Carson made it back to the office incident free. No one asked him why the long face, no one was surprised he didn't smile at them, and no one else was in the mood for smiles, either. As a Catcher, everyone knew it was hard to deal with murderers, which was part of the reason why everyone had such a morbid sense of humor.
None of them would have guessed Carson had become one of them. And keeping it a secret wasn't the hard part. Keeping the smile off his face was. He couldn't help feeling the exhilaration of time, so much time. Carson was thirty, so he hadn't been exactly "old," but having three hundred years stretched out in front of him felt so amazing.
But in the Time Killer Catcher department, genuine smiles attracted attention, and attention was the last thing Carson needed.
As soon as Carson made it to his cubicle, he filed the Goldie Rose case a "missing." He claimed that he got to the house and found nothing, an abandoned house. Cases often ended that way, and after submitting his report, Carson was beginning to feel better about all of this. Well, despite the fact that he was a real murderer, now. That probably wasn't going to get better.
In the middle of Carson's dilemma, his boss walked up to his cubicle.
"David, something's up," Allison, his boss, said sternly. Carson nearly jumped out of his chair.
"What do you mean?" Carson asked, measuring his voice. Did his report sound suspicious? Or did he have that look now, the Time look?
She looked at the scrawl of bad handwriting on Carson's mobile-pad. He'd been nervously making notes of Time Killer habits, trying to avoid them, but most were just his mother's nervous ticks.
"Cavil's child's been murdered. That's the sixth in as many months. Catcher children are being targeted," Allison pointed out.
"You know how I feel about speculation," Carson said, relaxing a notch. "Tex, we've caught every single one of those Time Killers as soon as they struck," he said, using her nickname for good measure. "They're not related. It's just gotten harder to contain."
"What makes you say that?" Allison asked. "There's no evidence of any kind of large leak of information. And didn't you just say you hated speculation?"
Carson started and then stopped. He almost told her what he meant. It wasn't information that was leaking. It was the Killer population. It was himself.
"I just had a hunch," Carson said finally. "It's probably nothing. Don’t worry about it."
"Good," Allison said. "Oh, and I'm going on break for next week, Armistice Day and all. If you're going on break, be sure to tell Stan."
Carson nodded. "Have a nice time."
"You too." She started walking away.
"Bye," Carson called after her. She stopped.
"Don't say goodbye," she said. "Remember?"
Carson sighed. His boss had this notion about goodbyes. "Sorry, Tex. Forgot you hate goodbyes."
"Don't sweat it." Allison disappeared into the sprawl of cubicles.
New case closed, Carson thought. New Time Killer in custody. He had a plan because Carson knew he needed help if he was going to get anywhere without ending up in a padded cell. 609Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE9mTbxjKnn
Carson picked up his handheld and called Cavil, the coworker who most recently lost his daughter to Time Killing.
"Carson?" Cavil said, picking up his end.
"Hey, you know where they put Harrison?" Carson asked. "I’m sorry to bother you, but…"
"No problem," Cavil responded, though he sounded like it was hard for him. "He's holed up in cell 29. Why?" 609Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJJwxwG1ORo
"Research…" Carson said, leaving it at that.
"Kay, no problem. Bye, kiddo," Cavil said before hanging up.
Carson sighed. Cavil was one of the best Time Killer Catchers. He was one of the few who was stationed in one of the surviving above ground cities. Carson had always wanted to be like Cavil, but he knew he could not be further from him in his current state. 609Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMP96zQ8pAQ
