Freeze Frames

Chapter Four

Ile de Groix, Brittany, France, August 12, 1990

At the far side of the garden, beneath the shade of a gnarled oak, stood the shed that Killian used as a workshop. He had spent many hours here, pursuing his passion. Collecting and breeding, killing and preserving. He had constructed a rough workbench and lined the walls with shelves that were crowded with specimen jars and light traps, an insect tray, and a tullgren funnel for trapping apterygotes.

In the corner stood a rack where he kept his nets. Several large ones for capturing flying creatures. A strong sweep net for sampling insects on vegetation. A pond dipping net for catching those that lived and bred on water.

He had just constructed a new pooter, two lengths of 3mm clear plastic tubing protruding from either end of a transparent plastic film canister. A small square of fine-meshed cotton was taped over the end of the mouthpiece which was inside the canister. Thus he would avoid the danger of sucking one of the insects into his mouth. Carefully he inserted the other length of tube into the glass breeding jar where gossamer-winged creatures, trapped, demented, and hungry, whined and darted through the light that slanted from the window. He put the mouthpiece between his lips. A short, sharp intake of breath drew a single insect through the tube and into the canister.

Killian took a large magnifying glass from the drawer and lifted the canister to the light, peering at it through the lens with some satisfaction. This was what he had wanted. A female of the culex pipiens species, the world’s most common mosquito. Unlike its malaria-carrying cousin, the culex fed mainly on birds, although was not averse to feeding on man to spread such delights as Saint Louis encephalitis and West Nile virus. It could be found on every continent on earth, except Antarctica, and was a common irritant here on this tiny, rocky island in the unpredictable Bay of Biscay.

Killian withdrew the collecting tube and sealed the hole in the lid with a square of tape. Fastidiously, he replaced the breeding jar in its heated container and cleared away his workbench. Everything had a place and had to be in it.

Satisfied, finally, with his work, he stepped out into the garden and locked the door of the shed. The shadows of trees fell darkly across the lawn toward the whitewashed cottage, in sharp contrast to the sunlight that slanted between their branches. Beyond, the same light shimmered on the sparkling waters of the strait that separated the island from the mainland port of Lorient, just visible in the far distance. The white triangles of sailing boats flashed in the clear summer air, tacking back and forth in the breeze that breathed through the channel.

The hum of myriad insects filled the hot air, music to Killian’s ears as he turned away from the house and headed across the grass to the little annex where he had his study. A separate building with a tiny guest bedroom in the attic, Killian spent more time in the annex than he did in the house. Sometimes, when he worked late into the night, he would sleep upstairs. He had passed many more nights there than any houseguest. Visitors were rare these days, and when Peter and Jane came they always took a room in the main house.

The outside door of the annex opened into a tiny square of hall, from which narrow stairs led up to the bedroom. Straight ahead, a door opened into a small bathroom, while the door to the right led into his study. He knew he would have to take care not to leave it open for more than the few seconds it would take his visitor to enter. He closed it behind him now and crossed to his desk. He placed the film canister in his in-tray and went to the window. He opened it to lean out and pull the shutters closed, adjusting the slats to let in some light, before closing the window once more and turning the key in its lock. Only the fan turning lazily in the ceiling stirred the hot air of the room.

Killian returned to his desk and eased himself into his captain’s chair. He took out a handkerchief to mop away the perspiration that formed like dewdrops on his forehead, and ran a hand back through his head of thick, white hair. He looked at the book lying on his desk. A thin, well-thumbed paperback. He opened it at random, somewhere around the halfway point, and ran the heel of his hand up between the pages, breaking the spine so that it would remain open, an act that caused him some distress. But necessary, he knew, to accomplish his goal.

In the top, right-hand drawer, he found a small jar of clear liquid, and a clean wad of cotton wool. He smeared the cotton with a little of the liquid, and dabbed it lightly across the pages of the open book, then leaned forward to blow it dry. The combination, he knew, of lactic acid and carbon dioxide would prove an irresistible attractant to the winged messenger in the film canister.

Now he retrieved an aerosol of the repellent, N, N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide, from the bottom drawer and closed his eyes as he sprayed it around his face and hands. He held his breath for as long as it took the fine liquid particles to disperse in the downdraft from the fan, then took a deep gulp of air.

