Chapter 4

"Come on, you have to get up"

I couldn't understand why someone was shouting. I was sure that I was hearing a woman's voice, though for the life of me I had no idea who it was or why they were shouting. I winced as an intense pain shot though my head and was sure that it was me who groaned.

"Move, damn it"

Did I push myself up onto my elbows? Maybe, but I was sure that I had help. Then I smelt it. The undeniable smell of smoke. That sure had me trying to move as memories of being close to a fire came to me. I may have been close to the floor, but the smoke was biting at the back of my throat, causing me to start coughing. That was the impetus that I needed to start to move. Hands were under my arms, pulling me backwards away from the fire. I knew that I was on my backside so used my legs to push myself away from the smoke and heat of the fire. Then I was laid on my back, wondering what the hell had just happened.

"The fire departments here already. What the hell happened?"

I was looking up into the face of the daughter asking myself the exact same question. Raising my hand, I touched my head where it hurt the most, wincing, with the contact. Okay, I needed to sit up, I needed to work out what the hell had happened. It was chaos around me with three firefighters using hoses to douse out the flames. I doubted that there would be anything left of the journals now. Most would have burnt, and others would be damaged by the water. Damn it. I rested my head on my knees, closing my eyes.

"Annie. Let's get you out of here"

Huh? I tried to lift my head and then realized that someone was crouched down in front of me. Did I want to move, could I move? Seemed I wasn't going to be given the choice. An arm went underneath my knees and around my back, before lifting me from the ground. Oscar, how the hell was he here? Was he talking to me or to someone else, I was feeling like shit again so wasn't even listening.

God, my head hurt. As I moved my hand toward my head, I had a weird feeling go through me. Nothing felt familiar. I tentatively opened my eyes, grateful for the soft lighting. Though nothing looked familiar. Where the hell was I? Looking to the side a movement caught my eye that had my breath hitching. Someone was sat in a chair in the corner of the room, watching me. Ranger, was he here, had he found me? The figure standing and coming over to me had a wave of disappointment wash over me. Jonas, he was the one with me.

"How are you feeling?"

Like shit, was what I wanted to say but it would be impolite to say that to Jonas. Instead, I stayed quiet. I watched as he moved to the side of me and was holding out a glass of water and some tablets. Okay, I probably did need something to get my head from bursting open. Even as I sat up, he was pulling a pillow across and placing it behind me.

"Thank you"

I said as I took the tablets and swallowed them down with the water. Being sat up gave me the opportunity to look around. I was in a large bedroom, on a double bed, with a lamp on the table next to me. Drapes covered the window but there was enough light to see the expensive wooden furniture set around the room. Certainly not the apartment above the garage.

"Where am I?"

Now curious.

"My house. I brought in a doctor who had to stitch the wound on your head"

Oh. That surprised me. I must have been unconscious for that, or maybe semi conscious, because I had a vague recollection of someone talking to me.

"It seems Annie that you've spooked someone. Jex heard the call go out for the emergency services to the address where you'd gone. I sent Oscar and him there straight away. Jex brought you back here while Oscar scouted the area and asked around"

It came back to me. I was reading those journals and was going to take a box back to the house and collect some more when I must have been hit on the head.

"The fire?"

I asked, because that had scared me. I'd been close to too many fires and explosions for it not to have had me panicking.

"Someone used a shovel on your head before they started a fire. Unfortunately, with all the paper inside it went up like a tinder box. You're lucky that women saw the smoke and got you out"

That was for sure. Not only did someone want me dead but they also wanted to destroy Emily's journals. That could only mean one thing. I was right in trying to find out more about Banning's mother. The problem was how to do that now.

