Chronicle - Mel and Chris Ch. 04

The detective maintained a friendly but not broad smile as she approached them. Chris didn't notice an obvious gun under the jacket but wondered about the purse that had its strap over her left shoulder.

"Coffee, dear?" The waitress lifted one of the carafes quickly.

"No thanks, Rose," she read the name tag, "but I'll have a tea if you have it."

"Can do." She strode toward the other diners on her resupply run.

Chris tried to hide his smile, this policewoman may as well have been recording them.

Mel sat on the outer edge of the booth bench, Chris against the wall. The demon was in jeans, just plain old regular jeans. And had a red blouse on. A tight and too small red blouse. A way too tight very see through red blouse. A way too tight very see through red blouse with no bra. Mel flashed her smile when the woman's eyes lingered a moment too long on breasts concealed only by transparent red fabric.

Beyond that 'shirt' Mel's black curls and waves bunched on top of her head to fall over her shoulders and onto her back and denied recent use of a comb or brush. This time it was the two red-black horns whose points jutted from that hair that caught the woman's eyes.

A final couple of blinks when it was Mel's devil's tail that caught her eye.

"Joyce Shaw, we presume?"

Mel's voice was pitched lower than normal and with more rasp.

"That's me, you're Mel, I take it?"

"Mel Caldicott," she extended her right arm and Shaw took it, "join us."

"Chris Bajevic," the young man followed suit and she shook his hand across the table, "you're Dave's friend?"

"Not so much Dave's friend as Peter's. Peter Miller's."

Warned by Dave the couple simply nodded and Chris continued.

"And you're a detective, Joyce?"

"Yes. But this is personal. Not official business."

"We'd noticed from what few articles that were in the press you'd not taken his disappearance all that seriously," Mel tried to keep her voice neutral but there was a hint of accusation in it.

"Don't confuse official response to what I and others might've felt. I wasn't in position back then to force anything. I tried but there are things I didn't know back then. Like who Cat was. Is."

"The reporter who doesn't report on herself," Chris laughed, looked up as Rose brought Joyce a mug of hot water and the ubiquitous tea bag.

"You three be wanting food tonight?"

"Just a plate of fries, Rose, you want to share some, Joyce? They have pretty decent chocolate cake, too. Best kept secret in town."

She shook her head

"No dessert for us, he owes me ice cream," Mel bumped her shoulder into Chris and smiled at him. Rose walked off with a light laugh.

"So why are you two interested in Peter? I know you're in comp sci like he was, Chris, but you're too young to have met him, right? It's coming up on five years that he went missing."

"This one, mostly," Chris nodded at Mel, who smiled softly, "I introduced her to friends as 'my demon' and well, everyone made me explain that."

"He saw through my disguise of just being a girl from North Dakota," Mel said with a lighter rasp, "and so now I just let the horns and tail show. But back then..."

"It was Dave's fault."

"Dave? I know he's one of your TAs..."

"He said Peter always called that Carole girl 'my succubus.' His demon. So after they disappeared it sort of became tradition that on the rare occasions us CS guys got beautiful girlfriends they became 'our demons.' So this one..."

"But apparently Dave's not so happy about that anymore," Mel said and shrugged, "he said Asha didn't react well to it. But they all call me 'devil girl' so it's okay for me."

"But how does that—-," Shaw started.

"Getting there," Chris said, "when we were looking up info to work out the orbit of that crashed satellite Mel looked up the info about Peter and Carole in the newspaper microfiche. There wasn't much. It was like they disappeared into thin air and there's never been word from them and hardly anyone even noticed. We even found his ex-housemates, talked to them just after Thanksgiving. They've never heard anything, are certain he'd have dropped them a line if he could."

"And his family," Mel picked up the thread, "is pretty crap. But I guess you know all about them..."

Shaw snorted, nodded.

"But why do you keep talking about 'that satellite' that crashed? It was just a meteor."

The younger couple looked at each other and Mel poked her chin at the pile of their coats between Chris and the wall. He reached over and revealed a small pack, opened it and pulled out a video cassette and handed it across.

"Watch this. It'll explain it. But hide that, don't take it out until you're at home. And make sure your blinds are closed. But, there are two more still in orbit, we proved it."

Shaw raised an eyebrow but she slipped the cassette after a momentary hesitation into the small bag she'd been told to bring. Chris followed with an enlarged picture and set it on the table.

"See this fuzzy line?" Mel traced her finger across the disk recognisable as Jupiter. There was a fine arced line across the bottom quarter.

