Contractbound

By the time he entered his room, he still hadn"t finished his chocolate, so he went past his office after hanging his coat on the coat stand to his kitchen and put both his chocolate bars inside his refrigerator. He then went to his bedroom and turned on the light to undress. The bedroom was small, with only the bare necessities inside: a double bed, a wardrobe, and a bookshelf full of books. There was also a full-body mirror leaning against the wall next to the wardrobe. Graham would often use it for his disguise purposes.

"Val, what should we wear today? That area is infested with pickpockets. I"m not willing to give those slip-gibbets a single penning." mumbled Graham while searching through his wardrobe. He took out an old white shirt from the bottom and a pair of tattered brown denim pants. He then rubbed the dirty wall in his room and wiped his hand on the old shirt. The shirt, previously just looked old, now screamed homeless from its every pore. After all of that was done, he wore the shirt and pants, tucked the shirt in, messed up his short hair, and stood in front of the mirror.

"With this, I should look poor enough. For extra measure, I"ll hide my valuables under my shirt. Good enough, don"t you think so, Val?" he said, feeling proud of himself. "I deserve some more chocolate."

He went to his fridge in the kitchen and took some more chocolate pieces from the already eaten bar. After that, he took all his coins from various pockets of his trench coat and stuffed them inside a wallet. He also took out the ring and dropped both the ring and the wallet under his shirt. They rubbed against his belly, making him slightly uncomfortable.

"Sigh... no matter how many times I"ve done this, it always feels a little uncomfortable. Val, I think we"d better walk. Public motor carriages won"t take me in like this."

Graham walked past his office to the front door, took his keys, and locked the door behind him. He stuffed his keys under his shirt and walked down the stairs. It was already dark when he left the building. There were still many people on the street, however. Some of them were going home, some of them going somewhere else.

"It... it"s cold..." said Graham while crossing his arms. He walked faster to keep himself warm in the cold night. "Should I have worn my coat, Val? But I don"t want them slashed by pickpockets, like last time." he pondered. He decided against going back to grab a coat in the end and continued walking.

From Tuinstraat to Oosteindestraat, it would normally take someone around ten minutes by motor carriage. To walk there, it would be forty to fifty minutes depending on how fast the pace was. Graham walked faster than usual, both to keep himself warm and to get there soon. A lot of people were staring at him and when they saw him approaching, they would stay away from him.

"Val, seeing a homeless-looking man rapidly walking to your face must not be pleasant. I would do the same if I were them."

After some distance, he started to sweat profusely, and the smell made him even more homeless-like. He continued walking and heading to his destination, which took him around forty-five minutes despite his pace. He wanted to check his watch to see the time but he forgot he had taken it off when he got home earlier.

The situation on Oosteindestraat was very different from the streets he pa.s.sed earlier. There were only a few people and it was dark. There was a slum area nearby but after it got dark most of them would stay at home. There were many stores on each side of the street, mostly just a front. At the back, some of them were actually gambling parlors or brothels. There were also stolen goods stores there, but someone must know the right people to be able to find them.

Graham headed down the street and tried not to stand out by altering the way he walked. He hunched his back a little and limped. The more he walked deeper down the street, the more people he saw. There were a couple of man and woman making out under the street light, the man looked drunk, the woman like a prost.i.tute. There were groups of people sitting and drinking, yelling at pa.s.sersby. Three children could be seen walking around the street. They looked to be around twelve or thirteen years old.

Graham whispered, "Val, they are pickpockets. I"ll keep my arms crossed so they can"t reach my stuff. But who would want to steal from a homeless man anyway?"

The children were sizing him up for a while before deciding to ignore him. He kept walking down the street looking for the antique shop. A lot of stores had their lightbox sign turned on. On Graham"s left, the sign read "Sweet Love Hotel". It was obvious it was a hotel with a prost.i.tution service. Such hotels were common in the city. But of course, if the police came, they would just be normal hotels. The same applied to the restaurants. A little farther from the hotel, there was a Longese food restaurant. From the front, they looked like they were only selling noodles and dumplings and the like, but if someone went to the back, there would be a gambling den. It would also be gone by the time the police came.

