Sorry for the delay in posting, this chapter was supposed to go out last week. Covid has finally caught up with me and despite having all my vaccines and boosters, it's still knocked me on my backside. I'm doing better than I was but having a crap immune system I feel like I've been hit hard in the chest.
On to the search for Theodore.
CPOV
I'd carried Ana back to my hotel room, the only place I could think to take her. Luke had not wanted her to go back home just yet in case there were cameras there too.
A photo of Theodore taken this morning in his new birthday clothes, Iron Man t-shirt and jeans told us what he had been wearing when Hyde had taken my son away.
I wanted to weep at the thought of having a son, of all the days together that were stolen from us. I would make it up to him if he would let me, Ana, too for so many things and especially for questioning Theodore's parentage as I had done. I would do that if I could when I had them both in my arms.
I watched her for what felt like an age, sleeping on the bed I had spent the last two nights trying to sleep on. When Ana woke, she was immediately on her feet and heading for the door.
"I can't stay there Christian," Ana told me as we made our way over to the sheriff's office. "I need to be out there, looking."
"I know you do Ana and despite only learning that I had a son today, I need to be out there too but not knowing where to look we could be going the wrong way…. I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" she questioned.
"Sorry for so many things but especially for questioning who Theodore's father is."
"They didn't tell you did they" she stated, looking at me through tired eyes as she stopped in the middle of the street. Her eyes left mine for a moment as they looked at the clock on the church tower. It was a minute to midnight now and as the hands ticked past it into the next day, a sob left her lips. "It's no longer his birthday," she said.
"We will find him, Ana, no matter what we have to do, we'll find him... What did you mean though, who didn't tell me, what?" I asked, desperately wanting to reach for her shaking hand.
"Your parents, no that's not who they are. Grace and Carrick Grey."
"Ana I haven't seen Grace since she left here to move to Seattle and Carrick, well he appointed himself as my lawyer as he deemed me mentally unfit to make any decisions at the time as I refused to speak to anyone, so I've had no choice but to see him whether I wanted to or not."
"When you saw him, he didn't tell you about Theodore, about our son," she asked sadly.
"What, they knew" I snapped, calming myself quickly so as not to scare Ana, she had been through enough. "When?"
"When you didn't come back Christian, I went looking for them, hoping they would give me answers. Elliot, or Jack he didn't return for what, at least six months. I didn't really know him anyway but he was a familiar face or so I thought, a link to you… About a month after you'd gone, I found out which hospital Grace was working at so I asked my mum to drive me down there. I saw her working in the emergency department, I waited until she had stopped running around before I approached…. The look Christian, the look she gave me was one of hatred. She told me to go and never come back. I asked her to tell me where you were, I practically begged her in front of all those that were waiting there to be seen before shouting that I was pregnant. Do you know what she did hearing that" she asked, her voice so hoarse now I could barely hear.
"What, what did she do."
"She called security on me, me the mother of her future grandchild and had them escort me from the building. Two men, both weighing probably twice what I did, they practically carried me out of the hospital, their hands gripping hold of my arms tight. Only my mother screaming at them that I was pregnant did they put me down before going back in. I don't know what she had told them about my visit when she'd called them, but she made me out to be a crazy person, one who would cause harm to her."
"The bitch" I spat, wishing for a moment that the Greys had never taken me in. That thought was pushed quickly from my mind because without all the hurt and pain the Greys had caused we would've never moved to Montesano and I would've never met Ana.
Entering the station, all eyes were on us. Kate immediately came over, hugging Ana tightly as I looked around at what was going on. The phones were ringing off the hook, so many phones ringing but not the one we wanted to. That was confirmed to us by Luke that no call had come through and despite them trying to call him, the line was dead.
"Ana, Christian, this is Detective Clark of the FBI" Luke introduced.
"The FBI" Ana squeaked.
"Yes ma'am" he replied, "We're here to help find your son… This man, Jack Hyde is known to us."
"If he was known to you, why was he not locked away then instead of being free to steal the identity of his dead brother and abduct our son," she asked angrily.
"Miss Steele, Jack Hyde became known to us when he was younger, given too many second chances for my liking before a stint in jail kept him off the streets for a while. Since his release eight years ago after completing his full sentence, Hyde's name hasn't cropped up once, until now."
