Nighthawk: A Superhero Story (closed for Siobhancan99)

[siobhancan99]

She was both relieved and disappointed that Ian turned out to be a dead end on this. Relieved he didn't get another of her friends killed, disappointed that it wasn't as easy as all that. "Listen, if Nick is going to hack its because he figures out her passwords, so everyone that spends much time with Hadley should go with Nick to suggest things that she might use as a password, right? unless you have some kind of brute force thing you're doing Nick."

She didn't want to blow Gabi off, and she preferred to work on her own, but they were all in this thing and if Gabi was with her she wasn't getting any wild ideas "How about Gabi and I go to Founder's square and just pop around to restaurants and see if she was in last night. Hit the taco trucks and stuff like that too.

Monica checked the masked vigilante email to see if Knapp reached out to her, though she assumed he wouldn't. She texted Knapp that all Hadley's friends were here, though she was in the play so maybe it was someone from the play she was out with.

 

[Halcyon638]

“It’ll be a brute force thing,” Nick said, “ ‘cause even if her password turns out to be ShirtlessHenryCavill, I’m not going to guess what random numbers and punctuation she throws in. Wouldn’t mind some company, though.”

“I can stay,” Layla said.

“I can drive you guys,” Porter said to Monica and Gabi. “And walk around with you.

“Thanks,” Gabi said.

Knapp hadn’t emailed the burner email account for the vigilante, but he responded to her text. “Thank you,” he said simply. “I’ll look into that.”

It took Monica, Porter, and Gabi about 15 minutes to get to the parking lot of his dorm, then about 15 minutes to reach Founder’s Square. “Have you had a car all along?” Gabi inquired as Porter drove.

“No. My dad was getting rid of this one and sold it to me,” he explained. “Anyway, most of the time it’s kind of pointless to have a car in this city, but when there’s no traffic, it’s not so bad.” Soon, he, Monica, and Gabi were wandering the streets. As this hour on a Tuesday night, aside from a handful of diners or pizza places, the only places that were open were bars and clubs.

Unfortunately, after a few hours, their searches hadn’t yielded anything, and Nick was apparently still working on the hack. “What about that place?” Gabi said, motioning to another dank-looking bar.

“We already hit there,” Porter observed. As another gust of wind swept through, Monica could see that Gabi was shivering even with her mid-weight jacket on. Both her and Porter’s looked emotionally drained. "Maybe we can try again down here first thing in the morning," he suggested. "Once stuff opens up again. I can take us back."

Nick texted again. “One of the apps I tried has upped its encryption since I hacked it last and apparently she set up two-factor authorization for the other…so it’s going to a long fucking night.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nodded "look we aren't cops. We did what we could. Hadley's dad is on it and we just have to trust that he can take care of it." It was a bitter realization. It was an even more bitter realization that Hadley might have been targetted because of her connection to Knapp. It was the bitterest realization that Hadley could just have ended up fucking the wrong dude and that all Monica's angst was a result of a touch of narcissism. Not every bad thing in the world happened because she didn't prevent it. This could just be run of the mill bullshit. Still, she had herself convinced Hadley was kidnapped by Townes. Or the Imperial. Even if she was kidnapped it seemed more likely it would be Damien Federov or whatever that guy's name was that Knapp was after.

Still, she felt... deflated and defeated. She put on a mask to beat bad guys up because she needed to feel like she could protect the things she loved and here... she was worthless. Worse than worthless. She'd riled everyone up and for what? For nothing. She was a failure and she couldn't even save her friends. "lets go home." She said, quietly "we can just check in with Detective Knapp."

The ride home went by without her even realizing it, wallowing in her feelings of failure and her terror over what might have happened to Hadley. Which still might be innocuous but probably wasn't. If it was though, everyone was going to remember this as her freaking out and making everyone upset. Great.

Heading in to the apartment, she got out a bottle from the party and poured herself a rum and coke "you want one?" she asked Gabi, gesturing without looking up.

 

[Halcyon638]

“I’ll take a little rum,” Gabi said, pulling her hair back in a ponytail. When Monica glanced over, she saw her friend with hands silently folded in prayer. Then, Gabi unfolded a blanket from the corner of the couch and draped it over herself.