Graham"s eyes were caught by the sign which only read "Antique Store" that was located in a small alley in the middle of two closed stores. The sign"s neon box wasn"t turned on, so it would be very easy to miss it.

"Val, who would build a store in a small alley with a turned-off sign? Doesn"t the owner want to make money? It doesn"t even have a name!" muttered Graham.

He went into the alley and observed the store from outside. The sign looked old, and the light probably couldn"t be turned on anyway. The building was made of wood, in contrast with the stores nearby that are built of concrete. The windows were dark, probably covered with shades from inside. On the only door, there was an open sign. He grabbed the handle and pushed the door.

"Huh? Is it closed?" he said in confusion. The door wouldn"t budge when he tried to push it. He then tried to pull the door-- and it worked.

"Why make a pull door in a small alley? You might hit someone!" complained Graham. As he entered the store, the wind chimes made a noisy clanging for a while, and then went quiet.

Inside, it was dark; the only source of light was a single lightbulb in the middle of the room. The store felt suffocating with the narrow paths and numerous stuff littering the room. There were antique vase, antique statuette, paintings, books, bra.s.s utensils, and some creepy looking dolls, all looked dusty. There were also rolled up parchments in the corner of the store and a grandfather"s clock whose ticking sound was the only sound in the room. Graham went to look at the pile of books and noticed some of them were written in languages he didn"t understand. There were also strange patterns on the parchments, but he couldn"t make out the rest since most of the parchments were rolled up.

He walked deeper into the store to find the owner, but there didn"t seem to be anyone. He saw on the wall there were different kinds of masks, a lot of them scary. There was a display case with what looked like a puppet inside, but on its face, there were no eyes, mouth, nor nose. It was just a faceless face. The skin looked very real, like human skin with a light brown tone. It wore a tattered t-shirt and shorts, with no shoes on. On its toes, there were real-looking toenails which appeared to have been clipped.

"This place gives me the creep." muttered Graham, "h.e.l.lo, is anybody here?"

Tick... tock...

Tick... tock...

Only the sound of the grandfather"s clock could be heard.

Since no one answered him, we kept walking around the store, until he found a door at the back of the counter. The door was covered by seash.e.l.l curtains that hung along the wall, so it would be easy to dismiss it as part of the wall. He knocked on the door lightly with his knuckles.

There was a voice from behind the door which belonged to a woman, "Yes...? Who is it? Come in, dear, it"s not locked."

It was a small room, looked like a dwelling. The room was only half as big as the store. There was a single bed on one corner, a door, probably leading to a toilet or kitchen, a sofa, and a table with a landline phone on it. There was an old lady sitting on the sofa reading a thick book. It was another book with letters Graham didn"t understand.

"Ma"am, isn"t dangerous leaving your store unattended like that? And your door unlocked?" asked Graham, genuinely concerned, observing the old lady at the same time.

The lady put the book down on the sofa. She looked to be in her late fifties, wearing a traditional Long Empire outfit with a long-sleeved high neck shirt and loose black pants. Her black hair, which mostly had turned grey, was tied up with a hairpin. Her feature was soft but still showed her beauty despite the wrinkles. She must have been a very pretty woman in her youth. She was a lot shorter than Graham, who was 182 cm tall. Her sitting posture was elegant, still showing signs of youthful vitality.

"No need to worry, dear. I would know if someone with bad intentions enters this place. Show me your palm." answered the old lady while extending her hands, waiting for Graham to give her his palm. Her voice was soft, like listening to water running through a ca.n.a.l.

"Eh? Okay..." he said while placing his right palm on the old lady"s hands, "I"m here to ask you something, Ma"am. Are you the owner of this place?"

