Chapter 3
Haymitch felt her eyes on him with a list of question burning on her lips. He ignored it as he pulled clothes after clothes from the hanger in his wardrobe.
"Haymitch…." Prim called on him quietly. "Katniss told me that you're not doing this anymore, not after Annie. You don't have to…for me"
"We talked about this. It's decided."
Behind him, Prim exhaled wistfully but to her credit, chose a neutral question. "What's it like there… Singapore?"
He shrugged. He had done a search on the city-island and there were a few things he could tell Prim – that it was just a small city squashed in between two big countries which often sheltered it from any natural disasters or that they had developed their own colloquial English - but he settled for the easiest.
"Hot."
"How long will you be gone?"
"Not sure," Haymitch admitted as he turned around to face Prim. She was standing by his bed, folding clothes into his bag. "As soon as it's done, I'll be back. Three months, maybe…"
"She's not like mum," she stated out of the blue.
"No, she's not like your mum. She isn't missing missing."
"I think mum's like her," Prim said so quietly that Haymitch almost missed it. "I think she wants to leave but … I'm here. So is Katniss. This place kept reminding her of dad, though."
Haymitch pinched the bridge of his nose.
"It's difficult for her but she still has responsibilities to you and Katniss," he added even if it was becoming very glaring that Katniss was the one pulling the weight.
"I know," Prim said simply, "but it makes me think that if she could, she would have left and start a life elsewhere, just like Mr. and Mrs. Trinket's daughter. I think – I think I'll be okay with that, too. If it makes mum feel more… at peace."
It startled him to hear her talking that way. Perhaps without him realising it, Prim had grown.
"Anyway, when will I meet this tutor?"
"Soon, I guess. The Trinkets will contact you to make arrangements."
Prim nodded and went back to quietly helping Haymitch with his packing. Katniss had gone off to hunt in the woods as she did every morning. When he had told the three teenagers that he would be leaving for a few months, Katniss had said very little except that he would call to check in whenever he can. Peeta had promised to keep an eye on Chaff and watch after the two girls. It made Katniss scowl but between his amused laugh, Peeta had also offered to drive Haymitch three hours out to Charlotte Douglas Airport.
"You forgot this?"
Chaff wandered into his room, waving a stun gun and a gun that once belonged to Haymitch.
"I won't need it," Haymitch shook his head. "Euphemia Trinket isn't in danger - ain't a kidnapping case."
"You never know, man. She could have a jealous boyfriend or a psycho colleague," Chaff muttered.
"Then I'll handle it."
"Better be safe than sorry," Chaff insisted.
"Don't need it," Haymitch said. He hated guns or the feel of it in his hand. His knife should be enough. "You know it's illegal to carry those stuffs around in Singapore, yeah?"
"Really?" Chaff folded his arms. "Or you're just fucking with me 'cause you don't want to bring them?"
"I'm not kidding – guns, stun guns, pepper spray. I don't plan to be thrown in jail before I even make it pass immigration. You've asked Beetee to get on board, yeah?"
"Yep," Chaff nodded in affirmative, finally relenting. "Don't worry about it. Just get there and we'll do what we need to do here."
Since Stefan had told him about Euphemia and his grandson, Haymitch had gleaned that she was active online so he had tasked Beetee with unearthing everything he could about her. In this day and age, he was quite certain she would have at least one social media account and that was all Beetee would need. In Haymitch's line of duty, the simplest and seemingly most insignificant of detail could be a clue.
Haymitch grabbed his phone with the intention of checking that the battery had been fully charged but he ended up going to his photo gallery to have a look at the photograph Stefan had sent to him for his referral. He told himself, as he stared at the picture, that it was to commit her face to memory but ….
"She's pretty," Prim observed, peeking into his phone as she stood next to him with a pile of neatly folded clothes.
"I don't see what that has got to do with anything," he murmured.
"Oh, nothing," Prim's eyes twinkled, "but she looks happy where she's at now. You're going to be spoiling her party by bringing her home."
