It took three knocks, one cry of “Mum, aunt Bambi’s at the door,” followed by a reply of, “I’ll get it. You stay at the table and finish eating your potatoes,” before the pristine white door of the well-architected but understated family sized home was pulled open.

“Bambi! What are you doing here?” a surprised April remarked of her sister.

“I hear congratulations are in order,” Bambi replied, pleased to have something to offer other than a request for April’s help.

April smiled and looked a mixture of relieved and surprised. She stepped aside so Bambi could come in.

Bambi decided not to leave it too long before she ruined her good mood. “And I wanted to ask you some questions about a house.”

April sighed and rolled her eyes. “It’s always business with you.”

“I’m sorry, April. I mean to come just for a visit, I do. I’ve just been really busy.” Bambi left her shoes by the front door. April was particular about her floors.

“As usual.” April led the way through the hallway toward the kitchen. “You’re as bad as Rou, and Dakota. Only here when you want information. Only Buck and Robin ever actually just come to visit.”

“I came to your BBQ.”

“And left half way through.”

“I had-”

“A client, I know. Do you want a drink? Tea? Coffee?” April gestured toward the cabinets in their open plan kitchen. Not far away, April’s daughter, Ally sat at the table, swinging her legs and looking suspiciously at a pair of baby potatoes, all that remained on an otherwise empty plate.

“I’m alright, thanks.” Bambi grazed her sister’s mind with the barest of touches. She had to be gentle when reading her siblings thoughts, they had been used to her growing up, and any mind reading was quickly noticed unless Bambi took great care. April was easy enough though. It was her brothers who were the hardest to read, the middle one, Rousseau most of all, since he was a borrower. He could even read Bambi’s mind in reply if she wasn’t paying attention.

There wasn’t much of interest on the surface of April’s mind. Most of her thoughts went to the state of her house and how messy she thought it was. It wasn’t that bad at all though, not in Bambi’s opinion. Sure Bambi’s own apartment was much tidier but she was hardly ever home and April had a kid.

There was one thought though that Bambi hadn’t been expecting. She had enough self-control not to blurt out her surprise at it though. April would not approve of her mind being read.

Seeing her niece at the table, Bambi remarked to April, “I’m sorry. I didn’t realise you were having dinner. It’s so early.”

“Well, Pan and I have finished eating. Ally’s just finishing off her potatoes, aren’t you Ally?”

“I hate potatoes,” Ally grumbled from the table then with a smile, “Hi Aunt Bambi!”

“Hi Ally.”

A peek into the girl’s mind and Bambi could see her trying to think of ways to hide her potatoes. The girl was half-hoping the family dog would come back in and sit under the table. Bambi could also feel something else, the touch of someone trying to read her own mind, like a child trying to dent a mountain by throwing pebbles at it. Despite being a mindwalker herself, Ally hadn’t yet grasped the skill to detect when someone was reading her own mind and while she was relatively skilled and controlled she had only a smidgen of the power Bambi had had at the same age. Bambi did not mind her reading attempts so much, it was good for the child to practice as it would improve her control even further.

“Eat your potatoes,” April told her. Then to Bambi she said, “It is nearly half five. Mum always had dinner on the table at five too you know.”

It was true, they had always eaten early as kids. These days Bambi often didn’t eat dinner until after eight, that was if she made time to eat dinner at all. It was an easy opening into the thing that Bambi had read in her sister’s mind though.

“True, although I suppose these days you’re probably heading to bed a little earlier too.” She gave April a knowing look. From her mind reading she knew April had mentioned her pregnancy to their eldest brother, Buck, at least, and she hoped April would just assume she’d heard it from him or more likely Rousseau.

April narrowed her eyes slightly.

“Rousseau told me,” Bambi lied, figuring Rousseau was far more likely to cover for her than Buck was. Buck had a thing about honesty, probably somewhat related to the fact that lie detection was his power. Rousseau on the other hand, despite being a cop, liked to make up his own rules. Plus, Rousseau was the one who had told her about the other news, the one her original congratulations related to.

“So, did the marriage proposal come before the baby or the other way around?” Bambi teased.

“Babies,” corrected another voice, one belonging to April’s partner, Panteleimon, as he entered the room carrying a dust mask. Pan was fair-haired, of slimmish build and about a

Bambi turned to back April. “Twins?”

April nodded.

Pan swept in behind April and gave her a quick hug.

“Congratulations,” Bambi said to the both of them, “On the impending marriage and the pregnancy.”

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“Thank you,” Pan acknowledged with a gracious smile before turning to April. “Babe, have you seen the tape measure?”

April considered it a moment and then replied, “Oh, it’s in the bathroom.”

“Thank you.” And with that Pan was off and out of the room again.

The family dog entered the room then. Behind her, Bambi could hear Ally’s thoughts, her attempts at trying to mindwalk the dog to get it to come closer. It would never work, even Bambi couldn’t mindwalk an animal. That it seemed, was a separate power. It was however, very naughty.

‘Uh uh ah,’ Bambi thought to Ally.

Ally immediately thought back, ‘No fair. You’re not supposed to read my mind.’

‘And you’re not supposed to try mindwalk the dog.’

‘Do you want my potatoes?’

While Bambi carried on a friendly conversation with her niece in her head she simultaneously continued one with April out loud.

At Bambi’s glance after Pan, April had explained, “He’s turning the guest room into the babies room, making jungle themed bunk beds even, for once they get bigger of course.”

“Pan does carpentry?” Bambi asked, surprised. Pan was a sports commentator by profession and while she knew he was big into the outdoors, she hadn’t seen him do much with his hands beyond chopping firewood.

