After Jessica's departure, Donovan went back to his desk.  He sat down and picked up the file Cody had compiled on Jessica.  Twenty-eight years old, he noted quickly as his eyes fixed on the photograph clipped to the inside of the jacket.  She was wrong, the picture was a perfect likeness of her.  Her soft shade of auburn hair, the deep green of her beautiful eyes, her shapely little nose, well-defined cheekbones, and those beautiful lips set just above her determined chin.  Jessica Crenshaw was a woman not easily ignored or forgotten.  He released a heavy sigh and pressed the intercom.  "Cody.  Run a check on Melanie Burgess.  She supposedly gave a statement the night of the accident Drevin was involved in.  That statement is not in your file."

Downstairs, Cody blinked at the intercom.  "I'll see what I can find.  Are you saying the report was deleted?"

"I don't know, Cody.  It's possible."

Cody nodded absently and began checking into the files stored on the case at the Philadelphia Police Department's database.  After hours of tracking, he found the file buried, deeply.  Actually, it had been deleted from the main database, but he traced it back to the computer it had been originally entered from and found it stored on that terminal's hard drive.  He printed it out and took it, and the background check on Melanie Burgess, to Donovan. 

"Here's that report."

Donovan looked up from Drevin's file.  "Thank you."  He read over the paper quickly and glanced up at Cody.  "Did you read this?"  From behind Cody, Alex and Jake entered the office.

Cody nodded.  "Could be true."

"What does the report say?" Jake asked as he sat in one of the two chairs in front of Donovan's desk.

"It states that Melanie Burgess was with her sister, Laura Reynolds, and her niece, Tammy, the night they were run over.  The trio had stopped at a corner drug store.  Laura and Tammy had exited the store ahead of Melanie, who was paying for her purchases."  Frank paused to take a breath.  "As she reached for the door, she heard the squeal of tires and before she could push the door open, a car careened onto the sidewalk and hit her relatives, pinning them against the building." 

"Pinning them?" Alex asked, shocked.

"Effectively killing them," Frank clarified.  "The child was unrecognizable...and the mother's internal organs were damaged beyond help.  She died within moments.  Miss Burgess stated that the person got out of the vehicle and made sure Laura Reynolds was dead before he left the scene.  She went on to describe the person, who fits the description of Drevin." 

"Dear God," Alex cried.  "And the sister witnessed this? How awful for her.  Where is she now?  Are their any reasons as to why this Drevin would intentionally kill Reynolds?"

"Burgess is missing," Cody informed them.  "I did a check on her, and she disappeared about three months after her sister's death."  Cody handed Donovan the report on the sister.

"That's odd.  Disappeared? Not, moved to another area?" Jake questioned.

"No," Donovan answered, checking over the report.  "The other thing that was hidden in that report was that Reynolds had witnessed a shakedown gone bad earlier that week.  According to Burgess, Reynolds was afraid to go to the police.  She believed if she came forward, she would become a target."

"Shakedown?" Alex inquired.  "What happened?"

"According to the sister, Reynolds had been in the back of a convenience store, unseen by the two men who entered the store and demanded protection money from the owner," Donovan supplied.  "When the owner refused, he was shot point blank in the face."

"So, what you're saying is that Burgess believes her sister was the victim of a mob hit?" Jake asked incredulously. 

"That's what I'm reading here," Donovan stated, setting the report down and glancing over the background of Melanie Burgess.  Nothing odd there.  High school graduate, worked for a Temp agency as a secretary/bookkeeper.  Brunette, decent looking, if you could get past the thick-rimmed glasses that were perched on her nose.

***

Jess was beyond irritated by the time she made it back to Normal and retrieved her vehicle.  She hadn't fought going with Donovan too terribly hard, because she did not want him becoming suspicious of her.  Now she was behind schedule and by the time she reached Champaign, it would be late and difficult to set up surveillance.  Nevertheless, she intended to do just that. 

