Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Call

by P. T. Dilloway

  “Thank you, ma’am,” Emma said, though she wasn’t sure if this were really a compliment.

  “Of course there will also be an increase in salary and an upgrade of benefits. My assistant will give you a folder with all of the pertinent details. Let me know your decision in the next forty-eight hours.” The director leaned back in her chair. “Don’t let me detain you.”

  Understanding this was a dismissal, Emma hurried out of the office. She took the folder from the director’s assistant to study later. Head of the geology department! To think she had only started as a junior researcher three weeks ago. A promotion like this should have taken at least five years.

  Her joy at this quickly turned to terror as she saw Dan coming down the hallway. She looked around, but there was nowhere for her to go. If only she had the Scarlet Knight’s cape right now to make herself invisible.

  The folder dropped from her trembling fingers; the papers spread out across the floor. As she bent down to pick these up, she heard Dan say, “Let me help you with that.”

  Together they gathered up the papers; Dan handed the ones he had collected to her. Their eyes met, but in his she saw nothing, not even a sign of recognition. His smile was as warm as ever as he said, “There you go.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  He squinted at her behind his glasses. “Have we met before?”

  “No.”

  He stared at her for a moment and then said, “Dr. Earl, right? The girl genius. Everyone’s been talking about you.”

  “They have?”

  “Oh sure. Nothing bad, trust me. Everyone’s really impressed a girl your age is working here as a researcher.”

  “Thanks.”

  “What area do you work in?”

  “Meteors.”

  “I’m in Egyptology,” he said.

  “That must be interesting.”

  “It is. We just finished launching the Karlak exhibit. Have you seen it yet?”

  “Yes. It’s very impressive.”

  “Thanks.” He sighed and said, “I’m going back to Egypt to get started on our next dig. No use sitting on our laurels, right?”

  “No, I guess not,” Emma said.

  He stuck out his hand for her to shake weakly. “It was good to meet you, Dr. Earl. Maybe I’ll see you when I get back.”

  “Maybe,” she mumbled.

  She managed to get back to the subbasement before she set her head on her desk and cried. She remembered what Mrs. Chiostro had said. This was her punishment and would continue to be her punishment for years to come.

  ***

  Two weeks later, Emma moved into her new office. It was still a temporary office, her permanent one being erected with the rest of the rebuilt offices on the third floor. “Hello, Dr. Earl,” Leslie said. She ushered Emma into the office. “I’ve set your messages on your desk. Henry from IT will be up soon to set up your network access. The director will want to see you this afternoon to go over budget forecasts.”

  “Oh, I see,” Emma said. She supposed that as with her introduction to the Order of the Scarlet Knight, she would get a baptism of fire.

  “Would you like any coffee?”

  “A cup of tea would be nice, but I can get it.”

  “That’s all right, Dr. Earl. I’d be more than happy to get you some tea. Any particular kind you like?”

  “Earl Grey,” Emma said. “But whatever you can get is fine.”

  The older woman nodded to her. “I’ll be right back, Dr. Earl.”

  Leslie shut the door behind her, which left Emma alone in her new office. She turned to look out at the city. The view wasn’t as nice as the director’s, but at least it was a view, not like her windowless office in the subbasement. The chair was a lot more comfortable too, though she tried not to remind herself this had been Ian’s chair. It didn’t seem fair for her to take his job, not after she’d caused him to lose his life. If she’d been a little faster, she could have kept him from killing himself. He would still be alive, though probably in a jail cell instead of this chair.

  She shivered as she thought about the Dragoon. She had dragged the black box onto a boat and thrown it into the harbor. Marlin had suggested she find a better place, like inside a volcano, but there weren’t any volcanoes near Rampart City and she didn’t have the money to travel to one. The harbor would have to do for now.

  She managed to survive her first day as the head of the geology department. Everyone was nice to her, at least to her face, though she suspected they would resent her behind her back. That wouldn’t be anything new; she’d been the teacher’s pet ever since kindergarten.

