Jameson sighed. "It's this thing with Collins. I...still don't get this at all. If she is unbalanced and imagined someone telling her to do what she did, where'd the bomb come from? Even if it's fake, it's professional-level prop stuff...not the kind of thing a network executive comes up with in their spare time."
"That's true," the bear-man rumbled. "But the pictures she drew were definitely suggestive of a confession of some kind...you could see that in her eyes as well. We can't just let her wander off again...Will said she took off straight up, and we didn't see hide or hair of her for...what, an hour?"
The harpy nodded, only half listening. "She doesn't have any background in special effects, I checked - she graduated with an MBA. And she definitely doesn't have any explosives training. Whatever that thing is, there's got to be another party involved..."
"And she's our best bet for finding out who...yet we can't get a word out of her, effectively." The sergeant sighed. "The media are going to have a field day with us if we just let this thing drop..."
Jameson nodded. "Unless some other scandal comes up, yeah...but, I dunno, Sarge...I just think we're missing something here. There's no obvious link between her and the school, so it doesn't make sense for it to be revenge for something. And if it was just a random target sprung from an ill mind, the timeline doesn't make any sense - she's been transformed for what, two days now? How could she get something like that built on such short notice?"
"I don't know...but it sounds like you're driving at something, Lieutenant. Let's hear it."
The harpy folded her wings. "I think she was a dupe, sir. I think someone saw her emotional instability and took advantage of it - offered her help in exchange for a vague request. Here, look." She lifted one talon up onto the desk, using her wings to stay balanced.
"See?" she said. "This picture here, where she's putting the bomb in place...she's got those, whaddyacallem, the little lines you see in Blondie when someone's surprised? I don't think she knew what she was doing. That's why she's remorseful...she got pulled into something she never meant to do. And that'd explain why she risked herself trying to warn the school, too..."
The grizzly nodded thoughtfully. "Hmm. But that still doesn't explain the language issue...we've called how many people and gotten nothing? How would they have gotten their offer through to her?"
Jameson shrugged. "I don't know...maybe pictorially? We've just seen her manage more communication than we thought possible with ballpoint doodles - they might have done the same. Or maybe there is someone out there who speaks her language, after all..."
The sergeant groaned. "So this mysterious third party may be the only person able to freely communicate with the only person who can identify them, except as far as she's concerned, they...what, talk through a hole in the wall? Is that what that is? And they can whip up what is, best case, a professional-level prop...hoo boy..."
"I'm getting less convinced on that, myself," the lieutenant said. She looked around to see if anybody else was listening. "That Fed spook who was here...he was not treating it like a prop. Boss, I've...got a feeling that this is bigger than we think it is."
Anneza floated in the middle of the cell, staring at the ceiling and wondering what would happen to her. She didn't know what she'd expected would happen when she came into the police station and confessed to bombing a school...had she thought it would be like she was a child again, and she'd say "sorry" and they'd say "well, just don't do it again?" But they didn't seem as angry as she'd have thought, either...if they really understood what she was confessing, shouldn't they be furious?
She knew she would be...but they weren't mistreating her or anything. If it weren't for the bars, she'd hardly even know she was in trouble at all. It gave the whole experience less of a shameful feeling and more something tentative, like she was waiting just for the sake of waiting...
She'd been sent to her room, that's what it felt like. She knew that was absurd and surely there'd be far more lasting repercussions, but it still felt that way to her. Or was that just how she was feeling, generally? She'd admitted to herself how childishly she was behaving, and it seemed like she was viewing everything through that lens now...
Truth be told, Anneza had begun to question so much of what she'd done with her life that...it seemed like she ought to just go back and start over, to admit she was really a child and go back to mother and try to grow up properly this time. But you couldn't do it just like that...even if she wasn't a very good grown-up, she still was one. She'd seen reports of transformees sent back from adulthood, but that wasn't her - she still had to face what she'd made of her life...
But what could she do with it? Even if she knew what the future held, whether she'd be set free or sent off to prison, what was she supposed to make of her life now? What could she make of her life, when they couldn't even understand her unless she drew pictures? She didn't know.
Anneza hummed a little more of her star-song. She wondered, could she hear any of it from in here? She fell silent and listened...the stars were quiet, but she could hear other strange signals traversing Earth's atmosphere...creaks and howls and warbles, like the sounds of an old house settling at night. It was eerie...but not really frightening.
Susan paid the cabbie and he left, giving them an odd look as they headed toward the house where he'd taken that drunk jackass last night; then they went inside. Andy followed her spouse with a little trepidation; she felt like she wouldn't be welcome in this house, not after...well, everything, but...he held the door open for her and smiled, and she went in, blushing.
Alex and Sally had heard the cab, and before Andy knew it she was struggling to keep her balance under a combined hug from two dragon-girls who were almost as tall as her (and stockier.) Any emotional control she had vanished, and she broke into tears, hugging them...hugging her children tight. "Girls," she said, "I...I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...Alex, I never should have said..."
Alex was crying herself. "No, dad, I...I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lost my temper...I'm just so glad you're okay..."