It had been a fluke to discover that Drevin had been staying in Normal.  She had been making her semi-regular visit to his mother in the retirement/nursing home that the woman was now confined to in Philly.  The poor woman was slowly losing her faculties and Jess felt guilty that she was using her. 

Jess had fabricated the myth that she and Wayne had once been close friends and she had come looking for a way to get in touch with him.  The old lady had enjoyed their visit; so much that she had asked Jess to come see her as often as she could.  She had so very few visitors and she would look forward to each time Jess called to tell her she was coming by to see her. 

To Jess, of course, it had been the perfect opportunity to try to pump the woman for information about her son.  As the visits progressed and the months passed, Jess had come to adore Addy.  How a woman as sweet and loving as Adelaide Drevin had produced such a cold-blooded murderer, she could not fathom.  Be that as it may, it was on her last visit to Addy that she had found out that Drevin was staying in Normal, Illinois. 

Jess had to give Drevin credit for one thing; he did call his mother fairly regularly.  If nothing else, the bastard did love her and made sure her bills were paid.  She didn't want to think about where the money came from, because it only tore at her sanity to know just how dirty it was.  She tried to trace the money, but what she found out from the accounting department was that money orders were sent at various times throughout the year, drawn from several different banks and had always been paid in cash.  They never contained addresses and only notated they were to be used to pay any and all expenses incurred by Adelaide Drevin. The amounts were small enough never to draw attention.  A few thousand here, a few thousand there, and from different states each time. 

She never brought up his lifestyle with his mother.  Addy believed he was a truck driver and that was why he was gone for such long periods of time.  She had no idea that he had jumped bail after the 'accident'.  It had been about that time that she had been put into the nursing home.  Who was Jess to ruin such a fantasy for the sweet woman?  No, instead, she would listen to Addy's stories of Drevin as a child, inwardly cringing and controlling the need to retch her lunch at the sweetness of it all.  Addy lived in the past and Jess could not bring herself to say anything that would upset the woman.  She waited for the moments when Addy was lucid enough to share any recent events in her life.    

The other thing that Addy had divulged was that Drevin had recently told her that a buddy of his, Tate Jeffries, owned a garage in Champaign.  Normal wasn't that far from Champaign, so Jess decided to check it out.  It was a slim possibility, but one she couldn't pass up.  She was running out of leads and if she didn't find him this time, she would have to go back to Philly and hope Drevin called his mother again soon.

She sighed and turned up the radio hoping to drown out her thoughts.  Her eyes caught sight of the business card she had tossed into the unused ashtray.  It had Donovan's cell phone number scrawled on the back, not that she had any plans to call him.  If she had that inclination, she would have told him about Drevin's friend in Champaign.  No, she had her fill of trusting law enforcement and she wasn't going that route again. 

For the first several months in her odd career choice, she had followed the rules and called the local authorities when she went after Drevin.  She had found it amazing how he had mysteriously disappeared just before she had been able to arrive with the police.  No, whatever was behind Laura's death, it went deeper than she had first imagined. 

If Laura had witnessed Drevin commit murder while doing business for a crime family in Philadelphia, it was possible that the family had members of law enforcement in its pockets.  Someone had changed those police reports and all references to Laura's sister, Melanie, and her claims as to what actually happened to Laura and her daughter were gone.  If that were the case, then it was also possible that each time Jess came forward with information about Drevin's location, it filtered back to those same members of the department that worked for the crime family.  Drevin had a heads up each time and slipped through her fingers. 

She wasn't taking that chance this time.  Donovan could chew on her right buttock for all she cared.  She needed to find Drevin, needed to end this before she lost what little of herself she still possessed.  It was time to close the ugliest chapter of her life so that she could move on.

***

"Do you have something for me, Cody?" Donovan asked, descending the stairs after hearing Cody yell out at the top of his lungs. 

