Soon, Jack found himself in a bustling workshop crowded with toys, frustrated yetis, hyperactive elves, and objects that no human had ever seen. He forced himself not to stare at the wonders that floated above him, knowing that he had more important business to attend to. No matter how cool, amazing, or spectacular the things were, Jack had decided that the Guardians needed to know, or at least North.
Jack walked through the workshop towards North's office. Before he could push open the large wooden door, he heard voices. He didn't want to barge in, and his curiosity was peaked. Who was in there?
"…North, I don't like this!" said an unrecognizable female voice. "It shouldn't be happening."
"I agree. I haven't been able to get anything done for the last two weeks!" said a gruff male voice, but it wasn't North's.
"I understand, for it has been happening to me as well. Yetis missing here, elves missing there, memories gone that don't return. Unfortunately, I don't know what we are to do. Manny hasn't spoken, and I do not believe he will speak unless it is direst of circumstances." This time, Jack was sure that this voice was North's, but what could he and the other two voices be talking about?
He had heard North say that elves and yetis were missing, but he hadn't noticed when he came in. What was that about him missing memories, though? That was definitely strange. North was so old, but he was as lively as a person in their early twenties. What could have him aging?
Jack mentally slapped himself. He came here to talk to North, not get sidetracked with something less important. If he was human, he probably would have been diagnosed with ADHD a long time ago. He decided to just open the door, and if he was welcomed, so be it. If he got kicked out, he would start screaming random stuff and saying North every once and a while. It was as good a plan as any, and with that, Jack forced the door open.
The sight that greeted his eyes was astounding. He saw that a woman who looked to be in her early twenties was standing facing North. From behind, he only saw that she had extremely long, dark hair that reminded him of Pitch. At the thought of the Boogeyman, Jack shuddered. A man dressed in a black tux with a red tie stood in the corner of the room with his head down. Who were these people?
Three heads in the room snapped up as they heard the door click behind Jack. North smiled, his big blue eyes full of mirth. The woman's face showed no emotion, and her golden eyes scanned Jack over like he was some sort of science project she wanted to dissect. The man in the tux stared at Jack, his irises literally blood red. Jack shifted under the gazes of the strange people. "Jack! Welcome back, my boy! What brings you to the Pole?"
Jack had honestly wanted to speak to North about Jamie alone, without two strange people in the room. He tried to divert the subject to something less… serious. "Before I say, I have to ask. Who are these guys, and what are they doing here?"
"I should think you'd have more respect for your elders, Mr. Frost," the woman said, still showing no emotion. She wore a dress that was a pale green color, the straps being made out of living vines. They writhed and coiled throughout the fabric as if to give the appearance of trees swaying in a rainforest. The dress cut off at her knees, and underneath, the strange woman with jet black hair wore a pair of khakis the color of sand dunes. As Jack watched, the khakis, he discovered, were actual miniaturesand dunes that shifted and changed as she moved. "I am Mother Nature, and I am named Seraphina."
"Cut the kid some slack," the man in the tux said. "He thinks he just lost someone special."
"Huh?" Jack asked, confused. How did he know? Could he read his mind?
"I'm Grimm, bro. As in the Grim Reaper? It's my job to know this stuff. I could tell from the moment that you walked into the room. To me, your emotions were written all over your face." Grimm wore an Italian suit that was completely black. If Jack squinted really hard, he would have seen that the shine on the fabric of his clothes was coming from the aura of lives. He wore golden earring studs, and he had pale skin. He grinned at Jack slyly while showing off his crocodile teeth, and he wrapped his arm around Jack's shoulder. "So man, how long has it been? Two hundred, three hundred years?"
Jack was confused, and he let himself get sidetracked for a moment. Something in the back of Jack's mind told him that Grimm had ill intentions, but how could that be? He was such an easy going guy. "Huh?" he asked.
"You know, since that night on the pond."
Jack's features hardened, and he made an effort not to punch this guy in the face. "So you were there. Came to claim my soul, did you?" he said through gritted teeth. He had never thanked MiM so much that he had been reborn as Jack Frost. There was no way that this guy was getting his pale hands on his soul.
