Torchwood Long Time Dead (21 page)

On the small screen, the lift doors silently
opened, and there she was again, Sue Costa,
stepping out. They nearly bumped into each other
and smiled politely as they passed to counter the
awkward moment.

'It's strange,' Andy was leaning so far forward
his face almost touched the screen. 'She doesn't
speak to him, and neither of them is acting like
they know each other. She doesn't even glance
back. Surely if she thought she recognised him,
she'd turn around?'

'Maybe she doesn't,' he muttered. 'And maybe
he didn't remember her until he got upstairs.'

Maybe it wasn't her that Andrew Murray and
Rebecca Devlin remembered. He thought about
what had happened to him the previous night.

He'd slept with Sue and then all his memories had
come back. What was it about her that did that?

She wasn't part of Torchwood. He'd never met
her before, he was pretty sure about that. But it
was Torchwood he remembered, and now she was
working at the Hub site, and people were dying
and others were killing themselves.

He looked down at his shirt and scanned it
closely until he found what he wanted. One long
curly hair was stuck to the cotton from where she'd
rested her head on his shoulder last night. He
pulled it free and handed it to his sergeant. 'Get
this over to the lab straight away. I want to know
if it matches the samples found on the victims.'

'What? What are you on about?' Andy frowned
as he took the hair carefully and held it between
his thumb and forefinger. 'Whose is it?'

'Just do it.' Cutler headed for the door. 'And get
on to Andrew Murray's block of flats. Get a list
of all the residents. What was she doing there?

Does she live there or was she visiting someone? A
boyfriend, maybe.' Even after everything he'd just
learned, that thought made his stomach twist. Was
that why she'd wanted to come to his the previous
night? Because she lived with someone? It didn't
feel true in his heart. Whatever else was going on
here, what had happened between them was real.

Either that or he was the world's biggest fool.

'Where are you going?' Andy called after him,
his confusion clear.

'To get some answers.'

He'd tried Sue's number four times on the way
over to the site, but there was still no answer.

Each time it went to her message service, his
heart sank. Why wouldn't she talk to him? If she
could trust anyone it was him. Whatever mess this
was, surely there was a way out of it for them - he
couldn't believe that she was a cold-hearted killer.

Could he have been that fooled by her? Or could
she have felt the same way as he did, regardless of
anything else she might have done?

It came as no surprise that she wasn't at the
site, and he didn't even glance over at her desk as
he strode into the Portakabin.

'It's all linked,' he said. The murders.

Torchwood. And the suicides.'

'Suicides?' Commander Jackson was on his

feet, the desk between them. 'What the hell are
you talking about?'

'It's on the news. Along with all kinds of
other madness. People missing. People killing
themselves. And it's all down to this place.'

'I don't understand. Explain.' Jackson looked
dog-tired, and Cutler took a deep breath before he
started. The old man had a lot to take in. Military
campaigning and taking orders was one thing,
this was a whole heap of other shit.

'Eryn Bunting, the woman whose ID was stolen
to open the safety deposit box back in 2007, killed
herself last night. She wrote "I remember" on the
bathroom wall. There's been a few of those over
the past few days. We weren't sure how they
were connected, but now I think that all these
people killing themselves are remembering their
encounters with the Torchwood team. They were
given something to make them forget. Some kind
of drug. But now their memories are back.' He felt
the terror that had been sitting in the pit of his
stomach since the previous night. 'And something
is scaring them so badly they'd rather die than
face it.

'I think whoever took her ID was a member of the
Torchwood team and they used the safety deposit
box to store something in case of emergencies.'

'How the hell do you know all this about

Torchwood? That's confidential. On the phone,
you said that this site was the Hub. You
cant

have known that.'

'I've been here before.' Cutler smiled softly. 'I'd
just forgotten about it.'

'Jesus.' Commander Jackson sat down.

'The thing that confused me was that I didn't
remember
her.
But that doesn't mean she wasn't
part of Torchwood. She just wasn't when I met
them.'

'You're not making any sense. Who?'

Cutler's phone rang, and he looked down to see
Andy Davidson's name glowing on the display.

The lab would have been quick - they didn't need
to ID the hair, just see whether it matched the
ones they already had from the victims. His heart
pounded even as his gut told him that he already
knew the answer. He'd remembered what it was
she said that had been bugging him.

'It's a match,' Andy said. 'Now are you going to
tell me what's going on?'

'Call the station and get me the info on that
block of flats.'

'But—'

Cutler hung up and stared at the Commander
as his heart and stomach raced to his mouth. 'I
think you'd better call the Department about Sue
Costa.'

'Sue? What about her?' As he spoke, the

Commander's eyes widened with the realisation
of what Cutler was saying. 'You think she... Dear
God.' He sat back heavily in his chair.

'Her hair's a match with those found on the
victims. Also she told me something last night.

About the
first
victim. The man that died in the
vault. The one you neglected to mention?'

Jackson opened his mouth to speak, but Cutler
held a hand up to stop him. 'Don't worry about
it. That's how you lot operate. The thing is, she
told me that he had lovely eyes. She couldn't have
known. She arrived here after that murder and the
eyes are hardly lovely when they've exploded.'

