Midnight Sun

Chapter Four

Picture 2017 Copyright © Karen Espenocilla

2014 Copyright © A. M. Forest

All Rights Reserved

"So from what I can gather, Todd Waters was a very private man," Joseph began as he clicked away at the keyboard, his eyes never leaving the screen. "He might have been an ER doctor, but he's barely been on the map for the last five years. No property or utilities under his name. He only had one checking account that he kept little to no money in; no savings. No arrests or tickets." Joseph sighed, gazing up at Magnolia who was scanning the screen repetitively. "I'll dig deeper, but it will take a couple of hours. If this guy had a mole on his butt cheek, I will know."

Magnolia grimaced, "I rather you keep that information to yourself." She moved around the couch and sat next to him. "Put his picture through facial recognition. Maybe he has aliases; see what comes up."

"Consider it done." A few clicks on the keyboard and the picture of Mr. Waters was running through every facial recognition software at his disposal in the top corner of the screen. He pulled up the autopsy report. "Okay, so the official cover-up is an animal attack. Due to the bloating, they assume that he was in the water for a couple of days, leaving no trace evidence as to what animal it really was."

She paused for a second, her eyes still on the screen. "What was Waters' position in the hospital?"

"Um... it says here, an on-call ER doctor."

Magnolia took a mental note of that. Her eyes moved to the bottom corner of the screen and looked at the time, "Interesting. Can you have this running while you are away from the computer?" she asked as she got up, walked around the couch before heading towards the front door.

When Joseph noticed this, he quickly followed suit. "Yes; but why would you need me away from my computer? I thought you wanted me to continue working on this."

She turned around coming within inches of his face, a big smirk gracing her lips. She brushed off non-existent lint from his leather-clad shoulders before answering, "Because you, sweet Joseph, are going to take me to the most thriving club in town-tonight."

With that, Magnolia winked at Joseph's opened mouthed form before walking out the house back towards town.

~~~

Joseph arrived at her cabin at 11 P.M. on the dot. It had gotten colder in the hours of the night and Joseph was blowing into his hands to warm them up after knocking on the door, taking a step back, absorbing the forest surrounding her house. A twig snapped to his right and his eyes trained in that direction to see a woman with red glowing eyes. He blinked and she was gone, replaced with a red fox.

"What the..." He started, taking a step closer to look at the fox. The fox's eyes glowed the same red as the woman; it's face just as curious. It tilted its head to the side but never left the tree line. He could have sworn he heard it purr.

Just then the front door opened and when Joseph turned back to the woods, the fox was gone. "Did you see-" he broke off when he looked at Magnolia, only to gape at what he saw.

She stood five inches taller in black velvet thigh-high heels that came up eight inches below the hem of her skin-tight olive green turtleneck dress. The shoulders were cut out and three circles showed off a small amount of cleavage. The dress hugged her curves, leaving nothing to the imagination and giving Joseph plenty of ideas.

"Snap out of it." Magnolia snapped her fingers to get his attention. "Did you bring what I told you?" She asked, turning to the small table by the door, showing off two small braids on the side of her head which revealed the hoops and stud in the top corner of her ear. Looking into the small mirror hanging there, she swiped on some pink lip gloss to complement her golden smokey eye look and turned back to him for an answer.