"My drudge here took this when we were up in the Unitas," Chris snorted at Mel's description, "we have others but this one is about the best. That tape is our press conference last September at Mt. Mallomar observatory with their astronomers. These satellites are almost invisible. We have theories how they do that, but well, not go into that here.."

"Press conference? Never made the news..."

"Of course not. Black Cloud here blew up a star the same day we did it. That's all the news cared about."

Mel reached over and play-punched Chris on the shoulder at that. Shaw heard a laugh over her shoulder and turned, saw Rose set the plate of fries down in the Center of the table.

"Refills?" Chris and Mel both shook their heads at their half-full Coke glasses.

"Black Cloud?" Shaw's expression was confused.

"First night I was in town, he takes me up to a park on the hills to show me the lights across the valley. He'd made me get my tits out and was molesting me when we saw the flaming satellite fly across the sky."

"Molest?" Shaw said slowly.

"That's ok, I was molesting him back."

"Right. Sure. That was, what, late June?"

"Yup. So he's Black Cloud. Even his family calls him that. He crashed a satellite and blows up stars because he knows I'm obsessed with astronomy and it turns me on so he can get into my pants."

"This is all wild," Shaw said, "but what does it all have to do with Peter and Carole?"

"The aliens, the ones in those satellites, kidnapped him. Carole was helping them."

Chris picked up the discussion while Shaw stared open-mouthed.

"With the Mallomar folks we worked out they've been up there ten years or so. But they've had us under observation lots longer, remote probes and even a previous expedition that seems to have disappeared. We don't know for sure where they're from—"

"I'm pretty sure I know where," Mel said firmly, "that star that blew up. They're from there, escaping. Need a new home. Earth."

"But they need more info about us humans. Why not recruit beautiful spies like Carole. Succubesses. They seduce men like Peter, who are smart, know all of our technology and don't have families who'll make a big fuss if they disappear."

Shaw sipped again at her tea while the pair munched on fries and sucked up their cokes.

"But why kidnap him? If they have invisible satellites can't they just spy?"

"They have plans," Mel's voice was again firm.

Chris rummaged in his pack again, glanced around and pulled out some pictures. He put the first one down and saw Shaw nod, it was the picture he'd taken at Halloween. Bobby had been a barbarian with a huge sword strapped across his back, Anna had been a red, white and blue Amazon warrior in knee-high boots.

"Anna...," Shaw said softly.

"The guy is our friend Bobby and yeah, that's his girlfriend Anna. She claims her parents were church missionaries and she was born in Africa and grew up with them moving around the world until they finally settled in Nashville when she was a teen."

"Ok," Shaw said as she looked at the couple's picture, "I couldn't place her accent because she has too many, that upbringing would do it."

"But that's just a story. She's an alien."

"Um, what?" Shaw's head snapped to look at Mel.

"She calls herself 'Anna Miller,'" Mel said, "and we're pretty sure she drives Peter's old Boss 351 Mustang. Carole was helping them somehow make women like her. Because..."

Chris shuffled that picture and exposed a second one. Shaw's jaw dropped when she saw it.

"We're guessing," Chris said, "they look like this. So somehow they're altering themselves or humans. We don't know yet."

Chris laid the photo he'd taken of the padlet's home screen, the cat-elf alien couple with the golden eyes. Shaw's reaction was a surprise.

"Anna...," Shaw said calmly as she put a finger on the bottom edge of the picture.

"Anna? Anna was the other picture...," Mel said, for the first time not assured and confused by the policewoman's calm.

"No," Shaw said, "five years ago Halloween. Peter wasn't with Carole but was with a woman named Anna. Another Anna. Has Dave seen this?"

"Um, no," Chris said slowly, "just our friend Sam. She used to just think we're crazy, now she's convinced."

Shaw chuckled and put her finger on the female in the picture.

"She looked like this, mostly. She had..."

Shaw's voice trailed off but it was unclear if the emotion in her voice was anger or sadness. Most likely both.

"It was Halloween," she snapped, "everyone thought it was a costume. Peter told me he didn't think it was. She had heterochromia, two different colored eyes, one was green, and a port wine stain. Here."

She rubbed her left cheek.

"She had this same kind of reddish-blonde hair, but more blonde than this picture. Months before he disappeared. He was really attracted to her. He... had a thing about heterochromia. And she had great tits," Shaw continued, "so ok, your friend, this new Anna, I saw her and Bobby at the Broiler. She does have one hell of a rack."

