A/N: Apologies for the delay on this chapter, I was out of town looking after an injured family member so I didn't have a way to get this posted sooner, but they are doing great now and I'm home and ready to get back to this story. Thanks for the feedback on the last chapter, and to the reviewer wanting to see things get less platonic believe me I feel the same way, the fact that I have gone this far without pairing them is a shock to me too. But as they say, good things come to those who wait, so keep holding on and hopefully I won't lose you along the way. As always let me know what you think and please enjoy!
If it were any other day Alex would have went straight home, made a strong drink and sat alone till he fell into an unconscious slumber. But tonight that wasn't the case, he had agreed to have dinner with the Bates family, well technically now the Parker's. He was unsure of how he got roped into it, never had someone made a decision for him like Norma had done. He didn't know what stopped him from getting out of it, normally he could give a single look and the person would give up on him but he didn't seem to have that effect on her. She wasn't intimidated by him and that drove him crazy, and somehow intrigued him at the same time.
He drove through the neighborhood on his way to the motel when something caught his attention, a young boy stepping out of the van onto the driveway with a skateboard clenched in his grip. The design on the board was a black and red checkered pattern, just like the one Riley's parents had described him having. Though the boy was much younger than Riley and they could have easily had the same skateboard it was too much of a coincidence that the same one would show up on the street Riley would have taken to his friends house. He pulled onto the side of the road and grabbed a sheet of paper from the glove box then went over to the car, an older man stood helping the boy gather a few bags from the side door.
"Where'd you get that skateboard?" Alex asked as soon as he reached them, giving no introduction. Not that he needed to, everyone in this town knew who he was by now.
The boy looked at the skateboard in his hands then nodded behind him. "Some boy left it on the sidewalk."
"When was this?"
"A few days ago."
"Do you remember exactly what day it was?"
"Friday, I'm only at my dad's house Friday and Wednesday nights."
"What is this about, deputy?" The father asked.
"He never came back for it so I thought it would be okay to take, am I in trouble?" The boy asked nervously.
"Not if you can tell me more about the boy who left it." Alex said.
"He was a lot older than me but he must still be in school because he was wearing a backpack."
Alex unfolded the sheet of paper from his pocket and showed it to the boy. "Is this him?" He asked, pointing to Riley in the photo.
The boy nodded. "Yeah, that's him."
"Do you know why he left it here? Or where he went after?"
"A black car pulled up to him, the man inside told him that his dad was in an accident."
"Did you see the man in the car, can you describe what he looked like?"
"I didn't see the man in the car, I could see the window rolled down but he must have been sitting on the other side."
"So it wasn't the man who was driving that talked to him?"
"No, and their car windows were really dark so I couldn't see inside."
"Did the boy act like he knew the man he was talking to?"
"Yes, he was wondering why he knew about his dad being hurt when they didn't work together anymore. The man told him that he was driving past his house and he saw an ambulance, when he went up the dad was being taken away and his mom asked if he could go get him and bring him to the hospital. The boy got in the car right after leaving his skateboard."
"Do you remember anything else about the car, a license plate number or if it had anything on it?"
"No, I didn't see anything, it was just a plain black car."
Alex turned to the father. "I need you to bring your son to the station and have him tell that and anything else he remembers to me again so I can write out a statement."
"My son's not going to be in trouble, is he? He didn't know any better about taking the skateboard."
"No, he's not in trouble. But I will need the skateboard back." Alex said, taking it from the boy. "Bring your stuff into the house and get right to the station."
An hour later Alex had finished up with the boys statement, he hadn't thought of anything new but he helped more than any other thing they had found so far in the search. Now he knew for sure that Riley had been taken by someone he knew and that the father should be able to help them identify who it was. Alex was leaving the station when Oliver caught up with him in the parking lot.
"Romero." Oliver shouted, hurrying over to him. "Did I hear right, you got a lead in Riley's case?"
"Yeah, I'm going to talk to his parents right now to get more answers."
"I should probably take it from here Alex, I don't know how comfortable the Jacobson's are with you still working the case."
"I don't give a damn about their comfort, the father has to know something about this and I'm gonna get it out of him." Alex said and started opening his door when Oliver put his hand on it, stopping him.
"But you aren't going to do anything stupid, you already crossed a line with them once."
