After Dark

Chapter 10 - Fever

Mabel made some grilled panini sandwiches on the griddle. They were sundried tomatoes turkey and provolone sandwiches. Mabel had made the bread for it in her bread machine this morning before class so it was very fresh. Heather meanwhile looked up the details for the Saturday night party. When she found it after some aggressive searching she brought her laptop to the table and showed the page to Mabel who had pieces of the sandwich stuffed in her cheeks like a chipmunk at the moment. Swallowing with difficulty and chasing it down with some iced tea she cleared her throat and tried to play off her faux pas.

Mabel looked over the webpage. It looked like a landing page for the Sigma Delta Sigma house on this website. The site was an organizational tool that listed all the Fraternity and Sorority houses within the Multnomah County area. Mabel remembered when she had been researching PNCA she had read that there were thirty-nine other colleges in the Multnomah County area. So it made sense that there was a database for it. Mabel saw that a tentative schedule for parties had been posted on the landing page. It stated that parties were exclusively invited only unless explicitly stated otherwise. It also talked about legal disclosures and liabilities.

Mabel saw they had a party every Friday and Saturday just as Chase stated. Unfortunately, it was fourteen miles away on the edge of the forest, which made sense if the street it was on was named Glenwood she thought. She grinned in the excitement that the case was panning out. She saw the address and emailed the screenshot to herself so she could access it on her phone. Dipper would have been proud of her computer skills. Normally she was terrible at this stuff and left the nerd stuff to the Dipstick, but she was determined to get some leads on this case before mon Capitaine marched in and commandeered the case. And she would have staked her life on it that he would do just that. She thought with a grin picturing him with his hand pinching his mouth, and his eyebrows furrowed in marked concentration as he looked over the details making 'mhmm...mhmm' noises. She grinned missing him already. But not enough to let him solve the case all by himself!

Just then the phone rang. "If that's Dipper he needs to stop reading minds," Mabel said with a grin before she looked at her phone. She saw it was Ashelli. She waved at Heather and put the phone on speakerphone. Mabel answered, "This is Mabel Pines." Ashelli's voice came over the phone sounding excited but also worried at the same time. "We found her! Hannah just came back to the apartment. . I'll make sure she doesn't leave. She seems really tired and out of it. You guys should get over here quick if you want to see her before she falls asleep. I'm not sure why she is so tired."

Mabel replied, "We are leaving the house right now!" Ashelli sounded relieved. "Good deal I'll wait to buzz you guys in I can see the entrance from my apartment I'll try to keep watch to let you in right away." Mabel thanked her and hung up.

Heather was already putting her shoes back on and grabbing her purse. Mabel slid into her shoes and grabbed her purse as well as her bedazzled jacket. In her Junior year of high school, she had taken a blue jean jacket and meticulously hot-glued sturdy large plastic rhinestones across every square inch of the jacket. With the arms straight at her sides, the colors started at purple at the bottom and worked their way up to blue, then green, then goldish/yellow, then lastly red. She also had mediating colors that transitioned in between the main ones so the transition was more smooth and thus natural looking. Just like a real rainbow, she thought with joy! It had been a week-long project but she was very proud of it when she had finished. Dipper had even said it was in good taste and very fitting of her personal light vibes. She smiled thinking about it.

She locked the house up and they practically jogged over to the dorms. As soon as they got there breathing slightly hard the door made a buzzing noise and the magnetized lock let the door released as open ajar just slightly. They raced up the apartment and found Ashelli at the door to the apartment holding it open. She waved them in and said. "She seems alright, but she just looks very tired. I could barely keep her awake. "I'm making some coffee. You keep her attention, and I'll get the mugs. Does either two of you want some coffee? Heather waved it off no doubt worried about her sister, Mabel however said, "yes please!"