They Call It A Gift
“Your boyfriend seems nice,” Cody commented lightly to John as they walked, “Is he a cop?”
John blushed anew and chuckled ruefully, “No, not anymore. He’s kinda between things at the moment,” it wasn’t that Randy was fickle per se, and he easily found jobs modelling and such when the cash-flow became a bit tight, he just struggled to settle. “He’s got a talent for modelling, believe it or not,” he wasn’t sure why he had admitted that aloud other than hoping to maybe engage Cody in some sort of conversation to get to know him some more.
“I can see why,” Cody responded and John felt an equal tinge of jealousy and pride, although he had to begrudgingly admit he respected that even if Cody found Randy attractive (and how could he not?) that he didn’t outwardly show it. If anything he’d been the right measure of polite and respectful to a stranger until Ted had approached him--- and even then it had been more in the atmosphere than anything else that there was something else going on there.
“Yeah,” John paused for a red light to change to green and then started across the road with Cody following him, the station coming into view down the other end of the street in question, “I dunno what Ted does…” he realised that that was probably awkward and so added, “I think he’s a consultant of some kind-“not entirely untrue in an abstract sort of way, “So, was the hotel alright? Did you get any breakfast?” he mentally kicked himself for not checking that before they had come all the way to the station.
“I don’t eat much in the mornings,” Cody responded absently, “But thanks. The hotel was warm, clean, can’t complain.”
Pushing the front door of the station open John let Cody proceed him and then walked towards the front desk to get Cody a visitor’s badge; he didn’t want someone mistaking the unfamiliar civilian in any way and causing him problems… Especially if it meant that John would have to admit about Cody’s talent because he had been intending to keep that particular facet of information to himself for as long as possible.
“Hey Beth,” he greeted a blonde, surprisingly tall (even though she was sitting) woman with bright red lipstick, “We got any passes?”
“Sure John. Who’s it for?”
“Cody here, he’s helping me with my case.”
Arching a brow Beth assessed Cody for a moment, seemed to deem him as acceptable and then wrote his name neatly atop a laminated pass; apparently they would just wipe it off and re-use the badge when they needed to and Cody was done with it.
“Thank you,” he said politely, obediently pinning the badge onto his shirt.
“Cheers Beth,” John grinned, dimples appearing, “Not long now until the big day huh?” when the surprisingly stoic woman blushed red Cody’s brows rose; she looked almost like a totally different woman when she had that kind of expression on her face.
“Not long now,” she acknowledged.
“Where is Adam anyway?”
“It’s his day off; he’s probably still asleep.”
John looked mockingly unimpressed, “And it didn’t occur to you to get Natalya to fill in for you?”
Beth rolled her eyes and swatted at John with a folder before chuckling and then saying pointedly, “Don’t you have work to be doing?”
“That we do,” John agreed, signing his name on a register before bidding Beth goodbye and leading Cody towards the lift; they were both fit young men but climbing ten sets of stairs every day got pretty damned tedious pretty fast, especially if they wanted you to go off chasing after the bad guys during the day too.
People barely glanced up as they passed despite the floor seeming quite busy and Cody had to admit he was rather glad that they didn’t warrant enough notice; it made his job all the harder the more attention he had focused upon him… especially when many of those people were sceptics. Blocking out one level of disbelief could be achieved but when that number became greater it became much harder.
Opening his office door for Cody he ushered the younger man inside before following.
His desk was covered in papers that he was pretty sure he’d cleaned up the night before but apparently not, and he flushed slightly at the disarray the place had gotten into; when he got consumed in work he could forget everything that wasn’t related to his case, including things such as eating and cleaning up.
“Sorry it’s a state.”
“You should see my desk when I’m working towards a deadline.”
“I was wondering,” John mused, “Would you have written anything I’d read?”
For the first time the shyness in Cody’s face was replaced by an amused disbelief, “Somehow I don’t think I’d be writing your kind of thing, John.”
The response made him want to push further (he probably would have Googled Cody for some more information last night had he not been distracted as he had by Ted and learning about him and the communal past that he and Randy shared) but he knew that they really didn’t have the time for that sort of thing; maybe when they got lunch he could ask, but for now they really should be focusing on the case.
Glancing at his door momentarily John then exhaled and reached into the top drawer of his desk, the rolling sound as it revealed its contents to John seeming to echo around the office, Cody suddenly wondering if his breathing had suddenly grown as loud as he had thought it had.
The glasses looked so innocent, so unobtrusive… John wondered what Cody could possibly get out of them.
Ordinarily he would have been using gloves to handle the item but since the lab had already processed the glasses and found no other DNA or fingerprints other than those of the boy and his guardian, and those had been logged, it didn’t matter now.
“Here…” he handed them across to Cody who took them gingerly between his thumb and forefinger before laying them out across his opposite palm and then placing his other hand over it.
Silence passed without anything happening (though John found himself wondering just what he’d been expecting to happen) except for Cody bowing his head and closing his eyes. He was breathing slowly and deeply, and had it not been for the fact that John knew otherwise then he would have thought that the other man had suddenly fallen asleep.
“Cody-“he started lowly.
“Sh.”
Since Cody had barely moved John had suddenly found himself wondering whether the noise had come from someone else when he knew they were the only two in the room.
Somewhat surprised (and admittedly a touch miffed) John obediently fell quiet and watched.
When Cody continued to merely hold the glasses between his hands though without saying anything or making any other indication John felt his suspicions growing that perhaps all of the things he had heard about Cody were just fanciful acts that he had played on poor, desperate, unsuspecting people. In that moment he didn’t really consider the evidence he had seen that Cody had apparently discovered for the cases he’d worked on that proved he couldn’t possibly be a fake.
And then, just as John was considering the best way to tell Cody that perhaps this hadn’t been such a good idea, something happened.
