ch22 additions

"Bro, if you wreck this car, we're gonna get like a billion licks with the cane."

"Sorry," I murmured.  The lack of sleep and panic made it nearly impossible to react to the moderate Seattle traffic.  Unfortunately Violet had never gotten a license, so couldn't drive us anywhere.

"I gotta be an asshole and go a few pennies over budget.  Ha.  I'll tell Gabe it was all me so you don't get in trouble.  I just wanna see the look on his face."

My tummy grumbled.  Gabe caring about our budget was the least of my worries.  Sage wouldn't give up any info about me — she's good at giving only the bare minimum.  But Violet was really good at collecting evidence and putting clues together.  She'd already gotten this much in such a short amount of time.... what could she extract from this meeting with Sage?

"What's the case even about?"

"Someone leaked a clinical trial to the media that shows Winters Corp knew this pill killed a lot of people but put it on the market anyway with falsified results.  He thinks this Pattie Cake girl framed him, though."

"What do you think?"

"I dunno.  Winters is a greedy bastard, so it wouldn't surprise me if the leaked stuff were true.  But Gabe is convinced Pattie Cake girl is a good lead."

"So what if you find her?  Then what?"

She shrugged.  "I have to prove that she forged the leaked paperwork."

"How would you do that?"

"I'm not sure yet..."

"What if it's not her?  Seems more likely someone would want to get Winters out and take over the company themselves."

"I wouldn't put it past them.  Winters makes bank."

x-x-x-x

I pulled into Sage's driveway, parking and grabbing the door handle.

"You stay here," Violet ordered.  "I'll call if I need back-up."

"But I think most of the time they have two people go in.  If you want to make it more realistic, I mean."

She glared at me, not appreciating that I was questioning her authority.  "Bro, this is my case.  I got this."  Then practically slammed the door in my face.

Violet went up to knock on the door and Sage's grandma answered, sending a pang through my chest as I thought of my own.  Memories of videocalls until the middle of the night danced in my mind.  Tears came to the surface, missing my old life.

As my colleague disappeared into the house, I imagined the scene.  Grandma hollering out for Sage, who would come downstairs annoyed but compliant, then they would disappear back upstairs.  

We always chatted when Sage was in the basement.  That's where she kept all her secrets.  If I could get the info she had on Winters... then I could photoshop the pics and slip them to Violet.  

Their yappy dog would bark at me, so I broke off a piece of bacon from the meal I hadn't eaten.  When I slipped into the home, I fed it to her to keep her quiet, then crept down the basement stairs.

I had to ignore the nostalgia when I flipped on the lightswitch and saw all of Sage's equipment.  My dream had been so vivid and included all of the details currently in front of me.  The Winters file had to be around here somewhere.

x-x-x-x

"Who are you?  What are you doing down here?" Sage said, with a slight smirk as she realized what I was doing.  She eased towards me and Violet peered over her shoulder at me, slightly concerned.

"Your grandma let me in.  I was just looking for a restroom but I guess I got lost.  Silly me!"

Sage glared in my direction.  "The bathroom is down the hall."

"Oops!" I jogged up the stairs apologizing again to Sage and meeting up with Violet who looked annoyed.

"Thank you for your time, Miss Sawyer.  I will see you next week and please, if any questions, do not hesitate to call," then handed her a card.  

When we got back in the car, Violet turned to me, annoyed.  "I thought I told you to stay in the car."  She sounded scarily like Gabe and some part of me feared that she would spank me like she had Molly last night.  

Pushing away the fear, I thought of the only thing that would appease her.  "I got this," slipping the memory card out of my pocket.  "I'm sure it has her partner on it... Pattie Cake."

Violet snatched it from my hand then I saw her grin out of the corner of my eye.  "Yo that's badass but I'm sure it's password protected and encrypted and all that shit."

"I know a guy who can help," I said, taking the memory card back.  "What did you find out?"

"As expected, she dodged most of my questions, but I figured out that Pattie isn't from Chicago, she's from Detroit.  And... the golden nugget... she may not have been a minor when Winters fucked her.  She may have lied about her age, which means the video is irrelevant."

She knew much more than she needed.  "How'd you figure that out?"

"It's hard to explain, maybe it's more of a vibe I got.  Pattie was like a big sister to Sage... helped her come to terms with her sexuality.  Seems like both of them had shitty parents and probably bonded over that.  And just some of the dates and ages didn't match up very well.  I dunno.  I'll have to dig a little more later."

