The Night of the Absentee Agent

Chapter 1

The Deception

Artie, appeared from the livery car with a crumpled blue jacket in his hand.

"James my boy, what have you been up to while I've been away?" he queried.

"Uh?" Jim said, raising his head from the book he was reading. He'd made himself comfortable in the varnish car while Artie was dealing with the horses and generally clearing up.

"I found this jacket sticking out of your saddle bag." He held it up, revealing teeth marks on one sleeve. "Care to tell me who the lady was? She must have been very passionate to have tried to gnaw your arm off."

"Ha, ha, very funny," Jim responded dryly, "that was no lady, that was a dog."

"A dog? Well, nevertheless, you do appear to have been intimate with each other. Care to tell me about it?"

"Only the usual, an assignment to collect a jewel, on behalf of the National Museum, from some God-forsaken, creepy island."

"Who was with you?"

"No one, I went there alone."

"You didn't take Frank or Jeremy?"

"There was no need."

"This tells a different story," Artie exclaimed, holding the jacket aloft. "Thank God you weren't killed. Did you manage to shoot it?"

"No, in fact it attacked me again."

"What!?" Artie then caught sight of the splatters of blood on the jacket sleeve, which he had missed previously, due to its dirty condition. "Jim, were you hurt?"

"Just some flesh wounds. They healed okay."

"And the second time you were attacked?"

"I had borrowed a thicker jacket. He couldn't bite me through that, though he had a good try."

"I really don't like what I'm hearing. What were those people thinking of, to let you go up against this beast on your own? Who was on this island anyway, some beautiful woman, who kept your mind off the job and addled your brains, no doubt?"

"No chance, she was far too young and innocent, and she was engaged to be married. You met her, don't you remember?"

"I met her? I can't possibly have."

"Yes you did. Alicia and her husband Mark Chambers were on honeymoon in Washington and they ran into you."

"Artie looked puzzled."

"You gave them a photograph of yourself and told them to deliver it to me. I thought it was a bit vain of you, at the time, and certainly rubbed it in that you were living it up in the Capitol while I was still carrying the scars of my run-in with that monster."

"Oh, oh yes," Artie said hastily. Jim frowned, looking closely at his partner. Was that guilt he saw on his partner's face or just confusion?

"Well, I don't have time to hear the whole story now, I have to get back to the horses," Artie burbled as he swiftly turned to leave.

"Artie," Jim called, "what's up? Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine. What makes you ask?"

"The fact that you seem a little rattled."

"Probably just a hangover from the brain-beating I received from our least favourite prima donna, on the way down here," he temporised.

"On your way down from Washington?" Jim asked.

"Yes," Artie replied warily, with a horrid idea of where this was going.

"Where you'd been for the past six months?"

"You know I was, Jim."

"And what were you doing there? You know, I never questioned it before but, now I think about it, you left kind of suddenly, didn't you?"

"I was needed urgently."

"So you say, but what could be so urgent in Washington? It wasn't as if lives were at stake, or was it?"

"James, what are you getting at?"

"Artie, where were you really these last six months? And don't say you were in Washington," he added, as Artie opened his mouth to protest. "You never met Alicia and Mark at all, did you?"

Artie sat down on the couch with a thump. "Damn it, Jim, why can I never keep a secret from you?"

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Five minutes later, the two federal agents were sitting in the varnish car, each with a cup of coffee in hand. Jim was sitting back, legs crossed; Artie was not so comfortable and sat forward, sipping at his coffee agitatedly. It was too hot for him to take the nerve-steadying gulp he was in need of.

"I wasn't exactly forbidden to tell you this," Artie began, "but I would be grateful if it went no further than we two. It's a touch personal."

At hearing Artie's words, Jim felt like he was prying and wondered if he should drop the matter and tell Artie that he didn't have to tell him anything. However, he had always wanted to know more about his friend's past, apart from the humourous anecdotes he came out with every now and again. This might be his only chance.

"Understood," Jim replied.

Artie cleared his throat and took another sip of coffee, obviously searching for a place to start. "Do you remember when we were investigating Senator Fenlow and his crew?"

"Yeah, everyone thought I had killed you but you turned up at his headquarters disguised as one of his minions named Tigo."

"At the time, I tried to explain my presence by claiming I was my twin brother, Adolphus."

"Yeah, that was quick thinking on your part. Pity it didn't work."

"I didn't have to think about it because I did have a twin brother named Adolphus."

"But you didn't contradict Fenlow when he said you were an only child...hold on! did you say "did have"?

"Yes, he died when we were quite young."

"Artie, I'm sorry, that must have been tough on your parents but particularly on you. As twins, you must have been really close."

"Thanks, Jim, it was a long time ago but I still think about him sometimes. It's not as if I can ever forget what his face looked like."

"You were identical twins?"

"Yeah, like peas in a pod, as my mother used to say."

"I don't see what this has to do with you being called to Washington, though," Jim said, his brow furrowed.

"Well, it was like this; turns out my twin brother, Adolphus, wasn't dead after all."

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