“I’m learning,” Pan replied as he swept through the room again, catching a glass April accidentally knocked off the bench as he passed, his movement no more than a blur. Pan was like Murphy in some ways. He could manipulate time. Unlike Murphy he couldn’t go backwards. But he could freeze a moment and pick a falling glass out of the air long before it ever hit the ground.

April shot him a thankful smile before turning back to her sister. “So, what about you and Murphy?” she asked. “When are you two going to get married?”

Bambi laughed. “I think that ship has long since sailed. The kids are even all grown up now.”

April shrugged. “Pan and I have been together over a decade now and we’re only just getting hitched. I don’t think there’s such a thing as too late. And it didn’t have anything to do with the babies, not really, we just got talking about it one day and decided why not. It’s a good excuse for a big party and we have more money now than we did when we first met.”

“I get to be the bridesmaid,” Ally said out loud. She had by now chopped her potatoes into the smallest of pieces and was eating them slowly one by one with a pained expression on her face.

“Maybe you should let her off the potatoes,” Bambi whispered to April.

April studied her daughter for a moment with a fond expression. Then with a sigh she said, “Alright, Ally, you can clear your plate. Bring it up here. I’ll eat the last of the potatoes.”

“Yay!” Ally leapt up from the table with unbridled enthusiasm.

“You know,” said April turning back to Bambi with a sly look. “When I told mum I’m getting married she made a comment about how it was the youngest daughter getting married first.”

“Buck’s married,” Bambi objected with a frown.

“Yeah but I think she meant out of us girls. She wants to see one of us in a big fancy dress and all dolled up.”

Bambi shook her head. “Well, at least she’s got you. I don’t plan on getting married and Dakota would need to get a boyfriend, or girlfriend, first before that ever happened, and she’s far too in love with her books for that.”

“You talked to her lately?” April asked.

“No, I spoke to Rou the other day though.”

“Oh? How’s he doing?”

Bambi shrugged. “Working the beat in Nin. Not much else to say.”

“What about the others?”

They chatted politely about their siblings for awhile, sharing what they knew of each other’s lives. Ally went and got a book and pretended to read it on the couch but Bambi could tell she was eavesdropping. Eventually they got onto the main topic Bambi had visited her sister to discuss; the Milton house.

“You know Dakota asked about that house recently too,” April said. “Apparently the Librarians are excavating it.”

“I didn’t think she worked in acquisitions?” Bambi frowned.

“She doesn’t. I think she just heard about it and thought she could be helpful given she has a sister in the architecture business. Why are you interested in it?”

“Have a client interested in buying it,” Bambi lied.

“Oh, well, I don’t really know much. I mean, it is pretty famous and unique piece of architecture. I might have some historical files on it on the computer if you want to have a look?”

“Sure.” Bambi decided that it was probably safer to have this conversation out of Ally’s earshot anyway. Of course she might try read her mother’s mind later but Bambi didn’t think Ally was skilled enough to evade her mother’s attention if she tried such a thing. April was too familiar with what mindreading felt like. That didn’t stop Ally from occasionally pushing boundaries of course.

Bambi left her handbag on the kitchen counter as she followed April to the office, thinking little of it of the bag’s contents.

----------------------------------------

“What do you know of Tricia Milton?” Bambi asked as they skimmed old articles.

“Ah, she’s an artist who likes to be shrouded in mystery. She’s had several husbands, all of whom she outlived.”

“You think she was a black widow?” Bambi asked.

“Oh, who knows. She was on an entirely different continent when one of them died. That said, she was a teleporter. Jumping continents is really something but not impossible.”

“Wait a minute, she was a teleporter? Are you sure?” Bambi pressed. “I’d heard she was a polyglot.”

April paused in her searching. “Well, I don’t know. I guess I’m not sure where I heard that. I don’t think she was very open about her powers. Is this something that’s relevant for your client?”

Bambi shook her head. “Just idle curiosity.” Murphy hadn’t said why he’d needed information on the woman, in fact it seemed like he already knew a lot more about Tricia Milton than he’d been letting on. Bambi hadn’t dived into his thoughts too much though, she’d simply followed his instructions to ‘ask her sister’ about the woman and the house.

April smiled. “Well, the woman does attract a lot of that.”

Bambi considered the possibilities of the woman’s powers. Even Murphy hadn’t seemed completely sure, and given the nature of the pretty knife that was now tucked neatly at the bottom of Bambi’s handbag, the one she’d slipped out of Stella’s apartment without notice, it was possible that Tricia Milton’s known powers had simply been nothing more than a very good infusement. How long did the powers of the dead last anyway? She’d felt a lot of power in that knife when she’d touched it. There were more than a few lives in there, that was for sure, but she’d been reluctant to probe too far. The power of it had scared her. She should really get rid of it, bury it somewhere. The danger of anyone killing someone like Murphy with it was just too great and yet, she felt far safer with it nearby.

She talked with April a little longer and even managed to score a variety of house plans, although she suspected Murphy had seen these already. Eventually she had to leave, so as not to miss an appointment with a real client, one who needed a negotiator to help figure out how he and his soon-to-be-ex wife were going to split their property and their dog. It was days like that that made Bambi wonder why anyone bothered to get married in the first place. It was far less complicated to just keep everything separate. Still, she wished her sister the best.

Ally was gone from the living room when Bambi collected her bag and shoes, probably playing in the forest out the back suggested April. April made a move to call her to come say good bye but Bambi brushed her off, knowing her meeting could not wait much longer. She promised she’d visit again soon, waved a brief good bye to Pan, and then was out the door.

She didn’t check her handbag properly until several other meetings later. In fact, she was so tired that it wasn’t until the next morning that she realised that the knife had been taken and by that point she had no idea when she had lost it.