Chapter 175

As the next step in their mission, they decided to go to the Maybury Las Vegas family apartment. The brothers had bought it together, but really, only Deacon used it. Or that's what his brothers told Dexter. Since they knew Foe's gang were in America with them, they sent one of the other Maybury brothers to go check on Deacon's apartment in Ireland while they checked the American one in hopes of some extra hidden clues that Deacon may have left in America to conceal his footsteps.

"I find it incredibly unlikely we'll get anything here," Valkyrie muttered to Dexter's back. The apartment complex was quite nice despite it not being in any sort of celebrity part of the city, but the stairs were narrow and the building smelt sort of musty. For such an expensive city, Valkyrie supposed the tall, clear windows and the thin but spotless stairs was pretty good going.

"His brother just text me that Deacon was in America only three days before his woodchipper incident in Ireland," Dexter said, turning back to grin at her. "They found the plane tickets. So actually, we may well be on the right track."

"Alright, Detective Vex," Valkyrie said, her own hopes lifting as well as her smile. "How you doing, Ryan?"

He was breathing heavily from the three flights of stairs they'd already walked. Another three to go. "Okay."

"Good to know."

They got to the sixth floor and went directly to the apartment. It was trashed. Papers were all over the floor, the sofa had been slashed over all its cushions and had most of the stuffing pulled out. All the pictures and other artefacts had been damaged or ruined. Valkyrie sent Dexter to the bedrooms to search and Tanith helped him while Valkyrie took the small office nook.

"What are we looking for in this mess?" Tanith called out.

"Foe secured the Doomsday Machine somewhere," Valkyrie called back. "We need to find out where. Maybe we'll get lucky and discover Deacon was an avid journal-keeper or some shit like that. At the very least, if nothing takes us to the Machine, there might be some name or reference that'll bring us closer to that."

The bookshelf above her chose that moment to fall on her head and books spilt over the floor. She swore and jumped back, glaring at the mess.

She looked up and caught Ryan smiling at her. She just tutted, at her own misfortune and that of Ryan finding humour in her hour of absolute need and went to talk to him for a moment while she looked over the papers on the floor. "I hate looking for clues," she said.

"Isn't that the biggest part of being a detective?" Ryan asked, still looking at her with more and more obviously admiration.

"I prefer the bit where I hit people," she said, turning her back on him to stop seeing the expression on his face. The kid must only be fifteen or sixteen, a little pudgy but not large by any means. Just small enough to still be healthy by any person's measurement but not so small as to avoid being bullied. Which may not have been too bad except that his face was not the most handsome, and that wasn't too bad either, except he obviously hadn't washed it even with a splash of water in a while, and he didn't seem to have brushed his hair recently, or perhaps his life. The uncaring, slumped way he stood didn't help. He looked desperate for a bit of attention, maybe even a compliment, and on one hand she'd love to give that to the kid so he'd be a bit more confident, and she was sure Nadia would want her to give him some advice about upkeeping his appearance too – but he looked the type of desperate-for-a-compliment where he'd decide Valkyrie was his one true love if she dared. She tried to think of a middle ground. "Perhaps I just have a violent nature though. We could all do with being a bit more peace-keeping, like you."

There was a pause from Ryan. "Why am I peace-keeping?" He asked with a frown.

"Well, you did sort of scream a lot in the library and were pretty terrible at the violence stuff. So I figured you were peace-keeping," she told him, keeping the smile to herself as she started rummaging through the drawers in the living area.

He spluttered a bit and wrung his hands. "Just because I don't go around getting into fights every day doesn't mean I can't fight."

"Hey, not being good at violence is nothing to be ashamed of," she said, not helping the grin she sent him. He went very red. "If there were more peace-keeping people in the world there'd be less need for violence from people like me. I'd be more than happy being pushed out of my job because everyone loved each other. I'm not sure what I'd do, but I'd still be happy about it."

He didn't say anything again for a moment and then he let out a shout. Valkyrie's head snapped over to see Ryan holding a hand over his heart and a little middle-aged lady in the doorway.

"Hello there," Valkyrie smiled charmingly – she could almost put her brothers to shame with her smile now. "How are you? Come in if you like, it's alright. Who are you exactly…?"

"Francine," the woman said, a little flustered. Tanith abandoned her looking but Dexter diligently keep going. Francine looked between Tanith, Valkyrie and Ryan. "I live down the hall… What are you doing in Deacon's apartment?"

