Spider Quinn 18 A Birthday and Stormy Sonnets Part 4

 

Some of the café was still laid out for the party. Quinn gave William some of the leftovers as he held a cold pack to his head.

 

“I can’t believe I passed out,” William said.

 

“Again, I’m sorry I scared you,” Quinn said.

 

“It’s OK, Quinn, you were looking out for your sister.”

 

“Exactly,” Daria said.

 

“You’re lucky you have a sister who looks out for you. I’m an only child,” William said. “If I could write the beauty of your eyes, and number all your graces, the age to come would say this poet lies. Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces.”

 

“Sonnet 17,” Daria remarked.

 

“I guess you don’t just know his plays,” William said.

 

“I can't imagine being home schooled and never seeing anybody,” Quinn said.

 

“You don't miss what you never had,” William said.

 

Daria noticed some scars on one of his arms as he drank some of his coffee. “It seems like you don't get out much. Are your parents pretty strict?”

 

“They only want what's best for me,” William responded in a quiet tone.

 

‘He said that a little quickly,’ Daria thought. But that wasn’t much to go off of.

 

A sound could be then be heard outside. “Oh, it’s the milk delivery,” Quinn said.

 

“What time is it?” William asked.

 

“Nearly five,” Quinn answered.

 

William then looked to be in panic. “I have to get back,” he said as he ran out.

 

“We have to follow,” Daria decided.

 

 

Quinn wasn’t sure why they had to follow, but she had seen the scars too. She wanted to know what was going on, as well as make sure Daria didn’t in over her head in something.

 

 

Daria and Quinn kept the shadows as the followed William through the alleyways of Lawndale to his house which was two thirds of the way from the Historia in the direction of the cemetery, although they hadn’t passed it earlier.

 

Quinn kept an eye out for Ninja Talon, and Daria watched for the Enigma but saw that neither of them were anywhere nearby.

 

 

The house looked ominous to Daria, with it’s large hedge and a front yard with a large number of trees. “You want us to come in and tell your parents what happened?” she asked as she looked at the early indications of dawn in the east.

 

“No, I’ll be fine,” William said as he ran towards the house.

 

As he reached the front steps his mother came out. “William! Hurry!”

 

His father then came out wielding a gun! “I told you not to leave, boy!”

 

 

“We have to do something,” Quinn said to Daria from in front of the hedge. “It seems bad.”

 

“I agree,” Daria said.

 

 

The Morgendorffers entered the yard to find William’s father pointing the gun at them.

 

“I better not catch you around my son again! Now get out before I shoot you for trespassing!”

 

“We’re leaving,” Quinn said.

 

 

Lawndale Sun Herald

Tuesday, February 27, 2001

Search for Quentin Beck Continuing

 

Helen saw both Daria and Quinn come towards the house as she left to go to work early. “Are you seriously doing your investigations early in the morning on a school day?” she asked.

 

“It’s kinda like that,” Quinn said. “We met this kid and we think that his parents are abusing him.”

 

“Explain,” Helen said.

 

Daria then told her about going back to investigate the poem and Quinn following her, and then William appearing.

 

 

“We should call the police,” Helen decided as she took out her cell phone.

 

“Try to get officer Peterson,” Daria suggested. “If she’s on duty.”

 

“Isn’t she the one…”

 

“Yes,” Quinn said.

 

“I guess you have been interacting with her,” Helen said.

 

“She’s been at the Historia often,” Daria said.

 

 

Officer Peterson had just started her shift when Helen’s call had come in. She listened to the dispatcher’s description of what Daria and Quinn had found. ‘I knew that poem was trouble, but I didn’t realise what kind,’ she thought. “Tell her I’ll meet her and her daughters up the street.”

 

 

Quinn, Daria and their mother walked up to where Peterson and her partner were waiting a few houses down from William’s parents’ house.

 

“So, you two spent the night with him?” Peterson asked.

 

“Just the early hours,” Daria explained. “I had gone to the cemetery to see if there was another poem at the grave.”

 

“And I followed discretely,” Quinn said, quietly. She glanced at Peterson, wondering if her suspicions of her being SpiderGirl would be increased. ‘Quite likely, but that’s not what I want to dwell on right now.’

 

“And then what happened?” Peterson asked.

 

“He reacted to me shining my flashlight on him, and Quinn came up then in response, and he ran off in panic and tripped,” Daria explained.

