4.
We drove south and east through the early dawn light, meeting the rising sun, fields emerging out of the darkness around us.
"I didn't think," Jackson said, out of the blue, "You should be with that kid of yours today."
I shrugged. "It's alright." And truly, it was. As much as I adored Yash, weekends were difficult. Long periods of time spent with her would invariably stir up memories of Alex. She had Dorsey, and Dorsey loved her like a mother too. I'd make it up to her later, I told myself vaguely.
"What was she in for?" I asked, turning him back onto the case, on the woman who had been stuck in deep freeze for years.
"Murder, assault, the usual anti-social activities," Jackson replied mildly.
"Anti-Soul or generalized?"
"Anti-Soul until the last one: the human lover of a Soul. That's how they got her. The family went to the Seekers."
"Sounds like a tough nut."
"No arguments there."
Then sun was well up by the time we arrived at the facility. Shep met us in the carpark, perky with the thought of inspecting the effects of longer term storage.
"There shouldn't be any, of course, but until we try…" he said, leading us through the complex and tapping his fingers against each other in anticipation.
"You sure we don't need authorization for this?"
"From who? Her court order says incarceration til behaviour change likely. She'll still be incarcerated. So we're following the letter of the law there. I don't see why she shouldn't help you out."
Things were always so black and white for Shep. I envied him that, but it didn't settle the unease I always felt with his work.
"She should be ready by now," he went on, "I've had her defrosting since dawn, nice and slow so she'll be really with it."
He showed us into a small windowless room and locked the door behind us. The cold storage tank filled most of the space, the clear cover showing the woman watching us from inside. Shep pressed the green button to open the cover while Jackson checked his gun was loaded.
"Adele Provis?" Jackson asked, taking the lead as usual with a human interview.
She seemed slow to respond.
"Might be a little sluggish still. I could crank up her metabolism a touch?" Shep suggested.
"Leave it," Jackson muttered, "Your daughter is missing and we'd like your help in finding her."
"Lily?" she croaked, her throat unused to moving. Shep frowned and made some notes.
I passed her the photograph. Her movements were like an old lady's, like she was half frozen still.
"My little girl…" she whispered, her eyes soaking up every detail. Not so little anymore.
I couldn't shake an image of Alex being treated like this, frozen in a tiny tank while Yash grew up without him.
"We have information that she's gone to Bethseda. Do you know where she might have gone there?"
She kept staring at the photograph, but an edge of hardness crept into her face.
"You're Seekers, aren't you."
"Yes ma'am."
"I'm not helping Seekers find my girl."
"There's a question of kidnap. A young Soul is also involved."
"She kidnapped a Soul?"
I hadn't thought about this angle. But a mother would know her daughter. Had she led him off to Bethseda to get rid of him, sick of his unwanted attention?
"You think she's capable of that?"
She withdrew behind a cold, hard mask.
"I haven't seen her in years."
"Mrs Provis, if your daughter is involved in a crime, its better we find her before things get out of hand. You don't want her ending up in here with you."
Her eyes bulged but she kept her silence.
"Thank you for your cooperation Mrs Provis," Jackson muttered, signaling to Shep to shut her down. I watched her cool down until she was frozen again, unable to bring my eyes away, unable to stop imagining Alex in her place.
***
Jackson drove back through the countryside in silence, the afternoon light quickly deepening to evening.
"Dead end there, then," he said to fill the silence that deepened with the approaching night.
"So what now?"
"Check the families for any news when we get back to the office. Check with the local Bethseda Seekers again tomorrow…"
"You going to drop me home first?" I didn't want to be at the office. Not while Alex was lurking metres away in the cells.
Jackson glanced at me. I knew he was wondering about Alex again.
"Sure," he said, and I sagged in relief that he didn't ask.
"How long's do you think he'll be there for?" I murmured eventually, watching the landscape condense into a continuous green smear by the roadside as he overtook a truck.
"Should go to remand first thing Monday morning. Hearing's on Thursday."
The Teacher was right. Uncertainty was worrying. A timeframe for the resolution of Alex's presence, for or against, was undeniably settling.
After a while Jackson turned on the radio, the music filling the silence and keeping the outside darkness out.
"A man is a two-face, a worrisome thing who'll leave you to sing the blues, in the night," Ella sang through the tinny speakers, and I couldn't agree with her more.
