A Long Time from Home Ch. 26

That meant that she had two problems. One of them was that the person was impossible to see. No matter how hard she focused on seeing who it was, it was a blurry mass of nothingness, leaving the identity unknown and even the size and gender was impossible to see. However, the fact that person was able to effortlessly carry an adult down the stairs, suggested that the unknown person was a man.

The second problem was that since she saw the in reverse and there was only one way out, she should have seen the man walk up the stairs before coming down. That meant that the movement of the doors she had seen earlier, had to be caused by an person that couldn't be seen by her ability to look back in time.

She investigated into that and discovered that the blur around the person was only visible when said person interacted with something. Otherwise, he was invisible to her powers.

With a sigh, she closed her mind, opened her eyes, and looked at Zavala, who was leaning against the wall. "This time we're really not in luck. Curtis' killer, can't be detected by my abilities."

That caused Zavala to raise his eyebrows in surprise. "Are we dealing with a Negator?"

A Negator was a psychic whose only power was negating other psychic powers in the area and Maya thought it over before shaking her head. "Not unless it's a kind of Negator we have never seen before. I could see Curtis as he was carried down here, but not the person doing it. If it were a Negator, I wouldn't have been able to see anything at all."

"Okay. So where to next?"

Maya pointed towards the first room behind the hidden door. "We need to go in there. The unknown person took some things from the room. Unfortunately, due to the interference he creates, I can't see exactly what he takes, except that one of the things is a filled bag. We need to check it out in case our unknown person took something we can use to track him with."

Smiling, Zavala made a small bow. "After you, agent Honeycutt."

Two hours later Maya was dizzy, but at least she had a good impression on what had been going on at the crime scene.

"Curtis was killed here." She said as her and Zavala stood in the semi darkness outside the house.

Zavala looked around, but there was no trace of a fight. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. Curtis came out of the door, saw someone he recognized and was going for his gun, when he was pushed or kicked into wall there, which saved him from falling." She pointed at the wall by the kitchen window. "That gave him time to draw and shoot the gun three times, before he took a step forward. Perhaps to get away from the wall." She paused and demonstrated the move. "Then he stops for some reason, possibly because he realized that he missed the shots. Our unknown person moved into close combat range, which is where he must have crushed Curtis' throat."

"Barehanded?" Asked Zavala.

"I can't answer that." Maya said regretfully. "The whole thing is blurry, but shortly after that, Curtis drops his gun and is pushed away, landing there..." She pointed at a spot on the ground. "... and dies shortly thereafter. Then there's a long pause, before the body was carried into the house, where our unknown person then disappears for a while."

She opened the door and walked into the house, followed by Zavala. "From the movement of the doors, my guess is that he searched the house. He finds the hidden door and the cells behind it, check to see that there's nobody there, before he goes back to the first room, where he takes a bag from the hidden closet. Unfortunately, the blurring makes it almost impossible to see what he takes in there. Anyway, after that he carries Curtis' body down the stairs and drops it in a room. Next, he searches the ground floor, where he finds and robs the safes there. After that, he disappears for good."

Zavala was quiet and from the frown on his face, Maya assumed he was thinking.

Not wanting to disturb, she took a protein bar from her bag and slowly ate it.

"We may be looking at this the wrong way." Zavala finally said, "The two cases might be unrelated and that the attempted abduction and the death of Curtis happened at the same night by coincidence. I mean, while this was happening, only the American women knew about the kidnaping attempt and they were busy talking with the police."

Maya nodded slowly while she swallowed the last bit of the protein bar. "I agree. We don't know how much money there was in the bag the unknown person took and we don't know how much money there was in the safe the person cleared out. There's also the possibility that Curtis or Parker have angered some of the local criminal elements."

She looked at Zavala, who nodded in agreement, and continued "There is a thing more to think about: After the initial surprise, Curtis had time to use his psychic abilities before the combat went to close combat. From the look of concentration and then surprise on his face, I would judge that he did use them, but that his psychic abilities work didn't for some reason. Thus, our unknown person is either incredible resistant to psychic abilities, incredible lucky or both."

