So much suspense, huh?
...
...
...
"What makes you think, that I can help you and your friend?" Catherine wasn't so sure if this guy was just mocking her or if he was serious enough to convince her up, about helping him or whatever friend he just made of. He sighed.
"I just know, that she told me a lot about you, when both of you were still in school with the others. She said that both of you were lab partners, once..."he tried to explain, like he was running out of words.
"Lab partners?"
"Once, but she moved away, right after her dad died at that car accident..."
"Meaning, she dropped out?" she clearified at his story, with an raised eyebrow in confusion.
"Two years before graduation, I might say.." he shrugged his shoulders, like he agreeded along with her answer. Realizing they were both standing here, at the precinct and not into a intimate place, where secrets don't ever leave and won't be heard by anyone else, she decided to follow the meeting into one of the interrogations room.
She opened up the door for him and mentioned to take a seat, before she could follow with this;
"Like I told you; I'm not sure I'm following you and I, for sure, don't remember a girl by the name of Gretchen, so it better not be a joke..."she warned him as he sat on the chair, reserved for the witness people when she decided to stay up still, arms crossed, facing him down with an suspcious stare. Like a real cop should do.
"It's not a joke! I'm telling you this, it's real..." Catherine just shook her head. "You have ten minutes..No more than that..."
"It's just complicated, I mean, she's been on the run for almost five years by now, running away from a man with power..." he put his hands on the table as his fingers tangled up together, trying to look away. A sign of being nervous, as she observed his moves.
"So, your friend is running away from a man. Meaning, he was abusive towards her, in the past?" A man with power? She'd like to believe that.
"In a way, like this, I'd say 'yeah' but that was before she found out what kind of man he truly was..."
"So, happily ever after, gone wrong?" The man sitting before the table, just gave her a glare at her answer.
"Look, I'm just trying to put the pieces into the puzzle here! I don't know, but it won't hurt to give me a clue, you know?"she defended herself back and added;
"You have five minutes now..."
"I know it's not believable, I get it, but Gretchen didn't even wanted to come here, I did. On my own. Not hers. And I'm only doing this, because I can't handle the thought of her being beaten to death, by her husband!" A husband that beats his running away wife? Pff! Can't get any better, than this!
"So, she's married to him? Why not ask for a divorce? If she thinks he's a danger to her?"
"Because they have a daughter together, like I told you, it's complicated..." Oh oh! That's where it gets interesting...
"So, there's a kid into this abusive relationship?"she added back.
"I guess, I spit out the most important punch line, here.." Well duh!
"What about Child Services?" When that man didn't say anything to that, Catherine felt like she hit a fragile line in here. She made a fake gasping in shock sound, before she followed;
"Oh, I get it; your friend is on the run with the kid and I assume, that her soon ex-husband has contacted Child Services, thinking she is the delusional one, in fact...Well, that solves the story..." He looked back at her, alarmed that she looked not interested, at all.
"You don't believe me? So?" She put her hands on her hips, not very much convinced.
"Look, how am I suppose to believe a thing you've said, about just now? And I don't know any girl named Graziella or Gretchen, so..." His eyes widened.
"You think I've made this up?" The kind of story of an abused woman who wants to take the law on her hands, rather than to trust the cops? She knew that story, well too much so...
"How about; You answer my question? Why didn't she filled up an complain? I mean, from the very beginning?"
"She would have, but he left her no choice, it was either try to stay together or it was by dying...So she made the decision..."
"Or more, like running away from him with their daughter?" The kind of an abused woman who wants to take the law on her hands, rather than to trust the cops? Did she ever had the choice? To go on the run or surrender herself as a crazy mother like her husband wants to make her look like? Many questions were playing in Cat's mind at the moment and that guy, sitting in front of her, was more than ready to save that Gretchen girl, even if it was from herself. She just knew, from past and failed relationships...Including one as well...
"Her daughter..."he corrected the female cop, who had started to trust him now, but still, won't let her guard down in any minute. Cat found out that he wasn't making this story up. He sounded very serious."She doesn't want him near to her child..."he added again. "You seem pretty serious, about this Gretchen girl and her daughter..."had said Catherine as she made her way up to this stranger, sitting at the edge of the desk, across from him. He just stared down, at his fingers.