  She took the elevator down to the sub-subbasement. She stepped across some boards she’d strung across the floor and then ducked into the Sanctuary. With her first check she had made some improvements, which included hooking up her old computer from the subbasement down here and a couple of television monitors that showed views from security cameras throughout the city. She had also installed a refrigerator stocked with Red Bull to help her stay awake during the long nights.

  “About time you got down here,” Marlin said.

  “It was my first day,” Emma said.

  “Yes, well, you still have a job to do. Unless you’re planning to quit now that the Dragoon is gone.”

  Emma shook her head. “I’m not going to quit,” she said. The Dragoon was gone, but Don Vendetta was still on the loose. Lintner had changed his story after being taken into custody; he had taken full blame for the alliance with the Black Dragoon. Though there was no proof, Emma suspected the don had strongly suggested he take the blame or else he and his entire family—possibly including his godson—would be killed.

  Emma watched the monitors while she sipped from a can of Red Bull. She would have preferred a cup of tea, but she had to admit this stuff packed a wallop. While she was used to not sleeping much, three hours or less was asking a bit much.

  The police radio came to life with a report of a silent alarm going off at Eighth and Orchard. Emma smiled slightly at this and then began to put on the armor. “Are you sure you want to waste your time with that?” Marlin asked.

  “It’s my job,” she said.

  Besides upgrading the Sanctuary a bit, she had also bought something else to help the Scarlet Knight. The red Ninja motorcycle waited for her on the bottom floor of the Plaine Museum parking garage. She wheeled it up the steps, into an alley to avoid the security cameras. Before she got on, she took the license plate off and tucked it into a storage compartment.

  Then she climbed on and started the engine. The motorcycle’s engine roared to life, growling like a jungle cat. She kicked the stand away and then leaned forward as the motorcycle leaped out of the alley. She wove into traffic as she headed for the robbery.

  It was time for the Scarlet Knight to go back to work.

  ***

  Marie sat on her bed and then took a deep breath. It never hurt her physically to do this, but there was the mental pain involved. Still, it would be worth it to see her friend again.

  Marie brushed the hair away from her special eye and stared at the wall. The drab floral print walls suddenly turned to bright pink flowers. Instead of the grungy brown carpet was a wooden floor with a Persian rug on it. Where there had been nothing there were shelves lined with porcelain dolls.

  As for the boring metal-framed bed with its olive green blanket, it became a canopy bed with an adorable pink bedspread. Marie no longer sat on the bed but floated over it. She had become a ghost, a ghost only one person could see.

  This person was a pale little girl with dark hair in bouncy curls. She sat on the bed and idly played with her favorite doll until she saw Marie. “Marie!” she shouted.

  “Hello, sweetie,” Marie said. She wished she could hug the girl or pat her head, but she couldn’t. She had already tried; Veronica had only shivered with cold. “How are you doing?”

  “Fine,” Veronica said.

  “How’s school?”

&n
bsp; “Fine.” Marie knew these tepid answers meant things were not going well. Veronica and her parents had moved to Rampart during the summer from Boston. So far she had not managed to fit in with the other children.

  “You’ll make some friends eventually,” Marie said. “You have to be patient.”

  “I don’t need friends. I have you and Lucy,” Veronica said. She held up her doll.

  “Yes, that’s very true,” Marie said. She floated down closer to Veronica, though not so close as to make the little girl shiver. “You’ll always have me.”

  Veronica smiled at this. Her front tooth had fallen out since Marie had last been here. It wouldn’t be long until Veronica lost the last of her baby teeth. She was becoming a big girl. “Marie, tell me a story.”

  “What kind of story?” Marie asked, as she always did.

  “Tell me a story about airplanes.”

