Chapter 9

Once back at Rangeman I went straight to the gym, using the lockers down there to change into some gear, before heading for the punching bag. I purposely hit a rhythm using my fists because I wanted to not only control my temper, but I needed to control the thoughts rushing through my head.

Steph was on an off phase with Morelli, which okay happened a lot. They were constantly falling out with each other usually over stupid things. Inevitably they would get back together, the reasons usually beyond my understanding, but I would never question what Steph decided to do. It was her life and her choices regardless of how unhealthy their relationship was.

There had been a decline in the number of skips for Steph to find, though that wasn't unusual, and she had agreed to help look for a young girl for Eula. According to Lula she was avoiding Morelli, yet a few weeks later he was still looking for her. I'd assumed that he'd called here at Rangeman to warn me away from Steph but maybe he thought that she was hiding out here.

That had happened in the past a number of times. When she was being chased by the Comstock gang was the first occasion and she actually surprised me by finding and using my apartment. After that when there were incidents from stalkers, I was more than happy for her to stay here at Rangeman, though I was pretty certain that Morelli wasn't. Yet there were times when we worked together in order to protect her. I was also very sure that I respected the times when they were in an on phase and had even delivered Steph to Morelli's house.

So what had happened while I was away or had Morelli seen me being away as an opportunity to get Steph to himself. And as Eddie had said, dragged her somewhere to make her change her mind. Was Steph's disappearance because of Morelli? Was the disappearance of that girl Lainey a coincidence, just something that Steph had been looking into?

As I increased the speed of my punches and used alternative kicks my mind was working out what the hell to do next. I had no ideas for where Morelli would take Steph but what was worrying me the most was how long they had been gone. Had Morelli put out the rumors and chosen Atlanta because he knew there was already a Morelli there? Was he planning on not coming back? Did that mean that he'd got her to change her mind, because if I knew Steph if she hadn't, then she'd be kicking and screaming to get back home.

As I slowed the punches down and allowed my heart to slow down, I decided that there was one thing that I could do tonight. Using the locker room, I showered and changed and then made my way up to my office. Once there I went into the search program with Morelli's name at the heading. Was I surprised that there was no new information on it, not really? Neither was I surprised when a run through of his financials showed no movement on any of his accounts.

Smart man, though there was one piece of information that we had that was niggling at me and that was how Morelli knew that Jonathan Morelli would end up in Atlanta. I checked through Morelli's family and as far as I could find out they weren't related, so Morelli didn't have inside information.

I closed down the search and got out my phone, sending a message to Hector. For what I had planned tonight he would be the best person to take with me. Morelli owned the house that he lived in courtesy of an aunt dying, so unless Morelli came back to Trenton no one else could sell it. That didn't mean that one of his relatives wasn't living there, but I'd find out soon enough.

The good thing about Hector was that he never asked questions, it was as though he already knew what we were about to do, especially as all that I'd said to him was that we were going to pay a visit to Morelli's house. Parking several streets away we were very careful as we used back lanes and gardens to get close to his house. This was the Burg, and everyone knew how nosey the neighbors could be. I was pleased to see that there were no lights on inside the house but that didn't mean to say that there wasn't someone asleep upstairs. As I picked the lock with Hector keeping an eye on our surroundings, I was prepared to be attacked by Bob the dog but as the door opened, I was only greeted by silence.

"I'll check upstairs"

I nodded to Hector as he disappeared from sight, as silent as a cat. The house felt cold and empty with a musky smell from being locked up without any ventilation. Having walked through the back door I knew that the kitchen and lounge area were empty. The front was also empty so the next place to clear was the basement. It was an ideal place to hide something. Once downstairs and being sure that it was empty, I used my flashlight knowing that there were no windows. I started my search down here first, not really sure of what I was looking for other than evidence of where he might have gone. An old metal cabinet looked promising but a search through the paperwork only revealed accumulated bills.

I searched every wall, every crevice, behind the boiler and inside toolboxes. Nothing, which had me hoping that Hector had found something. I met Hector as he came down the stairs noticing a laptop in his hands, a laptop that I was sure belonged to Steph.

"Nothing but I have this and the hard drive from his computer and a book with his passwords written down inside"

I shook my head on hearing that, hell for a detective Morelli was pretty stupid if he needed a book to record passwords in. We left the house the same as we'd entered, relocking the door behind us. I was relieved that we'd managed to search the house but disappointed that we hadn't found anything, unless the hard drive revealed something.

Once back at Rangeman as we entered the stairwell Hector passed me the laptop and we parted company as he exited on three. I knew that if there was anything on the hard drive then Hector would find it and let me know straight away. Once on seven I was about to reach for the bottle of tequila in the cupboard but withdrew my hand as I remembered that evening in the bar, well, remembered the morning after. Instead, it was a bottle of water in front of me as I sat down on the couch with Steph's laptop.

