Pt. 8
Dinner was a strained affair at best. For once, even Peter seemed to have run out of topics of conversation. Caine had suggested the little restaurant he and the Ancient often visited, which was just around the corner. The others had agreed, though none were particularly hungry. Miriam sat with her back to the wall, staring out the window to the street, wondering how long it would be before her prey would grow weary of the chase and move on. Or how long it would be before Oversight discovered she wasn't where she was supposed to be. "It never seems like night in the city." She murmured sadly.
"What?" Kermit asked, eyeing his dinner companion grimly.
"It's always so bright in the city. I miss the utter darkness of the country, where the only lights for miles are the stars above your head. The city is so … distracting." She shifted in her seat to get a better look at the ex-mercenary at her side. "Don't you agree, Mr. Griffin?"
"I like the city." Kermit growled, moving fractionally in the opposite direction. "Never was much for being in country. Besides, I like being able to tell the bad guys from the good guys."
"I would think in our line of work the enemy wouldn't be that easy to identify." Miriam mused.
"I'm not in your line of work." Kermit replied coldly.
"Aren't you? Ah, that's right, you're a police officer now. Of course, that makes all the difference doesn't it? But you did share my profession once, didn't you? Just like your friend Captain Blaisdell?" Miriam stopped, distracted by the sight of their waiter coming towards them. "Does anyone want anything else?"
"Forgive me, Master Caine." The young waiter sounded apologetic, fidgeting as he stood before them. "This message was left for Peter on one of the outside tables." He handed the younger man a long envelope with a bow.
Peter fished inside the envelope and removed several photos, all tied together with a black ribbon. "What the…! These are our victims!" He handed the first photo to Kermit with a scowl. "Looks like our guy is trying to get a rise out of us."
"And doing a very good job of it." Miriam commented, taking the image from Kermit's hand. "This would have been your first victim?" she asked, already aware of the answer.
"You know it is." Kermit replied, taking the next few photos from his friend. "You wouldn't have come into this unprepared. I'll bet you even know what each of these people had for dinner the day the disappeared."
"Not quite." She replied with a grim smile. "But I do have a good idea what he did to them after he pulled them into his personal nightmare world."
"We need to take these photos to the lab, see if they can pull anything off them. Probably no finger prints but …" His voice trailed off as he looked at the final image in the stack.
"Is there a problem, Detective Caine?" Miriam asked, suddenly cold.
"Yeah, I'd say so." Peter replied, flipping the photo onto the table in front of her. It was a photo of the two of them, outside of the Kung-Fu Academy, taken only an hour before. "Any bets this means one of us is next?"