10. How Can You Go Home Again…

I hesitated. "Ma'am, I don't mean to sound cold, but Go City is in another state. Have you called 911?"

"What do you think I've been trying to do? My phone won't reach any other number! I even used James's phone! Somebody wants me to call you, so I'm calling! I WANT MY KIMMIE BACK!" She was crying.

I would be too. I sat down. "All right, ma'am. Tell me what happened. I'll see what I can do."

"Kimmie called around midnight. She'd had a fight with Bobby…her boyfriend. He always keeps her out past curfew. I offered to go pick her up, but she said she had called a cab. She said she'd be home in a few minutes."

"I sat down on the couch to wait for her. I was in the OR eighteen hours today. Guess I was so relieved she wasn't with him that I fell asleep. When I woke up it was three. I went up to check on her but she wasn't in bed. The cab company said she wasn't at the pick up. I tried to call Bobby, then the police, but all I could get was this number."

"What's going on? Where's my little girl?"

My phone beeped. The office.

"I don't know, ma'am. I'll get right on it. Right now I have to take a call from precinct. I'll call right back."

"Can't, can't I just stay on hold?" I'm her only connection; she doesn't want to risk losing me.

"Don't know how long I'll be. Phone might kick you off. I won't leave you, ma'am. I promise."

She didn't want to, but she hung up. I went to the other line.

"Sir?"

"Sasha. You and the kid, in my office. NOW."

Nbc

We were there fast. Kid's used to moving in a hurry. Reneca was waiting, so was Daddy.

"Heard you got a call."

Is anything private anymore? "Yes sir. Dr. Possible. Her…Kim has been kidnapped."

Hendricks looked at the Chief. He was confused.

"I'll explain later, not that I understand. Right now it's enough that you know what's going on with your people."

Daddy threw us some envelops. "You three are going on a trip."

"Tickets to Middleton? Chief, that's out of our jurisdiction."

"You aren't going as cops; not officially anyway. You're visiting Middleton High School's advisory department as part of its state accreditation. Inside with your tickets are your credentials and files on what you need to know."

"Sir, what's the sitch?" Kim stepped right up to Daddy. The man can be very intimidating but she had a pro's look on her face. She's asked that question a thousand times.

His face softened. "I can't tell you much right now. All I can say is that someone wants me to send my little girl and her partner to help out somebody else's little girl. We need you because…the last thing anybody needs is for information to slip out that Kim is missing."

"I'm taking her place?"

"Yeah. It should be easy for you. Inside are files on the student body, faculty, course work and places she hangs out at. With your help we'll have her home in a day or two. There's a make-up guy in the department. You can't go looking like that. Like her, that is. Now, your flight is leaving in four hours. Don't pack much; you'll be wearing her things. Good luck, kid."

Kim and Reneca had heard all they needed to hear. They left. Reneca smiled and whispered 'road trip' as she passed me. Hendricks followed to show Kim where she needed to go. No one wanted to be around for what was coming.

"What the Hell is going on? I'm no undercover! I've been there before, they'll recognize me."

"Your Mother is right, you are too vain. You've visited Steve's family a couple of times, it's not like you were Grand Marshal for Middleton Days. Blakeman and company have set up a nice digital trail for you and Reneca. As far as anyone there will know, you've been working for the Michigan Accreditation Board for the past four years."

"Daddy, we're…we're using a kid! What if that what these people want? We'll be dangling her out there as bait. Hey, creeps, collect the set!"

He put his hands on my shoulders. "I know, Sasha. This is not my decision, but I understand the reasons behind it. This kid was ready to stomp you to death, and made a monkey out of six good men at Smolensk. She'll be fine. You and Reneca have her back. Way they look at it you'll be back in three or four days. Now, you need to go home and pack. You've got to tell Steve and Marsha good-bye."

I hadn't thought about that. Stevie wasn't at all pleased at me being out of town. Marsha didn't understand. She'd be asking 'where's Mama?' and what would Stevie tell her? She kept wanting to climb into the suit case as I packed, and I kept wanting to take her with me.

