Almost an entire day had passed while they were in the Houses. When Nairo and Ridley finally snuck back out, it was under the cover of darkness. The rain had stopped and there was a chill in the air. Thanks to the riots, nightlife had ceased in the city proper. The streets were eerily empty. Nairo and Ridley stole through the shadow laden streets trying to find a way back north to Ridley’s apartment but it was impossible. Every main road was barricaded and heavily policed. Nairo could have used her credentials to get them through the barricades on this side, but word was the Gnomes had set up their own blockades into Little Kang and once the sun set, nothing was getting through.

Nairo led Ridley back through the city to a squat low rise that was as broad as it was tall. They shuffled into the gloomy block of flats and then limped up to the third floor. Nairo fought with the sticky lock, her swollen knuckles making her hands clumsy. She slammed her already injured hip against the door and it finally shook loose and fell open.

“Welcome,” Nairo said wearily.

She hobbled into the room, threw the keys in a small bowl to the left of the door and fell face first onto the single, lumpy bed in the corner of the shoebox sized room.

“And you made fun of my gaff,” Ridley mumbled as limped in after her.

The room was dark and damp enough to grow mushrooms. It was almost empty aside from a few smatterings of perfunctory furniture. The window was so grimy that they didn’t need net curtains to preserve privacy.

“It’s not mine,” Nairo murmured, her voice smothered by the bed.

“Have we broken into someone else’s shithole?” Ridley asked, easing himself down to the floor as there were no chairs. He leaned against the wall and hugged his coat tight around his battered and bruised body.

“It’s for coppers,” Nairo said, rolling over to face him. “Somewhere you can crash if you’re on a double.”

“Or you’ve had one too many,” Ridley said, chuckling dryly to himself. “Speaking of which, any booze in here?”

Nairo lifted her head and scanned the flat before looking back at him.

“What you see is what you get.”

“No food either then?”

“Nope.”

“Great.” Ridley kicked off his soggy loafers with tremendous effort, his knees and ankles protesting the whole way. “Ahh, I think I’ve broken my toe.”

“How did you do that?”

“Kicking that fella in the toilet stall.”

“Oh yeah,” Nairo said with a faraway voice. “None of that feels like it was real, does it?”

“If it weren’t for all the bruises I’d agree with you.”

“I feel like I could sleep for a whole week.”

“I’ll give you till sun up.”

“Why so early?”

“Coz we need to get on the trail of this Pixie and find this damned Diamond before the cobbles run red or the whole place gets blown sky high.”

Nairo sighed and painstakingly rolled onto her back, looking up at the yellowing ceiling.

“How? How are we going to possibly find one tiny Pixie in this massive city?” Nairo asked.

“There’s a better question: how the hell hasn’t this Pixie been found yet?”

“I’ve been wondering about that. It’s not from the city, it would have nowhere to go. The poor thing would be hopelessly lost and more than likely sleeping rough.”

“With the dog packs we got round here, a Pixie wouldn’t last five minutes sleeping on the streets, even with a magical bloody Diamond.”

“That’s the other thing, someone would have spotted it. A big sparkling Diamond isn’t exactly easy to conceal, especially one that temperamental. It’s not like the Pixie could just hide it somewhere and come back for it later, it has to keep it with it.”

“Folks would steal your silver fillings if you smiled for too long in certain parts of this city,” Ridley said, scowling at nothing.

“Unless, the Diamond has more abilities than we know about.”

“Like invisibility or something?”

“I don’t know,” Nairo said, shrugging her shoulders. “What’s more likely is that it has an accomplice, or at least someone giving it shelter.”

“Who would give a loony bloody Pixie and great whacking Diamond, that might go bang, shelter?”

“Someone equally loony, I suppose.”

“City ain’t got no shortages of those.” Ridley reached into his jacket and pulled out a smoke.

“There’s no smoking in here.”

“Really?”

“Yes, it’s a foul habit and it makes everything stink.”

“Wouldn’t do no harm here.”

“No smoking!”

“Fine.” Ridley put the smoke away and then laid down. “Might as well go to sleep I suppose.”

Nairo let out a mighty yawn, her jaw cracking, and her ears popping.

“That’s the only good idea you’ve had today.”

