Yup. Chapter ten. Early. Why? Because I am a procrastinator. But wait...then why is this chapter early, you ask? Well, that's because I should be studying for a test, but I am procrastinating with this nonsense. So in conclusion; early chapter, failed test.
Carlton sat in front of his computer at the station, typing away furiously. After leaving Mary with her mother and picking up an uneasy nauseous feeling, Carlton had spent the last two hours doing some digging. He had done hardly any investigating on the case due to the fact that he had been spending all his spare time taking care of Mary. After leaving Mrs. Gubbard's house Carlton hadn't been able to shake the feeling in his gut that something was wrong. He rubbed a hand over his tired face and slumped back in his chair.
"What are you doing here?" A voice behind him asked, causing him to jump in alarm. Carlton spun around and came face to face with his partner.
"O'Hara? Why aren't you at the hospital?" Lassiter asked slumping down in his chair tiredly. Juliet smiled weakly.
"Shawn woke up a few more times. He can't remember anything about the case, or about taking the case. The doctors said that the shock of dyeing and being shot and the infection are the cause. "I decided to go home, shower and go back to the hospital later." She explained.
"Hmm…" Carlton turned back to his computer. Not really knowing what to say to that.
"Where's Mary?" Juliet asked after a slight pause. Carlton turned to face her again.
"We found her mother. Sent her back." He explained curtly. Juliet's eyes widened slightly.
"Oh…Well that's good. I'm glad she made it home." She smiled worriedly at Carlton.
"Something's not right though." Carlton informed her, standing up. Juliet watched him cautiously.
"What do you mean?" She asked following him with her eyes as he started to pace.
"Well first of all, after I dropped Mary off at her house, I came back here to try and figure out where Mr. Gubbard could be hiding. Only I didn't find anything about him at all. He had no file." Carlton explained still pacing. Juliet looked at him funny.
"Why wouldn't he have a file? Isn't he a big criminal?" She asked.
"That's what I thought. Then I looked up Mrs. Gubbard, and her file was missing as well. Which is how it should be if they were both in witness protection and had changed their names." Carlton explained. Juliet nodded her head.
"All right, well what's so weird about that?" She asked. Carlton stopped pacing and looked up at her.
"Then I looked up their fake names, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Mr. Gubbard had nothing on him at all. He had no file and no prints in the system. Mrs. Gubbard on the other hand had been arrested." Carlton turned and dug through the papers on his desk.
"What was she arrested for?" Juliet asked, curiosity getting the better of her. Carlton showed her the paper.
"She was arrested after being pulled over. Police pulled her over for speeding. The car she was driving had a gun in it and the gun wasn't in anyone's name." Carlton took the paper and pointed at a name near the bottom.
"The car she was driving belonged to this man. He was intoxicated at the time so she offered to drive him." Carlton set the paper down.
"Steven Ashden? Who's he?" She asked. Carlton grabbed another file off his desk and handed it to O'Hara.
"A nobody. A few speeding tickets and unpaid parking tickets, but other than that there is nothing on him either." Carlton explained watching O'Hara read,
"What about the gun in his car? That's more than just a speeding ticket. What happened with that?" She asked handing him the file. Carlton smiled thinly at her.
"Nothing. There's no mention of it in his file. The gun was wiped clean from it."
"But they forgot to wipe it from Mrs. Gubbard's file?" Juliet asked, her face lighting up.
"Right. " Carlton crossed his arms over his chest and stared at O'Hara triumphantly.
"So you think that Mr. Ashden is involved with the men looking for Mr. Gubbard?" Juliet asked. Carlton's smile faltered. There was still something that he felt he was missing. His partner didn't miss the look on his face.
"You think there's more?" She asked, analyzing his expression. Carlton sighed and flopped down in his chair. He looked at his computer screen, it was getting late. It was nearly Nine O'clock at night.
"I don't know. When I dropped Mary off at her mother's something just didn't seem right." Carlton remembered the way that Mary had chewed on her hair nervously, and the way she had sat quietly. She wasn't her normal energetic self. A sudden realization made Carlton jump to his feet. Juliet jumped at the sudden movement.
"Carlton?" she asked, recognizing the look on his face. It was the look he got when he realized something very important.
"When we went to that cabin I took Mary into the living room and Spencer came in and put his feet on the coffee table." Carlton started to explain. Juliet just nodded, listing with confusion on her face.
"Okay…" she mumbled.
"Mary walked over to him and pushed his feet off the table and told him, 'No'. I think she knew that you aren't allowed to put your feet up on a table because she was taught not to put them up." Carlton explained, thinking out loud.
"That makes sense. If her mother had reprimanded her, or anyone at all, for putting their feet up on the coffee table then Mary would have done the same thing when she saw Shawn putting his feet on the table." Juliet paused "But why is that important." She asked.
"Because, O'Hara. There wasn't a coffee table in Mary's mother's apartment. Also, when we were walking to her apartment, she looked like she had never been around the ocean before. She acted like she had no clue where she was. I just thought she didn't recognize it right away."
"You think that Mrs. Gubbard doesn't really live there?" Juliet asked understanding dawning on her. Carlton nodded vigorously.
"There were no pictures of Mary in that apartment and Mrs. Gubbard said she lost Mary while shopping by the police station. I don't think she would really go all the way to a store near the police station to shop." Carlton groaned and reached for the phone on his desk. "I should have seen it sooner. That house was too clean. There was hardly any furniture." He picked up the phone and dialed a few numbers.
