23.
~ Alex never took the elevators. Aside from them being too slow, he hated always finding himself pinned into any space with a resident of the apartment building. Having to make awkward smalltalk and with absolutely no way out. Especially with Mrs. White. She terrified him.
He always preferred the stairs as it was faster, provided many escape options and he need the exercise anyway.
It had been apart of his morning routine, going the ten stories from top to bottom and walking the hallways just as people were leaving for the day. He always seemed to catch the single mothers who oddly enough timed their departure when he did his security walk. Just so they could say hi to him with fresh make up and styled hair.
Alex Romero's wife said to him that this was no accident and it wasn't a coincidence.
It was a decent enough workout and took a better part of an hour. He checked back in with the security desk and found the young man at his post as always. Residents liked to see someone at the front desk and liked to see Alex Romero or his wife Norma around the building in case there was something that concerned them. There was always something that concerned them.
In many ways, running the building was like running a very small town. Not at all unlike White Pine Bay. The occupants here were their own little inhabitants and wanted to be protected from the outside world. They expressed concerns about crime that happened locally. The former sheriff assuring them about the new state of the art security cameras he had Mr Warren install and the special lock down procedures that they would have to never use. He even held a special meeting about fire evacuations and not opening the doors for strangers.
Meetings that were attended by a shocking amount of women. Something his wife would never tire of teasing him about.
"Were you this popular with the female population when you were a sheriff?" she would ask gleefully.
Alex had found the attention uncomfortable. In truth, he hadn't been popular with women as a Sheriff in White Pine Bay and couldn't explain his sudden appeal now. Perhaps it was because they knew so little about him.
All they knew was what he told them. What they could confirm online, which was very little.
Sheriff Alex Romero had served in the Marines and had been in law enforcement for more than twenty years before he took an early retirement from White Pine Bay County in Oregon after he'd been shot in a parking lot. There were lengthy articles about DEA arrests which might have had to do with the backlash on the local sheriff. But it only seemed to add to his mystique.
Norma said his mystique had nothing to do with his new found admirers. It was the sliver wedding band her wore, the fact he was decent looking and had a job with authority that made women want him.
As for Norma, she was an equal enigma to the people around her. A former motel owner who seemed very rigid at times. She looked far too young to have owned or run any business but she was very professional and made sure all the service people were on time. With her as general manager of the apartment building, things seemed to naturally fall into a smooth routine.
The building and it's residents seeming to like such a strict mistress to look after them. Like school children responding well to authority.
~ Alex let himself into their apartment which, at the very back of the building, was always quite.
He could hear the hum of the dishwasher and dryer going and realized Norma had already gotten up and done some cleaning. The apartment still a jumble of disarray that he'd never get used to.
He found his wife was asleep in their bedroom. She must have passed out while folding clothes. Her blond hair, grown out well past her shoulders in fat, cascading ringlets and she looked every bit the sleeping beauty of fairy tales.
His son Julian was wide awake but cooing quietly in his carrier. Norma refused to leave him alone in a room if he was awake and only left him when he need to sleep.
Julian saw his father coming in and looked up in interest. That's how it was with father and son. Julian was always interested in what his father was up to. He always looked at him with his mother's expressive face as if to say:
'What's going on old man? What are we going to do?'
Alex was careful not to wake Norma and reached out to snatch Julian's carrier. His infant son not making a sound as the two boys made a hasty get away.
~ "You're getting heavy." Alex remarked having to heft the carried onto the countertop with both hands.
Julian smiled with fat little cheeks and Alex wished for the hundredth time he'd been born with Norma's eye color. But Julian got almost everything else good about his mother. Her expressions were all over their son's face. The way his eyes would go wide with attention as Alex made himself a sandwich.
'What's that, old man?' the infant seemed to say with a curious expression.
"I take it you woke up with a new tooth." Alex asked washing his hands and running a finger around his sons gums. Norma had assured him that Julian's sleep disruption was normal for a baby of five months and the teething was why he'd been so fussy lately. She'd chilled some teething rings to help numb the pain for him and Alex was thankful his wife seemed willing to take the brunt of the baby's mood swings.
He thought he'd been ready for it. Ready for the tornado such a little creature could bring, but he had no idea. No idea that this one little person could so easily turn their lives upside-down.
Their apartment had been so organized and modern and now, it was unrecognizable with Julian's play area and stroller taking up so much space.
Alex was often taken aback. Wondering who's life he'd wandered into.
