Chapter 15: The Night’s Visitor

Deacon Household, Trade City East, West Wing

The night was fast approaching and all the houses had their lights turned on. It was at a time the streetlights were turning on, in one particular household a woman sat on her couch viewing the television waiting for her husband to come home. She had changed out of her work clothes and wore a nightdress. On a table, far back there was a picture of her and her husband, along with a dog which had run away. This was the Deacon Household, not exactly the most happy family ever but regardless they were still a family. They had one son, studying away in another country. She was paying very little attention to the TV, stewing much in her own thoughts. The recent fiasco at the Bishop's Bar had affected her business in a very negative manner as Hector Bishop was one of the shareholders on the board of directors for Mezzanotte Group. She worked as a lead investigation officer for Mezzanotte Group's insurance branch, investigating insurance frauds and claims of corporate sabotage etc. The little cases in life, those were hers and now several shareholders at Mezzanotte had forwarded their complaints to her about how they suspect another shareholder was possibly behind the incident with Hector Bishop. It also didn't help that Mezzanotte Group owned Medicity Hospital where Hector Bishop was admitted, that caused a whole host of new problems with several shareholders also submitting medical reports verifying their claims. She had intended to go to work in the morning but pulled off on it after those emails and incessant phone calls. Finally growing tired of the hot mess she made a call to her superior citing reasons for a sick leave and then unplugged the phone cord so she would not receive anymore calls. These people were all so quick to act. The incident had happened in the morning and they were already on it like rabid hyenas. She sighed as she massaged her head again for the umpteenth time that day. She didn't like this high stress, she liked working at her own calm and cool pace. Even as she paid a half-hearted attention to the TV her senses were still heightened thanks to experience as an investigator and when she heard footsteps resounding far-off she immediately got up. Her husband had come home, she looked at the clock, it was slightly early for him to be home, she thought frowning but it didn't matter to her. She walked over to the front door to open it when she found the door already open and immediately the back of her neck turned a little cold. She had a break in? At her house? She whipped around and ran to the table which housed pictures of their family, there was one of their son also on their but none that had all three of them together. She pulled back the drawer and pulled out her handgun and she proceeded to in slow measured steps walk towards the door. She slowly stepped outside and looked around, then she turned towards the door…there were no signs of breaking and entering, the lock hadn't been forced, and there was no damage to the doors. If anything, it seemed that the person had opened the door using a key of all things…maybe the person was a lockpick expert or something. She had encountered that type in her daily work. Her senses heightened as she saw the professional touch to it. Was the person gone or were they in the house? If so then when did this happen? It wasn't her husband, she could guarantee that, he had forgotten his keys today after arguing with her.

"Hello?" she called out. "Whoever you are, you'd better come out."

There was no reply and no sounds of movements that indicated that there was anyone nearby.

"Damn it," she cursed.

She finally noticed the shoes left on the front next to her own and her husbands and her eyes twitched…wasn't this break in a little too casual. She knelt down to examine the shoes, it was a male's, she could tell that much for certain. If his shoes were here then he must be inside the house. She rushed back in, her gun at the ready.

"I know you're in here!" she called out. "Come on out!"

She held her breath hoping for a reply only to be disappointed. Where was this man? She looked at the clock again hoping for Robert to come home. She sidled up to the land phone she had disconnected and attempted to plug it in whilst still aiming her gun in the general direction of where she perceived the threat to be only to fumble and drop the cord. Annoyed she moved over to mobile and picked it up and speed dialed her husband who let it out ring out to voicemail. She bit her lips and attempted the call again and like the first time it went to voice mail. She attempted this time to call Roy Sharpe, her husband's subordinate, she also had that man on speed dial. This time she heaved a sigh of relief as Roy Sharpe picked up the phone.

"Hello…Sergeant Roy Sharpe, Trade City East Police Station East Circle here?" came Roy's reply from the other side of the phone and her eyes twitched again at the full introduction.

"Hi, Roy," she said trying to keep her gun study and look around for signs of threat. "I'm Adelaide Deacon, Robert's wife."

"Mrs. Deacon?" he asked. "Why did you call?"

"I appear to have break in at my house Roy," she said in a sweet voice keeping her growing panic at a minimum as she heard foot steps again, this time from upstairs.

"A break in ma'am?" he asked repeating her and she almost cussed him out.

"Yes, Roy a break in," said Adelaide. "He's right now in my house and he's walking about like he owns the thing."

"Mrs. Deacon, have you tried calling Robert sir?" he asked.

"Two times," she immediately replied. "He didn't pick up."

"Mrs. Deacon, if you would just stay safe and calm I'll be on my way," said Roy and Adelaide was satisfied to note the sense of urgency in his voice. "I'll try to call Sergeant Deacon on the way."

"You do that," she said and cut the call, she would have at this point loved to let out a sigh of relief but the foot steps were back again and soon after the water turned on in the showers.

