Lester was unsure of doing what Doctor Hyde wanted him to do. Hold her down. He has to be kidding. Lester thought.
"Just do it Lester." Doctor Hyde said.
Bobby was already holding Alex's feet while the nurse was trying to hold her shoulders down and Alex was getting the better of the woman nurse. Lester could hear Alex screaming. He went over to Alex and pushed her shoulders down on the table. The nurse grabbed her arm and Doctor Hyde started doing the tourniquet to get ready to draw her blood.
"I hate you!" Alex screamed.
Lester looked down in her dark blue eyes. "It'll all be over in just a few minutes Alex."
"Bite me." Alex growled. The tears started to flow out of her eyes.
"You want me too?" Lester asked.
Doctor Hyde chuckled. Bobby was laughing and in the process lost one of Alex's legs and she kicked and Bobby took a foot to the head.
"Hold her, I only need one more vial." Doctor Hyde told Bobby.
Alex looked up at Lester, "I hate you."
"No you don't." Lester told her. "You just hate what is happening." Lester saw Doctor Hyde pull the syringe loose, but the nurse let go too soon, and Alex's arm was free. Doctor Hyde grabbed her arm, the needle was still in it and the vial he just filled started dropping. Lester let go of one shoulder and leaned over and caught the vial before it dropped to the floor to shatter.
"Damn it, Betty. It's not often I have a fighter, you know not to let go." Doctor Hyde said.
"This can't be normal." Bobby said.
"More than you think, I've had full grown adults do this as well." Doctor Hyde said. He pulled out a needle and a bottle and filled the needle. The shot went in her arm as Betty took out the filling needle in her arm. Doctor Hyde let her arm go. "Stand back boys."
Alex came off the table and then dove for Lester. Lester went back into the wall with Alex, Lester bear hugged her and she screamed and hit him for a few minutes and then went slack in his arms. He picked her up and looked at Doctor Hyde. "Is there not a better way to do this?"
"If I would have known before hand, I would have given you something for her to take an hour before coming to me." He turned and looked at the films. "Good news, no breaks. Just bruising, keep her ribs taped up. You boys can go. I'll have Betty dress her and then you can take her."
Lester laid her down then followed Bobby out of the room. He rubbed his buzz cut after he came out and leaned against the wall. "I don't want to see her go through that again. That can't be healthy."
"I've never known anyone that terrified of a needle before." Bobby was rubbing the right side of his face. "Do I have shoe prints on my face?"
Lester started laughing, "I can even read the style of it off your face."
"Damn!" Bobby said. "I get to drive on the way back, you owe me, and you can take the hell cat."
"She's not a hell cat." Lester said.
"Yes she is." Bobby stated.
Doctor Hyde walked out and then turned Bobby's face so he could see the damage, "You'll live."
"How long is she going to be knocked out?" Lester asked.
"Just a few hours. I didn't give her anything that would keep her under longer than an hour or two." Doctor Hyde said, "It'll give you enough time to get her home and out of a vehicle so she doesn't do anything while you are on the road."
"Good for me." Bobby said.
Betty came out and Lester walked in and looked at Alex. She looks like an angel while she's sleeping. Lester thought. He ran the back of his hand across her cheek, and then he reached under her and scooped her up. He walked out of the clinic following Bobby. Bobby went around the passenger side of the SUV and stopped when he saw the picture taped on the window. He looked at the picture of the little girl with black curly hair. Lester watched Bobby, "Get some gloves on, get the picture and lets get out of here."
Bobby unlocked the back door and Lester climbed in with Alex. He went to the back while looking around not seeing anyone watching. Putting on the gloves he went back to the passenger side window and pulled the picture off. Bobby got into the driver side and laid the picture down, "The back of the picture has some writing. It says Alex two years old, July thirteenth, Ninety-three."
"Yes, she would still be two when that was taken. Get us back to headquarters now." Lester told him. Lester looked down at Alex in his arms. Who has been taking pictures of you that young? This has to be Blade, but how did he get a hold of something about you that long ago? Lester thought.
Lester pulled his cell phone out and called Ranger. "Did you see any pictures of Alex in the apartment when she was younger?"
"A few. Why?" Ranger asked.
"We were left a calling card on the SUV." Lester said.
"Get back to headquarters."
"We're on our way."
"What did Alex say about the picture?"
Lester looked down at her face, "She doesn't know. She hasn't seen it. Had a small complication seeing Doc and she was given something to go to sleep."
"I don't call kicking me in the face small Lester." Bobby said loudly.
"What happened?" Ranger asked.
"Alex is petrified of needles. I don't mean a slight fear of them either, I mean she'll fight for all she's worth not to have them touch her." Lester told him.
