Chapter 103 - An Old Memory

Jake Devonshire, a man barely recognizable to the man he met weeks ago, sat across from him at one of Iron Horse's table booths. Iron Horse shuffled with the elites coming in and out, among the VIP room so surely the two, especially Jake who screamed suspicious, stood out from the glittering crowd.

How strange.

Same scene, same man, and yet Jake wore a black hat and a long khaki coat that hung to his knees. Gone were the dark circles plaguing underneath Jake's eyes. Gone were the scruffy beard and in place, he was clean shaven and dressed to finally shed the truths.

It was like watching the most puzzling change right before his very eyes take place. A few weeks undergoing thought and coffee perhaps did Jake some good.

"You found me," Dane was the first to speak, his tone hard edged to reveal the surprise that kept flooding him.

He actually chuckled. "I'm a bit rusty but it wasn't difficult to find you in the media's lens."

"Right. That hardly counts as superb detective work then...Jake, I'm sure you didn't just find me in a heartfelt reunion for nothing important hmm? Tell me, what did you find?"

That was how Dane worked. He liked to get straight to the point. No more wasting time and just diving straight forward.

"I know you've been looking for the same thing...The Golden Deer."

Wretched golden deer!

Now, Dane was actually tired of this personified individual which was damn good at hiding. If Jake knew about it then that meant there were some cracks. Cracks which were allowing the organization to even come under light. Dane never betrayed his emotions and kept quiet, keeping a still gaze directed at Jake's serious demeanor imploring him to listen.

"The senator is the main suspect."

It felt like Dane's heart was going to drop and break in two. He kept wanting to deny all the signs but it was there. It really took someone other than Leo and himself, like Jake to balatantly spell the truth out to him for it to really click. The past few weeks had been Leo and Dane finding more sources to make them believe the senator was somehow tied to all of this.

The ending was never going to go smoothly as he wanted it to. Nothing in his life ever did, with the exception of finally having his lynx right where he wanted her. With him. But now even that was starting to scare him because the truths were so hard to bear.

"...I know," Dane finally uttered, confliction laced in his voice. "But my sources tell me the senator doesn't have the tattoo. Unless he had it surgically removed or by other means. It would all make sense but...I have this gut feeling that things are not what they seem."

"I'm on the same page. I think it's all strange...Through my own private investigation, the evidence seems as clear as day. And yet...Yet, it's almost too obvious and clear, as if someone or something wants us to think that it's the senator himself. It could be. It couldn't be...Maybe this will help you figure something out with me."

Jake rummaged inside his coat pocket and he pulled out what looked to be like a thick and old brown notebook. It had been roughly handled, almost crisp around the edges but remained inact with all the pages.

"Here, this is the main reason why I seeked you out."

He slid over the notebook to Dane through the table. Dane's fingers hesitatingly traced over the handwriting...

It was a bit nostalgic.

Somewhere in him, he knew even before Jake spoke out loud, "The agency kept it with them thinking you had left this world but now that I know you're alive, it belongs to you. It's your father's private notebook. He liked to carry it around with him wherever he went. Did you know..."

Jake's voice thinned out as he kept reminisicng about Dane's father. He kept staring at his father's handwriting.

There were some things one never forgot. For Dane, that was his father's handwriting because his father would spend hours writing his cases. During his youth, he idolozed his father very much and would even read the papers or recite them out loud.

Dane's thoughts flashed back to a moment back in time when he first found his father immersed in work on his supposed day off. His father was a relatively quiet man. Not a man of many words and yet when he spoke to Dane, he had all the knowledge that could fill an entire jar.

'Father, what are you always writing?'

'You want to see?'

'Yes! Hmm...This is boring but if I want to grow up just to be like father, then I should sit and write like you too.'

He could still hear his father's low laugh fill his ears as if it were only yesterday. And, even imagine the feel of the rough texture from his father's palms as they would glide over his hair.

Dane wished he could have cherished his father's laughs and treat every fatherly touch as if it were going to be the last one. His mother too.

If only he knew their lives would come to an end, then he would have been a better son. He would done so many things differently but it was too late. No matter what, mourning was pointless if that bastard that caused all of this was still out there.

Suddenly, Dane remembered something that happened during one of his moments spent with his father. It was exactly when he was sitting next to his father. They were immersed in the same routine of his father scribbling his case notes and Dane scribbling into his work assigned from school.

His beautiful mother had knocked on the door one summer evening, 'Honey, there's someone here to see you.'

Out walked into the room was a strange man whose face he couldn't remember. What Dane remembered was that he was a scary yet kind man. But what knocked Dane's breath away as he searched his memory, was that the strange man who paid his father visits had the golden deer tattoo visible on his arm just like...Leo's pictures!

"...Dane! What's the matter? Is everything alright?"

He slowly shook his head, trying to calm his nerves that probably showed how much he was shaking with realization. Dane slammed the old notebook onto the table, searching through Jake with desperate eyes.

"Could you give me a list of all my father's acquiantances, friend, enemies....everyone! Please Jake."

"O-Okay. What for though?"

Dane could only look at Jake with turmoil throwing him upsidedown.

"I think I might have remembered something important. I-I don't know how it's all linked together but if my memory is right, I think....Jake, I might know who did this if you can give me the information I asked for."

"Dane, I would do anything. You can count on me," Jake reached out to lightly pat Dane on his shoulder. "We're in this together now. We'll shed the truths together."

The Jake before him came in an untimely manner, yet was beginning to resemble a true detective like his father once was. Beginning to even make Dane believe they could shed truths together.