Joe walked into the station, he headed straight for his desk. Looking at his watch he noticed he had two hours before he had to meet the lawyer outside the court room. That gave him two hours to find what hospital Alex had been born at and start digging into her medical records. Joe sat down at his desk. Antoine pushed over some papers onto his desk.
"Found five new possible missing children." Antoine said.
"Forget that." Joe said. "Missing children is not in the category for who she is." Joe handed him the petition.
Joe noticed the blinking lights on his work phone. He had several calls already on his way to the station, all of them had been his mother. Joe hadn't wanted to talk to her. He saw Chief Pantangelo walk over to his desk. Antoine whistled as he read shaking his head.
The Chief bent down low over Joe's desk. "I had an interesting phone call from my wife."
Joe looked over at him. "Not mine. She can't be. Physically impossible with Lacy Ramono and she's on the birth certificate. Lacy Ramono has brown eyes, just like me."
Antoine handed the petition back to him. "What's on the agenda?"
"Call hospitals, we need to find where she was born." Joe told Antoine, he looked back at the Chief who had his hand out for the petition. Joe gave it to him to let him read it.
"How much have you worked up so far?" The Chief asked.
"Not much." Joe said as he pulled out the high school annuals and started flipping through them.
"Is there a possibility that she isn't Ramono's?" The Chief asked, digging for information.
"Conclusively." Joe said flipping the pages and he grabbed a pen and went back to the beginning and started circling the girls in the books that he had actually slept with.
The Chief laid the petition down on Joe's desk, "I didn't hear that, I assume you are going to rectify that little transgression."
"Legally," Joe said looking at him and grinning. "Someone has a grudge to settle with me and they are in one of these four books. I just have to figure out how Ramono actually fits in all of this and why my name is getting dragged down with it."
The Chief stood and looked over at Antoine, "That will be a long list to go through if he has to pull every name of all the girls he slept with." He looked back at Joe, "Let me know if you need anything." He turned to leave and looked back at Joe, "And in case she is yours, you'll be on mandatory maternity leave." He laughed at seeing the look of horror on Joe's face and walked away.
Antoine was laughing. Joe looked back at him, "Shut up! It isn't funny."
"Yes it is." Antoine said and dodged the pen that came flying at him. He dodged the paperclips as well. "Stop it, or I won't be able to call the hospitals Daddy."
"Daddy my ass." Joe picked up a few more paperclips and threw them at him. "Get to work." Joe found another pen in the top drawer and went back to circling pictures again. His cell buzzed on his hip, he looked at the readout, his mother. It stopped then the phone on his desk rang, he looked at the caller ID. His mother.
"Aren't you going to get that?" Antoine asked as he looked up all the hospitals in the greater Trenton area.
"No, I value my life right now. I need facts, not hunches. My mother will have me down the wedding isle if Alex proves to be mine. I have to solve this. I like my bachelorhood to much." Joe finished the first annual and moved to the next one.
Antoine was grinning, "You're afraid of your mother?"
"No. My grandmother scares the shit out of me though." Joe stated. "She'll give me the eye and then have visions, she'll start doing all sorts of things to me, and I won't be her favorite anymore."
Antoine barked with laughter, "The eye! The eye is nothing, not when I have a grandmother who uses voodoo to reach me. Trust me, the eye is far better than voodoo, at least she has to be in the same room with you."
"I don't want to know. Don't tell me anymore." Joe pointed to Antoine's phone, "Get calling."
Alex carried out the dress and the shoes to the SUV.
"Why can't you just put them on here?" Lester asked her.
"And feel like I'm naked all the way to Trenton. You are out of your mind." Alex told him as she opened the back door to the SUV.
Jose laughed, "You wouldn't be naked in a dress. It's feminine, it's pretty, you'll look cute in it."
Alex hung the dress on the notch in the back by the door and looked back at Jose. "I'm not cute."
Jose stopped laughing, "No you aren't cute. You're actually a very pretty young woman."
Alex groaned and climbed in the back of the SUV, Lester was in the front driver's seat. "Does he have to come with us?"
Jose opened the passenger side door and climbed in.
"Yes he does." Lester said and started the SUV.
Jose turned and looked at her, "Why do you feel naked in a dress?"
"Why do you have to come?" Alex retorted.
"Because you agreed to talk with me, and since you aren't so forth coming, I'd rather witness firsthand some of the things you'll be experiencing in your life." Jose said.
"Can't you just get Lester's point of view?" Alex asked.
Lester laughed, "No, I'd be biased."
"Exactly," Jose said, "you owe me, answer the question."
"Fine," Alex sat back and crossed her arms. "One, I don't feel protected in a dress. Two, I hate the way the wind can whip it up at any given moment. Three, I feel uncomfortable in them. Four, they make them look so cheesy. Five, I hate the way people look at me when I'm in one. Six, you freeze your ass off in the winter in them. Seven, I hate the way I look in them. Eight, you have two positions to sit in a dress or you expose yourself to the world."
Lester started backing out of the drive, "I see the winter point, and that is actually a good point."
"Stop helping Lester," Jose said.
Lester winked at Alex, and turned back around to drive the SUV after he made the three point turn. "And the wind is a good point. I've seen up many a skirt with the guys best friend of the wind blowing."
