Secrets and Lies

"So who's your team?" I asked as I nodded towards the television.

Phoebe was watching a football match on my TV, although I was fairly certain it was a recording. I'd seen some scores and other numbers on the screen before the action began.

"Spurs," the redhead responded. "Although maybe I should start following the Bluebirds now too, since moving to Wales."

A moment later she smiled at the blank look on my face, "My team's Tottenham Hotspurs. And Cardiff City FC is known as the Bluebirds. Except they ain't been in the Premier League since twenty-nineteen."

"Anyways this is research," she added as she raised her beer in the general direction of the TV. "It's Southampton's latest match, from a few days back."

By that point I had no idea if she was serious, or if she was just trying to mess around with me. Either way she seemed content to watch football and drink her ale, so I just nodded slowly and left her to it. As for me, first evening on a new case I'd typically be reading whatever files or reports I could get my hands on. With that in mind, I got my phone out to see if there was any news yet from Terry. Instead I found a short vague email from someone else at LIES.

The message read, "Hello Trillium, welcome aboard! FYI I've forwarded you some documentation to help get you started in the more esoteric parts of your new job. Cheers!"

I didn't recognize the sender, which was rather cryptically identified as 'cat' at LIES. And there weren't any files attached, nor had I received any other messages with attachments. I figured maybe the person simply forgot to include the documents, so I'd just started tapping out a reply when a second message arrived from that same address.

"No I didn't forget the attachment," it read. "Check your phone, the file's in there somewhere."

That left me frowning. I had a look through my apps though, and soon enough I discovered a new title in my ebook reader. Improbable as it seemed, 'How To Use Magic' was apparently exactly what it said on the cover.

It clearly hadn't been written by a professional author, in fact it read more like a young teen's stream of consciousness dictation, and it seemed to be completely unedited. Style and technical merits aside the book contained over a dozen spells, although scrolling through them I didn't see anything about manipulating or erasing memories like Phoebe did to Jenny Carter and myself in Whitby.

On the other hand the text had a detailed step-by-step guide on how to learn and use the spells that were included. It even outlined something of a lesson plan, describing where to begin, how to train and build magical strength, and what sort of results to expect.

The other thing I noted in the document was a very firm warning not to try and share it with anyone. It claimed the file couldn't be copied or transferred, and it was very clear about not letting anyone else see it. While it didn't actually say what would happen if I violated that rule, I could guess it wouldn't be pleasant.

I ended up bidding Feebs a good evening, then after providing her with a pillow and some blankets I retired to my bedroom. I got myself ready for bed, where I proceeded to stay up half the night reading.

Normally I wouldn't have been up that late, especially not when I was expecting to travel in the morning. After the first hour with that book though I was both amazed and ecstatic when I successfully used magic for the very first time. It was just a safe simple light spell, but it was impossible and arcane and it was mine. From that point I was hooked, and split my time between more reading and practising the light spell until I eventually drifted off.

The late night meant I didn't wake Thursday morning until half past eight, two hours after my usual weekday morning alarm. I was worried at first that Phoebe would be waiting impatiently for me to get moving, but when I emerged from my bedroom I found her sound asleep on the sofa. She looked adorable, snoring softly as she lay curled up in the blankets.

I did my best to keep the noise down so as not to wake her while I went about my usual morning routine. I had a quick shower then got dressed, all without the busty redhead even stirring. And despite my better judgement I dressed casual again, rather than going with something more business-like. Whether train or car, I preferred comfy clothes when travelling.

My new partner finally started moving after I put on the coffee machine. And when I looked at her I almost had to bite my tongue to keep from saying anything inappropriate. She was sitting up half-asleep wearing nothing but a pale green nightshirt, with her bright red locks all messy and eyes half open. And she looked so cute I almost wanted to give her some friendly pets and tousle her hair.

"Well hello sleepyhead," I commented with a grin. "I take it you're not much of a morning person?"

Without waiting for a reply I added, "Coffee will be ready in another minute or two if you're interested. Then I suppose we should think about heading out."

She pouted and mumbled something incoherent, before finally pushing her blankets aside and getting to her feet. I watched as she padded barefoot past me and into the washroom, and couldn't help noting she had very nice legs.

The coffee was ready by the time she was done, so I fixed us up a couple mugs. We'd only just had our first few sips though when both our phones buzzed with incoming messages.

"I suppose that means we won't be leaving for Southampton first thing after all," I commented after checking the text.

