5
Owen was amused in that weird cocky way as he stood at the centre of the camp and looked around "So… these townies came here with blow up mattresses and no pumps… tinned food, no sign of tin openers and lots and lots of booze. I get the feeling if we search we will find oodles of drugs too. They got off their nuts and one decided he was not gonna share anymore, killed the others. Woke up the next morning with confusion, didn't remember and this made the most sense to him. No Big Foot footprints, only his between kill sites, no one else clearly in or out apart from his tracks in the snow…. Ergo… fucktard!"
"Yeeeahhh… you have to admit… it is nice out here" Jack said as he turned slowly taking in the vista, "Would love to live here."
"Henderson is that way if you wanna call in on the way back. We will have to walk it as he is off the road and only a snow mobile can get in all the way but he used it yesterday so there will be a track from the vehicle."
"I want to ask him if he wants a job" Owen said as he glared around the scene "I bet HE would have taken photos to save me this horror of…erghhhh…. Fresh air. Can't be good for you."
"And what is his job again?" Aidan asked Jack as he eyeballed the weird man.
"Doctor" Jack said with a grin before skipping towards the SUV, "Come on… lets go meet Henderson."
.
.
"Looks like we missed him, the garage door is open and the machine is gone. Weird, left in a hurry. Might have seen a deer… good meat up here." Aidan said as they stood in the front yard of Ianto's little cabin.
"Oh well… leave a note or something, he will see our footprints and some mountainfolk are a bit weird about visitors" Gwen said with authority as she looked around.
"Oh no…he's not a local. Like I said, American. Only been here six months, a quick mind and a good joker but… not a country man at all. Says he grew up in the mid-west whatever that means" Aidan said as he pulled out a pad to leave Ianto a note and Owen walked over to peer into the cabin though the window.
"Fire is still going, not been gone that long, maybe an hour or two. Yeah, just missed…" Owen's voice died out as he stood there staring in and the coffee mug on the edge of the table in plain sight seemed to mock him.
He knew that pattern. The blue rings around the white mug, knew them well. The Hub had cups just like those and he broke one once, Ianto so pissed as he snarled that you cannot get them anymore, he had a bulk lot and they were obsolete… demanded he stop fucking throwing them about in anger. One of the rare times he cussed.
Owen was inside the cabin, Aidan still reaching out to place the note on the door that had swung in as Owen slid past to snatch up the cup and turn it over, spilling the half drunk coffee on the floor as he checked the bottom of the cup.
The HRH stamp.
This was a Hub cup. Owen stared and then lowered it to scan the cabin as Aidan stood in the doorway "Excuse me? Sir?"
Owen found the waste paper basket and tipped it on the floor as Aidan looked on with growing alarm "Sir… hey... that is someone's…"
Owen was not listening as he crouched and unfolded the crumpled up parcel labels, reading them and muttering as he rose to his feet, then scanned some more, walking over to open the wardrobe by the bed then he started shoving the hangers of warm clothing aside…. and there, on a hanger was the pristine three piece suit.
Jack was behind him, shoving him out of the way to pull out the suit and stare at it as Owen left him to now open the drawers to the desk, Toshiko already turning on the screens with interest to find the village wired.
"Look at this fling system" Owen said with excitement "Only one person files by colour code, not just alphabet!"
"There he is" she said as a snowmobile shot past the screen, the man leaning over the handlebars egging it on as the trailer behind it waved about in a speed wobble.
"Ianto" Jack whispered as he stood still clutching the suit, the screen now just bare snow and two lines from the tracks.
"Where is this"! Owen swung to face Aidan "Tell me… where is this spot?"
"I… don't know. I can't see any markers or… it's a trail clearly… let me see the others, narrow it down maybe?" Aidan was confused, also not all that happy with the rude demanding tones of these people who had no right to be in Henderson's cabin. There are rules ya know. He stared at hate screens and knew exactly where the snow mobile was heading, he also knew he was not about to tell this group of bullies anything.
"Looks like he is heading towards the lake" he finally said, reaching out to tap the map on the wall, the spot nowhere near where he knew Ianto was going "Here."
You know, the rude bastards didn't even say thanks as they ran for the SUV and peeled out.
Aidan hoped they got stuck.
