Well, I'm quite happy with all the reviews thusfar! Not sure how often I'll be able to update, so enjoy the pace while you can! Now let's get back to our regularly scheduled Marshall goodness. =) Oh, and it's gonna get dark soon, so be ready for it. Yikes!
DISCLAIMER: I got nothing. No, really, I don't.
"I swear to God, I'm gonna kill these guys!" Mary yelled as she hit yet another dead end.
"Who are you going to kill and in what manner and where can I get tickets?" Marshall responded in his calm, droll manner from his desk, hanging up his phone.
She threw him a look that would have terrified lesser beings, but he just took it in stride and waited for her response. "This Donaldson character from Seattle! There's nothing here that would possibly indicate who might have come after Jason, why someone would take him, or where they would go! The witness statements are incomplete, at best; the crime scene information from Seattle PD is practically nothing; the history of his time in Seattle is cleaner than clean; and to top it off, it looks like Donaldson had a rookie start taking his witnesses exactly 4 weeks ago. Before Jason went missing. And there's no note about it! If there's one thing I hate, it's incompetence."
"And if there's two, it's rookies."
"Yeah, that too."
Marshall sighed and rested his folded hands on top of the stack of folders and paper, leaning forward. "I know. I haven't had much luck either, but they are still looking up there. There's a whole list of people that might have had contact with Jason and we've only made it halfway through."
"And it only took us four hours to get that far," she muttered darkly, standing up to stretch her back and legs.
Marshall shrugged. "What did you expect? That this was going to be easy? Jason works in a computer store as one of their tech guys. He interacted with many people, but not on a level that would put any into a category of more than acquaintances. He didn't reach out to anyone that we can tell at this point, and he never caused any trouble."
"I know, I know," she said, running her hands through her hair. "But there's gotta be something we're missing here." She paced a bit behind her desk, hands on her hips now. "Did we check out the mob connection?"
He checked his screen. "Oscar de la Feuntes, 3 years to go on his sentence, apparently reformed and involved in community service a youth group in Gary. That is a scary thought. Rico Rivera, still apparently at large, but no indication of any activity. He was a small time thug, though, not a major player."
"Let's check him out anyway," Mary said, knowing she was grasping at straws here.
Marshall winced and looked up at her. "He hasn't been heard from in years, but rumor has it that another member, Antonio Chattums, killed him with his own pocket knife. No body has ever been found."
Mary made a disgusted noise and sat down in her seat heavily. "What about this Chattums guy?"
"Antonio Chattums, paroled last week for a multitude of sins, the least of which is aggravated assault and his parole officer assured me that he has not left the state of Indiana."
"Punishment enough, I'd say."
"There is nothing wrong with Indiana," Marshall offered sagely, smiling a bit. "It is the crossroads of America, one of the contributing members of the nation's Corn Belt, and has the largest children's museum in the world. In fact, Indiana's educational constitution of 1816 was the first in the country to employ a state funded public school system."
Mary could only stare at her partner in awe.
"What?" he asked, looking confused.
"It astounds me how much useless information that noggin of yours holds."
He smiled and adopted a proud expression. "It's a gift."
"Or something," she said, still looking at him strangely. Shaking her head, she moved back to her computer and files, then sighed. "I need to get out. You wanna come?" She pushed off of her desk and grabbed her jacket.
"Sure," he replied, standing up and making his way to the door. "Where are we going?"
She shrugged, pressing the button for the elevator. "I need food and air, and then maybe we'll stop by and see Danny Remaley."
"Remaley?" Marshall asked, his brow furrowing as they stepped into the elevator and it began to move. "Remaley, Remaley…oh!" He snapped his fingers. "Jason's boss from when he worked at Radio Shack?"
"Bingo. Nice work, Sherlock," she said with a grin.
"Thank you, Watson."
She rolled her eyes, and stepped out of the elevator. "Anyway, Danny was probably the only other person that Jason had any real contact with."
"And you like Danny for this?" Marshall asked her as he fit his lanky form into her tiny car.
She made a face and shook her head. "Not really. But he might know something, or at least have an idea."
They grabbed a quick meal at a little bistro down the street, in which they talked about the wide assortment of things, making Mary suspect that Marshall was attempting to distract her from her desire to strangle certain Seattle WitSec inspectors. It didn't really work, but it at least kept the desire to an irritated simmer instead of a vicious boil. After their meal, they drove to Radio Shack in relative silence, unless you count Marshall's tapping to the beat against the side of the car. For all the nerd he was, he kept a pretty good beat.
They pulled into the parking lot and when they saw no one around except a teeny clerk of maybe 15, Mary scowled.
"Be nice, Mary," Marshall murmured, touching her shoulder softly. "Excuse me?"
The clerk looked up from his book, and straightened his glasses. "Oh! Welcome to Radio Shack, can I help you?"
"Yeah, we're looking for Danny, is he here?" Mary asked, trying not to bark at the kid.
He nodded, and that was all.
"Would you mind telling us where he is?" Marshall asked slowly, wondering if this kid was a little too slow to be working at an electronics store.
The clerk, whose nametag read Michael, jerked a thumb towards the door behind him. "He's in the back, but only staff are allowed back there."
"It's ok, Mikey, we're friends with Danny," Mary assured him as she walked passed the counter and opened the door.
"It's Michael!" the reedy voice called to her as they entered the back room. The light was a little dim, but not too bad as they looked for Danny amidst the boxes and equipment.
