Hunter

Chapter 20

         Without even noticing, I had fallen asleep on the couch soon after Sophie had left. I slept of a heavy slumber, and it was Arthur's cries of pain which had pulled me out of Morpheus' arms.

I rushed to the basement, where I waited behind the door for the screams to become human again. When silence came, I waited a bit more. I did not dare to go in.

"Dad. I know you're there."

I sighed and opened the door. Arthur was sitting on the ground, as if nothing had happen. Nonetheless, his clothes had gone missing.

Sheepish, he looked at me.

"I think I chewed my clothes."

The word was weak, what was left of the clothes were only bits, arranged in a small heap in a corner of the room. I walked to the cloth pile and picked a shred up.

""Chewed" you say?"

I smiled to Arthur and he smiled back, then we both burst out into laughter.

I had regretfully left the house, leaving my children behind. Arthur had rings under his eyes and was clearly exhausted, but he obstinately refused to sleep. Agate was as overexcited as ever and Ul was in for a hard day: Agate's favorite game was to pull his ears.

Yet, Bob had come to knock on the door. It was about the gnome. Anyhow, it was for the best. I had to interrogate it, but showing up at the agency without having been sent for would have seemed strange.

I had taken the portrait Sophie had found on the gnome with me. I would have to find a way to question it alone. I could not risk to reveal the existence of this second portrait once again found on a supernatural being. Especially now that the first one seemed to be out of minds, as it had gone out of my own until Sophie had brought this new one.

It was almost noon when our cab finally stopped in front of the office. Pressure and anxiety rose in me as fear of being discovered was growing. I went up the stairs.

"Hello, Gustave!"

"Good-morning, Gaspard."

"No time to waste, let's go!" Bob exclaimed.

Bob led us to the room where we had put the vampire's body  a bit more than a month earlier. Henri was waiting there, casually seated on the table in front of the glass window showing into the room in which the gnome was locked.

"You took your time!" he grumbled.

His eyes locked on me.

"Well, Gustave! You do look tired! Another burglary?"

"I did not sleep well, that's all." I answered inocently.

Gaspard and Bob looked at Henri then me, surprised by the barbs Henri was regularly sending me since that "burglary".

"I don't know what is going on between you two." Bob said firmly. "But you'll need to settle this later!"

After that, he opened the door to the gnome's room.

Sitting on an iron chair, tied to it with a chain which held his right foot, the gnome did not look at us. It was stout with a prominent nose, greasy hair and a mucky beard, it frowned its brushy eyebrows and grumbled, sulking in a corner like a punished child. In fact, like most of gnomes, good or bad, he was not much taller than a five-year-old child. As Sophie had specified the day before, his skin was pale blue. All these details caught my eyes right away, yet I could not find what I was looking for.

"Where did you put the diamond?"

"What now?" Gaspard asked.

Being the rookie of the group, Gaspard did not have all the knowledge about supernatural yet. Gnomes had only few powers, however teleportation was one of them and the only way to prevent it was to place a diamond near them (very near). Bad ones were often greedy and it was not hard to trick them.