Tasha Jones was confused. Her being confused didn't happen very often.
"Wait, that Puckett girl said it wasn't her hand writing but it comes back identical. What gives?" her partner asks. She shrugs.
"I'm not sure but I'm going to find out. You stay here and find out what you can about her, I'm gonna run this down to Papperman." she says. Marlon, her partner, nods his understanding while she leaves the room. As she passes the interrogation room, she can't help but look study Sam for a short moment.
"What are you hiding?" she asks to herself. She sighs and takes the results down to Nevel Papperman, their handwriting analyzer.
"Tasha, how are you?" he asks in his usual snobbish sounding way. He actually wasn't a half bad guy. A little strange but that's it.
"I'm good. I do have a question for you though." she says. He nods looking away from his computer.
"Ask away. My ear is yours." he replies. She smiles.
"I've got a suspect upstairs who says that this," she shows him the example from the log. "Isn't her handwriting but it's identical to her actually handwriting. What's up with that?" she asks. Nevel seems to think over his answer.
Fourteen year old Sam Puckett was signing a log to visit a prisoner when a guard stared at her.
"Hey didn't I just see you?" he asks suddenly. Sam looks up startled.
"No, I haven't been here in two weeks." she replies. The guard frowns, obviously confused.
"But I just saw you." he insists. "You signed in to see Angela Puckett." he elaborates.
"No I didn't. I haven't been able to see my mom lately." she says putting her pen down.
"Well unless you got a twin, you just visited with her for fifteen minutes." he says tightly. He doesn't like the games this child is playing. "She can't have anymore visitors today. Her request." he says. Sam nods but has a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"O-ok. Uh, sorry. Bye." she says rushing out of the prison. She looks back at the large building before making her way to the bus stop. "What the hell is going on?" she mutters.
"So you're saying that maybe she signed it and doesn't know she did it?" Tasha asks. Nevel nods.
"Its actually quite common for people who do this frequently. I mean, she is a celebrity so I imagine that she signs things quite often. Maybe she did it on auto-pilot." he offers. Tasha still feels as if something isn't adding up.
"Could you maybe run these anyway? Check them out?" she asks. He nods and takes them from her.
"Sure, just give me a minute." he responds. He punches in a few keys on his computer before coming up with the answer. "Ah, it seems that this...." he points to the signature on the studio log. "Doesn't belong to miss Puckett at all. Its an outline of her actual signature but if you look closely," he mutters examining the paper with his naked eye, "You can see the differences. Like the P for instance." he says. Tasha just stares at the two and back at Nevel
"I don't see it." she says.
"You'd have to be an expert and well," he says smiling "I am the best at what I do." Tasha just shakes her head at him.
"So you can see just by looking at it that they're different?" she asks. He nods.
"Yeah, but you'd have to be a professional to see it." Tasha stands up.
"But Sam said it wasn't her handwriting. Is it possible that she's just that familiar with her own writing because even I wouldn't notice that." she asks. Nevel shakes his head negative.
"No. You'd absolutely need to be trained to find this. I'm sure of it." he replies.
"Looks like this case gets deeper." she mutters.
"You have no idea." Marlon says from the door.
"What do you want to do when you get older?" Spencer asks Sam after getting her from the police station again. "Really Sam, what do you want to do? End up in jail? How do you think dad would feel about this?" he asks off all these questions. Sam finally snaps.
"HE'S NOT MY FATHER OK?! HE'S NOT! HE TOOK ME FROM MY MOTHER!" she yells. For a thirteen year old, she obviously has a lot of harbored pain.
"What are you talking about Sam?" Spencer asks shocked by the outburst. "H-he....what?" he sputters out. She breaks down crying.
"I'm not your sister Spencer. He's not my dad. My mom isn't dead.... it... I...." she continues to cry.
"Shh, I'm right here. You let it out and don't be scared." he whispers to her.
"Puckett studied forensics at Seattle University from the time she was fifteen until earlier this year." Marlon tells Tasha and Nevel "She also majored in handwriting analysis." he adds. "It was part of her punishment actually. She was a bright kid, just a trouble maker." he explains. Tasha nods her head.
"Anything else that might be helpful in talking with her?" she asks.
"I wanna be a detective. Or a social worker." Sam says after a half hour of sobbing dies down.
"Why?" Spencer asks her. She shrugs.
"A detective so I can solve crimes or something. Or a social worker so I can help kids deal with emotional problems from home." she says. Spencer nods.
"You wanna tell me what's goin on Sam?" he asks. She tenses up and her eyes change.
"Ask your father." she spits.
"Well, she hates the Seattle PD." he says. Tasha rolls her eyes as he sits down.
"What ex trouble maker doesn't?" she mutters. She notices Marlon shift uncomfortably.
"She feels like they failed her." he says.
"By bringing her in when she got in trouble?" Tasha asks in disbelief. "Figures. Its never their fault, they're always the victim. You know, I'm go-"
"Because she was a kidnapping victim and the police closed her case after a week. She had to find out everything on her own." he adds. Tasha stops mid rant and stares at him in disbelief.
"Oh my god." Nevel whispers. "Samantha Puckett from that lower class neighborhood in southern Seattle. She was taken from her mother's job when she was three." he says. "My mom told me about that case. Hell, she cried about it because it was brought up on a A&E special." he says.
"Alright. So we've got a woman who has a personal beef with the department. What else?" Tasha asks.
"Well, she has a twin sister according to this article right here. Sabrina Puckett." Nevel throws out. "Maybe she's the person on your tape." he adds. Tasha stands and sighs.
"Lets go talk to her." she says but her face shows how confused she is. Little did she know that this case was about to get even more difficult.
"Don't tell Carly." Sam says suddenly. Spencer looks at her.
"Why not? She deserves to know." he asks back.
"Because she loves that guy. I don't.... I don't want her thinkin down on him cus'a me." she says. "Its been ten years, I'm not even sure it matters anymore." she says. Spencer nods.
"Alright." he says and after a few minutes adds, "But it does matter. It'll always matter" into the empty room.
"Did you have anything to do with this child's disappearance?!" Tasha yells the question with fury.
"No!" Sam yells back loosing her temper.
"We know about what happened to you as a child. We know about your....father I guess we should call him." Marlon tries gently. "Maybe this is your way of getting back at him? Taking his granddaughter?" he throws. Sam chuckles dryly.
"Trust me, if I wanna get back at him, I'll get him. Not hurt that little girl." Sam whispers.
"And we should believe you?" Tasha asks smartly.
"Yes." Sam replies.
"Why?"
"Because if had taken her, it wouldn't be kidnapping." Tasha scoffs.
"Yeah, it would."
"No it wouldn't. I have more legal rights to Ashleigh than anybody else. If I had taken her, it wouldn't hurt him at all. He wouldn't care."
"What do you mean more legal rights?" Marlon asks interested.
"You don't know how she got here?" Sam asks. "Looks like you've been cutting corners on you're homework kiddies." she teases. "Neither Carly or Freddie can have kids." she answers simply.
"So?" Tasha pushes.
"So, they asked me. Carly still thinks I'm her sister. So as far as she knows, Ashleigh still has biological ties to one of them. But I didn't sign over my rights. Its more of an agreement, legally I'm her mom but if something happens to me, she automatically becomes their child legally. We'll tell her the set up when she's older, maybe seventeen but for now, I'm just aunt Sam." she explains. Tasha leans back in her chair as does Marlon.
"Well, I do believe that this case just got harder."