Escape

Friendship

Emily walked almost unconsciously to the café and when she reached the door, she was very suprised she's already there. To be honest, she was five minutes late, so she just entered and noticed her friend immediately.

She sat at their usual table, in the corner and waited for Emily. She wore a plain T-shirt with jeans and gym shoes as always. Her short hair was tied back so her locks can not bother her eyes.

She was searching for something in her bag and didn't even look up, just nod her head in her direction when Emily sat down opposite her. She was very desperate to find what she was looking for in her bag, so Emily ordered an ice-coffee from the waitress and waited patiently for her friend to get out from her bag.

Emily drank half of her coffee when Gina finally found what she was looking for and turned to her friend proudly how fast she found the thing. Emily was amazed indeed because usually she only gets out from her bag when she almost ate her cake too.

Georgina hold a closed envelope with Emily's name on it.

"This envelope arrived yesterday morning with my name on it, but when I opened it there was this other envelope with your name, that's why I wanted to meet you, to give this to you. Here" she said and put it down in front of Emily. The envelope was quiet big and thick. Emily grabbed it curiously and opened it. The envelope contained a folder with a name on it.
"David Anderson" Emily read it out aloud. "Maybe it's some kind of game and we always have to send it to the next person?" she asked clueless.
"I don't think so, this is not an envelope. Open it! I'll look for him on Facebook and Insta and tell you if I find him"
"Okay" Emily agreed, but her friend already dug herself in her phone and searched for a boy who they didn't know how he looked like, but Emily let Gina continue her search and opened the folder.

The first thing she found was a photo about a boy around her age. He was very familiar to her like she already met him before, but didn't know where. She showed the picture to Gina, but she didn't recognize him either, but at least she knew how the person looks like she's looking for.

He had brown wavy set hair, brown eyes and that familiar serious and cynical smile what her sister always used on her ID card. She had a weird feeling about the boy, but she put the picture aside and examined the papers in the folder. It was like a police file, there was everything. The boy's address, education, workplace, phone number, email, nationality and so on.

"He was raised by adoptive parents, but he doesn't live with them anymore. I can relate to this" Emily sighed.
"What? You're not adopted!" Gina laughed at her statement.
"But the situation with my only parent is the same" Gina didn't respond to this, just went back to her search on her phone, so Emily looked back on the files too. She found the boys adoptation papers with the names of the boy's real parents.

The mother's name wasn't familiar to her, but looking at the father's signature, she screamed and dropped the folder down from her hands. The signature was her father's. She didn't care about the café's guests' weird looks or about Gina's worried questions, she only heard her thoughts which raced through her head.

The boy was two years younger than she and her parents were divorced by that time, but she still couldn't believe her father would do this to his son.

Gina picked up the folder from the table and read into it. When she reached to the signatures, her face turned ash grey pale and looked at Emily with wide eyes.

"This is impossible. This must be a prank, don't even think about it!" Gina tried to bring back her friend to reality, but Emily already knew that the papers aren't fake. That boy is her half brother and denying that would be meaningless and wouldn't change a thing. At least she already knew why he was so familiar to her. He looked a lot like her father and even like Vic.
"No" Emily interrupted Gina, who still said her own point of view, but now she stopped in an instant. "Every word of this is true. I can't even understand how did I not know sooner from where do I know him. David is my half brother" Gina just stared at Emily shocked.

"How do you want to tell this big news to Victoria?" she asked silently.
"I don't know" Emily answered just as silently. "The thing is that since yesterday no one saw her and I can't reach her on her phone either. I'm scared to death that something had happened to her and she disappeared" Emily couldn't stop her tears anymore.
"Alright, don't cry" Gina grabbed her hand reassuringly. "We'll find her"
"How?" Emily asked sobbing and Gina thought for a minute.
"I have a friend, Michael Pussett, whose best friend is the best detective at the police departement. I ask Michael to tell his friend about your sister. I call him now!" she said and letting go of Emily's hand, she called Michael and talked with him. Emily listened to her friend, but she couldn't hear what the boy said on the phone. She at least calmed down a bit. "He said he could try to get an appointment to his friend, but he wants to ask first if he has another case now. Don't worry, everything will be fine" she looked into her friend's eyes smiling at her. "But until then, could you tell me what do you want to do with your half brother?"

Emily stirred the rest of her coffee thoughtfully and answered her friend's question.
"I think I shouldn't decide this without Vic, so I have to find her and we can decide together if we want to contact with our brother or not" Gina thought through what Emily had said.
"I think that's correct" she smiled at Emily, but she looked at her phone when she got a notification. She got a message from Michael. She opened it and read it to Emily.

"He wants a picture of your sister and her closest adult family member's phone number. He'll send it to his friend and he'll see if he can undertake the case then he'll send an appointment and we'll meet at the police departement" when she finished the message she looked at Emily who just stared at her coffee with emotionless face. "Did you even hear what I said? I do everything I can and you don't even care about what I say"
"I listened! I was just thinking about which picture I should send about Vic" she opened her gallery on her phone and looked through her pictures. She picked a picture from last summer when they attended on a wedding together. She wore a dark green dress with cleavage, dark make up and there were little pink flowers in her braided hair. Emily wasn't jealous of her sister's looks very often, but at this picture she was beautiful indeed.

Emily sent the picture to Gina who sent it to Michael as soon as she got it.

"Michael messaged that your sister looks very good on this picture, but not with these exact words, but I'd rather not say these words out aloud in a café" Gina laughed. "You still have to give him a phone number. I don't have your mother's number, so..."
"Give him my number" Emily interrupted her angrily.
"Emily..." Gina tried to convince her, but she was intransigent.
"You'll send my number to them and I don't argue with you about this!"

Gina sighed in defeat and sent Emily's number to Michael. She got the respons after half a minute.

"Michael sais his friend accepted the case with his partner and asking about how soon can we go to the departement in the fifth district"
"What do you mean by 'we'?" Emily asked amazed.
"What? I hope you didn't think I'd let you to go alone to the police station when your sister is missing. I'm going with you and I won't open a debate about this" she looked into her friend's eyes confidently and continued. "You won't be alone in this adventure. Michael is coming with us too. We can meet him somewhere and we can go together, he doesn't live too far away from here"

Emily looked like she considered the offer, but of course, she agreed in.
"Fine. Tell Michael to tell his mysterious friend that I want to meet him today around four o'clock"

Gina suppressed her laughter and sent the message to Michael. While they were waiting for the response, Gina sent Emily Michael's phone number and his Messenger too.

"He said he'll wait for us in front of the National Museum at three and don't be late"
"Perfect. By the way, what can we know about Michael's friend? For example, does he have a name or everyone just calls him 'Michael's friend'? I'd like to know who am I trusting with my sister's life"
"Don't worry about that, he's the best in town if not in the whole country. He is Jack De'Ath"