“Thanks, vida,” she said as Monica handed her the drink. “Come here.” She lifted the blanket up, making room for her friend underneath, then covered both of them. Gabi, looking dazed with fatigue, scooched closer to Monica, taking a few sips of the rum and then began to slump against her.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica sat with her arm around Gabi, somewhat comforted by her presence. She stared into the dark, wondering what the fuck she'd even been doing for the last six weeks. She felt the returning grip of her depression from earlier in the year, sapped even of the will to lift her drink to her lips.

Paralyzed and sitting in the dark, her mind churned with harsh personal recriminations. If she'd have been a better daughter, her mother wouldn't have left. If she'd demonstrated her parents could trust her to go to school when she was six, her parents wouldn't have held her back... and she'd have been at college with Tom last year and he'd still be alive. She trembled, consumed with the feeling she had in the spring that everything in life was a castle built on sand. That everything could be just taken away from her at any second. Everything she had done this semester was a bulwark against that horrible feeling. If she was just strong enough, if she just did enough, she could prevent others from feeling the same pain as her. But that hadn't happened. She couldn't even save the people around her. Hadley was missing, and maybe missing because someone associated Knapp with her. Or maybe... far worse... it had nothing to do with her and that meant it was harder still to figure out. Maybe they would never know. Maybe Hadley was just gone. Like Paige Howe.

As she sat in the dark too she realized Knapp would be busy. That meant potentially no DNA report. No transcript from the school. No way to nail Townes down. At least tomorrow. Still, she had to call him as her alter ego. She couldn't tip her hand right? Couldn't pretend she knew what was going on. As the thought hit her, as she thought about still reaching out for the things she needed her stomach twisted. Fuck she was so self-absorbed. She'd managed, sitting here, to make everything about herself. She wasn't any better than her mother. Just another dyed-in-the-wool narcissist from a society of narcissists. She looked down at the sleeping Gabi "you don't deserve her" she thought.

After a long time, unsure how long, she finally got up and carried Gabi to bed and tucked her in. She emailed Townes and her job to say her friend was missing and she might have to miss the podcast and work, depending but she would keep them in the loop. She emailed Melanie to say hiking might be off, and why. She went then to lie in the dark, not really sleeping at first but unaware of the passage of time as her depressive malaise set in.

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica had no idea how long she’d been lying in the darkness. It felt like days, but could have been an hour. Or four hours. She received a text message:

It was from Gabi. “Hope you’re asleep but if you’re not I can’t go back to sleep and I don’t want to be alone right now.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica looked down at Gabi's message and felt that same pang of "you don't deserve her. this is your fault." She laid there in the dark a few minutes more, then got up. She threw on one of Tom's old shirts she slept in because it was nice and big on her, then took it off and threw on a t shirt instead. She slipped into the other room, then got under the covers with Gabi. At least this was something she could focus on. She could direct her feelings outwards, not think about herself. Curling against Gabi's back she whispered "It's going to be ok, Gabi. I'm gonna find her. Me and her dad we will find her."

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica could feel the warmth of her friend’s body, the softness of her cotton nightshirt. “Do you remember when we watched that zombie movie and I got so scared I made you stay up with me all night?” Gabi said in the pitch darkness. She was silent for a few moments. “Can you...would you be able to just...hold me?” she asked, hesitantly.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica laughed in spite of the moment "yeah, your mother wouldn't let you stay over at my house for like a month after that, because of my... overly permissive father." She slid her arm over Gabi, spooning her, pressing into her back and just molding her body as best she could against her friend. "It's gonna be ok." She pulled her roommate gently back against her and kept her cradled in her arms.

"someone said that Hadley said she knew this dude for a while. I think we've been looking at this wrong. It could be one of those New York guys or some dude from last year." Her arm stayed draped over Gabi's stomach, making sure her friend felt nestled in. "We can look again in the morning, and maybe Nick will have some info for us. It's gonna be ok Gabi."

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica could feel the tightness in Gabi’s muscles ease as she held onto her. “I’m definitely not giving up on her,” she said. “I think that…that the masked woman is looking for her, too.” She gently rubbed the back of Monica’s hand. “Thank you.”

Before long, Monica heard Gabi’s breath slow down. The next thing she knew, the morning light was streaming through the windows and her friend’s black hair was tickling the side of her face. Monica was on her back and Gabi was curled up against her, one arm draped across Monica's chest, still asleep, looking peaceful in the sunlight.

Gabi’s phone rang. Rolling onto her back now, practically on the edge of her small mattress, she groped around until she found it, then picked up. From the tone, Monica could tell it was her mother. “I’m fine. No. No, we’re…Yes. She’s fine. We just stayed in all night last night. No, you don’t—he doesn’t need to. It could be nothing, okay? It’s…Mom, you don’t need to. It’s fine. Love you. Bye.”

