Chapter 6 - 5
Emma woke up early the next day and checked to see if her father had made it home during the night. His bed was undisturbed. On the drive to the grounds the previous day, he told her to call him in the morning if he wasn't home. She sat down on the edge of his bed and dialed his number from the phone on the nightstand.
The incessant melody of a cell phone ringing in the van woke up both of the men who were not on watch.
Langly looked around groggily for the source of the racket. "What is that noise?" He knocked cups and other debris off the dash searching for the phone so that he could throw it out the window. "Make it stop!" he complained loudly.
It was Byers's turn to do surveillance while the other two slept. Jimmy and Yves were in her car on the other side of the grounds. "It's Frohike's phone. That's his ring." Emma had set her father's cell phone to play 'Scotland the Brave'. She claimed it would make it easier to distinguish his phone from everyone else's. Langly insisted it was just to irritate the hell out of anyone within earshot.
Frohike finally woke up enough to realize that it was his phone that was ringing. He slapped his hand up onto the dashboard grabbing it from where he had set it down to catch some Zs and hit the button. "This had better be good!"
"Good morning, sunshine." Emma succeeded in not cracking up over his early morning phone manners.
A little chagrinned at having barked at her for doing what he had instructed, he calmed down enough to say, "Good morning, honey."
Langly grabbed the phone from Frohike. "Do you know what time it is?"
"Yes, I do. Do you?" Emma wasn't put off by Langly's grouchy demeanor either.
Langly tried to look at his watch but he had knocked his glasses onto the floor of the van while attempting to end the maddening tune the phone was playing. "No, I don't but it better not be as early as I think it is."
"Langly, give me to my dad and go back to sleep."
Realizing he wasn't going to get a rise out of her, he handed the phone to Frohike. "Here. She doesn't want to talk to me."
"I can't say I blame her. You aren't exactly all sweetness and light in the morning."
"Yeah? Look who's talking."
While the pair of them decided to take their frustrations out on each other, Byers took the phone and talked to a very patient Emma who sat listening on the line.
"Hey, Doc, how are you this morning?"
"Hi, John, I guess I woke them both up."
"That you did."
"How did it go last night? Any progress."
"Not really. It was very quiet here all night. The only thing we saw moving around was the security guards and a couple of drunken Scotsmen who had to be escorted from the premises."
"Ah, that's too bad." She tried to think of something else to ask him. He wasn't usually so open about an investigation, especially when they were in the middle of it. "Didn't Yves think he would come during the night?"
"We hoped so but there was no sign of him." Frohike and Langly had wrapped up their little insult session and now Fro wanted to talk to his daughter. "Here's your dad," Byers said and handed the phone back to him.
"Hi, Dad."
"Hello, honey. How did you sleep?"
"Okay, but something woke me up in the middle of the night."
"What?"
"It was a light. I saw it a couple of times but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from."
"Was is in your room or out in the hallway?"
"I think it was in my room. I could only see it when my eyes were closed but when I opened them it was gone."
"And you never figured out what it was?"
"No, it was weird."
"Sounds like it." This didn't seem to be too serious to Frohike. Maybe she had just imagined it or hadn't been fully awake.
"How did everything go yesterday?" Emma filled him in on how all three girls did competing. He was glad she seemed satisfied with only one metal. "You didn't give Pat and Rosalie a hard time?"
"No, I was too busy."
"What will you be doing today? I know the dance competitions are over."
"We wanted to go watch the athletic events and maybe go over and see the Highland Cattle. Pat said they have a couple of the white cattle he was talking about."
"That sounds good. Make sure you help them out in the booth if you can."
"I will."
"And stay away…"
"I know, I know." She cut him off. "Stay away from the painting but it was so cool yesterday when I saw it. It was so huge! I had no idea it was that big." Thinking about the painting reminded Emma of the lights she saw around it. Tiny moving lights. Lights that were not there at first but then they were. Kind of like lights you could see one second and not the next. She wondered, "What if…?"
"Emma. Emma, are you still there?" Frohike checked the display on his phone to see if they had been cut off. "Emma!"
"Oh, sorry, Dad. I was off in la-la land."
"Well, stay with me for just another minute."
"I'm listening."
"Good. I don't know what all will be going on today but I will try to come by the booth to see you at um… how about lunchtime? Would you like to have lunch with me?"
