July 15th, 0800 Hours
Steve walked into the Davis Station with Trina, dropping her off at work for the day. They found Seth watching TV in the break room. The chief was talking on the phone in his office.
"You okay? You didn't eat much breakfast." Steve asked her.
"Oh I am fine. I guess I am just a little tired. My stomach is a little unsettled." She shrugged as she picked up a newspaper left on her desk.
"Hey Seth, how was last night?" Steve asked as Seth walked out to join them.
"Pretty quiet actually." Seth sat down.
"That's good. Hopefully it stays quiet around here." Steve smiled. "Trina, I will…. What is wrong?" he noticed her face.
"Seth look at this." Trina said.
Seth walked over and looked over her shoulder at the newspaper she was holding. He frowned. "That's the guy from the club we went undercover at."
"What are you guys talking about?" Steve asked.
"Says here his name is Mike Mizanin. He was the body pulled out of the Kanawha River a few weeks back. It took this long to identify him." Trina read.
"His sub's name was Alex." Seth remembered.
"Yeah, but it was a secret affair. Mike was married." Trina looked up at him.
"How do you know that?" Seth asked.
"Alex told me when he was distracting me from that dreadful medical scene." She explained.
"What the hell went on inside that club?" Steve demanded.
"Relax baby, no one was hurting me. Seth stayed right with me and the most we did was some cuddling. But while we were in the club, we met this guy. He had a sub and when one of the scenes bothered me, his sub helped distract me by talking to me." Trina said.
"I heard they found a body, but I never dreamed it was someone we had seen." Seth picked up the paper.
"According to what has been released, the body was horribly mutilated. I wonder what he got into?" she asked.
"Who knows? It might not even be related to the bondage community. Anyways, it is in the hands of the Charleston police." Seth said.
"Go on home, you look exhausted." Trina told him.
"Yeah, I am gonna go home and dream of the Cubs getting out of this slump when the season resumes tomorrow." Seth smirked.
"That is because that is only in your dreams." Trina said.
"You just wait, they are gonna win 110 games this season." Seth insisted.
"With the high prices they are paying for a championship they should win 135 games this season. But even that doesn't mean squat. Remember the year the Mariners won 114 games and still got eliminated from the play-offs?" Trina said.
"You must be feeling better, you are arguing with Seth." Steve chuckled. "I'm headed to Parsons, see you after work." He kissed her forehead.
"Hurry home dear." Seth giggled.
"Hey, you stick to Taylor Swift and her bad pop music." Trina said.
"Haters gonna hate, hate, hate." Seth deadpanned.
Steve laughed. "You two behave. Trina, see you tonight."
"Okay, have a good day. Love you." She smiled.
"Love you too." Steve said as he walked out.
"Any news on the Leppard goat?" Seth asked.
"If he continues doing well, Roman is going to let me take him home next week." She smiled.
"Is he warming up to you any?" Seth asked as he gathered his things.
"A little bit. Interacting with the clinic staff and me visiting often….he is still skittish but getting a little better. He is having difficulty learning to walk on three legs." Trina said.
"He will get it figured out. He has you there babying him." Seth said. "I am headed out. See you tonight."
"Get some rest." Trina waved.
July 18th, 0830 Hours
Seth walked into the break room at work and looked at Trina laying with her head on the table.
"I figured you would be all jumping up and down because the Cubs lost last night." Seth told her.
"I don't feel like it right now." She shrugged.
"You don't feel like rubbing in a Cubs loss? Are you sick?" he felt her forehead.
"I just feel quite with it yet this morning. Just wait, I'll be singing an anti-Cubs song soon enough." Trina rolled her eyes.
"Maybe I should bring up the Dream Team." Seth snickered.
"This is your new way to annoy me, isn't it?"
"I am still in shock that you don't like them."
"They left my Isiah Thomas off the team unfairly!" she frowned.
"Since when are you such an Isiah Thomas fan?" Seth laughed.
"I just like him the more I remember him when I was growing up." Trina shrugged.
"How is Chandler?" Seth snickered.
"Who?" she looked at him.
"Well, he can't be Richard because Richard and Monica didn't get married over having children. And since you married Steve, I guess that now makes him Chandler." He chuckled.
"You and that stupid show! And for the record Chandler was strange looking. I never did find him attractive. So no Steve can't be Chandler!" she insisted.
"You wanna be Ross and Rachel?" he winked.
