“Okay. Let’s get filing.” Sean clapped on his clipboard and jogged away down the aisle.
A few minutes passed in silent filing before Sean called to me.
“Can you come here a minute, Bridget?”
“What’s up?” I asked, heading in his direction.
“Did you start your super awesome filing already?” Sean asked as he frowned into an open drawer. Closed it. Opened another and frowned into that.
“No, why?” I asked, watching him. The air was heavy with missed opportunities, worry and anticipation of the eye disintegrator gearing up.
Sean gestured to the drawers. “I can’t find this file. Would you check for me? Maybe I’m overexcited.”
I nodded. “Sure. Maybe someone has put it back in the wrong place.”
We checked all the ‘J’s. Then the ‘T’s. And finally all the ‘L’s. Then we checked them again. The file was definitely gone.
Chapter Fifteen
“Where were you this morning?” Sabrina asked as I sat down next to her in the canteen at lunchtime.
“Oz said he’d kick me out if I didn’t stop investigating stuff so I did what everyone does when they get upset and need someone to take their side—”
Sabrina nodded. “You went home to see your mum.”
“Yes. But when I got there she and my dad were talking about how I’m haunting them and they’ve gotten remarried. Without telling me. Yes.” I held my hand up to stop Sabrina’s comment. “I know I’m dead and they can’t tell me, or ask my permission—”
“They needed your permission?” Sabrina arched an eyebrow at me.
“Obviously, they didn’t need my permission but I would’ve liked to have been consulted. Yes. Again. I know I’m dead. Then I got upset because I felt like I was the reason they broke up. So I’m all sobby and feeling all lonely and then Oz turns up.”
“What did he do? He didn’t give you permission to go, right?” Sabrina asked. “So you’d broken the rules right after he told you he’d kick you out if you broke the rules?”
“Nothing. He sat there in a disgustingly companionable silence making sure I knew I wasn’t alone. Then I agreed to sign a sort of restraining order against Officer Leonard and the GBs so they can’t keep dragging me into stuff, and I promised Oz I would try to fit in. So I had breakfast at home this morning to show him I was trying and because I am desperate to know what happened with Madame Zorina’s husband—but I knew if I came to breakfast we’d make an investigating plan and my promise to Oz would be worthless and I’d be homeless by the end of the day.”
“This is true.” Sabrina gestured to me with her coffee cup. “But you could’ve come to breakfast. I got nothing from George after you left last night. He’d only just stopped crying by the time Charon appeared to collect him and I’ve not been able to snoop through files all morning because they’re still training newbies how to file words that begin with ‘a’ under ‘a’. All I could manage was to quickly check Olive’s and Tina’s files. Both have brothers at university.”
“Wow, so you had to work this morning? That’s awful.” I patted her hand in faux sympathy.
“Shut up.”
“I could but then how will I share my new knowledge?” I asked and took a very smug sip of my tea.
Sabrina twisted in her chair to face me. “You have permission to speak.”
“Shucks, I’m honoured. You’re so generous,” I mocked and then filled her in.
“To recap”—Sabrina counted the points off on her fingers—“a department of people decide who lives and who dies. Details of deaths are kept in these files. Treble called Sean out of the room but there were no newly transitioned waiting. While Sean was out of the room someone came in. Jeremy’s file is missing. And there’s an eye disintegrator as a security measure.”
“That’s about the size of it.” I nodded. “And I checked but Magnificent Malcolm’s and Allseeing Eric’s files were gone too.”
Sabrina grinned at me. “Way to not break your promise to Oz.”
“I’m sorry, whose side are you on here?”
“What about Madame Zorina’s husband’s file?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t know his last name. And I don’t know what’s actually in those files. They might not have all the answers, anyway.”
“Maybe,” Sabrina conceded and took a sip of coffee. “And I know you can’t get involved, but we can still guess who it is so we know who to be careful around, right? Self-preservation and all.”
