Chapter Twenty-six

Hot Clue is Ours

After a great night with Claire on their date/tutorial, Louis went straight to his home and head straight to bed. He grabbed his laptop to check his e-mails. He remembered the name given by E.

He browsed Wad Rosenwald on Facebook nor on Twitter. He even tried to Google it down but there were no searches.

Since he couldn't find anything about this Wad Rosenwald dude, he switched his search and checked at Malcolm’s account on Facebook. Malcolm’s account had been deactivated so all the activities were deleted.

Suddenly, he received a message from Abigail Lawson popping out on chat:

Hi Lou! Is it ok if u come over 2 my house? 8’s impt!.tnx

Louis almost hesitated to answer.

Sure... ;)

Louis went to the Lawson’s with the use of his bicycle two blocks away. As he reached the mansion, he was expecting to see Abigail; however, Ms. Lawson came to the door instead.

“Louis,” Ms. Lawson welcomed. “Please, come in. We were expecting for you.”

As Louis stepped inside the house, chills came to him. All memories of him, Edward and his friends suddenly flashed to him just like photos on a slideshow: they used to hangout here; play and especially, share dirty secrets.

“Louis,” Abigail invited him to Edward’s room and led him up the staircase. Abigail opened Edward’s room. The stuffs of Edward was still in place: the posters of his favourite cars were still posted on his walls, his personally-signed foot ball by Lionel Messi was still exhibited, his collection of The Walking Dead comics were still there, and all of his things were pretty much alive except for the owner.

Louis glanced at Edward’s bed. There were stuffs in boxes that were ready to for charity. Abigail inched to the bed and handed Louis the boxes.

“What are these?” Louis held the box.

“Duh! Those are Edward’s” Abigail smiled.

“I know.”

“Duh,” Abigail said. “We’re giving it to you.”  

“Duh!” Louis was confused. “Why?”

Abigail crossed her arms. “You’re mocking me.”

“Duh.”

Abigail startled to giggle.

Louis smiled too. “Okay, why are you giving these?”

“We will be moving to Kansas,” Ms. Lawson answered from nowhere. She was standing from the door. “That’s why we’re giving his stuffs to his friends to be a memoir of their friendship. It’s very important but I think that you need this more than we do, anyway.”

Louis mouth was shut. He started looking at the stuffs. Then, he looked back at Ms. Lawson.

“Is it okay with you, honey?” Ms. Lawson asked. “If not, I could just...”

 “Of course. Thanks.” Louis nodded,

“Okay, I’ll leave you two,” Ms. Lawson said and headed downstairs.

The items in the box were some of Edward’s Varsity Jackets, old photos of them five, mugs with the word ‘Cougar’ embossed on it, and some DVDs.

While Louis was going through the stuffs, Abigail approached him holding Edward’s blue acoustic Gibson guitar. She handed it to Louis. “Could you play few chords for me?”

Louis reached for it and played a few intros of The Killers. He totally rocked it.

Abigail clapped her hand. “That was awesome. You can keep that, too.”

Louis’s eyes brightened and he blinked fast. He couldn’t believe what Abigail had just said. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Abigail smiled then grabbed stuffs from a box. “You could also have the Walking Dead comics?”

“Wicked!” Louis was beyond thrilled. “I should’ve brought dad’s car. I’ve no clue on how to bring this home.”

 Abigail headed to the dresser. Then she pulled out something from it.  Some stack of old CD’s. It was Edward’s homemade videos.

“I don’t know what these are.” Abigail said. “We never watched these, though. It is written behind the case DON’T WATCH so we didn’t.”

There was a note that was written on the CD’s using a permanent marker. Videos of my Friends.

Abigail handed it to Louis. “We don’t know what to do with it so it’s all yours.”

Louis was nervously looking at the CD’s. Edward used to love capturing videos with his Camcorder that his dad gave him in Christmas. There was one time, when he told the guys that he stalked a girl next door. He said that he was videoing the hot blonde while changing her clothes and the girl did not noticed that she was being videoed.

“I’ll just go get some drinks,” Abigail caught Louis attention as she went outside Ed’s room to grab refreshments.

