Iris Pierce is Detective Howard Parker's assistant and being a detective's assistant means being thrust into a world of death and blood. Not to mention the fact that Iris is a psychic who can see the ghosts of the people who's death she is helping s...
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I had asked Mr. Parker if I was allowed one week's holiday to visit my family in Annandale and after a moment's hesitation he said yes. So as soon as the case was finished I was on a train to Annandale. When I got there I was met with my mother, aunt and four sisters.
None of them had particularly changed for the better. Their mousy demeanour was even more noticeable than before. They twitched at the smallest sound and when I told them that I worked as an assistant to a detective, they sat there with their mouths open as if it was the most fantastical thing in the world! My mother was a woman with platinum blonde hair and blue eyes. In her youth she was the pinnacle of beauty but now she was a withered woman with noticeable lines under her eyes.
My aunt, as if she was my mother's shadow, had a weary face and dyed her hair to keep out the grey. Mind you she was only thirty-six!
My sisters were looking a little bit better but by their stern attitudes and hatred of anything fun I sometimes thought they were puritans. Queenie was my older sister and had gotten married three years ago. But upon questioning her residence at my mother's house (she was supposed to be living in Elizabeth Bay with her husband) I found out that she had divorced four months ago and hadn't contacted him since.
My immediate younger sister Yvette, and my favourite, worked part time at a library while she studied at university. She was a book worm and sometimes was completely absorbed in a book that even if the house was on fire she wouldn't notice.
My youngest sisters were a set of identical twins. Moira, brown hair, short, aged 14, annoyed me the most. She scowled at almost anything I did and looked terrified whenever I requested that they come and visit me in Darlington.
Miriam, the second twin, was a sea of sorrow just as her name suggested. Nothing made her happy and she spent most of her time writing poems. I might've been impressed by this skill if only her poems were more exuberant than dreary and gloomy.
I didn't realise that I despised my family's company until now and so left two days earlier than planned. As I sat in the train, looking out the window watching sceneries pass by, I realised how glad I was to be going back to Darlington. Ever since I had come under Mr. Parker's employ I felt more at home than I ever had living with my mother. I couldn't understand their timid behaviour and the lack of excitement in their lives!
I kept on wondering how Mr. Parker and Mr. Hampton would be getting on without me to write up schedules. I wondered if any other cases had come in and most importantly, if Mr. Parker had missed me. I wasn't stupid. He was my boss and five years older than me...but we had a connection! Or maybe I was imagining it. Whichever it was I was happy enough to be going back home. To my real home.
A surprise was waiting for me at 42 Lavender Passage. I opened the door and walked in to find Mr. Robert Hampton next to Mr. Parker. Robert Hampton was a regular looking man with dark coloured skin and a moustache that would beat Jesperson's. That wasn't the surprise though. Seeing Mr. Hampton in Mr. Parker's house was completely normal as they worked together.
