Southend

3.

by MistThing, published on December 25, 2000

Gabriel stretched his aching legs and rubbed his eyes, now red with lack of sleep. He stirred uneasily on the hard wooden church bench near the aisle. The last time he slept was ...what, fifteen, twenty hours ago? He had to take that damn last minute flight to reach bloody nowhere, switching two airplanes and getting acquainted with IcelandAir...Hell, he hardly remembered his own name. What do I do now, he tried to gather scattered bits of thought.

-"Yah need help, Son?" Gabriel raised his head, noticing only now the church minister.

-"No, Father"-Gabriel smiled wearily-"I just walked in looking for a place to rest."

-"I wish yah well on yer way then" the priest walked away.

-"Actually, Father-" Gabriel called after him.

-"Yes?"

-"Is there a phone someplace I can use?"

...Gabriel listened, holding the receiver, at a pay phone booth a couple of houses from the church. The second long-distance call in twenty-four hours...got to ditch this habit. Unwillingly, he tensed as a woman's voice answered.

-"Nakimura residence. Who is speaking, please?"

-"Ah...this is Knight... Gabriel Knight. Could I speak with Mr. or Mrs. Nakimura?"

-"You are speaking with Mrs. Nakimura"- the voice answered coldly after a short pause.

-"Oh, I'm sorry - I..."-Gabriel bit his lip, not knowing quite how to go on -"It's about Grace...I mean-"

-"I would have slammed the phone down by now, Mister Knight"-interrupted Mrs. Nakimura-"if my daughter didn't have the uttermost appreciation for you."

-"I believe that your daughter is alive,"- said Gabriel hoarsely-"I need your help. I am going to find her, whatever you think of me -"

-"I blame you for her death, and you only."

-"Grace is very dear to me, Mrs. Nakimura." -he spoke heatedly-"I can't accept, no, I won't ever accept, the thought that she's dead. Please, just tell me where Grace was stayin' in Scotland!"

-"Hold on, Mr. Knight..." -there was another pause and Gabriel couldn't guess what to expect. Then there was a rustle of paper, and Nakimura said, "write this down. The Allison Guest House, Kirk and Annie's, street of St. Anthony's, Southend."

-"I want you to know that I-" Gabriel heard a soft click sound and stopped, realizing that there was no one at the other side of the line anymore. He hung up and stepped out of the booth, flinching in pain as the sun hit his sore eyes.

...He made his way back to the Glasgow airport, and slept through the short flight to Campbeltown, Kintyre. As he got off the plane, exhausted and feeling sick down to his bones, Gabriel knew that there was a name for the end of the end of the world, and it was Southend.

...He knocked on the Allisons' door, and was greeted by a short, plump woman. "I'm Annie, lady o' the place" she winked at Gabriel and went on worriedly, "What happen' tah you? Yah're lookin' a bit peely wally! Yer face, lad, lookin' like sh*te!"

-"Ah...thanks?" replied Gabriel.

-"Come in, sit down!"-she dragged Gabriel inside.

-"Appreciate it"-he smiled at her-"Nice place you got here."

-"Aye, the family business."

-"Do you know a Grace Nakimura?" he asked straightly.

Shaken by the question, her smile disappeared. "Why d'yah ask?" she said "Are yah the bloody police, too? I sent them buggers back Down South!"

-"Do I look like the police, Annie? I am Grace's friend. What do you mean, 'down south'?"

-"One o' them buggers waved his inspector's ID at my face yesterday night"- replied Annie angrily-"and it said there, Metropolitan Police, Special Branch. And the bassa had a Scottish accent, on top o' all. So I told him tae go back down south!"

-"Sounds like Detective Saunders to me"-sighed Gabriel-"Did Grace live anythin' behind, Mrs. Allison?"

-"Nar, they took it all."

Gabriel looked at her. She wasn't telling something. "Grace didn't leave anything for a...Gabriel Knight?" he tried.

-"No."

Might as well try that plan B again, he thought tiredly. "Did she leave anythin' for a...Blake Backlash, then?" he asked.

-"So you're him..." Annie Allison whispered. She went upstairs, and came back down holding a little leather wrapped notebook. She handed it to Gabriel. "She said you might stop by, Blake Backlash, and that if yah ever do, then I should give you this."

So, that was Grace's way of making sure her notes would reach his hands, only. And play a little joke on him. He opened the small leather-cased book, his hands a little unsteady. The first sentence, written in Grace's neat handwriting, said -

"Hello, Blake.

If you are reading my private notes, then something must have gone wrong - - -"

Last update: October 24, 2007

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Southend

3.