You’ve got to find Beatrice! She might have planted his ID there the frame him?
Birdie also said: The obvious next step is to search the library.
The Sunglasses Gang-Entry 5
Nate turned towards the Critic and muttered: "You really want to help this investigation?"
"Yeah," The Critic scoffed. "I get to insult people and if they talk back, I can arrest them."
"No you can't," Nate huffed, holding up his index finger. "But I need you to go to the library and look around there. Maybe someone remembers Roman dropping his I.D and saw someone pick it up."
"You could say please," The Critic chuckled, but he opened the office door and slipped into the hall.
"Roman, do you know where this Beatrice might be now?" Nate asked, turning back to Roman.
"Patton could help you find her," Roman sighed. "I'm sure he has an idea where she is."
"To Pediatrics we go, bois!" Remy said, already half out the door.
"Nate, before you leave," Roman stammered, standing. "Can we talk in private? There's something you need to know." Nate had a pretty good idea what it meant when Roman wanted to talk in private. Remy rolled his eyes, but closed the door after he left.
"I think I can rule you out as a suspect, Roman," Nate admitted. "But if this case isn't finished today, check in with me before you go home." Roman nodded and satback on the couch.
"So what's with the twins following you around?" Roman asked, cocking his head towards the door.
"They're interested in seeing how I conduct an investigation," Nate sighed. "I chose the easier option."
"You're lucky you got a word in with them around," Roman scoffed. His cocky grin slowly slipped off his place, hesitation in his eyes. "Now, speaking of twins... You're the only one who knows about mine." Nate's suspicions were confirmed. He crossed his arms, taking a step towards Roman.
"Is this the long-awaited thank you?" Nate asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I wouldn't have gotten this job without you," Roman huffed, meeting Nate's eyes. "I wouldn't have gotten any job without you. I used to think my mom hiring a private eye to find me and you-know-who was a witch's curse, but it wasn't."
"Roman, get to the point," Nate sighed. "What's wrong?" Roman looked away from Nate.
"Remus is back," Roman mumbled. "I-I hadn't seen him since Christmas, but he showed up in my office when this rally business started, asking for cash." Roman stood, grabbing Nate's shoulders. The security guard tensed but didn't back away from the young man. "Nate, I'm being blackmailed. He's threatening to tell Thomas everything if I stop paying his rent. I am a victim of illegal bullying!"
It would be tough to forget the case where I ran into the man gripping my shoulders with the strength of an Olympian. It was one of my first cases off the police, starting up my career as a private eye. Mrs. Deborah Prince hired me to find Roman and Remus Prince, her twin sons. Apparently Remus had stolen her car, and she wanted it back without involving the police. It was easier to find Roman than his brother. Unlike Remus, Roman was trying to do some good in the world- he was only a few years out of high school and he'd snagged a job as a sign spinner for a sandwich shop. When I stopped him on his corner and grilled him for information, I found something else. I found a nearly homeless kid full of dreams with nowhere to go. So, as time went on and I finally got that car back, I kept in touch with him. I learned his dirty secrets, and I kept them safe. If Remus truly was threatening to expose those secrets, both our jobs were at stake. After all, I'm the one who got him his introduction to Thomas in the first place.
"Roman, relax your hands before you break my shoulders," Nate huffed, pulling Roman's hands off of him. "What do you need me to do?"
"If I call the police on him, he'd sell me out before the boys in blue could slap the cuffs on him," Roman stammered. "I need you to help me. I need to find a way to stop the blackmail." Roman stalked to his desk and found a loose piece of paper. He grabbed a pen from his coffee mug of writing utensils and jotted something down. "This is his address." Roman tossed the paper across the room. Nate's hands scrambled in front of him, desperately trying to catch the paper, but it floated to the floor.
"I hate it when people throw things at me," Nate muttered, bending and picking up the note. "I'll see what I can do, Roman."
"I have so many debts to you I still haven't paid off," Roman chuckled, sitting behind his desk. "I am at your service!"
"I'll tell you when I've got any updates," Nate sighed, opening the door to his office. Remy leaned against the wall outside, texting.
"Care to spill the tea?" Remy asked, tucking his phone away as Nate closed the door.
"Nope," Nate huffed, trudging down the hall. "Come on, Dormir."
Pediatrics has a different feel to it than any other area of the hospital. The walls are covered in colorful waves, with cartoon characters dancing through the air. The nurses trade the traditional purple scrubs for ridiculous ones, with unicorns and rainbows and all sorts of characters. Tiny patients pushing past in wheelchairs chat with their parents and their nurse. It's tough for little kids to be scared in this place. Even the teenagers enjoy the childlike nostalgia this ward possesses. The grim realities of disease and death are muted in this wonderla-
"Hey, you're mumbling," Remy interrupted Nate's internal (or perhaps not so internal) monologue. "You gucci?"
