Don't Label Me! (22 page)

“
You’d be amazed who’ll stop and chat
with a friendly cleaner when no one’s looking. They don’t view
cleaners as a threat to their position. I’ll be able to roam
anywhere in the building and ferret through rubbish bins without
question.” Roger explained.

Peter frowned. “Have you got somewhere to
stay?”

“
No worries on that front mate, I’m
staying with friends in Boswell. Some guy named Meta’s going to
give me a lift in and out of work, as the job requires.”

Which Peter knew meant he’d be teleporting.
He wondered if the man knew that himself? Or indeed that his ‘lift’
was a powerful being disguised as a cat. He and Michael left them
to their scheming, making his way back to his office to have a
‘friendly chat’ with his executive assistant. Forensics had cleared
the crime scene enough for him to get back to work. He was more
than a little surprised when he opened his office door and found an
attractive brunette he didn’t know sitting in his assistant’s
chair. “Who the hell are you? You’re not Mandy.”

“
No, I’m Sandy, not Mandy. Mandy, you
could say, has had a revelation. She’s realised that this job
doesn’t suit her any more.”

“
That I doubt. You’d have needed a
crowbar to shift her.”

“
Consider her crow barred. Amazing
what a couple of plane tickets and a lucrative job offer in Paris
will do.”

“
How’d you arrange that?”

“
Oh, connections. And don’t worry. She
was monitoring you but she didn’t try to murder you. We’ve had your
office under surveillance for a couple of days now. We caught the
culprit on camera. Now let me introduce myself properly. My name is
Sandra Snape. My cousin Alicia Cockshut”, which she pronounced like
coshoo, “and I are corporate trouble shooters or fixers. Your old
friend the General asked us to intervene to make sure Sakla doesn’t
cause you any grief here. Any more grief that is. Sorry we didn’t
get here sooner. There was a lot to put in place first.”

Peter didn’t know whether to be annoyed or
grateful that they’d bugged his office but something else intrigued
him. “You make it sound like the General is not working in league
with Mr Sauros.”

“
If you’d care to mind share with
Michael, the cop with you, I’m sure he’d be more than happy to
bring you up to date.”

Stunned, Peter turned to Michael, “Is this
true?”

Michael shrugged his shoulders, it wasn’t
exactly a fact they spoke of much given it was highly secret but it
seemed that Sandy was in the know. He scanned her thoughts,
surprised when he found her purposely opening her mind to him. She
was on the level. Polemarch had her and her cousin on his payroll.
“General Polemarch has been acting as a double agent for us for
some time but it's not for general knowledge.”

Peter beamed, overwhelmed with joy by the
chess pieces they held in their hand. “Bloody hell, the tide really
is turning.”

Michael scowled. “That’s all very well but
who poisoned the chocolates?”

Sarah entered the room holding a small hair
in her fingers. “Someone with short black hair and size ten army
issue boots.”

Sandy smiled approvingly. “Guess we didn’t
need to catch him on camera after all.”

Michael couldn’t disagree more, having
survived more than a few grueling cross-examination sessions in
court. “Can’t have too much evidence.”

Justin Winkler looked up from his papers as
his office filled with people. Damn. How’d they cotton on to him?
He’d wiped the box of chocolates for fingerprints. His shoulders
sagged fatalistically. At least in prison he might be safe from
reprisals for his failure. Maybe. But he wasn’t exactly going to
roll over for the police either. “Hi Peter. Sorry news. Must have
spooked you a bit that it all happened in your office.”

That Peter rolled his eyes didn’t bode well.
“Cut the crap empathy display Justin. We know it was you. You’re
the only reservist in the place. Next time you plan a murder you
might think of wearing something a little more off-the-shelf.”

Justin paled as his eyes descended to his
boots but he said nothing.

Michael slammed a low res photo printout on
the desk, causing Justin to pale further.

“
Fuck.” It was all he could
manage.

Michael walked behind him with the cuffs
he’d unclipped from his belt. “Justin Winkler, I’m arresting you
for the murder of Samuel Griffin. Anything you say many be used as
evidence.”