"Yes, I am. Yes, I am." answered the old lady gently. "You are here to ask me about that ring, yes?" she placed her finger on Graham"s palm and ran it over his palm. Her finger felt warm, warmer than the room.

"How did you know? And are you reading my palm? Is that how you knew?" asked Graham inquisitively. He never believed in the supernatural, but he was not unfamiliar with it. He retracted his hand and crossed his arms again.

"Yes and no, that was the answer. It was more than that. It seemed that fate had brought you here. I tell you about the ring-- and more, but at a cost." she said a.s.suringly.

"What cost? And who are you?" he responded defensively.

"Only two guilders. Cheap, isn"t it, considering the knowledge you"ll learn after that. The money is necessary for the exchange. As for your second question, you can call me Paim. No need for formality even though I"m old, just Paim is fine."

"740 pennings?! That"s a lot of money. I can buy more than a hundred Dolcebambinis with that much money!" Graham shouted in disbelief. "Val, this whole thing is screaming scam from its every pore."

"Now, now, dear, no need to tense up. You can ask your employer to cover the cost. Ruben Arnaud, isn"t it? You can use my landline to call him." she tried to a.s.sure him and pointed at a landline phone on the table next to the sofa. She then got up at went to the door leading to the store and said, "Find me at the store when you are done. Oh, and you can also ask "him" first." she pointed at Graham.

Graham, caught off guard, could say anything for a while.

After coming back to his senses, he said, "Val, how did she know all this? I can only think of one logical theory; she"s been spying on us. She watched us go out of Ruben"s house, and she saw me talking to you. She didn"t even need to do it herself, she could have paid someone." He paused and thought. "Or maybe she did use magic. There are many things in this world that we don"t know. Well, first thing first, let"s call Ruben."

He reached out to the landline, took a slip of paper with numbers on it. He turned the dial and waited for the call to connect.

Ring...

Ring...

After a while, someone picked up the phone and said, "h.e.l.lo, this is the Arnauds household. Who am I speaking to?" The voice belonged to a man.

"h.e.l.lo. Is this Janssen? This is Graham Hymes. Can you give the phone to Mr. Arnaud? This is about the investigation."

"Wait a minute, Mr. Detective."

There was a sound of the phone being put down and faint footsteps walking away. After a while, the sound of footsteps now approached the phone.

"h.e.l.lo, Graham? Did you find anything?" the voice of Ruben full of antic.i.p.ation.

"Yes and no. I"ve gone to Emiel and he told me about this antique shop that might know about the ring. I"m here now, in fact, I"m using the landline of this store. The owner, an old lady, claimed that she knew about the ring, but..." he paused. It felt awkward to ask for money from his employer before finishing the job.

"I"m listening."

"But she would only tell me if we pay her two guilders. I have the money right now, but can you pay me back the money, since it is part of the investigation?"

"Two guilders? That won"t be a problem. For my son, that amount is cheap. I"ll give you your money back if you come here, and some bonus added if you can find my son soon."

"Thanks. I"ll come over soon in that case. Goodbye." said Graham in relief and hung up the phone.

"Val, thankfully our current employer is not some cheap b.a.s.t.a.r.d like our previous ones. Anyway, she also told me to ask you, but I already know your answer."

He then went out to the store to find the old lady Paim. When he touched the door handle, it felt warm in his hand. He closed the door behind him and saw her crouching next to the pile of rolled parchments. She took out one and beckoned Graham to come closer.

"Give me the money first, it is necessary to conclude the exchange." she offered her hand waiting for the money.

Graham reached into the wallet in his shirt and took out two guilder bills from it. The green-colored bill had the face of the previous president imprinted, with the Republic of Tulp"s coat of arm at the back. He unwillingly gave the money to Paim. Even though he knew Ruben would give him the money back, it was still a difficult thing for him to do. He then sat on the floor next to the old lady, ready for her to fulfill her end of the bargain.