The Lost Days (10 page)

Day 9

Back to sleeping days. Up all night and it feels so right.

Met Schneider at the minipark. He says there are no missing persons that match my description. Terrible news, but he says not to let it worry me and that other leads are bound to turn up. Gave him my list of questions for him to research:

1. Owner of mystery van, license plate 51916 IBC?
   
2. Story of mystery van—Why was it impounded and when?
   
3. What happened to Rachel, former employee of the El Dungeon?
   
4. Background check on Raven—How does she run a business when she can’t even complete a sentence? Seriously, who hired her?
   
5. Has she spent time in institutional learning facilities?
   
6. Background check on Attikol—How did he get his money, does he have a criminal record, etc.?
   
7. Where is the black rock this town is named after?
   
8. What’s with all the beige paint?
   
9. And all the tree stumps?
   
10. Is there a veterinarian in Blackrock and can I get the address?
    
11. Any news on buildings getting shifted one inch to the east?
    
12. Did Rachel have any teenage daughters?
    
13. How long does it take to get over amnesia?
    

Also told him my current theory, which admittedly needs work: Rachel is actually my mother and the owner of that amazing van. Raven is her mentally challenged, beautiful, extremely evil twin sister. I had been living with my father in another town until his sudden, tragic death, when I came here to live with my mother. Meanwhile, Raven killed Rachel so she could take over the El Dungeon and…be…popular?? (OK. Motive needs work. No telling why anyone would want to take over the El Dungeon.) (Also, no telling why I think they would be twins…Did I see a movie with this plot, or what? Naturally I don’t remember.) When I arrived, Raven tried to kill me. (See illustration of my bruises on Day 1. Obviously souvenirs of some kind of foul play!) But I survived and only lost my memories. Now that the residents of Blackrock have seen me around, she’s playing nice until she gets another chance to get me out of the way.

Schneider took notes and said it showed a lot of imagination. He also asked me where I thought Attikol fit in. Actually, I don’t think he fits in at all; I just want to know his story in case there’s anything I can use to embarrass him.

And the black rock, well, that’s just pure idle curiosity. Schneider said he assumed the town’s founder, Emma LeStrande, gave the town that name, and he didn’t know why. Probably some personal reason. He suggested that I might enjoy going down to the library and checking out their extensive collection of historical documents on her. I’d rather watch milk sour.

Later

It takes forever for milk to sour, even when you are encouraging it with all the power of your mind.

As a sort of side benefit to trying to watch milk sour, I ended up spying on Raven for many hours. She does very little unless people are placing espresso orders. It’s hard to imagine her plotting to kill a fly, let alone a person. But she’s suspicious as hell, all right. For one thing, she never sleeps. At least I can’t figure out when she sleeps. Or eats—I’ve never seen her eat a thing. She doesn’t drink coffee. And if no one’s talking to her, her eyes get unfocused and you can practically watch her shutting down. I think she’s up to no good, for sure. I wonder if it’s worthwhile to check out her “secret” back room? Ehhh…Maybe if she weren’t sitting in front of it 24/7. Zang, too bad she’s NOT going on that date with Attikol.

Later

Typical evening at the El Dungeon. Ümlaut flirting with Raven, Curls trying to impress Ümlaut, HamHawk trying to keep his chess pieces away from Ümlaut’s friends, Ümlaut’s friends playing Calamity Poker (and all the swearing and acrobatics that go along with that), chairs breaking the front windows, police stopping by for their nightly payoff from Ümlaut…yep, not much interesting going on. Sorted another huge pile of junk mail, swept the floor, gave espresso machine a tune-up. Will report back if anything worthwhile happens.

Later

Spied on Raven until around one in the morning, then the cats and I went back to the impound yard. I had brought a piece of wire, a toothpick, and a hairpin, which I thought might be helpful in picking those locks.

They WERE helpful. How did I learn to pick locks? Interesting.

Inside, the van was a little disappointing. There were tubes and wires and stuff everywhere, but it looked to me like they were just for show. So it’s an art car. Not a mobile laboratory. But still, pretty cool.

Hunted all over the van looking for clues and was just about to give up when I remembered to look under the seats. I was feeling around under the driver’s seat when I found something metal that felt like a lever, so I pulled it, and there was this unlatching sound, and a little hidden compartment clicked open in the side of the van. Sweet! And inside was a cat collar like Miles’s and NeeChee’s with a tag for “Sabbath”! Asked the cats, and sure enough, the one with the shredded ear, the Cat Formerly Known as Cabbage, answers to “Sabbath”! I put the collar on him. This is GOOD stuff—a solid link between the van and the cats! I bet the van and the cats were Rachel’s.
And that makes it even more likely she didn’t leave under good circumstances—because what kind of person would leave their cats behind, unless there was foul play? And I bet the cats have adopted me because I am so much like her. Am looking forward to finding the last collar.

Sabbath

I found one other thing in the van worth writing about. I think it pretty much confirms my theory that Raven is a cold-blooded murderer who killed Rachel, my mother, most likely after a riproaring, hairpulling struggle inside the van.

It’s a chunk of her wig.

Very, very late, or early, depending on how you look at it

Hung out at Jakey’s and didn’t leave until around dawn. He has this game called Brats Blow Chunks that we both just had to beat. It took a while.

Hadn’t seen him since my ordeals with Police and School. It was kind of nice how, when he first saw me, he looked worried for about a second, and then he just started laughing.