"You know Deacon?" Valkyrie asked. Or maybe just one of Deacon's brothers using his name since they were all identical and mostly the real Deacon came here so it helped to stay conspicuous, but still. Francine followed her into the room and sat on one of the undamaged wooden chairs as Tanith checked the hallway and closed the door.

"Well, yes," Francine said, frowning at Valkyrie and then at Ryan. "He's my neighbour and he's a good man. If you're robbing him then I must say–"

"I promise, we're not robbing him," Valkyrie soothed quickly. "However, there is some bad news. Mr Maybury was already robbed. Myself and my two associates are investigators, and this is our young student-shadower for today. We're doing our best to find whoever damaged Mr Maybury's property."

"Oh," she said. "And Deacon, is he okay?"

Valkyrie hesitated. "Actually, no. No he's not. Unfortunately, he was killed."

"He's dead?"

"He is. It was not here, and we don't think this robbery has anything to do with his death. It was of… natural causes." If slipping into a woodchipper was natural.

Francine slumped and moaned about how awful it was. "Oh, Lord, why did you take him," she cried loudly. She turned to Valkyrie, grasping her hand. "Tell me, how did he die?"

Valkyrie hesitated again. "He fell. Into a woodchipper."

Francine gasped and then burst out crying. "Oh, no, Deacon. My poor, poor Deacon!"

"I'm very sorry for your loss," she said, putting a hand on Francine's shoulder. "I'm sure he was a great guy."

This did nothing to sooth Francine and Valkyrie was starting to feel quite uncomfortable as Francine started blubbering and asking her god questions. She turned to Ryan and he took a step forwards, a sympathetic look on his face.

"You obviously love him very much," he said.

Francine released her. "I did."

"I'm sure he loved you back."

"Did he ever mention me?"

Ryan's eyes widened and he glanced at Valkyrie who had moved around the other side of the woman to keep searching. She smirked at him. "All the time," he lied, nodding at Francine too much. "Yes. God, every time I spoke to him he was all, Francine this and Francine that and… ohh, how I love Francine."

"He said that? You knew him?"

"Yes, I met him at the place I'm working, shadowing these… people. He definitely said those things."

Francine gasped dramatically and Valkyrie rolled her eyes and she shuffled through a dresser. "I knew it. I knew he loved me. All those long silences. All those awkward moments. I should have told him I felt the same way. Then we could have – then we could have…"

She started sobbing again and Valkyrie couldn't help the sarcastic thumbs up she sent Ryan's way.

"Did you talk to Deacon much?" Tanith asked. "Did you tell each other about your days? Confide in each other?"

"With a love like ours," she warbled, "we didn't need words."

"How inconvenient," Valkyrie muttered into the drawers.

"Francine, we're looking for something Deacon actually left for us, as well as clues as to who did this. We worked with him, you see. He left us a mobile house. Do you know of any places he'd keep that, perhaps a warehouse?"

"Well, I overheard him on the phone once talking about paperwork for a warehouse cluttering up his files if that helps."

"It does," Tanith said, a frown on her own face as she immediately turned to help them with finding the papers. At least they had a good chance of finding something here then.

Ryan spoke with the lady some more and agreed to help her back to her apartment. A good five or six minutes went by and Valkyrie was starting to get antsy about Ryan being gone, so she went down the hall to go check on him and knocked on the only other apartment this side of the floor, calling Francine's name.

She knocked again when she heard no answer. "Francine?" She tried again. "Is Ryan in there with you?"

A little something sparked in her gut as bad news and she gestured for Tanith and Dexter to come over, as they had been looking out Deacon's door to see if she was alright. She tried again and then heard the sound of something like flesh on flesh, so she kicked the door open just as Ryan was thrown against a window and bounced back in, shattering the glass. All four of Foe's gang was there and no Francine.

She jumped straight into the fight just to get punched so hard by Samuel she folded mid-air. She shouted for Ryan to run as she staggered to her feet and faced the vampire again. Ryan stumbled out of the room and she'd barely been grappling with Samuel for ten seconds when he tossed her through the wall, chipboard and plaster exploding into the hall. She rolled to her feet and noticed Ryan standing at the top of the stairs dumbly. "Run!"

Things happened very quickly. Obloquy came striding out of the apartment with his eyes locked on Ryan, making him double over in pain. Valkyrie, feeling the ache in her muscles even with her protective clothing, pulled herself around the bannister and pushed her arms out, slinging twin jets of energy into him. He was hit hard enough to be thrown and then writhed on the floor, and she noticed Mercy behind her at the same time as Ryan shouted, but wasn't quick enough to avoid being hit by the red energy coming from her mouth.

