Hold On

Chapter 13

Minute after minute, hour after hour, the plan has finally been formed. Beside that Kumu, TC and Rick discussed what they should focus on, they went through that security footage once again. Well, actually a couple of times or even more as they lost a track of the number of times they watched it.

Before they knew it, it was already dawn. The stars were fading and the sun was slowly rising, making the sky turn all bluish-pink. Kumu decided to move to the kitchen to prepare something to eat while Rick and TC were staying on the sofa in the living room. After being up for so many hours, they could barely keep their eyes open. About thirty minutes later, Kumu took the plates and brought them to the living room. One glance at her friends and she realized they were both napping but as soon as she placed the food on the table in front of them, she noticed, and it wasn't much of a surprise to her, that when the mouth-watering savory aroma of the meal wafted through the air, both men came back to life immediately – their eyes flew open and their heads snapped up. They sat up straight and sniffed, their eyes darting around the room.

Kumu chuckled as they finally spotted the plates full of superb food.

"Wow, I must be still dreaming." Rick said under his breath and then he hissed in pain.
"Ouch! What was that for, brother?"

"Nothing." TC replied with an innocent look on his face. "I've just pinched you to help you realize that actually you're not dreaming."

"Geez, thanks for taking such a great care of me." Rick told him sarcastically.

TC easily recognized the man's emotions and replied. "Oh, you're welcome, my friend."

Kumu shook her head at the interaction between them.

"Okay you two. Enough with talking, let's eat now. That food shouldn't be left cold." She stated.

Of course, it didn't take much time for the men to listen to her suggestion and soon they grabbed their knives and forks, and dug into that tasty breakfast.

Ten minutes later, when they satisfied their hunger, Rick and TC finally spoke up.

"Wow, Kumu, your loco moco was delicious." TC told her.

"Definitely." Rick agreed. "It's way better than the ones you can get at those food trucks downtown."

"Thanks, boys." The woman smiled gratefully. "We'll all need a lot of energy today."

They didn't get to reply to that as suddenly they heard a loud buzz. Kumu checked that immediately and then glanced at her friends. "It's Gordon. I'll let him in." She stated and pushed the button to open the gate for the detective.

"He's quite early." TC said.

"I hope he's coming with good news." Rick told him. "Maybe they've got a lead or they've already found them."

TC just nodded his head, he hoped that too however after seeing the footage of the kidnappers, he realized how it may be extremely difficult to get their friends home.

Two minutes later, they heard a knock at the door and Kumu went to open it.

"Hi, Kumu." Gordon spoke, standing outside.

"Aloha. Come in. We've just had some breakfast, would you like something to eat?" She asked, stepping aside and passing him through.

"No, thank you. I've already eaten. I grabbed a sandwich on the way here." He replied politely and entered the living room.

Hearing that, Rick and TC instantly exchanged looks.

"Hey, guys."

"Hi, Gordie. How are things? Have you got any leads?" Rick spoke impatiently although he knew he should probably wait for the detective to share it with them.