 

“We took him to the Historia,” Quinn began before adding that they talked and that she had noticed the scars.

 

 

“…And then he wielded the gun and we ran,” Daria concluded.

 

“It’s definitely very concerning,” Peterson said. “We’ll be very careful. You two stay on the street side of the hedge.” She looked at Helen. ‘I don’t know how much she knows about her daughters’ activities. I suspect that she doesn’t know.’

 

 

Helen followed Xanthe to the front door. ‘These people definitely have something to hide,’ she thought.

 

Xanthe knocked on the door. “Mrs. Morris?”

 

The teen’s mother came to the door. “Oh!”

 

“I'm sorry to disturb you, but I'd like to speak to your son,” Xanthe said.

 

“I’m afraid that is not possible,” the mother said.

 

“Where is he?” Quinn said, having crept forwards to behind a tree in the yard.

 

“Quinn, let the officer deal with this,” Helen said.

 

“He’s not in any trouble,” Xanthe said.

 

The father came up behind his wife. “Look, I don't know what the hell's going on here officer, but our son is dead.”

 

“He died in the lake eight years ago,” the mother said.

 

“We just met him last night!” Daria, who had come forwards next to Quinn, said in her usual tone.

 

“My daughters say that you threatened them!” Helen said.

 

“I've never seen these kids before in my life. Look, it's taken all these years to get past this, and then you show up and pull a prank like this. What kind of parent would raise a child to do a wicked thing like that?” the father said.

 

 

Daria knew the father was lying, but kept her tongue still. She knew that she could make it more difficult. ‘They’re hiding him somewhere.’

 

 

“We’re awfully sorry. Look, Helen, we need to go,” Xanthe said.

 

The mother closed the door.

 

 

They walked away. “They’re lying,” Daria said.

 

“We saw him go into that house,” Quinn said.

 

“This is a very awkward situation,” Xanthe said, looking at all three of them.

 

“If he is in trouble, I don’t want it on our conscience,” Helen said. “We have enough to deal with, with grief and everything else.”

 

“I will get a warrant,” Xanthe said. “You can depend on that.”

 

 

Quinn thought about it as she, Daria and their mother walked back to the car. ‘SpiderGirl and Ninja Talon are going to investigate further after school,’ she thought.

 

“You should have stayed put, but I’m proud of you,” her mother said. “It’s that I don’t want to lose either of you too.”

 

“We’re being careful,” Daria said.

 

 

Daria managed to find Sandi alone before homeroom.

 

Sandi saw that Daria was anxious to tell her something. “Did you find another poem.”

 

Daria handed her a folded piece of paper. “It’s written there,” she said.

 

She read what Daria had written, which covered everything from when she met William in the cemetery to when his parents claimed that he had died. “That’s not right at all!” she said in an indignant tone. “I’m tempted to search for him right now, but you have only provided his first name and it’s likely they have snuck him out of Lawndale in the meantime.”

 

“Quinn and Ted are going to use the Lowdown’s resources to look into their background,” Daria added.

 

“Right, let me know what they find.”

 

“I will.”

 

 

At the same time, Quinn found Ted and told him about William and what his parents had claimed.

 

“That’s quite a lot of excitement,” Ted said.

 

“That’s not how I would describe it,” Quinn said.

 

“I mean, like when you helped Angie at the beginning of the year.”

 

“Quite similar, I suppose.”

 

“I will have a look at the records later,” Ted said.

 

“Thanks, Ted.”

 

 

In between the first and second period, Quinn ran into Brittany in one of the bathrooms.

 

“We have to investigate,” Brittany said after Quinn had told her what she and Daria had found.

 

“Hopefully, Lawndale’s first two superheroes can extract him from the danger,” Quinn said quietly.

 

“If he hadn’t been taken somewhere,” Brittany added.

 

“I hope not.”

 

 

After talking to Brittany, Quinn went to the Lowdown office at the same time as Daria to find that Ted had found something.

 

“Confirmed, there is a death certificate,” Ted said as he turned from the computer.

 

“It has to be fake,” Quinn said.

 

“Not that I don’t believe you, but could he be…” Ted began.

 

“I don't think a ghost could finish off three pieces of cake and two cappuccinos,” Quinn said.

 

“I was just checking,” Ted said. “Given superheroes in Lawndale, one who swings from webs and another with telekinesis…”

 

“Still a leap from that to ghosts,” Daria said.

 

“True,” Ted said. He turned back to the computer. “But I found something else.”