"They mean a lot to me, Gretchen, mostly..." The way he had said her name, proved that he has feelings for this woman. Even deeper. A woman that Catherine may or may not remember at the time.
"Where is she? I mean, at the moment now?"
"Working at the street, under an alias. Call-girl, I'd say..."
"And her daughter?"
"Far away, safe..I mean, away from here..." Looks, like she got cared of it, already. Get the kid away from an ex, meaning this girl wants to handle things on her own and that without the kid from their sight. That girl, whoever is she, was acting desparately at the moment, risking everything to keep her safe and even if it means to spent the rest of her life behind the bars.
"Are you still in contact with her, I mean do you still see her now...?"
"A few times, but only in private, I don't wanna to blow up her cover, don't wanna her ex to get any supscious ideas.." Catherine just sighed.
"And you say, you came here, on your own? Exact? I mean, she doesn't even know you're talking to a cop, like me?" He just shook his head.
"Like I told you. She was so against about talking to cops, but she has no idea that I came here on my own, talking on her behalf..." She nodded at this, before adding; "But, you're thinking; that with me, she'll talk?" The guy released a nervous sigh as he raised his blue orbs up to her. "I know, it's a lot to adjust and that you might need to note everything on paper, but I-" "I don't need to write anything down on paper, I have a good memory, mister-"
"Patrick, my name is Patrick...Detective Chandler..." It was his turn to cut in. Catherine just rolled her eyes, annoyed but followed anyways. God, how many guys, on earth, are named Patrick? Today?
"Ok, Patrick. I have another question for you; How am I suppose to contact that friend of yours? So?" Mind just get along with it.
"There's this bar, that she's working at the moment, La Esperanza, or something...A few blocks away from here..."
"Esperanza?" Well that's new. But, Patrick shook his head as he tried to catch up with his words.
"No, I don't think it's a good idea, better not go there as a cop, I think it's risky..."He said it, like he was talking with himself, but Cat caught him, at that. Oh Oh...
"Why is that? Does she has a criminal record already on her back?" she asked back, wanting to know if that Gretchen girl had walked away from prison, in the past. However, Patrick denied all that.
"No, it's not that, it's just, I mean, the bar used to belong to a italian mafia family, back in the late seventies, that used to have trouble around. However, it is no longer into the blood hands now, but it now belongs to Gretchen's husband..." That's interesting...
"I see...The guy sure likes to fool around, no? But why does she works at that place, if she's into running away from him? So?"
"That's why I came here! Ever since she sent her daughter away, she's gone into that place, working out at the streets and even dancing in front of a hundred men over there..." Looks like she wants to keep an eye on that guy, after all had thought Catherine.
"Okay, so if meeting up at that bar is not a solution, than where?"
"I was thinking more of that coffee-bar IL Cantuccio, near the police station, she'll be there..."
"She will?" So, it was all fixed up? However, behind his girlfriend's back. So play along...Yeah right.
"You just have to pretend, that you are one of the guys's wife that she, once had slept with and that you want to handle things, like a wife should want to handle..." He made that plan from the start? Now, Catherine wondered if that guy was really the inoncent face, she had seen or he was just playing her up with his insecurities and worry about his girlfriend that so-called Gretchen Hermandez. What a call-girl...
"So, you want me? To go there...Thinking, that I can make her, change her mind about attacking her husband? And let the cops handle things before it gets out of hand?" He shook his head as he waved his hands, completely rejecting that idea.
"Don't call the cops yet, try to get her attention, first and later, you may consider to get back-up.." Look who's talking now...
"When?"
"Try to be there, around late at ten or at midnight, tomorrow night...make it look like..."
"Like a wife who wants to kill the sluty and spanish girl that had been sleeping with my idiot of husband? I get that..."She cut him off, finally getting the plan on track. She checked back her phone to find out that she was currently late and that Tess would kill her by now. "Look, I'll have to go now..." Feeling, he had said too much, Patrick rose up from his chair as the woman remained to her place. Eyes studying every move he makes.