"If that's not Mrs. Gubbard's house, then where does she live? And why would she pretend that was her house in the first place?" Juliet asked worriedly.
"McNab, I need you to get down to Mrs. Gubbard's apartment and bring her in. She and Mary might be in trouble." Carlton gave him Mrs. Gubbard's fake address and then slammed the phone down. He then turned to address O'Hara.
"I don't know, I could be wrong, but maybe the people after her husband got to her somehow. Whatever her reason is, Mary is with her and could be in serious danger." Carlton ground his teeth in frustration. He felt incredibly stupid for leaving Mary behind like that without first getting more information, before doing any real investigating. He had been so distracted with trying to not care about Mary that he had ignored his uneasy feelings when he left her. "Damn it!" He cursed quietly and reached for his coat.
"Where are you going?" Juliet asked following him as he began to walk.
"I'm going to meet up with-"Carlton's sentence was cut off when he ran into the hulking form of a man. Stumbling backwards Carlton glared at the huge man he had just bumped in to, his face turning red with anger. "Damn it! Watch where you're going you idiotic-" The man placed his hands on Carlton's shoulders roughly, which once again cut the irate detective off.
"Are you Detective Lassiter?" the man asked, his voice deep and gravely. He was the hugest man Carlton had ever seen. His head was completely shaved and he had huge broad shoulders and dark brown eyes. There was a long scar going down the left side of his face and he was wearing blue jeans and a black sweater, the sweater was ripped and dirty. Carlton stepped back from the man and glared up at him, which was unusual for the head detective. Carlton was used to being the tallest person in the room.
"I don't have time for this. Step aside." Carlton tried to push past the man but it was like pushing up against a brick wall. Carlton stumbled backwards and crinkled his nose. The man stunk of dirt and body odor. The look on Carlton's face was unadulterated rage. He was about to pull his gun and shoot this huge hulking man. Noticing Carlton's look the man backed off, with his hands raised.
"Whoa whoa, I work for Gubbard. I'm a body guard!" the man spoke quickly, his eyes darting from Juliet to Carlton. Instantly the rage faded from Carlton's face. He looked the man up and down searching for weapons or any other signs that the man was dangerous. Mrs. Gubbard hadn't mentioned any bodyguards, which could mean that she hadn't talked about it for a reason or that this man was actually working for the people that were after Mrs. Gubbard's husband.
"Follow me." He turned to look at O'Hara. She nodded at his look.
"I'll go meet up with Buzz." She informed him rushing to the door. Carlton sighed. He wanted nothing more than to go with Juliet and locate Mary, but if this man had important information on what was going on then he wanted to hear what he had to say, and if he didn't have any important information and it turned out that this man was just wasting his time, then Carlton wanted to arrest him for obstruction. Carlton jerked his head, indicating the man should follow him and led him to an interrogation room.
"Sit down." Carlton snapped. The man walked in and sat down quietly. The chair he lowered his enormous frame into creaked ominously.
"My name is Jonny. Yesterday, during the afternoon, my employer and Brookell, uh that's my employers daughter, went missing." Carlton sat down across the table from the man and sent him a disgusted look. Kristina must have been taken yesterday, which meant that she really had been in trouble when Carlton went to see her earlier.
"What kind of body guard loses the person he's trying to protect?" Carlton patronized the man, he was aware that he was taking his anger out on the body guard but he didn't care. Carlton pulled out his notepad and wondered why Kristina hadn't asked for his help when he had met her in her fake apartment. The huge man's ears turned red with embarrassment.
"Well see, some people came into the house with guns and so I took Brooke. The boss wanted me to get her out of there, get her somewhere safe. So I sent Brooke with Lou, he's the other guard, and went back for the boss." Carlton nodded and took a few notes.
"Go on…" He mumbled distractedly, worrying about Mary and her mother.
"Well when I got back, the boss was running through the woods. I tried to chase him, but he wouldn't stop, then I lost him." Jonny explained folding his hands in his lap. Lassiter frowned and looked up at him in confusion.
"Him? Didn't you say your employer was Mrs. Gubbard?" Lassiter asked staring at Jonny intently. The man looked at Lassiter like he was crazy.
"No! God no!" He shook his head and held up his hands like Lassiter was offensive to look at. "I work for Mr. Gubbard; he hired me and Lou to protect him and his daughter from his Ex-wife and her husband." Lassiter's head snapped up and he stared at Jonny, a serious look on his face. Nobody spoke for at least ten seconds until finally Lassiter stood up abruptly and stormed out of the room. He needed to know where Mary was, and he needed to know now. Pulling out his phone he dialed Buzz's number, knowing that Buzz would have reached the apartment by now. It rang twice before the rookie cop picked up.
"McNab." Buzz answered.
"Did you find her?" Lassiter barked into the phone, gripping it so hard that his knuckles turned white. He hoped he was wrong about the apartment being a fake.
"No sir. The woman was gone, and so was the girl. I checked with the land lord and he says that no one lives in apartment 8b, that no one's lived there for a few months now." Lassiter felt the world around him shatter. He was light headed as he hung up the phone. He had handed Mary over to the bad guys.
Short I know. So sorry if I call Mary, Mary when she should be called Brooke. It's hard to keep the name Brooke where it should be when I know her as Mary. Also, tell me if you find any glaringly obvious plot holes. I will try to either explain them away or bow down to your observational prowess…and then I will try to fix it.