Chapter 11: Identity
On Wednesday morning, Santana arrived at work promptly at 6:30 am. Having debriefed with Holly the night before, the Inspector presented Santana with a new phone which she had Artie set up for her. The Intelligence Officer then set up Santana's old phone, scanning it for any signs of interference before concluding that nothing seemed amiss. Being that the new phone was a more recent version Artie suggested Santana keep it, regardless, and transferred over all contacts and settings.
Santana phoned Brittany to check in with her, as promised, at 8:30 am. The dancer seemed relaxed and said she felt comfortable with Blaine, which Santana had expected, but hearing so put her mind at ease. Blaine had escorted Brittany and Sugar to the studio, where he set himself up in a corner of Brittany's office putting together his own security package which would certainly rival anything Onyx claimed to offer.
Santana smiled to herself, only an hour later, at being told she needed to contact the dancer again. Holly's buddy, Forensic Frank, had lifted three sets of finger prints from the note, paperclip and photographs and needed confirmation that, with one belonging to Santana, the other two did in fact belong to Kurt and Brittany.
"Hi San!" Santana could hear a smile playing on the blonde's lips through the phone as she answered the call.
"Hello Miss Peirce, this is Senior Constable Lopez, I'm calling on official police business." Santana tried to sound matter-of-fact, but couldn't remove the smile from her own face as she did so.
"Ah. Why do you have to do that? You know it's impossible to resist you when you're in cop mode!" Brittany's voice was equal parts amusement and frustration.
"Okay, I'm sorry. Hey, do you want the good news or the bad news?" Santana cringed.
"Always start with the bad first I guess, get it out of the way." Santana heard the woman sigh on the other end of the line.
"Well, it's just that the forensics guy only found three sets of finger prints. One is mine and I'm guessing the other two are yours and Kurt's, so no leads I'm afraid."
"Typical I guess. So what's the good news then?" Brittany's voice remained flat.
"Well, maybe we can see each other before Friday after all." Santana grinned into the phone like a mad person.
"What? How? What do you mean?" Santana's grin grew wider at the excitement in Brittany's voice.
"Well don't get too carried away, we just need you and Kurt to come in and have your prints taken. We won't really get to be alone, but I'm just happy I'll get to see you. Perhaps I can briefly steal you away for questioning in a storage cupboard or something?" Brittany chuckled lightly in response.
"Okay, well I'll call Kurt, his lunch breaks are flexible. I guess if Kurt comes here, Blaine can bring us over. I'll just have to be back within the hour. I can't wait to see where you work!" Santana could virtually see the dancer clapping her hands together like a child in a toy store.
"Like I said Britt, don't get too carried away. It's actually pretty dingy. It's designed to be inconspicuous and that seems to be code for grotty, old and totally falling apart." The two shared a laugh before confirming that Brittany would arrive shortly after 12pm.
With her head down for the rest of the morning, Santana missed the arrival of the dancer and her entourage, and received a call from Holly a little after twelve, informing her that the trio were in her office.
Kurt and Brittany had just had their prints taken when Santana arrived and Brittany was using a cloth to wipe the ink from her fingers. Upon seeing Santana, Brittany beamed and immediately threw her arms around the shorter girl's neck.
"Hi yourself." Santana mumbled quietly, feeling somewhat shy in front of her boss.
"Sorry, I just…missed you a little, I guess." Brittany whispered, pulling back. She subtly reached a hand to Santana's and linked their pinkies as Santana had done the night before.
"Umm…I'm going to delivery these to Frank myself. Anderson, why don't you show Mr Hummel here to the washroom down the hall. We can't have someone dressed like that getting around with filthy hands. Very unbecoming." Holly tilted her head, motioning for the men to follow her out and Santana smirked at the woman, shaking her head, knowing that she had a dual purpose for her suggestion.
As the door closed behind them Brittany wasted no time attacking Santana's lips with her own and the officer, taken by surprise, gasped against the blonde. Brittany pulled back, smirking, and ran her hands down Santana's arms before taking the officer's hands in her own.