"Thank you for sparing your time with me..." He handed his hand for a handshake, expecting Cat to take it, but she crossed them against her chest, as she demanded;
"Don't thank me yet, I'll have only one question though..." "Like?"
"What's Gretchen's husband's name?" Patrick looked around the place, like he was being watched by someone else, other than Catherine standing in front of him, before he could let out;
"Oliver Alvarez..." At this, she just nodded in silent and told him to give her his number, just in case, if she ever has others questions to ask him later on and told him that he was free to leave. Giving a card from the hands of a cop would only make the famous Gretchen grow suspcious and her lover, Patrick wouldn't want that to happen.
"What stays here, would stay here with me..."
"I just hope I did not made a mistake, I mean, coming up here and talking to you..."
"I'd say such thing like; You did a good job, by coming up here and confess your own version of the story, but I'll still have to talk to that girl, to make sure that it is the absolute truth. And if you say, that I used to know her in the past, it wouldn't be so hard find her, no?" She concluded at the end. He sighed, like a huge weight had fled away from his shoulders.
"Just, try to stop her, please. Revenge has a no point of return and I think, you know better, Detective..." He pleaded back to her answer, his blue baby eyes were begging her to change his girlfriend's mind. They were quite piercing enough to make her believe that he had tried everything to stop that Gretchen girl. That sort of look that she once tried to convince Vincent to not go after her father and kill him. However, Catherine just cleared up her throat, saying like;
"I'll try, but I won't make any promise..."And he left. She sures, knows that revenge has no point of return, she had experienced it with a certain person, that she once knew too much enough. And he was gone.
...
It was hard than he thought it would have been, but Patrick had done it out of love. He just couldn't just stand and do nothing, but watch her suffering, expecially under her ex-husband's stare. He had to do something. As if Oliver had noticied any difference with a random street dancer and his wife's ressemblence. He tightened up his scarf and put his hands in his coat's pockets as he walked down the steps of the 123th precinct's entrance, against the cold.
Patrick wasn't so sure if he had made the good decision about talking with Catherine, but at least, it was all he could have done to save his lover from a certain revenge and from death, as well.
She might hate him, but, he would have had spared her life from ending in jail, or even ending beaten to death, from Oliver's hands or from any kind of man, coming from that bar. He sighed, in relief. That cop wasn't so sure if she could trust him or his story, but she said that she was gonna try to help him. Both of them.
I did it for her. Now, I just have to be patient, hoping that she would collaborate with Detective Chandler... He thought back as he walked the street on his own, without even noticing that a certain wanted person was watching him, from behind.
...
The next day, wasn't even better than yesterday. Even, after getting his third coffee, Medina couldn't get the thought of being caught out of his head. Sitting at the coffee shop near the police precinct, he was studying the case that he was sent to do. However, the Tyler case was more important to him, than the one that Hendricks forced him to do.
Parents would want to know whatever had happen to their missing child. So, investigating an cold case like Reynolds's arrest is out of question.
Hendricks was sure one of the son of the bitch he had known, for most of his life. Even, if he owned to the FBI agent in the past, he still found him so annoying. Pictures of Catherine Chandler's damaged car were on his table as he was eating his breakast, while he was studying them.
Something was not right, in all this. In her video, Catherine had mentionned that she was spooked by a dog, while she was trying to catch up, Bob Reynolds, who was her biological father, guilty of many unspeakable crimes and had caused the car crash.
Must have been a big and scary dog that got her scared... He took a sip of coffee as he continued to analyze the situation of the accident. Medina had watched the video quite seven to ten times, when he was back at his home, even before leaving New Jersey. Such nice present coming from Hendricks...
She looked quite nervous and hesitating at the video when Hendricks was recording it. I believe that she was hidding something from the camera, the way she stared away from the camera had proved that she wasn't telling all the truth and that dumbass of Hendricks hadn't noticied it, at all... After a few years in the law forces, he learned to focuss on movements, more than words do. Words may come out as lies, but not movements and eye contacts. Did Chandler knew that third person?
However, after Hendricks's team had found a bullet covered in blood, that still looked fresh, at the crime scene, the case turned to be more of an suspicious one.
