The House (23 page)

“I’ll finish
up the calls,” Hercules said, and I nodded.

“I’ll come
with you.” Stripes stood up beside me and took my hand. “You
shouldn’t have to talk to them alone.” I smiled, a tight, sad
smile, but a smile nonetheless.

“Alright, that
leaves Eddie and James here with Hercules unless one of you wants
to come to the station?”

“No, I think
if I turned up as well as Marlow the authorities would be less
likely to like us,” James laughed. I looked at them and saw them
from a human perspective. They were both reasonably tall and
visibly strong. Even though I was stronger than James, a human
wouldn’t see that. James also, like Marlow, had a few too many
close calls with the police. He was one of the people that helped
us to keep track of the hunters, and there had been a few too many
people go missing after meeting him for the police to be
comfortable with it. Nothing that could be proved, but if we gave
them an excuse they might just start to ask uncomfortable
questions.

The three of
us gathered our coats and trooped out the door. It was December and
about two degrees outside. It didn’t really affect us but unless we
showed up either freezing or swathed in jumpers and coats it would
raise suspicion. Not straight away, and not in their conscious
minds, but if we weren’t careful people noticed that we were
different, that we weren’t quite normal. Although two degrees was a
little cold even for us without some warmwear.

We were
walking to the police station. It was only ten minutes walk away
and we needed the air. I remembered Marie telling me about when the
streets still had roads and footpaths. I couldn’t picture it. I
liked the road we lived on. It was one of the few that still had
mostly larger family homes and even some, like ours, that were
detached. The houses on the other side of the street were
different, still high quality but modern. All metal walls and
space-saving ideas.

Our road gave
way to a less affluent road; the pod tracks still followed the
middle of the street but the houses had given way to apartments.
None of them were made of bricks, only half of them even had
windows, but they allowed the maximum number of people to occupy
the smallest amount of space. The buildings were taller here,
blocking out the light and making it seem even colder.

I pulled the
coat on and hugged it as tight to myself as I could, more for
comfort than warmth. Stripes slipped her hand in mine and squeezed
gently, just letting me know that she was there. It eased the
pressure on my heart but only slightly. Marlow didn’t offer his
hand; he would face this like he faced everything else, from his
own strength. He was terribly independent, even for a big, strong
man; he didn’t actually like people much.

Two roads and
three alleyways later the police station came into view. It was a
new building; they had built it specifically for the purpose about
five years before. A blue frontage with fluorescent lights even
brighter than everywhere else. I looked at it ... really it looked
awful, but some well-meaning architect had tried. The walls had
mouldings, which would look old-fashioned if you had never seen
real ones, and the doors were imitation wood.

Marlow pushed
the door inwards and held it as Stripes and I walked through. We
all took off our coats as we entered. It was warm enough inside
that I wondered how the police officers coped in their uniforms.
They all looked very smart, very put together and very warm. A
uniformed woman greeted us as soon as the door closed, ushering us
further inside.

“How can we
help?” she asked. I looked at Marlow, then at Stripes. Apparently
it was up to me to start the talking.

“We need to
report two people missing.” I sighed, because the policewoman’s
expression did not change. People go missing all the time. I didn’t
blame her for not reacting like it was the end of the world, but I
still wanted her to. It felt like the end of my world.

“If you would
join me in the interview room we can go over the details.” I nodded
and we all stood up as one. It might have fazed her if she’d seen
it; luckily she’d already turned to show us the way. We all
followed her across the main entrance hall to a side room while she
held the door open.

“I’m Officer
Mary McDonald. Now, if you just take a seat and start from the
beginning.” She gestured to a small circle of chairs for us to sit
in. I wondered if they used this room to question suspects and
doubted it. It seemed like one of the New Age ideas; a comfortable
room to make people feel better cared for. Though I was betting
they didn’t bring the important people in here.

