Chapter 5

The following week went quietly for me. I'd become comfortable with how Anya maintained the office and ensured that I didn't deviate from any of her systems. I now had a pen drive with a large capacity that I was slowly filling up with the scanned files. Jenson was busy negotiating a settlement for Oliver Barnes with the use of the affidavit from Dax. I was finding that following routines that I was thinking less about what had happened in Trenton and in a weird way my new life was taking over. I wanted to be Chloe living this quiet life. Yeah, life was going well until the following Monday morning when a man walked into the office asking to speak with Jenson. I was looking at an older man dressed casually in dark blue chinos, cream shirt and a jacket over the top. Even from how he was dressed I could tell that he kept himself fit and wondered who he was.

"Your name please?"

"Gregory Ranskin. He won't mind"

I didn't even get the chance to phone through to Jenson before Mr Ranskin was walking through the door to Jenson's office. I had to admit that I was curious as to who he was. He seemed to be in a hurry to talk to Jenson, so I assumed that maybe he needed Jenson's advice about something. I returned to my computer, filling the figures onto a spreadsheet for any invoices that had come in. My next job was to log into the business account on line, and make the payments to cover the invoices. I'd just started that process when Jenson's door opened and Mr Ranskin walked out from Jenson's office, smiling at me before he left the office. I thought nothing of it and returned to the task at hand.

Seemed that I should have done because when Jenson came to speak to me, he was carrying several sheets of paper in his hand, names written on it that weren't in his writing.

"Gregory has asked if there was a chance that we could maybe do some research for him"

I looked up at Jenson with a frown on my face trying to work out how that tied into the work that Jenson did.

"Gregory sometimes asks for my opinion but I, err, mentioned to him that we'd found that witness and he was impressed. I didn't say that it was you on your own"

The frown didn't leave my face because I was wondering what kind of favor this Gregory was asking from Jenson. I watched as Jenson pulled a chair from the back of the room in front of my desk and sat down. He looked nervous to me, being sat forward on the edge of his seat.

"Gregory was the man who helped me to get you out of the sea that day. He's a good friend so if he's asking for my help then it means that he's hit a brick wall"

I felt embarrassed that I couldn't remember who Gregory was or what he had done but from how he had interacted with me earlier, he either didn't recognize me or was gentleman enough not to say anything. I didn't say anything because I was scared what this help that he expected from Jenson might be.

"Gregory runs a business based in Seattle. He looks for people and at the moment he's looking for a young boy"

I had no experience of looking for a child, but the idea that they were missing had me curious as to why Gregory would be trying to find them.

"Why?"

Come on, there could be so many reasons for wanting to find a child. One of the parents might be wanting custody or he'd run away, hell the boy could even be in trouble.

"He's disappeared. His parents are frantic and done what they can to find him. The police aren't really interested, saying that he's probably run away so they went to Gregory"

I didn't like the idea that a boy had disappeared because that to me could only mean one thing, that someone had kidnapped him.

"Was there a ransom demand?"

"No. Chloe would you work your magic on this, please"

I sat back and closed my eyes as the full impact of what Jenson was asking of me hit me. To find the boy probably meant looking for the person who had taken him and that meant looking for a really bad person. I had no illusions that the boy might already be dead but what if he wasn't? Could I do this? Maybe I'd just be providing some ideas of where to look, could any harm come from that?

"That kid, Charlie, he needs our help Chloe"

I stared back at Jenson as he said that. That was a low blow and he knew it. The problem was that if I refused then he'd question why, and I didn't want to have to avoid any of his questions or even have him become suspicious of who I really was or what I was running from.

"Okay"

Was all I said to have Jenson grinning at me.

"Work here in the morning and then work on the file from the house in the afternoon"

There was so much more that I wanted to ask but seeing as Jenson had up and walked into his office, I was left speechless. Was that his way of ensuring that I wouldn't change my mind? I couldn't focus after that conversation, my nerves playing havoc with my thoughts. On the one hand I wanted to help to find that boy Charlie, but at what cost? I hated the idea of something bad happening to Charlie but what if I was responsible for putting someone in danger, for them being killed like had happened before? I was in a dilemma with what to do and was sure that I jumped when Jenson came rushing out of his office.

