Golden Autumn - Part Nineteen
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here.
“You know,” Robin says thoughtfully, nibbling on a french fry, “This free dinner sure feels like some sort of bribe.”
Fair enough, given that Aiden and I haven’t explained ourselves at all yet. It was a short walk from the ship to the dockside restaurant, one which only really gave me time to tell Robin that Aiden is my boyfriend and we’re from Ketterbridge. I didn’t have the chance to go on and say that we suggested dinner at a restaurant not for bribery reasons, but because the pubs are too noisy to have a clear conversation.
I mean. That’s mostly the reason. I also just kind of want to make sure Robin is eating. Some people forget, when they’re going through a difficult time. I know it’s none of my business – having exchanged barely a few words with Robin – but still. I’m glad to see her helping herself to some french fries and a cold soda while we wait for the rest of our order.
She picked the place. It’s like a restaurant version of a dive bar. Lots of low, multicolored lights, Pink Floyd playing beneath the noisy layer of conversation. Busy, but not packed like the pubs, and Robin got us an open-air table on the wooden balcony out front. She sits across from us with the ocean at her back, the softly-bobbing boats and ships at her right shoulder.
The moon is behind the clouds, so most of the light out here comes from the strings of Edison bulbs wound around the balcony railing. Those, and the lantern on our table. With the flickering flame glowing against Robin’s face, I can make out more details about her. What I’m noticing is that despite her casual composure she has fiery, passionate, burning eyes. There’s an intensity to them only barely disguised by the relaxed way she sits with her elbow up on the back of her chair, and her legs comfortably stretched out.
It’s easy to see that she feels at home here. She greeted the hostess by name when we came in, got affectionate nods from a couple different people as we crossed the main room. She warned Aiden about the low doorway that let us out onto the balcony, and seemed wholly unsurprised when she heard the thump of him hitting his head on it not half a second later. I’m guessing that maybe Robin knows everywhere on the docks pretty well, because she knew just where to take us so we’d have the perfect level of surrounding noise to talk privately.
She’s eating slowly, watching us with an inquisitive look in her eye.
“I like the restaurant you picked.” I smile across the table at Robin, meaning it sincerely. “These fries are top-notch.”
Robin nods in agreement. “Mhm. And we’re fortunate, we got John as our waiter.”
I glance over my shoulder at the waiter in question, not sure what she means. “Is that fortunate?”
“It is in my opinion.” Robin cracks a little grin. “He’s a sweetheart, but it takes just about nothing to get him steaming mad, and he’s not good at hiding it. Even worse than I am. I like it, personally. Adds some spice to any meal. Or bribe dinner, as it were.”
“No, no no, this is not a bribe dinner!” I clarify hastily. “It’s – a gesture of friendship dinner!”
Robin lifts her eyebrows in amusement, dipping a french fry in some teriyaki sauce. “Mkay, that sounds like… are you about to ask me to do something illegal?”
“No!” I protest, then pause uncertainly, reconsidering. “I don’t think so, anyways. Is it, Aiden?”
“No,” he confirms.
Robin shrugs her shoulders, unbothered. “Hey, I don’t care if it is. That’s your business. But I’m not the captain you should talk to for that. I’ve got enough on my hands without getting involved in drug smuggling, or whatever.”
“It’s really not that,” I insist again. “Actually it was Wasiya who referred us to you, so you can be sure it’s not that.”
Robin pauses in surprise. “You know Wasiya?”
“Not too well, we only met her last night.” I hesitate for a moment, not sure if I should elaborate on that. But it feels wrong to hold back the truth from Robin forever, so – “Aiden and I came to Harbor Lights looking for a captain. We met Wasiya and Bhavini. And you, but – only very briefly.”
“Oh.” Robin stops, lowering the french fry she was about to eat. Her eyes search my face, then Aiden’s in turn, wincing deeply. “Shit. Had a feeling I’d seen you two somewhere before, just couldn’t place it. Sorry, but I don’t remember too much from last night… wasn’t, um – wasn’t really myself. Had a few too many…”
“It’s all good!” I jump in quickly, waving a reassuring hand at her. “We just figured it would be better to wait and talk to you tonight. About this!”
I pull the folded map out of my messenger bag and place it at the center of the table. Robin drops her eyes to it, then lifts them back to me inquiringly.
“Bhavini and Wasiya told us that you’re an amazing captain. That you’ve been sailing since forever, and you can handle pretty much anything out on the ocean?”
Robin gives her shoulders the barest shrug, which strikes me as an outrageous understatement after everything we heard from Bhavini last night.
“Grew up right here,” she says, with a toss of her head in the direction of the docks. “Why, though?”
“We need to go on a camping trip,” Aiden explains. “But the roads to get where we need to go are closed off, since there was a landslide.”