"I'm gonna do whatever has to be done to find him."
"I'm coming with." Oliver said then grabbed the keys out of Alex's hands and held them up. "And I'm driving."
Not long after they approached the Jacobson's house, Alex had explained everything he learned about Riley's kidnapper on the way and Oliver was now up to speed, understanding now why Alex was so insistent on talking to the parents.
"Now I don't care what the circumstances are, we are still doing this the right way." Oliver said then Alex knocked on the front door loudly.
The door opened and Mister Jacobson looked straight at Alex. "Come to snoop through our personal items more?"
Alex ignored his comment and walked right past him and into the house, Oliver let out a deep breath watching him. "Romero." He said and Alex made no effort to come back out. "May we come in?"
"Doesn't seem like I have a choice." Mister Jacobson said letting Oliver inside too.
"Where's your wife?" Alex asked.
"Cassandra, come out here." He yelled to the other room.
She walked out still wiping her hands with a dish towel, as soon as she saw them she rushed toward them. "Did you find him?"
"Sorry, no, we haven't yet." Oliver said and her expression immediately dropped. "Can we all take a seat somewhere to talk?"
"Of course." Cassandra said, gesturing to the living room furniture.
Once everyone took a seat Oliver exchanged a look with Alex before starting. "We got new information on your sons case, I'm sorry but it looks like he was taken."
"Taken? What does that mean exactly? You know who took him?" The father asked quickly.
"We don't know everything yet but we have a witness who saw him get into a car with someone."
"Oh my god." Missus Jacobson said, putting her face into her palms. "Why would he do that? We taught him never to get into a car with someone you don't know."
"The witness said Riley knew him, that the man inside the car had worked with you." Alex said, staring right at Mister Jacobson.
"What?" The father said, glancing at everyone in the room. Alex watched closely as Cassandra glared over at her husband, shaking her head at him. "How, why would they think that?"
"Whoever took Riley tricked him into the car, he told him you had been hurt and Riley asked how he knew since you didn't work together anymore."
"I-I ah quit my last job a few weeks ago but I don't know of any reason someone from there would take him."
"Where did you work?" Oliver asked.
"I worked at a warehouse near the marina, I manufactured boat parts."
"How many people would you say you worked with?"
"With management and salesmen, easily a hundred."
"How many would have Riley known?" Alex asked.
"Most of them, he would stop by all the time and everyone there loved talking to him."
"Did anyone ever act strange around him, like maybe they were a little too close with him?"
"No, nothing like that. I worked there almost twenty years, I don't know of anyone that would take him for any reason."
"I'm gonna need the name of the warehouse." Oliver said, pulling out his notepad and pen then handing it to him.
While he was writing Alex noticed his hand shaking slightly, his gaze went up to his face. "Why did you quit? I mean you worked there a long time without a problem so why now?"
His wife glanced sideways at him, and he closed up the notepad handing it back to Oliver before speaking. "I wanted to spend more time with my family, as you know we were having problems and my work was a big part of that."
"That's the only reason?"
"Yes." Mister Jacobson said and Alex continued to stare at him. "Are you implying that isn't the reason?" He asked then Alex tilted his head and shrugged. "I'm getting really tired of the way you conduct yourself, it's not professional at all. My child is missing and you are treating me like I'm the bad guy here."
"I'm just trying to find your son."
"Then go find him instead of sitting here and interrogating me."
Alex stood up and went to go towards the father when Oliver stopped him. "Romero, let's go." He said, patting his partner on the back. The whole way out of the house he glanced back at him, the father looked back at him angrily but he noticed a slight change in his expression, possibility guilt. "What were you going to do, jump the father?" Oliver asked as the stepped outside and walked to the car.
"He's clearly lying, he knows more than what he is telling us."
"Even if that is the case we have to go about this the right way, we can't start assaulting scared parents just to get the answers."
"Maybe we do."
"Alex, you know better than that. That kinda stuff is what your father did."
"I just- I don't understand why he would be hiding anything. His son is missing, isn't finding him more important than protecting himself?"
"Maybe what he is hiding has nothing to do with his son."
"It does, or he wouldn't be getting so upset." Alex said before getting back in the car.
Once they were back at the station Chloe let them in. "Deputy Romero, you got a couple calls from Maggie Summers."
