Chapter 10 ~ 4 in the morning

“It's the friends you can call up at 4 in the morning that matter”   

~Marlene Dietrich~

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Daniel’s point of view - At the same time -  Strip District (Sunday 4 a.m.)

I followed my dad to where they found the girl. I was the first doctor to get to the scene and went with the ambulance. The paramedics and I did our best but it was too late. Whoever those sick monsters were, they really did a number on her. When I got back to my apartment, I opened up a bottle of Absolut and had almost finished with it when the phone rang.

“Talk!”

“Hello Daniel, this is Anita.”

I hadn't realized how much I'd missed her voice, but she was definitely the last person I expected to be calling me. But I'm a drunk jaded idiot, and so I react in an indecent way. 

“Ah Ah Ah Neeetah!  I didn’t think you were ever gonna talk to me again!  How are you sexy girl? Do you still have that little portable greenhouse of yours? I really need some of your phytochemicals right now…” my mouth says before my brain can catch up.

Hmmm… let's see how this goes.

“Shut up Danny, this is not that kind of a phone call… I didn’t know who else to call”

Right. Because who would call an ex-lover, years later in the middle of the night just for fun. Something must be wrong. 

Like I already told you I met Anita for the first time a few months after I got back from Afghanistan. I was staying in Seattle that year. I woke up after partying hard for days and she was laying on top of me next to two guys we had a foursome with if I remember correctly. We did more drugs and later that day we found ourselves at a music festival in Austin. As in Texas. That girl had contacts. We flew in with some rock band. Good times. I later found out that she was only 18. Oh well. She was also the one to tell me to quit the hard drugs or else she was never going to talk to me again. I quit, but when I married Barbara she said she would NEVER talk to me again. She knew that the children weren’t mine because I had told her why getting pregnant was something she wouldn’t need to worry about when she was with me. I kept tabs on her through the years, and sent her an electronic card every year on Valentine's Day. She hadn’t replied until now.

“Wazz up? Where are you? You alright?”

“West Virginia, I live on my grandparents farm, I finished nursing school, I work in Wheeling… I’m sorry for calling at this hour, I couldn’t sleep.”

“It’s fine… you know I hardly ever sleep. Do you still have the greenhouse?”

“Daniel… focus for me please“ she sounds serious, I can focus. 

“All right, I’ll behave, what’s going on?”

“Well… you wrote in your latest email you were coming back to Pittsburgh, ” She paused and I could hear that she was upset. “And... I just really need to talk to a friend right now...” 

“What’s wrong babe?”

“Ohh… it’s something at work that’s been bothering me…There’s this kid… Brian Kinney. He’s 15. His mother brought him to the hospital a few weeks ago, he had a broken arm and several bruises and cuts that needed stitching… It was a really busy shift at the hospital and I didn’t really get to spend time with him but… his eyes... I just can’t stop thinking about his eyes….He also had other bruises that looked older. When I asked how he got the bruises his mother was quick to say that he’s a little trouble maker and that he gets into a lot of fights at school. When I was putting on the cast I noticed a small homemade tattoo on his wrist, a little sun. He asked me if the cast would cover it and he was upset about that. When I asked him about it and he told me: “It’s my Sunshine”

Then today I found out that he hadn’t shown up for checkups or for having his cast removed. I wanted to know how he was doing so I looked up the phone number in his records but when I called the number was disconnected. I then called the schools in the area and was told that no one by that name was registered in any school in Wheeling. It was all really weird… I have a really bad feeling about this…”

My mind was a bit clouded by the alcohol but suddenly I registered something she said. 

“Wait a second... Did you say sunshine?  Did the tattoo look like a small sun?” Suddenly I didn’t feel the effect of the alcohol anymore. 

“Yes, a little black circle with rays coming out of it on the inside of the wrist. Do you know it?” 

Shit, what she was describing was like the tattoo I’d seen on the girl’s wrist.

“Daniel, tell me what you know about this” she demanded. 

