 CHAPTER 6 (section 3) copyright © 2001, S. Y. Affolee The first thing that Simone noticed when she surfaced to consciousness were the voices. There was something warm lying on her stomach, but her throat felt like she had thrown up a few times before passing out. She cracked an eye open. Adrian and his brother Gavin were standing nearby, talking in hushed worried tones. She was in his apartment. She suddenly sat up, sending the kitten that had been napping on top of her sprawling to the side. “Sorry Fiz,” she croaked as the kitten meowed in surprise. Her partner’s eyes suddenly whipped around at the sound of her voice. “Simone.” “I’m feeling as if the entire Great Wall fell on top of my head. How did I get here?” She briefly looked around her, her head aching as she moved around to sit on the couch. “How long have I been out?” “You collapsed in the middle of driving,” Adrian explained. “I managed to get us to a hospital and a doctor checked you out. You got an overdose of valium.” “An overdose of what?” “Valium. From the tea you were drinking at Thomson’s I’m afraid.” “Bastard,” she muttered vehmently. She winced. “How could I have been so stupid?” “It’s not your fault,” said Gavin. “This Thomson guy might not be at fault either. He needs you to find his watchamacallit for his boring paper.” “Well, he’s still a bastard for offering me poison even if he didn’t know.” Fiz managed to crawl back into her lap, fully intending to go back to sleep. “Do you have some water?” “I’ll get it,” Adrian said quickly, disappearing into the depths of his apartment and into the kitchen. “How are you feeling?” Gavin asked softly. “Not that great, but I’ll survive,” she said. “The thing though is that we’ll have to file some sort of report. We’ve never had an employer of ours turn against us like this. And so soon too. But we haven’t found anything. Not really. So what sort of motive does Thomson have on us?” Adrian came back with a glass of water and handed it to her. She took a long gulp. “You can stay here tonight.” “Nice of you to offer.” She smiled a little. “But I’ll rather go back to my place.” “The doctor instructed for rest. And I won’t let you to drive.” She laughed weakly. “Strange turn of events, huh?” When she came into the office, he was angrily speaking on the phone, threatening to cut a job. The secretary was nearby sitting slack jawed as Adrian ranted. Simone stopped to watch him slam the reciever into the cradle. She had seen him angry only occasionally and it surprised her when he turned tail and stomped into his office, slamming the door. “What was that about?” Danny shrugged. “I have no idea, Ms. Sung. Some guy called this morning wanting to talk to Mr. Dubois. So I gave the phone to him since he had just come in. And I guess it just blew up.” “Well I need to talk to him, temper tantrum or no.” “You’re very brave, Ms. Sung. In the stir he’s in right now, everyone’s better hiding under the bed, if you ask me.” Simone was surprised. “I thought you were close friends with him. Surely you shouldn’t be afraid of him.” The perky blonde secretary grinned cheekily. “I assure you, Ms. Sung, I’m nothing but a professional. I know I’ve worked with both of you for over two years, but I still don’t know either of you very well.” “Your concept of knowing people very well probably is different than mine then,” Simone said dryly. As Danny gave her a confused look and then turned back to the computer to her menial tasks, she knocked on the door. “Who is it?” he barked. She quickly turned the knob and poked her head into the room. He was standing near the window, his sleeves rolled up and his tie undone. He was staring outside as if there was some great puzzle or mystery that he had to solve. Or maybe something interesting was happening across the street at the accounting office. “It’s me.” “Come in then.” He glanced briefly at her and the tight set of his shoulders slightly relaxed. “Did you just get here?” “I saw the last bit of your phone conversation.” “Ah that.” He turned back to the window. “It was Thomson.” “What did he want?” “His housekeeper disappeared. He was getting paranoid and wanted us to keep track of her too.” “Then she must have...” “Yes.” He passed a hand over his eyes for a moment before turning to stroll back to his desk, to sit down. “I think she was the one who doped the tea. But he called this morning, several hours after he realized that she disappeared. I told him that there was only two of us, that we couldn’t do everything.” “And what did he say?” “He decided to report it to the police. But I doubt they’ll do anything. It’ll look like the housekeeper just filed her resignation.” “Too bad. So I guess we’re only going to look at this Johnson guy this afternoon.” Simone sat on one of the chairs that was facing across Adrian’s desk. “I remembered something when Thomson mentioned the Dark Vipers. But I didn’t want to bring it up right then. It was something that I found in the old Greenville study.” He raised an eyebrow. “But why didn’t you tell me then? I thought we had agreed to consult each other on everything if possible.” “If possible,” she reminded him with a faint grin. “But recall at the time you were temporarily trapped in that little alcove that led to the third floor. But here it is.” She took out the old envelope from her pocket and placed it on his desk. Adrian examined the envelope. “Doesn’t look to peculiar.” He opened the envelope and looked at the mundane contents and the singular sigil at the bottom. “It looks identical to the seal on the note to Denise.” “Yes, but it looks sort of like a snake doesn’t it?” “A snake on a bed of roses. I think you’re onto something, Simone.” “That’s what I thought. But this letter is nearly a century old. The man who this is addressed to is no longer alive.” “But the people behind this maybe,” he said, tapping at the sigil. |