A Score & A Decade

Chapter 2

Zoe knocked the hard, wooden door. She was in front of a pretty house in a place called Waterstone Drive. The house was yellow, with flower bushes in the window sills like something straight out of a fairy-tale. The house that she was in front of was the Rodneys'.

She had read Roselle's file and had found her address from 30 years ago. She had doubted whether her family still lived in the same place so she had pulled up everything she could get about Roselle's parents Eric and Louise Rodney on the internet and had tracked them to this very street. She had been right - they had moved. On asking a few neighbors (and receiving quite a few suspicious looks), she had been led to the house she was standing in front of right now.

She knocked once more, and the door flew open, revealing a short woman in her late 50s. She had shiny, silver hair and eyes the color of the sky. 

"Hello! I'm sorry miss, but I don't recognize you... Who are you?" the woman asked, obviously confused as to why a complete stranger was knocking on her door.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Let me introduce myself. I'm Zoe Simmons and I'm here to talk to you about some sensitive information." Zoe replied, slightly ruffled. She didn't want to say outright that she was there to talk about the woman's missing daughter.

The woman's face changed from one of confusion to outrage, "Does this... 'sensitive information' have anything to do with Roselle?" she asked, her voice now cold.

"Uh...I'm afraid it does," Zoe said, a little apologetically, "But - "

She never did get to finish her sentence, because suddenly the door slammed shut.

"Ma'am!" Zoe cried, knocking on the door once more.

"I don't want any more reporters and news-persons asking about my darling Rosie." the woman snapped from behind the door.

Ah. She thought that Zoe was a reporter!

"Ma'am, you've been mistaken. I'm not a reporter or a news-person. I'm a private investigator." Zoe said.

There was a pause. Then, the door slowly opened, and the woman peeked out.

"A what?"

"A private investigator, ma'am."

"And what are you here for?"

Zoe stopped, knowing that what she was about to say would probably change the woman's life, "I'm here to help you look for your daughter."