Flow (3)
….
Day 22:
Cameron rushed into the office, nearly colliding with a junior agent as he exited the elevator. He spotted Kay and headed over.
"Whoa," Kay greeted him. "Where's the fire?"
"I'm not late?"
Kay shook her head. "No, they're just settling our witnesses in a couple of interview rooms." She looked Cameron up and down. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Well…." Cameron glanced around the bullpen, then edged closer to Kay and lowered his voice. "I had kind of a weird night."
"A weird night?" Kay repeated. The magician was dishevelled and seemed pale. "Cam," she urged. "What happened?"
Running a hand through his hair, Cameron sighed. "I don't know," he said finally. "Last night I was in the Archive checking out security footage from around the warehouse. I was alone but I could've sworn I heard someone moving around."
Kay ushered the magician to her desk and sat him down; she perched on the edge and hovered, intent. "Tell me what happened."
"It was nothing…I guess."
"You guess?"
"I checked it out and didn't find anything, but when I came back to the table where I'd been working, my laptop was open with the security video on it."
"So…."
Cameron looked a bit sheepish. "So I'm pretty sure I'd closed the laptop before getting up. I was on the phone with Johnny and I was ready to call it a night, and I'm sure I closed it."
Kay's nerves prickled and she felt the corners of her mouth tighten. "Do you believe someone was there?"
"I don't know. The Archive creaks – you know that. It's old; it can be creepy at times." Cameron stood and paced around the desk. "And I've been feeling a bit off, so maybe all this has gotten to me."
"Jacobus Stein."
"Yeah, him." Pausing at the corner of the desk, Cameron ran a finger down the edge. He shook his head faintly.
"What is it?" Kay said. She leaned forward, studying him. The stubble was more pronounced than usual; the shadows under his eyes seemed darker. She couldn't pinpoint what made her uneasy; she tried to get a grip on him. "Cameron," she pressed. "What's going on?"
He stared at the desk for a long moment before looking her in the eye. "When I drove in this morning, I think someone was following me."
….
"Hey," Kay said.
Mike glanced up sharply, dropping his keys in the top drawer and closing it. "Hey," he replied. "I didn't see you there."
With a quirk of one brow Kay perched herself on the edge of his desk. "Sorry for the ambush, but I need you to check into something. Quietly."
"Okay…." Shrugging off his jacket, he hung it over the back of his chair. "What's up?"
"Cameron thinks someone was in the Archive last night, while he was alone there. There was some noise he couldn't identify, and he thought someone had been at the table where he was working."
Mike blinked. "Did he call the police? He didn't call us."
Kay shook her head. "He said it was more a strange feeling than anything solid. But this morning he saw a car parked down the block, then he saw the same car driving past when he got here."
"There are a lot of cars in Manhattan," Mike countered. "Is he sure?"
"He said it was dark blue…and old."
"Dark blue and old."
"Yeah. Kind of distinctive, but he's not a car guy."
"I don't suppose he got a plate number."
"Kay smiled. "Not a car guy."
Grimacing, Mike considered options. "I could bring in a sketch artist. If Cameron is able to describe the car…."
"No," Kay said. She turned to look back at the conference room, where the long table was scattered with notes, cargo manifests, maps of the dock area, photos of the Harbor Master's loft. Cameron was poring over it, elbows on the glass and chin resting in one hand. They'd been at it since the witnesses had finished giving their statements. Nothing had jumped out to hit them with what illicit things were being moved through the port, and what secret had been worth killing to defend.
"Kay?" Mike prodded. "Are you listening to me? Why the secrecy?"
Kay frowned. "Sorry. I just think Cameron's a bit…bothered by this case. Jacobus Stein, the whole haunting thing, the fact that this is someone tangled up in magic and the carnival world and the occult. Maybe it hits a bit too close to home."
"Well, I guess that's fair."
"Yeah, but I don't think it's everything. Something's been up with him for days now. When I went to get him the morning we searched the warehouse, I think I walked in on him and Dina arguing. I didn't hear anything but their body language was definitely tense, and it looked like Cameron was apologizing to her. She looked surprised. Cameron's not the argumentative type."
"I don't think I've ever even seen him angry," Mike agreed. He shrugged. "Whatever it was, Dina didn't mention it to me. So maybe it wasn't that serious."
"Maybe," Kay admitted. "I don't know. But if Cameron's going through something already, I don't want to stress him out by obsessing over what he might have seen or heard. Not until we know something."
"Alright," Mike said. "Quietly it is."
….
He took off early to go see Jonathan. Kay practically kicked him out, since their morning had been so spectacularly unproductive. He sighed as he pulled out of the FBI visitor parking area. It wasn't his fault the leads had dried up. That port was a leaky sieve – they could've marched a herd of elephants through it without being noticed.
The drive to the prison was always long, a dull route on the brightest day. Now the low and heavy cloud and hint of rain seemed to augur something even darker. The road was slippery, dangerous.
His eyes moved to the rear view mirror, and there it was again. Or still. The dual headlights, the flash of silver bumper and grill, snaking over the road. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and leaned heavier on the gas. When he opened his eyes again, he was sure he'd left it behind.
….
To be continued
Note: Thank you to anyone who's still reading this. The slow pace of my updates is perturbing to me. But I tend to write in the evenings, and this story is creeping me out. So I turn on all the lights and then worry that I'm over-contributing to climate change. Sigh.
Another note: The petition to renew Deception is now at about 19,000 signatures! I've emailed ABC to alert them to this important fact. I've also emailed Amazon, which actually answers emails. So when weighing the relative merits of ABC vs Amazon in the customer service arena, Amazon is the clear winner. Hopefully it takes up our show. It's certainly hearing from enough people. I would suggest that anyone who is remotely interested in seeing Deception have another season should email Amazon about it, and then gloat to ABC on their programming feedback page. I do this often and find the process both enjoyable and vaguely therapeutic. Much cheaper than flying to Iceland and bathing in the Blue Lagoon, although that is on my bucket list.
More story to come, when there's more daylight.
Cheers,
Bunny
