Doctor Who_ Timeless Part 16

'Amazing what you can pick up beside the seaside,' said the Doctor, a faraway look in his eyes.

There was a rat-a-tat-tat on the front door. Anji gave him a look. 'Tell me that's not a whole beach party you brought along.'

The Doctor checked his pocket watch. 'Right on time.'

Anji crossed to the hall. 'Who's there?'

'Ralf and Susan Canons.h.i.+re,' came Fitz's deadpan voice. She opened the door and he nearly knocked her over as he grabbed her close in a big hug. 'Anji! I've really missed you!'

'You've only been gone a day,' she spluttered, trying to break free of his clumsy embrace.

Trix gave her a put-down look to say she knew nothing. 'Haven't you told her, Doctor?'

'I thought I'd save the catching-ups until we were all here,' the Doctor announced. He leant in towards Fitz and Trix, put an arm round their shoulders. 'Mission accomplished?'

Trix and Fitz glanced at each other and nodded. The Doctor smiled. 'I now p.r.o.nounce you both clever-clogs.'

'Well, we're all here, Doctor,' Anji said quickly. 'And we all have stuff to say, so...'

He nodded. 'Guy, Stacy, could you join us for a meeting of minds please?'

The two of them emerged, Guy with a polite nod of his head to Trix and Fitz, Stacy curious but wary. Fresh, impatient introductions were made. Everyone wanted to get to the point.

People found places to perch around the living room, and Anji looked the Doctor right in the eye.

'Well?'

Nineteen.

Storytelling The Doctor told them, right there and then and without ceremony.

He explained about the mists and his unplanned arrival in Newhaven at night, his near-death in the sea, and how Stacy had saved him.

Then he helped Stacy recount her own story, interrupting and embellis.h.i.+ng, the born raconteur who can't bear someone murdering a story he can tell better.

As Anji listened, she shuddered to hear of these mysterious non-murders of Daniel Basalt and his video nasties.

'So, you've met the man too,' Trix observed, acknowledging Stacy for the first time since their cool h.e.l.lo. 'Bad to the bone, isn't he?'

Stacy unfolded herself from a spidery heap by the TV and stared. 'You've seen him? Recently?'

'Sure.'

She half rose. 'You know where to find him?'

'We know his haunts,' Trix said casually.

'Later,' said the Doctor, holding up a hand.

But Fitz was unable to contain himself. 'I followed him to Bournemouth and back, just five days ago. Saw him kill a woman.' He crossed the room and slumped beside Stacy, clearly haunted by the memory. 'You're right. No special effects there.'

Anji saw Guy raise his eyebrows at her gravely and she nodded. 'G.o.d, Fitz,' she muttered. 'That must've been awful.'

'And not too great for the victim.' Stacy looked coldly between Fitz and Trix. 'Didn't you even try to stop him?'

'There was nothing I could do,' Fitz protested. 'In any case... half an hour later she came out absolutely fine. The same woman. Like nothing had happened.'

Anji saw Guy give him a doubtful look, and Fitz got cross. 'Look, it's true. It was the same woman... there just wasn't a mark on her. She made out that no one had called round, that nothing was wrong...'

'Denying all connection, like the people I've been hounding...' Stacy was wringing her hands in frustration. Her eyes flashed at Fitz. 'But you saw the murder happen. You let let it happen.' it happen.'

Fitz looked hurt. 'I was too late to... Look, the Doctor told me not to get involved.'

'Oh yeah?' Stacy's face had darkened. She looked at the Doctor accusingly. 'And why would '

'I didn't know anything of your own experiences with the man then,' he said gruffly. 'Nor what he was really capable of. And we still still don't. We're not seeing the big picture, what he's trying to achieve' don't. We're not seeing the big picture, what he's trying to achieve'

'Achieve? He's killing people, what more '

'Not now, Stacy!' he bellowed. She flinched like he'd slapped her face, and fell quiet. In the same breath he told Fitz, 'You did well. Don't worry.'

Fitz nodded, grateful and relieved.