"Mine are pathetic next to hers," Mel sniffed, "and apparently Dave doesn't think I compare to Carole's either!"

"And Jayne, the Cat," Chris added, "she's got a hell of a set too."

At that Mel's elbow in his ribs forced out a grunt but he laughed.

"Dave swears," Shaw said slowly, "that Jayne was disguised as a Cat and was Anna's driver that Halloween way back when."

"She makes a great Cat! And she was with Carole," Mel said, "the day before they disappeared."

"But since she filmed us on Halloween she seems like she's avoiding us," Chris said, "but we know she and Anna hang out."

"Yeah," Shaw said, "they were at the Broiler together during that robbery and all that."

"Oh, yeah, Bobby told us about it. He was really pissed he didn't get to take anyone down."

"Probably for the best," Shaw's best policewoman voice, "but how the hell did you get this picture?"

"It's my birthday party tomorrow night," Chris said, "come to our place and we'll show you. It's kinda, well, sensitive. But it's a costume party."

"And we're being watched," Mel said firmly, "need to be careful. I mean, I like people watching, I don't even mind the aliens watching us, you know, but for some things..."

Shaw was silent for a moment.

"How?"

"They have invisible, well, stealth, little probes. About the size of soccer balls, they fly around and can hover in one spot."

Chris shuffled the pictures once more, revealed a fuzzy, out of focus landscape.

"I know what I'm doing with a camera," Chris said, "I took the space pictures. But this is all I get trying to get these damn spy balls."

"Shit...," Shaw said, "I've seen pictures like that. When Peter was with the first Anna."

"Wait," Shaw added quickly, "these are invisible?"

"It's stealth, not really invisibility," Chris said, "hard as hell to see but not impossible. We've only ever seen one at a time, no idea how many but they seem to check us out now and again."

"We've given them a couple of shows," Mel's rasp deepened and her hand shifted to high on Chris's left thigh, "they stuck around until we were finished. Probably got that on continuous loop somewhere."

Shaw blinked and shook her head, grinned but went serious.

"Think they follow this new Anna around? If she is what you say?"

The pair nodded, Mel added, "probably sometimes at least."

"Like at the Broiler? I can't explain why a nimble young sneak thief slash drug dealer fell through a roof hatch. Broke his neck."

"Yeah, Jayne's reports mentioned that."

"Could've been an accident. But he had some wound on the back of his head. Autopsy said he probably hit it on the ladder when he broke his neck. But I wonder. If one of those hit him on the back of the head, could they do that?"

Mel and Chris looked at each other then back at her.

"I'd guess," Chris said slowly, "pretty sure they're likely metal of some sort. Might be heavy, use some sort of anti-gravity. They fly, don't float like balloons."

Shaw finished her tea and nodded.

"Thanks."

Chris Turns Twenty-two

[March 1, 1986]

Sam

"I've got it," Sam said at the sound of the front doorbell. Her gown swished and her eyes again ran down her body. She'd liked the translucent white gown at first sight when Mel had presented it to her the previous weekend. Her Angel two dot zero costume. The shock had been when Mel had pulled an opaque white g-string from behind her back and said 'this is all you're wearing under it.'

Mel had tried to convince her to not even wear the g-string. True, she'd thought, the gown's drape and movement meant it wasn't like she was naked. But the views offered were past what she'd shown at Halloween. Well, mostly. But with Teresa supporting Mel Sam had agreed but she'd had second thoughts on the day of the party.

Until Mel had come downstairs just as she and Teresa had finished getting dressed. Both jaws had dropped.

"Ah, Teresa Bond, superspy, and my mortal angel enemy! What do you think of my new demonic look? Better than the last one?"

"How can this skirt be SHORTER than that one you had on at Halloween? And how do you wear these platform heels? How high ARE those?"

"Inch in front, six back," Mel spun and her tail flew in a circle and swished when she'd stopped. Her legs were in black stockings that reached her mid-thighs where red garter straps met them. Her long-sleeved black blazer was lined with silky deep red material and it reached only a few inches below the firm braless tits that were momentarily exposed when the blazer flew open.

"I see you trimmed extra short," Teresa's turn as Sam snorted, "and it matches. You really like black and red."

"Chris REALLY likes black and red..."

"Ah, explains much. You're braver than me," Sam shook her head.

"Why bother with such a cute little skirt if I'd just be showing off underwear? Same with the top! Now, ready to go upstairs?"

"Last question," Sam leaned and looked closely at Mel's bare chest flesh in the gap of the unbuttoned blazer, "how the hell are those wings hooked on?"