"Too bad for her," he chuckled. "That's my job now. If I don't do it, guess who's not getting a tutor and that apothecary is gonna remain shut forever – a shame, yeah?"
XxX
His two hours flight to Chicago went relatively smooth with no incident.
It was the long flight from there to Hong Kong that he had a problem with. He finished a book mid-way during the flight and because he was pacing himself with the drink, he grew restless quickly. Given his career, the time he spent sitting on the flight doing nothing should be something he was used to. After all, he had spent hours in a car watching his target but … Chaff was always there to fill the gaps and the silence.
His gaze strayed to the woman next to him, engrossed with the in-flight movie she was watching. At times, he wished such mindless things could occupy him so he would not be in this state – exhausted but not fully able to close his eyes for even a short nap. He leaned back against the seat, arms folded across his chest with his leg tapping a restless beat against the floor.
There was still seven hours to go. Seven hours that a normal human being not plagued by nightmares could spend sleeping, but not him.
It was at that moment that he hated Euphemia Trinket, and her selfish reasons for leaving the States.
"Couldn't have fucking ran off to Hong Kong or to Japan, could you?" he muttered to himself angrily. "That'll save me a flight."
This woman, he thought, better be worth my time.
His two hours layover was spent walking mindlessly around the airport and visiting souvenir shops. He bought three different items for Katniss, Peeta and Prim each and paid for it using the credit card Stefan Trinket had provided him.
The last leg of his flight from Hong Kong to Singapore went by in a blur. He had lost track the date and day but the only thing he was aware of was the fact that it was one in the morning and having travelled for more than twenty hours, he was exhausted.
But he was alert. He had never been here and he was always wary of unfamiliar places.
As he stood on the travelator, his gaze swept through the premises watching the other travellers hurrying over to their gates, to the various machines lining the sidewalk offering money changing services, payment options for online transactions and the computer terminals.
Clearing immigration took him faster than expected and while everyone else was rushing to the conveyor belt for their luggage, Haymitch made a stop at the duty free shop for liquor. It was only when he had two bottles with him that he went to the belt to get his luggage and walked right out of the doors towards the taxi stand.
"Number 7!" the man waved him towards the direction of a taxi once he was in front of the queue.
He blinked and dutifully went to the spot marked seven. He spent the ride staring out of the window and watching the sceneries passed him by but the roads were too bright. There were street lamps every hundred meters and at first, he thought it was just the airport but it was on every street and road, and to his tired eyes, the glare was piercing.
"The streets are too clean," Haymitch muttered that observation out loud.
The taxi driver briefly looked at him through the rear view mirror.
"Yes," he nodded. "Don't throw your rubbish on the streets only at the rubbish bin. Otherwise, I tell you, the Gahmen will fine you hundreds of dollars, make you do community service! That's why everybody scared to litter," the driver laughed.
He stared at the back of the driver's head, wondering if the old man was joking before dismissing it.
"Gahmen?" he frowned, picking up on the irregularity instead.
"Government – that's how we say it," he chuckled. "Anyway, that's your hotel. You can see it already."
It wasn't his hotel that caught his interest. It was something else. Haymitch straightened in his seat, his attention fully focused on it.
"That's it," he breathed out.
The Singapore Flyer loomed to his left; a bright, giant wheel against the night sky. He had seen it on Google Images but it was always different to see something for oneself. Haymitch made a calculating sweep over the nearby area to possibly identify the location from which Euphemia had taken the photo but it was difficult when they were traveling on the expressway.
XxX
Ever since he checked in and was shown to his room, Haymitch had been staring at the ceiling, occasionally drinking from the bottle and waiting for sleep to claim him.
He had already sent a text message to Katniss to notify her that he had safely arrived. Back at home, he was hoping that Beetee already had some luck with his digging. The Trinkets had sent him here to Singapore and even if the country was small, there were still millions of people here. Their daughter was a needle in the proverbial haystack.
It was not to say that he had no plan of action. He already planned to scout the area surrounding the Flyer tomorrow. It would not hurt to have a look, perhaps even ask around using the photo of her that was in his possession. She could be a regular visitor of that area and people might recognise her.
