Chapter 34
Two hours later I was back at Rangeman with Leona's books and her portrait of Alice in my arms. The drive back had been quiet as I went through the details of what Leona had told me. I knew for sure that art was the central theme now and I could almost be sure that Alice had been a victim. The problem was that I had no actual evidence, what I had was circumstantial and the niggle of my spidey sense going off in my head.
I headed straight to the elevator with Dax close behind me and then hit the panel for five.
"Do you want any help?"
I turned and looked at Dax and considered his question but dismissed it just as quickly. I needed some time to myself to sort through what I knew and decide what to do next.
"Thanks, but no thanks. I just want to get my head around this stuff from Leona"
As the door slid open, we went in opposite directions, Dax toward the control room, and me to the room that Ranger had said I could use. As I walked through the door I came to a standstill because I didn't recognize where I was. I turned quickly, slightly embarrassed that I'd walked into the wrong room and bumped into someone so hard that the books and painting fell to the ground. Hands around the top of my shoulders stopped me from over balancing and I was looking into Ranger's face.
I wasn't sure if he was amused or surprised, maybe both from the way he almost smiled.
"Where are you going so quickly?"
As we both bent down to pick up the falling items, I was a little confused with how to answer him.
"I, err, was going to go into that room you showed me, but I can't find it"
Once stood up with everything back in my arms he turned me and pushed me toward the door that I'd just come through and into the room that I didn't recognize. Somehow it seemed much bigger and there was a window opposite me that hadn't been there before. The wall to my right was covered in boards and there was a desk and chair to the side. I hadn't remembered seeing a second door before and was curious where it led to so stepped across and opened it.
I found myself in a small area with two more doors, sheesh, what had Ranger done? The door ahead of me opened into Ranger's office and the second door led me into a room, not unlike a closet with clothes hung to one side. Ahead was a bathroom, that I think was the one I had used once before. I returned back to where Ranger was waiting for me and put the books and painting down before standing in front of him.
"Thankyou"
Then on tip toes leaned up and melded my lips to his. He responded immediately and as his hand supported the back of my head he delved into my mouth. I never got the chance to move my arms around him before he was starting to pull away.
"Later Babe"
I'm sure I responded with a moan at the loss of having him so close, but it seemed his bat ears must have been working in overdrive because Les was suddenly stood at the doorway.
"What did you bring back with you Beautiful?"
"How did you know that Les?"
"Dax told us you were in some house for hours and came out carrying books"
As I looked from Les to Ranger, I knew I wasn't going to have that alone time now. They both looked curious as to what I'd found out.
"Okay, okay, I'll show you"
I decided to go with the painting first because as far as I was concerned it had the most impact. I held the painting in front of me and watched as they both looked at it.
"She's a looker. Who's she?"
Of course, Les saw her as a beautiful woman and his appreciation of her showed in his face. Ranger though had maybe remembered me talking about the woman from Trenton who was found dead and who I thought was another victim.
"She's dead Les"
"So how do you have her painting?"
"Look I need to get my thoughts together and then I can explain it better"
As Les started to open his mouth I pushed my finger against it and started to push him toward the door. He took my hand away from his face and smiled, he was up to something from the look in his eyes.
"You know that idea that you had, well I think we should do it"
"What idea?"
Because I hadn't a clue what he was talking about.
"To have a conversation with Lula"
I'm sure both of my eyebrows went up at that because I couldn't remember saying I would be involved with that.
"Come on Beautiful, you know she'll talk to you"
"She'd talk to you Les"
From the way Les looked down to the floor before he looked back at me, I knew he would have a story that he thought was good enough to get him from doing it himself.
"She aint talking to me"
"Why not?"
"I was down at the bonds office picking up files and she was there"
"Go on"
"I think she heard me talking to Connie"
Hell, this was like pulling teeth.
"What do you think she heard?"