There's more,' Jackson said. 'Someone deleted
that file from here. From my computer. It must
have been her.'

'She's been busy.' Cutler tried to keep the
bitterness out of his voice. His heart ached. He'd
liked her. He'd
really
liked her. He still did. 'But
whatever she's doing to these people, it isn't
natural. It must be something alien she's using.

Some piece of technology stolen from here. Maybe
that's how she killed your first man. She got in
somehow, and he came across her and the device
killed him.'

'She
killed him,' Jackson said.

'Sir?' A young man appeared in the doorway.

'These were just emailed over for you. I've
printed them out.' He passed an envelope to
the Commander and then vanished, not even
acknowledging Cutler's presence. Maybe civilians
didn't exist to the Army or the Department. They
lived in a world of knowledge and secrets, while
the rest of the population just bumbled along,
just like he'd been doing since Jack Harkness had
wiped his memory. Why would anyone take an
interest in a world that was oblivious? Why care
about the sheep? Thinking of the suicides and the
missing people and those unlucky enough to have
been caught in Sue Costa's wake, Tom Cutler
found that he, unlike the soldiers, cared very
much about the ordinary people going about their
normal lives. Protecting them was his job, and he
intended to do it - even if it meant going after a
woman he'd half fallen in some kind of love with.

Jackson was staring down at the contents of the
envelope, his mouth half-open. 'You're not going to
believe this,' he said eventually.

'Oh, I think I've seen everything.'

'Not this.' Jackson handed over the papers and
Cutler stared down at them. He frowned, stuck
in disbelief for a moment. 'But this has to be a
mistake. This can't...' His voice trailed off as he
stared at the picture of Sue Costa -
Suzie Costello,

according to the file - with the word 'DECEASED'

stamped across it. 'How can she be dead? This
must be a mistake. She must have faked it.'

'Look at the second page. It's Jack Harkness's
report on her. Not only is she dead, she's been
dead twice.'

Cutler did as the Commander told him. He had
to read it twice to take it all in. With the details
laid out in black and white as they were, it was
hard to see any trace of the woman he'd held in his
arms the previous night with her sparkling eyes,
soft skin and gentle smile. According to the file,
Suzie was a murderer several times over, had tried
to kill Gwen Cooper in order to steal her life force.

He stared at the last detail. While escaping from
Torchwood last time, Suzie had gone to hospital
to kill her dying father. Maybe if she hadn't done
that, he thought, she might have got away. What
had her father done to her that she wanted such
a terrible revenge? He stared at the paper and
its tale of blood, murder and suicide. He should
have felt shocked and appalled - and on a lot of
levels he did - but he also pitied her. He knew how
Torchwood could affect your life. What had it done
to Suzie Costello?

'She's clearly brilliant,' Jackson said.

'Everything must have been so carefully planned.

The first set of back-ups after she shot herself.

And now all of this.' He sighed. 'Brilliant and a
touch of paranoia.'

'It's only paranoia if it's not true.' Cutler
stared down at the picture. Her hair was longer
and darker in it. He liked it. 'She'd have known
they would come after her.' He looked up. 'But I
don't understand. If she's dead, then how can she
be back? You haven't found this glove-thing have
you?'

'The glove was destroyed. That's not behind
this. All Torchwood deceased were kept at the
Hub. Suzie Costello's body would have been frozen
in the vault, and that's where our lab rat John
Blackman's body was found. The drawers were
all smashed up down there and you can imagine
the smell and state of the place. Her body must
have fallen out of one of the drawers. We were
looking for recoverable technology not checking
that the dead were still dead, so we didn't do a
body count.'

'Something woke her up,' Cutler said, 'and
whatever it was, I think it's taking her over. These
deaths aren't just a murder spree. Something is
turning these people's brains to mulch.' He paused.

'And there's something else. Something really
bad is coming. Something dark and endless and
unimaginable. I know that sounds crazy, but I feel
it. I've found myself opening and closing doors and
drawers. I think I was trying to tell myself that a
doorway has been opened, to somewhere terrible,
and we need to close it before it's too late.'

Jackson stared at him. 'I feel it too. I've been
dreaming. Hellish dreams. I've not dreamed
anything like it in all my years.'

We need to find her, and figure out what it is. I
can't believe that she's doing all of this willingly.'

It sounded lame and he knew it. Judging by
the report in front of him, Suzie Costello was a
psychopathic killer and there was no way round
it. But he'd seen something else. A different side
to her. Listening to himself, he wondered if he
was as crazy as she was. Still, he wanted to hear
her explanation for himself. He needed to try and
understand what was going on with her.

His phone rang and he listened to Andy

Davidson at the other end. We'll meet you there.

Secure the building but be discreet. I don't want
anyone going in until I get there.'

'What is it?'

'Her apartment. You coming?'

Commander Jackson nodded, and took one last
glance at the picture in the file. 'Aren't you going
to circulate her photo? In case anyone sees her?'

'I'm not putting anyone at risk like that, and
to be honest, I don't want her alerted. Not until
we've decided how best to play this.'

'You think she's at home?'