User blog:Metool Bard/Fanfiction: Missing Linc (Chapter 2)

Chapter 2: Fan Out
Looks like my optic schism (whatever that is) wasn’t as helpful as Lisa said it would be. We must’ve stayed up all night waiting for good news, but we never got it. Now the sun’s up, and Lincoln’s still missing. Which means it’s our turn to do something.

Lori called a sibling meeting in Lincoln’s room first thing. Even though I could barely keep my eyes open, I could tell that we all looked horrible. Seriously, I know for a fact that Lucy is not that pale. Also, I think Lana’s under-eye circles are getting under-eye circles. Long story short, we’re all gonna need, like, twelve days at the spa after this. At least.

“Lola, Lisa. What’ve we got?” Lori asked, stifling a yawn.

Lisa turned in Lincoln’s chair, and I had to cringe. O-M-Gosh, Lisa’s glasses make her bloodshot eyes look super gross. Please don’t tell her I said that.

“I’m afraid it doesn’t look good,” said Lisa. “The police don’t have any leads to go on. All they found so far was Lincoln’s bicycle on Acorn Street.”

“Meaning he must’ve been halfway home before he disappeared,” said Lori.

“Correct,” said Lisa with a nod. “If the bicycle in question is still at the scene of the crime, I can conduct some forensic analysis.”

I’m just gonna assume that’s a thing that’ll help us find Lincoln. Lisa is always using these big words that confuse me. I mean, like, I can usually guess what she’s saying based on how she’s saying it, but it’s almost like she speaks in her own language.

“And what about you, Lola?” Lori asked.

Lola put down Lincoln’s diary and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. I had to cringe again. Poor Lola is always so focused on making herself look beautiful, but just like the rest of us, she was a disaster. Her hair was all messy, her makeup was running, and her eyes were even worse than Lisa’s. I am not letting her walk out the door without a makeover.

“I-I think I might have something,” Lola said, flipping through the diary. She let out a small chuckle. “I can’t believe he remembered this. We were gonna do some pageant drills today.”

We all looked at each other for a moment. I didn’t know what to say to that, and I don’t think anyone else did, either. Finally, Lana cleared her throat.

“Yeah? And?”

Lola sighed. “It means we have a suspect, you dingus.”

“Well, sorry for not being able to read your mind,” Luan huffed. “How exactly do we have a suspect, anyway?”

“Simple. Lincoln’s my pageant coach,” said Lola. “With him gone, I can’t be at a hundred percent. I’m betting anything that Lindsey Sweetwater is behind this. This whole thing is right out of her playbook.”

Maybe it’s because I’m not as smart as everyone else, but I’m not sure I get it. Yeah, Lindsey Sweetwater is Lola’s biggest pageant rival, and from what I heard, she’s, like, really nasty. But would she really go out of her way to hurt Lincoln just to get to Lola?

“I’d criticize how you’re letting your biases cloud your judgement, but it’s not as though we have any other leads,” Lisa sighed. “Besides, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once said, when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, is the truth.”

Luna smirked. “Didn’t know you liked mystery novels, Brain Box.”

“Science is not my sole intellectual pursuit,” said Lisa, adjusting her glasses. “Anyway, let’s not digress. Is there anything else Lincoln mentioned in his personal records?”

Lola turned the page and narrowed her eyes. “Um, hold on,” she said. “‘Got another invitation from Ch-Cha—’”  She furrowed her brow. “Okay, this word’s weird.”

“That’s about the five hundredth time I heard her say that, for the record,” said Lisa.

Lola shot Lisa a dirty look. “At least I’m trying! Th-this isn’t easy for me, y’know!”

“Okay, guys. Break it up,” Lori scolded. “Lola, do you want me to read?”

“N-no, that’s fine. I-I can do it,” said Lola. “Just… give me a minute.”

She scanned the page again. “Ch-Chan-d-ler. Chandler! Okay, it says that he got an invitation to a party from some guy named Chandler. It was supposed to be today, but Lincoln declined.”

“I’m familiar with Chandler,” said Lana. “His dad works at the sewage treatment plant. I don’t see him that much, but I hear he’s kind of a jerk.”

Lisa knitted her brow. “It’s still a bit tenuous, but again, beggars can’t be choosers. Where is this party being hosted, exactly?”