She grit her teeth, was this mockery? The person that had broken in had left his shoes next to theirs and now he was just casually taking a shower, was she just air to this man, she had a gun for god's sake. She rushed to the landing to get up stairs but then paused. If he was showering then that meant she had more time to wait until either her husband or Roy got here, no need to invite trouble onto herself by being angry. She soon heard a car pull up outside and she heaved a sigh of relief as she ran out, the gun still in her hand and out of the car, with some effort got out her husband, in a very inelegant manner. Any other day of the week she would have made some insensitive comment or other but today was not such a day for her.

"Addy?" he asked surprised, his wife had never come out to welcome him after he got home from work, let alone with such joy.

"Robert," she said heaving a sigh of relief and then he noticed the gun in her hand and his eyes sharpened.

"What happened?" he asked, pulling out his own service pistol.

"There's someone in the house," she said.

"A thief?" he asked moving forward but she shook her head.

"I don't know actually, but it's a fully grown male and he's right now, using our shower," she said.

At that sentence he did a double take.

"Excuse me?" he asked doing a double take, he didn't think he had heard her correctly.

"The man is right now taking a shower," she said again with a sigh, unable to make sense of it either.

"He broke in and he is now taking a shower?" he said again in a questioning tone and she grit her teeth.

"Yes Robert that's precisely what he's doing."

He holstered his pistol. Why he did that, Adelaide didn't know, did a trespasser showering make him less of a threat? He walked in and noticed the shoes and he turned to her.

"It's his," she said with a wry smile. "He's being very gentlemanly, not getting out carpet or floors dirty."

His eyes twitched much akin to hers as he too heard the shower. Soon after however the shower turned off and there was sounds of ruffling upstairs, possibly the man was drying himself. There was now the sounds of shuffling feet and slowly they heard him exit the bathroom and he turned the landing to the stairs and they saw the shadow first. Both Robert and Adelaide held their breath as Adelaide pointed her gun at the landing, ready to shoot if she saw something she didn't like. Then the man stepped through the landing, his hair still drying. She had to appreciate the audacity however of a trespasser that wore one of their bathrobes as he stood, towering over Robert, it created for a intimidating yet funny figure.

***

"You!" Robert exclaimed and the man let out a chuckle, his wife looked at him curiously wondering how on earth they knew each other.

"Hello sir," said the man. "Enjoyable day at work?"

"Jerome…Elliot…Hall," Robert enunciated through gritted teeth.

"Who is he?" asked Adelaide asked Robert and Jerome flashed her a brilliant smile as he came forward.

"Nice to meet you Mrs. Deacon," he said with a small courtesy bow. "My name is as he said, Jerome and I am a constable working under your husband."

Adelaide's eyes widened, this wasn't audacity or courage, this man was crazy. One of her husband's constables came home and showered in their house.

"How…how dare you Hall?" Robert said pointing a fat a finger at him and turning red.

At the same time he sensed a mental attack on him which rebounded off his mental defenses. He walked up and whilst grinning headbutted Robert right in face and the fat man fell back shocked whilst his wife suddenly pointed the gun at him.

"Trust me you don't want to do that," he said rounding up on Adelaide who seemed very confused by this situation.

"Ow…" whining Robert got off the couch he had flipped ungracefully onto.

"I can't do this in a station," said Jerome and reached forward first pulling Robert's gun out and throwing it away then grabbing Robert by the collar and pushing him back against the wall and lifting him up.

"What are you doing!" Adelaide yelled and he heard the cocking of the gun.

He let out a vicious smile and dropped the now coughing Robert before walking over to Adelaide casually and grabbing the end of the gun before twisting it away from her grasp when it accidentally fired in her hands. Her eyes widened as she quickly dropped her hands from the gun and staggered back cupping her mouth with her hands.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," she whispered, she had fired the gun into his hand, it stung lightly was all he could think.

"It's fine," he said finally and through that gun away as well as he looked at the crumbled bullet in his hand.

Adelaide quickly dropped her hands from her mouth, the worried look replaced with shock.

"You're like Robert," she said.

Robert finally stood up adjusting his sleeves as he looked angrily and somewhat fearfully at Jerome and then at his wife.

"Step back from Addy," he said. "This man's dangerous."

Jerome meanwhile looked curiously between Robert and his wife. She knew the secret, yet from Eckhard's scans she wasn't a mage so this made him wonder if other civilians too could be privy to these secrets and what were the conditions for sharing such secrets. He put that thought to the back of his mind before turning on Robert again. As his hands reached out to grab Robert he suddenly felt resistance but he grinned as his hand seemingly crumbled into something akin to fine sand which shot forth and pinned Robert high up on the wall as it took shape again. He liked this, nanomancy was a worthwhile discipline. He looked behind only to Adelaide stumble back in terror.

He offered his sweetest smile, "Don't worry Mrs. Deacon, it's just a casual talk."

"Add-Addy ru-run," Robert choked out and Jerome turned to him with a smiling snarl.

"You…"said Jerome clenching his fist and tightening his tendrils' hold on Robert. "You are the definition of a pig," with that he turned to Adelaide who looked at him in horror. "How she put up with you all this while I'll never know."

"Ru-run," Robert choked out again, his pleading gaze landing on his wife.

