex looked at Paulo, then jumped up and went to see who it was.

Several things flashed through Alex's mind. Had they been caught? No. The gamekeepers wouldn't knock. A knock was the sound of someone who believed he was on someone else's patch, not someone who had found intruders. So Alex could behave like he was meant to be there. He heard the clop of wood on wood as Paulo put the lid on the box.

Alex pulled the door open.

Outside was a man with a silvered beard and a red Gore-Tex walker's jacket. Around his neck was a pair of high-powered binoculars. He held out an Ordnance Survey map.

'Sorry to disturb you. I wonder if you could show me where exactly I am... I'm not very good with a map.'

'Let's see if I can help,' said Alex. He took the map and got his compa.s.s out of his pocket.

Meanwhile Paulo inspected the fireplace. There was a print from the toe of his boot where they had been investigating the ashy remains. He picked up a wire brush and brushed the ash neatly into a pile again. He could hear the walker chatting to Alex.

Then, suddenly, Paulo caught a smell of something. Like burning. It must be the ashes, he thought.

But Alex spotted a curl of yellow flame behind the man. 'Better come away from the heather the gamekeepers are burning it.' He showed the man in. It wouldn't hurt to wait in the bothy until the flames burned out, but they'd better get away soon if the gamekeepers were starting to work in the area.

Paulo stood up, and saw smoke boiling across the window, yellow curls of flame.

'Well, thanks for that,' the man was saying to Alex. 'My brother used to like coming here, but I don't know the area at all.'

'Used to?' said Alex, as he pulled the door shut. Suddenly the handle was wrenched out of his hand. The door slammed and there was a click as it was locked from the outside.