Then his son would smile his own smile back at him and look at him with Norma's exact expression and he would feel that panic ease.
Julian's arrival had been shockingly easy. A very fancy doctor had told them their son was fine and Norma had to have bed rest for the last two weeks of her pregnancy. Her labor was induced and Julian Romero arrived purple and looking like an extremely grumpy old man. He'd frowned when he'd first been born. Actually frowned and cried. Then, after he'd been cleaned up, the doctor had given him to Norma and he looked at her in exhaustion. His face still pale and purple, but it was as if they were glad to finally meet each other.
Julian never cried long for his mother of course, but regarded his father as being rather incompetent with babies. Alex didn't blame him. If he was a baby, he'd prefer someone as capable as Norma looking after him to. Norma had to teach her husband how to do everything and Julian had no patience at all for his father's ineptness.
It was no wonder the baby's face lit up when his mother entered the room. Julian loved his mother. He must have literally thought she let the sun out every morning and he looked at her in a way he would never look at his father. With Alex, Julian was just curious and wanted to be around him, man to man. With his mother, it was pure love.
"Hey." Norma said sleepily as Alex watched his son's eyes sparkle when she came in the kitchen.
She brushed a hand around his waist and then checked on the baby who was kicking his feet in excitement.
"When did you get in?" she asked.
"About five minutes ago." Alex admitted. "Didn't want to wake you."
"I must have been tired." she sighed. "This one is becoming a real party animal."
Julian knew enough to look innocent.
'Who me? No way, old man. She's talking about some other baby.'
"It's not forever." Alex reminded her.
"Better not be." Norma said and went to the fridge to get Julian a teething ring. Already predicting he would grow fussy.
"How was your walk? Did Mrs. White conveniently step outside her door again this morning?" Norma teased.
Alex sighed.
"Oh, it's terrible. Norma, you're going to have to start coming with me." he said.
"Alex, you don't need me to help you fend off the sexual advances of a bored housewife. You're the Big Daddy of White Pine Bay. You used to beat up criminals in parking lots for God sakes." Norma reminded him.
Alex shook his head.
"This is different. She's out to get me." he said worriedly.
"She might succeed." Norma admitted dryly.
"No, don't say that." he shuttered thinking of the older woman who was the same age as Norma but who hadn't taken care of herself the way his wife had. He didn't like the way Mrs. White 'pursued' him either. Like it was apart of his job to stop and talk to her and be nice to her. It wasn't.
"She knows I'm married. She's seen you with Julian. I mean, what if she starts making fake security calls so I'll come to her apartment? That's the next step you know. It used to happen to me when I was a deputy before I got the reputation for being really rude. Some woman gets a little crush on you and…" he shook his head.
"Send in one of the young men." Norma told him. "Or you know, NO MEANS NO, Alex. You could tell her that."
"Or I could just be rude to her." Alex said.
"We're not those people anymore." Norma reminded him softly. "We left those people in White Pine Bay. Anyway, Mr. Warren has been really good to us."
Alex nodded and his son greedily chewed on a teething ring. Norma's angry expression on his face.
"Such a handsome boy." Norma happily cooed at the baby.
Alex shook his head and noticed the mail from yesterday.
"I'll be in my office." he said gathering it up.
"Watch out for Mrs. White." Norma warned in a happy voice.
~ Alex's office was directly behind the security office, which was behind the front desk. It used to be the office of the hotel manager but now, it was all his. He spent most of his day here with the security cameras doing the work for him. He would get up several times a day and walk up the five flights and down them again. Going up and down each hallway. It was always good for the residents to see him walking outside their halls. It gave them the illusion of safety.
He patrolled the parking lot to. He knew who's car belong to which resident and questioned when they got a new car. Residents were very impressed that their head of security kept tabs on such things. Again, illusions of safety.
He checked in the underground storage twice a day and got his steps in that Norma bugged him about. Julian's birth at their age in life had urged them to keep fit. She used the gym and pool here. Took yoga and other workout routines. Alex walked and lifted weights. They both ate right. So far it was working. Mr. Warren had accused the former Sheriff of lying when he said he was nearing fifty.
He started leafing through envelopes and the large tree logo from PineView was distinctive and gave him pause. They never got mail from Norman's hospital anymore. All care information was directed exclusively to Dylan nowadays.
After Norma became pregnant with Julian, Dylan and Alex, along with Doctor Edwards, decided Dylan should become Norman's responsible party. That all issues with the patient would be handled by Dylan only and Alex and Norma would be cut out.
