The Men With Guns - Part Four

First | Previous

“I don’t either,” Sienna’s father said. “But I have a horrible feeling that this is far from over and we may yet find out. I hope I’m wrong.”

“I do as well,” the police officer said before turning back to Sienna. “Your friend has nearly finished her statement. Once you’ve finished tea you can both go.” He shook his head. “You know it was her cousin who came and sat with her not her mother?”

Sienna got the feeling he was fishing and decided she wasn’t going to tell him about Wendy’s family problems. Instead she finished her tea and stood up. “Let’s go and wait for Wendy then.”

The police officer nodded and led them out to the front desk. “Goodbye, Miss Munroe,” he said. “Be careful out there.”

“Oh, I don’t think I’m these psycho’s type.” Sienna's mouth went dry again.

“Well you don’t seem to be,” he said. There was a subtle emphasis on the seem that made Sienna stare at him. Did he suspect she had powers? How could he?

“What?” she said but he was already gone.

A few minutes later Wendy and her cousin, a tall black man in his early twenties, joined them near the front desk. He had a rather harried expression on his face. As they walked towards the car park he paused.

“I hate to ask this but after what happened with Keith earlier Mum and I are trying to persuade Helen not to take him back. We both think that it would be better if Wendy was out of the way. Could you…” he trailed off.

“Of course Wendy can stay with us for the night,” Sienna’s father said. “I imagine both girls would be happier with comforting company after earlier anyway.”

Wendy’s cousin nodded. “Honestly I think what Wendy described seeing earlier was worse than yesterday even if only one person was killed.”

“It was,” Wendy said. “It was awful. Those poor poor people.” She looked close to tears as she hugged herself. “Who were those men? Why did they do that?”

“I wish I knew,” Sienna’s father said. “But we aren’t going figure it out standing in the street. Let’s get home before anything else happens.”

“How did they know?” Sienna and Wendy were sitting in Sienna’s room later that evening. Wendy looked around from where she was watching music videos on Youtube as if she could use them to wash the memory of what happened out of her mind.

“I don’t want to think about it let alone talk about it,” she said. “Not yet.”

“I understand,” Sienna said softly. “I don’t either. But it’s kind of important. If they knew about him will they find out about me.”

“I–” Wendy stopped and looked at her again. “I still don’t want to talk about it but I think you’re right we have to don’t we? The trouble is I’m not sure it will help because I have no idea.” She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully at the laptop.

“Except we need to think about security. I don’t know how they found out but I can hazard some guesses about things we should avoid.”

“Like what?” Sienna asked.

“Well simplest of all we need to tell as few people as possible. The more people in a secret the more chance it will leak. After that I’d say no talking on the phone or internet unless it’s thoroughly encrypted. No internet searches for information unless the same caution is taken.” Wendy narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “Searching for information might be how they found them except I imagine a lot of people were simply because of what they’d witnessed so it couldn’t just be that.”

“She,” Sienna said. "They said 'she was never wrong'. Someone told them."

“Yes,” Wendy said. “But how did this person know. I feel like I’m missing something.”

“After I gave my statement the police officer told me that the range rover disappeared into thin air. Not just evaded but literally vanished.”

Wendy narrowed her eyes. “What… that would suggest…” she trailed off.

“What is it?”

“That would suggest that they have some sort of powers of their own,” she said. “Which could mean this 'she' has some sort of detection powers.”

“In which case I’m screwed,” Sienna said.

“Not necessarily,” Wendy said. “Not if they are looking for people in the state that man was in. They wouldn’t look twice at you unless you did–” She broke off at the sound of someone coming up the stairs.

A moment later there was a rap on the door and Sienna’s mother popped her head in. “Would you two like some strawberry cheesecake? I made it earlier and thought it might cheer you up…” she hesitated. “This is well beyond the power of dessert to fix, isn't it?”

Truth be told Sienna didn’t feel very hungry because her stomach was still churning but she didn’t want to upset her mother either. She was obviously trying but had no idea how to help. Sienna didn’t blame her. She didn’t think anyone would. So she smiled at her and nodded.

“Cheesecake sounds lovely, mum.”

“Oh good!” Her mother smiled at her and shut the door.

“She’s doing her best,” Sienna said when she saw Wendy’s look.

“I know,” Wendy said. “It can’t be easy on her.” she looked thoughtful for a moment. “I don’t think we should talk about what we were discussing any more, not here anyway,” she said after a long moment. “We should wait until we get to the den. Less chance of being overheard.”

“I can see that,” Sienna said. “But there is one more things that I need to tell you after mum brings the cheesecake. If I’m right it’s important.”

“Okay,” Wendy gave her a curious look.

A few minutes later Sienna’s mother returned with two plates of cheesecake and then left them on there own again. Wendy picked hers up and began playing with it with her spoon.

“So what did you want to tell me.”

Sienna took a breath and then told her about her sense that the police officer had known about her and what he had said to make her think that.

Wendy frowned deeply and began absently eating her cheesecake. “Yes,” she said after a long pause in which half the dessert disappeared. “That does sound like he knows – or at least suspects – something. I wonder ho… oh shit!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Were there any CCTV cameras near where it happened?”

Sienna swallowed anxiously as she saw where Wendy’s train of thought was going. “I didn’t notice. I mean those things are everywhere. You think we were seen?”

“I think it’s possible but I’d have expected more reaction than this if you had.” Wendy frowned. “But it might be how the killers know where to look.” She frowned. “I’ll get Martin to look into it – he knows where all the cameras are that’s how we made sure no one could find our den that way."

“You trust him a lot, don’t you?” Sienna asked.

Wendy nodded. “Of course I do. I know he’s Keith’s son but he’s a much better person than his father. He may only be my step-brother but I love him like a real one.”

“He has done a good a job of avoiding being like his father,” Sienna agreed. “So if we’re not going to talk about this what shall we do to take our minds off it?”

Wendy looked back at the laptop. “I guess you don’t want to watch more music videos?” she asked.

“Not really,” Sienna said. “I'm not in a music mood.”

“What about a movie then? Something with a lot of comedy and no violence? A romcom maybe?” She didn't sound very enthusiastic about that last bit.

“Meh,” Sienna said. “I can understand the lack of violence but I detest romcoms.”

“Yes, me too,” Wendy admitted after a moment. “I so much want to shake the main characters and yell 'talk to each other' in most cases.”

“Ooh I know” Sienna ran to her dvd shelf and pulled her My Neighbour Totoro DVD off it. “What about this? No romance, no violence, precious little conflict but somehow it still works as a great movie.”

Wendy took it off her and read the back. “Sure,” she said. “That looks cute. Cute is good right now.”

“Okay, just let me fire up my DVD player,” Sienna said.

They spent the rest of the evening sitting on Sienna’s bed, eating cheesecake, drinking pop and watching dvds until it was time to go to bed.

If you are enjoying the story so far please consider supporting me in one of the following ways.

• Fav or Boost (or both)
• Leave a comment or ping me on Mastodon with feedback ( @@shutsumon@tootplanet.space )
• Buy me a coffee on Ko-Fi.