"Nah bro, I actually wasn't there. I was in town. There was a little girl with pneumonia, and she really couldn't go on much longer," Grimm said. "Poor kid. She was only five, you know. It hurt to see her in so much pain." He noticed Jack's stunned expression. "What? The spirit of death can't have a soft side? Have you no soul? Haven't you ever heard of the expression, 'put them out of their misery'?"
"…Okay. Anyway, what are Mother Nature and the Grim Reaper doing here, North?" Jack asked, attempting to be polite. The attitude felt foreign, but he didn't want to upset Mother Nature because she seemed like a force to be reckoned with. Quite frankly, she scared the living daylights out of Jack.
"Ah yes, it is strange thing," North replied. "Seraphina has been noticing that her helpers are disappearing, and her powers are slowly becoming more limited. Consequently, nature's been pretty thrown out of balance. Grimm here, well he just can't get things under control. He has been… scatterbrained recently. His skeleton helpers are becoming de-animated, and it's taking more of his strength to regenerate them. And I, I can't even remember things that I'm supposed to never forget, on top of the fact that Yetis and elves are disappearing left and right."
"Could it be that the kids are starting to not believe again?" Jack asked. Two mysteries in one day? This was getting freaky.
North just shook his head sadly. "I wish that were it. That is problem we know how to solve. Unfortunately, lights on Globe are brighter than ever. I just can't understand it. It's not just us, either. Toothiana's mini fairies have been returning from their nightly missions later and later each night, and some don't even return at all. Bunny's eggs are jumping into his dye ponds and not resurfacing, and the kids have been rejecting Sandy's dreamsand. He tries to send streams of it to a child, only to find that it is being blocked by an invisible force or wall of some sort."
"Freaky…" Jack said. If someone was trying to hurt the spirits, who was it, and why would they be so obvious? Another question popped into Jack's mind. If the other spirits were being attacked, why wasn't he? Was he not worth being attacked? Was it because he had no helpers? Was it because the mystery person was trying to turn everyone against Jack?
As Jack's mind reeled with questions, North went on, not noticing the boy's silence. "And you know Lady Luck, the short red head from the Irish division? She's been so clumsy lately, and the people that win the lottery have already won seven times! Some guy wrote a book on that, but I think it's a bunch of baloney and-"
"Nicholas St. North!" Mother Nature shrieked. "If this meeting is just going to be a gossip fest between you two ladies, I have business to attend to elsewhere. Good day, sir," she said, looking between Jack and North. After she had made her point, she stormed off. Quite literally, might I add.
Grimm whistled. "Wow. Someone's got some anger issues," he said in a high pitched voice.
"She's been a bit stressed out recently, Grimm. You know that," North said. Then, he looked at Jack pointedly, his eyebrows rising curiously. "Now, Jack, what brings you to the Pole?"
Jack sighed. He had really been hoping to speak to North alone, but Grimm was still there, and there seemed to be no way around it. He lowered his head because he didn't want to see North's face when he said his next sentence. "Jamie Bennett is dead."
Jack heard the sound of ice shattering, and his head snapped up quickly. He saw that North had dropped a little ice toy train for his train set. North was staring at Jack with his eyes wide in unbelief. "Jamie Bennett?" Jack nodded dismally. "…He's dead? But how can that be?"
Grimm said nothing but watched Jack with slight interest, as if he wanted to know why Jack believed that. He hid his smile with his long bangs as Jack produced the front page of the newspaper with the announcement of Jamie's death. "I was just at the funeral with Sophie," Jack said. He explained to North everything about the note and how they went about solving the first part of this mysterious case. "In the end, we figured that the note said HELP, and that the extra part about Caleb and Claude's address held something that we needed to know. Sophie said that the address was fake because there was no such thing as Alien Road in Burgess. Do you think you can help us?"