Ridley snorted derisively and laid down on the floor.

“You gonna be alright down there?”

“Yeah, I’ve slept on worse.”

“Pillow or blanket? We’ve only got one of each.”

“Pillow.”

Nairo chucked him the only pillow and he draped his heavy coat across himself as a makeshift blanket.

“See ya in a couple of hours, Sarge.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Night, PI.”

Nairo felt her breathing slow and her eyelids began to droop.

“Shame they Cut the Pixie, this case would’ve been open and shut from the very beginning. We could have just asked the Pixie’s at the bank and caught our man as he was chopping off Benny's head.” Ridley mumbled, half asleep.

“Hmm,” Nairo purred as sleep snaked around her mind.

Just then the little copper in Nairo’s head marched in from her subconscious. He tapped his baton on her consciousness and waited patiently. Nairo tried to ignore him, letting sleep take her deep. The policeman rapped again, this time more forcefully and with less patience.

Nairo’s eyes snapped open.

“The Pixies!”

“Waahhh?” Ridley sat up in fright, and then groaned as he twisted his already battered ribs.

“The Pixies at the bank! Don’t you remember! They were in disarray, they were panicked!”

“Wahh?”

“The ghosts! They hear them but they’re like ghosts!”

“What?”

“Jimmy said!”

“Sarge, are you alright?”

“No… I mean yes. Wait.” Nairo sat up and tousled her curly mane of hair as she tried to order her epiphany.

“When a Pixie is Cut they lose the connection to their Home Tree, but they don’t completely lose the ability to communicate with Pixie’s around them. But they frighten the uncut Pixies. They’re like ghosts, creatures with no eyes and no mouths whispering from the darkness! That Pixie in the Houses, he was cut and-and he said something about how they hear him but won’t speak back. And the Pixies in the bank looked terrified when I saw them the morning of the robbery. We all just put it down to the robbery but what if it was the Cut Pixie trying to speak to them and that was what scared them?”

“Wait… can they talk back to it?” Ridley asked, his brows furrowed deeply.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. But the Cut Pixies are constantly reaching out trying to talk to someone. What if this Cut Pixie has made contact? Or has at least been trying to? We could get a lock on its whereabouts, at least a general area where it could be!”

“Well… shit,” Ridley said.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s a good idea, Sarge. We might actually have a chance of finding this damn Pixie.”

“Let’s go!” Nairo said, groaning as she tried to swing her legs off the bed. “We’ll start with the Pixies at the bank!”

“The bank doesn’t open until seven in the morning,” Ridley said.

“Oh thank goodness.” Nairo flopped straight back down on the bed and closed her eyes. She was snoring before Ridley could say another word.

He smirked into the darkness as he listened to her snores.

*

Nairo was awoken by the sound of a bang and the thump of feet. She opened her eyes, her vision thick with sleep. Instinct drove her body out of bed while her mind was still dreaming. She blinked again. She had seen a figure jump out of the window. Hadn’t she? Nairo looked around her trying to sort reality from dream. Where was Ridley? His coat was on the floor but the PI was nowhere to be seen. Nairo felt a cold breeze on her shoulders. She stumbled to the open window and glimpsed Ridley rushing round the corner. Before her mind had consciously made a decision, her body was hurtling out of the grimy flat, and in her bare feet, she took the steps two at a time ignoring the aches of her stiff body. Nairo burst out of the main door to the building just in time to see a man fly by her. He was dressed all in black and had streaming golden hair. Ridley was hot on his heels. Nairo joined the chase, and together they sprinted across the wet cobbles. The man was quick and he had the advantage of wearing shoes. They rounded the corner just in time to see him spring into the back of a black carriage. The cab took off, the horses whinnying as the driver whipped them into a full run. Ridley bent over double and spat on to the cobbles. Nairo, still blinking sleep out of her eyes, looked around. She thought she saw another figure melt away into the darkness in the alleyway opposite. She blinked again and saw nothing.

“What’s going on?” she asked Ridley, feeling an animalistic instinct of unseen eyes watching her.

“Not here,” Ridley said, standing up and then looking down at his sodden socks.

