36.

~ March, 1932 ~

~ Lieutenant Arthur Darling sat in his office surrounded by paper work. The only homey edition to the space was the radio he was listening to. No pictures in nice frames lined his desk like other men. No other person touches garnished his office.

He liked it better that way. He liked to think that all he had to do was take himself and his radio, and there would be no evidence he had even been there at all.

He had done well in the year following his promotion and the downfall of Saito's regime. He had personally arrested several gang leaders who had tried to take the emperor's place. His picture in the paper several times and he even shook hands with the governor.

Still, it all felt empty and meaningless after she left.

Arthur let out a sigh and turned the radio off as the annoying song came on again.
"Happy days are here again, the skies above are clear again. So lets-" the tinny little voice was snapped rudely off as Arthur went back to his work.

He didn't want to hear anything optimistic or upbeat, let alone Roosevelt battle cry that would surely win him the election.

"I know what you mean, I'm getting sick of that song to. Hasn't Roosevelt won yet?" came a voice he was glad to hear.
Arthur looked up to see Cobb strolling into his office.
"Chief Cobb. How are you?" he asked with a mocking laugh.
"Just fine, Lieutenant Darling." Cobb chuckled.

"How is Mayer?" Arthur asked as Cobb sat down.
"Not well. Why I'm here. We're expecting him to go at any time now." Cobb said.
"Well, if anyone could have had his place, I'm glad it was you." Arthur said.

"Thank you. So you're liking your promotion then?" Cobb asked.
Arthur shrugged.
"I guess so. Between school and work. I never have time to think about things." Arthur said and cleaned his desk up of all his files.

"About Ariadne?" Cobb offered.
Arthur let out a long sigh. He neatly stowed his folders away and even straitened his ink blotter.

"It's been fine. She was only in my life for a little while." Arthur consoled himself.

"Have you tried to contact her?" Cobb asked.
Arthur looked at his hands.
"She made it clear... in her note that... um she wanted to go on with her life. I'm sure she's doing fine." he said stiffly.

"You're not fine." Cobb accused. "You've lost weight."

It was true. Arthur had shed fat and muscle over the past year.

"Well, I'm hardly home. I eat at the diner and when I'm not at work or asleep, I'm in class. What do you expect? Maybe it's better this way, the past year has been hard. I never would have gotten to see them if they had stayed anyway."

"Why don't you contact her now? You're almost done with school. You're life with be normal and she can come back home." Cobb offered.
"She doesn't want to come back home." Arthur barked. "She never thought of it as home, that's why she left."
"Arthur, you have her address. Your friend in Hoover's office gave it to you when she first left. Maybe you could call her. A lot can change in a year." Cobb offered.
"She doesn't want to be a cop's wife." Arthur snarled darkly. "That much hasn't changed, Cobb. She knows where I am. I haven't moved. If she wanted me, she would have come back."

~ Like every other day, Arthur went to night school after work and didn't arrive home till well after ten. He had long ago shut up the spare room that Rose and Ariadne had shared. Placing Rosie's tricycle and red wagon inside, and closing the door. The room staying empty as if expecting their return.

It was shocking how easily he went back to his bachelor ways. How he subsisted on food from the diner. How his clothing went back to being piled in the closet and once a month taken to be laundered.

Still, it felt like the apartment was waiting for others to arrive. For two more people to breeze through the door and make the place alive once more. For now, it was just a shell of emptiness and waiting.

~ Arthur was jerked out of sleep by his phone ringing. He had fallen asleep studying on the sofa again. He had a test in a few weeks and knew he would pass it. School had been easier than he thought and he was ahead of schedule. He was now giving serious thought to pursuing a law degree, maybe working with the justice department one day.

He saw it was barely morning outside when the shrill telephone gave off another ring.
"I didn't wake you did I?" came the effeminate voice of Agent Ross from Washington.

"No, no." Arthur grumbled. "What's going on?"

"Oh well it's the census. I know you know about the 1931 census, Lieutenant Darling." he said.
Arthur had to think back. The form he had to fill out about his living arrangements.

1 male aged 25-35.

Bread winner of the house.

No other family living at residence.

1-0-0

"Yeah, what about them?" Arthur said grumpily.
"Well, as you know, I've been working in the records department a few days a week." Ross said in that prissy way of his. "I almost missed it yesterday, and I wanted to make sure."

"Something about the McClure gang?" Arthur asked hopefully.
"No, not them. Your lady friend and her daughter. The ones in Philadelphia." Ross said.

Arthur felt himself tense.

'Was she married to someone else? Dead? Was Rosie alright? Did the scarlet fever come back?' he thought.

"What about them?" was all he said to agent Ross.

"Well, it seems she is still at the same address. The one her parents were living at. It seems there was a death... ummm... let me see." Ross said and looked over some papers as Arthur's heart was beating rapidly. "Ah yes, her father died in February. Her sister seems to be living in the house with four young children along with the mother. There are no other male presence in the house." Ross explained.
"So... it that all? Just her father died?" Arthur asked.

"Well, we're just now getting the census data together. I really thought you would want to know about what I found. The children's names are Robert, male, aged seven. Rose, female, aged six. Travis, male, aged three and Arthur, male, aged newborn."

Arthur hung up the phone as if he had been bitten.

'Newborn?' he thought as he realized he was breathing hard. 'She left in late January of last year. Could she have been pregnant when she left? We only knew each other for a short time. She might have been pregnant before she even came to stay with me. No... no, no, no. Bill had left her six months before. It can't be his baby. What about Eames? Maybe she really was with Eames and she was scared I would find out. We were careful, we took precautions every time. Right? Why would she name a baby Arthur if it wasn't mine? Maybe it's her sister's baby. That would make sense. If the boy is a newborn now, nine months to carry a baby to term... she left in late January of 31'... oh shit.'