Chapter 18
Thursday, August 22nd, 1985
As the morning rose, Kamili woke up, a bit disorientated. She could feel a heavy weight on top of her and opening her eyes fully she realized she had two friends snuggling very close to her. She had Sandra's head on her shoulder, her nose in the soft curve of Kamili's neck, and Sandra's arm across her chest, hand placed above Kamili's heart. Janet had her forehead pressed towards Kamili's other shoulder, hand on top of it. Kamili couldn't help but to smile to herself, feeling very loved.
The bathroom door suddenly opened, and Kamili turned her head to meet Madison's smile, her long hair wrapped in a towel, her slim body already dressed for the day.
"Good morning." Kamili smiled. "Sleep well?"
"Like a rock. Do you feel alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. What time is it?"
"Quarter to 9."
"Good. I'll take a shower and then we'll see if we can wake these two up." Kamili said, gently moving Sandra's hand away and wormed her way out of bed, Sandra's head dropping down towards her pillow as Kamili moved, both Sandra and Janet cuddling closer to each other as the heat source between them disappeared, but both of them fast asleep still. Kamili laughed, shaking her head at the two chipmunks in the bed.
"Thank you, Kam."
Kamili twirled towards Madison who was standing leaning against the wall, looking down to her feet, looking a bit nervous. Not understanding what she meant, Kamili put her head to its side, looking at her with curious eyes.
"For what?"
"For letting me tag along yesterday."
"Hey, of course. Why wouldn't we let you tag along? We enjoy your company."
"Yeah, it's just that, you know… The three of you are so close. I've never really had any close friends, I've always been an outsider, never really felt like home. It's not very often that people ask me to come with them. I just wanted to say thank you. It meant a lot to me that you wanted me there."
"All three of us wanted you there, you're part of the family now. We want to get to know you better and we want you to be part of the group. We want you to feel included. I know it's hard coming into a group that's already well established, and everyone knows each other, but we definitely have room for one more person."
"That makes me happy." Madison smiled, her exterior changing, showing more confidence.
"And hey, you're doing real good at the case as well, picking up fast on how to behave and what to do. Don't doubt yourself, you got a good head. Just keep doing what you're doing, and you'll be a great detective. We really need another set of good hands in the agency and I have a feeling that you will be just as awesome as we are."
"Thanks. It's a bit scary, not really knowing what will happen and what to expect of each day when you get out of bed."
"True, but that's also part of the charm with this job. Not a single day is like the other, there's always something going on, always something happening. Both good and bad but our good days certainly outweigh our bad days."
"That's good to know." Madison smiled, while unwrapping her hair from the towel, beginning to rub it dry. "I'm excited to be working but I'm even more excited to wrap up my first case. It's really the thrill of the chase, isn't it?"
"It is. There is no greater joy than to see the criminal you've been chasing end up behind bars, knowing that the streets suddenly became a little bit safer." Kamili smiled. "Anyway. I'm going to pop into the shower, then we wake these two up and we'll get on with our day. You can try to wake Sandra if you want but be careful around Janet. She sometimes takes a swing when being woken up, so watch out, don't let her hit you. I usually poke her with a broom."
An hour and a half later, they had all showered and walked down towards breakfast, all four of them loading up their plates with all sorts of stuff, all of them hungry and loving a buffet. It is something about hotel breakfasts making people manic amounts of food that they would normally never have for breakfast. Sitting down, happily eating away, they began talking about their upcoming day.
"How's your case going?" Janet asked while sipping her orange juice.
"Slow." Kamili sighed. "It's feels like we've been at it for ages now without getting anywhere. We spread everything out yesterday, I will go through it all, see if Kelly found anything of interest. There has to be a woman at the magazine who has a connection to the witches, we just gotta find it."
"Maybe Madison can solve it by reading their horoscopes." Sandra grinned. "She's really good at that stuff, guessed my sign straight away."
Madison looked down on her plate, her face red with embarrassment.
"No, don't be embarrassed." Sandra smiled; an apologetic hand placed on Madison's arm. "I was really impressed; I think it's really fascinating. You could read me like an open book, and we had only known each other for a few hours."
Madison smiled to Sandra, before realizing that Kamili was grinning towards her, nodding. Taking a breath, Madison put her head to its side for a moment. "Well. You know how to use your head to achieve what you desire. You don't like routines and you don't like other people trying to hurry you along, you work best after your own schedule. But you're truly down to earth, incredibly loyal, conscientious and you always finish what you started, in difference from your Gemini-friend right here."
Sandra giggled and raised her cup of coffee in a salute as Madison gestured towards her, before Madison kept going.
