The Gemini Age: Book One

[4-1] Chance Meeting - Part One

    With a sigh, Jade raised her aching fingers from the keyboard of her laptop. Fiona clicked the top of her pen and tilted her notebook in the light. Opposite them, Penelope sipped her glass of water and failed to feel the refreshing chill she expected. "Well?" she spoke through her dry mouth.

    Fiona studied her notes, the tip of her pen tapping the page. As she rounded the counter to Penelope's side, Jade pushed her computer into her uncle's hands. "Karim was a courier for three different gangs? And he never told you?" she asked with a brush of Penelope's arm. The girl's hands had shivered throughout her recount, and water leapt from the rim of her glass when Jade spoke. Catching the water as it sparkled in the kitchen's lights, Jade touched the girl's shoulder. "Sorry! This must have been difficult for you to share."

    Penelope wiped her eyes with her trembling hand and nodded. "It was, but I couldn't just sit at home without letting somebody know," she sniffed. Her hand raised to meet her hair, a motion that took an extra second to reach the back of her neck where all her hair disappeared down her coveralls. "I hope I gave you something of use."

    Though his mug was empty, Wilfred kept his fingers bound around its yellow curves. "Residents place gang activity high on their list of concerns every time the council sends the surveys around," he said, glancing up at Fiona's slumped figure. "As do the police, I hear."

    Chewing the tip of her pen, Fiona rocked back on her stool, despite Wilfred's nervous looks. "If this kid's really got evidence to prove the Lowland Nomads, Kent Gavels, and Oxford Dons are coordinating with each other on the kind of scale you're suggesting..." she spoke through her teeth, bringing herself back to the counter and slamming her notebook on the surface. "It's too great an opportunity for the Met to ignore. This info should be just what they need to take your friend's case seriously."

    Penelope wiped her face and sighed, relief evident in the sinking of her shoulders. "Thank goodness," she muttered to herself, warmed by Jade's excitement beside her. With a deep breath, she rose from her stool and looked towards the doorway. "I'd best be off. Maybe Father hasn't noticed I'm missing yet."

    Wilfred checked the time. "It's getting late, perhaps the detective will escort you home on her way back," he said, catching Fiona as she wiped a drop of swigged whisky from her lips. "If she isn't too busy with my good alcohol, that is."

    The bottle hit the counter with too much force for Wilfred's comfort, yet it did not startle Fiona at all. "Busy? I've barely gotten started," she said, swallowing back the burn of the alcohol as it surged up her throat. Despite the number of drinks she had put down during their conversation, she stood and walked with as much assurance as ever. "Besides, we both know you're the lightweight, Wilf."

    Jade hid her smile with her hand. "She's right, uncle. I remember how, on my thirteenth birthday, you –"

    With a choked squeal, Wilfred retreated to the doorway and hid his face by the wall. Fiona winked to the girls and patted Wilfred's back as she made her way to the front door, and Jade shut the laptop on the counter. "You should let Detective Sinclair guide you home," she said to Penelope. "My uncle will be panicking about you otherwise, and he's intense enough as he is."

    Penelope fiddled with her collar again, and Jade saw her arm trembled much less than before. "I'd hate to make you worry, and I suppose it wouldn't be an issue," Penelope conceded. She met Jade's smile with a slight turn of her lips and a glimmer of brightness in her eye.

    A series of buzzes and beeps rang from the hallway, and Fiona's distaste was evident from the flapping of her jacket as it fell around her frame. "You're joking," she said as she heard the call come through her radio. "Six Tempereds in a fight near the coast and everybody's busy but me?"