"Shit." Alex said under his breath, he had got so wrapped up in the case he forgot to give them a call and let them know he couldn't make it to dinner.
"You in trouble for something?" Oliver asked.
"I was supposed to go over there for dinner tonight."
"You were going to have dinner with Maggie?"
"She was going to be there too but Norma asked me to come over."
"Norma?" Chloe said. "Did you finally find yourself a woman?"
"She's just a new worker at the motel, I helped her with a few things and she was making dinner as a thank you."
"I don't think you are going to get thanked now." Oliver joked.
Chloe smirked till she heard a light knock on the glass, they all looked over to see Missus Jacobson standing there. "I need to talk to you." She said, looking straight at Alex.
"Let her in, Chloe." Alex said and she unlocked the door letting Cassandra inside. "Call Maggie for me and tell her sorry about tonight." He said then they lead her into Olivers office and had her take a seat.
"What do you need to tell us, Missus Jacobson?" Oliver asked, taking a seat.
"First I wanted to apologize for my husband's behaviour towards your deputy." She said and looked at Alex. "I really appreciate what you are doing to find my son."
"You know what your husband is hiding?" Alex asked bluntly.
She nodded. "I think I might, if I would have thought it had anything to do with Riley I would have told you from the beginning no matter how upset he would have gotten."
"What is it?"
"A few months ago I noticed Daniel acting different, he was coming home later than usual, leaving the room every time he got a call and he was lashing out for no reason. My friend had just gone through a divorce with her husband a year before and she said the signs were pretty similar."
"He was having an affair."
"Yes." She said shamefully. "I hired a private investigator, if I was going to bring it up to him I wanted to be sure. He showed me pictures of the two of them together, it's not something a wife ever wants to see but I needed to know."
"I'm very sorry." Oliver said.
"The woman is an english teacher at my son's school, I met her many different times at conferences and school events. And when I thought wow, it really can't get any worse than this my P.I. showed me these." Cassandra said then pulled out a set of photos from her purse and handed them to Oliver, Alex hurried over and stood behind him to look at them. They flipped through pictures of Daniel Jacobson meeting with different people, in each photo he looked to be selling them products and getting suitcases of money in return.
"I'm guessing he isn't selling boat parts to these people." Oliver said and flipped to the next photo of one of the buyers opening up a package of weed. "He was selling drugs."
"I never thought I would find out my husband was a drug dealer."
"He's not a drug dealer." Alex said, looking at more photos. "Not exactly anyhow."
"What?" Cassandra and Oliver both asked.
"Look at these people he is selling to, everyone in fancy clothing, driving import cars. He's not a dealer, he's a supplier."
"How is that different?" Missus Jacobson asked.
"In a drug trade they have a chain of command, there is people who grow the crops, people who guard them, people who trim them, people who process them and then people who distribute it. That's what your husband did, and there would have been a big boss who told him where to go and when." Alex said then showed a photo from the pile of Daniel having lunch with another man. "And that's the boss."
"Nick Ford?" Cassandra asked.
"You know him?"
"He was one of my husbands main clients, he bought everything for his boat from Dan. He is also the father of the woman he had the affair with."
"Your husband was having an affair with Blair Watson?"
"Yes, I assumed that was a big part of Daniel quitting. Nick wasn't happy when he heard about it, his daughter was off limits in his mind. He went to the factory one day and made a scene in front of everybody, normally I would have felt bad for Dan but after everything I learned I knew he had it coming."
"We need to find Ford, he could be the missing link." Oliver said.
Alex pressed the intercom. "Chloe, have a couple officers go out to the Jacobson residence and arrest Daniel." He said and Cassandra looked at him with a shocked expression. "Drug trading and lying to police officers during an investigation."
"I hate how often you are right." Oliver said to Alex while he started searching for Ford's address on his computer. "Got it."
"Will you let me know whether you find anything later?" Missus Jacobson asked.
"I will give you a call as soon as we leave his house." Oliver said as he stood up and grabbed his coat. "I'd wait awhile before going home."
The both of them went to Ford's house and searched for him with no luck, they knew of his boat at the marina so they checked there too. On the way out they ran into another owner that had asked what they were doing by Ford's boat, after telling him that they were looking for him he told them that he went on a trip a few days ago and wasn't going to be back till next week. Without more than a photo of a simple lunch between Daniel Jacobson and Nick Ford they had nothing else they could do till he got back into town and called it a night, only Oliver going back to the station to make sure he got everything sorted out for Daniel's arrest.
