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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Disclaimer: see Chapter one
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To End The Evil
Part 9
Doubts and changing the course of action
“Another useless visit,“ Parker groaned when the door closed behind them.
Nearly two weeks had passed since they had made the list. Nearly two weeks and three visits at places they suspected some hidden information from Catherine later, Parker was starting to believe there was no plan for them to find.
Maybe the Centre had found all evidence shortly after her mother had been murdered and removed everything to defend themselves against any interference from the outside.
They had started their investigations at places they thought had a high potential to hide information and that lay in the general area around Blue Cove but they had yet to find anything.
“We’ll find something,“ Jarod reassured her.
They walked down the steps leading to the car. She went over to the driver’s side and opened the door.
“I’m not sure about that anymore,“ she confessed. She bent down and got into the car.
Jarod followed suite. He was barely able to shut the door when she put the car into gear and sped of.
“Hey. Relax will ya,” he exclaimed. “There is no need to get us a ticket for speeding because of that!”
She didn’t respond but at least slowed down some.
“Parker. We are only at the beginning of our investigation,“ he tried to sooth her. “Sometimes it takes a while to get onto a hot tail. You of all people should know that after so many years of chasing a pretender all over the country,“ he scoffed, trying to lighten her mood.
“Just shut up, rat-boy!” she snapped.
“Stop that! It’s not my fault that we can’t find a thing,” he shot back.
She remained silent and continued staring onto the road ahead of them.
“Your mother was too intelligent for putting something that important close to the surface.” Jarod paused. “Maybe we are taking this from the entirely wrong direction. Perhaps we should concentrate on the places we put at the bottom of our list because they were unlikely.”
“What if there is nothing for us to find?” she voiced her concern, interrupting his musings.
“What do you mean?” he asked, looking at her with a frown.
“What if the Centre found everything and destroyed it?”
Jarod was silent for a few minutes. He contemplated her argument.
“No. I don’t think so,” he said finally.
“But why? They might have found it. You got the letter from my father’s safe, right?”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw him nodding his head.
“So they knew that she had a plan. Surely they moved heaven and earth to find out what she wanted to do.”
“They would have tried but I don’t think they succeeded,” he said.
“Why?”
“Think about it”, he said, shaking his head. “No. It doesn’t fit. Had they really found anything they wouldn’t have kept the letter.”
“Maybe my father wanted something to remember Mom,” she argued, no convinced by that argument herself but voicing it nonetheless.
“Then he would have stored it with her other letters I found years ago, close to where he was,” he reasoned.
Parker pondered this. Jarod looked over to where she sat. He could see that her concentration was still on the road to some degree but he also saw the wheels turning in her head.
She shook her head, still not entirely convinced.
Seeing her frown, Jarod went on with his arguments. “If the Centre had found a thing the persons we visited would either be dead because they tried to stand in the Centre’s way or they would at least have mentioned ‘people in dark suits that wanted to have something Catherine brought to me years ago and told me to store for her till she had the opportunity to take it back or till her daughter and a friend of hers would come to pick it up’,“ he imitated.
That seemed to do it. Parker relaxed in her seat and quickly looked over at Jarod.
“You actually believe in this, don’t you?” she questioned.
“Absolutely! And you should do so, too! You knew her best. She was your mother. From what I can tell about her, she was a person true to her word. If she said, she hid something, than she did it!” he said vehemently.
“You’re right! I shouldn’t have doubted her.”
“It’s only natural to doubt. You might get the chance to remind me of my former words of confidence sometime later.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she declared.
Jarod was certain after their first fruitless attempts to find the plan that there were more failures to come. He had probably underestimated Catherine. He had let himself believe that the solution lay close to the surface. He should have known better because of the fact that her plan had remained unknown for nearly thirty years.
“What did you mean when you said that we should concentrate on the other places?” Parker got back to the subject.
“Well. Maybe we were trying to find our answers at places too obvious. Come to think about it, that was quite dumb,” he scolded himself. “It’s pretty obvious that the obvious places are far too obvious.”
“Wait, stop, timeout. Will you speak English, please?” Parker put up a hand to stop his rambling.
“Where would the Centre search for her plan first?” He went on without a pause. “They would search the places we searched first, ourselves. But your mother knew that she had to hide her plan better than that. She had to be better than the Centre to keep it missing for such a long time. So we have to start looking at the places she would have thought safe. Places the Centre either didn’t know or thought unlikely for hiding it. We just did the same mistake the Centre probably made. I’m such an idiot. I should have thought about that earlier,“ he grumbled.
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up over this. I could have thought about it, too. Then we will have to turn our strategy upside down. As you said, look where nobody would have thought!”
“Hmm,” he agreed still upset about his own mistake.
“Ah, com on. Cheer up. We just corrected our mistake by finding it,” she soothed.
“But it cost us time!” Jarod whined.
“Time is not of essence in our case!” she clarified. “Her plan stayed hidden for nearly three decades. It doesn’t matter if it stays hidden for a few more days. So stop that now!”
He huffed and sank deeper in his seat crossing his arms in front of him in defence.
Parker made a face but didn’t comment his actions. They rode in silence for several miles.
“Listen, I’m gonna drop you off at home and go on to work. My lunch break is nearly over. You’re gonna stop sulking and we will contemplate our next steps in the evening when I get back. Get your hands off of our problem for a while so that you can concentrate on it again when the time comes,” she ordered.
“Ok. Might not be such a bad idea. I have to prepare the next lair anyhow,” he relented.
She stopped the car in her driveway.
“Ok, so now get out and do something productive,“ she smirked.
“Shut up, get back to the Centre and catch me if you can,“ he shot back, grinning. His good mood had returned somewhat and the light bantering with Parker was always fun.
He shut the door and she drove of.
