Author's Note: Hey everyone; I want to apologize for how long it's been taking me to get up another chapter. For some reason the inspiration to write Knight Rider fics comes and goes, but I've had so much going on concerning classes that I haven't had time to work on much of anything lately. I'm hoping to be able to get the next chapter up sooner than the amount of time that's lapsed between this and the last, but know that it might stay idle for a few weeks. I do thank you for your patience though and for giving this story a chance :) I am enjoying it and the good stuff is just around the corner :)
I will reply to a comment that was requesting me to look at the end of chapter 6 and some sort of error that occurred. Unfortunately I found nothing wrong with it, so it might have been your computer or the connection of the internet at the time you viewed it. I hope you've been able to read it since then :) If not, contact me with a PM through ffnet and I'll figure something out for you. Note that the only error in this chapter might be typos--I wanted to get this posted before I left for class and if I waited there was a good chance it wouldn't get done again. So please bypass any minor things you may come across please.
And I apologize for offending anyone if you believe there's too much swearing taking place. Please note that I rated this "T" which can allow me to make this a little more "adult" so to speak in term of language. I don't view Knight Rider as for general audiences….entirely, lol.
As always please review so I can have an idea how it's going over with everyone. And of course, as always, enjoy :)
Chapter 7: One Way Street
Michael Knight parked his blue '57 Chevy in front of the hotel drop off where Nicole was staying. She came out moments later, her purse dangling from her shoulder and sunglasses hiding her brown eyes. Sitting in the passenger seat and buckling up, she greeted Michael with a meek hello as he started to drive off. He said nothing to her until they were on the road and then he glanced at her quiet face.
"I promise to find her," he said to reassure the saddened mother. "Today marks the day I start pushing over rocks to find out where she went."
"I know," Nicole replied. "I just don't understand any of this. Why, Michael? Why did this have to happen?"
Michael shook his head and turned the car onto the on-ramp to the highway. "I've asked that same question about a lot of things almost every day."
"How's K.I.T.T. coming?" Nicole asked suddenly, apparently knowing that part of his answer had referred to his old car.
"He's coming," Michael admitted. "They're working on him day and night as far as I hear. I know as soon as he's finished the search for Natalie will go a lot quicker."
Nicole let out heavy sigh and remained focused on the passing scenery. Neither of them said a word, and strangely this reminded Michael of the day they met when he had picked her up as a hitchhiker. He smiled to himself when he started reflecting on the entire incident with stopping Harold T. Turner from his antics, including the kidnapping of his daughter. K.I.T.T., he recalled, thought Natalie was one of the sweetest little girls he had ever met. He'd be heartbroken, in the figurative sense of course, to hear that such a sweet thing had gotten mixed up with so much trouble.
They arrived at Nicole's house within the hour; Michael parked the car on the side of the road in front of the white ranch house and looked around for anything that might give him a clue. "Nice neighborhood," he said as he looked down the street.
"It's alright," Nicole replied. "It was the best location for my husband's job and I decided to put my father's money away for Natalie's education and for emergencies."
They simultaneously got out of the car and Nicole led the way to the front door. Michael eyed an elderly woman watering her flower bed next door. "Is that the neighbor who saw them?" he asked quickly.
"Mrs. Thompson? Yes, that's her," Nicole said as she opened the door.
"I'll be right back." Michael jumped the steps and jogged easily over to the woman who eyed him as he approached. She was of fair skin and gray hair, larger glasses topping her nose and an old broach clearly visible from her collared shirt. "Mrs. Thompson?"
"Yes?" She asked warily and pulled up the watering can from drenching the flowers.
"Hi," Michael greeted with a white smile. "My name's Michael Knight, I'm a friend of Nicole's."
"Oh? I didn't know she had a man friend these days," Mrs. Thompson said with a small smirk as she eyed Michael up and down.
Michael chuckled and held out his hand to stress the point. "No, not like that," he told her. "We worked together a long time ago. Anyway, I was wondering if you can tell me what you know about Natalie's disappearance."
"Natalie? Oh, yes, she's something now isn't she?" Mrs. Thompson stated. "I don't like to claim I snoop around, but I've noticed on several occasions her standing in the front yard with some young man and they'd either be arguing or he'd be sweet talking her, or as it looked I mean."
"Nicole said you mentioned you saw Natalie get into a car from Arizona," he said. "Do you remember anything about it?"
Mrs. Thompson thought for a moment, her eyes glancing up to the sky to look at nothing in particular, but then she nodded and returned her gaze to him. "Yes, as a matter of fact I remember quite clearly. It was a beat up old piece of junk—rusted and faded. It was blue. And if I'm picturing it clearly it had a gray side—the part above the wheel?"
"The fender?" Michael asked.
Mrs. Thompson nodded. "Yes! On the driver's side."
"Do you remember the license plate by any chance?"
She giggled slightly and started to water her flowers again. "Only the last two letters, ET. They're my initials so those stuck out in my mind for some reason. I figured that maybe she ran off to get married or something since she's been gone for so long."
Michael became alarmed and looked at the older woman oddly. "Why's that?"
