Chapter 43

The next morning brought the private investigator to the house to update them on what he’d found so far. Jon did the introductions.

Shaking Tori’s hand, Mike couldn’t help but smile. “So you’re Tori.”

“Nice to finally meet you Mike. I hope I can count on you to do as thorough a job for me as you did on me.” At her family’s confused look, she explained. “Jon had Mike check me out back when we first met.”

“He did? Why?” Jim bristled.

Tori waved off his anger. “Don’t worry about it. Richie punched him when he found out.”

“He did?” Michael eyed his brother-in-law with new appreciation.

Jon grimaced, rubbed his jaw....and changed the subject. “What have you found Mike?”

“Well, for starters, Janice Green didn’t exist five years ago.”

“What?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, that prior to her applying to UCLA’s nursing school, there is no record of her ever existing. No driver’s licence, no employment records, no school records, no record of her birth.”

“But...how can that be?  She would have had to show her transcript to get accepted wouldn’t she?” Dorothea frowned.

“From what I can tell, she forged it. The school named has never heard of her. And the rental agreements I found are old. She no longer lives there. Even her bank information only lists a post office box.”

Tori stood and wandered across the room to stand staring out at the backyard, deep in thought while the conversation whirled around her.

“And you’ve checked everywhere?” Jon wasn’t questioning Mike’s ability to do his job, he just wanted to hear that they weren’t missing something obvious.

“All fifty-two states and I’m starting internationally.” Mike hesitated, then shrugged, his gesture evidence enough of his opinion that their chances of finding anything down that route were slim, especially when they didn’t even have her real name to go on.

“So...what do we do now?” John asked the question everyone in the room was pondering.

“The police are tracking down anyone who had contact with her in and outside of the hospital. I have contacts combing the city. The good news is that California has basically been locked down. It will be very difficult for her to get out. I think she’s still in the L.A. area. Someone out there knows who this woman is. It’s only a matter of time until we find her.”

Tori turned and scanned the room, her gaze coming to rest on Matt. “Put it on Backstage.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Matt cautioned her. “Do you really want to involve the fans in this?”

“Since we can be sure that they already know about it, we might as well take advantage of it. It’s obvious that she’s a fan, and I’m betting not a casual one, which means she probably is or has been a member of the fan club.  Like Mike said, someone out there knows her.” Meeting the uncertain looks directed at her, she persisted. “They’ll help if we ask.”

“That’s actually not a bad idea.” Mike added.

“This chick may be a few bricks short of a load, but do you really think she’s crazy enough to talk about kidnapping a baby on a public forum?” Tony didn’t think so.

Neither did Matt. “No way. I would have heard about it. We monitor those boards pretty closely.”

“Of course she wouldn’t come right out and say it there.” Tori agreed. “But she may have said something in e-mails to people she met there, that hinted that her love for Richie went a little over the line of sanity into delusion.”

“A little?” Jim snorted.

“You think she might have confided in someone she met on the boards?” David frowned.

Tori shrugged. “It’s possible. A lot of friendships have formed from those boards.” Her lips twisted wryly. “Trust me. I know.”

“Been there, done that?” Richie guessed with a smile.

She nodded, then her expression sobered and she reached out to grip his forearm. “I want my son back. And I will use whatever means I have to, to make that happen.”

When she put it that way there was only one answer. “Post it. At this point, what can it hurt? And maybe we’ll get lucky.”

The rest of the morning was spent debating what the post should say. The biggest question was whether or not to include the picture of the nurse.

“It’s already out there.” Jim argued. “Even if they haven’t seen someone making crazy talk about Richie, they may recognize her face.”

“I’d leave it out for now.” Mike advised. “Let’s see what we can learn without it first. We can always add it later.”

They bowed to the wisdom of the professional.

It was after lunch and after the kids went down for their nap that a courier arrived with the next message from ‘Janice’.

Richie,

Your son and I are waiting for you, longing for you. Come join us. Make us the family that you deserve. All you have to do is take that first step. Don’t stay stuck in a loveless marriage. We can make your life complete.

J.

As the words sank in – words he’d read before, in the same handwriting, realization hit and Richie paled.

“Richie? Are you okay?” Dot noticed his reaction. “What is it?”

He closed his eyes and fought to swallow the bile that had risen into his mouth. Idiot!! How could you be so fucking stupid?! Thinking it was some dating service or promotion for a movie or something. Pfft!  Opening his eyes, his gaze fell on his wife. And how to I tell her that I might have been able to prevent our son being taken?

“Richie?” Tori didn’t know what scared her more, his reaction to the note or the fact that she couldn’t read the expression on his face.

Wiping a hand over his face, Richie sighed. “You’d better call the police. I’ll be right back.”

They watched in silence as he left the room in the direction of the garage.

“What’s that all about?” Joan asked Tori.

“I don’t know.”

He returned clutching several pieces of paper, sat down and blew out a breath. “When the note came yesterday, I thought the writing looked kind of familiar, but I couldn’t place it.”

They watched with a mixture of concern, curiosity and confusion as he spread the papers out and sat back.

“What are these?” Tori questioned as she read the short missives. “They look like fliers.”

“That’s what I thought they were too. I found them on my car when I was out running errands over the last few months.”

As the pages were passed around the room, Richie eyed his wife warily. “Angel.....I’m sorry.”

Tori nodded and patted his leg. “Obviously she’s been planning this for awhile, and she’s been clever about it.”

After the police came and went, Tori went upstairs to check on the kids. Richie also disappeared so Jon and David went looking and found him in the room Tori dubbed ‘the Man Cave’.  It had a large screen T.V. pool table, comfortable furniture, gas fireplace and a wet bar.

Richie was behind the bar surveying his stock, a glass on the counter top behind him. Turning with the bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand, he noticed he had company and pulled out two more glasses. He waved the bottle. “This do for you guys?”

“What are you doing Rich?”

“Having a drink. What’s it look like I’m doing?”

“You don’t want to do that man.” David argued.

“Now there you’re wrong Shirley. I definitely do.” He lifted the lid on the ice bucket and dropped two cubes into each glass.

“You don’t mean that.”

“Don’t I? Tell me Jon, what would you do in my position? What would you do if some whackjob fan took Romeo and all you could do was sit around, waiting and hoping and praying that someone somewhere somehow will find him?”

“I’d get rip roaring drunk.” Jon admitted.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” A twist of his wrist opened the bottle and he filled the glasses. Sliding two across the bar to his friends, he lifted the remaining one in toast. “To oblivion.”

“Come on man.” David cast about for a reason to stop his friend from taking that first step on the slippery slope. “How do you think Bela will react when she finds out?”

Richie snorted and brought the glass to his lips to take a healthy swallow. “In order to react, you have to have feelings. My wife’s ability to feel is on hold these days...or haven’t you noticed?”

His judgement in that area was about to be put to the test. Tori stood in the doorway.