Did I feel guilty opening it, maybe, but not enough to stop me from switching it on. I took out the power lead from mine and plugged it into Steph's seeing that the battery was low. The next hurdle was inputting a password. I considered what Steph might use, but I had no ideas. I input the obvious, her date of birth, social security number any number or word that I could think of. I leant my head back on the couch thinking of the passwords that I used and, on a whim, input the date when we'd first met.

As the screen came to life, I was surprised at what I was seeing. A photograph of Steph and me, taken possibly after a distraction. I ran my finger down the outline of her cheek as though she were there. Her face was resting on my chest, with my arms around her looking down at her while she was facing toward the camera. I had no doubt who had taken the photograph and given it to Steph, Santos would be the only one who would have done it.

I was tempted to look at everything on the laptop but refrained and opened the "Finder" icon to see what the latest document was that had been opened. Finding one labelled Lainey I was soon reading through what Steph had recorded. There was a map highlighting the places that I recognized from where her trackers had been. Following that were names. Some that I didn't recognized and others that I wished I didn't. The only assumption that I could make was that on her travels Steph had found a lead that had led her to each person. One name had a large question mark following it, a name that I thought was familiar, but for the life of me I couldn't place it. Tomorrow I would do some searches and check with Hector if he knew some of the names.

It was a busy morning the following day. A session in the gym followed by the early morning meeting only to be reminded that the men's yearly reviews were due. Brown would be carrying out medical checks while Santos would be in charge of their physical fitness. Tank and I were overseeing line management and setting new targets while I usually oversaw that each man was up to standard with their combat skills. The whole process was time consuming and had to be worked around rotas, so I spent my morning allocating times for when the assessments would take place. I was still going to ensure that I had time to follow up with the work that I was doing to find Steph and that girl.

It was after lunch was when I eventually had time to look again at those names from Steph's laptop. I messaged them to Hector hoping that he would know of some of them but for some reason there was one name that was worrying me. The last name that Steph had notated with a question mark, Joseph Thomson, had me worried so that was the first name that went into a search.

I was sat looking at the list of names that had appeared on my screen at a total loss as to what filters to use to reduce the number. There were literally hundreds of them. Even using Trenton as a filter didn't really help, because I had no idea who I was looking for or why. Hell, the man could be a worker at a local homeless center for all I knew.

"Looking stressed Ranger"

I looked up to see Santos stood in my doorway and watched as he closed the door and proceeded to sit in the chair in front of me.

"Need any help?"

I sat back and looked at him deciding that I needed to tell him about my conversation with Eddie and subsequent B & E at Morelli's.

"We picked up Glassy last night"

"I heard that he caught himself"

I nodded my head at the memory of Glassy being shot with his own arrow but knew that I had to continue with my conversation.

"Eddie caught up with me at the station. He told me that Morelli was really pissed at Steph because she was refusing to talk to him. Eddie was worried that Morelli had dragged her somewhere to make her change her mind"

I saw the puzzled expression cross Santos's face before he sat forward in his chair, as though he needed to be closer, almost to ensure that he was hearing me right.

"Why would Eddie say that?"

"Apparently no one has heard from Steph, and Eddie reminded me that Steph would never go anywhere without her hamster"

"But why would he think Morelli would take her away?"

"Apparently he's tried it before and was going on about it being time to set her straight. That he was the man that she would marry, and he'd make sure of it"

"Oh shit"

I was pretty sure that Santos had just worked through what I was saying and like me he would probably be annoyed that we didn't know anything about it.

"When, when did he do it before?"

"After I was shot by Scrogg"

Santos was obviously thinking back to that time, he probably had a better understanding of what happened afterwards than I did. At the time I knew that walking into Steph's apartment wasn't going to turn out well for me. Given the choice, I'd do it again. My daughter and Steph were in that apartment being held by Scrogg. He wanted me so I was going to do anything that I could to protect them, to keep them safe. Even if that meant being shot and possibly killed by Scrogg.

"She fell to pieces and was inconsolable. Morelli tried his best to get her to leave the hospital, but she wouldn't. Not until the doctors moved you out of ICU and even then, she always seemed to be there"

"I didn't know"

Hell, when I was aware of where I was it seemed to be my family who were around me. I had no idea that Steph had been there.

"You went down to Miami, and I thought Steph went back to work. I didn't know her as well back then, so I only saw her again when you came back"

"I took a look around Morelli's house last night"

I wanted to move away from thinking about that time in my life. Having Julie kidnapped by some random man and Steph being in danger had shaken me, had me rethinking how knowing me could be dangerous. It seemed though that Steph was the exception to that rule, she always had been.

"You found something"

It wasn't a question, maybe a hopeful statement.

"Hector has Morelli's hard drive, but Steph's laptop was there. There was a file that she'd written, as she'd looked for that girl, with names, maybe some she spoke to or maybe some she was looking for"

"You have that look, what names are we talking about?"

I started with the ones that I knew, watching Santos's reaction.

