Chapter 38: Morenada

Madame Germain looked up from her paperwork when her office door was flung open and then shut behind a very angry Inspector Robinson.

"Good afternoon, Inspector," she said calmly, despite the rage steaming from the man.

"Where is my daughter?" he demanded to know.

"I honestly have no idea."

"She was in your school when she disappeared, along with your associate," Jack spat. Madame Claudine leaned back in her chair, locking her arms over her chest.

"I very much believed you to be the Detective in this room."

The Inspector's expression betrayed that he was currently reconsidering his nonchalant approach to her possession of stolen artwork. But mostly he was scared. His brief stop by the Riley's house had led to no results whatsoever and he was back to the start - which wasn't any comfort at all. He could only pray that Phryne was more successful.

His hope was disappointed a moment later when the door was flung open again and his wife stormed in. She didn't stop to express her surprise at seeing him.

"Where are Jane and Julian?" she asked. Madame Claudine sighed theatrically, giving in.

"Mia," she called, Miss Green appearing a split second later as if she had been waiting behind the door. "Would you be so kind as to show the Inspector and his wife the note that Julian left? And answer any other questions they might have."

She was obviously through with the subject and luckily both Robinsons felt they didn't have the time to give her a lecture on how to appropriately treat the disappearance of their daughter. Instead they followed Miss Green out into the hall where Charlotte was waiting beside her sister and young Mr. Taylor. Jack glanced at Phryne in a way that expressed his feelings on the unwanted company without any words.

"She insisted on coming," she whispered. "And we might need all the help we can get."

"So far they haven't been much help though," Jack hissed, fully aware that he was being unfair.

After a short walk down the stairs they arrived in a small, windowless changing room. Miss Green picked up a piece of paper and handed it to the Inspector.

"He left without any explanation, just this note."

Jack nodded as his eyes flew over the few words before he felt Phryne plucking it from his hands.

"I apologize for letting you down, but the most charming of creatures has called for me and I simply cannot resist."

The Inspector squared his shoulders, burying his hands in his pockets to hide that they had been balling into fists.

"He had better not be talking about Jane!"

Phryne shook her head. "He means Charlotte."

She turned to the young woman who stood right beside her, having studied the letter with an unreadable expression.

"I didn't contact him!" she now insisted.

"There was a letter this morning!" Miss Green pitched in. "I thought at first it was one of your love-letters, Miss McAster."

The brunette blushed furiously, when she felt the eyes of everybody in the room rest on her. Addressing her notes to the dancing school had seemed a good idea at the time.

"But on second thought the hand on the envelope was slightly different. Similar, but different," the old teacher continued.

"Someone pretending to be me?" Charly asked outraged.

"Do you have an idea where he keeps his letters?" the Inspector inquired hastily before realising that Phryne was already riffling through the drawers of the dressing table. A moment later she fished a pile of envelopes from it. Charly's blush deepened as she watched the Lady Detective flick through her sweet nothings. But Phryne was for once not in the slightest bit interested in the saucy details of other people's private lives.

"It's not here," she stated, her voice betraying that she was close to snapping. "Jack, it's not here!"

Jack resisted the urge to touch her for comfort. She looked like a locked up tigress, but she would crumble if she allowed herself to be weak. They couldn't afford that right now. Not while Jane was out there.

"There was no sender," Mia Green chipped in. "I am so sorry I can't be of help."

She truly was, but the Inspector only nodded at her. Phryne pulled herself upright, trying to think.

"What have we missed, Jack? We must have missed something!"

He gulped. There were so many puzzle pieces and none of them fit. He thought of Mr. Wilt, of the pharmacy. Something was trying to get his attention.

"Miss Green, who was in the room when you discussed the elderberry jam with Mrs. Steeger?" he asked. She scrunched up her face in thought.

"Just about anyone," she answered truthfully. "It was about two weeks back, during a short break in dancing lessons. Do you recall anyone paying much attention, Melody?" she asked the girl, who was whispering with her sister while Harry stood pale and silent in the back. Now Mel shook her head.

"I wasn't following the conversation, Miss Green..." She wrung her hands, seemingly trying to gather her confidence. "And I don't know if it's at all relevant... but Vicky was behaving very strangely this morning. She also had a bandage on her wrist and looked very ill."