"Being a Taurus, you've got quite a big bulls head, but it's a creative head, full of logic and stubbornness, very imaginative but hard working and very critical, which I'm sure makes you a great detective."
Kamili smiled impressed, while Janet and Sandra nodded along.
"That sounds like our Kammy." Sandra laughed. "What have you found out about Janet?"
"Well, knowing the date of your birth makes it a little bit easier." Madison smiled. "Leo, sun and fire. Leo's are resourceful, honorable, like being in control and like it when people listen to them. You seek all challenges where you can put all your abilities to work, often take others under your wing, helping their self-consciousness. Sometimes seen though as rather strict and selfish, they can get blinded by their own motives and get very mad when they don't get what they want."
"See, I told you she's good." Sandra smiled, both Kamili and Janet nodding along, impressed. They had never dug deeper into the world of the Zodiacs, but they had a feeling that they would learn a lot about it from their new friend, knowing it was her specialty, and they were excited to learn more.
"What will you be doing today?" Madison said, changing the subject back, turning to Sandra.
"Well, I'm off to the magazine, I guess. Sit around and write, hope the killer knocks on my shoulder to give herself up." Sandra said, pouring way too much maple syrup on her pancakes, happy to have found some at the buffet. Cutting the pancakes and putting a piece in her mouth she sighed, turning to Kamili. "These are not as good as your pancakes."
Kamili grinned. "I'll make you pancakes again when we finished the case."
"Looking forward to it."Sandra smiled, happily eating away.
"Is it today you have that meeting with Martin?" Madison asked, looking up at Sandra.
"Yeah, we are having late lunch at that British pub a block from the Prospect at one o'clock."
"Is he off the list of suspects now?" Kamili asked and Sandra shrugged her shoulders.
"I guess. He doesn't seem to know the first thing about Wicca and all clues point to a woman. But I will be on my guard."
"I'll try to keep an eye on you." Madison smiled, Sandra smiling gratefully back.
"Thanks, it's always nice knowing someone has your back."
"You call us immediately if you see something odd, I'll be in the office all day." Kamili said, looking from Sandra to Madison. "I feel we are so close to the finish line now, and someone with bad intentions is definitely keeping their eyes on Sandra, on all of us really. We need to be very careful about how we proceed and keep each other informed. I don't want anyone getting hurt… again."
"That sounds like a plan." Sandra nodded. "Drugged, knocked out and a bomb is well enough."
"All in a day's work." Janet grinned. "I am so happy to have some time off. I can't wait to go back to my boy."
"You've been away from him for almost 24 hours. That's a new record, right?"
"Yeah, for sure. How do you do it when we are away on cases?" Janet laughed. "I feel like I'm losing it."
"It's never easy." Kamili said, smiling, thinking about her daughter. "But knowing Morgan is with her and knowing that he's a great dad makes it a bit easier. But you know that I do make a lot of long-distance calls when we're away."
"I've heard Kelly complain about the phone bills, yes." Janet laughed. "And now it's going to get even worse when there's two of us having to make phone calls."
"Oh, she makes calls too, so she knows it's worth the money." Sandra added, the other agreeing, eating in silence for a while before Sandra looked up again, observing Kamili who was sitting with a cup of coffee in both her hands, staring out the window, seemingly lost in thoughts.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
Kamili twirled her head, realizing the others were looking at her.
"Oh, I just sat thinking about our missing women, mainly Ava. She sounded like such a sweet girl, just pushed the wrong person's nerves. She enjoyed her life, pleased with her little farm, her animals and produce. She really shouldn't have been a threat to anyone, but her mouth was too big, I guess. Someone overheard her spilling their secrets and that was enough to kill her."
"It's kinda scary just how little it takes to lose your life." Sandra said, nodding. "The wrong word to the wrong person."
"And sometimes you do everything right but someone else loses their mind and kill you anyway." Kamili said, shrugging your shoulders.
"Are you talking about Zeke Mount?" Madison asked, looking up to Kamili. She had been told the story but didn't know all the details.
"Yes." Kamili said, smiling gently to Madison. "A man who was a special agent for his entire life, unit chief at the FBI, solved hundreds of cases and saved so many lives. Until he changed around and started killing people, being so good at it that a lot of people had to lose their lives before we found out about his mental health. It just proves it could happen to anyone if we're not careful."
"But we'll keep an eye out for each other. We won't let that happen." Sandra smiled, the others agreeing with her, changing the subject again.
As a writer, you hear about all sorts of crazy stories, mad plots that people make up and weird things that happen. As a writer, you just can't let a good story slip. You sit there with so many lovely women, listening to those crazy few that seem to have no grip on their lives. Those women who you look at and wonder, what went wrong? How can they just lose track of life and all sane things that goes with it?
