it was horrid.
The feeling as Gordon handed over the photo of John to the woman. Yi, the man had called her.
She took the photo and nodded immediately with a small shy smile, glancing at the older man.
'Yeah. That is Glenn Johnson. He left yesterday.'
Gordon swore, turning to storm from the shop. She sighed and apologised, explaining they had been looking for him for so long now, and it was frustrating to have missed him by such a small margin, before asking if there was any chance they might be able to look over where he had been staying. When Yi, and the man she'd found out was named Ken, seemed unsure, she offered them a few hundred dollars. Money so often bridged problems.
The room was small, and honestly—she felt—disgusting. Damp and cold and grime-filled with a bed she felt sick even thinking about and a small, equally rancid bathroom. Ken went back downstairs to the shop front while Yi explained to Penny that Mister Johnson, as she referred to him, had been renting the room for years with actually visiting, but he paid well so they never bothered to look elsewhere; it was convenient. Collect the money without worry, then about three days ago he turned up and said he would be staying a few days before leaving and cancelling his contract with them, though he did hand them a year's worth of rent in thanks.
Odd. Very, very odd. To have had that much money on him, he would either have had to have been planning this long in advance or have been given the money to work with. Either way broke her heart. Either way this was bad and getting worse by the moment.
She turned to Yi. 'Do you happen to know if he made any calls?'
'We asked if he would need to, as we only have one working phone at the moment, so it would have to be shared. He said yes, he had a call to make each day at 7pm while he stayed, the call would last no more than an hour, and we agreed on it.'
'I don't suppose you could call your line provider to find out where that went. Don't worry. I'll pay for the information.' She smiled. It was so nice to have a lead on where to go next.
A quick note to say sorry for the delays, life happened. next time there will be a big gap I will update my profile to keep people in the loop - Reb