"Madame Claudine sent her home," Miss Green added. "It didn't improve her mood at all."

Jack wasn't listening anymore, instead mumbling quietly to himself as things fell into place.

"Of course. Invisible, but with her ears everywhere."

His eyes locked with Phryne's, revealing that her brain had come to the same conclusion. Then he turned to Mia Green. "We need the address of Miss Adams! Right now!"

X

"Vicky, what are you trying to do?"

Jane sat, leaning against the door, the cool wood in her back an incredible comfort. Her attempt at the lock had been futile and she didn't dare even approach the window with the gun lying cold and dangerous beside Vicky on the bedside table. The girl hadn't moved in minutes and wasn't speaking anymore.

"Vicky?"

The other girls voice sounded hollow when she finally answered.

"We'll head to another world. Julian and I. There is no redemption here for us."

Jane shivered.

"I don't think he wants to die," she pointed out carefully.

"He is just as responsible as I am..." Vicky said slowly. "Julian is a good man. He was overcome with guilt when I told him. There is no need for him to stay behind."

"Charly still loves him!" Jane exclaimed. A moment later the barrel of a gun was aimed at her. She cowered closer to the floor, scared to death of the dark eyes staring at her over the cold weapon.

"Don't say that! You don't know anything about love," Vicky insisted. "It's agony."

Jane squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the bang.

"I love Harry," she heard herself say instead.

It was a strange sentence. Until now, she hadn't even allowed herself to think such a thing. But now that it was out it wanted to be spoken some more.

"Does he reciprocate your feelings?" a voice asked her, shaking her out of her reverie.

Jane opened her eyes, realising that the weapon had returned to it's place.

"I think he's sweet on Lilah," she admitted after a long moment of silence, wrapping her arms around her knees.

"So, you're heart is broken too?" Victoria asked. Jane realised her mistake too late. The crazy girl smiled. "You can come with us."

"I don't want to!"

"Don't worry, it won't hurt at all. You'll just fall asleep."

Jane sensed that there was no point in arguing with the girl. She glanced at the window. It was narrow, sitting high in the wall. Even if she'd manage to smash it, she wasn't certain if she'd be able to crawl through it before a bullet hit her back. Just then, Julian moaned in his sleep.

"It's all right, love. Soon we'll be united forever," Vicky smiled, stroking his cheek. The man's lids fluttered, but he didn't wake.

"It's time," Victoria said, picking up the vial. Jane watched breathlessly as she filled a syringe with the deadly fluid.

"They didn't mention that it could kill him," Victoria murmured more to herself than her witness. "Only that it makes people behave crazily. I just wanted her to humiliate herself."

Jane wrapped her arms tighter around her legs. This was definitely not how she had imagined finding a murderess at all. She silently prayed that her parents would figure it out - right now would be a very good time.

A quiet sound at the front of the house sparked a smidgen of hope. She listened, but nothing happened. And she was running out of time. Victoria seemed oblivious to anything around her, including Jane's big eyes watching her every move. The pistol still lay harmless and deadly in the afternoon light and Jane counted her chances to get to it before Vicky shot her.

When the needle pierced Riley's skin, something in Jane's head snapped. With a howl she stormed across the room, flinging herself at the girl. A hand hit her in the face, trying to fend her off. Jane tore at Vicky's arm, but the older girl was stronger and pushed her away, flinging her against the wall. When the stars in front of her eyes subsided, Jane found herself again staring at the weapon that shook in Victoria's angry hand.

"Don't you dare!" the girl spat. "This is the only way. This is the only way."

Jane pulled herself to her feet, clutching at her sore nose. She'd had just about enough.

"It's not my fault that you were too ignorant to drug your rival properly!" she screamed. "I don't want to die for your stupidity and neither does Mr. Riley. Now stop it!"

The girl stared at her with her mouth open.

"You don't understand," she whispered.

"I do!" Jane insisted, pulling herself to her full height. "You killed Mr. Steeger and now you want to kill me and Julian! I won't let you!"

There was as crash at the front of the house now, this time unmistakable. Jane could hear someone scream her name who sounded an awful lot like Phryne.

"I just want this to end," Vicky whispered, the gun still shaking in her hand.

