QUANTUM

by Imogen Rose

  Before he could turn, he felt a firm grip on his shoulders and the now-familiar sensation of Sigma-wandering. Where were they taking him now and why? Wherever it was, it was far away. The sensation of wandering lasted at least half an hour before he felt himself roughly dropped onto something hard. He was stiff from the journey when he opened his eyes and looked down at the wooden surface he was sitting on. His knees hurt. A quick scan of the surrounding area indicated to him that that he was in some kind of outdoor patio area, surrounded by trees and flowering bushes.

  “Who on earth are you?”

  Raj looked up to see a small lady–probably in her late sixties–walk up to him.

  “Are you all right? You don’t look well. Are you hurt? Shall I call an ambulance? Did you fall? You look like you may have broken something.”

  “No. Thank you. I think I’m all right.”

  “Annie! Come out here,” she called, much to Raj’s dismay. Two of them would be so much harder to get away from. He stood up gingerly as Annie emerged from the house.

  “Oh, my! Who is this, Lizzy?” Annie asked, with wide eyes. She, like her friend, was probably in her late sixties or seventies.

  “Ladies, I am John,” Raj replied, thinking it would probably be better not to reveal his real name.

  “John? Okay. Are you sure you don’t want us to call an ambulance? I’ve got a cell phone right here, my son insists that I carry one at all times,” Lizzy said, rolling her eyes at her friend.

  “Yes, I’m sure. But thank you, I appreciate your concern.”

  “Well, come inside for a minute and we’ll make you some tea before you’re on your way. Are you feeling up to walking? I can lend you one of my walking sticks,” Lizzy offered.

  Raj’s feet did feel like jelly, but he found his balance and showed Lizzy that he was well enough to walk, even if it was with a bit of a limp. He would love to walk right out, but he felt dehydrated and he needed to find out where he was. “I’d love a cup of tea,” he said gratefully.

  He hobbled into the house through the patio doors, which led into a small family room. The place was dark, with brown wall-to-wall carpeting and dark musty-smelling furniture. An enormous flat screen television, which looked completely out-of-place, occupied one of the walls. He was startled by two cats peering suspiciously at him from the behind the coffee table.

  “Oh, that’s Chuckles and Couch Potato, never mind them. They aren’t used to strangers. We don’t have a lot of visitors,” Annie said and shooed them away.

  Raj sneezed. He would have to get out of here soon; he was allergic to cats. “Annie, where are we?”

  “You don’t know where you are? Did you get lost walking? You are not dressed properly for that, you know. Best to wear hiking boots when walking around here. We have snakes.”

  Lizzy returned with the tea and sat down on the couch on the other side of Raj, sandwiching him. He felt claustrophobic.

  “Where are we?” he asked again.

  “Lizzy, John seems to have gotten lost walking. I was just telling him that he needs to dress in better shoes for walking,” she said, pointing down at his dress shoes.

  Lizzy nodded. “At least you’ve kept them clean. Drink up, there is plenty more.”

  Raj sipped the over-sweetened, creamy tea. The extra sugar would do him no harm, but it was disgusting going down. “Ladies, I’d like to figure out how lost I am… where did you say we were?”

  “We didn’t, not yet. We’re about half-an-hour’s drive from the nearest city–Mountain View. Is that where you’re from? Or are you from San Francisco? You look like a city person. Out on a nature ramble? City folk sometimes get these funny urges, you know, to want to experience nature and all.”

  “Yes, I’m from San Francisco,” Raj lied, taking a long sip from his cup. What the heck was he doing back in Mountain View? Which dimension was he in? He couldn’t go back to Mountain View until he knew. It would be best to head over to San Francisco and lay low for a while until he found out what was going on. Why did Potomal drop him off here? Was Simla finished with her project? Potomal should have had the decency to take him back to the cottage he took him from in the first place. Raj couldn’t believe that he’d just been unceremoniously dropped off at this place! It suddenly occurred to him that he had no money. How was he supposed to manage? He looked around to see if there was anything of value around. The ladies had the big television, so they were probably not cash-poor. There was bound to be money and jewelry sitting about that he could borrow for now.

  “Did you hear me, John?” Annie asked loudly, nudging him.

  “Sorry, Annie. I’m a bit tired that’s all. I need to be on my way. May I use your bathroom before I go?”

  “Yes, it’s through there,” Annie said, pointing to the hallway. “Do you have a car somewhere? I could drive you to it.”

  “Ladies, thank you, you’ve done enough for me already. I shall be on my way soon. My car is parked up the road. I’ll find it. Not to worry.” He got up and walked toward the hall but made a quick detour when he spotted the stairs and made his way to the bedrooms. That’s where the jewelry and money would be.

  ~

  What a strange phone call! Of all things, Claire had never expected this odd turn of events. Someone had made an anonymous call to the Bureau and left a message for her, an urgent message. Agent Pitt conveyed that the message was short, just asking her to pick up Raj Sen from an address about half an hour from Mountain View.

