14.

Alex

S unday morning, I decide I'm ready to make my move. I'll be getting my first paycheck relatively soon, which means I'm going to start looking for the right private investigator to take my case. I've never hired someone before, so I watch a few YouTube and TikTok videos about the process before I finally get up the nerve to go meet with someone.

The person I choose to talk with is named Molly Montgomery. She's tall, skinny, and has long blonde hair that flows to the middle of her back. She looks like she's a respectable sort of person. Not shady. I'm not really sure what I thought I'd get when I started looking up "private investigators in my area," but it wasn't her.

Molly's office is a single room with a couch against one wall, a desk against the other, and two chairs in the center of the room with a table between them. We sit at the table and I place a folder on the center.

"How can I help you?" Molly asks. She cuts right to the chase. No bullshit. I like that.

"My brother and I were put into foster care fifteen years ago. We were separated. I haven't seen him since."

I expect Molly to say that she's sorry or that she knows this is unfair, but she doesn't. Instead, she just nods and reaches for the folder.

"Have you gotten in touch with him at all?"

"No."

"Have any information on his foster homes?"

"Nope."

"Checked high schools in the area to see if he attended or graduated?"

I pause. No. I didn't do that. Shit. Why the hell didn't I do that? Molly doesn't seem bothered or upset by this.

"Siren City is big. The surrounding towns have a ton of little schools, and let's get real: they wouldn't be giving that information out to you, anyway. I've got resources, though. I've got connections. That's where I'd like to start. If I can catch him in middle school or high school, chances are that his pictures are going to be in some yearbooks. Elementary school is more iffy."

"We both went to Silver Central Middle School," I tell her. "I was in 8 th grade and he was in 6 th ."

"That's great," Molly smiles. "That's a great start. What else?"

"Um, his birth name is Aaron Samuel Sparrow."

She cringes, and I know why.

"Unfortunate initials."

"Yeah, my mom didn't think it through."

"Birthday?"

"I've got all of that right here." I push a little envelope closer to her. "It's everything I know about Aaron."

"Why now?"

"I finally have money," I admit. "Well, almost. I get my first paycheck from Shadowvale Industries in a couple of weeks, and that's when I'd like to officially book you."

"You didn't want to do this sooner?"

She's not judging me. She's just curious. I'm okay with that. I like the way she sounds kind when she's asking me.

"I wanted to," I admit. "But I wasn't really sure how to, you know?"

"I get that. It's hard when you don't have any resources. It's even harder when you feel alone." Her voice suddenly sounds soft. Gentle. I wonder if there is more to Molly than meets the eye. Did she lose someone close to her once? Maybe that's why she's a P.I.

"Listen," I say. "I don't expect this to start right now. I mostly wanted to know if you think you can help and if you can give me a price range. I want to find my brother more than anything, but I'm also working on a budget."

"Totally fine," she says. Molly waves her hand. "I'd love to help. I'll start digging now. Here's my rate. Here's what I think it's going to cost you. Could be less. I don't overbill." She writes down a series of numbers on a piece of paper and slides it my way.

When I glance at the paper, I nod. It's not as high as I thought it would be. Maybe I really should have done this years ago.

"Yeah," I finally say. "This is good. I'm good with this." I look back up at her. "I'll be back in three weeks."

"I'll have an update," she grins.