NaNoWriMo Day 22: 25, 741 of 50,000
HALFWAY THERE!!!!!
…and I have no idea where this story goes next. Ah, the life of a writer.
To read the previous chapters head HERE!
Chapter Twenty
How Theo was to get access to one of the most sought after kidnapped victims in recent memory was beyond him until Alice reminded him he had a connection to Tiffany.
“What about Mallory from the Neighborhood Watch team?” she had asked him that evening as they huddled in his room. After the previous night both Alice and Chloe completely jumped on the Stanley wagon. While the news report didn’t provide much information it did fit with the timeline that Theo was laying out on his bedroom wall.
“Oh, right!” Theo said hurriedly looking at his calendar on his phone. “I have a watch shift tonight. I can swing by her place.”
“Who knows maybe Tiffany her parents are there too. I am sure they are trying to stay away from their actual house since it’s been on TV non-stop,” Alice added.
“Oh you are smart!” Theo exclaimed looking at her with a smile. Alice smirked back and then softly slugged his shoulder. Theo was thankful for that light punch because it stopped the feelings that were beginning to warm his insides from actually engulfing his entire body. Alice was just a friend and couldn’t be anything more. Not right now at least because all that was on Theo’s mind was meeting and talking to Tiffany.
So, an hour later Alice left and Theo hooked up Bella with her training harness as the two set off for their first neighborhood watch shift. Theo had been instructed to circle the ten blocks from NW Market Street to 65th Street. As Bella and Theo began their route on 65th street their detour to Mallory’s house happened ten minutes later as they approached the eastern side of 60th Street her tiny house almost a stone’s thrown from Theo’s townhome. All seemed quiet on the outside, but Theo knocked anyway hoping Mallory was home at least.
The door cracked open revealing an older woman before the door opened revealing Mallory with a small smile on her face. “Theo, come on in,” she said stepping aside to let him and Bella in.
“Thank you Mallory. I am sorry for coming in so unannounced.”
“Not a worry. Here, have a seat. Are you on watch right now?” she sat across from him in her quaint living room. Bella happily sat next to Theo basking in his petting her head.
“Yeah so I can’t stay long. I just wanted to,” Theo hesitated because he didn’t want to pry but everything inside of him was telling him to do it, “well I just was wondering if-”
“You want to know about Tiffany,” she said it as a statement and not a question.
“Well yes, but also um,” Theo swallowed and just decided to go for it, “I was wondering if I could meet her.”
“Meet her? Why?” Mallory was rightfully caught off guard.
“I just-” Theo stopped because he couldn’t form the right words and he knew it, “I’m sorry just forget I said anything.”
Mallory gave Theo quite a sympathetic look which didn’t make him feel any better. “To be fair Theo she really needs time with her parents in privacy at the moment. She didn’t even recognize me when I went over there today.”
“She what?” Theo was suddenly very alert.
Mallory nodded her head looking dejected. “Her amnesia thing is pretty serious. Whatever happened to her must have been quite terrible for her to forget her own grandmother.”
Theo was suddenly deflated realizing that there were so many other players in this than Theo first imagined. So many people were hurting right now because of, what Theo truly believed, what Stanley was doing. He wasn’t 100% certain of what the man with the knife was up to, but now that he was seeing the repercussions of it Theo was more determined than ever.
“Look, Mallory the reason I am asking this is because I think I know who is behind this, but I cannot be certain until I talk with Tiffany.”
Mallory looked at him confused. “You think you know what?”
“Who is behind this.”
“How would you know a thing like that?” Mallory was defensive now.
“I don’t for sure, but I’ve been observing a lot since Tiffany went missing. I just don’t want to say anything for certain yet.”
Mallory got up and went toward her kitchen coming back a few minutes later with a small piece of paper in her hand. She hesitated at first looking at the piece of paper and then at Theo several times before handing it over to him. On it was scribbled a phone number along with the names Helen and Dave.
“I don’t think you’re going to get too far with mama and papa bear right now,” mallory said smirking, “but that is their home phone. I would wait a few days though.”
Theo nodded and tucked the piece of paper in his jeans pocket. “Thank you Mallory. Really, I appreciate it.”
“Right, now go along now. You need to get back to the watch young man,” she said all but pushing him out the door.
Theo thanked her one more time before walking down her front steps and turning the corner back onto 20th Avenue. As he approached his street corner Theo stumbled because he had come almost a block away from Stanley who was sitting in the open door of his van with the knife laid neatly on his lap. As Theo stood there he realized he needed to do something he hadn’t thought about before: take a picture. If Stanley was homeless it was unlikely anyone had a recent photo of him and if things escalated the police were going to be needing a recent photo.