Cody’s shoulders tensed and his face creased into an expression that would have been fearful most likely had his eyes been open, but as it was he looked like a child experiencing a particularly confusing and arduous nightmare. His breathing started to shallow and his hands jerked slightly, his right foot tapping a rapid rhythm on the ground to match his breathing for all of ten seconds.
Well, John thought dazedly as he watched, I had wondered where the theatrical nature of his work was.
“It was a woman.”
John almost fell out of his chair.
“Excuse me?”
Cody had a small amount of perspiration on his brow, his skin a little paler as he repeated, “He was picked up by a woman at first.”
That was news to John.
Scrabbling for his notepad and a pencil John immediately started to jot notes down.
“Why do you think it’s a woman?”
“Because the energy he left behind tells me he wasn’t frightened at first… So that either means he was very well acquainted with the man who took him, and since you said there’s no father in his life or mother to have boyfriends, that doesn’t leave many options, so my instinct tells me if there was no familiar man then there must have been a woman.”
The reasoning was plausible but John still didn’t find himself altogether convinced.
“And what else?”
Cody turned the glasses over between his fingers this time, looking at them steadily.
“He only got scared after, and started to struggle. That was why he lost the glasses. He wasn’t afraid of the lady, she seemed nice, and she’d promised him some sweets if he’d help her… but then the man showed up, and he got scared. And when he got scared he tried to run, but they stopped him.”
By the end Cody’s voice had grown so quiet that John struggled to hear it.
Pencil hesitating over the paper John then cleared his throat softly, “Is he… Dead?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so?”
“I don’t feel that his energy has gained the undercurrent of residual energy yet, meaning from someone who has passed. As far as his energy connection is concerned he’s still alive…” but even as he said that John could sense some despondency there, as though he knew from experience that that necessarily meant very little.
“At least we’ve somewhere to start, and we still have hope,” John said firmly.
Standing up he then hesitated, “If I took you to where he was taken from… could you maybe try and, I don’t know,” he looked embarrassed but defiant, as though he expected that Cody might laugh at him for his suggestion and yet not caring, “Follow him?”
A darkly amused look crossed Cody’s face, “Like a psychic bloodhound?”
“If you can’t do it-”
“I didn’t say I couldn’t…” Cody sighed and started to stand up himself, delicately placing the child’s glasses down atop the evidence bag they had been held in and looked up again to meet John’s eyes, “I’m just telling you not to get your hopes up.”
~::~
“You’re smitten.”
“I am not.”
“Teddy,” Randy arched a brow at him and spread his hands magnanimously, “I’ve brought you a top meat-lover’s breakfast and all you’ve done is cut the sausage into teeny pieces when I know normally you would have devoured the damn thing before I’d even added milk and sugar to my coffee.”
A flush dusted Ted’s cheeks and he scowled embarrassedly, “Way to make me sound like a-“he cut off and arched a brow, “Milk and sugar?”
This time Randy was the one to begin looking defensive, “I always have sugar.”
“I don’t remember you having milk though.”
Glancing away Randy muttered something about John saying something about too much straight black coffee being bad for a person’s stomach and Ted grinned before sobering slightly once more. Seeing the change that had come over his friend Randy rolled his eyes slightly.
“Look, I know you don’t trust that the kid’s legit but that doesn’t mean you can’t fancy him or anything… He may be a pretty stand-up guy otherwise.”
Snorting quietly Ted murmured, “Yeah, a real stand-up guy… bar the trying to cash in to a tragic situation.”
Arching a brow Randy returned, “He doesn’t want money so far.”
Shrugging Ted responded, “Or a case of desperate need to help and attention…”
It had occurred to him that he was probably being unaccountably harsh towards this unknown man but he couldn’t help it; he had met so many people over time who had claimed to be able to do what he could do, and half of them deserved locking up for lengthy sentences not only for giving out false information and hope to grieving families (as was often the case) but for making light of a situation that had forced Ted’s life onto a path that he was pretty damn sure he would never even thought about briefly had he had other options.
How could they act like they possessed an ability that would effectively ruin any chance they had at a normal life? If they knew ever a fraction of what it was like to possess such a ‘gift’ then he was pretty damned sure all of the phonies in the world would hang up their gaudy robes and drop the mystical accents without looking back immediately.
“You get real sensitive about this kind of thing don’t you?”
At the black look that was levelled his way Randy held up his hands in a gesture of surrender, “I’m just saying… I’ve never seen you get like that over anyone before, guy or girl; you looked as though things suddenly made sense to you,” a notion that had been quickly dispelled when he realised that Ted didn’t understand anymore about himself, or this newcomer, than he had to start with.
“How can you say I just like this person? I don’t even know his full name!”
“Love can be spontaneous you know,” Randy said with surprising sincerity.
Surprise flittered across Ted’s face and then he looked more wanly amused than anything else, “I never thought I’d ever hear you of all people come out with something like that.”
“Yeah, that was kinda nimbyish wasn’t it? Sorry. It’s not entirely untrue anyway; you don’t always see everything that’s gonna happen to you. Sometimes something can come along and you won’t even realise it’s there until it smacks you in the face and takes your wallet.”
“Haha.”
“Oh come on, that was one pretty good; I had you thinking I was getting all philosophical and everything!”
“How does John put up with you?”
“I’m awesome in bed.”
“I knew there had to be something,” Ted returned with a reluctant smile playing around his lips. No matter how determined he was to go all emo and get bogged down in depression there was something about being around a friend who knew everything about him, whom he didn’t have to hide from, that made him feel much more comfortable in his own skin.
“You wish you’d snapped me up first,” Randy joked and Ted snickered; it was a long-standing joke between them as they both knew that their parents had had words about whether anything had ever happened between them when they were younger, and they had come out. Not at the same time of course; Randy had gone through his woman phase and hadn’t come out until he was about 18, but Ted had come out about two years before him, as he’d been in the midst of an emotional crisis about it.