"And as always, Department 55 needs to know." Stated Zavala with a chuckle.

Smiling back, Maya nodded. "Yes, we need to know everything about Curtis and the same goes for Leonard Parker... or Samuel Otis to use his local name.... Friends, enemies, connections, the works. You know how it goes."

"The local police are already on that." Said Zavala.

Maya nodded and looked around in the living room. A painting on the wall caught her eyes and almost stopped her heart.

"Well, blow me!" She mumbled to herself, as she walked closer to the painting. It showed a black clad man, with a tall black hat, sitting down at the table as he is writing something.

Behind her, a surprised Zavala said, "Excuse me?"

"Well, unless that's a copy," Said Maya slowly, "we're looking at Chez Tortoni by Manet. One of the paintings we think that Parker stole from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in 1990, at least to our knowledge. If it's the original, it's worth more than a few million dollars."

Low whistle escaped from Zavala as he walked closer to the painting. "That's a lot. Not top of the list, but still a lot... hmm... Unless I'm mistaken, nothing was ever recovered from that heist."

"You're not mistaken, but we still need to confirm that it is the original." Said Maya looked around in the room. "If it is, we might find other masterpieces here... like the 'The Concert' by Vermeer, that disappeared in the same heist." She glanced over her shoulder to look at the Spanish police officer. "A lot of people will be happy if we retrieve a painting worth a whopping 300 million."

Zavala nodded and pulled out his phone. "I'll double the security both here and around Parker's house and have some art specialists look at the paintings."

"Good idea." Said Maya and thought about the case while Zavala made the phone call. Then she looked at the painting again and sighed. "You know, this case just became even more complicated. If Curtis or Parker sold one or more of the paintings, they would have had a lot of cash on their hands... Not to mention the possibility that Curtis was killed for the paintings, making Parker go into hiding from both us and whoever killed Curtis."

"The possibilities are endless." Admitted Zavala as he pocketed his phone. "But for now, let's take a break until the specialists arrive and then go for a tour of the house and see what else is here."

---------- Ivan ----------

The sound of sex woke me up. The people in the next room were having fun and the rhythmic banging of their bed against the wall, combined with a lot of moaning, made sleep impossible. Since it didn't sound like they were going to finish anytime soon, I stood up, dressed in the local style of dark pants and a white shirt, and walked out in search of something to eat.

The sun had set while I was sleeping, but the city was lit by countless lights in every colour imaginable, most of the shops were still open, the streets were filled with people and there was music everywhere.

Finding a place to eat took a while, but I finally managed to find a vacant table in a restaurant that had tables outside and settled down there.

The waiter brought me a menu, but since I didn't know most of the dishes, I just ordered a four-course menu along with some wine.

The food was excellent and I halfway through the seafood starter when I received a focused call from Cyra. "< Ivan? >"

I couldn't help smiling to myself. The mental communication was a huge improvement from last week and it was so focused, that I doubted anyone else could even detect the sending. It also felt like they were a lot closer than they had been yesterday.

"< Yes, Cyra? >" I sent back and suddenly I could feel Zena on the link, so I added. "< And hey to you too, Zena >"

"< Hey >" There was a pause. "< What're you doing? >"

"< Eating my dinner >" I sent with a mental chuckle. It was clear that the two of them were bored and just wanted to talk. "< Are you in town? >"

"< Yeah. The police moved us to Hotel Aleysa. It's nice and everything, but it's not The House >" sent Zena and Cyra added. "< But they have room-service and we don't have to do anything! >"

"< That's nice but remember to do your excises.... How have your day been? >"

That question was all the Twins needed to start a detailed explanation of their day, complete with mind-images, so I listened through the rest of my meal, gently correcting them any time they were in danger of losing their focus.

One of the key persons in their explanation was an 'Agent Rao', who was a black-haired and dark-skinned woman, that looked like she came from the area around Cinnamon Island or Bharat. A quick search of the knowledge I had gotten from the women told me, that the island was now called Sri Lanka and Bharat was known as India.

