Chapter Four

Tristan stepped out of his car the next morning and removed his sunglasses before looking around, curiously observing all of the town folks bustling by. A large woman passed, giving him an appreciative smile, and the store owner across the street pretended to busy himself by rearranging the fruit stand, while he was actually trying to catch a glance at Tristan. The one who gave him an uneasy feeling, though, was the tall skinny guy standing six feet away, staring as if Tristan was an alien. He finally looked away when someone yelled…

"Kirk!"

Shaking his head, he headed into the building that was marked as a hardware store, but had another sign hanging which read "Luke's Diner". As he opened the door, bells rang, causing everyone to look up at him. Trying to ignore their curious glances, he walked towards Rory who was sitting at the counter with a dark haired woman.

"Hey," Rory said softly, turning in her seat.

"Hey," Tristan said back, as he sat down on the stool next to her, dropping his notebook on the counter. He figured he should at least look like he was going to do this project. The woman sitting next to Rory cleared her throat. Rory looked over at her rolling her eyes, as Tristan watched amused.

"This is Tristan my partner for my school project," Rory told her. "Tristan, this is my mom."

"Lorelai Gilmore, but you can call me Natalie Wood, Miss Celine does," Lorelai informed him, offering her hand.

"Mom!" Rory scolded, as Tristan chuckled.

"You didn't tell me he was good looking," Lorelei said, a wide grin graced her face.

"Mom, don't you have to be getting to the Inn?" Rory asked, hoping to get rid of her as fast as possible.

Lorelai pouted. "You're no fun," she sighed. "I guess I should be going before Michel's dog chews up another guests' footwear. Nice meeting you, though" she winked at Tristan.

"Nice meeting you too, Ms. Gilmore," Tristan responded politely, with a smirk on his face.

Lorelai froze in her spot. "Never call me that; it's Lorelai."

Tristan nodded.

"You two have fun," Lorelai called out as she left.

Rory rolled her eyes. "That's my mom for you." She blushed before glancing down at her lap and smoothing her denim skirt.

Tristan smirked. He couldn't help but like this girl.

"Can I get you anything?"

A voice interrupted his thoughts, and he looked up to see a man wearing flannel and his hat on backwards, giving him a hard stare.

"Uh, just coffee, thanks" Tristan replied awkwardly, folding his hands in front of him and staring down at the counter.

"Why don't we move to a table?" Rory suggested, before she gathered her books, and went over to an empty table so they'd have more room.

"So," Tristan started, once they were settled at a table.

"You want to go first, or do you want me to?" Rory asked, opening her notebook.

"You," Tristan said. He was completely unprepared.

"Alright," Rory said, looking down at her notes, grabbing a pencil. She looked down at her list, before reading off her questions. "What's your birth date?"

"September 4th," Tristan answered. He figured it would not hurt being truthful for these questions, as long as they weren't too personal.

"1984?" Rory asked in a teasing voice. "Unless of course you flunked a grade or two..."

Tristan just smirked, yet remained silent. She couldn't accuse him of lying.

"Where were you born?" Rory asked moving onto her next question.

"New Haven." He responded simply.

"What do you want to be?" Rory looked up from the notes she'd been taking.

Tristan was silent for a moment. He was already what he wanted to be. He figured it wouldn't hurt to be truthful, "A police officer."

"How come?" Rory asked curiously, cocking her head to the side, biting her bottom lip.

Tristan shrugged his shoulders. "I use to go to a military school, and one of my drill sergeants was a retired police officer. I guess you could say he was a bit of a mentor to me. I wanted to be like him."

"That's sweet," Rory smiled. "So you went to military school before coming here?"

Luke came over and set the coffee down in front of Tristan, again, giving him a hard stare before returning to the counter.

"Uh, yeah," Tristan said, rubbing the back of his neck, maybe this was not the best project to be doing with her, or anyone.

"So why did you come here?" Rory continued, Tristan's uneasiness went unnoticed by her. "Why didn't you just finish out your senior year there?"

"Well, I-" Tristan was cut off as his cell phone started ringing. He could not help but feel saved by the bell. Taking his phone out, he noticed Rory pointing at a sign behind him. He looked to see the 'no cell phones' sign hanging on the door.

"Luke catches you with that, and he'll kick you out," Rory informed him matter-of-factly.

Tristan glanced down at the caller ID; it was Chief Edwards. He glanced back up at Rory. "I have to take this call, I'll step out side—be right back though," he assured her.

"Dugrey," Tristan answered in a low voice once he was outside. He walked to a less crowded area as to not let anyone overhear.

"Checking up on you," Edwards said. "How was the party?"

"This isn't exactly the best time to be discussing business," Tristan replied, keeping an eye on his surroundings. "I'm with one of the students for a class project we're teamed for."

"Well, how was the party at least?"

"Failure," Tristan said. "The host and his friend were selling stuff there, comic books. I searched all over his room, but found didn't find anything to suggest he's our guy."

Edwards groaned. "Are there any other suspects?"

"One, Finn Morgan came into class the day before yesterday looking stoned. I'll look into him, next. I've managed to get in with his group of friends. The girl I'm teamed with on this project is pretty close with him."

"Good, I want you to get close to this girl; see what you can get out of her about Morgan. If she's friends with him, she might know something; she might even be using. Heck, she could be your ring leader!"

"Sir, I don't think that's the best idea," Tristan started. "I'm positive she has nothing to do with any of this. She's a Mary."

"Mary," the chief chuckled, "haven't heard that in ages! Regardless, Dugrey, you don't know for sure. She could be a good little actress."

Tristan took a deep breathe. "Sir-"

"Dugrey, I'm not telling you to date the girl, but get close to her, get whatever information out of her you can."

"Okay sir," Tristan answered.

"I'll check in with you in a few days."

Tristan closed his phone, and sighed, leaning up against the building. What has he gotten himself into? He wondered.

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AN: BIG thank you to my beta Melissa (aka photobooth romance) for making this chapter so much better than it originally was!