Teeth of the Wolf

Teeth of the Wolf ebook-14-1

CHAPTER 9

- Pandora -

Close to town, Penny pushes the button to roll up the window. “Thanks for doing this, Craig.”

“Hey, no worries. You’ve given me the greatest story ever to take back to the office. Bog Body in the Boot. It sounds like the title of one of those classic Taika Waititi black comedies.”

Penny twiddles the buckle on her satchel, opening and closing the clasp. “Actually, Craig…I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to keep this quiet. Until the case is resolved, I’m meant to keep any details confidential. I could lose the account.”

“What?” Craig’s head whips in her direction. “But the media were all over it back at Karaka.”

“Yes, I know. Even so.”

“Penny, it’s in my car.” She nibbles her lip. He looks back at the road. “A dead person in my car…”

“Sorry.”

Shaking his head, Craig sighs deeply. They drive a couple of blocks, Craig not saying anything.

“It’s the next left,” Penny says when they reach the intersection before the lab.

Craig turns into the street where Yee Scientific has its premises. Penny had been lucky to find a place that already had a basic lab fit-out: a tertiary education provider forced to close its doors owing to a lack of bums on seats. Plenty of bums in the neighbourhood, though, the suburb a mish-mash of contemporary apartment developments squeezed in between the empty lots and industrial warehousing.

“You know, Penny, I’m starting to get why your parents have reservations about this science work you’ve been doing.”

“Excuse me? My parents discussed my job with you?”

“It wasn’t like that, Penny. You have to understand, if they talked to me, it was only out of concern.”

He’s right. Penny doesn’t understand. She isn’t a little girl. She’s a grown woman, and her career choices have nothing to do with her parents, Craig, or anyone else for that matter. She grips the buckle of the satchel, letting the pin dig into her palm.

“It feels dodgy,” Craig goes on. “You hanging around crime scenes. Have you ever heard that old saying, ‘if it smells like s**t, it’s probably s**t’?”

“Pull in here, please.”

“Penny—”

“Just here is fine.”

Pulling in opposite the fence with its misspelled spray-painted slogan BASTARD GOVERMENT ARSEHOLES, Craig cuts the engine, and turns to her.

“Thanks so much for your help, Craig,” she says quickly.

“Penny, please. Don’t be like that.”

“Like what? My lab is here. It’s on the second floor.” She forces a smile.

Craig breathes out through his nose, his nostrils flaring. “I’ll help you move the body then.”

“Really, there’s no need,” Penny insists. “I’ll get my colleague to bring down a trolley.” She’s about to get out of the car, when he lays a hand on her shoulder. “At least, let me get it out of the car for you.”

The man has waited in the car half the afternoon in the heat. A refusal would be churlish. She nods. “OK.” Opening the door, she steps out on the footpath.

What? Her eyes widen as Cerberus bounds over, his lead dragging on the asphalt behind him.

Cerberus? What are you doing out here on your own?

“Where’s Matiu?” she whispers, bending to grab the lead, but Cerberus is too quick for her, loping into the alley at the side of the building. Penny checks over her shoulder to where Craig is busy unloading the bog body. Obscured at the rear of the car, he doesn’t appear to have noticed Cerberus.

“Um. No reception,” Penny says, waving her phone theatrically. “It’s always a bit dodgy on this side of the building. I’ll just nip into the alley and use the intercom at the back entrance.” Not waiting for Craig’s reply, she darts into the alley.

Sucks in a breath.

Matiu is leaned up against the door of Dad’s now beaten-up Commodore. The car’s paintwork looks like someone has set to it with a Brillo pad and a blowtorch. Matiu must have come through the fires of hell to get here because his jeans are covered in grease and there’s a rent in the seam of his leather jacket. Penny rushes over, catching him just before he topples.

“Oh my god, Matiu,” she says, getting her shoulder under his and moving him to the wall. “What happened?” He’s had a blow to his head; his hair crusted with congealing blood.

“Nothing.” He puts a hand on the brickwork, supporting his own weight again.

“This is not nothing. You went to see your probation officer. How do you get like this at the probation office? And why does the fleet car look like you’ve just taken part in a monster derby?”

“Pen, can you please wait until we get inside for the interrogation?” he croaks.

Matiu saying please? Penny’s stomach sinks. “Hang on, I’ll get Craig.”

But before she can properly extricate herself, Matiu grabs her arm. Trembling fingers dig into her skin. “No.”

“But he’s just around—”

“No!”

Penny pauses. “OK, let me get rid of him, then. Wait here.” She hands him Cerberus’ lead and punches out a text to Beaker.

“Make it quick, sis,” Matiu says tiredly.

It’s all Penny can do to leave him there and walk calmly around the corner. By now Craig is leaning against the car, waiting.

Holding up her phone, she flashes him a wide smile. “I’ve messaged my colleague. He’ll be down with the trolley in just a moment.”

Craig steps away from the car. “Penny, I really didn’t mean to upset you before.”

“You didn’t.” Penny smiles so wide her cheeks ache.Dropping his chin, Craig looks at her from under his lashes. “Penny.”

Come on. Go already. Matiu could pass out any second.

“Really. You didn’t. I’m just a bit overwhelmed, you know, with Mārama being ill, and getting two consults in one day.” She inclines her head to the mountain of white, where the first bog body ever discovered in New Zealand has been plonked unceremoniously on the footpath.

Craig puts his hands in his pockets. “You’re sure you’re not angry?” He rocks on his heels.

“Not a bit.”

“Well, then how about you prove it and have dinner with me tonight?”

Oh.

