Nosey

   “I have a plan.” Frank stated as he walked to the dry erase board in the small detective office space and picked up a grey dry erase marker. He began to write and when he stepped away, a proud smile adorned his bearded face. 

  Colin looked at the board, puzzled, “Who are F and L, why are there stick figures and what are they doing? Is that a computer?” 

Frank pointed to the board, “F is for Frank, that’s me. He grinned, and actually pointed at himself. “L is for Laura. I am going to chat with her online to get the information from her.” 

 Colin rolled his brown eyes and ran his hand through his curly black hair, “I know who you are dofus. What I want to know is why aren’t you going undercover? We can’t afford to mess this up, you remember the last case.” He sighed and grabbed his blue thermos from the desk and took a swig of water. The last case he worked on with Frank was their third case together, both of them were new detectives and trying to make a good impression. Unfortunately Frank didn’t take things as seriously as Colin. 

  “I can’t be someone else Colin, Laura needs to know it’s me in order for this to work. She won’t trust a stranger. She trusts me though. Give me two weeks and I will get to the bottom of this, if not, then plan B.” 

  “What’s plan B?” Colin sighed, not confident at all with plan A. 

Frank scribbled on the board about a fake identity and going undercover, he had no plans to fail this mission and felt that plan B was unnecessary. 

Two days later in Phoenix Arizona, 

 Aubrey was bored on a Friday night browsing Facebook being her usual nosey self. Laura, her old college roommate, had posted a picture of an ice cream shop from her hometown in New Hampshire. Aubrey noticed there were a few comments and one in particular caught her eye. She clicked on the photo to further investigate. 

Frank Holmes: Oh the nostalgia, when was the last time you went there? 

Laura Townes: It has been a while, probably two years ago.

Frank Holmes: We should plan to grab a scoop, for old times sake. 

Laura Townes: I would love that! 

Jennifer Schmidt: @Frank Holmes remember when we used to go there on Friday evenings and get the two scoops of double vanilla fudge? 

  This was about a day ago and no one liked or commented under Jennifer’s comment, almost like they just ignored her. Aubrey found this amusing and clicked on Frank’s profile. Him and Laura dated in high school and broke up, she remembered Laura telling her this when they first met. Now they live in the same town about an hour from where they grew up. Frank looked much better than he had in high school and had Aubrey wondering if the two would hook up again. She smirked, recalling how Laura bragged about their sexcapades. Frank's page was pretty basic, just a couple of photos of him, Aubrey saw a high school aged photo with him and Laura, making silly faces. Under it there was a recent comment from Jennifer, curious; she clicked to see the rest of the thread. 

Laura Townes: Wow you still have this photo! We look soooo different! 

Frank Holmes: One of my favorites! I don’t know what you're talking about, you haven’t aged a bit. ;)

Laura Townes: You're still a charmer I see. 

Jennifer Schmidt: Frank Holmes and Laura Townes aww Frank you look the same,  Laura you look SO different, my how you have aged since then! Again no one commented under Jennifer. 

  Aubrey laughed out loud at this comment, startling her dalmatian dog Trudy, who cut her eyes at her from her spot on the couch. “This is comic gold, Tru.” Trudy sighed and rested her head down on the navy blue recliner. 

  “This Jennifer chick is a hater!” Aubrey said clicking on the blue text to open up Jennifer’s profile page. After a little digging, Aubrey learned that Jennifer, 36, was from North Hampton, New Hampshire and went to college with Frank and dated him.There were a few photos of the two smiling and holding hands, taking walks through a country looking city and a few shots of them studying together. Jennifer must still be reeling from this break-up, or she’s just jealous of Laura. Aubrey thought to herself as she closed her laptop. 

About two weeks later 

“That was fast. I’m sorry, but I really underestimated you. After our last case when you went undercover dressed up as a clown and tripped and fell in the kiddie pool I thought for sure we were going to be demoted. Wow this woman really trusts in you, and now we have all the information we need to put her away.” Colin said, shaking Franks' big muscular hand. 

“I should’ve bet you some money.” Frank said, snapping his fingers. They both laughed and looked over the evidence again. 

  Laura Towns owned a successful no kill animal shelter. However business had been slow over the past few years and she wasn’t making as much money, the upkeep of these pets was getting costly. She decided to start making some money on the side by selling illegal animals. She had a friend who worked at the zoo and began transporting baby animals to her. Not too many as to not raise suspicion but when a couple of people started making complaints to the police about seeing baby alligators or bengals in their neighbors yards there was definitely probable cause to investigate. Frank had been heavy on the charm and Laura opened up to him like a can of tomato soup and told him everything she had been up to. 

  Aubrey logged into Facebook to see a couple of new stories flooding her timeline. She scrolled down her feed with her pink manicured hand on her phone while her left hand picked at some teriyaki chicken in her lunch container;  to see the common denominator in each story: Laura Towns. Aubrey’s brown eyes got big as she read about Laura going to jail for selling illegal animals, on some Carol Baskin style shit. “What the hell?!” she thought as she scrolled to the last post and saw Jennifer Schmdit had commented. “Oh this is awful, just awful!” What a phony! Aubrey was definitely shocked to find out this news and even more shocked to read that Frank was the officer on the case as she clicked on the news article. “Frank you sly dog.” Aubrey thought as she read on.

