7. Deception
Mary had quizzed Will on his reasons for staying out so long in oxford, but he'd told her little of any use. He was irritatingly good at avoiding awkward questions. However, it was clear that some event had happened on his day trip out and Mary was determined to keep a watchful eye on him.
In the mean time, Mary decided to take a visit to oxford herself. She wanted to see what had happened at the labs she used to work at.

Mary knocked on the door of the Dark Matter research unit and stepped in.
The place had changed a lot since she'd last seen it. There were new computers in the place of the old grimy ones; the left wall had been knocked down so the lab itself was the size of two others. There were new desks and new biros in the desk tidies.
Behind the nearest desk was a man in his early 20's she didn't recognise.
'Can I help you?' he said, Mary was wearing jeans and a white blouse, so this person assumed she wasn't staff.
'Yes, I'm looking for Dr. Payne, is he about?'
'He went upstairs to get more paper for the printer. He'll be back in a sec.'
Mary hung about looking discreetly a the notes lying about on the desks. She had been the real brains behind the operation and was the only person who knew everything they had discovered.

The door to the lab opened and Oliver walked in, holding a large wad of paper. He stared at Mary and said:
'You! Mary what are you doing here?!'
'Hello Ollie,' she said brightly, 'Thought I'd drop by and see how you're doing. Made any progress with the Cave?'
'No. Far from it. We're months behind because someone broke in and demolished all record of it.'
'Wow. That's unfortunate. Wonder who it was to have focused on JUST the cave…'
'Got that right- oh my god you little cow-'
She grinned at him.
'Oh Oliver!' she said playfully, 'It was for your own good.'
Then she said more seriously, 'No- really, you don't know what you were getting into.'
'Were?'
Mary toyed with the idea of telling him the full story, but decided against it.
'Well, I'm off; it was just a flying visit really. But take my advice, find a new funding committee.'

**

By the time Mary got home she was feeling much more cheerful. She didn't want Oliver Payne to succeed out of jealousy and the fact that this world was better off not knowing right now. Will had gone shopping with his mother so Mary was left alone in the house.
She got out some job application forms and sat down at the dinning room table too fill them out.
'"Please talk about your hobbies and interests"?' she said to herself, 'Urgh! Why do you care?! I want your money, you want to exploit me! We're both happy!'
She put her pen down and leaned back in the chair. She looked across the table at the top of the opposite chair and narrowed her eyes. An Alpine Cough appeared perching on the chair. 'What shall we put then?' she said to it, 'We don't exactly have any hobbies…'
'Make it up.' he said cheerfully, 'Say we're into Death Metal music or something.'
'Death Metal? They're really going to give us a job then aren't they?'
'It would be funny though… they'd-'
The doorbell rang. He cocked his head and they went to the door.
Two men stood at the door, both in suits, one held a briefcase. Mary looked behind them at their car. It was an ordinary Vauxhall Astra parked right in front of the drive.
'Hello I'm Mr Cruchfield, this is my associate; Mr. Richmond,' (he flashed an ID card at Mary), 'we're form the Social Services and we'd like to ask you a few questions. May we come in?'
He stepped past Mary into the hall.
'Hang on- I'm not the best person to answer them, Will isn't in and his mother isn't either.'
'No no- you'll be quite capable of answering them I assure you. Shall we?' He indicated the sitting room.
Mary would have turfed out a man like this, especially from the social services, but he was so quick and direct she didn't have time to stop him. She looked at him closely instead. He had very pale hair, and almost no visible eyebrows.
'Thank you very much,' he said, 'It's Mrs. Malone isn't it?'
'Dr. Malone.'
'Ah yes, an educated women. I like to see that.'
Mary stared. She glanced at the coffee table and saw her dæmon bristling with hostility.
'Thank you.' She said stiffly. The other man, this Mr. Richmond sat comfortably, but not at ease. His smile was so fake it could have been plastic. Mr. Cruchfield seemed far more fluent and at ease.
'Yes, it's come to our attention that Master Will hasn't been attending school for some time, Winchester Comprehensive recently alerted us after having no success of their own.
'Now, he's not in immediate trouble. But if we're to sort this out with as little problems as possible, we'll need your cooperation.'
'That depends.'
'Would you know where he's been all this time. We've had no answer to the phone for a long time. This house seemed to be empty not long ago. Your front lawn seems awfully long.'
'Mrs. Parry has a sister in Australia. She had a stroke a few weeks ago and Mrs Parry wanted to go over and help in every way possible. Naturally she wanted to bring Will with her.
'And why were you with her?'
Mary was ready for all questions like these, but she didn't like the idea that these people knew her links to Will and Elaine.
'Mrs. Parry and Will have had little experience travelling abroad. She knew me from a meeting several years ago and asked if I could help with organising the plan tickets and such like.'
'But why did she fail to inform the school of her plans'
'By the next day she was on the other side of the world. I'm truly sorry if Elaine considered her sister's health more important than the school records.'
Mary was getting genuinely irritated now and wanted to get rid of this nosy man as speedily as she may.
'But of course, but was she incapable of phoning?'
Exactly as he finished his question, the doorbell went. She got up gratefully; she didn't know the answer to this question.
Will was at the door with Elaine, holding flimsy bags of shopping.
'Hi! Give a hand with the shopping could you?' said Will brightly.
He took a step in and put down his bags. Then he saw the two men in the living room. He didn't know the man furthest away, but he knew Inspector Walters all right.
'Get out.' he said softly.
Mary suddenly realised how stupid she had been not to recognise him.
'You bastard!'
'Now now, that will do, let's keep this quiet.'
'Yes let's,' said Will, with more force, 'and it seems you're capable of doing that. Now get out.'
The man didn't move. Mr. Richmond was on his feet.
'Get the hell out this house!' bellowed Will. This time he got a reaction. Walters got to his feet slowly, then grabbed Will and prepared to run for his car with him, but Will twisted loose like a bar of soap and landed the hardest punch he could squarely on Walter's nose.
Of course it had no physical effect, but it proved solidly that Will was neither harmless nor unwilling to hurt someone.
'All right let's go shall we?' said Mary. She gave him a push toward the door. The two men left.
Will stared daggers at them until they had entered their Astra and driven off.
'What was he doing here?!' he asked Mary,
'I'm sorry Will, they said they were social services, I've never seen either of them, I just answered with our cover up story.'
She saw Will's dangerous temper cooling off.
'Yeah… I guess you haven't…' he said, but not with sarcasm.