Phoenix Ryder vs Nina Jenks- The Lone Magpie

Chapter 8- Man Down

Sorry for the wait, it's been pretty busy. Nevertheless, we hope you enjoy this chapter all the same! Thanks for reading!

Chapter 8- Logan

Last I'd seen, Phoenix had left with the little girl to investigate. Now we were gathered around the large coffee table in Nina and Helen's hotel room.

"Helen...why Helen?" Nina asked yet again, her voice sounding even younger than her years.

Phoenix simply shook his head in reply. "The killer called me before we left the Berlin Wall. He's...making the game more interesting." His lip curled as he said the words, eyes filled with hate. Father wanted to get this man, no doubt about it, but the question was how? How was any of this possible? Numbered corpses in broad daylight in the middle of the busiest places in the world?

Phoenix cast an eye back to his phone, flicking back through previous messages before heading towards the door.

"Father?" I asked.

"I need to think," he told me curtly, eyes still glued to the phone as he left.

"No sign of a forced entry, no broken. Helen's captors had a key card, the killer has people working on the inside. Connections, as your father might say," She looked at me briefly, contempt in her gaze before pressing on. "Helen put up a fight. You can clearly see folds and rips in the wallpaper, where her nails scraped across the wall, trying to find adequete purchase. There are traces of mud where she dragged her feet. There's also lots of debris, suggesting a struggle." Her eyes fell on a large mirror in a gilded frame, a large crack running through the overwise perfect image. Her dead eyed reflection was split in two. She was paler than usual, I realized. She had never realized what she was going into...

Welcome to the club, I couldn't help thinking.

"Broken mirrors. Seven years bad luck." She surmised, jolting me out of my thoughts.

"Didn't have you down as one to believe in suspicions."

She frowned. "I don't. I believe in methods. Stability. Rationality. Reality."

But what happens when you take a side step from reality? What, then? If suspicions offer a chance of security, are they really so irrational? I shook myself out of my thoughts. "Father will find Helen, you know."

"You certainly have faith in him," Nina pointed out, raising an eyebrow.

I shrugged. "He's an experienced detective, he knows what he's doing."

She scoffed. "But you can't actually tell what it is that he's doing, can you?"

"It doesn't matter. He's my father. He's a good man."

"Father, he may be, but good man? That's a very tenous assumption."

I ground my teeth, clenching and unclenching my fists. "I know he is. He's grounded, he's smart, he's stable."

"Those who seek stability are fools. Repetition of the same routine. Safe comfortable lives, that is not what intelligence craves. Intelligence craves the unpredictable, the disasterous, the insane. Intelligence thrives in the unexplained and unanswerable. Stability is a small price to pay for an answer."

"And Helen is captured, maybe dead. Is that a good enough price for an answer?" The words were out of my mouth before I realized. The question was met by a deep scowl from Nina.

"Don't be irrelevant," She said through gritted teeth. "We're both in the same situation. You want to prove yourself to your father." She frowned at me, narrowing her eyes at me. "You even sit like him, same stance, same positioning of hands and feet. Likely more than an unconscious decision, rather a subconscious act of imitation."

I suddenly became aware of my positioning on the seat and abruptly changed it. "So what?"

"So we both want to prove ourselves. But if you keep talking about feelings, and how I feel about Helen, then only one of us is going to be of any use." I recognized the tone as a warning, she didn't want me to push this any further. And I wasn't going to stick around to be insulted any longer. I might not be a super deduction machine but I knew when I wasn't wanted.

Father was sat, hunched up on an armchair, gaze focused on the small television in the corner of the room. The scene was outside a small hotel in the city centre. The reporter was bundled up in a large fur coat, talking in rapid German in a wavering voice. But Father wasn't focused on what he was saying, he was focused on the close up of inside the room, a man and woman naked and sprawled over the floor, barely recognizable. The woman had a tangled white veil flowing between hair matted with blood. A number 2 was etched into the couple's foreheads.

"Two for joy," Phoenix practically spat. "Newlyweds. I guess he finds it all a big joke." His phone beeped and he checked it before reading the message aloud.

"Having fun yet?" He scowled at the screen.

"Father..." I started before another beep cut me short. He checked the phone again, his scowl getting deeper as he read another message.

"Let's take this game to the next level. Meet me in Munich for a little chat. A tactics talk, if you like. And as an incentive, I'll throw in the hostage, unharmed, by my word. I'll send you directions via text. Looking forward to seeing your next move, Phoenix."

"Father, this man won't stop until you're dead." I chewed at my nails, a bad habit from way back in high school, that had carried me through exams, court sessions and now, murder cases.

He sighed. "I have to stop him killing all the same."

"Does he have any connection to you?" I asked, cringing at the evident shake in my voice.

A long pause. "No."

I couldn't help but think of Nina claiming Father not to be a good man. He was, he had to be. "Don't lie."

"It doesn't concern you," he said sharply.

"It does if we're all at risk. Are we?"

Another long pause. Phoenix decided not to grace this with an answer.

"You can't just go and see this man, Father! Let me come at least."

"Ya ain't got enough experience, kid. This is between me an' him," Phoenix said, with the expression of taking pains from a wayward child. "Just focus on getting some more deductions from the girl."

"You're using her," It dawned on me. "And you involved me! Aren't you honest? Don't you have any good? Just let us come and we can help!"

"Congratulations, kid. Honesty and crime don't really mix. And neither do children and crime. Like I said, this is between me an' him."

I had to fight not to let anger completely wash over me. "But I'm your son. Don't you trust me enough to handle it?"

He groaned heavily. "This is what I tried to tell your mother. Look, kid, I never meant for you to get wrapped up in all of this. I'm no happy families daddy. You were just-"

"A mistake?" I finished for him. "Yeah, I figured. I spent enough of my life being treated like one. Not that you would care, you couldn't even be bothered to show up in my life. But I can accomplish things. I'm no hard drinking detective or deductions whiz, but I am not worthless! I'll find this man. I'll show you." By the time I finished, I was shaking like a leaf. I had to force myself to take steps away, put one foot in front of the other until I had made it to the door.

"Logan," Father started, his tone quiet and deep, he was dangerously close to losing his temper.

"Go to that conference by yourself. See if I care. But don't expect me to be here to pick up the pieces when it all comes crashing down." I left with only the sound of a slammed door and Father's shocked expression behind me.