Taken: Day 5

Word Count: 30,063

Summary of Events:

Mitchell went to the hotel to see what he could learn. He was dismayed to find a crowd of reporters waiting for him who hurled insults at him and snapped pictures. Inside he discovered the room had been cleaned — although a bloodstain on the outside wall proved it was still the right room — before being taken away by police and warned to stay away from the hotel. Frustrated, Mitchell wanted to try to get into the hotel again, but the reporters remained outside, so he went elsewhere. Later that afternoon he met Dolly at the bar again and vented his frustration to her, as well as arguing that he wasn't violent . . . 

Excerpt of the Day:

“Even my motivation for joining the Army doesn’t qualify me as violent,” Mitchell added. “I joined the Air Force to get paid to take flying lessons because I wanted to fly. I was not unwilling to go to England and defend the free world from the Nazis, but that wasn’t why I joined the Army. I joined it to fly, and flying is not, in and of itself, inherently violent.”

“No,” Dolly agreed quietly, shaking her head.

“I am not a violent person,” Mitchell said. “Therefore that anyone would believe me guilty of such a seemingly extreme act of violence is appalling, particularly if they know me.”

“Well, this Odessa didn’t really know you, did she?” Dolly asked.

“No,” Mitchell replied. “But if you’re talking like that you obviously haven’t heard of Odessa Edgar before, and seeing as you’ve been living here for a year you should’ve heard about her if she’d done this before for whatever sadistic reason one could think of.”

“No, I haven’t heard of her,” Dolly said. “I’ve heard of Marion Edgar, though.”

“I think that’s her father,” Mitchell said.

“Makes sense,” Dolly said.

“So anyways, if Odessa didn’t know me — and she didn’t because I’d never been in Los Angeles until we docked here — and if Odessa is proven to not be the sort to target men and defame them just because she can, then she isn’t the one who framed me,” Mitchell said. “She participated in the framing, but she wasn’t the instigator of it. She was likely bribed by someone to help me.”

“Marion Edgar isn’t poor,” Dolly said. “Why would his daughter go after money?”

“I don’t know, maybe he was restricting the amount she was allowed,” Mitchell suggested. “Unless he was in on the plan too, but then one would think it would have to be for more than a payment from whoever wanted me destroyed, there would have to be some sort of a reason. Something that they agreed with the person wanting me destroyed regarding.”

“But we don’t know what that would be,” Dolly said.

“No,” Mitchell agreed. “But we need to find it out.”

“Do you know anyone from Los Angeles?” Dolly asked.

“A fellow member of the Army,” Mitchell replied. “Seeing as you’ve only been here a year and he’s been gone three I doubt you’ve ever heard of him.”

“Well what is his name?” Dolly asked.

“Perry Gay,” Mitchell replied.

“No, I haven’t,” Dolly said. “What does he look like?”

“Blonde hair that’s receding, brown eyes, his jaw sticks out, and his nose is really skinny and pointed,” Mitchell replied. “Shorter than me by a fair bit, but probably significantly taller than you still, and generally kind of skinny. He sort of makes me think of a rat.”

“Why?” Dolly asked.

“I don’t know,” Mitchell replied. “I just feel like he would be one if he were an animal.”