“
Hang-on! That’s not the full
Miranda.”

“
Idiot, this is Australia not the US.
You’ve been watching too much American crime television. There’s no
Bill of Rights in Australia or didn’t they teach you that in
school?”

“
What about a lawyer?”

“
We’ll get around to that once we’ve
photographed, fingerprinted you and taken a DNA sample. The Custody
Manager at the station will also collect your valuables and allow
you one phone call. You can have a friend or solicitor present when
we interrogate you.” Michael and Kiana took one side each and
marched him out, much to the amusement of several office workers
who had often been on the receiving end of his bully-boy tactics.
Michael grinned to himself.
Well that was
easy.

Peter watched the police leave and then
wandered back to his office. Back to have a bit more of a chat with
Sandy. Except now there were two ladies waiting for him. “And this
would be Alicia?”

Alicia extended her hand. “Nice to meet you
Peter. You certainly seem more polite than the General made you out
to be.”

“
Times change.” He didn’t mention that
Tyra’s healing of his lower chakras were largely responsible for
the personality change. He looked from one lady to the other and
decided that life was definitely looking up. “Speaking of which,
there’s a nice cafe down the road. Why don’t we shut the office and
find somewhere more informal to get to know each other.” And flirt
with them, he added as a mental after thought.

Roger had a quiet chat with Andrew. He’d
stay on for a bit. Just until they could be sure the mysterious
Sandy and Alicia had Peter adequately protected. Armed with a mop
and a name badge he did a general snoop around, giving a friendly
wave or a “Hi” here or there. No-one seemed to think twice about
him apparently having replaced the deceased cleaner. After
meandering around the general office building for an hour or two he
made his way to the ‘works’ area at the back. The various parks
maintenance, road works and garbage collection crews seemed to be
stopped for a break. All that was except for someone in a grey
hoodie who seemed to be trying to sneak around without being
noticed by the others. Why?

He cornered the fellow and knocked off his
hood, ‘accidentally’, only to be utterly shocked. “You’re not
human.”

“
Shut the fuck up will you. I don’t
exactly want my work mates to see me like this. And who the hell
are you anyway?”

“
New cleaner...” He started to say
until he noticed there was something reassuringly trustworthy about
her. “Actually, I came with the police from Boswell. Doing a bit of
undercover, which I’ve just blown if my assessment of you is
wrong.”

Two clear blue eyes with eye whites the
color of tanned skin evaluated him. She seemed to come to a
decision. “You distract them while I get out of here and I’ll
promise to keep your secret, deal?”

“
Okay. But meet me in the council rose
garden in half and hour. I need to know about you.”

“
Too open. Come to my place after you
knock off. She quickly scribbled an address on a stray scrap of
paper she fished from the floor of the truck cab. She handed it to
him. Now go and distract them will you?”

Roger distracted by introducing himself. He
shared a beer and a few jokes then as the workers returned to their
tasks he excused himself.

Half an hour later Roger was walking past
the garden sculptures of repurposed ploughs, old cart wheels and
wrought iron lace that formed the backdrop and support for a myriad
of rambling climbers and sprawling daisies. It was an untidy garden
but it burgeoned with life.

He knocked on the door of the plain one
bedroom brick unit. The door opened slightly. He politely scuffed
his shoes on the front door mat and entered.

The non-human closed the door behind him.
“I’ve put the jug on. Tea, coffee or herbal?”

Nice to have a choice. Obviously aliens were
civilised. “Green tea if you have it.”

“
Decaf green tea. Is that
alright.”

“
Fine, just as is, no milk or sugar
thanks. Leave the teabag in for me will you?”

“
No probs, here you go.”

They wandered over to a couple of well loved
leather arm chairs that surrounded a mighty big piece of slabbed
blackwood timber that was resting on what looked to be two Blue Gum
chopping blocks that were acting as ‘feet’. “Nice finds.”

