Chapter 15. Jennifer

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By the time Sean came back with the pizza, I’d already found contact information for two of the students in the picture with Scott.  But the third student–the blonde right beside my brother–she was proving to be difficult.

“Jennifer Smith.  Seriously.” I said aloud for what had to be the eleventh time.  “Her parents should be shot.  I mean, they can’t help the ‘Smith’ part, but ‘Jennifer’? Everyone’s named Jennifer.” I had given over the computer search to Nick when my own meager skills couldn’t narrow down the possibilities.

“Jennifer was a popular name for their age group.  I knew quite a few Jennifers in school.” Sean said.

“Yeah, now that you mention it, me too.” Nick said.
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There were a lot of Jennifer Smiths in the world, and it seemed like most of them had attended Sim State University around the same time Scott had.

“Well, at least you have the other two ready to go.  How do you plan to contact them?” Sean asked.

“Nick and I were talking about it, and we agree that an email sent their way might be the best approach, and less likely to freak them out.  Everyone is kinda used to the whole, ‘someone found me by looking me up on the interwebs’ thing, but if they knew that I had their phone numbers and addresses it might scare them.  So, just an email, at first.”

“Sounds sensible.”
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After a few minutes of Sean and I talking about the searches I’d used, Nick spoke up.

“It’s going to take a bit longer to track down this particular Jennifer Smith, and we might have to start making calls or sending emails to rule some of them out.  I’ll work on this for the next few days, but if I don’t catch a break soon we’re going to have to make a list and sort it by the ones who sound the most promising.”
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Sean had looked down at the group photo.

“Is Scott holding her hand? It looks like he might be holding her hand.”

“Ed pointed that out earlier.” Nick said.

“That’s why it’s so frustrating-she might be the last person he was involved with romantically, so she might be able to tell us whether he was acting strangely or anything.” I said.

“Well, maybe the other two will know where to find her?” Sean suggested.

“I hope so.”
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“In the meantime, we still have a lot of leads.” Nick pointed out.  “You can work on talking to the mayor’s office to see if anyone knows what happened with that internship, and I’ll keep working on finding the correct Jennifer Smith.”

Around nine, I started getting ready to leave.  Sean stood up to walk me out.
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“So tomorrow night I get you all to myself.” he said as we walked to my car.

“Looks that way.  Unless Nick decides that he needs another training session.”

“I told him to stay the hell away because I’ll be making you dinner.”

I’d wondered if he remembered that he wanted to have a real date.

“Can I bring anything?”
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“Just yourself.  Though, some sexy undies might be nice.” He said, then burst out laughing at my look of panic.  “Just kidding, Eddie-it really is too easy with you, you know.”

“Sorry.  I embarrass too easily.” I said.

“I like that about you, for the most part.”  He paused for a moment slowly saying, “Though, if you want to bring something…well, how about pajamas?  I’m not trying to get into your pants–much–but I really liked our little slumber party weekend.  I liked waking up next to you.”

“Oh.” I said, smiling.
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“I mean, I know it’s fast, and I won’t ask you to stay over every night or anything like that, but…if you liked it, I thought I’d suggest it.”

I almost jumped at his offer, but a thought snuck into my head.

“I’ve been dealing with my nightmares for years–you don’t have to worry about me.”

He looked momentarily confused before his expression cleared.
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“Baby, I’m seriously just being selfish here–I like sleeping with you.  I like you being in bed with me.  I don’t need your nightmares as an excuse.”

“Then I’ll bring my pajamas.” I said, then pulled him forward by his shirt to kiss him lightly.

“Good.  I can’t promise I won’t try to talk you out of them, but I know how to take ‘no’ for an answer.”
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I could tell that he was joking, but I thought it warranted an honest reply anyway. “I can’t promise you’ll be successful, but I hope you don’t get fed up and stop trying.” I said.  In response, he gave me an intense, deep kiss, and I drove away with a huge smile on my face.

• December 19, 2010
• An Edith Prescott Mystery: Story 3
• 26 Comments