The Raven Conspiracy

Chapter 6 - The Phone Call

Chapter 6 – The Phone-call

“Where have you been?”

I winced. Kairo, standing in the doorway with his arms crossed, did not look happy at all.

“I needed to use the bathroom, and since there isn’t one over here, I went to the coffee shop.”

A half-lie, since I had been to the coffee shop.

He raised an eyebrow doubtfully, but let it slide with a sigh.

“I can never understand why females need that much time in a bathroom. Were there any phone-calls?”

“Nope.”

“No visitors or trolls?”

“It was as dead as a graveyard.”

“What a charming simile.”

“Thank you. Did you sort things out with your sister?”

He responded with another sigh,

“See for yourself.”

He stepped to the side, allowing me to pass into the office. It was brightly lit, but I couldn’t determine the source – the lightbulb hanging from the ceiling was off and the window just as grimy as before. Yet, the gloominess had disappeared from the room and I could actually see things in colour.

Most of the colour came from flower petals strewn across the carpet, and the young woman sitting in the middle of it all. She wore a yellow and pink dress, the skirt of which spread out on the floor around her. A bold, floral-print scarf was wrapped around one of her arms and her long, light brown hair tangled over her arms and back. A strand got caught in one of the crystal earrings she wore between her fingers, and she yanked it repeatedly.

But the strangest thing was the writing that covered her entirely. It looked like someone (probably herself) had taken a couple of pens and began scribbling all over her. Her neck, dress, arms and face had hundreds of lines, drawn in blue in, of words. It was difficult to determine, but the language did not look anywhere near English, yet it somehow looked familiar.

“What’s with the – “ I began.

“Don’t ask.”

I took his advice and kept quiet.

“The Maya!” Anna shouted suddenly, her eyes alight. She jumped up and tottered over to me on bare feet, grabbing my upper arm and rolling it between her hands.

“The Maya is pretty poppy. Have pretty poppy!”

She touched her dress and pulled a perfect, red poppy from the fabric. I stared at the flower, in shock. It was identical to the ones on the desk, and, as far as I could see, there were no pockets on her dress.

“How did you - ?”

Kairo grabbed my other arm and murmured in my ear,

“I told you not to ask, and you have to say thank you to her.”

“What?”

Anna took my wrist and squeezed in painfully.

“Maaaaayaaaaaa!” she screamed. The strange light in the room increased dramatically.

“Say it!” Kairo ordered.

“Thank you, Anna,” I said in a calming tone, holding up my hands. Anna stopped screaming and started spinning around and singing.

“Why did you rescue her from the hospital, exactly? Wouldn’t your life have been so much easier if you left her there?” I asked.

He stayed silent for a moment, before answering in a quietly cold tone.

“They were torturing her there.”

As I digested this new information, I watched as Kairo went to Anna and began talking to her. He spoke gently, getting her to laugh and respond. With them together, it was possible to see the family resemblance. It wasn’t strong, but they shared the same, straight, light-brown hair and eyes. There were differences too. Where Anna’s face was round, with her eyes large and prominent, Kairo’s features were angular and his eyes shadowed by surprisingly long eyelashes.

I smiled to myself as I watched how he dealt with her. Suddenly, he straightened up and pulled his cellphone from his jeans’ pocket. He looked at the screen with a frown, walked away from Anna as he answered and pushed past me to get outside. I hung in the doorway, eavesdropping.

“Why are you calling me, Jen?”

Intrigued by the name of his ex-assistant, I shifted closer to hear more.

“No, I can’t. Tell them that they can deal with it on their own. They’ve got all the resources; they don’t need me. Not that you needed me either,” he muttered the last sentence, almost to himself.

“I’m sorry, Jen, but it’s the truth. I don’t care if they’re desperate. The only reason they want me is because they know how good I am and they’re scared of what will happen if they don’t catch the murderer. Which is not my problem. If one of the victims’ families contact me separately, and pays my usual fee, then I’ll investigate the killings. But not if your new bosses want me to. Bye.”

He was about to hang up the phone when the girl on the other end said something that made him pause. He answered with a sigh.

“Fine. I’ll have a look around. But only because of that. I’ll see you soon.”

I busied myself with my cellphone as he walked back in.

“I have to go take care of something, Maya, as you know from listening to my private conversation. I need you to keep an eye on Anna until I get back and can take her home. Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone, and make sure that she doesn’t get her hands on any sort of writing equipment.”

“Fine,” I sighed, rolling my eyes. How difficult could it be to watch a grown woman, even if she was insane?