The Wrong Sign

Adelaide looked up at Donovan, her eyes shining. "You mean..." she paused to wipe her nose. "You mean he might still be alive?" She brightened up, still shaking. "I thought... I thought you had found that out for sure." She wiped her eyes with a tissue and stood, hugging herself. "I'm sorry to have made such a fuss," she said softly, her cheeks tinging pink. "That was most embarrassing."

Adelaide turned away for a moment and breathed deeply a few times. Once she had composed herself, she turned back to Donovan and smoothed the front of her dress. "Please, Mr. McCabe. I'll do anything you need to be of service. What do you need?" She looked up at him, wishing she wasn't so short. She was starting to get a crick in her neck from looking up so much.

She hoped Donovan wouldn't hold this turn against her, especially after she'd yelled at him about his bad manners. She was just so tired! No, that wasn't an excuse. She needed to button up and pull herself together. Everything rode on this man. She needed to stop acting like a silly woman from some chick-flick and start trying to be useful!
 
Sometimes people were exhausting. Mentally he wasn't sure he could handle this sort of drama from a person. "It should be embarrassing. If you'd used your brain you would have remembered last time you saw me I was getting ready for bed. I wasn't about to go running around at night in my boxers." With the next bit of English Muffing popping up out of the toaster he smeared more jam on it and bit into the hot tasty bread with sweet jam. While he was trying to enjoy his breakfast she rambled on and decided that maybe she could be more helpful.

None of that mattered too much at the moment. Donovan looked at the watch on his wrist. He had about 10 minutes before he had to head out to the docks. "Mmhmm..." Swallowing his food he glanced down at her. "For starts, you might eat that," pointing to the muffin he had on the edge of the desk near her he nodded. "Then I'll ask you write up something more helpful than just flashing a few pictures at me and saying that was the last time you saw him. It would actually be preferable if you had recordings of the last conversation with him and maybe recordings of any other time he talked about coming here." Shoving a large bite of muffin into his mouth his cheeks bulged and he grabbed a small pot and poured a little bit of coffee into a cup and then the rest into a travel mug. "You want to drink that coffee there in the cup? If you don't I will and then I got to head out to work."

Without saying a word he slipped around the corner and went into the bathroom. A few minutes later he emerged from the small restroom and he collected his travel mug and pointed toward the door. "You better get to wherever you're staying and get working on that stuff. Uh...write down your contact information real fast and I'll let you know when I get off work tonight."
 
Adelaide's blush deepened but she couldn't fault him for his comment. She took out a card for the hotel she was staying at and wrote down the information. "Here, this is how to get ahold of me. You want a picture, a full statement, and recordings." She paused and looked up. "It was a conversation between siblings. Why would I have a recording of the conversation?" She was genuinely bewildered at that request. "I might have a recording of his voice, if that's what you are looking for. What else?"
 
"Nothing else, just go and have whatever you know ready for me when I get back." Without much grace he pointed her toward the door and half pushed her out in front of himself. "Hurry, up I'm gonna be late for work." After what felt like an eternity he had her out the door and he was finally on his way to the docks. She didn't really have any way to contact him besides his address and maybe that would change tonight, but right now he didn't have time.

******************

When Donovan was on his way back from the docks he decided to call the girl. "Adelaide do you know where the Seaman's Casino is?" It was a landmark that most folks learned about in their first day here. "Meet me outside the casino and I'll take us out to eat. We need to talk about a few things."
 
Adelaide had spent the day sitting in her hotel room and trying to fill out every single detail of what she remembered of her last conversation with her brother. It was harder than she imagined. After all, she hadn't known then that she'd need to remember it. She also found a recording of her brother leaving a message to her, and printed out a copy of a picture of him.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when the din of arguing people, drunk singing, and loud television was cut through by the sound of her phone. She snatched it up to hear the ever so eloquent detective ask about Seaman's Casino. "I-yes, I know it," she stammered. "I can be there... um, fifeteen minutes, I think. Yes. Thank you, good bye." She hung up and hurried to get her socks on and slipped into the same pair of shoes. She'd packed plenty of clothing, but only two pairs of shoes. She really hoped she didn't get these soaked in the rain. She grabbed her umbrella and hurried out, walking a couple of blocks down before hailing a cab. She arrived at the Seaman's Casino in 20 minutes and got out of the cab, looking around anxiously.
 
Donovan already had a small table for two and he was seated, but there was no girl. He didn't think she would run this late if she was serious about her brother. After the display this morning he found it quite believable that she was the kind to see this through, but she wasn't here. At least not yet. When the girl finally appeared outside Seaman's Casino he stepped out the door of the restaurant next door to it. "Over here."

He waited till she was seated before he beckoned for the waiter to come over. Once they had each put in their orders he nodded to her. "Now, what do you have for me?" He was hoping that she would have a lot more than what she had the night before and he wanted to have her case done and over with as quickly as possible.
 
Adelaide settled into her seat and set her purse on the table, speaking as she took out some things. "I am very sorry for my lateness. I had not realized how... Never mind, there is no excuse." She took another breath and handed him the papers one by one. "Here is Jack's picture. This is our conversation as best as I can remember. This is the condensed version of all the details I believe are relevant, such as when he said his flight was, how long he guessed he would be staying here, names he mentioned, and the places he said he might visit. The names with stars next to them are irrelevant as they are names of his friends, most of whom he said were jealous they didn't get to come. These two names are people who might have been traveling with him. This name I could find nothing about. Here is a voice recording of a message he left me. Here are the addresses of the places he mentioned. I called all of them and could confirm he definitely did not go to these three, but the rest would only give me the runaround about privacy."
She finally took a deep breath and dug in her purse again. "I think that was everything?"
 
