Not now anyway. It’s thin gruel at this point. Plus, Independence has its own police force.”Vanessa smiled at me fondly, “You want to solve it y...urself, don’t you?”I smiled back, she knows me so well. “This one I see as a joint operation — you and me, babe.”She beamed, “Ms. and Ms. North. Or Nora and Nora. Hobo can be Asta. Where do we start?”“Sullivan & Sullivan Research. Come ride with me.”My red F-150 gleamed from a recent visit to Mac’s Garage. His team gives me a courtesy wash and wax. So, after washing her face and choking back the sobs that threatened to take her over, she decided she needed a change of scene."Hazel," she told herself aloud, "you miss him horribly. That's natural and even commendable. But you've got a lot of life ahead of you and Ad would paddle your butt if he saw you like this... especially over him. You need to get out of here, girl, and find something interesting to do."She finished making the bed, and packed for an extended trip. 'I need new clothes,. "Hey man my sister wants us to turn the game down a little." Um what um.. yea sure dude, I feel weird." Yea me too, let just finish the game."We continued playing the game but things were not the same, by the end ofthe next level things felt boring like been there done that mindlessexplosions it just wasn't fun."Hey man this kinda sucks you wanna do something else?" Sure but first I'm hungry we should get some food."Jake and I headed down stairs to the kitchen, my mom was there preparingsnacks. The front door closed, and I stared at my older brother.Mike clearly had been living on the edge for a while. His hair was greasy and had several gray locks. He had it pulled back into a ponytail to try to hide the length. His formerly heavily muscled frame looked shrunken, and the old t-shirt he wore hung like a dress on his frame. I noticed a teardrop tattoo under his left eye.Lenore hissed as she put a hand on my free shoulder. "What?" I asked."The tattoo either means that man killed.