"That's my cab." Kim was running down the hall with her suit case. Someone had bought her a real nice set. Her hair was black, and she had blue contacts in. She came in and gave Stevie a hug. He looked a little uncomfortable. Marsha gave her a big kiss. "See you in Middleton, Sasha."

I shook my head at all of this. Things are so out of whack. Then Stevie wrapped me up in his arms. I sank back into him.

"You be careful, and watch after our girl. I think when you get back you owe me an explanation."

I turned in his arms so I could kiss him. "I might actually know something by then. You and Marsha take care of each other. Keep her on schedule."

"Affirmative."

Then it was Marsha's turn. She's a hugger and I needed it. I had never been away for more than a night. Certainly never been in an open ended situation like this. "You listen to Daddy. I'll be home soon. I love you."

"Love you, Mama." It was always a whisper.

We made a little troop to the door. Reneca's car was out front. Everything was loaded up and it was kisses and waves.

Nbc

Love airports: Stevie complains about the Marines being 'hurry up and wait' but that's nothing compared to Go International. If anyone ever invades, we should route them through here. They'll surrender out of boredom.

I was looking over the files. Unfortunately I was going to have to sound like I knew what I was talking about, and to professionals. Reneca frowned as she went over her stuff.

"Executive Assistant! What the Hell?"

"You're my secretary."

"Well, you better not start any of that 'hey now, mama come on over here' or I'll file a sexual harassment suit."

"Not my type."

She smiled. "Then I'll sue for discrimination."

Amerair Flight 457 for Middleton will begin boarding now. Will all first class passengers please present their passes at the gate?

The well heeled began to line up. A young black haired girl flashed us a grin as she went to the gate.

"Friends in high places." Reneca shook her head. "What section are we in?"

"Very back, by the bath rooms. Public servant seating."

Nbc

Three hours later we were leaving Middleton Airport. At least our rental was a step above public servant level or we couldn't have gotten all our stuff in the trunk. No need for a map, we had a guide in the back. Kim was excited.

"I didn't know how I was going to get here. If I could get here." The smile faded. "I just wish it was home. That we weren't here for this reason and that Ron was here."

"He'll still be out at least five more days. We'll have you back before he wakes up."

She gasped "It's…her home."

We pulled up. A handsome red haired woman came to the door. Real strong resemblance to our girl in back. The three of us walked up and went in quickly. We didn't want too many to see what was going on.

I shook her hand. "Dr. Possible?"

"Please, call me Ann. We've met before, Sergeant Barkin."

"Then call me Sasha. This is Reneca Cramer, my partner. And this is…"

I will never be in a more awkward situation. They both looked like they half wanted to hug, half wanted to run. "Hi, Mom. I guess I better try to get in character. Where's her room? I need to get a feel for what's different."

"Let me show you." Dr. Possible looked at us. "We'll be a few minutes. Won't you make yourselves at home?"

They went up stairs. We could hear talking, then a little laughter. After a while Ann came down. She was wiping her eyes.

"Like nothing had ever happened. No Bobby, no tension. Just us girls."

"Ann, I want to start with Bobby. Tell me about him and Kim. Your Kim."

"You don't suspect him, do you?" Her face was bleak. She was smart; she knew what that would mean.

"No, ma'am, but we need as much information as possible. What led up to this fight?"

We sat at the kitchen table. She had some tea ready. At first it was all bragging on her girl. Her smarts, her drive, her concern for others. Kid has potential.

"But it all goes out the window with boys! It's like she loses herself in them every time. She takes up their interests, their hobbies, politics, everything! With Josh it was his music. When that Hirotaka was in town as an exchange student, she almost killed herself studying Kung Fu. But those were amusing compared to this."

"I won't lie I DON'T like Bobby. Haven't from the start, though I tried to be fair. It's just…I know his type, so do you. They're everywhere. Always so polite and deferential to the people above them, but nasty to anyone below them. He's always asking if you've lost weight, even when you're retaining a half-ton of water. The twins don't like him either. At first I didn't think much about that, they never like any of Kim's boyfriends, but I think they're a little afraid of Bobby."