Someone mentioned a name of a woman who used to be big part of the community several years ago. I remember her, I was younger then, not so involved or experienced in this little community, but I remember her. Anyone who ever set their foot here while she was around remembered her. She believed herself to be a witch. Not just one following the wiccan rules and way of living, but an actual magical woman. She believed she possessed gifts, that she had actual powers and that she could turn people into frogs. She believed she could fly so bad that she actually got on a broom and jumped from rooftops, breaking her arm in her attempts. More than once I think, to make it even crazier. She would also talk loudly and address everyone in the room, wanting everyone to know everything.
Most of us stick to ourselves and to the sisters within the community. We don't walk around on the streets and yell enchantments to strangers. People tend to think you're a bit odd when you do that. Most of us don't throw potions, we don't cast spells and we don't dance naked by the Capitol Hill in the moonlight because we want the spirits to be happy.
Most of us hold the belief that what's being said within these walls are secrets and should not be let out to the public. But she would tell anyone foolish enough to listen. She would tell anyone anything they wanted to know. She didn't think anything should be kept a secret. But we don't need people to know. There's no use for it. And most people out on the streets just think we're crazy. She was crazy, absolute nutter. But she was funny, and she was kind. Crazy, but kind.
And then one day she was just gone. Disappeared from the face of the Earth and no one ever heard from her again. It's been years. Some people are just waiting for her to return, one day she might just walk straight in through those doors again.
Or maybe someone killed her for having a mouth too big.
And as a writer, I don't want to miss out on a good story so I begun snooping around a little big, finding out that there are three more women who just seem to have disappeared, all three connected to the witches and all three were doing some sort of work for this precise magazine.
Maybe I should be on guard?
Alicia Jonas
Madison put the magazine away, the words etched in her head. Alicia was definitely on the road to discovery, having had a distinct feeling of what had happened. Maybe not so detailed, but she was at least on the right track, and Madison felt that they were too. She sighed, getting to her feet and grabbing her toolbox she walked down the hallway of the Prospect, having gone here after their hotel breakfast, just heading home in between for a change of clothes and picking up her bike. She walked down the hallway, walking slowly but not slow enough to cause suspicion. She just wandered down, looking at door handles, light bulbs and other things that might be in need of a change. Cleaning up in the hallway, making sure everything looked alright and that everything was working.
"Rachel!"
Madison didn't realize it was her name that was being shouted at first and it took her a moment, before she turned around, smiling as she saw the other janitor, Lewis, move towards her.
"Hey."
"How is it going?" He asked, a wide smile on his face. He was so happy to have someone take part of the workload, and Madison was so glad that he was happy enough not to question anything.
"All right I think." Madison answered, nodding with a smile.
"Are you on your way to something?"
"No, just patrolling."
"We'll that's good. I am going up to the boss man's office to install a new thermostat and I thought you might want to tag along to see how it's done."
"Oh, I would love to." Madison nodded, Lewis smiling before guiding the two of them up to Martin Howard's office, knocking the door for a moment. Upon hearing an okay the two of them walked inside, smiling a bit to Martin.
"Hi there Lewis." Martin smiled happily.
"Hello there Sir. We're just going to get this thing changed, let us know if we're in your way."
"No, go ahead."
Lewis smiled gently to Martin before turning to the wall next to the door.
"I've turned the switch off already to this little darling, so you don't have to worry about getting hit." Lewis smiled, unhitching the lid of the room controller, opening it up to show Madison the wiring. Picking up an instrument he handed it to Madison.
"This is a multimeter. Ever used one of them?"
"No." Madison smiled, looking at the thing in her hand, a small display and two probes to use when measuring, one black and one red.
"We use it to measure electrical values, to see if there is any voltage, current or resistance. By using it we can make sure there is none of those mentioned where we put our fingers. And we always double check, even if the current is just at 24 volts."
Using the tool to make sure there was nothing that could injure her, Lewis then guided her in how she would proceed when unscrewing the wires from the unit, allowing her to take the little control unit off the wall and replacing it with the new one that Lewis handed her, screwing the wires into the new one in the same order as she had taken them out of the old.
While working, Madison kept an ear open towards the desk where Martin and his secretary were sitting, discussing all sorts of things, mainly the upcoming issue.
"You read it all through?" Martin asked, his eyes on a document.
"I did." The secretary said. "I took all the drafts from Eva that she liked, read it all through and marked the ones I didn't like. The unmarked ones are now back with Eva, but the marked ones are here of the desk, awaiting your opinion. As usual."
