Chance was flipping the piece of paper Jett had given him a few days ago over and over in his hand, thinking. The general atmosphere of the house had changed in recent days, and he sensed something was going down…something he neither wanted part of, most likely, or needed to be around, whenever the shit really hit the fan. He was grateful to Claude and Dave for all their help, and the dog, Borky, had been nice companionship as well. He didn’t want to go back on the streets, but he wasn’t sure what to do. Lacking other options coming to mind, he made the call.
“Hello?”
“It’s Chance. What kind of help did you have in mind?”
“Oh hey. Doin alright?”
“Yea…but there’s been some crap going on around here. I have no idea what, but I’ve got a gut feeling that says I should bug out, you know?”
“Yea, I get ya. As for the help, I’ve got friends in varied places, they might know of somewhere that’ll treat you like a person instead of a number.”
“Would appreciate that.”
“How soon you looking to light out of there?”
“Honestly, the sooner the better. Both Dave and Claude seem busy and heavily preoccupied, but I’m not sure where I could stay, and don’t exactly know anyone else but you.”
“I’d offer to let you stay with me, but I don’t have a place of my own. Kinda couch surfing as it is myself. Gimme a second to think.”
” ‘kay.” Chance said, waiting.
Jett thought for a few minutes, his mind trying to connect to what few people he knew to see about a place to stay, but quickly ruled that out and started connecting to people Chance was connected to and came up with an idea.
“Do you know Claude’s daughter by Chance?”
“Mandy? Yea….we’ve met and hung out a few times…her and Dave’s son.”
“Ring her up one or the both of them and see if you can stay there for the time being. I know it won’t be the greatest solution, but it should suffice for now.”
“I don’t know whyI didn’t think of that. Thanks man.”
“No problem. I’ll get back to you as soon as I find anything out for you, ok?”
“Yea, sure. Later.”
“Later.”
============
Back as this hotel room, Chris was using mindmapping software to try and connect the dots. Sure, pinning crap to the walls and running string over it might be initially easier, but it also tended to make one look like a crazy person. This way, if he had to leave in a hurry, all he had to do was grab his laptop – he wouldn’t have to leave his work behind. His mother had traveled back to England, and he’d made the excuse that he wanted to stay and get to know his newfound family more, which seemed to delight her. In reality, he wanted to solve a puzzle that had been bothering him since the get-together dinner some time ago.
It was there that he had met his half-sister. He was initially taken in by her beauty, and was happy to know he had a sibling. Gradually however, over the course of the evening, he started noticing oddities about her. It wasn’t something he could quite place, and it bothered him to no end that he couldn’t do so, when normally he was quite adept at putting things together. This had eluded him for a couple of weeks at least before he’d gotten a decent camera with a good telephoto lens, and got to work doing some hunting of the social media and public records variety to figure out where she lived.
He’d started discreetly staking out the place, trying to keep an eye out for when she left the place, but he never seemed to catch her. He did see her friend on a regular basis, so he’d started keeping tabs on him, figuring that eventually he might run into her. He’d lucked out recently. He’;d been about to give up for the night when he noticed them both leaving, taking off in separate cars. He took a chance, and followed his sister, though soon realized they were headed to the same location. He pulled up some distance away, and took position, trying to take photos though windows of the house they’d gone into, to add to the rest he’d taken over previous days.
He didn’t see much. He was getting frustrated, and about to give up when the door opened. He saw his father, and his father’s friend exit the house and sit down to talk. For the life of him he couldn’t hear what was being said, be he took a moment to dare and take a shot, then just waited. After several minutes, they left. Not long after, his sister’s friend, the one he’d been following, left as well, with a guy he’d seen him with before, and presumed was someone he was dating. He waited a little longer before moving back to his car. Just a little longer he told himself – and his patience paid off. He saw his sister leave a half hour or so later, and made headway to follow her.
He was hoping for more than an outreach center. A flashing neon sign at this point pointing to her secrets would have been nice. With annoyance, he flopped backward in his seat. it wasn’t until his stomach rumbled that he decided to call it a night and get some food, before heading back and analyzing photos. He was determined to find out what was just so…off…about her. Newly resolved, he drove off, vowing to keep things up until he got answers, taking things up a notch or two if he had to.