"Seth, I will strangle you. Revive you. Strangle you again. Then bury your body under a pile of manure! You know I despise Rachel. If I ever act like her, put me out of my misery. She was like the TV version of Karen Angle!" Trina glared.
"No one is that bad." Seth laughed.
"Let's go down the list. Doesn't want her ex but doesn't want anyone else to have him…check. Rachel ruined Ross' wedding and Karen tried to ruin Kurt's….check. Finds ways to interfere in their ex's new relationships….check." Trina said.
"You two spend way too much time together." John walked in.
"And don't even get me started on Rachel and that whole 'on a break thing'." She insisted.
"Yes, we are all aware of your 500 reasons why she had no right to be mad at Ross." Seth laughed.
"You two are crazy." John grabbed a bottle of water.
"Yeah, you love us." Trina giggled. "You wouldn't want…."
The door to the station opened and they looked up to see a frantic looking man. All three jumped to their feet and hurried out to see what was going on.
"Sir, is everything okay?" Seth asked.
"No, no. My girlfriend is missing." He looked at them, eyes panicked.
"Okay, we need you to calm down. Come on, sit down." John told him.
The young man looked at them with wide eyes but slowly sat down in one of the chairs.
"Now take a deep breath and let's start from the beginning. What is your name?" Trina asked him.
"Jason…..Jason Jordan." He said. "She has been missing since Saturday."
"Okay, Jason you need to slow down. What is your girlfriend's name?" Seth asked as Trina began writing.
"Dana Brooke." Jason sighed with frustration.
"Now tell us what happened. When was the last time you saw her?" John asked.
"We were camping. We didn't want to pay to stay in the park so we camped in the woods. Off the Appalachian Highway." Jason said. "Sometime during the night…Friday night. Dana woke me to tell me she was going to the bathroom. I must've fell back to sleep because when I woke up Saturday morning…she wasn't there. I guess she never came back."
"Did she take anything with her?" Trina asked.
"I looked through our stuff and the only thing missing was her slides and flashlight." Jason said.
"What did you do when you noticed she wasn't in camp?" Seth asked.
"I waited around camp for about 30 minutes until I was sure she hadn't just went somewhere on her own that morning before I woke up. Then I thought that maybe she had gotten lost during the night so I spent most of Saturday hiking the area looking for her." he explained.
"Did you find her or any of her belongings?" John asked.
"No, not a trace." Jason shook his head. "I thought I'd at least find the flashlight or something but nothing."
"Did you two have a fight? Was she upset with you?" Trina asked.
"No, nothing like that. We have been planning this campout for weeks." He insisted.
"Did you check her phone?" Seth asked.
"Yeah, it was left behind at camp. All day yesterday I was calling her friends to see if one of them had heard from her or knew why she might have left. I stayed at camp in case she came back…but nothing." He said.
"Where are you and Ms. Brooke from?" John asked.
"Dayton…I like hiking so I talked her into coming camping with me." Jason explained.
"Do either you or your girlfriend know anyone in the area? Someone she may have had pick her up?" Trina asked.
"No, we've never been here before. And when I checked her phone, she hadn't made any calls or texted anyone." Jason said. "What do I do?"
"You let us handle things. We need some information about your girlfriend." Trina kept writing. "What was she wearing the last time you saw her?"
"Uh, we were sleeping. Shorts and a tank top." Jason said.
"And we need a physical description." John said.
"She's a blonde…long hair. About 5 foot 3 inches or so. Athletic build." He said.
"Do you have a picture of her?" Seth asked.
"On my phone." He said.
"And did you dismantle your campsite?" John asked.
"No, I left everything there except our phones and wallets. I left a note in case she came back and headed here. I didn't know what else to do." He said.
"We'll take things from here. We need a picture of her. You stay here with Lt. Layfield, he will ask some more questions and get her picture out to the rest of the county officers and the park rangers. Officer Rollins and I will head to the campsite and begin looking around and I will call our county detective." Trina told the upset young man. "Seth you mind working over a bit?"
"Used to it, let's go." He told her.
0945 Hours
Seth and Trina had arrived at the campsite and been searching the area ever since. They found the note that Jason had left behind just as he had said. The camp seemed normal and they had not found anything out of the ordinary.
"Do you think this girl just got pissed at her boyfriend and went somewhere?" Seth asked.
"John said he was going to call her family and some of her friends. If she did leave on her own, hopefully she let one of them know." Trina said as she walked the perimeter of the campsite.