I don't think there was a dog, at the crime scene, I'd say, it was more of an possibility that a third person was involved in it ...That's what I think, at least. An ordinary dog would never had the strength to break a car's window and pull out a human being on its own...
At other pictures, there was marks on Reynolds's throat, like someone was about choke him up to death. And also a few broken bones, as well and only after the car crash. Detective Chandler had a small concussion and was knocked out for a short moment, but Reynolds had not only a concussion, but a few broken bones and bruises.
Well, that expains the hole at the back of the car...And marks on his throat, like someone tried to suffocate him. And then, Chandler come up and arrest her father, no wait! Better than that, she knew the third person and tried to talk to him or her away, by aiming her gun in hopes of negotiating would help, but something went wrong...Then so, why did she lied through the interview?
No wonder, she looked nervous...It's quite obvious that she had known that third person...
Was she protecting the person? Did she killed that person by accident in order to protect her father, from choking up? A bullet in covered in blood that didn't turned out to be a match, outraged Hendricks, as he was sure for a fact that Chandler was playing him, all along. She may have regrets at the moment, for protecting that third person.
With a sigh, Medina leaned on the back of his chair, putting a hand through his hair, frustrated. There were many theories on how the crime arrest scene may have happened. He just couldn't put his finger on it. He had to come out an excuse to make Tess believe that whatever she had heard him talk on the phone was with an pure and stupid publicity quiz that he was cursing about, last night. However, he knows that Tess didn't bought it for one second. So he decided to call a friend, that actually lives in NY, to meet him up here.
Can't work on Chandler's case, at the moment, or else, Tess would eye up my ass, for good... He looked at the window, at his left side, until he heard;
"New York is not your forte? Right, Santiago?"Spooked, Medina waved his head back to that voice, before a huge grin was marked on his face.
"Hey, pal! it's so great to see you again!" He rose up from his chair and the two old friends shared a brotherhug, from not having seeing each other from a very long time.
"In two years, you'll reach up the big number and might end up in the club!" With that, Medina pulled himself away from that hug with a frown. No one wants to be reminded of how old they would get by time.
"Don't remind me, Rui...Why don't you take a seat?"He gestured the chair in front of the table. "We might have a long chat to catch..."
"But, most of it, it's for bussiness. You called me last night, at 3 am of the morning, that you wanted to talk about an cold case..." had said Rui as he took off his coat and had lean it on the back of his chair.
"You know me, way too much, buddy...So, here it goes..." I hope I don't make a mistake by confidying myself about that cold case with someone else...
So as Medina started to talk about the cold case with his fellow old buddy, he hadn't noticied that a from the standing line away from them, was a cetain but shaken up professor and biochemist who has been trying to reach up his best friend from last night, almost jumped in fear when he had heard the word. That a certain third person may have been involved at the arrest scene, with Catherine and Reynolds.
Oh Damn it!
...
J.T. thought he could reach up Vincent from his phone as he walked into the coffee shop, until he heard someone bringing up Catherine's name in the place. Shocked, he almost had bumped into the front person, who was also waiting for his coffee at the waiting line. J.T. looked at his left, where two guys in their late thirties were talking in complete discretion. That must be the guy that Tess was refering as Medina... He thought back as he watched the dark mi-long haired man with a trimmed beard, wearing a blue shirt with rolled up sleeves to his elbows. He looked like a had spent all the night up, not enough sleeping. As for the other guy, he only saw him from behind, but he did looked very different from his friend. Dark and short haircut and looked like he came back from a morning jogging, from his black shirt and blue jumping pants, along with his black snickers. He seemed to look like he was trying to understand the situation. He looked back to his phone, trying to reach up Vincent, desparately as he texted this;
J.T.: Where the hell are you? Dumbass! You might end up in trouble!
...
If J.T thought he and Vincent could end up trouble, it wasn't even better for Catherine.
The very first thought camed through her, at the morning was invastigating and looking through old files and her high school year book on her desk, about an certain Gretchen Hermandez, a young single mother on the run after running away with her daughter from her abusive husband.
Oliver Alvarez.
