Page 35 of Quiver of Cobras
‘That’s the eighteenth hole,’ I said grimly. ‘That’s where I woke up.’
Finn tapped a couple of keys on the keyboard. ‘There are bloody cameras everywhere.’
Morgan pointed to an old newspaper article pinned to a board on our right. ‘There’s been a lot of vandalism to the green,’ he said. ‘They must have installed the cameras after the last incident.’
‘Arsebadgers,’ I muttered.
‘The vandals?’ he enquired. ‘Or the golf-course managers?’
‘Both.’ I sniffed. ‘Can you access the old footage, Finn?’
‘Hang on.’ He tapped a few more keys. It figured that he was an IT whizz; he had that pale look of someone who never saw the sun, coupled with the sort of deep-held angst that only comes from spending your masturbatory hours with a computer screen.
A list of files appeared on the left-hand side of the screen, each one labelled with a date. The dates were in descending order. ‘The whole system is automated,’ Finn said. ‘Unless a problem’s reported, there would be no reason for anyone to search for any footage. That makes us very lucky. No matter what is on those videos, the Madhatter will get away with murder because no one will have bothered to watch them.’
‘Hey!’ I protested. ‘No one has proved that I killed that bogle! The evidence is purely circumstantial.’
‘Until now,’ Finn said. He clicked on the file marked twenty-first of September. ‘We’re about to discover what really happened that night.’
I held my breath. I really didn’t want to discover that I was a cold-blooded murderer. All the same, I couldn’t rip my eyes away from the screen. ‘Eighteen,’ I whispered, scanning the named videos. ‘Play Eighteen.’ Almost without realising, I reached out and took Morgan’s hand. He squeezed reassuringly.
‘We’ll deal with whatever’s there, alright?’ he murmured. ‘Let’s not jump to conclusions.’
I licked my lips nervously. ‘Sure, yeah. Right.’
Finn grinned. ‘Hang on to your checked trousers, boys and girls.’ He clicked.
The video started. I stared. So did Morgan and Finn. Our odd trio leaned forward, watching the flickering screen.
Finn punched the keyboard. ‘It’s corrupted,’ he said. ‘The damned file is corrupted.’ He was right. There was nothing to see but fuzz.
‘Try a different file,’ Morgan said, tension tracing every word.
Finn did as instructed, opening up the video entitled ‘Car Park’.
‘It’s corrupted too,’ he said. He tried another and another. ‘Every damn video from that night is worthless. There’s nothing to be seen.’
I clapped my hands. ‘That’s fantastic! I was worrying about nothing. This was a long way to come to put our minds at rest but now there’s nothing to worry about. Even if Rubus finds this place, he won’t find any evidence of me or the sphere. All’s well that ends well.’
Neither Morgan nor Finn reacted. ‘Try another date,’ Morgan said.
Finn opened up the files for the day after. Every single video was fine. We watched for a few moments then he located another file. Still fine. The only corrupted videos were the ones that would incriminate me.
‘Maybe it’s just a coincidence,’ I hedged.
‘Yeah.’ Finn didn’t appear convinced.
‘It could happen.’
‘Mmm-hmm.’ He scratched his head for a moment then tapped again on the keyboard.
‘What is it?’ Morgan asked, leaning forward.
Finn’s shoulders sagged. ‘What I was afraid of.’ He pointed at the screen. ‘Three hours ago, someone downloaded the files we were looking for. No doubt they then added a bug to corrupt the originals. We’re too late. Someone got here before us.’
Gasbudlikins. ‘Rubus,’ I whispered. ‘That arsebadger. That fucking tosser. That…’
Morgan squeezed my hand tighter. ‘You need to leave him for good now,’ he said. ‘Not just for the night but forever. It’s too dangerous for you to return to him.’