"Danny!" Mary called, feeling a little nervous. If Danny were gone too…
"Is that you, Mary?" a cheerful voice came from a few rows away. Immediately a thick, curly head of hair appeared and the man himself came around the shelves, his smile wide, a pencil sticking out form behind his ear. "It is Mary, well I'll be damned!"
"I hope not, Danny, who would people take their computer troubles to if you're burning in hell?" she quipped, giving him an almost smile.
He shrugged. "True enough, true enough. What's it been, Mary, four years?"
"At least. This is Marshall, another friend of mine," she said, stepping back a little for the two men to shake hands.
"Any friend of Mary's…" he started, looking rather amused.
"Had better tread softly," Marshall offered, taking on a mock-serious expression, "yes, I am aware of that."
Danny laughed loudly at the glare Mary shot her partner and wiped his slightly stained hands on his red flannel shirt. "I can see you know what you're doing, Marshall. So, Mary, what can I help you with? Ipod? DVD player? Laptop?"
"Jason Goring."
Danny's pleasant face fell and he sighed. "Ah, Jason. I've missed that kid since he moved. He had a gift with computers, and it's never been the same since he left." He indicated that they sit on the crates nearest them, which they did, albeit a bit awkwardly. "What do you want to know about Jason for? I'm sure he would have contacted you before me, I know how he looked up to you."
"If you can call it that," Marshall muttered, but Mary ignored him.
"Jason's missing, Danny," she said, further ignoring Marshall's startled look at her. It was a bit outside of policy to reveal that sort of information, but Mary had had just about enough of everybody beating around the bush and getting nowhere.
"Missing?" Danny asked, his eyes going wide. "How do you know?"
"I had a friend check in on him a few days ago, you know, cuz I hadn't heard from him in a while, just to see how he was, and he was gone. No trace of him anywhere." Mary held her breath, hoping that Danny would somehow miss the gaping holes in that story. Marshall had closed his eyes, and she could almost see what it cost him to not shake his head at her weak response.
"Wow…" Danny breathed. "I sure hope the kid's ok."
That was it? She felt a bit of relief at the lack of attention he had paid to her words. "So you haven't heard from him? Seen him? Anything?" she asked, knowing she was starting to sound desperate, but not really caring.
"No, I did hear from him. A few times, actually," Danny responded absently. "He's written me now and then."
Marshall and Mary glanced at each other, then back to Danny. "Really?" That was not good.
He nodded. "Yeah, he's living with a friend in Seattle, a Jason Griffin? Says they met at work and had the same first name, and last initial, so he was called Gore and the other Griff. Apparently, they became great friends and have similar interests and everything. I was really happy to hear that, you know? So he just asked me to send it to Griff and he'd get it. Didn't want to mess with the change of address stuff when he didn't know how long he'd be living there, you know?"
"Sure," Mary said softly, dread growing in her stomach. Jason Griffin was his name in Seattle. He'd been keeping up contact with Danny and no one had caught it. Idiots! she thought viciously. How does anyone miss something like that?
Danny missed the expressions on their faces and continued. "Anyway, he seemed to still be pretty lonely, but he said he was adjusting all right. Said he had this girl he was trying to get to notice him, but she was way out of his league. I told him that no girl should be out of his reach, that he was worth a lot more than he gave himself credit for, you know? I just felt sorry for the kid. So I've been replying as he writes me, I get one every couple of months or so. The last one actually said things were going a lot better and he finally had a plan to get this girl, so I told him to go for it."
"Did you catch a name, by chance?" Marshall asked.
Danny shook his head. "Not even once, but I didn't ask. The guy's gotta have some privacy, you know? But the girl problems were only part of the letters anyway, the rest of the time he just talked about how he was trying to turn his life around. Be more outgoing, take charge, get in shape, that sort of thing." He suddenly laughed. "I remember when he said once that he thought he could have taken on the whole mob, and I just laughed. Can you imagine? Little Jason taking on some mob in Seattle… That would be a fight I'd pay to see."
"And how did you respond?" Mary asked, fear gnawing at her stomach.
"Oh, I think I said something like, 'sure, kid, but don't get into trouble, cuz I can't protect you from Albuquerque.' Something like that." His eyes went wide again. "Oh, no, you don't think he might have actually done something, do you?"
Again, the partners shared a look. "We're not sure at this point," Marshall said carefully. "Do you happen to have those letters with you? They may help to shed some light on what may have happened to Jason."
"Not on me, no, but they're at home. Can I bring them to you tomorrow? It's my day off."
"That would be fine. You can take them to the Albuquerque Police Department. They'll be assisting in the investigation." Mary looked at Marshall quickly, curiosity written all over her face. He merely gave her a look and she caught his meaning. Bobby would have manpower to help if needed, so why not bring him in right away? Sometimes, her partner had really good ideas.
"I can do that. You guys in law enforcement or something? Can you help find him?" Danny asked, worry furrowing his brow.
"Something like that," Mary said, standing up. "We'll let you know, ok?"
"I'd appreciate that, Mary, thanks." She nodded at him and left, Marshall right behind her.
The moment they entered the car, she banged her fist against the wheel repeatedly. "Dammit! Writing letters to Danny from Seattle? No wonder somebody caught up with him!" She shoved her hands into her hair and gripped tightly.
"We'll find him, Mary, I told you," Marshall soothed, rubbing her arm.
She looked at him, sighing. "We'd better, Marshall. We had damn well better." She shook her head and turned the key in the ignition, sending the car rearing back to life, and they drove back to the office, determined to find Seattle's lost witness.
Hope you don't mind my Indiana trivia bits...Hoosier over here. =) Reviews make me happy, and when I'm happy, we're all happy!