Clifton Falls (16 page)

TWENTY

A major bulletin was flashed on all television channels as news spread about the recent corpses. Chris was announcing it to the townsfolk. He had notes to guide him, but knew he needed to stay with the version mentioned on air the night before. “It’s thought that a strange virus is to blame for a number of mysterious deaths recently. These deaths are now being investigated by the health authorities. People should remain indoors while the matter is being inspected. Those who’ve been in close contact with any of the deceased should visit the hospital for an emergency blood test.” That was the final speech and Chris seemed pleased with how it went.

Blake’s stalking of the police station had come to a halt. He now sat at home, pondering over what the newsreader said. Karen noticed that he’d become very quiet. “Are you okay love?” she asked.

He turned away from the screen, frowning at her.

“I’m fine, but there’s something weird about what the guy’s saying.”
“What do you mean weird?”
“Vincent and Mary were the first to be caught up in this mystery virus so why did the police tell us something else the first time we asked?”
“I thought that officer spoke to you about it at the station?”
“He did.” Blake paused. “But the story changed from an electrical failure to them both collapsing after a game of twister.”
Karen frowned. “I’m not sure what you’re saying.”
“I think their deaths are connected to this virus, but I’m not sure how.”
“Let’s not think about it now; it’s too upsetting,” she replied, as a tear slid down her face.
“I’m sorry to upset you, but something’s not quite right.” Blake stood up. “Remember the fertilizer that I received the other day?” “Of course I do.”
“I sold one to Vincent and now he’s dead.”
Karen hugged him. “Don’t even think about accusing yourself, Blake. This had nothing to do with you.”
“I don’t know what’s in the stuff. It’s an experimental drug. I was in charge of it and I let him try one out.”
“Your staff would’ve come to the same fate if it was the fertilizer?”
Blake hadn’t thought of that. He now felt a bit better, but couldn’t let this conversation drop. He knew Karen talked sense, but something burned in the depths of his stomach and he needed to do something to make this feeling go away.
“You’re right, but I need to report it to the police for my own piece of mind. If it’s not important to them then I won’t mention the subject ever again. You have my word.”
He picked up the phone and was soon speaking to Susan. She didn’t understand why the fertilizer should be so important so told Blake to hold the line while she transferred the call to the chief. “Good afternoon, this is the chief inspector speaking. What seems to be the problem?”
Blake knew he had to get this off his chest and now.
“I’ve got some information which might be of use to you. It’s about the deaths of Mr and Mrs Smythe.”
“What about the deaths?”
Mike knew Blake had been at the station looking for him last night so remained calm, not wanting to scare the other man away.
“I’ve a good idea what the source behind the deaths might’ve been.”
This information was going nowhere fast. Mike wanted to know more about the zombies, but Blake seemed to be talking about fertilizer. He couldn’t see the connection. He listened while Blake explained that Vincent took one of the sacks and how he wasn’t sure about the safety of the ingredients. “Let me stop you there, Blake. Are you trying to tell me that the fertilizer killed him?” asked the chief.
“I don’t know. I know it sounds too farfetched but the truth is, he had the fertilizer and now he’s dead.”
Mike wasn’t impressed to finally hear the outcome of the conversation. Of all the theories that could’ve been said, the fertilizer theory just didn’t wash with him.
“Okay, Blake. Thank you for that useful information. If I need to speak to you about it again then I’ll get in touch. Bye.”
The phone went silent before Blake had chance to respond.
The poor man has totally lost the plot if he thinks there’s a fertilizer monster out there
, Mike thought.
