Mina sighs.

This is impossible.

Sitting at her desk, she taps her pencil rapidly against her notebook. Distractedly, she looks out her window, the bright sun streaming in. She could faintly hear the sound of lawnmowing.

“i’ll be over soon mom is nt letting me leave so easy” Mina read Thea’s text, and she lets her pencil fall.

She decided that she needed to write down everything about Dory’s missing case that she knew. Sometimes compiling it and going over it can help see things differently. With Thea, hopefully she’ll be able to think of something that Mina can’t.

Maybe a whiteboard would be better? Mina wonders if her mom got rid of it or not. They may need to have a Stiles Stilinski moment. There is definitely colored yarn around here.

Glancing down, she begins to read her notes out loud.

“Dory disappeared seven days ago. It was somehow done during the day (see notes about party). It wasn’t willing (she wouldn’t leave without telling Thea). Whoever took her probably thought she was Thea (their full names are confusing). Who are Thea’s enemies?”

She’s missing something. She thought they were making progress when she realized their name mix up. Off topic, Dorothea and Adora. Who names their kids that?

Turning the page to her party notes, she begins reciting them. “Fourth of July party at Nelly Tara’s house. It began around 2 pm and ended around 10 pm. Both Thea and Dory went together with some friends. Thea already didn’t feel well and left. Dory said a friend would drive her home. Window she had to disappear was 3:10 to 6:30. By that time, absolutely no one can recount seeing her.”

Many things aren’t adding up. How could she just vanish in broad daylight? With all those people around?

She brings up the photos that people have sent her from that day. There is something tugging at her brain, but it isn’t surfacing.

Her phone buzzes, startling her, interrupting her thoughts. Thea is calling her.

Mina picks up and puts it on speaker phone. “Hey, my mom finally let me out. She is understandably nervous anytime I leave the house. She also is annoyed so say thanks to the stupid lawn guy.”

“What did he do? Cut the lawn too short?” She asks absentmindedly as she continues scanning the pictures. “No, he was late today to cut which ticks her off because he has not got a good rep with this whole neighborhood recently. Mrs. T ranted to my mom about him leaving early last time for a family emergency. Didn’t even finish it until three days later,” Thea answers.

“When was that?” One of Mina’s talents is just asking questions to avoid talking about what is going on in her head.

“Last week.” Mina’s eyes drift to a picture just as Thea replies. It is one with two girls from her class posing on the front lawn. They are obviously in the forefront, but in the back you can see the driveway. A truck with a lawnmower slogan on the side. One that is currently in her next door neighbor’s front.

“Like on the fourth? He was at Nelly Tara’s house?”

Mina can hear Thea huffing from walking, probably rushing because she’s late. “Yeah, Nelly was so mad that her mom didn’t rescehdule him because of her party. But what does that have to do with anything?”

“Because he was never mentioned or interviewed by the police,” Mina states with a bit of urgency.

“He wasn’t there for very long that I heard. Left pretty soon after I did. Probably felt uncomfortable around a bunch of teenagers. He’s cut everyone’s lawns this summer,” Thea responds.

Looking at the pictures, she swipes to one that she knew Dory was in. It was the last known image of her. She is looking at something off screen. Worriedly.

Mina goes to a different picture that was around the same time from another angle.

You can’t see Dory in this one, but from the other picture, you can figure out that she probably stood to the left corner.

In this one, there is a group dancing in the foreground. But on the right behind them is the lawn guy. Staring to the left, where Dory would’ve been.

“Oh my god.”

———

This is sort of a sequel to “Finding Dory (the Human)” but it can pretty much be read separately. I actually thought I had posted this and realized it was still in my drafts.