Where do the missing go?

THIS ONE IS AIMED AT AARON DAVIDSON, ONE OF DotCom's CHARACTERS. IF ANY OTHER CHARACTERS SEE A GAP TO MAKE AN APPEARANCE, TAKE IT!

July 1 2021-Seashore

"There he is, thats him." The man pointed out discretely.

"The one in the black shirt?" The woman sitting across the table from him asked.

"No, the guy with the brown hair behind him." He corrected.

"With the green eyes?"

"What? I can't see his eyes from here? You can't see them? Can you?" He asked surprised.

"I thought he was cute, I've been looking at him for a while now." She confessed.

"Well I think you're cute too..." He complimented her. "Go put on a show for him now."

"Oh, Im gonna..." She smiled mischievously while adjusting her breasts and the corset she wore. She stood up and pulled her skirt up an inch or two while winking at the man watching her.

"You're in trouble when you get back." He said to her but she had already started to walk towards her target.

Many heads turned while she crossed the street from the terrace bar she was sitting at but who could be blamed for staring?

A voluptuous body in a short package, golden blonde hair that reflect the sunlight beaming down on the street. A car pulled over and the driver stuck his head out the window, awed at the motions from her broad hips that started at her narrow waist. Her chest was ornamented with the most comfortable pillows a man could rest his head upon. Her features were beautiful enough to fuel jealousy in other women. Her attire and her expressions made her look aggressive in some way, this aura around her just added to her apeall.

She crossed the street and stood next to a traffic light, she looked both ways as if looking for someone and then turned on her heels and stood on the curb, next to her target, still pretending to be looking for someone.

She sighed in false disappointment, before turning to him. "Excuse me, um..." She called his attention before casually asking: "What time do you have?"

The shadows on the street were extending past the fading painted lines on the cracked gray asphalt, and Aaron was getting nervous.

Pushing himself off the wall on which he so 'casually' leaned, he glanced down the street, anxiously looking for her.

"Dammit, Rina," he muttered under his breath, and glancing toward the shadows again. "You should have been here twenty minutes ago."

It had been a good day, up 'til then. The storm the night before had put the lights out at their place, so Rina--and consequently Aaron, himself--hadn't gotten much sleep. It meant they both would be tired later, but it also meant they were up early enough to steal breakfast scraps from the hotel, clean up the early-bird rooms before the sun was up, and hit the streets for what Aaron typically referred to as 'pocket change.'

It turned out the having Rina was more help than hindrance. Not only did cleaning up recently vacated rooms at the Ingram go much faster with her help (she was a veritable dust bunny, and the other women working in the hotel absolutely adored her. She would often return from the laundry room with her pockets and cheeks full of chocolates), but wealthy, beach-going tourists were much more likely to tip a six year old waitress in pigtails than a ragtag twenty year old.

And on days when Aaron didn't work...

He'd found out less than a week after finding Rina that she would make a fantastic pick-pocket. He'd bought her a picture book in hopes of incentive to get up in the morning--every morning she got up on time, he would read to her a page from the book. One day, they'd had an argument...which was odd, considering she was a mute girl. She insisted she'd woken up, while he thought otherwise. In any case, he refused to read her the page she wanted, and when she'd thrown a fit, he'd taken the book to bed with him.

When he woke up in the morning, she had it.

But Aaron had tried pickpocketing in the past, and it hadn't ended well. He refused to let Rina try as much, though she was eager to pull her weight.

Instead, he sent her out--though never far--to beg from the rich tourists, who couldn't turn down her doe-eyed grin. The fact that she didn't--couldn't--actually speak to beg made her that much more endearing. On top of this all, she had a sometimes eerie precociousness about her. In short, in this case, anyway, she was charming, and manipulative, and she knew it. Day after day, she returned with her pockets full of dollars and spare change...and usually an ice cream cone or two.

But today--

"Excuse me...?"

Aaron started as the woman who had somehow magically appeared beside him. For a moment, he was startled. The blonde was pin-up gorgeous, probably too good for this part of the city, and for half a second, he considered giving her directions, as she was surely lost. Then she asked the time.

He was about to answer, when something tugged at his sleeve. He glanced down...and released a breath he hadn't known he was holding. He was so anxious and angry, he momentarily forgot the bombshell, and scooped up Rina who looked at first exuberant, then confused, then guilty.

"Exactly," said Aaron. "You know you're in trouble. You're half an hour late." He pointed out at the shadows on the street, now nearly touching the sidewalk on the other side. "See?"

Rina glanced at the shadows, then back at him apologetically. When he said nothing, she dug into her pockets and pulled out a wad of change.

"Rina, I--"

She thrust the wad at him instantly, so he put her down and took the change. "This doesn't get you off the hook," he said. "It's getting dark, and--"

He stopped abruptly as he unrolled the slip of paper: it was a $100 bill.

Eyes wide, he looked at her. "Rina...did...you steal this?"

The proud smile on her face faded as she realized she was in trouble. Again. She looked away, knowing well she'd broken a cardinal rule.

Aaron clothed his eyes and sighed. "Rina. We'll talk about this later." He turned back to the patient woman on his right. "I'm sorry," he said. "It's..." he glanced at the shadows, and guessed it was nearly four. He would need to head back to work in about an hour. "It's around four." He paused, then said. "Are you looking for someone?"

At the same time, Rina stepped on his foot. He glanced down at her, frustrated, but she wasn't looking at him. She was staring at the woman, arms folded. Aaron knew that look. He glanced back at the woman, instantly suspicious. "Are you looking for someone?" he reiterated, one eyebrow raised.