Chapter 2

Spike, Buffy, Dawn, and surprisingly Tara started out from Sunnydale in Joyce’s Jeep that mostly just sat in the garage since she had passed away.  When the foursome got to Rocky Point, they decided to make a pit stop and get a quick bite to eat.

On Spike’s tab. 

Spike had won the night before at kitten poker, mostly because he had his heart in the game.  He knew they were in need of money for the trip to Los Angeles.

Dawn pointed at a small diner with the name Rodriquez in neon across the front.  “Mexican sounds good.” 

So, Spike stopped the car and they all went inside and sat down.

When Tara opened the menu, she got a confused look on her face.  “I don’t think Fiskesuppe is Mexican,” she commented.

“No, ma’am,” the waitress came up to the table.  “My name is Bessie Rodriquez.  What can I get you to drink?” 

When Bessie came back with their drinks, Buffy said, “I have no clue what anything on here is.  Do you have a blue plate special today?” 

“We certainly do.  This week we have lamb meatballs in a savory sauce served over egg noodles, with a side salad, and Flotegrot for dessert.”

“Flotegrot?” Buffy asked in a confused voice.

Bessie nodded.  “Yes, it’s a Norwegian cream pudding.”

Buffy, Tara, and Spike ordered the lamb meatballs, but Dawn decided she wanted to try the Fiskesuppe and Flotegrot.  Bessie went to place their order, and they sat chatting about inconsequential things.

Someone cleared their throat.

Buffy looked up and her eyes widened.  She grabbed Spike’s hand under the table.  “Hey, Detective Stein, whatever has happened, I just got into town and I’m just passing through.”  She vowed to herself to have Spike find an alternate route back to Sunnydale.

Stein held up his hand.  “I’m not here to accuse you of anything.  I’m here to apologize.  Chief Corderman recently sent me the coroner’s report on Ted Buchanan.”  The detective glanced around for eavesdroppers, and he lowered his voice.  “He wasn’t human.  Therefore you couldn’t have murdered him.  I’m sorry.”

Buffy was flabbergasted and at a loss for words.  Dawn, on the other hand, was not.  She had plenty of words to say.

Dawn pointed her finger at Stein.  “I told you, didn’t I?  But, you didn’t believe me!  Buffy didn’t have anything to do with Kendra dying or the deputy mayor either.  That was other people.”

“I get that now.  I understand what ‘gang members on drugs’ mean now.  It took getting out of Sunnydale to learn it.”  Stein held his hands up in self defense.

A pretty blonde lady walked up behind Stein.  “Hey, partner.  You harassing these good folks?”

“No, I was just apologizing about something.”  Stein turned towards the woman.  “This is my partner, Kate Lockley.”

“Good to meet you,” Buffy replied.  “I’m Buffy Summers, and this is my sister Dawn, and our good friend Tara Maclay and Spike.”

“Would you like to join us?” Tara asked.  “There’s plenty of room.”

Kate and Stein pulled up chairs to the table and waved Bessie down to order their usual meals.

“I used to know someone from Sunnydale,” Kate replied.  “Cordelia Chase.”

“Small world,” Dawn said.  “We know Cordy too.  Does that mean you meet Mr. Broody Shorts?”

“Captain Forehead,” Spike grunted.  “Master of the Hair Gel brigade.”

Kate chuckled.  “Not an Angel fan?”

“Angel and Spike are related.  They’re not bosom buddies.”  Buffy smiled at Spike.  She kept her hand curled around Spike’s hand.  “Hopefully, we can get our business done in Los Angeles without running into Angel.  We’re going to talk to one of the suppliers for our friends’ store.”

They continued the general chitchat until their food was brought to them.  When they had finished the meal, Kate turned to Stein.  “You should just show them Esmeralda’s picture.  They probably haven’t seen her, but it couldn’t hurt.  She has friends up in Sunnydale.  Maybe they were lying to us.”

Stein shrugged before he pulled out a picture to lie on the table.  “Honestly at this point, we’re not even sure if she’s dead or alive.”

Buffy looked down at the picture and suppressed a gasp.  There was more now.  What had changed?  “So, you know how Sunnydale is the home of the weird?  Well, I’m the queen of the weird.”  She let out a breath.  “I was dead.  For almost four and a half months.”

