Of Broken Things

Chapter 2 - scene 7.

While he waited on Ricky's call, Aiden opened several screens and tried to systematize his findings. What could bring together a neuro-scientist, a geneticist, a cryogenist, a specialist in hereditary and genetic mutations and a psychologist?

And something professor Weatherby had said was nagging at him as well. Aiden tried to recall the details of that convoluted conversation. The professor had said that Fortworth hadn't been the type to get mixed up in something illegal just for the money. But if he had been offered funding for that research he had been obsessing about...

Aiden stopped passing and looked at the screens. Did all this have anything to do with Steven's research into the special powers of the human brain? That would explain the involvement of a geneticist and a mutations specialist. That would even explain the need for a psychologist. But what would they need a cryogenist for?

He groaned in frustration. He needed more data. He was missing too many pieces of the puzzle. He needed to interview those people, but he had to sit on his hands and wait for Ricky instead.

To distract himself, he sifted through the pile of clothes the robots had pulled out of the cleaner and stacked on an armchair. Putting them away wasn't part of their programing because Mary Ann used to do that. There were a lot of housekeeping tasks that she didn't trust the house software with and preferred doing herself. Aiden thought once more that he probably should reprogram the system to include those tasks now that she was gone...

He was surprised to find his old blaster buried under the pile, but the battery was missing. He vaguely remembered coming back home after the funeral and thinking about how easy it would be to end it. Just one shot, and the pain would be gone. He hadn't followed through with it. He took the battery out instead and hid it in case that idea came to him again. Now he just needed to remember where he'd put it, because a fully charged blaster could come in handy, if his suspicions about criminal ties in this case proved to be correct.

But where would he have hidden that bloody battery in his highly depressed state that day? Probably in the last place he would have gone looking if he was in a suicidal mood again... And then it dawned on him - the gun safe, which was upstairs in their bedroom, where Aiden hadn't set foot once since the funeral.

He looked at the stairs and the shimmering energy field closing them off with dread. He remembered going up there that day, still dressed in black. He had gone into the bedroom to change and seen Mary Ann's nightgown lying on her side of the bed and her datapad on the nightstand, probably open on the book she had been reading before she left this room forever. He had felt like he was drowning, gasping for air and unable to get any. He had stumbled out of the bedroom, almost fallen down the stairs, and collapsed on the sofa in the living room. That had been the first night he had found salvation at the bottom of a bottle. The next morning, he had gone back upstairs, moved all his clothes to the living room, closed all the doors and sealed the second floor off. And now he would have to go back up to get that stupid battery.

Oh come on, it's not hard. Just go straight to the closet and don't look around. He thought as he put his foot on the bottom stair. Get in, grab the battery, and get out. But he simply couldn't force himself to take the next step, or to tell the computer to deactivate the energy field.

"Incoming call from Richard Benson."

Aiden sighed with relief and accepted the call.

"Yes?" He was surprised at how raw his voice sounded.

"Is everything ok, partner?" Some of his turmoil must have showed on his face, because Ricky looked worried.

"Everything is just peachy. Do you have anything for me?"

"Check your mail. I've sent you the addresses and last known contact numbers for the four people on your list."

"Thanks, Ricky. I really owe you one."

"You're welcome. Happy hunting." Ricky cut the transmission.

Aiden looked up the stairs again, then decided that the blaster battery could wait a little longer. Right now he had four people to track down and interrogate.

Happy hunting, indeed. He smiled.