Chapter 19 – A plan in the making

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"This is the church where Anthony was found abandoned," Bella explained, directing Edward gaze to a circled area on the map.

The couch squeaked as he leaned forward. "I've look it up on my own, I know where it is. "

"Ok good, so if we go by chronological order, the first witness was be the bus driver, who remembers a female passenger with a child, matching Anthony's description. They stepped off the bus at this bus stop, right over here."

Her hand moved to point out a spot about half a block away from the church. "The second witness is the Catholic priest, whom the woman spoke with during confession. And then we have the new witness; a female shop owner who was working on a front window display, right across the street from the bus stop." Again she indicated a point on the map." You with me so far?" she asked turning her head to Edward, who nodded affirmatively, urging her to go on.

"This witness saw our mystery woman when she arrived, but more importantly she was also saw her, twenty something minutes later, when she hoped on a bus again and left… same woman, same bus stop, but no child this time."

Edward blew out a breath of impatience as he processed this new, or not so new, information. "So, she traveled by bus. Didn't we already know this?"

"Yes, but we only had one bus route before; the one that brought her there. Now we know which route she took when she left too. I've marked them on the map with a green and a blue marker."

"The lines cross each other on two different places," Edward observed after having studied them for a while. "Could one of those places be where she got on the bus originally?"

Bella shook her head. "We can't know that for sure. Theoretically she could have transferred from one bus to another on any of the bus stops along the line. That's what the red dotted lines are for, to mark the other bus routes in the area."

Edward leaned forward on the couch to rest his elbows on his knees. "What about the Metro, there must be a station nearby, right?"

"Well yes, the closest one is over here…" she paused to point it out on the map. "… but she would have had to switch busses at least three times to get from the metro station to the right bus route. I sincerely doubt she opted to do that with a toddler on her arm during the morning rush. It's just too much of a hustle."

He considered her reasoning for a moment. "Maybe she took a cab and then jumped on a bus…and then switched buses once or twice just to confuse us. She must have known her steps would be traced."

"Sure, that's one of many possibilities," Bella agreed without argument. "The way I see it, the only way to move forward with this is to make and test a variety of assumptions. In fact there are a fe-…"

"Assumptions, really? Is that your typicalapproach?" Edward cut in, leaning back in his seat to give her an irritated look.

"Do you want to hear this or not?" Bella snapped, not happy with being interrupted.

"I do, I do," he put up his hands in a soothing gesture. "I'm allowed to have questions though, aren't I?"

"Of course, "she sighed. "Just, hear me out first before you bite my head off, okay?"

He threw his hands up again. "Fine! Carry on by all means…"

"Well, maybe I started in the wrong end of things," she amended, biting her lip. "Let's look at what we know so far before we move on to the assumptions. Let's start with what we know about the appearance of our missing person. We're looking for a woman of average height and weight, with dark hair and brown eyes. She wore an oversized, dark, gray hoodie and big, dark sun glasses."

"And a tattoo… Wasn't there something about a tattoo?"

"The bus driver thought he saw some ink, a butterfly tattoo on her neck, but none of the other witnesses has mentioned it."

Edward frowned and began tapping his fingers on the table. "What about the new witness, the shop owner? How close of a look did she get? Any new details?"

"She describes the person she observed as a fairly young woman, in mid-twenties tops. Her clothes and shoes were neat and clean, but well worn. Our witness didn't get a good look of her face, but she mentioned that her hair looked like it hadn't been dyed or cut for quite some time."

"So frizzy, unkept hair, but otherwise neat and clean? Not a junkie, or hobo, or homeless person then…"

"Probably not, but she's hardly a socialite or a fashionista either. No fancy shoes or designer clothes, no jewelry's, no handbag. The witness's statements, along with the letter that was left with the child seem to indicate that the woman we're looking for is financially challenged."

"That's your brilliant assumption? That the woman is low on cash?"

"I don't know how brilliant it is, but yes assumption number one is that her means of transportation were limited and that the bus was cheapest way for her to get from point A to point B. I would say the poor state the child was in when you first got him confirms this theory," she paused, gauging his reactions and when he didn't speak, she continued. "Now moving on to assumption number two… We've already discussed this one. It's about Anthony and his allergies."

Edward frowned again, but nodded in recognition. "I remember, you think there is a doctor out there somewhere that has treated Anthony for Anaphylaxis. Any news on that front?"

"I'll get to that in a minute. There is one more thing, one more assumption that I'd like to explain; the child's origin… It's more of a hunch than anything else at this point, but I'm fairly sure Anthony has spent better part of the last two years in the Seattle area."

Edward looked skeptical. "Is this about his accent again?"

"No, it's about his shoes. Do you remember what Anthony wore on his feet when you first met him?"

