NaNoWriMo Day 17: 14,610 of 50,000
Theo and Ophelia’s friendship may be on the fritz…….
To read the previous chapters head HERE!
Chapter Twelve
“How can I help you?” a gruff looking man in uniform said from behind a large desk.
“I need to speak to a detective,” Theo said softly, timidly. Alice wasn’t far behind him observing this interaction.
“Oh you do, do you?” the man asked finally looking up at Theo. “For what reason?”
“Three women have gone missing within walking distance from my home in the past six months and nothing is being done to find them. I have a lead on who could be behind it.” Theo wasn’t sure at what point his mind had concocted such an eloquent statement, but he was thankful nonetheless.
“A lead? What are you some detective in training? Go home young man.”
Theo wasn’t going to take that for an answer. “I have to insist.”
The man behind the desk was showing his irritation more clearly now as he stood up from behind his desk and peered over to look at Theo more closely. “Look, mister?”
“Henderson. Theo Henderson.”
“Mr. Henderson,” the man continued, “for tips related to ongoing investigations you must fill out a form online or make a call directly to our tipline. We don’t accept walk-in leads. Now, have a good day.”
Theo sighed dramatically and began to turn when a nearby officer caught his eye. The man was staring at him as he sipped out of a coffee mug.
“What are you staring at boy?” he asked after a beat.
Alice and the man behind the desk looked at the officer. Alice reached for Theo’s arm urging him to leave. “I could ask you the same.”
“What did you say to me?” the officer asked moving more quickly toward him while Alice was simultaneously pulling Theo to the exit.
“Officer Kent!” the man behind the desk screamed and suddenly it felt like the whole precinct was looking at them.
“Yes, sir!” the officer who was charging toward him suddenly stood up straight.
“Stand down. This man was on his way out,” he said settling back down in his seat.
“Yes, sir!” The officer gave Theo one last look of contempt before turning and making his way up a nearby set of stairs.
“Theo, let’s go!” Alice said through gritted teeth. Theo was tempted to follow that officer because clearly he knew something. He had to be listening to the conversation that was taking place.
The next day Theo made his way to Ballardite as usual noticing on his walk to the shop that the white van was nowhere in sight. As Theo walked in he noticed the familiar face of Ophelia whipping down the countertop.
“Ophelia!” Theo said aloud feeling a rush of relief as he all but ran to the counter.
“Theodore,” she said still clearly irritated with him, but Theo didn’t care.
“Where have you been?” Theo asked looking closely at her face for bruises or cuts, none to be found.
“I needed to get away for a bit. I went to Portland.”
“Did you hear what happened to me?” he asked wondering what had become of their friendship.
“Yeah, Tyler told me.”
“Oh, so you were talking to Tyler?”
Ophelia moved to begin making his coffee. “Look Theo. I can’t exactly be around someone who is obsessed with some random homeless man.”
“Oh.” Theo knew she was upset with him, but not to the point of ending their friendship. “I just need some space for a bit, ok? Can you give me that?”
Girls. Theo thought. “Sure, Ophelia. Just find me when you’ve figured out how to be a real friend.”
Theo didn’t even grab his coffee because he turned and headed right out the front door not wanting to be anywhere near Ophelia. As he left, he noticed the coffee shop across the street. The most recent female disappearance put this coffee shop on Theo’s radar. So, he decided this would be the place he’d spend his working day at.
Upon entering Theo noticed that nearly every table was taken. This wasn’t necessarily unsual as most coffee shops were filled during the weekdays with both patrons and tourists. However, having been a mostly window sitter from the across the street he had never seen this shop so packed before. As Theo went to order his coffee remarked about the popularity of the place today.
“Oh not just today. It’s been like this since Johanna went missing. Curious, obsessed people,” the barista answered.
“Oh,” so her name was Johanna Theo thought, “do you know Johanna?” The man looked up clearly not amused. True, he’d probably gotten this question a fair few times. “I’m sorry. Never mind.”
“No, it’s fine,” he sighed handing Theo his receipt, “yes I know her and she is the sweetest person alive. Seriously, deals with some pretty dark stuff in her life yet always has a smile on her face.”
“Dark stuff?” Theo asked curious now.
“Yeah, her mom beat up her dad when she was younger. So, she got put into foster care and bounced around houses never finding a safe home. Ended up living on the streets, that sort of thing,” he finished.
Theo added this to his brain hoping he would remember it so he could write it in his journal. “Is she still living on the streets?”
“No,” he shook his head, “she found a shelter that takes in young woman.”
“Oh, good. Well, I’ll keep my eyes peeled,” Theo said immediately regretting it.
“Yeah, sure.”
Thankfully, Theo’s order was up so he grabbed his coffee and found one open seat. As soon as he sat down, Theo opened his battered journal and wrote in this new information about Johanna. Now, the only woman he didn’t have a name for was the homeless woman. “Wait a minute,” Theo said aloud to himself. He had just noticed a pattern amongst the missing woman. As he recalled his research on serial killers he recalled that many of them targeted a specific group of people that the killer feel deserved some kind of violence inflicted upon them. “Two of them are homeless.”
Could it be that simple? Theo wondered as he looked through the pages of the worn down journal. Could Stanley be targeting homeless people? “But that wouldn’t make sense. He’s homeless.”
“Dude are you alright?” a nearby man jolted Theo out of his thoughts.
“Huh? Oh,” Theo realized his vocal declarations may have been louder than he wanted them to be, “yeah sorry just thinking about my work out loud.”
The man just nodded and turned back to reading the newspaper. As Theo was looking back down at his journal he noticed a headline on the front of the Local section that the man was reading.
Growing fears over safety of women in Ballard area, three women still missing
Theo pulled out his phone and searched the headline hoping for more information from the article. The search proved pointless because all the article contained was the information Theo already knew about each of the women and they still had no name for the homeless woman.
Follow along with me this month at Jenna Pratt!