Madison couldn't help but to look over towards the woman by the desk. There was something so familiar about her, but Madison could not decide where she had met her before. She just knew that they had met but she could not pinpoint the location and time. At the witch meeting? No, she didn't meet that many women at the witch meeting and she was sure that she would recognize one of them immediately, but it really bugged her that she couldn't remember from where she knew this woman. Or was it perhaps just one resembling someone? That was not impossible. Maybe it was just the way this woman was talking and the way she was moving that was familiar.
"That's good Rachel." Lewis smiled, making Madison turn to him, turning her attention back to the job at hand. "Now you know how to do that. It was not so difficult, right?"
"No, it was rather straightforward." Madison smiled. "And it was fun. It's always nice to learn new things and I don't really know the first thing about technology or electricity. I would love to learn more."
"We can do something about that." Lewis said. "I'm rewiring between the light switches in the conference room just opposite here, if you'd like to help me? It's nice being two people when pulling a cable, makes it a little easier."
"That would be great." Madison smiled, nodding to Lewis who smiled widely.
"Then let's go and get some tools and equipment. We need a cable, and-"
Madison stopped listening to Lewis and turned her ears to Martin and his secretary again, hoping to catch something more of their conversation before leaving, but they were discussing something as exciting as ordering new paper clips.
As lunch approached, Sandra was sitting in a booth at the small British pub, the dark green walls covered with pictures of rugby players, quotes about drinking, sports memorabilia and random stuff. Sandra was twirling the coaster in front of her on the table, waiting for Martin to show up, and she was a bit surprised as she watched his secretary Ellen walk inside.
"Hi." Sandra said, confusion in her voice as Ellen walked up, putting her hands on the chair opposite Sandra.
"Hi! I'm sorry, I'm really just here to inform you that a client showed up and Martin just had to take that meeting. He's really sorry for leaving you hanging."
"Aw, well, things like that happen, no harm done." Sandra said, shrugging her shoulders.
"I'm sure he'll call you later and set up a new lunch date. He is very eager to get to know you a bit better."
"I'm looking forward to it." Sandra smiled gently.
Ellen nodded, looking as if she was about to leave before she apparently changed her mind, looking around a bit before she turned back to Sandra, smiling.
"Would you mind if I joined you for lunch?"
"Not at all, have a seat." Sandra smiled, gesturing to the chair in front of her, Ellen smiling as she sat down, a waiter soon coming to take their order. Sandra and Ellen chitchatted for a while, then eating in silence as their food was brought in, both of them enjoying the British food being served.
As the waiter came and took their plates away, Ellen got to her feet and walked over to the coffee area behind her, pouring coffee into two cups, walking back to Sandra, placing a cup in front of her.
"Thanks." Sandra smiled, sipping her coffee.
"So how do you like the office so far?" Ellen asked, twirling her coffee cup a bit.
"Oh I enjoy it very much. It's a great group of people, lovely office and interesting conversations around the lunch table." Sandra smiled. "I feel very blessed to have been able to join such a nice group of people."
"You seem to fit right in, already from the start. And you're a good writer as well." Ellen smiled, sipping her coffee as well.
"You've read my works?"
"Yes, I read everything. Eva always wants Martin's input on the things published in the paper as it's his head that will roll if something is amiss, but he never has time to read much. I read everything on his table and then report to him if it's good to go."
Sandra nodded, quietly for a moment as she could feel the hairs on her neck beginning to rise, her female intuition telling her that something was not right here. But Ellen kept talking as if nothing was going on, happily drinking her coffee.
"It's a great job, I get to read the most fascinating stories. Some people really get deep into their stories and their beliefs. Some people get so invested in it that sometimes they begin to dig into things they have nothing to do with, subjects they should stay away from."
Sandra was getting more and more nervous, and as she noticed that her fingers would no longer hold the cup the way she wanted them to she knew she was in danger. Stretching her fingers, she could feel the numbness in her arms. She begun feeling lightheaded, becoming very dizzy and she felt her body slightly trembling.
"Don't worry." Ellen said, smiling to Sandra while dropping bills to the table to cover their lunch. "I will take care of you."
And the next thing Sandra knew was that she was dragged out of the restaurant. She struggled, trying to get the attention of the other guests of the restaurant but her body would not cooperate with her, the words coming out of her mouth completely incoherent. She tried to fight Ellen to no use as she was rolled into the backseat of Ellen's car, the doors locking around her and the car speeding off. Sandra fought her hardest to stay conscious, but whatever drugs Ellen had put in her coffee made that impossible.