"I still can't believe this guy waited this long to contact us." Seth said.
"You suspicious of him?" Trina looked up.
"I don't know yet. But I know if my girlfriend came up missing, I would have been at the station Saturday." Seth said.
"You may have a point, but the campsite is clean. No signs of struggle or blood." Trina observed.
"Do you think if you came up missing that Steve would wait very long before tearing this state upside?" Seth asked.
"Damn right I wouldn't wait long." Steve said as he walked over to join them. "Find anything?"
"No, no sign of struggle. No blood. Nothing out of place." Trina said.
"Layfield called me as I was pulling up. He said he called Dana Brooke's parents and they have not heard from her. They are also insistent that she would never take off and not contact them." Steve said.
"Looks like we have a missing person case." Seth sighed.
"Let's expand the perimeter and see if we find anything." Steve said. "From here to the highway."
The nodded and began searching.
1200 Hours
Trina, Seth and Steve made their way into the Davis station. All three were hot, sweaty and frustrated. They had searched all around the campsite and expanded their perimeter several times but still came up with nothing.
"Any luck out at the campsite?" Jerry asked them.
"Nothing, not so much s discarded gum." Seth sat down in his chair.
"Where is the boyfriend?" Steve asked.
"We let him go and set him up at the local motel until we clear him to leave town." Jerry said.
"What do you think about him?" Trina asked.
"I don't know. He seems genuinely shook up but waiting two whole days to contact anyone?" Layfield frowned.
"We need to know more about their relationship." Trina said. "Maybe when they fight she takes off for a few days and he thought this was normal."
"And we need to find out if they have a history of domestic violence or even fight often with potential for violence." Steve said.
"Let him rest a bit and go interview him in a few hours. In the meantime, call her family again and talk to them. Get their story and compare it to the boyfriend's once you interview him." Jerry said.
"Good idea." Steve said.
"I am starving, how about some lunch?" Trina asked.
"Sure, order us something in." Steve smiled. "No wonder you are hungry, you barely ate any breakfast." Steve said.
"Well my appetite is back in full force. I want Chinese. Some of those lo-mein noodles." Trina said.
"Order some for me too." Steve kissed her forehead.
1500 Hours
Steve and Trina pulled into the motel parking lot, intending to speak with Jason Jordan. They climbed out of the SUV and walked into the office to see which room the young man had been put in. They saw Ricky Morton behind the counter.
"Ricky, good afternoon." Trina smiled at him.
"Trina, I am glad you are here. What is going on with this kid the police put up here?" Ricky asked.
"Is he causing problems?" Steve asked.
"No, nothing like that. But when I went to check on him, he told me his girlfriend was missing. Is something going on?" Ricky asked.
"We can't talk about an ongoing investigation." Trina said.
"But is this something we need to worry about? I have daughters to protect." Ricky said.
"I know you do. I would give you the same advice I would give any parent at any time. Know where your girls are, make sure they have rides with people they know and trust and talk with them about making smart decisions." Trina said.
"Now can you tell us what room you put Mr. Jordan in? We need to speak to him." Steve asked.
"Oh sure, set him up on the first floor. 107 just outside and to the right." Ricky told them.
"Thank you." Steve said and the two of them headed out of the office and walked down towards room 107.
Trina knocked on the door and after a few moments, Jason opened the door. "Officers?"
"Mr. Jordan, we need to speak to you for a few minutes. Can we come in?" Trina asked.
"Yeah, come in." he stepped back and allowed them in. "Have you found Dana?"
"No, we wanted to ask you some more questions." Steve said.
Jason sat down on the edge of the bed and looked up at the two officers.
"Tell us about your relationship with Dana." Trina said.
"What do you want to know?" he frowned.
"How long have you been with Dana?" Steve asked.
"Six months or so." Jason said.
"Do you two get along well?" Trina asked.
"What does that mean?" Jason frowned again.
"Do you two fight a lot? Never fight? Are you the jealous type? Is she clingy?" Trina asked.
"What couple doesn't fight? Every now and then we fight but it is nothing serious." Jason insisted.
"And what does your fights usually entail? Screaming? Ignoring each other? Make up quick?" Steve asked.
"Well usually I get pissed off and leave. When I cool down, we sit down and talk." He said.
"Does this happen often?" Steve asked.
