The Headline

Chapter IX - Scavenging Through Flimsy Information

Chapter IX

Scavenging Through Flimsy Information

I practically ran all the way to my room after Noah parked his car in front of our grandparents' house. Considering that I was wearing Miu Miu high heels sandals was quite a feat.

The first thing that I did when I got to my room was to open my laptop. I went straight to Facebook and looked up Caleb Colt. I could have done that on my phone in the car but I didn't want my brother to know what I was up to just yet and the snoopy bastard would have noticed.

So I looked up Caleb Colt.

Nothing. I mean there were a couple of hits but nothing that looked like the guy.

He wasn't on Facebook. Who wasn't on Facebook? I figured that maybe he was one of those weird guys that called themselves Pedro Sangria or something random like that so I checked my brother's monstrous friends list, like 2000 friends monstrous. Where the hell did he meet those 2000 friends in empty-wasteland-Canada? Half of them had to be accounts of fake hookers.

To find out more about Caleb Colt, I was definitely going to have to rely on firsthand interactions. If he had no social medias, I was going to have to find out about him through the people that knew him.

That was always a risky thing though. People could lie. People could exaggerate.

If I wanted to figure out how bad Caleb Colt actually was, I was going to have to rely on more than just hearsays.

Finding out more about this man was going to require more inquisitive inquiries. If he got in trouble often with the principal, he probably had a file there. And files could be read. Files were more reliable. Files were factual.

If I wanted to read that file, I would have to sneak in the principal's office. I could do that. This was a small town in Canada. I highly doubted they had fancy security to protect any of their sensitive information. I could probably get into the school after hours.

In the meantime, I couldn't actually break and enter just now, but I could start questioning the available witnesses.

I headed downstairs and found my mother in the kitchen

I figure I could be useful, while coaxing her to drop her guards and give away information. The key thing was to not get caught.

They would probably call me ridiculous like my brother. I needed to build a proper case so I could slap this in the face and tell them they were wrong.

She was making dinner, so I headed for the dirty dishes by the sink.

"Let me help you with that," I told her, lifting my sleeves.

"Oh honey, not need for that, I can do it later," my mother answered, a little surprised at my sudden appearance.

"I'm happy to help."

She kept smiling kindly at me. "Well, thanks."

"You're welcome," I replied and got the dish soap out from under the sink. "How was your day?"

"Busy. I had a few emergencies because of animals eating things they should not have. It was like everyone passed the word around to let their dogs eat chocolate today," my mother said, shaking her head a little, as if discouraged.

"The dogs are fine?" I inquired.

"Yes, they're all fine."

"Now that I have a dog and we live on a farm, I really need to think more about the wellbeing of animals," I replied, trying to stir the conversation in the right direction.

"I can take you to the clinic one day if you want."

I smiled back at her. "That could be nice."

We were silent for a second, as I scrubbed a pot. I took a deep breath, counted to three. "Mom... what do you know about the high school kid that works at our farm?"

"Which one? We hired a few high schoolers," my mother asked, not looking particularly concerned about the question.

Good. I could play it off casually.

Reporter tip one oh one: never let them figure out your next move.

"Caleb Colt," I answered, making sure to sound as uninterested as I could to not rise an suspicions.

"Oh, your brother's friend. Why are you asking me about him? You can ask Noah, he knows him well."

"He knows him well huh? That's strange, I thought I had already met all of my brother's friends."

"Your brother does have a lot of friends."

"He does."

"And what about you? Are you making any? Friends, I mean," my mother asked with a kind smile, changing the subject.

She wanted to have an actual conversation with me, while I was basically only here to interrogate her.

I actually kind of felt bad for a second.

"Sure, I'm getting along well with Samantha and Valerie. And I still have my actual friends back home, so it's fine."

"Oh, right, back home," she replied, nodding a little.

I had made a mistake. I probably should not have implied that this wasn't home. But what was she expecting? That I would magically fit right in here? After spending all my life in California? She thought I would come here and just because I was surrounded by family all would be perfect?

Even if people were family, that did not mean you were automatically familiar with them.

We were mostly quiet after that, and I finished the dishes quickly, before leaving to find other family members.

My grandparents were drinking in the living room, so I sat down with them, and tried to find a way to slip Caleb Colt in the conversation, but they kept ignoring my attempts.

A total fail on my part.

I headed back to my room, to change before dinner, when I crossed my brother in the hall.

"Have you been annoying our family about Colt?" he asked me.

Had he been spying on me?

"I don't know? Have I?" I replied sweetly.

Noah rolled his eyes at me. "You're ridiculous. Just because a guy is a loner and not a perfect student, you just need to jump at his throat because you are?"

I ignored whatever he was implying about me. I could unpack that later, in my own time, hidden away in my room.

"It starts like this you know, loner dude that gets in trouble with the school, that's always making problems, and then one day he comes with a gun at school."

"You know, maybe being a reporter is the wrong career choice for you. Maybe you should start writing fiction stories, because you clearly have a knack at making shit up."

I grinned. "Oh, swearing I see. I've hit a nerve."

Noah sighed in annoyance. "Look, if you're interested in him, I'll introduce you. But please be gentle with him. He's never been with a woman. Only farm animals."

I narrowed my eyes at him. Why was he not taking this seriously? "Noah, can you be serious for a second."

My brother gave me a creepy grin. "That's unfortunately not a service we offer. Especially when the person we're talking with is craaaaaazy."

"I'm not crazy. I'm probably the only sane person in this house, really."

"Why are you even doing this? What's your goal? What are you trying to achieve here exactly?"

"You wanted me more invested in this family? This is how I get more invested."

I told him this, and it felt like a fine answer. A good answer even.

But why did it not feel like the truth then?