“Who the hell authorized this?” Rai’s eyes bulged. “You? Who let you decide, Raph? You’re supposed to be on probation, specifically for jamming your nose into this Bell stuff. Wh - the local cops wanted to work with you? What the fuck do they know that we don’t?”

Sao sat with the seatbelt cutting across his chest. Rai was pacing outside, his tone so sharp it passed right through the glass. Sao felt like a child listening to two adults bicker. The day had barely begun and a headache was already clouding his thoughts.

“The chief is gonna eat you alive. Where is he anyway - no shit, he’s not there. What about the floor management - or Charm…? So what, you’re just gonna interrogate him on your own? Let me know how that goes for you.”

After two more exchanges that essentially mimicked the first, the phone call was cut. Rai slammed himself into the drivers’ seat. “The local station that was holding Sigma decided to transfer him to HQ, because they supposedly want Sigma-expert Raph to have a crack at him, after the flipout at the Joys’ yesterday.” The key stabbed into the ignition. “That asshole. And you should probably be taking the day off.”

Sao had woken up on his couch instead of his bed, with a throbbing sensation and Wings of Steel playing on the television. His thoughts were still fuzzy around the edges. The parts that weren’t fuzzy were jagged in a way that sent a sharp pain down his spine when he tried to wrestle some sense from them. “I think I’d best keep busy. Besides, I wouldn’t want to miss this.”

“I doubt Sigma’s therapist is going to be allowed to spill all.”

“If we’re headed there, you must believe we can get something out of them.”

“Just routine. And to let you have a look.”

“Even better.” Words felt mealy, that was all he could muster.

The counseling center was a converted cottage in a scenic woodland neighborhood, though this forest was worlds apart from Watchers’ Wood. Not a pine in sight; the trees were in flower, and the parking lot was guarded by an attractive line of birches, white and pink, the epitome of spring if there ever was one.

The receptionist, equally rosy, gave him the same thought. “Gentlemen! Appointment, or first time?”

“First time for me.” Sao smiled at how well she balanced pep with business. She smiled back.

“I was here last night, but nobody was around. Is Ms. Kaye in today?” Rai asked. Disappointingly little pep in him.

“Ms Kaye is in. She always gets here before me, but...” The receptionist pawed at her computer mouse, then glanced down the hall of rooms, their brightly painted doors all shut. “She’s not immediately available, I think her current appointment has a while longer. Would you like to take a seat and I’ll check?”

“Is the appointment supposed to be with a man named Sigma?”

“I can’t reveal that information to you.” 

Sao smiled again. She’d made the rejection almost pleasant.

Rai dragged his identification out of the wrinkled depths of his jacket. “Sigma’s partner said he usually came here as part of his schedule. But he won’t be able to make it today. He’s being held at police HQ following an accident yesterday evening.”

“Goodness, I hope everything’s okay.”

“Sigma’s fine, but we’d like to talk to his therapist. That’s Ms. Kaye.”

The receptionist hesitated. Sao rested his arms on the counter - to look her in the eye; to stop himself from dropping to the floor in exhaustion. “If you don’t mind, we’d like to at least check if Ms. Kaye is alright. Sigma was quite agitated yesterday in the hours following his appointment.”

“That much I think I can tell you. It’ll be revealed by the cameras anyhow.” The receptionist pointed at a camera above the front door. “Sigma and Ms. Kaye had an appointment yesterday morning, starting around nine. There was a bit of unrest during the appointment, but Ms. Kaye assured me it was nothing. At noon, Sigma left, and soon after, Ms. Kaye went for lunch. She returned at - oh, I think two, it was a long lunch - and had another appointment, then another. She was still in her office at the time I left, around eight - she’d know to lock up, it’s not the first time she’s stayed late for a client. She’s one of our hardest-working associates.”

“She sounds it.” Sao paused. “What do you mean by unrest?”

“Oh, Sigma raised his voice a bit.”

“What did he say?” Rai asked, also coming to rest his elbow on the counter. He looked as if he were about to reach over it and grab her.

The receptionist hesitated. “He was just frustrated, asking her to listen, listen to me. I knocked on the door to make sure things were okay, Kaye calmed him down and the appointment continued.”

“Three hours is a pretty long appointment,” Rai commented. “That’s such a long time to sit in one place.” His sudden nonchalance made Sao’s brain ache.

“Oh, normal sessions run around an hour or two. But Ms. Kaye is a specialist, her sessions tend to run long.”

“Hypnotherapy. I read a little about it while looking into her last night, for the case. It sounds… experimental.”

The receptionist had a laugh like a spring breeze. “Guided hypnosis isn’t quite like stage magic might make it seem. It’s not intended to directly manipulate a person into behaving any particular way, but help them find a state in which they can safely face certain issues that may be buried or difficult to face in everyday life.”