"Anya's gone into labor"

Came to me as he dropped a file onto my desk and then rushed out of the office.

Of course I took the file home with me, talking myself into believing that it was safer there. Then I sat and looked at it as it lay on the table while I ate some bread and soup. It was still there taunting me when I came downstairs after showering so with a sigh, I picked it up and started to read through the enclosed papers.

Charlie Moffat was nine years old, an adorable looking child with long blonde hair and big grey eyes. The photo had him smiling at the camera, no doubt one that his parents had provided. Gregory had provided all of the work that he'd already done in order to find Charlie. A background on the parents was thorough. No arguments or infidelity, no financial problems or questionable associates or friends. They looked to be genuine people and good parents, so I was sure that Gregory had ruled them out as suspects or the cause for their son disappearing.

That had me thinking about my parents and the childhood that I had had. Would someone see them in a similar light? Maybe through searches we would have seemed like the perfect family, but I knew differently what went on behind closed doors. A father who wasn't interested in his children and was only present physically never emotionally. Then there was my mother. She doted on my older sister Valerie and could never see her wrong doings. Hell, even when Val turned up back home with two kids after her husband ran off with the babysitter, she welcomed her home with open arms. When I walked out from my husband my mother blamed me and lectured me.

In fact, my whole life had been of her blaming me for everything that went wrong. Joe Morelli fingering me in his garage when I was six, my fault. Being forced to have sex with him in the Tasty Pastry when I was fifteen, my fault. Val being pregnant when she wasn't married made her smile and support her. After the fire it was my fault, again my mother blaming me because of my job and for not marrying Joe and settling down. I sighed as the tears came to my eyes. My mother had never loved me or supported me because I wouldn't bend to what she expected me to be, a married woman, tied to Joe's kitchen and raising his children like a proper Burg woman.

Maybe she had been right, maybe I wasn't a good daughter and after the fire I should have just accepted that she'd been right after all. I wiped the tears from my face determined to push my family from my thoughts. I wasn't that person anymore and needed to focus on that so was once again reading the reports from the file.

I had to admit that Gregory was thorough. He'd spoken to anyone who knew Charlie. His friends, teachers and any adults that were in his life. The kid had a lot of hobbies to occupy himself with from piano lessons to soccer and science club to karate classes. One of his parents always drove him places and waited for him so anyone who Charlie had come into contact with had not only been spoken to but had a background search done on them. I could understand why Gregory had hit a brick wall. I had no feelings that Charlie's disappearance had anything to do with the people that they had looked at.

Closing the file, I took it up to my room because I wanted to keep it safe plus to be honest, I was feeling tired. There was no sign of Jenson, and he hadn't called to let me know how Anya was doing so I assumed that the baby hadn't been born yet. I'd refused a mobile from Jenson on the grounds that there was no one I wanted to talk to, which was true. So I would have expected him to call on the landline if there was any news. He wanted to be there for Anya seeing as her husband had left due to work and hadn't been able to make it home which did have me wondering what his job could possibly be. I never had asked, and Jenson never said.

I came awake suddenly, looking around the darkened room wondering what had woken me up. The place seemed quiet as I tried to listen carefully, but the silence had the effect of unsettling me rather than comforting me. That was when I heard the slightest of sounds that seemed to be coming from the stairs. My breathing hitched as I went as still as a statue totally afraid to move. That was when memories of people breaking into my old apartment rose to the surface. That I'd managed to survive so many break ins had me shuddering. I'd been so blasé and naive with the security of where I had lived probably getting used to how easily people could break in. No, that was wrong, I had been confronted by men who wanted to do me harm, Ramirez and Ramos coming to mind.

My grandma, she'd stayed with me when I'd had unexpected visitors and I'd never even considered the danger that I had put her in. Stephanie Plum had been a selfish woman, someone I never wanted to be again. Fight or flight came to mind, but I knew that fighting wasn't an option, another selfish decision came to my mind. I'd avoided to equip and prepare myself properly by exercising and learning self defence. Stephanie Plum should have learnt how to defend herself.

