Blake looked at me in surprise, “wait, what? Are you telling me that our person of interest is the mother of a missing person?"
I nodded, “yes, Kayla went missing a little over two years ago. She and her boyfriend told family and friends that they were going camping for the weekend. That was the last time they were seen or heard from. We found their car in a hotel parking lot and no proof that they ever made it to the campgrounds.”
Ollie asked, “so what is the connection to Isaac?”
I shrugged, “I have no idea, but this sure changes things. Damn it, I talked to this woman several times during that investigation, why didn’t I recognize that name?”
Ollie said, “She was still Laura Harris at that time, she didn’t get remarried until about year later.”
I pulled out the file for Kayla and Chad and gave Blake and Ollie the highlights of the case. It was the last case that Jack and I worked together before he retired, and Blake joined my team. Jack thought that Kayla and Chad simply ran away together, it was hard to argue with him, especially after we interviewed Laura Reid. She certainly came across as a controlling mother and I felt sorry for Chad if he and Kayla ever did get married. We found no evidence that they ever made it to their campsite and when we found their car in a hotel parking lot, it was more perplexing. The hotel had no record of them checking in and the only video surveillance we found was of their car entering the parking lot. They parked in an area without cameras, so we never saw them actually leave their car, for all we knew, someone else could have just dumped the car there. The last lead I had checked on was a few months before Blake and I started to work on the Dwight Slocum sex ring. I have reviewed the file several times since but couldn’t find anything new to follow up on.
I sighed, “we better hope that the court order comes through so we can see those adoption papers, maybe they will shed some light on the connection with Isaac. I’ll go update the captain.”
As I walked down the hall to see Captain Green, I remembered the time before Green was captain and called me to his office.
***
Ridge Flashback.
As I walked into Green’s office, which was to become my office when he was promoted to captain, he nodded and said, “have a seat, Ridge.”
I sat down and asked, “what’s up Green?”
He sighed, “I have to ask you about the rumors I’m hearing about you and Lucas Mills from the lab.”
I felt my blood pressure rise, “and what rumors are those?”
He looked at me over the top of his glasses, “you know what I am talking about, are you two involved in a relationship?”
I took a deep breath, “why, does it matter?”
He took his glasses off, “yes, it does matter, there are department rules against coworkers dating.”
I felt myself getting pissed, “why, because we are both men?”
He rolled his eyes, “no, that has nothing to do with it, hell, I don’t care if you screw sheep in your backyard on your free time. We have the same rules for all officers and department employees. They were put in place as women started to join the force so that officers wouldn’t take extra risks trying to protect their partners. Plus, the department doesn’t want to open itself up to scandal if two officers would conspire to steal or plant evidence.”
I said, “but Lucas works in the lab, he doesn’t come to crime scenes and is never in the field, so we wouldn’t take any risks to protect each other.”
Green said, “I realize that, but that makes it a bit worse. If you are on a case and take evidence to the lab for analysis, and he is the one to submit the final report, a good defense attorney could get that evidence thrown out of court. It just happened about a month ago. This sleaze ball lawyer, Dwight Slocum just won the only case in his career because he heard about a lab tech and a detective that went out on one date, two years ago.”
My heart sank, but before I resigned right then and there, I took a moment to think about what Green was telling me. I sighed, “I guess I see how it could be a problem.”
He said, “look Ridge, none of the higher ups are aware of these rumors yet, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. I don’t care what you do on your time, but I want you to seriously think about this, I won’t be able to stop anything if the captain hears about it.”
Deep down I knew he was right, it probably wouldn’t look too good for the department, even though Lucas or I would never tamper with evidence to make a case. I stayed out of the lab for the next few days and limited my texting and phone calls to Lucas. I knew I would need to talk to him this weekend. He had invited me over to his place for another helping of his famous lasagna.
Lucas handed me a rum and Coke as soon as I walked in the door, and we gave each other a kiss.
He asked, “so what wrong?”
I asked, “what makes you think there is something wrong?”
Lucas sighed, “because of the look on your face, and your texts and phones calls this week had kind of a “we need to talk” tone. You also never came to the lab all week.”
I took a deep breath, “Green called me into his office this week and asked me about us.” I proceeded to tell him about the whole conversation. I said, “I can’t imagine not being with you, but I really like my job, I don’t know what to do.”
Lucas smiled and wrapped his arms around me, “it’s ok, everything is going to work out.”
I said, “but I don’t want to hide our relationship, I don’t want to worry about me or you getting fired, or for that matter, both of us losing our jobs.”
His smile got bigger, “we have no need to worry about that, I had the same talk with my boss this week and today I submitted my resignation.”
My eyes went wide, “what?”
He said, “I quit today, I got a job in the lab at St. Joseph’s hospital.”
I asked, “are you serious?”
