Of Lights and Shadows (Book 4)

14) Alice Aforethought

As his taxi drew up outside of Appilatia 41, Yonkers, almost an hour later, Dastardious was struck by a sudden case of Deja-vu.

'I've been here before,' he muttered. It was years ago, a call had come in to investigate two murdered bodies that had been discovered in a basement. It was while on that case that he met Silence for the first time.

He walked up the cream tiled path leading to the door; there was a nicely trimmed lawn on both sides of it and a small fishpond sat in the middle surrounded by four little garden gnomes fishing and pushing wheel barrels. The path curved off at the door to join to the driveway. The door was made of brown wood with a small glass square set at eye height for looking in and out of. Except it was the kind of glass that was swirled so it was impossible to see a clear picture through.

Pushing the doorbell reminded Dastardious of the last time he had been at the house. How he had walked under the tape and through the front door without knocking, following the open hall until he came to the stairs with its door set underneath leading to the basement. An officer had been standing guard and another had rushed out of the basement and promptly thrown up down the hall. He grinned at this memory. He hadn't wanted to take the case to begin with, but it had turned out to be of interest in the end.

That blurred figure that you could see through the glass finally appeared and in a moment the door opened to reveal a striking young lady with dark red hair falling just over her shoulders. She wore a silk dressing gown covered in flowers in bright colours.

'Can I help you?' she asked as she tied up the sash of her gown. Her voice was low and sensual.

'Miss Aforethought?' Dastardious asked. In reply to her nod, he pulled out his badge and showed her. 'Detective Dastardious Hollow. May I come in?'

She looked at the badge, her delicate eyebrows rising slightly as she took it in. 'Do I have to let you in?' she asked.

Dastardious shrugged as he returned his badge to his pocket. 'It's really up to you, it's your house. I do have some questions to ask though, but I don't mind where I am when I ask them,' her eyebrows rose again, 'as long as I get answers,' he finished.

'Well then, it's probably only polite to invite you in so you may as well,' she said, opening the door and walking away, hips swaying in motion as she walked. She disappeared out of sight as she entered through a door.

Following behind Dastardious found her seated on a long couch, her legs, long and slender were breaking through the split of her dressing gown which fell down on either side of them and gave him a clear view.

'What questions would you like to ask, Detective?' she asked creamily.

Ignoring her tone and the look she was giving him, he pulled out his note pad and a pencil. Things had certainly changed from when he was younger. Back then he would have snapped at her and told her to cut it out. He wasn't interested in her, only in the answers she could provide. But as he looked at her he realised that he hadn't actually seen many woman since being released. Not properly, anyway. Not taking the time to actually look at them and appreciate them.

Alice Aforethought was certainly something to appreciate; there was just something about her. He blinked, pulling his thoughts away from the direction they were heading before they got too far. He blamed it on the seductive look she was giving him while chewing slightly on her lips while rubbing her legs together.

He blinked again and coughed. 'What do you know of the Harrison's?' he asked, finally getting the first question out.

Stopping what she was doing Alice Aforethought straightened up, obviously aware that she wasn't going to get very far with him. 'The who?' she asked politely.

'John and Tyler Harrison, they had their baby girl kidnapped last week, and even more recently had her returned to them.'

'I don't know these people,' she replied in a tone of voice which suggested that she might be bored already with the conversation.

'You might not know them, but I have it on good authority that you have met them before. It was at Smither's Baby Gear, a shop set up in Manhattan Mall. It sells,' and here his face scrunched up with something of disgust, '-baby gear.'

'It doesn't ring a bell.'

'I'll see if I can ring it for you. They were looking at a pram in the window to buy their baby girl when you came over and struck up a conversation with them about it. You got talking, apparently, about how they couldn't afford the full price of it and you offered to keep an eye out on sales for them if they wanted. You said you frequented the Mall and so would be sure to see if any bargains came on. Rung the bell yet?'

She shook his head. 'I'm sorry, Detective, it doesn't ring.'

'If you're lying about it then please don't bother, it insults me. I checked with the store employee working there that day and he remembers seeing you talking to them. He also remembers you coming in the next day and buying... two baby jumpsuits which were on sale.'

'I truly am sorry, but I really do not remember meeting these people, or striking up any sort of conversation with them. Let alone buying any baby jumpsuits! I don't have children,' she laughed as if the whole thing was a joke that he was trying to pull on her, and Dastardious was starting to wonder if it was.

'You don't remember being in there three weeks ago?' he asked.

She nodded. 'That is correct.'

'Despite eyewitnesses putting you in the store and talking to the Harrison's?'

She nodded again.'

'Miss Aforethought-'

'Please, call me Alice, Detective, it's much quicker to say,' she said with a playful smile.

'Alice,' he said through gritted teeth as if he hated having to say the name. In truth he liked the name; he just hated it when females pulled this sort of thing on him. 'You are aware that I am investigating a murder? Well so far I only have two suspects, you're one of them. The clues I have in this case have led me to you, and do not look like that!' he snarled suddenly, standing up and throwing his hands in the air as she had pulled one of her faces at him again.

'You are a suspect in a murder investigation and I won't stop until I have this person behind bars, and I don't care who it is. Be it you, the mayor, or my mother. You understand?'

Alice settled back in her couch and nodded her head. 'I wish I could help you, but I simply do not remember ever having met these people before in my life, or even ever being in that shop.'

'Do you swear that to be the truth?'

She didn't reply for a moment, and then gave another nod of her head. 'I really do not remember.'

'All right then,' he would leave it for the moment. 'What about Charles Worchster? Do you know him?'

Again she shook her head, her playful smile slowly returning.

'If I may ask, Detective, besides a tiny little thing that says I once talked to a couple of people in a store over three weeks ago, do you have any other reason for being here and asking me all sorts of questions? I know the police are getting nowhere in the case, I'm quite the fan of Susan Mourner's articles. So does this mean you're just trying to catch any line you can?'

'My job is to find the Shadow, Miss Aforethought,' he told her, 'I will find her anyway I can. Sometimes random catching of lines pulls you to where you need to go. All my questions are now answered, though somewhat unsatisfactory, so I bid you goodbye. I may be in touch.'

As soon as Alice had shown him the door, Dastardious pulled out his phone and sent a text to Silence to let him know that he was done. While he waited for a reply he headed out to the main road to see about getting a lift back to the city.