Lola looked through the diary again. “It’s at the s-sew-age t-tre-treatment plant.”  She did a double take. “Wait, what?! Ugh, ew~! Why would anyone wanna go to this thing?!”

“I dunno, Lols. It sounds pretty cool to me,” said Lana.

Lola just gave Lana a look. “Not dignifying that.”

“Again, let’s stay focused, people,” said Lisa. “Did you come up with anything else, Lola?”

Lola flipped through the diary one more time before heaving a sigh. “That’s all I got. For the record, there’s a lot of juicy stuff in here about Christina, Paige, and Ronnie Anne, but I don’t think that’ll help us find him. He also talks about this other girl named Stella at lot. Don’t ask me who that is.”

“I know her,” said Lucy. “She’s the new girl Lincoln was trying to impress that one time.”

Huh. I wonder how Lucy knew that. Maybe the spirits told her? They seem to know a lot.

“So, what do we do now?” I asked.

“I propose that we divide ourselves into teams so that we can cover more ground,” said Lisa. “Our leads so far are the scene of the crime, Clyde, Lindsey Sweetwater, and this Chandler fellow. Mind you, two of these leads are quite tenuous, but we work with what we have.”

“Well, I know where I’m going,” said Lola.

“And I already said I’d talk to Clyde,” I said.

“And I wish to inspect the crime scene,” said Lisa. “Which only leaves Chandler.”

“I’ll take care of that,” said Luan. “I can use my business as a cover to get information.”

“Because of the party, right?” said Luna

“Precisely,” said Luan with a nod. “So, how are we gonna divide up our teams? Groups of two?”

“Negatory,” said Lisa with a shake of her head. “We have an odd number of personnel due to Lynn having other obligations.”

I looked over at Lynn, who simply hung her head in shame. It looks like she’s still upset about not being able to investigate with us, poor thing. Before I could make a move to comfort her, Lucy stepped forward.

“I’ll go to the game with her,” she said.

Well, that came out of nowhere. Then again, Lucy does like coming out of nowhere a lot.

“L-Luce? Wh-why would you do that?” Lynn asked. “You should be helping Lincoln.”

“The spirits informed me last night that darkness would befall you in Hazeltucky,” said Lucy. “It might be nothing, but I just want to make sure.”

I’m not sure I like the sound of that, even though I have no idea what she’s talking about. But if the spirits told her to go with Lynn, then who am I to argue? It seems everyone else felt the same way, since no one questioned her about it.

“I suppose that’s settled, then,” said Lisa. “I take it everyone else is comfortable partnering up with their roommates?”

“I’ve got no problem with that,” said Luna.

“Hey, no fair!” Lana yelled. “I wanted to go to the sewage treatment plant!”

“Of course you did,” said Lola, rolling her eyes.

Luan shrugged. “Sorry, Lana. I don’t think Chandler is gonna let you into his party uninvited. At least with a fellow performer like Luna, my cover story won’t sound wrong note.”  She laughed. “Get it?”

Lana was not amused, and neither was anyone else (which is a shame; she usually tells such good jokes). But I guess she saw her point, ‘cause she didn’t argue about it.

“Fine. I’ll go with Lola,” she said.

“And I don’t mind pairing up with Leni,” said Lori. “But there is one thing that bothers me.”

“What might that be?” asked Lisa.

Lori gave Lisa a stern look. “You sure you can handle taking care of Lily on your own? Genius or not, you’re still four years old.”

“Lily and I have travelled unsupervised before,” said Lisa. “If I run into any complications, I’ll give you a call.”

“Hang on. You travelled unsupervised with Lily before?” Luna asked. “When, exactly?”

“We went to the mall to earn some capital for our vacation. I breakdanced while Lily used her toys to provide me with musical accompaniment.” So, like, Lisa earned money by dancing and breaking stuff? How does that work? I mean, I guess she breaks a lot of stuff with those experiments of hers.

“Alright. But be sure to call me if you’re in over your head,” said Lori. “I don’t want what happened to Lincoln to happen to you.”  She looked around at all of us. “To any of you.”

“Understood,” said Lisa with a nod. “Well, we’d best get to it. Lori, would you kindly drive me and Lily to the crime scene? It is on your way to the McBride residence, I believe.”

