"Can you get me a rag! What you're doing isn't helping!" The man yells at Wyndy and she obliges.
"Hey, no need to yell at her, this was just a mistake," Alasdair defends her as the man quickly puts his baseball hat and glasses back on.
"How could she be so careless? Look how she spilled coffee all over me!"
"I'm sorry about that."
"I'm out of here. Get the job done this time and don't give me another reason to be mad at you."
"Got it."
Wyndy arrives with the rag after the man had left.
"Where's your friend?"
"He's not my friend."
"I'm so sorry this happened. I hope he's not too mad at me?"
"He'll get over it."
"Your coffee must be cold, I'll get you another one."
"No need, I'm almost done with it."
"If you need me just holler." Winking at him, Wyndy goes over to our table and I follow her.
"Do you know who that man is?" She asks me.
"You mean the man with the glasses? How would Avan know who he is?" Travis asks her.
"I'm asking cause he saw his face."
"Yeah, and I took a picture too. When we get home I'll find out who he is," I say.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
"But your shift isn't over yet," I remind her.
"That's right, then you guys should get going. The faster we act, the faster we get results."
Travis and I leave the café and hurry home so we can begin our task of finding out who this mysterious man is.
* * * * *
Caleb Daniels.
Only son of Barry Daniels, a very wealthy businessman and the President of the International Association of Inventors. At just eighteen years old, Caleb is infamous for having a rebellious personality, has a prison record, dropped out of school twice, tried to elope to another country after stealing six million dollars from his father, was a member of a gang and is rumored to be into drugs, though there is no proof of that because he has been keeping low key recently.
How can one person be so criminally minded, and just at the young age of eighteen when he should be preparing to get into college and mapping out his future. Imagine what he could he do when he gets older. And he's good looking too. What a waste.
"Now we know he's the one who gave Alasdair that check but we're not sure what for. It could be as payment for stealing my invention or for a drug deal," I say as Travis, Austin, Wyndy and I stare at Caleb's picture on my computer.
"It's probably for something else. Come to think of it, why would Caleb pay Alasdair to steal your invention? He's not even in the contest, and he doesn't know who Avan is," Travis reasons.
"These days, it's not uncommon for teenagers to get involved with illegal substances. So even if Alasdair stole your invention, it would be for his own use but since that's not the case, he's probably dealing drugs with Caleb," Austin agrees.
"And Chris," I add.
"What does Chris have to do with this?"
"Caleb mentioned his name during his conversation with Alasdair."
"That could be another Chris."
Austin never gives up when it comes to defending her boyfriend.
"Chris and Alasdair attend the same school, I'm sure this is not a coincidence, there has to be a connection."
"You're just saying this because you don't like Chris."
"Even if I liked him, it doesn't change the fact that he was mentioned in the conversation."
"We shouldn't also forget that Alasdair is not the burglar, and we haven't really found out how his wallet ended up with the actual burglar," Wyndy chips in.
"He probably hired the burglar to rob me and got robbed himself."
"That's right. Now, we have to find out why Alasdair hired a burglar to steal your invention and get it back. His drug dealing is none of our business," Austin adds.
"I can't believe Alasdair is the one who stole my invention. He seems like a pretty decent guy, I would've never thought he could stoop so low," I muse.
Wyndy puts her hand on my shoulder. "You never really know people until you get to know them."
Travis suggests that we just turn Alasdair in to the cops since we are sure that he is the burglar. I explain to him that we can't do that unless we have concrete proof because it would look bad if we report him to the cops and they find nothing on him.
"And how do we find concrete proof?" Travis asks, emphasizing the 'concrete proof'.
"We pay him a visit," I reply with a smirk.
"Do you really think that he would put a stolen invention in his house? He can't be that careless," Austin says.
"According to Caleb, he actually is. So the chances are, the invention is still at his house and even if it isn't, we can find some other clues that he must have forgotten to put away."
"I can act as a distraction while you guys search for the invention," Wyndy offers.
"Good idea, but what would be your reason for going there?"
"His folks are out of town for the week and rather than throw a party like most boys his age, he prefers to have a dinner date with me. He has been asking me everyday and I've been blowing him off. I can text him right now to tell him that I've changed my mind about the dinner date."
"I don't really like the idea of you going on a dinner date with him. What if—"
Austin cuts me off. "Do you wanna find your invention or not?"
I look away and say nothing. Wyndy smiles knowingly at me.
"It's just a harmless dinner date, and it'll be the perfect distraction. Alasdair would be too busy with me to notice anything," she assures me.
"Now that that's settled, let's do this," Travis says.
* * * * *
"Why are you so eager to help Avan find his invention? You're literally ready to do anything for him, including going out on a date with a guy you don't even like," Austin says to Wyndy as she gets ready for the date in her room.
I stop by the slightly open door to listen to Wyndy's response.
"Avan is such a brilliant genius and it would be a shame if he couldn't participate in this contest with his invention. Also, he's a friend and friends help each other."
"These days, I'm not even sure if he's just a friend to you."
"Just because I'm going to lengths to help him?"
"You risked provoking a potentially dangerous man."
"You'd do the same for your brother."