This newspaper said that Jamie was researching the disappearances of mythical creatures… I wonder, North thought. He was almost certain that the two things were connected. If someone was making the creatures of myth and legends disappear, they could have gone after Jamie when he started researching! North voiced his opinions to Jack. "Here," he said, handing Jack a red sack.
Jack looked at it and snorted. "Thanks, North!" he said sarcastically. "This sack will totally help me figure out who killed Jamie! Thanks so much!" In truth, Jack was thinking about North's theory. If Jamie had been researching why these creatures were disappearing, the abductors must have been affiliated with the guys who were messing with the legendary creatures. But why?
North shook his head at Jack's bluntness. He was a good kid, but sometimes he wondered. "No, Jack. That is my toy sack. It was charmed many centuries ago by Ombric, my magic teacher, so that it would never run out of room. It can shrink or grow in size, but the space inside is endless. Whenever you find something, put it in that bag, and it will be safe. When you need that object again, just concentrate on it, reach your hand in, and you'll pull it out."
Grimm shook his wrist and checked his watch as Jack began putting things in the sack. "Yo, North," he said. He continued once he had North's undivided attention. "I have to get back to the realm. Catch you later." Grimm opened a portal by tapping his golden cufflinks. A black hole opened right up in the middle of the floor, and it appeared to go on forever. Grimm gave a two fingered salute to North and Jack and jumped in.
Jack tied up the sack, and he was surprised to see that not only had it remained the same size as before, but it also remained as weightless. He slung it over his shoulder and leapt for the window on the opposite side of the office. "Thanks, North," he called as the wind carried him back to Burgess, Pennsylvania.
Jack knocked on Sophie's window with the edge of his staff, just to be polite. He found that she had already unlocked it, and he stepped in. He had tied the red sack onto his staff so that he would have a free hand as well as be aware of it at all times. "Soph? You awake?" It was well passed Sophie's bedtime, and he was almost positive that she would be asleep.
Jack had seen the Sandman's dreamsand on the flight in. He decided to check to see if North's statement was true, and sure enough, it was. Jack had peeked into a child's room, and he had waited by the window. When the dreamsand came, it filtered through the window like normal. It neared the child's head, but then, a strange thing happened. As if there were a circular force-field that had surrounded the sleeping kid's head, the dreamsand bounced off and settled on the floor like dust bunnies.
Surprisingly enough, when Jack entered Sophie's room, he found that she wasn't there. Paranoia shot up in Jack's chest, and he breathed in deeply. Had the 'Blocked Number' guy gotten Sophie? He turned in a small circle with his staff held out protectively. He only lowered it when he heard something that sounded like a zipper in the bathroom. He approached with caution and opened the door.
He found five year old little Sophie, sitting on the toilet, zipping up her left boot. She was wearing a black beanie hat, and she had pulled her hair up into a ponytail. She was also wearing a black hoodie with dark blue jeans and black zip-up combat boots. "Ummm…" Jack said, quite shocked at her appearance. Why was she getting dressed? Didn't she know that it was past eleven o' clock at night?
Sophie looked up at Jack sheepishly. "I didn't know if you were coming back, so I was going to uh…" she paused. "…You know…"
"Sneak out?" Jack asked with an eyebrow raised as he pointed at her black bag. "What's in that thing?"
"A couple of flashlights, a pack of batteries, first aid, juice boxes and graham crackers, and Jamie's phone chargers. Normal detective stuff," she said nonchalantly. "What's in your bag?"
"North gave this to me. Apparently, the room inside of it is endless, so all of the clues we found are in here," said Jack. He reached over, grabbed Sophie's bag, and stuffed it inside the toy sack.
Sophie scrunched her nose when she saw the way Jack tied the sack to his staff. "You look like a hobo."
Jack rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Let's just go looking." He led her over to the window and grabbed her hand with his free one. Together, they leapt out of the room into the cover of night. The moon was full and bright, but the stars were hidden because of all the city lights. The wind guided them for a while until Jack asked, "Where are we going to search?"
"I want to talk to Pippa, Monte, Caleb, Claude, and Cupcake," Sophie replied after a long pause. "They were also with Jamie that last day. If they saw Jamie doing anything weird, or if they saw anyone else being weird around Jamie, they could help us."