"I was doing well enough on my own," Jerome said gritting his teeth. "Then you send your hound, Sharpe after me but if that was the worst of it it'd be fine as well but Hector mentioned something before his unfortunate plunge."

"Hector Bishop?" suddenly Adelaide piped up in a shaking voice.

He turned again to Adelaide with a light frown, "The very same."

"You saw the incident?" she asked and he let out mirthless laugh that chilled both her and Robert.

"I did the incident," he said.

He released his tendrils lightly allowing Robert to breath a little.

"You…you put him in that state?" Adelaide's eyes widened.

"Indeed I did," said Jerome and at that point he completely released Robert who once again fell to the floor in heaping mess.

"Let me ask you Mrs. Deacon," Jerome said rounding on a frightened Adelaide. "If say a constable had information about a particular case and he went somewhere to get more information about that case only to find himself ambushed and killed…what would you think?"

Adelaide however backed off again as he came forward still processing what she told him. She associated the constable with the man in front of her, the story sounded personal, but killed, the man in front of her looked as healthy as a horse and way stranger than one. She looked at Robert who was groaning in a somewhat delirious state and she gulped. She noted, whilst Jerome's actions seemed slightly juvenile at times, his rage was extremely real.

"I would assume a betrayal," she said.

"Right," said Jerome nodding with a smile. "Now assume then this man began to work on this particular case of his own death, working through it all, running through all the strange gates, meeting a variety of weird people until he reaches the end of a rope and pulls on it only to have Hector Bishop come to light."

"Bis…Bishop paid to have you killed?" she asked in surprise but at the same time there was disbelief on her face.

"You don't believe me," he said with a sigh and he slicked back his drying hair. "It's fine, now assume that this Hector Bishop is merely a contractor running a business of assassination and also assume that I interrogated Bishop to find out who the mastermind was…do you get where I'm going?"

In her mind Adelaide suddenly connected the dots between his conversation with Robert and his conversation with her.

"Robert…Robert paid Hector Bishop to kill you," she said in disbelief, that story sounded like some sort of outlandish fantasy.

"That's it," said Jerome nodding with a gleeful smile, there was still disbelief on her face when he heard Robert coughing behind him as he came to.

"I-I did no such thing," he blurted out. "I didn't pay anyone to kill you."

"You…"Jerome snarled as he shot forward and met with light resistance, one he easily broke though and Robert gasped at the sudden breakage of his force.

"You continue to lie through your teeth," Jerome said with a twisted look that caused Robert to cower.

"I swear," Robert pleaded as he gulped. "I didn't pay anyone to kill you, Bishop came to me for information on you and I just gave it to him."

Jerome froze as he frowned, he turned to the slightly less frightened Adelaide and then turned back to the cowering Robert. It was clear his wife was unaware of her husband's illegal activities and if he were to believe what Robert old him then it meant that Hector had pulled one on him.

"Was this for money?" asked Jerome with cold rage.

Robert quickly nodded, "And a favour but he didn't pay."

"So you gave my information and you didn't get paid?" asked Jerome frowning.

"No…I did get paid but the account, it's linked to East City Hospital, Bishop didn't pay anything, he just owes me a favour," said Robert and Jerome scratched his cheek thoughtfully, this was new information for him.

"Do you have a name?" asked Jerome.

"I…I do but I don't remember it, it's probably in my account details," Robert said.

Jerome quickly walked forwards and pulled him up.

"Get me that name," he said, he didn't have to add the 'or else' because Robert had made his own assumptions as he nodded.

Adelaide looked between the trespassing constable and his meek and spineless superior with a weak smile. She at least knew now who had done that to Hector Bishop, she was also more privy than she wanted to be about her husband's under-the-table dealings but she could not do much with either. This was a world she was a stranger to and it seemed to her, to a certain degree Hector Bishop deserved what had been done though she did not know what state he was in now. She sat down on the couch in a confused state when she heard footsteps and front door again. She whipped her head around only to see Roy Sharpe rush into living room.

"Sir!" he called out and then abruptly stopped at the strange sight of Jerome in a bathrobe in Robert Deacon's house.

At this Robert just sighed, the situation could not possibly get worse. As soon as Roy saw Jerome, his eyes glinted over in a fiery manner before his hands caught on fire.

"Roy!" Robert said raising his voice causing Roy to sharp out of his hate albeit momentarily.

Jerome gave him a sardonic grin one that caused Roy to grit his teeth again but he somewhat controlled his rage.

"What is it Roy?" asked Robert. "Why have you come here?"

At this point Adelaide got up from couch, covering her night dress as best as she could. What could she say, she wasn't expecting so many visitors.

"That's my fault," she said. "I called him when I couldn't get through to you."

Robert sighed again. "It's all fine now Roy, get out of here."

"Yes sir," said Roy. "But that's not the only reason I came over."

Robert raised an eyebrow at that. "What else is there?"

"There's been another fire at East City Hospital," Roy said and at that Jerome looked up to the ceiling in a very casual manner avoiding eye contact with everyone and Robert reflexively coughed.

"Again?" asked Robert. "Any casualties?"

"Yes sir," said Roy his eyes hardening. "Just one…constable Leonard Blake."