The article went on to describe the previous owner and its supposed origin as the paper hung from Jack's hand.
"Who are you people?".
"Police", Jack quickly flashed his ID as the man at the door stood looking dumbfounded as the Torchwood team strode past him and into his kitchen.
"Holy…", Owen looked amazed as he stepped into the room, gazing at all the gadgets and odd-looking specimens littering the table and worktops.
"Someone's got a hobby…", Jack managed to look worried and amused at the same time as he too, surveyed the collection.
"Where did you get all this?", Tosh looked at him suspiciously, she could see that at least half of it was extraterrestrial just by looking at it.
"Bought it…", he answered quickly; "…More auctions".
To Gwen, something didn't add up. The man lived in a tiny house, and apart from the strange artefacts in the room, didn't seem to have anything else of value; "Do you have a job?"
"Work for the council, pest control", he answered, more truthfully this time.
"Right", that kind of work wouldn't be paid very highly, maybe just enough to pay his mortgage, but definitely not enough to fund the mans expensive hobbies.
Jack had apparently been thinking that same thing; "You know, you have some really dangerous stuff here…and you look like you could use some redecorating", he added as he eyed the chipped paint and flaky doors. "We can buy this stuff off you, we'll give a good price…"
"No way, I've spent the best part of twenty years collecting this, and I'm not about to give it up…police or not".
Jack could tell that Martin Rudd was not going to budge through the tone of his voice.
"Okay, well, thanks for your time", Jack said, unusually calm. He eyed the glove one last time and headed out of the door, the rest of the team following behind him.
2 Days LaterThe SUV parked up outside the house and the team casually walked through the police tape surrounding the front door.
They all stood over the victim with puzzled yet worried looks on their faces; "Owen, what do you think?". He crouched down to get a better look at the body, checking for the obvious signs.
"I'm not sure…there are no signs of a struggle, no wounds, no bruising, cuts, nothing… asides from the obvious…", he gestured to the victim's head, where there was a large burn mark straight across his face that had interested the Torchwood team; "…It's a big burn, but definitely not fatal".
"What about strangulation?", asked Jack, almost hopefully.
"No, there would have to be some sort of bruising around the neck".
"Hmm…well, take what you need…we have to find out how he died, we'll search the house".
"Jack?", Tosh called him into a spare bedroom.
"What've you got?..Woah…" he stopped at the sight. He was another collector by the looks of it; "Shares the same interests as Mr Rudd then", he observed; "We need to bag all this stuff up…"
"Not good news Jack, I can't identify a cause of death", Owen had finished his various tests.
"Great, and Tosh says that some of this stuff we found is definitely extra-terrestrial or it came through the Rift".
Gwen entered the Hub looking uneasy; "We've had another death, and he's no stranger…"
"I'll take one guess at the cause of death", Jack pointed to the floor where the glove still resided on the man's hand; "Well…we did warn him", he bent down to look at the burn on his face and matched the glove to the mark made; "Perfect match".
"Let's get this stuff back to the Hub", the team immediately made themselves busy, gathering every piece of alien technology and putting it all into the SUV.
Jack stood outside the front door, in the garden, the glove in his hand, a thousand thoughts spinning around in his mind. He vividly remembered the last time they had encountered a glove…Suzie had come back to life…Gwen had nearly died…
If that glove had given life, maybe this was its brother…maybe this one took life away…it would certainly give an explanation for the mystery deaths of the two men.
Jack bent down and looked at the flowers in the garden, so full of life, and then looked at the glove before reaching out…
…Those petals, yellow, bright and happy, went grey and shrivelled down to the stem, which crumpled and wilted to the ground…lifeless.
"Jack?" He got up off his knees and faced Gwen; "We're ready to go", she eyed the glove nervously, which didn't surprise him, considering her previous encounter with its counterpart.
"Ok, put that in with the other stuff will you?" he held out the glove. Gwen hesitated before taking it apprehensively, the fear evident in her eyes.
Jack had done that on purpose, he didn't believe in keeping your fears locked up inside you, we all have to confront them sooner or later; and sooner was better than later in his eyes.
"Maybe…" Jack sat at his desk, the glove in his hand, carelessly waving it around trying to come up with possible explanations for the day's events. Gwen sat opposite him, also deep in thought.
"I don't understand why he killed that other man, why would he?"
"I don't know, I mean there was no connection between them", Jack answered truthfully; "As far as we know, they have never even met before…"
They sat in silence again until Jack came up with another idea; "If we go on what we've already got, they were both single, lived alone, mid to late 50's…nothing significant except…"
"…Their hobbies", Gwen finished; "…What if this other man had something valuable that Rudd wanted?"
"Possibly, but it doesn't explain his own death…"
"Wait…remember what Suzie said?"; Jack looked confused, "She said she did it 'for the glove'…".
"…So if that glove was controlling her, then maybe this glove was controlling Rudd".
"Exactly…but why would it want to control him, what was it after?"
Jack's mind was still revolving around the case with Suzie; "The other one…it was trying to get to the other glove…gloves are meant to be together; in pairs…it couldn't find it straight away so it went looking for the closest thing to it; other alien objects…", by this time, they had both wandered out of Jack's office and down to the lab.
"…And it just so happened that this other guy was the nearest source…and it killed its owner because…" Gwen faltered slightly trying to tie up the loose end.
Jack did it for her; "…Because he realised what he had done; what it had made him do and tried to get rid of it. The glove 'felt' threatened and defended itself – it killed him".
"But how does it kill?"
"I don't know…let's find out…", he slipped the glove onto his hand and reached out for his own chest.
"Jack!", Gwen stopped him; "You might be immortal, but you can't just go around killing yourself for the sake of it".
"You asked a question and I'm going to find the answer…why? Would you rather I tried it out on you?"
"I…", Gwen knew that it was a lost cause; "…Fine", she stood back and Jack took a deep breath before holding the gloved hand to his chest.
He removed the hand and waited, before his breathing became shallow and laboured and he struggled to maintain his balance before doubling over and crashing to his knees. Fighting for breath, he finally collapsed on to the floor and remained motionless.
Gwen let out a long breath, it was still frightening, watching him die like that, even though she knew full well that he would wake up again as if nothing had happened…
The twitching of Jack's foot, signalled that he was alive and breathing again and Gwen bent down to him; "Jack?"
She jumped back slightly when Jack's eyes flew open. He gasped loudly and reached for the nearest thing to him. He clung to Gwen as he sucked in the air, but she failed to see the look of fear on his face as he pulled back and looked her straight in the eye.
"Jack, what's wrong?"
He pushed her away and then she realised…
"Jack?", she said worriedly as she glanced at his left hand in horror.
"Oh God…Owen!", he could feel his heart thumping at a thousand times a second as he stared at Gwen.
"What? What have you done now?!", he came stomping down the stairs and his expression immediately changed when he saw the looks on their faces.
He saw Jack glance at the glove and then back at Gwen, "Oh no…", he rushed over to his medical cabinet, frantically searching for something.
"Look though…", Gwen said shakily; "I'm absolutely…", at that moment she almost collapsed, clutching her chest; "I…can't…", she staggered around, almost knocking the table over before her legs gave way and she fell to her knees. The last thing she saw was a figure dashing towards her; "Jack…"
"GWEN!"
…TO BE CONTINUED
YET MORE CLIFFHANGERS I KNOW, SORRY
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