Read Online Heaven is a Place on Earth by Graham Storrs - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Graham Storrs
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to call her back and apologise, but wanting her to be gone, too, so that she wouldn't have to go on lying and being evasive.
-oOo-
She climbed out of the tank and kicked it, stomping into the kitchenette to scowl at the inside of her fridge. Nothing there improved her mood, so she flopped onto the sofa and scowled at the wall. She should be working. She really should be working. But now Della had filled her head with images of kids blowing their hands off, or dying of heroin overdoses. Ginny had not even considered such gruesome possibilities. Now she couldn't help thinking of what she might have done. She had not wanted to know what was in the package. It was almost certainly something bad, even if it was just data. Half the world was 'just data' these days. Probably much more than half. The thought of what might be on those data cubes, and what Tonia and her cronies might do with it, was one she had been avoiding. And she'd been avoiding it successfully until she'd let Della get under her skin about it.
There were several messages on her queue. One was from the development manager at WorldEnough, a company she had worked for in the past and who were considering a proposal of hers at the moment. She didn't feel like dealing with that right now. If she hadn't won the work, she'd feel even more desperate than before. If she had won it, she'd have another project to feel guilty about not working on. On the other hand, there were only two other messages that were not junk. One from her father and one from Dover Richards.
She knew what her father wanted. Her mother had nagged him into calling her to do something she didn't want to do – apologise, or visit, or whatever. As for Dover Richards, she had it on Tonia's authority that the smarmy creep wasn't a real policeman and was probably the man who murdered Gavin. She definitely wasn't going to take that call.
She got up and paced across the room. What if he came round to see her again? What if he was out in the hallway, right now, waiting for her? He thought she had information about Cal, or the package maybe. What if he decided to stop playing at being a policeman and question her more directly? She stopped pacing and looked at the door. What if he decided she didn't know anything and that he ought to kill her, just so there'd be no loose ends? She kept staring at the door, thinking about him out there, just a few metres away. It struck her just how flimsy a barrier a door was. She always thought of doors as substantial things. They shut out the world. They created a space of safety and privacy inside, an inviolable space, a secure space. But that wasn't true, she realised. A man like Richards probably didn't see doors that way at all. They could be kicked in, the locks shot away, the hinges smashed. Gavin had died after a door he might have once trusted became, not a protective barrier, but a convenient means of entry for his killer.
The urge to take a look outside grew almost irresistible. Yet, even if she had wanted to, she hadn't the courage to open that door, not while a killer might be lurking out there.
The knock came like three rapid gunshots and Ginny cried out in shock and fear, every muscle tensing as if she'd been electrocuted. She stumbled away from the door, wide-eyed with terror. A man's voice shouted something but she couldn't make it out. She looked around. She had to get out. Run. There was a window behind her. She looked at it and outside she saw sunlight filtering through the canopy of a beautiful rain forest clearing. She blinked, momentarily confused. Then she pushed her augmentation down and down until she could see the real street with its scruffy nature strip and the shabby buildings opposite. She was on the first floor. She'd have to climb down somehow.
There was another knock, louder than the first and another shout. Ginny grabbed the window lock, her fingers clumsy and awkward. She couldn't get it open. She broke a nail, sobbing with
-oOo-
She climbed out of the tank and kicked it, stomping into the kitchenette to scowl at the inside of her fridge. Nothing there improved her mood, so she flopped onto the sofa and scowled at the wall. She should be working. She really should be working. But now Della had filled her head with images of kids blowing their hands off, or dying of heroin overdoses. Ginny had not even considered such gruesome possibilities. Now she couldn't help thinking of what she might have done. She had not wanted to know what was in the package. It was almost certainly something bad, even if it was just data. Half the world was 'just data' these days. Probably much more than half. The thought of what might be on those data cubes, and what Tonia and her cronies might do with it, was one she had been avoiding. And she'd been avoiding it successfully until she'd let Della get under her skin about it.
There were several messages on her queue. One was from the development manager at WorldEnough, a company she had worked for in the past and who were considering a proposal of hers at the moment. She didn't feel like dealing with that right now. If she hadn't won the work, she'd feel even more desperate than before. If she had won it, she'd have another project to feel guilty about not working on. On the other hand, there were only two other messages that were not junk. One from her father and one from Dover Richards.
She knew what her father wanted. Her mother had nagged him into calling her to do something she didn't want to do – apologise, or visit, or whatever. As for Dover Richards, she had it on Tonia's authority that the smarmy creep wasn't a real policeman and was probably the man who murdered Gavin. She definitely wasn't going to take that call.
She got up and paced across the room. What if he came round to see her again? What if he was out in the hallway, right now, waiting for her? He thought she had information about Cal, or the package maybe. What if he decided to stop playing at being a policeman and question her more directly? She stopped pacing and looked at the door. What if he decided she didn't know anything and that he ought to kill her, just so there'd be no loose ends? She kept staring at the door, thinking about him out there, just a few metres away. It struck her just how flimsy a barrier a door was. She always thought of doors as substantial things. They shut out the world. They created a space of safety and privacy inside, an inviolable space, a secure space. But that wasn't true, she realised. A man like Richards probably didn't see doors that way at all. They could be kicked in, the locks shot away, the hinges smashed. Gavin had died after a door he might have once trusted became, not a protective barrier, but a convenient means of entry for his killer.
The urge to take a look outside grew almost irresistible. Yet, even if she had wanted to, she hadn't the courage to open that door, not while a killer might be lurking out there.
The knock came like three rapid gunshots and Ginny cried out in shock and fear, every muscle tensing as if she'd been electrocuted. She stumbled away from the door, wide-eyed with terror. A man's voice shouted something but she couldn't make it out. She looked around. She had to get out. Run. There was a window behind her. She looked at it and outside she saw sunlight filtering through the canopy of a beautiful rain forest clearing. She blinked, momentarily confused. Then she pushed her augmentation down and down until she could see the real street with its scruffy nature strip and the shabby buildings opposite. She was on the first floor. She'd have to climb down somehow.
There was another knock, louder than the first and another shout. Ginny grabbed the window lock, her fingers clumsy and awkward. She couldn't get it open. She broke a nail, sobbing with
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