The glossy black wings had flapped as she'd spun, they stuck through a tight slit in the blazer which didn't allow skin to be seen but there was otherwise no obvious brace or other support.

"A girl gets to have a few secrets," Mel's deep raspy purr left no room for argument, both women exhaled with closed-mouth laughs.

"Anyway," Teresa pointed behind her to a low shape covered by a towel, "cake's ready. I still cannot believe..."

"Best kept secret," Mel laughed, "Dave's bringing the pizzas so after that. Plenty of ice cream in the freezer..."

She'd turned and led the pair up the stairs.

"Oh, uh, Officer," Sam said as she looked through the open doorway at the tallish dirty-blonde woman in what she sensed was an authentic police uniform and a medium-weight service jacket. A quick look showed a pair of handcuffs on their belt loop but not the rest of the equipment she'd expect. And no gun. Just a bottle of wine cradled along her left arm.

"I'm Joyce, Joyce Shaw, Chris and Mel invited me," the policewoman introduced herself quickly, apparently she'd read Sam's expression. Sam's intuition told her that she probably was a cop. It was the kind of thing Chris and Mel would do, but why?

"I was told it's a costume party, unless that's what YOU wear every Saturday," Shaw smiled and Sam decided she was right.

"Oh, yeah, sorry, your costume is very, um, authentic, I'm Sam. My uncle and cousin are both police officers in San Francisco."

They both stood there a couple of heartbeats.

"Oh, hey, come in," Sam stepped back and Shaw entered and looked around. A thin young woman almost as tall as Shaw with very short sandy slicked back hair and wearing a tuxedo met her and reached out a hand.

"Teresa," she said as Shaw took her hand, "Teresa Bond."

"Joyce Shaw. I brought a bottle of wine, I guess some of you are old enough."

She handed it to Teresa.

"Most of us. Except Mel. She's crazy enough without it. Ah, I like cab sav, and it's in a bottle! Geez Sam, you're from California and you never bring me wine in actual glass bottles. Just boxes."

The redhead stuck out her tongue and blew a loud raspberry.

"Terry, c'here," the young man had the same thin build and sandy hair as Teresa, and excused himself from his conversation with a couple of other guys about his age. His only concession to a costume was what looked like an old rugby jersey and faded jeans.

"Terry Bingham, Joyce Shaw," the two shook hands, "Terry, show Joyce around and put her coat away and take her to Chris and Mel. And since Pam's not coming..."

Terry exhaled quickly at that and his eyes flashed at his sister but then he managed a sad smile.

"Think they're upstairs, we'll work our way there."

"Thanks," Shaw said and she followed the young man.

"Is she really a cop?" Teresa said as they watched Terry lead Shaw deeper into the house.

"Yup...,' Sam said, "that's a real uniform but she took her rank off. And with the wine I guess she's not here on official business. No gun, but maybe the cuffs are for something she and Chris and Mel have planned..."

"You have a dirty mind, redhead," Teresa laughed and put her arm around Sam's shoulders and kissed her on the cheek.

They laughed again when they saw both Terry's and the policewoman's jaws go slack at the landing near the stairwells, their gazes made clear someone was coming up from the basement. They couldn't quite hear what Terry said but both he and Shaw smiled at each other and he stepped out the side door to where the beer keg had been surrounded by ice in a large metal wash tub. A moment later Mel appeared on the landing and the two pairs of eyes widened as the demon wrapped the older woman in a tight hug. After a moment she led Shaw up the stairs.

"I think they've met...," mused Sam.

"They're in Chris's room," Terry told Sam and Teresa around twenty minutes later when he'd showed off the large second floor rec room and the new Segtendo Entertainment System video game console, "I've got a queue of people to play Duck Hunt up there, keep 'em busy until Chris and Mel finish with whatever they're doing with Joyce."

The Segtendo was only supposed to be available in the New York area for the next few months but thanks to Chris's cousin and her illicit electronics selling paramour they'd been able to run the blockade to acquire it. A raft of attendees had arrived on the policewoman's heels. With the guest of honor missing Terry had found the one way to keep them from questioning that.

Sam quirked an eyebrow at Terry's lilted tone for the police woman's name, she didn't think he'd seen it as he'd headed back upstairs. He hadn't seemed to take the breakup with Pam all THAT hard but Teresa had implied he'd bottled up a fair amount. Shaw was attractive enough, but she had to be fifteen years older than anyone else here. Ah, well. It wouldn't be one of our parties without some weird shit going down.