  “Sure, sweetie.” She waited until Veronica settled herself flat on her belly with Lucy next to her. Then the girl stared at Marie with rapt attention. “In the future there are going to be big metal birds called airplanes that fly people around—”

  The session ended too soon, as they all did. Marie would have liked to stay forever, but she felt the pull, like a hand grabbing her by the back of the shirt. “I have to go now.”

  “So soon?”

  “I’m afraid so. I’ll come back again real soon. I promise.”

  Veronica waved to her—she also waved Lucy’s arm as well—as Marie floated back through the wall. There was that unsettling moment of flying through a black tunnel and then Marie was back in her drab bedroom in the halfway house. She stared down at the floor and sighed.

  That was until she heard a man clear his throat. Marie turned to see a man with a gray mustache in a chair in the corner. “Hello, my dear,” he said. “Did you have a pleasant visit with Veronica?”

  “How do you know about her?”

  “I saw it through that hole. Very sweet. How long ago was that? 1880?”

  “1874,” Marie said.

  “I stand corrected,” the old man said.

  “Are you a doctor?” Marie asked. After what had happened in the nursing home, she had worried the doctors would come for her, to drag her back to the institution. She had been careless and now she wouldn’t get to see Veronica anymore. The little girl would be devastated when Marie didn’t come back; she would hate Marie forever for not keeping her word.

  “I’m not a doctor, but I have been watching you for some time. I think you and I have much to discuss.”

  “Who are you?” Marie asked.

  “For now you can call me the Watchmaker.”

  VOLUME II

  Time Enough to Say Goodbye

  Part 1

  Chapter 1

  The last member of Dr. Emma Earl’s immediate family lay in a coffin at the front of the funeral home chapel. It had been three nights ago that Emma came in through her bedroom window to find Becky on the bed. She knew right away that something terrible had happened. Even before Emma could take off the Scarlet Knight’s magic red plate armor, Becky wrapped her in a hug. “The nursing home called. Aunt Gladys passed away. I’m so sorry.”

  At the time Emma had been too stunned to even cry at the news. Aunt Gladys’s dementia had been much worse over the last couple of weeks, but still Emma hadn’t thought her aunt could actually die. “They said she died in her sleep. So at least she didn’t suffer.”

  “I guess,” Emma had whispered.

  Only later, once she had to make the funeral arrangements, did it really sink in: she was alone now. Her parents had died almost fourteen years ago. Her grandparents on both sides had died before Emma was born. Now her only aunt was dead. Emma was the last leaf on this branch of the Earl and Cabot family trees.

  Those thoughts occurred to her again as she stared at the brass coffin that was close to the color Aunt Gladys’s hair had once been. The unfairness of it all hit her. Aunt Gladys hadn’t even been sixty years old yet. She had been much too young to suffer from Alzheimer’s and much too young to die in a nursing home. She should still be healthy and alive; she should still be on exotic adventures like before Emma’s parents died.

  Though as a scientist she knew it was irrational, sometimes she blamed the death of her parents for Aunt Gladys’s decline. She knew that hadn’t actually caused the Alzheimer’s, but the added stress of caring for a precocious eight-year-old had certainly not helped the situation. Especially not a precocious eight-year-old who had seen her parents murdered.

  She still remembered the morning after her parents had died. Emma was still in the police station, a social worker in the seat next to her. The social worker had tried kind words, hugs, and even candy, but Emma had still been distraught. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t help but see their deaths over and over.

  Aunt Gladys had finally arrived from Ethiopia, where she had gone to aid relief efforts. The moment Emma saw her, she ran into her aunt’s arms. Aunt Gladys scooped her up and smothered Emma in a hug. She stroked Emma’s hair and whispered, “It’s all right, sweetheart. I’m here now.”

  There had been forms for Aunt Gladys to fill out, but she had still let Emma cling to her until Emma fell asleep. When Emma woke up, she was on a bench that overlooked the pond in Robinson Park. There was no one else on the bench with her. She looked around frantically until she was ready to scream.

  “Come on in, the water’s fine!” she heard Aunt Gladys shout.