He sat back in his seat and looked at the slats of light that zigzagged across the chair opposite and had a fleeting moment of doubt. But he forced it quickly from his mind and checked the time. His visitor would arrive any minute now. He reached for the film canister in his in-tray and hesitated only briefly before flipping the cap off with his thumb and releasing the culex pipiens into the room.

The lines of sunlight that fell across the room from the shutters, now followed the contours of Killian’s visitor, striping arms and legs, as he sat in the chair which had been empty just a few minutes earlier. He was comfortable and relaxed, legs crossed, hands folded in his lap, smiling a slightly patronising smile across the desk at the Englishman. “My goodness, it’s hot,” he said, and he took out a fresh white handkerchief to wipe away the sweat gathering in the folds of his neck. “Any chance we could open a window?” He was wearing a white, open-necked shirt, the sleeves carefully folded up to the elbows.

Killian shrugged. “The air’s warmer outside than in.” He glanced up at the ceiling fan, and wondered with a stab of concern whether the downdraught might discourage the mosquito. He felt a trickle of perspiration run down the side of his face. “I’m sweating, too. But it’s not the heat that’s doing it.”

“No, of course not.” His visitor paused, raising one eyebrow and tipping his head as a sign of concern. “How are you feeling?”

“Not good.” Some days were better than others. But lately there were more days when he felt worse. He supposed it was only to be expected. He tried to listen for the high-pitched whine of the culex, but his tinnitus was so bad now it was impossible to detect.

The other man leaned forward suddenly, half-turning his head to squint across the desk. He was looking at the open book that lay upon it, and for a moment Killian thought he had seen right through him. “What are you reading these days?” he asked. But didn’t wait for an answer, reading instead from the page heading. The Life of the Mosquito, Part 4. He looked up at Killian, and his incomprehension was patent, etched in the lines that wrinkled his nose and radiated from around his eyes. “Of course. You’re interested in insects, aren’t you?”

“It’s been a passion of mine for years.”

“Can’t say I have anything other than a healthy dislike for them myself. Noisy, stinging, biting little bastards!” And he chuckled as if he had said something amusing.

Killian smiled indulgently.

“Well, I suppose we’d better get on with it.” The visitor leaned over to lift his bag from the floor and suddenly slapped at his forearm with his free hand. When he lifted his palm away, there was the tiniest smear of blood there, and for one dreadful moment Killian thought he had actually killed the culex. “Damn! Missed him.”

Killian lowered his eyes and saw it just as it lighted on the pages of the open book. Such a fragile, delicate creature, with its dark-scaled proboscis and golden head, abdomen swollen now from its last meal. “There she is.”

His visitor frowned. “She?”

“It’s only the female of the species that bites.”

“Hah! Like most women, not to be trusted.” The visitor peered with annoyance at the tiny creature that had just fed on him.

“She needs the blood to feed her babies. Or, to be more accurate, to develop fertile eggs. Mosquitoes of both sexes actually feed on sugar. Plant nectar. Blood meals are reserved for egg production only.”

The other man raised his eyebrow again, this time in concert with a curl of his lip to demonstrate his distaste. “As far as I’m concerned, the only good mosquito’s a dead one.”

“Yes,” Killian agreed. And very carefully he slipped two fingers beneath one half of the book, and quickly, deftly flipped it shut. His visitor watched, with something like fascination, as Killian opened it again to reveal the creature perfectly squashed, its final meal now staining the paper of the facing pages. A small, crimson stain in The Life of the Mosquito, Part 4.

Killian smiled with satisfaction and looked up to meet the eye of his visitor. “Gotcha!” he said.

Six weeks later

Killian closed the door of his study and climbed the narrow staircase in the dark. When he reached the little attic bedroom, he turned on the light and saw a stooped and putty-faced old man staring back at him from the mirror of the dressing table opposite. It was with something of a shock that he realised that the old man was himself. Most of the thick, silver hair that had so characterised his later years, was gone. There were deep, penumbrous shadows beneath his eyes, skin hanging grey and loose around his neck and jowls. He walked with the stooped gait of the elderly, and he wondered what had happened to the young man who had arrived with so much hope in his heart all those years before on the shores of England’s green and pleasant land.

