UVD part 4

She walked outside and into the wind. It seemed stronger than it had been before. The trees were flailing about widely; their branches intertwining with other trees’ and pulling each together. She laughed and walked to the stairs. She sat there for a while. She had really pushed some buttons in there and she wanted to know what she had stumbled onto. She needed to know. I mean she wasn’t exactly one of those girls who you tell something to but not finish and expect her to forget about it. It wasn’t going to happen. This time was no different. 1

She figured there was nothing else to find here so she grabbed her board and went home. 2

Later that night when she and her granny were sitting across from each other at the dinner table, Annie eyed her suspiciously and asked, “Granny? I was looking for the remote to your TV earlier today and I found this article about a company called Aag-Corp and I was wondering what you knew about it, and why you had that article.”3

Her granny looked bewildered then she seemed wide awake like someone had just injected a huge dosage of energy serum into her blood. She replied, “Annie dear, what were you doing snooping in my stuff?”4

“I was just looking for the TV remote and my curiosity got the best of me.” Annie Answered.5

“Well you don’t need to be snooping; there is nothing in there for you to know.” Her granny said and got up from the table. She grabbed the dirty dishes from the table and put them in the sink. She began running water and Annie knew she wasn’t in the mood to talk right now. So she let it go. For the time being that is.6

Later that night she took a trip to Paris’s house. When she got there, Paris did not look good. She didn’t really want to hear from her, as she was now calling Annie, ex-best friend. 7

Annie wanted to know what was wrong and what she had done to cause Paris so much hatred towards her. Paris really didn’t want to talk about it. Annie persisted anyway. Annie was not a person who gave up quickly without getting what she wanted. Paris finally gave up and told Annie that she pissed off because Detective Hoid had been at her house earlier and had questioned her about her scarf that was found at Mr. Jenkins’s house. She had had to tell him that she had been seeing Allen Jenkins; Mr. Jenkins’ son. This was not exactly something she was really proud of. You see Paris had a boyfriend; Nick the very first victim, other than Mr. Jenkins that caught the virus. 8

Annie was a little shocked at this but wasn’t taken back. She just immediately said she had to leave and rushed out the door. She went to Mr. Jenkins’s house and walked behind to observe the little stream where Todd and Nick and Alex had got the water to make their water balloons the night before. Something didn’t fit. She began walking and just as she suspected soon up about half a mile she found the source of the stream. It came from the River. Ideas buzzed in Annie’s head. Her mind went back to those barrels of chemicals in the factory and the story in that article. The article had said that the company was claiming to not have been dumping chemicals in the river but they never came up with the real place they claimed to have been dumping. She wondered I wonder if the reason granny and the Sheriff were all quiet and hush hush about that newspaper article and factory maybe wasn’t because they were looking out for me, maybe it was because they have something to hide. I need to get hold of that newspaper article again. 9

She ran from the house straight to the police station. She walked around the back of the building to where she knew the window to Sheriff Marco’s office was. She looking in, and to her luck he was not inside. So she lifted up the window and crawled inside. It didn’t take her long to figure out where the article was. This based on the fact that Sheriff Marco always puts stuff in a little box behind his filing cabinet. And only Annie knew this because she like to spy on the Sheriff in her spare time, seeing if she could catch him doing something out of character; and in the process she had discovered where his little box of secret things was hidden. She merely crawled over, kicked the bottom drawer which came out right away and she lifted up the box, grabbed the article, and made sure everything was exactly the way she had found it. Then she simply hopped out the window, closed it behind her and walked away. 10

She wasn’t sure what to do next so she popped in at detective Hoid’s office at the grey-house place. This was the place where all the fancy out-of-towners go when they come in for a temporary visit. She approached his cubical then stopped and listened as she heard voices coming from inside. She listened and she couldn’t exactly make out who the person was but it seemed to be a man’s voice, about 50 maybe kind raspy. She ducked behind a plant just as he walked by. She had to really tuck herself into a ball so as a result she couldn’t see who the man was; much to her dismay. She waiting a little while then popped into the little office. Detective Hoid looked up from his book and said, “Annie right? Hi what can I help you?”11

“Hey Detective Hoid, I wanted to ask you a question, do you know anything about a company that went out of business awhile ago called Aag-Corp?” she asked expectantly.12

He looked at her then replied, “Aag-Corp eh? Yes the name rings a bell. Why do you ask?”13

“Well I think I may have found what is causing the guys to be sick. I think I know how come only they got sick.” She answered all excited.14

“Do you? Want to share with me?” Detective Hoid asked having put down his book. He looked more interested now.15

So she told him the whole story of the last day. She explained about the article, and the factory and everyone not wanting to talk. He just sat and looking intensely at her absorbing all the information she was coughing up. When she was finished he looked at her and said, “Wow that’s quite the theory but I think you might have something going there. We only have one problem, the case against Aag-Corp is ancient, there is no way to access it and actually figure out what happened.”16

“I think I may have a solution to that. Grab your coat we are going to go talk to someone who I am pretty sure knows exactly what we need to know.” She instructed the detective and ran out of the cubical into the hall. He followed close on her heals. “Do you have a car? My feet hurt from walking all day.”17

“Yes where are we going any way?” he asked and jumped into his car, opening the side door for Annie and letting her in. be gunned the engine and they were off.18

“We are going to my granny’s house. You see in the picture from the article I could have sworn it was her in the front. So she might be the only thing we have to go on with this.”19

“Oh okay.”20

A little while later they drove up to her granny’s house and hopped out. They ran up to the front door and Annie walked right in followed by detective Hoid. 21

Her granny was sitting in the living room watching a movie that Annie didn’t recognize when Annie and Detective Hoid walked in. She seemed startled to see a detective with Annie. Annie sat down and began to talk. “Granny we need to talk to you!”22

“About what?”23

“We have reason to believe you may know some valuable information about what is causing the virus affecting the three people in the hospital. We believe that Aag-Corp may have something to do with this.” Detective Hoid explained. “And your granddaughter seems to think that you worked for them before they went out of business.”24

“Please granny if you know something why won’t you tell me what you know. I think this could be the only way to save Todd, Nick and Mr. Jenkins. Please granny.” Annie pleased.25

Her granny sat back in her chair and sighed deeply. “Okay well yes I did work in Aag-Corp when it was still in business. Many a question have been asked about our methods for getting rid of our excess chemicals, this being the reason we got shut down. People claimed we were dumping in the far end of the river. We kept denying it and denying it. But it was true, we were dumping in the water. We just didn’t want to put out of business.”26

“Really?” asked Annie.27

“Yes…and I think this virus may be a result of that.” She said. “We didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt.”28

“I know I know granny…but what were you dumping?” She asked.29

“All kinds of chemicals.” Her granny replied. “I am not too too sure.” 30

“Well this has been really helpful.” Detective Hoid got up and walked to the door. “Annie I will be in touch. And thank you for your help Ms. Porter.”31

A couple weeks later Annie found herself sitting by Todd’s side in the hospital. The doctors were able to figure out what was wrong after Detective Hoid’s men did a test on the river water. All the three guys were suspected to make a speedy recovery.32

Annie was very happy. “I love you Todd.” She whispered in Todd’s ear and walked out the hall into the busy hospital. She and detective Hoid made a pretty good team in her books. And she knew everything was going to be okay. 33