“So? Can’t you just camp somewhere else?”
“No, we need to go there, specifically. For work.”
I can tell that Robin is starting to get curious, despite herself. “What kind of work?”
“We, um…” I glance nervously at Aiden, but we already agreed it’s best to stick to our usual system, just be honest in the hopes that no one will believe us. “We’re from something called the Ghost Office. At the moment we’re working on dealing with some beings in the forest around Port Sitka. Illusions, specifically.”
Much to my surprise, Robin’s reaction to this is a little laugh.
“Monster chasers, huh? We’ve had a handful of you around the docks over the years. You looking for that ocean monster of legend that those kids saw out in the bay like forever ago? The one that floated just above the water instead of swimming?”
“Oh, we’ve already looked into that, and it wasn’t a monster after all,” I answer confidently, without thinking. “It turned out to be a dinghy, but no one could tell because the rubber was-” I cut myself off as Aiden kicks me under the table. “Nevermind. That’s, um – classified. Sort of. Ghost Office classified.”
Now Robin pauses, blinking at me. She breathes out a puzzled laugh, her eyebrows furrowing.
“I can’t tell if you two are fucking with me. The boys send you to me as a joke?”
“No,” Aiden tells her firmly. “We understand how it sounds, but we’re not asking you to believe us about that stuff. You don’t have to. We need your help either way.”
“My help.” Robin looks appraisingly at Aiden. “Don’t see why you’d have need of that. You’re a strapping one, aren’t you? Exceptionally so, if anything. Can’t take care of yourself on a camping trip?”
Aiden, trying to pretend he wasn’t flattered by that little comment, answers - “Yeah, I can, but I can’t get us there. By sea. Next weekend.”
“So we’re looking for a captain!” I add brightly.
“Oh, I gotcha. Okay.” Robin sits back and shrugs her shoulders, reaching for her phone. “That’s easy enough. I can recommend you a few good people to choose from. Pretty much everyone is in port at the moment, so-”
“Oh, no – sorry, we’re not being clear,” I jump in, tapping the map. “We were hoping that you would-”
I stop and look up at the thump of someone else hitting their forehead against the top of the balcony door. John, our waiter, comes staggering the rest of the way through holding our plates on a tray, then straightens up and glares at the doorframe as if he’d like to murder it.
“Goddamnit!” he shouts, loudly enough to startle everyone on the balcony into turning around to stare at him. “Shit!”
“You alright, Johnny boy?” Robin calls out, holding back a laugh.
“I’m fine!” he snaps, then comes over and slams a plate down on our table so hard that the french fries on it do a brief bounce into the air on impact. “How are we doing over here? Enjoying your meal? Let me know if you need anything!”
He savagely slams Aiden’s plate of chicken tinga down in front of him, then stomps back through the door without waiting for a reply. I bite my lip, turn back to Robin, and lose the battle against my laughter the instant my eyes catch hers. She lets out a laugh, too, catching the amazed disbelief in Aiden’s eyes.
“You weren’t exaggerating, Robin,” he laughs quietly.
“See?” I jump in, smiling at Robin across the table. “This is why we need you to be our captain. You know everything there is to know about sailing in Port Sitka, right down to which waiters at the dockside restaurants are absolutely not cut out for a service industry job.”
A puzzled expression flashes through Robin’s eyes. “Wait, me? You want me to captain your trip?”
“We’d really appreciate it,” I tell her hopefully.
Robin lets out a heavy sigh, sitting back in her chair. “You boys should’ve led with that. Could’ve saved you some time, told you right off the bat that I’m not available.”
“But we can offer-” I begin, then stop, because Robin is already shaking her head.
“I don’t care how much money you can pay.”
“Oh, no, we weren’t going to take that angle, we don’t even have the cash to back it up! I was going to say we can offer really good snacks. Have you tried orange slices dipped in chocolate, served cold? Because Aiden makes them, and I can eat them by the handful. On a sunny autumn day they’re a dream. And for breakfast, when we camp, he makes these little pancakes with-”
“I’ll own that sounds way better than most of the food I end up eating on my expeditions,” Robin cuts in, “But I’m sorry, it makes no difference. Like I said, I’m not available right now.”
She says it like a firm fact. Like there’s no point at all in discussing it any further.
“Oh,” I answer softly, trying not to look too disappointed. “I’m – sorry to hear that.”
“Thanks for the fries, though,” Robin says, getting to her feet. She gives Aiden’s shoulder a gentle punch, nods at me, then reaches for her jacket. “Nice meeting you. Good luck on your trip. Hope you find your illusion, or whatever-”
“Wait, wait – Robin!” I interrupt desperately. “Maybe – could you just take a look at the trip we want to do? Just to refer us to another captain?”