The girl followed him inside and sat down. He'd forgot to even pull her seat out for her. However, she didn't seem to notice and he was fine with that. Maybe next time he'd remember to use a little bit of manners around the girl. Donovan sat in his own seat and watched patiently while she slowly pulled out ever little sheet she had prepared and described it as best she could. It wasn't too bad considering what there was.

"Ooh would you look at that." Rolling his eyes slightly he looked at a few of the pictures and some of the names that she mentioned. "Well, it isn't too surprising that he visited those places. Just about every idiot that thinks this place will be great drops in that pub." The pub was a sort of iconic figure of the area. Everyone that wanted to become someone went there. Once he had the rest of the papers he shoved them unceremoniously into his jacket pocket. "You might as well eat up and head home. I've got your contact information now and I can tell you what I've found when I get around to it." Donovan was hoping she would at least do that much for herself and him. Just trying to imagine her running around with him was painful.

A few minutes later the waiter appeared and Donovan winked at the girl. "Order the clam chowder. Best stuff there is around these parts." Just to prove his point he ordered one to. Besides, nothing tasted as good as a nice clam chowder. Leaning back in his seat after the ordering he yawned. "Tomorrow is a day off. I'll just see what I can come up with based on what you gave me. In the mean time you might as well tell me the sorts of things your brother like doing as a kid and how it changed when he got older." That would perhaps give an idea of what her brother's expectations had been when he visited a few of these places.
 
Adelaide played with her napkin nervously. "I suppose you would call him a typical boy, as typical as it gets. He liked to be outside playing in the dirt with his friends, chasing frogs, getting into mischief, that sort of thing. He was never a bad boy, but he got into a lot of trouble with his friends. He was always too enthusiastic to accept any idea to stop and think about the consequences. That never changed as he got older." Adelaide sighed and set aside her napkin as her cup of warm tea was brought. They were still waiting for the clam chowder. "He was always willing enough to accept the punishment after he realized he'd done wrong, but never got the hang of looking ahead. He'll try any business venture, any idea, any off the wall plan. And now instead of chasing frog..." Her lip curled slightly. "He chases girls. Women, I suppose. It's rather embarrassing to see what a fool he will make of himself for a woman's touch."

Adelaide looked up and met Donovan's eyes for the first time. "Are you currently working undercover?" she blurted out.
 
It was impossible not to notice the way the girl twisted the cloth napkin between her fingers and how she would shift her gaze almost constantly. It was a bit annoying to see. Nervous people made him nervous because you never knew what they would do. That fear only seemed to be confirmed as she concluded her story and then decided to really look him in the eyes. He wasn't nervous feeling with her looking him in the eye, but when she asked if he was working under the cover he frowned. "Why the hell would you say something like that?"

Just about time he was ready to give her a what for speech, the waiter arrived with the steaming bowls of soup. Donovan nodded to the man and stirred his bowl while breathing in the sweet scent. "First of all, if I did that kind of under cover stuff it'd be dumb to ask me. Draws attention in ways you wouldn't want in these parts. Having a private investigator is one thing, and being undercover is another. Plenty of private investigators around here, but nobody wants to be accused of undercover work. Best way to get your throat slit on what should otherwise be a simple case of identifying a missing person." There were plenty of folks that got in trouble because of that accusation and few of them were actually undercover. If she kept that up he'd possibly end up compromised. "Why don't you think of a more reasonable sort of question?"
 
"Indeed, sir, as you say," Adelaide muttered sourly. She stirred her soup for a moment before taking a few bites. "Very well," she said, smoothing out her napkin again. "If you wish a reasonable question, then how about; How long until you learn about my brother? What sort of steps will you be taking to find him?"

There! That seemed reasonable enough, the annoying brute. And now she knew for certain he was hiding something. Sure, he was grumpy and surely, but that was definitely snappy. No one reacted that strongly to something if it didn't strike close to the heart of an uncomfortable subject. He was hiding something, and she was going to get to the bottom of all this! She just had to be careful he didn't spot her. If he couldn't find her brother, if he wasn't even any kind of detective, she was not going to waste anymore time, recourses, and effort on him. She'd done that already with the others. She may have been naive, but she wasn't an idiot.
 
The girl seemed to have got the point and she was asking a kind of question that he could answer. Donovan shrugged, "Eh, probably about the same as any decent detective. Based on what you gave me I can try to recreate a list of possible places he has been, or would be. Go sit and watch. If there are a few flirty girls I'll have a start. Can start asking if they've seen him. When I get a few leads I can fill in a few more blanks."

Hopefully that was enough for the girl. Her information was only helpful in profiling her brother. There wasn't too much else in regards to his last whereabout. "I'll put some time in on studying him tonight." Donovan slurped at the last of his soup and then tore the roll that came with the soup. Wiping out the bowl with his bread he finished off his meal and then waited for her to be done. "How about I walk you to wherever you're staying. I don't think it's real safe for you to be out here walking around alone." Donovan figured it was one way to get her out of his hair and then he could do what he had to tonight.
 
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