Chapter 7
Me and Ian practically run to the car, as we are too afraid to see what Mrs. Daltons cobra of a daughter would do if she sees us on their property for another second. While Ian starts the car I examine the check, looking for anything that's out of order, anything unusual. As far as I can see there's nothing off about the check. An idea pops into my head right as Ian exists the gates.
"Drive me to the bank."
"What-why?" Ian's asks turning the car onto route 80, focusing on the way home. I know this is a good idea, I'm one hundred precept sure that I have some bank account underneath my name in which I can access, maybe I can even access my Mothers account, hopefully closing the doors on the mystery of how she's getting all this money from.
"Because I want to see if I can access a bank account, I can check when the last deposit was, wether it was in mine or in my mother's." Fiddling with my fingers, Ian takes a turn to the local bank in Vanilla Valley. A huge brick building with sign that reads, "VV. Bank." The dirty white words imprint in my mind. Ian parks his car next to a blue SUV. I clutch the check in my hands ferociously as I gingerly open the car door to get out.
"What are you waiting for?" Ian asks and starts walking away without me. Glaring my eyes at him I step out of the car and stare at the brick building that hold everyone's money. I catch up to Ian as he's already at the front door, impatiently waiting for me. He opens the door and gestures his hand for me to walk in, he follows behind me leaving the door slam shut loudly behind him. The three front lady's all jolt their heads up at us, I smile at them, inaudibly telling them to trust me. We both walk up to the counters, a clear plastic wall separating me and a middle aged white women with shoulder length dark brown hair, wavy bangs cover her forehead and her long narrow face has little to no wrinkles. Bright pink lipstick smudges her parted lips, exposing the faint pink on her two front teeth. She smiles with her crooked lips welcoming us with hesitation, I mean we do look like 16 and 17 year old juvenile kids.
"What can I help you kids with today."  She asks looking down at her note pad.
"Hello, my name is Bailey Moore, the daughter of Amelia Moore, I was wondering if there are any bank accounts under my name that I can access?" The lady looks up at me bewildered, she glares into my eyes for a good twenty seconds and she starts typing on her computer. She clicks her tongue at the roof of her mouth and than sighs, I'm guessing while she opens our documents.
"You do, you a fund account and a savings account under your name, but taking as you are without an ID card and a driving license, I am not allowed to give you any information without your mother present" I knew she would say this, which puts me in a restraint of possibilities.
"I'm 16?" The words fly out of my mouth without hesitation. I didn't even know what I was saying but I'm just gonna go with it.
"Do you have a drivers licenses?" She asks me, looking up at me from her glasses. I shake my head no.
"If an account is under my name, shouldn't I be able to access it?" I continue,
"Well it's also under the name of your mother which gives you no motive to get into the account without the acceptance of your mother." I roll my eyes and try to think quick, Ian stands by my side awkwardly.
"What about my savings?" I ask, she looks down and types loudly into her computer. She gazes at the computer for a moment,
"If I could give you information about your savings account what would you like to know, your limited to two questions only." There it is. She gave up.
"Well before we get into any of that, can I access my fund account?"
"No, not until you are twenty one years of age." Okay, well the only actual information that I could get from these two questions might not even be answered, but it's worth a try right? The lady looks at me annoyed.
"Okay, the first question I have, how much money do I have in my saving account?" I ask, hesitantly
"You have about seventeen thousand dollars." She responds while clicking her mouse.  I nod my head,
"And when was the last time money was deposited into my savings account, and how much?"
"Tuesday, December 14. The amount was a little over four thousand dollars." My eyes widen.
What. The. Hell.
"Thank you..." I say as I look at her badge,
"Mrs. Dorthy," I end and and me and Ian walk out the building. I'm honestly so confused, there's so many mysterious and it's going deeper. The root of this is my fathers missing, the other added stuff is the checks, than the unusual amount of money that's been being transferred into my bank account, that connects to mom paying the fee to the break in, and my mom wanting to buy new property. The only way I'll be able to get to the bottom of this is answers, and I know my mother well, she's too smart enough to not cover her tracks. Mom will not give me any answers to anything and she'll act clueless, I need something against her first, to blackmail her into it.
While me and Ian get into the car I look over at him,
"I'm not even close to finding out the truth, but I know there's more than what meets the eye, and I know for a fact my mother is hiding something."
Oh, My God.
Andrew.
Andrew in the only person who has more insight on this twisted family of lies and secrets than I do. He's the answer.
"Drive me home, I'll explain everything to you later." I tell Ian, I might be able to get to the bottom of this mystery, out of the other two. What if there's more? All these thoughts swim in my head.