“Yeah, sure thing,” said Lori. “Alright, girls. Let’s suit up. And Lynn…”

She sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Good luck out there. We’ll find Lincoln, I promise.”

Lynn nodded. “You’d better.”

We all went to our own rooms to get changed. Luckily, I have the perfect outfit for this.

…

After I give Lola a makeover, of course. Can’t forget that.

***

“C’mon, Leni! Get a move on! You’re literally holding us up!”

“I’m hurrying, I’m hurrying!” I called back. Sheesh, does she have any idea how many corners I’m cutting to save time with this outfit? I just need one last piece… ah! And viola~! I’m all ready to go.

At first, I thought I’d go with my forest green blouse, but it didn’t seem mystery-y enough, so I swapped it with my brown skirt. But then that clashed with the white heels I wanted to wear. And then I thought, like, don’t detective have flat feet? I heard someone call a policeman a “flatfoot” once, so I guess that means they wear flats instead of heels. So I went with my black flats instead. It was gonna be pretty cold out, so I put on a mauve silk coat complete with a purple scarf. Nice earthy tones, y’know? And to top it all off, I decided to wear Lori’s nice red beret. I’m… sure she won’t mind if I borrow it, seeing as it completes my look so well.

I opened the door and struck a pose. “So? How do I look?”

Lori rolled her eyes. “You look fine, Leni. Now can we—”  She suddenly glared at me. “Wait, is that my beret?!”

“I-it just compliments the look!” I said. “I-I’ll take good care of it, I promise!”

Lori sighed. “Fine. Whatever. We don’t have time for this.”  She gave me a look. “But if anything happens to that beret, you’re literally gonna pay for it.”

“G-got it,” I said. I then caught sight of Lisa, who was wearing her lab coat. She also had a brown satchel strapped over her shoulder. Gotta say, it’s a good look for her. Though I think a topknot ponytail would make the look better. I was about to offer to style her hair, but then I remembered that Lisa wears a wig. Oh well.

“Mom, Dad! I’m just taking Leni, Lisa, and Lily out to do some errands!” Lori hollered downstairs. “We won’t be long!”

“Okay! Keep your phones on at all times!” Mom called back.

“Will do!” said Lori. She then nodded to us. “Okay, let’s do this.”

We all made our way downstairs, with Lori carrying Lily and placing her into her carseat. We all hopped into Vanzilla and drove off. No one said a word until we got to Acorn Street.

There weren’t any policemen around, but just like Lisa said, Lincoln’s bike was right there, lying in the middle of the road. Brr~. I’m totes getting chills just looking at it. We all got out of Vanzilla and gathered around it.

“This must be where Lincoln disappeared,” said Lisa.

“Yeah, that much is obvious,” said Lori. “But it’s not much to go on, is it?”

Lisa smirked and unslung her bag from her shoulder. “Allow me to remedy that.”

She rummaged around in the bag and took out a makeup compact and a brush. I had to raise an eyebrow at that. Lisa never struck me as the type to put on makeup, and even if she was, is this really the best time? Before I could ask her about it, she started smearing the makeup on the bike. Now I’m really getting confused. Did the bike need a makeover?

After getting powder all over the bike, Lisa blew it away and took out one of those magnificent glass thingies (I think that’s what it’s called). She went around and around the bike, looking at it from all directions.

“Find anything?” Lori asked.

Lisa looked up. “The only fingerprints I could find on the bicycle belong to Lincoln. I also don’t see any terrain that would be suitable for leaving footprints, so there’s not much I can do on that front. However, I did find one thing that was curious.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

Lisa pointed at the bike. “Look at the angle the bike is facing. It’s running perpendicular to the road rather than parallel. What’s more, this is at least a few meters north of Lincoln’s typical route to Clyde’s estate.”

“And that means, what, exactly?” I asked.

“It means that Lola’s hunch about foul play may indeed be correct,” said Lisa. I felt a chill go down my spine as she said that.

“How do you figure?” Lori asked.

“I believe I may have a working hypothesis,” said Lisa. “It’s time I field tested this little beauty. A moment, please.”

She took out a small remote control and pressed a series of buttons. The remote suddenly opened up and shined a bright green light. Suddenly, it looked like the whole place had this weird green tint to it. Y’know, like when you’re using the sepia filter on your camera, except it’s green instead of beige?

