Asda Cardiff Bay Superstore; Cardiff, Wales
Ianto Jones sighed. The list Ken emailed was confusing. Ken was at work. Dmitri was checking on Dawn. She was having another bad day. Ianto needed to shop as quickly as possible and head to the building. Dmitri was needed at the hub. Any work Ianto had he could do remotely through Jack's office in their flat.
"Ma'am." He approached an older woman. "I need help finding a few things."
She smiled. "What are you looking for?"
Ianto handed her the list he'd printed out.
"Pregnant missuses."
"Friend. She's sick and someone has to stay with her." He followed.
"That's kind of you."
It was either him running errands or asking Gwen. "It's not a problem."
They were halfway down the list when Laren called. He considered letting it go to voice mail and then remembered the issue with her foster son. Dmitri found something in her home but hadn't been able to resolve the problem. "One minute, ma'am." He accepted the call. "Hey."
"Hey." Laren hesitated. "Dr. Petrescu said I should call back if we had another problem."
"What happened?"
"I don't know." She sounded very uneasy. "We stopped at a cafe in Pontcanna after school. I know the owner. She was showing me something in the kitchen, and I had my back turned. The door opened." She paused. "Best guess is someone saw an unattended little boy and tried to grab him."
"Is he okay?"
"Yeah. The man was thrown through the plate glass window, across the sidewalk, over a car, and into the street."
Shit. "Do you have Dmitri's number?"
"No. Could you send the other man? Dr. Petrescu made me nervous."
"John?"
"Yeah."
Ianto would have to ask Dmitri what happened. "It will take a bit. Are you safe?"
"I think so. The police are asking questions I don't have answers for."
"I better call Jack." Ianto couldn't think of a single case where they had to evaluate a foster child. "If the police or social services say anything about transporting him, tell them you're waiting for Torchwood. It's an open case."
The clerk was staring at him when the phone call ended. "You're Torchwood?"
"Yes. I'm sorry, I need to make another call."
Pontcanna Bakery Cafe
Jack Harkness parked the Torchwood van two blocks from the cafe. Constable Andy Davidson met him and Gwen on the sidewalk. From his expression, there was a problem with jurisdiction. It wasn't the first time he'd been volunteered to argue with them. DCI Sawyer, not DC Cowley was handling the case. The dinosaur as many called him was nearing retirement and overqualified to be handling basic calls. Dr. Floyd had mentioned the detective wanted publicity and to attempt to prove his stance on women in law enforcement. How that applied to the current situation, Jack didn't know.
"DCI Sawyer said there is no evidence it's a Torchwood case." It was a wonder Andy said that with a straight face.
"The child was already a Torchwood case." Jack walked around the constable and headed for the cafe.
Gwen said something quietly before following.
As Laren described, the front glass had been blown out with significant force. The sidewalk was littered with glass. The car directly in front of the window had been impaled in places. A tent had been established around the body in the middle of the road.
A constable in front of the cafe eyed him. He'd met the young woman before. Normally, she stepped aside without argument. She looked conflicted.
"Torchwood." Jack could see Sawyer having a disagreement with Laren across the room. From the body language, he figured Sawyer was attempting to separate Laren from the child. Considering what he suspected caused the situation, he didn't think that was the best idea. "The kid's part of more than one case. Even if this isn't involved, we still have jurisdiction."
She hesitated before moving. Jack opened the door and stepped into the cafe.
"Obviously you weren't taking care of him."
"DCI Sawyer." Jack caught Laren's eyes from across the room. "Ms. McDougall and Maddox are Torchwood jurisdiction prior to whatever happened in this cafe. We're transporting them for their own safety until we can determine who attacked them."
"This is my case, Captain Harkness."
"No, it's not."
"You don't have the authority to take any case you want." The aging constable sounded like a petulant child.
"You were accusing Ms. McDougall of negligence. How exactly would that explain the window, car, and body?" Jack motioned toward what had been a sizable window.
"Gas explosion."
Jack took a moment. "You're standing in a building after a gas explosion that hasn't been cleared by professionals?" The idea was ridiculous. A gas explosion would have done a lot more damage and killed everyone inside.
Sawyer crossed his arms. "What's your explanation?"
"Maddox has a violent imaginary friend." Jack could just picture Gwen's face as she tried not to laugh.
"Excuse me?"
"When the dead man threatened Maddox or Ms. McDougall, he was thrown through the window. It's related to the Forest Farm case where the two men were killed by a dragon they hallucinated."
Sawyer glared at him.
"If this was a gas explosion, the entire cafe would have been destroyed. There would be fire damage." Jack motioned around the room. "No damage. No gas smell. No obvious explanation for the homicide. It's Torchwood jurisdiction."
After a brief staring contest, Sawyer headed for the door.
"We need to get them out of here in case he called social services," Gwen said quietly.
Hughes Flats
Ianto Jones sat at the small kitchen table in Ken and Dawn's flat with his laptop and a notebook while Dawn rested. There had to be something in Maddox Tray's social services file to explain the haunting activity. The easy explanation would be a psychokinetic Rift ability. The boy was born in Cardiff. His mother and her family were connected to Cardiff. His father, Cort Tray, was born in London and spent most of his life in Liverpool. The father died in some type of industrial accident three months ago. The mother, Aneira Tray, returned to Cardiff to be near family. She was seriously injured in a car accident two months ago while Maddox was at school. He originally went to stay with Sian Clough, his material grandmother. Three days later, she asked social services to take him. There were multiple references to religious issues cited by Mrs. Clough and foster parents. When the social worker approached Laren, Maddox had been rejected by three homes in a week. At least one more refused to accept him. When Aneira Tray was released from the hospital, she went to stay with her mother, but Mrs. Clough refused to have Maddox in her home.
Pending his mother's accident didn't trigger something, Ianto looked at the father's death. Cort Tray did commercial remodeling. A quick Internet search found a brief article about an accident involving a malfunctioning elevator. The man's obituary said he'd been cremated days after the accident which didn't provide much time for an investigation.
Ianto used his remote connection to access the local police department. The investigation was perfunctory. They had no evidence to support a homicide investigation, but no effort was made to investigate what could have been questionable safety issues on-site. There were notes about an elevator inspection done after Tray was cremated. If it looked like an obvious accident, the investigator likely moved on to more important cases. But it sounded suspicious after what was happening with Maddox.
The property where Tray died was sold after his death. It was supposedly an office building. The investigator didn't walk through the facility. Ianto checked the power company first. The energy requirements looked high. He needed to check nearby buildings for comparison. He compared it to the new owners and it was high. Using information from the Moss-Probert, it was high compared to London. He pulled up the service providers that previously connected Moss-Probert to affiliates. Nothing stood out.
While trying to decide which supplier lists to check first, he decided to look up area aquarium suppliers. One small wholesaler posted comments about a weird local business. They reportedly kept aquariums to calm their employees who had stressful jobs. The problem was they kept accidentally killing their snails. He asked if anyone else had a customer that had to keep buying snails. Tracing the man to his company and getting the supply list didn't take much. Kailen's upgrades definitely helped. A search of the supply company's records connected the aquarium supply company to the location where Tray died.
Checking business connections led to a subsidiary of Gordon-Glen. Maxwell Evanson, one of the men who died from the dreamfish drug, was connected to Gordon-Glenn through his mother.