The first chance that I had gotten to look over the copy of the coded journal in great detail was after a long day of searching some empty houses and buildings around town, checking to see if my father happened to decide not to head out of town. There were plenty of people who had been willing to help us search for Ryan, but nothing had come up that lead us to Ryan. It was disappointing, but we weren't going to give up until we got some kind of answer as to where Ryan was and until we were able to bring him home.
No matter what people were saying, my family and I weren't giving up the hope that Ryan was going to come back home one day, safe and sound. I still was holding onto the hope that my father still would never kill his sons.
The ones that he actually acknowledged as his sons, so that didn't include Nick even though he was one of my father's sons. I knew that our father didn't include Nick as one of his sons so there was a chance that we would kill Nick, but as for Hayden and Ryan I was still hoping that wasn't the case. Hurt them, yes. But kill them, no. Hopefully that hadn't changed.
When Ben and I had gotten back to our apartment after another day of searching, which we did on the weekends, we both took showers and then relaxed on our bed. I grabbed the copies of the coded journal, which sat on my desk, before getting onto the bed. There were several copies that I had made after Natalie had given me the copy she had made around the apartment just in case.
I had made plenty copies so that if my father ever found out I was working on decoding his journal and found the copy I was using then there would be back ups. And I hadn't just hide copies around mine and Ben's apartment, but also his parents' house and Natalie and Hayden's house. So, believe me when I said there was more than enough copies just in case the one I had sitting out on my desk went missing.
I had even given a copy to Ben's father since he was curious to figure out the coded journal as well. There was a good chance that he could figure the whole thing out before I did, but I didn't mind if that happened. I was just glad there was someone else besides me, that I knew, working on this journal.
I heard the television turn on as I got to work writing down all the symbols in my father's journal on a brand new notebook that I had bought a couple days ago. It took me most of the night to get every new symbol down onto the notebook. I had to make sure to look carefully at each of the symbols to make sure that it was actually a new one and not something that had been repeated.
And there were definitely a ton of symbols that had been repeated so my father had made symbols for every letter in the alphabet. The next task was to figure out what symbols belonged to what letter and I knew that was going to be an extremely hard task. With twenty-six possibilities for each symbol, I was going to have to figure out the right combination before I could finally decode my father's journal and find out what he had written in here.
"Babe, dinner's ready," I heard Ben say sometime later as I was trying to figure out what symbol went with what letter. I hadn't figured out what one symbol meant and I was getting frustrated.
"I'll be right there," I said sighing. Ben reached over and pulled the notebook away from me as he said, "You need a break from that. Come eat and then you can look over it again."
"Alright," I replied sighing again. It was probably best that I took a break from the journal. I was never going to figure it out if I was frustrated and didn't give my brain a break. Maybe I should just call it a night tonight and come back to it tomorrow.
My brain would probably be very happy with a long break from trying to figure out what each of the symbols meant. I gathered up all of the papers that I had spread out from the journal and stacked them in order using the number in the corner that I had put before copying the copy Natalie had given me.
Once everything was back in order, I put the copied journal and notebook with my notes on my desk and then headed out of the bedroom to go eat dinner with my boyfriend. I would probably make copies of my notes just in case those got stolen by my father. It was probably a good idea to put a digital copy on my computer as well just in case I wanted to refer back to what I had already taken note of and just to have a copy on there as well.
When I got into dining room, I saw that Ben was already sitting down at the table, but he hadn't started eating yet. We usually waited for the other before starting to eat. Sometimes the only time we could have a conversation was when we were sitting down to eat so neither of us started eating until the other got there.
It meant that we could actually have a conversation with each other especially if it was going to be our first one of the day. Neither of us wanted to get into the rut of not having conversations with each other and then end up ruining our relationship because of it.
"So, how's it going so far?" Ben asked me as I served myself. He waited until I had finished serving myself before taking the first bite of the food that he had made. It was just a simple dish of chicken and rice.
"I've got all the symbols, now I just need to figure out which letters they represent. That's probably going to take some time though," I replied as I cut up my chicken.
"You'll figure it out eventually babe. Just take breaks alright?" he said smiling at me. I nodded my head and then took a bite of the small piece of chicken that I had cut up.
"So, are we searching for Ryan again tomorrow?" Ben asked when I didn't say anything.