Alex looked at his watch on the drive home, he wondered if eleven-thirty was too late for Norma to still be up. He decided he'd drive by and if there was any lights on he would knock, as he pulled up into the parking lot he didn't need any further confirmation that she was awake since she was sitting outside her motel room on the patio furniture drinking a beer. She looked over at him, putting her hand up to block the headlight now shining on her. He turned off the car and got out, walking up to the table she was sitting by.
"I wouldn't peg you for a beer drinker." Alex said, nodding toward the pack of bottles sitting on the table.
"I prefer whiskey but this was the only thing I could find in the fridge, I'm pretty sure it expired like a year ago but it's still pretty good." Norma said then grabbed another bottle out. "You want one?"
"Sure." He replied then she handed him a bottle and he sat down on one of the chairs, popping the cap off on the table next to him.
"You didn't need to attack the furniture, I had a bottle opener." Norma said, showing him it.
"I popped open my first beer on this table."
She ran her hand on the edge of the table, feeling all the grooves. "Is that why it has so many knicks in it?"
"That and being around since the eighties."
Norma shrugged and took a sip of her own beer. "Did you use to hang out here a lot?"
"Almost everyday till I was about fourteen."
"Why'd you stop coming around?"
"You know how it is with childhood friends, you start to grow apart eventually."
"You stayed friends with Maggie though."
"She's different from Keith, her parents messed her up too but the way he dealt with things was much worse."
"Where is he really? You and Maggie get all shifty eyed anytime he comes up."
"I don't know the exact details."
"You not knowing something, that's new." Norma said in a fake surprised tone making Alex smirk.
"He's doing a job, his new work assignment requires a large amount of travel. This is the forth time in the last few years that he's left and came back a few months later with stacks of cash."
"I'm guessing whatever it is it isn't something legal."
Alex finally took a big sip of his beer then settled back in the chair more. "So, what's got you out here drinking alone?"
"Ha, where do I begin." She said with a chuckle.
"It's not because I didn't show up, is it?"
Norma laughed lightly. "You think you have that much of an effect on me Deputy?"
"No, not me personally. But people who have dealt with a lot of disappointment, like people not being there when they said they would always take it harder when someone new doesn't come through, they feel like the whole world doesn't care."
"Wow, for someone as closed off as you you sure got a lot of insight."
"So I was right?"
"Not even close." She said with a laugh. "Dylan is just giving me a hard time about this whole fake identity thing."
"Was he close with your husband?"
She shook her head. "No, he never liked him. I always thought it was the cliche son doesn't like his stepfather routine but when I think back Sam was never good to him, neither of them."
"Why is he upset then?"
"It's complicated."
"It is because of the lying?"
"I think that's part of it, as hard as it might be to see he is a good kid."
"You don't have any problem with lying."
"What do you mean?"
"It's like second nature to you." Alex said then put his hand up to stop her from talking before he got the chance. "And don't get defensive because I'm not saying it in a bad way."
"It didn't always come easy for me."
"Me either."
Norma watched him as he stared down at his beer bottle, peeling at the corners of the label. "Is there something you wanted to ask me?"
Alex scrunched up his face and paused a moment before looking over at her. "You lied to protect yourself and your sons but would you ever lie in a situation that would help you but could hurt them?"
"What is this about?" She asked, tilting her head.
"The kid who is still missing, his father has kept stuff from us, information that could be extremely important in finding his son."
"That's awful."
"Well people are awful most the time." Alex said with a shrug then they sat quietly a moment.
"If it were one of my sons in trouble I would admit every single lie I ever told to get them back."
Alex looked up and caught her gaze, holding eye contact with her for what felt like minutes but had only been a matter of seconds. He turned away suddenly and stood up, setting his bottle on the table. "Thanks for the beer."
"Technically I stole them, but you're welcome."
"Night, Norma." He said and started to walk away when she spoke making him stop.
"Hey, Deputy Romero." She said and he turned around. "Can I call you by your name? It's a little stupid at this point."
"Yeah, you can call me Alex."
Norma smiled. "Night, Alex."