“It’s used by police psychologists too,” Sao offered.

“I know," Rai said. "The results are always iffy there. People lie or get forced into lying.”

“Is that why you’re skeptical?” Sao smiled. Rai glared. “Therapy is for the betterment of the individual, Rai, he was here to learn something for himself, not to prove or disprove some sort of criminal conviction. I quite like the idea of hypnotic therapy - makes me think of lucid dreaming. And having someone call time with the click of a finger, or a little bell-”

“Ms. Kaye does indeed use a bell if simply talking isn’t enough. Though sometimes a little shake is needed.”

Rai frowned. “What if the ‘bell’ and shake don't work?”

The receptionist gave this a moment. “Well, I’m no expert but I imagine the hypnotic state is rather fragile to begin with. The individual must be very relaxed and fully trusting to reach it, and again to reach something substantial. I suppose the only danger would be how they react to what is uncovered. But Ms. Kaye is a professional, she makes sure the client is absolutely ready before offering.” She gave Rai a winning smile. “Oh - if you are concerned - Sigma was calmed very early on, or they wouldn’t have proceeded. If he was worked up by something, it was before the meat of the session.”

This did nothing to settle Rai’s doubts, and Sao asked himself, why would it? The receptionist could not know, but the concept of discovery through calm and relaxation had no effect on Rai. He existed in perpetual movement, not even accounting for his inhuman sleep patterns (which was to say no sleep at all). The thought of being put into a state of vulnerability via sleep, and getting any good out of it, would be completely incomprehensible. It was like hearing of the joys of diving when you couldn’t swim. All he saw were dark thrashing waves, he could not envision the divine calm that lay beneath the surface.

Could lay beneath. There was always a risk.

“If Sigma won’t be coming in today, I can call Ms. Kaye to give you the full seminar. She has a few hours before her next client...” With a glance out the window, the receptionist stood. “Her car is here, so she’s probably in her office.”

They walked to the end of the hall and stopped before a mint-green door. The receptionist rapped it gently. ‘Ms. Kaye?’ 

Hot on her heels, Rai pressed his face against the tall strip of window set beside the door. “This is Kaye’s office? Where she takes appointments?” The window was covered edge-to-edge with a sheer white curtain. All that could be seen was a faint yellow lamplight. “I saw a light on in this room around midnight last night.”

“What were you doing here at that hour?”

“He has insomnia,” Sao said.

Rai grabbed the doorknob. “I’m more interested in what Kaye was doing here at the time.”

“Ms. Kaye, we’re coming in,” the receptionist warned, but it wasn’t needed.

---

A woman with short auburn hair was at the desk, facedown, skin gripped by the congealed pool of red that covered the tabletop. Flies had gathered, as they always managed to do, despite the window being shut and the shades pulled down. Their dance under the lamplight sent tiny shadows racing over the blood. A downpour of red had ended up on the lap of Kaye’s pencil skirt, under her neck which bridged her body and the desk. Her throat was gouged, skin hanging like wet rags.

The receptionist dashed back to the lobby to phone the police, the rosy color all drained from her face. Rai called after her to pull the camera footage from the previous night, but it was anyone’s guess if she’d heard.

Rai tapped the computer keyboard sitting before Kaye with a tissue - from a familiar-looking tissue packet, Sao noted.

He was trying not to look too hard at the body.

“She was just checking emails. Or someone set it up to look like that.” Rai knelt to where Kaye’s hand was hanging limp, glanced at the floor then back up. “Looks like she cut her own throat with a letter opener.” He stood. “Wonder if she was even alive when I came here last night. The same lamp was on but...”

Rai inspected the desk. Photos of three girls with auburn hair, and an older woman who might have been their mother. Another photo of a baby with the same hair, and a man. Kaye’s daughter? Beside that, a pen-holder, an origami crane with its base soaked red, a leaflet and plaque from a ‘hypnotists convention’ and a brass handbell. With something nearing cruelty, Rai gave the bell a tap. Though faint, the sound was torturously cold. If it had been any louder, they might have been disintegrated on the spot. Grasping his ears, Sao stumbled out of the room.

“I told you not to come. If you’re going to throw up-” Rai began, tailing him with the pack of tissue.

“Don’t,” Sao snapped.

Instant regret. Rai continued to chase him down the hall. They almost bowled past the receptionist, on her way back to meet them. She was no longer smiling. “The police are on their way. And I have last night’s footage here.”

“Amazing work,” Sao gasped, well aware that his throaty voice was doing himself no favors. “You’re a lifesaver.”

