Authors note: I know people are writing in their fanfics that Reefside takes place in California... and that it's actually filmed in New Zealand, but I've decided to make Reefside take place in Hawaii in my story in case you wonder why it is. Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed! You guys are awesome! Hope you like this chapter. : )

Avenge

Chapter 2 - Searching For Answers

I stood alone in the cemetary silently staring down at his grave stone. My eyes were glued onto the engraved words "Jordan Malone, 1978 - 2004" and I wished that I could shut my eyes and open them to see that it wasn't really there. That all of this was just a nightmare and I would wake up to see him lying next to me peacefully sleeping. But I was just setting myself up for more devastation as the grave stone kept appearing right before my eyes; it wouldn't go away.

It had been five days since the funeral, and each day I came here and stared. My life felt like a big empty hole, I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to talk to friends, I couldn't go back to work, the only thing that I could do was make my way over to the cemetary and stare at his grave for hours.

He was everything to me, and now everything was gone. My whole life had vanished into thin air before it had even started, and the more I stood there, the more the pain grew inside of me. Frustration and anger mixed together and left an awful, bitter feeling rushing within me. It wasn't fair! It wasn't fair for Jordan to just leave me like that. I wasn't ready to say goodbye.

My eyes were flooded by my tears, my sobbing becoming more intense than before. The pain made me feel weak, and soon I collapsed to my knees. I slowly lay my cheek against the ground wishing to feel Jordan's gentle touch one last time, but soon noticing that it would never happen, I tightly grasped some grass from the ground, and squeased my fists in frustration.

"Kimberly..." A voice from behind had replied. I quickly sat myself up to see Jordan's mother looking over me. She had put on a pair of dark sunglasses which she would say was for the bright sun light, but I knew it was to hide her puffed up eyes from all her crying.

"What are you doing here?" I quietly muttered.

"What do you think I'm doing here." She whispered. "...I can tell it's hard for you too."

"I can't find the strength to leave." I said, staring back at the grave stone.

The both of us said nothing. She just stood there behind me, as I remained kneeling on the ground. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't leave, I couldn't stay, I couldn't even think straight. All I could think of, was how much I hated that man who took my whole world away from me.

"Candace?" I muttered. "I want you to tell me everything you know about Anton Mercer."

"Kimberly, I don't want to talk about this right now... not here." She refused.

I quickly stood up and looked at her straight in the eyes.

"I want to know." I demanded.

"Why?"

"Why? What do you mean why?" I snapped. "This man has taken away EVERYTHING from me! Because of him I have nothing!"

Candace paused for a moment and quickly dropped her head to look at the ground. I could tell she felt bad for even questioning why I wanted to know about him. "I'm so sorry Kimberly." She muttered.

"So tell me Candace... please." I begged.

She stood there infront of me, looking off to the side at the scenery around us. Seeing her taking her time before saying a word clearly told me that she didn't enjoy talking about the topic.

"I don't spaek of this too often." She replied. "Anton's caused a lot of pain for my family, but you know... he wasn't always like he is today. Back when Jordan was little, he used to love being with his Uncle Anton... because he was a scientist and all. You see... Anton had this laboratory that Jordan loved going to, just to see what new things Anton had come up with and test out." She paused, and gave a tiny little smile to herself. "I remember enjoying seeing this face on Jordan everytime he was there. He was so fascinated by everything, like he was looking forward to learning things... it made me so proud."

"So then what happened?" I asked.

"About five years ago, Anton told Jordan that he was leaving, that he had bought a new laboratory on this island somewhere near Hawaii. He and a colleague of his co-owned it. Jordan was devastated that he was leaving, and eventually he lost interest in science all together."

"So what made you all hate him? What did he do?"

Candace paused once more, her body shaking a bit from obviously remembering the horrible memories. I saw her tighten her jaw shut, as if she wanted to scream her anger out but held it in. I almost felt bad in a way, that I had forced her to tell me this, but I had to know.

"A year after he left for the island, we heard that his laboratory exploded. Something about an experiment going wrong. We all thought that he was dead, but when we heard that there were no bodies found, we were sure he was alive somewhere."

"And obviously he was..." I added. She nodded back at me.

"He was missing for a couple of months, but eventually he reappeared back here. But he wasn't the same man like he used to be."

"What do you mean?"

Candace scrunched up her face as emotions began to pour out. I could see tear drops trickle down her cheeks underneath those dark sunglasses of hers.

She sniffed. "He was a cruel man. It seemed like his wealth got to his head. For some reason it wasn't about the science anymore, it was more about being rich and having power over people. Ron had confronted him about his new attitude and they both got into a fight, and I don't mean an argument, but an actul fight. He gave him a black eye that night, and I was so shocked because usually Anton's not a violent man."

I stood there listening, wondering what made this sudden change in a person. It was just too suspicious for me to understand. A simple little fight couldn't have started this hatred for him, he had to have done something so harsh, so cruel for this wonderful family to hate someone with such a passion.

"We had a close family friend who was a psychiatrist, and I asked him to have a heart to heart talk with Anton." Again, she paused. She looked off to the side once more, looking far off into the distance. It must have been a terrible memory for her to take this long to say. "If I could take back one thing I've ever done in my life, it would be that." Candace replied, then slowly slid her glasses off showing me her tearful eyes.

