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Chapter 12

Stephanie was dressed in her RangeMan uniform, her curly hair corralled by a hair tie. She was wearing her web belt complete with everything from pepper spray to the pistol on her hip. No more was she depending on luck, or hair spray to get her out of trouble. She was fully trained to handle any and all FTA captures.

When she asked him up on five, Ranger had told her to go fully dressed. He said he wanted her to portray the badass she was and with Tank there, well, nobody would be attempting to disarm her with him in the room.

Tank stood behind her leaning against the now closed door. His back conveniently blocked the small window so that Taylor couldn't view the proceedings, but the video was rolling up in Ranger's office and Hectors' storage too, of course.

Tank let Stephanie do the talking, but with his massive arms crossed at his chest, his biceps appeared almost twice as huge. He was there as a presence, and he loved to portray that image. As the saying says, size matters!

Stephanie stepped closer to Larry but stayed out of range of any attempt to grab her as a hostage.

"Hello, Mr. Morrison."

She waited for a moment, then spoke again.

"I would like to ask you some questions, if I may."

She looked at him as he nodded looking furtively behind her at Tank.

"First of all," and she looked down at the sheet of paper in her hand, "did you know my birth mother?"

Larry turned his attention totally to Stephanie and smiled at the question. There must have been a thousand possible ways to start, but it was a good start.

"I knew her, in fact I knew her before my brother Chuck did, who is your birth father. I was two years older than your mom."

He looked at the floor. "My mother was NOT pleased that they were going to have a baby and insisted that Michelle move into the family home after she was turfed from her aunts' home. She said that it was their responsibility to look after her now. Michelle and her older sister had been staying with her aunt for the school year since her parents were completing a missionary pilgrimage. The aunt didn't want to be looking after an unwed pregnant minor and had asked her to leave."

He looked down at his hands.

"Michelle gave birth in the Key West Medical Center on October 12, 1981 after a difficult labor. In fact, I heard how she almost died in childbirth since she was so young. The staff wanted to keep her in longer, but, well, Mother convinced Chuck that she could recuperate at home."

He paused. "You have to know that she was a very strong willed woman whose word was law and nobody in our house was strong enough to cross her. Chuck brought you and Michelle home with instructions that she was to see her doctor a week later, but she never got there. Once you were in the house, you were under Mothers' rules.

Michelle's parents were on their way back as fast as they could arrange the flights but they never saw you or Michelle before you both disappeared."

He shook his head at the memory.

"Michelle was going stir crazy in the house and finally got permission to get some baby supplies at the store down the street. It was a nice day and Mother was washing clothes. Mother gave her some money and told her she had to be back in an hour. I guess she got busy and forgot the time until Michelle came back without you.

My mother was livid and demanded to know where you were. Michelle was adamant that she would never find you and my mother slapped her. I got a panicky phone call at work from your mom to rescue her and I rushed over. Your mom was in rough shape and obviously needed medical assistance and when I stepped in, Mother turned on me."

A tear slipped down his cheek at the memory.

"Chuck came home and both he and Mother scoured the area, everywhere from the emergency department to the crisis nursery centre for abused moms and children. Then, with your mom disappearing too, well it got pretty bad there. We had all been forbidden to call the police and register you both as missing. Mother didn't want the police involved since Chuck was known to them. She was worried the Michelle knew too much about what he was involved in and would spill everything to the police, so Mother told him to go hide out for a couple of weeks."

He looked at her.

"Things calmed down since the police didn't come looking for Chuck and no word on either of you came down, so we all settled into an uneasy peace. Then, Chuck got arrested and charged and sent to jail for a couple of months and it started all over again."

Stephanie listened and let him talk.

"Dad got a new job in Philadelphia and they sold their house and moved. Mother still lives at the house they bought. Chuck decided that it was getting too hot for him in Key West and he moved to their house to get away from the gang activities. He was on his third strike, the judge in Key West said.

Mother helped him to get a job in Philadelphia and it seemed to calm down. Then, one day, one of Chucks' co-workers started to beak off that he knew the police had arrested my brother for a bunch of things. He had friends from Key West who'd given him the lowdown on Chucks' gang activities.

Less than a day later, the guy got run down by what was reported as a car pedestrian accident by a stolen car. An anonymous tip was called in and Chuck got arrested and charged, and convicted. He'd gotten careless and left a single fingerprint in the car which put him at the scene.

When he died in jail from the assault, my mother just went into such a depressive state that I was worried she might try to commit suicide. I tried to get her some help, but well, my Nancy and I were newly married and there was no money. Then my father had a heart attack, passed away and it got worse.

We now had our own family, still living in Key West. Mother wanted us to move home and I stood up to her saying that we wanted our own lives."

