He found her earl grey tea and made a cup and then sat at her kitchen table, looking out of the window at the tree Ruby must see every morning. The problem was that he didn't know what he expected to find. Perhaps he'd simply come because he missed her ? He could see her answerphone in the tiny entrance hall and it had been turned off. Who turns off their answerphone when they go away ? Those with something to hide. George finished his tea and went into her bedroom. There was the first bit of untidiness in the entire flat. Ruby had obviously been selecting clothes to pack and quite a few had been rejected and thrown into a pile on an old armchair. He recognised a top she often wore and picked it up, hoping to get closer to her in some way. Nothing, no miraculous link that might give him a clue. Clue to what ?
"Why are you here you old fool ?" He shouted at himself.
He sat on her bed, not wanting to invade the privacy of her bedside cabinet, but knowing he had to. There was something in her flat that was important, he knew it, there had to be. George opened the top drawer and pulled out two books. Fantasy books about strange alternate universes. He wondered how Ruby could read and enjoy such drivel. The second drawer down had a writing pad, which he opened to discover nothing but weekly shopping lists. All it told him was what he already knew; she had a thing about Brazil nuts and earl grey tea. She seemed to exist on tea and green salad, but so did most girls of that age. He almost put the pad back in the drawer, but then he noticed the jotting on the back. Lots of swirls and stick men, the sort of doodling everyone does in idle moments.
"Oh, dear God Ruby." He muttered.
The stick men were all attacking each other in a disturbed way. Some were shooting each other, while some were being decapitated by axes. It was the sort of doodling likely to get someone sent for serious therapy. Below the stick men she'd drawn lots of loops and swirls. For some reason George knew Ruby had created most of the doodles in her sleep, the writing pad was her dream catcher. He looked at the swirls, trying to see a pattern, when he realised they were letters. Not letters in the English alphabet, but in another, perhaps Arabic. George used his IPhone to take a picture of the swirls and sent it to Penny, before calling her.
"I think it's letters, perhaps Arabic. Can you put it through the computer ?"
He waited while Penny used their own computers and probably the internet to get a meaning for the letters. After several minutes she was back on the phone.
"I hope Ruby isn't heading there," Penny said, "it's Oboy, a small settlement in Turkmenistan. The language in the photograph isn't Arabic, it's something far older."
George was writing his own notes and wondering about who to hire to send to Turkmenistan.
"Where is it near Penny ? Have we got anyone in the area ?"
She was silent for a moment, which was unusual.
"You don't understand George. Oboy isn't near anywhere, it's as close to being in the middle of nowhere as you're likely to find. It's east of the Caspian sea, in a part of the world with nothing but bandits and death."
George laughed.
"Very melodramatic Penny, there must be an airport or a major city somewhere within reach of this place ?"
"No George, there isn't. East of the Caspian Sea is officially the most dangerous place on earth, there is nothing there. No major cities, no airports. There are few useable roads."
"How does the computer tell you to get there then ?"
Once again penny was silent.
"Everything I'm looking up tells you to stay away from east of the Caspian, George. Only a fool or a mad person would go there."