They limped back to the flat keeping a careful eye on their surroundings. Once they were back inside, Nairo double locked the door and sat on the bed, scratching her tousled hair and yawning.

“Turn the light off,” Ridley said, as he posted up by the window and stared suspiciously.

They sat in complete darkness for so long Nairo felt her eyes droop again.

“We’re being watched,” Ridley said, snapping her awake again.

“Who was that man?”

“I dunno. I heard something outside and saw a shadow on the window. When I got up to look I saw him there crouched.”

“An assassin?”

“Naa, seemed more like he was listening. Who knows how long he was out there.” Ridley craned his neck and narrowed his eyes. “I noticed a cab following us when we left the Houses. It was still parked up when I chased our man. But it wasn’t the one he jumped into.”

“More than one person’s watching us?”

“Maybe.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

“Who could it be?”

“Any number of people,” Ridley said, rubbing at his tired eyes. “Elves. Goblins. Humans. Police.”

“Why would the police be watching us?”

“You don’t remember when they explicitly told you to stop investigating this case?”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

They sat up for the rest of the night, taking it in turns to stare out of the window. Every creak in the old building set Nairo’s teeth on edge. Finally, the sun peeked over the horizon, melting away the paranoia of night. Nairo was exhausted. She felt like she hadn’t slept properly in weeks. Her stomach churned and spat bile into the back of her throat. Her clothes were still damp and were starting to smell. All she wanted was a bath and something hot to eat. She had whiled away the final hours of the night by counting up all the things that hurt. She was up to twenty three when Ridley stirred from his catnap on the floor. He sat up and groaned so deeply it sounded like even his soul was bruised. He slumped straight back down and curled into the foetal position for a minute while moaning.

“You look pretty in the morning,” Nairo said.

“Piss off,” he grunted back.

“Here,” Nairo offered him her bruised hand and helped drag him to his feet.

Ridley unfurled carefully. He groaned again and coughed so hard his back popped.

“Okay,” he said finally.

He wobbled over to his coat, bent creakily, and picked it up.

“Any more nighttime visitors?”

“Nothing, not even a feral cat.”

Ridley nodded and coughed again.

“What’s our next move?” Nairo asked.

“We go to the bank.”

“Still?”

“Yeah. Could be we’ve spooked our watchers bad enough that they’ll keep their distance. And if we haven’t, we may be able to flush them out. Either way, we can’t just stay holed up here and hope they show their faces.”

“I don’t like it,” Nairo said. “I don’t like being followed.”

“No, I imagine you’re used to be the one who does the following.”

“Something like that,” Nairo said.

Even though she would never admit it to Ridley, being a copper had given her a sense of safety. She knew no matter what they faced on the streets, she was a part of the force and no criminal would take harming a copper lightly. Now? Now she was just a civilian sticking her nose in where it didn’t belong. She felt naked and unarmed. She was vulnerable and that was an unfamiliar feeling.

“Come on Sarge,” Ridley said, pulling his coat on. “I need some breakfast and the blackest coffee the city has to offer.”

“Coffee sounds good.” Nairo agreed, dragging herself upright and testing her stiff legs. She couldn’t remember what it felt like to be pain free and loose.

“You’re paying,” Ridley said as they walked out of the flat.

“Of course.”

“Cheer up. We finally got the scent, all we gotta do is follow this thread, and the whole case will be wrapped up in a neat little bow.”

“You’re butchering metaphors again.”

“But I’m not wrong.”

Ridley grinned wolfishly at her as he walked outside. How did he do it? He was just a normal citizen. He had no badge, no truncheon, no uniform, and no back up. But the streets could never make him flinch. No matter how much it bared its teeth and growled, Ridley still put one foot in front of the other daring it to make a move. He was battered and bruised from head to toe. He had been beat up half a dozen times. He’d been arrested, kidnapped, and almost drowned in a toilet. He’d been lied to and threatened constantly. But no matter what happened, he pursued the truth. Relentless and indefatigable. He had proven without a shadow of a doubt there was no length he wouldn’t go to. Nairo caught herself mid train of thought. Did she actually admire him? She must be concussed worse than she thought.

“Come on Sarge! Cab’s here!” Ridley hopped into the back of the cab and Nairo wearily followed. “To the city bank!”