Peek-A-Boo

Chapter 9

The house is as cozy as Jennie remembered it to be. Lisa's grandmother comes in with a tray of tea and cookies.

"Jisoo came here to ask the same thing." Granny sets a tea cup in front of Jennie then sits on her rocking chair.

"Can you tell me what you told her?"

There's a flicker lingering in Granny's eyes that Jennie can't quite read. The wrinkles on her face deepens as she takes in a deep breath before speaking again.

"She asked about a news clipping she found. It's about missing delivery boys from 1991." Granny pauses, like the memory pains her, so Jennie waits patiently until she's ready to continue. "No traces as to where they went. No one knows if they ran away or someone abducted them. Not everyone reports missing people, so the pattern is hard to see."

"What pattern?" Jennie's curiosity skyrocketed but she doesn't want to sound too eager, it's already evident how sensitive the matter is for Granny.

"Every end of February during a leap year, this town claims a life everyday from the 25th to the 29th. When I was young that wasn't the case. This place was lovely and all the residents knew each other, making crimes and missing people rare. I've been here for a long time but in the late 60's I attended university and when I came back in the 70's, it's never the same." The old lady holds her tea cup while staring far ahead, rocking her chair ever so gently.

"I can come back another time if this is too much." Jennie offers.

"No, my dear. I know you are a curious one. And if my observations are correct, you don't have time to waste." Amidst the serious air, she offers Jennie a gentle smile. "I never knew exactly what happened during the time I was gone, no one dared to speak a word of it. I just know that when I came back, the sunshine in Priwen was replaced with gloomy clouds. The start of the unexplained occurrences."

"Why every leap year?"

"I don't know for certain. The elders in my time told me that February 29th is the blur between reality and paranormal. It's an inconsistent date, only appears once every four years, a perfect portal for the unexplained."

Jennie jumps at the sudden intrusion of the ringing of her phone. "It's Lisa." she told Granny and went outside to take the call.

"Find anything?"

"Yes, actually. Every four years there are cases filed for missing people, the number is inconsistent ranging from 3-5. I'm currently at 1987."

"Okay, go until the 60's, Granny said that's when things changed. If there are still incidents before that, call me."

"Yes ma'am."

"Thanks, Lisa. I owe you big time."

"You can start by buying me dinner."

"I'll see you then."

Lisa murmured something and ends the call. Jennie walks back to the living room.

"Is that Lisa going through police files?"

Jennie's heart skipped a beat. She doesn't want Granny thinking that she's putting her granddaughter's job in jeopardy. But there's no point in lying to an old woman who already knows the truth.

"It is."

But when Granny spoke, her voice is a slow symphony of melancholy. And Jennie doesn't think that the sadness is about Lisa going through confidential police files. "When I got back after I graduated, my friend Bae Irene is nowhere to be found. Her family moved away and no one wants to tell me what happened. She's a fine young lady. If by chance there's a report about her---"

"I will tell Lisa to look into it." Jennie squeezes the elder's hand comfortingly. They offer each other a small knowing smile.

**********

“Meet me in your apartment”

                                  --Lisa

Restless paces echoes through Jennie's apartment as she waits for Lisa. Nail biting is a bad habit but she can't seem to stop herself from doing it. If Granny's right, then they don't have much time left.

"Bitch open up!" Lisa shouts from the other side of the door and Jennie rushes to open it.

"Took you long enough." She side steps aside to let Lisa in.

"I'm overworked and hungry. You better hush." The blonde girl sets up her laptop on the coffee table.

"I'll get you food then."

Moments later, they're engrossed in looking at the laptop screen while munching on some chicken.

"See here, the missing people aren't all pizza delivery boys. BUT at the night of their disappearance, they happen to be one. Like David, he works at the coffee shop but Domino's hired him that night to do deliveries, and that's when he disappeared. Bob got fired at the Candy Shop and it was his first day in Pizza Shack as, you guessed it, a delivery boy when we was last seen."

"Like Jisoo." Jennie contemplates. "Wait, the Domino's in front of Joe's Restaurant?"

Lisa nods. "Another thing I noticed is that most of these victims have a past criminal record. Not just petty theft, it's usually sexual assualt, murder, attemptted murder... you get my point."

"Wait, David was involved in a rape case, right?"

"Yes. But he was ruled not guilty then the girl committed suicide."

"I never knew Priwen had this many crime."

"That's why I joined the Police Department. The law here is fucked up corrupted, Jennie. I wanna catch every damn asshole in town." There was silence before Lisa spoke again, "But if these are the patterns, then Jisoo's only connection is that she was on delivery that night, since she has no criminal records." Lisa scrolls and clicks a folder.

"I have to tell you something. Jisoo sent me a message that night."

"What?! And you're only telling me this now?!" Lisa grabs Jennie's phone.

'I'm going away. Don't look for me.'

Lisa furrows her brows in confusion. "But this is not how Jisoo types."

"Exactly why I don't want to show it. The police will dismiss the case as a runaway."

"I will investigate further. But don't you dare keep any info from me again." Lisa glares at Jennie who nods in agreement. "And about Irene, apparently she's one of the first cases of this bizarre phenomenon back in 1971."

"Granny's friend?"

Lisa nods without taking her eyes off the screen. "There's a picture of the headline that says 'Terrible time for Priwen' but the rest of the contents are locked. I called a friend to hack it, let's wait for her call. Then four years later, even the Mayor went missing."

"Someone could go missing tonight, we have to do something."

Lisa snorts. "Like what? Seize all pizza delivery?" The smug smile on her face disappears as she sees Jennie's serious ones. "Wait, you're serious?"

"You can call the department."

"You know how dumb I'll sound if I say 'Hey Cheif, can we seize all pizza delivery tonight? A pizzanaper is in town.'"

"Now that you said it out loud---"

"And we haven't established the real connection in these incidents. We don't have any concrete evidence to do any official business."

"But we can't just sit here!" The fiery flames of determination dances in Jennie's eyes.

Ding dong

Sounds the doorbell. Jennie volunteered to open it, leaving Lisa to her laptop and food.

"Yes?" Jennie says to a petite girl with short chestnut hair. Her innocent childish smile turns devilish in a second.

"We can't have you messing this up." The girl said and hits Jennie's head with something hard and falls unconscious on the floor. "I'm Yeri by the way."