“See, this is what I mean about you making everything so reasonable,” I grumbled.
Sabrina nodded. “The Fates knew my worth.”
“Suspects. Olive and Tina? And I’m all over Treble being a suspect after him being the one to get Sean out of the room.”
“And because you don’t like him,” Sabrina added.
“That too. And I know there was training going on but did you find out who Zendar the Mighty is?”
Sabrina banged the table with her open palm. “Yes! Why do I keep forgetting this stuff? It’s George. Madame Zorina’s husband.”
“So that makes Tina Jeremy’s snitch and Olive the murderer? Or Olive the snitch and the murderer. Or Tina the murderer and the snitch. But why would either murder Jeremy? Unless Tina and Olive are snitches and it’s Treble doing all the murdering.”
Sabrina seesawed her hand. “I don’t really see this Olive as the murderer. I saw her picture on the file and she looks tiny.”
“Right. Because short people never commit murders.”
“I meant that it is incredibly unlikely that it was her who strangled Madame Zorina, since you said that the figure hid her from you.”
“Okay, that’s a valid point. Oh, she’s in cahoots with Janice. Janice could’ve totally hidden Madame Zorina from me. Did Olive’s family have a run-in with the other dead mediums?”
“Didn’t get chance to check before lunch. I’ll try this afternoon.”
“I thought you checked their files.”
Sabrina held up her hand in my face. “First, these files can be more than an inch thick so it takes time to retrieve all the possibly relevant information. Time I don’t have with newbies swarming all over me.” Sabrina scanned the canteen. “Talking about people swarming all over me, where are your housemates? And Pete and Charlie? Or any facilitator?”
I looked around the hall and checked my wrist and realised I’d still not got a watch. “It’s the normal lunchtime, right?”
“Do you think it has something to do with the deaths?” Sabrina pursed her lips as she looked around the room. “Who could we ask that might know?”
“Alexander. On reception. He deals with facilitators all the time. Surely, he’d know if something was going on.”
Sabrina snapped her fingers at me. “Good plan. You haven’t told him you’ve changed jobs yet, right?”
“No, why?”
“Because you could be stopping by to let him know and casually mention that you noticed there weren’t many facilitators around at lunch and does he know what’s happening. That’s not investigating or breaking your promise to Oz.”
“No, it is bending it pretty far, though.”
“First, you’ve already snooped through files. Second, imagine you hadn’t found three dead bodies, wouldn’t you still be curious about why there were no facilitators around?” Sabrina reasoned.
“See, this is exactly why I didn’t want to come for breakfast this morning because you make all the rule breaking seem so reasonable.”
“That’s because it is. You go and check in with Alexander and I’ll get you a doughnut to go back to work with.”
“Why aren’t you coming?” I asked.
“Because Alexander likes you. He’s more likely to be open if you go alone.”
I sighed at the common sense logic that made and got up. It wasn’t like I didn’t want to go and see Alexander. I liked him but I just felt it was a bit sneaky. I picked up my tray and headed to the hatch. I was so
busy trying to get a peek at the doughnuts on offer so I could direct Sabrina appropriately and walked straight into Olive.
I grabbed her arm to steady her as she stumbled to the side. “Sorry, Olive. I was looking at the cakes.”
Olive righted a bottle of water that had fallen over on her tray and smiled at me. “That’s okay, I know it wasn’t on purpose. How are—”
“This makes the third time you’ve blatantly disregarded my requests about contact with my wards.” Janice moved up to stand directly behind Olive. She placed her hands on Olive’s shoulders and gently nudged her away.
“Actually, since you told me after the first time I spoke to her this only makes the second time that I’m blatantly disregarding your requests.” Janice opened her mouth to respond but I held up my hand to stop her. “I was on my way out and I bumped into her. I was apologising.”
“You physically assaulted her? That’s it, I’m taking you to the police station to file a report.” Janice reached out to grab my arm but I stepped out of her reach.
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting slightly here?” I asked.