Three days had passed since their encounter with the female bounty hunter in Normal, Illinois, and they hadn't made any progress on the Drevin case.  Jessica had entered his thoughts often since her departure and he had found himself gazing at her photograph on more than one occasion.  There was something about her eyes that haunted him, something familiar, something hidden in the depth of green that he should recognize. 

"Oh, yeah.  Got something all right," Cody nodded.  He waited for Jake and Alex to join them before he reached over and switched on the recording of a phone call he had just made.

"Landsing Hills Retirement Home," a female voice said.

"Mrs. Adelaide Drevin, please." 

Donovan shot Cody a slightly surprised look, recognizing the voice as Cody's. 

"Your name, sir?"

"Cody Forrester."

"One moment, please, while I put you through."

"This is Addy Drevin," a serene voice answered.

"Hello, Mrs. Drevin.  My name is Cody.  I'm sorry to disturb you, but I'm trying to locate your son, Wayne."

"Oh, honey, Wayne is in the park playing in the sandbox."

Cody stopped the tape and glanced at his coworkers to see their amused looks.  "I hacked into the Retirement Home's computer system for her records after I located her.  Mrs. Drevin is suffering from Alzheimer's disease.  One of the most interesting things I found in her history with the home is that besides the visits she receives from local volunteers, the only person who sees Mrs. Drevin regularly is one Jessica Crenshaw."  Cody noted the darkened expression that shadowed his boss' face.  "I'll go out on a limb here and guess Miss Crenshaw neglected to mention that."

"You might say that," Donovan growled.  So, she had nothing else to tell him, huh?  Really, he wasn't all that surprised, and some innate feeling had told him that he would be seeing Jessica again.  "What else did you find out?"

Cody held up a finger signaling for Donovan to be patient.  He pressed the play button again, continuing the taped conversation. 

"Mrs. Drevin?  Has Jessica been to see you?"

"Oh, yes.  She went for champagne."

"Thank you, Mrs. Drevin."

Cody clicked off the tape again and stood waiting for a response.  It was perfectly obvious to him, but he had information they had yet to hear.  Still, it was fun to yank their chains a little.  Alex and Jake both carried a perplexed look on their faces.  Donovan just appeared irritated.  "Champagne?  Oh, man...look."  He pulled a map of Illinois up on the screen.  "Champaign, Illinois?  Ever hear of it?"

"Cody, don't you think you're reaching?" Donovan asked, absently noting the distance between Normal and Champaign.   "What would be Drevin's reason for going to Champaign?"

"I asked myself that very same question," Cody acknowledged.  "So, after talking to Mrs. Drevin, I asked for the administrator and identified myself.  I was able to speak with the nurse that oversees visitations and she informed me that in one of Mrs. Drevin's more coherent moments, she had mentioned that Wayne had a friend in Champaign."

Donovan leaned his butt against the edge of the table and folded his arms across his chest.  "Where exactly in Champaign is this friend?"

"Beats me," Cody admitted.  "But..."  He pulled out a slim folder and tossed it on the top of the desk.  "Our little bounty hunter friend has a vehicle registered with the Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles."

"That's just wonderful, Cody," Jake said, sarcastically. 

"It could be," Alex piped up.  "What's she driving, Cody?"

"Chevy Impala.  2002.  Bronze."

"OnStar?" Donovan asked expectantly.  Many of the newer models were equipped with the GPS tracking system.

"Oh, yeah.  And it is now parked here..." He pointed to the street map.  "Near the corner of Bradley Avenue and Williamsburg Drive."

"Why don't you just call her cell phone?" Jake inserted.

Donovan shrugged.  "She's probably the only person in the United States who doesn't own a cell phone," he answered disbelievingly.

"What's located there, Cody?" Alex inquired, leaning over the map.

"Small shops, two garages, a strip mall." 

"Looks like we're going for champagne, too," Donovan stated humorlessly as he walked away and headed toward his office.  "Be ready to go in five minutes."

"Yes, Sir!"

***

to be continued...