"That's because for most of that time he was impersonating someone else," I said angrily.
"Mr Grey?" he questioned, receiving a nod from me. "And you're the child's father," he asked, checking what had been written down on a pad.
"Yes, yes I am."
"You've just been released from WSP, I see" he stated.
"Yes, I have" I replied. "And it seems I was there because of this man."
"It would seem that way, yes" Clarke replied jotting something down on his pad before he turned to Ana. "Can you please explain to me Miss Steele, the events of today, well yesterday?"
"I was woken by a very happy little boy who climbed into my bed for morning cuddles," She said quietly. "Theodore was excited for the day but he was especially looking forward to his party and face timing my parents… He turned up around ten with a gift, a new baseball and bat. They were playing in the backyard for about thirty minutes before Jack as I know him to be now, asked if we wanted to go to the park and take the bat and ball with us as there was more room there…. I declined as I had twenty children coming over that afternoon, a cake to make and party banners to put up so when he offered to take Theodore out to distract him from what was going on at home, I didn't say no…. I should've said no."
"You weren't to know Ana," I told her.
"Mr Grey's right, none of this is your fault."
"But it feels that way" she sighed.
We listened as this man told us what the usual protocol was in this situation, none neither of us wanted to listen to. I was with Ana, I wanted to be out there looking for them.
Listening to Ana answer questions about Theodore, everything from his full name, his date of birth, his height which Ana said she had recorded yesterday morning just like every birthday, his weight, every question he asked, I didn't know the answer to. When Ana told him about Theodore's diabetes and the pouch that Hyde had left, he needed otherwise he would get sick, I wanted to hit something, this waiting was driving me crazy.
"Theodore was premature, he was tiny being born over two months early but he's a fighter and never gave in. Theodore wasn't breathing when he was born and for a long time after, even when he came home the oxygen came with him but he pushed through it, coming off the oxygen when he was ten months old... I want him back" she sobbed. "I want my baby back."
I wanted to hold Ana as she cried but my probation officer who I had been told to call Kate in the circumstances, beat me to it, she too crying with who I now knew was her best friend. I don't know what happened to Hannah and where she went but watching Kate try and calm Ana down, I knew she had been there for her before.
"We'll get him back Ana, and then we will all celebrate his birthday," she told her.
I stayed close as Ana called her parents who I learned were in Georgia and I could hear Carla crying. As Ana cried, unable to speak at the moment after telling her about Theodore and about what had happened to me, she passed the phone to me before leaving the room in the direction of the bathroom, leaving me to speak to the only woman who had ever treated me like a son.
"Don't let her go Christian" she sobbed after we'd been speaking for a few minutes. "Promise me, you won't let her go."
"I promise Carla" I replied, not caring that I was crying too.
When Ana came back, she sat next to me on the edge of Luke's desk, leaning into my side. Tentatively wrapping my arm around her, I held Ana as tight as I could before hearing from Ray that they would be on the next flight out.
"Ana, can I ask you something," Luke asked, taking a seat where we had just sat as I had moved Ana over to his couch.
"Yes," she whispered, wringing her hands together nervously.
"You knew him, better than anyone here. Tell us about him, what was he like, where did he go when he wasn't here."
"He told me he worked in Seattle as a mechanic so he couldn't get back too often. When he was here he… I don't know, he would offer to take Theodore to the high school to watch the football game if I had to work or just take him in general so I could have a break. I never needed a break, not from my son but besides my parents and Dora" she said looking to her aunt who was sat with Kate. "I thought he was the only other family Theodore had so I let them have that time together, build that bond."
"When did he return this time," he asked.
"The day I came in here and told you about the brick. He was at my home when I returned that night."
"Brick, what brick," I asked.
"A brick had been left on my windscreen, I thought it was kids messing about on their way to school. That and the deflated tyre, a scratch down my car and the smashed flowerpot. Was it him all along trying to scare me and with the pot, was he looking for a key to get in."
"You never gave him a key when he gave you one to his place," Luke asked.
"No, up until a few years ago, my parents were living here. It was their home and giving a key to someone they didn't really know, didn't seem appropriate."
