Transcendental

2. Fia Thanos

2. Fia Thanos

            The doorbell rang once, twice, and once more before Mr. Allard finally got out of bed, muttering curses as he made his way to the front door. Cairo himself opened his eyes to glance at the electronic alarm clock at his bedside. A loud groan escaped his lips. The blue numbers told him it was 6:30am; too early for a young man to get up on a Saturday morning.

            “Cairo! Get up!” His father’s voice barked from the other room. With another groan, he got out of bed and pulled some shorts and a baggy t-shirt over his body. Much like the zombies on TV, Cairo stumbled out of his bedroom and into the hall, headed towards the front door where his father was waiting for him.

            “Cairo!”

            “I’m coming.” Cairo said, walking into the room. Mr. Allard turned to face him, along with the two uniformed men who were with him. Both wore badges and had stern looks on their faces. Cairo had a pretty good guess what they were doing here.

            His father eyed his son suspiciously. “Did you do something, boy?”

            “No, I-”

            One of the officers stepped in. “We’re just here to ask your son some questions. We’re talking to anyone who had a relationship with Miss Thanos, sir. Your son isn’t in any kind of trouble.”

            “Miss Thanos?” Mr. Allard inquired.

            “Fia Thanos, a young lady who went missing recently. As we said, we’re talking to anyone who knew her to try and find some leads.”

            “Dad, they’re just asking questions.” Cairo said as he saw his father glare at the officers. He knew that Mr. Allard was easily angered in the morning, or anytime for that matter. “They’re not accusing me of anything.”

            The officers nodded in agreement. “But if you don’t mind, sir, we’d like to speak to Cairo here alone.” The senior party spoke.

            Mr. Allard showed his displeasure at the request, but left the room nonetheless. Cairo knew he’d lurk around the corner and eavesdrop. Not caring, he turned back to face the officers and took this opportunity to observe them. In many ways, they were very similar to each other, as the New America police force was expected to be. They were both tall, with cropped hair and square jaws. Bulging muscles covered their bodies and could be seen through the silver uniforms they wore. One was slightly taller with brunette hair while the other was bigger with auburn topping his head. As soon as his father was out of the room, the two officers turned to Cairo.

            “Take a seat, son.” The brunette offered as he and his partner sat on the couch. Cairo watched them, thinking it was strange to be treated like a guest in his own home. Cautiously, he eased himself into one of the chairs adjacent to the officers.

            “I’m Officer Edge,” The brunette continued. “And this is Officer Bao. Like we said, we are investigating the disappearance of Fia Thanos and would like to ask you some questions. Is that okay?”

            Cairo nodded. “So you don’t have any leads?” He asked.   

            Bao shook his head. “I wish we could say we do, but unfortunately you’re right. When was the last time you saw Fia?”

            “About a year ago, before she started college; she was my private teacher since I was about nine.” Fia was only three years his senior, but her musical abilities were phenomenal. Or were, Cairo thought with a grimace. She might be dead.

            The faces of the officers grew grim. “Was she acting strange or anything then?”

            “No,” Cairo answered. “She was excited to finally be starting college. But… she did call about a month ago. She sounded really paranoid.” Cairo spoke slowly as he recalled the event. Of course, Fia promised she would call from her dorm as often as possible to check up on her favorite protégée, but this phone call had been different. It was as if, she had been warning him of something…

            Something clicked in Cairo’s head. “She was being followed; she was so sure of it…”

            The two officers cast wary looks at one another. “She told you this?”         

            “Err – no, not exactly… I think she was mainly hinting at it.” Cairo answered honestly before studying their faces. “You knew this though, didn’t you?”

            Bao barked out an uncomfortable laugh. “Son, you have a funny imagination. If we knew of something like that, don’t you think we’d be following that lead instead of talking to you?”

            Something told Cairo that he was lying, but he shrugged it off, deciding it was better to pretend he hadn’t noticed. “Guess I’m just humoring myself. I always wanted to be a detective you know... Do you have any other questions? Because that’s really all I know.”

            Edge shook his head as he and Bao stood up. “No, thank you for your time Cairo. We’ll let you know if we manage to find anything.” With a tip of their heads, the two left the Allard hose.

            “You never wanted to be a detective or have anything to do with the government.” Cairo had expected his father to eavesdrop, but not his younger sister. She was still clad in her pajamas, hair tied back in a braid as her eyes scanned the room. “Dad went back to bed, but not before yelling at me to get up and do chores.”

            “And instead you listen in on a police investigation.” Cairo replied to his sister.

            “No. I made sure Kipper started vacuuming before I did anything else.” Kipper was their home droid.

            Cairo rolled his eyes at his sister. “Curiosity killed the cat.” He told her as he headed towards his room to shower.

            “And satisfaction brought it back.”