Later that evening 

 Aubrey was aware that Micheal and Michelle were dating, they posted all their business online for anyone with eyes to see. So when Micheal slid into her DM’s she was definitely shocked, flattered but shocked. On a boring Saturday night Aubrey was at home as usual lying in her bed watching movies on her laptop, when her phone chimed. She thought it was her boyfriend Jordan so she anxiously picked it up, a hopeful smile creeping across her face. Wishful thinking she thought as her smile disappeared when she read the message: 

Micheal: Aubrey, hey, I need to ask you something. 

 Puzzled, she unlocked her phone which went directly to the messenger app and to the message in question. She wondered what Micheal would want at 11 pm and if it was even him. Could it be a scam? she thought before responding. The little message bubbles appeared in the chat window and she knew Micheal noticed her little face in a small triangle  to the left of the screen, indicating the message had been read. 

Micheal:  You there Aubrey? I know it’s weird, I haven’t talked to you in forever, but I had a question and then I will be out of your hair.

 Aubrey: Okay what is it?  

    She typed, curious. It had been 2 years since they last spoke, she noticed, scrolling up in the app to their last conversation. Which was a message inquiring about Michelle, she looked familiar to Aubrey.  He had replied and they exchanged some back and forth small talk before ending the convo. She waited for the message bubbles to disappear and a message to return in its place. 

 Micheal: I’m just asking around, and wanted to know. How was my box game back in the day?

Aubrey: ???

Micheal: My head game, you know, when I went downtown? 

It had been sometime since the two had done anything sexual, nonetheless, a sly smile crept up the corners of her mouth and she typed a simple reply. 

Aubrey: Decent 

Less than two seconds later there was a response.

Micheal: That’s all you're going to give me is decent? Not amazing, the best you ever had, etc.

Aubrey: Man look, it was decent, okay, why do you ask anyways?

Aubrey was smiling and amused by this convo. Micheal knew his “box game”  was nothing short of fantastic but she couldn’t let him know that. 

Micheal: I was curious, I’ve been messaging my ex’s. I think I’m doing a great job but my girl is always complaining, talking about how I don't use enough tongue, I’m not passionate enough, and all that wack shit. She has my self esteem in the gutter.  

Aubrey: Damn, I’m sorry to read that, but you know different strokes for different folks, what might be good to one is just okay to others. Did she give you any tips on how to improve?

A link for: how to give amazing oral sex and have your girlfriend's toes curling, popped up in the inbox about a minute later. Aubrey clicked on it, laughing at: Top 5 ways to Make her see the Mountaintop. Surprisingly a few of these she had never heard of but was making a note to show Jordan later. 

 Aubrey: Well try and do these things then, hopefully it gets better. 

She ended the conversation there, didn’t check the message Micheal sent and went back to watching her movie. 

 Two weeks later Aubrey was home from work with not much to do. She had done the grocery shopping, and was going to warm up dinner at six, leftover meatloaf and mashed potatoes for her and Jordan. She glanced at her phone and noticed two notifications in her messenger app, upon unlocking the phone the screen went straight to the app. 

Micheal: Hey, so I know I said I would be out of your hair, but I don’t know what to do. I have tried a few things on the list and some I have done in the past and still nothing. It’s like I’m not even down there at all the way she acts. I don’t know why I’m telling you all this, probably because if I go to my boys they will laugh. 

 This was some heavy shit, Aubrey didn’t know what to say, these two needed therapy was all she could think as she went to the Facebook app and typed in Michelle’s name. Her page popped up, a solo picture of her grinning with a flower in her short straight black hair, Aubrey scrolled around trying to see if she could dig up some dirt. There were a few pictures of Michelle in some low cut tops and the same person was liking or commenting on the scantily clad photos. As Aubrey scrolled to about two months ago she saw a meme with the quote; “what’s done in the dark will come to the light.” and the same woman, Shenelle A, had liked the photo and even commented “Did you tell?!” To which Michelle posted the shh emoji.

Probing, Aubrey clicking on Shenelle’s page. Her photos were basically a few selfies in front of a bathroom mirror, one with her in a car and a few on the beach, until she saw her hugged up with what appeared to be a woman in a red hoodie. You couldn’t see the womens face, her arm was draped loosely around Shenelles neck and she stood behind her. Aubrey noticed something about the hoodie that caught her eye, she went back to Michelles page and found a photo of her posing with her hands on her hips with a red hoodie on, the words ‘wifey’ etched on the left sleeve, the same sleeve in the photo with Michelle. The oven timer dinged as Aubrey put the phone down, “well that was dramatic.” She said aloud, shocked with what she found and unsure how to tell Micheal that Michelle might be creeping around, with Shenelle. 

                                                       The End