Despite the religious background in his family they had been surprisingly supportive once the shock had worn off… the only horrifying part of the tale now was that they kept mentioning ‘nice men’ that they thought he might like, or kept badgering to bring a ‘nice boy’ home for them to meet sometime soon. There was a part of Ted that was mortified in the general way a person was when their parents got involved in their love-lives, but another part of Ted was more infuriated that they thought he could manage to be ‘normal’ enough to manage such a feat.
Ironically someone with a ‘talent’ like himself would probably save him a lot of awkward conversations in the long run… However there wasn’t exactly a dating website for psychics.
Shaking himself somewhat Ted resumed eating his breakfast; it had grown somewhat cold though but still tasted good, filling the void that had been predominantly left over from him barely having more than a chocolate bar to snack on the day before due to his travelling. Randy seemed to follow suit and for a time silence descended between them.
Once they had finished and the bill was paid however they exited the diner and Randy turned to Ted.
“So… How we go about seeing if you’re going to get anymore flashes?”
“If I knew how to make them happen don’t you think I’d do so immediately to get it over and done with?”
An incredulous look spread over Randy’s face, “I buy you breakfast, feed that unending pit you call a stomach, and you’re still in a bad mood?”
“I am not that much of a glutton.”
Playfully grabbing at Ted’s side, hidden underneath the man’s top and jacket, Randy smirked, “That’s not what the lovehandles say.”
Beacon red Ted swatted Randy away, arms wrapping around himself self-consciously; he’d always hated the fact that his penchant for sweet foods was visible on his body no matter how hard he worked in the gym to make it otherwise.
“Shut up.”
“Seriously Teddy… What do we do now?” Randy asked once the moment passed, his brow furrowing, “I know we’re cool with having you as long as you want but you always look so… ill,” that was the best way to describe his shadowed eyes and pale cheeks, “-when you’re trying to figure this shit out. If we could hurry it along it’d be better for you… Why don’t you stay here for a while after? I mean actually get somewhere and settle down.”
Ted sighed, knowing Randy only meant well and wasn’t being deliberately ignorant or anything, “Believe me,” he glanced out at the bustling hubbub of the city, a tragically forlorn figure who had seen far too much in his young life, “If I could I would.”
~::~
Bringing the car up to a halt besides your typical city park John addressed Cody, “It was right in here, by the slide near the kiddies part of the park.”
Pausing midway through opening the passenger side door Cody asked, “I thought all parks were for kids?”
John looked a touch amused, “I meant like little kiddies, you know, the kinds who usually get brought here in pairs and groups and have someone there to keep an eye on them.”
Was that a little jibe towards the guardian for the little boy being here alone? If the child-snatchers were as desperate as Cody assumed then it probably wouldn’t matter all that much whether there had been an adult there or not.
Exhaling Cody finished getting out of the car and closed his door behind him, John doing the same on the opposite side before they started heading through the front gates (which John had to open) and then towards the part of the park the boy had vanished from.
“I take it they’ve closed the park a while?”
“We did crime scene and everything on the first day and they said we could re-open it but… a few residents admitted to us that they would prefer the gates to be locked for a while. I guess it’s to put fear of God into the kids…” he sighed, “I don’t agree with exposing children to this kind of world but I suppose when they’re pretty much confronted with it anyway and they do need to know, then there’s nothing that you can do about it.”
“I don’t suppose you have kids, do you?” Cody asked without any humour.
John stumbled, “Wha? Me? But I’m-“he started automatically and then caught himself before the words, ‘But I’m gay,’ actually met the air because what would him being gay in the grand scheme of things mean when it came to kids? They could have adopted, or he could have had a girlfriend in his past whom had become pregnant, or he and Randy could have engaged a surrogate’s services. “No,” he finally said, “I don’t have kids. I have five brothers though so you can imagine the number of nieces and nephews I have.”
“I don’t envy your Christmas shopping,” a genuine, if brief, smile touched Cody’s lips before his expression turned closed like it had back in John’s office.
“Can you sense anything?”
“I understand scepticism sergeant but I would appreciate it more if you could hold onto it until I’m out of the way to hear it?”
Automatically John made to protest that he hadn’t meant in that way but even as he did he knew that there was a part of him that was still struggling to believe that Cody was the real deal even though what he had told him in the office had certainly been a damned good start to build on with what they had already suspected.
If there was an accomplice then that meant when they finally caught them they would have extra leverage to use against the main perp. And John would bet his bottom dollar (as the old song went) that the woman who was with the guy was most likely either as twisted as he was (and would therefore roll over to save her own skin) or otherwise another victim who had no choice in the matter.
“Sorry.”
“It’s OK, just… I’m not like a psychic sniffer-dog,” Cody mumbled, “I can’t just feel out of everything… I told you that it had to have significance right? He probably only maybe came here a handful of times alongside other children,” as he spoke Cody was walking around by the playground equipment, eyes on the ground as though he was looking for something without really looking, “-there’s a really good chance that because of that I won’t be able to pull his signature out of the melee even if I wanted-“Cody stopped talking so abruptly his teeth clicked together, eyes focused off to some trees some distance away from the playground equipment.
For all he said he wasn’t like a sniffer-dog John could certainly imagine Cody with the appropriate ears standing up to attention and the tail sticking out as he pointed.
Moving up next to him John murmured, “Cody?” when the other didn’t move a muscle for a good minute or two, not even blinking, which wasn’t easy.
“They took him this way.”
John frowned but followed Cody as he started to walk, his mind already running through a thousand and one different theories as to why they may have taken this way, and conversely why they couldn’t have taken this way.
It was too public.
Most parents probably wouldn’t think much of a woman in the park, especially if the child seemed at ease with her.
