Sylvie

Closing her eyes, Elle let the feeling of love and dread wash over her.  The letter spelled it all out, regardless of consequences.  Elle had already gotten one source talking about vampires, now this letter says it outright.  She folded up the paper and stuffed it in her pocket, picked up the items one at a time, and then replaced them back in the locker where they’d been safe for at least a year.  Wanting to keep the USB drive close to her, Elle affixed the drive to one of her necklaces and tucked it down her shirt.

Elle closed the locker door and using the rusted lock, snapped it closed once more. “Rest in peace, Angie.  These things are yours, not mine.  If we’d been married then I would feel better about having them.  As it is, those items were things you wanted to present to me, but couldn’t.”  Elle clamped her hand over her heart, “Maybe one day in whatever afterlife there is, you will get the opportunity.”  Elle put the stool back and looked at the locker like it was a living being once more. “Right now, you have given me something to watch and something to investigate.  Which I will do for you my little angel.”

Holding onto the little device around her neck, Elle waved goodbye to the folks who were all around in the center.  Greetings with lots of ‘Be well Elle, We miss you Elle, and come back when you can Elle’ the FBI agent managed to eke out a smile and half promise she’d be back in due time.

Once in her car, Elle drove to an abandoned lot to clear her head and think of where and how she should read the contents of the drive.  Taking the necklace off, and flipping the little drive around in her fingers, Elle came up with a few options.  Library, typically they can be used to print things off if the librarian can scan the device for viruses or malware before.  The only downside is that a library is public access and sometimes can buffer what each user has been watching or reading.

-Nope, too risky.-

Quickly ruling out the library, Elle moved to the next item on her list.  Her phone.  It was private, she had the ability to use a cord for conversion so the phone could read the line, but she wasn’t a hundred percent sure that the phone wasn’t being tapped.  Consequently this ruled out her apartment and her own known personal devices as a whole.  

-Still too risky.  My personal effects are subject to FBI scrutiny if necessary as a condition of working for the bureau.-

Elle looked around the empty parking lot and noticed a seldom-used strip mall that had a thrift store as its anchor to bring in customers.  “That’s it.”  Elle muttered to herself and started the engine of her vehicle and drove over to the ‘Handy Rose and Dandy Thrift Store’.  It all made sense to her.  Unlike purchasing new items that required an internet connection as well as a formal identification, older pieces of scrubbed equipment had no such requirements, often had USB ports and didn’t need access to the internet to work.  Thinking briefly, Elle figured that the item might need a memory or sim card to work but that was easy to come by.

Slipping the necklace back in place, Elle entered the huge store and headed for the electronics section then began to look around.  Most of the items were just used junk from the early nineties that were missing parts and could only be used for parts to fix the same older type unit.  Digging around further, Elle spotted one thing that could possibly help her, an older iPad.  Elle checked and saw that the sim was intact and the unit could power up just fine. She happily grabbed the unit and knew it could be charged with almost any set of chargers still on the market.

“I don’t see a price on this.  How much?”  Elle inquired to the gentleman behind the counter.

“Hang on, let me look in the binder here, that’s been on the shelf for about a year.  I think a guy was hiding it until he could buy it.”  He thumbed through the price guide. “Ah, here it is.  Fifty dollars. No warranty.  I have no clue how that older one works.  So I doubt there is a manual around here to explain it.”

Opening her purse, Elle quickly counted out the cash for the device. “No big deal, I know how to use it just fine.  I assume cash is still good?”  She laughed playfully.

“Very much so.  With cash, I don’t need to see ID.”  He found a small box to place the iPad into and handed it to Elle, “Thanks for coming in.  Enjoy your tablet.”  He keyed in the price and smiled.

Elle headed out of the glass doors and waved once more, “Thank you again, have a nice day.”

Hopping back into her unmarked police cruiser, Elle dropped the small satchel of supplies in the passenger side seat. “Alright, now then.  Where to view this out of the way of prying eyes?”  Giving some thought to the matter along with the fact she was rather hungry, Elle found her way to a fairly busy diner on the edge of the Virginia Beach city limits.

Named ‘Bubba’s Breakfast and Brunch’, Elle pulled into an empty parking slot and made her way inside.  “Good morning Ma’am.” a polite young lady behind a podium offered. “Can  I get you seated?”

Permeating her senses, Elle smelled the various breakfast fare such as eggs and bacon, but layered just below that was the scent of pumpkin and cinnamon. “Everything smells wonderful.  Do I smell pumpkin pancakes?”

“Yes, Limited time or until we run out.”  The hostess grabbed a menu and a set of utensils rolled in a cloth napkin. “I get the feeling you want to be out of the crowd, yet see everything and view outside.”

Elle nodded and followed the bopping young lady to the back of the restaurant where an empty two-person table faced both the inner diner and the evergreen trees outside. “I study here all the time.  Can I get you something to drink?  A Bloody Mary to start since it is a brunch menu?”

“Sure, lots of salt too.  I don’t think one drink will hurt before I start my day.  Thank you.”  Elle took the menu handed to her and focused on the one thing she’d been smelling since she entered.  Content to order the seasonal fanfare, Elle pulled out the tablet and the USB device, connecting them via the jack at the bottom port of the iPad.

When the screen turned on and yet wasn’t very bright, Elle knew the reason the tablet had been given to the thrift store.  She adjusted the settings a touch and managed to get enough of a picture that she could see items like in a moonlight.  Opening the file from the USB drive, Elle found a single movie file and clicked on it.