Hunter and McCall were in Hunter's living room. In front of them,
lying on the table, a piece of paper with women's names - all former
girlfriends of him. On the table was an envelope also, with copies of the
pics the blackmailer had taken: Hunter and his one-time girlfriend Sophie
Ellis having sex.
Although many names were forgotten, the list would be helpful for Hunter and McCall to figure out who could have had his baby. Even feeling uneasy about the situation, McCall was doing her best to help Hunter remind facts about his relationships that could be important to answer their question.
The list was quite big, since they have no idea how old would be this daughter. The cops checked it over and discussed carefully each romance Hunter had (which annoyed McCall a great deal) but they couldn't draw any conclusion. Then Hunter suggested they should look into all those women; it would be hard and would take a considerable amount of time, but there wasn't any other way. He would investigate the dead ones and McCall would talk to those who were in jail.
When they were about to leave Hunter's house, the phone rang. It was the extortionist, who had remained in silence for a week and a half. He was more ferocious than the last time: yelling, he told Hunter he was loosing his patience and would, first, give the pics to the press and, if this wasn't enough, he would look for a certain lady and kidnap her toddler. Soon after saying "toddler", the scum regretted it; he had given Hunter a tip about how old would be his daughter. Being nervous about his mistake, he hung up on Hunter without saying anything else.
Knowing that Hunter's daughter would be about 1-2 years old, it was easier to figure out who could had had his baby - by then he believed she really could be born, he really could be a father. He remembered a woman with whom he had a passionate love affair 2 years before and with whom he would have got married if she hadn't walked on him to marry a rich guy. It was so obvious! How he hadn't thought of that before? This woman was... Sophie Ellis!
"Hunter, Sophie does have a little girl! I read an interview with her husband, Dr. Rupert Ellis, about 2 months back, where he said they had a beautiful 1-year-old girl named Mia!!! But... Why didn't you think about her?"
"I don't know... I think I'm so worried about all this that I couldn't see the truth!"
"Yeah, it happens..."
"But, wait a minute: there's a detail which didn't fit in with that theory... She said to me once she couldn't have children because she was born with a disease in her uterus... That girl can be adopted... Or maybe she lied to me..."
"How's that?" asked McCall.
"It's... Well, huh, I fell for her, but she... I believe she wasn't in love with me. Or rather, she was, but I wasn't the type of guy she wanted to marry, you know... I'm not rich... And she used to lie a lot. In the beginning I was kind of blind, I didn't want to see that..."
"You loved her, didn't you?"
"Kind of..."
"Kind of?"
"I was infatuated with her, McCall... And I wanted to propose her, but she dumped me and started dating that doctor... Well, back to my point, she could have lied to me about her problem..."
"Why???"
"You know, if I were a type of guy whose dream was to have lots of children (we never talked about that), her problem would prevent me from proposing her..."
"You mean that lying to you, she was putting obstacles in the way... Yeah, I understand." said McCall and thought "What a bitch! One more in his life!"
Noticing McCall's disapproving look, Hunter decided to take a break.
"Would you like some coffee, McCall?"
"Yeah, good idea. With cookies, please!"
"OK..."
Hunter went to the kitchen. McCall looked, for few minutes, at the envelope that contained the pics that were the reason why her partner was being blackmailed: Hunter having sex with his girlfriend. He hadn't shown them to McCall, of course, and she was a little curious about the pics. Maybe more than just curious; actually, she was dying to see them (or rather, to see him). McCall looked toward the kitchen and saw Hunter was busy with the coffee machine. She grabbed the envelope and took a pic off. Luckily, it was one of Hunter. At this very moment, he returned and, with a lascivious look, said:
"Are you enjoying, McCall?"
She blushed and threw the envelope onto the table. Totally embarrassed, she took the mug and the cookies out of Hunter's hands, and took a sip of the coffee, which was too hot. With her tongue burned, she said:
"Let's get down to work, Hunter. We have a lot to do, we don't even know who is the blackmailer!"
Hunter laugh at her; then, he sat down, took the mug gently out of her hands, putting it on the table, and looked at McCall's eyes. There was desire in that look; it sent shrives up and down her spine. Her mind said she should stand up immediately, go somewhere, say something, but her legs didn't obey (or would it be her heart?). Hunter came closer. There would have been time to McCall go away; but instead, she put her hand over his right leg. Hunter embraced Deedee and kissed her passionately. That night, both Rick and Deedee REALLY enjoyed themselves...