"Me saying that she was terrible as a bounty hunter"
"Why were you saying that"
"Connie had told me that she's only brought one skip in and even Joyce was doing better"
"Tomorrow morning"
"Thank you Beautiful"
I closed the door behind him and turned to see Ranger leant up against my desk.
"I'll go with you"
"Maybe that would be better"
I knew that Lula was slightly afraid of Ranger so maybe between us we could find out something about Hancock. I rolled the painting back up and placed it in the corner of the room and then took the books with me and walked through to Ranger's office. He had a circular table in there where I could sit down and go through what I'd found out from Leona with Ranger.
Once I'd finished going through everything I waited while Ranger sat there thinking. Saying everything out loud had me thinking that maybe everything about Alice had been a coincidence. I had my elbows on the table with my head in my hands as he was relooking at things. When he eventually spoke, I was surprised at what he said.
"Daniel is coming here tomorrow afternoon to talk about those cases. I'm sure you're right Babe, but we need something else that would give us a better argument"
"Okay, I'll start working. Can I use the search programs?"
"Yes. Hector seems to have everything secure"
I jumped from my seat and ran back through to my room, I'm sure with the sound of Ranger laughing behind me.
David Carlton was the first name that went into the search program with a filter of artist and an approximate age. I had the photo that Leona had given to me so as names and faces came up, I could illuminate the ones that bore no resemblance. It didn't just seem to feel like it took ages, it was ages before I came across a face that could be that of David Carlton.
I input the details that came up into a program that would dig deeper into his life and waited.
This was the part that I hated the most so on a whim I looked at the photo and the names on the back and input their names into the search as well. They may have been Trenton women, but I didn't know who they were.
As that was processing, I felt my stomach grumble and realized that I'd totally missed out on lunch. Once in the breakroom I was pleased to see some sort of stew sat in a slow cooker on the side. The room was empty for now and a look at the clock indicated that Ella had probably put it out for the change of shift that would be coming around soon. Once I had a full bowl and some fresh bread, I looked at the table with the intention of sitting down and eating. The last time I'd eaten here I'd come across Hayes and thinking of him brought back too many memories of what had happened.
With my food in my hands I decided that I'd prefer to sit alone in my room and eat. That way I'd be able to keep an eye on when the searches finished. I was just wiping the bowl with my last piece of bread when the door from Ranger's office opened. I looked down at the empty bowl almost feeling guilty for having eaten without him.
"I'm glad you've eaten. I have to go and placate a client. Seems his alarm keeps going off and he's ready to rip the whole lot out"
"If he has kids check what they've been up to"
"Good call, I think he has two children who may well be teenagers"
"I'd have been pissed at that age if my every move was monitored and I couldn't sneak in and out of the house"
"Babe you'd be pissed at any age"
Okay, I knew he was probably right saying that, but it did make me smile at how Ranger and the parents would compromise.
"Don't wait up because this could take a while"
He came into the room and walked up to squat down beside me, giving the computer screen a brief glance before he pulled me forward for a killer kiss. I was still reaming from the afterglow, leant back in my chair before I even noticed that he'd gone. That man had managed to get me into a state three times today, yeah, I was counting.
The pinging sounds from my computer brought me back to the here and now so trying to tamp down my hormones I sat up and focused on the screen. David Carlton was 45 years old, originally born over on the east coast near Los Angeles. His history was pretty bland really, born and raised by his mother. His education showed that either he wasn't very bright, or he couldn't be bothered to work harder. There were a series of jobs where he did bar work and supplemented his income through doing those caricature drawings on the beach.
He'd seemed to have been a bit of a loner and had started to try and make a living through painting. For some reason he'd suddenly left Los Angeles and started to travel further south and then down to Florida. That's where he started to offer art classes and even some private tuition. A side note in the search indicated that maybe the private tuition hadn't just been about art. There was a formal complaint against him for conning a widow out of money, but as she had been a willing participant at the time, it came to nothing. Reading between the lines I'd say he shacked up with rich women and played the artist to perfection, living off their money until one of them got bored and he moved on. The information that made me deflate was the date of his death.