  The FBI had hunted Dr. Sen for months after the disappearance of the Darley kids, finally giving up after Christmas last year. She’d never expected to hear from him again. There was no time to lose; the last thing she wanted was to let him slip by again. She hightailed it to her car and followed the GPS directions to the address Agent Pitt had given her. She had no further information because she didn’t wait for any. There was no time.

  Claire brought the car to a halt right outside the small cottage surrounded by woods and waited for backup to arrive. There was no way she was going in on her own unless the inhabitants seemed to be in imminent danger. She called Agent Pitt as she staked out the cottage.

  “Brief me, please,” she requested. “Start by telling me who the cottage belongs to.”

  “It belongs to Elizabeth Jensen, who lives there with her sister Ann Strom. They are sixty-nine and seventy-two years old respectively. They are both widowed. Elizabeth has a son, a cop, works in San Francisco. Do you want his family breakdown?”

  “No.”

  “Ann has four children, scattered all over, no one close to Mountain View. They are fairly well off, they both have substantial savings.”

  “Do they have any connection to either the Darley or the Fox families? Any previous connection to Raj Sen?” Claire asked.

  “Not that we’ve discovered so far, but we are still digging.”

  “Thanks, Agent Pitt. I can see backup arriving, so I’ll check back in a little while after I know what’s going on. This is probably a hoax call, but it’s always best to make sure.”

  As the two squad cars parked behind hers, Claire could see the curtains from the downstairs left window twitch. Moments later the front door opened and a lady–Claire guessed Elizabeth from the description she’d been given–came walking toward her. Claire got out of the car and walked over to meet her.

  “Mrs. Jensen?”

  “Yes. What on earth is going on?” she asked, looking at Claire anxiously. “We’ve never had police cars here before.”

  “Is everything okay, Mrs. Jensen? Is your sister home?”

  “Yes. Here she is now,” Elizabeth said, pointing over to Annie, who was walking toward them.

  “Is this about the gentleman who was here earlier? John? I did think there was something strange about him.”

  Claire wondered who John was. “Mrs. Jensen, can we go inside and talk?”

  “Yes of course. Do your friends want to come as well? I have a fresh batch of cookies.”

  “That’s ver
y kind of you, Mrs. Jensen. But, I think they’ll wait here for now. I’ll let them know and meet you inside,” Claire said, and walked over to tell the backup squad that she’d be fine going in on her own. When she walked into the house, Ann was seated on the couch and Elizabeth was busy carrying through cookies and tea on a pretty china tray.

  “Have a seat, my dear. Now, what can we do for you? Two visitors in one day is quite unusual for us, but very enjoyable, isn’t it, Annie?” Elizabeth said happily. “Now do tell us your name.”

  “I should have introduced myself to begin with, my apologies. I am Agent Claire Adams. I work for the FBI.”

  “Well, that’s very impressive,” Annie said in awe. I don’t think I’ve ever met a real agent before, though I know from the television what you do. Lizzy’s son is a police officer,” she said proudly. “So, how can we help you? I gather this has something to do with our earlier visitor.”

  “Yes,” Claire replied. “You mentioned his name was John?”

  “Yes that’s right. We didn’t get around to asking him his last name. I suppose we should have,” replied Annie. “He seemed like a nice man, from the city.”

  “San Francisco?”

  “Yes. He didn’t say, but we think he was out on a nature ramble and got lost. We found him, fallen over, out in the backyard. He’d probably tripped over something; I found him just sitting there. He looked hurt. He wasn’t hurt badly, though. Just a limp,” Annie reassured Claire. “So, we didn’t call the ambulance or anything.”

  “Ladies, was it this man?” Claire asked, pulling up Raj’s picture on her iPad and passing it to them.

  “Yes! That’s him. He looked a bit older than in the picture, but it’s definitely him,” confirmed Elizabeth. “Why are you asking? Has he gone missing? He left a couple of hours ago, so he should be back in the city by now.”

  A couple of hours ago? Shoot. Claire wondered how long it had taken for the message to filter down to her at the FBI. So much precious time lost.

  “Did he leave you an address or a way for you contact him?”

  Annie shook her head.

  “Have you ever seen him before? Can you think of any reason he would have been here at your property?”

  Annie shook her head again.

  “Can you tell me about his visit here, starting with how you first found him?” Claire asked. She took notes while they recounted their story. They’d found him in the backyard, he had tripped on something and hurt his foot. Whatever would he be doing in their backyard? This property was miles from anywhere. Why drive all the way out here? Was there something he needed to retrieve from the backyard? Did he come back for something he had hidden there previously? Or maybe came back for something he’d hidden in the house.

  “Ladies, do you mind having a look around to see if anything has been touched or is missing? You said he was only in this room, the bathroom and the backyard, but I want to make sure nothing is missing.”

  “You think he was a thief?” Annie asked horrified, looking at her sister. “I didn’t even consider that! If it wasn’t for the fact that he was hurt, I wouldn’t have let him in the house….”

