Of Lights and Shadows (Book 4)

15) Evening Things Up

A short while later they were all seated around a table outside a café enjoying the warm sun that was shining down on them. The weather was surprisingly cool for the first time in ages; Dastardious wasn't exactly sure how long as he had spent a lot of it inside where it was always cool, but Silence was the one that mentioned it.

It was just a small café, one of many set throughout Manhattan. You walk down the street and you are bound to come across at least one. He supposed business was good if they could afford to open a chain of the cafes, but he couldn't work out how as the coffee was some of the worst he had ever tasted.

The chairs were reasonably comfortable, not that Dastardious really felt like sitting down as he had been doing that most of the morning. There were four other tables set on the sidewalk outside the shop, all empty which meant they could talk freely. Not that they couldn't talk freely if other people had been sitting at the tables, no one would have paid them any attention or heard them.

'So let me know what you have, Silence,' said Dastardious as he pushed his cup of coffee away and looked at the menu for something else to try.

We found Worchster at home with his girlfriend, Jody Flinn, but there was a bit of trouble getting to talk to him. Miss Flinn answered the door but promptly shut it before we had a chance to tell her what we wanted.

'Did you actually see Worchster?' Dastardious asked as he handed the note over to Dutch.

Silence nodded his head but Dutch was the one that replied. 'He let us into the house eventually, against his girl's wishes. When the door was closed we could hear her yelling at him not to open the door, or talk to us. Sounded kind of like she was scared, didn't want him to talk to us. They must have been ex­pecting somebody. Worchster let us enter in the end, though.'

We didn't ask him either what was up, he just apologized for her behavior and asked us what we wanted.

'All right, cut to the chase, what did you ask him and what did he say?' asked Dastardious impatiently.

'We asked him why he sent the Harrison's to look at the store; he replied that it was the only one he knew of that sold prams.'

That was plausible. 'What about where he was on the night of the 3rd?'

'He said he was probably at home with Miss Flinn, sleeping.'

'Probably? Could she verify that he was home?'

Silence nodded.According to Miss Flinn they both went to bed at 8 and were both asleep by half past. Then at 10 they both woke and didn't return to sleep till almost 11, that means they both have an alibi for the night because Mary wasn't reported missing till 25 past 10.

That did create a problem in placing Worchster as the Shadow, unless they were both lying. It was an option Dastardious kept open. People often lied about what they were doing, especially if they couldn't prove their exact whereabouts for the time requested, or if they wanted to protect a loved one. What if Miss Flinn had woken up, discovered Worchster missing, and then simply lied about him being with her all the time? Their only alibis were each other.

There was also another point that Dastardious noted: according to her she had no idea of Worchster's whereabouts before that time because they were asleep, if she wasn't lying, so while he may not have been able to commit the kidnapping he could have gone over earlier and unlocked the windows for the Shadow to enter by. That would explain how the windows were unlocked, they just had to work out how to connect him to that.

'When was the last time Worchster was in the Harrison's apartment?

He said he couldn't remember, and it was at this point that he became angry, refused to answer anything more, and demanded to see our ID.