O’Toole House Chapter 6
Gabriella had received an apologetic text from Amelia last night, saying that she needed her to take on some of Bradley’s paperwork when she got to work this morning. Yesterday he’d been pulled away to deal with yet another meeting that ended up lasting for nearly two hours, then had to chase down that case he’d been wrapping up when they got back. Amelia didn’t tell her how much there was, but apparently it was urgent enough that she’d texted Gabriella after going home.
When Gabriella got into work, the house was quiet. Saskia had left a couple hours earlier, replaced by Madelyn, who had originally been scheduled on a double. But Madelyn had only been allowed to come in if she promised Amelia she’d take a rest before the day started. She was still asleep when Gabriella peeked into the pink bedroom, her cane leaning against the bed. So Gabriella slipped back into the living room, where she came face to face with the paperwork Amelia had asked her to finish.
The stack rivaled some of the piles still scattered around James’s office. Piles he would definitely be back soon to ignore for another year. It took up an entire chair and, judging by the way it also continued onto the floor, Fang had tried and failed to get comfortable on it at some point after Bradley left.
She sat down with her coffee and pulled up the template and software. This wasn’t bad, all things considered. It was time consuming to scan it and fill in the forms, but it was a simple enough process as long as she remembered all the pieces. One or two went through before she remembered to tag them, but Bradley seemed unlikely to give a shit. Though she didn’t want to add to his pile of disciplinary problems by making too many mistakes.
He was out today, so she wasn’t going to be working on the O’Toole House at all. But Amelia had mentioned yesterday that there were some one-day cases that they could bang out today, so she was likely going to spend her afternoon on those once she’d made a dent in these.
The front door opened and she heard an unfamiliar voice on a video call. “-next weekend,” the woman was saying.
“I don’t know,” Amelia said as she walked in, holding her phone in front of her. “I know Providence isn’t far, but I feel like I need to be around in case there’s an emergency. Just for a few more weeks, then James’ll be back and I’ll have a little more time.”
“No, that’s fair,” the woman – who was clearly Riley, Amelia’s girlfriend, said. “How about I come there? We don’t have to go out. We could have some wine, smoke a little weed, and then maybe I could…”
“Good morning, Gabriella!” Amelia called a little too loudly.
Gabriella smiled innocently and waved from behind her pile of reports. “Good morning.”
“I’d love to see you,” Amelia said to Riley, with a warm smile on her face. “I don’t know how fun I’ll be, but I’m off on Saturday night and in at seven on Sunday.”
“In the morning?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m working Sunday night here,” Riley said. “But maybe.”
Gabriella didn’t want to judge Amelia’s girlfriend based on one single eavesdropping session, but she didn’t sound too excited about that idea. But Amelia didn’t seem to pick up on anything wrong, so maybe Gabriella was just still bitter toward her own failed relationship and reading into things too much.
“I just got to work, so I should get going,” Amelia said. “Talk to you later?”
“I’ll be here.”
Amelia hung up, then turned to Gabriella. “How are you doing?” she asked.
“Fine,” Gabriella said around a yawn she hadn’t expected. “Just getting going here.”
“Thank you so much for doing that,” Amelia said. “Bradley has too many fights lined up tomorrow and I don’t want to have it sitting for too long.”
She glanced at her watch. “I don’t want to wake Madelyn up yet,” she said. “I’ll give her another half hour, then meet at nine?”
“I’m here.”
Amelia’s smile was more tired than happy this time, then she went into James’s office.
***
Like Gabriella had expected, her assignment this morning was to knock out as much of this paperwork as she could, then go take some pictures in the woods for two separate cases before lunch. This was fine with her. As much as she loved the idea of double monsters coming after her, it was convenient. And not in the Leominster State Forest, so she didn’t have to bring her own mental baggage with her.
The phone rang as she and Madelyn were in the living room a little while later. Gabriella got to it first.
“North Worcester County branch, Gabriella speaking. How can I help you?”
“Gabriella, hi. It’s Richard McGovern.”
Maybe the amount of fury she felt right now wasn’t fair to him. After all, he was one cog in an enormous machine that had broken her cousin. Maybe it was just her putting a face to this nightmare.
“What do you need, sir?”
McGovern sighed. “I need help.”