"Annie. I brought you in because of your uncanny ability to ferret things out. As a bounty hunter it served you well, but it also brought unwanted attention. A double edged sword so to say. Rest now. When you're feeling up to it there are some fresh clothes for you in the bathroom. I'll be over in the office"

I relaxed back against the pillow, the words that Jonas had said repeating in my head. A double edged sword was how he had described the situations that I found myself in. Did that mean that when I ferreted out information on people and they didn't like it that they came after me personally. Typical. Maybe it was my fault that I got myself into so many dangerous situations. I'd gone to Emily's house with no concerns that I might be in danger. Yeah, as Jonas had said, I'd done it again, I'd spooked someone. That only proved that I was onto something. The problem was what.

Much as I should probably rest and sleep there was no way of that happening. I had no idea what time it was but didn't think that I'd been here for long. No, I'm pretty sure if I'd been unconscious for any longer then I'd have ended up at a hospital. All I can say is that I must have a pretty hard head considering the number of times it had been hit. The tablets seemed to be doing their job as the throb in my head wasn't as bad as it had been, so I carefully pulled the covers back and sat on the side of the bed. I was still wearing my dress, though from the stains on it I was sure that it was ruined. Walking over to the only other door I discovered the bathroom. Could I wash my hair without getting the stitches wet? Maybe, if I tilted my head to the side.

The spray from the shower was hot and fast, exactly what I needed. Okay, maybe I got some spray onto the stitches but having the smell of smoke washed away was worth it. The shower gel was a new bottle with a hint of vanilla, so I was soon clean and ready to face the world again. After drying myself I found the clothes that Jonas had eluded to. Underwear with a T-shirt and a pair of jeans.

Hmm, not mine. So where had they come from? Yikes, I hoped that one of the guys hadn't been sent out to buy them. Nah, they would have raided the closet in my apartment. Once dressed I finger combed my hair and left the bathroom tidy. I had my old clothes in my hands ready to be dumped in the trash. Now to find a way out of here. Opening the bedroom door, I found myself in a wide hallway that had several other doors leading from it, but I also spied what could be a stairway. I was so busy looking around as I made my way down the stairs. Rich deep burgundy carpet, dark wooden rails and several paintings had my attention so when I heard a voice I came to a stop in surprise.

"I didn't expect you to be up so soon. You must be hungry. I'm just about to take some food over to the office"

I was looking at a woman who was older than me, maybe even older than my mother. I was lost for words as she walked over to the front door and opened it. There was a large box at her feet which I assumed must contain the food. What was worrying me was how she was going to be getting the food over to the office because she didn't look strong enough to be carrying anything.

"Ah, there you are Teddy"

I continued down the stairs and followed the woman out of the door, wondering who she was talking to. That was when I saw the man who I'd seen tending to the garden. Well, at least I knew his name now. I followed behind the couple as they chatted, the older man carrying the box of food. Soon enough we were all in the elevator heading up to the office, but as the elevator rose, I was becoming a little nervous as to what Jex and Oscar would be thinking about me. I suppose in the past whenever I'd been involved in a disaster, I'd had both my mother and Joe berating me. Saying how disappointed they were in me. Would Jex and Oscar be any different? Would they hate the idea that they had someone like me working with them?

Even as those thoughts went through my head, I was thinking that maybe me doing this job was a bad idea. I hated the idea that I could end up getting one of them hurt. Yeah, like I had with Ranger and Tank. Inwardly I shivered at remembering those incidents. Ranger getting shot because he'd tried to help me and Tank breaking a leg because he was on Bomber duty. I hated the idea that maybe my mother was right, and I would get someone killed.

I timidly followed the couple out into the office, I suppose hoping that no one would notice me.

"Annie! How's the head? Glad to see you up and about"

Came from Oscar as he started to walk toward me. Was I hearing right or was his reprimand about to come?

"That was a good lead to follow up on Annie. That someone tried to stop you means you were on the right track"

I looked over to Jex as he said that so surprised with what the two guys had said to me. That they weren't lecturing me or telling me how stupid I was had my cheeks warm up, meaning that I was probably blushing.

"You need to eat while this food is still hot. I'll come back later and clear everything away"

Those words had me looking over to the woman who was busy setting out cartons on a table that had appeared next to the wall. It seemed that Jex and Oscar wouldn't need telling twice as they were already heading that way.

