XXV: In Which Colin Meets With Steve

Colin and Ron drove back to Kaldi’s after fruitless efforts to find more information about Nathan.  Other than what they found and what might be in the patient records, Colin didn’t suspect there was much recorded information on the life of a person who died in 1953.

They could easily drive back out to the house and tell Zachary that Nathan had died of pneumonia at the institution, but it felt hollow.  Colin was sure there was something specific he wanted to know and cause and date of death wasn’t it. As an old ghost himself, Zachary had to know that Nathan would be dead by now, so what did he need?

He parked, then said goodbye to Ron and went back inside.  Jane must have already gotten off as he gave his order to a curt and disinterested girl named Stacy.  While he waited for his drink, he shot Steve a quick Facebook message letting him know he was here and asking when he wanted to meet.

“Be there in 15” Came the immediate reply.

Colin took his coffee and took a table where he could set up his laptop and there’d still be room for Steve to join him.  Once his computer had booted up, he began a text document and immediately named it ‘Nathan McDunnel’. Over the next few minutes he filled it with all the information they currently knew about Nathan.  Admittedly it wasn’t much.

Realizing there was more he wanted to include, Colin expanded the document to include everything about the investigation as a whole.  He mentally kicked himself for not having looked up Zachary’s Death Certificate. He may have to make another trip.

True to his message, Steve showed up a few minutes later, not even stopping to order a drink before making a beeline to Colin’s table.

“Hey, Colin, thanks for meeting with me.”  Steve was clearly agitated about something.  Colin gestured for him to sit down and told him to take a couple of deep breaths.

“What’s going on?” He asked.

“I’m fine, man.  I’m fine.” Steve said, sounding anything but fine.

“Okay.  You’re fine.”  Colin said, thinking it best to just agree.  “You just sounded pretty urgent in your messages.  How can I help?”

“Jake.  Jake, man.  He brought me something last night.  God, I’m so glad you already know about Jake.”  Steve started to explain, then stopped.

“What did he bring?”  Colin was extremely curious now.

Steve just shook his head, then looked around as if to make sure nobody was watching.  When he seemed satisfied, he took an envelope out of his backpack and passed it across.

Colin took it, noting the black eye symbol on the front.  He opened it up and took out the stack of photos it contained.  He flipped through them, not thinking much of them. Just your average pictures of a happy preteen girl.  Then he got to the end and stopped.

Frantically, he flipped back through the other pics, taking a better look at the girl’s face.  None of the pictures showed her in a sports uniform, but he was sure.

“Steve, I’ve seen this girl before.”  Colin told him.

“What?  Where?” Steve sat up straighter.

“The day I put up the flyer.”  He explained. “There was a girls’ sports team in.  All of them had halos except one. Her.” He pointed at the photo.

“You mean somebody’s… somebody…”

“Yeah, somebody’s been molesting her.”

“F**k.  I was hoping it hadn’t, it hadn’t gone that far yet.”  Steve said.

“Steve, we need to go to the police with this.” Colin said seriously.

“And how do we tell them we got the pictures?  A magic bird left them on my windowsill?” Steve waved his hand.  “Trust me, that was my first thought. And I don’t know if you know this, but cops kinda freak out when it comes to stuff like child pornography.  They’d seize every computer in the apartment. Probably bring Nate and ‘Quan in for questioning. I can’t risk that.”

“We could drop the pictures off as an anonymous tip.”  Colin suggested.

Steve just shook his head again. “Both of our fingerprints are all over them already.  It would be even more suspicious.” He looked down at the table. “F**k! I wasn’t expecting you to have any answers, but I had to get somebody else on this.”

“I understand.  You did the right thing.”  Colin shook his head to try and clear it.  “We know she’s on a sports team.”

“Do you know which one?”

Colin closed his eyes, trying to picture the color of the uniforms.  Try as he might, he just couldn’t. Sports wasn’t his thing, so things like team colors were foreign to him.  “No, man, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.  We’re going to meet Jake’s master on the eighteenth, we can get our answers then, whether he wants to give them or not.  I just don’t want to think what she’s going through in the meantime.”