A Shadow In The City

Chapter 7: Looked, And Behold

"Remember the other day when you felt bad for strutting my observation skills?"

"Those were just tests. Think of this as the final exam."

They made their way up the narrow staircase, passing a few small windows that looked out into the alleyway between the old apartment buildings. The stairs creaked under their feet and as they moved they kicked up dust that floated about in the air.

It had been a few days since Mark took Amy around Manhattan to evaluate her power of deduction. They still had received no word from the Department regarding Tyler's case, so they continued to wait. In the meantime, Mark continued to take her to various places around the city. They had gone to another part of Central Park once or twice since their initial trip where they first met Sean. A different part of it each time and Amy was still convinced they had covered less than half of the place.

Today, however, there were no tourist destinations in sight. Unless one counts a seedy corner grocery store that only accepts cash as tourist destination. Mark had run in, telling Amy to wait outside as apparently the store owner became paranoid when groups of people came in together. He instructed her to hold onto her bag tightly- though not so tight as to make it obvious- and to keep her sunglasses on and try to keep a disinterested look on her face- but, again, not to dramatically. A few minutes later, he emerged from the store with the backpack he had slung over his shoulder that morning looking filled to burst with God-only-knows-what. She questioned what he had bought,but he told her she'd have to wait and see.

She had only figured out that she was in for another round of Guess Who when they had walked up to the front door of the old apartment building.

"And here I thought I was done with exams after graduating." She joked.

"Yea well, at least these tests don't cost you twenty-five thousand dollars a year."

"I actually didn't really pay for college."

"What?" The vampire looked at her with a confused look.

She raised her brows at him. "Mark, it's the Miskatonic University and I'm Franklin Elwood's great-granddaughter. It was basically four years of job training."

"So, Frankie boy hooked you up?"

"Lord no, he didn't want me anywhere near that school." She laughed, "I was offered a full scholarship after a college visit to the university library that, uh," she paused then quickly finished,"may or may not have involved me accidentally translating a previously unknown chapter of The Malleus Maleficarum."

"What?" Mark snorted, "How do you 'accidentally' do that?"

"It was open on the table and no one was around it. So, I sat down and starting reading. I was having trouble figuring it out at first. I really shouldn't have though, it was Latin but, to be fair, it was a handwritten manuscript so I was more deciphering chicken scratch than anything else. So, I was taking down notes on my phone. Next thing I know, one of the researchers is screaming at me, asking me what I've done and what I think I'm doing."

"Then what happened?"

She tried and failed to hide her smirk." I told him his translation was off."

Mark let out a loud laugh.

"And I could tell he was getting ready to yell at me some more, until someone else came in and started yelling at him."

"Oh, God."

"So, the new guy is looks at my notes, he looks at the researchers notes,and then tells the researcher to- and I quote- 'Go find something else to do.'"