Tremble in the Dark: A Gwen Farris Novel (5 page)

She
didn't touch it, since there was a small chance that they could get a reading
from it, either using their skills, or with one of the forensic devices that
Doctor Grainger, from Western University, had built. She'd paid for them all,
which cost a goodly amount in the local currency. Each one had the rough value
of a very fine Lorrie, which was what they called their wagon-car hybrids here.
Expensive, top end, lorries.

Looking
at it though, she noticed the first clue right away. It was the postmark.

"From
Aubry?" Gwen let her finger point at the red stamp, and both Beth and Ethyl
looked at it. From the quick intake of air coming from the other two, that was
correct. Ethyl's was louder though, and she groaned softly.

"Oh,
please no." It was a bit too plaintive, that early into the investigation.

Then,
she'd read the letter.

Which
was next up on the list, however, when she got to the threat, she very nearly
laughed.

"Wait,
this is a threat to out us as gay? I mean, we
aren't
, but that isn't a
very good threat at all. Do
you
care about that Bethany?" She
looked at the woman, who flipped a single palm up. That, Gwen knew, was
different than a double palm flip and meant that she actually didn't care. The
double was a bit more sullen and pushy, Gwen thought. Manipulative. Beth just
couldn't be concerned with that as a threat.

 "So
that's not going to get a lot of traction. If anyone tries it, I'll just march
forward and say that it's absolutely true and let the Newsies have at me for a
while. It would be a good way to take some of the heat off of you and Robert,
if nothing else."

That
got a stern look from Ethyl, so she continued to read the missive. It was in
ink, and she pointed to smudges over some of the letters.

"Written
by a left handed person. You can see that here. The cribbed print means they
were very focused on what they were saying, and that would lead me to assume
they were intelligent enough. The spelling isn't that bad either. So a well
educated person. Male, naturally. You can tell by the weight of the letters.
Women tend to be more flowery and less blocky in their letters. At least in my
world. That or a big woman?" That, was the end of what every PBS mystery
she'd ever watched had taught her about graphology. Not all that she knew about
the field though, since she'd actually researched it at one point.

It
was a business that she could have run from home, over her computer. It just
wasn't that in demand really.

"So."
She stopped, and looked at the others, then shrugged. "I guess we call
Christophe and see what he knows? I've been meaning to get in touch with him
anyway. I don't know how to do it, but not burning bridges and all that?"

The
others didn't understand her, and she didn't explain.

After
all, she had a Duke to accuse of harassing her, didn't she?

Her
ex-fiancé.

Wonderful.

She
let her breath close in her throat as she stepped in front of the Telestator.
That was an unusual thing for her, and it was more than a little surprising.
Sure, she had the idea, it was
supposed
to be hard to talk to your ex.
Christophe was the first one of those that she'd ever had though, and it was
surprising how awkward she felt in the moment.

Then,
it was clear she was doing it all wrong. She needed to wait until late at
night, about three a.m. and then get drunk and call him up to proclaim her undying
love.

She
could hear it in the back of her head, and it was hilarious, but she blocked
the idea out and put her hand on the central sphere. She knew the code, since
it wasn't that hard to remember.

"Telestator
Operator, how may I direct your call." The woman sounded like she was
invisible and standing right there, her voice coming from between the lead
colored spheres of the device. It was nearly perfect quality, as far as
fidelity went. On the bad side your arm could get sore, since you had to keep a
hand on the central orb to keep the whole thing going. She still wasn't
completely certain why that was. It might be taking a small bit of magic from
the person, to do some of the work, but she didn't feel that way at all. There
was no tickle of magic. That meant it was probably about not accidently
draining the crystal pack. Those were basically the batteries that ran
everything here.

"I'd
like Christophe Aubry. Aubry one, one, two please. If you could tell him that
Gwen Farris is calling?"

There
was an intake of breath, and the woman, instead of passing the call through,
let out a single, very incredulous, word.

"
No
."
It wasn't the kind of thing that Gwen was used to hearing from the operators.
They were normally pretty polite, and professional. Very much so in fact. The
woman seemed to not believe that she was
herself
.

"Um,
yes
? If you'd try to get a line open? It's fairly important."

"Oh!
Sorry ma'am. I was just taken by surprise. I'm very new here. I just started
last week and I know that I'm not supposed to talk to the people, more than is
needed to find their patch I mean. Let me set that up here. It's in Aubry, so
the code for that is... Pretty easy. Single digit even... Ah, here we go,
three. Now the county... That's a bit harder. Do you know what County Aubry is
in?"

