Page 24 of The Guru: Shadow

“The Peterson girl is her ex-best friend?” asked Greg. Greg was the newest member on the team, and it was his first field trip with them.

“Yes.”

He switched to the tab, and there he was. The typical ‘I studied Ivy League Finance and now I’ll rock Wall Street, I am entitled to it piker’ jumping at him. He also saw the picture Emma had mentioned. It was really below the belt, and he would take care of them after everything else was done.

“How’s the mother doing?” he asked.

“Still in the home, her Alzheimer’s getting worse by the day,” answered Ed.

“Her father died?” asked Greg.

“We could phrase it as much. Her father was a con artist, anger issues. He died when Emma was fifteen. The mother is the daughter of import-export mogul, Augustin Schwartz, but was disowned after she married. Afterwards, she was quite often in the ER, domestic violence markers all over the files. She’s suffered from heavy depression for about twenty-five years now and has early-onset Alzheimer’s.” It was the official story, and all he could let Greg know until he had proven himself.

“Markers in Emma’s files, too?”

“Quite,” answered Ed. “Deis, what I personally found worth a look at is a collection of old photos from the archives Jaz found recently. She used a handle there, but it is the same one she uses on Reddit on her current phone. They’re in the folder.”

Interesting, very, very interesting.

Maybe she was able to take more than I thought her to be able to.

“Anything else?”

“Got fired again, as you already know. She really does switch jobs like underwear. Still not finished her studies. The browsing history got quite extensive lately, few irrelevant messages.”

She is lonely. And desperate.

“Define extensive search history.”

“The usual ‘how to be happy’ to searching bodily symptoms, but also interestingly, porn, med courses, and historical occurrences. A lot of it makes no sense to me. She’s either researching for the books she is supposedly writing, or her personality is kind of wild.”

Kind of wild. She sure is.

The only thing he was interested in was one thing.

“What kind of porn?”

“Quite similar to your tastes.”

It was all he needed to know. He knew it back then, and now he would prove it. The thought of it made his core prickle in anticipation. She had so many layers he would unpack until he would finally unveil her true existence. But most of all, she was so much more than he ever thought possible. He had suspected, it had been nothing more than a feeling when he stared into those dark green eyes with the depth of all the forests in the world put together in them, but she was much deeper than any of them. And that was the very reason none of those idiots calling her friend got her.

But I do. And I’ll make her mine.

“She’s on the move,” said Ed, pointing towards the bench.

“Keep following her.”

“She’s aiming for Central Park,”said Ed after while.

They had been following her for miles through half of New York City. She really had endurance. Although people in Manhattan were used to walking, her walk went crisscross from Hell’s Kitchen all the way to Downtown. She went over the Brooklyn Bridge through Dumbo and back over the Manhattan Bridge, where they had Greg follow her by foot. From there, she went all the way through Chinatown and Gramercy up to Midtown. On her way, she passed some nasty corners where a girl shouldn’t walk alone. But she just walked. Mostly with headphones in. Not even turning around once. The carelessness of it was quite extensive. She was either fearless or reckless, with not much regard for life.

Probably both.

“Central Park. Many dark spots. I’ll go by foot, be on standby.” And he reached for the hooded jacket Ed had already handed him. Somehow he sensed he had to follow her himself this time. Or maybe it was the voice in him longing for a hunt.

He had to run to catch up with her, pulling over the hood. The hair on his arms stood up as he went after her.

Hunting.