“One hundred and forth seven days,” Spike muttered under his breath, and Buffy tightened her grip on his hand.

“My friend who is a witch – a literal witch – did some magic, and voila here I am.”  Buffy looked at Stein and Kate to gauge their reaction, but both were looking at her expectantly and without disbelief.  “I came back different.”

“Different how?” Kate asked.  She glanced at Spike.  “You’re not like him and Angel are you?”

“No, but I can tell your girl is alive, fading fast.”  Buffy picked up the picture, but before she could say anything Dawn spoke.

“Buffy, you and Spike are glowing,” Dawn said in soft voice.  She glanced around the diner, but nobody else seemed to notice.  Tara nodded her agreement.  “Are you doing something different from back home?”

Buffy glanced down at her fingers entwined with Spike’s fingers.  She lifted them to show Dawn and Tara.

“They’re not glowing to me,” Stein said.

Spike glanced at the picture, and he gasped.  “I can see what you see now, pet.  She is glowing blue, but it’s fading.  What the bloody hell?”  He took the picture from Buffy.

The others watched as Spike followed something with his eyes that they couldn’t see.  He had a confused look on his face.  “Before, I could only see that she was blue.  Now I see something else.”

“I wonder,” Buffy said.  She reached out to grasp the picture too.  “What is that?”

Tara pulled a notepad out of her purse to record everything for Pete, and later Giles.  “Tell me what you see.”

“There is like a blue string-thing coming out of the picture and going out the side of building,” Buffy replied.  “Is that what you saw when you picked up the picture, Spike?”

“Yup.  So, let me get this right, we’re holdin’ hands which showed me what you saw, and when I touched the picture I saw this string.”

“And when I touched the picture that you are touching while holding hands, I can see what you see.”  Buffy looked at the blue string again.  “I say we follow the string and see where it leads.”

Kate waved Bessie down, and the meals were paid for by Spike.  Then, the six of them left the diner.   They all got in their cars with Tara driving for Spike since Spike and Buffy were in the backseat holding the picture.

“I hope Pete has some ideas for this whole thing,” Buffy said.  “Having to hold each other’s hand and hold the picture sure makes things a tad more difficult.”

A few miles out of Rocky Point in the direction of Sunnydale, Spike told Tara to pull into a small city-owned park. 

“The Natalie Wyndam-Pryce Memorial Park,” Dawn read when they drove by the sign.  “That’s quite the coincidence.”

“Even more curious,” Spike commented.  “I had a Great Aunt Natalie that married a Wyndam-Pryce.”

“A mystery for another time, you two.  We have a young woman to find in a hurry,” Tara said.

Buffy nodded.  “You’re right.  When we park, you and Dawn grab a couple of flashlights out of the back.  It’s really dark out here, and none of us have eyesight as good as Spike.”

Tara pulled into a spot in the small parking lot.  Stein pulled up next to her.  They all got out of their cars, and between them, they had four flashlights.  Spike and Buffy continued to follow the blue string, their entourage in tow.

“No one mentioned anything about Esmeralda ever going to this park,” Kate said.  “No wonder we didn’t find her.  We weren’t even looking in the right place.

Stein sighed.  He agreed, but there was no sense in them both beating themselves up over it.  There had been a clear lack of clues right from the beginning in this missing person case.   Spike and Buffy stopped at the top of a steep incline.

“She’s down there.”  Buffy called out the woman’s name.  “Esmeralda, we’re here to rescue you.  We’re coming down.  Detectives, you might want to go ahead and get an ambulance out here.”

Spike handed the picture to Dawn, and he took her flashlight.  “Buffy and I will do down.  We’re lighter on our feet.”  They started down the hill.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

“How the hell are we going to write this one up?” Kate muttered while she watched the ambulance pull out of the driveway into the park.  “The chief will never believe that we were lead to her because of some kind of powers from a formerly dead girl.”

Dawn held the picture out to Kate.  “Yeah, I’ve seen her.  She was in Sunnydale and I overheard her tell some guy that she was going to stop here to take in the scenery.  There you go.”

“You could make a career of this,” Stein said.  “There’s plenty of missing people in the world.”

Buffy shrugged.  “Maybe, but first we need to go talk to Pete and figure out what this is exactly.”