"Sugar's going to dinner with her Dad Friday night and will stay at his. Blaine said he is happy to spend the night camped out in the garage, so we have the house to ourselves." Santana's eyes widened at this.
"The garage? Britt, what exactly did you tell him?"
"Trust me, the garage is awesome, it's like a little flat. Aaand," she drew out the word, "…I just explained that I wanted to take you on a romantic date to the dining room and that if dinner went well, maybe you'd be coming back to my…place."
Santana felt her eyes close of their own volition as the dancer pressed her body against hers and punctuated that last word with a roll of her hips.
"Imma lose my job if you do that again. Seriously." Santana shook her head and leant in to kiss Brittany again, but was startled by loud voices in the hallway. Santana motioned for Brittany to stand behind the door and felt concern wash over her as she turned the handle and pulled it towards her.
"I said, what the fuck are you doing back here?" Karofsky was flushed in the face and angrier than Santana had seen him. The disdain in his voice was something she had thought he reserved only for her and, looking up the corridor, she soon realised the target of the verbal assault.
"Calm down Dave. I'm doing a job for Frank Porter and Mr. Hummel here was in possession of some physical evidence." Santana was impressed by the even tone Blaine managed to use without coming across as condescending.
"I bet he fucking was, I bet he'd just love to leave some of that fucking evidence on your sheets later, you pair of fucking fa…"
"Back down Karofsky." Santana saw Kurt's face flush in horror at Karofsky's words and the larger man snapped his head towards her as she spoke from behind him.
"Oh, that's rich, a defence from the dy…"
"I said, back down Karofsky. You really don't want to finish that sentence." Santana was proud of herself for not allowing any emotion to enter her voice and as Karofsky stormed past the men up the hallway they both moved to the side, instinctively.
As he neared the corner, Santana saw the man turn back briefly, his eyes flickering with rage and…something else. The feeling unnerved her and as his eyes met hers, she was sure the previous emotions had been replaced with fear.
Entering Holly's office, Blaine collected his bag and scribbled a note for Holly, leaving it on her desk. "Okay, Santana, I really need to get these two out of here and I want to avoid seeing that…person again."
She nodded and looked over at Brittany whose eyes were filled with a combination of disgust and anxiety. Moving towards the dancer, she offered her hand, squeezing the pale one in hers before leaning over and placing an innocent kiss to her lips.
"I'll talk to you later okay?"
The blonde nodded and mirrored Santana's actions, squeezing her hand and offering up a quick kiss as the three hurried out of the office and towards the elevator.
For the next two days Santana continued working tirelessly investigating names and backgrounds of anyone and everyone, outside of the Flanagan family, who could be messing with Brittany. Dermot Flanagan, as it turned out, had lived up to his reputation of being incredibly thick and had revealed that his father owned a property in Toledo. When questioned about the names Henderson, Forde and Onyx Security Dermot had apparently looked at Sylvester blankly at the mentioning of the surnames, but showed some recognition at the mentioning of the security company. The imbecile had volunteered the location of his father and step-mother solely on having made the connection that Onyx was the name of a place in Toledo.
While there appeared to be no tangible connection between a confused Dermot and the supposed security company, Sylvester felt that they could keep him for another 24 hours on a technicality.
Santana worked closely with Artie to locate any possible information on Sofia Ramos, Alyssa Greenwood, Cheryl DeMart and Kevin Broadby. They found Broadby to have a twelve month driving suspension after a DUI charge and Alyssa Greenwood had the one assault charge from two years ago. In conversations with Blaine and Holly, none of these names seemed worth pursuing. Cheryl DeMart was off the hook also, but under far more dramatic circumstances. She had been found dead in her apartment eight months prior, hanged, presumed suicide.
Therefore the only name which Santana was struggling with was none other than Sofia Ramos.
Despite having attended Jane Addams after being charged with assault and possession, there was nothing on the police database in her name. Santana literally threw her hands up in the air when Artie suggested she check the sealed records.
"Why the hell didn't I think of that?" It was a rhetorical question, but Santana realised she should have known better than to let it slip in front of the Intelligence Officer.
