Chapter Nine: Suspicion Old and New
Holly and Mulch got to Estella's house twenty minutes later thanks to Haven's traffic. Across the street from her home there was a shabby shuttle stop with a scruffy looking gnome waiting outside it. Holly quickly went over to him.
"Is she still at home?" she asked.
The gnome nodded, "She had gone out a few hours ago but she's back now. She was limping on one of her back legs though, looks like wherever she went wasn't very family friendly."
Holly thanked him, gave him some money for his trouble, and rejoined Mulch to cross the road to Estella's house.
Mulch looked at his fellow detective with mild amusement, "You had our client watched?"
Holly shrugged, "I just wanted to make sure she didn't try to elude us. She has been acting strangely lately. I think she might have found out something that's scared her away from trusting us."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, maybe that mysterious elf came back and threatened her. Anyway that's what we're here to find out." Mulch shook his head but Holly didn't seem to notice as she knocked on the door.
When no one answered Holly knocked again to no response. She turned back toward her colleague to figure out what to do but found only a hole in the ground where he had been. She shook her head as she heard a surprised scream inside and a moment later the dwarf opened the door from the inside with a wide grin.
"Why Detective Short, what a surprise!" Holly hit him on the head.
"Shut up convict, you're not supposed to be breaking and entering anymore, remember?"
Mulch rubbed his head crossly, "It got the job done didn't it? Besides it wasn't like she was going to let us in." He jerked his thumb at Estella who was still looking fairly shocked and had edged herself into a corner.
Holly sighed, it seemed the centaur had indeed been avoiding them. "I'm sorry for my partner's intrusion Ms. Lunos, but it's very important that we speak to you and you've been a bit hard to get a hold of lately. Now if you'll just answer some questions—."
"No."
The word cut across the room like a knife. Holly stared at Estella and the centaur took a deep breath, "I've never been very good at dealing with people I've hired for a job so I've been avoiding you and trying to post-pone this but I've decided to take you off the case. It's nothing personal but I want to deal with my father's disappearance on my own now. Quite frankly I don't think you're very good detectives, maybe if you learn from smaller cases you can build your skill but right now I can't afford to trust you with my father's well-being anymore. I'll still pay you in full of course but—."
Holly slammed her fist down on the nearest table. She wouldn't have liked to admit it but she was holding back a few tears, Estella's speech had brought all of Holly's doubts back to the surface so fast they felt like a slap on the face. "Don't insult us like that Estella. I can understand if you don't think we have the skills needed for this job, I've been wondering if I have what it takes myself, but don't try and pay us off for a job we didn't do."
"Whoa, don't go putting words in other peoples' mouths Holly!" cried Mulch. "I'm still going to be earning my half of the salary."
Estella looked confused, "No, I've fired you, you can't—."
"There are three things I've come to learn in my life about centaurs Ms. Lunos," continued Mulch. "They are smart, paranoid, and very protective of those they care about. I think you are no exception." He looked Estella in the eye. "Tell me, when you first came to us with this case you said it was 'vital that word of your problem not leak out.' Why exactly was that? Wouldn't it make more sense to go to the police and have more people investigating your father's disappearance? And why, when you could have chosen any agency under the earth and paid them well did you decide to take your case to the newest and most inexperienced set of detectives you could find?"
Estella had turned deathly pale but said nothing so Mulch continued, "I've been listening to you very closely for awhile now. You choose your words very carefully, you told us your father never said anything about his past but you didn't say anything about what you thought he might have done, any centaur would have at least gotten an idea; and just now you said you were firing us because you couldn't trust us anymore with your father's well-being. You didn't say that because you're worried about us not finding him, you're worried that we'll find out something about him that'll put him in more danger than he's in now. There's no point in hiding it anymore, it's time to tell the truth." Mulch leaned back smugly.
Holly stared at him with astonishment and new-found respect, "How did you figure all that out? Have you been talking to Artemis behind my back?"
"Nah, I've just spent a lot of time around criminals, it's a good way to learn when someone has something to hide."