 

Both Daria and Quinn looked his shoulders. “The doctor who signed the death certificate was also involved in various clinical trials with Oscorp around that time.”

 

“Oscorp,” Quinn considered. “It comes back to them.”

 

“So, they were here eight years ago,” Daria said. “What sort of trial was this?”

 

“I haven’t managed to find that information yet. What I have been able to find was heavily redacted.”

 

“Of course.”

 

“But I will keep looking,” Ted said.

 

 

As school let out, Daria found Sandi and Jane on the roof, looking out over the town. “You still looking for extracurricular activities?” she asked Sandi.

 

“Yes,” Sandi answered. “But it will take a while longer.”

 

“It’s best not to rush it,” Daria said.

 

“But, what did Ted find?” Jane asked.

 

Daria then explained what Ted had found.

 

 

At the same time, SpiderGirl and Ninja Talon arrived at the Historia after leaving the school earlier. “How are we going to do this?” Ninja Talon asked.

 

“We have to go inside, and find out if he’s there or not, and then we’ll rescue him,” SpiderGirl answered. If the father is there, I can web him up quite quickly.”

 

“But is it a good idea?”

 

“Leaving him there certainly isn’t.”

 

“Good point,” Ninja Talon responded. “Let’s do this!”

 

They then swung off towards the Morris’ house, in the northwest.

 

 

At the same tine Harry entered his father’s hospital room. A CD player was going, playing a recording of something by Chopin. The music triggered a memory of a conversation they had a few weeks earlier. He sighed, it wasn’t something he wanted to think about.

 

 

SpiderGirl and Ninja Talon arrived at the Morris’ place and looked at the house from one of the trees in the front yard. “The upstairs windows are probably unsecured,” SpiderGirl said. “There are many that aren’t next to trees.

 

Ninja Talon nodded and they then swung over to the roof. SpiderGirl then hung upside down from the eaves to check each window.

 

‘It’s amazing how she can do that,’ Ninja Talon thought as she watched.

 

SpiderGirl opened the third window she tried and looked into the room beyond and found that it was deserted. “This one,” she said quietly.

 

 

Ninja Talon led the way out of the bedroom they had entered through. The upstairs hallway didn’t look any less creepy. “Now, we’ll go along and open each door as we go.”

 

“Got it.”

 

 

Less than a minute later, they saw that William wasn’t on that floor. “I bet he’s in the basement,” SpiderGirl groused quietly as they crept down the stairs.

 

“That seems to be the way,” Ninja Talon said.

 

SpiderGirl came to the bottom of the stairs and looked around. She then heard a television in a room nearby and her Spider Sense tingled.

 

“Spidey?”

 

“It’s one of the parents watching TV.”

 

Ninja Talon nodded as they went in the opposite direction.

 

 

Down in the basement they found William amongst a small library and chained to a rail.

 

“SpiderGirl and Ninja Talon?” William asked. “What are you doing here?”

 

“Our secret identities are at Lawndale High,” SpiderGirl answered. “We heard about you from one of the Morgendorffers.”

 

“What have your parents done to you?” Ninja Talon asked as she took out a hairpin.

 

“It’s not what you think!” William said.

 

“We have to get you out of here,” SpiderGirl said.

 

“Done,” Ninja Talon said as she finished picking the lock and uncuffed William.

 

“How did you do that?” William asked.

 

“Lot’s of practice,” Ninja Talon answered. “Come on.”

 

 

Ninja Talon tried not to let William’s collection of Shakespeare distract her as William resisted SpiderGirl.

 

“Don’t!” William said. “Last time I went out in the daylight I hurt my dad.”

 

‘I wonder why,’ Ninja Talon thought.

 

“William, no one deserves to be locked up like this,” SpiderGirl said.

 

“You don’t understand!” William said in a distressed tone.

 

“You think I don’t understand?” SpiderGirl asked.

 

 

SpiderGirl considered webbing up William and dragging him out that way. ‘No, that’s not the way to go,’ she thought. She looked to Ninja Talon. “I’ll take his hand.”

 

Ninja Talon nodded. “I’ll take the other.”

 

Both heroes took one of William’s hands.

 

“You’re just going to drag me out?” he asked.

 

“Maybe, but this isn’t good for you,” SpiderGirl said. “That the Morgendorffers got threatened!”

 

“There!” Ninja Talon said as she pointed to the hatch up to the back yard.”