Twists by Abi Barden

Author:Abi Barden [Barden, Abi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2021-03-15T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

Everything was bothering Jenson. His work, his home, his life – what little life he had. What he’d seen of the Forester’s how they’d treated Amethyst, it all still nagged him.

He wanted to go to her, but thoughts of his promise to Great-Aunt Flora made staying away the better choice. Well, the easier choice. He was avoiding temptation by avoiding the woman who tempted him. It was a cowardly act, but he didn’t know what else to do. At least the way she’d responded to him gave him some hope that she felt more than friendship for him.

So instead, he concentrated on his commission. There were still three aetheric engineers he hadn’t traced. All had been names linked with Quinn. The mysterious Mr. Quinn who used aether to control minds; who wanted ways to transmit sound through aether; infiltrated the MITAD team to get details on the new engine.

Was it possible that Quinn had something to do with these vortices? Jenson supposed it was possible, but there was no evidence of it. Without evidence or at least a good reason, that wasn’t a line of enquiry he could follow. Instead, he would concentrate on the more tangible.

Gertrude Hilary, Ceri Hopwood, and Edwin Swanson.

He’d been able to get reasonable photographs of Hopwood and Swanson. It surprised him that there wasn’t more information on Gertrude Hilary. But then knowing Amethyst and Reba, he’d watched the papers for reports of their work on the MITAD team. Reba was only ever identified as Dr. Goldberg, and then rarely, and Amethyst’s part had been mentioned only once and in passing by a Welsh newspaper, never by a London one. Women were rather pushed to the background, which was unfair, but the way of the world.

He thought on the drawings Amethyst had demanded from Bowder. They’d studied them together that night before he returned her to her home. Any of the three missing individuals could have designed that device.

Bowder had said that the man he took the machine from had landed himself in Bedlam. So, he needed to find out who that man was, could be Swanson or Hopwood. Bedlam was open to gawkers, those wanting to do good, or just see the freak show, sometimes it was hard to see the difference. He didn’t have easy access to Bedlam, but he knew a man who did.

Halfpenny looked up from washing his hands as Jenson walked into the morgue. Porters where wheeling a covered trolly out, Jenson was glad to have missed the wet bits.

“I’ve no new possible murder victims in,” Halfpenny smiled. “So tell me you’ve come to whisk me away to the pub.”

Jenson smiled. “That wasn’t my intention, but it’ll do.”

Nothing of consequence passed between the two until they were sitting in a booth, each with a pint.

Halfpenny laughed at his own joke and watched as Jenson barely raised a smile. “Come on then, misery,” he said. “Why did you really come to see me?”

“I’m not a misery,” Jenson defended.

“Tell your face that,” Halfpenny differed.

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