"Yeah, Hayden's supposed to send me the addresses and time tomorrow morning," I replied. Ben nodded his head and then said, "We should probably go to bed early tonight."
"I agree. I'm tired after the long day we had today," I said.
We had searched many buildings throughout the day even though we hadn't found one single clue. I still believed my father left town with Ryan and that he wasn't hiding any place in town, but it was better to search every place just in case there was a clue or I was wrong about my father immediately leaving town. It wasn't on the news that we were searching for my father and Ryan in empty houses and buildings because the police didn't want to alert my father that we were searching through the town for him just in case he was actually still in town.
But it was on the news that we, Ryan's family and friends, and volunteers along with police were searching in surrounding areas outside of the town for Ryan and my father. That was actually true since there were people searching outside of the town for Ryan and my father, but that was mostly just volunteers and police searching. Eventually we would join that search once all the empty houses and buildings had been searched in town.
"You still believe your father left town with Ryan, don't you?" Ben asked me after taking a bite of rice and chewing it up. I nodded my head and then said, "Yeah, but it doesn't hurt to search in town just in case I'm wrong. If he is still in town, then it'll be a relief to know that it'll be hard for him to get out of town because the police are watching every exit they can. There's a good chance he'll be caught if he's still here."
"That's true, but don't get your hopes too high babe. You believe your father left town with Ryan for a reason because he's smart and he knows that he can't stay here," Ben replied. I nodded my head again and then said, "Yeah, can we talk about something else?"
"Of course, what do you want to talk about?" he asked me.
"When do you work this week?" I asked. He was quiet for a few minutes as he tried to remember what days he worked this week. We both had been taking the weekends off while we were searching for Ryan, so we had been working more days during the week along with going to school and doing our homework.
There was never a break for relaxing with how much busier we had become since Ryan had disappeared. And I had thought we had been busy before.
"I think Monday through Thursday. I'd have to double check though. How about you?" he asked before scooping up some rice onto his fork and then putting it in his mouth.
"Probably the same as you, but I'd have to double check as well," I replied. Ben nodded his head and we both were silent as we finished up eating dinner.
Ben helped me clean up the mess he had made while cooking dinner when we had finished eating and then we headed back into our bedroom to relax on our bed while watching the television for about an hour and half. We went to bed after that and fell quickly asleep from waking up early and spending the whole day looking for Ryan and my father. Tomorrow we would be repeating the same thing and I wasn't that excited because I felt like we weren't going to find anything.
If there were any clues out there, they weren't in our town. They were outside of our town. But it was going to be hard to believe that my father had left any clues behind. My hope was that Ryan was the one who had left something behind to help us find him because there was no way my father had left any clues behind himself. He didn't want to be found and now he didn't want Ryan to be found either.
***
The next morning Ben nudged me until I moved and then I felt him kiss me on my shoulder as I groaned. He told me that we should get up and I should check my phone to see if Hayden had sent me a text yet on when and where we were meeting. I groaned again, just wanting to sleep more, but I reluctantly sat up and reached for my phone from where it was sitting on the nightstand next to me.
Leaning against Ben, who had sat up as well, I checked to see if there was anything from Hayden. There wasn't, but I was pretty sure that Hayden was awake already so I let him know that Ben and I were up and would be getting ready while waiting for him to text us on when and where to meet.
"Why don't we get dressed and go out for breakfast? I'm sure there's not going to be too many people up at six o'clock on a Sunday," Ben said as I set my phone back on the nightstand.
"That's fine," I said throwing the covers off of me and then getting out of bed. Ben did the same and he headed out of the bedroom to go to his closet in the second hallway. I went over to my closet and picked out some clothes that I wouldn't mind getting dirty before slipping them on and then grabbing some shoes. After putting on my shoes, I went out into the hallway so I could grab a hair tie and put my hair up in a ponytail.
"Ready?" Ben asked me about ten minutes later after we both had gone to the bathroom once we had finished getting changed out of our pajamas. I had grabbed the bag I had carried around yesterday instead of my regular purse and was checking to make sure everything was in it. Once I had my phone and put it into my bag, I said, "Yeah."
Ben and I headed out of the apartment and he locked up the front door while I headed over to his car. He unlocked it as he walked over to his car and I got inside, shutting the door once I was completely in the car. A few seconds later Ben was in his car and shutting the door as I was putting on my seatbelt.