“Could you
state your names for the record?” She would record the entire
conversation. I’d expected that. I hadn’t expected to see the
slight gleam of the latest innovation in cameras - contact lens
technology. There would be a film of everything she saw and even a
few things her eyes would have missed. It meant that we’d have to
be even more careful. It’s not that we struggle to be normal, just
that sometimes normal for us isn’t entirely humanly possible when
viewed through a high speed, high definition lens.

“My name is
Beatrice SinClara. This is Marlow Markson and Lily Catalow.” She
nodded and sat in one of the remaining chairs. “Our mentor, Marie
Clarence, was supposed to visit her father three days ago. Today we
called to ask her some questions and she wasn’t there. She only
sees her father once or twice a year and she never changes her
plans without telling at least one of us.”

“Are you sure
she didn’t arrive? Have you been there to check?”

“No, it’s a
day’s travel away. But Marlow’s sister Shayana also didn’t make it
home after a party at our house. Marlow came to ask if we knew
where she was and, when we couldn’t find her by calling around, we
phoned Marie to see if she had any ideas.” I slumped in the chair.
Officer Mary McDonald sat straight and proper with her hands
clasped neatly in her lap. Her expression was still vaguely
pleasant but it was starting to feel condescending.

They tried to
make it seem that they listened to everyone. That every crime
reported was fully investigated. Everyone knew they didn’t have the
funds for it but we all hoped that our case would be the one to get
pushed up. To be solved. In truth, if you weren’t important the
police really didn’t care that much what happened to you.

“Where have
you checked for your missing sister?” she asked Marlow.

“She didn’t
arrive at home and I have an alarm there so that if she does get
home she’ll know to contact me. I checked at her work place, and
again I left messages for her to call me if she arrives. I’ve rung
round our circle of friends and she’s not with any of them. I don’t
even know if she got on the sky train home because there’s an
automated system now and it wouldn’t give out information on
passengers.” Marlow’s voice was dangerously close to a growl. He
was pissed and that could be bad. He’s a big, strong man and the
last thing we needed was for the nice police officer to get
scared.

“Who was the
last person to see her?”

“We were.” I
put my hand on Marlow’s leg and thought calming thoughts at him,
not that it would make any difference, but it was the best I could
do. “She was visiting friends in the area and we had an impromptu
party so she came along. She stayed over, but left at nine the next
morning to get home in decent time so that she could catch up on
sleep. She’s a dancer so she needed to be well rested before
work.”

“What kind of
dancer is she?” They were asking if she was a stripper. If she had
been they would take a considerably longer time to find her. It
would have put her in the high-risk category that, ironically,
nobody seemed to care about much.

“Ballet,”
Marlow said. “She performs and teaches ballet - it’s absolutely
amazing to watch.” The anger leaked out of him. I could hear the
tenderness in his voice; he really did love his sister. I wasn’t
entirely surprised but it was unexpected. Marlow worked very hard
to stay emotionless. I put my hand on his arm. I was aiming for his
shoulder but his chair was just a fraction too far away for it to
be comfortable.

“What time was
she last seen?” Now that the job issue was sorted the officer was
all business. There was always the possibility that she was some
kind of star. The ballet world was full of rich important people
the officials couldn’t afford to piss off.

“She left
about nine, I think ...” I said. “There were a lot of people about;
I didn’t see her off specifically.”

“Do you have a
list of all the people at the party?”

Stripes handed
her a sheet of paper with all the names on. We’d used the same list
to call round earlier when we were trying to find out if anyone saw
her. It also had basic contact details, although the police had a
central database with that kind of thing. We were hoping that
everyone wouldn’t be too mad that we’d given their names to the
police. We had little choice. We’d also missed off a few. There was
almost nothing to connect us all and some people just had more to
hide than others. A party connected us and that wasn’t always a
good thing for the police to know. There were times when our lives
rested on nobody knowing who we spent our time with. If one of us
was found out or compromised the first people the hunters would
look to next would be our friends.

