The Mustache Man

Chapter Three

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CHAPTER THREE ON LINE MUSTACHE MAN

Carlton shuddered. For a moment Pete thought she was going to disappear again. Her small shapely body wavered in the air and her eyes poured out liquid dark fire then quickly returned to their inquisitive stare.

            “Pete, if there were angels on this earth we wouldn’t announce ourselves, would we?”

            Vargas began to walk up the ramps. Now and then he stopped to look at the screens that appeared to stream out of Carlton’s master monitor.

            “Yes, I’ve been looking at the data on these screens. What do you do here, Carlton?”

            “I study gaps in past cases, unsolved cases.”

            “Is that why there are so many dates with minutes seconds places and hidden links within those place marks?”

            “Yes.  

            “I hunt for gaps.”

            “For what?”

            “I study gaps in patterns-events, people…and now and then I solve a crime, usually a very old crime by noticing one of the gaps in the evidence.”

            “You’re an archivist of past inconsistencies.”

            “You don’t sound like a drifter.”

            “There’s a lot of very interesting people on the streets. We’re not all mentals, though of course I’m classified that way.”

            “Of course.”

            “And you disappear like me?”

            “When I’m called.”

            “Detective Jamis, that’s a very odd thing to say. Who calls you?”

            Carlton smiled. In the darkness that enveloped them both (Except for the light from her monitor and the screens that floated all around them) her smile had a slight shimmer to it.

            “All the screens are in black and white.”

            “Color distracts me.”

            “Why am I really here, Detective Jamis? Am I part of an experiment?”

            “Chance Montclair has been searching for you for years.”

            “I can’t go back to Chance and Jewels again and that bulldog Bert.”

            “Why?”

            “I can’t break her heart twice.”