Blake stood with a baffled expression on his face. Karen knew the outcome without him saying anything, but she wanted to hear it anyway. “What’s up? What did he say to you?”
“I’ve a feeling he didn’t believe me.” Blake sighed.
“Are you surprised? It’s a bit hard to swallow, the fact that the fertilizer is the killer.” The more she spoke, the more Blake felt depressed with it all. “Anyway, you tried, so it’s best if you let them do the investigating. After all, it is their job.”
“Yeah, you’re right, love. I’ll just go and put the kettle on.”
With head down and a sad appearance on his face, Blake walked into the kitchen.
Back at the police station Mike considered his conversation with Blake and tried remembering exactly who was on call when the Smythes were murdered. Strange as it sounded, Blake’s words had affected him. He’d treated the story as a joke, but couldn’t get it out of his head. Suddenly, his memory box kicked into action and he opened his door, calling Wayne to his office.
“What’s up? You sounded very urgent,” the sergeant said upon entering the chief’s, private quarters.
“This could be something, but then again might be nothing.”
“Excuse me. I think I’m a bit lost.”
Mike gave Wayne a grim smile and gestured to him to sit down. “Sorry mate for that twisted, puzzled speech. I’ve just had Blake on the phone giving me some weird information which might have something to do with this case, but it’s doing my head in because it could easily be a hoax.”
Wayne tried to focus. It’d been a very tiring week so far, so hoped the answer was out there because then the case would be solved. “What’s that then?”
Mike walked around his office. “He told me that he supplied Mr Smythe with some fertilizer and according to him, the fertilizer killed the married couple.”
Even though Mike gave out this information in a serious tone it didn’t guarantee that Wayne would respond professionally. He burst into a fit of laughter. Mike knew he should’ve stopped the other man from doing this, but could he? As soon as one laughed, the other followed, but after two minutes of stomach aching giggles Wayne slowed down enough to talk again. “Stop it, man, my sides are splitting. Fertilizer you say. How scary is that?”
Mike recovered, answering back. “I’m being serious now. Did you notice anything unusual about the garden?”
Although he endeavoured to change his expression to a more sombre and business-like manner, there were still signs that the cheeks on his face quivered and his eyes watered. This was an indication to Wayne that Mike was finding it hard to release the information without some kind of a joke slipping into the conversation.
“Did you notice a nine foot tall, angry fertilizer bag with a serious attitude problem coming toward you?” Mike spluttered.
The laughter was so intense now that everyone in the building overheard their juvenile screaming. Mike moved over, slapping a hand against the other man’s shoulder. He was almost on the verge of falling over at this point.
It took another few minutes before the laughing, hyena-like men were able to calm down.
“I never checked the garden because I was too busy inside with that creature.”
“No worries. I’ll send someone over to check it out more thoroughly.”
Mike knew Wayne needed to rest so wasn’t going to send him on this job. He was ordered to go home after completing the paperwork from last night. Before Wayne finally exited the room Mike told him to break the news to Doug and Craig, as he wanted to assign the job to them.
Doug and Craig were located in their most used room inside the police station--the canteen.
“All right chaps. I see you’re busy.”
Doug replied to Wayne’s sarcastic speech. “Man, we’re flat out with the task of choosing which dessert to have after our meal today. It’s not as easy as you think and very strenuous on the brain you know.”
“I would love to stay and help you pick but the boss needs you both in his office. He’s got a job for you.”
Both men gave out a, ‘you must be kidding me’, sigh.
Within a few minutes they were briefed. They then left the station to carry out Mike’s orders.