It was from Dr. Bishop, she wanted everyone to join her in a conference call at half past ten. We probably could have done it on the road, but I didn't want to be halfway to Hampshire only to be told there was something else we needed to take care of in London. Plus if I was driving I wouldn't be able to take notes, or refer to the ones I'd made yesterday.

Phoebe had another deep sip of her coffee while she stared at her phone before nodding, "Good. Means we don't have to rush. And there's time for breakfast too."

I couldn't argue with that. Instead I asked, "By the way do we have a coworker at LIES named Cat? Or Catherine maybe? I got an email last night from someone who uses 'cat' as their email account."

The redhead rolled her eyes, "It's not 'Cat', it's C-A-T. That's the boss's initials. What'd Miss Talbot have to say?"

"Ah," I replied as my eyebrows shot up. "She didn't actually sign her name, or even identify herself really. She mostly just wanted to welcome me to the team. And she sent me an ebook about how to learn magic."

"She what?" Phoebe asked as her eyebrows shot up, which told me our boss didn't normally do that sort of thing. Although considering the operation was barely two months old there probably hadn't been enough time for anything to be considered normal or typical yet.

"Check it out!" I grinned as I cast the light spell in the space between where we were sitting on the sofa.

When I cast it the first time last night I could barely manage a marble-sized dot of light, but after only a few hours of practise it was up to the size of my fist. And while I knew it was probably nothing compared to the sort of magic my partner could wield I was still quite proud and more than a little excited about it.

Phoebe had another long sip of her coffee as she stared at the glowing orb floating in the air next to her. Then she slowly reached out and poked it. The spell burst like a soap bubble, with a silent 'pop' and a few little sparkles that vanished as they fell.

"Unbelievable," the redhead mumbled as she slowly shook her head. "A few months ago the Brotherhood would have done you in for showing off that kind of knowledge. Now our new boss is just handing it out."

Then she added, "Good job and all that, great start considering you only just began last night. But seriously, don't show any of that stuff off in public."

I wasn't sure how to react to those very mixed messages. She'd already told me what her previous employer did to members of the public who knew magic, and for all I knew she may have even played an active role in that herself. However she didn't actually admit she'd personally done that, and I didn't want to think of my new partner as a killer. So after a second or two I decided to accept the compliment and ignore the rest.

"Thanks Feebs," I responded. "I was pretty pleased with myself when I first did it last night. I'm sure it's nothing like the sort of magic you're capable of though."

She shrugged, "Gotta start somewhere."

"And I'm going to start with a shower I think," she added as she got to her feet. As she moved past me towards the washroom she added, "Save me some coffee please."

"Alright cutie," I responded with a smirk.

Sure enough her cheeks went beat-red and she almost tripped over her own feet before catching herself. Then she continued on towards the washroom, while muttering about something being unfair.

Phoebe spent longer in the shower than I would have expected, which meant I had plenty of time to enjoy a second cup of coffee. When she finally emerged she helped herself to a second cup before getting dressed, while I decided to heat up last night's leftovers for breakfast. We had just enough time to eat and deal with dishes before the call was set to begin. Then we both grabbed some water before sitting down on the sofa together.

Phoebe put her phone on speaker mode and made the call, while I opened up the notes app on mine. Soon enough we were connected, and after making sure everyone was present Dr. Bishop got things started.

"Owen, Martin, how did you two make out last night?"

Mr. Powell replied, "We got into Fordwich late yesterday afternoon, and booked ourselves into an inn not far from the ancient church. We had a look around there last night, and also visited the nearby pub that the three witnesses attended prior to the sighting."

"We haven't located them yet," Martin chimed in, "But it seemed like everyone in the pub was aware of the event. Nobody could say what became of the so-called angel though. We're going to take a closer look at the church today, and see if we can't find some tangible evidence. Or any traces of magic or the supernatural."

Owen concluded, "We're going to try and meet with one of the witnesses this evening. Hopefully we'll have more information for you this time tomorrow."

"Thank you," Grace responded. "Trillium, Phoebe, what about you two? I know you've already interviewed the survivor, how did that go?"

I nodded, "That's right. We met with Ms. Townsend yesterday afternoon, and spoke with both her and her wife..."

For the next minute or two I relayed the highlights of those conversations before concluding, "I have some notes on my phone I can forward you, but I'd like to clean them up a bit first. Phoebe and I are planning to head down to Southampton today. Hopefully we'll be able to meet with the ME, and maybe a few of the constables who attended the various crime scenes."

"Terry? Any word on getting us those police reports?" Phoebe chimed in. "We were hoping we'd have those this morning."

Our tech guy responded, "Not yet, sorry. I should have something for you by tomorrow morning though."