There’s nothing back there except for the boundary fence, why would they risk the child panicking on them somewhere where he was likely to be--
“I think they went through there,” Cody glanced over his shoulder at John as he pointed towards what appeared to be a bended hole in the fence that led onto a back-road that had no houses on it in any immediate vicinity that John could see. This part on the other side of the fence looked almost as though it belonged in a different zone of reality; there were nothing but houses, shops and cars on the other side lining the streets and neighbourhoods.
“Do you know if they took him in a vehicle?”
“From the tone you’re using I’d deduce you already have a theory even without asking me.”
“Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t appreciate a second opinion.”
Sighing, Cody nodded and then indicated down to the east of the road, “From here I can trace his signature up to the road turning right and I can follow it down for a while but then… it stops. I’d guess they had the car parked further up the road to avoid being seen through these thinner trees, and they came and got the kid before taking him down to it and driving off. I’m sorry John,” he really did look apologetic, “But there’s nothing more I can do.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I can’t trace him anymore. Once he no longer has direct contact with the floor or something else then the signature lingers but it won’t tell me where it’s gone now.”
A crushing sensation settled in the pit of John’s stomach; Cody had been doing pretty damned well, it was a shame that he couldn’t have kept going.
“It’s fine Cody… I really appreciate all of your help so far.”
“So far?” Cody looked confused as they walked back towards the car, “If I’ve done all I can here what more do you need me for?”
Overheard the sky was darkening warningly, rain threatened imminently.
“Maybe one of the other children can tell you something else through their items.”
~::~
Ted never came to a new town with much of a plan. On the occasions he got more than a vague idea of where to go it was easier, sometimes he knew the name of the town or even the street in the same way that he knew he had two legs, completely undeniable. Those times he would go to where he was supposed to be and maybe look around, get a feel for the neighbourhood, see if there was anything he could pick up on. And when he saw someone he tended to take out his phone so that he didn't unduly concern anyone that might be watching him talk to himself.
And then there were times like this, when he sort-of knew where he was supposed to be but couldn't narrow it down. Those times he tended to go on a lot of walks, seeing if he could see anything or if his inner compass would lead him one way or another. Sometimes he put headphones in and listened to music or an audiobook, but mostly he just listened to the street, lulling himself so that his feet just took him where they wanted. It wasn't as easy as that with Randy with him. Although Randy let him lead the way, they were talking between themselves so much that Ted wasn't sure whether or not he was making any headway in finding why he was in Missouri. He wasn't getting the restless, uneasy feeling that he did when he misjudged where he was supposed to be but he didn't have the same feeling of being led as he often did. He considered telling Randy that he needed to be alone, then changed his mind. He didn't get any time to himself at all, not in the way that most people considered their due and so what if he wanted to catch up with an old friend?
He didn't know the area at all, although Randy did and he wasn't too worried about getting lost; he just walked without thinking too much about it, talking over a few things with Randy. They were reminiscing about a few things, mostly steering clear of the times since their friendship had started when Ted's gift had shown itself. It hadn't happened often, as Ted himself often said there weren't many people who met their ends at the hand of others and fewer still who lingered for any reason at all. Crimes were solved without the intervention of the dead more often than not and there weren't many who needed to say anything once their lives had ended. But that didn't mean it had never happened and there were a handful of times after the first that Randy had witnessed Ted talking to the dead. He sometimes wondered if he was the only person who Ted felt comfortable using his gift in front of... if it could be called a gift. Randy was sure he would not like to be able to do the same things that Ted could without losing his mind.
“Brett's been talking about getting married,” Ted told Randy as they walked, smiling a little as he mentioned his brother. “I'm hoping that I'll be able to get there if they ever set a date - he hasn't gone that far yet, but you know what he's like. He likes the idea but whether or not he'll get around to doing it when there's nothing wrong with where they're at is another matter.”
“You're just hoping to be there?”
“I might be called away,” said Ted wistfully. “I couldn't go to my own wedding if the call was strong enough.”
Randy shook his head, not understanding how what Ted felt could stop him from doing whatever he wanted to. “Surely the dead can wait. And anyway, talking about your own wedding. Have you met anyone on your travels? Even dated someone a couple of times?”
“I hardly stay in one place long enough to make it worth it,” replied Ted dryly.
“I'm not talking about a love connection,” Randy shot back. “Just hung out with someone, gone on a couple of dates, got laid. It doesn't have to be the start of a life together, just something fun for once.”
Ted didn't reply and Randy sighed. “Oh boy Ted, you really need to put yourself first for once. Chasing around, it's noble and everything but you don't do anything for yourself. You don't have to sacrifice everything because you see dead people. No wonder you reacted so strongly to the psychic.”
“I didn't--”
“Sure you did, not that you were the only one. I thought he was about to offer to read your palm and then pronounce himself your soul mate. Actually, that's not the worst idea in the world. Maybe you should act on that while you're here.”
“Huh?”
Randy got a wicked glint in his eye. “Why not? He's here on business, so are you. You can maybe get together, get a little closer and you both know it's not going anywhere since you won't be here long and so you don't have to worry about making things last. You both know there's a time limit, you can have a little fun and head on your separate ways.”
“I think that's a very bad idea.”
“Why, because you might end up having some fun for once?” Randy smirked a little when he saw how uneasy Ted was and decided to change the subject. At least the idea was out there. “What's Mike up to?”
Ted shrugged. Randy knew, although Ted had never said so explicitly, that things weren't so good between the two of them. Mike had always found Ted's gift embarrassing more than anything else and although he had never said so outright, Randy knew that Mike wasn't convinced that Ted talked to the dead at all. He had no way of explaining how Ted knew things he couldn't know, or why he would make up something that would cause Ted's life to be so difficult but their relationship was strained because of it. Randy had the idea that it hurt Ted that his brother would cast doubt on him, essentially calling him a liar when it was something that he had no control over.
