A couple of thoughts on this chapter.
As requested, I included a little interlude with Trevor. He's not gonna appear again (at least I haven't planned it)
I didn't find a last name for Trevor so I had to make one up. If I just missed it and he does in fact have one, please let me know, I'll be more than happy to change it.
Ray was already waiting for Harvey when he left the building. No coffee, no newspaper, no music changed hands this time.
"Anything new?" Ray asked anxious.
Harvey just shock his head.
"Ok, where to then?"
That's when Harvey realized, he didn't really know. He had no idea where Mike used to spent his free time. He always worked and the little time he had left he usually spent with Rachel in their apartment or probably going out or something. Mike's days were actually pretty boring. He rode his bike to work every morning (unless he pulled another allnighter at the office), he worked his ass of, rarely ever leaving before ten and the rest of his time he spent with Rachel. Harvey had no idea where Mike spent his weekends. Did the kid like to go certain places? Sports maybe? No, Mike wasn't really the athletic type. Libraries maybe, he liked books after all. But there were a lot of libraries in New York and he didn't have time to check them all. Damn! Did he really know him so little? They had worked together for more than three years now, they had been through so much and gotten as close as Harvey got to anyone and still, he had no idea what the kid did in his time off! When hes grandmother was still alive he would … Grandmother!
"Harvey?" Ray interrupted his thoughts.
"The cemetery where Mikes grandmother is buried!" he finally answered. Yes! If Mike couldn't contact them directly this is where he would leave a message.
Ray nodded. Luckily he knew where Mike had buried his grandmother. He had dropped him off there more than once in the first couple of weeks after her death.
Ray had stayed at Mikes apartment until detective Holt had arrived. He had watched the man question the neighbors and the doorman with impressive innocence and skill. He was sure none of them had suspected anything. But he had also seen the growing worry in the man's eyes and Harvey's mental absence when he came down told him the rest. Mike had not just broken up with his girlfriend and got drunk somewhere.
They had almost reached the cemetery when Harvey's phone rang. He picked up. It was Donna.
"What do you have?"
"I'm still going through the hospitals, so far nothing. Derek called, he's going to check all the emergency calls beginning sunday morning in Mike's neighborhood. Scottie is going to ask a friend to locate Mike's phone. And I found Trevor. You won't believe it. He's still in New York." To everyone else Donna might seem her normal self, fast, efficient and competent but Harvey knew her to long to fall for that mask. He could hear the little trembles in her voice. The fear and worry. But he didn't have it in him to comfort her. How could he? They had no plan what was happening except that something was very wrong. And Donna certainly wouldn't want the shallow comfort he could offer, so he just kept quiet, wrote down the address she gave him and hung up.
"Change of plans, Ray." he gave the driver the piece of paper with their new destination.
Apparently life hadn't been too kind to Trevor since Harvey had last seen him. His new apartment was in one of the worst parts of the Bronx. The buildings looked hardly habitably, at least one drug trade was going on, while they were driving by and Harvey would bet a years income on the fact that most of the people in the street belonged to some kind of gang. And now here he was, in a limousine with a personal driver, wearing a suit that was probably worth more than any of these people earned in an entire year. Short, they stood out.
The limousine stopped in front of a particularly run down house.
"Harvey are you sure you want to do this? Maybe it's better if we first call your friend the detective." Ray suggested, but Harvey had already left the car, eyes fixed on the building ahead.
"You stay here. I'll be right back." And before Ray could stop him Harvey had already entered the building.
The inside was just as run down as the outside. The plaster was crumbled from the walls and ceiling, the floor hadn't been cleaned in a very long time and there was a nauseating smell in the air. But all that was of no consequence to Harvey. His eyes fell on a group of teenagers sitting on the stairs leading to the upper floors. They had stopped talking when they saw him.
Harvey approached them. "I'm looking for Trevor Jenkins. Which is his apartment."
They just snickered but didn't answer.
"Okay, listen guys. I don't have time for games. Here are hundred dollars for who ever tells me what I want to know."
One of the teens, he couldn't be older than fifteen took the money. "What does a suit like you want from that wanna be bad boy?" the other teens chuckled.
But before Harvey could answer the hundred dollar bill disappeared from the teens hand. A young woman with a newborn in her arms had taken it and gave it back to Harvey. "That's none of your business, Jamal. And what did I tell you about taking money from strangers?" she turned to Harvey. "Trevor lives on third floor. Apartment 305."
Harvey thanked her and made his way up the stairs.
Apartment 305 was at the end of the corridor. He knocked and waited. After a moment he heard noise from inside and the door opened. The second Trevor recognized Harvey he wanted to shut the door again, but Harvey was faster.
He grabbed Trevor by the collar pushed him inside and pushed him against the wall.
"Where is he?!" he bellowed.
Wide eyed with fear and a trembling lips Trevor looked up at Harvey. He had seen this guy walk into a room full of armed people with ease and self-confidence, but he had never seen him this emotional.
"Answer me! Or I swear to god I'm gonna make you life a living hell!"
"What are you talking about?" Trevor finally managed to get out.
"Mike, where is he? And don't you dare lie to me."
"Mike?! I haven't seen or spoken to him in years!"
Harvey always claimed to read people and what he read in Trevor was, that the man was telling the truth. Unwillingly he let him go and started pacing the small apartment.
What was he supposed to do next? Trevor had no idea where Mike was and somehow he had been Harvey's last hope. What to do now? Where to look next?
Meanwhile Trevor had found his way back to his own two feet.
"Is he gone again?"
Harvey looked up. "What do you mean again?"
Trevor just shrugged. "He does that sometimes. I'm actually surprised it didn't happen sooner. It's been almost five years this times."
"Explain!" Harvey voice was clearly threatening.
"Ok, ok. Relax man! You probably know that I have known Mike since we were kids. One day he just disappeared. Didn't leave a message, didn't say goodbye. Years later there he came back and then he was gone again. In fact he had just come back a couple of months before he met you."
"So he has done this before?" Harvey inquired.
"Yep, the guy doesn't like to stay to long in one place, I guess. But don't worry, he always comes back. Give it a couple of years and he will be back."
"A couple of years?!"
"Yes, last time it were almost five years."
Harvey had trouble processing these news. Mike had left before? Several times? For years? That didn't sound like the Mike he knew. Could he even trust what Trevor said? Harvey hardly registered Trevor calling, never to come back, after him. He made his way back down the stairs, gave the kid named Jamal the hundred dollars and ordered him to spend it on his sister and her baby and returned to Ray.
Ray saw his boss' distress and didn't ask any questions. Instead he drove back in direction of the cemetery.
I promised you Lola, Lola you get, but only next chapter. I like her and I need someone to give Harvey a little contra (apart from Donna and Mike and Jessica of course. :P).
