Page 61 of Dirty Daria
“Was he mean to you?”
“No more than usual,” I say. “He’s just upset.”
“Q, does this look like the guy you met at the Fun Zone?” She shows me a crudely drawn picture that vaguely resembles him.
“Yeah, his nose was a little thinner, but for the most part, yes.”
“Do you remember anything more about his friends that came to meet you?”
“No. They had just arrived when Reed took the header off the barstool. I don’t even remember their names,” I say.
“But his was definitely Theo?” she asks.
“That’s what he told me.”
Daria nods. “I’m going to have Alyssa try to find them using the sketches. It’s a long shot but maybe we’ll find some sort of connection between them and David.”
“Oh cool! Hey, do you think she’ll teach me how to be a computer hacker?”
“I don’t know if it’s quite that easy,” Daria says. “But you can ask.”
“I love that I’m part of the team now,” I tell her.
“You aren’t part of the team,” Daria says. “There is no team.”
“Uh huh, sure.” I wiggle my fingers at them over my shoulder. “I’m going to take a quick shower before dinner. You have approximately fifteen minutes of alone time.”
“I’ll give you a hundred bucks if you make it twenty,” Mack says.
“Deal,” I call back.
28
Mack
Aside from finally getting Daria to agree to give our relationship another shot, the trip to Maldives is a bust. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful place and I am enjoying it. But it isn’t truly a vacation, not for Reed and me. Well, not for me anyway.
Reed spent the first half of the trip drunk and the second half drunkandon pills, thanks to his sprained neck debacle. Knowing someone tried to roofie my little Cutie is unnerving. But, if it had to happen, the fact that it did when all three of us were there with her was fortuitous.
Part of me wonders what would have happened if she’d been the one to drink her cocktail and not Reed. Daria and I were obviously preoccupied, and Reed incapacitated. Would someone have been able to get her out of the club and into their car? Is it coincidence that Quinn was (to be) drugged while on the same islandandat the same time as Tremblay?
Ordinarily, I don’t believe in coincidences. But, fuck, how else do I explain the things that happened on this trip? The very next day after we hit up the Fun Zone, Tremblay went with Laurel. As near as I could tell he didn’t talk to anyone else, just hung out with his wife while his two goons shadowed him in the background. Meaning I spent another sixty-five dollars to get in, just to sit in the corner with a glass of iced tea and watch him do close to nothing the entire time. They had some drinks, played on the swings, and hung out in the bounce house. That was it. No face-to-face contact with anyone else that day or during the remainder of his trip.
Granted, we did not have the time to set up our own video surveillance in the hotel, but I was able to gain access to their security footage. It’s mostly elevators and stairwells on the floors that house guest rooms, and then of course all the walkways and common areas; not super useful for what I needed.
What would have been helpful was a twenty-four-hour, seven day a week recording of the door to Tremblay’s room. I could have had Daria bring some recording devices, and in truth I’m surprised she didn’t, but I refuse to rely on her connections and abilities to do my job.
That’s a lie.
Sometimes I refuse to, other times I welcome anything she can assist me with.
Reed’s been all but useless on this trip but I’m still giving him leeway since he’s spiraling down into some emotional fugue since we found out about Tremblay, and now couple that with a sprained neck and mild concussion; he’s a fucking train wreck.
Everything with the trip would have been easier to handle if I wasn’t worried about him.
Or Daria.
Or Quinn.
