The Brokens

9

9

Chenny knocked on the door of the principals’ office.

“Come in,” said the man, Mr. Hoffman. Chenny nudged the door open with his shoe and stepped into the tiny office. The office seemed to reflect the principals’ personality- underpaid and under groomed. In Layman’s Terms, it was a mess.

“What can I do for you?” asked Mr. Hoffman, scratching his chin.

“I’m with SOPD, and we’re covering the Thames case. I was wondering if I could talk to a friend of hers.”

“Oh yeah, that kid. She’s homeschooled now right?”

“Her parents don’t seem to like her much so I imagine it’s more like she signed herself for online tutoring but sure. Anyways, that's beside the point. If you could call Nicolette Twell, that’d be great.” Chenny rushed. The principal shrugged, not giving it another moment's thought. He jammed his finger into the PA button and said,

“Nicolette Twell to the principals office, Nicolette Twell to the principals office, thank you.” For someone who seemed to be on the edge of bankrupt, Hoffman made the announcement sound so important yet clandestine. Chenny chuckled to himself. The principal tapped his foot on the ground for a few moments, till the two of them heard feet pattering at the end of the hallway, slowly growing closer.

“Well, she’s definitely taking her sweet time about it,” muttered Chenny. Finally, the one and only Nicolette Twell stepped through the Principals’ door.

“Um, what’s going on?” she asked, looking around. “Am I in trouble?”

“No, we just have a couple questions for you.” Chenny said.

“And who would ‘we’ be?” she asked. Nicolette, by first impression, was a bit of a suspicious and untrusting character.

“SOPD. Now, can we talk in the hallway, Ms. Twell?”

“Well can I see your badge?” asked Nicolette with raised eyebrows. Chenny chuckled and let her see the badge. Nicolette stepped into the hall and Chenny followed.

“So, what do you want?” she asked, closing the door behind her.

“I was wondering about the PI you hired for your friend Marie’s case.”

“Why? Also technically my parents hired her.”

“But it’s under your name.”

“So? What do you want? Her name’s Elizabeth. I get that she’s not big time but I have the right to hire whoever I want.”

“Yes, I know. I’m very well acquainted with her actually. No, what I’m wondering about is if you’ve heard of what happened two nights ago.”

“And what would that be?”

“Well you see, right after she acquired what could have been a crucial piece of evidence, Beth- I mean Elizabeth- was assaulted and robbed of said evidence. Were you aware of this?”

“I was not, actually. Also, Beth? What are you two boyfriend and girlfriend or something?”

“Or something. Now stop trying to avert the subject. Why did you hire her in the first place?”

“If I’m being honest, popularity boost, big time.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. Also, did you even consider that maybe she just wanted the evidence for herself and staged the whole thing?”

“I considered it and then realized how stupid it was. Good day, Ms. Twell.” Chenny said, and started for the exit.

__________________________________________

Beth pushed a pin into the corkboard on which the map hung. She drew a line from their to a blue pushpin- the diner where she had found him half an hour later. Above the blue pushpin was the time 10:30, which was when the waitress had said he’d arrived. But that didn’t make sense. He had left his house at 09:42, and it only took twenty-three minutes to drive from the house to the diner. What had he done with the extra 25 minutes. Had he stopped somewhere or taken a detour. If he had stopped, where did he stop and for how long. For supposedly just being a witness, he was damn good at losing a trail. After the first two blocks Beth had lost sight of him. Maybe he had taken a bunch of back roads to avoid running into her? Beth sighed. She would have to use her few police resources. Beth dialed Daniels number. He didn’t pick up, and then she called back a second time. Finally he answered.

“What? I’m kind of in the middle of something!” Beth heard him yell.

“I need you to check traffic cam footage of Saratoga, from 09:42 to 10:30 today. The plate on the car was 2- november- tango- delta- india- 5, and the car was silver.”

“Brand?”

“No idea. Had to be pre-2000.”

“If it was pre-2000, there would be no trunk-escape latch.”

“I think that’s a tad far-fetched.”

“You never know. Gotta go.” said Daniel, before immediately hanging up the phone.

__________________________________________

Kev sat down at the table with his parents.

“So, how was yoga today?” he asked. His mom smiled as she cut into her chicken breast.

“It was great. We were doing the whole tree thing and your father-” began his mother.

“Carol don’t.” he warned. His mother laughed and his fathers’ face reddened.

“-your father fell right onto his tailbone!” she exclaimed, breaking out into laughter. Kev smiled. It was nice to see them like that- happy, young, elated spirits. He had long ago learned to enjoy the precious moments he had with them, no matter how redundant.

“Let’s change the subject. How was your day, Kev?” asked his father with a smile.

“Not much. I got lunch at Sally’s, which was great, by the way. Have you tried their sausage and eggs?” he asked. His father laughed.

“Oh Kev, you’ve gotta stop eating every meal like it’s breakfast.” Kev shook his head. These were the good days. Nothing would ever change between his parents, and the sturdiness of their relationship was what kept his life nailed down, safe from flying off the rails.

“Hold on, I’m going to get a glass of water.” Kev said, excusing himself momentarily. Kev smiled at the ground as he walked to the fridge. Kev kicked a hoodie out of the way, and continued down the hall till he reached the kitchen.