"How do you know about the shitty parents?"

"I listen to Molly and Toby too much.  I mean... how else are a couple of teens gonna pull off these scams?"

Fair point.

x-x-x-x

"Ok, we need to get to know each other better.  Pinky swear that everything we discuss in the next 6 hours is confidential and doesn't leave this room."  She held out her bony pinky finger.

"Deal."  I hooked my finger with hers, giggling at the grade school charade.  Inside I was still panicking but wanted to trust Violet.

"I've been dyin' to know, what's the deal with you and Sergeant Douche?  Are y'all an item?  Do ya sleep together?"

That was definitely not where I had expected her to go so suddenly.  Izaak had been far from my mind the last few hours.  No amount of weed could have stopped my blushing.  "Oh, um, no.  We're just friends."

"You don't like him like that or...?"

"I'm pretty sure I've been friend-zoned."

"Ha!  Hott bitches like you don't get friend-zoned!  I don't believe you.  You've known him how long?  And never fucked?  Your cheeks just get so red, it's cute."

"When we first met he just got out of a serious relationship that fucked him up.  And I was fucked up from my parents.  Neither of us wanted more than friendship."

Violet looked like she didn't believe me.  

"What?  It's true.  His girlfriend cheated and got pregnant by some dude but pretended like it was Izaak's for like 2 years."  I couldn't believe that I was divulging my roommate's personal information so carelessly — he was so private about that kinda stuff.  But I just had to keep the convo going and steer it away from me because I was too high for my filter to work very well.

"Ouch, that's brutal.  Makes sense he didn't want to open up for another girl.  But at least fuck?"

I sucked in a deep breath, wondering how to respond.  The truth was, I had no idea why we hadn't gotten physically intimate.  Izaak had never seemed interested.  I wasn't pretty or smart or put-together enough.  "Strictly friends.  Anyway, I'm more interested in Toby.  Tell me gossip about him."

"Yeah I noticed you got the hotts for him.  How was your date??  Did you smooch in front of the sunset?"

Ugh she really liked making me blush.  "We were just hanging out.  You've known him for a long time, right?  How'd you meet?"

"Actually that's a good story."  She took a long drag off the vape pen.  "I shot a guy once, and Toby's the one who helped me get off."  Violet said it so calmly and nonchalant that I thought I misheard.

"You did what?!"  

She nodded, frowning.  "Typical hood story, was mixed up with the wrong crowd, into stupid shit.  Got too fucked up one night, gambled everything away and was pissed at myself, but taking it out on everyone else.  Ended up starting a fight with Andy and his cuz, almost got arrested but Gabe saved me.  I guess in the process he talked shit about the guys, so they got taken to jail while I got off basically scot free.  

"But then a couple days later, my friend told me they were lookin' for Gabe, plannin’ to shoot him.  I didn't believe that shit, but knew they are crazy, so I took my BFF's brother's gun and went by Gabe's office.  When he was comin' out of the office this kid pulls out a glock and is about to shoot but I hit him first, right in the shoulder.  Got everyone's attention, ha."

My mouth was dropped, wondering if she was exaggerating.  As much as I'd conned people out of money, I'd never actually used a weapon or physically hurt someone.   

"I'm deadass.  It was fuckin' nuts."

"So what happened?  Gabe must've gotten you out of that, right?"

A rush of sadness washed over her eyes.  "Sorta.  We weren't on good terms to be honest.  Molly sent Toby to save me, and Gabe paid for it.  Toby's job at the time was manipulating juries to help his clients get out of trouble.  Kinda shady shit, but I was happy to have it cuz it worked."  

"You and Gabe have an interesting friendship..."

"Bro, you have no idea.  We had the worst argument and he said he never wanted to see my face again.  But I still felt the need to protect him from Andy and company.  It was my fault anyway for getting him involved.  Andy is fuckin' bad news.  He tried to get my brother deported.  That's why Vic and Molly got married."

"Wait..."

"I know, right?  Fuckin' telenovela.  It was to help him get papers.  This year he'll finally get his permanent residency and I guess they'll divorce or whatever.  Molly isn't interested in being in a non-spanko relationship."

"Why not?"

Violet shrugged.  "She has a specific type.  Older dudes, protective, dominant types.  Like Adam.  He's fuckin' hott.  What do you think about getting with a vanilla dude?  I don't think I could do it either."

"As long as he takes care of me, it's okay if he's vanilla... I think."