Chapter 22: Breaking News

Seth and Allie are sitting at the table picking a few more things for the wedding. They were working on it with some minor help. So far everything was coming along easily. "Yesterday was nice, she was so happy."

"Mick and Beth are good parents," Allie agreed.

"We will be too." They went back to flipping through ordering books for a few minutes when he glanced at her briefly, "Do you have a preference?"

Allie looked at the page of center pieces he was looking at, "Out of those…maybe this one." She pointed to one in the middle and Seth laughed.

"No I meant about the baby. Would you rather have a little boy or girl?"

Allie shrugged, "I don't care as long as they're healthy."

Moving her hair behind her ear he leaned in and kissed her cheek, "Me too but I can just see you with a little girl. I saw the way you lit up when Kayla was bouncing around."

She turned to look at him, "Really Seth I don't care what gender our baby is. A little girl would be great, I could teach her everything I know and teach her girly thing but a boy could play sports with you and be a gentleman. I'll love our child the same no matter what."

"Either sound good baby I was just curious," Seth assured as he turned his attention back to the wedding plans.

Danielle made her way down the stairs and ran into Coop who putting the boys lunch in front of them. He'd been playing with the boys while she worked on laundry and cleaning the upstairs but now she was finished and ready for a bite to eat.

After the boys finished their lunch with mommy and daddy they were put down for their naps. Coop pulled Danielle to sit with him on the couch and the flipped through the TV guide. "Hey Dani I want you to know I haven't forgotten or been avoiding the vampire thing I just haven't talked to Mick yet. He's real busy working on that case and I know how important it is and Kayla's party didn't seem like a good time."

Danielle looked up into his eyes and gave him a smile, "I understand. This is really important to Jean too. They'll figure it out soon enough, they always do. We're not in any hurry." They snuggled together watching TV until the boys woke up from their nap and the catch up game began again.

Beth and Mick were working once more on Graces case trying to find something when Beth's phone rings. She sees it's Carl, "Hey Carl tell me you have something."

"I have lab results," he answered quickly and confidently. "When you took over payments for the tests I pulled a few strings. They came back Grace was dosed with Misazolam. The lab techs did the math and given the data Grace would have been unconscious during the approximate time the blood was left in the room."

Beth looked at Mick excitedly happy to hear the news, "That's great news. The DA must be dropping the charges now."

"I just got the information myself I'm about to take it to him. I wanted to call you first and let you know."

"Thank you so much Carl," Beth gushed.

Beth got off the phone just as Mick's began to ring. "St. John," he answered.

"Mr. St. John hi this is Todd Whelps. You gave me your card…" He sounded hesitant and nervous.

"You work at the hotel, going to school…" Mick remembered. "What can I do for you?"

"So you know the staff working that night well the house keeper was acting strange after that night, I thought it was just the act itself everyone was a little different. I mean someone covered in blood and no one hearing or seeing anything is way freaky. Anyways then things got a bit better but these two guys showed up, they had guns in their pants and lots of tattoos and they were asking questions about that night. They talked to most everyone but after they talked to her the other day she finished her shift and didn't come in the last two days."

Mick flipped through his notes quickly, "And this is Ava Melborne?"

"Yes that's her. I don't know what happened but she hasn't shown up to work or called in. I'm sorta worried that maybe those creeps…I don't know did something. I was going to call the police but I don't know for sure ya know?"

"I'll check it out," Mick assured making a note. "Have you gotten the camera working again?"

"Yeah they got fixed last week why?"

"Can you find them on the video and send me the picture?"

"Yeah sure I'll send it."

Mick looked over at Beth who had made her way over towards them mouthing to have the kid call Carl. Mick nodded, "Todd I'm going to start looking into this but I also want you to file a report with the lead investigator okay."

Mick could hear the kids breathing increase, "But I could get in big trouble for giving you that stuff."

"Don't worry about that. He's a good guy and we're working on the case with him. Just call him and tell him what you told me okay. Here is his direct line," Mick read the number from Beth's phone screen before ending the call.

Beth looked Mick over as he stood from his desk and grabbed his coat and went to the hidden wall safe and removed his gun. "You think they could be the ones who took Grace from the house?"

Seeing Beth grab her coat as well Mick sighed and grabbed Beth's gun and handed it to her. "I think there's a chance and if so I missed it."

Beth could see the worry on Mick's face and reached out to hold his arm as they made their way out of the office and to the elevator. "Let's not jump to conclusions Mick, she might just have caught the flu or had a family emergency."

"I hope you're right."

To Be Continued…

Evilous