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Chapter 36

Luke was hunched over a pile of notes when Quinn came downstairs. His phone was ringing, but he didn't seem to realise. She let on to him, but he didn't look up.

"What's the matter with you?" She said after a few seconds.

"I'm reading," he replied stiffly, still not looking away from his notes.

There was an awkward silence, the only sound being the humming of the phone on the desk. He didn't acknowledge, and so eventually Quinn broke it. "Did you... Did you find anything?"

"What do you think?" He snapped.

She half-raised her hands in defence.

The anger left him and he looked very uncomfortable. "I'm sorry. Really. They won't stop ringing."

"How terrible," She replied, picking it up. "Not to get all technical, but have you tried turning it off?"

"I can't," he replied dully. "I tried. They hacked it." He gestured to it. "I also can't turn it off, mute it or hang up."

"So answer it." She picked up the phone to examine it. "What's the worst that could happen?"

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "In case you haven't noticed, for the past three days the only reason anyone has tried to get in touch with us is to send us death threats."

She frowned. "It really bothers you that much?"

"I have no issue with people threatening me. I just don't like it when they're serious." He looked back at the phone, wringing his hands together. "And the noise is just there constantly, I... You realise that it could be someone we know on the line?"

"You're really that stressed out over a phone ringing?"

"I'm not a huge fan of constant, droning sounds that symbolise our almost definite demise, no," he replied, taking the phone from her. "It just... It gets inside your head. I'm fine, just get back to work."

"You're shaking."

He shoved his hands in his pockets quickly. "It's nothing out of the ordinary. You just have to... Wait it out."

She thought back to how bad-tempered he used to get if too many people talked in class and nodded slowly. "Yeah, that makes sense. How long have you been waiting?"

"I don't know. A while." He seemed to regain some control over himself and forcibly looked her in the eye. "Why?"

"You might want to talk to someone about that."

"Oh yeah, like who?"

Quinn sighed and picked it up from the table before he could react. Putting it to her ear, she lowered her voice into some sort of accent. "Christian County Fire Department, you light it we fight it. This is Mandy speaking..."

Dial tone followed before she could finish her sentence.

She handed him back the phone, smirking at his horrified expression.

"Do you think you're funny?" He said.

"Kind of, yeah." She sat next to him.

He looked at her in disbelief. "Do you have any awareness of just how stupid that was? They could have got our addresses, our files, bugged us..."

"What, they're gonna make a wanted poster for Mandy the receptionist?" She replied dryly. He didn't look convinced. "Look, they probably already know who we are. They just have to do a register to see who's missing."

Luke groaned. "Thanks, I feel much better now." He brushed his hair back with his hands and picked up the notes again. "Shouldn't you be shooting a wall or something?"