"Honestly, in my opinion Santana, the lack of practical intel in this case, so far, probably has you subconsciously convinced that you will hit a brick wall at every turn. We know the girl had a record, you don't go to JAA otherwise, if it's not on the database, it must be sealed."
While she appreciated the man's help with this case, which was being worked partially off the books, there was nothing in his personality that Santana felt she could cling to make his manner more tolerable.
"Okay, can you access that from here, or do I need to do some old fashioned leg work on this one?"
"Well, the regs would have to go to the Courthouse, but I can bring up her whole file if you give me a few minutes to perform a search." The man tapped at rapid speed on the keyboard in front of him and a search bar appeared on the screen in front of them, slowly filling blue. "Of course, if the record was actually expunged, there'll be no digital file and we'll need someone from the Courthouse confirm the record of the hearing. We'll be able to find out which Judge signed off on it and exactly when it occurred."
Santana nodded her head, waiting for Artie to finish before speaking again.
"I wonder if there's any point really. There's nothing under her name in the system, so she'd have no further charges. It's not like they'd allow a second lot of charges to be expunged, so maybe we just leave it."
Artie insisted they finish the search and after this returned no rsults, he phoned the Courthouse himself. Santana tapped her foot against the chair leg and flipped through the rest of her notes from talking with Brittany on Tuesday night. Artie put the phone down and turned his chair to face Santana. "Yep, expunged six years ago, must have been shortly after she graduated." He shrugged and turned back to his desk.
"Call up her social security number, actually grab her licence, I want to see what this girl looks like."
"Santana." Artie's voice took on a parental –like warning tone which made her feel naturally more insistent.
"Just run the search. We need to know what she looks like in case she's appeared on any of that security footage from the studio." Santana was clutching at straws now.
"Santana, you just told me she was irrelevant to the case. I'll run it, but don't make shit up, okay." Santana's eyes widened at being called out by the scrawny man, but she was satisfied that she had achieved her aim.
As it turned out, the two spent over an hour running every search possible on the name Sofia Ramos. Just as with the searches on Sylvia Henderson, on Monday, everything on this girl came back blank.
"Well, we know this girl has to exist. Brittany dated her and she was enrolled in school for four years. They've got to have some record of her, a relative's name, an address, something." Santana nodded her head and wandered back to her own desk to call Jane Addams Academy.
She spent a significant amount of time on the phone to the school's Administration Officer, Annie, and came away with little more information. Yes, Sofia had attended the school for four years, she was an A-Grade student, all academic records were available, as was her file which showed little to no involvement in violence or other anti-social activities for the duration. Santana asked to speak with the Principal or one of Sofia's teachers, but the AO explained that the school were on their third Principal since Sofia had attended and their turn-over of teaching staff was even more frequent. Santana was about to give up entirely when she remembered Sofia had been in the school's show choir.
"What about the choir director. Is she still at the school? Hutchinson or something, I think?" Santana pit her lip in anticipation.
"Grace Hitchens? Yes, she's still with us, she is probably the longest serving staff member at the school actually."
"Excellent, well I'd really like to speak with her please." Santana felt relief to finally be on the right track.
"Um, I'm sorry but Grace is on leave for the next two weeks, but I'm sure, under the circumstances, she wouldn't mind if I called and explained the situation to her. Do you have a direct number she could call you back on?"
Santana gave the woman her mobile number and thanked her for her time.
Glancing at her own watch, she realised she only had half an hour until her shift ended and packed up her desk while trying to suppress the nervous excitement at the thought of her evening with Brittany.
"Isn't this against the rules?" Tina leant against the frame of Santana's bedroom door and watched her friend dressing for her in-house date with Brittany.
Santana turned, hearing the softly spoken words and shrugged at the look of concern on Tina's face.
"It is. In more ways than one. Did Mercedes fill you in on what went on this week?" Santana finished putting the final touches on her makeup and twirled in front of Tina. "Whatd'ya think?"
"Stunning, as always. Mercedes told me everything last night. I'm worried about you San, and the dancer. This all just feels really sketchy. I don't want you getting in too deep."
Santana grabbed her oversized handbag from the chair by her mirror and walked out of her room with Tina by her side.