"I wouldn't say often. We get along okay. Once in a while she gets on my nerves about one thing or another." Jason snapped. "What is this all about? Dana is missing and you are here asking me about fights? Do you think I did something to her?"
"We have to explore every avenue and when someone comes up missing…those closest to them are the ones we question first." Trina said.
"I didn't do anything to her. I have spent nearly three days wondering what the hell happened to her!" Jason yelled.
"Calm down, like she said, we have to explore every avenue." Steve said.
"This is ridiculous. I am worried sick about her and you guys are here harassing me." Jason glared.
"Did you and Dana ever have fights that turned physical?" Trina asked.
"No. No matter how angry I get I would never hit a woman. That is one reason why I leave when I am upset. I leave before things can get out of hand. Sometimes shit can happen before you know it and I want to make sure I avoid being caught like that." Jason insisted.
"Is this an exclusive relationship?" Steve asked.
"Yeah, neither of us are seeing anyone else." Jason said.
"Have you two had any recent pregnancy scares?" Trina asked.
"What? No! What the hell?" Jason stood up.
"Calm down." Steve told him. "We have to ask the tough questions. We don't mean offense but we do have jobs to do."
"Look, I understand how I could be a suspect. I am the boyfriend, she was with me when she disappeared; I get it. But I didn't do anything to her. I wouldn't hurt anyone. We didn't have any big problems. This was supposed to be a nice weekend trip." Jason nearly yelled.
"Just so you know, we are getting your cell phone records from the phone companies and speak to your friends and families. So if you have anything we should know, any secrets, anything…now is the time to tell us." Steve said.
"It is better to be up front with us. We find something on our own and you tried to hide it, that adds to suspicion." Trina said.
"I have nothing to hide. I am tired, I am worried and I am here on my own without friends or family for support while I go through this." Jason said.
Steve and Trina looked at each other. Steve nodded and Trina sighed.
"That is all the questions we have right now. You can't leave town yet but we will be in contact. Try to get some rest and call your family. It would do you good to talk to them." Trina said.
"If we need anything else, we know where you are. But just a warning, if you leave before we clear you….it doesn't look good and I won't take it well." Steve told him.
The married couple saw themselves out of the room and walked towards the SUV.
"What do you think?" Steve asked.
"For now…I believe him. Dana's family likes him, said only good things about him. They didn't jump with any accusations against him." Trina said. "And I listened close to what Jason said…he never spoke of Dana or their relationship in the past tense. To me, that says he believes she is still alive. If he had killed her and hid her, his language would've slipped up. Especially with us pushing his buttons."
"You have a good point. But we can't write him off just yet. Some people are great actors." Steve cautioned as they climbed in the SUV.
"I haven't written him off. But he isn't setting off warning bells and that scares me worse." She put on her seatbelt and Steve looked over at her. "It means someone else took this girl and we might have a mess on our hands."
1730 Hours
Jerry walked out to where his team was working while shaking his head. "I just spoke to the staff at Canaan Valley Resort and at Blackwater Falls Park. They haven't found anything on their grounds related to Dana Brooke."
"Do you think whoever was spying on those campers last week could be involved?" Trina asked.
"Anything is possible." Jerry sighed.
"Nothing we have dealt with in the past three weeks makes any sense. It is like something weird is happening….but what?" Seth asked.
"I don't know. But I don't think we're gonna get much more done today. Why don't you guys head on home. You have had a long day and everyone is tired. I'll handle things around here." Jerry said.
"Are you sure? You've had a busy day too." Trina said.
"I will be…."
"Chief I want a transfer. I don't care to where!" Layfield walked in looking ready to kill.
"Oh dear, what did Karen do now?" Seth asked.
"She went to the elementary school today….offices are open during the summer. She tries to fix the kids' records banning their new step-mom from being listed as authorized to pick up the children or be contacted as a parent for school related stuff." John groaned as he sat down.
"That doesn't even make sense. Kurt has joint-custody. Half of these kids' lives they will be living with their step-mom." Trina frowned.
"Exactly. So Nowinski decides to call Kurt and just discuss any options that he and Karen had discussed for the children when school started again. The minute Kurt hears Karen is at the school trying to mess with the kids' records, he leaves work and arrives at the school. Karen flips out upon his arrival." John groaned. "Meanwhile, Missy Hyatt is getting all the details like a freaking reporter."
"How did you get called out there?" Seth asked.
