Chapter 4 #2
“He’s sick. His family doesn’t want it getting out. It might damage their reputation. The great heir of Merlin and all. He’s only really lucid in the mornings, but it’s getting worse and worse.” More tears rolled down her face, and Des’s posture softened.
“I’m so sorry,” Des said, her tone easing off a bit. “This investigation is confidential, so we won’t be telling anyone.” Hala and Mal nodded, and Elaine calmed herself.
After a handful of condolences from the group, they said their goodbyes and began the long walk back down the grassy peak.
“How did you know she was hiding something?” Mal said to Hala, in curious awe. Des perked up at the question.
“It’s weird, it’s like I can see everything that’s in a person,” Hala said, to both of their confusion.
“Okay, okay, say you have a glass and it’s filled with orange liquid.
You would assume it’s orange juice, right?
Well, it’s the same with people. You look at someone and see they’re happy, so you assume they’re happy.
They look orange, so there must be orange juice in their glass.
But what if there was a tiny bit of oil, or salt, or vinegar mixed in with the juice?
You wouldn’t be able to tell until you drank it.
‘Drinking it’ in this case being interacting with the person.
I can tell exactly what’s in the glass, I can see all the little emotions, and I can separate them out.
I know how the liquid will taste before drinking it. ”
“That makes a strange amount of sense,” Mal said, wrapping his brain around the metaphor.
“It’s also easier for me to spot someone trying to pass off food dye as the real deal.
Take you for example, Mal.” Mal nodded, not liking what was about to happen.
“You’re mostly calm, and a medium happy right now.
We’ll call you orange juice. Most people could probably tell that.
” Des nodded in agreement. “But I can see more. You’re feeling a few standard boy things, which I won’t embarrass you by explaining. ”
Please make it stop, Mal thought.
“I’ll stop in a minute, I’m sorry,” Hala said, causing a small laugh from both her and Des.
“There’s also an anxiety, a constant, low-level anxiety.
Which isn’t unusual, lots of people are anxious for different reasons, but theirs goes up and down.
Yours is level, and it’s made of different stuff; it’s made of shame and life-altering dread.
Not guilt, so I can tell you haven’t done something wrong, which means it must be something out of your control.
Something you don’t like and that you constantly dread coming to light.
And it’s deep, it’s been there a long time.
So you put all that together and you get … ”
“Big secret,” Des said solemnly. She watched Mal close his eyes and take a deep breath.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that,” Hala said, putting a hand on Mal’s shoulder. “I just get carried away.”
“It’s okay,” Mal said. “It’s not like that’s a new revelation.”
“Wow,” Des said. “That’s terrifying.”
“And that’s just the start of it. I can get in there and mess with people’s emotions too if I want. I try not to, though. It’s a lot of fun to use, which makes it so much worse. I have to stop myself most of the time. It feels unfair otherwise.”
“I’d say do me next,” Des said, “but please, please don’t.”
“You sure?” Hala said. “It would probably cheer Mal up.”
“I will arrest you,” Des said, with a half-serious grin. Mal looked back and thought he caught a glimpse of her blushing. “Moving on. What do you guys think? Is that old man a cold-blooded killer?”
“He wasn’t hiding any shame or guilt, for what it’s worth,” Hala said.
“I can’t see a motive,” Mal said. “Is there any connection between the victims?”
“None that we can find. They were all killed late, between seven and midnight. One was killed here in Avalon, just down by the coast; the rest were in Dunwich. One by the University, one found in a park, and the fellow you met, Mal, was found in an alley off Copperfield Street.”
Mal wondered how Walters had explained that, if he had at all. “Why would he want to kill four random people?” Mal said.
“That’s what we wondered.” Des nodded approvingly at Mal’s contribution. “It’s more likely to be some sick puppy with a Merlin fetish, or someone with a grudge against his family. Plus Taran has an alibi.”
“True. I’m not sure I’d trust Elaine, though,” Hala said. “I still don’t like her.”
“We’ll verify everything they’ve said with traffic cameras and phone logs. It’ll be easy enough to tell if they weren’t home.”
Mal thought about what Murray had said, how he’d heard a woman’s voice.
The pair matched what he could have seen, but Mal couldn’t imagine those two running around the country killing people.
Walters had also said that the girl was “new,” meaning she was only at the last murder.
Why wouldn’t she be present for the first murders?
There didn’t seem to be anything obvious that could explain any of this.
Not that he knew what that would look like.
“So what now?” Hala asked, keen for reasons Mal still didn’t fully understand.
“Well, I’ll follow up on those people Taran mentioned and see where it leads.
Hopefully one will confess and make my job easy.
” Hala seemed disappointed there wasn’t anything further for her to do.
Mal was just happy this outing had come to an end without them finding out anything too damning about him.
Their pace picked up as the wind grew harsher.
They made their way back through the cobbled streets of Avalon and into the portal station.
It was quiet and calm, with barely any queue at all.
They headed through and said their goodbyes.
Des let Mal know that this wasn’t the end of it, and Mal prayed that it was.
He had other things to be worrying about now—first and foremost a necromancy lesson with Kosh.
He really wasn’t looking forward to his “assignment” afterward, but perhaps Kosh could give him a few pointers that would make the whole thing less terrifying.
He made his way through the network of portal doors that crisscrossed the city and made it to the crossroads of Copperfield and Bow Street.
Mal couldn’t help but dread what awful lesson awaited him as he found himself in front of the tiny wooden door hidden from the crossroads above.
Mal went to place his hand on the door, as Walters had, but before he could his world swirled violently, and the ground around him disappeared.
He fought the magic to no avail, having just enough time to yell “FU—” before he disappeared.