"Good to know." Ranger said. "We are on the way to see the feds. Make sure they don't take her DNA blood wise."
"I'll make sure of it." Lester said. Ranger hung up, Lester closed his phone.
Stephanie kept looking at Ranger while he was talking on the phone. Tank and Lula were in the back seat of the SUV that Ranger was driving. Stephanie pounced when Ranger hung up the phone.
"What picture? Why would they want her DNA blood wise?" Stephanie asked.
"I don't know what the picture is Babe." Ranger looked over to her. "Alex is afraid of needles. So giving DNA that way will be a bad thing."
Stephanie watched as Ranger pulled up to a coded gate and reached into his back pocket for his wallet and then slid a card down into the reader.
"Where are we?" Stephanie asked.
"Federal property outside of Trenton." Ranger said as he put the card back in his wallet and waited for the gate to open.
"Why do you have a card for the gate?" Stephanie asked.
Ranger turned and smiled at her. "If I tell you, I'd have to kill you."
Joe took off the sports jacket he had on and laid it aside. He wiped the sweat that had gathered on his forehead off and then pulled out another box. He had gone through one already as well as Nick.
Nick looked over to him. "Don't understand why Wilson did all of this. Last I heard he went into the Navy himself after he left here not long after."
"Wilson worked here through Ninety-three then?" Joe asked. His fingers kept flipping through the papers. He pulled one of the pages out and looked at it, it had SFMC on it. He handed it over to Nick. "Wrong side."
Nick took it and shook his head. "Dawg gum, I thought I'd already had all them on the other side. Tar nation I'm losing my mind with all this here mess. Yeah, leather worked through Ninety-three and then after I found the mess of the files he left I was good as happy ta be gone with him."
"I can imagine you would be." Joe replied.
"His devil filly came up one day. An' leather showed me his pup. I took one look at that lil pup and knew as I'm stand'n here that it weren't his. This lil ole pup had mass of curly black hair." Nick stopped and Joe looked at him as he looked at the paper he was holding. "Here's one." He handed the sheet to Joe.
Joe took the page and looked at page twelve of seventeen. It showed that the baby weighed a little over four and half pounds and was sent to the intensive care unit for oxygen. Notes on the page said the lungs were slightly underdeveloped and extra time in the unit was called for while the mother was recovering from abnormal blood loss.
"So Wilson had the child with him. What did his filly look like? Do you know her name?" Joe asked.
"Devil whore of a thing. She handed me the lil pup while she and leather went off a way ta go have a talk. I knows he called her Vicky, other than that he was a holler'n and call'n her all other things. He was fume'n that she weren't in the place he done tol' her ta be. Some'um about watch'n some other filly. Never did catch that name, the lil pup in me arms started a wail'n about then. I got the pup ta calm down and then leather done tol' Vicky she wasn't supposed ta mess with the other filly. Leather said he was gonna take care of her. Some'um about Vicky would just fuck it all up and blow hole didn't need ta find out. He said some'um about blow hole not get'n the lil pup ever."
Joe had stopped looking through the box and just stared at Nick. "Who's blow hole? Did Wilson ever give you a name?"
"Nah, Wilson never did give me a name. If he ain't blow hole he's Navy. Blow hole was in the Navy at this time." Nick turned to look at Joe. "I don't think Navy knew at all he had a pup runn'n around. Leather was madder'n hell at Navy and kept his pup."
"You didn't bother to call the police?" Joe asked.
"I done call the police. Leather never showed back up ta work after that. I gave them what I knew about Leather and said Wilson wasn't live'n where I said he was. Well, I drove over there, it wasn't noth'n but a storage building." Nick went back to the box. "I only feel sorry for that lil pup. It ain't fitt'n ta raise a pup away from the parents like that."
Joe went back to the box he was working on and found another sheet to go with the files. His cell phone buzzed every few minutes and he kept checking to see who was calling. He was avoiding calls from his family; he saw the one from his lawyer's office and answered it.
"You have an hour to get to St. Francis. I've already called Alex's lawyer as well. Dr. Mitchell is expecting you and Alex to submit your DNA; he'll have it in the labs. The papers are filed for pulling the mother's DNA as well. We just got the body before it left the viewing to be placed in the ground."
"Good. I'm on my way then." Joe said. He hung up the phone and turned to Nick. "Nick, I need to leave. I have someplace to be. How much longer are you going to be here?"
"Well now, that's just it. I only have an hour left. I leave at four. Leave the pole cat with me, I'll keep him a busy until I leave and send what I have a found with him. You come back when the cock crows in the morn' and we'll find the rest of this here file." Nick said.
"When the cock crows." Joe gave him a smile, "I'll see you then."