The sound of sobbing quickly returned them both to the matter at hand. Estella had buried her head in her arms and was bawling on top of her coffee table. The detectives glanced at each other awkwardly and then Holly moved to her and offered a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
"It's all right," she said soothingly, "I told you, discretion is our middle name, whatever your father may have done it's long behind him now. I swear that no matter what, we won't turn him over to the police, we just want to help you find him and make sure he's safe."
Through her tears Estella looked Holly straight in the eye. The centaur girl looked more serious and determined than the elf could ever recall seeing her. "You absolutely swear?"
Holly returned the gaze fully and nodded with as much conviction as she could muster.
Estella turned toward Mulch with an equally piercing glare, "And you?"
He waved his hands in front of him, "Hey you don't have to worry about me, I'd never rat you out!"
That didn't seem to be enough for her and the dwarf scooted back a bit as she took a threatening step forward, "Do you swear it?"
Mulch quivered slightly, an enraged centaur could be a very scary thing. "Yes, yes, I swear, I swear, just stop glaring at me like that!" Satisfied Estella walked back to Holly.
"Mr. Diggums was right about my having formed an idea of my father's past. He never actually told me what had happened but I did get an idea. About a week ago I started going through Father's old things." Estella indicated for them to follow her and they soon found themselves in Mamilton's bedroom.
Estella moved next to an old dresser. She started to push it but it wouldn't budge. Finally she sighed, reared up on her hind legs and kicked the dresser on its side. She then collapsed on the floor, it seemed her hind leg was indeed hurt and the strain she had put on it just then was more than she could handle. Holly helped her up and got her resting on the bed. Meanwhile Mulch was looking at the wall behind where the dresser had been.
"Hey!" he cried. "There's nothing here!"
Estella didn't answer for a moment as she rubbed her sore leg but then returned to the matter at hand. "It's not the wall, it's the dresser. After going through Father's things and finding nothing I lost my head a bit and toppled some furniture. When I was cleaning later I noticed what was on the bottom of this thing and it confirmed everything I had feared."
Holly and Mulch exchanged looks and went to see what Estella was talking about. Carved into the dresser's bottom was a picture of a pair of fairy wings and a crown overlapping the Earth. The two detectives gasped in unison.
Mulch trembled slightly as he touched the design, "This is way deeper than I thought."
Holly swirled around and stared at Estella, "Your father was a Jalinger?"
Estella nodded solemnly.
The faerie people had lived underground for centuries but there had once been a time when they had lived in the open air with humans. When the humans became more advanced and started to endanger the faeries they decided to escape and start a civilization below the Earth's surface where they would live in secret. However, this was not a move agreed upon by all. There had been many in favor of having a full-out war with the humans until they could reclaim the land that was rightfully theirs. The foremost advocate of this stance had been a philosopher named Jalin.
Jalin had lead many protests while the faeries moved below ground, many involving violence against the mud men but in the end he lacked enough support to complete his goal and died at his act of rebellion.
Years later more faeries began to feel restless underground and started thinking that the move had been a bad idea. A new group formed calling themselves the Jalingers, named after their idol, and decided to finish what Jalin had started. It had been decades before anyone outside the group had even known it existed, its leaders had known their plans would not immediately gain wide-spread support and so they had been more cunning.
They had infiltrated the ranks of many government groups including the LEP and the council slowly and stealthily so that no one would notice the conspiracy. They gained the support of the goblins and many others who felt they had no place in society and still the world had no idea of their existence.
Finally the Jalingers decided the time was right and staged their revolution. What resulted was the worst blood-bath the faeries had ever had. The Jalingers revealed few of their members out right but they did reveal the council members they had and with them turned the government into a dictatorship. The people lived in fear throughout the world not knowing who was a friend and who was an enemy among them. For several years this raged on as the Jalingers killed anyone who opposed them. Finally they had been ready to take the war to Earth's surface. In a last-ditch effort to stop them a team of rebels had infiltrated their headquarters and managed to, with many casualties, capture the group's two leaders.