They were directed to a second computer behind the front desk. Sao wedged into a corner by a selection of special event posters (smiling couples, elders and children he was tried not to face) and watched Rai scan through the camera’s nighttime recordings.

"Can you see the screen, standing all the way back there?" Rai let him be and hit the play button. Timestamps were read out as they passed. “Yesterday afternoon at 12:10, Sigma left. 12:24. Kaye went to lunch. 1:40, Kaye returned. 2:02, another appointment. 5:00 sharp, next appointment. 6.50, out to dinner. She comes back at 8, another appointment. End of the day at 9:00, the receptionist went home so Kaye comes out to the front desk to write up the bill. Then back to the office to pick up her stuff, maybe? But she didn’t leave after that. So she was in the building from ten until now.”

“So she was the only person here.” Sao said. “It looks like…”

The first police car had pulled up to the parking lot.

“Looks like she killed herself.” Rai was giving the receptionist’s keyboard and mouse a lashing. “But isn’t this whole story sounding overly familiar? Desmond, then Racer, and now Kaye. People around Sigma sure get inexplicably troubled.”

Sao shook himself awake. “You think Sigma had something to do with it? Sigma was in police custody starting around 6pm yesterday. And nobody was seen... Could he have gotten someone at Bell to stage it?”

“I don’t know. The police will probably be cleared to pull Kaye’s patient notes, that could help us find out if Sigma even had a reason to want her dead. If he did… that’s gonna give Raph some more material to chew on and drag all over the house.” Rai sighed. “Look, why don’t you work from home today?”

“It looks worse than it is, trust me.”

“I’m just going to head back to the office myself. Finish some reports. I’ll ask if I can see Sigma this afternoon, but I doubt Raph will throw the doors open. Maybe first I’ll pay a call to Bell, see if any residents wandered out last night. And Kiria, what her impressions are of Kaye, since she was the one who introduced Sigma to counseling...”

Sao’s forehead throbbed. “I’d like to be in on that call.”

---

Kiria answered on the first ring, her tone high, frail as glass. “Where is he? I’m at the station but they said he’s not here. Is he really being taken downtown? What did he do?”

Questions came like lightning flashes. Sao squeezed his eyes shut trying to trace them. Rai pulled the phone over. “Sigma’s being taken to HQ for assessment. I’m not sure why myself, it was requested by a higher-up. We plan to check in on him later today.”

“Would that detective Raph be able to help? He was very understanding when he visited, I think he really got a feel for Bell. He and Sigma seemed quite close...”

Sao could hear Rai grinding his teeth to the gums as he heard that. “Doubt it, but I’ll give him a call later. I actually have another question for you. How has Sigma been doing in therapy, recently?”

“What did he do?”

“Sigma’s being held by police, he hasn’t done anything. Beside the accident with the car yesterday.” Rai frowned. “Why do you keep asking…?”

“The therapy changed him... a bit. I should have expected it, I know he didn’t come from the best of homes, but I didn’t think uncovering it would be so severe. I just wanted to patch things up after the cheating, but I started all this...”

It was hard to tell from the speaker, but she might have been weeping. Sao leaned over. “Sigma’s decision to face his past was his own. By the way, Kiria, about last night-- who was that?”

“W-who? Was he with someone in that car? I hadn’t heard. Please-”

“Not Sigma, I mean with you. It was later, after Sigma’s accident.”

“I don’t - I was here - what happened?”

“The child...?” The more he thought of it, reflected, grasped, the more layers of dark fell over the entire recollection. The small figure receded like a dream, once again. Rai’s look, which wasn’t helping, could have cracked concrete. “Never mind,” Sao said, “I expect I saw somebody else.”

Rai picked up again, though his eyes didn’t stray for a moment. “Kiria, are you aware of any residents being out late last night? Sometime after nine?”

“I didn’t note anybody missing over dinner. Why?”

“If there’s any way you can confirm that, it would be useful. Another thing, are you familiar with Sigma’s counselor, Kaye? Any idea what his feelings were like, toward her?”

“She saw him privately. I don’t think I ever met her. He probably spent more time with her than us in the last -- oh god, were they-- was he also -- were they sleeping together…?”

“I doubt it,” Rai said. 

There was a finality to his tone that slammed the lid down on arguments, or on fingers trying to get at it. But in this case, it was a blessing. 

Kiria’s stammering stopped. “I see. I guess Sigma never showed as much enthusiasm toward her as a person, not like he did with… the others. Although, that also changed recently. I shouldn’t say this, it was his choice, but I got the feeling therapy wasn’t helping. He became distant, closing us off. At first I thought him talking about his foster family was a good thing, but the more he remembered, the more edgy and nervous he became. Delta must have felt it too. If Sigma had really been healing, Delta wouldn't have gone to you for help. He had practical matters on his mind with the bills, but even he can tell, the trouble runs deeper. There’s been a shift. It seems so quiet here… I almost wish… I had just let him continue sleeping with the residents… anything he needed...”

