"Mr. Medena, I'm not sure whether you'll take this as good or bad news," the doctor running the autopsy sighed as he left the morgue.
Max paced in front of him and urged him on, figuring he'd tell the others after.
"Lisa is not dead,
as far as we know. This is the body of 29-year-old Marissa Montego.
She's been missing since she was apparently snatched from her home
last week."
Max cheered. "So, why would that be bad? My wife
is still alive."
"Yeah…but she's the captive of a complete psycopath."
Max's shoulders slumped and he hung his head sadly. "True. So what should I do?"
"I'm a doctor, sir," the man sighed, snapping his plastic examining gloves back on. "Not a detective. But good luck and Godspeed."
Max nodded and left the room to tell his excited friends the latest update.
"I can't believe
you were an army brat," Lisa shook her head. "So, what happened
then?"
"My dad died," Jackson sighed. "Operation Desert
Storm. Shot. I was so angry, after that, even though we didn't get
along. My mom kind of….left, in a manner of speaking. She stopped
caring about me, just went out to get high and drunk every night,
sleeping with various strangers. It was like she was pretending to be
young again so she wouldn't have to deal with her loss."
"So what did you do?"
"I came to resent government. I was so angry, so full of rage that they had fucked up my family, I…"
"…decided to be an assassin and kill politicians," Lisa sighed. "Makes sense, I guess."
He nodded. "And then my mom-" his phone rang. He held up a finger signaling Lisa to wait and left the room.
Lisa slumped back against the couch and ran a hand through her already tousled hair. It explained a lot, why Jackson was the way he was, control freak and obsessed with violence. That's the way his whole life had been.
She knew there was no excuse. But somehow, something in side of her just gave way a little bit, like an invisible dam of resentment.
"Rippner. Talk to me."
"Its me. We've got a problem."
"Yeah?"
"They found the body."
"Great. So what's the big deal?"
"They know its not
Lisa."
Jackson swore but kept his voice low so Lisa wouldn't
hear. "How the hell did they figure that out?"
"Max seems obsessed with her, for one thing. The shirt was a different size, she had no ring, she wasn't pregnant."
"Damn it, Mick, you could have made sure the shirt was the right size, at least. Fucking moron."
"Sorry, sir, but the
medium just wouldn't fit."
Jackson sighed angrily. "So,
what now?"
"They figured out it
was really Montego, and Gilmore called her fiancée."
"You
got tabs on her phone?"
"On all of their phones, sir."
"What did she
say?"
"Told him Lisa wasn't Lisa, and then her fiancée
got the information from Jess, where you guys were. They're heading
there now."
"Shit. Where are they?"
"I'm guessing two hours from where you are."
"Goddamnit. Alright, thanks for the update. Keep me posted. I'm gonna kill Jess."