"Just how many of those detective shows did you and your brother watch?" Jack mumbled. In a louder voice, he asked, "Well, whose house should we go to first?"
Sophie looked sheepish once more. It was a look that told Jack, 'But wait! There's a catch'. She obviously didn't learn it from him though. Right… "Well… you see… the police kind of took them into custody."
Her comment made Jack halt abruptly. Even the wind stopped rustling the braches of the trees below. "What? Did you just say that those kids were taken to jail?" he asked, unbelieving.
She waved her hands frantically. "As suspects!" she cried. Realizing that her statement didn't improve their situation, she cleared her throat and tried again. "I mean, the police wanted to question them about Jamie. They were there on the last day, after all. Their parents wanted them to be free of questioning until after the funeral, so as soon as it was over, the police nabbed 'em and took them down to the station."
"And you somehow failed to tell me this earlier?"
Sophie pouted. "Hey! Like I said, I didn't know if you were coming back."
"You know, you've got a lot of trust issues for a five year old," Jack said, keeping his gaze straight forward so as to avoid the angry glare that Sophie was throwing at him.
The pair soon touched down in front of the police station. As Jack looked inside, he saw that the bright, fluorescent lights were being reflected off of the building's white marble floors. He sighed and hit himself. "I am such an idiot," he groaned. Of course the police station was still open. They couldn't just waltz in there and ask to talk to the suspects. For one thing, no one but the suspects would be able to see Jack. For another, it would look extremely disturbing if a little girl dressed like a robber walked in by herself and demanded to be allowed to question people.
"We need a diversion," Sophie said wisely. "But what?"
Jack stared down at her, and a plan formed in his mind. It was a little risky, and it could have gotten Sophie taken home in the back of a police car, but he was willing. If those suspects in there knew something about Jamie, it was his right to figure out what. He bent down and whispered in Sophie's ear. "Alright, kiddo. Here's what I want you to do…"
Sophie nodded. She took off her beanie and undid her ponytail. She then began to think about her brother and how she would never see him again; she started to cry. She ran inside the police station, fully wailing by then. "Help me," she sobbed. The two police men at the front desk left their stations to come stop her crying as she continued. "There was a man driving a big black car, and he stoled me from my house."
"Don't cry, sweetheart," one officer said.
"We'll find him," said another. "Now, calm down, and tell us what he looked like."
Sophie sniffled. "W-well, he was tall, and he had brownish black hair, and he was wearing sunglasses." This was too easy. She really should have gone into acting.
"Alright. We'll go look for him now," the first officer said. "You stay here." With that, the two men left in search of a fictitious kidnapper.
Jack stuck his foot out and caught the door after he jumped out of his hiding spot in the bushes. He slid himself in and carefully shut the door, making sure that the lock didn't click too loudly. Then, he turned to little Sophie and thanked her. "Now, we have to find out where they keep the suspects for questioning in this place."
Together, they strolled down hallway after hallway. They've got to have better security in this place, Jack thought. How do they keep the suspects from escaping if there's no one around to keep watch? Then, Jack heard footsteps. Apparently, Sophie had heard them too, because she was trying to tug Jack over to a place to hide. They hid around a corner, holding their breaths until an officer passed by and walked down to the next corridor. Jack never remembered that the man couldn't see him.
He looked down the hallway that they were in. There was only one door, and it was locked. Above it, there was a sign that glowed in green that said, "QUESTIONING IN PROGRESS." Luck was weird that way. He could bet that Caleb, Claude, Monte, Pippa, and Cupcake were all in that room. How were they going to get in there? The only other things in the hall were some trash cans, recycling bins, and a fire alarm. Already, Jack had another plan.
He guided Sophie to a trash can that was much bigger than her, and he set her inside. She complained, but the trash can was empty, so he left her. Making sure the coast was clear, he pulled the fire alarm.