The next day, Hunter checked up on Sophie's past, to know whether she got pregnant at he time they had broken up or not. After going to certain places and talking to certain people, his suspicions were confirmed: Sophie was pregnant when she got married to Dr. Ellis; Mia was his daughter! He rushed to tell McCall the news. Hunter was excited about being a father of a little girl and wanted to share his discover with her.
Hunter's next move was to head for Sophie's house. There, he told her everything about the blackmail. And he was mad at her, because she didn't tell him about the baby. At first, Sophie denied having had his baby, but when Hunter confronted her with the evidences, she admitted it. She begged Hunter to catch the extortionist; she didn't want to be exposed on the press because of her beloved husband and, mostly, because of Mia. Hunter didn't believe her; he knew she was just afraid of loosing her rich husband and her position in the mayor's staff. Hunter wished he had never met that woman. What scared him the most was that she was the mother of his daughter - a daughter who, probably, would never be his. Very upset, Hunter left the house and returned to his house, where McCall was waiting for him. Meanwhile, Sophie was busy making an important call.
"Hello, I want to talk with Big Tiger, please!" said Sophie.
"Who'd like?" replied a man.
"Tell him it's Sophie, from the old times."
"Sophie... last name, please?" the man wanted to know.
"Hurry, man!"
After 15 minutes, Big Tiger answered the phone:
"Hello, sweet pumpkin! How long we don't see each other, huh?"
"Shut the hell up, your f. bastard! You do know why I'm calling! What are you doing, your idiot? I know everything about the blackmail!"
"Shit! I see that that damn cop managed to discover all about the kid!"
"I told you to destroy those damn photos! And why did you look for Hunter instead of me???" said Sophie angrily.
"I like to play games more than money, darling... It's thrilling to blackmail a cop!"
"You're sick!"
"And you aren't!" Tiger said ironically.
"I'm gonna give you the money and afterwards I don't want hear from you never more! And don't dare touching my daughter!"
"Nope, sweet. You give Hunter the money then he gives it to me" said Big Tiger, hunging up on her.
Those photos were taken by Big Tiger, by order of Sophie. She wanted some hot material to sell in the porno market to make easy money - Hunter's former girlfriend was good at making up these sick plans. She gave up the idea when Dr. Ellis crossed her way: he was a naive man who got head over hills in love with her. The pics were forgotten, or rather, they should have been destroyed, but smart Big Tiger didn't do that, of course. He knew he could use them later.
After investigating several leads, Hunter and McCall were sure the blackmailer was working by himself. They decided to wait for the next call and accept the demands of the man. Hunter would pretend to have raised the 40G and would be "glad" to meet the bad guy, to put an end in all of this. And that was what happened.
On the day of the meeting, in a crowded mall (Tiger said if Hunter tried something "crazy", he would kill the first child who passed by him), Hunter gave him a package with $ 40.000 - money "borrowed" from the police station. When Tiger was going away, McCall, wearing sexy clothes, drew his attention. Distracted with her beauty, he didn't see Hunter coming by. The cop pointed his gun at Tiger's head and said "You're under arrest!". The nightmare was over -- in Tiger's apartment, Hunter and McCall found all the negatives, plus drugs and guns.
Afterwards, Hunter could focus on his daughter. He didn't know what to do. Dr. Ellis was a good man and, probably, a good father. How could Hunter tell him the truth? It took weeks till Hunter had the nerve talking to Sophie again. She was quite busy with her job on the City Hall; because of that, she didn't have looked for Hunter to tell him "something very important".
"I confirmed to you Mia was your daughter, but... actually, she isn't..."
"What? Are you joking?"
"I said to you she was your daughter because then you would do your best to catch Tiger... Sorry, Hunter."
"I can't believe this!"
"Sorry..." said Sophie again.
"You don't know how to love, you don't know anything about love, about being a human being! Poor child, Mia... And as I don't trust you, I want a DNA test!"
"No, Hunter! No way! I don't want Rupert to know anything about this!"
"Look, I want to know the truth, and the truth won't come from you! We can keep it a secret, but we will do the test! And if Rupert, who's a good man, is the father, I will pray for him discover who you really are and take the girl from you!"
