Xander POV
Luckily, I found her documentation. She was first Kathrine McHolland then when she married Methis's dad, she became Kathrine Delis but after the divorce, she returned to Kathrine McHolland. So I looked up Kathrine McHolland on all social media platforms that I could find, on all library records and on everything I could think of that would give me a result on people.
Eventually, after a long time of searching, I was able to find an address. It was a perfect start to my digging. An address. If luck was on my side, I would be able to meet with Kathrine herself and I trusted myself that once I was able to squeeze a meeting out of her, then I was going to get her talking. If I was correct, by what Sophia my sister told me, then Methis loved her father dearly and deeply so if her father had had a falling out with his new wife, then she was most likely to have a falling out with her too. Implicitly, Methis and Kathrine were not on good terms before and after the divorce. If this was so, then getting her to talk was half done.
I headed for the address. Before I set out, I planned my day well. I did some research on the location and as expected I found something. It was not a part of the city in the sense that it was recognized by the residents, however, it was a formal part of the city. It was located very far off the main city but it was surprisingly not a rural area. It was more of less suburban.
The cashflow in that area would not be a lot as they were mostly cut out from the actual city so residents will always appreciate a little cash, I thought, so I took some cash with me as an offering for information in case it ever got to that point and I headed off to Kathrine’s residence.
It took me three taxis and a hired cab to get all the way to Kathrine’s residence but unlike the pictures I saw online, this area was worse than I expected – though by just a small margin. The streets were mostly empty and the few people I saw were unwilling to talk to me. They did not even as much as wave or flash a smile. They just kept their heads down and carried on with their walk. Noticing this, I did the same too, I could not risk anyone thinking I was a stranger here. So on I went with my head bowed and with a scowl on my face just as I had seen the people here do until I eventually reached my destination, Kathrine’s residence.
It looked like the inside of a divorced woman – desolate and depressed. The house was old. It had spirogyra growing all over the place and the paintings peeling off. The walls looked like they might fall any moment from now. Let’s not even talk about the roof because whatever the colour that roof once was, it was no longer that. The iron on the roof had rusted to the core and the whole roof turned brown. Some parts had fallen off and in replacement, it had been patched up by something that looked likely to fall as well or just get soaked off by water if rain was ever to fall. As depleted as it looked, I just had to believe that someone was living inside of this place so it was a leap of faith in some sense.
I skipped up to the door and, before knocking, took a look around the environment and scanned my surroundings to see if by any chance there was anyone who was watching me. The street was blank of people but I always knew that in neighbourhoods like this one, there was a likelihood that there everyone had known of the arrival of a stranger even before I walked into the place.
They might all be watching. They were all watching.
I turned back to face the door and I knocked gently. No response. I knocked again and still no response. Were my knocks too gentle? Was this even the main entrance? Maybe there was a different door?
I walked around the house looking in through the windows, searching if I could see any evidence of life in this house. I didn’t find any. All the windows were shut and all the curtains were dropped so it was either I said person stepped out, or no one lived here at all. I got to the back and found no doors.
I stopped to think, having a quick laugh within me. OK, I knew it was a strange neighbourhood but how strange is it that the buildings did not even have a back door. It was one way in, one way out because even the windows had burglaries. This was a prison, not a house.
I came back to the front and knocked again. Still, no one came to the door nor was there any response.
“Perhaps you are not knocking hard enough!” I heard a man’s voice call at me from across the street. I turned around to see three teenage boys with baseball bats in their hands.
“Really?” I said not loudly. Why did this have to happen now?
“What? Scared?” one of the boys said.
“I’d rather be scared of a chap than three girls playing gangster!” I taunted.
“Girls?” the one in the middle who seemed to be their leader fumed. “Are you mad, blood?” He nudged his guys in the shoulder and they began crossing the road towards me.
“Careful,” I said. “Did your mum not teach you not to jaywalk?”
Maybe I said too much because the moment I said so, they all started running towards me in anger. They had more balls than I thought. But those were all irrelevant. I was dragon blood, what could three mortals do to me? I probably should have walked away from this fight but I was anticipating a fight with Jamal so I could as well do with some warmup. I waited patiently as the three boys rushed towards me before I engaged. However, they stopped as they got to me, brandishing their weapons to make me scared.
“What is it that you want?” I asked.
“Drop your wallet!” one screamed at me.
“Unfortunately, I don’t carry my wallet around,” I said calmly.
“I said give it to me!” he screamed back.
“You are a loud one,” I said. “It’s a robbery, don’t you think you should do it quietly? You’ll alert the police.”
They all started laughing. “The pigs avoid these areas. They can’t cope.”
I knew that the police avoided this area but it was because they simply did not care about here as it was too far from the city not because they could not cope. “Alright here’s an offer. I give you my wallet for information about who lives in this house.” I took out my wallet.
“Fine.” One snatched the wallet from my hand and passed it to his mate. “Her name is Pussy. She’s a miserable one but useful sometimes. Now off we go.”
The three boys walked off and I watched them go.
I waited for about a minute wishing Miss Pussy would show up before the three boys came back and just as I predicted I saw them shouting and coming back.
They had realized that the wallet was a ruse. It was empty.
In the end, I really was going to fight this fight.