"< Hmm... She doesn't look Spanish. Do you know where she's from? >"

"< Australia >" stated Zena. "< She's an international cop that hunt kidnappers. Kinda like FBI for Europe... or the Inquisitors from your story... and she and two other agents are gonna protect us until we leave >"

As she talked, another mind-image followed. This time it was a friendly looking man, that looked like he was a local.

"< Yeah... They're cool! >" said Cyra and added. "< She even showed us a drawing of how they think the kidnappers look like and wanted to know if we had seen them before, but we only saw one of them >" There was a slight pause as mental images followed. The first one was a drawing of the Curtis guy, while the other looked like the one I had seen in Curtis' mind. The one named Parker. "< Do you know who the last guy is? >"

"< And what happened to the first guy? >" added Zena. "< The one that came into our room... They talk about him in past tense... Is he dead? >"

"< Yes, he's dead >" I answered and explained that I had happened upon him on my way to Malaga. He had recognized me and tried to shoot me, so I had to act in self-defense, which led to Curtis' death. They took it better than I had expected, judging from the info from Alice, Rita and Karen about how people looked at killing other people in this age.

"< Thank God! >" Zena said and a moment later Cyra added. "< So that's why you promised he wouldn't come back! >"

"< Yes, but don't tell anyone >"

"< We promise... and thanks >" The link was so filled with warm feelings, that I felt like I had just been given a mental hug and for a moment, there was silence.

Then I asked them about the police and that got them talking again. It had amused them to no end, that the police didn't know they understood Spanish, and they entertained me with stories about what the Spanish police had said for a while.

"< This is fun >" sent Zena as I was finishing my desert.

"< Yeah >" agreed Cyra. "< but we need to go to sleep soon >" There was a mental giggle. "< Right now, they think we're in here reading >"

"< What're Alice, Rita and Karen doing? >"

"< Karen is talking with the Agent Rao, while mom and Rita are watching a movie >" answered Zena.

"< The movie is finished >" Sent Cyra in hurry. "< Mom's coming to tug us in now. Good night > "

It was followed by a "< Good night >" from Zena as well and I just had time to respond with a "< Sweet dreams >" before the mental link disappeared.

The timing was excellent, because at the same moment I swallowed the last spoonful of ice-cream and was able to lean back in the chair and relax.

The international cops intrigued me and while the waiter brought me some tea, I searched my memory for information about the FBI they had been talking about, only to discover that it was a special branch of law enforcement in USA. However, most of the knowledge was from various TV-shows, so it was somewhat unreliable, but it seemed like they were competent and well-educated law officers, and there was no reason to believe that their European counterparts were any different.

Especially since they already had figured out Parker's name, so the plans I've had about searching for Leonard Parker's house would have to be cancelled, as the police would be looking for the guy as well and they would most like find his house before I did.

It also made extremely risky to meet the women, as they would be under police protection, and I highly doubted they would be allowed to enter the city without some form of bodyguards.

To make matters worse, they were scheduled to travel back to USA soon and once they were gone, there was no telling when I would see them again.

All in all, it boiled down to the fact, that if I wanted to meet Alice, Rita, Karen, and the Twins again, I would have to take a trip to USA. Then again, I have travelled the world more than once and there was no reason why I couldn't do it again.

Leaning back in the seat, I drank some wine, looking at the people passing by on the street.

While I had been eating and mind-talking with the Twins, even more people had appeared on the streets and most of them looked like they were dressed for a fun night in town.

They also reminded me, that I needed to find someone to share pleasure with, if I wanted to get rid of the feeling of tiredness in the body.

I was used to being self-reliant and this new dependence on other people was annoying. It hadn't been a problem with Alice, Karen, and Rita around, but now I had to use time and energy to get the Vis I needed. It was like being addicted to a drug and I didn't like it one bit.

I pondered the situation for a moment, but then had to laugh at myself: I was physical young, in good health and as a Baylon Mentat, most women found me sexy without even knowing why, so there was really no reason for self-pity.

