"Hey!" Agent X called as he hurried across the crowed main area of MIB headquarters and over to Agent Jay. "There's a message for you. They're waiting on hold down in the kitchen. Someone named Edie."
"Edie?" Jay puzzled over the name for a moment before he finally recalled Aileen's large partner. What does she want? You sure that she didn't say that she needed to talk to Kay?"
"I think I know the difference between Jay and Kay, and as for what she wants, who am I, your social secretary? The only reason I came to tell you was that the worms wouldn't leave their coffeepot to take a message."
"Well, thanks for letting me know." Jay said, leaving X to wander off on search of his partner Elle, as he headed for the kitchen to talk to Edie. Why in the world was she calling him? Sure, they had got along well when she had visited with Aileen, and he had covered for her when she wrecked the LTD, but why would she be calling? Had something happened to Aileen? Jay paled, and felt his stomach seize up as that thought hit him. If anything had happened to her, it would kill Kay.
"Edie? What's going on?" Jay said as soon as he reached the kitchen, and dodged around a worm on a coffee run to get to the communications hook-up.
"Jay, thank goodness. I wasn't sure if that Jedangian would let you know that I was trying to get hold of you or not." Edie sighed as she saw him on her screen.
"Yeah, X is grumpy sometimes. I thought it was just with humans, though." Jay said. "So, what's going on. Aileen's all right, isn't she?"
"I don't know, Jay. That's why I called you." Edie told him.
"What do you mean, you don't know if Aileen's okay? Edie, if something's happened to her, I don't know if MIB has enough insurance to fix the building after Kay tears it to pieces. What's going on? Where is she?"
"At her desk." Edie said as she peaked out from the closet where she was hiding to make her call for long enough to make sure that her partner hadn't wandered off. "Yes, she's still there."
"Okay, at her desk is good. Girl, you scared me there for a minute. So, what's going on?"
"I think someone's going to kill her, Jay. Or at least that's what I'm afraid of. I don't know." Edie sighed. "Aileen thinks that I'm imagining things, but I don't know. That's why I called you to see what you think."
"You think that someone's going to try to kill Aileen? Worms, get out of here. Can't a guy have a chat in private?" Jay waved for the worms to leave and didn't speak until they were out of the way. "Edie, what is going on?"
"I hope that you'll be able to help me figure it out." Edie sighed again and slumped back against the wall of the closet. "Aileen really thinks that I'm imagining things. I mean, the deaths were ruled accidents or natural causes, and some people might not even be dead yet, but still, I'm really scared, Jay. If I'm right, Aileen's the only one left."
"The only one left? Edie, I'm not following you at all here. Why don't you start at the beginning and tell me what you think is going on?"
"I hope I'm wrong about this. I really hope that I am. Jay, you were a cop before you became an MIB, right?"
"Sure. Edie, could you tell me what's going on? Because if Aileen's really in some sort of trouble, I should probably led Zed know so that he can double our insurance real fast. What's going on?"
"When you were a cop, did you ever have anyone threaten you?" Edie asked. "Or did you ever testify at a trial where there were threats?"
"Someone threatened Aileen?"
"I don't know. That's what I need help with." Edie told him. "Aileen thinks it's nothing, but I'm just not sure."
"Edie, come on. What is going on. Something happened or you wouldn't be this panicked. Just tell me what it is, okay? You want my help, right? I can't do anything unless you pull yourself together and tell me what you need."
"It started a couple of weeks ago. Aileen got tapped to go to a funeral of some big prosecutor here on Arbus, and of course I had to go with her. Nothing really happened there, but then just a few days ago, a judge dropped dead and there we were again at another funeral with the same cast of characters. Then, at the reception afterwards, Aileen was talking to a couple of people, and she mentioned that she hadn't seen the judge or the prosecutor since this big case that she had to testify at about five years ago."
"Okay, but where does the notion of a threat come in?" Jay asked. "Were the deaths suspicious or something?"
"The lawyer ate bad food, and they say the judge had a heart attack. Did you know how many things can cause a heart attack? Seventy-six, and I just started checking!"
"Worms on that list, because I'm pretty sure they're going to give Zed a heart attack one day." Jay joked, before getting down to business again. "Seriously, Edie, what about this is bugging you?"
"One of the people Aileen was talking to mentioned someone else, a baliff at the court that died in a traffic accident. I don't know. I thought I was reading too many of those Earth mysteries, but I did some looking, and pulled up the case file that Aileen was talking about. Jay, they're all dead. Everyone connected to the case is dead, at least the ones that I could find, and I have a bad feeling about the two jurors that are missing."
"Everyone? Edie, you have to be kidding. Someone would have noticed if everyone connected to a case was getting bumped off."
"The case was five years ago, and the deaths have been spread out ever since. If those two here on Arbus hadn't taken place so close together, I don't think I would have noticed either." Edie said. "Jay, what should I do? Aileen thinks that I'm just imagining things, and she's threatening to take away all of my mystery books. What if someone's really after her, though? How am I supposed to keep her safe if she doesn't think she's in any danger?"
"I don't know. Edie, all of the deaths were ruled accidental? How could they be ruled accidental for that many people? How many was it, now?"
"The judge, the jury, the lawyers, that baliff, every witness that I can find, although some of them are missing too. Jay, a lot of these people were from other planets. If they had all been here on Arbus, we would have noticed, I'm sure, but spread it out over a couple of systems and..."
"And they could have very well missed something. Edie, get the files you've found and send everything to me, okay? I'll take a look, and see if I can figure something out."
"You don't think that I'm wrong, then? I was hoping that you would say that I was wrong." Edie said.
"I hope you are, but if what you're saying is right, I don't think so. Just send me the files, and let me take a look, okay? Then we can figure out where to go from there."
"Thank you, Jay." Edie sighed. "I didn't know what else to do. Aileen's so sure that things are fine, and she usually has excellent instincts, but...."
"But this time you think something's weird. I hate it, but I think you could be right." Jay said.
"So, what do I do while you're looking into things? I thought about going to the chief of detectives about this, but I'm afraid that he wouldn't listen either."
"What should you do?" Jay didn't know what to tell her. Edie was probably right, if Aileen wasn't listening, what were the chances another officer would take her seriously? "Can you keep an eye on Aileen, make sure she doesn't go off by herself until I can figure out what to do?"
"I could handcuff myself to her. Would that help?"
"Might be taking it a bit too far. Just watch her, okay? I'll go over things as fast as I can, and hopefully we can figure something out."
"Thank you. I thought about calling Agent Kay, to see if he could make Aileen see reason, but..."
"Edie, Zed likes this building. I don't think he would like to see what was left of it if Kay got news like that. Just get me the reports, and let me see what I can do, okay? Maybe I'll be able to figure out a way to break things to him gently." Jay told her. Break things to Kay gently. Jay sighed again as Edie disconnected with a promise to send the files as fast as signals could fly between the two planets. If Edie was right, and Jay had a bad feeling that she was, there wasn't a way in the world that he could break it gently to Kay that a killer was after his girlfriend.