Robin hesitates, then sits back down with a sigh and pulls the map towards herself. “Alright, fine. Where are you making for?”
“Right here.” Aiden reaches across the table to show her on the map. “There was that landslide that closed off the roads, so we were hoping to travel up the coast by boat, then go inland by traveling up this channel or estuary or whatever. The one that runs near the foot of the mountains, right here.”
“Yep, I know the one. Around here we call it the inlet. Bit of a misnomer.” Robin points to a place on the map alongside the inlet. “Guessing you’ll be staying at the campground right there?”
“No, actually. The more ground we can cover the better, so we figured it’s best to keep the captain with us the whole time instead of getting dropped off and then picked up. That way we can move further up the inlet over the course of the weekend, until hopefully we find what we’re looking for.”
Robin sits back and stares at Aiden, then looks at me, her eyebrows arching up.
“Now, that is a very risky trip to take this time of year.” She trails a finger down the map. “See this strip of coast, right here, where you’d have to go to reach the mountains? Sailors in Port Sitka don’t love going along that route. It’s treacherous no matter the season or the weather. And the inlet itself is seriously difficult to navigate when the water is choppy, which it is pretty often in autumn. You’ll need someone good, and willing to do a hard job in their precious time off. What did you say your budget was?”
“It’s – um – extremely minimal,” I answer, with a sheepish wince.
This must not be the answer Robin was hoping to hear, because she winces back at me, as if to say that in that case she’s not sure who to recommend. I let out a soft sigh of defeat, turning to Aiden.
“I guess Noah might be down to take us…? He likes to drive cars, would he like to learn to drive a boat? He mentioned he’s always wanted a Sea-Doo.”
Robin straightens up, her light brown eyes widening with alarm. “Sorry, what? No, you can’t have someone brand new at this take you. Not for this trip. And you most definitely cannot go on a Sea-Doo, do you hear me? That’s suicidal.”
“Well, we’ll just have to figure something out,” Aiden says unhappily, shifting his snapback over his hair as the night breeze blows through it. “We weren’t joking, we really need to get out there as soon as possible.”
“But – you-” Robin tugs anxiously at a curl that’s escaping from her braid, screwing her face up. “Okay, then – Jamie, write this down.”
I start feeling through my pockets for a pen, then speed up in alarm as Robin immediately begins listing things.
“You want to tell the captain you hire to be very careful threading the inlet. The surface is deceptive, alright? It’s no fairway. There are underwater obstacles that are hard as fuck to anticipate. The coastal sands there are very wide, and they shift around all the time, especially if it rains heavily, so it’s easy for your equipment to get confused. You can do some serious damage to your vessel if you get stuck, then get dropped right off into the center when the tide comes back in, and you do not want that, because that area is extremely deep, with its own current systems. The wind can change directions fast, push you right to where you don’t want to be.”
I’ve been searching through my bag for a pen with increasing panic this whole time, and now, in desperation, I snatch the notepad and pen out of our waiter’s hands as he goes past.
“I’m so sorry, John, and please wait a sec, Robin!” I click on the pen and flip the notepad to a new page, then start scribbling down what I remember. “Okay, so you said – tell the captain we hire… that – what was it, again?”
Robin stares at me in disbelief, and John snatches his notepad back, red in the face with outrage.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?” he practically roars at me, once again drawing the attention of everyone on the balcony. “I’ll kill you!”
“I’m sorry!” I protest, all in a fluster. “I needed to write down something important!”
John widens his eyes at me incredulously, then turns the notepad around to show me what I wrote down, which unfortunately is just the word sand. Nothing else. Robin drops her face into her hands, then tilts her head back like she’s asking heaven for help. Aiden, who was just starting to direct a dark look of warning towards John, suddenly has to cover up a laugh with a cough instead.
“My god,” Robin sighs, dropping her gaze back to me and Aiden as John makes his tempestuous exit. She breathes out a little laugh, looking baffled. “Why is it that I like you two? Enough to be genuinely worried for your safety, at least. I want to reiterate one more time that you absolutely can’t take a trip up the coast on a Sea-Doo.”
“Then – maybe would you take us, instead?” I ask hopefully.
Robin’s expression grows very serious again. She drops her gaze to the flame of the lantern in the middle of the table, her fingers fidgeting with the shark tooth pendant of her necklace.
“Look, it’s not that I don’t want to take you. I can’t. I’m dealing with my own shit right now. I don’t have time for anything else. It’s – personal, but I can’t just up and leave Port Sitka at the moment, okay?” She pushes the map back towards us, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, I honestly am. But I can’t.”
I look over at Aiden in crestfallen silence, then blink in surprise, realizing he’s trying to communicate some silent message to me with his eyes. I’m not sure what he’s trying to say, and I’m still gazing at him in confusion as he gets to his feet.