He nodded, “very serious, I heard about another lab tech that dated a detective a while back and that it sank a case. I can’t imagine my life without you either, so I started looking for a job last week. I called a friend from college that works at St. Joes, and he told there was an opening and recommended me. I interviewed on Monday, and they called me today to offer me the job. I was going to surprise you tonight with the news.”
I felt a lump in my throat, “you are unbelievable, you would really do this for me?”
He said, “I would do this for us.”
I gave Lucas a kiss as a feeling of relief came over my entire body. I began to wonder what I ever did to deserve someone like him. Lucas told me all about his new job as we quickly ate, so that we could get to dessert in the bedroom.
***
I quickly gave Captain Green an update on the case and as soon as I was finished, the DA called him and said that the court order had just been delivered to the St. Francis office. I went back to my office to get Blake and Ollie to head out when my phone rang, it was Donna Hogan from St. Francis.
She said, “detective Ridgeway, I just received a call from our lawyer, he told me that he had the court order and for me to cooperate. I just emailed you the entire adoption file for Isaac Grove.”
I said, “thank you Mrs. Hogan, you just saved us a lot of time.”
She said, “your welcome, please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help, and please let me know how Isaac is.”
I answered, “I will, and thank you for all your help.”
I ended the call and immediately opened the email to view the file, as Ollie and Blake were looking over my shoulder.
We were quickly scanning for anything that might make the connection between Laura Reid, Kayla Harris and Isaac Grove. That’s when I found the portion I was looking for, the name of the birth parents.
Ollie said, “holy shit, Kayla and Chad are Isaac’s birth parents.”
Blake said, “ok, so what are we saying, did Laura Reid kidnap her grandson?”
I nodded, “it kind of looks like it, but why? Are Kalya and Chad behind this, using her to get their son back?”
Ollie asked, “do you think Kayla and Chad staged their disappearance just to get their kid back?”
I shrugged, “I don’t know, but we certainly need to talk to Laura. Ollie, get an address for her house, Blake and I are going to Wells Fargo to see if she is at work today.”
Ollie nodded, “sure thing Ridge, I’ll call you as soon as I have it for you.”
Blake and I drove straight to Sequoia Avenue to look for Laura Reid. A pleasant young man behind the first teller station greeted us with a smile, “hi, how can I help you today?”
We showed him our badges and I asked, “is Laura Reid working today, we have a few questions for her.”
His smiled faded, “just a moment please.” He picked up his phone and asked the person on the other end to come to his station.
He smiled again, “someone will be right with you.”
A few minutes later, we were introduced to Janet Colman, the bank’s branch manager. She said, “please, come on into my office.”
As she walked around to sit behind her desk, Blake and I sat down, I said, “we have a few questions for Laura Reid, is she working today?”
Janet said, “I’m sorry detective, Laura is on vacation, she isn’t due back until next Monday.”
I asked, “how long has she been on vacation?”
She said, “she has two weeks off, last week and this week. Is there a problem?”
I answered, “we’re not sure, we just have some questions for her.”
Blake asked, “did Laura tell you she was working a temp job during her vacation?”
Janet sighed, “no, she didn’t, but I’m not surprised. One of my other tellers did that last year when she and her husband were trying to buy a house. I heard her talking about it in the breakroom, she said her, and her husband were both doing it. They would take their time off and get their vacation pay from their regular jobs plus the temp job pay and put the extra money from the temp job towards their house down payment. I noticed that Laura was asking her a lot questions, it’s technically not against our company policy, but I try not to encourage it either.”
I asked, “did she tell you her plans for her time off?”
She shook her head, “she just casually mentioned she was going to visit her son out of town.”
I gave Blake a look and he quickly sent a text to Ollie to check on the location of both of Laura’s sons.
I asked, “did Laura ever talk about her daughter Kayla?”
Janet said, “not recently, I do remember her taking some time off about two years ago. She said something about her being sick or something and she was going to stay with her for a week to help her out.”
Blake and I asked a few more follow-up questions, while not giving Janet too much information, just in case Laura talked to her.
As we were leaving, Janet asked, “is there something I should be concerned about?”
I said, “just a routine investigation, but please ask Laura to call us if she returns before Monday.”
As soon as we got back in the car, I called Ollie, and he gave me Laura’s home address. Ollie also told me that her two sons lived at the same address. I told him to meet us a few blocks away from the house, I was going to see if Laura was home and talk to her. Blake and Ollie were going to wait down the block out of sight, hopefully, I was going to spook her, and she would leave her house and possibly lead us to Kayla and if our theory was correct, she would have Isaac.
***
Lucas Flashback.
The look on Drake’s face when I told him I took a new job was priceless, once again, I knew we were meant to be together. My family was right, I couldn’t imagine doing anything like this for Brody. To be honest, I had been thinking about a new job for a while. I did like working with the police, but I was remembering why I chose my field of study in the first place. I knew St. Josephs wasn’t a research hospital, but if I could help other patients like Jace with early detection of blood diseases, I would be honoring my original goals. When my boss talked to me about department policy on dating coworkers, it only confirmed that I should find a new job. I knew it would be easier for me to get a job at a hospital and how much Drake liked his job. Plus, I knew he was very good at it.
