Chapter 4: Fog and Cold in Wales
Summary: Merry Christmas! Already a little bit closer to the end. Here everyone is looking for a reason to fail in their original mission ...
Chapter Text
It was so cold! And it was already getting dark. The atmosphere was soulless.
Camille, in her role as "maid, servant, I am nobody in this society ..." studied everything with great emotion. She didn´t care that many people who walked around her did not even bother to notice her. Now she understood Richard! She was inside the story! And, as an undercover agent, she could study everything and everyone without being disturbed by anyone. Richard was also absorbed in everything that was happening around him, but without losing sight of Camille in a subtle way, of course. He had already lost his mind once with the anomalies and did not want that to happen again. And much less Camille.
The others: Captain Becker, Abby, Connor, Emily, Matt ... they were used to it. Alert but relatively quiet.
"It's not much different from where I lived," Emily commented, "but we found ourselves in an area where women weren't even allowed to know they existed. Even though you ended up knowing. I secretly read newspapers," Matt looks at her curious, he always likes to know more about her. And he is not separated from his side, more in his state. "I steal it from the butler when he finished reading it. He probably knew it, but he didn't dare report me."
They all observed poverty, activity too, the norms of society in 19th century Wales.
"I have to convince Lester to do something," Abby commented. The children were all for her. "I'm sure he can do something. If we have a special team to 'fix' the damage from the anomalies, he's sure to come up with something. Don't you think, Connor?"
"I'm sure of it" he replied. Although he couldn't think of what, but he had, like everyone else, faith in James Lester and his humanity.
Captain Béquer studied everything. He had to know the escape routes. He had read the reports that Lester gave him and he knew that it was not all poverty, there were also many gambling dens, pimps, murderers ... They were all in his charge.
"Richard, didn't we have a poorhouse name?" Camille asked him.
"That's right. It's the closest to the area where the girl was wandering. We should try there first."
They all went without delay to the place mentioned in the report.
Meanwhile, at the ARC, James Lester is on Skype with Fidel and Dwayne. Since they remodeled the entire Saint Marie Police Station with air conditioning! More than powerful computer equipment is already available to access all the information that is needed.
"Is it clear what I have asked of you?" Lester asked them again.
They looked at him seriously. They still weren't used to the uncanny physical resemblance to their Chief.
"Of course" it was Fidel who spoke. "We must be aware of the newspapers of the time to see if there are important changes. Something that should not be there"
"Perfect. That's it. You know the Commissioner will handle the rest of the official business together with the provisional officers until DI Poole and DS Poole arrive. That's it. Thank you." And cut the communication.
"This man is used to the world turning around him. Or so he seems to behave" exclaimed Dwayne.
Fidel looked at him with a smile and said:
"Well, if we don't want to face his anger, we should start as soon as possible. To pull the newspaper library!"
And they both went about their business in wonderfully warm weather outside.
While Connor and Bécker stand guard, Matt interrogates Mr. Masters, only Masters for the rest of the world. His asylum is a place where everyone has to earn what he generously distributes to them.
"Mr. Masters, please take a good look at the picture. Do you recognize the girl?" Asks Matt firmly.
Masters looks at them in disbelief and laughs:
"Do you really want me to remember a particular girl? Are you sure she was among my protégés?"
"Don't you keep a Registry of the people you 'protect'?" Richard asked.
"Obviously not sir."
"But the law obliges you to provide shelter and education for the children in your charge," Richard insisted.
What Richard didn´t know, but Emily guessed, was that those who ran such premises, threw out the children when they received the visit of the Inspection that was in charge of checking what Richard commented and then "recruited" them again when the Inspectors left. . Thus they avoided having to take care of their schooling.
Masters was getting impatient. He wasn´t going to get anything out of them and he had other more succulent businesses to attend to.
"I'm sorry, but I think it's already clear that I don't know anything about that girl. I can't do anything for you."
People were already swirling around him who would have no problem convincing them with other means less safe for all of them. They had no choice but to leave.
A woman was watching and listening to them all that time. She was poorly dressed, but she wasn´t like the rest of the women who lived badly in the area. He followed them for a while until he saw that they were entering an abandoned building. Steeling herself, she approached them to ask:
"One moment, please. Sir," she pleaded, turning to Richard. "Have you found a girl with brown hair of about three years? It could be a niece of mine who was entrusted to my charge. Is it her?"
