by Ruby Loren
“Right,” I said, finding this a lot to take in. “So, what now?”
The two agents exchanged a look. “Now, you carry on living your normal life. Something may change in the next few weeks, but everything you now know… don’t think about it, and definitely don’t talk about it,” Flannigan said.
“You mean I don’t get to be a secret agent?” I knew I sounded like a snarky teenager, but all of these revelations had made me feel pretty rubbish. I was fed up.
Flannigan rolled his eyes, but Ms Borel answered me. “The role you have to play is currently being considered. At the end of this meeting you will sign the Official Secrets Act forbidding you from telling anyone what you now know.” She levelled her gaze at me. “And I think you know that means anyone.”
I nodded meekly and made sure my expression was solemn. They couldn’t know that I’d already negated the act by filling Auryn in on everything I’d figured out for myself. Sure, it had contained a few plot holes, but all things considered, they weren’t holes I was particularly eager to fill. I still wanted to be proud of my comics, even though they’d only ever been a hobby. I believed these people when they said they hadn’t pushed for the release to be so successful. After all, it would have taken a lot of probably rather obvious effort to fake something like that, and to what end? I believed my comic strips had gone viral all on their own, and I believed that the positive reviews and the emails I was now receiving were genuine, but I still hated to think that the crowdfunding campaign - which had touched me so much and which I’d worked so hard to complete - was a sham. It hurt, but it was the kind of hurt I wanted to keep to myself.
“You have appointments with your agent and the publishing house tomorrow, do you not?” Ms Borel asked, pushing herself to her feet.
I echoed the movement, realising I was being dismissed. “I do.” I knew exactly how enthusiastic about it I sounded.
“You’ve already told Jordan you found the Abraham family. I suggest you call him back and explain that it has shocked you so much, you are requesting a couple of days to yourself. It should give you some thinking time.”
I nodded, privately thinking that it would take more than that to pull the wool over my eyes now. Ms Borel had claimed that everything would be over in the next few weeks, but I was certain that her suggestion that I take a couple of days to think things over had nothing to do with compassion and everything to do with them making a move on the publishing company and my agent.
Even though they’d told me all of the terrible things the people I was working with were involved in, I still felt a pang of regret when I thought about Jordan. He might be the 'bad guy’, but I liked him a heck of a lot more than some of the ‘good guys’.
Flannigan stood up, too. Both agents looked at me for a long moment, neither party willing to shake hands.
“Someone will take you through to sign the act when you walk back into the main building,” Flannigan said.
I nodded and started to turn away. Something occurred to me and I looked back. “What’s going to happen to the zoo?”
“No decision has been made yet,” Ms Borel replied.
I waited, but apparently that was all they had to say about it. “Ah well… at least you caught your gun smugglers. I hope that made shifting all of those animals around worth it,” I grumbled, only just managing to keep a lid on my temper, which was threatening to explode everywhere.
I walked out of the room before I could do anything rash.
I turned up at Auryn’s house unannounced that evening. He was surprised to see me, but happy - the way he always was.
“I thought you’d still be in London signing books,” he greeted me with his usual carefree smile.
I wished I could return it.
“Didn’t you hear? I found the Abraham family today.”
Auryn’s grey eyes widened for a moment. “That was you? I should have known. The way the gossip at the zoo tells it, Detective Treesden managed to figure out where they were after secretly looking into the cold case file when the zoo was bought and renovated. I suppose he thought it was his last chance to find them before it all got concreted over.”
I gave Auryn a look.
“That’s literally me repeating word for word what I’ve heard all day today. I know that A - Mellon Zoo isn’t big on concrete, and B - Detective Treesden can’t have been looking into the case.” He threw me a lopsided grin. “Otherwise, you’d have already been nearly arrested multiple times for getting involved with a police investigation.”
“So nice that someone else gets to take all the credit,” I grumbled, but I wasn’t really angry. I’d wanted to find the Abraham family to stop the zoo from profiting from their mystery. It had been both for the family’s sake and, admittedly, for the sake of Avery Zoo, too. Whoever it was in MI5’s tech team who had thought up that dreadful ghost tour, I did not share their sense of humour.
I stepped into the house and Auryn shut the door behind me.
“It happened today,” I told him.
For a moment, he looked puzzled, probably thinking I was still talking about the Abrahams, but his expression soon cleared. “Oh,” he said and then opened his mouth to say something else before shutting it again. “Okay,” he finished.
In spite of everything that had gone wrong today, I smiled at him. We both knew the score and that was what mattered the most to me.
“I’m not sure what I’ll do for my next job. This one’s almost over, and I’ve got nothing planned,” I said, wondering if heavy implication was banned by the Official Secrets Act.
Auryn smiled a little, obviously following what I was saying. “You are always welcome at Avery Zoo. You know I miss you. And you’re a famous author now. It’s like having an extra exhibit without having to extend the zoo,” he told me with a grin.
