Behind the Scenes

Part 3: Connecting the Dots

                 Chapter 31

Harry Jordan

I wake up to the ringing of my alarm. It's been a while since I've used an alarm since my wife's death. I check the date. Is it July fifth? Was yesterday, July fourth? They didn't have time to do anything since that poor woman got murdered yesterday. At least it's a Thursday. Almost Friday. After a minute or so of sitting in bed, I finally decided I had the energy to get up. I sit up and stretch. Stretching in the morning makes you feel like you can do anything, at least from my perspective. It just makes me feel good. There's no other way to describe it (at least for me.) I walk out of my room.

When I get into the kitchen, Maisie isn't there. She must still be sleeping. What time is it? Eight. I guess that's fine. We have nothing to do today. I get out a coffee cup and make myself some coffee. I take a sip. Ahh. Refreshing. I suddenly get a text. I look at my phone. I don't recognize the number. I unlock my phone, and I look at my messages

I have some information about your wife you need

to hear.

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Chapter 32

Maisie Jordan

"What is it, dad?" I stare at my father with curiosity while he taps his phone screen. I don't know what he's looking at. If it's news about my mother, I want to hear it. Wait. Do I? If we just got alerted that my mother got tortured before her death, I'd rather not know that. I know that getting murdered is torture in and of itself, but I mean like literally torture. Someone beating you up until you talk. Something like that. Or using satanic devices. Like medieval-style devices or something of that nature. With that said, knowing that my mother got murdered isn't all that pleasant, but I'd like to think that she didn't get tortured to the point of death. I want the idea in my head that she died in peace. A quick death. God, what am I saying? She got murdered! That's basically torture! And she was poisoned! Again, it doesn't feel any better knowing that, but at least she didn't get like tortured  tortured.

"It's a text from a random number," Dad says.

"What does it say?"

"This person says they have some information about your mother." My face lights up. I noticed how Dad didn't say 'death' after 'mother.'

"Does it say death?" I ask. Dad shows me his phone.

I have some information about your wife you need to hear.

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"Text them back!" I say. I hear typing noises.

"For a start, I asked him or her who he or she is," I hear the send sound effect. I'm practically biting my nails in anticipation. Does this mean my mother might somehow be alive? No. It can't be. We went to her funeral! Right? I hear another sound effect: the 'sent to you' sound effect. I like the sound effects Apple chooses. I think they're pretty satisfying.

"What did this person say?" I ask as I hear the 'sent to you' effect again. Now I'm inquisitive. For a random person to text us twice in a row (relatively quickly) must mean that he knows something. I don't mean that spammers don't do stuff like this all the time; it's just that if this person has credible information, he might not be spam. Random numbers not being spam these days are pretty rare. It also might just be a family member who just got a phone. I don't know what I'm thinking. It might be spam in disguise, a person messing with us for their fun. I just might be too optimistic these days. But that doesn't excuse the question of how this person knows I lost my mother. It might be a hacker. Hackers these days, I swear to god.