Staircase Fall

Sorting through the veritable library of books and journals that accumulated within the Lyell was an entire job in itself, but Thomas had insisted that before the office was updated and the builders came in to rearrange everything to maximise space for new equipment, Nikki and Jack had to go through each and every single book and journal in the Lyell Centre and decide which ones were useful and to be kept, and which ones were to be donated to the LSSE library. So far, the pair had gotten through three bookshelves with the donation pile twice as high as the keeping pile, but they still had a long way to go.

Nikki sighed as she flipped through another tome, her breath catching as she took note of a long forgotten bookmark that hadn't been removed when the book had been finished with whatever reference it held at the time. With shaking fingers, she slowly removed the bookmark and ran the pads of her fingertips over it. Handmade, tiny blue flowers in a child's hand littering the length of the card, which had then been laminated to preserve it and a purple tassel attached.

"What've you got there?" Jack asked, leaning over her shoulder to see what it was and reading the bottom of the bookmark which denoted the artist. "Cassie, aged 9. What's a kid's bookmark doing in a book on decomposition?"

"It's Cassie's." Nikki held the bookmark almost reverently, the book all but forgotten. "Well, I suppose technically it was Leo's."

"You're making even less sense than normal. Who's Cassie and what does she have to do with Leo?" Jack sat himself on the floor beside Nikki, watching the bookmark with her as though it held all the answers.

"Cassie was Leo's daughter." Nikki told him gently. "She died along with Leo's wife, Teresa, not long after I joined the team. Leo… Leo was never the same after, not really. I might take this home, put it with Leo's MBE I've got in a box somewhere."

"Whatever you think is best. I'm sure Leo wouldn't mind." Jack placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "While we're talking about odd things, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?" Nikki pocketed the bookmark before placing the book on the donation pile. The bookmark would be treasured just as much as the other belongings of Leo's that she'd kept from his home and office.

Jack reached over to his own pile he'd been sorting through, lifting up a heavy looking volume that appeared to be sellotaped shut. Handing it to her, Nikki took the book with a frown. She didn't remember any books looking like that. "Why is this book sellotaped shut? The note doesn't make any sense either."

"Note?" Nikki queried, prompting Jack to turn the book over in her hands to the back cover, where under the sellotape sat a small white square of paper with the words: Don't you bloody dare, Nikki. This is for your own good. She closed her eyes briefly before turning the volume in order to see the title along the spine. Staircase falls: epistemology and ontology. "Bastard."

"I take it the note means something to you then." Jack was watching her carefully, trying to read the title over her shoulder. "What's it all about then? Only no sane person would tape a book closed so it couldn't be read. Not even in this madhouse."

"Blame Harry." She nearly growled out. "One bloody disagreement over a staircase fall and he tapes the bloody book shut so I can't argue with him."

"That's… excessive."

Nikki smirked. "You've never seen an argument between me and Harry. Leo despaired of us on a daily basis. We're probably going to have to bin the book though; I don't think the sellotape is going to come off easily after all this time."

"Shall we blame Harry for that too?"

"Why not? Okay, what's next?"