I slowly slipped from the bed and crawled across the floor toward the bathroom with the intention of hiding in there, not aware that the door to the bedroom had opened. As a figure approached from across the room my panic gave way to screams.

"Lassie, I didn't mean to frighten. I was coming to let you know about the baby"

I quietened down my cries and sobbing realizing as my eyes opened that there was a light coming in from the hallway. I'd been so afraid of who it might have been, frightened of the words that I would hear, but seeing Jenson crouched down in front of me it brought me out of that old apartment and allowed me to try to control myself. I felt Jenson sit next to me, his back against the wall, but not close enough to touch me. I was grateful for him doing that because there was no way that I could cope with someone trying to comfort me. I needed to break the silence and probably cover up my behavior so hoped to lighten the conversation.

"So, is it a boy or a girl?"

Anya had decided to wait until her baby was born to know what sex it would be and hadn't told anyone the names that she and her husband had decided on.

"A little boy. Nathaniel Aaron"

As Jenson never added anymore, I assumed that both mother and son were doing okay though I was aware that her in laws were staying with her.

"They'll stay in the hospital for a few days before going home then Robert's sister is going to come up and be with Anya and the baby"

"Robert?"

I asked not too sure who he was referring to though maybe Robert was Anya's husband.

"Anya's husband. His boss managed to get a connection to Anya so that they could talk. He's hoping to be home in a couple of weeks"

I nodded at hearing that good piece of news pleased that Anya's husband would be home soon. Yes, she had the support of family, but I was sure she was missing him a lot.

"Congratulations Grandad"

Because I hadn't been thinking about Jenson's role in the family dynamics.

"Grandad, shit that makes me feel old. How about a coffee, it's nearly morning and I want to do some exercise to help to wake me up"

I let him pull me to my feet before watching Jenson leave the room. Dressed in office attire of trousers and a blouse I went downstairs to find Jenson pouring out two cups of coffee. Him mentioning exercising and seeing him now in joggers and a T-shirt had me remembering my thoughts from earlier. If I wanted to leave Stephanie Plum behind then maybe I should think about exercising, as long as it didn't include running. The only time that I'd had an incentive to run before had been because of the view in front of me, how sad was that? Ranger must have been so disappointed in me for never taking him seriously with training. Brushing that to one side I broached the idea of exercise with Jenson.

"So what exercise do you do?"

Hoping that it wasn't running though because Jenson was usually up before me in the morning, I had no idea if that was when he might have gone running.

"Follow me"

I followed him through the door into the utility room and then watched as he opened another door. It was covered with coats hanging up from the hooks on it, so I'd had no idea that it was even there. Wooden stairs led downstairs and opened out into a space that looked to have a home gym installed. There were no windows making me wonder where we were, okay I knew that we were underneath the house.

"I blocked the garage door up because I never used this space as a garage"

Okay, I could visualize where the garage door was at the front of the house but had just assumed that like most people that the garage was being used as a storage area. Looking around at what was there I recognized a treadmill, some floor mats, but the large machine set to one side was new to me. I followed Jenson as he went over to that one and watched as laid down on the bench.

"This gets the legs moving back and forth and if you place your feet underneath that bar then you can raise and lower your legs. That bar above me pushes back and forth or if I change the setting, you can use it to squeeze your arms together"

As a multi equipped piece of equipment it certainly seemed to do everything that would be needed.

"You know, you could use this. A little bit at a time to strengthen up your muscles. Exercise is good for the spirit as well"

If that was a dig then he was being subtle about it, but maybe if I was on my own, I could try it out. If I started with a low number of exercises, then maybe I could increase it as I became accustomed to it.

"You wouldn't mind?"

"Hell no. Maybe if I use the place early in the morning you could come down here in the afternoon"

"Okay"

I didn't miss the smile that came from Jenson, but I wasn't ready to smile back, just yet. Smiling implied that I was happy, and I didn't deserve to be happy.