The Persistence of Memory | ✔

12

The man on the other side of the counter stared at the picture on Nina's phone while a young girl walked by behind him, boxes in her arms and a curious look in her brown eyes. The man's dark eyes swept over every feature of the man on the image, taking it in and running the face through his mind. Nina stood by, patiently waiting and watching for any reaction that might surface on his face.

"Yeah, he came by here," the man finally said. He handed Nina back her phone with a hand roughened by years of work. "He was standing outside, waiting for the bus. It was really coming down that night so I didn't mind him hiding from the rain up in the front. Didn't say anything though, just stood there until the bus came."

"Do you remember the approximate time he spent standing outside?" Nina asked, only to receive a shrug from the stout man.

"Couldn't say, just remember it was sometime past six." He raised a hand to scratch at his stubbled chin, a thoughtful look on his face.

"It was nearly seven."

Both Nina and the man she'd been talking to looked over to the young woman who'd spoken, the same one who'd walked past just a minute earlier. If the faded red apron she wore was anything to go by, she also worked at the mini market Fearnley had stood outside of. Though she'd peered at Fearnley's picture when Nina had shown it to the other man, but hadn't said anything at first.

"The news was ending and they were about to play that one show with the vampires. The one you always make fun of," she went on once she'd gotten their attention. She pointed up at the dusty television set up on one corner behind the counter. On the screen, an advertisement showed a woman driving past the woods. The image of trees covered in leaves of red and gold flashed briefly through Nina's mind.

The thought was gone in an instant, like a phantom pain one couldn't be sure was even there. Nina shook it off, focused on the moment.

"Oh yeah," the man agreed after a moment of thought, seemingly failing to notice Nina's momentary lapse in attention. Nina jotted down the time she was given and turned to the young girl.

"Did you talk to him, by any chance?" She received a nod from the girl.

"Asked him if he wanted to come in while he waited for the bus. It was freezing that night. He thanked me, then said he didn't want to be a bother, and then I had to get back to work. A while later I looked back and he was gone."

"Did either of you see him leave?" They shook their heads.

"The bus is usually on time. Should have been here 'round seven," the man said. Nina nodded, made a note of the time the bus usually arrived and looked back up at the two employees.

Curiosity was splayed across their faces, questions about Nina's purpose just barely held back. She thanked them and left the small shop before those questions could be spoken. Nina could feel the two employees watching her as she walked back out into the cold, bustling streets.

The place where Fearnley normally waited for the bus was on a fairly busy street, shops lining the sidewalk. Nina could just picture the way their neon signs would have lit the street on the night Fearnley stood in front of that mini market—waiting in the rain and wanting for nothing else but to go home. She glanced up, the awning of the thrift store she was standing in front of helping to camouflage a camera. Not for the first time, Nina wished she could have access to the area's CCTV footage.

Not for the first time, Nina wished she had Ben or Iris' help.

She wasn't going to dwell on that though—or on why she couldn't depend on them. Not then. Instead, she went back to her car and drove off to where she knew Fearnley would have gotten off the bus on the night Alice was killed.