A Host of Fallen Dreams - After the Rising Book 1

Chapter 25

Elian

The City

Elian was finding work slow. It was the lull between leads in his search for Lukas Ridgeway, and so as he awaited the next possible clue, he turned his attention towards the Underground. Every detective at headquarters had a file on the Underground, and each of them was charged with keeping these cases active. No matter what else they were working on, the search for members of the Underground continued.

He understood the purpose of the Underground, could even, at stretch imagine being part of it if his role had been different at the time of The Rising. What he couldn't get his head around was that the Underground didn't seem to realise they got their own people killed by stirring them up on a quest for something they could never have. The world would never be as it was before The Rising, not even if they managed to overthrow the new government.

All Elian Nyks wanted was peace in The City. Then he could go back to doing what he loved: real detective work. He used to solve murders, bust drug gangs, work undercover to bring down criminal enterprise rings. For the last few years, his bosses had him chasing ghosts. Who really cared where Lukas Ridgeway was? Whose business was it really apart from his sister's, the only family the young man had left? It's not as if he was some kind of criminal mastermind.

Thinking of Lyra, he thought over the strange reappearance of her tarot deck. There was no doubt it had been bothering him since he found out that somehow Janellia had got her hands on it. As far as he knew, everything belonging to Lyra was in the basement of the building he was in, along with all the other evidence the police had ever collected.

Bored with his paperwork, Elian put on his jacket and left the office. Outside, Rooker was at his desk, almost asleep.

'You bored too, eh?' he asked, startling the assistant detective to wakefulness.

'Who me, boss? Well...'

'Get your jacket. Let's go for a walk. Between us, we should be able to convince anyone watching we are at least pretending to work today.'

Elian continued down the hall, heading towards the stairs. A few moments later, Rooker's heavy footfall indicated he had almost caught him up.

'So where are we going?'

'Evidence. I want to check something out.'

'Sounds cryptic.'

'Well...Let's just say I have my concerns about something, and before I go any further, I need to be sure.'

'If that was supposed to make this sound less mysterious, boss, you failed.'

They walked down so many flights of stairs they lost count. When they ran out of steps, it meant that they had reached the basement. Walking out of the stairwell, they were greeted by the gloomy Evidence reception area. As they were two floors below ground level, the only light to be had was artificial, and it seemed to give everything a strange, unrealistic glow.

'Hey, Nyks. Rooker. What can I do for you guys?' The policeman at the desk was a friend of Elian's from his Academy days.

'Latner, good to see you.' They shook hands over the counter. 'You know I'm still working the Luke Ridgeway case, right?'

'Sure. Who doesn't know that?'

'Well, I was speaking to his sister the other day. And, at the time she said something to me, I can't even remember what it was, but it's been niggling away at the back of my mind ever since. And I thought, I need to go over her box of things one more time, you know, see if I missed anything.'