Alkimiya - A Fantasy Mystery Series

SEVEN - Blueprints and Black Boxes

Zenetra's hands clenched into fists. Of course she'd already figured out there was no file to collect. They were in the Cold Room, a place for unsolved cases. "I gathered Inspector Hatwig had nothing to do with this. Why did you bring me here?"

Tilde brushed away errant strands of blonde hair that dangled over her forehead. "To collect the blueprints for the Noire Estate."

Though it sounded like a ploy, Zenetra took a step closer. "Why would my blueprints be down here?"

Tilde spun on her heels to the wall of boxes and trailed her hands up and down in her search. "Noire, Noire. Where are you, Noire? Ah-ha! Here we go." She grabbed the black box labeled Noire, Xuxa and set it on a narrow ledge built into the unit. "I thought it odd that they were archived here. Housing blueprints are meant for family eyes only, you see. Then I figured they were used by the constables investigating your sister's disappearance and were not returned to your father because they had been filed incorrectly. It happens more than you'd think."

Zenetra grew hot despite the coolness of the basement. She had wanted to wait one more year before digging into her sister's disappearance. A star adorning her breast would have made her brave enough to begin the search anew, or so she convinced herself, but there was no avoiding what lay inside that box now. "How did you know they're for the Noire Estate?"

"They had your name on it! Found the blueprints crammed in with another case. In my second year of training, I was assigned to find a link between the drugs that killed Mr. Ashwell and the new ones circulating the streets—" Tilde cut herself off with a slight blush. "Eh, never mind. That's not the important bit. Anyway, after I found your blueprints, I filed them in the right place and then, if you can believe it, forgot all about them! I swear I meant to give them to Commissioner Fokle, but you know how training is—wickedly brutal!—and then I went to the countryside for fight training the following year. They cut you off from everyone and everything. You just finished, didn't you? Well, anyway, when I entered my fourth and final year I was stuck down here in the dungeons every single day. No lie! Every. Single. Day. I wasn't fond of tracking the Drug Kings but my field trainer liked my thorough research skills so he kept me on his team. I can spot patterns, you see. Patterns no one else can connect."

Tilde gave Zenetra a worn-out smile. "This is my first year as a legitimate constable, but it feels like I've been doing this for much longer. It's fine, I suppose. I want to get at least two years under my belt before I begin training for the Reaper test."

Zenetra's mind switched from the black box with her sister's name on it to the radio transmission report. The Reapers had been dispatched to find Scarlett Burn but returned empty-handed. "You want to be a Reaper?"

A wistful expression came over Tilde's face. "I want to be a Reaper more than anything. My mother always read me a story right before bed. You know, the ones for children? One night my father did it instead. His choice of book was a biography of Tiva Bilberry."

"Ah." Zenetra was pleased to note that her voice had gone back to being more cordial. "I take it she became your hero after that?"

Tilde nodded vigorously. "Everything Tiva Bilberry contributed to the world...well, no one's been able to do anything remotely similar since."

"She was an amazing woman." Zenetra cautiously took another step closer. With no body and no burial, the black box bearing her sister's name was as close to a coffin she had to mark her sister's existence.

"I sure think so," said Tilde. "But my family...they've never liked the idea of me becoming a Reaper."

Zenetra could not tear her eyes from the box, but the ringing in her ears was nearly gone and her body had returned to its normal temperature. The top of her sister's box had accumulated eight years' worth of dust. Distractedly, she asked, "But your family was okay with you joining the CF instead?"