Loud noises blared from the alarm, and Jack covered his ears. Somehow, through all of the noise, Jack heard the door unlock, and he dove into the trash can beside Sophie's, once again forgetting that he couldn't be seen. Something just told him to do it, like it was natural. As Jack peeked up out of his trash can, he caught sight of the last guy running out of the building. He had a strange haircut in his brown hair, as if it were cut into some sort of pattern. He also noticed the man's birthmark on the back of his neck.
Jack sprang up out of the can and reached over to help Sophie. Together, they ran into the Questioning Room, locking the door behind them.
Sophie came face to face with a group of very startled, yet sullen, teenagers. Pippa had already jumped up from her chair, ready to bolt when she had heard the fire alarm. Monte, a teen who habitually had anxiety attacks, was in the middle of a breakdown and cold sweats. Cupcake was staring at Monte irritated, and Caleb and Claude were already trying to climb out of a window. Wait… a window? They could have come in through the window? "Why didn't you guys run when you heard the fire alarm? I know that it was a false alarm, but that doesn't mean you should ignore proper protection protocol," Sophie scolded.
Cupcake rolled her eyes at the little girl. "We saw you guys coming through the window over there," she responded, pointing to Caleb and Claude who were trying to shy away. "The police were still questioning us when we saw, but we didn't draw too much attention to the window."
Pippa was now trying to relax Monte. "We all knew something like this would happen, right Monte? No need to be afraid of the alarms. The mean police men are outside now, okay? Jack and Sophie are here to hang out. If something happens, Jack will protect us because he's our friend."
Monte glared at her because of the babying tone that she was using. "I'm not three, I'm just nervous." Pippa smiled at him sheepishly. Monte then brought his attention toward Jack and Sophie who were still standing in the doorway. "Why are you guys here? I didn't think it was one of your top priorities to meet a bunch of soon to be convicts."
Jack stared at Monte. The usually quiet, shy Monte was being quite bold. What happened to this kid? He had just seen him a week ago. "Don't mind him, bro," Claude whispered. "He always gets like this after an attack."
The winter spirit nodded silently, and he answered Monte. "We want to talk to you about Jamie. We know somebody tried to kill him on purpose, but we also have reason to believe that whoever killed Jamie is also making mythical creatures disappear. It's a theory in the works, but here's what I found out from North." He went on to explain North's theory, and then he showed them the sack. He pulled out the newspaper, and the group passed it around so that they could all see. "Did you guys see anything strange that day?" he concluded.
"We don't have a lot of time, Jack," Monte said. "The fire men are already here, and they're going to get suspicious if there's no fire."
"Just answer the question," Sophie demanded.
"Calm down Sophie. These are your brother's friends, remember?" Jack said. Sophie calmed. This was no time to be playing Good Cop-Bad Cop.
Pippa shifted in her seat. "Well… I did see something… odd."
When she didn't go on, Jack prodded, "Well, what was it?"
"On my way to Jamie's house for the snowball fight, I saw a guy in a brown overcoat. At the time, I didn't think it was odd, but it seemed like he was watching Jamie's house. He just stood there, waiting. I just dismissed it because the Bennetts do have a nice house," she said. Her cheeks flushed. "Not that I spend a lot of time looking at it or anything. And, when I went inside, I saw this piece of paper on the counter, but I couldn't read the words. It looked like they were written in some other language. Somehow, it was like looking through a cloud of mist or something. Either way, I saw this pattern on the bottom of the paper."
"A pattern?" Jack asked, remembering the police officer's strange haircut that he had seen before. "What did it look like?"
Pippa thought for a moment. "It looked kind of like a yin yang symbol, but the dots had been removed and placed on the outside of the circle. Oh! And it wasn't black and white, but both sides were different shades of brown."
Well, the way that Pippa had described the symbol, it didn't seem like that was the pattern that Jack had seen in the officer's haircut. Maybe it was just a creative hair choice for the guy? "Did anyone else see anything?"