With a smile, I signaled the waiter to come over and was about to pay for the meal, when I smelled burning wood in the air. I couldn't see any obvious fires, so I mentioned it to the waiter, but he just smiled and told me that there was a great party on the beach, where they celebrated 'The night of San Juan' by having bonfires, music, and food. It was the party the women had planned on going to, before the kidnapping attempt happened.

Since that sounded like my kind of party, I thanked him and walked in the direction of the beach.

---------- Department 55 ----------

It was late, before Zavala and Honeycutt could get into Zavala's car and drive back to Malaga. The aging specialist and his assistant had taken a tour of the house, appraising everything from furniture to pots and pans. The paintings would have to wait until a team of experts had the opportunity to take a closer look at them in a lab.

Aside from that, the result had been mind-blowing.

Almost everything in the house was either an antique, expensive or both and the specialist had recognized many pieces of stolen property that had been gone for years. All to the tune of more than two million pounds and that was without the paintings and the loot found in the basement, though Maya doubted that it would add more than a few hundred thousand pounds.

"Two million pounds." She mumbled to herself as she looked out into the darkness.

"Much more." remarked Zavala. "You're forgetting the gems and the watches." He steered the car around a corner as he laughed softly. "I wonder if our unknown Psychic know what he has."

Turning her head to look at the Spanish police officer, Maya asked. "What do you mean?"

"Most people think that unless it's Rolex, watches aren't expensive." Zavala explained with a slight smile. "However, you can get a Rolex... a legal one... for five thousand pounds. The watches in the boxes in the cellar were special edition IWC, Patek Phillipe and Lange, and I'm sure the ones he took are of the same quality. Those are prestige watches and among the most expensive watches in the world... None of them are sold for less than a hundred thousand pounds apiece."

"That's a lot of money for a watch!"

"Yes and besides the watches, there was a lot of expensive brands among the jewellery... Chopard, Piaget, Tiffany, Cartier and Van Cleef... and they're just as expensive as the watches." He glanced over at her, saw her surprised facial expression and chuckled as he looked at the road again. "Before I was drafted into Interpol and the Department, I spent a few years in the National Police Corps, investigating theft of high value items. Not art, though. That's another department."

"Are you sure these weren't fakes?" asked Maya as she shook her head a bit at his explanation. From time to time, it was easy to forget that some Agents came from the ranks of ordinary police.

"As sure as I can be, without a closer inspection."

"Can they be traced as being stolen?"

"I highly doubt it." said Zavala with a sigh. "Parker and Curtis would have made sure, that the former owners thought they sold them fair and square. Of cause, if we see someone other than a millionaire wearing a hundred-thousand-pound watch, we need to take a closer look at that person." He slowed the car and pointed to the front. "Take a look at that."

Maya did as he said and discovered that they had an unobstructed view over Malaga. The city lights glittered in the dark, but what drew her attention was the many fires on the beach.

"Oh... The Night of San Juan." She said with a chuckle as they came nearer. "Sheena and I had planned to go there. We wanted to jump over the fire, just in case the legend is true, and you really do get cleansed and purified from it." She shivered a bit. "I never believed in old tales, but after visiting Curtis' cellar, a midnight bath to wash away evil spirits wouldn't be bad either. I guess that will have to wait 'til next year."

Zavala looked thoughtful for a moment, before he said, "No. You have a point. Let's do that."

"Seriously?"

He nodded. "Yes. It's customary to jump over the fires during Hora de las brujas or The Witching Hour, as it's called in English. That the hour after midnight, so we have time to get down there." He smiled. "If you want to go, we go."

Maya nodded slowly. "I would like that very much."

---------- Ivan ----------

As it turned out, the beach party was exactly my kind of party. The beach was full of people of all ages having a good time, while listening to music and dancing around one of the many bonfires, when they weren't busy jumping over them and running into the sea.

Some of the bonfires had been dedicated to food. Around those, there were rows of wooden sticks stuck into the sand and on those sticks, fish were roasting.

With so many people having a good time, the beach was overflowing with positive Vis and just by being there, I immediately felt better.