"They've been going out for two months now. He's started changing everything about her. Her clothes, her hair, he got her to quit her job, and she loved working at Club Banana! He has her going to some Holiness Church: I don't think he cares for it, but knows it makes her uncomfortable. And he used to have her home at ten, but now they can't seem to get in before midnight. Kim is always in trouble with her Father now! Bobby's trying to drive a wedge between her and everyone else. He's trying to get her to quit cheer leading now! That was what the last fight was about."

"Has he ever struck her?" Reneca cut to the chase.

"Not…that we know of. He knows that if she ever came home with any marks James would kill him! We've talked about making her break it off with him, but we're afraid if we tried that she would do something really stupid. She swears they aren't sleeping together but I'm sure he using her to get off somehow."

Her jaw was tight and her eyes leaked tears. She gripped her glass. It shook.

"I was so hopeful when she called. She was so angry with him. I told myself that maybe she was seeing through him, she was reclaiming herself." Then she whispered "But she never came home."

"Where are the twins? Could we talk with them?"

"There're in Florida. They left yesterday. Space Camp: an unexpected pair of openings. They're so far ahead in school that they can skip the rest of the year if they wanted. Nice for this to work out when it did."

"Where's your husband?"

"He's at the Space Center. He's trying to come up with some way of locating her. He's got a couple of friends up there with him. We had to get some help! I'm sorry if we told someone we shouldn't."

I put my hand on hers. "It's okay, ma'am, you have to try everything. Could we go to the Center and talk with him? See if he's come up with anything? You can come with us."

She shook her head. "I need to stay here. If, when she comes home. I don't want her to think that we're angry with her. I'll call James and tell him you're coming. Let him notify Security."

"Thanks. We'll take Kim with us."

God, my eyes are starting to cross over this! How can we keep our Kims straight? Hell, it's too easy…one is missing.

"Kim," I called, "can you come down?"

In a minute Kim came in the room. The red hair and green eyes were back. She was in a shapeless dress. Classic, make her hide her body from the world. I saw her eyes and knew she had been listening. Good thing we would be with her at school Monday. Maybe we'll keep her from killing the boy.

We stood up. Ann almost hugged the air out of me. "I want to thank you for coming. You don't know what it means to us that someone would do this."

"I don't have a choice ma'am."

She looked into my eyes. "You and Steve have a child, don't you?"

You don't ask a Mom that if you aren't willing to see a picture. I can whip those out faster than my gun.

"Marsha. She'll be three in October."

"She's adorable."

"Thanks. We think so. Funny, I'm the middle of five he's the oldest of four. We thought that making a baby would be the easiest thing in the world. Wrong. No problem with getting pregnant, that was as easy as it was fun. Staying pregnant was the problem. Took two miscarriages for them to figure out what was wrong. Just not making enough hormones for the kid to take."

Spent the first three months with Marsha taking hormones. Messy, uncomfortable, but you'll do anything for them. Five months in and everything was fine. Then I was at the gym, they had me on light exercises. I was in the bathroom. A little girl, maybe four, asked me to lift her to the sink so she could wash her hands. Didn't think twice. That night I woke up bleeding. Placental tear, twenty percent detachment."

"Spent the next three weeks at home. I thought I was going to go crazy, but I did everything they told me to do. Then I went back to work. Reneca and I were sent to pick up a shop lift suspect. We were still uniform then. Guy was high on something. Started fighting, almost kicked me in the gut. Good thing the store security was there or Reneca would have beaten him to death."

"You're my partner."

"It almost got you fired, Hell, nearly arrested yourself."

"The women of Go City would have burned down City Hall."

"I would've helped." Ann had a sad smile on her face. "Something tells me that was not the end."

"We don't have time to go into the delivery. If I get started, you know what happens."

"We'll compare horror stories, and these two will never look at a man again." It was good to hear her laugh.

Kim came up and hugged her. Ann shuddered. "I'll come back with Mr., Dr., James, Dad. Someone has to get him to come home. I'll see what he knows that could help."

"Be careful." Ann couldn't help that.

"I will. We'll get her back."

Reneca touched my arm. "We need to get going."