** For authors notes, disclaimer etc. see chapter 1
Black Widow 7/?
"Sandra tell Emily what you found out when you checked out Joanna." Jack is clearly looking for some time to gather together his thoughts and I do have to fill her in but given how worried she already looks I almost feel bad adding to that which I know I will when I tell her that according to all public records Joanna Harris doesn't exist.
"I've checked everywhere I can think, public records, DVLA and family records and I can't find any trace of Joanna anywhere, not her marriages , not the birth of her daughter, nothing at all." It doesn't get any easier the more often I state the facts of what my investigating has shown so far and Emily now looks completely confused.
"How can that be? No one can go through their life without leaving some records behind you must have made a mistake when you were searching." Does she not think I thought of that? That I tried every different spelling of both names I could think of that I didn't search every possible database that I could? I'm not exactly new to the whole investigation thing and I know I've looked everywhere.
"Emily I think Sandra probably knows what she's doing what we need to work out is why there's no record of her? Did you get anywhere with the University?" Jack is starting to take control now and I have to say I'm relieved because I need someone else to be managing this I don't think I can stay calm enough right now to do it myself.
"I called the university and they confirmed that she works there but they wouldn't tell me anything else they said they couldn't reveal details of staff." Well at least part of what she's told Gerry is right though if she was a researcher why would they be worried about giving out details? Surely that's how academics make a living from being contacted by people to talk about their research and publish their work.
"Why would they not tell you about her job did you ask if she was researching in the psychology department?" See Jack is thinking he same thing as me I should be engaging in this conversation right now but I can't all I can do is let all the things we're finding out sink in and try to make some sense of it all.
"They said we'd need to contact the department directly in an official capacity which we can't do right now. I did a check on our systems and got nothing but then if we now know the name's not right that's not surprising." Jack's started writing things down on the note pad on my end table while she speaks and I've got a whole new set of questions running around in my head.
"Ok look we've established that we have a lot more work to do to work out who she is and what the hell's going on with her past but I have bigger questions right now." I've finally managed to pull myself together enough to join in the conversation again as I top up everyone's drinks and they stare at me expectantly. "We could take weeks to find out anything especially since we now don't even know what her real name is, what do we do in the mean time? I mean we can't confront Gerry with what we've found now because it proves nothing and she clearly has her claws into him in a big way so he'll pull completely away from us if he thinks we're pushing it too much. What can we do in the meantime to keep him safe and is there any actual danger other than him making a fool of himself and burning some bridges with us all that we could probably rebuild afterward?"
"Well because we don't know anything about her past it makes me worry about what exactly did happen to her husbands the first one anyway. You said it yourself Sandra if there is a daughter and she's living with her step father there's something not right there." Emily has a point, several points but I still don't know what we can do or how we can warn him when there's nothing to warn him about yet. "And it's ok saying he could build those bridges with us because we know what's going on or that there might be something going on but right now he's one step away from losing Catlin, Paula and GJ forever."
"Do you really think he'd let it get that far? Are we not over stating the amount of control she has over him?" I know Jack is trying to keep a lid on our panic but she does have some sort of control over him otherwise he wouldn't have done the things he has already.
"Jack Paula is already mad at him for not showing up for GJ's party and now he's going to be lucky if Catlin ever speaks to him again, we can't even tell them what's going on because we don't have anything to tell yet." Emily is starting to get frustrated now I can hear it in her voice so we need to bring this back to what we can do rather than panicking and getting nowhere.
"Look we need someone who can do things with computers and find information that we aren't able to." Jack is nodding and I know he's thinking the same thing as me as I throw him the portable phone from the charger on the table beside me and he starts to dial.
"Brian it's Jack we need your expertise…it's about Gerry and Joanna…Yeah I know but I think when you hear what I've heard over the course of the day you'll agree that maybe we were wrong to dismiss Sandra's concerns so easily….ok I'll come get you bring your lap top." He's hung up and handed me back the phone as he grabs his keys and leaves Emily and I alone to go get Brian.
"Sandra what are we going to do, I know we've no proof that she's dangerous but I feel like she is. My gut is telling me this can't end well and I'm really scared for him." What do I say now? She looks like she could burst into tears at any second and I know how she feels but it wouldn't help.
"We do what we have to, we check everything we get Brian to use every backdoor trick he knows online and we go back to public records and the university and if need be we start flashing warrant cards to get the information we need. It's all we can do right now." I know I'm not convincing her I don't even sound confident enough to convince myself right now and all I can hope is that now we have both Jack and Brian on board we'll finally get somewhere because if we don't I can't think what we can do next and I can't help but worry that the longer we wait to step in the more of a mess we'll have to clear up when we do.