Chapter 9
The Interrogation
Sounds and light danced off the walls, a muted reflection in Meredith’s eyes. She was seated on a chair, having finally found the legs to get to one. The image was pasted in her mind, burning deep into its recesses. Shock took over her senses, and Meredith couldn’t even register that which was taking place around her. There were shouts and some movement, but the full reality of cold death had never quite so settled in her before as it did now.
She had seen fallen people in the Metropolis. Had witnessed Silva having his soul torn out for no reason at all. Yet none of it compared to Gaius’s lifeless body, the object a very pure and intentional act that left the man unable to speak a thing.
“Mera! Mera, snap out of it!” Vivian’s hand struck across her face, but she found it hard to react to that. Her breathing came out in a shallow rattle, and her mind felt like it was breaking into tiny pieces.
What had Gaius wanted to say? Who had done this? Why had they done this? How had they? It was questions she knew could be answered in due time, but right now they were swirling all around, putting a deadlock on other thoughts. Vivian shook her again, speaking words, though not discernable ones.
“Give her a break, Viv. She just saw a guy who was murdered,” someone said, and from the mop in her periphery, Meredith believed it to be Emil. “It’s…it’s not pretty in there.”
“It’s still unlike her to shut down. Think we should get Eddie? He can usually get a response.”
“I’m fine,” Meredith croaked out. Her hand came up to remove Vivian’s from her shoulder, and her vision started to clear, even if it remained red-soaked. Emil was indeed there, the edge of his mop being plunged into dirty water, dyed crimson. “Just didn’t expect it.”
“You looked like you were going to pass out,” Vivian said, folding her arms.
“I think the smell alone would have done that. That body had to have been there at least a couple hours,” Emil said. He was shuddering, Meredith noticed. As the two that had gotten a look at the body, it was affecting enough, allowing her to share in some kinship with the boy. Vivian gave him a rather narrowed glare. “I was down here to clean last night. They keep me working all hours, but he was definitely alive when I was here around midnight.”
“So, they came in after then…” Vivian mused. Meredith breathed through her nostrils, allowing a steady flow of calm to circulate through her body again. “It’s a definite mystery. Right before he was going to give info, too…”
“You know the weird part?” Emil said. Meredith looked to him, waiting for the information. “No murder weapon.”
“Who’d be dumb enough to leave a weapon behind in a place like this? Get a grip, Emil!”
“But that’s the thing! I don’t even know if a weapon was used, besides the giant gash I saw on his chest.”
“It’s a tricky conundrum,” Meredith said. She leaned forward on her chair, linking her fingers together. From her view, just next to the warden’s desk, she could see inside the now brightly lit cell. Caleb was still laughing, but everyone let him continue on with little consequence. “Mind relaying to Eddie? We’re gonna be stuck here a while.”
“Mm, sure. My job’s done for now. I think he’s running exercises with Tempest Squad…heard a lot of people complaining about food earlier today…” With a new goal in mind, Emil wheeled his cart out of the prison and levitated it up the stairs, apologizing to someone on the way up. That someone was swiftly revealed as a group of someones that consisted of Marcus and his remaining two commanders. Masters left the room to approach them, the grave expressions making the room feel smaller as they met in front of the girls.
“Did you move the body?” Marcus asked. Masters motioned for him to follow inside the room, and Cynthia moved with them while Amelia lingered behind, sniffing at the pungent air.
“I took some notes and observations before I had them clean the area…for all the good it did. The body’s not a pretty sight,” Masters explained. His voice was just as lost when they entered the room to look at what had been discovered. Amelia addressed her charges.
“You two all right?” she asked. They nodded, Meredith having recovered from the shock. The commander looked them over, discerning for herself if they were lying, and breathing out slowly when she decided they hadn’t. “What a thing…”
“How long do we have to stay here, commander?” Vivian asked.
“I’m sure whoever we appoint to run the investigation will have some questions, since you were with Roy when he discovered the body. Jay, Bruce and Trent will be questioned, too.” It was about as good an answer as Meredith could have expected. The commander folded her arms, cheek twitching. She was dangerously close to bubbling over; Meredith could tell. “Crap. Why now of all times? We’re just starting to find our feet. The media crapstorm will blot out the sun if they get ahold of this.”
