Tank rode in the ambulance with Hal. He listened as the emergency crew worked on him.
"I've got him stable, barely." The main EMT said. "Get us there quick."
The other EMT started writing things on the chart. "Anything else I need to add to this?" He asked.
Tank looked at Hal, he didn't look well, didn't look well at all. He could tell that it looked like his collar bone was broken, his shoulder sat at an odd angle.
"Collapsed lung, broken collar bone, broken ribs on the left side, same side as the collapsed lung. Finish writing his vitals and we'll drop him off." The main EMT said. He looked over to Tank, "Your buddy here might live, I've seen worse, he'll be in the hospital for a good week at least."
Tank gave a nod. I'll have to call Ranger as soon as I get out of this ambulance. Hal, I don't know what you did, but I don't think you'll be able to be in our group now. What did you do to set Lester off that bad? I've never seen Lester in a fit of angry passion like that before, well, other than when we lost Steven. Tank thought.
When the ambulance stopped Tank got out and went to the other side of the building so he could make the call.
"Yo." Ranger answered.
"We're at the hospital; they got him stabilized in the ambulance. I think he'll live. He's in pretty bad shape though." Tank told him.
"I got a cab for Lula and Bella, they went to headquarters. Stephanie is with me, we are at the police station. Morelli had Bobby's phone, Bobby called me when he got it back. Hal went in the room that Alex was in while she was knocked out and cut two feet of her hair off."
"Shit, she was defenseless."
"Exactly, I can't have someone on my team who'll take advantage of someone who can't fight back. And not over a broken nose. I can't have that risk."
Tank looked over to the emergency room doors. "What do you want me to do?"
"Stay there for right now, get the paperwork filled out, Bobby is on his way to where you are. Morelli is bringing Alex with him."
"Will do." Tank said.
I had to agree, I couldn't let Lester go to jail because of me. If Joe can get him out, then, then maybe I can trust him. Alex thought. She stopped walking when they got to Joe's SUV. He hit the remote to unlock the doors. Alex was staring at the picture that was taped to the passenger side window. It was a woman who had curly light brown hair that looked so much like her own curly head. The woman was holding a baby in her lap, a very tiny baby that had a head of black curls.
She felt Joe come up behind her and placed his hand on her right shoulder. "Who is that?" She asked him.
"Sarah." Joe answered. Alex could hear the strain in his voice. "I need to get this back to the station and see if I can process it for prints. Don't touch the picture."
She watched as Joe went to the back of his SUV and opened the back up and came back with gloves on and pulled the picture off the window. He turned it over and Alex looked over his arm to read the back as well. Mine, both of them mine. July 19, 1991.
Sarah? Is that who he thinks is my mother? Ninety-one? I was born in Ninety. Alex thought. "Is that?"
She saw Joe look at her. "Yes, I'm fairly sure she's your mother."
Alex shook her head, "Can't be, I'm going on sixteen. My birthday is in December."
Joe placed the picture in a bag and pulled off the gloves. He opened the passenger door. "Get in Kitten. We'll talk about this on the way to get Santos out of jail."
Someone is toying with me. The picture was taken almost fifteen years to the date. Eight days away. I used to call Sarah Kitty-Cat, she would purr when I kissed her neck in the right places and nibbled in others. I couldn't help but call Alex, Kitten. Joe thought as he waited for her to get in.
She looked back at Joe as she got in and sat down in the seat. "Kitten?"
Joe smiled at the perplexed look on her face. "Yeah, Kitten. It fits you." He shut the door and walked around to his side.
He started the SUV and music blared out of the speakers. He turned the radio down but still heard the words. You're going to need a body bag, I'll break bones you didn't know you had, when I'm done there will be nothing left of you, for your friends to hold on to, when they find you cold and blue tonight, faced down in a parking lot. Joe turned and saw Alex bouncing her head with the music. "You like this song?"
"Yeah, it's a good one. Bodybag, by Hit The Lights." Alex kept bouncing her head to the beat of the music.
"Where's my Buddy Holly cd that was in the player?" Joe asked. He saw her turn and look out the window. "What did you do with my cd?"
"Buddy Holly is dead, his music is dead, and the cd is probably dead now too." Alex said not turning to look at him.
Dead? I'm listening to some guy sing about killing someone, and Kitten likes this stuff. Joe thought. "How dead is my cd? Dead where?" He asked as he pulled out of the parking space and started driving towards the police station. "Put your seatbelt on."
He saw her reach up and grabbed the seat belt then buckled herself in. "Dead on the road somewhere. I don't know what street I was on when I tossed it out the window. Am I almost sixteen or what?"
Joe looked at her. "I think you'll be turning fifteen instead of being fifteen already. As soon as I find the rest of your birth record, I can tell you for sure. What is wrong with Buddy Holly?"
"He's dead, his music is not all that great. He's an old fart." Alex turned in her seat to look at him. "So you think I'm fourteen?"
He could hear the panic tone in her voice. "Kitten, I started going out with Sarah at Homecoming in my senior year. She went missing over the Christmas Holiday's. I've counted the months out, July is right." Joe looked over at her. "You'll be fifteen this year, not sixteen."
"Urgh," Alex growled out and sat back in her seat and crossed her arms across her chest. "This is if I am her daughter and not some other woman's daughter. My life totally sucks." She looked out the window.
"Life sucks in general Kitten. Shit happens." Joe said as he turned the corner to the road the station was on. "I can't change what happened, but I can sure find out what all happened. Give me that chance. It's not just you that is affected by this," He looked over to her, "Or did you forget about me already in this my life totally sucks?"