A year after the art classes in Trenton he'd been shot and killed while trying to get out of a house. The police were obviously involved and the husband who had returned home early from a business trip was named as the killer. Of course, he was rich and influential and pleaded that he saw David Carlton as a burglar who might also have been attacking his wife.
In the end it was classed as a home invasion with no charges made against the husband and David Carlton was buried at the expense of the state as he had no money and no living relatives.
I felt deflated after reading that because I had high hopes that maybe he was involved with the deaths of the women. A quick check through where he'd travelled never had him in the places at the time or place where the women had disappeared from. It still left one mystery for me, and that was who the woman had been who had critiqued Leona's drawings.
I still felt that those classes held an answer so moved on to looking at the names of other people who had attended. So, I began the arduous task of snooping into the lives of the names from the searches. Interestingly it helped me to identify one of the unnamed men. He'd attended with his girlfriend and they were now happily married with two children living in Philadelphia.
Another woman was still single and unattached, but she'd been really ill with cancer for the last 18 months and had spent that time undergoing treatment. I didn't think that the woman who was 72 was a likely candidate especially as she just recently had a hip replacement and was living in sheltered accommodation with her husband.
That left 2 names still to look at, but as I started to read through the information for the first one, I just knew that there was something not quite right. The name I was looking at was Lyn Blanchard, not a typical name that you came across, which was why the search had finished so quickly. The face looking at me from the screen matched the profile of the photo from Leona, so I was sure I had the right person. The woman was described as petite with brown hair and blue eyes. According to the information on her passport she also had a small tattoo on her shoulder.
I couldn't find where she'd been born though or where she lived now. That made it really difficult to know how she had been part of the group with Leona here in Trenton. She was an only child whose father had been in the army, so maybe the family had moved around a lot. According to what I was reading both parents had died when she was a teenager, siting that the cause had been the bombings in Madrid in 2004. Where she went after that was a mystery, other than someone close to her parents had taken care of her. What was interesting was that she had a master's degree in fine arts but didn't give the awarding university. In fact, the information on her seemed to stop after that.
I went back in the search to find some information on her parents and started up another search on them. While that ran, I discounted the last woman on the list, so sue me, I just didn't think that the obese woman in front of me who ran a specialty chocolate franchise was who I was after.
As the search continued on Lyn's parents, I printed off the information that seemed important and started to pin things up onto the boards. It included everything I had, from notes I'd made on Jinski to the files that we'd been given by Daniel and the searches and lists I'd made.
Once done I sat on the floor opposite the board, lent against the wall. Yeah, the office was narrow enough for me to sit against the wall and be able to look at the papers across the room.
I had no idea where I was and started to panic slightly until I felt the soft 1000 thread sheets below me. I was laid on my stomach with a pillow under my head that smelt divine. As I lifted my head and looked around, I was so disappointed to be on my own. As I dragged myself out of bed, I wasn't surprised that I was wearing only a T-shirt and my panties. I had no idea how Ranger managed to undress me without me waking up, in fact I had no idea how he'd brought me upstairs without me waking up.
Once in the shower I relished in the hot water that sprayed over my head and the jets that pummeled across my skin. I was feeling more awake and trying to remember what was happening today. Oh yeah, a visit to the bonds office to talk to Lula, how could I have forgotten that. I dressed in jeans and a thin sweater, tucked my gun in my waist at the back and covered it up with a shirt open at the front. I had my cat boots on, and my hair tied back in a ponytail, four coats of mascara and I was ready to face the world and Lula. Once down on five I grabbed a coffee and sandwich from the break room and went in search of Les. I needed a piece of information from him before I approached Lula.
"Steph, you okay?"
I turned to see Ram stood behind me so decided maybe he would know where Les was.
"I'm looking for Les, do you know where he is?"
"Not sure, I think maybe on surveillance. What do you need him for, maybe I can help?"
