Supernatural

43

FEBRUARY — DOWNTOWN PENNSINGTON CITY — 2:32 AM

Pepper tried to act confident as she walked up to the bar stools, purposely in front of a bartender as he poured a drink for someone. He had a mop of brown hair, and looked to be in his thirties. "You want anything?" He asked, his eyes focused on his work.

"No, thank you. Just some answers to questions."

He finally looked up at the sound of her voice. "You look pretty young to be in this bar."

"I showed my ID to the guard outside," she said, her heart racing as she pretended to be insulted. "Do you not trust your guard? Or do you ask everyone for their identification twice?"

He gave the man sitting a couple stools down from her his drink, then leaned on the bar in front of her. "What do you want to know?"

"Have you seen a man around here? He might look young, usually wears a hoodie that covers his face, and would keep to himself in a corner of the bar?" She tried to be as descriptive as she could from what Marcus and Monica had told them about the encounter.

"Friend of yours?" He asked, and she shrugged. "Yeah, I've seen him a few times. You just missed him—he was here yesterday."

"Shit," she muttered.

"Now, you going to order anything?"

She bit her lip. "No... Well, do you have a bathroom?"

He sighed, and pointed to her left where a hallway was. "Down that hall and turn left."

She thanked him, then set down the hall. Usually in these halls, there was a staff room or something that said Employees Only. She hoped it would gain her access to the security room.

She went down the hallway, looking up at each door. She saw the turn she was supposed to take and ignored it, going down further. Then, she saw it. A locked door with an electrical lock, that read Staff Only, as the last door. She tried to the door knob with no luck. Her head ran through all possible combinations for the four-digit code, and knew her likelihood of getting it right was slim to none.

She had seen shows, too. If she could see where most of the smudges were, then she could figure out the code. However, by looking at the genre make of it, she'd likely have a limited amount of chances to get the code before being unable to try anymore.

She exhaled in annoyance. Think, Pepper, you're supposed to be the smart one, she thought to herself. She could picture Tyler saying that, just to annoy her.

Then, she was reminded of the taser in her pocket. She quickly fished it out and held it to the keypad. She squeezed her eyes shut and activated it. In a quiet spark, it short circuited. She almost cheered with excitement.

Pepper opened the door and poked her head inside. The security room. Jackpot.

She closed the door behind her, then used a chair and propped it against the knob so nobody could enter. She sat down on the cushioned chair and got to work.

There were two monitors and two keyboards. The sight of the technology was refreshing—oh, how she'd missed it. She quickly found her way to the camera footage, and backtracked to weeks prior.

There! There he was. Sitting in the back corner as Monica and Marcus had said, and they soon, too, walked in and sat in front of him. She reversed more, and moved to the outside camera. She watched as he flashed the bodyguard his identification.