"Thanks Rita. It smells amazing"

Which now gave me the name of the woman. I smiled to myself as she batted Oscar's hand away from one of the cartons before she'd had time to take the lid off.

"Ladies first"

Came from Rita as she looked my way. Oscar took a bow inviting me to the table which brought another smile to my face. As I approached, I could smell the heavenly aroma. It seemed that we'd been treated to Chinese food. With a plate full of noodles and sweet and sour chicken I sat down at the empty end of the table and was soon joined by Oscar and Jex. To be honest I wasn't sure if this was a usual occurrence, for us to be provided with food.

"You were really lucky today, Annie. Hitting you with a shovel could have done some serious damage"

I knew that Jex was right about that. Hell, I didn't want to even think about it let alone that the person had then set fire to those journals with me still in the summer house.

"Any ideas on who it was?"

I asked, knowing that Oscar had stayed behind to see what he could find out.

"No. I spoke to some neighbors, and they said that they'd seen a white van parked down the street. They assumed it was an engineer doing work for someone. No description of who was driving and of course no one saw the plate"

Which wasn't much help. What was bothering me now after hearing Oscar mention a van was how someone was there and knew that I was going to be looking through those journals.

"How would they know that I'd be there?"

That had shoulders shrugging making it obvious that they had no idea. As I continued to ponder on that Jex stopped eating and looked over to me.

"Maybe it was a coincidence, you being there. If someone knows that we're doing some follow up investigations maybe they were there to destroy those journals"

His explanation made sense to me. Emily had died a few weeks ago so maybe whoever it was had assumed that the house would be empty. Emily's daughter had only been there because she knew that I was going. I was going to go with Jex's idea which meant that someone was trying to cover their tracks.

"So maybe there was someone else involved in those murders"

I didn't get a response from saying that, but I was sure that the guys had heard what I'd said. Not wanting to push it any further I focused on my food. Oh wow, this was so good. I was surprised at how quickly the guys finished eating and cleared away their bowls. Not one to want to miss out on what they'd been doing I walked over to one of the boards on the wall amazed at all of the information now pinned up.

"The map shows where the women that were identified from DNA on the clothes lived and where they were last seen"

Four faces with ribbon attached to a map showed clearly that they'd lived, worked or socialized in different parts of the outskirts of Boston.

"Who are those women?"

Seeing another row of faces down one side of the map.

"Women who fit the profile who were reported missing in the last seven years. Of course, that doesn't take account of any women who disappeared that no one was bothered about or even any that decided they wanted to escape to the city"

There were far more than I would have even imagined. Were the police still looking for them or would them disappearing without a trace be filed as a cold case?

"Jex is running programs to see if he can track any of them down. That's why those two are now at the bottom. They turned up down in New York, alive and well"

Oscar had used the word profile and what he meant by that became obvious as I studied the photos. All the women looked to be aged somewhere in their mid twenties, long hair and beautiful faces. To me they also looked stylish and elegant with pristine makeup. Was that part of the profile? The way that Oscar had arranged the information also gave a timeline for when the women had disappeared.

"Wouldn't the FBI have a record of the women's DNA? You know, so if a body turned up, they'd be able to identify it"

Or had I watched too many episodes of Criminal Minds?

"Yes, you have. If the local PD were following up on a missing person, they wouldn't always collect samples for future reference"

Shit, I'd said that out loud and Oscar had heard me. I took in a deep breath to cover up my embarrassment and realized that at least I'd gotten an answer. I continued to look at the map and the photos of those lost women. That any one of them might be laying in some cold dark grave had me feeling so sad. Then there were their parents. Not knowing what had happened to their child. They deserved some closure, an end to the futile hope that they were probably carrying.

"Are you still going to try and find Banning's mother?"

I sighed as Oscar asked me that. At the moment I wasn't sure where to start. I'd been so hopeful for finding some answers from Emily.