Without their leaders guiding them the Jalingers soon fell apart and the council was restored. All this had happened well before the times of Holly and Mulch but it had left a deep scar on all the faerie people akin to the way most humans felt about their second world war.
The symbol upon the dresser had been the symbol of the Jalingers representing their ultimate goal of regaining the Earth. Holly's head spun realizing what this all meant. Mamilton had been a Jalinger. He had been in hiding for most of his life even though the Jalingers were no longer hunted. A mysterious elf from his past had spoken to him with an unknown sign language. Their conversation had compelled Mamilton to fake his own kidnapping and run away.
These things came together into one startling picture: the Jalingers were active again.
Holly put her hand over her mouth and shuddered. Suddenly she felt a hand on her back and looked up to see Estella looking at her worriedly. "I know this is all very startling," she said, "but you still can't tell anyone about this."
"Are you crazy?" shouted Holly. "This isn't about your father anymore, the People are in danger! I need to tell the LEP, the Council!"
Estella slapped Holly lightly across the cheek and looked her in the eye, "You're supposed to be a detective D'Arvit, why don't you try and think about this for a minute? I agree that a Jalinger revival is a greater crisis than whatever may have happened to my father but you can't just run off to the authorities with this. They'll start a wide-spread panic and probably cause massive bloodshed of possible Jalingers alone and that will make the real ones come out and fight. Do you really want to be the cause of a second full-scale Jalinger war?"
Holly looked taken aback had she been a normal elf she probably would started to break down at this point, as it was she took a deep breath and called upon all her LEP training to remain calm. "I suppose you're right, but we have to do something. I can't believe you were going to keep this from us."
"Something is exactly what I've been doing for the past week," said the centaur girl. "I've been trying to find out what they're up to now. They can't be infiltrating high ranks again, the security is too thorough now. I also think they don't have nearly as many in their ranks now, Jalinger is taboo nowadays, and not many can still be seduced by it. I haven't been able to find very much information on what they're up to now but I think they are trying to avoid another war with the People. I think this time they want to move directly to the mud men."
Mulch finally regained his voice, "But what are we going to do if we can't tell anyone about them coming back together? We don't have any source to get information from and I don't see how we could find one without the Jalingers finding out we're on their trail. Even if we do find out what their exact plans are, how are the three of us going to stop a group that dangerous?"
"Let's take this one step at a time Mulch," said Holly with her head down. She was now thinking at a feverish pace. She was certain there was something that they could do but what? That's when it hit her.
"The hand signals!" Mulch and Estella looked at her curiously. "Do you remember the hand code Mamilton and the elf were using on the recording? Foaly said he couldn't decipher it because he had no basis to work off of but now that we know where it originated maybe he can decode it!"
Mulch smiled and nodded in agreement but Estella looked nervous. When she noticed everyone looking at her she gazed down at her hooves distractedly. "Do we really have to tell Foaly? I don't think I could stand it if he found out."
Holly sighed, she should have known this would happen. She tossed her keys to Mulch and told him to wait in the car. When he was gone, looking rather glee filled at the possibility of driving, Holly turned back to her client.
"You know we're still holding true to our promise Estella. Neither of us is going to tell anyone about your father's history. It's like I said, it's far in his past and he obviously regrets it. I don't think any less of you now and neither does Mulch. Let's face it, we're just your detectives, if we can manage to still have the same respect for you I'm sure Foaly could too. He's nuts about you and has been for weeks, he wouldn't give all that up just because your father made some mistakes. I think he'd actually think it's admirable that you've gone to such lengths to protect Mamilton."
Estella was crying again but she had a look of hope in her eyes. "Do you really believe that?"
Holly patted her on the shoulder and headed toward the door. "Of course I do. Now come on, let's solve this mystery."
On another day Estella might have found this to be a rather cliché line but at that moment she was just glad she didn't have to be alone in her secret any more. She had known it was foolish to keep her knowledge of the Jalingers to her self but she hadn't known how she could trust anyone with the truth, she was glad her detectives had found her out. They really were wonderful people.
