"I am glad that the city turned over all of Rowan's stuff to us," said Erin as she and Patty were stacking up more boxes. Jillian was already happily dissecting a curious looking object. The fact that she had to pull out the blowtorch was not helping Erin's nerves. She loved her new friend, but her and flames and nuclear reactors just always seemed like a bad combination when she was just being playful.
"Extra equipment to help out our biz-ness," agreed Patty as she sat down on a stool next to the table. She looked around at the stuff they had already brought in. "He sure had a lot of junk down there in the hotel."
"Hopefully somewhere among his things are some sort of notes as to how he got all this stuff built without any sort of engineering degree," said Abby as she put another box on the table in front of the two of them. The rest she started stacking beside them.
"I've got Benny helping Kevin bring in the heavier boxes. Hopefully it won't take him an hour like he does with lunch."
"You know he had bad knees," said Erin as Abby started walking away, waving a hand and pushing one of the rolling carts they had gotten to take stuff in and out of the firehouse. Holtzmann had praised their appearance, even lovingly kissing the handles. No one was going to tell her that Patty had gotten them second handed from a butcher shop down the block from her apartment..
"What's in all of those? I thought we already had all of the smaller ones," asked Patty, gesturing to the ones now in front of them. Erin frowned and started opening one.
"Books and notebooks," she said, pushing some of her thankfully now normal colored red hair behind her ear. She picked up a couple of well used notebooks. "Looks like Rowan kept a diary of his well, journey?"
"His foray into crazy town?" said Patty, shaking her head. "Like we all need to read that."
"Oh I don't know, it could be interesting," said Erin. "He was obviously smart... just didn't know what to do with himself. And angry. Very angry."
"Maybe he should have come to Higgins," said Holtzmann, suddenly appearing over Erin's shoulder, making her jump. She rolled her eyes while Patty chuckled at their blonde haired friend's eccentricities. "Then he could have met up with us. I could have used another pair of pliers."
"You would have wanted that foo- Never mind," said Patty, shaking her head at the crazy grin on Holtzmann's face. "I forget who I'm talking to."
Erin was trying not to smile as she started opening another box. After taking off the lid, she frowned at the sight. Scrapbooks? That didn't seem like Rowan. But then, they didn't really know him, aside from his plan of wanting to destroy the world.
"Sweet! Maybe he made diagrams," said Holtzmann. She took the box from Erin. Scrapbooks wasn't exactly her first thought for use in keeping drawings, but she supposed one could look at it that way.
"Well, maybe you can find something in there that'll help us figure where we're going to put all these boxes," said Patty. "His shit is already taking up-"
All the sudden, they could sense Jillian go still, which was not a good sign for her. If she wasn't banging around metal or dancing, then they worried. Erin and Patty both turned and looked at Holtzmann, who was staring blankly at the book in her hand. She started rapidly going through the pages, then throwing the book down on the table and picking up the next one. She did the same for the next one, and the next one.
"Holtzy?" said Patty, looking concerned. The blonde looked up, a bit of fear in her eyes.
"We cannot let Abby see these. Any of these." She started packing up the box quickly and shoving it away from her. She pulled her glasses to the side and held her gloved hands over her eyes. Patty and Erin looked at each other, not understanding. Erin pulled the box closer to her, and picked up the first one, opening the front cover.
"Oh my god," said Patty, looking over Erin's arm from her sitting position. "What the hell-?"
Erin put a hand over her mouth as she started flipping through the pages. The insides of the book were filled with pictures of her best friend. She could only guess they were from various times and places throughout the city. Restaurants, Target, a grocery store, hardware & supply stores, the coffee house next to her apartment... Erin felt really sick at the thought that Rowan had known where she lived.
What had Rowan been doing?
The next book was more of the same, but with lots of pictures and notes from the Higgins Institute. There were even pictures of her and Jillian's shared basement space and photos clearly taken of their designs. Erin could see why Holtzmann had been upset. There were even pictures of the two of them goofing off in the lab. These seemed like they went further back than just recent events.
"So that's why some of the designs were so dang similar," said Patty, frowning. "He was-"
"Stealing our work, stealing moments from our lives," said Holtzmann. She swallowed hard and rubbed her arms.
"She cannot know this. It was bad enough when Rowan-"
"When Rowan what?" said Abby, surprising them all. Erin quickly slammed the books back into the box and leaned down on it.
"Holtzy here was talking about when Rowan was yammering on about breaking down walls and shit down in the basement," said Patty. "You know her. She can't get over his designs being so close to y'all's."
"Ab-solute-ly," said Jillian. "I do not like anyone stealing my work." Abby dropped off a box in front of her and ruffled her hair. The blonde smiled and they all watched carefully as Abby went back out of the room.
"Dear god that was close," said Jillian, adjusting her eyewear. Erin started taking the books back out and looking through them.
"He- he was rather obsessed with her, wasn't he?" said Erin as she flipped through the rest of the scrap books. There were more pictures and all sorts of lists and notes, some of which didn't make sense. But one that did make sense was the subway times. He even knew what trains she got on to get to work. A menu for the Chinese takeout place was pinned inside one of the scrapbooks with the wonton soups circled.
"I don't know how you two are taking this so lightly," said Patty, shaking her head. "He could have killed Abby. At any time!"
"No, no," said Holtzmann, shaking her head. Erin agreed.
"He wanted an audience. He was waiting on us. He knew- he definitely knew we were like him. And... Abby in particular. I read his records. He went to Stanford and MIT. I think he probably saw a kindred spirit in us from the book." She looked down, frowning as she picked up one of the scrapbooks.
"It makes me wonder if he wanted Abby's approval."
"That's still as creepy as hell," said Patty. "Kindred spirit or not." Jillian nodded in agreement. Erin put the books away and the three of them vowed by pinkie swear to never to breathe a word of this to Abby. Holtzmann buried the box of books down far in her junk piles up on the second floor where hopefully their de facto leader would never find them.