Her eyes, his lies

Chapter 21

It was perhaps the first instance that week Jane had left school at the proper time, a day after that afternoon in the football field. Victoria and her, bags in tow, joined the slow stream of students as they exited the school premises. The tide of teenagers pooled into the parking lot, and spread out on the street, some lining up in expectation of a bus ride. Jane and Victoria, on the other hand, had another destination in mind.

"Ryder's really on our side, huh?" Victoria asked, shifting her bag. The piercing on her nose wiggled as she scrunched up her face against the cold air.

Jane nodded. "Kinda. He gave me everything he knows. It's not the whole picture, but he told me where we might be able to get it."

Jane's phone buzzed in her hand, surprising her. She had already been holding it.

[5:19]Unknown number: Are you sure about this?

[5:19]Unknown number: I know you're good, but what are you going to do with technology like this?

That would be Watson, Jane surmised. Leveraging their earlier agreement, she had asked him to procure a certain form of technology that only law enforcement had access to. It seemed he was having second thoughts.

[5:20]Jane: just trust me

She stared at the screen for a few moments, waiting for a response. Judging by the lack of a reply, Jane assumed Watson had already left the package where she'd asked him to. He had simply been voicing his concerns about her plan. He did trust her enough to obey her requests, it appeared.

"Who's that?" Victoria was peering over her shoulder, an easy feat considering their height difference.

"The undercover cop I told you about," Jane replied, pocketing the phone.

Victoria was quiet as she watched Jane's motions.

Jane glanced back at her. "Let's go, maybe we can get there before it gets dark."

As it turned out, they had, in fact, arrived by the time it was dark.

While Beatrice was financially well-off, the location of her home was nowhere near as ostentatious as Ryder's neighborhood. Two-story homes and white picket fences lined the streets as wrought iron lanterns lit their well-cared-for lawns. Middle range vehicles sat parked along the road, their windows nearly opaque in the dark of the night.

Victoria had opted to carry both bags, hers and Jane's, in order to allow the smaller girl to keep up. Even so, Jane was huffing from having walked half way across the town.

She should really get in shape, she thought. Maybe when this was all over, Ryder could help her with that.

"Oh, were here," Jane whispered, ducking behind a roughly maintained line of bushes. Victoria followed suit, the bangles on her wrists clicking together.

It was perhaps the worst maintained home in the long row of houses, with an overgrown expanse of grass and cracked stone pathways. A single dim light glowed from the second story window, diffused through a hazy curtain. A long haired figure moved around behind it, her shadow distorted by the light.

"Is that...?" Victoria asked.

"Beatrice."

"How'd you even get her address?"

Jane turned to her, lip turned upwards in an sly grin. "Contacts."

"You? Contacts? I bet it was Ryder, wasn't it?" Victoria asked with amusement. She glanced back towards Beatrice's elongated shadow. "But why are we at her address?"