The alien seemed pleased. “I like to recycle
rather than buy new. You often get something more fun and unique
that way.”

The furniture in the apartment was certainly
unique. Even one ‘window’ looked like it had been made out of an
assortment of different colour bottles, all cemented into place.
“So tell me. How do you hide from your workmates looking...” Hell
how did he say this. She was obviously female and he didn’t want to
offend. As strange as she looked she certainly wasn’t ugly so he
latched onto that as a positive. “...so exotic?”

“
It’s only been today. I was my normal
self when I went to bed. This morning, when I was getting ready for
work, I noticed the hair on my head and eyebrows was gone. All the
hair on my body was gone. I didn’t know what the hell to do. It was
too late to call in sick. I put in my notice yesterday but it's
another ten days before I can officially leave. I’ll have to pay
them back for the weeks not worked if I leave now. I need to call
Arion. Perhaps he’ll know what I should do.”

“
You know Arion?”

“
Yeah. Sure. Come-on, I saw you there
at the meeting at the pub that Tyra called.”

“
Um, I don’t know. I think I’d
remember if I saw anyone with such skin coloring.”

Ang swore under her breath. “Yeah, I suppose
I looked a little different then. Look, I’m Angela de Silva. Tyra’s
‘waste disposal expert’. Remember?”

There was a passing resemblance he supposed.
It was in her facial structure if you looked hard enough. “Hell,
yes. So you are. So when did you get the slate grey and white color
scheme?”

“
Happened as today’s worn on. I guess
Em’s ‘essence’, as he called it, gave me more than just an ability
to shapeshift.

“
Into what?” He had no idea who Em was
but obviously something had gone on here.

“
Isn’t it obvious.” She showed him her
now slightly webbed hands. “A dolphin. Not that I’ve tried the
shapeshifting bit yet. I guess I want Em with me before I
try.”

“
Maybe you should call him.” Hell, if
this Em was the culprit then surely he had a responsibility to help
her now.

“
Don’t know how but I’m sure Arion
can. I should call him now.” She made a move to get up but Roger
tugged on her sleeve. “First things first. From what Hideo’s told
me telepathy is possible, especially with a lover. Is this Em your
lover?”

Ang blushed. “Um, just the once. Sort of.
It’s what caused this.”

“
Well try and connect to him.
Visualise him and imagine him hearing you. Never know, could
work.”

Ang shrugged her shoulders. What the
hell. She closed her eyes and pictured Em.
Can you hear me Em?
She pretended to send with
her mind, visualizing him hearing her
.
She was momentarily startled when an equally
surprised Em brushed her mind.

Well I never. Is there any
water near you my Angel? I can’t be out of the water
long
.

Ang mused for a moment. “Damn, he needs a
body of water to come to.” She muttered to herself as much as
Roger.

“
What about your shower. Would that be
wet enough for him?”

“
Um.” Who knew what space a large
Delphine would need. She tried to picture him inside her bathroom
and sent the image to him.

That’ll do. Go and run
your shower my Angel. Just don’t make it too hot. Lukewarm or
cooler preferably. Let me know when you’ve done
that
.

“
Looks like we’re going to the
bathroom.” She dashed there, anxious for answers only Em could
give. Roger followed her but she was glad of the reassurance his
company brought.

Ang sent an ‘all’s ready’ image to Em. He
appeared moments later, scowling when he spied Roger. “And who the
hell are you?”

Roger wasn’t sure whether to bow or offer a
hand to the strange but humanoid enigmatic being standing in Ang’s
shower with the water cascading over him. He settled instead for
slight nod of the head in acknowledgement of the other. One thing
was for sure, he knew he’d better distance himself and damned
quick. The male oozed the powerful protector and what he was
protecting right now was clearly Ang. “Name’s Roger. I’m just a
concerned work colleague.” He avoided using the word mate in case
it was misconstrued. “I don’t know Ang that well but she was
obviously in distress. Since we both have links with Boswell I came
to offer moral support. That’s all.” He added the last
meaningfully.