Holly watched Estella as she limped toward the shuttle and helped her into the back seat. When this was done the elf buckled herself into the driver's seat (after telling Mulch in no uncertain terms that he would never drive her anywhere again and to let her into her seat).
She felt a bit distracted now that she thought of the comfort speech she had given Estella. She had promised not to reveal Mamilton's past to any officials, it certainly was far behind him, but now she realized they didn't really know why he had left. It was possible he had just been running away from a group he had thought was long-since dead, but what if his kidnapping had been staged so that he could run back to that group?
Holly gritted her teeth; she would just have to see what this mystery wound up revealing. She would deal with any moralities or punishments later.
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Artemis knew of the importance of his task. He had been working tirelessly on it ever since it had been presented to him. He was beginning to feel overwhelmed though. He knew he was doing something very good for another person, and he was sure his father would be very proud, but there was something about the whole business that was unsettling him. He really didn't care about Tomoe, he found her annoying and slightly idiotic, he felt he was only helping her so he could pat himself on the back and convince himself that he truly was a wonderful person like so many so-called heroes of the world.
He was starting to feel sick with himself but he also knew that he couldn't just leave Tomoe's parents to die; he wouldn't be able live with that. He knew he could only finish his current task and stay away from similar ventures in the future. However this did not mean he couldn't take a break.
Artemis backed away from his computer and stretched his arms. He wished he could go for a walk but it had been hard enough to convince Matt to leave him alone while he was working in his room, if Artemis was caught outside by his British friend it would be hours before the criminal mastermind would be able to do his work again.
Instead he decided to update his diary. Once he found the disk he was surprised to see how far behind his entries had gotten. The most recent date recorded was before he had even planned to steal the Old Woman in the Wood painting. He knew this needed to be remedied, after all so much had happened since then.
With a strange feeling of peace coming over him Artemis began to type.
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Life was becoming quite dull for Matt. It had been several days since Artemis's girlfriend incident and almost nothing had happened since. Classes were starting to seriously pile up on homework and it had left the young British boy with very little spare time. It was just as well though, Artemis had been locking himself away in his room ever since his meeting with the girl, Tomoe Matt believed she was called. Now it was Thursday and young Burbenshire was thoroughly bored. He decided to go seek out new forms of entertainment.
Several hours later Matt was wishing he had just stayed bored as a punching bag whacked him upside the head and to the floor.
"That's the first time I've seen someone beaten by an inanimate object," said Butler. If he were less professional he might have burst out laughing, as it was he was able to restrain himself to a mild chuckle.
Matt had decided after the incident of his beating that he would need to learn how to defend himself. He had asked Butler several weeks ago if it would be possible for him to get some lessons from the bodyguard but of course protecting Artemis tended to be a full-time job. It was only because of his principle's self-enforced isolation that week that Butler was finally able to give Matt's request some attention.
They had now been working together for two hours. The first hour Butler had spent setting Matt straight on all the misconceptions the boy had about fighting from television and movies, specifically on things like why it was a bad idea to use macho lingo or smash any part of oneself through glass, especially since one of these things tended to lead to the other.
For the second hour Butler had considered beginning by teaching Matt about self-discipline and having inner peace but decided to see what the boy's abilities already were before starting on the these meditative subjects. It turned out to be a good idea that he did this, Matt had absolutely no idea what he was doing, he was just flailing around to the tune of some fighting song he had once heard, it was no wonder those bullies had been able to so thoroughly beat him before Butler had arrived.
After thirty minutes of coaching Matt had finally gotten the hang of administering basic punches and kicks properly and had been giving the air around him a sound beating when Butler suggested that he move on to a punching bag. They had then moved from the back field of St. Bartleby's to the town's gym and ever since Matt had been receiving a sound beating from the smug blue punching bag. Butler didn't quite understand how it was possible but every time Matt struck out the bag would be hit in such a way that it would spin violently and hit the English boy upside the head. One would think that he would have at least learned to dodge these assaults by now but the bag always seemed to catch Matt by surprise.
