When Walls Come Crashing Down
Chapter 3
Audrey directed Morgan to a parking spot down the street from The Haven Herald. She hesitated for a moment before getting out and noticed that he did the same.
"You go ahead; I've got to make a quick call," Morgan said.
"Oh, okay," Audrey replied, a bit dumbfounded. Now she didn't have to come up with an excuse to get him out of the room for part of the conversation with Dave and Vince.
"I'll meet up with you in a few minutes," he reassured her as she exited the vehicle.
Upon entering The Haven Herald, Audrey found Dave and Vince sitting at their desks.
"Audrey!" Dave exclaimed happily at the sight of her. "What can we help you with today?"
"Why do you assume she's here because she needs our help?" Vince questioned.
"Well why else would she be here?" Dave pointed out.
"Maybe she just feels like stopping by for a friendly visit?"
"Actually Vince, I do need your help," Audrey cut in.
"Besides Vince, nobody comes to us simply for a friendly visit," Dave added.
"Well it would be nice if someone would from time to time," Vince muttered.
"Uh, guys?" Audrey said, attempting to get their attention. When both men looked at her, she continued. "Did either of you know Ceceilia Nichols?"
"Not personally," Vince replied. "Died of cancer four months ago, so young too. It;s a tragedy." He shook his head.
"Is there a history of a Trouble in the Nichols family?" she asked.
"Not that I can recall," Dave replied and looked to Vince, who shook his head.
"Really?" Audrey said and glanced between the two of them. "Because I'm pretty sure you would remember if they cause earthquakes and buildings to crumble."
"Oh wait, I think I remember something involving that particular ensemble occurrences," Vince said and typed something into his computer.
"What's with the sudden interest in the Nichols family?" Dave asked as they waited for Vince to find what he was looking for.
"Ceceilia's ex-husband's house was destroyed in the quake and at the same time, Tara threw a fit and ran off," Audrey replied.
"Wait, what earthquake? We didn't feel anything here . . ." Dave said.
"I was at Jackie Clark's house, which is next door to Lee Delano's and I certainly felt it. There wasn't much damage besides the Delano home, which is why I think the Troubles are involved."
"Okay, we'll think of something to explain it," Dave said and scribbled on his notepad.
"We told Morgan that it might be termites or mold that weakened the structure and it caused the house to collapse in the quake," Audrey told them.
"Whose Morgan?" Vince asked harshly.
"An FBI agent in town investigating Jackie's death."
"She died?" Dave turned back to her in surprise.
"Yeah . . ." Audrey replied and glanced at the door. "But can we get back to the Nichols family? Morgan will be here any minute."
"All right," Vince began. "There was a rash of homes and barns destroyed in the fifties due to small tremors, and most of the families appear to have known the Nichols."
"Is there anything more recent?" Audrey questioned hesitantly.
"No, sorry." Vince shook his head. "At least not in the papers. You'd have to check the police records."
"But that won't help because we know most of them are faked to look like regular reports," Audrey said with a sigh.
Their conversation was interrupted by the jingling of the bell on the door. Morgan glanced around the office has he made his way to stand next to Audrey. Dave raised his eyebrows and smirked while Vince looked surprised. For a moment, nobody said anything, prompting Morgan to clear his throat.
"Morgan, this is Vince and Dave," Audrey stated and pointed to the two respectively.
"Agent Morgan," Derek said with his own nod to the gentlemen sitting at their desks. "So have you figured out somewhere Tara would go?"
"Not yet. Vince was just telling me that there have been tremors in Haven before, so it's not a completely rare occurrence," Audrey replied.
"Oh okay. It doesn't look like anything in here was damaged," Morgan observed.
"Well we cleaned up after it happened," Dave lied.
"Do you guys know who Ceceilia was friends with? We think that Tara might have gone to someone she knows," said Audrey.
"Sorry Audrey, can't help you there either," Vince said with a shrug.
Audrey was about to reply when she was cut off by her cell phone. The caller ID showed it was Nathan calling. She stepped away from the group to answer while Morgan carried on the conversation.
"Parker," she answered.
"Hey, someone called the station and said they saw Tara walking around by the bank," Nathan told her quickly. "Get over there and find her before we lose track of her again," he instructed before hanging up.
"All right then," Audrey mumbled to herself as she walked back over to the group.
"I just got a call from Nathan." Audrey interrupted their conversation. "He said that Tara was just spotted by the bank."
"Wait, which bank?" Morgan asked.
"Do you even realize how small this town is?" Vince said to him.
"There's only one bank, Bozo," Dave mumbled.
"Oh," Morgan replied quietly.
"Okay, let's go," Audrey said and she and Morgan rushed back to the SUV.
A/N:
Hello my wonderful readers! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get this chapter posted. I've been really busy the last few months and my other stories took priority for a while there. I wanted this chapter to be longer but I told myself I would get this chapter posted in October, so I posted this. I also want to let you know that I'll be doing NaNoWriMo this year so you probably won't see another chapter until December. Sorry for any spelling/grammer mistakes and thank you for reading/following/favouring my story, I'm glad you're enjoying it.