As soon as Sia sat in the passenger seat of the car, she took a long, deep breath. It was a breath of freedom. Ever since she had come into Aria's body, there was a certain sense of freedom. She wasn't Sia. She wasn't the girl who had to take every step with consideration. She looked at Lock, his handsome profile concentrated on his work. If not for the sword hanging over Aria, who was in her body, she might have pursued Lock. Not only was he handsome, he had a particular characteristic of silent care.
Sia smiled to herself and pulled on the seat belt. Then she struggled to press the buckle in. Lock, without a word, reached for her buckle, pulled, loosened it a bit and clicked it in.
"Thank you." Sia smiled but Lock didn't look at her. For a moment, she felt like he was avoiding eye contact. Why would he?
When she looked to the front, someone caught her eye. Someone with thin, sharp eyes looking at their car through the rear view mirror. As soon as their eyes met, the driver looked away, the car smoothed out of its driving spot and left. With what happened recently, she didn't want to dismiss it.
"I think someone was watching us." she said. Lock looked about. "Where?"
Sia directed him to the car leaving the parking ahead of them. Lock moved his car after the watcher. "If he is watching us, he will follow us. Keep a watch around please."
Sia nodded, slightly happy, "that's what I am good at."
Lock snorted, "you are more useful than Aria."
Sia laughed and Lock's cracked the shortest smile.
Content to have broken some ice with him, she got to work. The car ahead was always ahead, until it wasn't. As the car took a different route, Sia could feel the eyes following them on a different path until they diverged. She was looked around but despite the change in speed and detours, none of the car were consistent.
When they reached the doctor's residence safely, Sia's mind began to wander.
The doctor was not in, the house was connected to the closed clinic. It was neither in the best condition, nor the worst. The house was well kept but the doctor wasn't in. Aria had an assigned room that looked like from teenage years. Lock pointed her to the closet.
"Her clothes are in the closet. There is a small bag packed for emergencies at the bottom. Check through and put in whatever is needed."
Sia asked, "why does she keeps an emergency run away bag at all times?"
Lock stared at her for a moment, "that answer is not simple. We need to hurry."
"Tell me on the way?" she said but Lock was already gone.
Sia picked up the small bag, armed with a brand new tooth brush, clothes, even undergarments and simple medicines. Sia thought the bag wasn't packed with enough planning, lacking a bottle for water and basic medicine. She walked around the room and looked into the drawers, until she found a small box of memories. There were photos of Aria and another woman, laughing and smiling. Aria was young, looking just like herself in her school days. Her full cheeks and dark bags were widely different from her frail look. Aria looked healthy and happy. It was hard to say what Aria had been through all these years to have that sharp, cautious look in her eyes. Sia put the photos back in and eventually found a small box of medicines. She put the whole thing in. Something rattled, making her jump. The window was shut tight and blinds tapped into all sides, as if Aria never planned to open them. The slight rattling came again. Sia climbed the bed and pulled the top corner free of tape and peaked behind the blind. Someone was by the window trying to pull the pane free.
She recognied the pair of small elongated eyes. How did they find Aria's mother's house?
She taped the corner again, grabbed the bag and ran out of the room. Lock was across from Aria's room door, on a chair, mounting a camera in the corner.
"There is someone outside her room door, trying to pull off the window pane." Sia told him.
Lock's hands moved faster. "They found this place from our residence. But I am not sure what they are looking into. If it's evidence of some sort, we don't have it."
"Did Aria take any photos?"
Lock shook his head, "if she did, she would have told the police."
"Then what…" Sia paused. Something clicked in her head, "the insurance company. That's why she went there. Right?"
Lock came down, and looked behind her. His voice dropped, "you know about the issuance company?"
Sia whispered back, "Isn't that what you were fighting over on the phone? She even mentioned it to the police."
Lock nodded absently, eyes behind her. Sia was still holding the door open. She turned around to find the blinds being pushed from the bottom corner. Her heart accelerated, goosebumps rose on her arm. She let go of the door moved further into the living room.
"Whose there?" Lock's voice carried around the house. The tempering stopped. Lock went past her and listed the loosened corner.
"No one's here." he called. With his poor acting, Sia wondered of the sneak would be convinced. Lock secured the tape back on and proceeded to mount a phone in Aria's room. This one was a small camera, like a peephole camera. He made a hole in a text book and inserted it in.
Sia watched the camera outside, big and obvious while the one inside was highly conspicuous. She thought it was good planning, something to throw others off.
Once done, she asked, "will your mother be safe?"
Lock paused, "we asked her to move to friend's house for the time being. She should be safe."
Before Sia could ask more, Lock busied into his phone, probably setting up the cameras.
Once done, he took the bag from her hand, still buried in his phone and walked out. Sia looked around the house. No familiar car, no familiar man.
They got in and drove off.
Sia kept looking around. "Are we heading straight for the hospital?"
Lock didn't answer immediately, "you have other plans?"
"We should go back but I want to check out one other place. Is that okay with you?"
"What place?"
"Aria's mother worked at the bank. The bank had tie ups with the insurance company that was supposed to pay out for her six years of college after her mother had passed away. She dropped college after her second year and picked it up again last year. She should still have two more years left even when she isn' going to continue studying but they didn't even pay this year. The money vanished, the company is nowhere to be found and the bank… it was a local bank that is sort of barely running. I need to find her some of her old colleagues and find out what company this is, who was the manager at the time and such things."
Sia found this unusual. Planning, investigating, securing themselves. For the first time someone was talking her language. Often times, Mo didn't even understand where her thoughts wandered, as she spoke of her plans and their backups. Lock kept talking. "Some of them must have pulled back the money or transferred the insurance into personal accounts. Most people deal in online transactions, so they don't even know the address but if they still have a running account, that means the company is not fake. If not, the company must be problematic."
"You seem to know what you are doing." Said Sia.
Lock gave her a small smile, "sorry if I spoke too much."
Sia was glad he did. It was the most he had spoke since they met. More so, he was talking her language. "I don't mind. I was thinking, if you can't find much on the insurance company, you can ask about the policies they signed up for, what they remember from the time, or if they ever had any problems with their insurances. We can approach this though another angle. We can find other companies, who had tie up with this insurance company."
Lock smiled slightly.
"What's funny?" Sia frowned.
"It's weird talking like this with you. Aria would never understand a word of what I am saying."
Sia laughed slightly, "neither does Mo. He needs to-do lists."
Lock looked sideways at her. Sia knew it was the first time he had looked at her willingly. Her heart fluttered slightly. "You are more useful than him."
"Same." Lock said, "so you wouldn't mind if I detour a little?"
"Not unless we are being followed. Better turn circles a few times before you head to someone's house. We can't afford to put someone's life in danger."
Lock nodded solemnly.