It didn’t take long before they arrived on the newly named ‘death street’. The officers walked down the side of the house to check out the garden, but nothing had changed since yesterday.

Doug stepped onto the dried up, mud patch of land and leaned over the great mass of dirt that used to be a grave. The dislodged, wooden fragments extracted from the coffin were still in plain sight. He tried unravelling the missing link between the next-door neighbour’s dog and the corpse from the hole.

It was obvious. The rising corpse killed the pet and had injected it with the vicious virus. Why else would the dog go mental?
Doug muttered inside his mind.

Craig looked through the small window of the shed, spotting the bag of fertilizer resting inside the wheelbarrow. The door was padlocked, thus preventing him from walking in, but after a quick examination noticed that the lock looked worse for wear and weakened by rust. A step backwards and a swift motion with his size nine boot caused the lock to split and dangle. Once yanked off and thrown to one side, Craig was able to enter the shed. He curiously glanced at the bag before wheeling the barrow outside and calling over to Doug. “Right, I think I’ve found the stuff that we came here for. Let’s get back to the station and select that dessert before someone else grabs it.”

Doug was in full agreement as he walked over to Craig.

“Nice one. Let’s get out of here, I’m starving and I need some food.”
Craig burst out laughing. “You aren’t hungry for food, mate, you fancy that new canteen lady. I know you do so don’t deny it. You’re one dirty little shit. You know you are.”
Doug shook his head, whether it was because he was embarrassed that Craig had guessed right or because he was irritated that his mate was trying to set him up with a woman again. “No. I don’t fancy her. My fucking stomach’s rumbling and that means I’m definitely famished.”
Craig stopped his adolescent giggles and just smiled.
“I’ll let you off this time.”
Doug wheeled the barrow to the car and placed the sack inside the boot, but Craig stared at him, making him uneasy.
“What?” Doug shouted, as he looked down to check if his trouser zip was undone.
“You’ve got it all over you. What if it’s infectious?” Craig said.
Doug’s uniform had fertilizer patches all down it, but he seemed un-disturbed by it all. “Yeah, you’re right.” He looked down at the stains and wiped them off with a hand. “Fuck it. Infectious, my arse... I’ll infect you if you don’t get me back to the station.”
Craig raised a hand as they both re-entered the car.
Wayne decided to decline the chief’s offer of going home and was now back in conversation with Mike, laughing and cracking jokes on the fertilizer subject again.
Doug and Craig returned from the house and headed for the chief’s office. “All right chaps. Did you find anything?” Mike asked, while trying not to laugh again.
“Job done... We found some of that fertilizer you mentioned. It was in the shed,” Craig replied.
Mike seemed slightly stunned by the news, but would he take Blake’s story seriously now?
“Nice one. Send it off to the lab and tell them to search for anything out of the ordinary. I want to know everything about it. Every slightest detail must be accounted for.”
This was a job for only one officer, so it was Craig’s turn to be acquainted with the strange ingredients. He wasn’t stupid enough to take all of the sack to the lab, so decided to take a sample instead. The rest was placed in the police storage warehouse.
Doug remained with the chief, as he needed to get some information off his chest. Mike and Wayne listened to the latest useful report about the grave, the dead mother, the dog, and the murders in both houses. It all made sense now, so if the fertilizer was added to this jigsaw then surely between them they could solve the mystery once and for all?
We know the virus is passed between the killer and the victim, as it’s the only possible reason behind the morgue un-dead, but where does the fertilizer fit in? That has to be the ultimate question,
Mike thought.
“Mr Smythe used the fertilizer and his mother came to life.” Mike did the walking around the room thing again but was just as baffled by this, even after Doug’s little story. “That still don’t explain the girls in the forest and the rotting corpse that the lorry driver splattered. None of them had anything to do with the fertilizer.”
“You’re right.” Wayne was so close to believing Blake’s theory, but now wasn’t so sure. “Shit, we’re back at square one again.”
Mike re-entered the conversation. “Let’s calm down and take a good hard look at what’s been said.” Everyone stopped as Mike extended his thoughts for a few seconds. “We’re pretty certain that the infection is passed on when someone’s been attacked by one of those freaks.” Wayne wasn’t sure where the chief’s words were leading him, so Mike directed the next question at him. “We’ve definitely erased the last of the infected ones, haven’t we?”
Now Wayne knew something wasn’t right. He felt the pressure of the question, but still wasn’t sure where it was going. “What’s up? What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Jason was bitten last night, wasn’t he?”
“I told you it was only a scratch. He wasn’t bit like the others. He’s fine.”
“I hope you’re right, mate, but we have to be one-hundred-percent sure about this.”
Doug and Wayne sensed that the chief had a touch of sorrow in his speech. Their orders were to go to Jason’s house because the constable needed to supply a blood sample. He was the last victim of the living dead, so, if he’s fine then all the heartache would be over. Wayne tried to smile, but deep down knew that Mike had a purpose to all of this.
This was going to be one of the toughest journeys in Wayne’s life.

TWENTY-ONE

Jason’s wound had become very painful. He’d taken a large amount of painkillers to ease the pain, but so far it wasn’t working. The surrounding skin had changed colour and the contamination process had started. He was about to experience serious mood swings, where his temper could flare up at any time. All the other infected people would’ve gone through the same ordeal if their wounds had time to spread before they died.

His mother made him a nice cup of soup, and shouted out to him from the bottom of the stairs. “Jason, love, I’ve made you a warm drink. Are you awake?”