“He's fine,” said Ted in the end. “Working, making money. Last I heard, he and the wife were thinking of having another kid.”
John blushed anew and chuckled ruefully, “No, not anymore. He’s kinda between things at the moment,” it wasn’t that Randy was fickle per se, and he easily found jobs modelling and such when the cash-flow became a bit tight, he just struggled to settle. “He’s got a talent for modelling, believe it or not,” he wasn’t sure why he had admitted that aloud other than hoping to maybe engage Cody in some sort of conversation to get to know him some more.
“I can see why,” Cody responded and John felt an equal tinge of jealousy and pride, although he had to begrudgingly admit he respected that even if Cody found Randy attractive (and how could he not?) that he didn’t outwardly show it. If anything he’d been the right measure of polite and respectful to a stranger until Ted had approached him--- and even then it had been more in the atmosphere than anything else that there was something else going on there.
“Yeah,” John paused for a red light to change to green and then started across the road with Cody following him, the station coming into view down the other end of the street in question, “I dunno what Ted does…” he realised that that was probably awkward and so added, “I think he’s a consultant of some kind-“not entirely untrue in an abstract sort of way, “So, was the hotel alright? Did you get any breakfast?” he mentally kicked himself for not checking that before they had come all the way to the station.
“I don’t eat much in the mornings,” Cody responded absently, “But thanks. The hotel was warm, clean, can’t complain.”
Pushing the front door of the station open John let Cody proceed him and then walked towards the front desk to get Cody a visitor’s badge; he didn’t want someone mistaking the unfamiliar civilian in any way and causing him problems… Especially if it meant that John would have to admit about Cody’s talent because he had been intending to keep that particular facet of information to himself for as long as possible.
“Hey Beth,” he greeted a blonde, surprisingly tall (even though she was sitting) woman with bright red lipstick, “We got any passes?”
“Sure John. Who’s it for?”
“Cody here, he’s helping me with my case.”
Arching a brow Beth assessed Cody for a moment, seemed to deem him as acceptable and then wrote his name neatly atop a laminated pass; apparently they would just wipe it off and re-use the badge when they needed to and Cody was done with it.
“Thank you,” he said politely, obediently pinning the badge onto his shirt.
“Cheers Beth,” John grinned, dimples appearing, “Not long now until the big day huh?” when the surprisingly stoic woman blushed red Cody’s brows rose; she looked almost like a totally different woman when she had that kind of expression on her face.
“Not long now,” she acknowledged.
“Where is Adam anyway?”
“It’s his day off; he’s probably still asleep.”
John looked mockingly unimpressed, “And it didn’t occur to you to get Natalya to fill in for you?”
Beth rolled her eyes and swatted at John with a folder before chuckling and then saying pointedly, “Don’t you have work to be doing?”
“That we do,” John agreed, signing his name on a register before bidding Beth goodbye and leading Cody towards the lift; they were both fit young men but climbing ten sets of stairs every day got pretty damned tedious pretty fast, especially if they wanted you to go off chasing after the bad guys during the day too.
People barely glanced up as they passed despite the floor seeming quite busy and Cody had to admit he was rather glad that they didn’t warrant enough notice; it made his job all the harder the more attention he had focused upon him… especially when many of those people were sceptics. Blocking out one level of disbelief could be achieved but when that number became greater it became much harder.
Opening his office door for Cody he ushered the younger man inside before following.
His desk was covered in papers that he was pretty sure he’d cleaned up the night before but apparently not, and he flushed slightly at the disarray the place had gotten into; when he got consumed in work he could forget everything that wasn’t related to his case, including things such as eating and cleaning up.
“Sorry it’s a state.”
“You should see my desk when I’m working towards a deadline.”
“I was wondering,” John mused, “Would you have written anything I’d read?”
For the first time the shyness in Cody’s face was replaced by an amused disbelief, “Somehow I don’t think I’d be writing your kind of thing, John.”
The response made him want to push further (he probably would have Googled Cody for some more information last night had he not been distracted as he had by Ted and learning about him and the communal past that he and Randy shared) but he knew that they really didn’t have the time for that sort of thing; maybe when they got lunch he could ask, but for now they really should be focusing on the case.
Glancing at his door momentarily John then exhaled and reached into the top drawer of his desk, the rolling sound as it revealed its contents to John seeming to echo around the office, Cody suddenly wondering if his breathing had suddenly grown as loud as he had thought it had.
The glasses looked so innocent, so unobtrusive… John wondered what Cody could possibly get out of them.
Ordinarily he would have been using gloves to handle the item but since the lab had already processed the glasses and found no other DNA or fingerprints other than those of the boy and his guardian, and those had been logged, it didn’t matter now.
“Here…” he handed them across to Cody who took them gingerly between his thumb and forefinger before laying them out across his opposite palm and then placing his other hand over it.
Silence passed without anything happening (though John found himself wondering just what he’d been expecting to happen) except for Cody bowing his head and closing his eyes. He was breathing slowly and deeply, and had it not been for the fact that John knew otherwise then he would have thought that the other man had suddenly fallen asleep.
“Cody-“he started lowly.
“Sh.”
Since Cody had barely moved John had suddenly found himself wondering whether the noise had come from someone else when he knew they were the only two in the room.
Somewhat surprised (and admittedly a touch miffed) John obediently fell quiet and watched.
When Cody continued to merely hold the glasses between his hands though without saying anything or making any other indication John felt his suspicions growing that perhaps all of the things he had heard about Cody were just fanciful acts that he had played on poor, desperate, unsuspecting people. In that moment he didn’t really consider the evidence he had seen that Cody had apparently discovered for the cases he’d worked on that proved he couldn’t possibly be a fake.
And then, just as John was considering the best way to tell Cody that perhaps this hadn’t been such a good idea, something happened.
