by K. C. Finn
“I’m sure you do,” Cae answers dryly. “Does that mean we have a deal? I don’t have hold of this kid for very long.”
“Why not indeed,” Redd says, and though his back is turned Cae is sure he can hear the smirk on his face. “Just give me one last chance at this…”
The “one last chance” takes six more shots before the rich criminal is satisfied, and after that Caecilius Rex is disgruntled to find he has to wait for Redd Richmond to change his clothes.
It is a full hour before he and the conman are waiting in Kendra’s office at Dartley Station, at which point Cae is already regretting his decision to enlist Redd as a help.
“Clearly no money gets spent on sprucing this place up,” Redd observes as he walks around the office of the chief of police. “It’s so dreary. No wonder all the chiefs end up dead. I feel positively suicidal in here.”
Cae resists the urge to comment with every iota of patience he has left. Redd is not the only worry he has. There is an agitation building in the back of Cae’s mind as he waits for Kendra, a kind of anxiety that has become familiar to him over the last few months. He taps his gloved fingers against his hips repeatedly, his whole body starting to itch.
“Are you quite well detective?” Redd asks, and Cae becomes aware that the older man must have still been speaking to him. “You look even pastier than usual.”
But Cae has no time for Richmond’s quips.
“Just wait here for Kendra,” he says suddenly. “I’ll be right back.”
13.
It feels as though the young detective’s mind is ablaze by the time he reaches the contraband storeroom. Dazed and nervous, Cae looks around him quickly before he fishes a key card from his pocket and swipes open the door.
Once inside some of Cae’s nerves abate, the dimly lit storeroom comforting the thump of his heart. He walks straight to the same place as usual, taking a big red container down from the third shelf at the back. His bright blue eyes covet the box’s contents.
Little white bottles of powder glow up at him, each with different words emblazoned on the sides in marker pen. GRAVITY. DEATH. PAIN. And there, all piled up in the one corner, the bottles he’s looking for.
Caecilius Rex pulls a silver teaspoon from the pocket of his black trousers. He has been carrying it around for quite some time now, just for those occasions on which he might need it. The young man chooses to ignore, for the moment, that those occasions are getting closer and closer together.
The bottle of RESISTANCE opens with the snap of a gloved fingertip.
When Cae next stands outside Kendra’s office it is with a fresh spring in his step. He feels happier suddenly, more secure and free of worry, so when he meets the chaotic scene erupting inside the office, he finds he is perfectly calm.
Detective Smyth is speaking is his most supercilious tone to Kendra, who looks as though she is about to start foaming at the mouth. Redd Richmond is perched behind her desk in a swivel chair, watching the argument with his usual sardonic grin.
“I don’t know anything about it!” Kendra shouts.
Smyth’s moustache ruffles indignantly. “You wouldn’t, would you?” He says. “You haven’t been here all morning!”
“About what?” Says Cae suddenly, and it is then that the contents of the room notice his presence.
“Aha!” Says Smyth, marching over to where Cae stands. “There’s been another strangling,” he informs almost proudly. “One of our own security officers was killed down in the car park this morning. Right next to her parking space!”
“And this crackpot thinks I had something to do with it!” Kendra butts in, the rage palpable in her tone.
It’s clear to Cae that Smyth does not take kindly to being called a crackpot, especially when Redd begins to laugh quite loudly from his spot at the desk.
“I love you detectives,” he says wryly. “I really do.”
“And that’s another thing,” Smyth says to Cae, pointing sharply at Redd. “What is she doing consorting with this lowlife?”
Kendra steps up to where Smyth is poised, her brown eyes narrowing. “She is standing right here,” says the ex-sergeant, her hands flexing into fists. “And she is getting pretty tired of you, Mister Smyth, so she suggests that you remember who your boss is.” Cae feels a little selfish glee brimming inside him as Kendra treats Smyth to the full extent of her wrath. The old man’s lip starts to quiver a little.