"I'm your best friend, Wyndy, I can tell when you like someone. Just tell me if you have feelings for my brother."
"I—"
"Avan, what are you doing here? You said you wanted to find out if Wyndy was ready, is she ready?" Travis asks and I facepalm.
Did he really have to come here now?
Austin opens the door to reveal hers and Wyndy's surprised faces. "How long have you been standing here?" She asks.
"I just got here," I lie and by her deadpan stare, she knows.
"Whatever."
"Let's go, boys," Wyndy says, walking past us and downstairs. We follow her.
"Oh my, you look great, Wyndy. Are you and Avan finally going on a date?" Mom asks when she sees us. She puts down her laptop to take a good look at Wyndy.
"No, we're not, this is more like a mission. And thank you, I got the dress from Austin."
Mom's expression changes as she looks at each one of us. "Can someone care to explain to me what kind of a mission you kids are going on?"
"Austin can do that, we're running out of time. Bye, see you later," I tell mom as Travis, Wyndy and I make our way out of the house. Since Austin refused to come with us because according to her, she doesn't do 'breaking in', then she can at least be useful some other way.
"You're not leaving this house until I'm cleared on what your mission is all about. I have to be sure it's safe, and legal," mom insists and we stop in our tracks.
To avoid wasting any more of our time, we let mom in on our mission to Alasdair's house and convince her that it's a completely harmless mission. She gives us permission to leave the house after making us promise to be back by nine and put hers and dad's numbers on speed dial, along with every emergency number that exists. Mom can be extra sometimes.
After a few more minutes of convincing, she even lets us take her car.
"You really look good, like, really good," I say to Wyndy as I open the door to the passenger seat for her, forcing Travis to sit in the back. She is putting on a lavender off-the-shoulder dress that stops a little above her knee. It might be Austin's dress, but it suits her like the dress was made just for her.
"Thank you." She smiles and gets in the car. I wish we were actually going on a date, it would've been perfect.
"If you wanna go out with her that badly, then just ask her out," Travis whispers to me.
"Dude!" I whisper back.
"Are you going out with someone?" Wyndy asks me.
"No! I mean, no, I'm not."
"Oh."
Is Travis trying to ruin my chance with Wyndy? If she thinks I'm dating someone, then she won't take me seriously.
I sigh and start the car so we can get this mission on the roll.
* * * * *
Okay. We might have done some research on Alasdair in advance. More like done some stalking, because we got to find out a lot about him including where he lives, his friends, his love for science, how he works out every morning by 5am, how he visits the gym at least once a week, his frequent barbeque parties, his guitar sessions, and his hatred for clowns and animals.
Told you we did some stalking, maybe a lot of stalking. And the job was made easy because he was a social media person.
I park the car a little distance from Alasdair's house and we alight the car. Wyndy struts to his front door without a word and presses the bell. He had offered to pick her up at her house after she texted him but she had to decline the offer for obvious reasons. Travis and I hide behind the bushes as we wait for him to answer the door.
No sooner than ten seconds had Wyndy rung the bell that Alasdair swings it open like a breeze, as if he had been waiting for her to ring the bell. He is wearing just a tank top and jeans. I'm sure he dressed this way just to show off his muscles and ripped body.
"There you are," he says, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
"Isn't this supposed to be a dinner date? I feel like I'm overdressed." Wyndy seems flustered, or is probably acting.
"No, you're not. You look gorgeous."
"Thanks. Are we gonna have the dinner date on your porch or are you gonna let me in?"
"I am so sorry! I got carried away by your beauty. Please, come in. Tonight is all about you, after all," Alasdair titters as he ushers Wyndy into his house.
The plan is to let Wyndy go in before us so she can distract Alasdair in case we make any sounds while sneaking in or searching around. But if he is truly as careless as Caleb says he is, then he probably won't even notice anything.
After waiting another two to three minutes, Travis and I make our way to the side of the house where, fortunately, there is an open window which we just climb in. We find ourselves in the laundry room with two washing machines. We step out of the room quietly, glancing towards the kitchen to make sure Alasdair is fully distracted before covertly making our way upstairs.
We enter the first room we come across and the lights are already on so we don't need to struggle to find the light switch. The room has a double bed and is decorated with nothing but pictures of a couple and their son, Alasdair, from the time he was born to his teenage days. They must really love their son. It is a very adorable sight but we are here on a mission so I don't stare at the pictures for too long.
"This must be his parents' room," Travis whispers.
"Why are you whispering? No one can hear us up here."
"Oh yeah. We need to find his room ASAP."
We leave the room to find Alasdair's room. It doesn't take us long because his room is just beside his parents'. Very typical. We've barely entered the room and shut the door when I receive a text from Wyndy warning us that Alasdair was on his way to his room.
Oh no!
I'm close to the closet so I hide inside it while Travis hides himself under the bed. Just when I realize that we didn't turn the lights back off and attempt to quickly do so, Alasdair walks in.
Shit.
* * * * *
Oops! Looks like someone has been caught red-handed... Or, do you think Avan can get himself out of this fix? He's smart, right?
Anyway, we'll all find out in the next chapter, won't we 😏