Richard looks at her doubtfully and asks Matt with his eyes. Emily walks up to her and shows her the portrait of the girl.
"It's her?" She asks.
The woman looks at the portrait carefully and answers:
"Yes, ma'am, it's her. I've been looking for her for hours. Is she okay? Where is she now?"
"Madam, your niece is fine. If you tell me where you live, we will take her to you. Could you tell us the girl's name and yours, please?" Matt asks. "As you understand, we have to check it first"
The woman looks at him suspiciously. This man doesn´t seem so easy to convince with the first one he addressed. In spite of everything, she gives him the information he asks for and her address.
"Don't worry. If all is well, you will have the girl with you very soon" Emily reassures her.
The woman nods her head and glances back from time to time. It´s a very strange group. And with a woman who is not English. It must be the maid or something.
Béquer stays watching her while the others leave for the hidden anomaly in the building. When he's made sure no one is following them, he quickly walks over to her and joins them.
In James Lester's office Lester, Camille, Emily, Richard, Matt and Bequer are gathered.
"The woman's name is Doris Hawkins. She says that the girl's name is Jemima Smith, and that she´s the daughter of her sister Helen, who died together with her husband in South Africa." Emily Merchant informs Lester.
Lester stares at her and asks:
"And do you trust her?"
"No. I think that at this point before we should see what information we can get with those names. The area where this woman comes from does not exactly induce confidence. People there are just trying to survive. But that girl is in our hands and we must ensure for her, "clarifies Emily.
"James, if you'll allow me, I'd like to check this whole thing out with Saint Marie. They've been going through the newspaper library in the area at that time. I just want to know if they've read anything related to that name," Richard suggests.
"And we can review the official documents, those that belong to the civil registries. I understand that we can access them," Camille asks.
"Naturally. Of course, the information is reserved and should not leave here, even if it is already very old. Whenever you want you can consult everything you can get from those names," replied Lester. "If you have any problems, talk to Jess, she will get you all the help you need. I call the meeting over. You can leave. As soon as something is known, let me know"
"Okay. Thanks," Camille replies.
Once outside the office, Camille tells Richard
"I'm going to call home to see how the children are, Richard. And by the way, you talk to Fidel and Dwayne about what has occurred to you at the office. See if we can get back as soon as possible."
"Right now"
The entire afternoon was spent by Camille, with the help of Matt, Richard, and Emily deep in the archives. And, as everyone suspected, the only thing they found was that Jemima Smith never existed, like Doris Hawkins in fact.
On the other hand, Richard received the results of the investigations of Fidel and Dwayne and, as expected, there was nothing on that side either.
Although they weren´t as disheartened as expected. Deep down they didn´t want to return the girl to a situation with no future for her. Camille began to ponder an idea. But it still seemed too far-fetched to expose to Richard.
They spent the night in the ARC's quarters without incident for them. Matt's team had to go out to investigate a raid by a Compsognathus longipes (roughly the size of a rooster, Lester was already jokingly wondering if too many resources were wasted for such small animals) precisely on a farm outside Dundee, in Scotland. It was fixed without problems. But, as Richard and Camille thought, it was none of their business.
"Richard" he asked when they were already in bed resting from their travel in time.
"Yes?" He answered her half sleepy.
"Don't you miss Saint Marie, the heat, the light, ...?"
Richard didn't know where she wanted to go.
"I miss the children, of course. It´s impossible not to notice when they aren´t making one of their messes. The heat I will never miss" well, a little, but he would never recognize it. "But it's normal, why do you ask?"
"I was thinking that our life is not very normal. When I met you, I would never have imagined even in my wildest dreams that your life was going to change mine in such an extraordinary way. You seem like an ordinary and normal name, Richard, but you are quite a special person. "
He was more than flattered, but still didn't know where she wanted to go.
"Thank you very much." He moved closer to her to give her one of his kisses, the kind she never tired of receiving. "But I remind you that you are also quite special."
She smiled and said: "Like our children. I will never forget that, in a way, they were conceived in temporary limbo. Who knows if everyone we are going to have will be special for that reason?"
Richard looks at her half scared asking:
"Don´t tell me that..."
Camille looks at him and hurriedly clarifies: "No, no, no! That I know of. Surely not. Don't worry, come on, keep sleeping" She said turning around.
Richard no longer got to sleep until very late.