"Well, you don't need me for that!" Jane screamed, fully aware that people would be able to hear her. "I didn't murder anyone."

The sound of splintering glass drew her attention towards the window. Charly McAster let a heavy piece of wood sink, panting heavily.

"Drop the weapon, you deranged shrew!"

Something about her words snapped Victoria out of her silent confusion. She turned, aiming the weapon at the intruder in her backyard. Charlotte vanished just when a bullet bounced off the window frame, burying itself in the wall.

"No!"

The blur of a man threw himself onto Vicky, causing both bodies to tumble to the floor right beside Jane, tearing her to the ground with them. She crawled out from underneath the thrashing bundle of limbs and grabbed for the first thing she could find, trying to smash it onto the head of Victoria, who was now somewhere between screaming and crying.

But just when Jane raised the heavy bedside lamp the entangled bodies spun and instead of it's target, the brass came down onto the back of Julian's head. He collapsed with a sigh, trapping the girl underneath him. In the same moment an old brown shoe kicked the bedroom door in.

"Jane!"

The girl found herself wrapped in a set of warm arms that smelled of French perfume and fear. Jack fished the abandoned weapon from the floor and dismissed the idea of aiming his own at Victoria, who was lying on her back defeating in a string of hysteric sobs. She didn't seem much of a threat anymore.

Are you all right?" he asked breathlessly in his daughter's direction and waited for her nod before going on to worry about the unconscious Julian Riley and the girl trapped underneath the weight of his body.

"Julian!? Darling?"

Charlotte's dress showed some tears from her climbing through a tiny, broken window, but she didn't seem particularly bothered by that as she stroked her lover's hair. He groaned, returning to the land of the living.

"Charly?"

"You know, you didn't have to go to this much effort to get my attention," she smiled thinly, continuing to tenderly stroke his head. He answered with a shaky grin before slowly pulling himself upright with the help of Inspector Robinson and the woman who obviously still loved him.

Victoria finally scrambled to her knees.

"She tried to drug Mrs. Steeger," Jane explained, her voice still trembling in a mixture of adrenaline and anger, when Phryne had finished her attempt at suffocating her in her arms. "And when her jam accidentally murdered Mr. Steeger, she decided to take her own life and drag us along with her."

Jack shot Miss Adams a look that could have killed before heaving her to her legs and closing the handcuffs around her wrists.

"You should consider leaving the sleuthing to us in future," he said in a serious tone that hid completely what he really wanted to say. Jane opened her mouth to protest that she hadn't meant to sleuth at all, but closed it again when she spotted who was standing in the door.

"You scared me to death," Mel said, walking up to her and wrapping her in her arms without another word. Jane hugged her tightly, when she felt another hand touch her shoulder.

"I'm glad you are all right," Harry said quietly. "I was being stupid to insist, wasn't I?"

Jane nodded.

"It's a dangerous business."

She turned to Phryne, who was watching the scene with a smile. Jane's heart was still racing in her chest, but the adrenaline was slowly wearing off, making her realise that she was cold in her soaked clothes.

"So is your debutante ball," her mother quipped. "But we might have to get you all home if you still want to attend," she added calmly. Jack returned from outside where he had handed over Miss Adams to his just arrived men. He looked thoroughly disheveled after his second wild chase through the city in one day.

"I think I might have to withdraw from the ball, Phryne," she heard someone else say behind herself. Julian sat on the edge of the bed, now pulling a face as he rubbed the sore back of his head. "I'm feeling rather dizzy. Your daughter has a pretty thorough hit."

"I wasn't aiming at you!" Jane explained quickly. He smiled thinly, wrapping an arm around his lover's waist.

"Of course you weren't. I believe I owe you a lot of gratitude for finding me in the first place."

Jane blushed a tiny bit while the young dancer's eyes sought out Charlotte's. "But I fear I'll still have to miss your debut. We have a lot to talk about."

"More than you know," Jack mumbled under his breath in quiet satisfaction. Phryne was the only one who had heard him and grinned.

"After I have gotten you to a doctor," Charlotte growled, helping Julian to his feet.

"As you wish," he grinned, briefly squeezing Mrs. Robinson's hand as they walked past her. She stayed behind with a warm fuzzy feeling and a tiny bit of disappointment. She had been looking forward to tangoing across the floor with Julian tonight. When she resurfaced from this thought, she found herself intensely looked at by Jane.

