Better Off Dead

Chapter Eight: An Obvious Oversight

I woke up when I heard the door burst open, followed by thundering footsteps. It was amazing Liam hadn't destroyed the floor by this point. When he stumbled into the kitchen to make coffee he was seriously sleep-deprived.

"I think your tie is missing." I pointed out.

He patted down his neck and pockets in a comically overdramatic search. "What... oh, yeah. Lost it in the scuffle. The flames probably got it."

"What..?"

With unrealistic serendipity, Taylor arrived exactly when the coffee was ready. She paid no attention to Liam's all-nighter fatigue or missing tie. "Did you get the samples from him?"

He shook his head. "We got a tissue sample before we called you, but not the blood. We went back in after the call and he was gone. But there was some slime and we took a sample of that."

"That's something to start with. Do you know the address? We might be able to figure out who he is."

I didn't feel like hearing more about the guy who shot me, and really just wanted to try and stop thinking about it, so I ditched the two of them and started raiding the kitchen. Cookies, apples, leftover pasta, I gobbled it all up. And since I knew Liam was the one who cleaned the kitchen, and I was still a tiny bit bitter about the whole tossing me like a practice dummy into a shooting range incident, I decided to make a mess. I took down a bunch of things from the cabinets, left out containers, and even moved around some juice cartons.

I closed the fridge door, turned around, and froze. The counters were clear. I was absolutely sure I messed everything up. I just stared at the clean space in total wonder.

When I heard Devon's voice from right behind me I jumped. "No matter how quickly you can make a mess, I can clean it up faster."

I just stared at him.

"Your plate." He held out the snack I had made for myself, as if it had just materialized out of thin air. Holding out the dish in a theatrical gesture with his perfectly calm expression, he looked like a magician.

I frowned and picked it up. "Now you're just showing off."

"All the world's a stage."

Feeling like I had been tricked in some way yet excited like I'd seen a magic show, I followed him to the common area, eating my snack.

"Update." He said.

Taylor filled us in. "We've got an address. It's a vacation house, so we could probably figure out who he is. We'll do another search for Dr.Moore tonight. He's around here somewhere, right?"

"He hasn't left the island, so theoretically you will find him if given enough time." Devon didn't sound impressed with the plan, but it at least it was something. "Talking to the mystery man is not a bad idea. I will try and track him down. See if it brings up any clues to finding Dr. Moore."

"Track him down and do what?" I interrupted. "He shot me. He's not friendly."

"Neither are we." He pointed out blankly. It wasn't inspiring. I mean, sure, Liam has a tranq gun but that's pretty different than straight-up unloading a clip into someone's chest.

"What about Dr. Moore's house?" I asked. "Did it look like he had visitors?"

Everyone stared at me.

"His house?" Devon asked.

"Yeah. I mean, you did search his house, right? That was probably like the first thing you did."

More silence.

"This was a terrible oversight." Devon said.

"You know, we probably should have thought of that." Liam said.