Once he had his seatbelt on, Ben started up the car and then turned around so he could back out of his parking space. He was driving out of the apartment complex not too long after that and heading towards a restaurant that we usually ate at whenever we went out to breakfast while we waited for Hayden to let us know when and where we were meeting the search team.
The restaurant was only about five minutes away depending on how much traffic there was, but since it was just after six o'clock on a Sunday, there weren't too many people out at the moment, so we got there pretty quickly.
After Ben had parked and turned off his car, we got out and shut our doors before heading towards the doors to the restaurant with Ben's arm around my waist. I heard his car lock before we got too far away from it and then saw him tuck his keys into his pocket. When we reached the doors, Ben opened one of them up as he let go of my waist and then let me go first before following me inside.
Ben and I went over to the hostess and after mentioning we wanted a table for two, the woman grabbed two menus and then led us further into the restaurant. There were a few people here and there, but it was pretty quiet in the restaurant.
It probably wouldn't be busy until after nine thirty or ten. We wouldn't have too much noise in the restaurant except whatever sounds came from the kitchen and the conversations nearby so Ben and I wouldn't have to worry about talking louder than we normally did.
"Are you going to get pancakes?" Ben asked me after we had sat down and started looking at our menus. I often did get pancakes when we came here and pancakes did sound really good, but I always looked over the menu just in case something else caught my eye.
"I might. Are you going to get your usual?" I asked him as I looked over the other meals that I could get. Pancakes still sounded really good. Along with the hash browns, bacon, and eggs that I usually got with it as well if I was really hungry. And I was pretty hungry this morning so I might just end up getting my usual.
About ten minutes later Ben and I had ordered our usual breakfast that we got here after our waitress had come by. She came back a few minutes later with our drinks and set them on the table before disappearing back into the kitchen. I think she might be the only waitress currently working at the moment, which wasn't a surprise since there weren't too many tables for her to wait on.
I'm sure that eventually more waiters and waitresses would come in as time went by and more customers came in. Ben took a sip of his coffee after the waitress had disappeared, but I had decided to wait a few minutes before taking a sip of my hot chocolate.
I looked out the window that we had been seated by and saw that the parking lot for the grocery store that was across from the restaurant wasn't that full either. Just a few cars here and there that belonged to people who were getting their grocery shopping done early.
"Did you bring the papers with you?" I heard Ben ask me. I looked over at him unsure at first what he was talking about until he gave me a look that made me realize that he was talking about the journal and probably was trying to refrain from saying that out loud just in case.
"No, I didn't think I was going to have any time to focus on that while we're looking for Ryan, but I'll work on it when we get home probably. Just depends on how tired I am after all the searching we're going to do today," I replied giving him a smile that I'm sure was sad.
"I'll be by your side the whole day again babe," he said smiling at me. His smile was probably just a tad brighter than mine, but I could tell that there was sadness behind it.
"Thanks," I responded.
"Of course, Cal. I'm sure Hayden's going to stick around us again. As well as Nick, Amanda, Natalie, and Brooke," Ben said. They all had searched with us. We had been recommended to get into groups, so it wasn't a surprise when the seven of us decided to search together as a group.
Each group, sometimes two groups depending on the size, got to search a building or a couple of houses by themselves. We had to report anything we found, no matter whether or not it was related to the case. There had been many things found while searching for Ryan, but nothing had actually given us a lead to Ryan.
It was a possibility that things could be different today and that we might actually find something that would help us find Ryan, but I wasn't going to get my hopes too high. My father wasn't going to give up Ryan that easily so I knew it could be quite some time before Ryan was able to come home.
Since it had only been a month, I didn't expect Ryan to come home that quickly, but that didn't mean that I wouldn't be happy if he did come home soon. I just knew that I shouldn't get my hopes up when there was a good possibility that I was just going to be disappointed. We could have a good day today and actually find something that would lead us to Ryan, or we could have a day like yesterday.
"I wouldn't expect him to be in any other group," I said reaching over to pull my hot chocolate over to me before picking it up and taking a sip. It was still hot, but not hot enough to where I was going to burn my tongue. I set it back down on the table when I was done.
"My mom wants to make sure they get paired with us this time, so we'll have to wait or look for them when we get there," Ben said as he picked up his coffee to take a sip.
