Arbel went into the video that Sofia had sent her
"I'm telling you ahead, it's only about 15 seconds long," she informed Rosie, who was Leaning against the window next to her.
Rosie shrugged, her red hair smushed against the window glass
"Better than nothing, right?"
Arbel pressed play
It was clear that the video had been filmed in a mall, Arbel could easily identify which area it was in. In the food court, Leo and Sofia, who was holding the phone so Arbel couldn't see her, were sitting at one of the old plastic tables there. In front of them was a bowl of chips that they had probably abandoned in the middle
"Leo is wearing the blue shirt that I hate" she complained to Rosie
Rosie grinned "Try to focus on the important parts please "
So Arbel focused on the important part, which was the girl standing in the center of the video screaming at Leo with a red face.
Arbel had to admit that she was pretty. Probably prettier if she wasn't screaming her life away, but still, pretty. Brown skin and a good frame. She looked athletic, something about the way her arm muscles moved that made Arbel believe she was doing sports, or at least naturally strong.
Arbel assumed her black hair was also beautiful, long and shiny, but in the video it was wild and messy, half in and half out of a ponytail. The hair along with the hand movements, the red face and of course the screaming really gave the girl a... unstable look.
"Do you know her?" Rosie asked with interest.
Arbel shook her head. "No, you?" She held the phone closer to Rosie.
Rosie looked at the phone for a few seconds, her green eyes narrowing in concentration.
"No-" she said disappointedly "-which is strange because she looks closer to our age than Leo's."
Arbel looked at the screen again and nodded in agreement. The girl was clearly older than Leo, at least a year or two. Which probably supported what Sophia said, it made more sense that she was in Cory's circle of friends than Leo's.
"What is she yelling about anyway?" Rosie asked, she lifted her legs and placed them on Arbel's lap.
Arbel shifted a little to a comfortable position and lifted the phone to her ear, trying to hear over the sounds of the bus.
"More or less what Sophia said-" she passed it to Rosie "Wait I'll tell you word for word"
Then Arbel restarted the video and began quoting the words:
"She asks him if he was at her house, threatens to kill him-"
Arbel furrowed her brow, a bad taste in her mouth
"She says someone named Creed worked on everyone, and that he killed everyone and that everyone is dead-"
"A lot of death" Rosie noted dryly
"-Leo tries to calm her down, but he does it in his calm, unemotional voice and it seems to annoy her more-"
And indeed the sound of the slap coming from the phone was loud enough that even Rosie heard it, her face mix With empathy as if she was the one who got hit.
it sounded painful
Arbel took the phone away from her ear
"She ran away just now, and Leo called her but she ignored it. Her name is probably Carmen, because that's what Leo called her, so I guess we at least have a name"
"Two names-" Rosie corrected "-She also said the name Creed earlier"
"Oh right" Arbel understood.
She looked at her phone again and whistled, "See the mark on his cheek?" She pointed at Leo in the video
"Carmen really threw all her strength into that slap."
Rosie blew out a breath and a red curl flew a few inches into the air and then fell back down. "Don't we all want to slap Leo in the face every now and then?"
Arbel didn't argue with that.
She rewound the video and took a screenshot of the frame with the best, clearest picture of Carmen.
"What are you doing?" Rosie asked.
"I'll Google her face, if she's been in any articles or has a Facebook account it should find her."
Rosie frowned. "With a picture that bad too?" she asked skeptically.
Arbel shrugged. "Maybe?"
She entered the image into the search engine and clicked. It took the internet a few seconds to reset itself before these results came up.
"Nothing-" Arbel grumbled "-shit"
She tried a few other pictures from the video but the result, or lack thereof, was the same.
Either the pictures were really too bad, or somehow this Carmen doesn't have an online presence at all.
"I couldn't find a Carmen who looked like her on Instagram or Facebook-" Rosie updated her "-I don't think she even has an Instagram account"
Arbel breathed a sigh of frustration.
Carmen was annoying. She can't both slap Arbel's brother and not exist on any social network. She should choose one.
"Check Corey's account-" Arbel finally suggested, feeling a little desperate
"-if she knows Corey, maybe he's following her"
Rosie hummed to herself but said nothing, just kept scrolling through her phone.
Arbel leaned back, feeling the vibration of the bus in her spine.
Are they even headed in the right direction? They didn't know for sure that the reason Leo had disappeared had anything to do with Cory.
It was a bit of a leap to conclusions. And now that they'd added Carmen to the mix, it felt like they were getting further and further away from the original direction.
And Arbel didn't know where it would end.
She almost fell asleep when Rosie woke her up with a scream.
Arbel's eyes widened and she punched Rosie "You scared me" she complained
Rosie Rosie didn't care "I found Carmen" she smiled
Arbel tensed "What? Where?"
Rosie turned the phone towards her "One of the pictures on Cory's account. She's not tagged, but it's definitely her"
And indeed, as Rosie said, Arbel saw Carmen in the picture.
It was a picture on a couch of Cory and two girls. And one of the girls was clearly Carmen.
She looked the same, only maybe a little more... healthy?Healthier than the video. But other than that The picture couldn't be old.she lookd the same.
Cory was leaning back with his hands on the back of the couch, Carmen crossed her legs with her third finger in the air and the other girl, a girl with curly hair and a wide smile.
"Oh my God," Arbel gasped, "so they did know each other."
Rosie nodded "At least they knew each other enough to take a picture together, Sofia was right."
Arbel clicked on the photo and was surprised to see that Carmen wasn't tagged, but the other girl was.
Her name was Lucy, and Arbel tried to remember that the name sounded familiar to her somehow.
It was not.
Lucy had a private account, so Arbel had no choice but to request a follower and hope for the best.
But still, she felt a little better.
Maybe they weren't as far from the truth as she feared.