Larry shifted around. He grimaced, then attempted to stand up. Tank pushed off the wall as if to intercede but Stephanie put up her hand to stop him.

Larry looked like he was in pain.

"I'm sorry but I have to move around or I get too stiff to move. I was in the army and was wounded in a training accident during Basic. It was serious enough that I was honorably discharged, but well, I have to be careful to not over-tax my one side."

He walked around the small room, being careful to stay away from Stephanie. Tanks' eyes never left him but he stayed by the door.

Larry looked at the bed but instead headed back to the chair and sat down.

"I could keep on going but I know you have questions," he said.

Stephanie looked down at the notes in her hands. Larry had answered a bunch of them, but those had led to more questions.

"You said that my maternal grandparents are deceased. Do I have any living relatives that I could contact for more information or to meet them?"

Larry shook his head slowly. "I know she had a sister who was a couple of years older than her. I don't know what her married name is or where she is living, but her name was Patricia Jean Lawrence. Jean was her mothers' first name."

One could practically see the gears turning in Stephanie's brain as she absorbed the information. She had a number of places to start and would be delving into the mystery as soon as she left the room.

Larry was obviously tiring and Stephanie could see the signs of exhaustion creeping in. She didn't know him enough to give him a hug even if she trusted him but she did smile at him.

"Thank you for as much information as you gave me so far. It's a start and I'm going to start to pursue some leads. Are you OK or do you need some medical attention that we don't know about? We have a trained medic on staff and I'm sure he can get you your meds or whatever you need."

Larry frowned. "I'm staying at that fleabag motel down the street, Room 115 and my prescriptions are on the bathroom vanity. It's not dangerous that I not take them on time, but they do help my pain."

Stephanie looked back at Tank and he nodded. As soon as they were out of the room, someone would take the key card they found on Larry and get the bottles. At the same time, they would check over the room.

Stephanie walked out the now open door and Tank followed.

H spoke to Taylor on the other side.

"His meds are in his motel room and we'll go over and get them and bring them back to Bobby to administer as needed."

Taylor nodded. As he resumed his post outside the door, the viewer clicked on above the door and they could all see that Larry was attempting to lay down on the bed, his face twisting with discomfort.

Tank was on the phone to the control room.

"Where's Santos?"

Maurice looked at his screen. "He's just getting ready to go on surveillance."

Tank tried not to frown. His scheduling was taking a beating with Edna, and now their detainee. "Move him off the surveillance shift and have someone else inserted. I have a job for him."

Tank hung up, then pressed a button. "Les, get the key card from Hector and check out Room 115 at the Ladybird Motel down the street. I need the meds on the bathroom vanity. While you're in there, toss it for any sign of something suspicious. Bring the meds back to Bobby."

He hung up.

Stephanie walked to the elevator. A few levels were OK, but six, nah. The elevator was fast and the door was open.

~~~o0o~~~

Hector phoned Ranger on his cell.

(Spoken in Spanish)

"Boss, Mr. Morrison's phone is practically jumping off my desk from all the calls. They all say 'Mommy Dearest'."

Ranger nodded. He was satisfied that the man currently in their custody would never mastermind this or any other attempt on his babes' life.

"Mr. Morrison is safe at the present time, both from his mother and from himself. He seems happy to be out from under her control.

Your information has him renting a car under his mothers' name. Send a vehicle to find it. I'm assuming it's at the hospital. Then have it returned it to the rental agency."

~~~o0o~~~

Meanwhile, back at the Morrison house, Mary was getting both more frantic and angrier by the minute.

Why wasn't Larry answering his cell? Had he managed to get near that woman who had, without a doubt, contributed to her favorite sons demise? She may have been only a few days old, but the trouble she had caused by being born!

Well, momma would take care of the problem herself because obviously her remaining son had failed her at this most inopportune time.

She looked at the wall of the office that used to be the guest bedroom and her fists clenched. Pictures lined every inch of one wall. There were pictures from the Trenton Times showing the person they called the Bombshell Bomber. She was covered in a myriad of everything from garbage to soot to blood. There were pictures of her being loaded into an ambulance. Some of her standing triumphantly in front of the police station. There were also pictures of her standing beside burnt or burning cars.

There were pictures of her appearing to argue with a member of the police force. Mary could see the anger and hurt on her face as she appeared to be going toe to toe with someone. He had an Italian appearance and even in a black and white picture, she could almost see how he could have been red faced.

There were a number of pictures with men dressed all in black, some tall, some very large and one who always seemed to have his face averted. She looked more relaxed in those and in some, almost content as she stood near or was being embraced by the man in black.

