When Miss Polson dropped the geographic pin to where they were meeting on this occasion, Growden found himself to be rather hesitant. For one, he found it strange that she had decided to change from their usual meeting place at the coffee shop in the suburbs. For two, when he opened up the location on his phone's map system, the pin was a storage unit on the more questionable side of New York.
Why would she ever want to meet in a place like that? Growden sighed indignantly and gathered himself, before kissing Nessie good morning and starting her engine with a smooth purr. Whatever the reason was, Growden was relatively sure that the woman had no motivation to harm him. He had no money to be claimed, no enemies he was aware of, and information that she gravely sought.
When he pulled up to the unit, he shot the woman a text message, asking which unit she was in. She replied a few minutes later and Growden started to doubt himself. Perhaps she didn't mean to harm him yet. It was possible the information was more important than he realised and she would be compelled to dispose of him once she had gotten it. The discomfort swelled into a nauseousness in his stomach as he gritted his teeth.
He decided his notion was likely ridiculous, but not impossible. With his mind made up, he slid the boxcutter in his backseat into the pocket of his trousers. He then gathered his other necessary belongings and strutted into the building with his usual flippant manner. It was best when in a tight spot to be calculated, but not to the point of alarming the other party that you were doing so. He found the unit easily enough and knocked twice. It was one of the usual, ratty sliding doors and the sound of it screeching open made Growden vastly more irritable than he had been before.
When Secoiya opened the door and ushered him inside, the young man was perplexed to see it held not a single item. It was just a cement floor and shabby yellow-white walls. Surely if she did mean to kill him, this was a great spot for it. He was halfway surprised there wasn't a plastic sheet on the ground.
"Sorry about the oddity."
Growden allowed a face of disgust and nodded at her words as he planted his achy body on the floor. Strange as this was, he had visited stranger places.
"No worry ma'am. Anyhow I found quite a few things of interest in Miss Alvarsson's files, are you prepared?"
Secoiya tucked the button-up shirt into her blue jeans and took a seat across from the boy, watching him expectantly.
"Asia Alvarsson had a digital copy of an old journal in her files. It was missing some entries and they're all in Icelandic, I was unable to find a way to translate them unfortunately."
Secoiya nodded. If necessary, she could arrange for the journals to be translated rather easily, making the matter inconsequential. Growden flipped to the next page on his yellowing notepad.
"The file belonged to her mother, and there was another file where she took bits from the journals and kept a series of personal notes on them. From that file, I could tell that Asia's mother was the victim to some sort of demented experimentation. How or why she came to be in the predicament, it doesn't say."
Secoiya furrowed her brows now. She pondered the time she spent on Alvarsson island with Irena Alvarsson and Melkior as their bodyguard. Suddenly she found it very odd and damning that the woman always wore heavy, modest clothing. Perhaps there had been something darker going on, but why?
"The file goes on to mention that Irena was worried about Melkior. It mentions he had a scientific obsession that she was entangled in but I couldn't quite figure what sort or how it all happened."
Secoiya nodded. This was surely a lot to digest but every detail led her just that bit closer to stopping Melkior Alvarsson from killing Adriel.
"There's one more thing."
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Secoiya had been pacing back and forth for several minutes now. She deliberated on the matter closely, carefully. Whatever information there was to be gained could either be something very necessary to understanding or the nudes of a twenty year old woman.
Adriel was already sure to be furious already, she had hired a PI to investigate his younger sister without either himself or her being aware of it. Secoiya was pretty sure he could never forgive her if she had also allowed two different men to hack into her locked files and discover naked pictures of her. The woman bit her lip roughly.
Not to mention, she only knew of one hacker she could call and she very desperately wanted to avoid doing so if she were able. It wasn't that the prices were high or that they wouldn't do whatever she asked, it was rather stubbornness. They had a strained relationship, to say the least.
Suddenly, Secoiya remembered just what she was doing all of this for. Two of the children that she had cared for and raised from youth until and after their mother's passing were in grave danger. These two sunny blonde monsters were every bit as precious to her as her own children and she would do anything necessary to protect them. Including taking the risk of losing both of them.
"Growden, dear?"
The boy's blonde mop waved as he looked up at her with curious eyes. He'd been very patient and amenable to her requests so far, something that was rather convenient at the moment. Perhaps she'd keep his number in the event she had another matter that required outside help.
"I'm going to make a phone call so we can hack the locked file. I'll only be stepping out for a moment, do you mind?"
The boy nodded his head, seemingly unaffected by her words. She stepped from the room and sucked in a slow, deep breath before she dialled the number.
Growden had watched the older woman exit the room with analytical eyes. Her body language tightened at the shoulders and hands, like she was preparing for some matter of battle. He pondered just who exactly she meant to call but he quickly reminded himself that some matters were better left a mystery.
Fifteen minutes passed with the two of them passing time in their own ways. Secoiya took to playing a mindless mobile game while Growden picked at the peeling skin about his fingernails. Soon enough, the file on the boy's screen unlocked and he gestured for Secoiya to come over and study his screen.
The file contained nearly three hundred photos.
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