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Day 3

Tuesday, May 12th

You know those days when no matter what you do, it feels like it's predetermined not to happen? Today was that day for me. All I wanted to do was figure out everything that went on in Mitch's head, but every which way I turned, there was a wall.

Let me explain. I woke up at 7am, drove to Mitch's hotel and sat in the parking lot until he came out. Mitch came out at 9:03 and I followed him to the laundromat. Here's where I thought, okay, I could see the Midnight Anarchists working out of an inconspicuous place like this. But no. All he did was his laundry. So I thought maybe he left something in the pockets of his clothes, so when he left the store to eat breakfast, I snuck inside.

I opened the driers he was using and dug through every pocket he had. You know what I found? Absolutely nothing. Not even some loose change. His clothes told me nothing about him since most of them were black with no personal effects to them whatsoever. I got out of there before he could come back and by the time he was finished with his laundry, it was noon.

I figured now that his personal duties were over with, I could finally get somewhere with him, but the next place he stopped was a fucking ice cream shop. ICE CREAM. It was like he was deliberately trying to piss me off. He did nothing for 30 straight minutes but lick away at his stupid ice cream in his car. I had never been given this much trouble by someone before.

As I was contemplating rear-ending him just for something to do, my phone rang. I dreaded the name on it, knowing he'd want something from me, but I couldn't ignore his phone call. I doubted that would end well for me.

"Yeah," I answered.

"Elle, how's everything going? No trouble, I hope?" Gary asked.

"Sure, everything's alright."

"Good. Got anything for me?"

I racked my brain, trying to find something, anything I could say. "Uh... He'd rather do his laundry at a store than the hotel he's staying in." The only answer I got was a disapproving silence. "Meaning that he, uh...h-he... Meaning..."

"Do you have anything at all?" Gary's voice was just on the verge of annoyance.

Sighing, I sent a glare to Mitch's car across the lot. "No. Not yet. I'm trying, but if he knows something, I'll figure it out. It's only a matter of time."

"You're getting paid a lot of money for this. If you don't find something in the next day, you're fired and I won't give you a cent."

I rolled my eyes as Gary hung up on me without another word. "I'm not a PI, I'm a glorified babysitter." I had to come up with something, but following Mitch seemed to be a dead end, so I resorted to what I do best. Research. With another annoyed glance to Mitch, I ripped out of the parking lot. I knew exactly where to go.

It took an hour to get to her house, but an hour well spent. I knocked on her door, my laptop in hand, and shifted nervously as I waited. Finally, Addison swung the door open with a brilliant grin on her face.

"Elle!" She pulled me in for a bone-crushing hug.

"Hey, Addy."

I'd known Addison since college. She majored in computer sciences and I paired up with her for a project. That's when I learned about some of her more impressive skills, and we'd been friends ever since. Addy was a short woman, shorter than me by almost half a foot, but she was two years older than me. She had long straight black hair that she rarely liked to do anything with. Most of the time, she left it down and natural. Her eyes were deep brown and narrowed since her father was Asian.