Cody’s shoulders tensed and his face creased into an expression that would have been fearful most likely had his eyes been open, but as it was he looked like a child experiencing a particularly confusing and arduous nightmare. His breathing started to shallow and his hands jerked slightly, his right foot tapping a rapid rhythm on the ground to match his breathing for all of ten seconds.
Well, John thought dazedly as he watched, I had wondered where the theatrical nature of his work was.
“It was a woman.”
John almost fell out of his chair.
“Excuse me?”
Cody had a small amount of perspiration on his brow, his skin a little paler as he repeated, “He was picked up by a woman at first.”
That was news to John.
Scrabbling for his notepad and a pencil John immediately started to jot notes down.
“Why do you think it’s a woman?”
“Because the energy he left behind tells me he wasn’t frightened at first… So that either means he was very well acquainted with the man who took him, and since you said there’s no father in his life or mother to have boyfriends, that doesn’t leave many options, so my instinct tells me if there was no familiar man then there must have been a woman.”
The reasoning was plausible but John still didn’t find himself altogether convinced.
“And what else?”
Cody turned the glasses over between his fingers this time, looking at them steadily.
“He only got scared after, and started to struggle. That was why he lost the glasses. He wasn’t afraid of the lady, she seemed nice, and she’d promised him some sweets if he’d help her… but then the man showed up, and he got scared. And when he got scared he tried to run, but they stopped him.”
By the end Cody’s voice had grown so quiet that John struggled to hear it.
Pencil hesitating over the paper John then cleared his throat softly, “Is he… Dead?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so?”
“I don’t feel that his energy has gained the undercurrent of residual energy yet, meaning from someone who has passed. As far as his energy connection is concerned he’s still alive…” but even as he said that John could sense some despondency there, as though he knew from experience that that necessarily meant very little.
“At least we’ve somewhere to start, and we still have hope,” John said firmly.
Standing up he then hesitated, “If I took you to where he was taken from… could you maybe try and, I don’t know,” he looked embarrassed but defiant, as though he expected that Cody might laugh at him for his suggestion and yet not caring, “Follow him?”
A darkly amused look crossed Cody’s face, “Like a psychic bloodhound?”
“If you can’t do it-”
“I didn’t say I couldn’t…” Cody sighed and started to stand up himself, delicately placing the child’s glasses down atop the evidence bag they had been held in and looked up again to meet John’s eyes, “I’m just telling you not to get your hopes up.”
~::~
“You’re smitten.”
“I am not.”
“Teddy,” Randy arched a brow at him and spread his hands magnanimously, “I’ve brought you a top meat-lover’s breakfast and all you’ve done is cut the sausage into teeny pieces when I know normally you would have devoured the damn thing before I’d even added milk and sugar to my coffee.”
A flush dusted Ted’s cheeks and he scowled embarrassedly, “Way to make me sound like a-“he cut off and arched a brow, “Milk and sugar?”
This time Randy was the one to begin looking defensive, “I always have sugar.”
“I don’t remember you having milk though.”
Glancing away Randy muttered something about John saying something about too much straight black coffee being bad for a person’s stomach and Ted grinned before sobering slightly once more. Seeing the change that had come over his friend Randy rolled his eyes slightly.
“Look, I know you don’t trust that the kid’s legit but that doesn’t mean you can’t fancy him or anything… He may be a pretty stand-up guy otherwise.”
Snorting quietly Ted murmured, “Yeah, a real stand-up guy… bar the trying to cash in to a tragic situation.”
Arching a brow Randy returned, “He doesn’t want money so far.”
Shrugging Ted responded, “Or a case of desperate need to help and attention…”
It had occurred to him that he was probably being unaccountably harsh towards this unknown man but he couldn’t help it; he had met so many people over time who had claimed to be able to do what he could do, and half of them deserved locking up for lengthy sentences not only for giving out false information and hope to grieving families (as was often the case) but for making light of a situation that had forced Ted’s life onto a path that he was pretty damn sure he would never even thought about briefly had he had other options.
How could they act like they possessed an ability that would effectively ruin any chance they had at a normal life? If they knew ever a fraction of what it was like to possess such a ‘gift’ then he was pretty damned sure all of the phonies in the world would hang up their gaudy robes and drop the mystical accents without looking back immediately.
“You get real sensitive about this kind of thing don’t you?”
At the black look that was levelled his way Randy held up his hands in a gesture of surrender, “I’m just saying… I’ve never seen you get like that over anyone before, guy or girl; you looked as though things suddenly made sense to you,” a notion that had been quickly dispelled when he realised that Ted didn’t understand anymore about himself, or this newcomer, than he had to start with.
“How can you say I just like this person? I don’t even know his full name!”
“Love can be spontaneous you know,” Randy said with surprising sincerity.
Surprise flittered across Ted’s face and then he looked more wanly amused than anything else, “I never thought I’d ever hear you of all people come out with something like that.”
“Yeah, that was kinda nimbyish wasn’t it? Sorry. It’s not entirely untrue anyway; you don’t always see everything that’s gonna happen to you. Sometimes something can come along and you won’t even realise it’s there until it smacks you in the face and takes your wallet.”
“Haha.”
“Oh come on, that was one pretty good; I had you thinking I was getting all philosophical and everything!”
“How does John put up with you?”
“I’m awesome in bed.”
“I knew there had to be something,” Ted returned with a reluctant smile playing around his lips. No matter how determined he was to go all emo and get bogged down in depression there was something about being around a friend who knew everything about him, whom he didn’t have to hide from, that made him feel much more comfortable in his own skin.
“You wish you’d snapped me up first,” Randy joked and Ted snickered; it was a long-standing joke between them as they both knew that their parents had had words about whether anything had ever happened between them when they were younger, and they had come out. Not at the same time of course; Randy had gone through his woman phase and hadn’t come out until he was about 18, but Ted had come out about two years before him, as he’d been in the midst of an emotional crisis about it.
