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.Why was she here? What had the man said, he'd take her someplace safe? She rubbed her torn and swollen ankle.Safe and sound—where she could lick her wounds and prepare.For what, she wasn't quite sure, that was too far in the future to think about now."I'm sorry I didn't get there sooner.I was trying, as soon as I heard the Amber alert, I knew…"She said nothing, half unsure that he was even talking about her.If she tried hard enough she was certain she could forget everything, just wake up to a new life, new person, new world.Her head bounced against the passenger side window, eyes closed to slits, allowing only a small slice of the landscape to whirl past like an old time silent movie."I guess you're not ready to talk.That's okay, I understand.Let me tell you my story, there are some things you need to know."He laid a hand on her thigh and she didn't flinch.There was nothing scary about his touch, nothing soothing either.It was as if her entire body was numb, unable to tell pain from comfort."His name is Bobby, Bobby Fegley," the man said.He paused to clear his throat.Her pulse quickened.She'd known someone named Bobby once upon a time—hadn't she? Had it all been a dream? A lover, a comrade—until he had betrayed her.Or had she betrayed him?"He pretends to be a kid, plays online games, makes friends with girls." There was a weird noise, like the man was choking back tears or laughter."One of the bodies in there was my girl.I've been looking for her, for him, for over a year.And when I heard the news about you, saw your picture, I knew he had taken you.You look just like my Vera."A long pause as she decided he wasn't talking about her but someone else, some other girl.Whatever he was talking about, it had nothing to do with her, she wasn't there.Had never even been there."I wish I could take you back to your folks, but there's a problem.Bobby Fegley is a FBI agent—no one would believe us, we can't go to the cops."His words bounced off her awareness, registering only the faintest of impact.She frowned, surely there was something wrong with what he was telling her?Anxiety churned through her but she hugged herself tight, rocking in her seat, the landscape blurring through her slitted vision.The pain faded and she returned to her limbo of numbness."It's just you and me, Ashley," he continued, oblivious to the fact that she was barely there, hanging on only because she needed her body to pump blood to her brain.If it wasn't for that, she'd be long gone, vanished."Unless.Do you want to go back to your parents, to your old life?"His words hammered at her, breaking the wall of ice she'd surrounded herself with.She jerked upright, eyes fully open but unable to focus, darkness around the edges, only the road stretching out in front of them clear."No." The single syllable was all she could manage as panic seized her vocal cords, clamping them shut.She was shivering but she didn't feel cold, didn't feel anything—didn't want to feel anything."Well.All right, then.It's just you and me.I promise I won't let anything happen to you, Ashley.I mean, Vixen." The truck slowed as he turned to look at her."My name's Jim.Jim Fletcher."She didn't meet his gaze, instead she closed her eyes once more, rocking herself back into welcome oblivion.Chapter 29Sunday, 3:12 pm"Are we sure it's Fletcher?" Grimwald, the ICE Special Agent in Charge, was saying."Look at his record.He's fucking Mr.Clean.Maybe he has a brain tumor or something.""It's Fletcher," Lucy answered, resuming her pacing in front of the conference table.If she kept moving, the pain stayed steady at a level she could ignore."What do we have on him?"Taylor answered."He's thirty-four, been with ICE for eight years.Started as a GS-05, now a GS-06.Local boy, graduated from Allegheny Institute of Technology with an associate's degree in computer sciences, this is the only office he's ever worked, good fit reps, nothing that stands out.Employment application lists a mother as only living relative.No sibs, father listed as whereabouts unknown.""How old are the parents?""Let's see.Mother would be, seventy-eight, father ninety-two." He looked up at that."That's pretty old.""Yeah, mom would have been forty-four when she had him." Burroughs gave a mock shiver."Would have been in her sixties when he was a teenager, think how gross that would be.""Only child, born late in life to his mother, father out of the picture," Lucy said.Sounded like the setup Nick had mentioned.She stopped, another thought hitting her."Burroughs, work on his early medical records, school, social services—anything to let me know what was going on in that house when he was young.""Who cares if he wet the bed or flunked gym class?" Grimwald said."You still don't have any proof besides an undocumented phone call.Maybe Fletcher is the victim here."John Greally leaned forward from his seat at the head of the table."Shut the fuck up and let her work, why don't cha?"He went heavy on his Chicago accent, his expression hardened as if he'd grown up on the Southside instead of Round Lake Beach.Grimwald frowned, shot Lucy a glare, but sat back and was silent."He talks about his mother constantly," she continued."What do we know about her?""Alicia Moore Fletcher," Taylor supplied."Resident of the Golden Years nursing home last three years, prior to that resided at the same address as Fletcher.""The house he blew up?" Walden asked."That surprises me, that he'd torch his history like that."Lucy glanced at Walden."Good point.Did they live somewhere before that? We need a list of all known addresses.Any property in either of their names."Somewhere Fletcher had a hole he'd run to—and thanks to Taylor and Bobby, he was definitely on the run."Here's something," Taylor put in, looking up from his computer monitor."There's no marriage certificate for Alicia.Nothing I can find puts the father in the picture at all.He's not listed on tax records, work records, census, nothing
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