Uno and Fog: Everything’s Better With Rainbows (and coffee)

I met the roommate of James Everett at a coffee shop near the university called Everything’s Better With Rainbows.  While it did have a few rainbow themed menu items, the motif wasn’t actually rainbows everywhere.  It was a very pleasant coffee shop with cozy booths and a wide selection of coffee and food.

It was also very popular and had a very long line.  There were fliers posted along the wall for parties, bands, gatherings for poetry, and guest lectures and speakers.

It wasn’t hard to spot David Coburg, he keep looking about like he was looking for someone, which he was.  He was thin, dark hair that was more of a mop than any kind of real style.  Tight jeans and a white button down shirt that wasn’t tucked in.  I noted the white socks in the loafers and tried not to shudder.  Being disheveled was one thing, but white socks was quite another.

“David?”  I extended my hand.  I had considered different ways of approaching David, including telling him the truth that James was the LMSK, but decided against it, being the ex-roommate of a serial killer wasn’t something most people enjoyed discovering.  New Light University was technically a city and state away from New Amsterdam, despite being reasonably close.

David took my hand gingerly and looked me up and down, “You’re not what I expected.”

“How so?  And what can I get you?”

“Coffee, I guess.  You’re better dressed than I expected.”

I got in line and David followed, I smiled and answered smoothly, “I’m one of the best investigators in the country and people are willing to pay for the best.”

David snorted as the line slowly moved forward, “His parent’s paid for the best?”

“I take it his relationship with his parents was strained?  Regardless, they still love him and are worried that something has happened.”

David hesitated for a moment, “I suppose that makes sense.  He was always complaining about them though.”

“A lot of people have strained relationships with their parents,” I felt a slight tinge saying that out as if my own words were condemning me.  My father and I weren’t close, despite the fact that I worked for his corporation, the thought fluttered briefly that maybe that had as much to do with me as it did with him, “They didn’t understand him?”

David laughed, “More than that, they argued with him about the direction of his life, thought he was wasting his talents on the long dead.”

“I suppose an accountant and banker would be more practical in their outlook.  Is there much that can be done in archaeology other than teaching?” I noticed he relaxed considerably when I mentioned his parent’s career choices.  Its the little details that make you believable in any role.

While he is perfectly capable of questioning someone and gathering information, I suspect that The Fog’s preferred method of getting information was to scare them into talking, and if that didn’t work to beat it out of people, and if they lie to him, to beat them some more.  The good cop, bad cop routine works quite well when the bad cop legitimately wants to hurt someone and has no compunction about doing it.

“I’m getting my masters in business so I don’t know, but to hear James tell it, yes there is much more, especially with all the satellite imagery that is finding long buried and sunken cities that were lost.

“Seeking buried treasure?” I quip.

David hesitated, “I don’t think he was concerned about treasure.”

We had reached the counter and order David a large coffee and a café americano, which irritates my father when I do it in front of him since its literally watering down the espresso.  I paid the individual behind the counter.

“What was he concerned about?” I asked as we waited for the coffee.

“He talked a lot about the origins of people and truths about the world that had been forgotten.  One of his favorite things to tell people was that everyone had once thought that Troy was just part of myth and legend until Heinrich Schliemann discovered its remains.”

“Who else was friends with James?”  The barista handed us our drinks, and we headed to an open table.

“He kept pretty much to himself, he was close to the professor he was working under, Dr. Alvinson.”  I tried to hide my disappointment,  “Other than that, I never saw him with anyone.  Although, before he disappeared there was someone else.”  We sat down opposite each other at the small table.

“Do you know who?”

He thought for a moment and played with his coffee and took a careful sip of his drink before setting it back down.  “He never mentioned her name, but I think he was in love with her.”

I felt a chill, “In love?”

“Obsessed really, the last two weeks she was all he really talked about, kept saying she had found him, couldn’t believe his luck, it was jumbled up when he talked about her.  Said she was the one, that his life had led up to this moment.”  David shifted uncomfortably.

“James wasn’t gifted in the romance department?”  I suggested although I didn’t think the woman he was referring to was a romantic interest in the normal sense, or a woman for that matter.

David took a gulp of the coffee, “I don’t think he’d ever had a girlfriend, at least for as long as I knew him.”

“Did you ever see anything that would suggest who she was?” I drank my café americano, it was quite good, there was a reason the coffee shop was popular,  “it could help us find out what happened to him.”

He shook his head, “I don’t think so, but I have a box of his things that I packed up for him and kept incase he returned. You could have it, take it to his parents if you wanted.”

“That would be helpful.”

“Sure, might as well go get it now,” he stood up and I followed suit, “thanks for the coffee.”

“You’re welcome, thank you for answering my questions.”  Hopefully the box of James’s possessions would have something useful.