“I don’t like being pushed around by men like Tyler,” she replied with a shrug. “Coming into my office and throwing his weight around, threatening my investigator, my agency, and me.” She sounded furious. “He has something big to hide, or why else play such a high-stakes game?” She glanced at Alex. “I read those witness statements last night. Mick Reynolds is a weak witness, but Lytton’s statement impressed me. I presume Dr Baumann can attest to the physical evidence of the abuse he suffered that would corroborate his account of what took place that night?”
“Yes.” Josiah nodded. “I asked her to perform a physical exam the day we arrested him. Talking of Baumann, I’ve sent her out to check on some details relating to the Dacre case for me today.” He hated lying to Esther, especially after she’d just fought his corner, but it was safer for them all this way.
“Fine.” She gazed at him curiously. “I hope you aren’t in too deep there, Joe,” she said softly. “That footage Tyler showed of you and Lytton…”
“I wasn’t lying. He was upset, and Iwascomforting him,” he insisted.
She continued gazing at him.
He sighed. “But obviously, we’ve become close. I won’t deny that.”
“Be careful, Joe. You have to give him back at some point, and that point might be sooner than you think. I have absolutely no doubt that Tyler owns Lytton’s contract. He wouldn’t come barging in here making that kind of claim if it wasn’t true. I can set the lawyers on it and give them instructions to obfuscate, but I won’t be able to hold them off for long. You will have to hand Lytton over to him soon, unless…” She paused and glanced at Alex speculatively.
“Unless?” Josiah pressed.
“Unless you find that body. Then, there isn’t a judge in the land who’d order me to hand over the key witness to the prime suspect in a murder investigation.” She picked up her holopad. “Now, bugger off. I have a holocall to make. I’d rather the Home Secretary heard about all of it from me first, not Tyler. Well, what are you waiting for?” She glared at him. “Get out there and find that poor girl.”
Chapter Twelve
APRIL 2089
Alex
There was a long silence. Alex stood there, facing the mirror, waiting.
Maybe he’d got this wrong. Maybe nothing was behind these mirrors but bare walls, but he didn’t think so. The silence continued. Had he said the wrong name? Did he really think it could be Gideon? Were they laughing at him for his stupidity? At this point, he didn’t know what to think. For all he knew, this whole thing had been set up by Tyler, and Tyler himself was the mysterious A.
How long should he stand here looking like an idiot? Was this just paranoia on his part? Had his loneliness and the stress of his situation sent him over the edge? Anyone looking at him waiting for an answer from a mirror would think so. Seconds turned into minutes, yet still he stood there.
“I’m not going anywhere until I speak to Gideon,” he said firmly. “I won’t eat, or drink, or co-operate in any way until then.”
Was anyone listening? Were his words sending people scurrying into action in hidden rooms? Or was he talking to himself?
He sat down on the floor, hummed his song, and felt his mask settle over his features. He stared at the mirror impassively. He could do this all day if he had to. What else did he have to do anyway?
An hour passed. Then another. His stomach was growling but he was determined to stick to his guns. His mind wandered. He remembered that time he’d been crying after the staff gave him the Christmas present, and C had arrived fifteen minutes late for his morning check-up. Had that been deliberate, to allow Alex the time and space to weep? If so, did that make C the most likely candidate?
Another time, he remembered being in the dining room, about to tell the indies his name, and Four had interrupted him. Hadthatbeen deliberate, to keep everyone anonymous?
Yet the name he’d blurted out just now was Gideon, perhaps because he wanted it to be him the least.
He tried to quieten the frantic voice in his head, with all its doubts and confusion. He sang the words to his song, letting them soothe and comfort him.
Another hour passed. Was he prepared to sit this out all day? All night? For a week? How long before he gave up and retired sheepishly to the dining room for some food.
“I mean it,” he said. “I’m not moving.”
He wasn’t expecting an answer, but the speaker in the ceiling suddenly, unexpectedly, crackled into life. “Very well, Alex.”
Alex’s stomach flipped. So, he’d been right about the mirrors at least. Theyhadbeen watching him. What about that voice? Was it one he knew? He couldn’t tell. The speaker rendered it fuzzy.
“You know where to come.”
Of course he did. He’d walked around this building many times. He’d climbed up and down the stairs, wandered all around the grounds, and roamed the endless long corridors.He’d poked into every room and explored every nook and cranny until he knew the place upside down and backwards.
He knew the modern extension at the back of the house was where A worked and possibly even lived. It could be accessed from the main house, via a long corridor on the ground floor. Slowly, his belly full of butterflies, he walked out of the dorm. His footsteps clattering loudly in the empty house, he trotted down the stairs to the ground floor. He walked down a corridor, turned right, went down a few steps, rounded a corner… and there, at the very end, was the door that held all the answers.
Barely breathing, his heart beating so loudly it seemed to reverberate off the white walls, he inched along the corridor. Now the moment had come, he was almost afraid of what he might find. Maybe a part of him wanted A to be Gideon, so he could see his friend again, although surely A was no friend of his. Didn’t it make more sense that it was C, though? Or even Four? Or nobody at all that he knew. He was overthinking… It was out of his hands. He breathed deeply and hummed his song.