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The titles say: Part 1 - Had the Chance Been With Us that Has Not Been

"So." The bat is back, as the titles fade from the screen. They're replaced by subtitles, that say

Mikhael - Private Investigator

"First thing that happens when I walk in with lunch is my boss says "Take a look at this."

"I have to sidle around him and set the bag of sandwiches down on the desk to do that, but when I do he hands me a printout."

Images of paper, carefully laid out on a photographer's mat, the screennames carefully obscured with slips of colored tape, go by a little too fast to fully read, each a little closer to the camera:

[Orange Tape]: Anyone heard anything since last week?

[Orange Tape]: Thats what i thought

[Green Tape]: what do we do?

[Yellow Tape]: is it really our business to "do" anything about? It's possible he's just moved on with his life.

[Orange Tape]: Yeah and its possible ill suddenly turn straight but till i see it happen im not gonna assume

[Green Tape]: yeah if hes living happily in duluth or somethin i want to hear it from him

[Yellow Tape]: before we go on

[Yellow Tape]: i'm going to address a question someone had, because i think it's something that might raise unhealthy doubts:

[Yellow Tape]: we're not having this conversation with [Black Tape], ok? they've both been very clear about not getting tangled up again, for a long time now, and we all know they've both been healthier for it

[Yellow Tape]: so the fact he's not in this channel doesn't mean anyone suspects him. agreed?

[Orange Tape]: I mean YOU sure do think theyre healthier for it...

[Yellow Tape]: and you obviously agree since you only invited one of them to the wedding

[Green Tape]: she's got us there

[Orange Tape]: I'm not disagreeing with that shit but seriously do you actually KNOW they both been healthier?

[Orange Tape]: I dont

[Orange Tape]: Dont actually know how long wolfboys been awol

[Orange Tape]: Last I actually heard from him was when he didn't show up to the wedding

[Green Tape]: wait, so, who was the one with the question?

[Blue Tape]: ...that was me.

[Orange Tape]: Fuck in obviously.

[Green Tape]: oh yeah lol i'm dumb

[Orange Tape]: Lucky you're rich and pretty

[Blue Tape]: Ok so, we're all worried. Like, what do we do? Can we call the police?

[Orange Tape]: Fuck that

[Green Tape]: i dunno if that's gonna do any good they're just gonna say like

[Green Tape]: 'well you lost touch with a guy you knew in high school'

[Green Tape]: that happens

[Green Tape]: doesn't mean he's MISSING

[Yellow Tape]: [Blue Tape], even if they think it's worth helping us, there's

[Yellow Tape]: Well, all the things that we know they aren't going to believe, even though they're true.

[Blue Tape]: What about a detective?

[Yellow Tape]: That's the cops again

[Blue Tape]: No I mean like a Sherlock Holmes kind of detective where he's got a office and mysterious ladies come and warn him about their mobster boyfriends?

[Green Tape]: ...dude that's only in movies

[Orange Tape]: If you mean a private investigator that's at least a better idea than the cops

[Orange Tape]: Even if you don't know how they work in real life

[Orange Tape]: Howbout... hun can we afford to get a private dick?

[Green Tape]: you gonna call him that to his face?

[Green Tape]: yeah sure we got room in the pockets lol

[Orange Tape]: Ok, so... [Yellow Tape] can you find someone to call? You got the letters on your name, theyre more likely to listen to you.

[Yellow Tape]: I might not be able to do more than ask for a wellness check, but I'll see what I can find.

"Ok, what do you think?" he says."

"I think your sandwich is going to get cold if you wait for me to read this before you start eating."

"Cause that's what working for him is like, right? I'm the only employee, and it's less I work for him and more 'he pays me to hang around because if he didn't have someone doing that he wouldn't remember to eat or sleep or like... bathe.'"

Now the camera shows a black cat, a swath of white down his face and throat, hands folded on his desk, looking not at the camera, but clearly at the person behind it. The subtitles say

Jacob, Private Investigator

"I've been a private investigator for a few years now. And I try to keep an open mind. You don't really go to a PI for solving crimes. In the end it isn't about finding the missing person or recovering the stolen artwork, though that does happen. It's not about pressing charges, or getting justice, though those do happen too. It's about getting enough information that you can finish the story, so you can sleep at night. Just to make things make sense. Whether to you, or your family, or a civil court. And a story doesn't need to meet any kind of scientific standard of proof, it doesn't need to be peer reviewed or be reproducible by independent studies, to do that."

The bat reappears. "Also he thinks I'm some kinda psychic or cursed or something, I dunno, he won't talk about it outright. I don't believe in magic or ghosts or god or putting a crystal up your hoo ha to sanctify your chakra, but I do believe in weird shit. I have to. It keeps happening. Jacob hired me specifically because of the weird shit. I think he hopes that next time it happens he'll be able to interview it, or something."

"So he's not the kinda detective that takes photos of your wife having an affair," the bat is still explaining. "He's the kind that gets called when people claim they saw bigfoot or something. Mostly they didn't. But mostly he lets people believe what they want to believe. He does believe in magic and ghosts, but only some of them. He says a lot of the things people think are magic and ghosts aren't. Dunno if he believes in any god. Doubt he sticks crystals anywhere but what he does in his bedroom is none of my business."