"He asked me to talk with Lula about a skip"
"The Hancock case?"
"Yes"
I wasn't too sure what Ram knew or how he could help me out, then I realized I had absolutely no idea who was working to bring in the skips. I thought Ranger had said about taking on some of the medium range ones that could normally be more difficult.
"Follow me"
I followed Ram into an office at the end of the hallway where we found Dax sat at a desk.
"Dax do you have the file on Hancock that Les was working on"
I watched as Dax went into a filing cabinet and pulled out a file and passed it to Ram, without asking any questions.
"Err, Ram. I don't understand"
"Les and I head up the apprehensions and Dax helps us out when he doesn't have any other jobs going"
I suppose that made some sense, I mean I knew I would sometimes do research for Rangeman when I did searches and some of those searches were trying to give ideas for where to locate a skip. I'd never really thought about who worked on them when I wasn't here.
"You know Steph we sure miss you doing the searches and finding the skips, Dax here, he aint as good as you were"
I'm sure I blushed as Ram said that because I was sure that wasn't true.
"Les was going to find out the name of the woman that Hancock assaulted"
Ram looked through the file and then said out loud.
"Chantal Eastwood. There's a note here to say Les tried to talk to her at the hospital but she wouldn't say anything. She left the hospital the next day"
"Thanks Ram. Les wants me to ask Lula if she knows the talk on the street"
"I know. Ranger's got us shadowing you this morning"
Okay, that made sense. I knew that would happen but usually I just wasn't aware of anyone following me. Now I had that piece of information I went in search of Ranger, finding him eventually in the room I worked in looking at the boards.
I waited until he turned to look at me, wondering what he was thinking. I noticed he'd taken some papers from the printer and was holding them in his hand.
"Do you think this woman fits in somehow?"
"Yes. I just have to find something that ties her in some way to the women that the FBI identified as victims"
"Have you read these yet?"
"No, I think someone came in last night and kidnapped me"
I saw his lips quirk into an almost smile before he put the papers down on the desk and walked over to me.
"I think someone was so tired last night she fell asleep"
"Yeah, probably me"
"You slept well last night Babe"
"Only because you were with me. I don't know why, well maybe I do. You protect me even from my dreams. So, thank you"
I whispered the sentence close to his ear because I could never understand how that happened, but I was so thankful that it did. I was so sure he was going to say something intimate and was surprised when he pulled away instead, just looking at me.
"Tú haces lo mismo por mí. Mi alma gemela"
I had no idea what he'd said, but it felt important, as though he was saying something that was important to him.
"We have to be somewhere and then you are going to find that link between that woman and the victims"
"Yes sir"
I was literally pulled from the room by Ranger out into the corridor and along to the elevator.
Fifteen minutes later we were parked in the Porsche outside the bonds office. I could see that both Connie and Lula were there. Connie looked to be busy working on the computer, but as usual Lula was laid out on the old couch. I took a deep breath as Ranger left the car and waited for him to open my door for me. I needed for him to be as near as possible because I had a feeling that things could get ugly. As he put an arm around my waist and closed my door he was looking around, checking his surroundings.
"Babe?"
"Sorry. I feel nervous"
"Nervous as in your spidey sense is telling you something?"
"I don't know"
"Let's make this short then"
I wholeheartedly agreed with that as we walked into the bonds office. Once in I could see Connie looking at us over the screen of her computer and the shock as she recognized who we were. I heard my name being screamed just before she was in front of me hugging.
"I wasn't sure I'd see you again, not with all the stories going around that you were the main suspect in a murder investigation"
"It's all sorted now"
"Hell Steph I was just hoping you'd disappeared and were safe somewhere"
"So why are you back here, you gonna be working again?"
I turned to see that Lula had managed to get herself to her feet and was walking toward us and that she was eyeing Ranger up. Lula had always had the hots for Ranger, even though she was a little bit intimidated by him. I was annoyed though that she went to stand next to him and continued her conversation with him.