  Emma squinted and saw her aunt silhouetted against the morning sun. Aunt Gladys splashed the water and then said, “Don’t worry, sweetie, the water’s nice and warm.”

  Emma toddled down to the edge of the pond. She saw a sign posted that banned swimming in the pond. “The sign—”

  “Don’t worry about that old sign,” Aunt Gladys said. “Just wade in.”

  Emma chewed on her lip for a moment as she debated this. Then she took off her shoes and socks and touched the water with one toe. As Aunt Gladys had said, it felt warm. The oversized T-shirt and jeans the police had given her to wear inflated in the water like water wings as she waded in. Never much of a swimmer, Emma dog-paddled out to where Aunt Gladys waited.

  Her aunt splashed her with some of the warm water. “That’s my girl,” Aunt Gladys said.

  “What are you doing out here, Aunt Gladys?”

  “I love to swim and the Y’s too crowded.” Aunt Gladys rolled over to float on her back. She did a leisurely backstroke as she said, “I miss this when I go to Africa. Not many places to swim there unless you want to wrestle crocodiles.”

  Though she knew there weren’t crocodiles in the park, Emma still looked about her for any other monsters in the water. She couldn’t be certain, but she was pretty sure she saw a pair of eyes to her left. She let out a scream and then started back to the shore, but she couldn’t make a coordinated effort. She chopped at the water until she tired out. Then she barely treaded water as she sobbed.

  Aunt Gladys swam over to put an arm around Emma’s shoulders. She used her strength to keep Emma afloat. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

  “I saw something looking at me. Over there!” Emma pointed to where she’d seen the eyes. To her surprise, Aunt Gladys only laughed.

  “Those aren’t eyes, sweetie. That’s just some algae.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Aunt Gladys left her to tread water again while she swam over to the eyes. Emma whimpered as she thought of a monster tearing Aunt Gladys to pieces. That was until Aunt Gladys scooped at the water. She lifted her hands, both coated with something green. “See? Nothing to worry about.”

  “But—”

  Aunt Gladys swam back to take Emma by the shoulder again. “You don’t have to be afraid anymore, Emma. I’m not going to let anything hurt you. Understand?”

  When she looked into her aunt’s eyes, which were so much like her own, Emma believed her. The fear subsided and for the first time since the car had hit her parents’s car, Emma didn’t feel
the need to sob. She smiled and then splashed Aunt Gladys.

  “A sneak attack, eh? I’m going to get you!”

  They frolicked in the water for a while, until they were both too tired to go on. Aunt Gladys helped Emma swim back to the shore, where they sat on the bench to dry off. Aunt Gladys put an arm around Emma’s shoulders and said, “I remember when your mom brought me here to talk. She was six months pregnant with you and already big as a house. I’d never seen her look so scared before.”

  “Why was she scared?”

  “Well, mostly because her little baby tried to get born too soon. Her mom and dad had to rush to the hospital to make sure you didn’t escape before it was time.”

  “It was my fault she was scared?”

  “In a way, but you were too little to know what was going on. Anyway, she told me about that and then she told me how scared she was that something might happen to her and how worried she was about her little girl having no one to take care of her. That’s when she made me promise that if anything should happen to her and your dad, I would take care of you.

  “I’m very sorry about what happened to your mom and dad. They were both such special people. I would have given my life for them if I could. But I couldn’t, so now I’m going to look after you. OK?”

  “OK,” Emma said. Despite how wet her aunt’s clothes still were, Emma hugged her. “I love you, Aunt Gladys.”

  “I love you too, sweetheart.” Aunt Gladys took her hand and then smiled. “Come on, let’s walk to the train station. That will help dry us off.”

  The thought of this story prompted a fresh wave of tears. Emma’s handkerchief was already damp. She felt an arm around her and for a moment thought she was eight again and back in the park with Aunt Gladys. But it was only Becky. “Don’t worry, kid. Everything will be all right.”

  Emma wished she could believe that.