"I've been called a paranormal investigator," the cat sighs. "I suppose that's technically true, but I don't use that term. 99% of the things I've looked into, I haven't found anything supernatural."

"I don't use the term debunked, either. Say you didn't find a ghost, say you did find some other non-ghost explanation that could maybe have been what you saw? That doesn't prove it wasn't a ghost. A haunted house having faulty light switches doesn't prove it's not actually haunted, it just means you need to get an electrician in, and then look closer."

"Really, what I believe in more than anything? Is synchronicity."

"So," now we see the bat from the side, a little lower angle, "I frown at him till he shrugs and unwraps the sandwich I got him. He knows it bugs me when people take food for granted. Then I give this print out a second look. "Ok, so... a missing person case, then? They lost track of some guy they used to know, they can't find him. That's not the kind of case you take, so... there must be more to it."

"He always does that," the cat shakes his head, ruefully, "waits till my mouth is full before he asks something."

"Ok," the bat says "I go on before he gets a chance to get his mouth back and answer with a twenty minute lecture, "I'm betting it's this 'all the things we know they're not gonna believe even if they're true' here. So there's something that they must've told you, when they called you or whatever?"

"He slides a check across the desk. Asks me if the name on it means anything to me."

"I can't read the signature, but the top corner says 'Carl Hendricks and Flynn Moore-Hendricks.'

"And I think, "where do I know the name Hendricks from," while I eat my own sandwich. This town's got no nightlife and shitty bars and like only one gay hangout anywhere, that's what I get for living in Mormon central, but it's far away from the sea and it's got lots of great sandwich joints. "I'm gonna guess there was a Hendricks I ran into while I was living on the streets? Suspect he musta been an asshole?" He asks why. "Cause remembering him is pissing me off," I say."

"Carl Hendricks and Flynn Moore," the camera cuts back to the cat, clearly gearing up for that twenty minute lecture, "are two survivors of the Meseta County Black Hole Incident. In 2015, a small deteriorating town in Arizona called Echo, as well as a large region outside its boundaries, was cut off from radio or cell contact for one night. No internet, no phones. Even satellite photos, that night, show only a blank circle. People reported trying to drive there and being unable to, not only in the sense that they forgot how to get there, though many did. Some reported driving down the highway, toward the town, and then finding themselves, still driving, facing the other way, without having stopped or turned around."

"When contact was restored and people were evacuated, the stories from inside the town of Echo were even more extraordinary. People lost their minds, for no reason. There were several murders. There were several deaths that don't seem to be attributable to murder, or to any known cause. And there were reports of, well, just about every kind of paranormal phenomenon. And yes, people can break down in a stressful circumstance such as being suddenly isolated. But not everyone who gets isolated breaks down, and not at the same time, and not in the same way, there's more than isolation going on there. And even if it was only just the stress of isolation, there's still the question of what isolated the town?"

"And now," the bat rolls his eyes, "I know why he took the case. He's obsessed with Echo

"I'm from Echo. It was the first thing he asked about at the job interview, he wasn't interested in my qualifications or anything, he was hoping I'd mention something that'd, I dunno, give him that Eureka moment and then he can solve the whole mystery. And I just tell him: There's not much to tell. It was a shitty small town, no jobs or money so it had extra helpings of assholes and bigots and meth heads instead, same as every other shitty small town. Had to take the bus to the next town over to go to school, which I didn't finish, cause my asshole bigot parents threw me out on the street when they found out I was gay."

"Never looked back."

"So it sounds like I dodged a bullet, leaving when I did. This is the first I'd heard there even was a Black Hole Incident."

"Yeah," the cat says drily, "Apparently he just doesn't bother reading any of the books I keep in the office."

"I should emphasize, this isn't a disappointment. This is exciting. We're looking for a survivor of the incident, and one of the people looking for him used to live in the town. One witnessed the incident first hand, the other knows nothing about it. I often say the scientific method isn't always the best tool, but it's hard not to look at the situation and think 'control group.' Assuming we can find him."

"So, I ask Micha for whatever he can remember."

"I mean, growing up there was an exercise in boredom. Nothing happened, least not that I noticed or cared about. There was the time a kid drowned in the lake, I remember some gossip about that being suspicious. I think there was an urban legend about a hobo getting his legs cut off when he fell under a train. And think there was some kinda local cryptid that was like... supposed to have a light switch for a face, I think?" He spreads his wings in an exaggerated shrug.

"Well, I say," says the cat, "do you remember anyone in particular?' He hems and haws, his parents, he says, not that they deserve remembering. A few delinquents he associated with. And a boyfriend."

"No," the bat is staring at the floor, now. "There was one guy. Not a boyfriend, though I kinda thought so at the time. Really it was more a 'we're dumb teenagers, we're horny and desperate, and each is only other gay guy we know of in like a fifty mile radius' thing. Didn't last long. He got an actual boyfriend, and even if he hadn't, it was like less than a month before the family kicked me out and I shook the dust of that place outa my wings."

"Fair enough," I say," The cat's eyes are burning a little, with quiet excitement, "Let's talk about the actual case," I say. "We're looking for a man named Leo Alvarez."

The camera holds for a long moment on Micha, who finally speaks. "I dropped my sandwich when I heard that."

Jacob smiles. "You see? Synchronicity."