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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 208: Takano 149
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 358
Later that night at the manse the four versers ate dinner.
"How was your day?" Tommy asked, hoping to lead into her discoveries.
"I let Red Swashbuckler escape," Brian said, "and whoa, William Tell Junior really let me have it. On the plus side, no one died. And, uh, the Lord was good. After I had both eardrums burst, well, I thought of how Jesus touched people, so I did so to my ears. Also, I thought of how an apostle had said such as I have I give unto you, and I helped the guard to stand, and God healed us both.
"Strange thing, I was holding the Sword, and I could feel it helping me, clarifying my thoughts, guiding me."
"The woman at the prison with Brian they are now calling Crystalline, whom I put on the islet in the river, eventually surrendered to the police who rescued her with a boat and took her to the women's wing of the prison. I want to tell her she can't take justice into her own hands, but isn't that what we do?" Derek said.
"It's different," Brian objected gently. Tommy could see him looking with compassion at Derek who was looking strained as he studied the tabletop.
"I know. I know. It's just I spent the last six months on edge fighting the Devil for New Orleans, and I have to tell you, getting emotionally bruised in the process. We left some good friends behind too." Derek gave a great, gusty sigh, and Tommy's heart quivered to hear his pain.
"Yes. Lei He with his stoic calm, and Maurice with his grin, and 'my butler carried my silver spoon' Pierre," Vashti said with a tear in her eye that she wiped away with a napkin.
"I feel for that woman," Derek continued. "I won't say for no fault of her own she's in jail now, but she goes from being a normal person one day with normal dreams to suddenly being a living crystal with skin that can cut a bare hand. It must be hard." The others nodded, and Tommy patted him on the shoulder, and shared a sad glance with Vashti. Tommy decided to wait a bit, and dug into her meal, and the others joined her in silence. After a bit Tommy cleared her throat. The others glanced her way.
"I saw the fire investigators entering the BBS building, so I decided to do a little watching with my mind. Saw one of the investigators go directly to the files in our department, and scoop them up. I read his mind, which apparently is a thing I can do if I can mindsee the target. He was working for someone who had paid him. I think Mordenslice." Internally, she supposed it could be another villain, but that seemed like having too many nefarious schemes going on at once. She wondered if evil villains ever showed up at the same house to kidnap the same scientist at the same time for different evil masterplans.
The other three nodded. Confident she had their attention, Tommy continued.
"Also, I think that once Doctor Mordenslice figures out that the papers are not there, because Derek took them, he's going to want to ask people. We have twenty people in our department now, growing almost by the week. He's going to go for Granville."
She finished with a flourish, and all three of them either applauded or patted her on the shoulder with smiles. It felt great.
"Getting to be a good detective," Derek said, and she blushed at the praise while inside thinking, 'I could be Batman'.
"What should we do?" Vashti asked. "Does the man have a family?"
Brian nodded. "We could ask him to stay with us, but he has a wife, three kids and two large dogs. Besides, it would be hard to explain why he was safer here. We could get him to go to The Paris for a week. They hide people who need hiding."
"That just means Mordenslice will go after another," Tommy objected.
"Right. But what if Granville goes to The Paris with his family, and I sit in Granville's house as Granville?" Derek asked. Tommy paused. That might work, she thought.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