When Monica checked her phone, she had a deluge of social media announcements and texts wishing he and Hadley well. Before long, the skies outside had clouded over.

Ian: “Mon, I’m so sorry. The guys and I took the van and checked out a few of the clubs we thought Hadley might hit up. No luck yet but we will give it another try tonight. If you or Gabi need anything, let me know.”

Townes: “I’m so sorry to hear about your friend. I hope it’s all just a misunderstanding and you’ll hear from her very soon. Don’t worry about the podcast; it’s actually been a busy week for me anyways, so postponing until you know your friend’s safe and you’re able to concentrate is fine. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do and don’t about getting caught up in class.”

Austin: “I am so sorry, Mon. I tweeted out the missing persons announcement so you’ve got just about every Prospect U basketball fan in the country keeping an eye out for her. Let me know if I can do anything.”

Melanie: “I am so sorry to hear that. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do or if you need to talk. My thoughts are with you and Hadley.”

That afternoon, the group met up at their usual indoor lunch spot, as a steady, cold rain had started to fall. Nick was red-eyed and wild-haired. “So, I only imagined to get into one of her socials,” he said, “and it was one she didn’t use a lot, so there wasn’t really much to see. The only thing that I saw that was a little weird is that she’d sent this Arizona professor guy a friend request 4 months ago and he’d never confirmed it. And it’s not like he doesn’t use it; he posted a couple of pics of his dogs this weekend. It just seemed weird to me that he started following her on that other app but not this one.”

“Did you tell her dad?” Gabi asked.

“I...I don't think I should tell a cop that I hacked into his daughter's--his missing daughter's--social media account,” he said, “and I don’t know. It doesn’t seem that important.”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica still felt a little off, but being curled up with Gabi had helped. It had helped a lot. Maybe it was a mistake to want more. What if she lost that? Gabi was the only thing she had left, really. After Tom. At the same time she couldn't help but feel like Tom would approve. First he'd say "hot" and then he'd understand.

She felt absurdly grateful Austin put the word out. Maybe he earned himself a little something for that. He was a nice guy he was just a compulsively sexual manwhore who had better hope he was drafted because it wouldn't play as well coming from a less well-built used car salesman and well... with a poli sci degree he was definitely going to go back and work for his dad.

Monica nods as Nick mentions he feels like AZ is a red herring. "It doesn't sound that important, but... what if she flew to Arizona? Her dad could check that out. Plus he keeps coming up. Like taking pictures of breakfast and shit. And he hasn't done anything for a few days so maybe he's busy. And maybe they're just up in the mountains and she doesn't have any cell service and she's having the time of her life and she's just being inconsiderate. We should ask her dad if her laptop and stuff is still at the apartment. Also if this dude is missing well... Hey here's a thought." She looked over at Nick "Can you uh.... can you see if that dude from Arizona ever taught here? maybe... like a few years ago? maybe he quit last year right? Maybe she had him for class." She was hoping not, as this might add a wrinkle to her own case and she was definitely hoping that her friend wasn't caught up with some shady mid-life crisis having professor. She had to roll her eyes at herself with that thought since she on a reasonably regular basis had very vivid fantasies about a certain mid-life crisis having professor, but with her it was different. She was mature. Melanie Howe liked her for her taste in books and not at all because she looked just like her missing wife. Totally different. For sure.

"I'll tell Knapp that we... reviewed... his daughter's account." She knew academics had their whole CV available to the public for the most part, so Nick should be able to see reasonably easily if the guy was here or not. "Listen guys uh... so... I might uh... be in touch with um. You know like... there was that party the first weekend at Shaun's friend's house? And I went out to help the guy shot in the street while you all kept dancing like a bunch of heathens? Well uh... you might remember that was the first appearance of the masked woman. So... In a little bit I'm gonna um. Go you know. Make sure she's on the case. I think it is time to bring her in. I mean if Knapp hasn't already. They're thick as thieves right?"

 

[Halcyon638]

“I looked into him a little last night before we figured out he was probably in Arizona,” Layla said. “He was actually a T.A. in the English department here the last couple of years. Contemporary American Literature. He was a T.A. for someone named Leonard.”

“I’m not good with names,” Nick said, “but I definitely remember she had some American lit class last year. I kinda remember her thirsting after the T.A. now that you mention it. But that’s pretty standard for Hads,” he said with a fond smile, drawing grins from the others.

