George and Nicole Harper had never had an easy life. From one set of divorced parents to another, these half siblings have had it tough.
Ever since their mother, Naomi, split from George's father and forced them to move from England back to her hom...
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The police were still outside by the time Nick's shift ended. She and Frankie had just been standing around all day watching what the police were doing. They hadn't had many customers that day. What people would see a whole bunch of police outside a store and think 'yes, that's great! Let's go into that store!'.
"Did you know those kids?" Frankie asked just as Nick was about to clock out.
"They're friends of my brother's," Nick said, nodding.
"The girl too?" Frankie asked in disbelief and Nick shot her a look.
"I have no idea," she shrugged, "I hardly have any idea what my brother gets up to these days."
"I thought you were tight," Frankie said, her voice rising at the end as she followed Nick to the door.
"Me too," she sighed. Just as Nick was about to head out, one of the police officers came into the store.
"Were you two around when this happened?" he asked, flipping his pad over. Nick nodded and Frankie turned around, pretending she had heard him and that she was busy stocking shelves.
"My name is detective Brenner and I need to ask her some questions about the girl who was just in here," The police officer said and Nick nodded.
"I'll show you into the back room," she said, beckoning him to follow her, "I'm sure Don won't mind if we use it."
*
"Shit! George, duck," Lucas hissed and flattened himself against the tree branch. George looked around again and could see nothing.
"What?" He whispered back up at Lucas and shouted it again when Lucas didn't answer.
"Shut up!" Lucas hissed at him and waved at him to duck. Then George saw what Lucas must have seen. There was a road that led up to the fence a little way away from where they were crouching. A gate swung open and several vans with Hawkins' Power and Light written on the side drove out of the compound and down the road, heading into town.
"Remember what El said?" Lucas asked George who shook his head and frowned. El had said a lot of things to them, "The bad men."
George's eyes widened.
"Oh no."
*
A van was parked outside the Wheeler house as Mike, Dustin and El went home. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Their neighbours had spent a lot of money on a conservatory recently and vans were always driving down there. No one batted an eyelid at the Hawkins' Power and Light van parked opposite the house. No one noticed when the drive lifted a radio to his ear, clicked it and said: "Dr Brenner. I have eyes on the girl."
*
Dustin walked back to Mike's, walking behind Mike, who had his arm around El who was looking a little unsteady. They took El inside and back down to the basement. While Mike was angry with Lucas, he'd left his walkie-talkie at home out of spite. When they got to the basement, they were met with the loud crackling of the walkie-talkie and snippets of what sounded like George's voice.
"Is that...?" Mike asked from where he was sat on the sofa next to El. Dustin looked up and caught Mike's eye.
"George."
*
"And the girl," Detective Brenner continued the interview, "What did she look like?"
"She was short," Nick said then shook her head. Come on, Nick, be more specific, "Sort of came up to my shoulder. Had on a pink dress. Looked pretty dirty though. So did her face. She had a couple cuts and bruises," Nick rambled, not sure of how much help she was. Detective Brenner hadn't written down a single thing she was saying, "She had short hair, like someone had shaved her head. Which was real weird cause last time I saw her, I could've sworn she had like shoulder length blonde hair."
"The last time you saw her?" Detective Brenner asked, seemingly finally taking an interest, "Where was this?"
"At school. Er, Hawkin's Middle I guess she must go to," Nick elaborated, "I got told she was Mike's cousin but..." she trailed off and shrugged not knowing if that would help at all.
"Mike?"
"Mike Wheeler," Nick said. She was just about to explain how he was a friend of her brother's when Detective Brenner's radio clicked to life.
"I've got eyes on the girl," Nick made out over the crackling radio. Detective Brenner smiled slightly and stood up.
"Thank you," He said as he headed for the door, "This has been most helpful."
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