I stayed up after that, just out of restlessness and went back to the work I had been doing before I'd fallen asleep. The entire page I had copied from the man I was keeping an eye on was numbers. Nothing. But. Numbers. I'd started to decode them, but that was such a tedious task it had caused me to fall asleep earlier. So I decided to go through the internet history of the past day to see if any sites he'd visited seemed noteworthy…they didn't. So it was back to Tula's case. I got up off the floor where I was still sitting and grabbed a binder off my bookshelf along with some dividers I'd picked up at Wal-Mart earlier and began sorting all the information about the potentials into color coordinated folders with the blue prints of their houses, the photos of their houses, their background information (including criminal records for the three that had them) and a five by five photo of each I pulled from their DMV records. Around five, while it was still dark, I called Meekel hoping he was still awake. Of course, he was.
"What do you have?" he asked, not even a hello…"It would be easier to go over in person." There was a pause, "Do you know of the vampire bar Fangtasia?" I frowned, "Yes…" knowing where this was going. "Can you meet me there tonight?" my response was quick, "Not tonight…what about tomorrow night?" I could sense he was wondering whether or not to ask why I couldn't tonight, but decided against it. "Around two, the bar will be emptying out by then." Perfect, Ashley didn't work tomorrow night. We said our goodbyes and hung up. After going through the rest of my subject (yes that is what I am calling him)'s computer activity, I decided to catch what little sleep I could before the sun came up.
Turns out I got a good amount of sleep. I didn't wake up until around one when I got a call from Nancy asking if I wanted to do something today. My answer was yes of course, I needed to take a break from these two projects so I could come back tonight with fresh eyes. After a quick shower I waited until I saw the yellow bug roll up in my drive before walking out to the front porch. Nancy had chocolate brown hair and sparkling brown eyes to match, she was an inch or so taller than me and was "indie" in style, my closest friend I'd attained since I moved here. She flashed me a smile as I stepped onto the dirt drive and jogged to the passenger side to hop in, receiving a quick hug before she started off. "So what are we gonna do on this, one of the rarest of days, your day off?" she laughed and shook her head, "I was thinking a movie then grabbing a bite from Merlotts?" I nodded, "How have things at work been?" She groaned, "Busier than usual, there are two other girls that work there aside from the owner and myself, and they both called in sick this week so I've been having to take their shifts which means I've been opening and closing everyday pretty much." I sent her a sympathetic look, "." She nodded, "But now they both owe me so I bet I could call in the entire week next week and no one could say anything about it." She flashed me a smirk, "Atta girl, work the system!"
We ended up seeing some sort of science fiction film about aliens who disguised themselves as cows and snuck some sort of mind control liquid into their systems by "milking" it so to speak. And as usual, the rugged male lead somehow overcomes all odds to defeat them and save the planet. By the time it was over, two hours later, we were starving. Thankfully, Merlotts was close by and pretty slow so we had no issues getting a table where we were soon approached by the cutest, perkiest southern bell I'd ever seen. "Hey y'all my names Sookie and I'll be your waitress." She flashed a smile at us, "I haven't seen either of you two in here before, passing through?" I smiled at her, "We're from Shreveport, just got out of a movie and would not make it home without eating something." Sookie laughed and nodded, "Well, we'll get you two taken care of right away." She took our drink orders and was back in a flash. "So what are your names?" she asked leaning with one hand on the table. "I'm Nancy, and this is Lacie." Nancy introduced us. "How long have yall been in Shreveport?" something in her eyes, it was so genuine, it reminded me of a friend back in Texas. Those eyes suddenly held a flash of sympathy for a second, "Two years for me." I said holding up the number on my fingers, "My whole life." Nancy said with slight playful exasperation. "Aw, I hear ya girl, I've been here my whole life." Sookie laughed and rolled her eyes. "How do you two know each other then?" Nancy looked at me, "We met at the grocery store." I smiled remembering the day then was pulled from my memories by the look Sookie had as Nancy said this. Her eyes suddenly darted to me as she noticed me notice her.
Sookie took our orders and the food was out almost immediately. After we had our food, Sookie went off to take care of something in the back, insisting we holler for her if we needed anything. "She's such a sweet heart." I commented as she left (no, she's not my "type" it's just been a long time since I met someone so genuinely nice to strangers. Nancy nodded since her mouth was full with the largest bite of hamburger I'd ever seen a gal her size take. "Did you enjoy the movie?" I asked as I took my first bite, moaning in satisfaction of the amazingness. Once again, Nancy nodded in agreement to the question and to my clear satisfaction with this burger. "So, tell me Lacie." I looked up from the most amazing burger I'd ever had in my life to my friend nodding for her to continue, "What exactly are you doing during the day when you're supposedly working at the store?" I offered her a shrug, "Running some errands, going to the library, stuff like that." Well, it wasn't a total lie. "Really, that's it?" I nodded and her eyes narrowed for a second before she shrugged and smiled, probably thinking I hadn't noticed. In an attempt to distract myself, I took a moment to look around the restaurant which was pretty much empty aside for the employees…speaking of which. I tried not to be too obvious about watching, but it looked like Sookie was in a bit of an argument with another girl who was cleaning glasses at the bar. The girl behind the bar tossed some of her long black hair over her shoulder before, what I could only assume was scolding Sookie. I turned back to Nancy before I was noticed by them and flashed my friend a smile.
Sookie was attentive and noticed when we had finished our meal, immediately prancing over to see if we needed anything else before she brought our check and was prompt about taking our cards to check us out. As we strolled out to our car Sookie snuck up behind me and slipped me a piece of paper, without Nancy noticing, and turned back to clean up our table. Deciding to wait until I was in private to look at the contents, I made small talk with Nancy until we finally pulled up to my house and bid each other fair-well.
Even when I was in my house, I didn't open the note until Nancy was out of sight. Paranoid, I know, but I can't help it. As I approached the stairs that led to my room I could hear the shower going off in Ashley's room and decided to head upstairs without saying anything .She was most likely going out with some friends tonight and would stay at one of their houses. Which was perfect. Once I was in my room I flopped onto my bed and took a deep breath to relax for one moment before pulling the, now crinkled, piece of paper out of my back pocket. 'This might not make much sense, but watch out who you surround yourself with. –Sookie' After the short message there was a phone number with an additional sentence to inform me that her number was there just in case I needed to contact her…I frowned at the whole thing. I don't know what would make her feel the need to give this to me…but I don't take warnings lightly and quickly pulled out my phone to save her number before placing both the phone and the paper down near my pillow and slipping off my bed to grab my findings out from under my bed where I'd stashed them in a box where I keep a lot of important things. I scanned over all of the information I'd gathered thus far and felt my stomach tighten slightly, it didn't seem like it was enough…how much longer could Tula hold on…
I shook of the negativity and pulled my laptop off the desk and down onto the floor with me going over the activity of the previous day…there was none. I frowned as I searched around to see if it had just been erased…but no. I could see every key stroke, every previously erased and deleted file, even the ones they thought they'd completely wiped out…and there was nothing, and there was always at least an email sent every day. Biting my nail I pulled up the saved document I'd begun to decode, a glance at the clock told me I still had a long time before I needed to take a shower and head to Fangtasia. So, I did the only thing I could do, continued decoding in hopes that it would give me some sort of lead.