When The Time Comes

chapter 15; Omar

We grab food from the restaurant we walked past before and take our seats under one of the green umbrellas. Liberty doesn't each much, again. I turn my head when she catches me prying. I don't bring it up either. Maybe girls don't eat as much as I thought. Or maybe she just doesn't have an appetite.

I'm surprised she's still here. I expected her to leave but she hasn't yet. I assume she's changed her mind about breaking into the old prick's house then.

"So what's the plan?" Ben asks, wiping sauce off his hands with a napkin.

"We'll check his house out, see if his stuff is there," I lean my elbows on the table's black framework. "If that doesn't give us an indication, the news agency that talked about seeing Stewart after he was supposed to be dead is not far from here."

Ben checks the time, "I think it's too late for anyone to be at the agency."

"Yeah fine. We can do that part tomorrow."

"What about Stewart's wife? Where does she live?"

"They're still here in Baltimore."

"Do you have an address?" Ben throws his wrappers in the trash directly behind him.

"Not yet."

Liberty lets out a slight sigh, turning her head to watch a car drive by.

"If I had a little help then maybe this would go by faster," I tell Ben but hope Liberty gets the idea. She doesn't notice my jab at her but if she did, she doesn't show it.

  "I wouldn't know where to start," Ben lets out a dry laugh. "This all seems pretty stalker-ish."

"There's no other way," I say, looking at him.

"Sure, it'd be nice to rip the expiry label off my back but we have to be prepared to see this fail too."

"If it fails, we won't be here to see anything now, will we?"

"You know what I mean," Ben says a little more seriously, tilting forward slightly as he readjusts his jacket.  "I just don't want anyone to get their hopes too high. It can end badly."

"I know that," I begin but he cuts me off.

"Just don't be surprised if the house is empty or if the newspaper office tells us to fuck off, is all I'm saying."

"Nothing surprises me, Ben," I reply. "But it's better than doing nothing. I can't sit on my ass and wait for my day to turn the corner."

Ben holds his hands up in mock surrender, "And I'm not asking you to. As long as nobody's deluded about the reality of this situation, I'm fine with distractions."

Before I can get a word out, Liberty finally speaks up. She folds the brown bag that's on the table, looking down at her thumbs as she replies.

"I'm fine with distractions," she says, lowly. "Distractions are the only thing that'll get me through this."

She avoids looking at me, instead glancing up at Ben before returning to her fixation with the road. I can't tell if it's deliberate or not but I brush the thought away just as quickly as it came.

"Any ideas on how we're doing this?" I ask no one in particular.

"So many things could go wrong with this plan," Ben says. "No offence or anything but we don't know about any alarm systems or maybe a guard dog."

"In an empty house? I doubt it," I reply.

"Then an alarm system. It may as well be a nosy neighbor in the window."