“The days right after Anne’s death,” Douglas finished. His eyes looked weary again. He flipped to the last page with writing. “The last date is the day before his disappearance. As close as I can tell, it seems that Asher was planning some reconnaissance work in regards to a case he was working on. He calls it a missing person’s case.”
“Reconnaissance?” Tallow mused. “Do you have any idea what he was looking into?”
“It has got to be something to do with that travel agency,” Douglas said. It was all starting to make sense now. Of course Asher hadn’t been into drugs. He should have trusted in that even before Ross’ tests came back from the hair samples Asher had provided.
“You say a travel agency? When was this?” Tallow asked.
Douglas recounted the events of that afternoon when he had caught Asher at the travel agency. “We still have no idea why he was there. Our investigation of the place never showed anything concrete enough to get a search warrant.”
“So in the middle of the school day he appears on the other side of the city in a bad part of town? And you just happened to be staking the place out?” Tallow frowned. “How strange. So how did he get there? He told me he didn’t have a car. Surely he couldn’t have walked.”
“He got a ride from that girl Aarin,” Agatha said matter-of-factly.
“A girl he knows at school. It’s a dead end though. We talked to her early on. She doesn’t know anything. He just asked her for a ride during their lunch hour and she dropped him off a block away from the place,” Douglas added out of hand, still flipping through pages slowly. He was puzzling over every word. “This is very hard to read. He just writes notes to himself. It’s like reading half a conversation. From what I can tell, Asher had been practicing doing detective work on his own for months.”
“I know,” said both Tallow and Agatha simultaneously.
Tallow laughed, but when he saw the look on Douglas’ face, added, “He consulted with me on several of his ‘cases’.”
Douglas frowned in confusion. He was getting increasingly frustrated by how much everyone else already seemed to know. He thought he had been close to his son. Sure, things between them had been difficult the last few months, but how could he have been unaware of so much of Asher’s life?
“Asher was solving mysteries at school just like he was in some kid’s detective novel,” Tallow said with a chuckle. “It sounds cute, I know, but I thought it was excellent practice for someone who wanted to make a career out of the work. First he discovered who had stolen one classmate’s binder. Then there was one boy that was about to be expelled for breaking windows on school property at night. Asher discovered it was the janitor who had broken the windows while drunk after hours.”
“The principal called him into her office and thanked him personally,” Agatha added.
“Really?” Tallow laughed again. “How adorable!”
Douglas gritted his teeth. Why hadn’t Asher told him? He understood why Asher would share secrets with his younger sister. But why Tallow? Why would Asher confide in a complete stranger, but not in his own father?
“Well!” he said, clasping his hands together. “I really should thank you for everything, Tallow. I think we have found out everything we are going to find here. Why don’t you make me a copy of those emails and I will get back to you if we find anything.”
“I’m sorry. Is there a problem? Have I offended you in some way, Douglas?” Tallow asked.
The sincere concern in his face infuriated Douglas all the more. Who did this man think he was anyway? To carry on a secret relationship with Asher behind his back? To ignore him for his whole life and then just show up out of the blue? He tried not to let his anger show on his face.
“No. Not at all. Like I said, thanks for the help.” He began ushering Tallow towards the door.
“But, wait a minute,” Tallow said, resisting him. “I would like to continue helping, here. Don’t you think we should go and talk to this Aarin girl? She may know something.”
“Look, I have spoken with her several times myself,” Douglas replied. “There is no evidence to find.”
“But, Daddy,” Agatha said, her brow furrowed. “That Aarin-.”
“I told you that it’s a dead end!” Douglas shouted. “She knows nothing. We also looked into the travel agency as much as we could. Ends up the company was just using the building for storage. All they had was a small call center inside.”
He didn’t mention the new case that the chief had placed before him earlier that day, the one suggesting the travel agency was hiring illegal immigrants. As much as it had brought him hope back then, right now it seemed like just another distraction. Asher wouldn’t have been looking into something like that.
