It was definitely too early to be awake, but we needed to get a quick start if we were ever going to find this guy. We drove from the motel to UPenn, grabbed quick breakfast at the cafeteria and then found ourselves staring at the directory. We were given a map; we followed on campus and reached the Education Commons on Franklin Field. Vlad looked for anything suspicious while I interviewed a couple of students there. Our contact, a sweet old lady had given us a lead that there had been a rumor floating around that a couple of years back an incident had occurred at the university in the same fashion as our most recent case. She had been married to a guy that worked from time to time at the libraries--a custodian.
He had a son that went to the university, who eventually graduated and then stayed, becoming a recruiter for one of the fraternities there. That same year, he was a victim in a hit-and-run which claimed his life. Sandra, our contact, said that after the incident, her husband was never the same. He would refuse to go to therapy with her and eventually left her--no reason or explanation. He hadn't been seen since. The rumor got even weirder when she mentioned one of the professors from the university had met her for a coffee one day and told her that she had spotted someone that resembled her ex-husband.
The Education Commons was one of the three libraries that he frequented the most. It seemed like a leap, but the line had been set and we were eager to bite.
"Thank you, I really appreciate it," I told blondie-with-the-ripped-jeans as I walked up to where Vlad was. "Any luck, buddy?"
"HURR YES. IT SEEMS HE FREQUENTED THIS LIBRARY IN PARTICULAR BECAUSE OF THE NEARBY COFFEE STOP. THERE IS SOMEONE THERE WE NEED TO TALK TO. A BARISTA. HRMM. IS IT TRUE?"
"What's true?" I noticed Vlad caught a glimpse of the girl I was talking to.
"GIRLS ACTUALLY PAY FOR JEANS LIKE THAT."
"Haha, yeah, buddy. And it seems as the years go by they get even more shredded."
"IT'S LIKE TWO STRANDS OF STRING HOLDING EVERYTHING TOGETHER. HURR HURR."
"Focus, okay, we need to go to this coffee stand. Where is it?
"CLOSE BY."
"Okay well, let's go... I'm still not fully awake yet, so coffee sounds really fucking good right about now."
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