"Sure! That would be great!" Thinking about food made Emma concerned, "Do you guys have anything decent to eat for breakfast?"
"Sure, yeah, there's some food around here somewhere." Frohike lied.
"Dad, the peanuts that Langly threw at me the last time we went on a road trip do not count as food."
"Hey, I think I saw an orange rolling around or maybe it was an apple."
"Yeah, right! Listen, I'm going to bring breakfast. Just come by the booth and pick it up."
"Emma, you don't need to do that."
"Why not? I want to help."
Langly realized they were talking about food and was now interested. "What is she saying?"
She could hear Langly in the background. "And you know Langly works better on a full stomach."
Frohike glanced at his eternally hungry friend. "She wants to bring us breakfast."
"And you're trying to discourage her? You are an evil man. Byers, help me out here."
John's stomach was growling. The last food they'd had was scones left over from the previous morning and those had been eaten before midnight. "Something other than fair food would taste good."
The little breakfast elf on the other end of the phone could hear their comments. "Okay, that's it. I'll bring some stuff with me. Come by when you get a chance and tell Yves and Jimmy, too." Emma remembered she wasn't supposed to talk to Yves. "Or someone can take Yves some food. Whatever works best."
"We'll see you when you get here."
"Bye, I love you."
"I love you, too."
Langly climbed out of the driver's seat of the VW bus. He stretched popping a few kinked up joints. Frohike climbed out also and headed for a nearby gas station to use the can and buy a round of coffee. He didn't think Emma would bother with that knowing it was readily available from numerous food vendors at the Games.
Frohike returned after awhile with the coffee and they sat in the back of the van drinking it and discussing the previous day's work.
"Man, I was a babe magnet yesterday. The girls loved my warrior look," Langly bragged.
Byers was not to be outdone. "I didn't do too bad myself. I had more than one lassie ask me if I was going to the ceilidh."
"Lassies, huh? Only the dogs were interested in you."
Frohike had taken over watching the monitors from Byers. "Did either of you 'dandies' get a phone number from any of these fair ladies?"
Langly turned his usual shade of red when embarrassed by his inexperience in dealing with the opposite sex and Byers claimed, "I was trying to keep my mind on the task at hand."
Frohike sighed and looked back at the monitors. "It doesn't do any good to attract women if you're afraid to talk to them."
Langly was indignant, "I talked to them but I had to maintain my stoic persona. Playing hard to get is a real turn on to some chicks."
"Yeah, but if you play too hard to get, they lose interest. Try asking one of them for her number or even her name. You too, Byers, you guys need to get out more."
Byers was surprised by this turn in the conversation. "Us? What about you?"
"I have Emma to consider. I can't go forming any long-term relationships until she's ready to have another woman as a mother figure in her life."
This made Byers angry. "Don't use Emma as an excuse. I know she wants you to be happy and since you and her mother were never together, I don't think she has any thoughts of her mom being replaced in your affections. You've seen how she is with Scully, Rosalie and even Yves. She craves a female role model and I think she's keeping her eyes open."
"What the hell are you talking about, Byers?" Frohike considered the possibility that the man was seriously sleep deprived.
"I'm telling you, Fro, she's shopping for a mother."
"Now I know you're nuts. Michelle hasn't been dead for all that long. She needs time to get over that before I can even consider replacing her in Emma's life."
Byers knew he wasn't going to win this argument. "She not looking for a replacement: just someone to make you happy and to love her. Mark my words. She's going to drop someone in your lap sometime soon and you'd better be ready for it." He leaned forward and checked the monitor for the main gate. "The grounds are open. I'm going to get changed."
All three men had the good sense to change out of their kilts before settling in for the long overnight stakeout. Byers grabbed the bag with all of his gear and headed for the gate. Langly followed hot on his heals with all his paraphernalia. Frohike set the equipment for the day's work ahead and climbed out of the van, locking it behind him.
All dressed and armored for the day, the Gunmen went in search of Emma and her offering of food. They weren't disappointed: fresh fruit, orange juice, bagels with cream cheese and muffins that were right out of the oven. She had even gotten some good coffee, a whole thermos full, which was a huge improvement on gas station sludge.
