The payoff was pretty clumsy. Not meant to be subtle. Whoever sent the money, probably took a cursory glance at my social meida page for the business and guessed I’d take the money to forget the girl. They were “half right. Money cleared and deposited, I set about how to wrap the case up without sticking my neck out too far. Since the offered story was emergent
powers of a teen girl going haywire, I could send it to the desk of Jolene Janice, but chances were she was busy with the clinic file case. I didn’t have enough facts to make her think that they were connected. No, I needed more before I could ask for help. So, I checked my notes of where the girl had been before she died.
Luckily, I took screenshots of her posts, while I had access and before
they were taken down. “Presumably”, by her parents.
All her movements up to the last day were accounted for so, first
thing was to check along her normal route before the events. Where did her day start? Was it normal? The girl’s friend was suspicious in the first after the girl didn’t show up for an event that had been planned for a long time. The girl’s feed showed that she had planned to go but never showed up. so what to do?
” Let’s see if she liked to eat at any place reasonable.”
The girl’s family was decently well off, and she got an after school job for pocket money. Which she spent on morning latte’s, a once a week get together at a restaurant, and employer discount clothes.
“Well I hadn’t had my daily coffee. Maybe they have a cheap simple black coffee.”
That notion was killed as soon as I walked in. In my mid forties, I was
the oldest person in sight.
Ok, blending in may be a bit difficult.
After buying an overpriced espresso, with burned grounds, I took 5minutes to just listen to the room. Some kids that age get pretty tight-lipped if someone they don’t know, or is just that much older than them, starts asking questions. Fortunately, pull your phone out and people assume you’re in your own world. Even though you could be recording everything.
” Hey did you see that “the Friend posted about the girl missing?
Yeah, bet she’s ticked about her flaking on the concert.
“They’d only been bragging about it nonstop for over a month…”
“Do you think she’s right? and something’s wrong?”
“No, she’s been flakey for a week now. Remember she blew off the
thing last week?”
Next, I talked to the barista, but I couldn’t get any more details than what I overheard. Not every detective carries a loose fifty-dollar bill to pay for info. So, I left the place of overpriced coffee and thought about the timeline. The timing was sold for the week she died. But her social media feed went dark for two days the week before. I was mulling this over at my usual place. …
People don’t often socialize in fast-food restaurants. They certainly don’t stay long. So, when people meet up there it stands out. A greasy spoon joint is a bit different. People walk sit down, and stay for a while. Sometimes they even talk to each other. It makes having a meeting, that you don’t want to draw too much attention to, easier to arrange. Plus, if you go to one with competitive pricing and generous portions, you may get food for two meals.
That meant when Jollene Janice (a fellow private eye with considerable superstrength and a reputation for taking cases concerning the variant community) “coincidentally” walked in and spotted me. I could
share a table with her and not have it be assumed that two private investigators were meeting up to exchange information.
“What’s the word on the clinic case?” I asked.
“Hey, I just got done consulting on that Amp dealer case. I’ve barely touched ground on this one. Police are being tight with the details, thankfully, the company hired me and gave a little decent info.”
“Enough to fill in the gaps or give any leads?”
“A lot of data is at risk. Identities, powers. They can’t be sure of what the guy’s purpose was, theft or vandalism. They are worried some files are missing, the police are more worried about the possibility of an undocumented level five walking around.”
“What do you think?”
“Like I said, it’s too soon. Only been on the case a couple of days since it happened. Hard to tell. The police think that a variant wanted to erase his or her files after the fact. But, I don’t think so. Variants take a long time to figure out whether they will go to any clinics or not. Some can’t decide even up to when they know they’re about to emerge. Most of us seem to do it suddenly or secretly. But not too many go back on the decision once we’ve decided. Now what about you? You actually working on something?”
“Not Really.”
“Well, I’ll let you know when I’m free to pick up more work.”
It wasn’t the most productive of exchanges, but Jollene said she keep an ear out for me if anything came up that seemed relevant to the girl. Well lunch had, she tipped our waitress and I pocketed the to-go box as we headed out to our work.
They came from the sides as we stepped out of the dinner. I usually let other detectives I meet with leave before me, just in case some antagonistic party or someone with a grudge is about to come after them.
Jollene has a combative personality that can rub some unsavory people the wrong way, whether she’s on a case or not. Unlucky for me, I was still trying to get her help on the way out.
I saw four at first. One thug, with skin like a truck tire, tried to run up and clock Jollene on her right before she could pivot around. Even though she could have taken the hit, she grabbed the incoming fist and threw her assailant over her shoulder into the guy coming straight at me. The guy left standing took out a hand cannon and I put Jollene’s bulletproof self between us. That left one thug with glowing hands coming at me. I drew my baton and kept him at a distance. The other thug fired a round at Jollene that knocked her back way more than it should have. Glowy hands made a clumsy rush. I managed to slip the baton under his arm, without getting melted by the heat coming from the hand, and put him in an aggressive and terrified armbar, which dislocated his shoulder, then redirected his face into the pavement. Though before he passed out, his hands managed to burn through the pavement. Making a nice pothole in the diner’s parking area. Another shot from big-gun put a crater in the building over my head and I had to dodge the debris before I could back up Jollene. Thankfully, she had managed to “disarm” the guy. She literally almost ripping his arm off. But she put him down before he could get another shot off. Tireface, managed to come to, and made the wise decision to try to run away. Unfortunately for him. rocks from big-gun’s bad shot gave her something to fastball into the back of his head.
Jollene took the one guy left conscious to the police. Technically, the police took custody and Jollene rode along as extra ‘help’. But her reputation made the officers feel better about their chances. The whole thing got me thinking. Someone could still be watching me work the case. I would need a smoke screen of some kind to move around. It was probably going to cost me all my extra spending money, but once I entered the Seeing Eye Café, I would be able to spot my tail.