“That’s really nice of you to do all of that for her,” Mallory said. “I’m not much of a cook either, but if there’s anything I can do to help…” She wasn’t quite sure where this offer came from, nor did she know if it was even appropriate for her to throw something like that out there, but it wasn’t like she could take it back now.
James beamed. “Thanks. That’s really nice of you. I think I’ve got everything figured out, but I’ll let you know if anything changes.”
“Yeah, please do. I don’t have much going on this week, besides some work I need to get done and I suppose I should spend some time with my family, since it is a holiday after all.”
“Work?” He pointed to the laptop that was sitting closed on the table in front of her. “Do you mind me asking what kind of work you do?”
She had yet to tell him that she was currently “between jobs,” and now she cursed herself for using the word “work” to describe what she was actually doing—snooping. Mallory cleared her throat awkwardly. “Oh, well… This isn’t likeworkwork. It’s kind of a long story, but I’m trying to do a little bit of research on women’s shelters and charity organizations in the area.”
“Oh yeah? Do you work in the nonprofit sector then?”
“No, no, nothing like that.” She shook her head and struggled to find a way to explain what she was doing withoutsounding crazy. Or worse, totally lacking in compassion. “Do you remember that woman who was with my parents when they returned from the market the other day?”
“The one with the baby?”
“Yes. They’re letting her stay with them for a while. She used to live in a women’s shelter, and they’re sponsoring her through some sort of charity program… I think.”
“You think?”
“Well, that’s the rub,” she went on. “She’s been a little secretive and my parents don’t seem to have any real information about herorthe charity program. It’s all just a bit strange and my siblings and I—well, one of my siblings—and I feel like Sasha might be hiding something. We just want to make sure that she’s not trying to, like, scam our parents or something. So, I came here today to do some research… That’s actually what I was doing on my dad’s laptop when I spilled coffee on it. Hence, that’s why I tried to drink most of my coffee by the counter before bringing it near another computer.”
James smiled and nodded. “Ah, and that’s why you burned yourself. Makes sense now.”
“Exactly.” Mallory laughed, somewhat embarrassed but glad that she’d told him the truth. She might not be ready to admit to her status as a jobless, directionless woman pushing forty, but this was at least one less secret she had to keep. “But I’m not sure that I’ll find anything. I tried a few basic searches on my phone the other day, and nothing really came up.”
“Do you want some help?”
Mallory drew back with surprise. “You—you want to help me? But you're on vacation!”
“Yeah, but believe it or not, this actually sounds kind of fun to me,” he said. “I won’t pretend like I’m some sort of expert hacker or anything, but I definitely know how to find stuff on the internet. I could at least help refine your searches a littlebit, point you in the right direction when it comes to reputable sources versus scam websites.”
“I mean, that’d be great! If you really don’t have anything else to do this morning.”
He shook his head. “I was just going to flip through the paper and have a coffee, but this is way more exciting.” He pointed to the chair on the other side of the table. “May I?”
“Sure,” she said, noticing how he causally pushed the sleeves of his sweater up like he was ready to do some manual labor. It was dorky, but in a cute way, and it made her smile. “Be my guest.”
He sat and spun the laptop around so he could open it facing himself. “Alright then. Let’s see what we can find.”
*
Two hours later, James and Mallory had spent more time laughing and reminiscing than doing any research. It’d become obvious to both of them that they weren’t going to find much about Sasha or the supposed shelter she came from. They simply didn’t have enough information to narrow down search. That said, when Mallory told James about her brother’s plan to get a list of charities and go through them one by one, he agreed that was probably the best place to start.
“Without her birthday or where she’s from,” he said. “We’re just getting way too many results, and it’d take us days to parse through them all. Who knew Sasha Sommers was such a common name?”
“Not me.” Mallory shrugged. “But oh well. I wasn’t anticipating finding a bunch of skeletons in her closet today, anyway.” She closed the laptop and leaned back into her chair. “Taylor and Erica are the ones with the real connections. If there’s information to be found, they’ll uncover it.”
“Fingers crossed.” James swirled around the last bit of his coffee. “Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful. I was really hoping to impress you with my whiz-kid computer skills.”
Mallory snorted. “You did help! Honestly, just the fact that you aren’t judging me for looking so deeply into this is a huge help. Besides Taylor, it seems like everyone else in my family thinks I’m overreacting. Sasha has my parents completely wrapped around her finger and my sister seems to have absolved herself of any responsibility if things go South. Granted, Ariel has a good excuse. She’s got three kids to worry about. What I don’t understand is how my parents can be so disinterested in learning the truth about Sasha’s past. If I had someone living under my roof like that, I’d want to at least make sure they weren’t, like, a murderer or something.”
“I think we can cross that off the list,” he said. “A warrant for someone’s arrest would’ve definitely come up in our search.”
“Not if she’s using a fake name.”
James furrowed his brow. “Wait, so you’re not even sure that Sasha Sommers is her real name?”
Mallory shook her head.