Two months ago, Mary had pulled up a copy of an obituary of a recently deceased relative. Staring at the picture on the front page of the Trenton Times, she was shocked to see the scary resemblance of the girlfriend of her deceased son looking at her. She had phoned the Times and had digital pictures sent to her with everything of her in their files. She had explained that she was working on a book about unconventional women.

It had just been a stroke of good luck that she had seen the picture and wondered at the resemblance to a long-lost baby girl. The possibility of her being her granddaughter was more than a passing thought.

She had dispatched Larry to Trenton by Greyhound for a couple of days to check things out. He had only a little money but had managed to get a room in a boarding house. He found a soup kitchen and was living on one meal a day. Larry had been in the right place during one of this Stephanie's captures and had managed to grab a piece of bloody gauze off the sidewalk when nobody was noticing and the area had calmed down. Bringing it back home, he'd given her the sample. Mary had then walked into her dead sons' bedroom and had taken some hair from his hairbrush. The room was exactly as he had left it when he had been sent to jail, a sort of shrine to him. Nobody or nothing would make her clean out that room, unless it was a death, hers.

Paying a private company to do a DNA test, the results had been conclusive that they were related.

That being the case, she wanted to have her granddaughter back.

Mary smiled.

Her son really did live on, both in her heart and in this woman.

It was time.

Now, where the hell was that other son of hers?

~~~o0o~~~

Both Ranger and Hector were watching on their screens. When Tank and Stephanie left, they stopped watching the recording.

Hectors' phone rang.

(Spoken in Spanish)

"Dig as deep as you need. It's important that Stephanie gets as much as we can give her."

Hector answered. "On it, Boss."

They both hung up at the same time.

~~~o0o~~~

Stephanie phoned Ella after looking at her watch.

"Hi, Ella. Are you free for a cup of tea?"

Ella came back with a response immediately.

"Stephanie dear. I was just getting ready to put the kettle on. I'd love some company."

Stephanie sighed. She loved Ella. She was such a kind soul and seemed to understand Stephanie's mood sometimes better than she did.

"I'll be right up."

She shut down her computer and stood up, picking up the papers and then setting them down again.

She didn't want to blast the poor lady too much, but she wanted, no needed an independent viewpoint on the whole matter.

Running up the stairs to six, the apartment door was already standing open and Stephanie knocked softly before walking through the doorway.

"Hi, Ella."

She took off her boots and set them in the tray by the door. Only Ella's work shoes were sitting in the tray and Stephanie wondered if Ella had politely requested that Luis to go look at something for a while.

Ella was moving around the kitchen and was just putting the teapot with a knitted tea cozy over the top on a tray. Two cups and saucers were already sitting on the tray along with a small milk and sugar set. There was a small dish of squares which Stephanie recognized as triple chocolate brownies. She loved Ella.

Ella carried the tray to the living room and they both sat down. Ella poured the tea and Stephanie added in her milk and sugar combination. On the side of the saucer she had put one, and only one small piece of brownie.

Ella didn't say anything but her eyebrow lifted in surprise. Bobby had let it be known that he was putting Stephanie on a cholesterol diet, but really, this might be a female emergency.

They each took a sip of tea and a bite of brownie. Stephanie's eyes closed in ecstasy then she put her saucer down.

Ella reciprocated and waited.

Stephanie clasped her hands in her lap and played with the cloth napkin.

"I'm not sure if you know, but I've been getting some packages addressed to me without return addresses. Two, to be exact.

In the first one were some pictures of a young woman, almost a girl really and holding a blanket with a new born baby in her arms. I couldn't help but notice how similar she looked like me, and the baby, well, I've been told that most babies look like their dad at birth, except she had curly hair and blue eyes."

She stopped then spoke again.

"I headed over to my parents' house and low and behold, they had what looked like the same baby blanket hidden in a box deep in their storeroom. They told me the girl had begged them to take her baby and raise her as their own since she was afraid something bad was going to happen to both she and the baby."

She looked at Ella. Ella moved from her chair to sit by Stephanie and put her arm around her.

Stephanie spoke again.

"I talked to Grandma Mazur and she confirmed it all, right up to how they managed to get me registered here in Trenton. I can't believe that the Burg didn't get wind of any of this and to this day, nobody or nothing has ever leaked out."

Ella shook her head in shock. This only happened in the movies, right?

She was waiting for more details when Stephanie's phone rang.

()()()()

Authors Note – Many of you may have heard of a bus crash this past weekend in Saskatchewan, Canada. The Humboldt Broncos Hockey Team was on their way to a playoff game and was involved in a terrible accident. All 29 people in the bus were either killed or injured. These young men were 16-21 years old and had their lives to live ahead of them. We mourn their loss.

Myrna