Chapter Sixty-Nine
Tristan’s Point of View:
First, Drew sparked up from the temporary sour mood he had been in since he got arrested and wanted to know how long I had known.
Before I could say anything, Molly was asking what we would do about it. Then Jesse wanted to know what she looked like. Then they were yelling at each other to keep shut.
I knew their emotions were running high because of the news, but I was also getting frustrated, what with bearing all the burden all these days and now receiving such a reception to the news.
At first, I sat back and watched them argue among themselves. Then I yelled, once “Enough!”
They stopped, alright. Molly, with her hand against her waist, her go-to pose for arguments; Drew retreated to his normal mood and Jesse just pouted petulantly.
I pulled up my most stern expression and started to talk. I didn’t have all day for this. This is what I know, and this is what I propose we do.
Veronica’s Point of View:
That I’m freaking out is an understatement now. I went to the police after 48 hours and lodged an official report, but I haven’t heard from them.
Of course, I had a feeling I was looking in the wrong place; I had a feeling his whereabouts had to do with the argument we had the other day.
He had stumbled on the fact that we were here just because of Fiona and that she was oblivious to the fact that we were here for her.
I’m not sure why he was so mad, but he had been very hostile the other day when Fiona stopped by, the poor boy had looked dumbstruck.
It’s the third day since my Thomas has gone missing, and I’m at my wits’ end at finding him. I just hope he hasn’t done anything she would regret, that boy could be irrational in his thinking.
“Ma’am?” The customer in front of me had a frown on her face. I had half a mind to keep the store shut, but finances have been bad recently, and she would need to eat when she comes back home, right?
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” I apologize, but the customer keeps a frown on her face till I get her change.
Normally, I bend over trying to win her over back as a customer, but I have neither the energy nor the inclination to do so today. I throw out a blithe “thanks for coming” out of habit as she leaves.
The door creaks as another customer walks in. I’ve not gotten around to fixing that door, just as I’ve not gotten around to doing a million other things I should. I suddenly feel a thousand years older than my age.
“Hello, welcome, what can I get you?” I said, as upbeat as I could, to the next customer, who is not much of life.
I looked up and gasped. He must sense the recognition of me because he smiles wryly and bows. “Good afternoon, Veronica.”
Tristan’s Point of View:
It was by a major stroke of good luck that I found Penny’s snack bar. The building was nondescript conjoined with an apartment building, those with co-renters sharing facilities.
Normally, I wouldn’t think of eating at such a place, but I had been pretty hungry after the prick of a human I was guarding had dropped me off at the street side randomly and taken over the wheel. Sometimes, a bodyguard’s life is a dog’s life.
I had been having a feeling that the place was unusual after I saw the Harrington signature plant, the marigold, planted outside.
I had kept my cool, however, as a young girl in a yellow apron had taken my order and brought me some water. The girl in the apron had shouted my order from the till towards the kitchen and I had realized it was probably a two-man business.
I was wondering when my order would be made when the person in the kitchen came out, and I was shocked. Veronica?
How in the world? She was a bit of a legend back then, having led the women in the little war.
I couldn’t understand what she was doing around here. She passed the meal to the boy, her son. I started to presume, and I bowed my head in the other direction to prevent recognition.
I took a careful look at the son when she came back with my snacks and orange drink. If I had been looking the first time, I’d have noticed the resemblance, the pert lips and long slender fingers were just like the one that had curled in a regal manner, and the hands that had curled around the silver staff the specially honored personalities in our town carried on the day they were honored.
Why then was there such an important person around here? It probably had something to do with the whole missing rival issue as she had played a major role in the war.
My curiosity had, however, lasted a very short time as I had gotten swept up in my issues before long. Now that I needed help though, it was like a switch gone off in my head.
I had carefully laid out my plan for the rest of my crew, and they had reluctantly accepted it. They didn’t have a better alternative anyway.
Now I was there and thinking how crazy it would sound to tell this woman, who had probably been deposed from her place of authority because of the missing rival who said she had been living on her street all this time.
Her eyebrows had risen in surprise as I had walked in. Oh well, she recognized me, or at least knew our bond, our shared heritage.
Fiona’s Point of View:
I can’t deny it now, something was wrong with Mum’s radio silence. My friends were also another kettle of fish, with Eleanor bothering me about the new shop and James being a weird type of moody I had never seen in him before.
Sitting in his bed now, I tried his number again, listening to his voicemail answer. I would call Uncle Victor, but I didn’t even know where to try in the first place.
He had a solid work-is-different-from-home policy and even though I had been to Uncle Victor’s a few times, I didn’t know anything else apart from work.
The only person I could call was Arnold, Alex’s best friend, but Alex had told me that he disconnected from the outside world after the death of his only son.
Alex often went around to his place twice a week, bearing cooked food wrapped in microwave dishes and some in foil, coming back with a gloomy mood that was slightly contagious.