NaNoWriMo Day 12: 9,000 of 50,000
Things are starting to get a little strange in Seattle, Washington.
To read the previous chapters head HERE!
Chapter Seven
Theo froze looking at Stanley as he held the door open for the gentleman who was leaving. Theo’s body turned as the man approached the front of the shop his best friend Ophelia putting a smile on her face to greet the new customer. Theo watched as her smile faded and she pointed toward the bathrooms near the back of the shop. When Stanley headed that way Theo made eye contact with Ophelia telling her to come to him. She rolled her eyes but headed toward him anyway.
“What?” she asked putting her hands on her hip, challenging him.
“That man,” Theo said pointing toward the bathrooms.
“Yeah, what about him?” she asked.
“That’s the man Ophelia.”
“Are you serious?” she asked turning to look at the bathrooms. “He’s harmless Theo.”
“How do you know that?” he challenged her.
“Because. He is clearly homeless and he just needed a bathroom to use.”
“How is that indicative of his level of harmlessness though?” Theo responded.
“I-” Ophelia began throwing her hands up in the air in defeat. “Okay Theo let’s just play this out. Say you’re right. Say this guy is actually a person who kidnaps teenagers and uses his knife for god knows what.”
Theo nodded his head encouraging her to continue. “What evidence do you have of the illegality of his supposed criminal activities?”
Theo huffed. “I don’t yet! Ophelia I can’t explain it, but something is off about this guy.”
“Theo-” Ophelia stopped because the man was now exiting the bathroom and heading to the front door. Both Ophelia and Theo looked at the man who was oblivious to their staring as he made his way out of the shop. He looked left and right before making his way toward the Starbucks that was nearby. “Okay, what is he like making his rounds to the coffee places today or something?”
Theo laughed. While this was a bit of a tense moment between them he still appreciated Ophelia for her territorial attitude toward Ballardite. She had been working here for quite some time and was pretty clear on her thoughts toward the nearby coffee shops.
“Ophelia I don’t need much from you. I just need you to believe me or at least entertain my ideas.”
Ophelia raised her eyebrow doing her best not to roll her eyes in the process. “Theo you are an incredibly smart, highly logical person. Until I see some evidence I am going to have to vehemently disagree with you, but I still love ya pal,” she said patting his shoulder and heading back to the counter. Theo supposed that was the best he could do for now so he got back to this work.
A few hours later, and a few hundred emails later too, a pair of teenage girls walked in with the after school rush. While school had just began Theo was still surprised to see so many of them hanging out at Ballardite instead of the Starbucks nearby. While Ophelia was territorial, Theo was perturbed by the overrunning of youths at his coffee shop office.
“Tiffany was such a terrible person though. I mean she told Alex that no one would ever be his friend because of the way his eyes looked. I mean who says that?” one girl said as the two of them sat down near Theo.
“I know. She once told me that my hair looked like it hadn’t been washed in weeks. How rude!” the other girl remarked.
Theo’s ears all but perked up as he overheard the conversation being exchanged about the missing girl. He took out one of his earbuds to listen to the rest of the conversation.
“I will admit it is a little scary though. I mean where could she be?”
“I know. It scares me because sometimes I have to stay after school really late and I have to walk home. I mean what if someone like took her Stacey?”
Stacy sighed dramatically making Theo roll his eyes. Teens he thought. “Shelly it’s going to be ok. She’ll probably be at school tomorrow and laugh at all of us who’ve been freaking it out.”
“Yeah, you’re right Stac. She’s probably getting a kick out of this. So, didn’t James look cute today?”
At that Theo put his earbud back in but found the conversation quite enlightening. Theo decided to log this in his Stanley notebook as a possible concern. As he pulled out the notebook Theo chuckled to himself because he was beginning to think of himself as secret detective.
A few hours later Theo decided to wrap up his work for the day and head home. Ophelia had already left without a word to Theo after the lunch rush. So, Theo decided to stop by the library on the way home to pick up some books to fill his evening with reading. As he perused the shelves Theo stumbled on a section of the nonfiction books that he usually skipped over, but now was intrigued by because of the librarians recommendation card. The book that was being recommended was titled “Mindhunter” and the back told Theo that the author recounts some of his most famous cases and describes various tactics used to identify and prosecute serial criminals. For Theo he realized this is exactly what he needed to spend his time doing.
If he was going to track the movements of Stanley through the lens of being a criminal he had to get inside the mind of a criminal. Theo excitedly took the book off the shelf and grabbed a few others he’d been meaning to read for some time and made his way to the checkout area. As Theo reached his home he quickly rushed to his room and opened to the first chapter of “Mindhunter.” At some point Theo had fallen asleep because the dream of Stanley coming toward him with his knife felt startlingly real until Theo realized he was in his room and Stanley was nowhere near him. Theo sighed and turned off his light before crawling into his bed and dozing off easily again.
Follow along with me this month at Jenna Pratt!
