(Vegetables) Chapter Twenty Two: Looking In Logical Places

The building that housed the Weekly Bugle offices were mostly dark. There were a few lighted windows for the handful of offices where their inhabitants were still at work, but not many.

“This isn’t looking promising,” said Felindre.

She pulled on the door.

“Locked. Bugger.”

A small flock of pigeons were milling around them, looking hopeful. Felindre looked at them, and very slowly and deliberately opened her bag.

The pigeons took off with a flurry of wings before she could get her slingshot out.

Morwen wheeled, as she heard the sound of the door shutting behind her.

“Excuse me!” she called after the man who had just left the building. “Do you work for the Weekly Bugle?”

“What if I do?” he replied, half tired and half suspicious, and entirely not wanting to have a conversation.

“Do you know Rosa, Rosa Gibson?”

“Of course I do,” he replied and started walking away.

“Sorry!” called Morwen, following him. “But have you seen her today?”

“Yes,” he said, “she was at her desk as usual today. Why do you ask?”

“She was supposed to be meeting us, and she’s late.”

“Well, she’s not in the office now,” he replied, and walked away.

“Thanks, that’s very helpful,” said Felindre sarcastically, watching him go.

“Now what?” asked Morwen.

“Let’s have a look around,” said Felindre. “Something’s not right here.”

The Weekly Bugle’s offices were part of a modern monstrosity of glass, and odd, multi-leveled floors, including some which were actually below the level of the street. All of them featured large, floor to ceiling windows of plate glass.

“God, it’d be like working in a fishbowl,” observed Morwen as they walked around the outside of the building, looking into the darkened, open plan offices.

Felindre was fiddling with her phone. Morwen caught a glimpse of a slowly moving light inside one of the offices.

“Did you just ring Rosa’s phone again?” she asked.

When Felindre nodded, Morwen said: “Do it again. And look, over there.”

Sure enough, the light that Morwen had seen, which had disappeared, reappeared when Felindre rang.

“That looks like Rosa’s phone to me,” said Felindre.

With a stab of her thumb, she hung up. The light went dark.

“One more time to test the hypothesis,” Felindre muttered, and rang again. Rosa’s phone dutifully lit up, and shuffled slowly across the desk.

“Her phone’s there. She wouldn’t have left it behind,” said Morwen.

“She’s still in the building, and she’s in trouble,” said Felindre.

“If it was anyone else, I’d say no, but this is Rosa,” said Morwen. “Next question, how do we get in?”

“Leave that to me,” said Felindre.