“Craig, really, that’s very kind…it’s just, um…I have a lot of work to do.” It’s as if she’s still wading in the bog at Karaka.

Craig runs his hand through slick black hair. “Penny, come on,” he coaxes. “You have to eat.”

In the alley, Cerberus barks. Craig looks up.

“Dinner would be lovely,” Penny blurts, touching her fingers to his sleeve and steering him towards the driver’s side. “Eight o’clock sound OK? We can cancel if that’s too late—”

Craig grins. “Eight is perfect. See you then.”

As soon as the car is out of sight, Penny sprints into the alley.

“What on earth have you been doing, anyway? You know Dad’s going to kill you when he sees that car.” Somewhere nearby, tyres squeal in sympathy.

“Pen, I’m dying already, can it wait until we get inside?”

She helps him to the front of the building, Matiu wincing with every step. They’ve only just made it when the front doors open and Beaker steps out with the trolley.

“Thank heavens,” Penny says, grasping one of the doors before it can close. “Talk about death warmed over; that body will be warmer now than it was when it was alive. Can you grab the bag please, Beaker, and bring it upstairs to the cooler while I help Matiu.” She ushers Matiu through the doors.

“Penny?” Beaker says, puzzled. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” she says, trying to sound nonchalant. “Matiu and I were involved in that little fender bender on the motorway this morning, remember?” She gives a little chuckle. “You know how it is, you don’t notice the bruises until the adrenalin wears off.”

“No, that’s not what I mean,” Beaker says. “Where’s the body?”

“It was just there,” Penny wails as the lab doors swing shut behind them. She leads Matiu to the nearest bench, then stomps back to the entrance to hang her satchel on its coat-hook. “Right there on the footpath. And next thing: gone! I can’t believe it!”

Beaker giggles. “The thief won’t believe it either, when he opens that bag. I mean, a dead body isn’t your usual contraband, is it? He was probably hoping for weed.”

“Beaker,” Penny snaps. “This isn’t a joke.”

Beaker flares red. “Um no. Of course not. I just…um…I’d better put the trolley away.” He hurries off, Cerberus bounding after him.

“That was harsh, sis,” Matiu says when Beaker is out of earshot. “None of this is his fault. The poor guy was just trying to lighten the mood.”

“Well, it isn’t helping. What am I going to do, Matiu? I should phone Tanner and let him know. Only the minute I phone it in, my entire career will be over. Tanner will pull the contracts. I’ll be forced to close the lab. Beaker will be out of a job. I can already imagine the glee on Mum and Dad’s faces. Not to mention Cordell’s.”

“Come on. It can’t be that bad.”

“Matiu, you don’t understand. It was a bog body. A bog body. Only the most important archaeological discovery in recent history, and I’ve gone and lost it.” She slumps over the bench and lays her head on the epoxy resin, its cool surface strangely soothing. “I’m doomed.”

Matiu ruffles her hair. “We’ll figure it out, Pen. People don’t just steal bodies off the street, so whoever did this has to have known what was in that bag. My guess is they followed you back from Karaka.”

“You really think so?”

“Probably not. I’m still a bit woozy. In case you hadn’t noticed, I recently took a clout to the head.”

“Matiu, I’m serious.”

“Pen, Craig’s with Transport, not the Secret Service; he won’t have been watching for a tail. Look, why don’t you go and do whatever it is you have to do with your samples, while I take a shower. Nothing’s going to happen in the next half hour. We’ll decide what to do next when we’re all a bit calmer.”

“I am calm!”

Matiu draws a lazy circle on the benchtop with his index finger.

She sighs. “OK, so I could be calmer.” She hates it when he makes sense. “Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up. And when you’re done, you can tell me what you’ve been playing at.” Straightening, she drags a plastic BBQ chair into the wet-room and places it underneath the shower rose. Matiu trails her in. Like a shaky toddler, he tacks from one handhold to the next. Bench. Wall. Wall. Doorframe. Eventually, he steadies himself on the back of the chair. Penny flips on the water. “There’s a first aid kit out in the lab.”

He nods. “OK.” One-handed, he tries shrugging off his jacket, his face puckering in pain.

“Here, let me do it.” Penny slips it off his shoulders then pulls his t-shirt over his head, hanging both garments on a hook behind the door. It reminds her of when he was little, when she’d help him in and out of his dinosaur pyjamas. She used to fold them and put them under his pillow then, too. Well, he can drop his own jeans. He’s not that blimmin’ helpless. She grabs a fresh towel and lays it on the vanity, catching her reflection before the mirror clouds over. God, she looks a mess. She sucks in a breath. Cordell saw her like this. And that’s not the worst of it.

“Matiu,” she groans. “I only have until Thursday morning to deliver the body to Noah. He’s going to be dating it.”

Unzipping his jeans, Matiu arches an eyebrow. “That’s a step down, even for him.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake. Carbon dating. Not dating-dating. Honestly, I don’t know why I bother.” She whirls on her heel. “The hot water cuts out in fifteen minutes.”

- Matiu -

Matiu locks the door and shucks off the rest of his clothes, coated as they are in the dust and grime and soot and blood of a day that has gone entirely not how he had imagined it would when he woke up this morning. The steam is sweet, wrapping him like a blanket, and he steps into the water, resting his weight on the back of the chair and letting the detritus sluice away down the drain. It stings where it runs over his broken skin, and his head still spins, but he stands, letting the simplicity of the moment consume him. Trying not to think, just for a few minutes. Slowly, he unwraps the filthy bandage from his arm and lets it fall in a sodden mass to the shower floor. The healing wound itches like hell, but he resists the urge to scratch, or to look at it.