"You've not hidden a spare key somewhere else have you," Kate asked her.
"Only in your purse."
"He wanted something more than a key Ana, he wanted you. At the time, I didn't know how he knew where I'd been with him calling me a con, but with me returning, he and his lies were running out of time."
"What did you mean Christian, when I came back from the Potters, you screamed that he had murdered Elliot."
"The drugs that were found in the car with us, the ones we'd argued about before Elliot grabbed for the wheel when I refused to stop, had been planted there by Hyde. The brake line, he said it hadn't been cut in its entirety but just enough to cause problems while I tried to drive. With that and my brother who must have been hallucinating, I had little to no chance of keeping the car on the road. From what he was saying, I wasn't meant to survive but as a consolation with me out of the way, locked up, it would at least give him a chance with you."
"He had no chance Christian, and I told him that just the other day. He was so angry with me, he shouted and woke Theodore up, before he apologised and just said he was having a bad day... I couldn't just forget about you even though without one call from you it felt like you had forgotten about me."
"Never" I whispered, reaching for her hand and I was so happy when she didn't pull away.
I sat with Ana while she answered more questions before Clarke left Luke's office to give out orders and to make a call. When Luke and Kate left us too and Ana had told Dora to get some rest, only Ana and I were left in the room.
"I know why you didn't want to come in that house, I broke the pot" she sighed, her head resting against my shoulder once again. "I hate them, Christian, just as much as I do him."
"Me too" I whispered, placing a kiss on the top of her head.
Ana was right about the broken flower pot, they, the Grey's would see something as simple as leaving a key at home or losing it as failure. To have to go searching for the key, to disturb the pot, they would've loved Elliot and me to do that. Just another reason to show their disappointment in us. At that moment, I froze, hearing Ana's cries though made me confront the fear I'd once had.
"He knows what to do Christian."
"Who," I asked.
"Elliot, Jack… Despite what he says he knows what to do with regards to Theodore's checks, his insulin. I taught him, made him understand why every stage was needed otherwise I would've never let him take Theodore that first time. I just have to hope that if he has planned this as he says he has, that he has the medication that our son needs otherwise what is the point of all this."
"We, have to hope" I replied, looking into her tired eyes.
"Yes, we do."
Before it became light, Theodore's photo was all over the place, from TV to the internet. An Amber Alert had been issued when I had taken Ana to the motel. Everyone knew what my son looked like but what we needed to accompany it, was a photo of Hyde other than the old mugshot that had been released. Ana had some that she had taken on her phone of him with Theodore but none where he was looking right at the phone. Camera shy she'd said she had teased him about at one point, just didn't like his photo taken was his answer and now we knew why. The perfect photo of him front and centre, looking at the camera is what we needed and we got it, a few hours later when Ana got a call from a woman she knew, one who had been dating a man called Ben. She wanted to speak to Ana alone but there was no way any of us was going to let that happen so even if we had to stay outside of the house, Luke, myself and a few others accompanied her.
"Benjamin was Elliot's middle name," I said angrily as we drove over to the house in Luke's car, "Is Hyde trying to take everything from him."
"It seems that way," Ana said as we pulled up outside the house, one that was close to Anas.
Knocking on the door of the house that used to belong to the Wilson's when I had lived here, Ana called the woman's name.
"Elizabeth, Elizabeth it's Ana, are you and Billy ok."
We waited as we heard the bolts on the door open before Ana gasped when the woman came into view.
This woman, she'd been beaten. Her face was bruised and swollen, bruises I could see covering her arms too.
"Shit, I'm going to call a paramedic," Luke said, getting on the radio.
"No, please" she pleaded. "It will make him mad."
"Elizabeth" Ana said, walking towards the woman, both women looking like they were going to cry. As Ana reached out a finger carefully to the bruise on her cheek, the tears started then.
This woman, this Elizabeth, the mother of my son's best friend Ana had told me on our way over here, had been through it too, at the hands of the man I wanted to kill.
"Momma" a young boy called out as he approached, Elizabeth rushing to wipe the tears from her cheeks.
"Hey, Billy" Luke smiled at the small boy, crouching down in front of him. "Do you want to play in the police car, like you did when I came to school that day?"