"So are you here to tell Vinnie to give Steph her job back?"
"No, I came by to collect any files for Rangeman. I heard you were doing the job now and I'm sure you know Steph has moved on"
The way Lula looked at me showed that she didn't much like his answer, but it didn't deter her from carrying on talking.
"I heard she lost that job, aint that right Connie?"
A look at Connie's face proved she knew nothing about that, which made me wonder exactly what Lula was talking about.
"What did you hear Lula?"
"That you were back in Trenton, well that was before that whole murder thing, and that you wouldn't be keeping that new job"
"Who said that Lula?"
"Officer Hottie. He's still saying you two are going to get hitched"
"Not happening Lula, so just ignore him, but I'm not coming back to work here Lula, I've moved on. The job's all yours"
"So why are you here then?"
I saw the moment that Connie spotted the ring on my finger and shook my head to her. At this moment in time I really wasn't prepared to share stories with either of them, and to be honest I wasn't too sure that I trusted Lula. As Ranger began to look at some files with Connie I wandered over to the couch and sat down expecting Lula to join me. When she did, I smiled at her trying hard to break the atmosphere that seemed to have come between us.
"How's it going Lula"
"Okay, though it aint easy when you're on your own"
"Is Vinnie bringing in anyone new?"
"No. He's given me a month to show him I can do the job. Though to be honest I'm not sure I'm gonna stay"
"Why not?"
I watched as Lula's whole body seemed to sag, as she let out a big breath and her eyes watered up.
"I miss you White Girl. We had a good thing going and now I just feel like you've turned your back on me"
Oh hell, that was not what I expected at all, not from Lula. I thought through some of the last times that I'd seen her and why I was so wary of her now. Maybe she did miss me, miss going out with me chasing skips, but I couldn't have continued with what was happening. I suppose she'd got used to getting money from me and me providing extra food for her, so was she really missing me or what she got from me?
"I haven't done that Lula. I suppose I came to a point in my life when I needed a change. I was hardly surviving with the bounty hunting, hell I had to work another job just to make ends meet"
"Is that why you left, not because of me?"
"Not because of you Lula, it was all on me"
"So what you doing now?"
"I'm doing some work at Rangeman, helping out"
"So you could help me out as well?"
"I don't have a license to apprehend anymore"
"I didn't when I helped you"
"I know and that was wrong. If you need me to help you find someone, you know do some background searches then I could do that"
"Maybe, sometimes some of them are hard to find"
"You still have the regulars though, so they should be okay"
"Yeah, as long as Joyce stays out of my way"
"How's that girl Chantal Eastwood, I heard she got beat up pretty bad and ended up in hospital?"
"Chantal, she's managed to get herself another job. I think like me she realized it wasn't worth being hurt staying on the street. Hell, she'd only just started out according to Jackie"
I remembered when I'd found Lula out on my fire escape after she'd been beaten up by Benito Ramirez. She was so scared after that and was keen to move away from being a working girl on the streets. I knew that Lula would know how Chantal was feeling.
"Did her pimp get charged for assaulting her?"
"Macha? He didn't beat her up, it was some john that did that to her. He threatened her, told her that if she told anyone it was him, he'd finish the job"
"Who the hell was the john?"
"She doesn't know, she just told the police what he'd told her to say, that he was her pimp"
"That's not good for Chantal"
"That's why she's got herself another job"
"Doing what?"
"Some bakery in Central West. She's actually a real good baker and has already started adding lines to what they sell"
"I'm glad she's safe then and happy"
"Yeah. I wish I had some super skill that I could use to get me out of here"
"There are things that you're good at Lula"
"Yeah right. I can't file, I aint no good in a food shop and singing in the band with Sally was a disaster"
"You're good with hair and nails"
"Maybe, but there aint much out there and there's too much competition"
"So look at where you could use those skills differently"
"Like where?"
"I don't know, maybe a new market where you go to the customer. You know like my Grandma or other elderly folk"
I was talking out the top of my head but maybe it might give Lula something to think about.
