Chereads / The Sleeping Delicatessen / Chapter 5 - JOSEPHINE

Chapter 5 - JOSEPHINE

The next day, at five pm after work, I decided to give the bag back to the owner. So, I went to the owner's address indicated in the ID. I took a taxi to get there. When I arrived at the owner's address, I politely knocked at the door. The door opened after I knocked three times and then it revealed a good-looking middle-aged woman and she greeted me with a smile.

"Uh Hi, I'm Jules Evennette and I'm looking for Josephine Larsson, is she here? Or are you her? I need to give her bag back to her. She kind of left it at the train station yesterday evening."

"Oh, I see. Well thank you. Um, Josephine is my mother. Please, come inside Ms. Evennette so I can thank you formally" the woman said.

"No, it's okay, I am just here to just drop by and give the bag to Josephine and then head home" I said.

"No, I insist. I am grateful that you gave my mother's bag back. Only few people will probably do that nowadays. And I want to thank you." The woman said sincerely. And since she looked sincere and kind, I came inside her house.

"You may sit. Please feel free and comfortable. Umm. Do you want drinks? Like coffee? Tea? Anything?

"Thank you, I think I'll just have water" I said.

"She is currently at the stadium watching hockey with my son. But she'll be back after. Thank you for giving back her bag. Well she called me yesterday thinking that she left her bag at my apartment while bonding with my daughter Lisa, and I was looking for her bag and it wasn't really there and I correctly remembered that she really has her bag when she left at the apartment. By the way, I haven't introduced myself to you. I am Adalia Larsson, I am my mother's daughter. I am currently working at a law firm here in San Francisco. How about you?" Adalia said.

I was just kind of staring at her while she's talking. Because she looked familiar, I just don't know where I saw her. And I also was kind of reading her because that is how I know if a person is telling truth or just making up stories through the eyes and their gestures. In fairness for her she looked candid.

"I work at a company as a photo journalist. Well it wasn't really my first choice but I have come to like it and get used to it anyway." I said.

"That sounds good. Because as for me, my first job was my first choice and I used to like it and then I don't know, maybe I found something better. Better job. Not that my first job isn't good but I just like helping people by giving them the justice they need through the help of my staff. And yeah it felt good working like that." Adalia expressed.

I can see sincerity and kindness to Adalia's eyes while she talked. She said her previous company that she's been working had asked her to go back and offered her a bigger salary than her regular one but she didn't take it because she already had invested love and effort to her recent law firm.

A moment later after Adalia talked about her experience on her earlier job, an old woman entered the door and greeted us happily.

"Good day daughter, you brought a friend." The old woman said.

"Yeah Hi mom, this is Jules, my new friend and she brought me your bag earlier. She said you left it at the train station last night." Adalia said.

"I see, I must've forgotten it after I went to the grocery store. You see I helped a woman picked up some orange fruit that she dropped on the ground then after that I got onto the dairy products area to get some of my favorite brand of butter but the grocery staff said they ran out of stock of that specific brand, so I have no choice but to buy the regular ones. Then I went on the train after checking out the groceries. Then I remember that there's other store that sells the same brand of butter that I used to buy at the supermarket but I just can't remember the name of the store and when the train stopped, I quickly get up and picked up the groceries to get home. Well maybe that's the reason why I forgot to carry my bag. I overthink about the store or my favorite butter haha" Josephine said.

"Uh, yeah. Actually, I was the one who dropped the oranges. I'm sorry you had to help me pick up the oranges Josephine." I said.

"Really? It was you? What a coincidence! it's alright Jules I like to help people and you had many oranges to pick up that night so I would be so rude not to help you" Josephine replied.

After having a few conversations with Josephine and Adalia, I immediately got home to rest for second and continue my investigation about Mrs. Owens's case. I tried visiting articles online about the missing people in our town and read all of it carefully hoping to find something that could help me find where the missing people are or to identify if they are still alive at this moment. So, I found out that the last time Mrs. Owen and her grandchild has seen was when they went at the flower shop early afternoon to buy some flowers because her granddaughter Kittsey likes daisies according to Mrs. Owen's friend Emma who saw both Mrs. Owen and her grandchild that time. I am quite doubtful on the statement report from the police because I remembered Mr. Owen's written statement that Mrs. Owen and Kittsey went missing after doing groceries, but Mr's Owen's friend Emma says that both went to the flower shop. Maybe after they went to the groceries, they headed to the flower shop. I guess I'll just assume that. But how could they get lost if they went to a known place with people around them to see what is going on. I kept on thinking to any possible places near the groceries or flower shop where they could go without much people to see them. Or maybe nobody noticed them because the kidnapper pretended to be Mrs. Owen's colleague that she's too old to remember or something. After many hours of surfing the internet looking for some answers or evidences that could help, I noticed an advertisement popped on my computer. The ad says; easy game, play and win a plane ticket to Tokyo Japan. Right after that I read the advertisement, I suddenly remembered a ticket. A ticket which I found at Mrs. Owen's drawer at her room. I think it was a ticket to an amusement park, probably an exclusive one because the ticket looks so new to me. The reason why I say that because I've gone to many amusement parks in the city and the ticket looks the same every year and that's because only one family runs the amusement park business, and my former high school classmate's father is currently managing it.

After several minute, my head hurts and it was throbbing like hell inside. Then I blacked out. When I woke up, I felt good because I know I am trying my best in helping people.