Activity at a Highland Games is always slowest on Sunday morning so there were more people in the booth than outside it. Jimmy showed up before all the food was gone. He packed some up for Yves and himself but before he was ready to go, a blond female motioned to Emma from outside the booth. Figuring that the woman meant to buy something, Emma walked over to see what the she wanted.
She was surprised when the woman began to speak. "Emma, I need to talk to your father." It was Yves. Her voice and British accent were unmistakable. Emma looked more closely at her and recognized her under the makeup. "Hurry, dear, it's important."
"Okay," she whispered. She wound around all the people in the booth to where Frohike was standing. She tugged on his arm to get his attention. "Dad, she wants to talk to you." Emma pointed at Yves; she didn't know if she should say her name or not.
Frohike patted Emma's hand on his arm. "Stay here," he told her.
Watching the two of them talk in a corner over the swords, Emma could tell that something was wrong. Neither of them looked happy and her dad kept shaking his head. She wanted to do something so she got Byers. "John, I don't know what happened but it can't be good."
"Hang on, Doc, I'll see what I can do." He walked over to Yves and Frohike. He got a brief explanation from them, turned around, told Langly and Jimmy they needed to go. He stopped in front of Emma. He obviously wanted to tell her something but hesitated. Byers looked over to Frohike as if asking permission. Fro just nodded and headed out of the booth.
"What's wrong, John?" He drew her out into the middle of the vendor hall, away from all the people.
"We failed. It probably happened last night. The painting has been switched for a fake. It's a good one but Yves is sure it's not the original."
Emma couldn't believe it. "That's impossible! You guys were here all night. How can this be true?"
Byers put his hand on her shoulder to try to calm her. "Shh, keep your voice down. This isn't common knowledge and the authorities are hoping it is still on the grounds somewhere. That's what we are going to try to find out. If we can just figure out how it happened…" His mind was going a mile a minute wondering where they had gone wrong. "We must have him on tape. I have to go." He squeezed her shoulder absentmindedly before he rushed off to join the others.
Emma ran to the bathroom. She didn't want the others to know which meant that she was going to have to lie to them. She suspected that the adults would already have a good idea of what had happened but she couldn't tell them the truth. She would have to admit that her father and her friends had failed.
Maybe she would get lucky and no one would ask her what was going on but then if they did she could tell them she didn't want to talk about it. That would be better than lying anyway. All right. That's what she would do. She washed her face and tried a big smile out on the mirror. The mirror wasn't convinced.
She sighed and reentered the bustle of the vendor's hall. Pat, Rosalie and all the others were busy with customers or other employments or were possibly pretending that nothing had happened. Emma was thankful for this. She went and sat down on one of the folding camp chairs that lined the wall behind their cash register. Rachel came over and sat down by her.
"What's the matter?" Rachel asked.
"I'm having a bad day," Emma said evasively.
"I'm sorry." They sat in silence for a few seconds. Then Rachel asked, "Want to go do something?"
Emma studied her friend and gave her a weak grin. "No, I think I just want to be by myself for awhile. How about later? I do want to go see the Highland cattle."
"Me, too," Rachel admitted. "Do you want me to go away now?"
"No, you stay here. I'm going for a walk."
"You'd better tell my mom or my grandma."
"Yeah, I will."
Emma let the adults know that she was going out to wander around a bit. They tried to convince her to take the other girls with her but she said that she would not be gone too long. Rosalie hugged Emma, holding her for longer than necessary. She asked her in a low voice, "Are you going to be all right?"
"Sure. I'll be back in a few minutes."
"Okay, but if you're gone too long, we'll have to call out the obnoxious little brother search party to find you."
"That won't be necessary," Emma said with a smile watching Ian duck expertly away from his oldest sister as she took a swipe at him for stealing a bite of her bagel.
It was a beautiful day and the morning was still relatively cool. It was much too nice to sit inside anyway. She thought that a trip around the grounds would do a lot to improve her mood. She would see people arriving excited for the day, hear bagpipers warming up and practicing for individual competitions, or whatever.
She decided to go over to the clan MacKenzie booth and say hi. A lot of these nice people had come to her mother's funeral and she was still a MacKenzie. Not for the first time, she considered whether she should change her last name to her father's. He had never asked it of her and she was proud of her Scottish heritage. Maybe she should see what he thought about it. Not today though. There was always time for that later.
