Chapter 3

****** I'm adding another chapter early since I have it written and mostly to get everyone hooked - otherwise who will bug me to keep writing?? ********

It was her first trip outside of Baltimore in almost three years. She didn’t have anywhere that she cared to go and without Donnie and Aidan to share it with she didn’t see the point.
She had packed quickly, throwing some extra suits and heels in just in case things took longer than she expected. Despite Nate’s praises, her job wasn’t as simple as sitting down next to a child and having them spill their guts. There was often a period of relationship building. Things could take time depending on how traumatized the child was. Ashley hoped he would talk quickly, but she had her doubts. If they had taken the time to call her then someone had already tried talking to the boy and failed.
The airplane ride was uneventful. As the plane touched down in Tampa, Ashley’s heart began to beat faster. She hadn’t seen Nate in a long time but she hadn’t forgotten his fit physique and tall stature. He had always been a close friend and had stood as Donnie’s best man when he and Ashley married. She had admired him for that, for his crush on her had not gone unnoticed. Strangely, Ashley found herself wishing he might still have that crush. But who was she kidding? She’d had one relationship since Donnie and Aidan died and that ended very poorly.
Rolling her luggage behind her, Ashley exited the plane, her heels clicking underneath her. Nate was meeting her at the luggage carousel but even without him there the memories assaulted her. It had been eleven years since she had set foot in Florida. She had avoided it at all costs. She had lost so much in this state it couldn’t bring her any good luck. And yet, here she was.
Pushing the thought aside, she made her way down to find her luggage and face Nate. In some way she was looking forward to working on an actual case. She had consulted with the FBI before but usually it was just to review a file or talk to a child witness. She had also testified in many trials but never had a hand in catching any bad guys. Maybe it would be an exciting week. She could only hope.
Nate was right where he said he would be, punctual as always. And still good looking. Ashley couldn’t help but notice that his shoulders looked broader and fuller. His hair had thinned out a bit but not in a bad way. It was just enough to give him a more mature and manly look. His face was still clean shaven so his face looked almost the same as college. How did he stay so young? She smoothed down the front of her suit and stepped up to give him a hug. Awkwardly he returned it.
“It’s good to see you, Zimmie,” Ashley had been the only one, ever, who was allowed to call him that and even still he cringed when she said it. Today wasn’t any different.
“Hello to you, Ashley. You’re looking great.”
“You don’t look so bad yourself.” Ashley smiled. It wasn’t a true smile but she didn’t have any of those anyway. That was as good as it got.
“How much luggage did you bring?”
“I think I have two pieces there.”
“Not too bad.” Ashley concealed a smile as Nate struggled to pull her two suitcases off of the conveyor belt. Shopping was the one thing she enjoyed doing and so she did it a lot.
She wasn’t supposed to be in Florida for more than a few days provided things went quickly but she could never be too prepared for any occasion.
Neither of them said a word as Nate lugged her two suitcases out to his state-issue Ford Caprice. Ashley waited until they were seated inside the car to begin her inquiry on the case.
“What can you tell me?” Ashley laid a notebook in her lap and prepared to take notes as best as she could during the ride.
“What do you need to know?” Nate sounded strangely irritated by her question.
“Nate, if you want me to talk to the boy I need to know what kind of information I’m looking for. I need to know what happened to bring me down here.”
“Fine,” Nate took a deep breath before beginning his explanation. “About two months ago, a woman is in a traffic accident. No one was around to see what happened and by the time someone passed by the woman was already dead. At first the police chalked it up to road rage. The front end of the woman’s car was busted so they thought she had rear-ended the wrong person and in that person’s anger they shot her in the head…”
Ashley gasped, “Oh my goodness, that’s horrible.”
“It gets worse. When the police went to notify the husband about his wife’s death he asked about his daughter who was in the car with him. The problem was there was no trace of her. For a while, they thought it was an isolated incident but the exact same thing has now occurred three more times. On the third time, the local police called the FBI in because it has happened across counties and appears to be bigger case than a small amount of road rage.”
“And how does this involve me?”
“This last case was the wife of the Assistant District Attorney, Gina Fleming. At first we assumed that there was a mistake because it was the first time there was anybody in the car besides a mother and her young daughter. Instead of a daughter there was a son and he was shot twice. He’s in intensive care but he is expected to recover. He’s the one we need you to talk to. We want to know if he knows anything. He’s our only witness at this point.”
“And were you right?” Ashley asked.
“Right about what?”
“That they had made a mistake?”
“Unfortunately, no. When I was at the hospital with Kyle and his father, his father asked about his daughter, Kyle’s twin sister, Kayla. She is nowhere to be found.”
“Has there been a ransom note of any kind?”
“Not on any of the girls. And we can’t find a pattern other than all the girls range in age from 9 to 12, are Caucasian and come from middle class to upper middle class families. The mothers have all been shot once in the head and there is no sign of struggle with the girls. They just seem to vanish. Kyle is the first witness.”
Ashley nodded. They did need serious help but it would be tougher than Nate thought. Kyle would be traumatized between seeing his mother shot, watching his sister kidnapped and being shot himself. This could take some serious time. Looking out the window Ashley wondered if she had the heart to give it that time and if Nate understood the commitment he was asking her to make. She doubted it.