“A young girl was found today… here in Pittsburgh. I treated her… she’d been severely violated... she… she had a sun tattoo…with a B inside… for Brian maybe? and she kept asking for sunshine. We think she’s only about 13 or 14 years old… and now she’s dead…” 

I could hear Anita gasp on the other end. “Oh lord… Daniel, we have to find out who those kids are.”

“Yes. It’s too similar… Those kids are definitely connected. They might be living here in Pittsburgh. It's likely his mother took him to Wheeling to try to hide his condition. I’m calling dad. Can you come to Pittsburgh?” 

“I’ll drive right now.” 

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“WHAT!?”  My father picked up after several rings. “It’s 4 o’clock in the morning for God’s sakes”

“How can you sleep after what we saw today? Get your wrinkled ass out of bed I’m coming to get you in 10 minutes. We need to go to the station. I have something.” I quickly told him what Anita had told me about that kid Brian and how his tattoo was similar to the girl’s.

I arrived at his house 5 minutes later. I guess my Corvette is fast. My father came out of the house as soon as he heard me drive up. 

“Are you fucking kidding me!! You drove here! You think I can’t smell your breath? How fast did you drive anyway? You're leaving the car here!” He was furious that I was driving while smelling like a distillery. 

“Yeah, well I was in a hurry, and I’m in much better shape to drive than you on your sleeping pill infested head.” 

“Yeah, well neither one of us is driving tonight, we have a ride to the station.” My clever father had already called the station and asked the night shift for a pick up. 

I quickly made my way to the trunk of my car and grabbed my ever present first-aid kit. A nifty little shoulder strap containing stuff I’d like to have handy if for when I’m ever unlucky enough to meet with an accident. Something I got used to when I was with MSF. It could come in handy. 

We waited inside his house for the pickup. His phone started blasting Amy Winehouse and my father grabbed it quickly. Only one person has that ringing tone in my father's phone, he has a generic tone for everyone else.

“Hello V…  The phone call was one sided for the first minute or so, the person on the other end was clearly upset. 

“Valery, I want two units to go to his address immediately and try to stop him. Take care of that now and then come back to the phone. 

Val has been working with my father for the last 30 years or so. She used to be a cop but something happened to her and she never got over that. So now she is his assistant, on paper that is. A very very smart lady with certain neurotic limitations and a lack of people skills in some instances. She has a few tasks. Answer my father’s phone, screen his emails, plan shifts and vacation days and make sure the office is clean and there is food. She executes all of her tasks perfectly… some think too perfectly, but my father refuses to let her go. Her “office” is next to my father’s. Effectively it is a miniature studio apartment where she sleeps if she doesn’t want to go home which has been practically every night for the past few months. If my dad has been overworking himself lately that’s not much compared to Val. She doesn’t have a family and she literally lives for work. 

“I received an email…” He said deep in thought, “we have a confession. And the location of the kids. We have work to do. Apparently a lot of people are involved, members of the force too. As Valery came back to the phone a patrol car pulled up to the house. 

“Val, don’t call me again unless it’s absolutely necessary. I don’t know who’s picking me up. We don’t know who to trust yet. This needs to be a top secret mission. Officially we’re all coming because of that bomb threat at the airport. Get in touch with the 911 dispatchers and tell them to expect the call. I’ll be there in five minutes.” He then hung up without another word and before we stepped into the car he told me, “don’t breathe a word on this until we’re in my office, I have a very bad feeling about this.”  I had heard of the bomb threat. The radio was on in my car.

On the way to the station Anita called me again. 

“Hey… I’m kind of being chased up I-70 do you think maybe your dad can stop the cops behind me from arresting me? I don’t really have time to stop for a chat right now.”  

My dad got in touch with the patrol car in question on the radio introduced himself and asked them to escort her and not stop her or arrest her. 

“I don’t think we can catch her sir... 

“Hahaha… how fast are you going, Miss Anita? Please be a good girl and let the nice cop pass you so that you’ll get an escort once you’re in the city.”  I really really like this girl.