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“Yeah, but we were planning to do that anyway,” Mason points out.
“True, it’s a little bit different now that it’s not just us that will be putting our lives in danger,” Rip adds with a deep frown, his arms crossed over his broad chest as he simply stares at the painting.
Rome frowns as he points out. “Just by coming with us, Jynx was putting her life in danger. It’s just now there's something that, if they know about, will put her life in danger away from the town as well, and they’d come after her like they come after us.”
“Fuck, you’re right,” Rip replies.
“I haven’t checked the cameras for a while,” Ace interrupts, “I haven’t felt the need to since we weren’t planning to go back there any time soon. I think before we do go back, we need to check and see what we’re walking into.”
“That’s a really good idea, I want to be as prepared as possible, and we need to know for certain that Jynx is an heir. The only way we’re going to know is if we head back,” Mal replies.
“You realise that there’s no way in hell that you’re leaving me behind, and now that I’m thinking about the things Gerald has said and what you guys have said, I’m assuming that there’s a family property in your town that most likely has more information in it, I want to go and check it out. I mean, it’s mine, right, and it’s empty since there’s no one left.” I explain.
“Yeah, I can see what you mean I’d feel the same way about it,” Mal replies with a frown.
“Obviously, I’m not going to try to tell you that’s not a good idea, not only would I never tell you what you can and can’t do, but I also completely understand why you want to go, all I am going to ask is that if you do talk to anyone while we’re there, if we don’t get shot on sight, then please don’t say that you’re an heir, not only is it dangerous but we might even need to use it as an ace up our sleeves at some point depending on what’s going on.” Rome reasons.
I nod and shrug, “Yeah, that makes sense. I mean we don’t want to give everything away on enemy turf.”
“Of course, we’re forgetting that we could ask Gerald for some more information as well. He told us more after we found the safe, so he might tell us more now that we’ve found out there’s a connection between our families,” Rip suggests.
“It’s certainly worth asking him. There’s so much that doesn’t make sense still, and I just hope that there’s more information in the house about who my grandmother really was, what they specialised in, and my father; I want to know everything I can about my father. Why he disappeared and caused the family to leave the town? How he died? I want to know all of these things, and we aren’t going to find it here, even if Gerald does talk to us.” I say, thinking out loud.
“It’s decided then, we’ll head back to the house, and Ace can check the cameras to see if there’s any sign of what’s going on through the cameras around town. Then we’ll make a game plan about heading back.” Rome says, and then turns to look at me, “Do you want to take the paintings back to the house?”
I nod, “Yeah, they shouldn’t be kept in here.” I hold up the folder, “I’ve also got this which should hopefully give us some better information about what’s going on, it’s pretty thick, but I only got as far as the photographs before you called me over here.”
“Okay, well we can go through that when we get back to the house as well. Let’s go and find Gerald. I know he can fill in some of the blanks,” Ace says, obviously keen to get back and start hacking into the cameras around their hometown.
“Everyone grab a painting, and we can head back,” Rome orders, and the guys all go to do what they’ve been asked.
“I’m just going to check over the filing cabinet one last time to see if I’ve missed anything,” I tell the room as a whole, as I head back over to it
This time when I go through the drawers, instead of just opening them and looking inside, I reach in and check the tops of the drawers, the bottoms, and the sides just in case something has been taped or hidden in a false bottom, something that you wouldn’t necessarily notice when you first open the drawers. It’s not until I get to the last one that my theory is proven correct, and I feel something small and bumpy taped to the top of the drawer. I have no real way of seeing what it is until it’s out, so I put the folder I’m still clutching on the floor as I crouch down and try to use my fingers to pick off the tape that’s very securely holding the object in place.
It takes me a surprisingly long time, long enough that Mase asks me, “What are you doing?”
Huffing I reply, “There’s something stuck to the top of this drawer and I’m trying to get it off.”
“Do you want a hand?” Mal asks.
“Nope, I’ve nearly got it,” I reply, just as I manage to pry the final piece of stubborn tape off of one side of the object so I can get a good grip on it and pull off the rest. The object is reasonably small.
“What is it?” Rip asks curiously.
Opening my hand to have a look at the object, I reply, “It’s a key. There’s nothing on it to say what it opens though.”
“I’d be willing to bet that it’s the key to your family house in the town,” Rome suggests.
“Surely, that would suggest that she had every intention of you finding all of this out and going back to the town,” Malachi says as we finally start to make our way out of the underground bunker.
“It would appear that way, yes, which means there might be something more to this than we think, especially if she wants you to go back,” Mason says.
“But why go through the whole thing of leaving breadcrumbs everywhere? Why not just tell me all of this?” I ask.
“I have no idea, and only she could tell you,” Rome replies.
“Well fuck,” I reply.