Louis sat on Edward’s bed. He started looking at their old photos. He smiled about their memories and how wacky they have been. Louis even saw his old self in those photos: long brunette shaggy hair, bangs covering his face and matching man-liners.

Then, his eyes wandered around Edward’s room reminiscing those pretty darn moments inside that room.

The window was widely opened, though. Suddenly, the wind rushed in and blew some photos on the bed. The photos were strewn everywhere and some went underneath the bed. He grabbed all the photos and as he grabbed some photos underneath the bed, he touched something. It was quite hard – paperback hard. He peaked but it was dark underneath so he pulled it out. It was a notebook, a dusty notebook; it was a diary – Edward’s diary. He paused for a moment taking time to register things.

He quickly started scanning some page. Pages were filled with Edward’s random writing, of course, it was his. He reached a page different from the others. Instead of writings on every line, a phrase that was written horizontally was so big and it occupied both sides using a red marker.

I’m sick and tired of being threatened by E! I think I KNOW WHO THE FUCK E IS!

Louis’s eyes widened. “Wicked.”

Then before he could look at another page, he heard someone walking towards the room. The opportunity to solve who might their stalking was was about to come so he quickly shoved the diary in his brown satchel.

Abigail entered carrying a tray of orange juice and was curious why Louis was on the floor.

“I was just grabbing the photos,” Louis quickly said, “the wind blew them!” Then, he grabbed the last photo under the bed.

“Let me help you.” Then, Abigail offered him the refreshments.

“No need,” Louis said. “I’ve already gathered them all. Thanks”

“I really like your accent,” Abigail smiled. “Well, you’re always welcome.”

Louis blushed. He stood up from the floor and arranged the package. “I really should get going. My parents don’t know I’m here.”

“Sure, but don’t you want some biscuits?” Abigail asked but Louis was expediting. “Wait. Mom will drive you home. You have lots of things to carry. You should leave your bike and pick it up tomorrow.”

“Brilliant!”  

Then, Mrs. Lawson drove Louis back home. On their way, his BlackBerry suddenly tinkled. He grabbed his phone and he read the message:

Dying to know me? Well, good luck in finding my identity. Here’s the address: 24 Avenue West Oakfield Street, Mapleton, South Carolina, USA –E

Louis’s facial expression morphed.

“Is everything okay, dear?” Ms. Lawson asked.

“Yeah,” Louis quickly said. “I’m great.”

Then, they pulled over in front of his yard.

“Thanks for driving me home, Ms. Lawson. And thank you for the package.” Louis grabbed the package and the guitar from the backseat of Ms. Lawson’s black Maserati.

“No problem,” she said. “Thank you, too. Have a good night.”

“Good night, too!”

“Say ‘hi’ for me to Martha.” Mrs. Lawson turned around the corner and drove away.

Louis quickly entered his house and ran straight to his bedroom. He jumped at his bed leaving the guitar and the box on the floor. He quickly pulled the diary from his satchel. When he opened his diary, something slipped out from a page. A red folded paper with “Edward” written on the surface.

Curious, he unfolded it.

A deep sound pounded his head. He was totally shocked when he saw what was written.

I will get you, EDWARD! Promise! –E

After reading the note, he thought that Edward also received threatening notes before they did. Then, his mom called him from downstairs. He wasn’t able to have the chance to decipher the diary.

Wicked.

Meanwhile, Travis Becker was in Brent’s apartment. He received a text from Louis to quickly come over in his house. Travis knew that it was important.

“I have to go now,” Travis squeaked.

“Really?” Brent grabbed a bottle of tequila and two glasses and offered it to Travis but he refused to drink. “I thought we’re gonna drink?”

“This is important,” Travis grabbed his jacket and bag, “I’m so sorry.”

Brent was curious why Travis was expediting.

Travis gave Brent a goodbye kiss and left.

He knew that something was going on. As he was walking down the hall, his HTC started chiming. He dug in from his bag. He looked at his screen and saw the Caller ID was blocked.

“Hello?” Travis answered.

“Admit to your friends that you’re gay, or else someone will die. You have my clock.” A creepy man’s voice said from the other end then quickly hung up.

Travis panicked and quickly headed to his car and drives to Louis’s.