"Honestly, I've been in way too deep from the start. I couldn't have avoided this T. I don't know what it is about this girl, but I haven't felt this way since..." Santana trailed off and Tina nodded in understanding.
"I know. Look, I realize we've hardly seen each other lately, but whenever you've spoken about her, I've seen that look in your eye. Even with everything else that's going on, I can tell she must be really special. I'm glad you've found someone San."
The two shared a brief hug and Santana kissed her friend on the cheek before heading out.
Where her relationship with Mercedes was a mix of tenderness and sarcasm, her relationship with Tina had always been to the point. They were always upfront with each other, to the extent of being rather blunt at times, but the sincerity which came with this was refreshing for Santana. She'd always maintained her guard and, effectively, built a wall between herself and the rest of the world from a very young age. Tina, Mercedes, Simone and, now, Brittany, were really the only people she'd ever let see through her.
Santana felt a lump rise in the back of her throat at the thought of Simone. She hadn't thought of her in so long. Not since the SRS and Brittany...she almost felt guilty about that. Even though she'd been the one to bring her up, she was still unprepared for the effect it had on her. The protectiveness she intuitively felt towards Brittany stirred thoughts of the other women. The warmth Santana felt within her whenever Brittany smiled her way also reminded her of Simone, but that's where the similarities ended. Letting go and forgetting were not the same thing. She could never forget. Closing her eyes, Santana took a deep breath and acknowledged the positive connection she'd made between the two women. She then visualised opening up a box and packing up her thoughts of Simone and, exhaling as she pushed open the door leaving the lobby of her apartment, closed the box, re-placed it in the background of her mind.
Three cab rides and two dummy locations later, Santana hurried up the stairs to Brittany's front door and knocked. The officer was looking forward to a night free of having to look over her shoulder and she smoothed a hand over the short dress she was wearing as she fidgeted nervously with her hair in anticipation. She hadn't been alone, properly, with Brittany since Tuesday night and their previous two encounters had left her unsatisfied to the point that she had to take matters into her own hands, so to speak, after arriving back home. To say she was looking forward to the after dinner portion of their evening was an understatement.
When the dancer opened the door, Santana couldn't hide the look of disappointment on her face. A dishevelled Brittany was still dressed in sweats from work and had her phone wedged between her ear and her shoulder. In one hand, the dancer was holding a teddy bear and in the other she clasped the small hand of an upset little girl.
Ushering Santana inside with the teddy bear, she mouthed the word 'sorry' and closed the front door. Kneeling down beside the little girl she handed her back the teddy while speaking into the phone.
"Yep, okay. No, that's perfect. Thank you so much Sug. Okay, I'll see you soon." Brittany slid her phone into her pocket and offered Santana an exhausted smile before turning back to the little girl.
"Beth, Aunt Sugar is going to come over and take you back home so you can sleep in your own bed tonight, okay? And once you get set up you guys can FaceTime Becky. I text her to let her know what was going on and she said she missed you and would have come back if she had a car. Sweetie, just go into the lounge room and choose a movie from the cabinet. You and Aunt Sugar can watch one of mine tonight, okay?"
The little girl nodded and Brittany stood up, taking a deep breath and turned to Santana. Pulling her into a hug, Santana gently rubbed a hand up and down the dancer's back. "You okay babe? What's going on?"
Sighing again, Brittany kissed Santana before stepping back and peeking into the lounge room. She placed her hands on Santana's waist as she spoke and Santana ran her hands up and down Brittany's bare, goose-pimpled arms.
"Not long after I got home from work, Puck rang in a panic, he'd called the ambulance for his mother. They think she was having a heart attack. I went around and collected Beth, packed her a bag and then came back over here and realised I had no idea what to do. I felt like one of us should be at the hospital with Puck and then I remembered our date," Brittany paused and squeezed Santana lightly, "…not that I ever forgot, but, you know. Anyway, Kurt's gone in to meet Puck, Beth's funny with men she doesn't know and freaked out when Blaine came in to see if we were okay and I've phoned Sugar and she's…well you heard that conversation." Santana ran her hand back up Brittany's arms and felt how tense the dancer's shoulders were under her touch.
