9
Harley opened her eyes and groaned. The clock on the desk read 8:17. "It's after 8," she thought to herself. "Mallet. Hey. Wake up." Mallet mumbled inaudibly, and turned on his side. "Come on Mallet!" "Ugh. I'm up, I'm up. You don't have to yell Cooper." "Sorry. It's just, you know, two people, one bathroom." "Well why can't we take a shower together? After all, we're already 'dressed' for the occasion," Mallet said, jokingly.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "Who is it?" Harley called, wondering who would come to see herself and Mallet in the hotel room. "It's Gus." "Um, yeah. Hold on a minute!" Harley yelled, desperately trying to put her clothes on. "What is he doing here?" Mallet asked. "No idea. But get in the bathroom. Now!" Mallet did as he was told, as Harley adjusted her shirt.
"What's going on?" Harley asked as she opened the door. "Well, not really much. Except that you might be able to come home soon!" Gus said, excitedly. "Really? Why? What happened?" "Too many questions, Coop. Slow down." "Sorry. I'll just let you talk, and I'll shut up." "You don't know how to shut up," Mallet joked, as he came back into the main room. "Well, that's one thing we agree on then," Gus laughed.
"Just tell us what's happening!" Harley pleaded. "Ok, ok. Well, something very fishy is going on in Springfield," Gus began. "See, it seems like all the Spauldings-" "With you being the exception of course," Mallet interrupted. "Mallet, shut up. Let him tell." "Anyway, all the Spauldings seem to be hiding something. The thing is, I can't figure out what. At least, I couldn't on my own. So I teamed up with Bill and Olivia-" "You what?" Harley exclaimed. "Harley let him finish." "Right. So, we teamed up, thinking maybe all three of us together could get more done." "So did it?" Harley asked. "Well, sort of." "What do you mean 'sort of,' Gus? Did you or didn't you figure anything out?" "Yes, but we don't know what it means." "Well, what is it?" "A phone number."
"A phone number?" Harley seemed surprised. "Did you call it?" Mallet asked. "Yeah, but it's out of service. The operator recording thingy gave an alternate number, but that one was out of service too. So Bill ran the numbers to see if they had any connection to business dealings, but he didn't find anything." "So what could the numbers mean? You think it has something to do with whoever killed Phillip?" Harley and Mallet looked at each other. "Possibly. I just came by to update you, and make sure you're ok, Harley." "Yes Gus, I'm fine. Mallet's doing a fine job protecting me, and nothing's gonna happen." "Yeah, don't worry about it. I'd never let anything happen to Harley."
"Ok, well, I should go, before someone gets suspicious." Gus walked towards the front door, after giving Harley a quick kiss. "I love you Harley." "I love you too." "Bye." "Remember to tell us anything that comes up." "I will babe, don't worry. See ya." "Bye."
"Well, that was interesting, to say the least," Harley said, once Gus had left. "Yeah, it certainly was," Mallet agreed. "So, what do you think? You think it's a Spaulding conspiracy, or what?" "I don't know. Gus left those numbers here, right?" "Well, unintentionally. I kinda grabbed them from his hand, but I don't think he knows." "You're good, Cooper. Real good." Mallet smirked. "Yeah, I know. You wanna call the numbers?" Harley smiled. "Yeah, just as soon as we take our showers." "You mean our shower. Let's go." Harley glared at Mallet. "Together?" "Yes silly, together. Come on." "I'll go for that."