Plans

***Cami's POV***

"Rachael stop!"

I heard her draw in a sharp breath before turning towards me,arms crossed and face squeezed into a tight frown.

"What's it Cami?"

She asked rudely.

I glared at her.

"Listen...I don't give two hecks if you and Carl wanna tear each other's heads apart ok? What I care about right now,is for the two of you to swallow your stupid pride,and make sure we get dad out of that hell!"

I was actually grateful that she agreed to stop.

It was almost impossible to get Rachael to stop walking,after Carl had hit her mistakingly.

Honestly,they were all just frustrated,and I understood.

But time was ticking,and we did not have time to get pissed off over childish arguments.

"Can't you see my nose?"

She motioned to her nose, which although had stopped bleeding,still had a blood trails on it.

"Carl HIT me!"

She emphasized.

I let out a deep breath.

"I know ok...but you and I know that it was not intentional!"

"NOT INTENTIONAL HUH?!"

"Keep your voice down!"

No one yelled at me!

She gave me a defiant glare but continued,her voice now lowered.

"If Carl can hit me now,who knows what he's capable of doing in the future?"

"Listen... I've given them their punishments ok! And I don't know about you and Carl's future,but I do know that if you guys keep whatever sibling thing you have going on..."

"What 'sibling thing'?"

"Allow me to finish...If you guys keep it up,I know one future that I'm sure of, dad's gonna go to prison for a really long time for a crime we know he didn't commit,and for something we know we could have helped sort out!"

She bowed her head sadly.

"What if we can't help dad?"

I held her shoulder and shook her up.

"You're the Rachael who literally called Carl a princess for hiding out in the room the day dad was arrested. You're Rachael who told that stupid officer to arrest you,while looking at his dumb face."

"But that was different."

"Potayto...Potahto... same thing... different pronunciation.

She smiled a little.

"We're gonna help your dad Rachael...Now c'mon."

***Rachel's POV***

"We're gonna help your dad Rachael...Now c'mon."

I smiled at Cami's words.

It was really nice to hear her encouragements because honestly,I was beginning to get scared.

"Cami..."

She stopped and turned.

"We need a plan. We can't just keep going around in circles, waiting for the next lucky stop.

We need a legit plan in place."

I pushed the doors open as we stepped in side.

"You're right girl... should we call the boys?"

"Yeah...but let's get some first aid for them,and also clean up my nose."

"Sure."

It felt so weird.

Just barely a week ago, everything seemed perfect.

But now, everything has crumbled to the ground,and I really admit that picking it up would be almost impossible.

We trotted up the stairs to the clinic on the last floor.

"You know...I always wanted to be an investigator!"

Cami revealed, beaming with smiles as she pushed the door of the small clinic open.

"Well... considering the fact that it's you, I'm not all that surprised!"

She raised a brow in confusion,as she fumbled through a drawer to get a new bad of cotton wool.

"What do you mean?"

I twitched my lips and shrugged.

"Well...I can clearly remember when you told us you wanted to be a Sky diver...for whatever reason. Then,you said you wanted to be an animal scientist, specifying in. Camels!... Seriously Cami! Camels?"

I slouched lazily on one of the super comfy chairs, not assisting physically,but mentally by giving her the moral support she needed to find the wool.

You have no idea how stressful that stuff is.

"Well someone has to take care of the camels!"

She half yelled. I could actually hear hurt in her voice.

I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah...yeah...it has totally nothing to do with the fact that your name actually rhymes with Camel, and I'm not gonna argue."

She gave me a glare.

"Well...that doesn't mean anything!"

I wriggled my brows at her.

"Well... here's the best one. You said... you wanted to be a W.W.E superstar!"

"Well... what's do wrong about it?!"

"EVERYTHING! I mean... you don't just wake up one morning and decide...'hey...I wanna go to wrestling school!' and GBAM! you  graduate with a wrestling degree."

She broke the cap off the spirit.

"Well...that was a long time ago!"

"That was earlier this morning,at the river!"

I deadpanned.

As she struggled with arranging the first aid,I let my eyes wander around the small clinic.

I spotted something in between the sick bed and a small box next to it.

Quietly,I slipped out of my chair and eased towards the thing.

Pushing the box aside carefully,I saw what it was.

It was not just one thing...there were two things there.

A bunch of keys and a blood stained wedding ring.

"Cami!"

"Leave me alone Rachael...you hurt my feel..."

"CAMI!! Come see this, fast!"

I heard her drop what ever it was that she was holding.

She rushed towards me, squatting next to me,as I examined the items.

"Holy...are those...oh jeez...is that blood?"

"Yeah..."

I answered mechanically,too caught up with the surprise to think of something reasonable to say.

"I don't know whose bunch of keys this is..."

My voice was a bit shaky.

"But...I'm sure of the ring...Mr Thompson."

Cami didn't say anything,she just stared at the items, trying hard not to overreact.

"We...we... well... what... what are you waiting for....ca...CALL CARl!"

I nodded hysterically,and began to fumble with my iPhone.

My heart was beating loudly against my chest.

