Haunt (Regenerate #5)

Chapter 3

Lorna pulls up the news story on the big screen so everyone can see it.

"How does a 400 pound statue just disappear from an art museum?" Loa asks.

"That is the question of the hour, isn't it?" Mantis says.

The article says the police have no leads," Lorna says. "Nothing showed up on their video cams, none of the security measures were tripped."

"Whoever did this is a professional," Mia says.

"Or somebody with powers," Mantis replies.

"So we're definitely looking into this, right?" I say.

"Yes," Mantis says. "We'll look into it. Lorna, Thalia, and Mia, go to the museum and see if you can find anything the authorities missed. I'll look through the police records and do some additional research. Danny, Vanessa, and Mikayla, you're going to watch footage from the security cameras and see if you can find anything interesting."

Vanessa groans. "That sounds so boring."

"Can we make popcorn?" Mikayla asks. "It will be like a movie night."

"You can have popcorn and pizza if you want," Lorna says.

Danny leans over to Mikayla. "How did he get security footage from the museum?"

"He's a computer hacker," Mikayala whispers back.

Danny nods, but still looks a little bewildered.

Mantis doesn't show any indication of having heard him, although I'm sure he did. "And Loa..."

"Uh, it's taco night at my house," Loa said. "And I'd like to make it to my son's soccer game if I could."

Mantis nods. "Go ahead. We'll let you know if we need you."

Loa gives us a thumbs up.

Lorna smiles at me and Mia and says, "You ladies ready to experience a little culture?"

"Yeah," I say. "But I want pizza after. And popcorn."

We leave as Mikayla places an order for pizza. When we get to the museum, though, it's still closed down.

"We should wait it out," Lorna says. "It looks like the police are wrapping up their investigation."

"I'll go ask," Mia says, walking towards the museum.

"This is nice," Lorna says.

"Yeah. Nothing like trying to solve a crime on a Saturday morning."

Lorna smiles. "What I meant is that it's nice that we're doing something productive. I was going a little stir crazy not getting any missions."

"Whatever," I say. "You've got plenty to do. You run a business and you're training Vanessa, developing new weapons. Don't tell me you've been bored."

"Not like bored bored," Lorna says. "But this is nice, isn't it?"

"Yeah," I say. "It is nice. It feels like we're back to normal. You know, whatever our version of normal is."

Mia is coming back now. "They said to expect the museum to open up in about five minutes, but the room the sculpture was stolen from is still closed."

Lorna nods. "Good. We can start by checking out the rest of the museum, see if we can find any way the perp would have gotten in."

We spend the whole day at the museum, and it's hard to look at the security instead of the art. I remind myself that we can come back another day to do more browsing.

When it's all said and done, we don't find anything. We head back to headquarters. Lorna and Mia complain half the way home about how bad their feet hurt.

Mikayla, Danny, and Vanessa are still watching videos when we get back. Vanessa looks bored out of her mind, but the other two seem at least mildly interested in the task.

Mikayla glances up for a minute. "The first pizzas we got are cold now, so we ordered a new one."

"You are brilliant," I say. She grins and returns to her video.

Mantis comes into the room. "I didn't find anything," he says. "The security looks tight. I mean, not tight by my standards. But it's good."

Lorna flops into a chair and starts devouring a piece of pizza. "We didn't find anything either."

"We should call it a night," Mantis says. "We'll keep working on it tomorrow."

Lorna snaps her fingers. "There's a viewing party at the Norton Gallery tomorrow. A couple of us should go. Just in case."

"You just want to go to a party," Mantis says.

"We might as well," Lorna says. "We can't be all work and no play, after all."

"Fine," Mantis says.

"And also we should have a hot tub party at my house tonight," Lorna says. "Because my feet hurt."

"You can have a hot tub party if you want," Mantis says. "I'm not coming."

Lorna pouts. "Why? What are you going to do at home?"

He shrugs. "Read a book."

"That's stupid," Lorna says. "Don't be such a stick in the mud."

Mantis throws his hands up in defeat. "Fine. I'll come."

"Perfect," Lorna says, turning to wink at me.

I roll my eyes, but I don't think she notices.