Part 9
Alexis went to the police station. She talked to V. Ardanowski, recently promoted to detective; they went over all the records they had on Zander from the high school drug sting investigation, but couldn't come up with anything new.
V. suggested they visit the FBI liaison, who had taken some interest in the case at the time.
They went together to Hannah Scott's office. She thought she might be able to assist them, and was looking up the procedures for the location of missing persons, and V. and Alexis were looking over her shoulder at her computer screen, when Detective Taggart, unable to resist a congregation of three good looking women, stuck his head in and asked what they were doing.
"What is it about Zander Smith that gets women who are normally smart to waste their time trying to help him?" he asked. Still, his detective's innate curiosity got to him, and he ended up as one of the lookers-on.
Alexis regarded him for a moment. "You know, it is weird, but think about it. Men hate Zander; women want to help him. There must be some psychological explanation."
V. laughed. "I've heard Mac complain about the same thing," she said. "I can speak only for myself, but I've just never thought he was the menace to society that men do. Mac, Marcus, the Quartermaines who've come in here complaining. I just don't see much more than a misguided youth, but they seem to see the future destroyer of all civilization. Go figure."
"You know you exaggerate," Marcus Taggart said. "Still, that's true. You're falling for some sort of charm."
"I think you are telling me more about yourself than about any other guy," V. countered. "You exercise a charm that you know is meant to dazzle and not reveal. You project it onto this kid who is too reactive to lie or put on some sort of front. All he can manage is a shell. Get him upset, and you will find out something true. But with you, the way I see it is, you are revealing to me that you don't want yourself known too well, and you put up a front that is an active distraction."
"I like your theory," Alexis said. "That's it. Zander is just too impulsive to be a menace."
"But who is more dangerous in the long run?" Taggart asked. "A person who calculates his evil deeds, or a person who does them without thinking? It's the calculating person you might be able to catch. The unthinking or irrational one you can't. You have no way of predicting what they will do."
"I've always found Zander would listen to me. Sometimes, he even changed his current plan after listening to me," Alexis said. "So irrational, not entirely. I can't agree with you. His impulsive deeds still have some inner guide, so their evilness, as you put it, will only go so far. Whereas the calculator will never listen to you and deliberately plans an evil thing. And is more likely to get away with it without getting caught."
"He's never listened to me," Taggart said.
"It must be the way you put things," Alexis offered.
"I think so, too," V. said, "really, Marcus, you ought to let me deal with the younger offenders. I think I can pull off a motherly attitude, a sort of good-cop thing, so to speak, and get them to help us and themselves, and that it will work more efficiently than your threats and taunts and put downs. I remember that one day we were both talking to this very Zander Smith, and I thought he was going to jump across the table and try to throttle you, until I changed the subject."
"His attention is very present-oriented," Alexis offered. "When he's talking to me, he looks at me, he listens to me without taking his eyes off of me, or getting distracted. How many men do that? Why does he? Who raised him that way? It doesn't seem all bad."
"Right, and why doesn't he want you to know about it?" V. continued. "The questions just add up by the thousands when you get to thinking of it. If the parents beat and abused him, why not just say so, and say it's just too painful to discuss? If they abandoned him, it's the same."
"Because they didn't" Taggart answered. "He just did something wrong."
"Could be. But it is also likely that he thinks it is more wrong than it is," Alexis said. "He lived in my house; I know something from that. He's got a conscience. I even have thought on occasion that he was well brought-up. It only doesn't fit with any of the likely scenarios."
"There are juvy delinquents that even good parents can't control," Taggart argued.
"Well, I've run into those too, and Zander doesn't fit the pattern for their behavior," said V.
"O.K.," Hannah said. "Now in the National Crime Information Center database, you can put in a description of a body. It sounds gruesome, but that is the end you're taking it from. Say you find an unidentified murder victim in your jurisdiction. You put all the data you can about it in this system. Then you can run it against the people reported missing, and use any hits as leads. Bodies have been identified that way."
"Do you have to have a dead body?" Taggart asked.
Hannah looked back down. "No, in fact, you can enter in descriptions of living people. You have the 'Unidentified Person File' and the 'Missing Person File.' In the UP file you can enter date on any unidentified deceased person, or on body parts if you've only found a dismembered body part. In addition," she continued, reading, "information can be entered on living persons of any age who are unable to ascertain their identities, for example, an amnesia victim or an infant."
"Unable, not unwilling," Taggart said.
"Oh heck," Hannah Scott answered. "Let's just pretend he can't."
"You know, I've haven't eliminated the possibility that he can't" Alexis said.
"O.K." Taggart said.
Hannah continued: "The Missing Person File also provides a number of categories for entry. Law enforcement officers generally think of this file in terms of missing juveniles. However, there are additional categories that allow a police department to enter a person of any age who is missing and under proven physical or mental disability, or who is senile. The file also allows officers to enter information on persons of any age who are missing under circumstances indicating that their physical safety may be in danger or where their disappearance may not have been voluntary."
"And any law enforcement agency in the United States can enter records in both the Missing Person and the Unidentified Person Files," V. read over Hannah's shoulder, "so let's put one in for the P.C.P.D."
Alexis and V. sat down in chairs in Hannah's office, opening their files. Hannah entered the name they had, that the birth date was unknown, and uploaded their fingerprint data.
"Blood type," Hannah requested.
"We can get that out of the hospital, surely," Alexis answered.
"Corrective vision prescriptions."
"None that I know of or have seen a necessity for," Alexis said.
"You could still get an exam done," V. said helpfully.
"Scars."
"Could all be from after he ran away."
"Tatoos."
"Same with that, but nothing I've seen or heard about. And I'm not willing to ask or look further." Alexis laughed. V. giggled, and said, "I am, but I'll think I'll have to settle for asking the nurses and doctors."
"That'll be the way," Alexis said.
"Dental characteristics."
"He's never been to a dentist that I know of," Alexis said. "Hard to imagine he would go for six month check ups on his own accord."
"That is hard to imagine," Taggart agreed.
They estimated age and height and weight and entered in hair and eye color and suspected origin from Florida.
"Though that could be a false lead," Alexis said ruefully. "I wonder if I can get Bobbie Spencer to talk to him and find out if she thinks he really knows anything about Florida."
"So now we just wait 24 hours," Hannah said. "Every night, the FBI runs the data in the UP file against the data in the MP file and matches it up."
"OK, and I'll get the blood type information and all that," Alexis said. "Thanks a million, you guys."