"Hell, I'd bet transvestites like Sally might like that. Well not Sally himself because he's got magical skills"
I smiled at what Lula had said, yeah Sally could certainly do anything with makeup on himself and other people too. He was certainly talented at what he did.
"Are we good Lula?"
"Hell yeah White Girl. Do me a favor will you?"
"What's that?"
Dreading what Lula might ask me I knew I'd give it my best shot.
"Tell that Rangeman, Santos I think he's called, I aint mad at him"
I laughed as she said that because that was the last thing I'd expected her to ask.
"I will"
"And maybe you could be my test customer, when I sort myself out and you have time"
"I will"
As I looked up, I could see Ranger stood leaning against the door as though waiting for me. I got up from the couch and leaned down to hug Lula and went to Connie to do the same.
"Lula seems happier. Thanks for talking to her. I couldn't help but overhear what you were saying. I'll see what I can do to maybe help"
"That would be good Connie, thanks"
"Only if you tell me more about your new jewelry"
I turned away at that comment before Connie decided to say something more out loud and made my way over to Ranger. I felt so much better now having cleared the air with Lula and almost had a smile on my face as we exited from the bonds office, that is until I saw who was stood outside of the door next to Ranger's Porsche.
"Cupcake, I need to talk to you"
"Why's that Joe?"
"I have to get a statement from you. You'll need to come down to the station"
I didn't get a chance to reply again because Ranger was suddenly stood slightly ahead of me addressing Joe. That was probably a good thing because I could feel my temper rising and had he made a move toward me I wasn't sure if I wouldn't have hit him or just pulled my gun on him. That would not have been the smartest of moves seeing as Joe could and would have dragged me away on the spot for assaulting a police officer.
"We'll need to arrange that for tomorrow Morelli"
"Oh yeah, and why's that Manoso?"
"Steph will need her lawyer with her, and he'll need to organize the appointment"
"Why would she need a lawyer, it's just a chat"
"Giving a statement isn't just a chat Morelli"
"Fine, tell the lawyer that I expect him and Steph tomorrow at 10am at the station"
If Joe thought that having the last say was going to intimidate me or Ranger, then he was deceiving himself. After a few moments of us both staring at him he eventually pushed himself off Ranger's car and stood to the side. He continued to watch me as Ranger opened my door and helped to buckle my seat belt. As Ranger started to drive out into traffic, I had to tell myself not to turn around and look to see if Joe was still watching us.
"Is he still watching?"
"Yes. You did well there Babe"
"Oh?"
"I thought at one stage you were going to try and go for him or pull your gun on him"
"The thought did cross my mind, but I need a carry to conceal permit"
"Already being processed"
"Do I need a lawyer tomorrow?"
"Yes. I don't trust Morelli not to try and twist what you say or to threaten you into doing what he wants"
I suppose Ranger had a point. That whole business with me being drugged and someone using my phone still hadn't been resolved and somehow, I just had a feeling that Joe knew more about it than he was admitting. I mean why on earth would anyone try to get me to marry Joe other than Joe himself. Or maybe there was something else going on that I just hadn't figured out yet.
Once back at Rangeman I knew I only had a few hours to try and tie together the women who had been murdered. I was determined to find that one thread that would do just that. I was quiet thinking about it as Ranger and I ascended in the elevator to five and as he went to the control room I went to my room. As I went inside, I saw the papers that Ranger had been holding earlier in the morning and realized I hadn't even looked at them.
These were the searches on Lyn's parents, and I'd been hoping that they might give me some insight as to who exactly Lyn was. I picked them up as I sat down and started to skim read through the father's first. He'd been born in New York City, the second generation of immigrants from England. The information about him growing up wasn't out of the ordinary, he'd finished school and enlisted though seemed to have moved into being a military policeman.
