Sent at 9:00 a.m. on August 14, 2018

Dear Kayley,

Your last email made a lot of questions sprout in my mind. A lot of which are too personal to ask via this email. There will be only one way that I will ask you. Meet me in the park, tomorrow at noon, under the oak tree. Good things seem to happen there, and I hope that this will be another good thing too. Come with an open mind and an open heart.

By the way, for once in the last few years of my life, I am actually excited about meeting up with someone.

-Thanks,

Garrett

BING!

"Ugh, what was that? I hope my boss doesn't need me to come in today...Mum knows it's my day off." Kayley grunted to herself as she groped for her mobile.

Her late night of resesrch caused her to oversleep. She worked as her mother's assistant in her research of noble women's lives during the Middle Ages. Professor Julianna Reeves, her mother, taught and gave lectures at different colleges thoughout the U.K. Kayley's job consisted of running errands for her mother and keeping up with the office work. She often joked that being Professor Reeves' daughter also made her the built in secretary. She really did enjoy working for and with her mother, despite their personality differences. She began working with her mother when she turned eighteen. She learned a lot on how to find, track, and record the information she found. When she turned twenty, she began using the skills she'd develop in online sleuthing to locate a computer extraordinare. He was older, but he knew stuff about computers that went over her head. His name was Merlin Masters. Personally, she called him M'nM.

Her phone went off again, drawing her out of her thoughts. She saw that she had two notifications. One from M'nM and one from Garrett.

Although she knew the one from M'nM probably contained some important information, curiosity as to what Garrett had to say overtook her. She finished reading the email as she poured water into her tea kettle. She had been wanting to meet up with him again. His timing is perfect! She giggled to herself. However, she did wonder what was so important that he HAD to meet with her in person instead of just asking through the email.

About, forty minutes later, Kayley was dressed for the day and seated on her favorite chair that overlooked the back garden area of her apartment complex. It was a bright, late-summer's day. Hardly a cloud could be spotted. She relished the scents from the flowers drifting up to her nostrils from the mid-morning breeze.

While taking a sip of peppermint tea, she opened the email from M'nM. Her eyes widened as they scanned the information. M'nM found HIM! This revelation made her mind spin with all the information she knew about him.

Growing up, Kayley had always thought of Arthur, her father's former colleague and partner on many cases, and her mother's cousin, as an uncle. Without his influence, she knew that she would be a much different person. Losing her dad had affected her deeply, just as it would for any child. However, for her, it wasn't just losing a parent, she also lost her best friend and source of encouragement. Her mother was stable and always there for her, but she was also extremely stiff about most things. Her mother's rigid and overly practical personality became even stiffer after her husband's death. Seemingly, over night Kayley found herself without her dad and also not being able to go out with her friends anymore. Her mother's overboard protectiveness had been extremely smothering during her late tween and early teenage years. Once she turned sixteen, her mother began to loosen up. During the her latter teen years, Kayley realized her mother wasn't trying be a tyrant. Rather, she was terrified of losing her child- the last link she had to her beloved husband.

Kayley had discussed her problems concerning her mother's over bearing ways with Arthur. It was then that he helped shed some light on why Julianna was so extreme.

From what he had shared with her she learned that her mother used to be in a relationship with the guy who killed her dad. He was the one that M'nM warned about in the email. His name was Ruber Fitzgerald. He was verbally and emotionally abusive to Julianna. Arthur feared if he didn't intervene, somehow it would grow into being physical. No matter how many times he warned Julianna, she made excuses for Fitzgerald.

Her father came onto the scene whenever he was promoted to the role of police detective for the London Police. He worked in a special unit within the London Police force that was heavily involved with MI6. That was how he and Arthur had met. Arthur was the head agent for special ops. Lionel, although he worked for the London Police, was like second in command under Arthur. However, Fitzgerald was the actual agent within MI6 under Arthur. He'd have automatically been promoted to Arthur's position should Arthur be unable to fulfill his duties... whether it was temporal or permanent.

After working with her father for a few months, Arthur introduced his cousin Julianna, who was more of a sister to him, really, to Lionel. Arthur, and his then, fiancée, Guinevere (Gwen), went out on a double date with her parents. They'd hit it off really well, but Julianna was insistent on going out with Ruber at least once more before agreeing to date Lionel. She wanted to give Fitzgerald one more chance to prove that he could be a polite human being rather than an arrogant, egotistical maniac. Unsurprisingly, he was his same old self- with the addition of shoving Julianna very hard into a wall. How he found out about her meeting Lionel, no one knew, but find out he did. Julianna broke up with him, and quickly got a restraining order against him.

Fitzgerald still performed well for his work, but he seemed more distant, colder, secretive, and much more calculating than previous.. A few days after Kayley's birth, Fitzgerald was sent undercover overseas in various countries. It was sure to be a case that would last an extremely long time. And long it was, he didn't come back to headquarters until twelve years later. The very day that he killed her father.

Arthur suspected that Ruber had always meant to kill the both of them. Himself for having brought Julianna and Lionel together, and Lionel for being with Julianna. Plus, if Fitzgerald had been able to take out the both of them and kept it under wraps, he would have been promoted to Arthur's position.

The day that Lionel was killed, he and Arthur had been called in for back up by an allied CIA agent who was working to find the head drug lord for the ring of people that Ruber had spent the last twelve years tracking. When they got there, they discovered that Ruber had killed the CIA agent, the drug lord, and was waiting to kill them too. The CIA agent had been there to help Fitzgerald take down the drug lord. Ruber called in headquarters, feigning as the CIA agent. When he and Lionel walked in, Ruber had his gun aimed at Arthur. Lionel heard the click of the trigger and shoved Arthur out of the way. Thus, taking the bullet himself. Arthur only escaped because the CIA agent was still alive- severly wounded- but breathing. He'd been out when they arrived. The sound of the gun shot woke him up. He had enough will power left in him to pick up his gun and shoot Ruber. He got him in his shoulder. Blood oozed everywhere. Ruber left, and as he did, he swore that he would get revenge against Arthur and his family one day for ruining his life.

Kayley had hired M'nM, who turned out to be a long time associate of Arthur's, to track down Fitzgerald. He was able to do so without being detected online. He sent Kayley random emails about the latest online business transactions Ruber had made and where he might be physically located. There was evidence and rumors going 'round that he was back in town. Mn'M warned Kayley to be on guard, inform Julianna and Arthur, and be ready to call the police at any given moment.

As she opened up her contacts to forward M'nM's email to her mother and Arthur, she tried to think of anyone else who could possibly be involved in this. The only other person she could think of whom Ruber might try to contact was the kid her dad used to help. She never discovered the kid's name. Her father was a part of an organization that reached out to mentor young people who had been through significant trauma. She did remember her father telling her that one day he'd like to introduce her to the kid he was working with. He thought her spunky personality would draw him out of his shell.

She couldn't think of the kid's name for anything, which deeply concerned her. Someone else could be in danger and not even know it.

Her finger tip hovered over the "send" button when the voice of a tall, creepy, balding, red-headed man threatened, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."