“Also,” says Redd, running his hands through his wavy hair. “Just a thought, but, if the chief is strangling people, you’d be wise not to get on her bad side, wouldn’t you?” He shrugs suggestively. “Oh, and I don’t appreciate the term lowlife, thank you very much.”
Smyth leaves in a hurry after that, and though Kendra is still fuming, Cae finds he is collected enough for the both of them.
“We’ll show them all up when we solve this mess,” he says firmly.
Kendra just nods, stomping unceremoniously to where Redd Richmond is sat.
“Get outta my chair,” she barks, and the well-dressed snitch does as he’s told. He steps a fair few paces away from her, straightening out his tailored shirt, his green eyes locked on Cae as the detective comes to join them.
“So who is it you want to find out about?” Redd asks.
“The name he’s given us is Thomas Watt,” Cae answers. “It’s that mechanic guy you saw leaving here the other day. He was working for Damian Jobe at the Atomic Circus not so long back.”
“I’ve heard of Watt somewhere,” Redd muses. He takes a nervous glance at Kendra, who is boring a hole into her desk with the tip of a pen. “Not sure I know a Thomas Watt, though.”
“He said he had a family,” Cae adds. “A family with secrets to be protected.”
“And we all know how you feel about secrets,” Redd replies with a smile. He suddenly rubs his hands together with a short exhale. “You’d better let me make some phonecalls.”
Before Cae can answer him, Kendra throws the phone across the desk, where it lands in front of the conman with a loud thump.
14.
Most criminal dealings are done in the dark, and this one is no exception. Redd Richmond stands alone in the shadow of a large warehouse building, tendrils of toxic smoke caught in the faint moonlight above the smog. He is a fair few miles out of Dartley’s town centre, and the conman shuffles from one expensively-shoed foot to the other as he waits in the darkness.
Not so far away, clinging to another batch of shadows, Cae and Kendra are deep in discussion.
“No, you go back over there,” says Kendra, “I’ve had enough of him to last me a lifetime.”
“And I haven’t?” Cae asks irately. He sighs into his gas mask, casting his sharp blue eyes back to the outline of Redd in the smog. “One of us is supposed to be with him to meet this informant,” Cae pleads. “That’s the plan.”
“Right,” Kendra agrees. “But nowhere in that plan did you say it had to be me.” She shoves him in the shoulder roughly. “Now go.”
The detective turns, treading an unhappy path back to where Redd is waiting for his so-called colleague to appear. As he arrives at the conman’s side, Cae takes one rueful look back at Kendra, but she has blended back into the shadows to watch the meeting take place.
“I don’t know what you said to her, Richmond,” says Cae through gritted teeth. “But for pity’s sake don’t ever say it again.”
“I was just making conversation,” Redd offers, and even through the muffled receiver of his gas mask, his voice oozes with the usual oily wit.
“On what topic?” Caecilius asks, knowing already that he will regret it.
“She’s very…” Redd begins, his hands following his thoughts flamboyantly, “bizarrely attractive. Got a sort of magnetism about her, don’t you find?”
Cae raises a dark brow in disbelief. “And you told her this?” He asks.
“In smoother phrasing, of course,” Redd replies with a handsome twinkle in his green eyes. “No harm in aski
ng, is there?” He adds.
Cae lets out a brief laugh. “I’m surprised she didn’t physically harm you in any way,” he muses.
“Well,” Redd continues. “She did threaten to choke me and make it look like an accident.”
The brief reference to strangling gives Cae a little alarm bell in the back of his mind, but he pushes it away. Such threats are just Kendra being Kendra, after all.
“I’d steer clear if I were you,” Cae advises.
Redd turns to face the detective fully, raising a greying eyebrow. “Oh,” he says. “So that’s how it is. I see.” He puts one finger to where his nose would be under his gas mask and taps it twice. “Say no more.”
“See what?” Cae questions, truly puzzled.
“You and her,” Redd says, tilting his head in the direction where Kendra has to be hiding. “I did wonder.”
Caecilius Rex lets out a little sigh. “Believe it or not, Redd,” he begins, “two people can co-exist in complete harmony without feeling the need to…to…succumb to their biological urges.”