“Sorry, Noah’s calling me,” he says quietly, slipping his phone out of his pocket. “I’m just gonna go out front so I can hear. Back soon.”
Robin nods at him distantly, her eyes still on the little flame. Aiden leans down, brushes a kiss onto my cheek. The connection slips open through his lips against my skin, and his deep voice murmurs -
Work your magic, sweet thing. Pretty sure this is a situation that needs it.
I sit back, watching him nervously as he heads towards the door of the balcony, then steal a nervous glance at Robin. She seems far away, all of a sudden. Her food is sitting forgotten, her long auburn braid bunched up in her hands. She doesn’t appear to have noticed that silence has fallen over our table. The crowd around us goes on eating and talking and laughing, and the ocean goes on rushing softly in the distance. The salt breeze makes the curls blown free from Robin’s braid brush against her face, all without her noticing. The candle flame is reflecting in her eyes.
“Robin…” I begin slowly, hesitating over my words, “The last thing I want to do is overstep, so please tell me if that’s what I’m doing, but… Bhavini told us last night that you got some very painful news, when you got home from your last trip.”
Robin’s eyes flit sharply back up to my face. I wait a minute, then nervously go on when she doesn’t say anything.
“And, um… again, I don’t want to overstep, but – is it anything we could help you with? It sounded like you’ve been looking for something. Do you need help finding it? Team Ghost Office, we’re really good for that. Like I said, we solved the thing about the sea monster in the harbor, and that took tracking down some evidence.”
Robin lets out a sharp little laugh, then slowly lifts her head and tilts it back, avoiding my eyes.
“Thanks for offering, but it’s not something, it’s… it’s someone.”
I don’t know why – something about the candlelight sputtering in the wind, throwing more of a glow over Robin – but all at once it strikes me just how hard she’s working to hold herself together. How hard she must have been working this whole time. One stray glance and suddenly I can see in her eyes the violent struggle she’s putting up to hold onto her composure, like she’s just on the brink of being overwhelmed.
“My fiancée,” she rasps softly, staring straight ahead instead of looking at me. “She, um. She’s gone missing. Disappeared three days before I got back from my last expedition, so nearly… nearly two weeks ago, now.”
I sit back slowly, then press my fingers to my lips, shocked into silence.
“Oh, no…” I manage faintly, after a long moment. “Shit, Robin, I’m so sorry…”
Robin blinks hard, fighting to keep back the expression in her burning eyes.
“I just… three days,” she stammers quietly, staring directly into the lantern flame again. “If I had been here three days sooner… and now she’s just gone, and n-nobody knows where she is…”
Robin trails off hoarsely, turning her face away.
“She’s been missing for two weeks?” I ask in dismay, unable to stop myself.
“Her coworkers reported it,” Robin answers, with obvious difficulty. “She didn’t show for work, wasn’t answering her phone. One of them went over to her place to check on her, and found the door left open. She was already gone, so – yeah, it’s actually been at least two weeks.”
Oh, my god. Poor Robin. I can see so clearly now why she fell apart last night. My heart aches for her, twists painfully just from the expression on her face.
“Have the police done anything?” I ask, without much hope.
Robin finally meets my eyes, a flash of tortured frustration going through her own.
“What do you think?” she asks, in a flat, hard voice. “I’ve done more investigating than they have since I got back. They told me she probably just ran off and skipped town. Completely out of the blue, for no reason, without a word to anyone, without taking anything with her. Leaving a half-made cup of tea on the kitchen counter, not bothering to even close the door after herself. Her phone, her keys, even her fucking wallet were all still in the apartment! Apparently none of that means anything. And yesterday I get word that now it’s coming up on two weeks, the cops are closing the case. Won’t even be pretending to investigate anymore. Not that I goddamn care, they weren’t helping.”
My shoulders sink in disappointment, but I can’t say I’m surprised. “Yeah… that all sounds like cop behavior. And we’re familiar with Chief Sieler’s police department, they’re, um-”
“Hang Chief Sieler, the no-good rotten son of a bitch!” Robin shouts abruptly, at a volume that makes me draw back in startled alarm.
A few people turn around to shoot curious stares at us. Robin winces when she sees my expression, then waves a hand at me apologetically, forcing herself to take a deep breath.
“Sorry. Just – if you know the Port Sitka police, then maybe you know that what they’re famous for at the moment is letting some ganglord’s pet wolf escape from a locked squad car, even though it was already tranquilized. Incompetent doesn’t even begin to cover it.” Robin’s fists tighten around her braid. “The cops wouldn’t even – they kept saying to me ‘your boyfriend’, because of what it says on her fucking driver’s license, as if I didn’t explain repeatedly that she was my girlfriend, actually, and now she’s my fiancée… and that she wouldn’t just take off like that, without saying one word to me!”