Mia wasn't Hunter's daughter. Sophie had got pregnant by Hunter indeed, but she suffered a miscarriage; a month later, she got pregnant with Mia. Several months after these facts, Rupert Ellis discovered Sophie were having an affair with the cable guy and they split up. He kept Mia.
Although many names were forgotten, the list would be helpful for Hunter and McCall to figure out who could have had his baby. Even feeling uneasy about the situation, McCall was doing her best to help Hunter remind facts about his relationships that could be important to answer their question.
The list was quite big, since they have no idea how old would be this daughter. The cops checked it over and discussed carefully each romance Hunter had (which annoyed McCall a great deal) but they couldn't draw any conclusion. Then Hunter suggested they should look into all those women; it would be hard and would take a considerable amount of time, but there wasn't any other way. He would investigate the dead ones and McCall would talk to those who were in jail.
When they were about to leave Hunter's house, the phone rang. It was the extortionist, who had remained in silence for a week and a half. He was more ferocious than the last time: yelling, he told Hunter he was loosing his patience and would, first, give the pics to the press and, if this wasn't enough, he would look for a certain lady and kidnap her toddler. Soon after saying "toddler", the scum regretted it; he had given Hunter a tip about how old would be his daughter. Being nervous about his mistake, he hung up on Hunter without saying anything else.
Knowing that Hunter's daughter would be about 1-2 years old, it was easier to figure out who could had had his baby - by then he believed she really could be born, he really could be a father. He remembered a woman with whom he had a passionate love affair 2 years before and with whom he would have got married if she hadn't walked on him to marry a rich guy. It was so obvious! How he hadn't thought of that before? This woman was... Sophie Ellis!
"Hunter, Sophie does have a little girl! I read an interview with her husband, Dr. Rupert Ellis, about 2 months back, where he said they had a beautiful 1-year-old girl named Mia!!! But... Why didn't you think about her?"
"I don't know... I think I'm so worried about all this that I couldn't see the truth!"
"Yeah, it happens..."
"But, wait a minute: there's a detail which didn't fit in with that theory... She said to me once she couldn't have children because she was born with a disease in her uterus... That girl can be adopted... Or maybe she lied to me..."
"How's that?" asked McCall.
"It's... Well, huh, I fell for her, but she... I believe she wasn't in love with me. Or rather, she was, but I wasn't the type of guy she wanted to marry, you know... I'm not rich... And she used to lie a lot. In the beginning I was kind of blind, I didn't want to see that..."
"You loved her, didn't you?"
"Kind of..."
"Kind of?"
"I was infatuated with her, McCall... And I wanted to propose her, but she dumped me and started dating that doctor... Well, back to my point, she could have lied to me about her problem..."
"Why???"
"You know, if I were a type of guy whose dream was to have lots of children (we never talked about that), her problem would prevent me from proposing her..."
"You mean that lying to you, she was putting obstacles in the way... Yeah, I understand." said McCall and thought "What a bitch! One more in his life!"
Noticing McCall's disapproving look, Hunter decided to take a break.
"Would you like some coffee, McCall?"
"Yeah, good idea. With cookies, please!"
"OK..."
Hunter went to the kitchen. McCall looked, for few minutes, at the envelope that contained the pics that were the reason why her partner was being blackmailed: Hunter having sex with his girlfriend. He hadn't shown them to McCall, of course, and she was a little curious about the pics. Maybe more than just curious; actually, she was dying to see them (or rather, to see him). McCall looked toward the kitchen and saw Hunter was busy with the coffee machine. She grabbed the envelope and took a pic off. Luckily, it was one of Hunter. At this very moment, he returned and, with a lascivious look, said:
"Are you enjoying, McCall?"
She blushed and threw the envelope onto the table. Totally embarrassed, she took the mug and the cookies out of Hunter's hands, and took a sip of the coffee, which was too hot. With her tongue burned, she said:
"Let's get down to work, Hunter. We have a lot to do, we don't even know who is the blackmailer!"
Hunter laugh at her; then, he sat down, took the mug gently out of her hands, putting it on the table, and looked at McCall's eyes. There was desire in that look; it sent shrives up and down her spine. Her mind said she should stand up immediately, go somewhere, say something, but her legs didn't obey (or would it be her heart?). Hunter came closer. There would have been time to McCall go away; but instead, she put her hand over his right leg. Hunter embraced Deedee and kissed her passionately. That night, both Rick and Deedee REALLY enjoyed themselves...