Monica’s friends looked at her with shock as she alluded to knowing the vigilante. “Yeah, if you could keep the whole…hacking thing quiet, that’d be great,” Nick noted.

Gabi received a text. “Shaun’s at the apartment. I’m headed back there but catch up with you later, okay?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica nodded. She made her excuses and then first did a property search in the Prospect City deed register to see if the Arizona guy had been deeded any land, or granted a deed to any land in the city in the past few years, making note of the results. He might have a patch of ground here in his own name or an LLC. If so, it would be worth swinging by as her alter-ego once the sun went down.

The second thing she did was fish out her burner to call Knapp. This guy wasn't just a suspect in Hadley's disappearance. He was also good for the Paige Howe thing. She needed to rule Townes in or out. Also getting Amy's records would let her know if she had Mateo Leonard. Could be these things were unrelated too. Just because they seemed possibly connected didn't mean she should conclude they were. Part of her hoped they weren't. She badly wanted Paige Howe to still be alive, and the best chance for that was her being locked in Townes' house. Still, she couldn't let her feelings influence the case. She needed information from Knapp and he needed to understand it might help find his daughter, so she called and prayed for him to pick up.

 

[Halcyon638]

“Guessing you already saw the news by now,” Knapp said, his voice strikingly monotonous. He stifled a yawn. “Following up on the phone company about the last ping from Hadley’s phone. About an hour outside the city. I don’t know that this relates to Paige Howe, but I’ve got a bad feeling…all these girls had some kind of connection to the university, except Ines Rivera. Speaking of which, I just got an email from the university about Amy Clemens. Forwarding it to you now. And the labcoats cleared Townes—or at least, there wasn’t a match between the cup and the cigarettes on Paige Howe’s porch. Look, I’m about to hop into a car with my new partner. Good chance I’ll be incommunicado with you at for at least a couple of hours, so I’ll just say…I’ve gotten nothing on the Howe case yet good enough to beg and plead my way to a search warrant, though I’ll start on kicking down fucking doors without one if I can get away. I need you to do what you do.”

 

[siobhancan99]

"I have another suspect. Guy out of Arizona. He was your daughter's TA and he worked for one of the professors who worked out of the building the old messages came from. Also he left and the killing stopped. I can't kick in any doors unless I know where they are, so your people are going to have to see if this guy is still in Arizona but I'm gonna guess that he's not and that he was your daughter's date on Monday night. I'll text you the name and I'll look for your email. Also a new partner? does he or she know you pissed off Damien Federov?"

She had to consider the possibility too that Hadley was taken by the Russians and it wasn't connected at all. In any event, she let Knapp go, then looked for his email, but she had a strong suspicion that not only would Amy Clemens NOT have been in a class with Alex Townes, but that she would have had Mateo Leonard.

Then, freaking out about something Knapp said, she texted him GIllardi's address. "this isn't where the phone was, is it?"

 

[Halcyon638]

As Monica spoke with Detective Knapp, her search of real estate records in or around Prospect City connected to Beaujon came up short.

“Beaujon guy?” Knapp said. “Yeah, one of Hadley’s friends mentioned he just started following her a couple of weeks ago. We’re in touch with Arizona PD and they’ve checked him out. He’s got alibis that place him in Arizona at least as late as Monday morning. He claims that account where he followed her is not his. Says someone swiped his photos from another social site and used it to set it up. I’d still like to bust his almost 30-year-old ass for even looking at my daughter but it seems like I’ll have to do that in my spare time. What professor he work for?”

“Leonard?” Knapp said. “He’s on your list, right?”

Knapp managed a strained chuckle at Monica’s question regarding his partner. “Yeah, he knows. I’m pretty sure he’s being punished for some fuckup by being asked to spy on me. Like I said, calls will be hard from here on out, but I’ll try to text when I can.”

Monica opened the forwarded email regarding Amy Clemens’s records. Her single semester from Fall 2019 was listed, along with her transcripts:

• Intro. to Chemistry – Leland – F
• Life Drawing I – Reisch – F
• Contemporary American Lit. – Leonard – C+
• Academic Writing – Ayibo – F

 

[siobhancan99]

None of this made sense. If Beaujon was in Arizona then it couldn't be him, but he had a connection to both girls and access to the building. Townes had no connection to Amy and barely one to Hadley. An hour out of town could be the trainer. She had a chilling thought, that maybe Paige Howe was VERY alive and living with Gillardi. She might even have had access to Mel's office computer. Or given it to Gillardi somehow. She took an uber to a run down part of town full of condemned buildings and summoned the sliver. Changing, she got in and texted "I'm on my way to Gillardi's address, unless you tell me that's not where your daughter's phone is."