"Ring the siren," he asked. "Momma can I."
"Of course, you can sweetheart, I'm just going to speak to Ana."
"Is Theodore here?" he asked, looking around. "Can he play in the car too?"
"No sweetheart," Ana told him, trying to keep the tears at bay. "He's… He's with…"
Ana couldn't finish her sentence, what could she say, that he had been taken by a bad man. While Luke distracted him, a female FBI agent that had followed us here, joined us in the lounge instead. I suspect the boy wouldn't have had the same excitement to go outside should Agent Prescott have asked him to go so what was said in here would be relayed later on.
"When did he do this" Prescott asked as Elizabeth sat down gingerly on the couch with Ana, obviously in a lot of pain. I think she only wanted to speak with Ana here but realising what was at stake when Ana pleaded with her to talk so we could find Theodore, she agreed to speak with us all.
"Yesterday morning, we were having breakfast and he just snapped... We'd been seeing each other for about six months and things had been I thought, going well up until about a month ago. After Billy's dad left, it was a while before I wanted to get out there dating again and when I met Ben in Ros's while having a night out with my sister, I decided to take her advice and have some fun… The photo I saw on TV, it looks like him but the name..."
"His name isn't Ben, Elizabeth, his name is Jack, Jack Hyde," Ana told her, knowing this woman was just as confused as she was.
"I don't understand" she sighed. "I'm so shocked that the man I was falling in love with could do this to me," she said pointing to her face. "And take your son."
"I know, it's a lot to take in" Ana whispered, choked up.
"When did he come back, was it the same day that he went to Ana's," I asked after being introduced before Ana told her about the night he'd turned up at hers after not seeing him in a while.
"What do you mean" she replied, confused by my question and by what Ana was telling her. "He lives here."
"Yes, we know he says he has a house here but he lives away most of the time," Ana told her.
"No, he's doesn't," Elizabeth replied, shaking her head. "He has a house here on Fairfax street, I've been there a couple of times, although not in a while and he works at the high school."
It was Ana who was confused now, not knowing whether she was coming and going as Elizabeth told us about Ben/Jack, about the man she knew, a man who wanted to take her son on as his own and who worked as a janitor at the high school.
"How could he be in town and I not know," Ana asked, to no one in particular or maybe it was to everyone.
"Ben and I, we barely went anywhere together," Elizabeth told us. "He wanted to be here all the time when he wasn't working, he said due to his past he was wary of being around too many people he didn't know or letting them in which I did find strange as he worked in a place where he couldn't escape people. In the beginning, he made me feel loved, lately though he made me feel as if I should be honoured to be given his time. Over the last month, he'd changed blaming it on work, getting angry all the time. I felt like I was walking on eggshells around him so I did whatever he asked of me just to keep the peace."
"He manipulated you," Ana said, receiving a nod from her friend.
"Ana, I think he tried to manipulate you too," Luke stated, entering with the young boy. "You've always kept to yourself when you weren't working, only wanting a few close friends. I think he played on that, making you fearful in the hope you would turn to him… Christian, I've been trying to think back to who Elliot hung around with then, someone who may be being taken for a fool now, thinking they are helping an old friend out?"
"Elliot played football, those are the only people he would hang around with but with so much going on back home, he would mostly keep them at arm's length," I told him, not thinking of anyone who made an impression on him enough to have their name mentioned. He only did one year in Montesano and he couldn't wait for that to be over.
"Most of the people who were here when the Grey's were have left town Luke, you know that, most of the younger generation anyway. Gone on to better things Leila was happy to tell me as I was staying here. You're right about what you said, besides work, the store or taking Theodore to school, unless I was going to yours, or Dora's, I would be at home with my son. The perfect target for him."
"Ana, if you would've seen him in town he could've just said he had arrived and you would have no reason to question him," I told her, as she nodded.
All these things that had happened to Ana's property, she would've never thought to think it could have been him as she would think he was out of town.
Walking up the back steps of the sheriff's office, the front now starting to fill up with press, before going inside Ana asked Luke and Prescott a question I had been wondering too.
"Working with children, wouldn't there be tests he needed to pass, documents he would need to have to say he was safe."
