Hadis

Chapter Fourteen: Chasing Answers

  Jeanette's fingertips brushed across the arm of the couch. Her foot tapped at a different pace, and she chewed on the inside of her lip. She had barely moved since Nixon had disappeared. Not that she was necessarily worried, but there just wasn't any reason for her to move. Amara had been coming and going at spontaneous moments. One minute she was working, the next she was going to meet Trent; Jeanette eventually stopped trying to keep track. For all she knew, Amara had went on vacation and wouldn't return for weeks. It didn't matter anyway, she was no help. It seemed like Jeanette cared more about where Nixon had went than his own sister.

  The screen of her phone was black. Not one message, no phone calls, nothing. Daniel hadn't bothered to contact her for her whereabouts, Nixon never returned her voicemail. Not that she expected anything more from either of them. 

  She pushed herself up and wondered out into the kitchen. Her whole body felt heavy, she felt emotionless, like she was just... existing. She had no where to go, no one to talk to, no one who even cared about what she was doing.

  With a glass of water in her hand, she headed down into Amara's room. She went there often to use the computer, if Amara had noticed she didn't care. Jeanette logged on and went straight to Amara's selected search engine. Her hands hovered about the backlit keys, hesitating briefly before searching for recent disappearances in the area.

  Nothing. The most recent document was from a couple months back, aside from the article on Porter who was still M.I.A. She moused over the link and clicked it. There was no picture, just the description she had given the cops. Jeanette was surprised Amara hadn't found a way to erase that, seems any links to herself or Porter were for some reason bad.

  There's something I don't know. She closed out the tab. But what? How do you try and learn something when you don't know where to start? Her hands pushed roughly over her face with impatience. She couldn't understand. It has something to do with both Amara and Nixon. She must care about her brother. She probably knows where he is... Nox. The bartender, Nixon knows him.

  Jeanette shut down the computer and snagged her jacket, picking up a fast walk as she headed to Nox.

  "You have a good day now." The man smiled to his customer, Jeanette recongized him easily. "Hello ma'am, how can I help you?" He glanced up at her, a cloth in his hand that wiped down the counter. Just as she remembered.

  "Hi, you're a friend of Nixon's right?" She tried to keep relaxed.

  He squinted at her. "Yes. Why do you ask?"

  Jeanette looked around her, carefully chosing her words. "I need to talk to you about him."

  "I'm sorry, but I'm working." He dismissed the thought and began shining the glasses.

  "I'm Jeanette," she introduced herself. "I was here with Nixon one night. You sat us to a table." She attempted to jog his memory.

  He nodded. "Right, I remember you now."

  Jeanette raised a hopeful eyebrow.

  He set the glass back down with a short sigh. "Let's go."

  She waited for him to inform one of his coworkers about leaving and hung up the small apron with the Nox logo on it. He didn't seem to have any issues getting away, probably because of his dedication to the place.

  "How did you get here?" He asked when they got outside.

  "I walked, sort of. It was more of a jog." She admitted.