“I’m more worried about what it will do to the other Guardians,” Masters said, emerging from the room. Craning her neck again, Meredith could see both Marcus and Cynthia standing where the body was, the latter observing with utmost chill. “This is like a message that no one’s safe.”
“Then we’d best stem the tide of panic, as we’ve always done. I’ll take point on it.”
“You’ve always been best at driving fear of events out of our Guardians,” Masters said with a smile. Meredith and Vivian looked to one another, knowing the reason why: Amelia was enough to be scared of, herself. “What do you say, chief commander?”
Marcus stepped back out from the cellblock, wiping a trickle of dust from his sleeves. Cynthia’s lips were pursed as she followed him out, staring back towards the now inert Caleb. He gave no indication to recognizing her, but the semi-frown that played the corner of her mouth showed she knew him. Meredith watched, unsure what to gather from that, the expression virtually unreadable. It made her an enigma, and with the body a room away, that scared her immensely.
She didn’t say a thing to communicate that, in any case, and Marcus cleared his throat to begin speaking.
“I think it’s a good idea. We can’t keep this quiet, but Amelia should get our people back into shape. Roy, I want you running point on the investigation.” Marcus stroked his chin, his lips moving as he ran his tongue over his teeth. “Keep it discreet, limited and fast.”
“I’ll get results as fast as I can. Any reason you want me on this specifically, sir?”
“You’re a good neutral face, Roy,” Marcus insisted, slapping his commander on the back. “In case anything goes awry, you’ll handle it. Why don’t you start with interrogating the warden and his five workers present here? Cynthia, I think we need to make certain your own efforts aren’t wasted. Where’s Quake Squad on that Metropolis connection…?”
The two commanders departed, with Amelia after them, following an insistent look to Masters. Meredith watched them go, still wondering about Cynthia’s intentions. Masters didn’t let her stew for long.
“So, Miss Childs, Miss Lacroix, do you have a problem with an interview here and now? Yourselves, as well?” Jay, Bruce and Trent, who were seated and slumped against a wall, perked up at his call. They shook their heads, and Masters grunted. “Good. Come with me to the breakroom. It’ll do you little good to be near such a gruesome sight. Warden, if you’ll lock it up for the time being, until we can get the body removed.”
In the commander’s striking presence, everyone did as ordered, coming to a stand. The warden was fidgeting more than usual, the keys vibrating in his hand while he shut the door and locked it before depositing the keys inside a drawer on his desk. Masters noted the process, writing something down on a piece of paper before motioning for the girls to follow the line to the breakroom. Meredith flashed a smile and did so, filing behind Jay.
The prisoners were quiet, not at all their usual heckling selves. The stench and feel of death had many recoil, muttering into the darkness. They hadn’t seen or been told anything, but they knew something was wrong. It was only a matter of time before everyone else did, too. Masters made sure to not let it concern them when he had them all upon chairs in the breakroom, slamming the door shut. The quietude that followed unsettled the Guardians there.
“Run me through the last twenty-four hours.”
“Things were normal, sir,” Vivian said. Her abrasiveness was noted, with folded arms and a foot that tapped upon the stone floor. “We ran our duties until the end of our shift before…”
“Before Commander Frigas paid us a visit,” Meredith said without hesitation. Masters didn’t act surprised by this notion. “She said she wanted to clear some things up between us. Chief Commander Marcus said the same. Then, these three arrived.”
“They were just running their last duties, sir. I believe you delivered food to him,” Jay confirmed, looking sideways at Meredith. She nodded. Masters’ face didn’t change, though his hand waved the conversation along, insisting they continue. “We took our shift after that. Janitors came in to clean around midnight, and there wasn’t a peep until this morning, when you arrived, sir.”
“Gaius asked to see a commander from you, yes, Miss Childs?”
“Correct.”
“Why?” It was a question to which she had no answer. Masters’ stare told her that she needed to think about it, at least for a few moments.
“Not sure…I know the door was open…Maybe he heard Commander Frigas?” It was the best thing she could come up with, her facial muscles tightening. “She was a member of the Order…”
“What?!” Bruce and Trent asked. Jay’s eyes became slits, but he didn’t showcase the same level of surprise as the others.