"Yes," Prescott replied. "I suspect that is why he was going by a different name. Who the real Benjamin Mason is, we will find that out soon enough. We have what we went for though, this photo" she said, showing us the item in her hand. "This is more important at the moment than any name."
We entered the sheriff's office just as Clarke was about to have us brought back in. They had someone here, a man who was introduced to us as Barney Sullivan. We were told he was a computer expert which made me wonder why he was here before he explained that he was also a hacker amongst other things, not just with computers but with phones and hopefully he could trace Hyde's location the next time he called. He said that with technology these days, a person can make themselves seem somewhere they're not but he had many tricks up his sleeve to override that so we will just have to wait and see if we can get a lead on him when he calls.
"I've looked at your phone Miss Steele, I found this" he stated, holding out an item that was as small as a baby's fingernail. "He knows the phone's here because this is a location chip. I don't want to disable it as he will know instantly what we've done and the phone has been tampered with which may mean he doesn't call again. We just have to wait now for a call to come through and then we can start the trace."
It wasn't a call that came through though just as day turned to night once again, it was an email sent from an account Ana didn't know about that contained a photo of Theodore sleeping on the back seat of a car followed by a short video of him calling for his mother, seemingly in pain.
He was torturing Ana, he was torturing both of us and I'd had it with just sitting here doing nothing.
As Ana slept fitfully on the couch in Luke's office after crying herself to sleep that night, her mother now by her side, I joined the search with Ray at the high school, despite being told we had no place being there.
Being the janitor of the school he would know of multiple places to hide things and as they had searched most of the day after sending the children home early, nothing as yet we'd been told had been found. There may be nothing here to find but we searched anyway, going from room to room with many officers that had been asked to help us from the closest cities and towns.
It was in the sports hall that we found what we were looking for and if I'm honest I don't know what made me more ill. In the janitor's closet that housed cleaning equipment, one that had been previously searched and on Clarke's orders, just like the whole school, was being searched again, we found by accident when Ray stumbled over the mess that was on the floor, a false panel, just a piece of board that had been erected making it seem that it was the wall.
As it shook, we knew that there was something here, I mean it could've been put up just to hide the pipework to the showers beyond but seeing the holes that had been drilled into the walls, holes that gave a clear view into the girl's showers and changing rooms beyond we knew it was something more. Moving past the pipes, we made our way to the end coming out into a small room which contained a desk and chair, a locker and in the corner a stack of plastic boxes, not the sort of thing you would keep in here in case they would get damp. For a moment, I'd hoped this was where we would find Theodore but instead we found upon opening the locker information about the Greys, a copy of my brother's adoption certificate and photo upon photo of my girl.
Photos of Ana in the street holding our son's hand, photos of her at work, laughing and chatting with the customers. Photos of her taken in the downstairs bathroom as she changed, taken by the look of it through the crack of the door. Those, to think he had been invited into her home to see Theodore, only to have her trust violated made my blood boil.
I could feel Ray shaking beside me as I picked up one of the photos before I walked past the pipes and back out into the corridor before calling for help.
"Clarke" I called to him as he approached. When he was close enough I turned the photo around so that he could see it.
"What is it," he asked.
"There are photos and documents in here, some photo's though I've seen before" I replied, passing him the one I held.
"How."
"About a month before my release, I received a package in prison that contained photos of Ana and Theodore. I thought they were from my adoptive father as he had visited me just a few days before but they can't be from him if they're here."
"Unless he's behind this too," Ray said angrily. "He's evil enough."
I knew he was. I don't think Carrick would want to saddle himself with another child though especially when he couldn't stand being around his own. Clarke was only too happy to jot his name down though.
I was about to turn my back on the photos after I had shown Clarke where we had found them and also the peepholes in the wall, leave them to it and start searching through the pile of boxes in the corner when upon Luke pulling a book from the top of the locker other photos fell out. What made finding these photos worse, more so than those we had found of Ana changing, was that with every photo my son appeared in, his face had been scratched out.
Hyde wanted Ana, not Theodore and this made me more fearful for my son.
Thank you for reading.
Christian and Ana leave Montesano next chapter in search of their son.
Until next time, take care.
Caroline x