I then saw something coming down the street, and I gasped. There he is! It’s Lincoln, riding his bike right for us!

“Linky~!” I cheered. Oh, it’s so good to see him. I rushed over to give him a big hug, but when I threw my arms around him, I just went right through him. I barely had time to notice this before slamming my face into a tree. Ow~.

“I’ll go help her up,” said Lori. She walked over and lifted me up. I looked around frantically.

“Wh-where’d he go?” I asked. “Lisa, you saw him too, right? Lincoln was right here!”

Lisa sighed. “Sorry to disappoint, but that wasn’t Lincoln. It’s merely a hologram created to simulate the crime.”

I don’t know if it’s because Lisa using smart words that I don’t understand or if I still haven’t gotten over smacking into that tree, but that went over my head. “Um, what?”

Lisa sighed again. “My Holographic Active Replay Visualizer, or HARV, takes the data I input into it and attempts to recreate the events as they happened. What you saw was not Lincoln, but a projection created by my device in order to visually demonstrate my hypothesis.”

“So, like, your thingie made a fake Lincoln to show us what happened to the real Lincoln?” I asked, trying to make sense of it.

“In layman’s terms, yes.”

I sighed. “Way to get my hopes up, Lisa.”

“I do apologize,” said Lisa. “Now, on with the simulation. I would wager that Lincoln was on his way home from Clyde’s, possibly getting close to his curfew.”

The fake Lincoln reappeared. I could hardly look at it. I still wish it was the real him.

“For whatever reason, Lincoln decided to take a detour on Acorn Street, right where we’re standing.”

Fake Lincoln turned his bike and went up the street.

“However, realizing his mistake, he tried to turn around, only to disappear. Seeing as it’s physically impossible for him to spontaneously vanish, the only other conclusion is that something, or someone, grabbed him as he was riding his bike.

I had to watch that whole thing play out between my fingers. I know that’s a fake Lincoln, but it still breaks my heart to see him get hurt like that. Once Lisa finished, the HARV thingie flashed, and everything returned to normal. Lori snarled and cracked her knuckles.

“When I get my hands on whoever did this, I will literally turn him into a human pretzel,” she said.

“Believe me, the feeling is mutual,” said Lisa. “But let’s take this one step at a time. We don’t have any firm suspects yet.”

“So, like, what now?” I said.

“First, I think it’s important to answer this question,” said Lisa. “Why would Lincoln take a detour like this?”

Hmm. Good question. Why wouldn’t Lincoln just go straight home if he was running the risk of breaking curfew? I mean, like, the only thing in that direction is Flip’s Food and Fuel.

…

Wait. Maybe…

“Um, maybe he was so thirsty that he wanted to get a Flippie?” I suggested. “Y’know, ‘cause he was sweating so much, and, like, he was nervous about breaking curfew and pedaling hard, and…”

…

I don’t know where I was going with that.

“Actually, never mind,” I sighed. “That’s stupid.”

Lisa knitted her brow. “On the contrary, Leni. It is the only possibility that makes sense, at least going off of the information we have. Though I’m not sure if this was a simple Flippie run.”

“Then, what was it?” Lori asked.

“There’s only one way to find out,” said Lisa. “This is where we part ways. Lily and I will go see Flip while you and Leni head over to Clyde’s.”

“Hang on, Lis’,” said Lori. “How exactly do you plan to get to Flip’s from here without me driving you?”

Lisa looked like she wanted to reply, but she found that she didn’t have much to say. I guess Lori got her there.

“Touché,” she said. “I apologize for making you take this detour, Lori.”

“If it means increasing our chances of finding Lincoln, I don’t mind,” said Lori. “Just call me when you’re ready to be picked up.”

“Roger that,” said Lisa with a nod.

We all piled back into Vanzilla and headed off to Flip’s. This just went from bad to worse. Someone kidnapped our little Linky. I usually don’t like to hurt people. I mean, yeah, I fight with my siblings all the time, but that’s different. We don’t hurt each other out of hate. But I don’t feel that way about this jerk, whoever it is. I do want to hurt him or her out of hate, because that’s what he or she deserves for trying to tear our family apart.

Hang in there, Linky. We’re on our way…

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