“Commander Frigas wouldn’t do something like that. Whether Gaius recognized her or not.” Remembering the frozen wastes of Lacardia and the lands past the Metropolis, Meredith wasn’t so sure, but she didn’t voice her disagreement. “That said, was there anything else unusual that you noticed about either of the prisoners?”
“No. At best just a reaction to her being out there, but I can’t confirm if they recognized her. Gaius was just very insistent.”
“Which would seem to help little,” Masters concluded. “We three commanders were in meetings all night after dinner regarding castle defenses and the squads. So, tell me more about the night shift, you three. Did the warden leave his post?”
“He returned to his quarters for a time. All was silent,” Jay said. Masters wrote this all done.
“Who was in charge of his desk?”
“I was.”
“Did you leave it at any time?” Masters’ tone grew harsh, and the gravity of this one question weighed against all others. Eyes were upon Jay and waiting for his answer. Not a twitch was present in his body or on his face. He answered with stoic monotone.
“Yes. I used the restroom. Bruce covered for me. That was when I told you about Gaius wishing to see the commanders.” The expressionless Masters broke his veneer with a grin. He’d expected the answer, and Jay passed, though he showed no emotion, relief or otherwise. “It was at best about twenty minutes.”
“Ten,” Bruce and Trent said together. Jay shrugged, while Bruce elaborated. “What? You thanked me when you got back. I’m good with times. That was about three.”
“If…if you say so…” Jay responded, brow furrowed.
“I can corroborate that. You visited us five minutes past.” Meredith watched the volley of times and alibis fly between the commander and the members of Tempest Squad, starting to feel quite a bit like she didn’t belong there, but was intrigued to see it discussed nonetheless. “So, to your knowledge, in that time, no one entered or exited the prison block.”
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“Sounds about right. We were as diligent as we could be…”
“Any magical signatures?”
“Nothing, sir,” Jay said. His head was bowed with concentration. Masters inclined his own head in the young man’s direction. His eyes questioned whatever was going through Jay’s mind, but the young lieutenant straightened with a smile. “Absolutely nothing.”
“Jarvis, if there’s something you saw…”
“I didn’t, sir. If I did, it was nothing but a late-night delusion. You know how things move in the shadows. You start jumping at your own.” His chuckles diffused the tension he’d caused, and after brief flashes of deliberation, Masters allowed the topic to move on. Meredith watched her brother’s friend and subordinate, but his eyes were elsewhere, barely listening to the continued questioning.
“Bruce, Trent, I’ll ask you to take inventory of all in the prison. Just because there’s no murder weapon does not mean we’ll not find one. I want a full scrub done. Childs, Lacroix, from your time spent on duty, do you believe any criminals in the halls would have seen who entered?”
“Unlikely,” Vivian spat. “That hall isn’t visible from those cells by design. Maybe they heard something, but…”
“Yes, a loud assassin is a useless one.” Masters grunted, completing his notes. “Well, that’s all the questions I have for now. You three are free to go, as are you two after that inventory. Take the day. I’ll contact you if I need more information…and, er, keep this quiet as much as you can.”
“Sir!” Their chairs scraped the stone with their standing, and Jay was the first to fly out of the room, the door nearly banging open. His glare could be felt even from behind, and every inch of his body and soul radiated with furtive fury. Easing behind him, Meredith wondered what was going on with the man, but he was faster than the two girls, vanishing up the stairs and departing the dungeon before them.
She watched him go, wrapped up in her own headspace as they passed the door behind which Gaius’s body was held. Meredith shuddered, and pushed herself to move on. Halfway up the stairs, Vivian addressed her in a whisper so harsh, it was a wonder she wasn’t screeching.
“A murder, right here in the Corps? Do you think it was her?”
“I don’t know, Viv.”
“Jay was acting really weird, too. And I’m sure more than a few people have grudges against the Order, but murder? How did it happen?”
“I don’t know, Viv.”
“Mera, we have to figure something out. Gaius told you for a reason. He must have! And why a commander? What did he-”
Meredith, fed up with the pounding in her head and the discordant noises her friend was adding, pushed Vivian against a wall. For a brief second, it reminded her of all their former vitriolic clashes, and she relented. “I don’t know, Viv. I don’t know anything, and we’re not assigned to help figure it out.”
