Roses Manor, Weston Chapter 4
When Gabriella got to work the next morning, apparently things were still not rosy with James and Bradley. She came inside to see James’s office door open and, as she got closer, she could hear him in there.
“I don’t know, maybe don’t show up five minutes late if you’re going to be such a dick about the rules.”
“Jesus Christ, I said I’m sorry,” Bradley snapped. “There’s construction at my place, so I had to park down the street. It’s temporary, I’ll leave earlier tomorrow. And you show up late and you live a block away.”
Nope, Gabriella was not dealing with this today. So she clocked in, then went straight downstairs to do her workout. She was oddly excited about this boring little game on her schedule for the day and as she ran, she had to mentally scan herself to see if this was a supernatural influence of some kind or if she was, in fact, just this boring.
No, she appeared to be exactly this boring.
Today, nearly all of her tasks were devoted to the Sixteen Roses case. When Madelyn arrived, the staff meeting was just about to begin so there was no time to talk. Like yesterday’s meeting, the slides were just as informative as required, with no flow and no flourishes. Bradley watched James stonily as he sat at his station and pet Fang. James ignored him completely and presented the cases in a way that would otherwise be completely normal. Not many jokes, but Gabriella supposed they didn’t need them.
“Gabs, Madelyn gave me your plans for the day. You stick with her. Bradley is going to follow up on that orb field unless you really want to. Are you planning to interview Charlotte Lau at any point?”
“I was thinking about contacting her today,” Madelyn said before Gabriella could answer, glancing at Graham. “Graham offered to join us for any interviews.”
“Great idea,” James said. “And you guys don’t need me reminding you to be careful with the game, but I’m going to anyway.”
“We’re doing some today, but we’ll be monitoring,” said Gabriella.
“Excellent. I have faith in you.”
Gabriella smiled at him, and he smiled back, though it still looked far too tired. “Anyone have anything to add? Any questions?”
There was silence all around, except for Fang as she purred beside Bradley. “Great, let’s get to it.”
Once again, the game levels were simple to the point of boring. “Do you think we’re missing something?” Gabriella asked Madelyn as she finished Level Three, “Three Roses” flashing across the screen in a glitchy way she knew was more tech-based than aesthetic choice.
“I don’t think so,” Madelyn said, but she was frowning. “There’s no way that people were so into a game this boring, though. They were into it, into it.”
Based on the enthusiastic social media posts she’d seen, Gabriella had to agree. The energy reader was blinking beside her on the bed, the pattern unchanging since they’d turned it on. “I wonder if it’s the levels, not the total exposure time to the game itself,” Madelyn said thoughtfully, looking out the window where the seemingly permanent sleet was coming down.
“You mean, like they put the magic on a certain level? Could they do that?”
“Sure,” Madelyn said, to Gabriella’s warring delight and horror. “We actually went over it in my course. Not how to do it, obviously, though you could probably backwards engineer that if you wanted to. I mean, that the technology to do so exists. It’s kind of like those time photos Bradley and James found in Boston.”
“Like what?”
“Ask James to tell you about it sometime,” Madelyn said, a little too casually.
Gabriella laughed, the motion tugging at the thick scar on her face, which had felt stiff all day from the weather. “But yeah, they could totally do that,” Madelyn said. “In that case, we’d probably want to get to those levels as quickly as possible.”
“So the total opposite of the original plan.”
Madelyn laughed. “Yeah, basically. Alright, let me run it past James, then if we get the all-clear, I’ll have you power through for a little while.”
She left the room, then came back a moment later saying James gave them cautious approval, as long as the energy reader remained on while they worked. “I’m going to bring this out there,” Gabriella said.
“To the living room?” Madelyn asked.
“Yeah.”
“Don’t.”
“Why… Oh my God, are they just sitting there in the same room, mad at each other like a couple of cats?”
“Basically,” Madelyn said, her voice low. “I don’t know what the hell happened. I have never seen them this mad before.”
“James wouldn’t tell me, not that he tells me anything that might ever show he needs help,” Gabriella said. “I’m his baby cousin, he wouldn’t want to upset me.”
She wondered briefly if maybe she’d gotten too personal or snotty there, but Madelyn shrugged. “I know,” she said. “Maybe you should talk to him about it?”
“I don’t know,” Gabriella said. “Maybe someday. Not right now, at least. Let’s take this to the back bedroom if it’s empty.”
“It is.”
“Good. My back can’t keep doing this hunching over the bed thing.”
“James has mentioned making us all take back posture hygiene training more than once,” Madelyn said.
“I’d say it’s because he’s old, but my back is aching too much to make that joke.”
“I could take the training all I want, it won’t cure mine.”
Madelyn was joking, but Gabriella wasn’t quite sure what to say, especially after her own little turn of vulnerability. Apparently the silence stretched a little long. “Bad joke,” Madelyn said.
“No, it’s fine,” Gabriella said. “It’s your injury, say whatever you want. No, the bad joke was my uncle calling me The Joker at a family dinner.”
“No way.”
“My aunt tried to apologize for him.”
“Did you accept?”
“No! And I’m proud of myself for not accepting.”
“I had relatives ask why I’m not just trying to feel better,” Madelyn said. “Like if I just changed my mindset or tried a few different things, I’d recover completely from being thrown off a building.”
Gabriella scoffed, and Madelyn gave her a rueful smile. “Well, anyway,” she said. “Go take the back bedroom and avoid fucking your back up even more.”
Gabriella spent the next two hours working through levels three and four. It didn’t get harder, necessarily, but there was more to do. More things to collect, more ways to get kicked back to the beginning of the level. All the while, the sensor beside her showed nothing wrong beyond Gabriella’s increasing frustration with a game that was rapidly losing any charm it had previously had.
“Oh sorry, I didn’t realize anyone was in here.”
Graham’s voice broke through her concentration. She looked over to see him standing in the doorway. “Hey,” Gabriella said. “No, it’s fine. I’m just working on…”
As she remembered his specific context here, the next words evaporated and she just kind of waved at the screen. “Is this the game Ezekiel was playing?” Graham asked.
“Yeah. We’re keeping track of energy in case that was the cause.”
Graham nodded, still looking at the screen. “What was he like?” Gabriella asked. “Not for the case. Just… for him. What was he like?””
“Quiet in class,” Graham replied. “He’d answer questions, but he was very quiet when he wasn’t talking about the work. But he was kind. And it’d be him and Charlotte in the same seats every class, her talking and him just listening and smiling, totally engaged with everything she was saying. I thought they were together, but it turns out she had a girlfriend. Not that I asked, of course. But he had so much potential. I thought he’d do amazing things when he left Fitchburg State. And he just…”
He cleared his throat and dabbed his eyes. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s alright. I’m sorry. About Ezekiel.”
“He was my student,” Graham said. “All my students are really important to me.”
He wasn’t that much older than her, maybe in his early thirties. But he’d been a professor for several years, so he probably had a lot of students. And knowing Graham, he remembered all their names and faces.
“Charlotte knows I’m going to meet her with you guys,” Graham said. “We’re going to go this afternoon if that works for you.”
“I’m here all day,” Gabriella replied.
He smiled sadly, clapped her on the shoulder, and then left.