Despite the religious background in his family they had been surprisingly supportive once the shock had worn off… the only horrifying part of the tale now was that they kept mentioning ‘nice men’ that they thought he might like, or kept badgering to bring a ‘nice boy’ home for them to meet sometime soon. There was a part of Ted that was mortified in the general way a person was when their parents got involved in their love-lives, but another part of Ted was more infuriated that they thought he could manage to be ‘normal’ enough to manage such a feat.
Ironically someone with a ‘talent’ like himself would probably save him a lot of awkward conversations in the long run… However there wasn’t exactly a dating website for psychics.
Shaking himself somewhat Ted resumed eating his breakfast; it had grown somewhat cold though but still tasted good, filling the void that had been predominantly left over from him barely having more than a chocolate bar to snack on the day before due to his travelling. Randy seemed to follow suit and for a time silence descended between them.
Once they had finished and the bill was paid however they exited the diner and Randy turned to Ted.
“So… How we go about seeing if you’re going to get anymore flashes?”
“If I knew how to make them happen don’t you think I’d do so immediately to get it over and done with?”
An incredulous look spread over Randy’s face, “I buy you breakfast, feed that unending pit you call a stomach, and you’re still in a bad mood?”
“I am not that much of a glutton.”
Playfully grabbing at Ted’s side, hidden underneath the man’s top and jacket, Randy smirked, “That’s not what the lovehandles say.”
Beacon red Ted swatted Randy away, arms wrapping around himself self-consciously; he’d always hated the fact that his penchant for sweet foods was visible on his body no matter how hard he worked in the gym to make it otherwise.
“Shut up.”
“Seriously Teddy… What do we do now?” Randy asked once the moment passed, his brow furrowing, “I know we’re cool with having you as long as you want but you always look so… ill,” that was the best way to describe his shadowed eyes and pale cheeks, “-when you’re trying to figure this shit out. If we could hurry it along it’d be better for you… Why don’t you stay here for a while after? I mean actually get somewhere and settle down.”
Ted sighed, knowing Randy only meant well and wasn’t being deliberately ignorant or anything, “Believe me,” he glanced out at the bustling hubbub of the city, a tragically forlorn figure who had seen far too much in his young life, “If I could I would.”
~::~
Bringing the car up to a halt besides your typical city park John addressed Cody, “It was right in here, by the slide near the kiddies part of the park.”
Pausing midway through opening the passenger side door Cody asked, “I thought all parks were for kids?”
John looked a touch amused, “I meant like little kiddies, you know, the kinds who usually get brought here in pairs and groups and have someone there to keep an eye on them.”
Was that a little jibe towards the guardian for the little boy being here alone? If the child-snatchers were as desperate as Cody assumed then it probably wouldn’t matter all that much whether there had been an adult there or not.
Exhaling Cody finished getting out of the car and closed his door behind him, John doing the same on the opposite side before they started heading through the front gates (which John had to open) and then towards the part of the park the boy had vanished from.
“I take it they’ve closed the park a while?”
“We did crime scene and everything on the first day and they said we could re-open it but… a few residents admitted to us that they would prefer the gates to be locked for a while. I guess it’s to put fear of God into the kids…” he sighed, “I don’t agree with exposing children to this kind of world but I suppose when they’re pretty much confronted with it anyway and they do need to know, then there’s nothing that you can do about it.”
“I don’t suppose you have kids, do you?” Cody asked without any humour.
John stumbled, “Wha? Me? But I’m-“he started automatically and then caught himself before the words, ‘But I’m gay,’ actually met the air because what would him being gay in the grand scheme of things mean when it came to kids? They could have adopted, or he could have had a girlfriend in his past whom had become pregnant, or he and Randy could have engaged a surrogate’s services. “No,” he finally said, “I don’t have kids. I have five brothers though so you can imagine the number of nieces and nephews I have.”
“I don’t envy your Christmas shopping,” a genuine, if brief, smile touched Cody’s lips before his expression turned closed like it had back in John’s office.
“Can you sense anything?”
“I understand scepticism sergeant but I would appreciate it more if you could hold onto it until I’m out of the way to hear it?”
Automatically John made to protest that he hadn’t meant in that way but even as he did he knew that there was a part of him that was still struggling to believe that Cody was the real deal even though what he had told him in the office had certainly been a damned good start to build on with what they had already suspected.
If there was an accomplice then that meant when they finally caught them they would have extra leverage to use against the main perp. And John would bet his bottom dollar (as the old song went) that the woman who was with the guy was most likely either as twisted as he was (and would therefore roll over to save her own skin) or otherwise another victim who had no choice in the matter.
“Sorry.”
“It’s OK, just… I’m not like a psychic sniffer-dog,” Cody mumbled, “I can’t just feel out of everything… I told you that it had to have significance right? He probably only maybe came here a handful of times alongside other children,” as he spoke Cody was walking around by the playground equipment, eyes on the ground as though he was looking for something without really looking, “-there’s a really good chance that because of that I won’t be able to pull his signature out of the melee even if I wanted-“Cody stopped talking so abruptly his teeth clicked together, eyes focused off to some trees some distance away from the playground equipment.
For all he said he wasn’t like a sniffer-dog John could certainly imagine Cody with the appropriate ears standing up to attention and the tail sticking out as he pointed.
Moving up next to him John murmured, “Cody?” when the other didn’t move a muscle for a good minute or two, not even blinking, which wasn’t easy.
“They took him this way.”
John frowned but followed Cody as he started to walk, his mind already running through a thousand and one different theories as to why they may have taken this way, and conversely why they couldn’t have taken this way.
It was too public.
Most parents probably wouldn’t think much of a woman in the park, especially if the child seemed at ease with her.