The next day, Hunter checked up on Sophie's past, to know whether she got pregnant at he time they had broken up or not. After going to certain places and talking to certain people, his suspicions were confirmed: Sophie was pregnant when she got married to Dr. Ellis; Mia was his daughter! He rushed to tell McCall the news. Hunter was excited about being a father of a little girl and wanted to share his discover with her.
Hunter's next move was to head for Sophie's house. There, he told her everything about the blackmail. And he was mad at her, because she didn't tell him about the baby. At first, Sophie denied having had his baby, but when Hunter confronted her with the evidences, she admitted it. She begged Hunter to catch the extortionist; she didn't want to be exposed on the press because of her beloved husband and, mostly, because of Mia. Hunter didn't believe her; he knew she was just afraid of loosing her rich husband and her position in the mayor's staff. Hunter wished he had never met that woman. What scared him the most was that she was the mother of his daughter - a daughter who, probably, would never be his. Very upset, Hunter left the house and returned to his house, where McCall was waiting for him. Meanwhile, Sophie was busy making an important call.
"Hello, I want to talk with Big Tiger, please!" said Sophie.
"Who'd like?" replied a man.
"Tell him it's Sophie, from the old times."
"Sophie... last name, please?" the man wanted to know.
"Hurry, man!"
After 15 minutes, Big Tiger answered the phone:
"Hello, sweet pumpkin! How long we don't see each other, huh?"
"Shut the hell up, your f. bastard! You do know why I'm calling! What are you doing, your idiot? I know everything about the blackmail!"
"Shit! I see that that damn cop managed to discover all about the kid!"
"I told you to destroy those damn photos! And why did you look for Hunter instead of me???" said Sophie angrily.
"I like to play games more than money, darling... It's thrilling to blackmail a cop!"
"You're sick!"
"And you aren't!" Tiger said ironically.
"I'm gonna give you the money and afterwards I don't want hear from you never more! And don't dare touching my daughter!"
"Nope, sweet. You give Hunter the money then he gives it to me" said Big Tiger, hunging up on her.
Those photos were taken by Big Tiger, by order of Sophie. She wanted some hot material to sell in the porno market to make easy money - Hunter's former girlfriend was good at making up these sick plans. She gave up the idea when Dr. Ellis crossed her way: he was a naive man who got head over hills in love with her. The pics were forgotten, or rather, they should have been destroyed, but smart Big Tiger didn't do that, of course. He knew he could use them later.
After investigating several leads, Hunter and McCall were sure the blackmailer was working by himself. They decided to wait for the next call and accept the demands of the man. Hunter would pretend to have raised the 40G and would be "glad" to meet the bad guy, to put an end in all of this. And that was what happened.
On the day of the meeting, in a crowded mall (Tiger said if Hunter tried something "crazy", he would kill the first child who passed by him), Hunter gave him a package with $ 40.000 - money "borrowed" from the police station. When Tiger was going away, McCall, wearing sexy clothes, drew his attention. Distracted with her beauty, he didn't see Hunter coming by. The cop pointed his gun at Tiger's head and said "You're under arrest!". The nightmare was over -- in Tiger's apartment, Hunter and McCall found all the negatives, plus drugs and guns.
Afterwards, Hunter could focus on his daughter. He didn't know what to do. Dr. Ellis was a good man and, probably, a good father. How could Hunter tell him the truth? It took weeks till Hunter had the nerve talking to Sophie again. She was quite busy with her job on the City Hall; because of that, she didn't have looked for Hunter to tell him "something very important".
"I confirmed to you Mia was your daughter, but... actually, she isn't..."
"What? Are you joking?"
"I said to you she was your daughter because then you would do your best to catch Tiger... Sorry, Hunter."
"I can't believe this!"
"Sorry..." said Sophie again.
"You don't know how to love, you don't know anything about love, about being a human being! Poor child, Mia... And as I don't trust you, I want a DNA test!"
"No, Hunter! No way! I don't want Rupert to know anything about this!"
"Look, I want to know the truth, and the truth won't come from you! We can keep it a secret, but we will do the test! And if Rupert, who's a good man, is the father, I will pray for him discover who you really are and take the girl from you!"
Mia wasn't Hunter's daughter. Sophie had got pregnant by Hunter indeed, but she suffered a miscarriage; a month later, she got pregnant with Mia. Several months after these facts, Rupert Ellis discovered Sophie were having an affair with the cable guy and they split up. He kept Mia.