Alex Bishop and The Elusive Dorian Brown

                                                                                        Chapter 6

                                                                                  The Chase Is On                                                                                           

     Alex and Christian begin their detecting a day after their meeting in the second week in November.  They prowled the campus area around building 2, and also building 6, which Annie learned was Dorian and Greg's dorm.  Alex and Christian figured either the two men would at some point come out of their building and they could follow them, or Dorian and Greg would head across the street to Alex and Christian's dorm and try to retrieve the item or items Dorian had neglected to get the day of the fire; and they could catch them at it.  Unfortunately luck was not with them that week, and they discovered nothing.

     But, one day in the last week of November Annie text Alex with a simple message, "We need to meet."  She sent the message to every member of their group.  At dinner time that day they met at their table in the back of the cafeteria beside the kitchen doors.  When everyone was seated, Annie begin to tell them what was on her mind.

     Annie looked pale and frightened as she spoke.  "I was headed to Haley's room," she nodded in Haley's direction, then Annie took a gulp of air and continued, "and there was a girl I didn't know coming out of her door.  She saw me staring at her, her eyes grew wide as saucers and she began to run down the hall.  But she tripped over that big plant, you know, the one that sits a few feet from the door?"...."I know it, Christian piped up, "I've almost feel over it too."  Annie gave her brother a look and said,  "What's that got to do with anything?" Christian looked embarrassed and didn't respond.

     Everyone leaned into the table so as not to miss a single word of what Annie said next.  "You didn't recognize the girl at all," Alex started, "I mean you'd never seen her on campus?"  "No.  I'd never seen her before," Annie said, taking a deep breath.  "If all this business with the fire hadn't occurred and If you, Alex hadn't heard the conversation between Dorian and Greg, I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it."

     "What did the girl look like?"  Amanda asked.  "She had light brown hair, hazel blue eyes.  She was petite, not more than five feet tall and...." "That sounds like my roommate Gina Cane," Haley interrupted.  "I've never seen your roommate," Amanda said.  "Me either," Annie agreed.  The other girls said the same.  "We saw her the day we came looking for you Haley," Christian told her.  "She wasn't very friendly."  "Yeah. After she told us you weren't there, she shut the door in my face," Alex told her.  "I believe it.  She's not a nice person.  It's funny.  I never see her around campus, ever,"  Haley said with a perplexed look.

     "I'm not finished with my story," Annie said in an irritated voice.  "Alex stifled a snicker and said, "Sorry Annie.  Go on.  "Okay, so when she fell, she dropped this, and then continued to run away," Annie said, placing something in Haley's palm.  "This is mine," Haley said weakly.  "What is it?" John asked.  "It's a pic of my father taken in Columbia.  He was on a photo shoot for Time Magazine."  She laid it on the table for all to see.

     Sure enough, there was James Kincaid, Haley's father mugging for the camera.  In the background stood mountains, a field before them where goats were munching on grasses.  In the back ground and along the side of the photo stood a line of squatty white buildings.  Two men leaned against what looked like an army jeep.  Both men had rifles slung over their shoulders and one of them was handing something to the other man.  One of the two men looked very familiar to Alex.