the story continues

I don’t want to give too much away in case this is a woman who is looking for child support from the long lost father or she’s somebody’s mother who is looking for child support from the long lost father of her daughter’s kid…or a child looking for support from her long lost father. Ash, you seed-spreading bastard, wear a condom next time!

 

“I need his help. My son is missing. He’s been missing for about three weeks and I need to know if he’s dead.”

 

She blurts this out. She looks horrible, just worn right out and it’s then that I recognize her. She came in to us when we were running the scam, her husband had just died and she needed to talk to him. We set it up and made a lot of money off of her.

 

I felt bad about it. About her. About her loss. She lost her husband and now she’s lost her son.

 

I invite her to the back room and offer her a coffee.

 

“Do you have anything of your son’s”

“Yes I do.” And she reaches into her purse and pulls out a stuffed animal.

“Are you going to take it to Ashley?”

“No, I’m going to do it right here.”

 

She starts to blurt something, but I’m too busy concentrating to bother with her. I call her son, call him from wherever he is, calling him back to us for a moment, to let us know where his body is or who killed him, but I get nothing. Nothing. Not one thing.

 

“He’s not dead.”

 

“How do you know he’s not dead?”

 

“Do you see him?”

 

“No.”

“Then he’s not dead. Now let’s try and figure out where he is.”

 

I called Ash and explained what was going on. He yelled at me, called me an idiot and said we’d probably end up in jail and how he was too pretty to go to jail but I’d probably find true and ever-lasting love there.

 

I waited for him to finish then he sighed, “Fine, what do you want me to do?”

 

Well I actually didn’t know. I mean I was working on an idea to find the kid, but if he was in trouble (which he probably was. Seven year old boys don’t often take off on their own) I was going to need back up. I knew Ash had taken fencing in high school (seriously, I don’t know how he survived) and hoped he might come in handy during a fight. This was long before I knew that Ash would come in handy during a fight.

 

After he showed up I let him and the lady know about my plan. It was this: She’d take me to the last place she’d seen her son. I’d call Linds and ask her to bring forward any deceased who might be in the area. If there weren’t any, or if it didn’t work, we were screwed.