Chapter Five: Mothers Daughter

We walk in silence for a few minutes, I was mesmerised by all the expensive looking houses on this street. They are the biggest houses I've probably ever seen in my life; these were not cheap is all I can say! Which begs the question, how much money does my mum actually make if she's able to afford a house here?

Jackson was still searching the perimeter but was trying to be sneaky, I had my arm wrapped around his to make it seem like we were a couple. Which I love how many things are discussed with me before they happen, note the sarcasm.

When I looked in the mirror to check my contacts it kind of made me sad, I looked nothing like me at all. My hair is a different style, length and colour, heck my eyes are even a different colour! The only thing I could keep the same was my clothes, but everything else was changed.

I hope and pray that this whole pretending I'm someone else thing isn't for too long, for many reasons. The first, obviously because I want my dad to be home safe but also, I don’t want to act like someone I'm not. I want to get back to my normal life going to work, hanging with Peter. He was coming to pick me up the other night, I hope it didn't freak him out too much seeing that sort of scene. What if there's a whole police investigation going on around us? My mum never said she worked for the police so how would they know? Am I classed as a missing person? I don't know how I feel about that to be honest; I'll ask my mum next time I see her what's going on with that?

"You know back at the house you were talking about the men?" I ask breaking the silence we had going on, Jackson nods for a second still looking around. “If you know that, you must know more about the case-" I start to say but he cuts me off before I could finish my sentence.

"I can't discus that with you especially, when we're so out in the open like this." He says point blank, no I am not being kept out of the loop if he knows something.

"Then don't tell me here but when we get back to the house, please I can't be kept out of the loop on this, they have my dad, Jackson." I say giving him puppy dog eyes, mostly to add effect, he looks over at me for a second before sighing.

"Fine, but you can't tell your mother that I told you anything." He tells me with a serious look, I nod agreeing with him just happy that he's actually going to tell me stuff.

Before we could talk anymore, an older woman flags us down from across the road. Jackson tenses at first pulling me behind him, really, she looks like she wouldn't hurt a fly!

"Hi, I haven't seen you two around here before so that must mean you're new, so welcome to our little community." She smiles crossing the road to join us, aww that's really sweet of her to do actually.

"Thank you, I'm Jackson and this is my partner, Alice." He smiles pointing to me, oh so I've also got a fake now too. Again, I love being kept in the loop with things!

I send her a little wave from beside him as she starts to tell us a few stories, Jackson did most of the talking throughout the entire conversation. Not because I wasn't down for talking, I love meeting new people and hearing their backstories. Jackson would speak before I had the chance to! We soon wave goodbye to the woman and start on out journey again.

"Are you scared of older people?" I ask once we were far enough away, Jackson looks over at me totally confused. "When she flagged us down from the opposite side of the road, you looked as though you were gonna smack her or something." I almost laugh at, imagine being afraid of older people, they are some of the sweetest people ever!

"I had to make sure she wasn't one of the bad guy's workers." He mutters trying to be quiet, this once again almost makes me laugh.

"A sweet little innocent woman would work for these bad men; Jackson are you hearing yourself right now?!" I laugh looking over at him, I'm sorry he can't be serious when he's saying that can he?

"You can't be too careful; Mario's men could be lurking anywhere ready to pounce! “He exclaims before quieting down a little, he did give me a clue though with that sentence, I know the boss man that has my dad is called Mario. "I think you've been out long enough, let's head back." he tells me turning us to walk back up the hill, yes where he's about to tell me everything he knows.

As soon as we stepped in the house, I started asking him questions, he once again was hesitant to answer any of them. He kept saying for me to let him get his bearings before he answered anything, I knew him getting his bearings was eating a bunch of food!

He went off to the toilet for a second which gave to time to hatch my plan, I knew all these doors have weird locks on and fortunately for me, Peter was forever losing his keys to his house. After the first few times of spending a bunch of money to get the locks changed, I attempted to pick the lock on his door. After a few attempts I managed to get it done, after that I was his go to pick locker to get into his own house. Now you're probably wondering, what does that have to do with this situation? Well, my mums house has one door to the kitchen and living room, as there basically just one big room with a tiny staircase leading to each room. So, if I lock the door, he is unable to get into the kitchen to get food, I will only unlock the door once he's told me what I want to know. See it's a marvellous idea don't you think?

Now in my mind, picking a lock to unlock a door and picking a lock to lock the door, has to be the same thing, right? I make sure there wasn't any keys around before setting to work on the door, it took me a few minutes to work it out, but the door was soon locked. Ha I'm a genius!

As on cue Jackson makes his way down the stairs and towards the kitchen, I had my back against the door smiling.

"I told you I'd tell you everything once I've got my bearings." He sighs attempting to walk towards me and the kitchen, I smile holding my finger up causing him to stop.

"I know to get your bearings you eat, now there's only one place in this house which has food, that is the kitchen but if you see behind me, the door is locked." I smile moving aside so the door was in full view, he walks over trying the handle even pulling at the door.

"How did you lock this; your mum keeps all the keys with her?" He asks shocked still trying the handle, he can pull the door all he wants, it's not opening.

"Would you believe that picking locks to unlock and lock doors are the same?" I ask happily but Jackson doesn't look too happy with me, I just smile crossing my arms. "Now as you said my mum is the only one with the key, so that means I'm your only key to getting the precious food you want, the only way I'm going to open the door is if you tell me everything you know about Mario and my dad." I smile sweetly at him, his mouth his just hung open with shock, I do shock myself sometimes too.

"You are your mother's daughter, fine! I'll tell you everything." He sighs which causes me to do a victory dance, I can't believe that worked! "Can't we just go in and get a few bits for the road?" He asks whining looking at the closed kitchen door, I shake my head while turning him to face the opposite way.

"You can have all the food you want, after we have our little talk." I say pushing him into another room to talk, I love when I win.