"You had better head back to St. Kilda," Jack said beside them, inspecting his watch. "I will drop off Mr. Taylor and Melody at home before heading to the station."

"You aren't coming?" Jane asked.

Jack gulped, finding Phryne's eyes before looking at his daughter.

"I'm sorry, Jane, there is a lot of work attached to closing a case."

She looked so downhearted that despite the people who were now swarming the room, the Inspector finally gave into the feelings crowding his chest and hugged her tightly to himself.

"I'm really sorry," he whispered beside her ear. She nodded into his neck, battling down tears of relief and disappointment equally.

"It's all right," she whispered in return, her arms squeezing the air out of his lungs.

Jack just held on, thanking the Heavens that they she had survived her adventure without a scratch. He would talk with her later, give her a thorough scolding for her rashness and tell her exactly how proud he was of her. But, this was not the place or time for it. He finally untangled himself from his daughter and pulled Phryne into a brief kiss. She returned his gesture, her body language explaining to him exactly how well she understood all his mixed emotions.

Yet the Inspector still couldn't shake the feeling of crushing disappointment as he walked out the room, followed by a reluctant Harry Taylor and Melody McAster. He would spend all evening and most of the night trying to unfold the details of this crime while he had been hoping to watch Jane join polite society and maybe even demonstrate his newly acquired dancing skills to Phryne. After today's events he felt the need to be with his family stronger than ever. Yet his duty had to take priority.

The three of them drove in silence through the grey afternoon while he fought the lump tightening his throat.

"Thank you for taking us," Melody said finally. "I know you didn't want to."

In fact there had been some argument, but neither of the kids had been willing to stay behind and Phryne had finally overruled him in order to save time under the condition that they remained outside the house.

"You owe that to my wife," he said, somewhat grumpily, but shot the girl a small smile. Silence settled in again.

"I wouldn't want to spoil your debut, but I do need you to come to the station tomorrow to make your statements. And to explain exactly what you were thinking, trying to investigate a murder on your own."

"We weren't really thinking at all," Harry mumbled from the back seat. Jack found himself somewhat surprised at his honesty.

"We just considered it a bit of harmless fun," Mel admitted quietly.

"There is nothing fun about exposing a murderer," Jack said sharply, aware that that wasn't the full truth. He enjoyed the chase, the adrenaline pumping through his veins while he raced to a conclusion by Phryne's side. But he wasn't going to share that with these children and certainly not with Jane. He feared it was too late for that anyway. She was a chip of the old block, even if none of the brickwork was in any form biologically related.

"Don't we know it? It was definitely not as harmless as we thought," Harry mumbled.

The Inspector wasn't willing to argue with that. For the adolescents the conclusion of this particular case must have been a complete shock. In fact he was rather certain that he wouldn't forget it in a hurry himself.

They dropped off Melody at her doorstep. For a few minutes two men sat in complete quietude as the car moved through the darkening streets.

"Do you think she really is all right?" Harry finally asked.

Jack took his eyes from the road long enough to glance at him.

"She's a strong girl," he answered vaguely. Harry hummed under his breath, obviously unhappy with the answer.

"I didn't mean to get her in danger, you must believe that," he said after another pause. Jack pulled a grimace. He'd have loved to pin this on Jane's suitor but that would have been hardly fair.

"Jane managed that all by herself," he finally answered. "She gets the recklessness from her mother."

Harry grinned out the window at this. He of course knew the stories about the Honourable Phryne Fisher.

"They are mostly on this earth to drive us insane, aren't they?" he asked. Jack chose not to answer that.

Tiny raindrops smashed against his window as he pulled into a drive way and stopped the motorcar.

When the boy turned to climb out, he laid a hand onto his arm. Harry Taylor turned.

"If you truly like her I would advice you to not hold back," the Inspector said calmly. The boy nodded slowly, sensing a 'but' that followed a mere moment later. "But never forget that I am a police officer."

Harry cleared his throat, suddenly in a hurry to escape the confinement of the car.

"Of course, Sir."

Jack watched him with a small grin scrambling away through the rain before he drove towards the station to what promised to be an exciting evening of paperwork.