"Well she got into that car with the same boy she's been hanging around, the one I told you about? There were, I think, two other boys too, but only one was outside standing." She smiled and seemed proud of herself. "I figured there was another because no one got into the driver's side to leave. Natalie and her boyfriend got in the back and that was that. They left in quite a hurry."
"Mrs. Thompson I can't thank you enough," Michael said and patted her on the shoulder before turning away.
He returned to the white ranch and took it upon himself to go inside. He found Nicole standing in the kitchen looking a bit upset. "Something happen?" He asked quickly, wondering if maybe while he was absent Natalie had called.
"No," she said and shrugged her shoulders. "I just don't know what to do. Did Mrs. Thompson help you though?"
"Very much so, actually," Michael said. "She gave me a good description of the car and I'm hoping Devon can do a trace on it. I just want to take a peak into Natalie's room, if that's alright."
Nicole nodded and started down the hallway. "You won't find much," she said as she opened the door at the end of the hall. "I've already looked."
Michael scanned the room; it was colored in blues and yellows and was fairly neat for a teenager's bedroom. The closet door was wide open to display an array of clothing and a stack of shoes on the bottom. The dresser held a small television on the side, but the mirror was what Michael became interested in. A dozen or more pictures lined the side of the mirror and one in particular caught his attention.
"That's Natalie and him," Nicole said looking around him.
"Paul?"
"Yep," she replied. "If I ever see him again I'll poke his eyes out."
"Well you can have what's left of him after I get through," Michael replied. "Mrs. Thompson said she saw Natalie get into the car with him—or whom I'm assuming was him since she claimed he had been hanging around before. Did they argue?"
"Constantly," Nicole said and went over to sit on the twin sized bed. "Most of the arguments were over stupid things, but I started to notice that if I had come home and interrupted one they'd stop and pretend everything was fine. He usually left soon after."
"Strange," Michael said and pulled off the picture. "I'm going to hang onto this if its ok," he told her and put the picture in his wallet.
As he tucked the wallet back into his back pocket, Michael saw the reflection of a desk directly behind him. He turned to it and noticed a closed laptop sitting on top. "Did she use this often?"
"Constantly," Nicole said with a tad bit of annoyance edging her voice. "Kids these days live on those things."
"They are amazing and useful machines," he said to himself with mild reference to K.I.T.T. "I'm going to leave this for K.I.T.T. to look through once he's in on the action," he told her. "He should be able to find anything that will tell us about what she has quicker than I could."
"You and me both," Nicole said. "I'm horrible with computers compared to my daughter. She was a wiz with it."
Michael spent no more than another half hour looking around the house for clues, but part of that time was having a cup of coffee with Nicole in the kitchen. They headed back to the hotel where Michael dropped Nicole off and then he proceeded to return to his own home. Once there he pulled the picture out of his wallet and picked up the phone.
"Devon," he said into the mouthpiece. "It's me."
"Did you find anything?" Devon asked with high hopes.
Michael leaned back and stared at the picture, his frustration growing as he studied Paul in the photo. "Yeah, I got a little further, but only a stepping stone I'm afraid. Look, can you do a search for a blue car with Arizona plates ending with the letters ET?"
There was a moment of silence from the other end. "I have a feeling it'll be a long list," Devon said finally.
"Maybe, but maybe not," Michael told him. "I talked to Nicole's neighbor and the woman said the car was pretty beat up and had a gray fender. I'm thinking that'll knock down a good portion of what comes up. We can also look up driving records linked to any cars because I'm sure that the kid who owns it doesn't have a clean record. Oh, and I also have a picture of that kid Paul Natalie hung around with. I have a feeling he's a direct cause to this thing."
"Well at least we're getting somewhere," Devon said. "I spoke to Bonnie a short while ago and she said K.I.T.T. is coming along quicker than everyone thought."
"Excellent," Michael said with a smile brightening up his face.
"Yes, but there's another problem," Devon said and his voice suddenly became lower and more obscure.
The smile faded from Michael's face and he nearly feared what his friend was about to say. "Alright, what is it?" He said finally.
"Edward Stants decided to figure out why you suddenly pulled K.I.T.T. out of his storage," Devon explained. "His secretary, Stacey, informed me he wanted the number to Bonnie's company. He found out that she's on a convenient vacation to this part of the state."
"Figures," Michael said and rubbed his brow with his hand. "This Stacey someone who could be spying on us?"
"No," Devon said quickly. "She's a respectable young woman and dislikes Stants almost as much as you do. She's on our side. But Michael, I'm afraid that now he understands Bonnie's away he'll start poking his nose around even more. If he finds out that K.I.T.T.'s been entirely redone and can be worth a profit he'll do whatever it takes to claim him. We'll have the flame burning at both ends of the candle."
Michael was quiet for a few minutes and thought everything over. "We'll just have to make sure things are hush hush when he's around. I'll let Bonnie know to swear everyone to secrecy."
"I already have," Devon said. "What we don't need is any unexpected visits from Stants. Once he sees K.I.T.T. for himself I daresay we'll have a lawsuit breathing down our necks."
"Not if I can help it," Michael said. When he hung up the phone he looked over at the picture again. Knowing that Stants could be another threat would make the investigation that much harder.