The folks at the MacKenzie clan tent chatted with Emma for a few minutes. The conversation was a repeat of one she'd had several times since her mom died. "How are you doing? Really sorry about your mom. Who are you living with now? Your dad? How is that going?" and on and on. She didn't mind though. Until all this was said, you couldn't really go on to anything else. Might as well get it out of the way.
Wandering past the rest of the clan tents, Emma found herself outside the building where the painting was supposed to be. She went inside. If the painting was gone, she wasn't really breaking her promise and she wanted to see the fake. The security guard was there but it was still fairly early on Sunday morning so there were only a few people standing around. She waited until the others moved on leaving only the guard.
Emma stood as she had the day before and considered the new painting. It looked exactly the same to her but there was something about it that didn't feel the same. The connection she had experienced was missing. The painting felt cold and meaningless even though the story it told was identical to the original. She sighed and looked down at the floor. All their hard work was for nothing.
In her peripheral vision, Emma saw movement. Oh, for god's sake, not again, not now! This time the lights were all around her and not the painting. They slowly started to swirl about her body. It was obvious that the guard could not see what was happening. He glanced at her then away.
Emma fought the urge to run because there had to be a reason for this. The motion of the lights seemed to have a purpose. If only she could figure it out. She turned her back to the guard and held her hand out again. The lights continued their orbit of her body passing over and under her outstretched hand.
She let her arm drop back to her side and closed her eyes. She relaxed as much as she could while standing. Her therapist had taught her this technique but would probably have been surprised at its application. Breathing deeply, Emma opened her mind to the possibilities. After about thirty seconds of this, she started to feel silly but then am image that was not her own entered her mind. It was barely a whisper of a thought, so tentative yet so desperate that she gasped. It was, "Help us."
Ian found Emma walking back toward the vendor's hall. "That didn't take long," he thought. He was glad because he didn't really want to go look for her anyway. He stopped and waited for her to catch up but she walked right past him without even noticing him. "Hey, Emma," he yelled trying to get her attention. Someone else was looking for her and heard the boy shout. The woman turned and spotted Emma talking to a younger child. Walking up to them, she also called out to Emma.
"Monica! Agent Doggett said there was something you had to do this weekend so you couldn't come."
"That was yesterday. Today I am free to spend the day here with you."
Emma looked at Agent Reyes through slightly narrowed eyes. "Did my dad ask you to come and spy on me?" She was curious if Monica would lie to her or not.
"Well, that wasn't exactly the way he put it but, yeah, that's why I'm here."
"You can probably go home then. There's no need anymore."
"What do you mean?"
Ian was still standing nearby so Emma told him, "Go back and tell your mom and grandma that I'll be right there."
"I'm not supposed to come back without you."
Monica suspected there was something Emma wanted to tell her without the boy around. "Why don't we go see what they want? Then you can show me around."
After checking in and introducing Agent Reyes to everyone, the two of them went for a walk. Emma filled Monica in on everything she knew that happened over night, which wasn't all that much. What she really wanted to tell the FBI agent was a little harder to explain. They found a quiet corner away from the general hubbub of the Games. Emma told Monica about the painting, the lights she'd seen around it, the lights that woke her up during the night and what happened when she went to see the fake.
Monica listened to everything Emma said only speaking to ask for clarification on certain points. Emma waited for her to say something when she was done. "Have you told your dad all this?"
"Some of it. I told him about the lights I saw in the middle of the night."
"What did he say?"
"Not much. Just that it was weird."
"But you didn't tell him about the lights you saw around the painting."
"I didn't put the two together. I'm still not sure they have anything to do with each other. What should I do?"
"Well, first of all, I think you should enjoy the rest of the weekend. Then, tomorrow or the next day, when you have time to sit down with him, you need to tell your dad everything you told me."
"I'm afraid to."
"Why? He'll listen to you won't he?"
"Sure he will but I don't know if he'll believe me." Emma carefully studied her fingers as she asked the next question. "Do you believe me?"
"Yes, I do," Monica reassured her. "Can I ask you one more question?"
"Okay."
"What do you think the lights are?" Emma hesitated. She liked Monica and didn't want her to think she was crazy.
"Do you promise not to laugh at me?"
"I won't laugh at you."
Emma sighed then just went for it. "I think they're faeries."