"Well, apparently Chris tried sitting down with Kurt, Karen and the school counselor to discuss what would be best for the children and legal. Turns out Kurt wanted his new wife listed as an emergency contact in case he or Karen could not be contacted, authorized to pick the children up from school and authorized to handle any emergencies that might come up." John sighed.
"Well that makes good sense." Jerry said.
"Doesn't it? Karen insists she doesn't want the step-mom allowed to do anything. Chris explained to Karen that with this agreement, the step-mom would not be the one contacted for conferences or anything. And further explained that most families list extra emergency contacts such as grandparents, step-family etc to ensure that in case of the worst, they have multiple options. But Karen wouldn't hear of it. Well when Nowinski informed her he had no legal basis to not allow Kurt's wife to be an emergency contact or to pick the children up, Karen went into one of her flying rages. I get called…same shit, different day." John said.
"So what ended up happening?" Seth asked.
"I managed to get Karen to leave and Kurt contacted his attorney to see what his legal options were." John groaned.
"Seth, you should type up a screen play of this stuff while you are on nightshift. This is more insane than anything that can be made up." Trina said.
"I don't get it. I thought with Kurt being married now, Karen would admit defeat and move on." John rubbed his eyes.
"Oh no, she is determined to drive a wedge between them. She won't quit until they either split up or the kids hit middle-age, whichever comes first." Trina said.
Steve walked in. He had arrived at the Davis station after going to Parsons to catch his team and the sheriff up on the Dana Brooke case.
"Steve, you have a new wife that is now the step-mother to your children. Thank you for not driving us crazy fighting about the kids." Seth chuckled.
"My step-children are grown. It is very different when you have small children." Trina countered.
"Let me guess, Karen Angle is up to something else?" Steve laughed.
"How did you guess?" John rolled his eyes.
Steve laughed again. "You about ready to go? The twins are coming to work on the barn again tonight."
"Yeah, the chief just sent us home." Trina smiled. "And just think John, when school starts…Karen is bound to kick things up a notch."
"That's why I want a transfer." John said.
"Oh you'd never leave us. You've been here too long and you love us." Seth chuckled.
"Yeah, where else would you have two grown kids like Seth and Trina?" Steve chuckled.
"Did you know your wife hates Michael Jordan? You lay down at night with a woman who doesn't love the best there ever was." Seth looked at Steve.
"You back on that…..tell you what. Watch the ESPN special on Jerry Krause. You will come out looking at things differently. Even Magic Johnson himself admitted that Jordan used his status to keep Isiah Thomas off the Dream Team." Trina said. "Besides, shouldn't you dislike him, after all when he did his stint in baseball he played for the White Sox organization? And everyone knows the Sox and Cubs hate each other."
"Will you just admit the Dream Team was a great thing?" Seth challenged.
"I did like two things about them." She admitted. "They included Larry Bird even though he was dealing with age and injuries…at least they gave him the respect he deserved. And it was a positive thing for Magic Johnson, and I think it helped calm a lot of the fears about being around people with HIV."
"See you do like them." Seth chuckled.
"I would've liked them better in 1976. Although, to be fair a lot of countries were out to make sure the US got screwed in 1972. Even one of the British officials made the statement prior to the start of the 72 games that if he could do anything to keep the US from getting the gold in basketball again, he was gonna do it. And sure enough he did. He was one of them making them add more time to the clock." She said.
"I still think these two were siblings in a past life." John said.
"Yeah, but they're dynamic is a good thing." Jerry said. "They are a great team."
"We're headed out. Call us if there is any news about Dana Brooke." Trina began gathering her things.
"Sure thing." Jerry agreed.
Author's Notes- Love all the reviews. You guys are awesome. The reviews help me write and stay focused and inspired. I can't thank you guys enough. Paisley2 (Apparently I need to redo the last chapter. Everyone is thinking the guy in the bar was AJ. I must've taken a wrong turn somewhere.) Nixystix (Guess time will tell. But I have a feeling there are some shocks coming people are not expecting.) Reikat (Another one that thinks it is AJ. I need to figure out where I went wrong with my writing. And going through evidence like you did is always the first step to figuring things out. You are doing great.) jcott3 (Yes, the teen campers were not wrestling people which is why I didn't give any names. And might I say you are a great detective.) carlyrosanna83 (The world needs more Sting. I keep hoping the WWE will bring him in as something…commentator, GM, anything. LOL) Batistasprincess (I enjoy writing Randy. I am hoping the WWE uses him for something big soon.)