Chapter 4
"Decay"
By OldScout
The large house in the suburbs hid behind an old stone wall with a large gate permanently rusted open. Ankle high lights lined the edge of the crumbling driveway as it curved toward the house. Two black sedans rolled silently up the drive coming to a stop in front of the main door. Two people, a man and a woman stepped from each vehicle. As they stepped onto the porch they sensed somebody near by. Standing near the house, just off the porch and mostly in the shadows was a teenage girl.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"I'm Inspector Clayson." One of the men said. "We're here to see Miss Summers."
The girl nodded and held a walkie-talkie up as she stepped back into the shadows. "Tell Buffy she has company." She said before she disappeared into the night. On the street four police cruisers pulled up waiting for a call for support.
Inspector Clayson reached up to knock on the door which opened before he touched it. Another teenage girl stared at them for a second.
"Is Miss Summers here?"
"Are you evil?" The girl asked after looking the group up and down.
"We're with the police." Clayson replied. "I'm Inspector Clayson."
The girl stepped back from the door and turned away. "BUFFY!!"
The group took the opportunity to step into the house. The three police officers really didn't need to be invited since they had a warrant and Miss Peach with children services didn't need to be invited since the house was licensed and she could come for inspection at any time.
Miss Peach looked around the house. She'd been here before and knew some of the girls. This wasn't a normal foster home or girl's school. Many of the girls attended regular public school, some attended local private schools and some were tutored on premises. The mix of girls was strange too. There were girls from city foster care and there were others she was quite sure came from affluent families and some that were even from other countries. She'd never been able to find out what the exact criteria was for a girl to be accepted here but hadn't really cared because they accepted some of the hard to place girls and they all seemed to thrive. Now this, a possible drug connection; was this just a front for a drug ring? Had she and everybody else at children's services been deceived? She hoped not.
So this was the Summers School for girls. Clayson thought as he looked around. It was bigger on the inside then it looked from the drive. The rooms were large and the and deep. The building probably had several additions stretching out the back. Two girls sat on the floor at a coffee table doing home work while another sat at a dining table in an adjoining sitting room. A large stone and brick fire place filled the wall between the main living room and the sitting room. It probably opened into both spaces. Hanging above the mantel near the ceiling was a finely carved sign that read "Not For Self." What the hell did that mean?
Miss Summers came in from the back of the house. She carried a glass of milk and a sandwich. As she approached she said. "Inspector Clayson, Mrs. Peach, what can I do for you?"
"I am here to the two remaining family services girls from the home." Mrs. Peach replied solemnly. She didn't want to engage Miss Summers in any small talk; it would just make it harder. "Your foster license has been suspended pending the investigation of Miss O'Malley's death. Can you please have Miss Smithson and Miss Klymore come down here."
Before Buffy could say anything Inspector Clayson spoke up "We also have a search warrant for Miss O'Malley's residence. Miss Peach is here to retrieve the girls but we are here to examine the premises." As he was speaking one of the other officers was signaling out the door. "Now if you would have everybody gather in the sitting room so they do not interfere with my officers." As he spoke five uniformed police officers were entering the house.
"What?" Buffy was dumb founded. "You want to what?" she looked at Clayson then at Mrs. Peach. "You want the girls?"
"Please, Miss Summers, your cooperation will make this a lot easier." He was already directing the officers to different parts of the house.
"Stop!" Buffy said with a loud clear voice. "Nobody does anything without my say so." With Buffy's word, all the police officers found their ways blocked by surprisingly confident young women.
"Miss Summers, you really don't.." Clayson started to object but Buffy held up her hand. "Just let me get my lawyer here. Mary, call Gunn."
"Miss Summers, we are not required to wait for consul."
"GUNN!!!!"
Buffy cringed away from the girl's scream. She turned to the girl. "He's down stairs in the gym," she pointed to the phone. "Why don't you just call him?"
"You're lawyer lives here?" Clayson asked.
"He's staying here while visiting London." Buffy clarified. "Can you at least wait until he looks at your warrant? If he says so then we'll cooperate fully." She turned to one of the other girls. "Can you go get Heidi and Becca?" She didn't need Gunn to check out Mrs. Peach's papers. She'd been half expecting this but hadn't expected it so soon."
Clayson motioned for the officers to back off. "You've got three minutes."
Everybody quietly stood their ground until they heard someone approaching from the back of the house. A tall black man with a shaved head and dressed in knee length ripped sweat pants, a blue tee shirt and old sneakers walked toward them. As he approached, Buffy Said "Inspector Clayson, this is Charles Gunn, our attorney." She turned to Attorney Gunn. "Charles, Inspector Clayson has a warrant to search the house, can you check it out?"