I froze, afraid to hear what she had to say.

"I don't know what happened, but they found him dead in Anton's home, and Anton wasn't anywhere to be found. The police told me he probably had fled... but we couldn't find him anywhere... the son of a bitch got away with murder."

"You mean he was never caught?" I muttered.

Candace shook her head. "No... and what kills me even more is that he won't be caught for murdering my son either!"

Candace's sobs became loud, and I literally felt like a bomb had dropped upon me. Would Anton not be caught for this recent crime he had committed? He would just run away free and not suffer the consequences after ruining my life! This news made me feel more enraged than shocked. There was no way in hell he would get away after what he had done to me.

"You don't know that."I replied.

"You don't know Anton." She snapped back. "He's smart... "

The next day I had found enough strength to get out of the house and over to the police station. I needed to talk to the officers and detectives who were dealing with my case. I wouldn't be satisfied until I found justice. Officer Jacobs and Detective Brant Childs were who I was introduced to. They both were two tall middle-aged males, both with scruffy goatees and sideburns well passed below their ears. Immediately after we shook hands, Detective Childs had a call on leads for another case he was working on, and left a minute after. I then was brought into Officer Jacobs office and I took a seat right in front of his desk and waited for him to join me so we could have a talk.

"What can I do for you Ms. Hart?" He asked me, as he walked into the room.

"I just wanted to know if you found any leads in finding Anton Mercer."

"Listen, Ms. Hart... if we haven't called you with anything, then we most likely haven't found any leads."

"You mean you haven't found anything? It's been almost a week!" I snapped.

"I know it's been almost a week, but I have to be honest with you, we haven't found anything. We've checked his recent credit card purchases... nothing. We've asked around town if anyone's seen him... nothing. We've gone to all of his laboratories and either they're all deserted, or reowned by new people. It's like the man has disappeared off the face of the earth."

"That can't be possible." I sneered. "He has to be somewhere."

"You are aware that he has a history of disappearing, right?"

"Yes! I am aware of that, but is that going to stop you from finding him? Because it shouldn't! He is running around out there a freeman on, right now, two cases of murder! TWO!"

"I understand that."

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"If we don't find any leads within the next week or two... I'm afraid we're going to have to close this case."

I paused, completely flabbergasted from hearing this. "Then find those leads." I sternly whispered.

"I'll do my best." Officer Jacobs muttered.

"You said you'd do your best five days ago! Obviously doing your best isn't enough!"

"Look, Ms. Hart... please calm down."

"Calm down? My life feels like a complete hole... I've lost the most important thing in my life... the only thing that can slightly fill that hole in my life is to see that this man gets punished for what he's done to me!"

"I understand how you feel... you've lost someone really special to you. But I promise you, Detective Childs and I ARE doing the best we can."

I finally realized that I would never be satisfied with whatever Officer Jacobs had to tell me. So I simply walked off and out of the station. After I had gotten inside me car, I sat there for awhile, unable to think of what I was going to do. I couldn't just sit around and wait for two weeks to see if they had found something. I placed my hands over my face in frustration. I remembered thinking that people were idiots for saying that police weren't any help, but after today I understood where they were coming from. I just couldn't believe that all they could do was "try their best." But trying your best wasn't good enough for me. And it was at that moment that I finally came to the conclusion that if they weren't going to do anything, I'd have to take matters into my own hands.

That night I logged onto my computer, and went onto a seach engine and looked up "Anton Mercer" for any articles on him. After clicking on search a total of seventeen articles appeared on my screen. I clicked on the first few only to read bits of his biography, how he found interest in science and paleontology, experiments he had practiced and a few discoveries.

If the articles weren't talking about that, then it was news about him opening more laboratories and science facilities around town, which was completely meaningless to me. There were tons of pictures of him, cutting ribbons at grand openings of each building, quickly giving a smile to the camera at excavation sites. And after an hour of reading all these articles I had questioned myself about what exactly was I looking for. I continuted on scrolling down the screen, looking for something that looked odd or suspicious when I saw the words "new facility opening on Hawaiian island."

Was this the island that Candace was talking about? The island he was leaving for that left Jordan devastated. Was this the island where the laboratory exploded which eventually led to his disappearance? The disappearance that changed his completely. Candace mentioned that he had co-owned it with someone. Maybe this someone would have some answers for me.

With all these questions running through my mind, I didn't hesitate to click on the link. I quickly clicked on my mouse and the new page slowly loaded.

What I saw froze me dead in my tracks; I couldn't move as goosebumps formed all over me. My mouth dropped in complete shock as I asked myself could this be even possible.

There right before my eyes, a picture had loaded right next to the article. It was a picture of Anton and the co-owner, their arms on eachothers shoulders as they stood before their new facility on the tropical island. It wasn't Anton in the picture that shocked me, but who was standing beside him. It couldn't possibly be him, could it? It would be such a major coinsidence if it was. So before I even came to any conclusions on who that person was, I began to skim through the article just to be sure. And once I saw the name, I knew it was him. I sat back in my chair in complete and utter shock. The name I had read was Dr. Thomas Oliver... Tommy Oliver. And he was standing right beside the man, who was now my mortal enemy.