“Ladies, are you two not getting along again?” Richards asked from behind me.
Janice jabbed a finger at me. “She assaulted my ward. I want her prosecuted.”
“Who did she assault?” Richard’s asked and Janice pointed to Olive, who was happily eating some tomato pasta concoction several tables away. Richards looked from Olive back to Janice. “She looks alright to me.”
“If Officer Peaks feels an assault has been committed then we have to honour that accusation and investigate,” Treble said, appearing to the side of Richards.
“I think we can use our discretion here, Officer Treble, don’t you?” Richards cajoled. “The so-called victim is happily eating her lunch. I think Officer Peaks might have misconstrued the altercation slightly.”
“I want to file a complaint.” Janice directed her comment to Treble.
“As you are well within your right to do so.” Officer Treble extended his arm as if to guide Janice toward the doors but Richards grabbed it.
“I saw what happened. Ms Sway bumped into her. It was an accident. She apologised. No one was harmed. Let’s not make a big deal out of a mishap.” Richards let go of Treble and motioned for me to walk past him to the kitchen hatch.
“I want to make a complaint against him, too.” Janice pointed to Richards but spoke to Treble.
“For saving everyone some time and effort because you overreacted. Twice.” Richards shook his head at her. “The bureau will back me and then you’ll have a note on your file that you made false allegations against a GB. Is that what you want?”
The expression on Janice’s face told me that Richards had a point. She threw a heavy scowl my way and stormed off to sit next to her ward. There was an odd mix of people sitting at the table. Were they all her wards? Did she make them all lunch together so she could supervise?
I left Treble and Richards to a stony silence and headed to the kitchen hatch to dump my tray before anyone else could stop me or accuse me of anything.
I glanced over at Sabrina, who’d missed the whole thing because she was so focused on the cake display, and headed out of the canteen right into Officer Leonard.
“Ms Sway.” He greeted me with his usual amiable smile. It was almost as if he’d been waiting for me.
“Officer Leonard.” I gave him a polite nod and kept walking.
“Problems?” he asked, glancing over my shoulder at the two GBs I’d left in my wake.
I shook my head. “Nope.”
“Good.” Officer Leonard stepped into my path. “I believe that your parole officer has filed a petition that any communication between you and any officials cannot happen without his presence. That’s a shame, I do enjoy our chats.”
“Me too, but I enjoy living with my parole officer and my housemates more. It’s a question of priorities.” I gave him a small shrug.
“I can understand that. And these petitions can take a while to be processed so I do hope that, if you were to need assistance from an official channel in the meantime—”
“You would be my first call.” It felt oddly like a breakup. I gestured past him. “Excuse me.”
Officer Leonard stepped to the side and swept his arm wide for me to go. I had the vaguest sense that he was happy about the restraining order. Which he shouldn’t have been, right? Because that wouldn’t make sense.
“Bridget,” Alexander exclaimed when he saw me. “Where have you been? I was beginning to think you’d fallen prey to all those murderers you socialise with.”
“Happily, not yet, Alexander. I’ve been reassigned. I wanted to stop by and let you know.”
“Oh, no. So I won’t get to see you anymore?”
“I’ll still drop by,” I said and felt oddly sad that I wouldn’t see him every day. My second breakup of the day.
“What are you doing now?”
“I’m working in Afterlife Arrivals.”
Alexander wrinkled up his perfectly aquiline nose. “With the newly transitioned?”
“Yep,” I said and mirrored his expression.
Alexander held up a finger and ducked behind the counter. When he came back up he was holding a bottle of hand sanitiser by the screw lid and a pump in a sealed packet. “Consider this a new job present. I’ve heard that the newly transitioned still have alive germs as well as dead person germs.”
I took the hand sanitiser with a grateful smile. “Thanks, Alexander.”
“You’re welcome,” he said and flashed me a tooth pinging smile.
“Hey, do you know what’s going on with the facilitators?” I asked.