“And Marie ...
who was the last to see her?” She looked at each of us in turn
before settling on me, apparently this was my question.

“James
probably ... he saw her off. He said that she was fine but he only
saw her to the end of the path and not to the station. She left the
morning after our party at about six in the morning - nobody else
was awake. We’re really worried about her, she’s the nicest lady
you ever met and she’d stop to help anyone in trouble, but she
wasn’t stupid. She had a personal alarm.” I couldn’t explain why
else someone would struggle to take Marie; too much explaining
would have been needed. She was an old lady according to their
records. She would be treated as if she acted like one.

“You seem to
think the two may be related?” The officer asked nobody in
particular. Stripes answered.

“We thought it
would be an awfully large coincidence if two people who knew each
other went missing completely separately and by completely
different causes.” The officer nodded and started to stand.

“We’ll see
what the computers find but, honestly, unless they were taken right
in front of a camera there isn’t much to go on. You make sure to
come back if you get any more information or ransom demands.”

“Why would
they take Marie for ransom? We don’t have that kind of money,” I
asked. I had been so focused on the fact that humans would find it
so difficult that I hadn’t even considered it.

“You live in a
large, expensive house. Appearances can be deceiving but I think
that they would have contacted you by now. Just sit tight and let
the system do its job. If you want to do more try ‘missing’
posters. You never know, maybe somebody saw something without
realising it.” She was ushering us out the door, work to do, other
people to find.

Crime rates
had supposedly dropped but on the outskirts of society it was still
there. Hopefully, they would put resources into finding Shayana and
Marie because they were from the better part of town; it’s sad but
true that people with money often get things done faster. I didn’t
want to know what kind of technology allowed the officer to know
that we lived in a larger house. It was public information but we’d
not heard a coms. The fast-paced world allowed us to hide better
but the technological advances made it more difficult. Although,
I’d take increased risk of being found out over the old
superstitions.

We got out of
the police station in record time. I wasn’t entirely sure if it was
going to do any good, especially if shifters had taken them. I
doubted that they would just let us see any videos they found, and
of course if they went after the people responsible then it put the
police in danger. We always walk a fine line; we needed the
police’s expertise and resources but, since they don’t know the
whole of what we can do, they are in more danger than if they knew
about us.

“That was a
waste of time,” Marlow fumed.

“They don’t
have a magic wand and we had to report them missing otherwise
there’ll be questions later,” I sighed. I was just so tired.
Worrying really takes a lot of energy and I was too stressed to
think clearly, everything took so much more effort than normal.
“They’ll be ok, we’ll find them.”

Stripes took
my hand and I closed my eyes for a moment to focus on the warm
comfort the touch offered. I caught my foot on the edge of a crack
in the path and Stripes had to hold me up for a second; I’d
forgotten that I was walking and shouldn’t close my eyes. There was
just too much to think about. Too much had happened and I didn’t
want to face it all yet.

“You have to
trust the authorities, most of the time they have your best
interests at heart,” Stripes added. “They’re just people,”

“People with
some of the most advanced tech around. Did you see her coms
contacts? I bet she ran us all through the system the moment we
walked through the door,” I laughed. “You should be glad you
weren’t in the computer. They haven’t caught you yet.” Marlow
didn’t reply; I didn’t expect him to. It was one of his rules. He
never spoke about his work if he didn’t absolutely have to. It’s a
good rule for someone who kills people for a living.

“Let him be,
he’s had a hard few days,” Stripes said.

“Haven’t we
all and it’s not over. We can’t just go home and sit around. We
have to look for them. At the very least, put up posters.” We were
nearly home and Marie’s disappearance was spawning doubts in my
mind about nearly everything. I found myself thinking that I had no
idea how to maintain the links to businesses the House got money
from. I knew the basics; Marie had made sure of that. She would
have eventually taught me all of it so that she could retire, but
at that moment I was as good as clueless.