"Thank you Terry," Dr. Bishop stated. "And Trillium and Phoebe, thank you too."

She continued, "The reason I knew you'd already spoken with Ms. Townsend is she rang our office last night, to ask about seeing our 'specialist physician'. I'll be heading in to London myself as soon as we've concluded this call, to give her an examination and collect some samples for analysis."

"Seriously? I'd no idea our staff doctor did house calls," Phoebe joked.

Dr. Bishop responded in a serious tone, "Only when the situation is important enough to warrant it, Miss Campbell."

"Trillium I'd appreciate if you could forward me your notes as soon as we're off the call," Grace added. "And I'll keep you updated with whatever I learn from my meeting with the patient."

Finally she addressed the two teens, "Alys, Emma, do either of you have anything to report?"

"No Dr. Grace," Alys replied. "We've been keeping an eye out like usual, but nothing more from either Fordwich or the New Forest."

Emma pointed out, "The next full moon isn't for another sixteen days. So if our entity sticks to the pattern we shouldn't see any more activity there until some time on Saturday the fourteenth of December."

Dr. Bishop thanked the two teens, then asked if anyone had something else to contribute. No-one did, so she bid us all a good day then brought the meeting to a close.

As soon as the call was over I fetched my laptop and set it up on the coffee table. And while it was booting up I glanced at my assistant and commented, "There's something I'd been wondering, but I'm pretty sure I got my answer during the conference call."

"Oh yeah? What's that?" she asked.

I forced myself to keep a straight face as I explained, "You only act like a brat when our other coworkers are present. When it's just you and I though, you're a hundred percent bottom."

Sure enough her eyes bulged and her cheeks were instantly bright red. She even cringed a little, like she was trying to make herself even smaller, while she sputtered in a futile attempt to come up with any sort of rebuttal.

"Case in point," I grinned as I focused on my laptop again. "I'll take that as the verbal equivalent of a key-smash."

Phoebe made another futile attempt to reply, before she finally slumped back against the sofa cushions and pouted at me.

I was busy though, so my subby assistant's antics went unappreciated. Instead I focused on transcribing my notes from my phone to my laptop, cleaning them up and elaborating on them as I went. That only took about ten minutes, then after double-checking that I'd covered everything I sent them to Dr. Bishop. I copied everyone else as well, so all my new colleagues had the latest information on our case.

With that done I shut down the laptop then suggested, "If you're through sulking we should probably pack up and get moving? I know it's not a huge drive to Southampton, but no point putting it off any further."

The young redhead continued blushing and pouting as she stuffed her belongings back into her overnight bag. Meanwhile I gathered up enough clothes and things for a few days out of town. Along with my laptop, charger, and so forth it all went into my own backpack. Then we both grabbed some cans of cola from the fridge, before finally heading out to where we'd left her Grandland.

We were on the road by noon, with a roughly two-hour drive ahead of us. As we made our way south-west towards Hampshire I glanced to my left and asked, "Do you mind if I ask you a personal question? I'm not trying to tease this time, I'm being serious."

Phoebe glanced at me with a frown, then she shrugged. "You can ask. Can't promise I'll answer though."

"Fair enough," I nodded. "What I'm wondering is, have you always been such a sub? Or did that arise after encountering that monster in North Yorkshire?"

"Or is it something our boss did to you, as part of your reprimand?" I added with an uncomfortable grimace.

Finally I clarified, "I'm asking because if this is something that was done to you then going forward I'm going to be a lot more careful about not taking advantage. And for that matter, I'm sorry if I've already made you uncomfortable. If I ever say or do anything that upsets you or bothers you please say so. Or if you want me to stop please tell me, you don't need to give me a reason."

My partner's cheeks warmed up again and it almost looked like she wanted to squirm a bit. Instead she ended up fidgeting with her phone for a few seconds before replying.

"It's nothing to do with Miss Talbot," she mumbled. "She could certainly do that sort of thing if she'd half a mind to, but this wasn't her. As for that bloody monster... It might have exacerbated things that were already there, but that's all."

Then she pouted, "Things were easier back when we were a Brotherhood. No strong sexy attractive young women around to get me all hot under the collar."

I bit back a very obvious tease at that comment, even though she left the door wide open. She obviously wasn't referring to /that/ kind of collar though, and I didn't want to be the one who put the idea in her head. Not yet anyways.

For now I just responded, "Thank you for explaining the situation. I'm glad it's not something that was done to you."

Phoebe's cheeks continued to burn as she nodded quietly.