"Yes. I just know that finding her will give us some answers"

Okay, I wasn't going to say that my spidey sense was guiding me. Not many people were understanding when I'd used that expression before. No one really, except maybe my grandmother who called it my Hungarian gypsy gene and of course Ranger. On that thought I said goodnight to Oscar and Jex deciding that the day had been long enough for me. I needed to relax and in order to do that I needed to be on my own.

I made sure that I took the tablets that Jonas had given to me before changing and going to bed. Yeah, my head was aching, but I wasn't going to be so stubborn and ignore it. Surprisingly I fell asleep straight away, man, I must have been exhausted.

I woke feeling refreshed and ready for the day, though I knew it would be a boring day. The headache was down to a dull throb so I took a couple of tablets in the hope that it would be gone and wouldn't stop me from working. Today I needed to figure out how to find more information on Banning's mother. Once in the office and in my usual seat I went back to the beginning again. Rereading the search on her. That the information was so sparse surprised me. No names for her parents, so that was a dead end. No records for any education or medical issues. That had me wondering how it was that there was so little on her. Hell, a search on Stephanie Plum contained everything about me, well until four weeks ago.

Four weeks ago, Stephanie Plum had disappeared and that was because I was now known under a different name. I sat back in my chair as I considered that. Could it be that Banning's mother was also known under a different name? Elijah Banning didn't exist in any public records after the age of eight so had they moved and used that other name? Was part of Banning's mental health issues down to a change like that? I moved around the sheets of paper in front of me until I found the psychiatrists report for his assessment after he'd been arrested. According to the transcripts that had been recorded, Banning had referred to himself as Isaac and James. I noted that the doctor involved had commented on the possibility of a strong religious upbringing. I had to admit that had me frowning. Was that important?

If I was right and the mother had moved her and her son to another area, then how far would that have been? Would she have moved them to another state? I didn't think so. Not when the son had come back to where he'd been born, back to where he felt was familiar. With that in mind I was determined to find out which school Elijah had moved to. I was also going to be looking for a young boy, aged eight or nine, who went by the name of Elijah, Isaac or James. Yeah okay, not only would that involve searches on the school's intake, it would also mean that I'd have to do separate searches on any of the names that I found. I really wasn't looking forward to doing that.

Hours sat on my backside were taking its toll on me. I'd already found some kids named Eli, Isaac or James but they were getting on with their lives, normal lives with normal jobs.

I knew that Jex was here with me in the office but wasn't sure what Oscar was up to. He'd been away from the office all day.

"I have some news"

Had me looking up and over toward the elevator doors. Jonas was walking toward me as he said that. I honestly had no idea what news he had but from the serious look on his face I wasn't sure that it was going to be good news. Him sitting down at the end of the table with Jex moving from his computers to sit next to him had me realizing that I needed to move closer. Okay, I didn't like the feel of the atmosphere as I went and sat down next to Jex. Had a new lead come to light and the bodies of those women been found? I wasn't sure how to feel about that.

"I had a private company carry out some forensic tests on the bracelet before I spoke to her father. The DNA result was a positive match to Lisa and after he'd spoken to some of her friends, he agreed that the ankle bracelet belonged to his daughter"

Somehow, I had never doubted that the bracelet had belonged to Lisa. It didn't bring us any closer to discovering exactly what had happened to her. The FBI had already confirmed that a set of her clothes were found and that blood in that pit belonged to her.

"My client wants us to continue looking. I did explain that finding anything on Lisa was nigh on impossible, so we compromised. We have four weeks. If there are no further leads by then we all move on"

I blew a strand of hair away from my face as I took in what Jonas had said. Damn, I was so sure that I was close to finding the mother, but would that make any difference. Finding her would probably not help us to discover where her son had buried the rest of the women. Was I chasing an idea that was doomed to failure?