"Vaguely…. Sneakers of some sort? Well worn, hardly holding together. I haven't seen them since Alice swooped in and took care of the clothing situation. I wouldn't be surprised if she either burned them or trashed them."

"She did neither. Both the shoes and the clothes he wore were passed on to me for further investigation and are currently being examined in a crime lab back in NY…. off the record, off course… I have a friend there that owes me a favor."

Edward seemed to be surprised by this because his fingers, which had been drumming a steady rhythm, stopped. "What are you hoping to find? DNA fragments from another person?"

"If we're lucky, yes. But for now we'll have to settle for dirt."

"Dirt?"

"Yes, dirt. I've had the lab run an analysis of the dirt collected from the underside of the shoes. A large number of particles have been identified and among those particles are a certain kind of spores that can be tied specifically to springtime in the Pacific Northwest and the Seattle-Tacoma area."

"Spores? Like fungus spores?"

"No, not fungus, we're talking about a certain kind of pollen spores. There is Latin name for them, which is nearly impossible to pronounce, but I can write it down for you if you want to google it. What's interesting with this finding is that the release of these spores only occurs between March and May."

His brows furrowed as he tried to figureout what it all meant. "So, you're saying that those shoes were walking around in the Seattle-Tacoma area last spring?" he finally concluded.

"It certainly looks that way."

"Fascinating, but I don't see how this is of any help for me."

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong. If you take all these things into consideration, you'll get an idea of where we should focus our search," Bella said drawing a circle on the map with her index finger, a circle that was big enough to include the green and the blue buss lines as well as a few of the intersecting red ones.

"Searching for what? A nameless, faceless woman, who wears plain clothes and occasionally takes the bus?"

"No, what I'd like to look for is a medical facility where Anthony could have received treatment for his allergies. There are approximately 84 hospitals in the Seattle area and another 150 something clinics and medical facilities, so what I need is a strategy that prioritizes where to start looking and how to go from there."

"Alright, but it still sounds like looking for a needle in a haystack to me."

"That's why I came up with this strategy. We have three hospitals somewhat close by, but only two free medical clinics, the Harvey Health Center and Health South Parkway " she explained once again pointing at the map. "And since free clinics are wherepeople go when they can't afford other options… those two places are where I want to start. "

"So what's the plan then? What exactly is it that your strategy entails?"

"I have set up a doctor's appointment for Anthony at the Harvey Health Center. He's going in to get a scratch test done at the clinic tomorrow."

"Eh, what? Why?"

"To test for allergies of course. A scratch test is when you apply a small bit of an allergen to a scratch on the arm and then watch for a reaction."

"I know what it is. I just didn't think you'd do something like that without checking with me first. I've been planning on asking Carlisle to give him a checkup or help me set up an appointment with a suitable pediatrician if needed."

"You can still do that. This appointment is merely a way for us to snoop around inside the facility without rousing suspicion."

"Why do we need to snoop? Can't I just ask them to check in their system if they by any chance have treated Anthony in the past?"

"You can certainly try. This falls under a legalandethical gray zone, though. As a parent you can request access to your child's medical records, but it's a little bit more complicated whenyou don't know the child's full name or his exact birth date. Let's put it this way, instead of making a simple request for your sons records, you're pretty much asking them to grant you access to their entire archive."

"I can see how that would be considered a gray zone." Edward sighed and rubbed his forehead. "The correct protocol would be to get some sort of court order for this, right?"

"Sure, a court order would certainly help, but it'll take forever to obtain. My approach is going to be faster and more efficient."

"Dare I ask, what exactly is your approach?" Edward grimaced and clapped his right hand over his eyes. "Bribes and bruises?"

"Nah, I save that for special occasions," Bella shook her head but couldn't help but smile at his slightly doubtful expression. "You're right, I do have something special planed and I'll tell you all about it in the morning. But right now I'd like to get some sleep. I'm kind of tired; some arrogant, obnoxious jerk kept me up last night."

"I didn't hear you complaining," he said, cocking his eyebrow at her. "In fact, I'm pretty sure you were enjoying yourself. I woke up with teeth marks in places that I don't really want to think about."

She rolled her eyes, butblushed despite herself. "What can I say; you caught meon one of "those" days. It won't happen again."

"Aww, and here I was hoping for a repeat performance."

"Not with a kid next door that sleeps lighter than a nervous rabbit in a fox hole."

"That's not a definite no," he pointed out with a smirk. "Does that mean that if I get the rabbit out of the way… temporarily of course… you'd be willing to give it another go?"

"Hmm.. let me think... NO!" Bella all but screamed at him, giving him a not so gentle nudge towards the edge of the sofa. "Now, get lost. I need to get some sleep or I'll be crabby as hell tomorrow."