Chapter 4

"What do you mean, if they want to be found?" Lindsey stared at James as the taller man reached into the fridge, pulling out another root beer, and tossing it to him.

James shrugged. "I'm thinking, with Alexa having blown up her house, that she didn't want anyone, including me, to find out where she was going. And wherever that is, Shannon had to have wanted to go as well."

"Wait, Alexa blew up the house?" Lindsey gave James a disbelieving look. "I'll believe many things of Alexa, but blowing up her own house?"

"So she said in her letter to me. Which you can't read, it's ashes somewhere in the sewers." James headed back into the main room, the other man following him. "Though I'm still trying to figure out why she blew up the house, instead of having me come dismantle the machine after she left. Dissapear quietly, instead of making everyone think she's dead."

Lindsey took his seat on the couch again, James taking the over-stuffed seat across the coffee table from him. "You said it earlier. If she doesn't want to be found, it would make sense. No one goes looking for a dead person." He took a sip of the root beer, thinking. "Is there anyway you can recreate this machine?"

James stared at Lindsey now, a disbelieving look on his face. "I built the first one, what makes you think I couldn't build another? But that still doesn't help us find them. I wouldn't know where to start looking for them."

"What's her favorite TV show? Her favorite movie?"

"Angel, mostly because it has Spike in it. And her favorite movie is Bram Stoker's Dracula. She has a bit of a vampire obsession." James shrugged. "Why?"

"Shannon's favorite movie is Once Upon a Time in Mexico, so I doubt they could agree on a movie to use as a place to go. But I know she had a number of shows she liked. Angel was one of the ones she was collecting, actually."

"So was Alexa." James stood, heading into his office. "If they used that as a place to go, I may be able to reconstruct the portal, and have an anchor point that's relatively static. The Hyperion Hotel." He sat down at his computer, opening up a browser window, and looking for studio stills of the hotel they used for the Hyperion Hotel in the show. "All I need to get is an image of the interior, after Angel Investigations moved into the hotel. The lobby is probably the best."

"You watched the show?" Lindsey joined him in the office, pacing the floor in front of the office.

"When Alexa had it on the TV, and wouldn't stop in the middle of an episode." James shrugged, then looked up. "I think there was a charac..."

Lindsey winced. "Don't remind me. I'm not sure what I did to make an enemy out of the writers, or Lilah, but neither of us are very fond of the show."

"I don't think Faith or Gunn would like it either." James glanced back at his browser, sorting through the images, looking for a high-resolution one he could use for a projection. "I think the Gunn in the show was dying in the final episode, and Faith was a Slayer-gone-bad."

"So we noticed," Lindsey replied dryly. "Have you found an image?"

"Got one, but it's not going to do us much good until the machine is built. And that takes room I don't have at the apartment, and a LOT of money. It took us most of Alexa's royalties from her book to build the first one. I was paying her morgage bills out of my salary for a year." James paused. "And she caused a black out across New York last night with the amount of power it draws. If the people of the city knew that, she's best off on the other side of the portal. No one to lynch her."

"I'll find the money, and the space. All you need to do is build the machine, and make sure you can get me to where they are." Lindsey headed for the door. There were some phone calls he had to make, and soon.

"You intend to go after them yourself?" James had followed him into the main room, looking at him skeptically.

"Is there a problem with that?"

"Well...." James paused. "You might want to hope they are there when you show up. Or you're going to end up dead. Very dead."

"Why, because Angel hates me? I'll deal with that when I get there. Right now, I'm just concerned with making sure I can get there, and find out why Shannon and Alexa decided to do this." He stepped out the door. "I will talk with you again later, Mr. Savage."

"Call me James." James met his gaze and held it a moment. "Good luck."

Lindsey nodded. "Thank you." He paused. "And I'm Lindsey."

"Gotcha. Later, then." James shut the door, and Lindsey went back down to his car, flipping open his cell phone again, dialing a familiar number.

"Hello, Lindsey. How are things going in New York?"

"Interesting, Lilah. Alexa's house was blown up last night, while Shannon was visiting her. The investigators will tell me if they find anything of interest, or if they find their bodies."

There was silence on the other end a moment. "There's something else, Lindsey."

"Not over the phone. I'm arranging a private memorial service for next weekend, since Charles will be back from his honeymoon by then. You need to be there."

"I will. And you are going to tell me what's going on, Lindsey." Lilah's tone brooked no arguement.

"Yeah, Lilah. I'll see you Saturday, meet at my apartment, and we'll go to the cemetary from there."

"You're going to call Faith and Charles?"

"As soon as I get off the phone with you." Lindsey waited until Lilah had said goodbye to end the call, than dialed Faith, repeating the same information to her, and he left a message on Gunn's answering machine.

"Now, to arrange a memorial service, and find out if the detective has anything new to tell me."