“Kiria,” Sao said. His voice sounded raspy. “How much did Sigma ever talk to you about Desmond, his old babysitter? What sort of person he?”

He must have looked like he was bracing for a punch. 

But Kiria seemed puzzled. “The man who was taken by the Greys, during his camping trip? It was nearly 20 years ago. Sigma made him sound fine enough, a step above many of the other adults back when he lived in foster care. One of Sigma’s goals, when the Bells return, is to find out what happened to him.”

Rai had his palms up. What is this?

“What do the other residents think?”

“What do..? I wouldn’t know.” Kiria snuffled somewhere down the line. “His therapist  Kaye, what does she look like?”

“Hard to say. We didn’t get a chance to speak with her.” Sao thought. “I got to wondering why the Bells saved the kids, but not the sitter that night. I suppose this is a question about the character of the Bells, more than anything. They could streak through space and across planes of existence; surely one extra man couldn’t have been that much more trouble.”

Kiria went quiet. Rai had lowered his head to rest on his hand, thinking as well.

Finally, Kiria spoke. “I wonder... when I met Sigma, I was working on the set of his first movie role. I was assigned to him - he’d never had an assistant before. He was so nervous, a bit desperate, I think he wanted me around for the company more than anything. Too desperate, I thought.” She laughed. Tinkling, like the needles in her hair were clacking together. He could almost see them. “It all changed when he showed me the Bells. He was a completely different person with them, they were the secret that let him open up completely to me. He told me they had given him the courage to talk to me. Told him I was different. They thought I was pure, purer than most, and that made him feel confident I could be trusted.”

She was quiet again, for what felt like an age.

“I wonder now if the Bells don’t like me anymore. I get the feeling they’re pretty discerning, and I’m… hardly the most impressive person in the Group. Even if I’m ‘pure’, which I much doubt, I’m not an artist, or a singer or a model like the rest. I wasn’t the most accommodating when I found him in bed with two residents... Maybe that’s why Sigma’s moved on. The Bells are practically part of him, and if they don’t want me...”

“What’s this in relation to Desmond…?” Rai ventured.

“Right, right. No point being sentimental now. What I mean is… maybe this Desmond wasn’t all right. Wasn’t pure enough for the Bells, compared to the children that were saved.”

“Interesting point. Do you know of any other residents who have met Mr. Desmond A______?”

Kiria inhaled sharply. “I can ask, but I don’t think so. Aside from Racer, none of them really had any background in the military, and Delta’s the only one who’s also from Judgment street, and he never met Desmond. Sigma asked Racer about the man over dinner once, but Racer had come from a completely different squad, at a different time. Is this really going to help Sigma out of his current situation? Ah - do you suspect a resident may have done something…?”

She cut the too-joyous question short. Sao felt sad for her, the unfortunate source of happiness for her, and the awareness she had to nip in at the bud.

“It’s unsure as of yet,” Sao said, “but thank you for your time. And candor.”

A dry laugh, or was it a cough? “And for yours. Please, if there’s anything I can do to help…”

Sao thought anymore might bring them both to tears. “We’ll be in touch.”

---

“She really loves him,” Sao said.

“So does Delta, probably. And the residents he slept with. And why not? Raph’s pretty crazy about him too.” Rai checked the time. “Speaking of, Sigma should be arriving at HQ soon, and I bet Raph is gonna keep him nailed there as long as possible. I’m not all that eager to wade into that swamp at the moment - so, if you’re still awake, what do you say to a little detour?”

“Where to?”

“That call reminded me, last night I took another drive down Judgment. I pulled Desmond’s address and it turns out his house is still sitting there intact. Maybe there are some old neighbors, closer ones, who know a little more than the Joys or the two old guys on the lawn. And, uh...” Rai tapped the wheel. “A lot of the abandoned houses have their doors rotted through, or broken into.”

“You want to look inside.”

“It’s been reclaimed by the government. Technically, there’s no owner -- what, you don’t want to?”

“I’m not objecting.” Sao closed his eyes, thought better of it, and turned to watch the trees. “It beats being at home alone, watching Wings of Steel for the third time.”

“Why would you do that?”

“I don’t know. I had the impulse last night. And I had the strangest dream. That, or I was sleepwalking.”

The car jerked as if startled. Sao snickered - could it be? Had he managed to utter something that would cause Rai to take his foot off the gas? Half amused - the latter half was too exhausted to think of the consequences - he relayed the nights’ events, or what he thought they were.