A book of silences

Chapter eleven - pictures at an exhibition

 After a brief stop in the washroom to allow Bee to splash water on her face and swill out her mouth, Cat strode along the corridors towards Sykes room. Bee and Bev followed along raggle-taggle, arguing all the way.

"What are you going to say?" asked Bee, panting a little. "'We just found a magic word after you got us to line up loads of work. Do you think you could help us?' Sounds a bit crazy, doesn't it?"

"Well, if he doesn't believe us, we could always blow up his phone," added Bev. "It certainly convinced me!"

As they approached Sykes' studio, Bee grabbed her two friends' arms, pulling them to a stop. "Hang on, let's talk about this for a minute. Don't you think it's a bit of a coincidence that Sykes appears just when we get the book, and seems to know something about how it works?"

"I think 'knows something about it' is a bit of a stretch," said Cat doubtfully. She was feeling a little unsure of herself, and, to her, not being sure about a thing translated into 'let's go full speed ahead, all guns blazing'.

Bee looked at her friend with concern. She was quite aware of Cat's tendency to press on when in doubt and she was pretty sure talking to Sykes was going to be a mistake. "What about what just happened? Huge jars of decomposing bull-semen don't just break themselves; you know?" There was a moment of silence as all three friends considered that statement, wrong in so many ways, then they pressed on as though nothing had been said.

"And there's the break-in." Bev added. "And Bee's mugging, all about the same time. We've all read these books: nice guy offers to help three innocent girls," (a snort from Bee), then wheedles his way into their affections..."

("Their beds, you mean, if its anything like the books you read. All of their beds. Repeatedly!" mutters Bee.)

"...turns out he's a psychotic demon from Hell, only interested in one thing."

"Sex?" wondered Cat, losing track of the conversation.

"No, you fool, the book," said Bev, rolling her eyes at Cat. "Where is it, anyway?"

"It's back at Mrs. Saunders' place. I've buried it in a box."

"Well maybe we shouldn't mention it straight away. Perhaps save it for later."

"Yeah," Bee agreed. "Perhaps we should save the whole thing for later. Think a bit first."

Cat started to object, when Sykes' door opened, and an older woman stepped out of his studio. She stopped when she saw the girls standing in the corridor.

There was a moment of silence as Cat tried to work out whether to ask this woman who she was and what she was doing in Syke's studio, or whether to come back in the morning, when Bev suddenly goggled at her. "You're the lady in the painting! The one in the studio!" She seemed dumbfounded, then advanced smiling, examining the woman closely as she approached. "God, it's so like you, it's amazing. He really is good, isn't he?" She stood too close to the older woman, staring intently at her hair.

Only Bev could get distracted at a time like this, thought Cat. She might not be the best at interpersonal skills, but even she recognized that staring fixedly at someone you've never met from only six inches away was a bit rude. Bee must have had the same thought, because when Bev raised her hand (to touch the woman's hair? Poke her to see if she was real?), she stepped forward and firmly pushed her hand down.

"Hello, I'm Beatrice Zebrowski, one of the students here," she said, holding out her right hand to take the woman's. As well as being super-smart, Bee was super-sociable too. "Please excuse my friend, she was dropped on her head as a child." With her left hand, she kept hold of Bev's wrist and pulled her back to a more polite distance. When Bev started to make sounds of protest, she ignored her and nodded towards Cat, "And this is my other friend, Catherine Adams. Cat."