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Chapter 11

Zora sat by the window in the restaurant, sipping coffee and browsing the menu. She had done her hair up in a bun, letting a few tendrils hang down and annoyingly brush her face. She had even put on a patterned scarf, which was widely considered a bad move, but it let her dress normally without seeming imposing.

An older man approached cautiously. "Are you the writer?"

"Yes, hello, Mr. Duncan. Thank you so much for agreeing to meet me here," she said, shaking his hand.

"Thank you for asking me. It's so nice to hear Death got her life back in order. For a while there, we were pretty worried, all her teachers were," he laughed lightly. "But you say she's a famous doctor now? Famous for what again?"

"Genome sequencing," Zora said.

"Oh, that's right. I can't believe I didn't hear about that. I try to find out where my past students end up, when I can."

"I know, it is so sad. So few people hear about the people actually doing good for us, but everyone knows about Hollywood's favorite drama queens. That's why I'm writing this biography. To draw some attention to the real heroes out there," she said.

"I do think the media focuses too much on Hollywood," the old man agreed.

"Exactly. Now, with this book, I want to talk mostly about how Death got to where she is today, and the role Marc Lonison played in that. Do you remember him?"

"Oh, sure. He was a real nice kid, popular, in sports, had a bit of a temper. But who didn't get in a couple fights in high school, right?" he laughed.

"Right," Zora smiled, devouring the new information. "Do you know how they met?"

"No, not really. They were in the same class, so they always knew each other a little bit, but one day, they were sophomores I think, they just suddenly were friends. Inseparable. Spent all their time together, but if one of their other friends approached, they stopped talking. They isolated themselves, really."

Old habits die hard, Zora thought. Mr. Duncan kept talking.

"Near the end of the year, it got really bad. They became obsessed with their phones. I don't know how many times I had to confiscate them for texting in class. They always acted like the world was gonna end if they didn't text back immediately," he said. "They quit all their extracurriculars. Grades dropped. Started skipping class a lot. Stopped seeing other people entirely. The guidance counselor tried to help them, but they just refused to participate. Whenever I assigned partners for a group project, they'd beg to work together. At first, I always said no. I was trying to get them to branch out and talk to other people. But it just didn't work. Unless they were together, their partner ended up doing all the work."

"Why were they like that?"

"They were two kids in love. Nothing out of the ordinary there," he said.

"They were dating back in high school?"

"Well, we all assumed. Two people don't spend that much time together without something going on. Did they ever get married?"

"Uh, no," Zora said. Well, then again... It's not like they ever came outright and said what they were to each other. They could be married just as easily as they could be just friends.

"So, back to these all-important texts. Did any of them stand out in your mind in any way? Even if it seemed like nothing, it's little details like that that can help make the biography more enthralling, you know? Really help personify it," she said.

"They were all obscure. I don't really understand all this new teenage lingo. 'The cat is in the bag'. 'There's been an outbreak at the prison'. 'Five injured in Caracas. The situation has been contained'. I know better than to take anything my students say literally, but I really am at a loss as to what that could possibly mean," Mr. Duncan said.

"Did any of them make sense to you?" Zora asked.

"Of course. I'm not completely out of the loop. Sometimes they would . The bits of conversation I did understand seemed pretty harmless. 'Did you see the chinchilla exhibit at the zoo?', 'No, I went to the dolphin show instead.' It was always random like that. But it was good to know they were talking to other people," he said.

Those were all challenges and countersigns, but Zora didn't recognize any of them. Wow. Marc and Death have been part of ICE longer than she thought.

"This was sophomore year, correct?" she asked.

"Yes. They were like that the rest of high school. The other teachers had a betting pool on when they would drop out. I, of course, would never bet on something as important as a student's future. We were all so surprised when they actually graduated. And on time, too.

"And now little Meredith Gallagher is a doctor. Good for her. I knew she could do something with herself if she set her mind to it. Especially with Marc out of the picture. You know, he was the one who gave her that dreadful nickname," he said.

"Marc isn't out of the picture," Zora said.

"But you said they weren't married."

"They aren't."

"Oh," he said, with judgment in his eyes.

"It's not like that," she said.

"Of course not. I never said it was," he said. He most definitely thought it was, though. Zora pursed her lips. But she couldn't afford to offend this guy and waste the best opportunity she may get in her investigation.

"So, there was a sudden shift in their relationship and they became friends sophomore year. There was another sudden shift towards the end of that same year and they became reclusive and overly dependent on their phones. Then they continued in this pattern until graduation," she said.

"That's one way of putting it, I suppose," Mr. Duncan said.

"Tell me more about Death."

"Well, she an odd little girl. She would always say the strangest things, and was far too friendly to strangers. Too honest. I'm not saying she should have lied, but there are some things best kept to yourself. Not everybody has to know everything."

"Could you elaborate on that? Did you get the feeling something was off, but you couldn't quite tell what?" Zora asked.

"Yes! I-- I thought it was absurd, but it almost seemed like she... No, that's too preposterous. I'm just an old man seeing conspiracies where there are none," Mr. Duncan said.

"Conspiracies? What conspiracies? You can tell me. I won't laugh or think you're crazy, I promise."

"Well, for a while there, I thought that Death--"

"Oh hi, Zora. What are you doing here?" Alex asked, striding up to the table.

"Hi, Alex. I'm just interviewing Mr. Duncan here for the biography I'm writing on Death," she said.

"Oooh, right," he said, winking. Zora winced.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, taking great pains to not sound mad.

"Marc sent me to pick up pie. He says this restaurant has the best pie in the area."

"Marc hates this restaurant. And they don't sell pie," Zora said. She had chosen this place specifically because he would never come here. It was in another town, easily defendable, and she had taken a longer route just to make sure no one was following her, double checking at every turn.

"Then why would he send me here?"

"Did he say when you should be back?" she asked.

"In an hour. Why? What's going on?"

"I'm sorry Mr. Duncan, but something has come up. We have to go. Thank you for your time. I hope to see you again so we can continue our conversation," she said briskly. She marched out of the restaurant, Alex following on her heels.