“If it’s Foundation-related, then you’ll need to talk to our interim captain, Amelia Cohen. She’s in a meeting right now, but I can take a message.”
“It’s not. Well, it technically is, but-”
“And if it’s anything else, I can’t help you.”
“Gabriella, please, I’m concerned about James. I called him a couple days ago and he didn’t…he wasn’t okay.”
She almost told him she’d witnessed the call and heard how broken James had been on the phone with him. But James didn’t know, at least she was pretty sure he didn’t. “I know you’re his cousin,” McGovern said, surprising her. “And I’m sorry I can’t go into detail. But could you please give me his emergency contact? I want to make sure that they’re aware and that’s the only person I can legally share this information with.”
Gabriella closed out of the reports software and opened up their records software. “You need to give me a minute,” she said. “Our computers run slowly.”
He didn’t answer. Anyone else, she might feel guilty being so passive-aggressive. And she could tell he felt bad. But James had been so sure that this one person cared, at least a little. And he’d led James right into a trap, however unwittingly.
She assumed James’s parents were his emergency contact, but had he told them what happened? That was doubtful. And if they found out from McGovern, that was going to make things so much worse.
“Got it,” she said as the software opened. “Hang on.”
She opened James’s file, accessed his medical leave form, and scrolled through the information, wondering if she should tell James so that he could tell his parents first. Or just tell McGovern flat out that he couldn’t call them without James’s consent. She had no idea what the best move was. But worst case, she could fake a dropped call and interrupt Amelia’s meeting to ask.
Then she looked at the emergency contact box and was surprised, but immediately relieved. She didn’t have to fake a disconnected call. But this posed a new issue for McGovern.
“That’s not a good idea,” she said.
“Gabriella, this is strictly for his health,” McGovern said, that hint of testiness making her want to lunge through the phone and choke him. Over on the couch, Madelyn was watching. Gabriella made eye contact with her, then looked back at the screen.
“I just need to check in with them so they can check on him,” McGovern continued. “That’s all. No one is going to make James do anything he doesn’t want to do.”
She was pretty sure James didn’t want to kill three of his closest friends, but someone sure as shit almost made him do it. “It’s Bradley Donahue,” Gabriella said. “His emergency contact, the only person you can legally discuss this with, is Bradley. Would you like his number?”
Madelyn almost managed to muffle her laugh, but thankfully she was far enough away from the phone that it wasn’t audible on the line. And now Amelia was watching from the office doorway. “It’s Bradley?” McGovern repeated weakly.
“I have his number right here if you want it.”
“No, I have Bradley’s number,” McGovern said. “There’s no one else?”
“Just Bradley. I can send you the verification if you need it.”
“That’s not necessary,” McGovern said. “Alright. Thank you, Gabriella.”
He hung up before she could say anything else. She did too, shaking. Then she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She had to let it go now. None of this was going to help James.
“So why exactly is Bradley his emergency contact?” she asked Amelia.
“He helped him fill out the paperwork,” Amelia said with a grimace. “James didn’t give him anyone, so I guess he just put himself.”
Her eyes stung as she went back to the paperwork for a little while longer.
***
Everything that afternoon was physical. Gabriella was fried by the time she got back to headquarters, but it was all done. Three minor cases were taken care of and a larger one started. The Bana house was going to be ongoing, but that was tomorrow’s problem once she was on a shift with Bradley again.
When Gabriella got back to headquarters, Madelyn was coming in too. She was moving slowly, but making her way toward the steps. Gabriella hung back a bit. Once Madelyn got there, she walked in little steps, carefully moving up while gripping the iron railing. Gabriella didn’t try to hide her footsteps behind her, but Madelyn still jumped when she was on the landing. “Sorry,” she said. “I was a million miles away.”
“You alright?” Gabriella asked, as though anybody was.
Madelyn shrugged. “It’s nothing new,” she said. “Maybe that’s the problem. Everything keeps going and going and nothing ever changes.”
She walked into the house, holding the door for Gabriella, who took it quickly so that Madelyn could make her way up the stairs.
Halfway up the stairs, Madelyn wobbled and Gabriella reached out before she realized what she was doing. She caught Madelyn on her sides and Madelyn froze.