"I said stop Lester." Jose reached over and punched his arm.
"Ah, the abuse I'm taking for you Alex."
Alex chuckled. Lester looked in the review mirror, he could see that some of the tension had left her face now. He looked over at Jose who was shaking his head. "Quit encouraging her."
"What? I'm not doing anything." Lester said in innocence.
Jose groaned. He looked back at Alex, "You have a few good points. What bothers me is that you don't have any self esteem when you are wearing one though. How often have you worn a dress?"
Alex looked out the window. "When I was younger, quite a few times, and when Sharlene makes me for court."
Lester glanced in the review mirror and saw the far away look Alex had when she looked out of the window.
"What happened when you were younger in a dress that you didn't like?" Jose asked her.
"I got picked on a lot, okay." Alex turned and glared at Jose, "I'm tired of you bringing up shit. I'm tired of you making me relive every damn memory I have. You want information, you want to live in my world, I'd gladly let you. Let you feel what it is like to have the shit beat out of you because your old man was a sick twisted fuck. Let you feel what it is like to have someone whisper in your ear softly while they beat you. What the fuck do you get out of delving in someone's mind? Why don't you go live your own fucking life and get out of my head for right now."
Jose turned back around in his seat. "I'm sorry, I've pushed you quite enough. I'll stop, we'll have a break."
Alex moved over towards the window and stuck her forehead on it.
Why did I do that? Because I don't want him going any further. I know I agreed to this, he showed me the profits he makes off the books he writes. I've read him, he writes well. I just never thought he'd use real people in his books. He pushed all day Sunday after I agreed to this, then this morning. The damn dragon, he can't be fucking right about that. But is he? Is that why I sought out James so much after Michael was killed? I need to get away from Jose for awhile, far away. He told me I could have an advance up front, well I'll make him pay for it. He can send me to that school in China for a month, the one I was trying to get James to send me too. The Shoalin Temple, where they teach Judo. Alex thought.
Alex looked over at Jose who was now writing in a tablet he brought, "You don't ask anymore questions till after court. I'll answer then. I know what I want up front."
Jose turned his head and looked at her, "What?"
"The Shoalin Temple in northern China has a school that teaches Judo, I want one month, this summer. You make that happen and I'll answer any question you want, free reign, but I get China first." Alex told him.
Lester grinned as he looked over at Jose, "You going to make that bargain?"
Jose turned back and started writing again. "I'll do it. One condition, you can't go alone, and we have to find out what happens with the courts first."
"I get to pick who goes with me then." Alex told him. "You can't pick."
"Agreed." Jose said writing away.
Lester shook his head. He's insane, Jose is a nut, send her to China. Blade is out there, how crazy is Jose. Lester thought. He looked back at Alex who seemed really satisfied with this. He could tell this was something she really wanted.
Joe looked at his watch, Antoine had already called almost all of the hospitals with no luck so far. Joe had gone through all the annuals and then started looking back through them again, this time he was paying closer attention to the group shots and looking for Lacy in them and who she was standing around when the pictures were taken. He made notes on his pad, he had seen several of them with a few people who kept cropping back up. He closed his eyes and leaned back, one of the people in the pictures he knew he slept with. Sarah. He had even found a note from Sarah in his annual, it had been in his locker the day they got the annuals, and he had stuck it in there.
Joe,
I had a great time at home coming. I still can't believe you asked me to go. I thought you were seeing Teri. That is what was going around the school. I heard so many things about you, I was afraid to go at first, but I'm glad I did. To answer your question. Yes. Mrs. Nutt is coming, see you later.
Sarah
Joe turned the note over and over in his hand. Opening his eyes he flipped the pages till he found Sarah's name, no picture. Unavailable. Was the word in place of the picture. He flipped several more pages to the back of the annual, he saw the advertisements the school year book committee sold. The owner's of Crystals Pizza House had bought one page, instead of the normal advertisement, a picture of Sarah covered the whole page. Below her picture was the words, we miss you, come home Sarah.
"Found anything yet?" Antoine asked.
"The reason why I became a police officer." Joe looked at Antoine, "you ever had someone in your life that when you talked with them, things just seemed to become clearer?"
"Yes." Antoine said.
Joe turned the annual around and let Antoine see the picture of Sarah. "She went missing my senior year. About two months after home coming. She wasn't found for three years, when they found her they declared her death as a suicide. Sarah would never take her own life, they said her body was with a note, explaining everything. I never bought it. Every time I see a murder victim and if they are female, I think of Sarah. I think of the time I spent looking for her when she showed up missing." Joe sat the note down and rubbed his face and shook his head. "Just a bit of a shock, I haven't looked at these in years."
Antoine watched Joe. "So who was she to you?"
"Old girlfriend. The one I never got to break up with because she left me first." Joe turned the annual back around.
"Want me to add her to the list? I don't see her name on it." Antoine said.
"No reason too. She's dead." Joe looked at his watch, he had thirty minutes now to get to the court house. He stood up. "Has St. Francis Medical Center called back?"
"No, they had to send someone off site. They moved their records to a building off site from the hospital." Antoine told him as he picked up the phone and looked at another number.
"I'll see you after court." Joe reached down and picked up Sarah's note and stuck it in his front pocket, he left the station. He had DNA to get from a teenage girl.