She hoped if her crazy theory was right, that Paige was being held against her will somehow. She just couldn't imagine Gillardi having access to the building without Paige.

 

[Halcyon638]

Monica received a reply from Detective Knapp: “The last ping was Monday night so we don’t necessarily know if Hadley’s at the site, if it’s where they met, if he ditched the phone there. The location’s northeast and that address is southeast,” he said, referring to the trainer’s home.

A few moments later, she received more text messages: “We’re hoping to get IP data and account access from the company on that so-called fake Dylan Beaujon account.” He followed it up with, “Trust your gut but also trust in the work you've put in. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Whose name keeps coming up?”

 

[siobhancan99]

"Mateo Leonard. At every turn. Melanie Howe was at his book signing. He knew her well. Both girls had him for class. he had access to the building. It's his TA's account that was faked. I ... Fuck I couldn't find an address for him. His book didn't use the same kind of stupid language. I even read his fucking book but... alright. I'm... gonna have someone reach out to Melanie Howe to get an address."

She paused the sliver mid flight, and called Melanie from her phone. She hoped... she prayed... that Mel would give her the info. Hadley's life was on the line after all.

 

[Halcyon638]

“Monica,” Melanie said, picking up after the second ring. The rain pounded down against the aircraft, making it a little hard to hear at first. “What do you need?”

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica swallowed "Melanie, I need you to do something for me, and like, if you can't I understand but it will take the police longer to find this out than if you just tell me. I swear to god its important and its about my friend. I promise you. Again if you don't want to, you don't have to but I really hope you will. I need to know where Mateo lives. And if he maybe owns more than one property. I promise you this is super important. Again you can say no, but it will take extra time and maybe my friend doesn't have extra time. I promise I'll tell you everything either way."

 

[Halcyon638]

“Anything you need,” Melanie said. “Mateo?” The confusion was evident in her voice, and there was a long pause. “Mateo—he…he’s in trouble?” Her tone regained the confident resolve she used when lecturing. “Yes, I…I can tell you. He has an apartment in the city—over on Miller Avenue. Let me pull it up on my laptop. He’s…he’s on my Christmas card list. 236 Miller Ave, Apartment 6. He…he doesn’t own property, but he spends most of his time at his father’s house. The address is 17 Adler Way, Preston.” If Monica recalled correctly, Preston was a rural town east of the city.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica almost cried out of gratitude "I have to go. I'm sorry. I'll tell you soon" she hung up and then almost texted Knapp from her own phone. She fumbled for the burner , texting "two addresses. One an apartment. not a good place for this. 236 Miller ave number 6. Dad's house, outside of city. 17 adler way, preston. heading there now."

She steered the ship that way, keeping low to the ground over the highway so she didn't get some sort of air national guard response. "last thing I need is to be shot down" she muttered.

 

[Halcyon638]

It was a 40-minute trip to Preston by air. Monica didn’t receive a response from Knapp. The autumn raid was falling in sheets now, the sky a dark, murky gray even though technically, there were 3 and a half hours of daylight left.

The property she arrived at was farmland, though it didn’t appear to be in use for that purpose any more. From her monitors, Monica could see a weathered if good-sized farmhouse with an SUV in the driveway. Elsewhere on the property, she saw a barn and what she guessed might be a machinery shed. With the gray hues and the rain, it was hard to tell where, if anywhere, lights were on.

 

[siobhancan99]

Monica considered briefly. The house was most likely to be occupied by Mateo's father, but least likely to have a weird sex dungeon. that would probably be away from the house where the women's crying wouldn't disturb the pigs sleep. She crept up to the house and then slashed the tires of the SUV, so if she triggered some kind of alarm they wouldn't be able to get far. Then she made her way over to the barn, checking for a lock. If it was locked, as she surmised it might be, she would use the lockpick gun on it. If not, she would open the door and have a quick look around. If there was straw or hay or anything on the ground she'd also sweep it up, looking for trapdoors and the like. She was slow and methodical. Hadley... and if the universe was kind, Paige, could wait a few minutes for her to do this right. If the barn was a bust she'd repeat the process with the shed.