Haymitch thought of her long and hard while lying in bed. Family could be overbearing, he would grant that, but to distant oneself and completely disappear from her family's life without any phone calls or contact with her parents for years... That was something he could not wrap his head around.
He would give anything to hear his mother's nagging or the quiet creak of the floorboard as his father get a bottle he had hidden from his mother. He would trade his life to have his brother shadow him for an entire day, something which the younger Haymitch found irritating but now missed more than anything.
Whatever the reason may be, the youngest Trinket would have a weakness. He would find hers and use it to convince her to return home so he could close this job.
XxX
"You did what?!" Haymitch sputtered. "Is that … legal?"
Around him, people were giving him uncomfortable side-glances. Aware of this, Haymitch quickened his pace, weaving amongst the crowd until he reached the front of the mall. Unlike the polished, modern looking high-rise that was his hotel at Marina Bay Sands, this old-fashioned building was hardly eye-catching and was only visited by electronic enthusiast.
"Damn it, Beetee, I asked you to snoop. You can't just hack into her… or anyone's social media account! That's... a breach of privacy."
"Says the private investigator..."
"Fine," he concurred. "What did you find?"
With the phone wedged between his cheek and shoulder, Haymitch entered a shop. Like every other shop that he had passed by since he reached the mall, this one was no different. There were a range of computers and laptops on display both new and second-hand. There were digital cameras and other electronic gadgets, none of which interest him since he was looking for something else entirely, something very specific.
"None of her social media accounts state her address – and I wasn't expecting to find it, of course. No sensible person would put up their address on Facebook. But I did get a sense of… her, of who she is. There were photos she took while on a run and – "
"Tell me it was near that Flyer," he muttered.
"Yes," Beetee chuckled. "I cleaned up some of the photographs with Finnick's help and extracted some of the background to compare with the map on – "
"Get to the point, Beetee," Haymitch cut him off knowing full well that Beetee would attempt to explain the technicalities of it, half of which would be lost of him.
He was sounding irritable, he knew. But he had been to three shops so far without finding what he was looking for even if he had asked for it discreetly. He had heard of some shady dealings going on so he was certain he would find it. It was just a matter of asking the right people.
"I believe that she enjoys a run or a stroll by the river which is the area where the Flyer and coincidentally, your hotel is located and –"
"There are two sides to any bloody river, Beetee, what are the odds being in my favour that I'd bump into her?" he asked.
Haymitch drummed his finger against the display casing, waiting for the shop owner who had disappeared into the back of his shop to return. When he emerged, he was holding on to a packaging the size of his palm and handed it to Haymitch.
"This is what you want?"
Haymitch nodded, tearing the package open.
"Well… This might be of interest to you, judging from some of the uploaded photos it looks like Euphemia Trinket has a company… or some online business here. There were photos of bridal dresses and hand bouquets appearing quite often on her Instagram… Either that or she was planning her wedding. No captions to accompany the photos so it wasn't very illuminating"
"Right – hold on a minute," Haymitch pulled the phone from his ear to inspect the small circular device. "This will do. I'll take it."
He made sure to pay by cash, just in case, and left the shop.
"I found it and bought it," he told Beetee. "So did you do a business profile search under her name?"
"I was going to search for her LinkedIn account but I will get to – "
"Did you say wedding? Here? She got married here?" Haymitch hissed into the phone. "That's fucking great, Beetee. If she has a family here, persuading her to leave would be fucking impossible, and that's not something I want to be telling her parents."
I know that I continue be a disappointment because Effie and Haymitch still have not met but we will get there, in the next chapter. On the bright side of Chap 3, Haymitch is in the same country as Effie is so that's a plus.
Anyway, what are your thoughts on what Prim said about her mother? Or about what Beetee did/found out? What did Haymitch buy and for what? What do you think of Effie from what we've known of her so far? Let me know!
As I will be leaving for Thailand next week, the next chapter might be posted on Monday (23/1) instead otherwise, the weekend after!