I tried to return it but knew mine was a little wobbly. He shot me a questioning look, but I shook my head. That was something I wasn’t going to tell him about. The act definitely forbade it, and the wound was still fresh.
I kissed Auryn lightly on the lips and sighed. “I still don’t know how or why the Abraham family ended up on the roof of the barn. Do you know, I don’t think an aerial search would have helped? I’ve finally uncovered a flaw with all of this eco stuff.”
“It works brilliantly for covering up corpses,” Auryn concluded. He shook his head. “Only you would find that out, Madi.”
“I’m supposed to be taking a couple of days off to have some time to get over finding the remains.” I raised both eyebrows at Auryn. His eyes widened a little. He’d realised that something big was going down. I reflected that all of this was like playing charades, but with potential arrest if either of us slipped up. “I called Jordan to let him know how distressed I was by the experience. He wasn’t thrilled, but he said he would add it into the marketing campaign. You know - it’s another publicity stunt, isn’t it?” I said and then wondered why my agent would be interested in something like that. Leona must have finally come around to his ‘go big or go home’ way of thinking and had told him to ramp up the publicity for all it was worth because they were going legitimate. Ish.
At least it boded well for the operation. My comic book had got them so wrapped up in the genuine publishing industry they were likely to have missed all of the warning signs. Unless there is someone on the inside who tells them everything, I thought, but it wasn’t something I was going to lose any sleep over. The secret service were no friends of mine. They’d used me in every possible way, and I couldn’t care less if they got the result that they wanted. I was just happy that I’d got the result I wanted: the truth - or at least, my piece of it.
“I’m going to Wales tomorrow for a couple of days. It was nice when I went up to visit last time, so I thought I’d go again and see the spring flowers on the mountainside, or something,” I said.
“Want me to come with you?” Auryn asked, but I shook my head. Avery Zoo was far too busy for him to step out on short notice.
“I was just wondering if you could look after Lucky for me? Perhaps even take him into the zoo with you?” I knew it was asking a lot, but Auryn lit up.
“Sure! We’ll have a great time together. I’ll send you pictures.”
I looked sideways at him. “Don’t get into too much trouble.”
He grinned. “Look who’s talking.”
16
Sisterly Love
Katya and I hit the road the next morning right after we’d left the police station. Treesden had unexpectedly dragged us both in to go over our witness statements - despite the case being as cold as a bald man in the snow. When I’d expressed some surprise that Katya was still local enough to be called in on such short notice she’d confided that she was off the main operation and had been assigned to what amounted to cleanup.
That had been when I’d invited her on the Welsh road trip to see if we could do even more of the police’s figuring out for them. I’d been bemused when I’d visited the station, only to discover that no one had formally identified the family yet. There’d been some excuse about backlog at the labs they used. I’d thought that something as high profile as the Abraham family turning up would be a priority, but the police and their limited budget clearly had other ideas.
“How are you taking it?” Katya asked when we were bombing along the motorway.
“You mean knowing the truth? It’s better than not knowing,” I said, but I knew my face gave away my feelings. I was pretty unhappy.
“It’s tough when you can’t tell the people you love, isn’t it? That’s why I’ve stayed on my own. It’s a choice between lying forever or choosing someone you work with. I work with idiots, and I’m not that great at lying,” she said with a smile in my direction.
I had to pretend that she was right about the reason for my sorrow. She thought I was heartbroken over my boyfriend, but really, I was still hurting over my comic. It was ridiculous. I’d told myself a hundred times already. What was I complaining about? Monday’s Menagerie had ended up being so successful that it had jeopardised both operations. I needed to stop being so miserable. My bank balance wasn’t looking miserable was it? I smiled. There was something to be said for honest criminals… I’d been given a fair royalty rate and they’d paid it right on time, too. Perhaps that would go in their favour whenever they were judged for their crimes.
If they’re judged for their crimes, I reminded myself. I still wasn’t completely convinced that MI5 had them as caught in their web as they believed they did. There had been something…
I shook my head and focused on the road. It wasn’t my problem. They wanted me to keep my nose out of the whole business. For once, I was going to do what I was told…
…By sticking my nose into a completely different business.
“Why are we going to Wales?” Katya asked from the passenger seat.
I looked at her sideways.
“It wouldn’t have anything to do with the surviving members of the Abraham family and the girlfriend living in God’s green land?” she continued.
“No, I just like the mountains,” I said, straight-faced.
Katya looked at me carefully and then sighed. “Who are we going to see first?”
I smiled a grim smile. “I found out from the solicitors who handled the property sale that Mrs Kendal’s sister lives at the address currently in the sat nav.”
“How’d you get them to tell you that?”
“I didn’t. I called in a favour from a friend who doesn’t like the way the Abraham case has been handled.”