Nate parked close to the hospital entrance and jumped out. Ashley followed suit, attempting to keep up with Nate’s stride in her heels. Flashing his badge, he was allowed access up to the patient rooms, through the security guard and into Kyle’s room.
What Ashley saw startled her more than she had expected. The little boy lay asleep on the hospital bed with a tube down his throat, his chest rising and falling in rhythm to his breathing machine. How was she supposed to communicate with a boy so incapacitated?
“If he can’t talk, I can’t ask him questions,” Ashley whispered.
“They expect him to be off all of this soon. I wanted you to meet him first. Maybe do some bonding or whatever it is that you do.”
Nate’s remarks were beginning to annoy Ashley. This was a child in the bed not some puppet that needed the right puppeteer to make him talk. “Nate, this child is very sick and this is going to take time. I wish you had let me know this earlier. I could’ve waited a few days to come and talk to him.”
“We don’t have a few days. We need to know now who did this.”
“Nate, he may not remember. He’s been shot and now he’s unconscious. I’m not sure what I’ll be able to get from him.” Ashley sighed. Why had she even come?
Nate appeared just as frustrated as Ashley felt. He slowly breathed out, “Just do the best you can as quickly as you can please.” With that, he walked out of the room, spoke softly to the guard and left. Ashley hoped he would be back for she had no other ride and nowhere to go.
With another sigh she sat down on the chair next to Kyle’s bed. She had heard that people in comas could hear when others talked to them. She had never done any research on it but she trusted the expertise of others in many areas. It was worth a shot.
She took Kyle’s hand in hers and stroked it. “Hi Kyle, my name is Ashley. Mr. Nate asked me to come here and talk to you. Mr. Nate is a police officer.” Ashley sat back in the chair and let Kyle’s hand fall out of hers. She didn’t know what to say. She felt as helpless as though this were her own son. The immediate connection was strange to her. Her own son, Aidan would have been older than the boy in front of her. He would’ve been twelve…
Ashley pushed the thought aside. She needed to focus on Kyle, not on her own past or problems. As if in response to her mental thoughts, Kyle groaned on the bed and opened his eyes. She watched his tiny blue eyes scan the room and land on her. His blank stare slowly changed into a question.
“Can you hear me?” Ashley asked.
Kyle nodded his answer.
“Good. My name is Ashley. The police wanted me to talk to you…”
Kyle began to vigorously shake his head and shut his eyes tight. This was obviously not a subject that Kyle wanted to discuss.
Ashley changed the subject. “Okay, Kyle, we don’t have to talk about that. How about I tell you who I am?”
Kyle nodded and grunted.
“I’m Ashley Parks and I live in Maryland. Do you know where Maryland is?” He nodded again and Ashley continued, “I’m a counselor and I talk to kids to help them. I’ve talked to lots and lots of kids. I like kids.” Ashley took a deep breath. She needed a connection with the boy but did she dare go there? Looking in his eyes, seeing no trust there, she had no choice. “I had a little boy once. Just like you. He would be twelve now but he went to heaven when he was just one years old. He wasn’t as strong as you. Do you know how strong and brave you are?”
Ashley choked down the tears that were threatening to overcome her. That was something she didn’t need to share. This child had enough sorrow of his own.
Footsteps interrupted their “conversation”. Ashley turned to see a very tall man with dark black hair and the same blue eyes as the boy on the bed in front of her. It didn’t take long for Ashley to guess that the man before her was Kyle’s father. She sat back from Kyle, nervous about his presence as well as embarrassed by the tears that were still forming in her eyes.
“May I help you?” The man’s voice was stern and demanding. Ashley wondered what kind of father he was.
She stood to her feet, smoothed the skirt of her gray suit and extended her hand. “I’m Ashley Parks. Nate Zimmerman asked me to come and talk to your son to see if he had any information to share with us about what happened to him three days ago.”
Without taking Ashley’s hand, he said, “I’m Michael Fleming. I’m Kyle’s father and I was not informed that you would be here.” Pushing past her, he took the seat she had been in and scooted himself closer to Kyle.
“I apologize for that, Mr. Fleming, I am only trying to help.”
Michael’s shoulders drooped visibly and it appeared that the weight and arrogance he was carrying had disappeared. He looked up at her and met her in the eyes for the first time. “I’m sorry. It’s not your fault. They’ve had so many people in and out of here with Kyle and no one’s gotten any answers. I don’t know what you can do differently.”
Ashley’s opinion of Michael changed quickly. While he appeared in control he did seem to care about his son and Ashley knew he was dealing with a lot. She could certainly cut him some slack. “I don’t know what I can do differently. Nate asked me to come here and talk with Kyle. I have a lot of experience with children. I can only hope that Kyle would learn to trust me enough to tell me what he knows.”
“I hope that will be the case then.” Michael turned back to Kyle as Nate walked in. Ashley couldn’t help but mentally compare the two. Michael seemed like a broken man, a place he wasn’t used to being. He was obviously tall and held a position of authority. His looks didn’t hurt matters either. He looked a bit like Donnie when they had met. Nate, on the other hand, was very different. He had blond hair as opposed to Michael’s black hair, murky green eyes instead of bright blue ones and more rugged features rather than cultured ones. They both seemed attractive in their own right.
“Ashley, are you ready?” Nate’s abrupt tone brought her out of her comparison. It didn’t matter who was better looking, she had given up on men a long time ago. And neither of them was beginning to change her mind.
“Yes, Nate. We can go but I’ll need more time later.”
“That’s fine.”
“It was nice to meet you, Mr. Fleming,” Ashley said before turning to follow Nate out of the room.
“It’s Michael.”
“Then Michael, I’ll see you again soon.”