"We can call them once we get there and find out if they're already there or not. Then we can figure out how to meet up after that," I replied. Ben nodded his head and then said, "That's a good idea babe. My mom will be happy to know she'll get to see all of us today."
"I'm sure she wants to see you the most and make sure you're still safe, but I know how much she also wants to make sure that the rest of us are okay too," I responded as Ben pulled his phone out of his pocket, probably to text his mother and let her know that she'd see us today.
Ben's father would also be with her, along with the rest of Ben's siblings. Vanessa and Daniel had gone back to their lives a couple months after Ben's accident, but they had come back about a week ago to help search for Ryan. They probably weren't going to stay as long as they had after Ben's accident since Ryan wasn't technically family, but I knew that they would come back as soon as possible and help out.
We were all family to them even if we weren't biologically related to one another. It's what happens when you grow up next door to each other and your parents had been friends long before any of us had been born.
And even though Ryan had probably spent more time in the Morgan household than any of us Dylans, we were still all family and when one of us was hurt or missing or worse, we stuck by each other and helped the suffering family out. These past few months after Hayden's accident, and then Ben's accident, and now Ryan going missing had proven that more than ever.
"Can I get you guys anything else?" I heard the waitress say. When I focused back on my surroundings around me, I noticed that our food had arrived and Ben was doing the most of the talking since I hadn't been listening up until now. After Ben told her that we didn't need anything else, I told her thank you before she nodded her head and then disappeared.
"You know I don't think we're ever going to try anything new no matter how many times we decide to look over the menu just in case there's something else that might catch our eye," Ben said as he scooped up some of his scrambled eggs onto his fork. He popped into his mouth once he had finished talking and looked up at me.
"You're probably right, but at least we still consider looking over the menu instead of just going to choose our usual," I replied as I grabbed a piece of bacon and took a bite of it. Bacon was always the first thing I ate when it was on my plate. And pancakes I saved for last. Don't ask me which one I loved more because I loved both just as much as the other.
It was quiet between Ben and I for a while as we both ate. I think he was just as hungry as I was, so it didn't take either of us very long to eat our way through our plates quickly. We both pushed our plates off to the side where the waitress would be able to pick them up easily once Ben and I were both done eating. Not too long later we finished up our drinks and then got the check before Ben paid and we left.
Once we were back in Ben's car, I checked my phone and saw that there was a text from Hayden letting us to know when and where we were going to meet everyone that was going to be helping out with the search today. Since we were supposed to be meeting in about forty-five minutes, Ben and I just decided to head over there now.
We didn't have anything else that we needed to do today so it was just better to go there now instead of going back home and waiting for the time to pass before heading over there.
"Are Hayden and Natalie already there?" Ben asked me as he backed out of the parking space and then headed towards the exit before he pulled out onto the road.
"I'm not sure. I'll ask though," I replied as I started typing out a response to Hayden's text to let him know that we were on our way there and asking him if he and Natalie were there yet. It didn't take my brother that long to respond once my text had been sent off.
"Yeah they're there. So is Brooke, Nick, and Amanda," I told Ben once I had read Hayden's response to my text that I had sent him.
"Now we just need to find out if my family is there," Ben said as he turned down a street to get us closer to the spot we were meeting at. It was the same spot that we had met at yesterday, a large parking lot that we used for about an hour or two before everyone had gone their separate ways to search the place or places they had been assigned to.
"I can text Kate and see if they're there yet," I replied.
"That'd be great babe," I heard him say.
I didn't look up at my boyfriend since I was busy looking at my phone. After Ben agreed with my suggestion, I went to open up the text messages I had with Kate and sent her a new one to find out if her and the rest of the Morgans had arrived at the meeting spot yet. It was a couple minutes before I got an answer back from my best friend, but I eventually found out that she and the rest of the Morgans had arrived.
I let her know that we were on the way there and would be arriving in a few minutes. Kate let me know where they were after that, so I went back to my messages with Hayden and asked him where he was. Once he had told me, I let him know that the Morgans were there and where they were. I also let him know that they wanted to search with us today so we should all meet where they were standing.
"Alright babe, where are we going?" Ben asked. I looked up and noticed that Ben had parked his car and that we were in the parking lot that we were meeting the search team at.
"Not too far from here. You picked a good spot," I replied as I unbuckled my seatbelt. Ben did the same and then we both go out of the car to find our families.