He'd married his childhood sweetheart at the age of 21 but then his work had them moving around the world. Lyn had been born five years later when he was stationed in Germany though he continued to travel with his family after she was born. I couldn't work out if he was still in the army in 2004 when he'd died in Madrid, but worked out that he would have been about 42 years old. So maybe by then he'd finished with the army but there was nothing to say if he'd taken on any other work.
Carl Blanchard had married Evalyn Cooper when she was 20 years old. There was very little on Evalyn after she married, I presume as she travelled with her husband then any records could be with the military. What was interesting was that she'd completed her training as a nurse before they moved away though there was nothing to say if she ever worked as a nurse anywhere.
As I read through the information again, I was sure that I was missing something, a thread that would link some of the people on my wall together. I pinned up the information on the Blanchard family to the board and knew I needed to go back to the beginning.
The beginning here was with Jinski, so I stood in front of the research on him that I'd done and the initial file that Ranger had been given from the FBI when they wanted him found. Nothing stood out so I moved to the next search that I'd done. I remember looking at Jinski's mother and even then, had been captivated by the fact that she'd been an artist, before I'd come to realizing how important that had been.
That's when it hit me. I removed the search that I'd done on Jayne Stone and re read her background. Before her marriage Jayne Stone had been known as Jayne Cooper. To me that was too much of a coincidence and I was sure that Jayne and Evalyn were sisters. So why was the piece of information that said they were sisters missing from both of their searches. I just knew that I'd found the connection but somehow, I had to prove it. If the searches didn't show that they were sisters then there had to be another way to find out, didn't there? If someone had altered online information, then would they have altered their parents as well?
I leant against the wall, feeling like hitting my head against it. I had to find that connection and before Daniel came to see Ranger. Then it hit me. Jack had given me a new identity to work with because it would be too easy for people to Google me or look through newspaper articles and those couldn't always be removed. I knew that Rangeman had a program that was fast at sifting through newspaper articles so went into that program.
I'd not really used it before but assumed if I put in search parameters then the program would be able to find anything that had been archived. I input both of the womens names, their place of birth as New York and when they were born then closing my eyes hit the search icon. I couldn't just sit and wait for the results, I was a bundle of nerves just waiting, so started to pace back and forth, well as much as the small room would allow me.
I almost jumped at the sound that came to me from the computer and immediately sat down to read the screen. The program had found one article that matched the search criteria, so I clicked on that and found myself looking at a column that was announcing births. On September 27th, 1978, Mrs. Francine Cooper had given birth to twin girls, Jayne and Evalyn Cooper.
That meant that Gary Stone, AKA Jinski, and Lyn Cooper had been cousins. Did Lyn end up being looked after by her aunt after her parents had died, is that how she maybe would have got to know Jinski better? I was so excited at finding the link that I literally burst through the door into Ranger's office coming to an absolute stand still when I saw an elderly gentleman sat in front of Ranger's desk.
Ranger was facing me as I stood there, I'm sure a slight smile on his lips. As he stood up the gentleman who'd been sat with his back to me also stood up and turned to look at me.
"Miss Plum, what a pleasure. This is the last place I expected to meet with you again"
"Mr Webster, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to barge in and disturb your meeting"
"Nonsense. I was just discussing the problems I was having with my security system with Mr Manoso"
"Mr Webster, Steph is the employee I was referring to who suggested what the problem might be"
"I could see how she would be capable of thinking along those lines"
Okay, now I was a little confused because I had no idea what either of them were talking about.
"Steph, Mr Webster was the client I went to see last night, whose alarms kept going off for apparently no reason"
I remembered suggesting to Ranger that maybe there were children who might be trying to work out how to escape from the house who didn't like the restrictions that the security system imposed on them, but surely any children Mr Webster had would be too old for that?
"My granddaughter and grandson are staying with me while their parents take a well earned vacation. It seems between them they decided they didn't like the security stopping them from going outside. They were trying to work out an escape route"
I smiled at his explanation and hoped that they'd come to some sort of agreement.
"What have you decided to do?"