"I have no idea what that means," Nate said over his shoulder as he approached the half-moon shaped reception desk of the pediatrics ward. He flashed the receptionist a charming smile- he'd spent months working on it when he was a private investigator. "Do you know where Dr. Patton Foster is? Could you page him for me?"
"Alright sir," the receptionist said, turning to the other side of their desk. Remy leaned his elbows against the desk.
"I know I shouldn't," Remy chuckled, whispering to Nate. "But I've got a strong urge to corrupt some children. Teach them about communism or something."
"Let's not," Nate huffed. "This is a serious investigation."
"Hey!" a cheery voice called from the end of the main hall. Dr. Patton Foster jogged towards the reception desk, his white coat catching behind him like a superhero's cape. He wasn't wearing the light blue polo Nate almost always saw the doctor in during work hours- this time, he wore a gray shirt under his coat with a kitten paw-print on the chest. Patton slowed to a stop in front of Remy and Nate. "I saw that I got paged, and I was just down the hall! Lucky timing, huh? What do ya need?"
"Do you know a young girl named Beatrice?" Nate asked. "Member of a Dungeons and Dragons team?"
"I know Beatrice," Patton said, frowning. "Everything okay?"
"We just need to talk to her," Nate explained. "Is she in the hospital?"
"She's having a chemo treatment right now," Patton explained. "I'll take you to her! Follow me." Patton strolled down the hallway behind the receptionist, his heels kicking up behind him. Nate and Remy followed after them, their sunglasses catching the light. It was a slow walk to the children's chemotherapy room, because Patton kept stopping to say hi to every child he passed, giving them a high five or a pun that made them laugh or roll their eyes. There was one child Patton spent so long talking to, Remy had time to go to a vending machine and grab a Dunkin Donuts coffee.
The chemotherapy room in the pediatrics ward had an aqua green ocean lining the lower walls. Rolling blue walls separated the white beds where kids lay watching TV shows on their tablets while sickly yellow chemicals got pumped into their systems. Some of them had warm fuzzy beanies on their hairless heads. Others wrapped themselves in warm blankets as they read or worked on homework or took a quick nap. While a few chatted with the kids behind the blue walls, three chemo chairs sat in a circle around a table covered in maps and dice with three kids. The biggest of the group sat behind a dungeon master's screen in a Star Wars t-shirt and a blanket pulled over his head like a hood. One had a neon pink afro wig, and the last child wore scrubs hidden under a thick green blanket.
"Can someone heal me, please?" the dungeon master groaned.
"It's not my turn, dude," the kid with the afro said, shrugging.
"Booboo, it's your turn, heal me!" the dungeon master begged, turning to the kid with the blanket.
"I'm a dark mage!" Booboo laughed. "I can't heal people. Ok, here's what I'll do, I'll take the goblin next to you and I'll suck out his life force!"
"Hey, kiddos!" Patton chirped, approaching the table. "What are Biggs, Luna, and Booboo up to today?"
"They ran into a goblin swarm," the dungeon master explained. "Biggs got knocked out and I'm trying to get someone to heal me."
"Well, do you think you can pause the game for a moment?" Patton asked. "I have someone I'd like you to meet. Everyone, this is Mr. Christopoulos. He's one of the security guards who help keep everyone in the hospital safe. Mr. Dormir runs the coffee shop in the lobby. Nate, Remy, this is Mark, Lucy, and Beatrice, also known as Biggs, Luna, and Booboo." Each kid waved a little when their name was said.
"Beatrice," Nate sighed, crouching beside the table. "I've got a couple questions for you. Think you can answer?"
"Okay," Beatrice said, nodding and adjusting her blanket.
"Were you in the library yesterday?" Nate asked.
"Yeah," Beatrice admitted. "Mom let me go pick out a book."
"Did you run into Mr. Prince up there?" Nate asked. "Did he drop anything?" Beatrice's face dropped.
"Am I in trouble?" Beatrice asked.
"Why would you think that?" Remy asked, taking a swig of his Dunkin Donuts coffee.
"Well, when he left, I saw he dropped something," Beatrice explained, looking down in shame. "It was his hospital ID, like the one I have for school. I was going to give it back to him, but Mom pulled me away back to my room. She didn't want me out of bed for too long because I had a fever and she didn't want it getting worse. I didn't have a chance to get it back to him, so I kept it with me! I was going to give it back to him!"
"I believe you, Beatrice," Nate assured her. "But we found the ID in the lobby. How did it get there?"
"There was this kid," Beatrice explained.
"I thought they were going straight to Mr. Prince!" Beatrice stammered. "I was waiting with my mom to see one of the cancer doctors, and she went to the bathroom for a bit. This kid came by and saw the ID. I explained what happened, and they promised me they would take it to Mr. Prince, so I gave it to them!"
A mysterious child, and a traveling ID. What's the next step in the investigation?