There’s nothing back there except for the boundary fence, why would they risk the child panicking on them somewhere where he was likely to be--
“I think they went through there,” Cody glanced over his shoulder at John as he pointed towards what appeared to be a bended hole in the fence that led onto a back-road that had no houses on it in any immediate vicinity that John could see. This part on the other side of the fence looked almost as though it belonged in a different zone of reality; there were nothing but houses, shops and cars on the other side lining the streets and neighbourhoods.
“Do you know if they took him in a vehicle?”
“From the tone you’re using I’d deduce you already have a theory even without asking me.”
“Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t appreciate a second opinion.”
Sighing, Cody nodded and then indicated down to the east of the road, “From here I can trace his signature up to the road turning right and I can follow it down for a while but then… it stops. I’d guess they had the car parked further up the road to avoid being seen through these thinner trees, and they came and got the kid before taking him down to it and driving off. I’m sorry John,” he really did look apologetic, “But there’s nothing more I can do.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I can’t trace him anymore. Once he no longer has direct contact with the floor or something else then the signature lingers but it won’t tell me where it’s gone now.”
A crushing sensation settled in the pit of John’s stomach; Cody had been doing pretty damned well, it was a shame that he couldn’t have kept going.
“It’s fine Cody… I really appreciate all of your help so far.”
“So far?” Cody looked confused as they walked back towards the car, “If I’ve done all I can here what more do you need me for?”
Overheard the sky was darkening warningly, rain threatened imminently.
“Maybe one of the other children can tell you something else through their items.”
~::~
Ted never came to a new town with much of a plan. On the occasions he got more than a vague idea of where to go it was easier, sometimes he knew the name of the town or even the street in the same way that he knew he had two legs, completely undeniable. Those times he would go to where he was supposed to be and maybe look around, get a feel for the neighbourhood, see if there was anything he could pick up on. And when he saw someone he tended to take out his phone so that he didn't unduly concern anyone that might be watching him talk to himself.
And then there were times like this, when he sort-of knew where he was supposed to be but couldn't narrow it down. Those times he tended to go on a lot of walks, seeing if he could see anything or if his inner compass would lead him one way or another. Sometimes he put headphones in and listened to music or an audiobook, but mostly he just listened to the street, lulling himself so that his feet just took him where they wanted. It wasn't as easy as that with Randy with him. Although Randy let him lead the way, they were talking between themselves so much that Ted wasn't sure whether or not he was making any headway in finding why he was in Missouri. He wasn't getting the restless, uneasy feeling that he did when he misjudged where he was supposed to be but he didn't have the same feeling of being led as he often did. He considered telling Randy that he needed to be alone, then changed his mind. He didn't get any time to himself at all, not in the way that most people considered their due and so what if he wanted to catch up with an old friend?
He didn't know the area at all, although Randy did and he wasn't too worried about getting lost; he just walked without thinking too much about it, talking over a few things with Randy. They were reminiscing about a few things, mostly steering clear of the times since their friendship had started when Ted's gift had shown itself. It hadn't happened often, as Ted himself often said there weren't many people who met their ends at the hand of others and fewer still who lingered for any reason at all. Crimes were solved without the intervention of the dead more often than not and there weren't many who needed to say anything once their lives had ended. But that didn't mean it had never happened and there were a handful of times after the first that Randy had witnessed Ted talking to the dead. He sometimes wondered if he was the only person who Ted felt comfortable using his gift in front of... if it could be called a gift. Randy was sure he would not like to be able to do the same things that Ted could without losing his mind.
“Brett's been talking about getting married,” Ted told Randy as they walked, smiling a little as he mentioned his brother. “I'm hoping that I'll be able to get there if they ever set a date - he hasn't gone that far yet, but you know what he's like. He likes the idea but whether or not he'll get around to doing it when there's nothing wrong with where they're at is another matter.”
“You're just hoping to be there?”
“I might be called away,” said Ted wistfully. “I couldn't go to my own wedding if the call was strong enough.”
Randy shook his head, not understanding how what Ted felt could stop him from doing whatever he wanted to. “Surely the dead can wait. And anyway, talking about your own wedding. Have you met anyone on your travels? Even dated someone a couple of times?”
“I hardly stay in one place long enough to make it worth it,” replied Ted dryly.
“I'm not talking about a love connection,” Randy shot back. “Just hung out with someone, gone on a couple of dates, got laid. It doesn't have to be the start of a life together, just something fun for once.”
Ted didn't reply and Randy sighed. “Oh boy Ted, you really need to put yourself first for once. Chasing around, it's noble and everything but you don't do anything for yourself. You don't have to sacrifice everything because you see dead people. No wonder you reacted so strongly to the psychic.”
“I didn't--”
“Sure you did, not that you were the only one. I thought he was about to offer to read your palm and then pronounce himself your soul mate. Actually, that's not the worst idea in the world. Maybe you should act on that while you're here.”
“Huh?”
Randy got a wicked glint in his eye. “Why not? He's here on business, so are you. You can maybe get together, get a little closer and you both know it's not going anywhere since you won't be here long and so you don't have to worry about making things last. You both know there's a time limit, you can have a little fun and head on your separate ways.”
“I think that's a very bad idea.”
“Why, because you might end up having some fun for once?” Randy smirked a little when he saw how uneasy Ted was and decided to change the subject. At least the idea was out there. “What's Mike up to?”
Ted shrugged. Randy knew, although Ted had never said so explicitly, that things weren't so good between the two of them. Mike had always found Ted's gift embarrassing more than anything else and although he had never said so outright, Randy knew that Mike wasn't convinced that Ted talked to the dead at all. He had no way of explaining how Ted knew things he couldn't know, or why he would make up something that would cause Ted's life to be so difficult but their relationship was strained because of it. Randy had the idea that it hurt Ted that his brother would cast doubt on him, essentially calling him a liar when it was something that he had no control over.
“He's fine,” said Ted in the end. “Working, making money. Last I heard, he and the wife were thinking of having another kid.”