It
sounded confusing at first, but Beth had followed her, and actually knew the
answer off the top of her head. That was surprising, since the woman didn't
even know how to cook in particular. She could, however, recite Telestator codes
from memory?

"Dial
one needs to be set to three. Two will be at nine. Three at seven and four at
four. Don't forget the number location, you'll need it when the connection is
made."

Gwen
turned and gave her a decently incredulous look, but the Westmorland just
tossed her head the tiniest bit.

"What?
I memorized it in my analytical state, just in case something like this ever
came up. I have the codes for all the nobles in the Western Kingdom, as well as
the Vernors, and most of their close friends."

Gwen
just nodded. In her analytical mode, she was very nearly a perfect recording
device, as well as being able to figure out very complex problems and puzzles.
She also had the personality of a lizard, and would even fail at times to clean
herself or do anything but work until someone told her to go back to normal.
That was what she'd been like when they met, and Gwen had gotten the job of
watching her. Like a babysitter for an adult. It hadn't taken too long to
figure out that she was a lot more than that, but due to the ignorance of most
people about the Westmorlands, no one at the Constabulary in town had known to
tell her to just relax every now and then.

They
were basically too polite to manage someone like her, was what it had really
come down to. Gwen just didn't have that hang up. Still, knowing all the
numbers like that might come in handy. Like it just had.

She
had to repeat the address for Christophe, and then there was a third hurdle to
get past, since he had a woman that screened his messages for him. Or at least
that's how Gwen was going to take it.

Until
the woman she was speaking to suddenly went very, very cold.

"Gwen
Farris? What do
you
want with Christophe?" Then there was a soft
gasp from the same voice, and
everything
snapped into place for Gwen.
Just like that. Almost instantly.

"It's
a private matter, could you connect him now however? Otherwise I'm afraid I'll
just have to call back, going through the King first, and that will annoy him.
Probably everyone else involved too, don't you think?" She took a few
seconds to get a sense of the situation. There it was, feeling like it was
slightly to her right and about six inches outside her head. That familiar
pressure from the future. Bingo.

She
looked at Beth and realized they needed a hand gesture for that too. Instead
she let her face go blank, since the line went dead. Not just quiet, but
totally disconnected.

Gwen
sighed.

"I
think we found the culprit already. Well, so much for her being a man. She's
probably just a woman with a larger frame. On the good side she's pretty
certain that I'm about to contact the man she has a crush on anyway. I still
can't see why she sent that letter. I'm pretty well out of the picture now,
aren't I? She could just move in and take a swing." It wasn't like
Christophe was hard to like, once you got to know him.

Beth
tilted her head.

"I
think I need to go into my precognitive state for this. Will you do the
honors?"

Gwen
had to actually tell her to do it, which was built into the protocols. Beth had
access to her powers all the time, but she only got the deeper levels when she
was in state. It was basically a very controlled, and totally broken alternate
personality. Instead of being her uncle Jim, who liked to play cards, this one
could tell the future. Really well.

Gwen
waited a few seconds, for her attractive friend to drop into the correct state,
and just before she could start into the normal list of questions that she used
in cases like these, Beth started talking. That happened occasionally too, so
it wasn't a big shock, just a little strange.

"Lisa
Wendell. Her mind is stable, but impressionable. In this case the threats were
made because Christophe indicated his regret in regards to you, in a place she
could hear. She's... writing this right now. If we don't act soon, she intends
to take her own life, out of shame for what she's done."

Gwen
winced, hard. It was the worst kind of thing to have happen right now, wasn't
it? Then she mentally took that back. This wasn't fun, and it meant more work
for them, but they couldn't just let the woman die. Not over something as silly
as this. Or really, they probably shouldn't even let her lose her job. After
all, having a bit of a crush on a single man wasn't a vast crime, was it? Even
if this bitch was asking for a good butt-kicking.

"Beth,
please go back to your normal waking state now?"

She
blinked a few times, and her face flushed a bit, indicating something, since
that wasn't a normal reaction at all.

"We
need to help her, Gwen. Her suicide note is...
Vastly
inappropriate.
There's a confession about her threats made against us, as well as a
declaration of love, which is touching enough, but then she'd gone on to list
all the things she missed out in doing with him, and Christophe will be
mortified, if it gets out. Miss Wendell is more than a little... I don't really
know a word for it."

