Her Gift

Investigation work is fun.

We wait until the weekend to start our investigation. I had to let Jacob down when he invited me to stay over, but he was surprisingly okay with it and suggested we see each other later on in the week instead.

Mine and Jacobs relationships, to me at least felt like it was fizzling out and we seemed to be more like friends who slept together than anything. I wondered how much longer we would last.

The thought should have upset me, but it didn't; I knew Jacob was leaving for college after summer and wouldn't be around as much. Maybe that's why I wasn't too upset; I knew that we would be ending soon anyway.

Hayden and I were driving towards the address that had been on Killian Howarth's employee file. We didn't speak much on the way over; not that the silence was awkward or anything. Hayden and I could stay quiet for long periods of time in peace and not feel the need to fill it with unnecessary conversation.

We were at ease in each other's company.

I'm going over the file that Hayden had memorised after just one glance so I can be as up to date as he is on the man we were hopefully going to find.

Why had he skipped town after creating Hayden? If it was him who created him in the first place...

That was one of many questions I had for this guy... but we had to find him first and a huge part of me knew this wasn't going to lead us anywhere. I had hope though... for Hayden.

..........

We pull up to an apartment block, that was surrounded by other apartment blocks all looking identical and somewhat cramped, as if the buildings only purpose had been to home as many people as possible.

It didn't look like the safest of neighbourhoods and Hayden must have gotten that vibe too because as soon as we exited the car he sidled up to me and kept as close to me as possible, holding his palm on the small of my back to keep in contact with me at all times.

We walked up to the intercom outside the building and pressed the button for apartment 65.

"Yeah? Who is it?" A female voice rang out. Not a good start, but maybe she was his wife.

"Hi, hello... uhm were looking for Killian Howarth. Is he home?" I say into the microphone hoping by assuming he still lived here we would get a better reception.

There's a long pause before she speaks up again.

"Who is this?"

"My name is Raegan Frost and I'm with my friend, Hayden... Frost." I cringe at the pause, then cringe again that I said friend but then gave him my last name.

"What do you want with Killian?"

"Well he used to work for Robotics corporations and -"

She cuts me off "Killian doesn't live here anymore. I can't help you. Don't contact here again."

"Wait!" but she's already ended the call. I slump against the wall in defeat, and look towards Hayden preparing myself for his disappointment but instead he's looking at the main entrance door in deep concentration.

Before I can ask what he's thinking, he turns the doorknob using all his strength and it breaks, he lets the handle drop uselessly on the floor before grabbing the edge of door, pulling it back enough for me to walk through with my mouth wide open in shock.

"You know this is illegal right, you just broke the damn door." I hiss quietly.

"There's no security or cameras on this building I checked first, no one is coming to cart you off to jail." Hayden smirks at me and I shake my head.