“Ooh you do make it sound romantic,” soothes the conman. “Cold as ice the pair of you. You suit each other.”
The detective is about to let loose a cutting reply when Richmond suddenly puts a hand on his chest.
“Shush,” Redd says. “Manda’s coming.”
Cae wonders for a moment how he could possibly know, until his sharp blue eyes spot a small green light flashing at shoe height in the smog. After a moment the shoe that the light belongs to comes into view, as does its owner.
Manda is a skinny young girl in a tatty gas mask and worn out overalls. She ambles over to Redd, extending her arms to him excitedly. Cae thinks she can’t be older than thirteen.
“Hello sweetie,” Redd says, giving the girl a hug.
“Alright Unc,” she replies with beaming eyes. They are the same shade of olive green as Redd Richmond’s own. And then Cae understands.
“Did your mum get the address I wanted?” Redd asks.
The young girl nods, fishing a stained barmat out of her overall pocket. She looks at Cae then properly for the first time, eyeing him up and down.
“Forget him, honey,” Redd says. “He’s nobody.” The conman takes the mat from the girl, handing it immediately to Cae.
He takes it in a gloved hand, aware that Manda is still watching him. “Yeah,” he repeats. “I’m nobody.”
“That’s the contact address for Watt,” Redd explains. He takes a few banknotes from his tailored pocket and gives them to Manda, who eyes them excitedly. “Don’t give any to your mum,” he warns with a wag of his finger, and for the first time Cae hears something serious in his tone. “You hear me Amanda? Not a single note.”
“Alright,” she says, her young eyes widening as she nods. She pockets the cash.
“Off you go,” Redd says, patting her shoulder, and Manda disappears happily into the smoke. After she’s gone, Redd continues to watch the patch of smog where she stood.
“Relation of yours?” Cae asks quietly.
“Her mum’s a junkie,” Redd explains, his tone unnervingly solemn. “All the money I’ve got, and if I gave her so much as a penny she’d use it to kill herself faster.” The conman takes a sharp breath, shaking out his shoulders and wiping down his smart suit. “Can’t abide druggies,” Redd says, his tone returning to a more normal, slippery hue. “It’s just not chic, you know?”
Cae’s hand hovers nervously over the teaspoon in his pocket. “Right,” he says quietly.
The silence is broken suddenly by a series of footfalls, and Cae and Redd turn to see Kendra bolting past them at an inhuman pace. The ex-sergeant races past them into the smog, cutting a path through the tendrils of smoke with her speed.
“What’s with her?” Redd asks, but Cae is already grabbing the conman by his expensive lapels.
“Come on!” He yells, eager to follow her before the smog resumes its place.
15.
It’s been at least a year since Kendra Nai has given chase like this, but her basic training doesn’t let her down. She hears a rumble in the clouds overhead and the sound of air streaking past her ears, which are burning in the cold. She can see the figure ahead of her now, given away by something glittering on the back of his head. Every now and then the reflective something disappears, but mercifully the runaway is travelling in a straight line.
She saw him first when Richmond was hugging the little girl, though Kendra couldn’t be sure then what he was. The figure started as an unusual shadow against a broken down lamppost, a glimmer of something metallic floating in mid-air that shouldn’t have been there. And then Kendra’s keen hazel eyes had found his outline. A figure of average height and slim build, watching Cae and Redd and the girl.
And then the figure saw her, turning its hooded head and revealing its face, which was covered by an over-the-head gas mask. And he ran.
It seems like a he, at least, when Kendra sees his heavy, wide strides as she gives chase. He keeps bolting straight ahead in his baggy clothes and she follows furiously, gaining a few inches every minute, his outline coming into better view.
When Kendra is close enough that she can hear his thumping footfalls, the ache in her lungs from running starts to make her head spin. But she pushes on through the pain barrier, eyes streaming against the smog as she reaches the figure, extending her arms, and then her fingertips, trying to reach his hooded head.
The clouds rumble again, and above there is a break as raindrops begin to fall. The water hits Kendra squarely in her eyes, and she retracts her hand sharply to push it away.