Both men sat back down with Ranger pointing to a chair next to his desk so I sat down so that I could see both men and waited to hear how they'd decided to resolve the situation.
"What would you suggest Miss Plum?"
I didn't like being asked that because I didn't want to upset any plans that Ranger would have suggested, but as both men were looking at me waiting for an answer, I just said what I thought would be best.
"I'd sit down with the children and explain why you have a security system, without frightening them to death. Then I'd show them where any motion detectors or sensors were so they then knew what would set the alarms off. I'd give them the ability to leave the house through one exit but at the same time set that sensor to a timer"
"So let them, say, use a back door"
"Give them a code that they could use to get out and get back in"
"But if they tried to use the code after curfew then inform them that the alarm would sound"
"Something like that"
"Can that be done Mr Manoso?"
"Of course"
"I like that idea Miss Plum. It gives them some freedom and at the same time some responsibility"
"Just make sure they don't tell their friends what the code is, or, Ranger would a fob work?"
"Yes. That way only they could open the door. When the fob is pressed from the inside or outside it could open the door. Each time the alarm would reset when the door closed behind them"
"Give me 24 hours to talk to them and then go ahead and do that"
"I'll get Hal to phone you to confirm a time"
"Excellent"
As Mr Webster stood up I stood up as well and took his hand as he offered his to me to shake.
"Thank you, for your impromptu help. Beautiful ring that you're wearing"
I was stunned that he'd noticed my ring, but then maybe as a jeweler he was more observant than other men. I mean how many other people had noticed. As Ranger showed Mr Webster from his office I was almost sure I heard Mr Webster say "Good choice" as he left. I was still pondering that when Ranger came back to me and slipped his arms around my waist, drawing me close to him.
"Thank you for that. Mr Webster is a very important client and what you suggested was an excellent idea"
I'm sure I felt my cheeks warm up as he said that because it wasn't often that I could help Ranger with security problems.
"You would have suggested something similar"
"No, I would have told Mr Webster to lay the law down and refuse to let them out"
I felt him kiss my forehead and felt him move his arm to look at his watch.
"Daniel will be here soon. You looked as though you'd found something"
"I have"
"Bring it to the meeting and you can talk it through with Daniel. He's bringing someone with him so there'll be six of us"
"Six?"
"Santos and Dax will be there as well"
"Why Dax?"
"I know you haven't known him for long, but I have. I'd trust him with my life and have in the past"
"Then that's good enough for me"
"I have to collect together some information, so I'll meet you down in conference room 2"
Of course, I had to say goodbye to him properly so moved my hands to his neck and pulled him down until my lips could push against his, my tongue slipping out to taste him.
My legs were feeling like jelly as I walked back through to my room. I took down every sheet of paper from the board and stacked them into a neat pile. My next stop was the printer next to where my old cubicle was, where I placed the papers in the tray and hit the button to make five copies. I was thankful that the machine was modern and efficient and soon had five files to give out containing the relevant information.
I felt excited that I'd found a link but hoped it would be enough to convince the FBI to allow us to continue this investigation. Once downstairs I found that the conference room was empty so decided to place the files at the table. Next I went to the side of the room and placed six glasses and two carafes of water on a tray. My intention was to place a glass at each setting and the carafes in the center of the table. As I lifted the tray, I heard the door open and assumed that it was either Les or Dax so turned with a smile on my face.
Time stood still as I looked into the face of the man who had entered. He was smiling and had started to move toward me, but all I felt was my heart beating faster and my breathing increase. I lost any conscious thought of the tray in my hands with my muscles suddenly becoming so weak. I wasn't even aware as the tray dropped from my hands, or even the loud sound that came from the glass breaking around my feet.
I was totally frozen in time and couldn't move. I couldn't even speak let alone scream, which I so desperately wanted to do. All I could see was Jack stood in front of me and his movement toward me.
Then like the dreams that I'd had, I started to visualize him too close to me, taunting me then touching me.