Robin’s voice is getting low with seething frustration as she speaks. She’s twisting her auburn braid in her fingers, holding it tightly.
Her expression crumples suddenly, and she hangs her head.
“She wouldn’t, she would never do that to me… someone must have taken her, or something – something must have happened…” She’s speaking in an increasingly hoarse, choked voice, like someone has her by the throat. It breaks a little as she adds - “Two fucking weeks…”
She fades off into silence, then startles me by slamming a fist down on the table so hard that all of the plates rattle. I look around anxiously, but the restaurant crowd here seems unfazed by sudden bursts of noise, given this doesn’t attract any more attention than John’s two previous outbursts.
“But I don’t care that it’s been two weeks! I’m fucking sick of everyone looking at me like that means there’s no chance!” Robin slams a hand into her chest, gazing at me fiercely out of her hot, blazing eyes. “As long as this is still beating, I know that hers is, too, alright? I’m gonna keep looking everywhere until I find her. I’m not giving up. May have gotten dangerously close last night, but I won’t give up, I can’t. And I’m not gonna leave Port Sitka, in case… in case someone finds her, or she comes back.”
She falls silent, struggling to get her breath back. Her eyes have gotten so bright that I think she might suddenly be on the verge of tears.
I keep quiet for a long moment, trying my best to absorb everything she just told me.
“God, Robin, I don’t even know what to say,” I murmur earnestly, my heart aching for her. “You know, Aiden went missing once, and it didn’t even take two days for me to feel like I was losing my mind. I seriously can’t imagine how it feels after two weeks.”
Robin lets out a painful laugh, gesturing to her temple.
“Yeah, well, maybe I am going off the deep end. Ever since she went missing, I’ve been having-” She breaks off sharply, like she just caught herself, then shakes her head. “Look, whatever you think of my mental state right now, I know she’s still out there. I just have to keep looking.”
“Oh, no, I wasn’t saying anything about your mental state, except that I’d understand completely if it was in tatters!” I run a hand through my hair, trying to think. “Does your fiancée have family she might have gone to for some reason? Out of town, or something like that?”
“Sure, she’s got family out of state, but they’re the last people she would ever go to if she was in trouble. If anything she would have gone to Bhavini. They’re friends. Wasiya’s family is like my family. We were… planning on getting married at Harbor Lights…”
Robin wavers into silence. Once again she’s staring straight ahead, without moving a muscle, flexing her jaw. Sinking all of her effort into holding it together.
“Just have to keep looking,” she says again, in a very quiet, rasping voice.
“But…” I bite my lip, holding my malachite necklace in my fingers. “Bhavini told you last night that you’ve already looked everywhere.”
No answer from Robin. Just a swift, wild glance that pierces my heart painfully.
I drop my gaze to the table, sinking beneath the anguish I see in her eyes. My eyes land on the map, still spread out between us.
I almost give a jolt in my seat as a sudden thought strikes me.
“Wait a sec… okay, I swear I’m not just saying this for my own purposes, but-” I catch Robin’s eye, then tap a finger on the map. “Have you looked here?”
Robin looks down at the map, then back up at me, thrown off. “What do you mean?”
“You said there’s a campground there, right?”
“Yeah, there’s a few cabins, and a field where people can set up tents.” Robin sits up some more, frowning. “But you just said it yourself, the roads are blocked. There’s no way to get there by land.”
“Right, but it’s accessible by sea, and the fact that it’s blocked by land would make it a good place to lay low, maybe even for two weeks…”
Robin gives her head a slow shake, her eyebrows furrowing.
“No, but she couldn’t sail that route, she’d have no idea how. I mean, I’ve shown her the basics, she can do okay in a boat if there’s an emergency or something. But she would know better than to attempt a trip like that, she wouldn’t attempt any trip alone – unless – she wasn’t at the helm, and somebody else was…”
Robin takes a moment to think about it, looks hopeful for a split second, then shakes her head again.
“That doesn’t explain why she hasn’t called me, though. And I can’t see any reason why she’d end up all the way out there in the first place, when she’s never even been there before.”
Me neither, but I can’t help thinking about how Aiden’s Guardian magic works. Sometimes it leads us right where we need to go. In this case, he led me into the side street behind the bar, where we found Robin. Then he suggested we talk to Wasiya, who led us to Bhavini, who led us right back around to Robin again.
And… I’m not sure if it’s just that Robin’s blazing conviction is contagious, but there’s a spark of hope in my chest. Two weeks is a long time for someone to be missing, but for some reason I refuse to believe that Robin’s fiancée is lost to her forever.
“I just don’t see why she would be there,” Robin says again, although now she doesn’t sound totally sure. “Still feel like I should stay here, in case she comes back.”