Gunn barely looked at Buffy as he approached the Inspector. To keep control of the situation, he needed to focus his attention on the officer. He held out his hand and asked as he shook the Inspector's hand. "Inspector Clayson, what is the meaning of this search?"
"Attorney Gunn?" Inspector Clayson asked as he released the shake. "I am not aware of an Attorney Gunn and I'm quite familiar with most of the local attorneys."
Gunn smiled. "Oh, I'm not licensed to practice in Great Britain yet; however I am well versed in British law and am quite capable of advising Miss Summers." He held out his hand again, this time palm up. "May I see the warrant? I'm sure it is quite clear in what you're allowed access to."
Clayson removed the paper from an inside pocket of his over coat.
Charles inspected the paper for several minutes and handed it back. "It says you are to search Miss O'Malley's residence for any clues or artifacts that may be of direct or indirect baring on the circumstances of her death; all quite standard." The police started to fan out through the house again as Gunn turned to Buffy. "Why don't we show the fine officers to Sarah's apartment? I'm sure we don't want to have them wondering all over the school looking for it."
"What?" Inspector Clayson asked as Gunn handed the warrant back to him.
"The warrant is quite clear; you are to search Sarah O'Malley's residence, which is up stairs. I believe it is apartment 3B."
"This way gentlemen." Buffy said and started up the stairs.
"Now wait a minute." Inspector Clayson said. "You expect me to only search her bed room. You can't expect me to accept a single bed room as the girl's residence." Clayson looked at the warrant. He couldn't believe it, it did say the girl's residence at this address, and it didn't just say the address. "This whole house is her residence."
"Actually," Mrs. Peach spoke up. "All of the city's correspondence with Miss O'Malley did get addressed to apartment 3B." She showed him the papers she held for the other two girls indicating their addresses as 4A and 5C.
"Tell me Inspector," Gunn said. "If you were to search a student's college dorm room, would you expect you're warrant to give you free access to every student's room?"
"Very well." Clayson motioned for the officers to all go up stairs. "I'll be right up."
The police followed one of the girls so Buffy could stay and talk to the inspector.
"Inspector, what exactly are you looking for?" Buffy glared at Clayson. She had a bad feeling this wasn't routine and it was just the start of something.
"I'm sorry I'm not at liberty to say." Clayson looked at the people around him and he just couldn't envision these people being involved in a drug ring. But they would know they could be inspected by Family Services anytime if they continued accepted homeless and foster girls into the school.
"Tell me inspector, have you had any luck identifying the other people who were in the alley last night?"
"There was no one else, Miss O'Malley was found alone."
"What about the blood stains?"
Clayson had headed toward the stairs to join the inspection of the girl's room. He stopped in mid stride. "What blood stains?"
"Inspector, Willow and I were at the scene, we saw the two fresh pools of blood you had marked with evidence tags."
"I'm sorry Miss Summers, there was no blood at the scene, no sign of violence." Clayson took a deep breath. "It was an overdose."
The whole house seemed to become still. Everybody standing around Clayson stared at him. "An overdose of what?" Buffy's voice wasn't much more then a whisper.
"I'm not a liberty to say, this is an on going investigation." He started toward the stairs again.
Inspector Clayson was not a soft man. He ran several kilometers a day, worked out at the gym three times a week and had a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. The strength of the grip that took hold of his elbow and turned him back around was unlike anything he ever expected. He looked down at a petite blond with eyes of stone.
"What do you mean overdose?"
Was that a question or a threat? Clayson thought looking at Miss Summers again and re-evaluating her. "Miss Summers, young women do not normally drop dead for no reason. There were no signs of a struggle or injuries. We thought the death might be drug related and the toxicology report confirmed it." He pulled his arm free of her loosened grip. "Now if you will excuse, I have work to do."
Buffy felt a strong arm around her as she took a step back and tried to sit in a chair that wasn't there. How could they think that Sarah was involved in drugs? No wait, they thought it was the whole school. She started feeling weak. Just the accusation could mean the loss of the school as politicians started pulling their licenses and permits. Investigations into funding of the school would be started that wouldn't stop even if exonerated for the drug charges. The creative funding through the Council would open up even more lines of investigation. Buffy knew that once the bureaucracy started rolling on something like this it would not stop until all the politicians had their pound of flesh.