The Doctor continued as if nothing had interrupted him, moving on to events down at the docks that morning. While Trix sat filing her nails like none of this concerned her, he briefly detailed his escapades with the hoods on the boat and how Stacy had seen what he literally couldn't: a white, rusty van.

'It was a c.r.a.ppy white van that pulled up outside the woman's house,' Fitz breathed. 'They brought out these bin bags full of... G.o.d knows what, and put them in the back.' He shuddered. 'I thought it was bits of her body.'

'There was a kind of coffin in the back of this van,' said Stacy slowly. 'But I don't think there was a corpse inside.'

Anji frowned. 'Why?'

'It was full of air holes like whatever was inside it was alive, like it needed to breathe. And these metal bands were all round it to keep it safely inside.'

Guy jumped up. 'You're joking!' he spluttered.

Everyone stared at him. Guy looked suddenly self-conscious, and sat back down.

'What is it?' the Doctor asked, with sudden concern.

'Well... That coffin you've described. It sounds textbook design for burial at sea.'

The Doctor leaped into the air. 'Eureka!'

Encouraged, Guy went on. 'The air holes are so the coffin fills with water and sinks quickly if it's allowed to drift it can end up resurfacing somewhere else. The metal bands hold the lid on and stop the body floating out. Sometimes the currents can '

'The biodegradable padding!' Stacy and the Doctor both exclaimed, as if the meaning of life had become suddenly clear.

'Yeah! They use that!' Guy nodded enthusiastically. 'Soaks up those tricky bodily fluids. The body can't be embalmed that would he a pollutant. We've got strict rules on that sort of thing.'

'Rules?' Trix looked up from her nails, apparently irritated. 'How do you know all this anyway?'

'Burial at sea is handled by my office, the Sea Fisheries Inspect...' Guy trailed off. He and Anji looked at each other. 'So this is why Mike tried to kill me? He's connected with people disposing of bodies, and he thought I knew something about it?'

'Looks like it,' the Doctor agreed. 'Though his malice towards you was heightened by some as yet unidentified '

Guy shushed him, much to the Doctor's consternation. 'Anji, back the office you asked me about FEPA...'

Fitz held up a hand. 'Translation?'

'Food and Environment Protection Act,' Guy told him. 'A FEPA licence is needed before anything can be dumped in the sea. Including coffins.'

'I saw a spreadsheet on Mike's computer,' breathed Anji, 'in a folder called FEPA. Didn't make sense at the time. It detailed cargo deliveries from Newhaven, but with no destination marked.'

'Because that was was their destination.' Guy nodded. 'And so each "cargo" would need a FEPA licence.' their destination.' Guy nodded. 'And so each "cargo" would need a FEPA licence.'

Trix snorted. 'We're talking about crooks and murderers dumping bodies off the side of the boat. No vicar, no ceremonies you think they'd be bothered about the proper paperwork?'

'But they'd be bothered if the bodies of their victims came floating back up again, wouldn't they?' Guy shrugged. 'It can happen. Go through the SFI and even if they do, the bodies are accounted for. They must be paying Mike a bung to set it all up. Who'll know there was never an actual ceremony? It's all legal, all covered.'

'They certainly wouldn't want any undue attention,' the Doctor agreed, 'particularly when these "dead" people seem all to be very much alive...'

'And in on the scam, if they're like the woman Fitz met.' Stacy nodded. 'Jeez, Tommo said they'd taken care of eight or nine of these jobs for Basalt, and I'm sure there've been more...'

'How many sea burials can there be in an average year?' wondered Fitz.

Guy shook his head. 'Regulations say we should allow no more than thirty.'

'There were about fifty "deliveries" on that spreadsheet.' Anji said slowly. She pulled a face. 'And it's only August.'

'What form does the licence take, Guy?' asked the Doctor.

'Usually an official letter to a funeral director, or the business that's going to do do the business.' Guy was clicking his tongue now almost dementedly as he concentrated. 'It contains the name of the stiff, date and location of the proposed burial... All that stuff.' the business.' Guy was clicking his tongue now almost dementedly as he concentrated. 'It contains the name of the stiff, date and location of the proposed burial... All that stuff.'