Woah; Calm down Rachael... calm down! Deep breaths!

I could not afford to have a panic attack in this kind of situation.

After what seemed like an endless moment of ringing,the guy picked up.

"Hello sister...you miss me alre..."

"GUYS! YOU NEED TO COME HOME QUICK...WE FOUND SOME THING!"

*

*

*

"It's really my dad's."

Zee said sadly. I could hear his voice breaking.

He held the ring tightly,as if by doing that,he could bring everything back to... maybe 'normal'.

We did not even know what was 'normal' anymore.

I knew that abuser or not,the boy still loved his father.

He was his father after all.

"I...I...I can't believe....I can't believe he...he never took it off."

We raised our eyes to meet him, while Carl pulled him closer,and wrapped an arm around his torso.

Uh...ok? This is new.

Well... guess they made up!

We were standing by the food counter downstairs.

We had brought the items down, after the boys had literally dashed back.

Zee had just confirmed that the ring was his dad's.

"What about the keys...any ideas?"

Zee shook his head.

"It could be anyone, Rachael."

"No! It could not be anyone. I have a feeling that this key belongs to the killer...we have to find out who owns it!"

"Sorry to burst your bubble Sherlock,but as you can see,the whole darn place is empty,and I don't think that even if we find the owners, they'd agree it's theirs."

"If we can find them,I have a feeling it's gonna wor..."

"We're not dealing with feelings here Rachael!!"

Carl hit his palms on the table.

"We're dealing with facts!"

I got up slowly from my turn chair.

"What's your problem Carl!?

You've been so anti- Rachael ever since all this stuff happened!

What's wrong huh? TELL ME YOU MORON!!"

He kept quiet, shaking his left foot,and drumming his fingers against the table.

"TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG?!!"

I demanded.

"I SCREWED UP OK! THAT'S WHAT'S WRONG!"

My eyes softened as I moved closer to him.

He buried his face in his palms.

"I'm supposed to protect you, Rachael...I'm supposed to take care of you,dad and Cami.

But look at me...I can't do anything! I'm supposed to be the big bad brother... I...I'm a total screw up!"

I could here him begin to sob silently.

Zee patted his back, while I bent to him as he sat down,and wrapped my arms around him.

"You're not a screw up,Carl. You're the best sibling I could ever ask for! You're the strongest,most annoying, heroic piece of crap brother in the world!"

He chuckled softly.

"I know that you don't want me to be a part of this. But Carl...it's ok to slack off sometimes ok? It's perfectly fine to depend on others.

We're all we've got ok... we're all dad's got. We're a team now...so don't feel too burdened."

He nodded softly as I pulled away from him.

"Well... you should totally become a motivational speaker,said some real hot stuff."

He smiled as he cleaned off the tear stains under his eyes.

"Only if you become a comedian."

Zee and I laughed and high-fived each other.

Ok...what happened while they were out?

Cami then cleared her throat.

"Ok guys... I would totally want to watch this beautiful sibling soap opera all day,but we've kind of have a killer to catch.Anyone remember?"

I rolled my eyes.

"Seriously Cami?"

Carl,Zee and I went closer to the table while Cami brought out a huge cardboard and placed it on the table.

"Rachael... you're up!"

I nodded and skipped the table to get to the other side,so I could face them as I speak.

"We're literally in the middle of the woods, hardly any reasonable surveillance cameras any where."

I began.

"Also,the café's technical room has since been abandoned.

This means one thing guys, everything's old-school here, that means that we have just the same advantage as our killer.

So guys...we NEED a plan!"

"Cami..."

She nodded and grabbed a marker.

Making a big X in the center of the cardboard,she started.

"The X marks the cafe. Firstly,we need to check every single inch of anywhere which is at least, 1000 metres from here."

She drew arrows, labelled,east,west,north and south, around the X mark.

"How'd we know that would work?"

Zee asked.

"Well...we don't. But we're sure of one thing...Your dad was not killed inside the café,and I do not think he was killed too far either because immediately you hit the main road, there are patrol vehicles all round.

Our killer would not want to risk this!"

"Before we do that... maybe we could find the owner of this key."

Carl jiggled it in the air.

"It could speed up processes."

We all nodded.

"Before that,I have something to say."

They all turned to look at me.

"Guys...we keep this a secret from EVERYONE... And I mean,every single living thing outside this building."

I turned to Zee.

"Including your mom."

"What do you..."

"Zee...we trust you and your mom ok? But she's out there, talking to cops,to men and women...she might let it slip at a certain point...we don't know who is who."

He nodded slowly in realisation.

"That's true."

I nodded and gave a tight smile.

"So...it's a deal then."

"Yeah..."

"Sure..."

"Deal..."

"So...any ideas on the key tracking?"

Carl looked around for answers.

"Well...guys...I think I might know."

Zee said confidently.

"Really! Where?"

"Get ready to go to River City guys!"

***Author's Note***

I hope you are enjoying the story?

Please comment whom your favorite character is so far and let me know why.

Please guys, don't forget to always vote at the end of each chapter.

It really boosts my confidence and will to update.

Byee