Now I just felt embarrassed. "I had to make sure it wasn't you."
Realization dawned on Valerie. "You looked into me."
"I've looked into everyone and I still can't figure it out. I've eliminated some people just based on the fact that technology isn't their strong suit but nothing makes sense to me. There isn't a single person in town who goes into the news building on the regular or at all, for that matter, except the editor. I'm surprised the place isn't shut down. And I just learned that you can submit topics for B. Feather to write about, so it isn't even like whoever it is needs to be around when things happen."
Valerie looked to be contemplating something. "You know I've always wondered about this. I mean not to the extent that you have, clearly, but it's always been on the back of my mind simply because I hate mysteries."
"Well, you're more than welcome to go through what I have and see if anything sticks out to you because I've got nothing."
"Don't worry. We will figure this out together." Valerie sounded determined, and for the first time since I was given the ultimatum, I felt like maybe I could do this.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Nolen
I sat in Vanessa's kitchen with my laptop in front of me and Aaron to my right.
"What do you think they are talking about up there?" Aaron glanced up toward the ceiling.
"I have no idea, but Valerie made it longer than I expected."
I had been so sure that Vanessa would've kicked Valerie out the minute she knocked on the door. Not because Vanessa was rude like that but because she was back to hiding, and I couldn't figure out why.
I thought we had a nice evening the night before. Some dinner, a movie, and some light conversation, but this morning, it was like none of that happened. Vanessa was back to being closed off, and nothing I said would entice her out of her room.
"Maybe they're having a breakthrough."
I'm happy someone was even though I wished that someone was me. I wanted to be the person Vanessa turned to when something was wrong.
"Do you think Vanessa will come back to work anytime soon? I know Valerie could definitely use the help again. I'm kind of sick of spending all my evenings at the shop."
I knew Aaron didn't mean it in a bad way. He cared enough about Valerie that he just wanted to see her happy and working long days had to be taking their toll on her.
"I'm not sure. I don't know what really happened that made Vanessa run out of there in the first place."
"Valerie said she pushed too hard. She regretted doing it almost immediately, but that's all it was."
I could see that. From what I had seen so far, Vanessa tended to shut down when she didn't want to talk about a particular topic."
"I just wish I knew what was going on with her. I know if she just let me, I could easily help her."
"Of course you could. You're one of the best guys I know, and that doesn't even start to describe what you can do with a computer."
I was pretty great with a computer, but even I hadn't found that Vanessa's sister was in rehab. Which made me wonder if she was there under a different name, or Vanessa was just that good at hiding information.
"I'm not perfect, though."
"None of us are and that's okay. Perfection is boring anyway. Trust me, Valerie wouldn't want me to be perfect. In fact, I'm sure she would likely strangle me if I were."
That made me laugh hysterically because I could totally see it.
"It wouldn't just be Valerie."
"You're right. You guys would likely kill me as well."
"There was actually a point in time when we considered it while you were stalking Valerie."
When we all got back to town, Valerie wanted nothing to do with Aaron because of a misunderstanding, so his way of dealing with that was to constantly watch over her to the point that he was borderline stalking. Kinda how I was watching over Vanessa.
