Chapter 5
My first mission wasn't what I expected it to be. A murder investigation of a child is important but how was it a matter for the CIA? As I thought it over, Castor (or Aiden or Kaden) got out of the car. He had parked in front of the house where the child had lived and we were going to talk to the family. I knew we had to but seeing the family after their kid had died wasn't something I was looking forward too.
"You coming?" the fake card asked leaning against the car looking through the open door and I looked up at him. His eyes had settled on me in a familiar way that I knew as his I-am-working face. It was also his I-need-you-to-talk-about-what-you-feel look.
"They're going to be crying aren't they?" I asked quietly and he nodded, confirming my fears. Parents weren't something that I would be able to handle well after Jack's death. My thoughts went back to that night and then last night. My nightmares were getting worse and soon I wouldn't be able to sleep at all. A tap from his fingers on the car window startling me and I focused on him. A worried look appeared on his face and I wondered for a brief second who or what he really was. As I wondered about it, I glanced over at the house to find a small woman looking at us through the window. Her eyes weren't tear-streaked but were examining us with the intensity of someone who's paranoid much worse than I could ever be. I was beginning to see why we were sent.
"She doesn't look very distressed," I said lightly slamming the door on my way out and walked up to the door. Pulling out my newly acquired badge, I knocked on the door.
"Widows that need the help of the CIA never are," he replied and I nodded letting the information sink in. I was in a whole new world but the house that was reveled when the door opened was just like any other. White walls were lined with photos of people that I didn't know and I didn't care to know. I knew that something had changed in me, a hardness that I hadn't had before but I never felt the need to look at it.
Zoning back in for what seemed like the fiftieth time that day, I looked through the front rooms while Castor talked to the mother.
"Do you have anybody that you know that would hurt your child in any way?" he was going through the list of questions to ask when I found something that chilled me to the bone.
"Ma'am, did your son like to play with cards?" I questioned holding up a Queen of Spades that had been under a small bouquet of Baby's Breath.
"Not that I know of. Hubert didn't playing with cards too much. He preferred drawing. He loved sketching those plants and I kept everyone of them," she answered drawing a deep breath and let it out in a large sigh.
"Could I see some of them?" hoped and a silence settled over the room as she shifted around searching for the pictures. She finally found them in a drawer under the TV. Handing them over, I examined them looking for something that I was hoping not to find. The first thing I found was a small Q with a spade inside of it in the very center of each plant that was there. The second thing was a small trace of an unknown power that I hadn't felt before. It felt something like a Card power but much more alive. It was a power that squirmed under my scrutiny but it seemed to reach out to me with strands that latched onto my conscious. I let it run through my memories with a swift movement and then I forced it to open itself.
The images I saw were of a young boy drawing quietly with an impassioned look on his face. His eyes dug into the flowers and made sure to get every detail into his work. A pencil ran elegantly across the page that he held in his lap. The image suddenly switched to the dining room with a woman who I would recognize anywhere, Shelia. She was smiling at him happily, with a gentle hand resting on his head. For a moment her eyes sharpened as he gazed up at her but her face quickly shifted back to the kind person that she had displayed for them. Pulling back from the images, I glanced up at the mother and smiled at her.
