Alex decided the rumbling in his stomach was too much to ignore, and as it was still reasonably early in the day, he stopped off to get a quick bite to eat and see how long he would have to talk to Nadia’s mom before she went home from work that day. The small dirt parking lot of the diner was almost full, not unusual for a late Saturday morning. He took a quick glance around the parking lot and didn’t see Ethan’s car, and with a sigh of relief he parked and went inside.
The small restaurant was full of people and the sounds of conversation. It took the cashier a couple of minutes to even notice Alex had come in while she tried to sort out a large families’ bill. Finally, she looked to the door and saw Alex waiting to get a seat.
“Sorry Alex, busy this morning. You want a table in Nadia’s section” she asked.
“If she can handle another customer” Alex said with a grin.
“I’m sure she can handle having you there, she’s training a new girl so she’ll have some help anyways.” She marked a spot off on the seating chart and led him to the smaller room behind the main dining room. Alex thanked her and waited quietly for Nadia to show up, listening to a couple next to him argue about where to buy a new TV.
“Kind of late for breakfast isn’t it” Nadia asked from behind Alex, making him jump. He looked up at her and grinned.
“Kind of rude to be sneaking up on customers isn’t it” he asked playfully.
She grinned down at him and rolled her eyes, “Well, you don’t count, I know you’ll be back no matter what I do” She said laughing.
As she was talking, another girl walked up behind her holding a pot of coffee and Alex felt his heart skip a beat. She had long black hair tied up into a neat ponytail that hung down to the middle of her back, light brown skin and light grey eyes that felt like they could look straight into his soul. He had never seen a girl that beautiful in his life. For a moment all he could do was stare until Nadia stepped between them and smacked Alex lightly upside the head.
“Alex, this is Delilah, she just started working here and we’re hoping she stays past the summer. Delilah, this is my friend Alex, we grew up together just up the road from here.”
Delilah smiled down at him and held the pot of coffee out, “nice to meet you, coffee?” she asked, her southern accent making her even more attractive to Alex.
“Umm, yea… sure…” he managed to get out.
Nadia rolled her eyes again and stepped to the side while she poured Alex some coffee, then motioned to the rest of the tables in the room. “Could you see if anyone needs a refill while you have the pot out here, then we’ll head back and carry some orders out.”
“Sure thing” Delilah said, giving Alex a wink before walking off.
“Umm bye… nice to meet you…” Alex murmured as she walked away. When her back was turned, Nadia lightly hit him on the side of his head again.
“Don’t stare like that, it’s just her first day and I don’t want her scared off. It took me too long to finally get some help in here” she said quietly. Alex felt his face get hot.
“Sorry, just the usual” he said quietly.
Nadia looked quickly around, then bent down close to his ear, “I’ll try to find out if she’s single.” She whispered. Then with a wink, she stood up and wrote his order down. “That gonna be all for now Alex?”
“Yea, that’s all,” he said, “I need to get back home and get working on my project anyways, I’ve been slacking off. What are you up to the rest of the day? Meeting up with Ethan or something?”
“Nah, he’s gone for the weekend” she said, waving off the question, “I have a feeling I’ll be here most of the day, boss likes to stay open till the place empties, then we have to do inventory. I swear I feel like I never get to see the outdoors during the summer anymore.”
“Well, at least you have a job. If you feel like it, you should stop over after work, been too long since we’ve hung out.” Alex said, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice, Nadia didn’t seem to notice.
It had been a long time, they hadn’t spent more than an hour together since she started dating Ethan. Alex had always been annoyed with how Ethan kept her to himself all the time, but now that he thought it may have more to do than him just being a jealous boyfriend, Alex was going to have to try harder than ever to separate her from Ethan. At least until he found out what was going on.
“I’ll try, it has been too long. In the meantime, try not to scare my help off, ok” she joked quietly before heading off to take orders.
Alex watched her go, resolved to eat as fast as he could and get out of here. If he was going to have a chance to talk to her mom, today may be his best oppertunity. At least he knew Nadia wouldn’t be home for a while. Now he just hoped her mom wouldn’t throw him out of her house when he came asking questions she didn’t want to answer.
….
Nadia lived with her mom in a small, year round cabin next to the lake. In fact, Alex could have driven home and walked to her house, but he was afraid of losing his nerve if he stopped anywhere else. He pulled up to her house slowly, the sound of gravel crunching under his car tires marking his approach. Still, that subtle sound was enough to bring Nadia’s mother to the door, smiling and giving Alex a friendly wave as he drove up. I May as well get this over with, he thought to himself.