"Oscar is on the streets talking to people who were in the places where some of the other women disappeared from. He's trying to work out how Banning knew where they would be or if he'd been watching them. The FBI seem to think that he chose Lisa because he'd come across her as he collected his bottles and cans"

From how Oscar was looking at the profiles of those women I was pretty sure that he believed that Banning had chosen Lisa and probably his other victims as well because of how they looked. Though how that would help to find Lisa's resting place wasn't clear to me.

"I've been ruling out some of the women that were reported as missing. Oscar has the details"

Probably that might give Oscar a pattern of movement but hell, some of those women had disappeared years ago. Jonas knew what I'd been following up on, so I didn't think it was necessary to say anything. Plus, I didn't want to voice that I'd come up with nothing. So far, went through my head.

I worked nonstop after that meeting only allowing myself a few hours to sleep and freshen up. It was the following evening when I was searching for the name Isaac Lehman that the adrenaline began to pump through my veins. Isaac Lehman had attended Monson High School near Springfield from the age of eight until sixteen. The search was sparse of information. No medical records to find and no mention of siblings but there in front of me was a name for his mother and the address for where they had lived while he'd been at school. This had to be Elijah.

Immediately her name went into the search corroborating the address and the name of her son Isaac. It seemed that Elizabeth had a string of jobs during his school years. From cleaning to waitressing, no doubt in an effort to provide food and shelter. It was when Isaac had been nineteen that his existence seemed to disappear as well as his mother. Was I looking at a woman who up and moved on a regular basis? Who changed her name to suit where she moved to? Why would she want to do that? I pulled up a map showing where she had last lived, Homer Drive, Monson near Springfield. Surprised that there seemed to be several buildings at the site. Okay, it was time for a field trip because the people living in those other buildings would surely be able to give me some useful information.

"You fancy a road trip Jex?"

I asked without looking up.

"What do you have?"

I knew that Jex would want more detail, not just out of curiosity, but because he probably had far superior programs that would elicit a load of information about the properties and who lived there.

"Homer Drive, Monson. This side of Springfield"

Even as I was repeating the address to him, I was saving my work and powering down my computer. I even made an attempt to tidy up my work space, stacking papers back into their respective piles. Once done I stood and stretched. I felt so stiff from being sat for so long. I turned off my iPod and dropped my earbuds around my neck, come on, I had to have some music blasting out at me to keep me sane.

"That's strange"

I walked over to Jex and stood behind him as he was flicking through various tabs on his computer.

"What is?"

Really hoping that all that work that I'd done hadn't been for nothing. I was between feeling disappointed and annoyed as I waited for him to answer me. Yeah, patience still wasn't one of my stronger points. I waited, I'm sure that I closed my eyes and counted to ten. I was at the point where my foot was about to start tapping when Jex sat back from his computer.

"The address that you gave me, well it took a bit a bit unravelling. From what I could find it seems that acreage used to be an Amish settlement"

"Used to be?"

Picking up on exactly what Jex had said. Amish, I mean I knew something about how they lived but had never really come across any.

"They abandoned the acreage about twenty years ago with the families moving down to Philadelphia. There are bigger settlements down there"

I was probably frowning as I worked through the time line. Elijah had been eight years old when he'd stopped going to school at Holliston, that was in 2003. Shortly after that the name Isaac appeared on the roll of Monson High School, which was when the family must have moved into the area. Elizabeth must have moved to that address after it had been abandoned but for some reason Isaac, or Elijah, had decided to go back to the home that he'd known as a child.

"I'd like to go there. I'm pretty sure that is where Banning's mother used to live"

I saw the look that Jex gave me, the look that said, so what? I knew that the Bannings had moved from that address since then, but surely it was important to take a look.

"Look, I know. She probably won't be there but it's a place that Elijah was familiar with. Surely, it's worth taking a look"

Did I think to batter my eyelashes at him, you bet I did. Did I do that? Nah. Even I knew that it would have no effect on Jex.

"Okay. I agree. It's worth a trip, on one condition"

Here it comes, went through my mind, as I stood there frowning at him.