“I’m sorry,” Gabriella said quickly, letting go as Madelyn rebalanced herself. She waited for Madelyn to get pissed, maybe rightfully so. Or at least understandably so.
“No, thank you,” Madelyn said, and Gabriella could see the defeat on her face. “Can you stay with me the rest of the way up?”
“Of course.”
Gabriella stayed close, but did her best not to crowd Madelyn for the rest of the steps. Once they got to the top, Madelyn went straight to the couch and sat down.
“Do you need anything?” Gabriella asked.
Madelyn had her hand on her side and she looked like she was close to tears. “Hey, what’s up?” Gabriella asked quietly, sitting down next to her.
“I just saw James,” Madelyn said. “He won’t talk to me. Or, he will for a second. But he keeps apologizing and I’m not sure what to do beyond accepting it.”
Gabriella wished she had an answer. If he was remorseful with her, it was probably nothing compared to how he was with Madelyn.
“I should stay here,” Madelyn said suddenly. “I can’t go to Brazil right now.”
This was at least the third time she had said that this week. “No, you should still go,” Gabriella said yet again.
“But we’re so understaffed and-”
“We’ve got coverage.”
“But James-”
“He’ll be alright, we’re all here.”
Madelyn sighed, but didn’t argue any further. “I’m worried about Amelia,” she said softly.
“Because of everything going on?” Gabriella asked just as quietly.
“She cries every night. If we’re both home, I can hear her crying in her room, but she never talks to me about it. But I’m worried about the stress on her. This. James. I guess Riley’s been kind of weird the past week or so too.”
“We’ll keep an eye on her,” Gabriella said. “Do you think she’ll talk to us?”
“She might,” Madelyn said.
With Amelia, that might or might not be true. She wasn’t going to take James’s approach that no one else should deal with his problems. But she was also so single-focused on keeping the branch running right now that she might just put off any breakdowns until later.
Madelyn stood up and she was a little sturdier this time. “I’m going to make some coffee,” she said as she walked away.
Madelyn had gone down to the gym for a while. Gabriella was a little surprised that of all the possible coping methods, Madelyn had chosen that one. But right now Bradley and Amelia were trading off watching over James, who alternated being unconscious with screaming deliriously almost twenty-four hours into the antidote sequence. Gabriella had been fielding calls from the Foundation, most of them requesting updates on various cases. Amelia, acting as captain, had designated Madelyn to triage and assign all cases coming in, since Bradley was acting second-in-command and Madelyn had the next most experience with the Foundation.
She’d been on the couch all morning with printouts all around her, sorting them into new piles as they came in. Some of the cases could easily be finished and Gabriella took all of those. Part of her couldn’t believe that she was out in the woods photographing monster evidence while James was being treated for mind-controlling poison. But another part of her appreciated the forty minutes she’d spent in the car and out in the woods alone. And when she got back, two more cases were waiting.
It reminded her of the few times she’d worked pizza delivery at her old job. Just minus the tips and slightly more likely to have her encountering a monster along the way.
After about three hours, Madelyn ran out of tasks that could easily be accomplished. Graham was back on, so he and Gabriella ended up sorting through the more complicated tasks with her until they found one that required an interview and cameras at a store. Easy enough. Still kind of drifting in shock, Gabriella did manage to get the cameras up while Graham took the interview. He had just enough shaking in his tone as he did so to show he was feeling the same way she was today.
But Madelyn had been almost robotic throughout everything, giving Gabriella her orders without much detail and zero small talk. When she and Graham finally got back to headquarters, Madelyn had asked them if she could have a few minutes to herself. Graham was taking over for Amelia and Bradley for a little while, so Gabriella was left alone in the living room while the two of them tried to catch a few minutes of sleep.
When Madelyn came back upstairs, her eyes were red. Gabriella expected her to go straight to the shower, but she came and sat down at one of the computer stations instead.
“I don’t want to be scared of James,” she said softly.
He’d attacked her. That would be laughable if it wasn’t so terrifying. James, of all people, had attacked Madelyn. “It wasn’t really him and I’m trying to get past it.”
Gabriella wasn’t sure what to say. “I’m sorry,” Madelyn said as the silence dragged on.
“No, don’t be.”
“It wasn’t him,” Madelyn said firmly.
Whether that was directed at herself or Gabriella, Gabriella wasn’t sure.