“Well… okay, how about this? We wanted to do this trip this coming weekend. If she isn’t back by then, you could take us to the inlet. Check the campground. Just to be sure.”
Robin hesitates for a long moment, then lets out a slow, long breath.
“Guess… I… yeah, okay. Fine. But you do have to pay me enough to make some kind of money out of this, or I’ll end up losing money on fuel.” She slips a pen out of her pocket, starts writing a phone number on a napkin. “Text me your number. I’m gonna send you a list of supplies you need to provide. On top of the snacks, obviously. I’ll be wanting to try those chocolate oranges you talked about. That’s non-negotiable.”
“Really? Oh my god, okay!” I sit back and smile at her, letting out a sigh of grateful relief. “We can do all that! Thank you so much, Robin! I’m only sorry we can’t pay you what you’d normally charge. I wish there was some other way we could… oh, would you want some herbs and veggies from my garden? I’m having a nice autumn harvest right now.”
“No, thanks. Can’t cook to save my life, and anyways I don’t have a kitchen right now.” She pauses for a second, then adds roughly - “I live at my fiancée’s place when I’m not out on the water, and I – I can’t stay there, right now. It’s too hard.”
“Oh.” I nod sympathetically, twisting the heist ring around my finger. “Of course. I understand. Does that mean you’ve been living on that ship where we met you?”
“Yeah, but last night was the end of that. Now that the heavy equipment is offloaded I’m officially all done with my contract for that job. Can’t stay on the ship any longer.” She lowers her gaze to the table again, picking at her faded blue nail polish. “Wasiya said she’d let me stay at the inn for free, but, um… to be honest, I know basically all the regulars at that bar, and it’s rough trying to keep it together in front of them, so. I’m not sure I’m gonna stay there. Might just get my boat out of storage early, sleep there. Only thing is I gotta pay the dock fees if I do that, and I’m – pretty broke at the moment.”
I turn that over in my mind, then brighten up as an idea strikes me. “Oh, I know just the place where you can stay! I mean, I’ll have to ask, but-”
I break off at the loud thump of Aiden crashing his head into the top of the balcony door again. He stops just outside of it, cursing beneath his breath, and I scramble out of my chair to rush over to him.
“Aiden! Just in time. Is your forehead okay?” I take a handful of his shirt, speaking very fast. “Can I borrow your phone? Mine ran out of battery, and we need to get some things arranged. Also you should buy whatever you need to make the chocolate oranges. Robin wants them, and I think she may call off the trip if we don’t deliver. She’s got a bit of a temper, doesn’t she? But I think that’s a good feature for a sea captain to have. I think it’s a good sign that she has nautical finger tattoos, too. That feels right.”
Aiden’s blue eyes flit to Robin, who’s eating another french fry as she scribbles down the rest of her contact information for me. “Wait, wait wait – she agreed to take us?”
“Yes! This weekend, and I’m hoping maybe we can help her out at the same time. There’s a whole thing going on with her fiancée that I need to fill you in on.”
Aiden stares down at me incredulously, then breathes out a laugh, ruffling my hair with his warm fingers.
“Jamie Keane magic,” he murmurs softly, the expression in his eyes making me blush to an almost painful degree. He slips his phone out of his pocket, hands it to me. “Who are you calling?”
“Robin needs a place to stay until we go on our trip,” I explain, already swiping down through his contacts.
“And you’re going to arrange that?”
“Yes. Can you go back with Robin to the ship and get her stuff real quick? It’s getting late. We should get her settled in.”
Aiden opens his mouth to start asking questions, then shakes his head and goes back to our table.
“C’mon, Robin. Guess we’re giving you a ride to someplace where you can crash for a while.”
“With our friends!” I add encouragingly, catching the mistrustful look in Robin’s eyes. “Very dear friends. You’ll be all good with them.”
“Okay…” She gets up, glancing uncertainly between us. “Are you sure they won’t mind having me?”
~~~~
“Are you joking, sweetheart?” Rose asks, staring at Robin in disbelief, almost scandalized by the question. “Once Jamie explained the situation we told him he had to bring you over! I insisted!”
Leyla coasts gracefully up to Robin, presses a warm mug of tea into her hand. “We’d never miss out on a chance to help a lesbian in need, Captain.”
Robin laughs a little as she sets down her bag, looking faintly bewildered to find herself in the cozy living room of the beach cottage. “Well, thanks…”
She trails off in flustered confusion as Leyla touches a hand to her long auburn braid.
“How lovely this is!” Leyla tells her admiringly. “Titian hair. Worthy of the Rennaisance.”
Robin blushes fiercely, blinking very fast, and Leyla’s eyes sparkle with a grin.