He saw Alex turn to look at him; she didn't have the scowl on her face from before now her lower lip was pouting out. Jesus! She's swinging from one emotion to the next. I hated the hormonal teenage years. And my life was pretty fucking normal. Joe thought.
"I…I…well at least you know who you are. You grew up with your family. I didn't have that luxury." Alex said.
"I'll give you that one. Point well made, but don't toss me to the side as if this doesn't affect me. If I would have known, don't you think I would have come for you?" Joe said as he pulled into the police station parking lot. "If I would have known, you would have been with me all long. You wouldn't have had the life you had." Joe pulled into the employee section of the parking lot and parked his SUV. "I'll tell you who you are, just give me the time to piece this all together, and then I'll give you all the answers you need, I promise."
Come on Alex, toss me a bone here. I can see it in your eyes how much you need this. How much you really need to learn to trust someone who isn't going to take advantage of you. Joe thought as he waited on her answer.
"Alright, you have till the judge places me anyway." Alex said and opened the door and got out of the SUV.
Joe breathed a small sigh and got out. Small victory there, but I'll take it. Joe thought. He led them into the back door of the station and guided her all the way inside towards his desk. He felt her snicker at seeing the balloons, his hand was on her shoulder leading her in. "Don't say anything. It'll be gone soon." Joe told her. He pointed to his chair. "Have a seat, don't touch anything."
Antoine pulled off the headphones he had on. "I think you should see this, I ran the other prints I found."
Joe walked around to Antoine's desk and picked up the file he had. It was a cold case file, of an infant that was found in January of Ninety-One. It had been left open because the infant had been unknown. The autopsy report had read death was due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The prints matched the birth record for Caitlyn Alexandria Ramono who was born on December 7, 1990; the baby had lived for only a week. Joe looked over at Alex. She was reading the notes under the gifts he hadn't put away. She had a devilish smile on her face. He shook his head.
"One solved. One to go." Joe said and gave Antoine the file back. "Write it up so we can close the case out."
Alex picked up the toy gun that was loaded with the plastic dart and was pointing it at things. "One what solved?"
"Never mind you, I'll fill you in when I have all the pieces. You've learned enough for today, don't you think?" Joe asked.
He saw Alex aim the toy gun at him, "Have I?"
Antoine looked at her, "Are you going to shoot that thing?" He asked.
Joe saw her aim it at Antoine then.
"I wasn't talking to you Creole." Alex pulled the trigger of the gun and the dart flew and hit him in the forehead.
Joe laughed, "You need to behave. I said don't touch anything."
Antoine grabbed the dart that was now lying on his desk after it had bounced off his head. "Yeah, sit over there and behave."
Alex put the toy gun down. "You should know I never listen."
"I see that. We'll have to work on that." Joe told her.
Lester was pacing the cell he was in. They took his boots from him; they wouldn't let him have them because of the steel toes. So he was pacing barefoot, they wouldn't allow the socks either. They took his belt, and everything he had in his pockets. It was nice and neatly bagged in three large manila envelopes locked up tight in a locker. They had placed him in a cell by himself. He looked down at the bright gaudy orange flip flop shoes they gave him and groaned.
Big Dog thought it would be better if he calmed down on his own before being placed in a cell with others. Lester had told them to keep him away from anyone in holding because he knew the guy Ranger had picked up was in holding and didn't think it would be conducive to anyone's health if the two of them met.
Lester looked out the bars, he was on the bottom tier of the cell block. The cell block was set up in an octagonal pattern with the cells facing the main control room. He could see the correction officers looking into each cell from the window. The main cell was to his left and he could hear the conversations of other inmates carry over to him.
I can't believe I almost killed him. If Ranger and Tank hadn't shown up, Hal would have been dead. And to hit the wanna be cop and throw him. I wasn't thinking. I was too pissed that Hal actually could have hurt Alex more than what he did. Lester thought. He turned and walked back over to the far wall. His stomach was queasy, he almost killed Hal, killed him, because he hurt Alex. I need to get out of here. I'm supposed to be watching her, it was court ordered. Way to go Lester. Get yourself stuck behind bars because you got angry. Well, it was justified though. I need to see her, I was stupid for getting Hal in a public place, should have waited until he left the mall. How in the world did she get under my skin like this? I've never had anyone do this to me before.
"Santos."
Lester spun around and saw Joe leaning on the bars. "Morelli."
Joe put his fingers through the bars and tapped them back and forth, "You're in a little bit of a bind here. Aren't you?"
"It would seem so." Lester said and shrugged his shoulders.
He's gloating! Fuck! I don't like this. I don't like this at all. Lester thought.
Joe pulled his hand out and stuck it in his pocket, and he pulled the key to the cell out. "How bad do you want out?"
Lester looked at the key. Freedom. But at what price? Lester thought.
"Why don't you just open the door?" Lester stated.
"Come now, we both know how this game is played. I scratch your back, you scratch mine." Joe stated.
Lester turned around and walked over to the far wall and leaned against it and then looked back at Morelli. "How bad is your itch?"
"My itch is about five foot five, beautiful black curly hair, amazing blue eyes like her mother's, trust isn't given easily. Yet, she's given you a measure of it." Joe said.
Lester could tell he was studying him. "You want her trust, then you have to prove it to her, gain it. I can't do that for you. Only you can do that."
Joe nodded. "I figured as much."
"Then what are you after?" Lester asked.
"Don't encourage it anymore than where it's at. I don't want it moving any further. She's underage, and I'm pretty sure she's mine. The DNA test will state it in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours." Joe put the key back in his pocket. "I have one person I'm going to have to deal with as soon as it becomes public knowledge she's mine. I'm fairly certain he miss used his place of authority in her life and crossed the line with it. Don't cross that line Santos."