Ockham's Razor: A Deductive Riddle

Chapter 36

The level of desperation that Ian felt was not hitting concerning levels, but they were one setback away from panic. After their meeting broke up, Ian's false bravado, confidence or self-assuredness evaporated quickly when he realised the daunting challenge of finding the women who psychologically tested him. In other words, to find Kate.

The flutter of excitement over seeing her again was easily overwhelmed by the dread of asking her about her connection to the Benefactor. They needed this information for their own self-preservation. Would she even have it? What if it was someone else who was using her data to recruit? What if she turns up to be a dead end?

And, this was all complicated by the fact that her phone number, which she had given him, was lost the night she gave it to him.

But the result expected by the group was simple. He needed to contact the woman who had conducted the psychological testing with them. Now for the reality check. It was summer session, and Kate was not likely to be in school. She would be out at her summer job until school started in September. What would her summer job be? She seemed too classy for a fast food restaurant job, too chic to be a bartender, too beautiful to be working in retail, too nice to be...

He had to get his mind on the task. He had to stop thinking about what could be and what he would fantasise about. Unfortunately, he only knew where she would be in September. And that was too long to wait.

As he was taking the bus westward to the gas station, he started conceiving ways of finding her. Perhaps he could still show up at the university. Surely someone would know Kate and point him in the right direction. He doubted it. Given the concern over stalking, date rape on campus, sexual assault and harassment, the #MeToo movement had put a lot of important heat and light on safety. It was almost certain that even if the person Ian talked to knew who she was and where she was, they would not reveal it to Ian. They may pass a note to her. That was always possible.

Regardless, he knew that it would require him to get to the university on Monday, and that was two days away. Until then, it would be up to him to prepare for as much as possible.

He started imagining meeting Kate again, and the chance of getting her to have a conversation with him thrilled him. He seriously wanted to see her socially, but he did not want to confuse the situation with the Benefactor. That needed to be resolved first.

He arrived at the gas station with a plan on how he was going to try to find Kate at UGP on Monday. It was a flawed plan, but it put his mood in a positive spin nonetheless. He was in a purely good state of mind when he walked through the door to the gas station and saw Dave behind the counter.

Dave looked up, big smile on his face, and actually cheered. It was no secret that Dave was thrilled that Ian was working there. "Today is the first day of the rest of your life, wut!"

"Dave, let's not make a big deal out of this. I just want to learn my job and earn my keep."

"I know you'll do more than that. You'll become a top employee."

Dave grabbed him by the elbow and excitedly moved Ian to the back office. Dave's enthusiasm was infectious, and he seemed to forget that Ian was well aware of where everything was and how the gas station worked. After all, Dave told him many stories of the gas station.

In the office Dave opened up a bit more formally, "Great to have you working here, Ian. I think you'll fit in really well."

Dave gave Ian the tour of the office, which felt very much like a canned tour that Dave would give everybody. Ian, for the sake of their friendship, especially given what grief Dean had brought upon Dave, sat there and accepted the tour. The office was full of oil bottles, windshield washer fluid, stacks of unmarked boxes that no doubt held oil filters or whatever it is that made cars work. Dave moved on from the office to the very small employee "lounge". There he handed Ian an employee's jacket, and showed him the lockers in the back. "This is where you keep your valuables. Things like your wallet, keys, and stuff you don't want to carry on your person. Not only do cash registers get stripped, so do the employees. Haha. So, I only carry about five bucks on me. That pays for snacks during the shift, and if we get robbed," Dave shuddered and Ian could tell that Dean's robbery was still very fresh in Dave's psyche, "I can hand this thin wallet over instead of getting told to come back here and get my real wallet."

That made sense. Lose ten dollars instead of your week's pay. Ian was impressed. Despite Dave having no filter when describing his job to Ian, he had not related so much of the intricacies of working at the gas station.

"Ian, sort your wallet out, put on the jacket, and I'll meet you at the cash register."

Once Dave left the lounge, Ian placed his wallet in the locker on the shelf. He took out his keys and bounced back and forth about whether they go in the locker too. He put them beside his wallet. He grabbed the jacket, a gaudy green affair with the gas station logo clearly emblazoned in an unmistakably identifiable font on his left breast. This jacket was far from stylish, but thinking to himself, he had done far worse for far less money than this job would pay, he could put up with it. Finally, he grabbed his wallet from the locker and opened it up. He took out his credit card and bank card and student ID. He looked around for an envelope or something to put them in, and seeing nothing in the lounge, placed them beside his keys in the locker. He next took out his library card and his driver's licence and all his cash. Thankfully, he was still not carrying around the Benefactor's payout. He only had $60 on him. He peeled $20 from the bills and put it back in his wallet. He placed the remaining money next to his credit card. He then started pulling out all the miscellaneous bits of paper and detritus that had built up in his wallet. There were grocery receipts from months ago, slips of paper from the university library with book information on them, tags from the post office about packages they tried to deliver. All that came out.

He did one last examination of his wallet. Peering into every nook and cranny, he was still finding a few bits here and there. And then he noticed some paper jammed down under where his driver's license had been. Curious, he pulled it out and unfolded it. He stared at the paper in disbelief. It had the words "I like risk takers. Asking me out was a risky thing to do. Call me". Pure delight leapt out from those words. It was Kate's number. It had been compacted down under his driver's license. The last time he remembered having his driver's license out was when he was carded for buying beer about eight months ago, just before the trip to Chicago. It might have even been the day she gave him the phone number. He must have squished down this slip of paper when he returned the license to his wallet. He would not have to wait until Monday to contact Kate.

Talking to Kate was going to be easier than he had anticipated. Leaving the lounge and heading to the cash, thin wallet in his back pocket, but Kate's number secured safely with his cell phone, he managed to give Dave a huge, legitimate smile.

Dave returned it. Ian could tell Dave thought it was going to be fun to have the two friends working together.