Chapter 6
Nash sighed as he began his story. "When...when I was born your grandma and grandpa were expecting twins."
"Twins?" Cassidy said, shocked at the news.
Nash nodded. "They were told my brother had died. That he had died in birth. But, that's…that's not what happened."
Cassidy was speechless. She didn't know what to say.
"I have a twin brother. His name is Sonny, Sonny Crockett. And he lives in Florida. HE used to be a cop. He's a private detective now. He's working with the same partner he had on the police force, just like Joe and me."
Joe had been sitting, watching, as everything played out.
"Have you met him yet?" Cassidy asked Joe.
Joe nodded.
"Does he…?" She was still having trouble wrapping her mind around it all. She left of the look like Daddy part.
Joe nodded, again. "Oh, yeah."
Cassidy looked at her dad, very excited. "When do I get to meet him?"
"Sonny!" Nash called out.
Sonny stepped out of Nash's bedroom door and Rico followed behind. They came down the stairs. And Sonny stood staring at his niece for a moment. He was astounded. She was a very pretty, young lady.
Cassidy stared at Sonny for a moment. He was tanner than her dad. His hair was a little longer, and he was an inch or two taller.
"You must be Cassidy." Sonny said.
Cassidy couldn't speak for a second, that voice. Nobody else sounded like her dad. His was voice was so distinctive. She couldn't believe that even their voices were the same.
Sonny barely got out the words 'nice to….' Before she enveloped him in a ug. He hugged her back. "Oh, and the guy standing behind me is my partner, Ricardo Tubbs, Rico."
Cassidy nodded and said hello. She then turned her attention back to her dad and her uncle. She looked aback and forth a few times. "This is too weird." She paused. "We have twins at school, sisters Lily and Lola Peters. They do everything the same, super weird."
"How come Grandpa never mentioned you?" Cassidy asked.
"Like you dad said earlier, he was told one of us didn't make it." Sonny paused. He took seat on the sofa and Cassidy sat down beside him. "He was probably very happy to have your dad, your aunt, and your uncle. He had three kids to raise. He didn't' have a lot of time to think about much else."
"I just…I don't see how he didn't even mention…." Cassidy shook her head. "How do you not…."
"It's probably the worst pain, in the world, to lose a child, Cassidy." Sonny explained. He glanced at Tubbs, flashing back to that time in his mind. And he thought about Caitlan. He looked back at Cassidy. "You never get over the pain. That makes it very hard to talk about."
"Have you…?" Cassidy hesitated to as, seeing the pain in her uncle's eyes.
"My second wife, Caitlan. She was…she was murdered." He took in a shaky breath. "You don't get over that, either."
Cassidy reached out and took his hand. She squeezed it. "I'm sorry."
Sonny bowed his head for a moment. "Thank you."
"Sonny, man…!" Nash shook his head. He didn't know how he would handle it if he lost Lisa or Kelly that way.
"She…Caitlan was…she started out as a protected witness." Crockett explained. "She was singing in a night club and saw something that she shouldn't have. Her testimony would have brought down the Gomez Brothers. We had, maybe, 6 months of wedded bliss."
"That's…. Wow!" Cassidy stated. Her heart went out to him.
Sonny let out a long breath, then cleared his throat. "I located a couple hundred death certificates for twin baby boys who died on our birthdate, one or both boys, from all over the U.S. There were 10 from the state of California." He paused. "I started this search with a forged birth certificate. Joe and Rita Crockett were listed as my birth parents. That obviously is not true. It also says that I was born in Florida. That's not true either." He stood and started to pace. "And there are no official adoption records, at least none that I can find. Those records are usually sealed anyway. They moved to Florida because nobody knew them in Florida. There was no one to ask how a woman who was not pregnant turns up with a newborn baby." He paused. "And my parents told me, more than once, over the years about taking the long drive from California to Florida. They were not sure if it would be good for a newborn to travel by plane."
Sonny paused and when no one spoke, he continued. He was about to tell them what he thought happened. He had never told anyone this, not even Rico.
"I know Rita and Joe wanted a baby, really bad. Rita was a nurse. She…" Sonny shook his head. "I know they spent a few years here, in California, when they were first married." He sighed. "They must have felt bad about it. When I was about 5, they sat me down and told me I was adopted. But they never told me who my birth parents were. I never got my birthparents names. I never got any information about my adoption. It wasn't until my son was born that I realized how important knowing where I came from was. I started asking questions then. But I never got answers, nothing I could really…use. That made me suspicious. But, I…I put it out of my mind. I had just started Vice, and I had a son to raise. I was too busy to pursue it. A couple years later Caroline and I divorced. I felt like I owed it to my son to find out where it was, I came from, so I hired a private eye. I gave him what little information I had, and he went to work."
Rico had not heard a lot of this information either. He was still processing the whole adoption thing himself. He was in shock.
Sonny said down again and bowed his head. "I had a great childhood. Joe and Rita had 3 kids of their own. I have a brother and 2 sisters. As a kid, I had just…accepted it. Nobody in the family treated me any different. I was a kid. I didn't know what to ask. I didn't know to ask. This was normal. This was my life. I didn't know any different. I didn't know any other adopted children. And, after I grew up, the thought of my parents stealing me. I couldn't wrap my head around that. That they could have…that they would have…." Sonny shook his head. "I still can't."
Nash let out a long sigh. He didn't know what to say.
Sonny shook his head. "Nothing else makes sense. No other…nothing I can come to explains it as well as that. Rita was a pediatric nurse. She had complete access to the hospital. There were no cameras back then. Anybody could have walked in, and then walked out with a baby. And nobody is going to question a nurse with a baby. Even if she had been caught, she could have made up anything. They would have believed her." He felt better and terrible, all at the same time, getting those disturbing thoughts out. "I think she…she just waited for the right couple to come along. A couple with two healthy babies."
TBC