Lucian's Children

CHAPTER 11

I expected Henderson to contact me on Monday, but the day passed without a call from him. It appeared as though the children had taken our conversation to heart, and they went about their activities without a word about their father.

I was about to take the children to a nearby library on Tuesday when the phone rang just as we were about to leave. It was Henderson.

“Ms. Marks?”

“Yes.” I answered hesitantly.

“I wish to report on our findings. I am afraid it may not be what you had wanted to hear.”

“Whatever it is Mr. Henderson, I guess I need to hear it anyway…”

“In short Ms. Marks, the marine who had named Mr. Grey as his next of kin disappeared about four and a half years ago. A few weeks after his disappearance his partially decomposed body was found in a ditch a few miles from his base. As his neck was severed it was obvious that he had been murdered, but before a proper autopsy could be performed his body disappeared from the state morgue. A mystery that had, to this day, remained unsolved. I am afraid that I had no better luck in Manchester than my colleague had at the base.  There was indeed a Lucian Grey working for an engineering firm in Manchester, that is, until approximately four and a half years ago. Mr. Grey was up for promotion, was single and by all appearances had no noticeable problems. Then one day he just did not arrive for work as usual.  A couple of days later, after his secretary had tried to call his cell phone a few times, someone was sent to his apartment.  They found the place empty and deserted.  The caretaker said that Mr. Grey had handed him the key and a further month’s rent and instructed him to find a new tenant as he would not be returning to the apartment. The secretary, who is still working at the firm, identified Mr. Grey as being the same man on the photograph you gave me. After the military had made some inquiries and had found enough evidence that Mr. Grey could not possibly have been involved in his brother’s death everyone assumed that it was grief that caused Mr. Grey to relocate and not a further word was spoken on the matter.”

Suddenly certain things started making sense to me. Things like the ‘mission’ Lucian had spoken about in his letter.  He must be hunting down his brother’s killers. Or they may be looking for him. That was most likely also the reason why he had left us so suddenly, whoever was after him had most likely traced him to the United States and in order to protect us from becoming involved he decided to leave. Although Henderson’s information did not answer all my questions, it certainly answered a few.

“Ms. Marks, would you like us to continue our investigation?  The only other information we have to go on at this moment is that Mr. Grey must have gone to the United States soon after he had given up his apartment and from all the information, we had collected so far it is safe to assume that he did not leave the United Kingdom under his own name.”

Once again we had reached a dead end and this time, I had no further ideas, no more information I could contribute…zilch, nada, nothing. Yet I was not ready to give up and needed time to mull over the information I had received.

“Mr. Henderson, I need time to think about this. I shall contact you within the next few days and should I decide to let you continue the search for Lucian, I shall make an appointment to see you in your office, where we could discuss the matter further.”

I really felt sick having to tell Markus and Mary that even the wonderful Mr. Henderson could not find their father, but as they were standing in the doorway staring at me with their big innocent eyes, I knew I had no other alternative but to tell them the truth. I did however decide not to tell them that their uncle, their father’s brother, was murdered. Well, they did after all not even know that they had an uncle, so why worsen the situation for them, right?

The children were visibly disappointed, but we went to the library anyway and on our way back I stopped at the park, and we fed the squirrels with nuts we had bought earlier.

Once the children were in their room, stocked with hot chocolate and the books we had brought from the library, I closed my bedroom door and sat in the chair in front of the window overlooking the garden. I sipped my steaming mug of hot chocolate without tasting it.

I could see no reason for us to remain in Britain. Winter was fast approaching; Lucian was definitely not here anymore and I missed my home and my friends. Finishing my chocolate, I decided to talk to my parents about going home.

The opportunity to do so presented itself shortly before dinner when my mother knocked on my bedroom door and tentatively opened it.

“Are you all right Margot?”

My parents had been to spend the day with my aunt and uncle and my mother looked rosy cheeked and slightly windblown.

“Yes Mom, but we need to talk…”

My mother came in and closed the door behind her.  She sat on my bed and waited quietly for me to say something.

“Henderson phoned earlier.  The man we had thought to be Lucian’s brother was found murdered about four and a half years ago.  Shortly afterwards Lucian disappeared.  He left his job, his apartment without saying anything to anyone.  At this point both Henderson and I assume that that was when he took off and went to the United States, most likely under an assumed name as we could not find any travel records for a Lucian Grey. As Lucian was not a suspect in his brother’s murder, everyone assumed he had taken off as he was grieving for his brother, and no one made any further enquiries. Henderson is prepared to continue his search but both him and I believe that Lucian is definitely not in Britain anymore. Although Henderson did not say anything, I believe that whoever killed Lucian’s brother was probably also the reason why he disappeared on us, either because he himself is in danger or because he had found the killer or killers and am now pursuing them.”

“That is terrible news Margot.  Does the children know any of this?”

“Only that Henderson was unable to locate their father.”

“What have you decided Margot?”

“Mom, personally I think it would be a waste of our time and money to continue looking for Lucian here in Britain. This does not mean I wish to stop looking for him, it is just that I am afraid of jeopardizing his safety should I continue searching…”

“That could be true Margot…”

“Under the circumstances I feel I should call off Henderson and take time to think this over.”

“I tend to agree with you Margot.”

“Mom, I know I said we could stay in Britain for a couple of months, and I know you were looking forward to spending time with your sister…and that we had barely been here a month, but I want to go home…”

“Darling, if you want to go home, then we go home. It was a pleasure and fun to see my sister again, something which would not ever had happened had it not been for you, but I think your father would be more than happy to go home as well.  He misses his old cronies, his American soap operas, his backyard… no my dear, if you feel it is time to go home we’ll abide by your decision.”

“Mom, I actually wanted to tell you that if you had wished to stay on another month or so I’ll gladly pay for this little house for as long as you wish to stay.”

“No Margot, my place is at my home with your father and like I said, I am sure your father would also prefer to go home.”

“Are you sure Mom?”

“I’ll go speak to him, but I am ninety nine percent sure that he’ll agree with you.”

“Thank you Mom.”

By the time Mom called us to dinner she already had a word with my father and as she expected he was ready to go home as well.

The children showed little to no emotion when I told them that I was to make arrangements for us to go home sooner than expected. Not at the dinner table at least, but while tucking them in for the night Marcus suddenly hugged me.

“Thank you Mommy.”

“What for Marcus?”

“For taking us home.  Daddy said he’ll be back soon, didn’t he? Well, I believe him Mommy and I think it will be better for us to be home when he arrives…”

“Yes Marcus I agree.”

I still had almost three months of leave left  and decided there and then not to send the children back to the Webber Institute, at least not until I had to return to work.

Not only did I need to try and figure out what was happening to my children, but I also started having certain doubts and reservations about the Institute. I realized then that I needed time to think, think about everything.  I needed to digest the information I had gained about Lucian, had to evaluate my children’s situation and my own.  My mother was right, my children would not fit in with society or their peers under the current circumstances.

I telephoned Mr. Henderson the following morning and told him that I did not wish to pursue the matter any further. He sounded disappointed, but assured me that their costs to date had been covered by the upfront fee I had already paid and invited me to contact them without hesitation should I wish to retain their services again any time in the future.