Officer Kelly had been more than happy to help when she’d discovered that not only was Treesden taking all of the credit, he also - to her knowledge - wasn’t actually doing anything to figure out how the family had ended up on the roof. According to her he was waiting for the results of the reconstruction whilst crowing about his success. Fortunately, it had made her just as angry as I had a right to be, so she’d called up the property solicitors, purporting to be working on the case, and had asked for the address of any benefactors. Mrs Kendal had been one and her sister had been the other - as the family’s only surviving kin.
Now, armed with an address, I was finally going to see Mrs Kendal’s sister. Hopefully, I’d learn a little more about what happened the day the Abraham family disappeared.
A couple of hours later, we pulled up outside a row of terraced houses. The mortar was cracked and green algae grew where the houses touched the ground. I also didn’t fail to notice that the front left window of Mrs Lane’s house was broken, and there was wood-stain gloop splattered next to the door. The only surprise was the small, but neat, garden outside the front of the property.
We walked up to the front door and I knocked. A moment later, the door opened, and a man with grey hair and spectacles clutching a rough cut piece of wood answered the door.
“What is it?” he asked, not un-politely.
I suddenly realised I should have thought this far ahead. I was completely thrown by the appearance of someone I hadn’t been expecting to see.
“We’re from the council. We’d like to discuss our ideas to aid residents in the upkeep of their homes for a better South Wales,” Katya lied smoothly. She even flashed some kind of government badge, which I supposed she kept on her to use as needed. For once, I was glad I’d brought a secret agent along with me.
“Were you off to do something with that piece of wood?” I asked, remembering the broken window.
“Yes, I’m afraid you’ve come here to find the place in an even greater state than it usually is. I rent this property, you see. The garden and the house, all of that’s taken care of. Unless I do something to damage it,” he continued, looking distraught.
“Did you break the window?” Katya asked.
“No I did not! There’s a woman who’s in charge of my rental. She does the garden when she feels like it. This time around I asked if she wouldn’t mind staining the door again. You've got to have some pride in your home after all, haven’t you?” he said a little sadly. “I don’t know what happened, but I think next door’s cat startled her and she slipped on the bucket of wood-stain and threw a trowel straight through my front window.”
“That sounds like it was an accident, but clearly, she’s responsible,” I commented.
“She said that if I wanted to carry on living in the property and not be labelled a trouble maker to Mrs Lane - she’s the one whose property this really is - I would say that the accident was my fault and that I was was the one who broke the window. I’ll have to pay for it, but I really can’t afford to,” he confessed.
“That is wrong,” Katya said, visibly bristling. “You need to call up this maintenance woman and tell her you’re sticking to your guns.” She looked at the old man a little pityingly. “There’s a reason why you asked someone else to stain your door for you, and it wasn’t laziness. Your landlord should be able to see right away when presented with the evidence that you had nothing to do with any of this. The maintenance woman is the one who should be paying for your window.”
“I… I suppose you're right,” the old man said.
Katya hesitated for a second and then pulled out a generic looking business card which listed her title as ‘manager’. Manager of what? I wondered. “If you have further problems give me a call, but I suggest you call this woman and tell her she needs to take responsibility for the damage she caused to the property she’s supposed to be taking care of.”
“Do you know where Mrs Lane is living right now?” I asked, curious that she was renting out the house. After looking at the place, I couldn’t blame her, but where was she living now, and why had she kept her address as one that she was currently renting out?
“I couldn’t say for sure. I’ve never met her. I only know that she’s the owner of this place because that’s what the neighbours have told me and it’s what’s on the paperwork. Apparently, she used to live here with her sister.”
“How long have you been living
here for?” Katya asked.
“Oh I think it’s been about nine or ten years,” the old man replied before looking at his splattered wall and shattered window again. He propped the board up by the door. “I think you’re right. I should give her a call. I’ll say the council have been round, too!”
“Remember you’ve got my card,” Katya told him and we wished him farewell after asking a couple of other questions to marry up with our claim about being from the council.
“What do we do now?” I said, more to myself than anyone else, but Katya rose to the challenge.
“Canvassing. We go door to door around the area trying to find out what we can about Mrs Lane and her sister and anything the neighbours might have noticed over the years.”
“What’s the story this time?” I asked with a smile.
“Let’s stick with the being from the council. In my experience, local organisations like councils are so disorganised, if someone did happen to call up and let them know that people were going around asking questions, it would probably take them at least a week to find out whether or not it was a directive they’d set up.” She raised an eyebrow at me.
By the afternoon, we’d done the entire street and had learnt a little more about the sisters. They’d lived together in the house for a long time and had spent the entire time arguing - and loudly enough to make them not beloved by their neighbours.
The sisters had moved out together and the property had been rented ever after to Joe Milligan - the man with the broken window. We’d managed to subtly enquire where the sisters had moved to but no one seemed to know beyond someone who said ‘I thought it was something to do with family’. That would definitely be true for Fiona Kendal’s move but I wasn’t sure if it applied to Audrey Lane.