Shai's POV

I was up and dressed before dawn the next morning. The real problem was getting Ethan up. "Wake up!" I hissed in his ear for the fourth time. He mumbled a couple unpleasant four letter words and rolled over. I grabbed his shoulder and shook him, "Get up!" No response. I sighed, grabbed his leg and tried to drag him out of bed; instead I tripped over a pair of sneakers and fell flat on my back with a thud. Ethan rolled over and squinted at me, "Why are you on the floor?"

I rolled my eyes. "Looking for Atlantis. Why do you think I'm on the floor?" I got up as he checked his phone. "It's 4:30 in the morning. What are we doing, breaking and entering? Robbing a bank? Invading Russia?"

"Very funny. Now get dressed."

"Fine." He got out of bed and dug around in his wardrobe. He shot me a look. "Can I have a minute?" I put my hands up in surrender, "Fine. But if you go back to bed I'm bringing in the hose."

I closed the door on his reply

15 minutes later I was outback trying to untangle the hose. "I thought you were joking." I heard Ethan say behind me.

"When will you learn that I go through with my threats." I turned around the face him. "I was hoping I'd be an exception." He said with a cheeky smile. I smiled at him, stepped closer, and sprayed him with the hose.

"Thanks now I'm going to get hypothermia."

I shrugged. "Not my problem." I put the hose away and headed towards the road. He jogged to catch up with me. "So what are we doing so early in the morning?"

"We're going to visit Gary Coscomb."

"Right…Gary Coscomb…umm…Who's Gary Coscomb?"

"A PI that lives about a mile and a half away, down by the old mill." Ethan looked confused. "A PI?"

"A private investigator."

He rolled his eyes, "I know what PI is, I wanna know why we need him?" I dug out Elizabeth's cell phone from my sweatshirt pocket and handed it to him, "It was the number on Elizabeth's phone. I called it. The voicemail said it belonged to a guy named Gary Coscomb. I looked him up, Gary's a local PI with an admirable satisfaction rate."

"Why did Elizabeth need a PI?" Ethan asked.

"That's what we're gonna find out."

We purposefully took the long way down to Coscomb's place, it was Ethan who figured he'd be a bit more receptive if we didn't go banging on his door at 5 in the morning. We killed some more time by buying coffee at a local gas station. The inside was all fluorescent lighting and metal shelves full of room temperature drinks, fatty snacks and cheap booze. In the chrome of the coffee machine I saw the guy at the register watching us intently, he didn't say a word as we checked out. We didn't linger after we paid.

We made our way straight to Gary's building after that. I was growing impatient and the gas station guy had made me antsy. "What if he's not up yet?" Ethan asked as I scanned the buzzer list for Coscomb's apartment number. "Then we'll catch him off guard."

"And what if he doesn't talk to us? He doesn't have to."

"Then he can talk to the police." I called over my shoulder as I made my way up the rusty metal stairs. Ethan trailed after me in silence as we climbed to the third floor and knocked on apartment C5. The dirty gray paint was peeling and the carpet underneath was stained and frayed. "I thought you said this guy was a successful PI? He's getting paid, why is he still living in this dump?"

I shrugged. "Maybe it's a cover. He's living inconspicuously. Under the radar."

Suddenly the door swung open on creaky hinges. A figure stood in the doorway. He was…well…unimpressive. Short, doughy, straw colored, thining hair. His eyes were a dull, muddy brown and he was wearing an old bathrobe along with glasses slightly askew on his beak-like nose. "Gary Coscomb?" I asked uncertainly. He eyed me over the rim of his crooked glasses and opened a mouth of yellowing teeth. "Yes." He said in a wheezy voice, and judging from the almost overwhelming smell of cigars floating out from his apartment, he was a regular smoker. "What do you kids want?"

"We want to ask you some questions?" I figured there was no reason to beat around the bush. He gave me a condescending smile. "I'm sure there's nothing of importance you kids need to ask me." He went to close the door but was stopped by Ethan putting his foot in the doorjam. "A client you were investigating for is dead and unless you want to talk to the police you can tell us what you know." His warning seemed to catch the PI's attention. Coscomb's smile remained fixed but strained. "And what client are you talking about?"

"Elizabeth Castor." I answered. He shot Ethan and me a sharp look then opened the apartment door to let us.

The apartment was small and cramped. A miniscule kitchen was stuffed in a corner and the rest of the room was taken up by an old livingroom set meant for a much larger space. The room smelled like dust and take out. The only window was covered by a dark curtain, all the light in the room was artificial and weak. "What do you know about Elizabeth Castor?" Coscomb asked us as he closed the door with a click. "More than you obviously." I told him sharply. He scowled. I continued. "Elizabeth is dead and has been for the past week. She was murdered. You're a PI how did you not know that." He sank down into an overstuffed armchair and motioned for us to take a seat as well. We sat on a musty couch and waited. And waited, the guy said nothing.

"How did you not know Elizabeth was dead?" I repeated, "It's been on every local news station and even a few national ones…"

Gary gave a weak, breathy laugh. "I don't trust the media for information, unlike all you kids who seem to rely on it. I don't watch the television, nor do I listen to the radio. I don't even own a computer. And you can probably guess that I have no one I would consider a friend-"

"Except Elizabeth. Your number was on her phone." I cut in. "I saw Elizabeth as a colleague." He responded stiffly. "I met her about six months ago when I was visiting a friend up at the school. She knew who I was, I have no idea how. I stopped being a PI years ago, anyway, she wanted my help. Elizabeth wanted to be a journalist, and by the time she met me she already had quite the case built up. She just wanted my advice at first, and occasionally some third party perspective on some evidence that she had found. That was it, that was all we ever talked about,"

"What case had she built up?" I asked quickly. He squared his shoulders and looked me dead in the eye. "I don't think that's any of your business."

"With all due respect," Ethan interjected. It was the first thing he had said since he walked in the door. "Elizabeth is dead, and whatever case she was building could tell us who did it?"

"If it's so goddamn important then why are you children here and not the police!" He yelled angrily.

He's angry, I thought. This can go either way. He can become careless and let something slip or he can completely shut down. I really hoped it was the first option because we had no other leads to go on, all we had was whatever this guy told us.

"The police aren't going the right way with this investigation." Ethan replied calmly. "And at this rate by the time they get on the right track the killer will be long gone…"

"Or will have killed again." I added. "Elizabeth isn't the only one dead. Her friend, Maria Sanchez, was found murdered on the school grounds last night. And if this guy isn't stopped more people will die. Now what case was Elizabeth building?"

Gary sighed and slumped back in his armchair. "She was right," He whispered softly. "What?" Ethan asked.

"She was right!" He yelled again. "She was being threatened, and she was scared. I just thought she was being paranoid. 'Being threatened is part of the job,' I told her. So she kept digging, she even planned to confront the guy…Now she's dead."

"Who was she planning to confront?" I asked gently. "Some cop. Some corrupt cop she was going to expose." I could tell he was getting upset but I had one more question. "Did she ever confront the cop?"

"I have no idea." He responded quietly. He stood up abruptly and disappeared into a side room. Before Ethan and I could exchange confused looks, he was back carrying a small cardboard box. "This is everything I knew about Elizabeth's research." He said gravely. "Take it." He handed the box to Ethan. "And expose the son of a bitch who killed that girl."

It was a promise I was happy to make.