“Since when has that stopped you?” Vivian brushed Meredith off, beginning to skip up the steps as fast as she could. At the top, she whirled around to face Meredith with a supportive smirk. “You’re always such an annoying busybody that butts her way into everything.”
Meredith sneered at Vivian, charging upwards to grab the girl’s arm and yank her into the hall beyond, ignoring the elevator moving at the opposite end. “One, I hate the insult. Two, of course I’m going to look into things. You try getting that out of your head.”
“So easy to read.”
“Shut up, Vivian. Let’s just find Emil and Eddie. They can help.” She let go and walked a few steps down the hallway, but stopped her movement at the same time as Vivian’s humor died. Raymond was at the end, running for them with a wild expression, highlighted by his glasses looking off. Meredith considered sidestepping him, but he was on her before she could finish the thought, throwing his arms around his sister.
“Mera, you’re okay? You’re fine, right? Amelia just told us what happened. Was that Jay I saw? Could’ve sworn he-”
“Ray, chill.” She extricated herself from her brother with the aid of an ever-amused Vivian. “Guess news travels fast…”
“People get curious when all of the commanders are gathered in the prison of all places. I’m just glad you weren’t there when it happened.” Ray stepped back, running his hands through his hair and making his glasses right. “Commander Chavez was vague and I knew you were working there.”
“It was nothing, Ray, for us at least. Just some questions.” To the side, Vivian looked unsure of what she was supposed to do, torn between walking away or waiting. She settled on watching the elevator to the vaults with agitated tapping. Neither of the siblings paid her much mind.
“Is Commander Masters anywhere close to an answer?”
“They found the body this morning. I’m sure it’ll take time.”
“Time during which the others will be freaking out,” Raymond admitted with a sigh. He straight-up removed his glasses now. Vivian looked displeased with the words Raymond was speaking. “Of course, they seem to freak out at every little thing these days…”
Meredith wanted to vehemently disagree, but even the slightest bit of examination confirmed what Raymond said. All she had to do was think about the reaction to Marcus’s orders those days ago. “Well, a murder inside Corps headquarters isn’t a laughing matter.”
“I’m aware, though the man had it coming. At some point he was going to say the wrong thing, or piss off the wrong person. Unfortunately, not every Guardian is as altruistic as we wish. Most aren’t.” Vivian flinched on hearing those words, and continued to face away. Her thoughts were most definitely on her father, but Raymond had little reason to care. It disturbed Meredith, and she folded her arms.
“I don’t think he said anything wrong, Ray. He had something important he wanted to say. Otherwise he wouldn’t have requested a meeting with the commanders.” The lack of response made Meredith frown. Had her brother not even considered it? Or was he making himself blind to it? Their conversation just two days ago resurfaced in her mind, and without thinking, she threw caution to the wind. “If anything, we have to question whether there’s a trai-”
“Not a word, Meredith.” Just as he had then, Raymond became prickly. At her first name used, Meredith’s frown became a scowl, yet she stood her ground. “I told you: we can’t go around believing the worst of our comrades. From lowly peon to high commander. We need to trust in them, so that they may trust in us. We cannot accuse.”
“Are you blind?” Vivian asked, unable to hold it in any longer. Raymond offered her no attention, but it didn’t stop the blonde from rambling on. “Don’t you see something’s going on here? The attack on Lacardia that conveniently happens while we’re there. One of the commanders is a member of the Order, and the day after she returns, one of their captive priests ends up murdered in his cell. This strains credulity at best.”