  “No, no. I just want to make sure,” Claire comforted. She walked through the house with Elizabeth and Ann. Nothing seemed out of order in the downstairs portion of the house. Ann checked the safe hidden behind a replica of the The Starry Night. It hadn’t been tampered with.

  Things changed when they went up to the bedrooms. Ann kept a small collection of jewelry in her bedroom, in a pretty enamel box that sat on her bedside table. It was now empty.

  Ann was visibly shaken; her hands trembled as she closed the box. “I had some cash in there, too, maybe five hundred dollars or so.”

  Claire could see Elizabeth trembling as they entered her bedroom next. Claire handed her the enamel box from her bedside table, which also turned out to be empty. Elizabeth’s eyes welled and tears started streaming down her face. Claire sat her down on her bed. “Mrs. Jensen, we’ll do every thing we can to recover your property. I’m going to get a local detective to come and sit down with you to make a list of everything that’s missing.”

  Claire looked to Ann. “Mrs. Strom, you said that John left on foot and that he went to look for his car. I suppose you didn’t see it, the car, I mean?”

  Ann shook her head. “He seemed lost. I suppose he could have just been a regular burglar and we’ve been played for fools.”

  “Can you come with me to the backyard and show me any outbuildings like sheds or garages you may have. I need to make sure that he is gone and that he’s not still hiding outside.” Claire walked outside with Ann, leaving Elizabeth in her room, still distraught. A quick survey of the backyard didn’t reveal any information. Claire couldn’t find any tracks, but that wasn’t something she was good at. She’d already called in a team to investigate that. The only outbuilding was a garage that housed a Chevy Impala that the two sisters shared, for trips to the grocery store mostly. Claire wasn’t surprised to find the car missing. “Mrs. Strom, if you give me the car registration, we’ll put a trace on it. I would like to call your nephew, he should come down here. May I have his phone number? One of the police officers will stay with you until he arrives.”

  Claire mulled the case over in her head as she drove back. A whole year had passed since Raj was last sighted and his wife remained missing. He had now suddenly reappeared out of the blue, appearing to not know where he was. So, why and how did he end up on Mrs. Jensen’s property? To her knowledge, Raj was not a common thief, so he must have taken the valuables because he had no money. A year in hiding could be draining on the finances. But still–stealing from two elderly ladies? He told them that he was going to San Francisco, so she could almost be sure that it was the one place he wouldn’t go. What he would do is make contact with his daughter. What was her name again… Simla?

  Claire called Pitt. “Could you give me Simla Sen’s address and background, please?”

  “Yup, I’ve got it right here. She’s been living with the Weeks family. I’ll send the address to your GPS. She’s a senior at Mountain View High. No siblings. What else do you want to know?”

  “I’m not sure. I’m going to drive over to see her. Can you meet me there?”

  Claire had been at the Weeks’ house last year when the Darley children disappeared. She’d met the father, Grayson, and she’d also met Simla’s mother, Erica, there. At that time, Claire suspected that there was something going on between Grayson and Erica, but since it wasn’t relevant to the case, she’d left it alone. Grayson Weeks had been totally distraught during the questioning when Erica disappeared. He seemed to know nothing about her whereabouts. It had been assumed that she’d gone to find her husband.

  Claire drove right up to the entrance of the Weeks’ house, got out of her vehicle and knocked on the door. It seemed very quiet. There was obviously no one home. She tried calling both Grayson’s work number and his cell, without any response, so she left him messages. The FBI would watch the house. It was past school hours, so she had no idea where to begin looking for Simla and was happy to see Agent Pitt arrive. He would have done his research.

  “Any idea where we would find a seventeen-year-old girl at this hour?” she asked him.

  “After-school sports, music, theater club… you name it. She doesn’t have any close friends from what we can tell, apart from Justin, whose house she lives in. We should track him down. He’ll probably know where Simla is. Now, let’s see,” he said, pouring through his notes. He was old-school, everything was noted down on yellow legal pads. “Our best bet is the ice rink. The varsity team has a scheduled practice there this evening. Won’t be the least bit surprised if Simla is over there watching them practice.”

  “Yes, that sounds like out best bet. Let’s go. I’ll meet you over there. You’ve got someone assigned to stake out this place, right?”

  “Yup.”

  Pitt was right. The ice rink was buzzing with activity. The team was o
n ice, partaking in a heavy training exercise by the look of things. There were groups of parents and teens scattered in the bleachers. Claire scanned them for familiar faces. She noticed a group of girls huddled together, engrossed in conversation. She recognized a couple of familiar faces in the group–Ariele and Monica–two of Arizona Darley’s friends. She couldn’t see Arizona herself, but guessed that she must be on the ice with the rest of the team.

  She scanned the rink again but couldn’t spot Simla anywhere. So Claire walked up to Ariele and Monica. “Hi, girls,” she said, using her most friendly tone.

  “Hi. You’re the agent from last year, aren’t you?” Ariele asked, looking totally surprised. “Wassup?”

  “I’m looking for Simla Sen. Have you seen her?”