Page 61 of Two Marlboros

“No, of course not,” and on the desk I laid the briefcase as well. “But I think it may help us in the investigation.”

“Here, by the way,” retorted Ashton, who walked over and, arms folded, stood next to me semi-sitting on the edge of the table. “I’d say we regroup.”

“Alright,” I replied. Meanwhile, I had opened my briefcase and was pulling out files and notes. After I had emptied the briefcase I turned to my colleague, who, still with his arms crossed, was staring at me with a half-smile.

“So? How was the party? Found anything?”

“No, nothing,” I hastened to reply.

“What do you mean ‘nothing’? Not even a tiny clue? A lead, anything?”

I shrugged. “I met Nathan’s friends.”

Especially one, I wanted to say. And I thanked my lucky stars I had only thought that.

“Alright. And...?”

“One is some kind of pervert, another looks like he swallowed a machine gun, and yet another,” Harvey, “is an asshole.”

“How does that help us with the investigation?”

I shrugged again. “I don’t know.”

Ashton sighed, after which he rolled his eyes. “Next times I’ll take care of matters like this.”

I huffed annoyed but he said nothing. He was right, I should have gotten anything else out of that sort of date, certainly not a hangover.

“Whatever,” he bellowed. “With Nathan, how did it go?”

Nathan at the party. Nathan on the couch. Nathan in the dream. I grabbed the files and placed them on the desk, next to my chair.

“Can we change the subject?”

“Why?”

I shot him a look that was enough to wipe that smile off his face. A doubt came into my mind that Nathan might have told him something - and I prayed that he hadn’t.

“Weren’t we supposed to talk about the investigation?” I replied, to deflect attention. “Or did I miss something?”

He raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, alright. You got it, boss.”

As we both sat at my desk, Ashton told me about his investigation of Nathan’s work circle, but not much emerged. He had talked to a colleague he was close to, a Molly Daphner. She seemed to be a very cheerful and friendly chick, but it seemed she didn’t know anyone with green eyes like that. With his other coworkers, Nathan hadn’t made much of a friend, and they hadn’t been able to tell him much about him or his acquaintances.

From the party, I had guessed instead that the boys he had introduced me to were the ones he had befriended the most. I remembered all their names and had already applied for those enrolled in the same major as Nathan. It wouldn’t have taken long to find someone with light green eyes, if there were any.

I told Ashton in detail about the visit to the Cossners’ house, Michael’s disappearance and the logo found in his notebooks; then I went on to talk about the boy with the tattooed hand who had lost that card with the same logo drawn by Michael. I concluded by opening the magazine to the article about the leader of the Wit Matrix and pointed out the tattooed hand, as well as the club’s logo, which now had a name.

Ashton listened intently, nodding, and asking for confirmation, but I was also quite pensive. The more I looked at that image, the more it seemed to be hiding some answers. The tattoo consisted of a circular floral motif, inside of which was a small, dark, elongated nub. The floral pattern extended to the root of my fingers, but focusing on that detail did nothing to avoid the return of the frame of Nathan resting his lips on mine - the favorite piece of my imagination, it seemed.

I chased that thought away and went back to looking at the photo and the logo, but I could not find the element that could give us that breakthrough I had been waiting for; I could feel it there, on the tip of my tongue, determined not to be spit out. I went over that blurry image point by point, but the illumination did not come even then.

“Don’t obsess about it, give me a break,” Ash suggested, then stood up and stretched his back and neck. “When you stop thinking about it, it will come by itself.”

“Yes, it’s just...”

It’s just that I have thoughts to stifle, would have been the right answer. “I feel the answer is near,” I replied instead.

Ashton turned to me and motioned for me to follow him.

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