“And this book?” Douglas threw the journal down on the bed. “It doesn’t say where he went. It’s incoherent. It tells us nothing! All of this . . . It’s just been getting my hopes up.” He lowered his voice and the anger in his eyes dimmed. “Maybe the chief is right. The only explanation that makes sense is . . .”
“He is alive.” Tallow placed his hands on Douglas’ shoulders and looked him right in the eyes. Tallow’s gaze was clear and focused. “Don’t let a single doubt cross your mind. Also, Douglas. I know that Asher did not run away.”
“What makes you so sure?” Douglas asked.
“Because he loved you and he loved his sister. He told me so. Also, he had no girlfriend. No one to run away with,” Tallow said. The supreme confidence in his gaze stunned Douglas into silence.
Tallow looked around the room. “The evidence is all here.” He pointed to the cheap MP3 player on Asher’s desk. “What teenager runs away and leaves his music behind? Huh? Look at his closet! A complete jumble. Yet he has a perfectly clean stack of carefully folded t-shirts on top of his dresser. He obviously cared about them. What teenager runs away and leaves his favorite clothes? Why leave them behind?”
Tallow stomped over to Asher’s bedside table and picked up the paperback that was sitting there. It was a hardboiled crime novel called, The Other Side of Bad by R.O. Barton. “He didn’t even take the book he was currently reading. See? Bookmark on page 223. He took nothing. Why would he do that?”
Douglas’ mouth went dry. His heart was beating in his ears. Tallow was making arguments that Douglas himself had made before to his fellow officers, but hearing the assurance in this man’s voice as he said it, brought back hope.
Tallow turned to Agatha. His tone softened. “Why would Asher run away, but not tell his younger sister, his best friend in all the world, why he was leaving her at home alone?”
“How do you . . ?” Agatha’s chin trembled. There were tears in her eyes and she reached up to cover her face, letting her knitting fall to the floor. Her voice was hushed and quavering, “He said, ‘Don’t tell’.”
Douglas’ felt as if he had been punched in the gut. She had repeatedly told him that Asher had left without her knowing. “Agatha . . .”
Tallow crouched in front of her and gently pulled her hands away from her face. As he had done with Douglas, he put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “I was right. Asher said something to you before he left. Didn’t he, Agatha?”
She looked away, her lips pressed tightly together.
“Agatha, you and Asher were really close weren’t you? With your mom gone and your dad away at work so much, you depended on each other. He told you everything, didn’t he?” She nodded, her jaw still clinched. Tallow pressed on, “Asher’s not going to be mad at you for telling, you know. Wherever he is right now, he needs our help. We need you to tell us everything you know.”
“He said two hours,” she said and tears began to stream from her eyes. “He said he would explain everything to Daddy when he got back!”
Douglas fell to both knees and pulled Agatha into his arms. He stroked her curly hair and his voice shook, “It’s okay, Aggie. It’s okay. I’m not mad at you. I promise. I won’t be mad at Asher either. I jus
t need to know where he is. I just . . . want to bring him home to us.”
“He . . . He was talking to that Aarin girl on the phone just before he left. She was helping him with the case he was working on,” Agatha said, crying into her father’s shoulder. “She said she wouldn’t give him a ride this time and he hung up and went and took the pizza money and then . . . he just left! I’m so sorry, Daddy. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell!”
“It’s okay sweetheart. It’s okay,” Douglas said. He rocked her back and forth, cradling her as he hadn’t done since the day of Anne’s funeral.
Tallow stepped back and sat on the bed. He sighed and at that moment he looked spent and weary. He rested his head in his hands and gave them a moment before speaking again. “I am sorry, you two. I’m sorry you are going through this.”
Douglas looked at him. All of his anger was gone. “We knew from the phone records that Asher had spoken with someone on the phone shortly before he left.”
“You couldn’t tell that the phone call was with this girl, Aarin?” Tallow asked.
Agatha had stopped crying, but still held her father tightly.
