Come on, Ayleen

Examinations of Character

    When Ayleen got to the coffee shop that morning, she noticed that the man she had been following and considering was already in the coffee shop. He sat quietly at a table and read something on his phone while drinking coffee. She watched him from across the shop, wondering if she would hear any more strange phone calls. Ayleen enjoyed her coffee and usual pleasantries with Haven and some of the others in the coffee shop, but she seemed attuned to every move the man made, as if she was just about to figure him out with his next sip of coffee. Ayleen was only in the coffee shop for about twenty minutes before the man got up, left some cash on the table for his coffee and headed for the door. She immediately looked down at her own cup of joe and hoped he wouldn't notice her. She was supposed to be at work in the next ten minutes, but she made a decision. She decided that she wanted to see where this man went. She left her coffee, only half empty, on the table, along with the book she had been reading. She waved to Haven as she slipped out of the shop. She tried to follow with a good amount of space between them so as not to be conspicuous. She was so eager, she felt like she was getting too close, so she walked to the office door to pretend like she was going in to work, while watching him continue down the road from her periphery. She looked inside the office and saw that it was still dark inside. She hadn't expected Mr. Wentz to be there, but she thought she should check, just in case.

    She could have been on time for work, but she decided to chance it and continue to follow him to see if she could figure out where he went. By stopping, she had allowed him to get a little farther down the road, so her turning to continue her investigation wouldn't be noticeable, she hoped. She tried to walk at the same pace as him so she didn't close the gap, but she worried he might walk faster or turn and go down another road, and she wasn't sure she was close enough to be able to track him without losing him if he didn't continue to walk straight ahead at his current pace. He crested a hill and she was sure that she would lose him now that he was out of her immediate line of vision, but she tried not to walk any faster. He could have easily stopped somewhere just on the other side of the hill and he would definitely see that she had been following him. As she came to the top of the hill he had crested a few minutes before, she looked frantically for him and couldn't see him. She was concerned that maybe he had double backed to follow her. Could he be a professional tracker and he knew the signals of being followed and was watching for suspicious activity in even the most mundane of circumstances? Just as she started to worry that he was going to jump out from a hedge or grab her from behind, she noticed him down the hill getting into his truck. The further they got from the center of town, the more sparse businesses became and houses became more prevalent. She noticed that his truck was parked in front of a home that was a new construction, but he drove off before she got too close.

    She wondered if this was his base of operations. Running a criminal syndicate would be best run out of the immediate vicinity of town where there were many eyes, but not so far out that they couldn't be readily accessible to their customers. As she looked at the house, she wasn't sure if it was even finished. There was evidence to suggest that the construction crew was working on the inside, as the outside seemed complete, but again, maybe it was just a cover for what was really going on inside. After all, most construction crews should have started their work day by now, she assumed, as it would be smarter to work in the mornings and evenings to avoid the hottest parts of the day, but she didn't hear any equipment or else anyone around. This was most definitely a cover for something else. She wondered if she should look closer to the house, but wasn't sure that was a safe idea. After all, if he was going to pretend to be working on a home to avoid suspicion, he might very well have cameras posted to watch for anyone who had become suspicious or had nefarious intentions to steal his product and make their own profit off of it. She took a circuitous route to walk around to the side of the house, making a wide berth around the neighboring home that was for sale, and tried to peek at what may lay in the back yard. She also hoped that maybe she would be able to see in the windows.