Thursday's Child

by Jolie Mason

  As she walked through the airy space, she spotted Sam Oxly leaving his own office, issuing jovial orders to his secretary and joking with a man she didn't know. She hardly knew anyone here. It was a testament to how many they'd lost.

  He smiled in greeting when he noticed she was standing in the large central area of the offices looking around for some clue where to go. Excusing himself from the conversation he was having, he strolled toward her with an unhurried, dignified grace only found in a truly confident man. His suit today was trim and smoky gray.

  Hayden found herself liking the new chief of police very much. She watched him approach her across the room. He was ... stalwart. Yes, she thought, that's what he was. You didn't find too many stalwarts anymore.

  "Hayden," he said taking her hand in both of his. "How have you been?"

  "Fine," she said. "Getting along." She paused before adding, "I'm about to go on a vacation. Just needing some time away, you know."

  "I know. I just got the job, and a vacation already sounds like an excellent idea. That should do you some good. How many vacation days did you leave on the table when you retired?"

  "A few," she answered.

  "All of them, you mean. Where are you headed?" he asked warmly.

  "Blue Island Resorts off the coast. It's supposed to be amazing."

  They had been slowly strolling toward a group of rooms leading away from the circular hub of the precinct work area. The Chief saw her gaze back over her shoulder at the new facilities. "We call that the pen," he chuckled. "More than a few officers have expressed the sentiment that it makes them feel like cattle led toward the slaughter. I've requisitioned a change."

  She nodded. That was it exactly. It had a circular design that led a person back to the center, the pen they called it. She smiled to herself. Ace would have rioted.

  He gestured for her to precede him into a conference room, and then held a chair for her. "This is Detective Conway."

  She entered the room to see the tall man she'd only seen on comm stand from his seat at a large meeting table. She shook the hand he offered her across the table. "Good to meet you in person," she said to him.

  Conway smiled politely and agreed before offering her the seat directly across from him. Sam asked Hayden, "How has Mary been doing since the incident with Romanov?"

  "She's very happy that I'm off the job. It's taking a bit, but she's more at ease now that she's settled into a routine at my place."

  His smile slipped. "That's understandable. You two have an incredible bond. It's wonderful that you can be there for each other."

  "Yes," Hayden said, breathing deeply. "Why were you wanting to see me, gentlemen?"

  Sam pulled back and smiled again, this time at the table's surface. "Right to business, I see. Well, this is mainly a courtesy. Conway is going to give you our findings on the bombing and Romanov, and then we're headed right out to a special press briefing with the new mayor."

  She looked from one to the other. "Why the special treatment, guys? No offense, but this seems a bit unusual, doesn't it? I had no family in the blast."

  "But Ace," the Chief said knowingly. "No family but Ace."

  "Yes," she answered him around the lump in her throat.

  Conway broke in. "As a police survivor, we felt you deserved the facts first, without the vultures looking for a sound bite. You are one of us, Detective." Conway pulled out one of the thin, transparent hard copy tran files sitting in a pile before him. He handed it to her. "It would seem that Romanov was behind the bombing all along, and the guilt pushed him to take his own life. He simply connected you with his crime in a unique way and sought you out when he ended it."

  She scanned the report before her. It was standard, nothing surprising. After all, the voice on the comm had pretty much outlined his cover up for her. As expected, even the parts she knew to be lies were excellently documented. The only thing surprising about the report was that she was holding it.

  Confused, she looked at Sam. "This is pretty much what I had expected. Why am I really here, Sam?"

  He wasn't smiling as much now. In fact, he seemed pretty uncomfortable, nearly squirming under her gaze. "Hayden, the mayor wanted to ask you himself, but he was unavoidably detained."

  "He wants me there?"

  She knew it. He didn't have to ask, and she didn't have to guess. Hayden had been in police work for more than five years, long enough to know how the politics of it all worked. "It's a great opportunity for a photo op with one of the surviving police officers. Well, I hope he has a backup political stunt because I'm unavailable."

  She stood up and lifted her bag to her shoulder. "Please tell the Mayor, I'm on vacation."

  With that, she walked out of the office with her own purposeful stride feeling a strange mix of offended by the mayor's petty politics and disappointed at the Chief's collusion. She heard rapid footsteps behind her as Sam hurried to catch up.

  "Hayden, I'm sorry about this. I told him you didn't like the spotlight and you wouldn't do it. The mayor is feeling the pressure to live up to the job."

  "Sam, I get it. I know how it all works." She modulated her voice to avoid punishing Sam Oxly for something that was never his fault, not really. He had to contend with the system long after she left it. There was no room there to judge him.

  "I just... This is trivial, isn't it? I mean, I lost everyone, fucking everyone, and it certainly wasn't just me. Janetta Maury lost two brothers and a husband. Yet, here we are playing politics like nothing strange has happened."

  He just looked at her helplessly.

  Hayden reached over to squeeze Sam's arm at the elbow. "It's not your fault, Sam. I'm just... tired."