So as quietly as he could Theo got out his phone, got low, and just as he was hitting the button to take the photo Bella lunged forward barking at the top of her lungs. The sound made anyone in the area typically look right at Theo, but right now the only one who was in the area was Stanley. His eyes were directly on him within seconds.
Chapter Twenty-One
Theo’s heart was pounding nearly out of his chest as he rushed Bella back home nearly throwing himself inside the door as he arrived. When his heart rate slowed down Theo let Bella go as she rushed upstairs. He looked at his phone thankful that a clear photo was actually taken since he didn’t get a chance to look. Theo zoomed in on the photo and noticed that Stanley was looking directly at the camera making a new set of goosebumps crawl all over his skin.
Bella’s barking prompted Theo to action as he went upstairs and fed his dog for the evening. Laying in bed Theo looked at both the photo of Stanley and the slip of paper with Tiffany’s number on it that her grandma gave to her. He knew he had to wait, but looking at the wall filled with all that Theo had on both the disappearances and Stanley’s movement he felt like he was hoarding gold and wanted to share it with someone, anyone.
The next morning Theo sent an email to his colleagues and boss announcing that he had come down with the flu overnight. He hated lying and even more so hated that he was missing a ton of work, but he knew that he needed to take this information to the police. As he stepped outside of his townhome he considered his options for getting to the police station. It was close, but not close enough to walk to and Bella wasn’t up for that long of a walk considering Theo all but dragged her home from their first and last long walk a few weeks ago. The bright lime green bike on the corner caught his eye, but he knew he couldn’t get Bella in the basket and considering his last trip on the bike ended with over a month of recovery he nixed the bike ride idea quickly.
“Uber it is,” Theo said patting Bella’s head. Around twenty minutes later they pulled up to the police station with a serious side-eye coming from the driver as they climbed out looking like a pair. Bella excited by the flashing lights of police cruisers leaving and Theo with a bag full of research on his back.
As they walked into the precinct the man at the front gave him and Bella a once over as they approached the desk.
“How can I help you?” he asked in a bored manner.
“Is Detective Moody available? I have some information regarding the four disappearances.”
The man tilted his head and questioned him briefly before responding. “Do you know we have a hotline for this sort of thing?”
“Look, I know I should have called ahead or something but I have some research-” at that the officer at the desk laughed.
“Young man we have plenty of people doing research on this case. We don’t need any civilian assistance.”
Theo sighed frustrated that this was the second time he was at a police precinct unable to get beyond the front desk.
“Is Detective Moody available or not?” Theo asked cutting the dramatics of this all.
“Ok alright I get it. Let me check,” he said reaching for a phone and mumbling into it before putting it back on the receiver, “you’re in luck. He happens to be here, but he only has a few minutes. I’ll walk you back.”
Theo nodded and followed the man as he up from the desk and walked toward the entrance to the squad room. There was a lot going on in the room with officers milling around a table with food on it. Others sitting at desks talking to people in handcuffs. While a small section of the room was devoted to the investigation that Theo was here for with pictures on boards and a timeline laid out. The scene didn’t look too much different from Theo’s bedroom wall.
“Son, here we are,” the officer said approaching a room with several people in it hunched over a computer screen. “Moody, your visitor.”
A middle-aged man looked up from the screen and waved Theo over dismissing the officer simultaneously. “How can I help you?”
“Hi, um I have some research in my bag-” Theo was about to take his bag off his back when Moody was pulled back to the screen. A few minutes later Moody came back toward Theo.
“Sorry, high stakes case going on. You said you have research? On what?”
“I’ve been looking into this since Tiffany disappeared, well actually before it. I think it’s a homeless man in my neighborhood who is behind it,” Theo was suddenly following Moody to a small kitchenette with coffee pots bubbling.
“It can’t be a homeless man,” Moody responded, “we’ve profiled this person and they are highly intelligent. Whatever this suspect has been doing has been smart, calculated all along.”
“So, what a homeless man can’t be smart?” Theo challenged following Moody back to the small room now that his cup was filled with coffee.
“No, that’s not what I am saying at all. What I am saying is this suspect is smart because they have resources. Likely another piece of real estate far from here where they are keeping the woman. That means money and access to large pieces of land,” he continued completely outwitting Theo.
“Right. Well, I guess I’ll just take my information and go.” Theo turned ready to find his way out of the maze that was the squad room.
“Wait!” Moody almost shouted at him. “You have a good awareness going on. If things escalate we could need that research,” he finished looking at Theo’s backpack.
“Right, thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” Theo left the precinct and made his way back home. After a long nap Theo realized he couldn’t wait any longer to call Tiffany’s parents because the police weren’t willing to believe him. He needed to give them something and he knew the only way to do that was to get the information out of Tiffany.
At first the phone rang until Theo believed it was about to hit the voicemail, but a voice quickly answered. “Hello?”
Follow along with me this month at Jenna Pratt!
