Chapter 25 - 29
Simon POV
"This... can’t be possible."
I check my phone for the fourth time. Avara did me a favor by sending me her father’s number because now I can track him whenever I want. Even to places he has been, including the restaurant that Avara followed him to that... doesn’t exist. It’s gone. The doors are locked with a chain, metal shutters are sealed over every window like no one was ever here, like there wasn’t a fully operating restaurant just under twenty-four hours ago.
I call Avara. After a while, she picks up.
"Not a good time."
"It’s gone."
"What is?"
"The restaurant where your dad went into... it’s gone. No one and nothing is here."
"That’s impossible." Disbelief lathering her tone. "That place was filled with dining customers, a sketchy cooking crew, but it was packed in there. There is no way they could’ve shut everything down in less than a day?"
I walk around the place, assessing it, looking for any inklings. "Well, they made it happen. What happened after you saw your father get into this place?"
A strain of silence.
"Well, I followed him in." She pauses, collecting her thoughts—locating lies. "Went through the restaurant full of people eating. My dad went out back and escaped through the alley."