Not even through her computer, she could find something worth it. She did find a prostitute by the same name that got caught with dealing drugs once, but not the kind of girl she would have had recognized, after school graduation. However, Patrick had said that she had dropped from school right after her father died, so two years before prom and graduation. Did she ever meet her? Before?
That doesn't make any sense at all, that name would have had bumped into my head, just hearing it, but it didn't...
Through her research, she phoned Beth at her office and had left a least, three of five messages. Since Beth had organized the school reunion, she must had known almost everybody back then. Quite the popular type. And yet, Cat hadn't received any call from the journalist.
Gretchen Hermandez, that name didn't ring a bell, but Patrick had also, added into his confession, that his girlfriend was under an alias, in this country... That could help if Beth had called her back...
"I'm about to pull my hair out..." Frustruated as she was, didn't even noticied that she wasn't alone now, as some few and loud steps were heard.
"Well, you're not the only one here, so I can feel your pain..." She looked up from her computer to find an very upset and tired Tess, who did not look any better than her. Her hair was in a mess and it looked like she had slept with the clothes she wore the night before. Tess dropped the donughts box on her desk, like it was garbage and sat on her chair, before she slapped her head on her desk. Facedown. Medina just drove her crazy. That's a true fact.
"You look lovely..."had said Catherine, trying to lighten up the mood. However, her partner just groaned in disgust.
"Shut Up! I hate Santiago Medina..."
"The new cop?"
"He's a pain in the ass and his partner is no better..." She brought her head up to her partner who tried to hold herself from laughing: "I'd like to see you spend the night with him and laugh about it, later on..."
"Like it's gonna happen? I'm taking a break from guys, from now on, and that includes Gabe..." Catherine just raised up her hands at the air, as if she wanted to stay away from whatever mess here.
"Okay.."
"And what about the donughts, so?"
"That helps me to deal with my freaking moods...So get over it..." Cat just eyed the donughts, she really wanted to taste one of them now. However, she got back to her computer, trying to deal with cravings.
"If you want to get fat, it's up to you..." Tess just frowned at that line. She looked up to try to find out, on what subject Catherine was focusing on. Ever since, they both found out, about that secret place through a wall, that turned out to be a quite bloody place, the case may take a bad turn as well for Gabe. However, whom ever had left the wall open back at that haunting palace, was not afraid to get caught. Tess did not pay much into it, cause all she did was yelling at Medina last night, but she had a feeling that Catherine might have known who might have been in that place.
A name that they both knew and swore to never pronounce it at loud.
But today, she seemed to be focused in some other things, than the Tyler case.
"So, what's your dealing, right now?"
"Still, looking right through it. I'm trying to find any link between an dropped out high school girl and some prostitute named Gretchen Hermandez, that may try to kill her ex-abusive husband, from what her lover Patrick had told me last night..." That just left her partner dumbfounded.
"The-the-hell-what?" Cat just shook her head and mentionned Tess to approach her chair close to hers so that she could see on what she was working on and started to explain whatever Patrick had confessed to her, last night. After a few minutes of trying to understanding the case, Tess had moved her chair, closer to Catherine so that she could look up to her. Leaning on her chair, arms on the benches of it and spoke;
"So her loverboy came all over here to confess about all the bad stuff that his girlfriend has been doing and wants you to make her change her mind?..."
"In a way, yeah and he wants me to do it, try to talk to her and convince her that her 'vendetta thing' wouldn't work..."had explained Cat back. "What? She really wants to kill her ex-husband that much? I mean, I know a few women that tries to run away from abusive relationships, but to kill an ex? Woah, there's no way out of it..." Tess couldn't believe it.
"He had said it's either stay in this marriage by my rules or nothing at all..Or dying by trying..." "So, she made the decision to leave him?" "With their daughter..."She had added as Tess wasn't so sure if she still wanted to hear more of any of this.
"Hang on, Cat, there's also a kid in all this?" Cat just shook her head, admitting that it was the complete truth. "I know this is just sick, to think of it now.."
"Did she asked to file for an complain, instead? I mean, to avoid all that drama?"
"Even if she did, he would have gotten himself out of it, with all money and power, you know..."