After a solid half-hour of putting up with the bags attacks, Butler's chuckles, and his complete inability to use the manservant's advice to fix his attacks Matt was seriously starting to wonder if this punching bag might be homophobic and if so whether forged pictures of it in compromising positions with other punching bags might make it stop beating him so. It was then that Matt knew it was time to quit for the day.
He told Butler he was leaving and would walk back to school so there was no need for the bodyguard to come with him. He half-registered the generic comment of encouragement he got in return and walked out the door. Once he was outside Matt was able to breath the fresh air and clear his head. The afternoon's activities had served as another painful reminder of his pathetic combat skills and he doubted Butler would be available again for a while to continue his lessons. Matt realized he would have to find some other source of instruction. The bookstore was bound to have some books on self-defense. That would be a good place to start at any rate. With renewed hope the young charity student ran off and was in front of Betsy's Book-Cannon within five minutes.
Matt paused outside the store for a moment to catch his breath and then began to run through the doors of what he deemed book-dom. Unfortunately as he began running through someone else was coming out and a comical collision occurred of the type usually only seen in comedy films. Once he had regained his wits Matt hastily moved to help the young girl up.
His eyes widened in surprise as he realized the girl he had crashed into was in fact the same girl Artemis had been meeting with mere days ago. Tomoe pushed his arm away and stood up by herself. As she looked herself over and straightened her clothes Matt realized he ought to apologize even if the poor girl couldn't speak any English, it was just the proper thing to do.
"I'm terribly sorry about crashing into you like that," he said nervously. "I really should have watched where I was going before barreling through the doors like that."
"There's no harm done," said the Japanese girl somewhat coldly. "Just don't let it happen again."
With that said Tomoe walked off to attend to whatever business she had but Matt stayed in place watching her for some time until she was out of sight. He was a bit shocked, not only had Tomoe spoken in perfect English to him but she had done it without a trace of an accent as if she'd been speaking the language for years. Matt hadn't been able to wheedle much out of Artemis about the girl but he had been explicitly told that she couldn't speak any English. It was possible that Artemis had lied about what languages Tomoe could speak but that seemed to be a pointless thing to do. That meant that she had lied about not being able to speak English, but why would she want to hide that from Artemis?
Matt was almost unsure if it was the same girl anymore. Her mannerisms were completely different, the girl with Artemis at the café had seemed young and emotional, and this one seemed far more mature and down-right cold. Matt shuddered to remember the hard glare he had gotten when he had first tried to help her up it had been almost cruel. He was starting to wonder if he had made some mistake but he closed his eyes and mentally compared the faces of the café girl and the girl outside the bookstore, they were definitely the same. There was something wrong about this Tomoe, but what was it?
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A/N: Finally we reach the end of the long awaited chapter nine. After this chapter things should be getting more action-packed. What is Tomoe up to? Is there really more to her than meets the eye? Is Matt just a paranoid git? All this and more in later chapters. As for Holly's storyline it seems I am doomed to forever have two unrelated storylines going at once. Well not forever they will eventually merge but it's so hard to connect them in the meantime. Anyway we finally know what's going on in Haven and what's up with Mamilton's past, I hope it's not a disappointment to you all.
In other news I was thinking the other day of a contest I might have for fans of this story but I decided to drop it when I realized no one would want to participate. The idea was asking fans how they would end the story at this point if it had to be done in five hundred words or less. I think any such entries would at least be a laugh and I would put them on my livejournal.
Speaking of my livejournal (which again can be reached through my profile page) I have recently put in a rather lengthy entry about the origins of my original characters' names. You should go see it, it's rather interesting.
Finally on a serious note I was wondering if you guys would completely kill me or think it was cliché if Artemis eventually and slowly got paired with someone. It's just an idea I'm toying with for now but I would like my reader's opinions. Thank you and I'll see you soon!