Arbel was used to mess, so she didn't react to the chaos in Leo's room. Rosie, on the other hand, was shocked. It took Arbel a minute to convince her that Leo's room hadn't been broken into, that it was just the way his room was.
"How does he live like this?" she complained.
Arbel shook her head, "Who knows," she shrugged, and went back to work.
She didn't know exactly where to start.
She had no experience in conducting a thorough search for clues.
It was Rosie who started searching Leo's shelves, so Arbel decided to go to the drawers in his desk.
She almost felt bad about the invasion of privacy, but after Leo had disappeared without saying anything, fuck him.
Arbel did her best to ignore from the ruined photos. She hadn't touched them since the cops left, and she wasn't planning on starting now.
She didn't know what explanation there was for this, she didn't even think it needed an explanation. Kids do weird things, and that's what Leo was, after all, a kid.
So she pushed the unpleasant feeling away as deeply as she could.
She searched through textbooks and homework sheets. Leo had too many things on the table, including cups and kitchen utensils.
"Did you find anything?" Arbel asked.
She could hear Rosie moving books around.
"A lot of creepy books, but it's not new information. Leo has always liked horror stories."
Rosie made a surprised noise. "He's got some good crap here-" she was impressed. "-Do you think I can borrow some?"
Arbel turned to see Rosie picking up a book about demons with a disgusting picture.
"After we find him, you can take whatever you want," she replied and returned.
It took a few minutes but Arbel sighed and announced that there was nothing on the desk. Rosie had already moved to the wardrobe for some reason.
There, of course, she found nothing, but she did complain about Leo's lack of variety in clothes.
Arbel looked at the floor and the ceiling and the walls. She turned his bed over and checked under it but there was nothing.
Rosie couldn't find anything either and was already waiting for her by the door ready to go out.
But Arbel couldn't, not yet. She was desperate and she had to find something, anything.
Rosie saw her face and sighed "You know him best-" Rosie tried to help "-Where would Leo hide something?"
Arbel frowned and looked again. Not looking for something strange, but something strange for Leo.
It was actually Rosie who answered this time "Why does he have flower pots?" Rosie wondered aloud.
The words got stuck in Arbel's throat. She knew exactly when Leo had planted them. Three weeks ago, she knew because she had bought him the fertilizer for them. If so, she didn't know why he wanted to start planting in the first place. She thought it was just a passing hobby. But maybe... maybe it wasn't.
She and Rosie turned to the windows and began searching the potting soil.
They found nothing.
Arbel screamed in frustration.
She turned and knocked on the wall, hearing something sway and looking up at it.
Her eyes focused on the painting on the wall that had moved due to her tantrum.
It was a nice painting of a grassy hill overlooking the sea.
The problem was that Leo hated paintings. Especially paintings of landscapes that he or anyone he knew hadn't painted. He had said time and time again that he preferred personal things to a painting that he's sure dozens of other people had.
So why did he have a painting on the wall?
Arbel threw the painting on the floor and Rosie called out to her to stop. Probably thinking she was still in her tantrum.
Arbel ignored it and bent down, taking out from the back of the painting a crumpled stack of papers that were pushed and folded in the corner of the frame.
"Bingo," she said.