When her vision clears, the figure is suddenly gone. Kendra slows her pace, glancing all around for signs of the hooded man, but as the rain starts falling freely the moisture makes the smog more hazy. He had been almost close enough to touch, and now the figure is nowhere to be seen.
The rainwater soaks through Kendra’s clothes as she comes to a stop, a searing pain filling her now strained lungs. Choking against her gas mask she struggles for air, dropping to her knees on the wet concrete ground. She lets out a frustrated gasp, slamming a dark fist into the ground until the skin on her knuckles cracks.
After a few moments the savage panting of a nearby man catches her ears. Redd Richmond arrives beside her at a spritely pace, looking around as he finds Kendra on the ground.
“What were you chasing?” He pants.
“I lost him,” Kendra spits. “Where’s-‘
But she has no time to complete the question as a second panting man drops to the ground beside her.
“You’re trying to kill me,” Cae says between gulps and gasps.
Kendra sits up in the rain, looking down at Cae, whose face is buried against the concrete of the pavement.
“There was someone watching you,” she says, wiping stray wet hairs away from her forehead. “When he saw me he took off, so I tried to…” She slumps her shoulders. “He got away.”
“It’s okay,” Cae answers, pushing himself back up onto his knees. He adjusts his gas mask to make sure he doesn’t take in any fumes as he struggles to regain his breath. “We have an address now. Whoever he was, we’ll find out where he’s gone.”
Kendra just nods, watching Redd Richmond’s wet white shoes come into her field of vision.
“You picked some nice weather for a run,” he remarks bitterly. “My suit’s ruined.”
A black gloved hand takes Kendra’s wet arm, and she and Cae find their feet together. She rises to the view of Redd Richmond’s pale suit, which is soaking him to the skin, and suddenly she leaps out of Cae’s grip and grabs Redd by the hips.
“Excuse me!” He yelps, but Kendra feels her to way to the outlines of two small handguns holstered under Redd’s shirt either side of his stomach. Kendra fishes them out with sharp precision and turns them on him angrily.
“What’s the big idea, Richmond?” She asks viciously. “Don’t you trust us?”
Redd looks at his guns uneasily. “D
on’t tell me you’re not armed,” he replies accusingly.
“Oh shut up,” Cae suddenly barks. “Let’s just get to this address. That guy could be on his way to warn the rest of Watt’s family whilst you two are arguing.”
“Capital idea,” Redd says happily, rubbing his wet hands together. “You enjoy that. I’ll just take my guns and-‘
“And nothing,” Cae completes, taking one of Redd’s handguns from Kendra and putting it into his pocket. The detective grins to himself under his gas mask. “This place could still be a trap. So you’re coming with us.”
16.
“After you, Mr Richmond,” says Kendra darkly as she opens the car door for Redd.
The conman is a sight for sore eyes in his soaking wet suit as he steps out onto the dark street. Smoothing back his sopping grey hair, Redd looks up at the building they have arrived at.
“Wincher’s Clocks,” he reads with a drop in his usually glib tone. “How lovely.”
Caecilius Rex comes to stand beside him and he too lets his eyes roam over the shop.
“I don’t like it either,” Cae agrees quietly.
The building is musty and old, with a variety of ancient looking timepieces in the windows. The door is made of a thin metallic element, all too easy to break open.
“Maybe it looks better when it’s open?” Kendra supposes. “You know, in the daytime.”
But then Cae’s sharp blue eyes spot something odd in the display.
“Take a closer look,” he says. “I don’t think this shop’s been open for a long time.”
Kendra approaches the window a little more, peering in past the clocks.
“I don’t see anything,” she sighs, shaking her head.
“The clocks,” Redd suddenly says rather too loudly for the early hours of the morning.
Cae just nods as he and Redd get closer to the window. “If you were so keen on time that you put a whole load of clocks in your window, what’s the first thing you’d make sure of?” Cae asks.
Kendra looks again at the weird array of timepieces in front of her. “That your clocks are all running on time,” she answers.