Cupcake spoke up next. "It didn't happen on the last day, but once I was up in Jamie's room. He let me borrow his textbook to study for a test, but he wasn't home for me to return it. My mom was waiting outside, so I decided to just put it in his room. I set the book on his desk with a post-it note saying that I had been by. He had left his laptop open, and I saw the stuff he was working on with it. I sneaked a peak, and it looked like some sort of government website that Jamie had hacked into. Before I saw anything, a firewall appeared on the screen, and the page disappeared."
"You think that was weird?" Caleb asked. "All you saw was some website. I actually saw some of the mythical stuff he was working on. I had borrowed his flash drive in computer class. I opened the file where my PowerPoint was, but not before I saw a folder named 'CONFIDENTIAL'. Claude likes to call me a snoop, but I'm just naturally curious. Besides, you can't call something confidential and not expect people to want to look at it. I went back and opened the folder, and I saw papers called stuff like, 'Missing Mini-Fairies,' and 'AWOL Egglets'. It was the weirdest thing. Needless to say, I just returned his flash drive and started the PowerPoint over."
Claude and Monte hadn't seen anything unusual, so Jack went on. "Do the police know anything about this?" he asked. He had walked over to the window while Caleb was talking, and he saw that a police chief was arguing with a fireman and another officer. There seemed to be a lot of screaming and arm throwing.
He turned back to the group, and they all shook their heads. "We haven't told them anything about the flash drive or the laptop. Pippa only told them about the man in the overcoat, but nothing about the pattern that she saw," Monte answered. He seemed to be back to his normal self, keeping his answer short and to the point so that he could talk less.
"Well, thanks you guys," said Sophie. "You really helped out a lot. You had better get out of here. It would look suspicious if you were still here when the fire alarm had been pulled." She and Jack took off by jumping out of the now open window. She wondered why Jack kept to the shadows of the trees in the woods, but she didn't voice her opinions. She decided that it was best because although the people below couldn't see Jack, they could still see Sophie.
Jack was thinking about what Caleb, Pippa, and Cupcake had said. First he thought about what Pippa said. That man in the black overcoat could have been the man that abducted Jamie later that day, but why was he hanging out around the neighborhood out in the open where everyone could see him? Then he thought about what Cupcake had said. He had known that Jamie had some pretty good hacking skills, but a secret government database? What did that have to do with finding out why myths and legends were disappearing? It made no sense whatsoever! Lastly, he thought about Caleb. Maybe, if he could get a hold of that flash drive, he might find some information about what Jamie was really doing.
"I'm pretty sure that the stuff I've been figuring out is totally top secret…"
"Anyway, I'm pretty sure that I'm doing something kind of dangerous…"
Jamie's voice rang in Jack's head. All of a sudden, Jack was sure that if he got that flash drive, he would know. He would know what Jamie was doing in his room all the time, hiding himself from the world. He would know how to solve the case. He would know who killed his first believer and avenge him. "Sophie, did you hear what Caleb said about that flash drive?"
"Yeah, and I know what you're thinking. If we need to find it, we've got to go to the cemetery across the street from the Old Church House. Everyone else thought it was strange that Jamie requested to be buried with his backpack while he was in the hospital, but I think I know why. His flash drive is somewhere hidden in his backpack, and it probably still has those files on it," Sophie said.
The wind carried them to the cemetery. "Jamie was buried today, so the dirt should still be fresh," she continued. "I think I remember the way, but if we're going to get that flash drive, we're going to have to dig up Jamie's grave."
"Isn't that illegal in the United States?" Jack questioned, raising an eyebrow at the young girl. Just what kind of TV was she watching these days? Had Barney gone Terminator when he wasn't looking?
"Not if you don't get caught," Sophie answered. "Isn't that your philosophy?" She grunted as she reached for the red toy sack tied to Jack's staff. When she couldn't reach it, she looked at Jack innocently. "Jack, can you hand me a flashlight so that we don't get lost in a dark cemetery around midnight with a bunch of creepers and hobos?"
Jack handed her a flashlight, and they touched down near the middle of the cemetery. His feet crunched on the dead grass, and Sophie clicked on her flashlight. She led him around, every once in a while turning off the flashlight when she thought she heard something. Finally, she whispered to him, "His grave should be right around here." They turned the corner to see a new gravestone inscribed, 'HERE LIES JAMIE BENNETT, YOUTHFUL FOREVER, MAY HE R.I.P.'.