Gwen
almost provided
kinky
as a possibility, but then she realized that Beth
was just being polite, so that she wouldn't have to betray the woman.

Not
even to her closest friend.

That
was an odd thought. Not that part about not giving up the intimate details.
That part was fine, and actually, probably needed. Gwen wasn't worldly about
that kind of thing. She knew
facts,
but had done less than most thirteen
year old girls. It could fluster her a bit to have that kind of thing talked
about, and they really didn't have any reason to be spying on the woman anyway.
Not a good one really. It was the part where she was assuming that she was
Beth's closest friend that had gotten her to pause. That seemed right, but was
it true?

A
bit of self doubt crept into her mind then, but she shrugged it off. That
really didn't matter, did it? Not at the moment. They had to get to Aubry, and
do it a lot faster than was normal, just in case it didn't take Lisa a long
time to write out her laundry list of naughty regrets.

Beth
took over then and actually had a young boy meet them at the front door with
four Teletransport spheres inside ten minutes. She vaguely recognized the kid.
Actually, more than that. She knew him. From a dream.

Or
more accurately a hallucination that she'd had a few months before. It had been
a very complete one though.

"
Peter
?"
She'd been told that there
was
a Peter Westmorland, but that he was
about fifty. A pipe smoker too. This kid however was him. She knew it.

"Yes
ma'am?" He looked at her expectantly, but she just nodded, knowing that
she didn't really have a lot of time for the whole thing right now.

"I'd
like you to go and talk to Magda in the kitchen. Have a snack, and then recharge
your sphere. Then I'd like you to see if you could get yourself assigned here
as a runner, in a few weeks? We're going to have a party, so should be back, at
least for a few days, around that time." She had no clue what she was
doing and there was no sense of being guided to it particularly, but the kid
gave her a familiar grin and nodded.

"I'll
get right on that. Is there any special reason that I'm being asked for by
name? Or is it just that I happened by at the right time?" The boy was
about twelve, and thin, but in a decently muscular way. He was also a telepath,
if that was the same as in her hallucination, she didn't think about anything
in particular however, since that would just confuse him.

"I
have some training that you can help with. Training me to fly, shoot energy
blasts and use precognitive abilities, I have a whole program that I have to
restart and it makes Beth sad. Pain devices and all that, but I also want to
put together an improved program for unarmed combat instruction. You'd be a
good test subject for it. It will hurt, but probably not as much as most of your
training." It was an idea at least. These people badly needed to learn how
to fight after all. The concept was really pretty primitive here, but if the
situation came up, being able to fight with only bare hands could be a
lifesaver. They all relied heavily on weapons and magic. Take that away and
most of them weren't very competent at all. Not in the Western Kingdom at
least.

The
boy straightened a bit and actually looked marginally pleased.

"I
can ask. I can also eat that snack for you, if you want. Do I just go to the
back?"

"Ask
Winslow, the butler, to take you."

Then
she and Beth ran, the other woman not even asking her about the scene at all.
That was due to time pressure no doubt. The lead colored spheres both had names
on them. Addresses really. Aubry and Park Street. A trip there and back, in the
blink of an eye. She hit the easily depressed pad on the top of the right one,
and was simply there, then took three big steps forward without waiting at all.
Beth would come into the grassy lawn at the exact same space, which meant
getting clear, unless she wanted something very bad to happen.

People
had said that, but never described the actual effects. It was probably death
though. That just made sense. If it were just a few bruises, and a person dropping
on top of you, then it would have been spelled out. Without stopping she walked
straight to the front porch. It was still light outside and a lot warmer now
than the last time she'd been there, but still not hot. The Duchy of Aubry was
pretty much Maine and part of Canada, with some of the other states thrown in
for good measure. Without waiting, Gwen pounded on the door, her knock a good
bit less than friendly sounding. She was in a hurry after all.

The
butler was a new man, probably hired on after the old Duke had died. That had
been an unfortunate event that involved him committing suicide rather
forcefully, by biting his own tongue and drowning in the blood. Unfortunately
she'd been kicking him at the time, so it looked a lot like she'd murdered the man.
Christophe had been told that it wasn't the case, and had been
at
the
event, but she didn't have it in her to blame him if he couldn't keep that part
straight. He hadn't said anything about it, but what was there to say really? I
don't blame you for kicking my dad to death?

The
man in the door, who was about thirty and rather skinny, but well dressed
looked at her, and seemed puzzled rather than displeased.