"Careful there Girl." Gunn said as he caught Buffy and led her to a nearby couch. Turning to one of the other girls he asked. "Where's Willow?"
"She's walking with Dana."
Gunn grimaced. It was dangerous to interrupt Willow when she was with Dana. It was dangerous to do anything with Dana. "You girls stay here with Buffy and Mrs. Peach I'm going up stairs with our guests."
If Inspector Grayson had any doubts about the innocence of Miss Buffy Summers, they were gone now. He'd been in this business long enough to know when somebody was lying to him or hiding something from him. The second Miss Summers and Miss Rosenberg had shown up that morning he knew they were hiding something. Something else, Miss Buffy Summers had a short temper and an act first ask questions later response to confrontation. She was definitely not the kind of person to be shaping impressionable young minds.
The officers were gathered along the brightly lit hallway near one of the rooms. The light from a camera flashed off the walls as the Inspector reached the 'apartment'. Inside he was surprised to find it really was a small flat. A small kitchenette stretched along the left wall in the middle of the room and a small table just big enough for two wooden chairs to be pulled up was pushed against the opposite wall. In the far back of the room a single twin bed sat along one wall opposite a large wooden wardrobe. The front of the room nearest the door held several pieces of worn furniture; a couple of end tables, a two seat couch, a small over stuffed recliner and what appeared to an antique Victorian high back wooden chair. The walls were covered with band posters from a number of different tastes and styles.
Clayson stopped as he took his third step into the room there was something else on the walls, weapons. Secured over the bed was an old crossbow. The string was gone, the mechanism was missing parts and the bow looked like it would shatter if it was strung. A short sword and a long broad sword hung on the wall in the front of the room, both hanging from hooks about waist level with blades pointed down. He also noticed that not all of the posters were music or movie posters some were advertisements for swords, medieval armament and other accouterments used by re-enactors. This girl was a serious history buff, but it was still not appropriate to allow or even encourage her to have full size prop replicas of dangerous weapons. He leaned over to look at the swords. They weren't just replicas; both weapons had razor sharp blades. His experienced eye even suggested that these might not be just replicas, they may be original weapons. What the hell was a sixteen year old foster kid doing with fully functional antique swords hanging on her wall?
"--"
As Inspector Clayson started his search of Sarah O'Malley's flat, two young teenage girls made their way down to the foyer. Both girls carried knapsacks and duffle bags. "Hello Mrs. Peach." One of the two said in greeting.
"Buff...Miss Summers, what's going on?" The other girl asked.
Seeing them coming down the stairs, Buffy pulled herself out of her initial stages of panic and met the girls with Mrs. Peach. "Because of Sarah, the city has decided that you girls shouldn't stay here until they know what happened." She motioned with a slightly raised hand for them not to speak. "Now, I'm sure they'll place you with nice families. Just remember to stay in at night; you don't want to be getting into any trouble."
"You mean we're not to go out." The girl hesitated. "At all?"
"Now you don't want to get your new families in trouble, do you?"
Both girls smiled thinly and said solemnly. "You can count on us." They took turns hugging Buffy and the other girls and turned to the door then one turned back. "Will we still be able to go to the funeral?"
Buffy looked at Mrs. Peach who replied. "I can't see why not."
"Once everything is settled, we'll let you know when and where." Buffy told Mrs. Peach.
"Do you think Faith will come?" one of the girls asked.
"Last I heard she was in Argentina." Buffy replied. "But we're trying to get word to her."
"--"
As Charles Gunn arrived at Sarah's room, he was in time to see the police removing the girl's swords from the wall. "Inspector, look at this." One of the officers said looking up from a drawer.
The drawer contained mostly clothes and underwear but scattered through out the personal items where a number of hand carved wooden stakes. Something familiar registered as Inspector Clayton took out one of the stakes. He showed it to one of the uniforms with him. "Look familiar?"
The officer was the same man who had helped him search the roof above the crime scene. "It looks a little like that one I found imbedded in the duct work on the roof."
"Not a little." Clayson dropped the stake into an evidence bag he was carrying and motioned for one of the officers to collect the rest. "A lot." A large flat green stained box on the bottom shelf of a night table caught his attention next. He moved the box to the top of the stand and opened it. The velvet lined box held an expensive looking knife with the outline carved out for a second knife next to it.
