Chapter Three
Stevie had to think fast, as the knocking continued.
"Quick," she hissed, "Into my bathroom." Jason nodded, hurried into the bathroom and Stevie shut the door behind him.
While Jason listened through the door. Stevie went and opened her bedroom door.
It was her dad. Stephen Lake.
"Hi dad, um, what is it?"
Her dad looked cross.
"Michael says you've got your boyfriend in here!"
"That's a lie!" snapped Stevie
"I heard a boy's voice in here!" insisted Michael
"I don't care what your heard!" retorted Stevie, "I do not have my boyfriend in here!"
"Then you won't care if I come in and look around!" Said her dad. Without waiting for an answer, he walked into her room.
"See," said Stevie, gesturing to the empty room, "Michael must have been hearing things!"
Stevie glanced at the bathroom door and Michael saw it and smirked.
"Hey, dad," he said smugly, "What about Stevie's bathroom?!"
Stevie's dad turned and walked toward the closed bathroom door completely missing the murderous look Stevie aimed at her brother. Her dad threw the bathroom door open only to find the bathroom completely empty!
He even checked the shower only to find it empty as well! Stevie let out a silent breath in relief then it was her turn to look at her sibling smugly.
Stephen turned and glared at his youngest son.
"Sorry honey," he said to Stevie before grabbing Michael by the arm and dragging him out of the room while all the time lecturing him about fibbing and dragging him away from his ballgame on wild goose chases.
Stevie chuckled as she closed the door.
"That ought to teach Michael a lesson about being such a tattletale." She said to herself
When she turned around, she was shocked to see Jason standing in the bathroom doorway.
"Okay, how did you do that?" said Stevie, "First you vanish from my bathroom without a trace and now you're back just as quick!"
Jason smiled.
"Let's just say that I'm very good at getting in and out of places when I want to."
"You sure must be!" said Stevie shaking her head.
"Now," she added, "about the case, what's our first move?"
"You'd better keep a low profile for now," said Jason, "No offense, but you're Matthew Lake's niece, if you start poking around right away, we might get stonewalled before we even get started. Right now, nobody knows me so I have a better chance of finding out some things on my own."
As bad as Stevie hated to admit it, Jason had a point, every time one of them tried to look into the case word spread like wildfire and the others involved would shut down and refuse to talk.
"I'm going to see what I can do about getting my hands on the police report." Said Jason
"Good luck with that." Said Stevie, "The last time Ashe tried to get her hands on it, they said that it was illegal for her to have it."
"That's not exactly true." Replied Jason, "If it's not an active case, you can file a Freedom of Information request and get it."
Stevie nodded.
"That's what Ashe found out, and she sent one the last time that she was here, but nothing ever came of it." she replied
"That's really strange." Said Jason thoughtfully, "I'll see what I can do about getting that report and I'll contact you here tomorrow morning."
"No, we'd better not meet here again," said Stevie, "By now Dad will have grounded Michael, so he'll be out for revenge and twice as nosy."
"Where then?" asked Jason
"There's a stable near here called Pine Hollow, "Replied Stevie, "tomorrow's there's no school so I'll be there all day. Meet me there."
Jason nodded,
"I'll be there!"
Jason slipped out of Stevie's bedroom window and into the tree just outside. He climbed down to the ground and slipped away into the gathering shadows of the evening.
Once he was out of sight of the house, he sat down on a bench to think.
"This business about the freedom of Information request disappearing bother's me," he thought, "It's highly uncommon for requestors to not get some sort of reply, which leads me to think it may have never gotten past the local post office! And if my suspicion is correct it means that whatever conspiracy is going on in this town is bigger than I originally thought. Because, it's not just anyone who can intercept someone else's mail."
Jason knew he would never get answers just sitting there. And he realized that if his suspicions were correct, he wasn't going to be able to use normal channels.
He stood up, closed his eyes and teleported. An instant later he materialized against the wall inside the police file room. there were usually security cameras in a place like this. Sure, enough a split second later he spotted one. Then he felt relieved. The power cord was hanging loose. From where he was, he could make out the whole room in the dim light. This camera was the only one and it wasn't even plugged in.
Once he realized he didn't have to worry about the camera, he started looking for the Carmichael Casefile.
Then he realized that finding this case file was going to be like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Then, he got lucky. As he was making his way along one of the rows of shelves, he suddenly spotted an envelope half sticking out of a box that was crammed onto the last shelf. He didn't know what made him pick it up but he was glad he did!
The next day, Jason teleported to Pine Hollow. He spotted Stevie in one of the riding rings. The instructor in the ring with her, a tall blonde man in a blue shirt that she called Max was telling her something he wanted her to do.
Jason heard her say
"Walk on Belle." and the horse started to walk.
Jason decided not to try and get her attention right then because he didn't want to risk anyone else noticing him.
A little while later when Stevie brought Belle back to her stall, she found the words Tack Room drawn in the dust on the floor inside the stall door.
Stevie took care of Belle, wiped away the message, then walked into the tack room.
Jason was there waiting for her.
"Did you get the police report," she asked
"No but I did find this." Said Jason handing her the envelope. Stevie looked at it and her eyes widened.
"This is Ashe's handwriting!" she exclaimed, she opened the envelope and looked at what was inside.
"This is the FOI request!" she said reading the contents, "Where did you find this."
"I found it in the back of the police file room!" replied Jason, "It was sticking out of a random box!"
"So, somebody on the police force, somebody who spoke to Ashley when she was here, arranged for her FOI letter to be intercepted!" said Stevie
"That's what it looks like," said Jason, "Whatever is going on, conspiracy or cover up, is bigger than we thought, because, we can now assume that someone in the police department is in on this as well as someone at that post office!"
Stevie shook her head in disbelief.
"What is going on in this town?" she said
A few minutes later, Stevie came out of the tack room and walked toward Belle's stall still trying to digest what Jason had found and figured out.
Meanwhile…
Phil was talking to Melanie,
"What?" he was Saying, "What do you mean, Stevie was in the tack room with a guy?!"
To be Continued…please review!