They were even able to move Norman off of Alex's insurance and onto Dylan's which made things easier since his brother was the only person Norman ever wanted to see.
Alex had rightly been concerned that such worry over Norman and his manipulation would cause harm to the baby. Norma's pregnancy being at a high risk anyway and she didn't need the stress of Norman calling her and screaming.
When Norma found out about the change of custody, Julian had already arrived, and she hadn't seemed too distraught over what they'd done behind her back. Something that had surprised Alex and Dylan. Norma hated when they conspired behind her back.
"I understand why you did it." she whispered looking at Julian's scrunched up face that still liked to frown in his sleep. "We have to put this one first."
So why was PineView writing to him now?
~ The news was more horrible than he could have imagined. Norman Bates had successfully petitioned to be released into his own custody and the release date was two weeks ago.
"Dylan why am I just now finding this out?" Alex gasped into his phone.
He's locked his office door and kept an eye out on the front lobby. If he had to, he could easily call for the building to be locked down. His front desk man had only mace and orders to pull the fire alarms should a killer come into the building, but Norma and Julian were in the back apartment. They would have to come into the lobby.
Alex had already gotten the side arm he'd stolen from Zane Morgen from his wall safe and loaded it.
"I only found out today." Dylan said in equal frustration. "They didn't tell me because Norman's an adult. He's twenty years old."
"Do you know where he is?" Alex practically barked at his step son.
"Only once place he knows to go." Dylan said.
"Home?" Alex laughed. "The house? The motel? The caretaker there says that place has barely broke even this entire time. It makes just enough to keep the lights on and to pay the mortgage."
"Where else would he go?" Dylan asked.
"Does Norman know where we are?" Alex asked. "Does he know about Julian?"
"No." Dylan said quickly. "No. Norman still thinks mom's at the house. He never even talks about you."
"You have to go to White Pine Bay." Alex said. "I can't tell Norma about this. I can't leave here alone with a baby. Julian is teething… this is too much. You know how she is, she'll try and fix him. It was hard enough to get her to admit that Norman needs to stay there. That she needed to remove herself from him."
"Romero." Dylan interrupted. "Look I'm in Maine right now."
"What?" Alex barked.
"Yeah. I'm on a business trip. Emma called me. I can't do anything. You can call the caretaker, or call up to the new Sheriff… what's her name?"
"Jane Greene." Alex said dully. He'd kept a close watch on the new appointments of White Pine Bay. Sheriff Jane Greene seemed as far removed from him as was humanly possible. Maybe that was the idea.
"Yeah. Call her. Tell her." Dylan said.
"Tell her what?" Alex asked. "What do we tell her?"
It was never spoken between them much. It was like a closely guarded family secret that Norman Bates killed Audrey Decody and probably others. Alex and Dylan had never told Doctor Edwards this information. There had been a fear that it would put Norman in an institution that wouldn't help him. A situation that would hurt their fragile family.
Everything was fine so long as Norman was in PineView. Now, everything had fallen apart and they had no one to blame but themselves. As far as anyone on the outside knew, Norman Bates had spent the past two years in a private mental health facility. He had no criminal record except for a few questions regarding the accidental death of Jimmy Brennan. In the eyes of the law, he was innocent.
Not even the new Sheriff Greene would listen to them. Alex Romero was probably still a dirty word in White Pine Bay. A lot of the wealthy class had lost their livelihood when the DEA raided the bank that last time. Why would she listen to him now?
"Romero?" Dylan asked nervously.
Alex let out a deep sigh.
"It's going to be okay." he said. He found himself wishing that he'd raised Dylan as his own son in times like these. The two of them got along very well and he could tell the younger man looked to him as a father figure often.
If Alex had one wish in the world, he wished he could go back in time just long enough to kidnap Norma while she was still in high school but expecting Dylan, marry her, and they could have been a real family together.
Just after Julien had been born, Dylan had taken him out to a bar to celebrate and Romero had admitted this little fantasy to him. Dylan had looked angry at first, but only nodded.
"I wish it had ben like that to." he'd said. "Things would have been a lot better."
"It's going to be okay, son." Alex said again. "I'll alert the caretaker at the motel. I'll take care of it."
"Don't upset mom." Dylan warned.
"I won't." Alex promised. "I'll make something up. I… I probably won't even leave town. I'll handle it."
"I'll call PineView and find out why they took so long to tell us." Dylan said. "What are you going to do if Norman is there? It's been two weeks already."