He explores the apartment

After Victoria disappeared behind the closed door that led to the bathroom, Zack took a seat on the couch and turned on the television. After finding nothing on worth watching, Zack decided to tour Victoria’s apartment. The kitchen had a small refrigerator, an oven/stove combo unit, a microwave, a toaster, and a small coffee pot. On the refrigerator were several magnets from different places Vicky had been. There were also several pictures of her and their group of friends. One photo in particular caught his attention: A group photo of their gang at the Homecoming Dance from the previous fall. In the photo, Zack’s arms were wrapped around Lisa, Victoria was with Dustin, Heather was with some random guy she had grabbed for the photo, and Brando and Ashley were so close they may have well been one body. Chloe and Gavin of course were absent that night. Chloe, as usual, wasn’t too keen on dressing up and Gavin was too terrified to even think about dancing.

“I don’t care what they say, those two AREN’T missing Prom!” Zack stated about his two best friends. "Even if I have to kidnap and drag them there myself!"

Next to that picture was one of Victoria and a woman Zack figured was in her mid-twenties. The way they were holding onto each other suggested a family relationship, but the two couldn’t look more different. Zack took the picture off the refrigerator to examine it more closely. He noticed that where Victoria had long, wavy blonde hair and fair skin, the older woman had medium length, straight brown hair and a tan to match. Just about every physical trait Zack could make out was different about the pair. Their noses looked different, their ears were different, even their lips looked different. Zack couldn’t find one single biological thing the pair of women had in common. Just when he was about to put the picture back, he noticed the one similarity they had; their eyes. The mystery woman was blessed with the same emerald-green eyes that Victoria had unknowingly used to hypnotize Zack when he first met her.

“Jenna!” Zack uttered. “By the Gods, if it wasn’t for the eyes, you’d never know they were sisters!”

Once Zack was finished admiring the mementos on the fridge, he moved to the bookshelf that was just inches from Victoria’s bed. After perusing the titles, Zack was shocked. Each shelf was filled end to end with mystery novels, detective stories, and thriller fiction. Not a single copy of Shakespeare. No poetry whatsoever. And not one magazine focused on teen-aged girls. She had all of the great mystery and thriller writers included: Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, Agatha Christie, James Patterson, Dan Brown, Edgar Allan Poe, and the list went on. If they were counted amongst the great ones, she had at least one of their books. As Zack reached the bottom shelf, he realized that Vicky’s love of mysteries went back to her childhood as she still had Encyclopedia Brown and Cam Jansen titles on the shelf, along with selections from the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Tom Swift collections. When Zack rose to his feet, he saw it, and it nearly made his eyes pop out of his head. Sitting on top of the bookshelf, where Victoria could reach it without falling out of bed was Zack’s favorite novel of all time: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. Zack felt lightheaded for a second.

“HOLY SHIT! ALL THIS TIME? I’ve had something in common with her the whole time I’ve known her and I’m just discovering it NOW?” he shouted to himself.

Zack was about to pick the novel up to read it when he saw the book mark. Not wanting to disturb Vicky’s reading, he left her copy alone and fished out his own from his bag. As he thumbed through the pages looking for where he last stopped reading, he heard the water in the shower cut off. A shriek disrupted his reading.