"Like you said, I don't know that girl either, but what about her ex? Maybe it might help.."
"That guy said his name was Oliver Alvarez, something like that..."
"And that girl, on the run?"
"Some Gretchen Hermandez and by police records it seems like she has been arrested for dealing and got out, because one of her lovers had paid her out..." Just to hear that unknown man's name, Tess was trying to think of something, like she must have heard it from somewhere else.
"It tells me something, not the girl, but I'm sure heard that guy's name somewhere..." When Catherine wanted to answer that, her phone had buzzed at the same time.
"You're waiting for someone?"had asked Tess watching her partner picking up her phone to see who was calling.
"Must be Beth..." And she picked up the call, putting the phone on her ear; "Chandler!"
"Cat?
"Hey there Beth, I'm very sorry about calling earlier, I hope I wasn't interrupting anything..." She had said as an made up appology, trying to find the right words as her partner was listening to the conversation.
"Oh no! You did not interrupted me at all! I was just finishing up an interview with Snoop Dog! And I had to make sure that everything was going the way I wanted! That's why I had to kept my phone silent.." She sounded so excited, from her voice as Cat tried to not wince at it.
"Snoop Dog? For real?"had mouthed Tess impressed, but Cat just shook her head, like it wasn't the right time to dull over someone famous.
"So, anyways, you left me a few messages on my phone and said that you needed my help? About a girl named Gretchen Hermandez? Who was that?"
"Someone we both had the chance to know, I guess. Do you have any idea who was that person? Cause, I don't really remember most of the persons that had dropped school after eleven years..." She really hated asking people favors, but she had no one else to talk to and Beth seemed to be the right person. After that high school reunion that went wrong, because of an cetain vicious beast named Zach that got killed by an certain ex-boyfriend, the twisted neck thing. Anyways, Beth had tried to contact both Cat and Tess to see if they had found anything that looked or seemed anormal, however with Gabe's help, he managed to cool things down with all the press, including Beth.
"Well Cat, to tell you the truth I don't really remember any girl by the name of Gretchen that went and dropped out of our school...I'm sorry, it would had rang an bell to me..."
"Okay..." But Beth kept following, adding;
"But, I sure do remember one thing, at least I hope, in the year book. When I still was student body president, I had the idea to do an memorium page for those who had left school early..."
"An memorium page?" Well, that one wasn't expected, but Beth followed her answer. "Yeah, I thought it was a nice thing to do, to remember the people we knew, I mean before they took their paths on their very own way. Something to look back, you know?"
"Oh, I do know, more than you know..." Cat just rolled her eyes up, knowing the feeling of always looking back to the past.
"Flip the pages, it must be the last one hanging to be discovered..." Trying to hold her phone between her left ear and shoulder, Catherine took the album and start looking at it, flipping up the pages until she could reach the last one. When Tess stepped back to her computer and started to go through old cases, about bailing out prostitutes, from years before till now.
When Catherine had found the last page, her eyes were searching for the girl that Patrick had mentionned, last night;
"Alright, what am I suppose to look at now?"
"Did the guy mentionned any description about that girl?"
"It went out of my mind...Didn't think enough..." She should have.
"But he also did say that she dropped out, because of her dad that died in a car accident? And had moved away?" Not bad...
"Yeah, he did say something like that...Beth, do you know something that I don't know?"
"Look at the third row, there's at least four or five students's pictures that you might recognize by now..." With Beth's following directions, Catherine looked at the pictures from up to down at each row, until her hazel eyes dropped to an very familiar picture...
'She said that both of you were lab partners once...' Patrick's words made sense now. She shared a couple classes with her, mostly in lab classes. Catherine just froze at the picture. She knew that girl.
"Oh, God..."
"Remember Yalena? Cat? She was in our class and dropped out after her dad died at that car accident..."
...
Sorry guys for not updating faster! A lot of things had changed, my schedule at work took big turn and I wasn't able to finish this chapter, until now. And, I'm gonna be very busy in the next few weeks. I work five full days and two night shifts, so it's gonna be hard for me to update, but I'll try the best I can. No promises, but I'll try...
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! See Ya!