“Some mediums were murdered recently,” Alexander whispered. “I think a facilitator was suspected of somehow being involved so they’re all having refresher training on how not to kill people, as well as being educated on how to spot mediums who might be illegally involved with afterlife citizens. It’s all very hush hush.”
“Really?” I asked.
Alexander nodded. “The GBs were overseeing the training. They were talking to people afterward. Asking questions about processes and procedures. They asked me about whose area the mediums were on.”
I frowned at him. “Didn’t they know? That seems like something they should know.”
“I think they were testing me, but I told them I didn’t know anything about areas. I was only responsible for handing out the forms. They had some questions about that process too, but I made it quite clear that I followed the processes to the letter.”
“If they question you again, Alexander, tell them you want your parole officer present and don’t say anything else until they get there, okay?”
“Do you think they’ll want to question me again?” he asked, looking around as if expecting a hoard of GBs to turn up and drag him off.
“I can’t see why but let’s be safe, okay? Make sure you ask for your parole officer to be present before you answer any of their questions. And if they ask you why you want your parole office there, don’t get into it. Just repeat that you’re entitled to have representation and you’re officially requesting it. Okay?”
“Officially requesting it,” he mumbled while scribbling something down on a piece of paper.
“Do you know who has my old area?”
“Some miserable girl. I’ve not seen her smile once. And she barely speaks. As if a whole sentence would kill her.” Alexander leaned forward again. “Honestly, I know it’s not nice but I was a little happy when it turned out to be her area that all the mediums were dying on. I saw them questioning her with her parole officer yesterday.”
“Do they think she did it?”
“I heard someone say she has a murderous history, so maybe.” Alexander shrugged. “I don’t see what she’d get from it, though. But I’m not a murderer, so I don’t really understand how they think.”
“Do you know her name?” I asked. Surely, it couldn’t be Katie. Surely. Alt
hough both Oz and Katie had been extra scowly yesterday when we’d been shopping.
“Katherine Green,” Alexander whispered and then straightened up as his eyes darted over my shoulder at the sound of chatter heading our way.
“Thanks, Alexander.” I held up the sanitiser. “And thank you for this too.”
“You’re welcome, Bridget. Make sure you come back and see me soon,” he said and a flash of vulnerability rippled over his face. “I miss you.”
“I miss you, too.” It was an automatic response but I was a little surprised to find that I meant it. Being dead was ripping down all these sturdy walls I’d erected to keep myself protected from people.
“What’s the what?” Sabrina asked, handing over my chocolate doughnut as she met me out of the reception area and taking the hand sanitiser from me without question.
“Well, Katie’s taken over my area, the GBs interviewed her with Oz yesterday, who neglected to mention that she was once again a suspect in a triple murder. Although I guess it was technically a single murder at the time. And the facilitators are having training at lunchtimes, supervised by the GBs, about how not to murder people and how to spot if a medium is involved with an afterlife citizen.”
“What?” Sabrina caught my hand as I was about to shove the doughnut into my mouth. I was pretty sure there was no drool on my face but I wiped my chin anyway.
“Yep, I know.” I gave her a nod, then shook off her hand. I didn’t think she needed more than that and then demolished the doughnut in fewer bites than was ladylike. I briefly thought about how mortified my mam would be if she saw me and then remembered that she and my dad had gotten remarried. Without telling me. Out of spite I sucked the chocolate from my fingers, with a loud lip smacking noise.
“Did you do that to spite your mum?” Sabrina asked, watching me with a grin.
“Pfft, no. Of course not. That would be petty and pointless,” I said, looking everywhere but at her as I wiped my fingers on the napkin, suddenly grateful for the hand sanitiser. I’d be able to set it up and use it when I got back to Arrivals.
We both tunnelled back to our respective workplaces but before I was even fully solid I could sense the swirling activity. I finished my tunnel slowly to make sure I wasn’t going to end up with someone’s arm sticking through my abdomen.
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