Ian drops me off at my house.
"Thank you." I tell him, he shrugs and I quickly exit the car, unknowing anything about what I'm going to do when I walk through my front door, I gather myself together. Just act like everything is fine. I step into my house and the smell of weed enters my nostrils. Great. Maybe he's too stoned for me interrogating him.
Whatever.
I walk through the cramped hallway that leads to the kitchen. I smile at my mom and she looks up from her newspaper.
"What are you reading?" I walk closer to her and she point at the article that reads,
"NATIONAL NEWS; LOCAL MAN WHOS UNIDENTIFIED ACCUSED FOR THE INFAMOUS MURDER OF THE NOVELIST RON COLLINS IN 1979" I remember this case being on TV like years ago. It's weird that it's coming up back now. Anyways, that's not the point. I have no idea how I will get answers from Mom, but I'll get them.
"Mom." I say unforthcoming, my bottom lip trembles the thought of saying anything that could trigger my mom. She looks up from the news paper and smiles.
"Yes?" She looks at me with the look a mom gives you when she knows your lying. She's guilty. I know it, and all I need to do is prove it. I will.
I sigh,
"You said yourself you wanted to start off on a clean slate, whilst you start that, what follows is the truth. Mom..." I hesitate while looking at her, my hands shake in pockets.
"I want the truth. Answers."
My moms eyes dilate and she bursts out laughing.
"Oh, Bailey." She says in the middle of her laugh.
"What is it that you want from me?" She finally says.
"Answers!" I say frustrated and sit myself down on a tarnished wood seat.
"I visited two areas today, the Dalton's residence, and the V.V Bank. In dads old office, there's a hidden safe with millions of checks that where written to Dad." I pull the now wrinkled check out of my pocket and gently pass it towards mom,
"Oh, my God!" She sighs, she rests her head on the palm of her hand and closes her eyes.
"And then, I go to the bank in which in our whole entire family unit, I can only access one account. The last payment was December 14, a little over four grand." My eyes narrow at my mom, she quickly jolts her head up at me as if I just caught her.
"Tell me." I whisper putting my hand on her arm to comfort her. My hand moves back and forth on her textured skin as she shakes. She sighs,
"With your fathers missing, and the loss of my job I've had to alter to a different position, meaning, new ways to make money." My mom says and her foot taps the ground, her breath shakes out her words with guilt,
"I've been having several sexual intercourses to make a living, and I've saved up enough to move." Mom finishes. Her words strike me like a fast beam of lightning that stretches over the sky. I bite the bottom of my lip and nod.
"Well what about-"
"The checks, Bailey. I have no idea about. I'm sorry."
I nod my head again.
"Okay." I say and I walk down the hallway. I'm speechless. The things my mom has resorted to. There's so much I still need to uncover. I'm getting sick and impatient. I head up to Andrews room, without knocking I open his door to him reading a diary, the blue diary I saw when I went looking through his desk.
"Andrew." I begin,
"I know that you don't care, but please, if you have anything that can help with this investigation just tell me." I say, I'm tired. I'm so tired of trying to figure something out that has a dead end.
"Just drop the investigation, Bailey." Andrew barks at me. I look down at his blue diary, I quickly take it into my own hands and I start flipping through the pages when one sentence stops me midway. I read it incoherently out loud,
"I'm so sick of mom and dad fighting, I'm scared." That's the leverage.
"What the hell is this?" I say to Andrew as I drag my finger underneath the words. He try's grabbing the book from me,
"I will show this to mom." I say, he backs up instantly.
"What is this about." I demand again.
Andrew walks over to his door and shuts his quietly.
"You want answers, fine." He says and he places himself down on his bed.

"So what is this about?" I say as I seat myself at the edge of his rough mattress, it's covered with a dirty dark blue blanket. Andrew fiddles with his thumbs.
"You don't know this, but mom and dad used to fight a lot... And it would sometimes get violent. I'm not sure if you know this but it happened while you weren't gone, and me. Onetime I came home early when they thought I was at the movies, and I heard dad screaming at mom, and mom was crying. I wanted to help but I was scared. So from then on I started documenting it, I would say I go out with friends but stay home, all they did was argue, and one time I heard a crash and my mom started crying, I felt so bad but I had no idea what to do." Andrew stops for a few second, I try to process all this in my head. Dad and mom used to fight? That's impossible, they has the best relationship,
"Mom was injured so bad because he hit her with a beer bottle and pushed her against the fire place, you were at school at this time but mom was gone when you got home, I think she went to the doctors or something." Andrew finishes his sentence and looks back down at his hang nails. I remember that day, I came home from school and I was fourteen. Dad said mom had a night with her girls and she came home with a hat on her head. Things are adding together. That would give my mom a motive to hurt him, maybe she was seeking revenge.
"Anything else?" I ask.
"No, that's all I have. I didn't say anything because I was scared." Andrew stares at me.
"No, it's fine. I get it." I respond.
I get up from his bed and I head towards the door as I hear Andrew behind me say,
"Be carful."
Those two words ran a shiver down my spine. I gave him a weird look and I locked myself in the bedroom. I never noticed mom and dad were having issues, ever. I never suspected this. First there's these weird checks, than there's the money thing which I already "solved" and now there's mom and dads marriage issues. I rush towards my side table by my bed and I grab a pink note book. I skim through the pages through of algebra homework until I reach and empty page.
Perfect.
I tear the page from the notebook and slam it down on the side table and start to write.
I write the date which is, December 22, 1994. I write down the time, 4:22 PM. I gaze at the page for a second. I write down a checklist of everything,

-huge money checks written to my father years ago, and recent. Unsolved.
an abundant amount of money my moms been getting. Solved
Mom and dad fighting? Unsolved.

Okay. I sigh. I have to know what these stupid checks are about, and the only person I can go to are the daltons. Or someone close to them. Once I find out that than I should look into my mom and dad fighting a ton. There's just so many potholes that I don't know what leads to what anymore. I fold the piece of paper and I set it underneath my pillow. I sit on my bed thinking about nothing. I gaze off, and next thing I know, I'm passed out on my bed.

"Bailey, wake up." My moms soft voice sings and my ears.
"What?" I ask, rubbing my eyes. I look over at the clock, 7:46. Holy shit. I slept until the morning. My mom stares at me weirdly. I look over at my window but instead of the sun, the moon shines through my window. Why does that always happen to me.
"I made dinner, come down." My mom says and she exists my room.
Since when the hell does she make dinner?