Clayson picked the knife up and examined it. Turning it over in his latex gloved hands he carefully studied every detail. Why did this knife look so familiar? Faint dots seemed to connect in the back of his mind. This knife was a clue to the murder, no death, of Sarah O'Malley. He looked at the empty slot for the second knife. Where was the mate? Why was this knife important beyond all the other strange things in this room? Why did he keep thinking of this as a murder and not just an overdose? Well, if the girl was running drugs for these people then it was murder. Where was the other knife, why did this one feel so familiar? It's like he'd held it before.
"What, my I ask, are you actually looking for?" Charles Gunn asked from the doorway.
"Anything that will give us a better idea of why we have a dead sixteen year old who was in your care." Clayson replied as he returned the knife to its box which he then handed to one of the officers. "And can you tell me exactly why a sixteen year old girl was armed to teeth?"
"I'm not exactly involved in the day to day activities of the school." Gunn replied. "I only stay here when I'm in town.
"Tell me, Counselor, when my warrant to search the whole house arrives, how many more weapons will I find?" Clayson looked around the room. "The swords and knives," He glanced at the cross bow on the wall over the bed. "And other weapons seem just a little too casual in here to be an anomaly."
"I wouldn't know about that." Gunn replied. "But what do swords and knives and other weapons have to do with Miss O'Malley's death if, it was as you said, an overdose?"
"That, Sir, is what I intend to find out."
Twenty minutes later the police stood in the hallway just outside of Sarah's flat. Inspector Clayson looked at the inventory of items taken as evidence; weapons, antique and new, clothes apparently with old blood stains and books about witch craft and daemons. What did all this stuff have to do with a kid dieing of an overdose? He had no idea but somehow his gut told him it was directly related. His phone rang.
The conversation was short.
"What's the status?" The lead officer asked the Inspector.
"We won't get the extended warrant."
"What? The judge has never had problems justifying going after dealers and a big operation like this could be...."
"Word started coming down from way up, we're barking up the wrong tree."
"How far up?"
"No idea, but somebody convinced him we had enough."
"Don't tell me they're going to bury that poor girl's case right along with her."
"Family Services is involved so now the other licensing bureaus will be too. Whatever is going on in this school is about to be exposed one way or another." Clayson said glumly as he put his phone away. "Now I'm ready to go home."
"--"
Buffy sat on the back patio staring into the night. The police had been gone for over an hour but she knew at least two cars were still parked watching the house. It was going to be tough to send the girls on patrol for a while so she had asked the council to have some of the older girls cover the school's territory until this blew over. She couldn't send the girls out and she couldn't let the territory go un-protected. Something was going on in the underworld and she needed to keep a lid on it.
Crack! Crash! "I'm alright!"
Buffy cringed and smiled. The house had gotten used to Tonks' arrivals. It seemed after a couple of days of being a smooth professional witch she'd gotten lazy and started letting her true colors show.
"Hoy there Buffy." Tonks said stepping out on to the patio. "What's up?"
Buffy looked at her friend.
The witch's smile fell. "Buffy, what's wrong?" Tonks sat on the steps next to Buffy.
"Sarah was killed last night." Buffy's voice was colder then she meant. She knew, hoped, Tonks hadn't been directly involved in the cleaning, but it was still her people who ruined the only thing Sarah had that her mother had given her, her name.
"Dear." Tonks whispered. "I didn't know. I'm sorry." She choked a breath. "How? Do you know who or what?" She just didn't know how to ask the questions or if she should. Tonks knew that slayers died, but this was the first since she became involved, and she knew the girl. They'd had a lot in common.
"The killing curse." Buffy said bluntly. "She was killed by your peoples' killing curse."
"That's not possible." Tonks started to defend. "The ministry can tell when it's used. There was one used last night on muggle and the cleaners took......." The young witch's eyes opened wide. "By Merlin they wouldn't have, not one of yours, not Sarah."
"That's how they cover it?" Buffy asked coldly. "Plant drugs, make evidence disappear, change memories."
"There are new rules, if you're involved we're to let you handle it." Tonks started to stand. "If you don't want me around here anymore, I'd understand." Her mind was spinning what had they done? Didn't those stupid cleaners have any idea what this kind of thing would do to a person's reputation? But then again, they didn't care it was just another muggle to them. She felt a hand on her arm.
"You weren't involved." Buffy said then squinted at her. "Were you?"
"I'm not a cleaner." Tonks said. "It takes a special breed; apparently a special stupid breed."
Buffy pulled Tonks back down to her place on the steps. "Stay, you're like part of the family." Buffy stared out into the blackness for a few more minutes. "I might need your help with some things."
"Sure." Feeling guilty about what had been done to Sarah, Tonks was all too willing to agree.
"That is if you have the stomach for it."
To be continued................