  She glanced over his shoulder at the precinct as she almost snarled that last word. Sam took her meaning and let her go. She started to walk away, but she heard him calling her name one more time as he caught up with her just outside the main waiting area. Just beyond were the security checkpoints and lifts that would take her back down to the main lobby.

  "Hayden, I want to ask you something," he said. Hayden narrowed her eyes. This wasn't confident Sam Oxly. He seemed nervous, uncharacteristically anxious.

  "Yeah," she said.

  He looked upward to the empty, vaulted ceiling that amplified every sound in the room as if he was asking for help. "My timing is probably way off, but I wanted to know if you would have dinner with me sometime."

  "Dinner?" she asked with a squeak. That possibility, the idea that he found her attractive, had never even occurred to her. She realized she must be reading into it. "Me?"

  He hit her with the charming smile again. "Yes, you. He moved a little closer, trying to close the distance without appearing far too unprofessional. "I like you, Hayden. You're a fascinating woman."

  "I don't know what to say," she stammered awkwardly. She wasn't sure she was capable of dating and relationships after losing nearly every major relationship in her life on the same terrifying day. And, there was the matter of Dr. Gray Kerry.

  "I'm in a weird place right now. A lot has happened."

  Sam leaned down and studied her face, knowingly. "A guy?"

  She nodded. "Yes... No. I'm not sure. I don't know where it's going yet, but it's... something. It's not nothing."

  Disappointment didn't dim the kindness in his face, but there was definite disappointment as he said to her, "You don't have to explain to me at all, Hayden. A woman like you. Well, it's really too much to hope that there isn't a guy.

  She smiled weakly at him. "Now, that is far too high a compliment."

  "I just call it like I see it, Detective." Sam started to slowly back away. He pointed at her, and said, "If he screws up even a little, you have my number. The least little bit, I mean it."

  Hayden laughed at the Chief's jokes. He'd defused the awkwardness of her rejection easily. The laugh dissolved quickly when she thought about Gray. He was in danger still.

  Everything with Gray had been intense and dangerous. It could be the a
drenaline of the situation lent it more significance than it should have had, but she couldn't just leave him out there on his own, no matter what he wanted.

  She was going after Gray, and she was going to find the man who'd started them all down this path if it was the last thing she did. Hayden glanced back over her shoulder. Her eyes drifted back to the doors of the homicide department of the fifteenth precinct where they found the Chief, still standing there casually leaning next to the door like he owned the place, and watching her walk slowly away.

  He gave her a wave and a knowing smile, then hit the door's trigger and went inside. It was one of the more confusing days in her recent history. Hayden left the building as quickly as she could without obviously running out like a scared rabbit.

  She needed to focus on the matter at hand. Gray was out there alone doing god knew what, and there was currently a rogue element, possibly, going up to the highest levels of government. Who knew?

  Although, what she would potentially do about it she didn't know. It wasn't as if she had a plan for that part of this mess. All she'd been able to focus on was getting Gray out. Then, she would worry about how to figure out exactly what was going on with the Voice.

  *

  Mary activated the rented drone, and it began painting the walls with a fine spray of color. It was a peaceful, cloud blue, and the perfect color for a detectives office, so Mary claimed. Having done all the research, she would know.

  Using the apartment she and Ace had lived in so happily together above the Chinese grocery hadn't been Hayden's idea. That had been all Mary, and Hayden had to admit the set up was ideal, even if the memories were distracting. She'd be able to crash here on long nights at the office. It had the potential to set clients at ease once it was decorated, and it was in an easy to find, populated area with a lot of potential clients.

  "So, what happens when you find this man?" Mary asked.

  "That depends on what he's doing, I guess," she answered while continuing to watch the bot hover and spray, hover and spray. "I don't know for sure what he's gotten himself into yet."

  "You think he's one of the good guys?" Mary pinned Hayden with her look, the one that made grown men and women feel like children. It also demanded honesty and clarity, and Hayden really appreciated that right now.

  "I believe he is or he's trying to be." She kicked one boot into the other as she stared at the floor tile. "It's not easy to be objective."

  Mary put her hands on her round hips, broadcasting some low level disapproval and worry. "Then maybe you aren't the one who should be going after him."

  "Who else is there, Mary? Everyone believes they have closure on this case. No one wants to reopen these wounds, and...." Hayden straightened to look Mary dead on, "And, while I'm gone, you need to stay very low profile. Unless my path intersects with the Voice, he will likely leave me alone. But, if this thing with Gray goes toward the Kinder research, I'll get word to you somehow, and you need to be ready to hide."

  "Mysterious negotiations, government research, super soldiers. I miss the days when criminals were just thugs," she said in exasperation, causing Hayden to laugh.

  "I do, too, Mary. I do, too." Hayden looked around at the growing patch of blue on the walls. "I think I like this color. It's growing on me."

  Waving her hand at Hayden dismissively, Mary declared, "Who cares what you think? The studies all show that this color reduces tension by thirty five percent and encourages logical processing. This is the color you need."

  Hayden shook her head with a smile. She understood so much about her partner that she hadn't before, now that she was living with his wife. Mary was an anchor, a nav system. Without her, Thursday Investigations would never have happened, likely because Hayden would not have steered her way out of the hole that the explosion had ripped in her.