'So that information could be in those letters I saw in the FEPA folder!' Anji realised. 'We could find out the names of his victims!'

'They'll be fake names,' said Trix dismissively. 'Why leave evidence?'

Guy shrugged. 'It might be worth checking.'

'The important thing,' said Stacy, 'is to stop this happening again.'

'I just wish I knew how all this business tied in with what's been happening to me,' Guy sighed.

Anji patted his hand and looked enquiringly at the Doctor.

'These special coffins must be manufactured to exacting specifications, Guy, am I right?' he asked, deftly changing the subject.

'Sure.' He nodded. 'Needs a softwood liner, a heavy material like iron or concrete built in to '

Stacy b.u.t.ted in: 'Can we find out which companies manufacture these things? See if any of them have received any bulk orders from a guy called Chongy?'

'Worth a try,' agreed the Doctor brightly.

'Er, excuse me,' said Trix sullenly.

Everyone turned and looked at her.

'When is it our turn?' She gestured at Fitz. 'Is no one interested in what Fitz and I have been doing for the past six weeks?'

Anji felt her toes curl in the awkward silence. It stretched on as everyone stared at Trix in a sort of shocked surprise.

'You're getting so worked up about rules and paperwork,' she complained as she gazed stonily about the room, a look unsettlingly at odds with her melodramatic tone. 'You're missing what's important. Me and Fitz have put our lives on total hold for well over a month, we've risked our necks and G.o.d knows what else to get close to these people! It wasn't easy, it was d.a.m.ned scary and it was six b.l.o.o.d.y weeks! And you're all fussing on about coffins!'

'Perhaps we should arrange a small award ceremony,' suggested the Doctor, apparently sincere. 'Anji, do you have anything we might use as a trophy?'

'Ha, ha,' said Trix dryly. 'Fitz, back me up here. What's important '

'Look, love, you're still a bit new to this game.' Fitz gave her a sympathetic smile. 'Sure, we took risks, we made sacrifices, but so does everyone in our field...' Now he grinned heroically at Stacy. 'It just comes with the territory.'

Anji started to giggle at the utterly bemused look on Stacy's face. 'Fitz "Danger" Kreiner, my hero,' she said, and dissolved into laughter. A slow smile spread over Guy's face, then he started to join in. So did the Doctor.

'What?' Fitz protested. 'It's true!'

Trix wasn't fazed by any of this. 'If I could just make my point? Why traipse about trying to find who supplied what to whom, when we know how to reach the real villain of the piece and we know he fancies my pants off?' She held out her hands in a 'throw-me-a-bone-here!' gesture. 'We can just track him down again and I can get him to tell us everything we want to know.' She rolled her eyes. 'Cut out the middle man, give yourselves a break from all this dreary theorising.'

The Doctor looked at her, the ghost of a smile still on his face. 'You think he'll simply tell you the details of this whole affair? Daniel Basalt's a dangerous, devious, manipulative psychotic, Trix.'

'Takes one to know one,' muttered Anji.

Trix ignored her. She mimed wrapping something round her little finger. 'I think I can win his trust. Get him to talk.'

'You really don't know the guy,' said Stacy quietly.

'It's a n.o.ble gesture, Trix, but there are forces at work here I doubt even Basalt fully understands.' The Doctor sank his hands deep into his pockets and sighed. 'He's being used... as are so many of us, it seems.'

'I should go after him, Stacy declared. Anji noticed the Doctor give her a despairing look, as if they'd argued over this before. Stacy glared back at him defiantly. 'He approached me, chose me to tell about all this stuff,' she reminded him. 'Perhaps if it's me who confronts him '

'No one will tackle Basalt face to face,' the Doctor insisted. 'There's still so much we don't understand.'

'Like this mist stuff,' muttered Guy.

'Yes, what's its nature, its purpose? Why do some see it but not others...?' He nodded decisively. 'When we act, it has to be from a position of strength. And knowledge is strength impartial knowledge. So I agree, Basalt should be followed. Now we've upset his little operation in Newhaven, chances are he'll be looking for new muscle. We need to find out what he's really doing, how he's doing it, who his accomplices are...'