Her name was Margret Roberts, the middle child of three, her older sister, Nadia’s aunt, had been killed when she was too young to remember, and her younger brother, Steve, hardly ever came around. Unlike Nadia, both Margret and Steve had straight dark hair and brown eyes, and for the longest time the joke around the town was that Nadia wasn’t really Margret’s daughter, a joke that made Nadia furious every time somebody brought it up. Nadia was an only child and she and her mom were very close, her mother had never married and since her uncle never really visited, they were the only family each other had. Alex had always liked her and she had always treated him like a son, and the smile on her face as she waited for him to walk up to the door made Alex second guess if he wanted to have the conversation he was about to with her. She was the closest thing he could remember to having a mother.
Alex got to the door and nervously clutched the blue notebook with all the notes and photocopies he had found in his research. She pulled him in the door and gave him a hug, then led him into the small kitchen and sat him down.
“Alex, sweetie, it’s been too long, I’ve missed you! You want some tea? Maybe some coffee? I was about to pour myself a cup, I can get one out for you too dear,” she didn’t wait for Alex to respond, instead getting out a second cup and pouring coffee into it, then sitting down across from him with a smile.
“So how have you been” she asked, “I never get to see you anymore and Nadia’s off with Ethan all the time, makes things a little too quiet around here for me.”
Alex sipped his coffee and gathered his thoughts, he didn’t want to jump right into this, but at the same time he didn’t want to get too distracted with small talk either. For all he knew, Nadia could come home at any time, and if she overheard any of what he was thinking she probably wouldn’t talk to him for a long time. Or ever again if Alex was right about Ethan.
“He’s kind of the reason I’m here, I need to talk to you but I’m kind of afraid you’ll throw me out and not let me come back” Alex said nervously.
Margret smiled over her cup at him and gave a wink, a habit she and Nadia shared. “I don’t think you have to worry too much about that sweetie, you know I’m not overly fond of him either. Just between you and me, I kind of wish she would have broke it off a long time ago” she said the last part quietly, as if afraid Nadia would walk in and overhear her say it.
“It’s not about him just dating her, I’ve been doing some research for a big project at school, I’ve had to look up some local history and, well, I’ve found some things and I think, well I…”
She held out her hand and put it on top of his, giving it a small pat, “go ahead sweetie; you know you can always talk to me.”
Alex took a deep breath, may as well just say it and hope for the best. “I think Ethan has something to do with the deaths in your family, and I think he’s back for Nadia.”
Margret jerked her hand back quickly, the smile instantly fell off her face and she gave Alex a look that made him cringe in his chair, “Alex, that’s not funny. Why on earth would you say something like that?”
Alex knew he had to be careful with what he said, he knew this all sounded crazy enough even with the evidence he had gathered. But also, he knew he needed to know what Margret knew just to confirm his theories. If he didn’t say things just right, Alex knew she would shut down on him and he would never find out what he needed to know.
“Please, just hear me out for a minute, I know it sounds crazy but I, well I found a picture…” he managed to stammer out. With shaking hands, he slid his notebook onto the table and opened it just enough to pull out the copy of the funeral picture and the article it was attached to. Slowly, Alex pushed the papers across the table in front of her. Margret was about to say something when she looked down at the picture, her eyes instantly widened and her face went pale.
“Where did you…” she started to say, then looked at the face of the boy talking to her great grandfather from all those years back, “Oh my god…” she whispered.
“Please,” Alex said quietly, “let me tell you what I’ve found and what I think. You know I would never bring anything like this up if I didn’t think it was real and I didn’t think Nadia was in danger. You know me…”
Margret’s eyes never left the picture, tears dropped onto the photograph that neither bothered to wipe away. “I’ve see this before, why didn’t I…” she whispered almost to herself. She slid the picture back across the table and looked at Alex, this time with a hint of belief in her eyes.
“Ok,” she said, “tell me what you’ve found.”
With a sigh of relief, Alex started at the beginning when Ludolf had handed out the assignment and Alex had started his research. He told her about Ethan’s strange behavior with Nadia, how he had been keeping her away from both him and her other friends, all the while not getting too close to her himself. Alex even told her about the incident with the hand warmers in the lunchroom, and Wes and Dillon’s attack in the hallway. The entire time she sat and listened, occasionally sipping her coffee or wiping her eyes, but it wasn’t until Alex brought out the yearbook picture he had found that he got the reaction he was waiting for.