Rest, Reunion, and a Lead

Rambone was awoken by the faint sound of approaching footsteps by the doctor walking over to their room. Rambone laid up in his clinic bed after about an hour of rest, rubbing his eyes. Truth be told, Luca had fallen asleep too, taking a nap with him in that chair. Sure, it was uncomfortable to fall asleep in one of those kinds of chairs, but it was a nice needed break from all the high stress and a moment to reflect upon all the chaos they've gone through this morning.

The question was now: What now?

Rambone leaned and stretched over to tap the shoulder of Luca to wake her up. She had a quick jolt, taking a quick look around the room before meeting the eyes of Rambone. She sighed and smiled.

"Doofus." He smiled and whispered.

Then the doctor opened the door and walked in, closing the door behind him.

He was smiling, too. "You two look like you got a good nap, how are you feeling Rambone?"

Rambone looked over. "Yeah, we got a good nap. Didn't expect her to get a better one than me, though."

"Hey, I needed it more than you!" She argued.

The doctor laughed. "Similar to what I said earlier, Rambone just don't do anything intensive the next two weeks, or else you're gonna make them worse."

He nodded. "Will do."

"You better do or else I'll make it worse," Luca said.

Rambone went silent and his face went blank with that tinge of disappointment and anger. "Pat really got the hunch that she'd start acting like a mom to me at some point right." He thought.

"Well, you two are free to go. I wish you two a great rest of your afternoon."

"Thanks." Both of them said, getting out of their seats and not getting out the door before Luca stopped him before he got out the door with a light yank back in.

"What's up?"

"Did you catch the time?" She asked.

"No, why?"

"I think we should probably know the time. And another thing."

The two quickly looked over the waiting room for a wall clock. The time read 12:46 PM.

"Wow, it's only now 12:45? That's a surprise."

"Yeah no shit, sherlock."

"You're the sherlock." He scoffed.

She groaned. "I'm letting you off the hook for that this one time."

"Okay, but what was that other thing you mentioned?"

Luca pulled out the note from her back pocket and handed it to Rambone.

"Hm, what's this?"

"Read it."

Rambone took a quick second to read it.

"Someplace where the sun doesn't shine, huh?"

"Do you know what they might mean by that?"

"No clue."

"No clue, either."

"Sooooo... guess we're gonna have to ask people around town about this?" He asked, handing it back to her.

"You bet your sweet ass we are. Let's go," she answered, putting the note back into the back pocket.

The two walked out the door.

"Well, where are we gonna go ask around first?" He questioned, trying to annoy her a little. "You do call yourself Ms. Holmes for a reason."

"Aren't you the most social one of us? You should know that, not me." She deflected.

"You know guys don't pay any attention to where the most popular social hangout spots are, right? Especially for shady people."

"Uhhhh... I don't know. Let me think of one spot real quick." She began to think.

"Well name one place, any place that's normally half empty most of the time." He pressed.

"Shut up and let me think for a second, fuckbrain!" She replied.

"Okay..." He mumbled, backing off for a moment.

"Hmmm... let's go with the barbershop. I think plenty of people gossip about all kinds of things there."

Walking down the dusty dirt streets of the town of Leeside, the two got the feeling of a quiet cold and empty air around them. Like the entire world had just gone silent to a point. The sounds of their footsteps were the only sounds they heard on their way. It was ominous. Too ominous.

As the little bell chimed as Rambone opened the door, they heard a barber come over to the entrance desk and wave them over.

"Hey, what are you two here for today?" She smiled

Luca walked over, pulled out the note, and showed it to her.

"We were wondering if you or someone here might know what this means."

She read it and turned back to ask the other barbers and some of the customers in the store about it.

All but one of them said no.

A fellow barber, a man looking about in his early thirties walked over and read the note again.

"How did you get this note?"

"Someone who just stole something dropped that as they were running off," Rambone lied. "Looks like it might have been important to them."

"Hmm. I don't know exactly what this means but I'm guessing what they're referencing is something in the underground of town. Though that could be anything under that umbrella. A strip club, an alley, a black market, a store for illegal drugs. Just has to be someplace where something illegal is going on." He answered.

"Thanks for your help, guys. We appreciate it." The two said, leaving.

"Hope that you manage to get it back." One of them said.

Now outside of the store, they had some kind of lead but were still at another impasse.

Then the realization hit them.

"Why not the police station? Wasn't there supposed to be a bunch of people still there since it's kind of a holiday today for them?" Luca proposed.

"Sure." Rambone gave a little nod, forgetting about that part. "It might be grasping at straws, but it's all we got at this point."

As the two moved up to speed walking down the rows of corners and blocks to the police station, Rambone went down a different street in a sprint when someone caught his eye.

It was his mother. Someone he had only seen less than a handful of times in his entire life. He nearly ran into her and knocked her over as he went and gave her a giant big bear hug.

"Momma!" Rambone shouted, now with a brimming smile on his face. "How long has it been now since you've been home?"

She returned his favor in turn with a hug and flashed a small smile on her face. "Rambone, I've missed you, too. I actually got moved back to a division for the company here in town and right now I'm on my lunch break."

"Yaaay awesome!" He quickly turned back to Luca. Luca quickly shook her head. "I've also got some stuff to do with my friend but I can suppose we can take a break and have lunch together."

Rambone had quickly hustled the response to not keep Luca waiting and keep his mom out of the loop on everything.

"Well, I suppose I could do that." She replied. "In fact, I'd love to meet them."

"Mom, didn't I tell you all about her?" He asked.

"I suppose you didn't. I stopped getting letters from you, like, 2 years ago."

"2 years ago?"

"Mhm."

"That's odd."

"That's for sure."

Luca walked over.

"Hey, Rambone could you not just run off like that?" She protested.

"Are you his friend?" His mother asked.

She nodded and offered her hand out for a handshake. "Luca Pasteur, miss."

His mother chuckled. "That's a lovely name. I'm Morrigan, it's great to meet you, sweetie."

"Well, Luca, where do you wanna go for lunch?"

"I'm open to anything really." She said.

"How about the local sandwich shop?" Morrigan intervened.

"Sure." Both of them replied.