I got settled into my job and I did like it just as well, if not better than working in the police lab. Drake and I had been together a little over two years when he came over to my place and told me that his captain was retiring.
I asked, “so are you going to try for his job?”
He laughed, “no, I don’t need that headache, the captain doesn’t do any police work. He spends all his time doing paperwork and dealing with everyone else’s problems.”
“So, who is going to be your new captain?” I asked.
He said, “Todd Green is the leading candidate right now.”
I smiled, “are you next in line for team leader then?”
He shrugged, “it depends on what Jack wants to do.”
I asked, “Does he want to be team leader?”
Drake said, “he told me he is planning on retiring in a couple years too, he is talking to Green about just leaving us a two-man team, without putting anyone in charge for a while, if Green gets the captain job.”
The next month, Green was promoted, and Jack and Drake were handling their case load without a problem. Drake and I were starting to spend more time at each other’s apartments, we always stayed overnight every weekend. We were in bed one Sunday morning and had just finished making love.
Drake had his arms wrapped around me, he said, “I have been thinking about us.”
I looked at him, “ok, what were you thinking?”
He said, “well, my lease on my place is up in a few months, and with as much time as we spend at each other’s place. Maybe we should talk about… maybe… if you want to…”
I chuckled to myself, Drake had suddenly turned back in that babbling shy man that walked into my lab a few years back. I asked, “are you saying you want to us to move in together?”
He shrugged, “what do you think?”
I smiled, “I already know I want to spend the rest of my life with you, I suppose the next logical step would be us cohabitating.”
He laughed, “cohabitating? That makes it sound like a business deal, I just want to wake up next to your naked ass every morning.”
I said, “I would like to wake up next to your naked ass everyday too. Since your lease is up before mine, do you want to move in here?”
Drake paused for a moment, “well, what would you say if I wanted to find a new place?”
I smiled, “sure, we could afford a little nicer place if we share the rent.”
He thought again and asked, “what about a house?”
I asked, “a house?”
Drake sighed, “yeah, the only good memory I have of my childhood was when I lived with my grandma in her house in Augusta.”
I said, “I thought you said your grandma just sort let you stay with her?”
He nodded, “yes, she did, but that’s not the good part. The good part was the kid next door, Tommy Willers and the other kids from the neighborhood. Tommy’s mom was so great to me, your mom reminds me of her. I guess I have this wild idea that if I find a house in a neighborhood like that, my life will be good.”
I said, “a house would be nice, and if it brings back good memories for you, all the better. We can call a realtor next week and start looking.”
Drake sighed, “yeah, well you see, I was in an area on the east side of Miami last week and noticed a nice house for sale, I already called the realtor, and we have an appointment to see the house tomorrow afternoon.”
I laughed, “you never cease to amaze me, I would love to look at the house tomorrow.”
We loved the house and the next month when Drake’s lease was up, he moved into my place while we waited to close on the house. My lease was up three months later, and we moved into our new home. As we were putting all our things away when we moved in, Drake was just standing there looking around the house with a big smile.
I asked, “so, are you happy?”
He gave me a kiss, “very, how about you?”
I nodded, “absolutely, I love our place.”
Drake said, “look at this great kitchen for you to cook all those great meals, and that fenced back yard with that big grill, I can’t wait to grill our first steak. There is only one thing missing.”
I asked, “what’s that?”
He asked, “do you like dogs?”
The next week, we were at the local shelter, and I watched as the cutest little yellow lab puppy ran up to Drake as he sat on the floor. I smiled as she licked his face, Drake picked her up and looked at me with his own puppy dog eyes. How could I say no to those eyes?
I nodded as he stood up so she could lick my face too. He said, “I think we should name her Lucy.”
***
While Blake and Ollie stayed in their car down the block, I went to Laura Reid’s house and knocked on the front door. A big man opened the door.
I showed him my badge, “I’m detective Ridgeway with the Miami police Department, is Laura Reid home.”
He said, “no, she is out right now, what is this about?”
I said, “I just have a few questions for her, just a routine investigation.” I handed him my card, “when she gets home, would you please have her call me?”
I was able to get him to tell me that he was her son, Rod, he said, “I’ll be sure she gets this.” As he put the card in his pocket, I was pretty sure he was going to throw the card away as soon as I left.
I got in my car and drove away, heading south, he was still on the front porch watching to make sure I left. As soon as I was around the corner and was sure he could no longer see me, I called Blake.
I said, “you guys watch to see if he leaves, and follow him if he does. Be sure to call me as soon as there is any action.”
Blake said, “got it, I will let you know as soon as there is any movement.”
I headed back to the station, I had to figure out if Laura was behind Isaac’s disappearance, or if Kayla was faking her own kidnapping as way to get her son back. What about Chad, was he involved too?
