I was surprised to get a call from Detective Jayne so soon.
“I’ve been reading through this case file again.” She said.
“Yes?”
“You said this glamour thing was passed on by touch?”
“Well kind of. It’s passed on person to person like an infection.”
“So what about her family?” She said.
“Eh?”
“There was no direct link between her family and the crime scene. We asked a local officer to break the news. Could a glamour be passed down the phone?” She said.
“I don’t think so.” I still didn’t see what she was getting at.
“Then why didn’t her family care?” She said.
“Oh.” I said. There was a long silence. “We’ve missed something.” I said.
“Damn.” She said.
“Either the glamour is much more powerful than I theorised or there’s something strange about our victim or her family, or both. Or…” I said.
“Or…?” She said.
“There’s something about the woman’s desk that’s driving me crazy. You know how sometimes you meet someone and they seem normal but then you notice something odd or off about them and then you suddenly realise that they are properly mental?”
“Only about three times a week. You do know I’m a cop, right?” She said.
“Ok, sorry, stupid question. Well it’s like that only not as obvious.” I said.
“It could just be plain old family break-down.” She said. “Maybe her parents just aren’t very nice. She did move a long way from them…”
“But still. People usually at least pretend to be upset. Don’t they?” I said.
“You’d be surprised. I’ll let you get back to it. Keep me posted.” She said, and rang off.
Department Y 