"Jerry Morrow, Leroy Spanner, Duane Rivera, Bud Lapira and Joseph Thomson"

"I'm sure Steph's taken in Jerry Morrow in before now. Older bloke, done for indecent exposure. The Spanner, word is he pretends to be a taxi driver then steals what he can from his fares. I don't know Rivera or Lapira. Who was the last one?"

"Joseph Thomson"

I waited for Santos to say something, hoping that he had a better memory of that name than I had. The problem was it was such an ordinary and popular name, we'd probably come across lots of men with that name, or had we?

"He was a chauvinist and arrogant bastard who wanted an ordinary name and to live an ordinary life. Shit, it couldn't be him, could it?"

Hearing what Santos had said brought the memory back, a memory from a long time ago.

"Damir Markovic? Why the hell would Steph be looking for him?"

I shook my head, not believing what Santos was suggesting. It couldn't be right, I mean what the hell did Steph think that he would know about Lainey being missing?

"He'd be quite old by now, wouldn't he?"

I nodded my head as my mind went back in time.

"Let me think this through"

Because I really needed to delve deep into the past and even maybe read up on exactly what had been happening at the time. 12 years ago, was when I came across the man known then as Damir Markovic. He was a physicist, a nuclear physicist, and I was part of a team that extracted him from Vinca, Serbia. We were a Ranger team and as such had no knowledge of the reasons why we were doing it. We followed orders and never asked questions. Santos was with me on that one when we were young and keen and enthusiastic.

The extraction had gone exactly to plan. We'd been flown in by helicopter, landing several miles away in an agricultural area free from any habitation. Beyond the structure that housed highly enriched uranium (HEU) were complexes that housed soldiers, there to maintain security. Markovic had been told to expect us but there had been guards between the lab facilities and the barracks. Santos had been with the team that created a diversion, a fire within the entrance to the rooms of the lab. Of course, the soldiers had mobilized fearing that the HEU was under threat, which allowed us to immobilize the guards around the workers and walk him out.

I remembered the man now, and Santos was right, he was an arrogant bastard who spent half of the time when we were heading back to the helicopter complaining and the other half telling us how important he was. On the flight back to the ship, where we were going to be transferring him to, he boasted about what his life would be like when he was in America and what name he wanted as his alias, Joseph Thomson.

I had never given him or that mission another thought. Maybe it was time for a history lesson. I knew of the turmoil that had engulfed the countries that had formally been Yugoslavia, before my time, and other than that one mission I had never been sent there. Not really wanting to get into the whole history of those events I focused on any nuclear and arms development in the country especially seeing as Markovic had been a nuclear physicist. I was curious now as to why he would have been so important to our government.

Yugoslavia intermittently pursued both a nuclear energy and weapons program throughout the Tito regime. In the late 1940s, Yugoslavia's president Tito ordered the establishment of a nuclear program, most likely viewing the development of nuclear power as key to overall economic development but at the end of his reign of power it was abandoned.

In 1974, after India tested a nuclear weapon, the weapons program was once again revived under the name Program A, even though Yugoslavia had become a part of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1970.

Lack of enthusiasm among nuclear scientists and insufficient financial resources were cited as the reasons for Yugoslavia's drive toward nuclear weapons as being ultimately unsuccessful and finally abandoned in 1987.

During the mid- to late-1990s, scientists from the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, one of Yugoslavia's main nuclear research facilities, began expressing concern about the safety of fresh nuclear fuel containing highly enriched uranium (HEU) and spent fuel that were stored at Vinca. In August 2002, a multinational team organized a successful operation to transport enriched uranium from Vinca to the Russian Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dmitrovgrad, Russia.

I found it interesting that we had extracted Markovic just prior to that happening and was now curious why. Normally for America to extract someone they would have to have a very good reason, usually pertaining to national security or secrets that they wanted their hands on.

Delving further I was interested in what else had been developed within the country. Historically, Yugoslavia produced chemical weapons and pursued both nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Serbia was the only one to maintain missile programs.

There were allegations of chemical weapons used in the Former Yugoslavia during the wars of the 1990s, but there was no evidence of a biological warfare. In the late 1980s, Yugoslavia acquired and developed short-range tactical rockets, consisting predominantly of multiple launch rocket systems (MLRSs). Before and after Desert Storm, under President Slobodan Milosevic, he cooperated with the Iraqi military on the manufacture of rockets, improvement of ballistic missiles and other military projects, possibly including the joint development of chemical munitions. Even now the Republic of Serbia extensively employed Soviet air-defense missile systems.

I sat back in my chair having spent a considerable amount of time researching the information, trying to work out if the man whose name was written by Steph was indeed the man that we had once met. There was no way that I could think of any conceivable reason for it being Markovic. By now the man must be in his late forties early fifties enjoying the life that he thought that he deserved that had been provided by the American government. What possible reason would there be for him to be involved in the disappearance of Lainey. No, it must have been another man with the same name that Steph was looking for.