CHAPTER 12 - THE ABANDONED FLAT
LOUISA

Louisa lashed out with all her might, and the man went flying backwards. She snapped back into stance, watching him carefully, then grinned at his rueful expression.

“Damn it woman, I know it’s your mission to send me to the moon, but you could at least let up a little?” James demanded, flipping himself up from the floor, picking up the pad.

“But it’s my favourite game,” Louisa pouted.

“I know. It’s as sure as hell not mine,” James said, mock seriously. “So, feel better?”

Louisa sighed. James watched her closely.

“Well fuck,” he observed. “You really do have it bad.”

James gazed at the woman before him. 6 foot in her stocking feet, Louisa was a wall of muscle, her ripped upper body was revealed by a tight grey strappy-top, revealing toned biceps and rock-hard abs. Louisa was not a body builder by any stretch of the imagination, still with a set of feminine curves and a rack to make any woman jealous, but a warrior in her prime. James had to approve of her. Her long red-brown hair was scooped up in a ponytail, waving from side to side as she bounced in her boxer’s stance, and revealing her face. Too hard for beauty, but devastatingly attractive; sharp brows, dark brown eyes, a narrow nose and sharp chin, capped off with slightly pointed ears and a seductively loveheart set of lips, currently turned down in the corners in a worried line.

He boosted himself up onto athletics horse and set his pad aside, tilting his head.

“What’s up?” He asked.

She sighed.

“Classified.”

“Look, if it’s about the Crown Prince, every-one already knows.”

“What?!”

He raised his hands defensively as she raised her gloves again.

“It got leaked this morning. Crown Prince kidnapped, proof of life, the whole shebang. I mean, it got hushed up as fast, but you can still find it on Youtube,” he gave her a sympathetic look. “Can’t find him?”

Louisa sighed and yanked her gloves off.

“I’m not even allowed to look,” She remarked coldly.

“Dafuq?” He demanded.

Louisa sighed.

“Naming no names, I’ve been pulled off because they don’t want us to run in there all guns blazing and get him killed,” She drop kicked one of her gloves across the room, scowling.

“And you think they’re wrong.”

“It stinks James. This isn’t just a kidnapping. And I didn’t say that, or any of this, to you,” She caught herself.

“Relax,” James said calmly. “Who am I going to tell?”

She sighed.

“It’s just not right. And I need to find out whether my suspicions are right and that some-one is guilty, or that my personal dislike is running away with me,” Louisa sighed.

“You don’t seem the type to take things personally.”

Louisa snorted. James dropped off the horse, gazing at her.

“When did you last sleep?” He asked.

Louisa looked taken aback by the question, and her eyes rolled up to the ceiling as she thought about the question.

“The fact that it’s taking you this long to work it out is proof enough that you haven’t had anywhere near enough,” He said sharply. “You need to go home, crash for several solid hours, and then review this all in the morning, when you’re awake enough to find the distinguishing line. You hear me?”

Louisa looked up at him, and smiled.

“Perfectly.”

He took the glove off her.

“Now stop cussing, and go home.”

He grinned at her burst of laughter. She clapped him on the shoulder.

“Ok, ok, fine,” She frowned. “Hang on, you just want to get me out of here before I whack you further across the room.”

“You got me,” he said brightly.

“Coward!”

James laughed and walked off to retrieve the other glove and Louisa turned for the changing rooms. She hit the showers then got dressed... and as she picked up her coat, a fragment of paper fluttered to the floor. She picked it up and flipped it open, eyes scanning her own chicken scratch writing.

Lucas Saul - Apartment 3b, Regency Court.

Regency Court was on her way home, she mused. She could just call in and make sure he hadn’t died or something horrible. It wasn’t like she was looking for Alexi, she reasoned. She was just checking up on a missing colleague.

She scrunched the paper up and stuffed it into her gym bag, locking it all away and striding away purposefully.



Half an hour later she strode as purposefully into Regency Court. The warden’s desk was empty, and no surprise, she thought, checking her watch. It was 5 in the morning. She’d just go up to 3b, have a poke around, then ride back to the embassy and crash in the Guard room for a few hours before being up for shift. It wasn’t ideal, and it wasn’t the solid sleep James had ordered, but it would get her by.

She ignored the lift and pounced up the stairs, her no-nonsense stride eating up the distance. She raised her hand to knock... then frowned, pushing it at it gently with her finger tip. With absurd ease, the door swung open. She flipped from blasé to bodyguard in a split second, drawing her gun, comforted by the familiar weight in her hand. She swept the room, the living room, then slapped the light.

“Shit,” She breathed. “What a fucking mess.”

The living room was in tatters. A bookcase had fallen over, scattering books all over the floor, the plasma screen TV fallen on its face on the floor, cables wrenched from the wall. She picked her way cautiously across, shoving open the nearest door and scanning it. A bathroom, perfectly pristine, gleaming white and blue. She shook her head and padded the living area and into the open plan kitchen. More mess, a cupboard door had been wrenched clean off, smashed jars on the floor, contents congealing as a sticky brown mass. The knife rest was on the floor... a Sabatier knife covered in what she knew to be blood.

She stepped over it cautiously and proceeded to the only other door, the bedroom, the door smashed permanently open. The bed was a tangled mess, but that was nothing... lying, face down on the sheets, was a body, blood soaking deep into the sheets, making a grisly red halo on the white sheets.

“Fuck me,” Louisa crossed herself, then headed towards the body.

Louisa levelled the gun at it, but the man, ghostly pale with wide, unfocused eyes was long since dead. He had been stabbed straight through the gut... a horrible death. It wasn’t the blonde Lucas, she knew that much, this guy was ginger and a foot shorter than Lucas. She reached for the phone in her pocket and dialled three 9’s.

“Hello, I need the police and a private ambulance,” Louisa said precisely. “It looks like there’s been a break in, and a guy is sprawled on the bed stabbed through the stomach. Pretty damn dead by the looks of things. It looks like he’s been here a while. The address is 3b Regency Court.”

Louisa watched the body for a moment, then jumped, snapping the gun up at movement in the window. The curtains had blown inwards, and sat on the sill was a cat, a smoky grey elegant creature with wide green eyes that almost seemed to wink at her. And that’s when she noticed, blood on the windowsill. She walked over and brushed the curtain back.

The window had been smashed outwards, and directly below the window was a dumpster with a suspiciously dented window. She leant out, taking care not to touch the sill, and noticed recent tyre prints.

“Call me a cynic, but this wasn’t just a break in,” She murmured to herself. “This is all linked. Has to be.”

She glanced down at the cat, that was hopefully nuzzling the front of her coat.

“If you’re not here Lucas,” She breathed. “Where the fuck are you?”