Mike Lawson set out to tour the small town. It was a lot like the one he used to live in, when Evan was a kid. Of course Moon Lake was much better since it wasn’t in Texas. There was a good reason there weren’t a lot of werewolves living on that base. The heat was unbearable.
Given that it was still a holiday, most businesses were closed. Mike simply looked around for buildings with “FOR SALE” or “FOR RENT” signs in front of them. He found a few that seemed nice. On occasion he found someone to talk to about the buildings or houses.
“Rent’s reasonable for most of them. And they aren’t too far from Evan’s.” Mike thought while driving his pickup. The place he just came from was more like a motel that also happened to have a few apartments built onto the back. It wasn’t in town, but it didn’t hurt to look at it. After all, it was less than ten minutes from town.
When Mike stopped at a light, and he saw another car pulling out of the driveway he just pulled out of. A black sedan that just screamed suspicious. Mike kept an eye on it as he headed back towards Moon Lake. He expected it to take the turn towards the nearest highway ramp, but it kept following him.
Rather than confront the guy in town, Mike pulled over to the side of the road just outside the border. The only thing to look at was trees. The sedan pulled over as well. The man who got out looked like a suit, even though he was wearing plain clothes.
“A cop? A lawyer?” Mike wondered as the man approached him. A quick sniff confirmed this was a normal person.
“Can I help you with something?” Mike asked once he was close enough.
“Was just heading back into town myself. Funny coincidence. Are you from around here?” the man asked, trying to appear casual. But Mike suspected he was fishing for information.
“From Seattle, but my son lives there. Been looking for a place nearby to move. Not getting any younger.” Mike said, mirroring the casual voice.
“Me too. Well the part about moving. The city’s a bit too much for my taste. Been looking to downsize.” Sean Walker lied.
He’d watched the older man at the motel. Asking about the apartments for rent in the back. He’d overheard him telling the building manager that he was looking for a place to live around Moon Lake. When the manager asked why Moon Lake of all places, the older man simply said it was a personal matter. Sean wasn’t about to waste the opportunity to spy on him after hearing that. He’d been a little overzealous, because the old guy spotted him immediately.
“I can understand that. So, you renting one of the apartments?” Mike asked, getting more and more suspicious with every passing second.
“No, just staying in a room for a few nights. Have to get back to work eventually. But I’m taking some days off to go house hunting.” Sean lied again. The first thing about telling a good lie, the more details the better.
“Listen, sorry if I gave you any reason to panic,” Sean continued, “but if you don’t mind me saying, you look awfully familiar. Have we met before? Maybe around Seattle somewhere?”
“Doubt it. Unless you frequent military bars.” Mike chuckled.
“No ‘fraid not. Anyway, nice meeting you. And sorry about before.” Sean said before turning around.
“So the guy’s military. Maybe he knows Lawson. Is that what the secret is? Some kind of military project in the works? No that wouldn’t make sense. Then again the Naval base isn’t far from here…” Sean thought up more and more crazy theories as he walked back to his car.
And meanwhile, Mike wasted no time to jump into his truck and drive off. But not into town. He wanted to shake this fellow first. Something, maybe everything, about him screamed shady. And the way the guy kept muttering things to himself, and smelled like gun residue, Mike got a bad feeling from him.
“Not dragging you into town. Evan just got his shit back together. Don’t want you to come in and ruin it.” Mike thought as he took a right turn down a different road. Which did confuse Sean, enough to warrant further tailing. The two vehicles then began a game of cat and mouse in the area outside Moon Lake. Zigging and zagging from street to street, neither party willing to admit defeat.