The Purple Haired Craze

In Which Valkyrie Holds A Grudge

Skulduggery didn't apologise to her but Valkyrie managed to overlook it. If they wanted to solve this mystery, then they had to work together and that meant no grudges. It still was a struggle for her to forgive him, but to forget about it until they had finished the case, she could manage.

They had tracked Iyzebel Trix to the area around Temple Bar where she had been picking up her various victims. Skulduggery parked the Bentley up in an alley where it was unlikely to get disturbed and they got out and proceeded to check out the scenes of which the disappearances occurred.

The first was very close to Finbar's tattoo parlour. Valkyrie sketched out the area into her little notebook that Fergus and Beryl had got for her last birthday (she was mightly surprised to find that it was not pink or sparkly or ridiculously impractical) and marked a cross where the first crime scene was. As they walked from scene to scene, a pattern began appear.

"Uh, Skul?"

"Mm?

"Look." She shoved the rough drawing in his face (or skull) and he frowned as he studied the sketch. It was an almost perfect circle around a point that Val had circled. Skulduggery gave her one look and then they both set off in the direction of the area they guessed.

They ended up on Cecilia Street, one of the quieter areas of Temple Bar, the perfect place to be able to appear suddenly with the likelihood of being noticed being small. One of the shops was empty; the To Let sign was stuck to the side of the wall, and it had a large porch. Only by standing directly in front of the entrance would you be able to notice someone spontaneously appearing there, and the chance of this happening was minute.

"When is her next attack due in comparison to the other kidnappings?" Valkyrie asked as Skulduggery whipped out his phone.

"Within the next twelve hours, from what we have deduced," he replied, before rapidly texting Ghastly and Erskine. There was a pause as they waited for the reply, and then Skulduggery was walking back down the road, Valkyrie jogging after him. "Reinforcements will be here within fifteen minutes. They'll take over for a bit so we might as well go for a quick coffee."

Val frowned. "Shouldn't we be keeping an eye on the area in case she shows up?"

"They already have control of the surveillance in the area, and they now know where to look so they can keep track of her if she shows up before we are expecting her. In the meantime, however, you require some lunch."

He led her into a rundown building that was just a corner away from the busy part of Temple Bar. Once inside, the place seemed to transform before her very eyes, not surprisingly, but still something that she was still trying to get used to.

So many strange people were sitting around the bar, people with only one eye or misshapen noses or even bizarrely coloured skin. Valkyrie noted one woman, who was hidden in a corner, had a light purple complexion.

Skulduggery retracted the façade and proceeded to the counter, managing to order a pasty and chips for Valkyrie. Sitting up at the main bar was an odd experience for the girl; she had only just come of age and therefore had never before been allowed to sit at the bar.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

Valkyrie held in the temptation to throw him a dirty look in annoyance and plastered on a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine."

The plan that Skulduggery had to capture Trix worked perfectly, despite Valkyrie's doubt. In her head, she thought it would be easy enough for Trix to simply teleport away, but it seemed that teleportation through time was not as quick as teleportation through space.

The Cleavers did the majority of the work; Skulduggery and Val only tipped them off to her teleportation location and then did the formalities to the official arrest. Trix was taken completely off guard and the Cleavers got the handcuffs on her almost immediately.

They drove back to the Sanctuary in the Bentley in another awkward silence. Skulduggery seemed to recognise that despite saying otherwise, Valkyrie was not happy with him.

Skulduggery, despite having taken Trix into custody, was still on edge. At the back of his head, he knew Valkyrie was still in danger, even though the only person that was capable of doing that was currently in the back of a fake Garda van on her way to Sanctuary where she would stay for a long time.

He tried to ignore the persistent thoughts at the back of his head telling him it was not alright and things were not solved just because they had caught the only time traveller that they had ever met. He knew that Valkyrie would get taken from him, despite his efforts.

Then again, if he tried to stop what was already written in history, he would probably cause the world a great deal of problems.

Damn time travel.

He gave in their report on the arrest to Erskine, Ghastly and Madame Mist, Val still not having uttered a word to him since lunchtime save the occasional comments about the case.

"We still have yet to locate the kidnapped people, but we figure that if we question Trix we might gain some information on them," he told the three elders.

"We'll get people on her case." Erskine told him. "You two need a break before you go back to this case, I think."

Skulduggery cocked his head, looking at Ravel, puzzled. Erskine gave him the eyebrows back and Skul realised this would be a chance to get back on good terms with Valkyrie.

Most days, he would have dismissed Valkyrie's strops and ignored her until she cheered up, but this time he didn't think the same tactics would work. He nodded to Erskine and Ghastly, tipped his hat towards Madame Mist and swept out of the room, Val following close behind, but still mute.

 "Do you want to come back to mine?" he asked her as they drove out of Roarhaven.

Val shook her head and Skulduggery felt his heart sink.

"I'll take you home then," he said, trying not to let any emotion into his voice.

"Not home. Gordon's place," she said, quietly. Skulduggery nodded and they both fell into silence again.

It wasn't long before Valkyrie was out of the car, without acknowledging him properly, and he watched her jog to the house and rise gently up to her first floor bedroom window. He held in the desire to wait out here for a while before creeping up to her window to apologise. Whilst the method worked frequently as a peacemaker, this time he felt like he needed to give her some space. He took one last look at the dark house before turning the car around to leave.