A Glimpse of Truth among the shadows by Patrick G Moloney.

The hallway stretched out before him like an endless highway, a part of his mind told him this was not real. Yet the doorbell continued its irritating ringing, no matter how quickly he walked, the door remained a great distance away. The constant ringing was making his head hurt, but worse than that he had a feeling something was wrong. Whoever was out there badly wanted to be answered, he hoped it was not someone he cared for that was in trouble. But who do I care for, the question suddenly popped into his head. Now he began to feel more confused and agitated, he knew he cared for someone but the name would not come to him. Had he lost his mind completely, he was finding it hard to think, that incessant ringing sound was addling his brain. Jack woke on the old couch in the office, the phone on the desk ringing its shrill sound. He had been dreaming there was no doorbell only the black Bakelite phone, he got unsteadily to his feet and crossed to the desk. His mouth felt dry and his head throbbed, he picked up the receiver and answered. His throat felt gravely and his voice came out like a whisper, he had been at the whisky bottle again. There was a sudden burst of static in his ear then silence, he was about to hang up again when a voice echoed down the line. The clipped British accent wanted to know if he had reached the offices of Jack Burke, Jack had a sudden urge to hang up and go back to the couch. But he ended up agreeing to meet the British gentleman at the central hotel the following evening; after all he was curious to know what a Brit wanted with him.

He held his face below the water in the basin until his lungs were burning, when he surfaced his head felt less groggy. He had been hitting the drink fairly heavy since he had come back from White Peak; it had been one of the hardest things he had ever done, to tell Mabel that her brothers had not survived. He had not elaborated on what had happened back there, but by the look in her eyes he knew that she had a good idea. He had begun to wonder lately if the darkness in her past had somehow steered her in his direction, all roads in his life lately led in one direction and that was into the shadows. Jack wondered if Mabel had been sent to him to walk the same path, sometimes he felt like he was becoming the darkness. The small man stood out like a sore thumb among the rest of the people in the hotel lobby, you did not find many people in this city wearing a bowler hat and herring bone overcoat. He cut a quaint and almost comical figure, however anyone that looked into his eyes would know he was not a comedian. The dark eyes behind the wire rimmed glasses were alert and serious; they burned with intelligence and wisdom. It would be a grave mistake to believe that anything about this man was trivial; he had a firm no nonsense hand shake when Jack took his hand. The man gestured towards the dining room before striding ahead of Jack; in his right hand he carried an old fashioned brief case. The waiter had no sooner brought the coffee when the man got straight down to business, he introduced himself as Jonathan Greene and he was a solicitor. He had just flown in from London this morning and intended staying for no longer than one week. He wanted Jack to locate a woman by the name of Jennifer Delaney and persuade Ms Delaney to meet him on a matter of urgent business. All this information was imparted to Jack before they had even had a sip of their coffee, when asked why Jack; Jonathan Greene's expression became even more serious.

It was the first time since they had met that the British man seemed to struggle for words, after a long pause he stared directly in to Jacks eyes. The answer was not exactly what Jack had expected, "A man you did some work for recommended you, and I believe you located a music box for him". There it was out in the open what Jack had believed all along, the collector who owned the music box was channelling these strange jobs to him. A myriad of questions raced through Jacks mind, but in the end he just nodded. Somethings in life you are better off to remain ignorant of, and the motives behind the collector's actions was one of these things. Green handed Jack a folder containing the details of the of the woman he was to locate, then excused himself and left Jack sitting alone in the dining room. He sat there for a long time, pondering over the fact that he had never even considered refusing the case, and then he realised why. When Jack had taken the first case for the collector he had embarked on the first leg of a long journey, it was a journey with a purpose and he would only discover what this purpose was if he stayed steadfastly on the path. He had a niggling suspicion that like Mabel something dark in his past had brought him to where he was now, he would only know what this was when he finally discovered what lay beyond the shadows. The waiter returned and asked if he would like anything else, it was a struggle to stop himself ordering a large Crested Ten. Instead he decided to call by and see how Mabel was doing; he did not want to turn up at her apartment half cut. For the first time in a long time Jack was surprised with himself, he had actually thought of someone else instead of just himself.