“See that, darling?” she calls to Rose, who’s headed into the kitchen. “I haven’t lost my charm in my silver years.”
“That was never in question!” Rose laughs admonishingly, knotting an apron over her clothes. “Stop making the poor girl nervous!”
Leyla pouts playfully at Rose. “I wasn’t trying to.”
“You don’t have to try, and you know it,” Rose laughs, darting an adoring smile at Leyla.
Robin gazes at Leyla’s outfit in undisguised awe as she glides past, her floor-length kimono robe floating in her wake. Astonishingly blue silk, cut into a cascade of dramatic, sweeping waves. Glittering pale green beads hidden in the folds, sparkling softly with Leyla’s graceful movements. Clearly Rose’s handiwork.
“Think that’s the fanciest thing I’ve ever seen,” Robin murmurs, then turns around as Calla joins us in the living room with her backpack. “Hey, are you seriously just gonna take off so I can have your room? I feel bad, like…”
“No, it’s totally fine!” Calla says brightly, shrugging her backpack onto her shoulders. “I’ll go stay with my boyfriend. I was just there this past weekend, but I don’t think he’ll mind me showing up again.”
“He will not,” Aiden confirms, stating it like an inarguable fact.
Calla flashes him a smile, steals a pastry from the tray Rose is assembling in the kitchen. “Okay, then it’s definitely no problem. Just please don’t touch any of my equipment, Robin.”
“Says the one who threw a martini at my ship!” Robin protests indignantly. “Wearing a disguise ‘n all!”
“Did you, love?” Leyla lets out a sparkling, amused laugh as she takes some extra blankets out of a cabinet. “You have been busy tonight. Is this why you weren’t home for dinner?”
“Love you!” Calla calls over her shoulder, already on her way out to the car.
“Oh, what am I thinking, these are cold, and it’s cold out tonight!” Rose puts the pastries back under their glass cloche and reaches for a pan instead, ignoring the two begging dogs circling her legs. “I’ll just fry something up for you, Robin. Something warm and toasty, that’s what you’ll be wanting.”
Robin glances over at Rose as the sound and smell of sizzling butter start to drift out from the kitchen, then turns around in surprise as Leyla presses some blankets into her hands. She takes them automatically, then sits down on the couch when Leyla beckons for her to.
Leyla drops down into the armchair across from her, her expression growing serious, sympathetic.
“I’m very sorry to hear about your fiancée, Robin,” she says quietly. “What a violent shock to come home to. I’m sure you’re worried sick.”
Robin avoids Leyla’s gaze, then looks up sharply when she adds - “I can’t say I’m surprised to hear that Chief Sieler has proven himself and his department ineffective.”
Robin’s hands tighten into fists.
“They’re probably busy losing another wolf,” Rose calls, shaking her head in severe disapproval.
“Since when do the police do animal control, anyways?” Leyla asks thoughtfully. “Back in our day they were busy raiding gay bars and being on the wrong side of every civil rights or environmental protest.”
“They still do that now,” Rose answers, reaching for some spices. “I suppose they just also find time to fit in losing people’s pets. I’ll tell you, I’m about as unimpressed as possible with Chief Sieler-”
“The cursed, useless bastard!” Robin explodes suddenly, a wild blaze of inner fire sparking up in her eyes. “The man is clearly a howling fool, in charge of a squad of little weasels! To hell with the cops, I’m better off looking on my own! I’ll find her myself!”
Rose pauses in alarm, but Leyla only blinks in surprise, a small smile spreading across her face.
“It sounds like you won’t let anything stop you,” she observes.
Robin’s light brown eyes flash again.
“Nothing!” she says passionately.
Leyla sits back, looking at her with thoughtful, growing warmth in her expression.
“Drink up, sweetheart,” she says gently, with a nod at the mug Robin is holding. “And if it makes you feel any better, you’re safe here. No one else will be disappearing under my watch. I don’t mind breaking out the taser. Jamie and Aiden can personally attest to that.”
Robin lowers the mug she was about to take a sip from, raises her eyebrows, and breaks into a small, startled grin.
“Alright,” she laughs quietly. “Thanks.”
Rose starts calling out food-preference questions to Robin from the kitchen, and Leyla comes over to speak with me and Aiden. We’ve been hanging back by the door, I think because the moment we arrived it felt like everything was under control and we simply weren’t needed for anything.
Leyla stops before us, gives her head a subtle nod in Robin’s direction.
“This one is trouble,” she informs us, with a pleased smile. “Before you fall to your natural instincts and begin apologizing to me, Jamie, know that we don’t mind having her here. Not one bit. If anything Rose and I had hoped to find some way to help as you clear up the illusions. It’s proving to be a much more complex task than either of us anticipated. I’m afraid we asked quite a favor of you, without knowing so.”