“It was an inbound call from a payphone at the mall,” Douglas said. He looked at his uncle’s raised eyebrow and added, “I know what you’re wondering and yes, our mall still has one of those. It’s by the food court. We asked around at the different vendor booths close to the phone but no one remembered seeing who made the call. I guess we know now.”
“I see . . .” Tallow picked up the detective journal on the bed beside him and flipped to the last recorded page. “The last thing he has written here is, ‘It has to be her work.’ Does that mean anything to you?”
Douglas shook his head.
“Well,” Tallow said. “We really need to go see that girl.”
Chapter 5: That Aarin Girl
“I see what you mean about Asher’s notes being hard to read,” Tallow said, looking a bit green in the gills as the car hit another bump. “Gah! It doesn’t help that it has been ages since I have tried reading in the car!”
“Why is that?” Agatha asked. They had no choice but to bring her along with them. They couldn’t have left her alone at home.
“Well . . .” Tallow thought a moment. “Well, I am always driving, of course. I never ride in the passenger seat so I don’t get to read in the car.”
“What about billboards?” Agatha asked. “Or street signs? Do you get sick when you read those?”
Tallow twisted around in his seat to look back at her. He gave her a sour look. “Shouldn’t you be concentrating on whatever it is you are knitting back there?”
Before they had left the house, Agatha had traded out her acrylic pink squid for a different project that had been sitting unfinished on a pair of circular needles. This one was a gray woolen cap that was nearly complete.
“I just think you’re weird. Like what about this? I don’t get it.” Agatha put her knitting aside and picked up something from the seat beside her. “Why do you need a cane?”
Before they had gotten into Douglas’ car, Tallow had grabbed the cane from the passenger seat of his beat up Oldsmobile. It was a little over three feet long and made of black wood with a polished silver foot and handle. Intricate engravings covered the entire surface. Standing out on the silver handle and etched in black was a symbol that looked identical to the tattoo on Tallow’s hand.
“I’m old,” Tallow said, and turned back around in his seat, facing forward. “Old people use canes.”
“You’re not that old,” she remarked. She traced the etchings on the cane with one fingernail. “And you don’t limp or anything.”
“Well, I like it, Aggie,” Tallow grumbled. “Canes are cool. And useful.”
“Yeah, I guess it is pretty cool,” Agatha agreed. She leaned the cane against the seat beside her and picked her knitting back up. “If you wanna look like an old guy.”
“See?” Tallow said with a laugh. “I told you, Douglas. She’s mean!”
“Well it totally doesn’t match your outfit,” Agatha remarked.
Douglas didn’t disagree with her. All-in-all, Tallow’s getup looked like it could have been cobbled together at a thrift shop. He couldn’t help but smile wearily at their banter. It was good to hear Agatha in a playful mood. Even if she was talking to a relative stranger she had only met that day. “Stop it, you two. We are almost there.”
They soon pulled into the mall parking lot. Though it was almost 8:30 it wasn’t quite dark yet being this close to the summer solstice. Nevertheless, the lot was beginning to empty. They had no problem finding a parking spot near the food court entrance.
Douglas shut off the car and opened his door. “We need to hurry. The mall will be closing soon.”
Douglas had called Aarin’s home before they left the house. Her mother had told him she was still at work. Once he had found out where she worked, the phone booth call from the mall made a lot more sense. Douglas was angry that he hadn’t discovered the connection before.
Tallow reached back to grab his cane and got out of the car. He slowly shut the door behind him and stared at the large mall with an odd half smile on his face. Douglas and Agatha started toward the entrance and he had to trot to catch up.
They walked in the automatic doors and were hit with a jumble of sounds and aromas. Tallow gazed around wide-eyed as they walked through the emptying food court.
“What? Haven’t you been to a mall before?” Agatha said loudly, trying to be heard above the sounds of the mall. She grabbed the corner of his jacket and tugged him forward.
