Here's to Christmas - Skulduggery Pleasant FanFic

Chapter 11: Sundays

Valkyrie had chosen not to work on Sunday because it was God's day. Apart from, of course, the Jews, because Saturday was their Sabbath Day. 

That's a different subject.

But she'd known she would need at least one whole day off because otherwise she might actually die from exhaustion whilst shipping orders to and fro in the restaurant. 

And yet here she was, on Sunday, destined to spend the whole day in the Sanctuary. Oh well.

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Valkyrie, like Skulduggery had been assigned her own office. It was relatively small, but big enough for what she was set to do. her filing cabinet was already slightly packed with files concerning the Flint case and her desk was covered in eyewitness accounts and photographic evidence. There was a computer, a stack of writing paper and multiple pens and pencils and rulers and rubbers.

"It's like being back at school." she said to Skulduggery, who laughed.

"Get used to it, Detective Cain. You work for Roarhaven Sanctuary now, and nobody said it was easy."

He left and she sighed, sat behind her desk and began work.

Her first task was to build up a character profile of Lucas Flint. He had either not experienced the surge yet or he was magically ambidextrous (unlikely the latter), because several eyewitness accounts reported both elementality and necromancy. He sold drugs to his clients (predominantly mortals) by promising them magical powers if they regularly ingest the intravenous substances. They didn't, of course; they just became addicted and forgot all about magic and instead, just kept going back for more. 

After a good hour of working, she found herself quietly singing Backseat Serenade - All Time Low. She paused, took her phone out and connected it to the speakers, and before long she was listening to her Bands playlist.

All Time Low had rapidly become her favourite band. She didn't go a day without listening to their music. In addition, she'd become a real Pierce the Veil fan. In fact, she was an all round Bands fan - Bring Me the Horizon, Of Mice and Men, Mayday Parade, Blink-182. She had Jana to thank for their music. And Jana had been right - whilst screaming was pretty important, the lyrics were actually very poetic and had more meaning than most of the pop songs circulating.

There was a knock at her door and she paused the music.

"Come in."

Dexter entered with a load of paper and Valkyrie sagged. "More files?"

"I'm afraid so, Detective."

"Don't call me Detective. It's really weird."

"Sorry."

"So what have I got here?"

"Valkyrie." Dexter said firmly, handing her the files. "You are the detective. I am the assistant. I am neither a detective nor a good assistant. I have absolutely no idea."

She huffed with laughter and shook her head. "Ok then. Get out of my office."

"Yes ma'am." he grinned and walked away.

She picked up the first of three files, which, thankfully, was not too thick. It was a paper publishing the estimated amount of money used by and available to Lucas Flint for the import/export of drugs based on the estimated amount of clients he had.

Valkyrie read the estimated total amount of money and her jaw fell open.

"JESUS CHRIST" She hollered. She then re-read it, just to make sure she wasn't hallucinating, before pressing the button on her office phone that linked her com to Skulduggery's.

"Hello, Valkyrie." Skulduggery's smooth voice said.

"What the hell is this?!"

"...I'm sorry?"

"This file Dexter just dropped off."

"What file?"

"The estimate of Lucas Flint's total amount of money used and available for export and import. Have you seen it?"

"No. What is it?"

"Six hundred and fifty million euros."

There was a long, stunned pause at the other end of the line. "I'm sorry...did you just say six hundred and fifty million?"

"Yes."

"...my God."

"That's just the tip of the iceberg. The amount of money on the output side is almost twice as much as the money available. That means he's outsourcing."

"So you're saying he has an investor?"

"Exactly."

"Any idea who it might be?"

Valkyrie ran a hand through her hair and closed her eyes. "Haven't the faintest idea. But I'm pretty sure if we find this investor/supplier person we'll find Flint."

"Ok. I think I know how to begin. I just need to find the original source for that publication. Dexter, could you come in here for a minute? Yeah, who gave you the file you just gave Valkyrie?...And who did she get it from?...And where did he get it?.............oh."

"What? Where did it come from?"

"It came from Evelyn Lewin."

Valkyrie rested her head on her clenched fists. "That woman knows too many things. I want to know who she's in correspondence with."

"You know as well as I do that she'll never tell you anything and if she does, it's highly unlikely it'll be the truth."

Valkyrie rubbed her forefinger and thumb together and frowned. "What are you suggesting?"

"The only way we'll ever find out anything about Lewin is by doing it sneakily."

"Which means?"

"You know exactly what I mean, Valkyrie."

She hesitated and shook her head. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

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"HOW MUCH?"

Valkyrie shook her head and stared at the bill the gas man had given to her. He shrugged, a sympathetic expression on his face.

"Sorry, Miss Cain. If you want hot water over Christmas, there's nothing else I can knock off."

The gas man left and Valkyrie stared at the figures at the bottom of the sheet of paper her stupid boiler had ensued. Well. She was pretty thankful right now for her raise.

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Oooh, what's Valkyrie going to do? What does Evelyn Lewin know?

How much is her boiler going to cost her?

...Ok, so I'm probably not going to mention the boiler again, but the other two things are most certainly going to be important!

MTWYS77 xxx