She was thrown back and the stream kept coming, singing her hair badly. It didn't hurt but she still let out a short scream right before Tanith tackled Mercy to the ground. Valkyrie patted her hair out and watched the ends fall to the floor. It was less than shoulder length! Her hair!

She growled and looked up at Mercy with pure malice. She'd ruined her fucking hair!

There wasn't much she could do right then though as Obloquy had stopped spasming and looked like he was trying to stand back up and Ryan had grabbed at her sleeve. He pulled her down the stairs to the fifth floor and she acted on automatic, putting her hands against the glass and letting out just a tiny amount of energy to shatter the glass. It fell away.

"Come on," she said, feeling the back of her hair was still shoulder blade length. This was worse than it all being ruined, now she had to go out of her way to have the rest cut! She growled again and grabbed the drainpipe, lowering herself down to ground level.

She looked up, wanting to shout at Ryan for taking forever, but didn't get a chance as Tanith had jumped out the window and grabbed Ryan's waist, holding him as she ran down the side of the building. She jumped the last bit, almost making Ryan pee himself, and then set him right.

"Okay?" Valkyrie asked him.

He just sort of whimpered.

"Oh, no," Tanith suddenly said, eyes wide. She grabbed at Valkyrie's hair and some more fell off. "Oh no, this isn't good at all."

"It's Mercy's fault," she growled, fists balling up.

Tanith tutted. "Well, I might have broken her nose."

"You should have cut it off."

Tanith snorted a laugh as Dexter came barrelling out the front of the building. They jumped into their car and started off quickly, Valkyrie slouching and crossing her arms angrily as Tanith told the cleaning unit behind them what to expect.

"They'll have some fun explaining this one," she sighed, putting the phone away.

Valkyrie grunted.

"Aww, it's not that bad Val. You know, when it's all cleaned up, I bet you'll look good with short hair," Tanith said supportively.

"We'll have to cut off the burnt bits soon though," Dexter said. "No offence, but burnt hair makes me sick."

It did smell pretty bad. They drove a fair distance and then Valkyrie switched seats with Ryan so Tanith could cut off the ends and the back so it was all the same length with Valkyrie's flip-blade. It came out a bit shorter than a bob with no layers or anything to make it look nice. It did not suit her at all. She looked stupid. She had an obnoxiously short bob. She glared at herself in the mirror.

"Nadia's going to hate it," she said, closing her eyes and putting her head back.

"No she won't," Dexter said.

"I'm going to look like a butch lesbian."

"That's mean to all the butch lesbians."

"Are you saying my hair is so bad that I'm offending people with my existence, Dexter?" Valkyrie asked, glaring at the back of his head.

He let out a laugh. "No, I meant you hating your hair and liking it to an entire group of people is offensive. You're going to look great Cub, I promise. I'm sure we can find a hairdresser that can fix you up before we go back to the hotel. And if I'm honest, you look more like a really cheap Karen."

"Oh my god," she just muttered, covering her face with her hands. "I only had it cut a few weeks ago."

"You'd look good as a butch lesbian," Tanith said suddenly, and Valkyrie looked at her. Tanith burst out laughing. "It's not that bad!"

"Well, maybe it isn't, but it's not what I'm going for at all!" She practically shouted. She felt herself go red. "I hate it. I hate everything, but more than anything I hate Mercy."

"Aww, I think you like her," Dexter grinned.

"I think you think she's really pretty and you have a crush on her," Tanith continued.

Valkyrie glared at them. "I fucking don't. I hate her. And you know what, I want a haircut before anything else fucking happens, if anyone sees me like this I'll be mocked."

"We can't, we have to go to that Crasis dude," Dexter told her.

"Who?"

"He's the only guy I can think of that could have made Mercy look like Francine. He's retired now, but he did a lot of work in the war and he relocated around here some fifty years ago. We'll visit him and see if he worked with Mercy, and if so, why."

"At least you're shaping up to be a competent detective," she grouched, pulling out her phone to look up some salons she could run into. There had to be one. Even on New Year's Eve, there had to be one.

Oooooh I've wanted Val to get a short ass hair cut for ages! Since I started writing I wanted her to try short hair! And now I have my plan in action hehehe.

I hope you enjoyed, please review even if you are a guest :)

Lord Duck the Second: Yes, Ryan has immerged. I think you'll enjoy the next few, but it's mostly just some original book takes ;) still, at least they are in LV, and Val is having a bad time, so that's fun.