  Hayden sometimes wondered which held her back more, her nerveless hand or the damage to her mind and soul. She saw the flames in her dreams, heard the screams. Over the months she'd improved occasionally, only to wake in cold sweats once again, always hearing a mysterious, disembodied voice telling her to stop looking for Gray, to give up and let it go.

  Some things remained the same as before, though. She had a plan. As long as there was a plan, there was a reason to go forward. It kept her trying.

  The bot whirred loudly and lowered itself to the floor, spewing blue paint onto the tile.

  Mary cursed the machine fluently in English and Chinese.

  Hayden stopped her. "Just a second, let's see what the diagnostic says before we dismember it." She examined the read out on the bot to see it had an order for servicing on the front. This prompted more cursing from Mary, and giggles from Hayden.

  She froze. It was just another of the regular moments that felt off because there were people missing from them. That's what she'd noticed since his death. There were times when you knew they should be there, right beside you laughing at the stupid thing that just happened, and they weren't. The second after that the grief punched you in the chest.

  She couldn't do a thing to bring Ace back, but she rose from the floor determined that she wouldn't quit until she'd found Gray. Hayden didn't know how he fit in her life, but she knew he was a missing piece of it. There were too many of those.

  Maybe, he'd feel differently when she found him. Maybe, it hadn't been as real as either of them thought, but she'd find him. They'd deal with the rest after the puzzle was finished.

  *

  Planning her Blue Island "vacation" had taken more effort than she'd expected a vacation to take. She'd had to renew her travel IDs, book the cruise and pass a physical. God only knew why.

  She finished packing her travel trunk and latched the lid. Mary was waiting in the foyer, nervous and upset.

  "I don't understand why you don't want me to drop you off," she said.

  "You have to keep your distance from this, Mary. I don't know for certain, but I imagine I'm being watched. I don't know how the Voice is going to react to my little field trip."

  She had taken to calling the man on the comm the Voice because she would swear she'd know it if she ever ran across him. It was distinctive, burned into her brain from that night with Romanov. Of all the factors in the case, he was the one that bothered her the most.

  Hayden hated mysteries. That's why she worked so hard to solve them. The unknown was not her friend, and the Voice had been the biggest unknown to date. That made him potentially the most dangerous, and there had been something most unsettling about the man's tendency to talk about the deaths of all those people as almost a business setback. The emotions the man had expressed in their conversation that night had been off, odd, not quite right. She didn't have words to describe it, but she knew something wasn't computing. He wasn't an ordinary bad guy.

  She kissed Mary goodbye in the foyer, and, with her trunk pulled behind her, she went down to the cab on the street. The trunk wrestled into the storage compartment with difficulty, but she managed, plugged in her destination as the capsule cruise hub at Howard Marina, where she'd followed Gray all those months ago, and settled herself into the seat.

  A few miles into the one hour drive, she pulled her tran out and replayed Gray's message one more time. One more time in a thousand times where she'd found nothing new, caught no new hints at what he was doing.

  It was real, he'd said. Was it? She'd wondered every single time she'd listened to this message.

  Or was it like one of those dreams that you wake from wondering if they were real? Was it that, instead?

  Her initial plan was just to get to the island and look around. It wasn't tropical but rather temperate in its climate, however there were beaches, natural and man made. Only the indoor beaches would be open to the tourists right now. It was still early spring with an unpredictable nip in the air that would be worse off the ocean coast.

  As the cab began to pull closer to the Marina, she saw the tall, curved spire of the hub. Hayden felt equal parts anticipation and anxiety as s
he stepped out and made her way into the hub and hotel. Service bots rushed through upon occasion as she approached the tinnie running the reservations desk. She handed him her ID, rather than a badge this time.

  Automatically, the bot said in its best customer service manner, "Ms. Thursday, it is so nice to have you traveling with us today. One moment and I will have you registered and on your way to your destination."

  "Thank you," she replied politely. Hayden stayed alert, even as she did her best to look casual, but a cop, any cop, never really looked casual. Hyper-awareness was just part of the life, even after you left the life.

  The bot's chromed hands pushed a small file toward her over the desk. "This is your key, and, once you board your capsule, you will receive the emergency procedures briefing. This cannot be paused and/or stopped in any way. It contains important, life saving information to ensure you have a safe, pleasant trip.

  "Your capsule tour will take you on the safest route around the magical southern reefs before landing at Blue Island by mid afternoon tomorrow. See your itinerary for the sight seeing stops on your route."

  Hayden took the small cube with a socket interface on the end. It was no different from the standard manual transport key. "Thank you. Where will I board?"

  The bot made an awkward human show of checking his watch. It didn't work for her as human, but, instead, felt like a terrible parody. "Your departure will be in approximately two hours, but you may board your vessel any time. It is docking slip D24 through those double doors near the restroom." The bot gestured, again awkwardly, toward a set of glass double doors leading down a long tube shaped hallway.

  Hayden wanted to get out of the open, so she headed straight down the corridor and placed her palm on the security interface of the door marked D24. It slid open, and she stepped inside.