Julia reached out her hand to shake his but he didn’t take it. The taller officer also turned to Julia now, and continued to speak. ‘Julia McKenzie, you’re under arrest on charges of theft and of conspiracy to induce bodily harm. You do not have to say anything unless you wish to do so, but I must warn you that if you fail to mention any fact which you rely on in your defence in court, your failure to take this opportunity to mention it may be treated in court as supporting any relevant evidence against you. If you do wish to say anything, what you say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?’
Matt watched Julia crumple. Her normally composed expression was replaced with one of shock and dismay. Unlike him, it was crystal clear that Julia had no indication that this was going to happen. She had been taken completely by surprise, which was exactly how it had to have been. The Interpol police in Zurich had said as much.
Julia turned to him and stared pleadingly into his eyes. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said. But Julia wasn’t answering the police officers question, she was directly addressing Matt. ‘What have you done?’
‘You know what you’ve done.’ Matt blurted the words out, struggling to fight back his emotion. ‘I don’t have to explain myself to you. If anyone has some explaining to do it’s you.’
With that, Matt turned to his luggage trolley, catching a glimpse at the multitudes of amused onlookers, and quickly composed himself.
‘But I have important work to do, Julia. I don’t have time for any more of your games.’ He turned to the officers and nodded, thanking them for their duty.
With that, the officers farewelled Matt and flanked the soppy mess that Julia now was and walked her towards the terminal exit and the waiting patrol car.
Matt stood and watched, completely struck by the moment, as the three departed looking more like a strange carnival race than three professionals in their fields. The events of the previous day’s visit to the Zurich police station played over in his head.
Matt was overcome with emotion when he first saw the photo of Warren’s accomplice. After composing himself, he turned to Andreas.
‘That’s Sir Alan McKenzie. Julia’s father.’
Andreas looked miserable. Matt felt it.
‘So Julia stole the mirror. She’s been in on this.’ Matt hadn’t said anything more about it. His brain just whirled into top gear.
Julia had been feeding info to Warren. That’s why Warren suggested he take Julia along. She had been in on it all along. How long? The betrayal went so much deeper than Matt had imagined possible. Had their years of working together all been part of a scam? God, she’s got a copy of the journal, I have to get it back.
Everything had only come together when Aimee and Hemi caught up with each other to swap notes following his recovery. They had realised that the only person who could have tipped Warren off, if it wasn’t either of them, had to be Julia. After a bit of digging, they found out that Julia’s father, the honourable Sir Alan McKenzie and Warren were the founders of the Clan of Truth. Together, they had plotted to get their hands on more tourist land for the McKenzie empire. Greed had killed Warren Rennie and resulted in Julia’s career being ruined. Matt couldn’t begin to imagine how it would affect her when she learned that Warren was dead.
As he watched Julia stoop into the back seat of the police car, he pinched himself. He was awake alright. The journal existed. He felt it in his satchel, the memory stick too. Yes, this was reality.
‘First my mother, then Warren, Aimee, and now Julia. How many people have I put misplaced trust in?’ he muttered to himself, as he gave the trolley a shove to move it from its stationary position off in the direction of the train station.
CHAPTER 64
Rose finally leaned forward and lowered her coffee-cup onto the table. She stared at Matt with a dumbfounded expression.
‘I’m so sorry, luv,’ she said. ‘You don’t deserve all the heartache this journey must have caused you.’
‘Thanks Rose, still here I am back at home, safe and sound. My favourite landlady and my loyal friend.’ Matt stroked Meridian’s lovely little head and thought perhaps he should go away more often. Meridian practically never settled down on his knees, but right now, there was no moving him from his perch, dribbling and purring in Matt’s lap.
‘And you got to meet your father and half-sister, so even though you’ve lost some, you’ve won some too, right?’
‘Sure.’ Matt smiled. Typical of Rose to see the best in every situation. ‘I met a girl too.’
‘Aimee?’
‘How’d you know?’
‘Every time you mentioned her, your face lit up.’
Matt was embarrassed to be so transparent. He had only mentioned Aimee as a companion on his search. The romance had been left out. So had the betrayal. Now he explained the whole situation to Rose.
‘Sounds to me like love, Matt. You shouldn’t let go of a chance for love like that. Give it some thought.’
‘I know you’re right, Rose. As soon as I get through this journal and sort out a few changes at work, I’ll get in touch with her.’
‘Then get to work,’ Rose said, standing up to take the empty cups to the sink, where she rinsed them before placing them carefully in the dishwasher.
Matt sighed. ‘Just as soon as I get this lump off my knee, I want to put the stuff on the memory stick through some translation software. See what exactly it is I’ve found here.’
‘I thought that automatic translations were supposed to be shoddy and hopeless.’ Rose teased Matt, reminding him of the French websites that were machine-translated into English, which he always laughed at. They had often chuckled over some of the lost meanings, or odd new ones, together.
‘Oh, they are. But it’ll take a few days for the full human translation to be completed. A trusted colleague from the European languages department is already on it. I just want to get a bit of a preview, as it were. I’m sure I can at least make sense out of what the software will offer me.’
‘Back in a sec.’
Rose took off out of the room. Matt had no idea where she had gone. Less than a minute later she reappeared and proudly put a shiny new laptop in front of Matt on the table.
‘I took your laptop to the repair guy. He said it was beyond help, so I thought I’d treat you to a new one. Everything’s been copied over.’
Matt looked up at Rose full of love. This woman managed to single-handedly renew his trust in mankind. She made him feel like gold every time he saw her. He had no idea what he would do without her in his life and hoped they would be friends, family, for years to come.
‘You shouldn’t have, Rose, you can’t afford it!’
‘Rubbish, your rent for the last month paid for that. I figured, if this little muppet won’t let you get to the computer, I’d get the computer to you.’
Matt smiled and lifted the lid of the curvy Asus computer and pressed the power button. He barely heard a thing as it sprang to life and Windows 7 greeted him. Retrieving the memory stick from his satchel, which thankfully was right next to him, he placed it in a USB socket and loaded Google’s translation tool up on his screen. He copied one journal entry at a time into the text box, and marvelled at the English, albeit imperfect, which greeted him at the click of a button.
‘I’m gonna put some dinner on. I figured you would be hungry, so I got us some stewing beef,’ Rose said, as she walked over to the kitchen bench and clanged stuff around.
Matt continued quietly scanning the entries through the first half of the journal. He had already had this part summarised to him by Julia, so there was nothing new or shocking, but it was nevertheless a riveting read. The