“Not in a while,” Tallow admitted, letting himself be pulled along. He eyed a group of girls as they walked by. They were wearing tight tank tops that showed off their cleavage along with short shorts and so much makeup that it was pretty obvious they had just learned how to apply it. “Good grief. How old are those girls? Thirteen? Fourteen? Who let them dress like that?”
“That’s how girls dress,” Agatha said, arching an eyebrow at him.
“Well don’t you ever dress like that. Okay, Aggie? Not ever. Not even when you are as old as me,” Tallow said, his tone serious.
Agatha scowled. “Especially not if I was as old as you. Eww.”
“Ooh, a Pretzel Hut!” Tallow’s eyes widened and he came to a halt, Agatha’s urging notwithstanding. “Man, I haven’t had a soft pretzel in forever. Ohh, they have the parmesan kind.”
“You’re weird,” Agatha observed.
“Come on,” Douglas said. “She’s probably getting ready to leave.” His words broke through Tallow’s reverie and they headed out of the food court and into the middle of the ground level of the mall. Small kiosks clogged the center of the walkway. “Her kiosk is around here somewhere.”
It wasn’t difficult to find her. Aarin worked for a company that bought and sold used cell phones. There was a large sign that said “Sell-Phone” in large red letters right above the kiosk.
She wore a black t-shirt with a white skull emblazoned on the front, and a short black leather skirt. Long black and white striped leggings disappeared into the top of her high-topped black boots. She was busy locking away glass doors over the merchandise when Douglas tapped on her shoulder. “Excuse me.”
She sighed and turned around slowly. “Look, it’s nine o-clock. If you want a phone, you’ll have to come back tomorrow-. Oh! Mr. Jones, hi!”
From the look on Aarin’s face, it was obvious she wasn’t exactly happy to see him.
When Douglas and his partner had interviewed her before, Detective Ross had referred to her as an ‘emo chick’. In Douglas’ mind, her style was more like what he used to call goth back in his high school days. Her hair was cut short and dyed black with maroon highlights. She had a piercing with a black stud in her right nostril, two silver rings in her left eyebrow, and wore black lipstick and heavy eye shadow. On one wrist glistened a black dog collar bracelet with chrome spikes.
“Um . . . any news on Asher?” she asked, her eye
s darting around as if expecting more people to show.
“Actually that is why we are here,” Douglas said. “Aarin Burkes, this is Asher’s little sister, Agatha, and this is his great uncle, Tallow. He’s a private detective.”
She looked Tallow over. “Wicked cane, dude.”
“Thanks,” Tallow said, and turned to give Agatha a superior look. “She said, ‘wicked cane’.”
Agatha rolled her eyes and pulled her knitting out of the bag she had slung over her shoulder. Her needles started to click again.
Douglas’ attention hadn’t shifted from Aarin. He found her behavior quite suspicious. She hadn’t been this fidgety the last time he had spoken with her. What had changed? “Do you mind if we ask you some questions?”
“Uh . . . sure,” Aarin said, though she didn’t look sure. “But I, uh . . . think I answered everything to you and the other cops back when Asher first . . . went missing.”
“Aarin, we just found some new evidence. Asher’s diary,” Douglas said. “He mentions you in it. He says you were helping him with a case.”
“A case? Come on,” Aarin said. She looked around again, shifting her weight from leg to leg.
“Aarin, this is important. We really need to know what happened,” Douglas pressed. She licked her lips and authority crept into his voice. “We know you called him from a pay phone here in the mall.”
“Look, I just dropped him off at a place in the city and went back to school. I already told you that.” Her eyes darted between them and she edged back as if ready to flee.
Tallow stepped to the side, cutting off a possible lane of escape. He caught her eyes with a steely gaze. “What happened before that, dear? What were you two working on?”
She gulped and looked around the mall and Douglas realized that she wasn’t looking for more cops. Aarin was afraid someone would see her talking. “Okay, listen. Can you let me finish up with work first? There are too many people still around.”
Tallow Jones: Wizard Detective (The Tallow Novels Book 1) Page 5
