Gone In A Flash

Chapter Four: Friday (4)

Chapter Four: Friday (4)

Blacker barely glanced up when Hitch entered Room 223 this time, instead just waving a distracted hand in his direction. "Hey, come and have a look at this."

Hitch came and had a look. Blacker had made copies of a few newspaper articles, all dated a few years back. They all seemed to be about historical places in Twinford – in particular, the Twinford Bridge, which bridged the gap between centre town and the industrial district (also commonly known as 'Trashford' by locals). Apparently the Bridge had celebrated its twentieth year since its construction at the time of publication.

"Okay," he said, "what am I looking at?"

Blacker pulled the cap off the pen he was holding with his teeth, and leaned over Hitch to circle a name with it. Professor Arthur C. Cogan.

"Arthur Cogan," Hitch said. "Why is that..." he trailed off, frowning, before getting it. "Of course - Cogan, the last word on Ruby's list. Is it the same person?"

"I ran it through the records," Blacker confirmed. "I think this is our guy. He's an architect – retired, but he's done a lot of important work around town. If Ruby's notes and reading choices are anything to go by..."

"Good," said Hitch, with feeling. "You don't happen to have an address?"

"54 Fortune Road," Blacker said, scribbling it down on a scrap of paper as he said it. "Has the storm died down enough for you to go out?"

"It wasn't so bad when I came in," Hitch said, taking the proffered scrap, "and Fortune Street isn't too far from where I parked my car. I'll go interrogate the professor, and come back to check in."

"Good. Great. I'll just –" Blacker gestured vaguely at the room in general. "Code. Er – decipher. Decipher the code? Also possibly coffee," he added, gazing regretfully at the abandoned mug that lay in thousands of pieces on the floor. "I don't think I'm going to be getting much work done without caffeine in my system."

Hitch left Blacker to his work, and took the same way out of Spectrum that he had entered- passing through most of the cool colored hallways and passing Buzz and her phones in the process. Upon exiting the tunnel, he saw, or rather felt, that the wind had died down markedly in the time that he had been inside HQ. In fact, Penny Books – as well as some other stores and shops – had opened up for business, and there were even a few brave souls walking the streets, most wearing heavy jackets and scarves.

The drive to Fortune Road was short and uneventful. Professor Arthur Cogan's house was located at the very end of Fortune Road, cradled into the corner of where it met Rose Street in a T-intersection.

The house itself appeared to be balancing out of pure determination on its structure's behalf and some impressive feats of architecture. It was a very eclectic design; the sort you'd never have expected to see in Twinford. It was made up of geometric patterns and shapes that all sort of fitted together in order to create the walls and roof – and mainly triangles. The windows were stained glass, fractal patterns that glinted and caught the dull morning light. The overall effect: very big, and very intimidating.

Although Hitch had been around the town many times for various reasons, he could safely admit to never having seen this house before, or if he had, having simply not noticed how outright bizarre it was. That fact was bizarre in its own right, to be perfectly honest.

Hitch parked his car on the verge, and headed up the front garden path- paved with what looked like shingles from a roof in various shades of red. They produced a curious clinking sound when you stepped on them.