“Oh, don’t worry, we’re happy to do it!” I tell her earnestly, matching her confidential volume. “And this next illusion is dead, so hopefully that’ll make things easier.”
“Having Robin as our captain will definitely make things easier,” Aiden puts in. “So thank you for letting her crash here until then.”
Leyla nods, then looks over her shoulder as Robin calls – “So is there like a curfew here? Or can I come back in as late as I like?”
“No, no curfew,” Leyla answers lightly, then turns back to us with an approving smile. “Like I said, trouble. She’ll do just fine here.”
I think so, too. Robin is curled up in the corner of the couch, one hand fidgeting with the little shark tooth pendant of her necklace, the other clasped around the warm mug of tea. Her shoulders are starting to relax. All of a sudden she looks really sleepy and tired. She sinks a little deeper into the couch, closing her eyes, then jolts awake again. For a split second I see the aching worry and agonized fear in her gaze that I saw at the restaurant.
She gets up and sets the mug down, stretching out her arms. “Cool, well – thanks for everything. I better get back out there and keep searching. It’s not too late in the night yet. I’ll be back later.”
“It is getting late, actually, and I think you need to have a real dinner,” Rose says, using a spatula to flip whatever’s in the frying pan. “Some good sleep, too, by the look of it.”
Robin runs a tired hand over her hair. “I haven’t had good sleep in two weeks. It’s useless trying.”
“All the same,” Rose insists. “Besides, you won’t get too far trying to walk back into town tonight. There will be plenty of time tomorrow.”
Her sweet, gentle little voice picks up a motherly firmness that leaves no room for arguing. Robin hears it, and balks uncertainly.
“Nah, but I really should…”
Leyla sweeps back over to her, hands her the mug she’d set aside. “What’s your fiancée’s name, Robin?”
Robin swallows, answers in a voice like it’s difficult to speak.
“Faith.”
“Faith,” Leyla repeats. “That’s a very beautiful name.”
Robin lets out a soft, pained laugh. “I think so, too. It was her little joke, choosing that name for herself. I – I had told her once that she’s the reason I have my faith in the world…”
Robin fades off, her voice growing raspy, her worried eyes misting up.
Leyla and Rose exchange a glance across the living room, wincing in an ache of silent sympathy. Aiden and I look at each other, too, in the same exact way.
“Sit back down, Robin,” Leyla says gently. “Have a hot dinner. See if you can’t rest a little. You’ll do better on your search that way once you start again. Trust me, honey, I would know. And I think it’s what Faith would tell you to do.”
Robin hesitates, then sinks back down onto the couch, pulling her knees up in quiet exhaustion. She reaches for one of the blankets Leyla brought out and spreads it over herself.
She seems unused to being on a velvet couch full of shimmering faux-fur blankets, but something tells me that Leyla is right. Robin will be just fine here.
Aiden and I say our goodbyes, then head outside. It really is getting late, and we need to get home. We walk slowly up the path towards my car, close together in the autumn cold. Gold and amber leaves skitter past us, as crisp as possible after last night’s frost.
“I’m glad that Robin is willing to help us, and Rose and Leyla are willing to help her,” I tell Aiden, lost in my thoughts. “But I have this feeling that we need to help Robin, too-”
I blink in surprise as Aiden catches my arm and turns me around.
“Oh!” I blurt out in happy surprise, realizing he’s one second away from kissing me. I let out a laugh as he does kiss me, several times, in rapid succession. “What’s this for?”
“Nothing.” He’s smiling against my mouth. “Just love watching you do your thing.”
“Okay…” I laugh, slightly baffled, then quickly grow serious again. “God, though, poor Robin. I remember how it felt when you were the one missing. She must be terrified.”
“I know. Two fuckin’ weeks… Jesus.” Aiden wraps an arm around my shoulders as we set off for the car again, protectively pressing me to his side. “If it was you… honestly, I don’t even want to imagine that.”
After a thoughtful moment, he adds - “You seem to think there’s hope we’ll find her, Keane. Despite what conventional wisdom would say about a missing person’s case two weeks cold.”
“Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know, but – yeah. I do.” I work my thumb into my palm, glancing anxiously up at Aiden. “But I am really worried about where she is, what happened to her.”
Because based on what Robin told me, it sounds like someone snatched Faith from her apartment. If she’d gone on her own I have to think she’d have left some message for Robin, or contacted her later, or at the very least grabbed her wallet and closed the door before she took off.
I don’t know, but whatever happened… god. I just hope she’s okay. I look up at Aiden again, pleading with my eyes.
“Do you think there’s some way a Guardian could help, Sugar Maple? Even if he’s not the Guardian of Port Sitka?”
Aiden leans down to brush a soft, reassuring kiss onto my forehead.
“I guess we’ll see,” he answers.
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