“Viv has a point, Ray. One thing is pure coincidence…but now?” Raymond roughly grabbed his sister, an insistence to stop talking. Her breath hitched, scared of the brother in front of her, and Vivian made a move to remove Raymond. He remained. So, Meredith looked up with eyes of fire. “Maybe we should just consider that there’s someone who doesn’t have the Corps’ best intentions in mind within our ranks…”
“NO!” His fingers squeezed into her side, a light bruising forming beneath her robes, but Meredith refused to break the gaze. Inside her brother was a clashing tempest of worry, fear, doubt. Negative emotions that might have sunk a lesser man, but Meredith was certain her brother could overcome it, and when he realized just what he was doing, he pulled back. “Maybe there’s a murderer, but I don’t want to believe for a second there is a traitor. Loyalty, Mera. Loyalty above all. It’s how we have stood these many years, and we won’t let it fall because of scum like Gaius. The commanders have their intentions, and I trust in Marcus to fulfill his promise of rebuilding the Corps as it should be, even if that takes time. His other commanders are just as loyal to his vision.”
“I wasn’t accusing…”
“Just don’t chase it further, Mera,” Raymond insisted. He finally let go, fiddling with his glasses. “Do your duty. In these confusing times, that’s what’s for the best. And stay safe.” He flashed a smile, intending it as the end, and then he turned around and ran the length of the hall.
Once again, Meredith watched him go, her heart reaching out to him. She could understand where he was coming from, but it hurt to watch him tear himself up inside. Vivian scoffed, yet reined in her comments. Neither needed Meredith’s magic to know that Raymond was eating away. He wanted so much to believe in the Corps’ principles, and still did believe in those tenets that Marcus upheld, but every passing day, and every passing threat, made it harder to believe in the people that comprised the Corps.
“Loyalty, huh…?” Meredith stared at her own shoes. Had Gaius been loyal to his own cause? Was that not the cause of his own demise? Or was it something else? How she wished she knew what he had wanted to speak about. “What are we even supposed to be loyal to?”
“The Corps, itself? Even if they’re a bunch of lily-livered pansies.” Vivian had a point, but Meredith couldn’t be sure. The blonde sighed, giving an opposing incline of her head to the ceiling. “It’s a tricky question.”
“Too tricky for me. Though who killed Gaius is trickier.”
“Should we convene with the boys to start an investigation, then?” The simultaneous grins communicated that they were on the same page. Leaving loyalty and questions behind, they raced each other out of the hallway, turning down corridors and stairways to the third floor where they caught their targets with Emily, Sal and Kenny, right outside the hangar. Vivian raised her hand in a wave, which Eddie returned. “Hey, is Eddie free?”
“We’re done with him for the day, if that’s what you’re asking,” Emily said. Meredith threw a salute to the temporary captain, but Vivian hooked both Eddie and Emil with ease.
“Great! We’ll be borrowing him if you don’t mind.”
“Lots to talk about,” Meredith elaborated, beginning to skip after the dashing Vivian, only to have Emily’s voice call her back. Kenny and Sal walked on.
“Meredith, how…how’s your brother doing? He’s seemed occupied of late.”
“Seems okay. A little on edge without any missions to go on, but…” Meredith instinctively reached up to where he’d grabbed her. The insistence with which he’d spoken. “Might be a little worried about the Corps, but I think he just wants to believe in its best interests.”
“As do we all. Can’t be easy, these days.” Emily, herself, slipped into musings, twirling a lock of her hair around her finger. “Mm, he’s just felt so distant, and I don’t know what’s in his head.”
“Just talk to him,” Meredith said, backing away before she could get further pulled into the conversation. Her voice raised as she got farther away, nearly drawing even with her friends. “Maybe ask him to dinner. Take his mind off things. My mom and dad would approve!”
“That’s-I don’t-! Meredith!”
The teen gave a raucous cry and hooked back in to her friends, the girls guiding the boys all the way up the stairs. They blew past the jittery Guardians in the corridors, running the gamut of topics Meredith didn’t want to hear, ignoring all of her surroundings. None made a sound until they were in a nice, sequestered corner of the library, where all was silent, and no one, including a beleaguered Conrad and Summer running about the library in assistance, could hear them.
“You didn’t have to pull so hard, Vivian.”
“Oh, stop being a baby, Emil.” He took offense to that, but remedied it by placing a more stoic expression on his lips. Meredith and Eddie laughed at how ridiculous he looked, while Vivian rolled her eyes. To break it up, Eddie leaned forward on his chair.
“So…Gaius got murdered? Any leads?”
“Why don’t we start with Commander Frigas?” the girls said, concealing their suggestion with a cough. Unsurprised, Eddie and Emil looked at one another before transferring that to the pair before them. Meredith regarded them curiously. “What?”
