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"I'm not sure what we need to do now," I said. "Helen's gone. I'm not sure we have any reason to try to find her."
"I agree. If we believe her letter, then we know at least a little more about the lab. She says she had nothing to do with the escape of the bigfoot family. It sounds like that becomes an internal issue for BITES. Maybe we should concentrate on checking out the location from Journal #2."
"What do you want to do about that?"
"I hate that I can't check it out with you, but I think Tom will need to pinch-hit for me again."
"I'm good with that as far as making the journey, but I'm not sure either he or I know enough about cryptids to assess what we find."
"I can spend some time getting you two up-to-speed on bigfoot and giving you some idea what to look for. The initial trip will just be to confirm that they're at the coordinates we have."
We drove on in silence for a while. I called Jim and let him know what we learned about Helen. After I finished talking to Jim and ended the call, I asked Chance, "What do you think of Jim?"
"We've trusted him with a lot of secrets. He seems solid. Why? What are you seeing that the rest of us are blind too?"
"It's probably nothing, but everyone once in a while I get the idea that he's more than just a small-town lawyer."
"More what?"
"I don't know. It's crazy, but why would a lawyer have access to facial recognition software?"
"I don't know. Maybe they use it to track down people involved in a crime, witnesses in a crowd maybe. Do you think Jim is involved in what's going on at that lab?"
"I can't see how he could be. Don't get me wrong, I like Jim, but some things just don't add up."
We stopped for dinner, and I took over driving. "Listen, there's something I wanted to talk to you about at the conference, but things got out of control before I got the chance. You know I want to make some changes to Hairy's. Nothing dramatic, just a new coat of paint, less clutter on the walls. I know that the bulk of my customers are locals, and that isn't going to change. The only way to really increase business is to draw people in from outside the area. I'm thinking of turning the Quonset into a cryptid museum."
"That's a great idea. It would be a great tie-in to the cafe."
"I'm glad you think so. Want to be my partner?"
"I thought you'd decided Tom was going to be your partner."
"Maybe in life, but with your knowledge of websites, marketing, and cryptids you'd be a great business partner for the museum. Plus, your celebrity-status in cryptid circles would lend an air of legitimacy."
Chance didn't say anything for a while. "Would this be a legal partnership? What's my investment?"
"See that's why I need you as a partner. I haven't worked out any of those details, but I'm sure you will."
"Is this some lame attempt to keep me in your life in case things don't work out with Tom?"
I thought for a moment before answering. "Chance, bless your heart, I can understand if you need to hold on to the fantasy of us being together for a while. You'll get over me in time."
"If you don't kill me first."