"Well after Sugar comes to get Beth, we could get Blaine to take us into the hospital?" Santana offered.
Brittany shook her head. "No way. When I rang Puck he said I wasn't allowed to change my plans. Karen is stable and in the best place she can be. She'll need to rest and I'll go in tomorrow morning to see her."
Santana nodded. "Well while we wait for Sugar, why don't you introduce me to the little one?" Brittany smiled and dragged Santana by the hand into the lounge room.
"Hey Beth, sweetie, this is the Santana that I was telling you about. She gives good hugs if you want one." Santana thought that was pushing it for their first encounter, but the little girl smiled and put her arms out. Santana knelt on the carpet and put her arms around the little girl.
"It's nice to meet you Beth. I met your Daddy the other night actually." Santana sat back on her heals.
"I know, he told me. Brittany's always happy when she talks about you. You're much nicer than Alyssa was, and you're way prettier too. Are you Brittany's new girlfriend?"
Santana raised her eyebrows, but couldn't help the wide grin which spread across her face. Glancing at Brittany she noticed the dancer was biting her lip and had turned a bright shade of pink. Feeling her heart jump into her throat and her stomach somersault, Santana took a chance and maintained eye contact with Brittany as she responded to Beth.
"Well... Brittany makes me really happy too and I think she's really pretty. We haven't really talked about it, but I'd like to be her new girlfriend... if that's what she wants." Santana's voice was uncharacteristically quiet, but she knew Brittany had heard her when the blonde's pale skin flushed again and she gave a tiny nod followed by the most beautiful smile Santana had ever seen.
"Good. That's settled then." She winked at Brittany and stood up, taking Beth's hand and moving around to sit on the couch. The three watched TV together while waiting for Sugar to arrive and Santana reached behind Beth to tuck some blonde hair behind Brittany's ear. Brittany turned at the touch and Santana's thumb brushed against the dancer's cheek before the two leant over Beth and shared a slow, gentle kiss. They were soon pulled from their trance, however, by simultaneous slaps on their thighs from Beth.
"Do you two mind, I'm trying to watch my show here." The kid rolled her eyes before turning her attention back to the TV and Santana smiled over at Brittany, rolling her own eyes and shaking her head from side to side.
Sugar arrived back home twenty minutes later and, despite the situation, was her deliriously happy self. Beth leapt from the couch the moment the woman entered the lounge room and ran to her, jumping up to be brought into a giant hug.
"Thanks sweetie, I really appreciate you coming back." Brittany put an arm around her friend's shoulder and squeezed her.
"Well you know I love dinner with Daddy, but I only made plans with him so I was out of your hair for the night." Sugar smiled at Santana and winked, receiving a backhanded slap from Brittany.
Santana heard her phone beep in her bag and circled the couch to grab it as Brittany and Sugar fussed over Beth, helping her into her coat and collecting her bear and chosen DVD's.
One missed call and a voicemail. Santana excused herself and, waving to Beth and blowing the little girl a kiss, wandered over to the window to listen to her message.
"Hello Senior Constable Lopez, Grace Hitchens calling you back. Annie explained that you were having trouble locating Sofia Ramos. She was a beautiful girl, a brilliant student by Jane Addams standards, anyone's standards really and she was, by far, my favourite music student. You'd be having trouble locating information on her because she was forced to enrolled at JAA under another name. Had she enrolled under her real name, she would have been eaten alive. That family were unsuccessful in keeping a low profile back then. To my understanding she had her academic transcript transferred into her birth name after graduation. Any records or information on her from before High School, or in the years since would be under the name Eva Hernandez..."
A cold chill running down her spine, Santana didn't listen to the rest of the woman's message. She pressed End and folded her arms as she looked out Brittany's front window, turning the phone over and over in the palm of her hand, under her arm. This movement was stilled only by warm hands encircling her waist and the feeling of the dancer's lips upon her neck.
"Everything okay beautiful?" She asked quietly.
Santana turned in Brittany's arms and placed a lingering kiss on the blonde's lips before hugging her and whispering "I'm fine babe, everything's fine."
Thoughts? : )
Dinner and ... dessert next chapter. Stay tuned.