To be continued…
~~~~~~~
Part 9
Doubts and changing the course of action
“Another useless visit,“ Parker groaned when the door closed behind them.
Nearly two weeks had passed since they had made the list. Nearly two weeks and three visits at places they suspected some hidden information from Catherine later, Parker was starting to believe there was no plan for them to find.
Maybe the Centre had found all evidence shortly after her mother had been murdered and removed everything to defend themselves against any interference from the outside.
They had started their investigations at places they thought had a high potential to hide information and that lay in the general area around Blue Cove but they had yet to find anything.
“We’ll find something,“ Jarod reassured her.
They walked down the steps leading to the car. She went over to the driver’s side and opened the door.
“I’m not sure about that anymore,“ she confessed. She bent down and got into the car.
Jarod followed suite. He was barely able to shut the door when she put the car into gear and sped of.
“Hey. Relax will ya,” he exclaimed. “There is no need to get us a ticket for speeding because of that!”
She didn’t respond but at least slowed down some.
“Parker. We are only at the beginning of our investigation,“ he tried to sooth her. “Sometimes it takes a while to get onto a hot tail. You of all people should know that after so many years of chasing a pretender all over the country,“ he scoffed, trying to lighten her mood.
“Just shut up, rat-boy!” she snapped.
“Stop that! It’s not my fault that we can’t find a thing,” he shot back.
She remained silent and continued staring onto the road ahead of them.
“Your mother was too intelligent for putting something that important close to the surface.” Jarod paused. “Maybe we are taking this from the entirely wrong direction. Perhaps we should concentrate on the places we put at the bottom of our list because they were unlikely.”
“What if there is nothing for us to find?” she voiced her concern, interrupting his musings.
“What do you mean?” he asked, looking at her with a frown.
“What if the Centre found everything and destroyed it?”
Jarod was silent for a few minutes. He contemplated her argument.
“No. I don’t think so,” he said finally.
“But why? They might have found it. You got the letter from my father’s safe, right?”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw him nodding his head.
“So they knew that she had a plan. Surely they moved heaven and earth to find out what she wanted to do.”
“They would have tried but I don’t think they succeeded,” he said.
“Why?”
“Think about it”, he said, shaking his head. “No. It doesn’t fit. Had they really found anything they wouldn’t have kept the letter.”
“Maybe my father wanted something to remember Mom,” she argued, no convinced by that argument herself but voicing it nonetheless.
“Then he would have stored it with her other letters I found years ago, close to where he was,” he reasoned.
Parker pondered this. Jarod looked over to where she sat. He could see that her concentration was still on the road to some degree but he also saw the wheels turning in her head.
She shook her head, still not entirely convinced.
Seeing her frown, Jarod went on with his arguments. “If the Centre had found a thing the persons we visited would either be dead because they tried to stand in the Centre’s way or they would at least have mentioned ‘people in dark suits that wanted to have something Catherine brought to me years ago and told me to store for her till she had the opportunity to take it back or till her daughter and a friend of hers would come to pick it up’,“ he imitated.
That seemed to do it. Parker relaxed in her seat and quickly looked over at Jarod.
“You actually believe in this, don’t you?” she questioned.
“Absolutely! And you should do so, too! You knew her best. She was your mother. From what I can tell about her, she was a person true to her word. If she said, she hid something, than she did it!” he said vehemently.
“You’re right! I shouldn’t have doubted her.”
“It’s only natural to doubt. You might get the chance to remind me of my former words of confidence sometime later.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she declared.
Jarod was certain after their first fruitless attempts to find the plan that there were more failures to come. He had probably underestimated Catherine. He had let himself believe that the solution lay close to the surface. He should have known better because of the fact that her plan had remained unknown for nearly thirty years.
“What did you mean when you said that we should concentrate on the other places?” Parker got back to the subject.
“Well. Maybe we were trying to find our answers at places too obvious. Come to think about it, that was quite dumb,” he scolded himself. “It’s pretty obvious that the obvious places are far too obvious.”
“Wait, stop, timeout. Will you speak English, please?” Parker put up a hand to stop his rambling.
“Where would the Centre search for her plan first?” He went on without a pause. “They would search the places we searched first, ourselves. But your mother knew that she had to hide her plan better than that. She had to be better than the Centre to keep it missing for such a long time. So we have to start looking at the places she would have thought safe. Places the Centre either didn’t know or thought unlikely for hiding it. We just did the same mistake the Centre probably made. I’m such an idiot. I should have thought about that earlier,“ he grumbled.
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up over this. I could have thought about it, too. Then we will have to turn our strategy upside down. As you said, look where nobody would have thought!”
“Hmm,” he agreed still upset about his own mistake.
“Ah, com on. Cheer up. We just corrected our mistake by finding it,” she soothed.
“But it cost us time!” Jarod whined.
“Time is not of essence in our case!” she clarified. “Her plan stayed hidden for nearly three decades. It doesn’t matter if it stays hidden for a few more days. So stop that now!”
He huffed and sank deeper in his seat crossing his arms in front of him in defence.
Parker made a face but didn’t comment his actions. They rode in silence for several miles.
“Listen, I’m gonna drop you off at home and go on to work. My lunch break is nearly over. You’re gonna stop sulking and we will contemplate our next steps in the evening when I get back. Get your hands off of our problem for a while so that you can concentrate on it again when the time comes,” she ordered.
“Ok. Might not be such a bad idea. I have to prepare the next lair anyhow,” he relented.
She stopped the car in her driveway.
“Ok, so now get out and do something productive,“ she smirked.
“Shut up, get back to the Centre and catch me if you can,“ he shot back, grinning. His good mood had returned somewhat and the light bantering with Parker was always fun.
He shut the door and she drove of.
To be continued…