"We all go. No way do I want a repeat of what happened at Framingham"

I had to concede with what he was saying. No way did I want a repeat of that day either. My head was only just recovering, and the stitches weren't even fully dissolved yet.

"Deal"

Had a smile, or was that a grimace, come from Jex. This time we needed to be better planned. There were a few more buildings to cover and looking through each of them would take some time. I asked Jex to print off what he could of the layout of the properties while I made a call to Jonas.

"Annie. How can I help?"

Jonas had a mannerism about him that always threw me. He was always so polite and well, accommodating. I'd never seen him lose his temper or I suppose show his emotions.

"I think that I've found where Elijah and his mother used to live"

I waited a moment for Jonas to respond to me, to ask a question or even make a comment.

"Follow those instincts, Annie. Just make sure you take Oscar and Jex with you. Send me the address and report back what you find"

The phone went silent as Jonas finished the call, leaving me with a smile on my face. Turning to Jex I gave him a thumbs up that we had Jonas's approval before returning to my work. After organizing what I had on Elizabeth Lehman and her son and rereading the searches that I'd done I felt ready for our fieldtrip. A text from Oscar gave the time to meet in the morning so I wanted to spend some time at my apartment.

It felt like an age since I'd spent any time in the apartment. Probably because I hadn't. The last couple of days had been tiring but rewarding. I had a good feeling about tomorrow, that we'd find something, though mainly I was hoping to talk to Elizabeth or someone who might know where she'd gone. Showering, yeah, I was getting a little complacent about those stitches. I dressed in sleeping shorts and a strappy top. Sat on the couch drinking some juice I had the weirdest feeling come over me. I felt lonely. I know. I had two guys that I worked with and Jonas as a boss, but I missed the inconsequential chatter that I used to have with my friends, Lula and Mary Lou. Joe had forwarded some letters that Lou had sent to my old address so when I replied I asked her to post anything to Joe. That first letter had been hard to write. There was so much that I wanted to tell her. Not the facts of where I was or what I was doing but my thoughts and emotions. Lou had always been my voice of reason who would listen to me and then get me to think things through. She'd definitely missed her vocation as an agony aunt.

Lula. I sighed thinking about her. When everything went to hell at the bonds office, she'd totally lost it. I had to give her credit though for telling that new office manager exactly what she thought of him. Her words were like water off a ducks back, no pun against Vinnie intended. I'd tried to make a go of the job but that didn't work out that well. I had the scar from being stabbed to prove it. Joe had gone ballistic but for once not at me. Turns out the man whose file I was given was way more dangerous than what the new manager had let on. Seems that he'd purposely missed out several bits of information in the file that he'd given to me, again.

Sheesh, so much for relaxing. Lula, well she'd still been around and her, Connie and I had still met up for lunch and drinks. Connie went to work for her uncle and Lula decided that she needed a fresh start doing something that she enjoyed doing. No, not reverting back to being a ho. She developed her skills in the beauty market and became an Avon sales representative. Her new direction had her travelling a lot so meeting up became difficult, especially as she had decided to relocate to Philadelphia. Something about a new makeover which meant a better place to live, and Philly was more central to her customers. I missed the banter that we had, the way that Lula looked at life.

Of course, thinking back to those days had me remembering how Ranger seemed to distance himself from me. I suppose out of anyone I missed talking to him the most. He was someone who would listen to me and let me bounce ideas from him. Maybe that was why I was feeling so lonely tonight. Would he be proud of where I was now and what I was doing?

With a sigh I looked around me, at the wooden floors and scattered rugs. At the grey kitchen units that housed luxuries such as a washing machine, frier and even a dish washer. The lounge area had a comfortable couch, single chair with a wooden coffee table and the matching lounge furniture. Probably all from Ikea, but I had no one to show it to, no one to see how well I was doing. One day I would love to have a home of my own to share with someone but that wasn't going to be happening anytime soon. Sort out my life first and then consider thinking about getting myself back out into seeing men. For the moment it was a complication that I didn't want. What I did want was to go to bed so that I'd be prepared for tomorrow.