Where Jamie's untouched grave should have been, there was a pile of overturned dirt. Sophie scowled. "This isn't right. When they buried Jamie, his grave was much neater than this. Someone else has been here." She held her flashlight out a good distance from her, and the light shined farther. She walked all around the grave, shining her light. "This is really weird. The ground here is muddy from that brief snow before. If someone really was here, they would have left some kind of footprint, unless they were floating, which humans can't do."
As she was thinking aloud, Jack was staring at the grave. Who had been here? Only when Sophie said 'unless they were floating' did Jack begin paying attention. He thought back to his meeting with North at the Pole and how Grimm had seemed to know what was going on. He was a spirit as well, so it was possible that he had the ability to float, and he was the spirit of death. But why would Grimm dig up Jamie's grave? True, he had an alibi that seemed strong. He had said that since he was the Grimm Reaper, he could tell. But, it seemed like there was more to the story than he was sharing.
Jack and Sophie knelt down at the grave, and together, they removed the overturned dirt. They found Jamie's coffin and removed it from the ground. Carefully, and with reverence, they yanked the lid off. There laid Jamie, pale and unmoving. The light barely illuminated his face, but as far as they could tell, the body definitely belonged to Jamie Bennett. Next to him was a blue backpack that was completely full. The two grave robbers shared a glance and dug into the backpack with a new fierceness after seeing the poor boy sleeping eternally.
Sophie gingerly opened the backpack. She dumped out school papers, text books, extra clothes, and everything else out. You would have thought that the kid didn't even use his locker. They searched through everything, and there was no flash drive to be found. Just as Jack was about to give up, he heard a ring. It was faint, as though it were coming from a far away place. At first, Jack thought that someone was coming, but then he recognized the ring. It was Jamie's phone.
Sophie watched as Jack dug through the red toy sack. She was trying to keep from shaking for Jack's sake because she knew how hard he was working to keep her relaxed. She watched him pull out the phone and put in Jamie's passcode. Then, she saw his eyes widen. "Is it from the Blocked Number?" she asked. When he didn't answer, she said, "What does it say?"
"He said, um… he said, 'Were you looking for something? Too late. But, look, the sun's coming up. Isn't it about that time when Sophie's mom comes to check on her?'" Jack answered. He had already begun to stuff the papers into the red sack. They didn't have time to search through the papers at that moment, but they might have need for them later. He stuck the backpack into the grave where it had been, and he and Sophie lowered the coffin back into the ground. They covered the grave back up, neater, and the pair took off.
They arrived at the Bennett house in silence. Jack entered into the little girl's bedroom through the window, and he set her down. "Come back tomorrow, Jack. We need to keep working," Sophie said.
Jack nodded, his mind somewhere else. The last thing he saw her do was get into her bed and pretend she was sleeping. He jumped out of the window once more, and the wind caught him. He flew aimlessly, still keeping to the shadows of trees in the woods. So, the 'Blocked Number' guy was watching them dig up the grave. That was the only way Jack could think of for how he knew to text them about Sophie. But, if the 'Blocked Number' guy had been watching them, did that mean that he was with them in the cemetery? And if he was, did that mean that he was the one who dug up Jamie's grave?
Sophie had said that whoever had dug up Jamie's grave didn't leave any footprints. That would mean that whoever dug up Jamie's grave was able to float, which also would have made him inhuman. His mind immediately wandered back to Grimm. He had been quick to get out of North's office as soon as North gave him the red sack. Also, Jack couldn't shake the feeling that Grimm was bad news.
Of course, logic told him that Grimm just gave off that kind of feeling. Once again, he was the personification of death, after all. Jack knew he shouldn't be jumping to conclusions. In almost every detective show that he and Jamie watched, the guy who jumped to conclusions was usually the guy who disappeared next, so he knew he had to be rational about this situation. He needed outside help.