“Not discounting the option, but…Emil was telling me something curious.”
“Which is?” Vivian asked with impatience, losing her temper with Emil like always. The dirty-blond boy yawned, and cast secretive looks all about. Sure they weren’t being listened in on, he leaned forward with a conspiratorial whisper.
“So, last night, after I cleaned the cells, I had to get to work on the hallways, right?” he said. Vivian insisted he usher his own story along by gripping his arm and digging her nails in. “Well, around the time I hear Gaius was murdered, I saw someone very furtive heading towards the cells. Jay.”
“Yeah, he took a break to communicate to the commander…”
“Except…I saw him again a few minutes later, leaving the cells.” Meredith’s face screwed itself in concentration, trying to make sense of what Emil was telling her, but failing to. “I thought nothing at the time, because I figured he just forgot something, and his break wasn’t up, since he came down just a minute later again, anyway, but now that I think about it…”
“Jay was acting weird during the interrogation,” Meredith mused. The timeline confused her, but every subsequent thought made it a little less so. “You don’t think he could have…?”
“Lied? Maybe. If it was him, he might’ve been disposing of the murder weapon,” Vivian said, tapping her chin. Eddie had nothing to share, and continued taking in their theories with his concentrated senses. “It’s…Loathe as I am to trust Emil, it’s not a bad thought. Though it doesn’t rule out the commander. The coincidence is uncanny.”
“Is it, Lacroix?” The four teens jumped at Amelia’s voice, the woman having somehow snuck up on them in the dead quiet. Meredith grasped her chest, calming her sudden spiking heartbeat, and wondered just how they hadn’t noticed the shadow looming over them. Thankfully, she didn’t sit, indicating this wouldn’t be a long conversation, but it made them no less fearful. Her face was no-nonsense. “Somehow, I’m not surprised you four think yourselves detectives. Especially you, Childs. You seem to like meddling in issues that you ought not to.”
“Um…well, I kind of feel like it’s my fault, commander…” Meredith said, her voice small and timid. She hoped it would fool the commander into letting them off the hook, but all Amelia offered was a coy smile.
“Don’t let that concern you. Whoever chose to kill him, did not do so because of you, but because he was a threat to them in whatever way.” She leaned against a bookshelf and affixed them all with a hard stare. They didn’t dare look at one another, not willing to give their conspiracy away, but Amelia refused to relent before she spoke. “I’m not going to stop you.”
“Really?” Eddie asked, blinking to unsuccessfully mask his shock.
“Really. I doubt I’d be able to unless I tied you up, which would make me look bad.” Meredith and the others shuddered at the implication she was making. “However, what I can do is issue you a warning: be very careful.”
“Sir?” Amelia sighed, rubbing her temples over how long the morning felt. When she finished, she leaned herself into a crouch to be as close to her charges as possible, huddling them up.
“Something is amiss here inside Corps Castle, and this murder has brought that box wide-open,” she instructed them. The four hung on her every word. “There’s a lot of dissent, and confusion, but the one thing that is certain is who we can rely on: Marcus, and we of the Big Three. That is a core value that cannot be shaken without certainty or it will have devastating results.”
“What are you trying to tell us, commander?”
“That feel free to investigate to your heart’s content, but be wary at every turn. Your suspicion of Cynthia is well and good, but don’t make a move unless you have undeniable proof. Don’t make a move of anything until you’re certain. And when you are…when you think you have something, you come to me first. Not Roy. Not Marcus. Me. Do you four understand?”
They nodded, and only Meredith spoke. “Why are you letting us?”
“Because while I trust Roy, his mind is that of a PR executive. Also, I need to drill down to the truth, especially if it concerns a friend. But I’m still a commander. Loyalty comes first for me. For you, though…well, if an enemy to the Corps is within our ranks, I have the four best bloodhounds I can ask for right here. So, just, don’t screw it up.”
Not allowing another word in edgewise, the woman vanished like the wind, just as quietly as she’d arrived. In her wake was silence, and the four all shared the same mind on the issue. Meredith was the first to lean across the table between them. “So, now that our team’s on the job, how do we want to do this?”