All that filled his heart now was fear. Not fear of death, for that was inevitable. But fear of not finishing what he had begun. That, in the end, his tormentor would get away with it. He had misplaced his trust in another and realised too late the mistake. He glanced from the window toward the house, across a lawn mired in shadow. There were no lights beyond the pale, colourless, illumination of the moon. And for a moment, he wondered if he saw movement among the trees. A figure flitting from shadow to shadow. He stood straining to see for nearly a minute before deciding it was just his imagination.

Turning away from the window he hobbled across the room, supported on his walking stick, a stout piece of hazel with an owl’s head carved as a handle, the curve of it fitting neatly now in the palm of his hand. The bed gave beneath him as he sat on its edge, and he laid the stick beside him before picking up the phone. If only Peter had been at home, he would have told him everything. He cursed himself for not doing so sooner.

The phone, ringing shrill and metallic in a distant land, sounded in his ear, until he heard the familiar cadences of a young woman’s voice. “Hello?” And he wished he could lay his head on her breast and weep, curling up like a fetus, returning to the safety of the womb.

Instead he said, “Jane, it’s Papa. Don’t speak, just listen.”

The alarm in her voice was clear. “Papa, what’s wrong?”

“You’re not listening to me, Jane.” He was trying to stay calm. “I need you to do something for me, and I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding.” He paused and was greeted by silence from the other end. Almost. He could hear her short, shallow breathing. “Good.” He had her attention. “I know that Peter won’t be back from Africa until next month. If I’m still around, I’ll speak to him myself. But if I’m not-if something has happened to me-then I want you to tell him to come straight here.”

“For God’s sake, Papa, what could happen to you? Have you taken a turn for the worse?”

“Jane!” His admonition was almost brutal, and he heard her stop midbreath. “If for any reason I am not around any longer, he’s to come to the house. I’ve left a message for him. He’ll find it in my study. But, Jane… if he’s still not back, I need you to make sure that no one moves or removes anything in the room. I need you to promise me that.”

“But, Papa-”

“Promise me, Jane!”

He heard the frustration now in her voice. “I promise. But, Papa, what kind of message?”

“Nothing that anyone else will make sense of, Jane. But Peter will know straight away.” He had absolute confidence that his son would understand. And with understanding would come illumination. “It’s just ironic that it’s the son who will finish the job.”

“Why can’t you tell me?”

How could he tell her that it was too great a responsibility for a mere daughter-in-law? That he couldn’t trust her with something so important. He tried to soften it. “It’s too much to place on the shoulders of a young woman, Jane. Peter will know what to do.”

“Papa…”

But he wasn’t listening any more. A dull thud from somewhere deep in the building reverberated faintly through the bed. He felt it more than heard it. And as he got do his feet, he let the receiver fall back in its cradle. He lifted his walking stick, this time to use as a weapon rather than as an aid to walking, and shuffled toward the door.

The light from the bedroom spilled down the stairs to the tiny hall below, casting his shadow before him as he made his way slowly, step by step, down to the door of his study. It stood slightly ajar, but he remembered that he had closed it. Fear tightened around his heart like a clenched fist. Using his stick, he pushed it wide and saw the light that pooled on the green leather below his desk lamp, throwing his desk diary into sharp, clear focus. Beyond its ring of light, the rest of the room lay shadowed in semidarkness. The door to the little kitchen stood fully open. He knew, too, that he had left it closed. He tried to listen, but the ringing in his ears obliterated all else.

He stepped into the room, and almost immediately was aware of a movement in his peripheral vision. He swivelled around as the intruder stepped into the light, the pistol in his hand raised and pointed at Killian’s chest. His face was set and grim, and Killian thought he saw fear in his eyes. “I figured it would be you,” Killian said. “I knew it was a mistake to tell you. I could see it in your eyes.”

“Could you?”

“I saw all this, probably before you did.”

“Then you’ll know how it ends.”

“Yes.” He was resigned to it now.

“I couldn’t let you tell anyone.” It was almost as if he were pleading for understanding.

“No. You couldn’t.”

The three shots from the pistol reverberated with deafening intensity in the stillness of the night. Propelled by the first of them back against the wall, Killian was dead before the other bullets left the gun.

The distant echo of gunshot was followed by the sound of a phone ringing in the bedroom upstairs. Frozen momentarily by the act of murder, the killer seemed startled by it and then moved to sudden action. He had no idea how much time he might have. But it was imperative that he find and destroy the evidence.