by Matt Lincoln
It felt as though every nerve in Olivia’s body was set on fire as she heard that. It seemed like they had been on the right track after all.
“We might have,” Olivia answered. “He’s here in Miami right now. Could I--”
“He?” Barbara cut her off with a gasp. “What do you mean he?”
For a moment, Olivia was uncertain how to respond.
“The child we have in our custody is a boy,” she replied. “Around five years old.”
“Is this some kind of sick joke?” Barbara screamed so hard that Olivia had to pull the phone away from her ear. “My daughter disappeared nearly twenty years ago! What kind of morons do you have working at the FBI?!”
“Ma’am, I don’t--”
“Go to hell!” Barbara yelled before hanging up.
Olivia was left clutching her phone to her ear, more confused now than before she’d made the call.
5
Ethan
It was a gorgeous, sunny day out, and I clung to the thin hope that Diane might actually have something for us to do that day.
I’d barely made it two steps into the office before the curly-haired ball of energy that was our lab tech, Bonnie, intercepted me.
“Ethan!” she exclaimed as she hooked one of her arms around mine. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“Really?” I smiled as she half-dragged me down toward the forensics lab.
“Yep,” she replied, a Cheshire cat grin stretched across her face. “Remember that skeleton bone you gave me?”
“No way,” I gasped as I finally realized what she was talking about.
“Yes way,” she replied smugly as we walked through the doors of the lab. “It took a while since I had to get a historian buddy of mine to consult on it. Ancient remains are a tad trickier to root through than modern ones, especially when they’ve been sitting underwater for a few centuries. We managed to get something, though.”
“What is it?” I asked eagerly as she led me over to one of the computers. “You know who he is?”
“We’ve got a pretty good guess.” She nodded happily. “Of course, we can’t be sure one-hundred percent since it’s almost impossible to fully trace DNA that far back with such an incomplete database to pull from. Given the circumstances, though, there’s a pretty big chance this is our guy unless there just happens to be another eighteenth-century pirate with suspiciously similar DNA patterns.”
“The suspense is killing me, Bonnie,” I groaned dramatically. “Who is it?”
“This guy, right here,” she declared as she opened one of the windows on the computer with a theatrical flourish. “Captain Abraham Leycester, also known as the Blue Demon.”
“Pretty intense name,” I remarked. “I’ve never heard of him, though.”
“I’m not surprised.” Bonnie shrugged. “He was a fairly small-time pirate for most of his life. It wasn’t until 1708 that he really started making a name for himself, but then he suddenly disappeared without a trace.”
“Yeah,” I scoffed, “because someone shot him in the head and sank his ship.”
“Again, not surprised,” Bonnie replied. “He made himself a lot of enemies by constantly attacking British cargo ships. There’s not a whole lot of information available about him, but from what I managed to dig up, it seems like he was a bit ahead of his time.”
“How do you mean?” I asked as I peered down at the computer screen. On it was an old painting of a mean-looking man with a long black beard, wearing a bright blue coat.
“He was kind of an American patriot before America was even a thing,” she explained with an almost giddy smile, her hands moving animatedly as she spoke. “Back when the colonies were still just that, he was one of the first to speak out and demand more rights for the people living there. Of course, the American Revolution wouldn’t be for almost a hundred more years, so when his words fell on deaf ears, it seems like he decided to take matters into his own hands. The few records that still exist of him describe him as being generous with the things he plundered. He’d steal from British ships and distribute what he got back to the colonies.”
“Sounds pretty decent of him, actually,” I muttered as I stepped away from the computer screen. “And similar to Grendel’s own ‘Robin Hood’ persona. It would make sense that the two were friends.”
“Yeah,” Bonnie replied wistfully. “If only he wasn’t also a ruthless murderer, then maybe I could actually get behind the guy. Apparently, the reason he was called the Blue Demon was because of his penchant for going on ship-wide massacres every time he attacked a boat. One report from a survivor who hid inside a barrel of rum described him as being completely insane. According to him, Leycester was smiling and laughing the entire time he was killing people, screaming about vengeance and justice.”
“They can’t ever just be cool, can they?” I sighed as I folded my arms over my chest. “There’s always gotta be some little detail that ruins the whole story.”
“I dunno, I still think he’s pretty cool,” Bonnie remarked with a shrug. “I mean, he was a pirate, after all. Can’t be too surprised that he had a tendency to do bad things.”
“Yeah,” I conceded with a shrug. “I just wish I knew more about how he was related to Grendel and the Dragon’s Rogue. I mean, we found that envelope with Grendel’s seal on it, so they had some kind of relationship. As cool as this is, unless we figure out how they’re connected, I won’t get any closer to finding the Dragon’s Rogue.”
“Have you heard back about what was inside that chest you and Holm dredged up?” she asked.
“Holm was just asking about that yesterday,” I replied. “And no, I haven’t. I’m still waiting to hear back from Tessa about it.”
“Well, maybe my guy could help,” Bonnie suggested with a shrug. “I mean, he’s a historian, so he must have colleagues who know about artifact restoration.”
“Really?” I asked. I was getting excited just at the prospect of it. “Let me call Tessa right now, then.”
I had just pulled my phone from my pocket when Holm walked through the door.
“There you are,” he said as he spotted Bonnie and me. “I didn’t even see you come in. What are you doing down here?”
“I was just telling him about the results we got off that finger,” Bonnie declared happily.
“Finger?” Holm furrowed his eyebrows at us before it clicked. “Wait, the skeleton we found in that wreck? You were talking about it without me? Wait, what did you find? No, crap, nevermind that now, Diane needs to see us.”
“Really? I asked, genuinely surprised to hear that.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “She’s got a case for us. Apparently, it’s a weird one and also urgent since there’s a kid involved.”
“Oh, no,” Bonnie murmured behind me. I could understand her feelings. It was always especially bad whenever kids were involved.
“Alright,” I replied, just slightly disappointed. Of course, as soon as I started to actually get somewhere with my search for the Dragon’s Rogue, we’d immediately get a new case. I wasn’t too upset, though, since I’d been itching for some action for almost two weeks now.
Diane had a serious expression on her face when we stepped into her office a minute later.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I need you two to head down to the police station,” she explained right away. “We’ve got a bit of a mess on our hands with this one.”
“What kind of mess?” Holm asked warily.
“Take your pick,” Diane deadpanned. “I’ve got the FBI fighting with us over jurisdiction, and I just spent an hour convincing an overprotective Social Services agent to allow us to speak with the child involved.”
“Wait, what exactly happened?” I asked.
“Sorry,” Diane grumbled as she massaged the bridge of her nose. “I’ve spent all morning on the phone dealing with everything, and it’s got me all scrambled up. Three days ago, a five-year-old boy was found wandering around, alone,
on a beach here in Miami. He was malnourished, severely dehydrated, and extremely sunburned. For the past three days, the police and FBI have been scrambling to locate the child’s relatives and figure out what happened to him. Then, yesterday, there was an unusual development in the case. They now believe that the child came here, with his mother, from Turks and Caicos.”
“Turks and Caicos?” I repeated. “So that’s why we’re being called in now?”
“I don’t understand, though,” Holm interjected. “If they found the kid’s mom, then what’s the issue?”
“The issue is that they haven’t found her,” Diane replied. “What’s more, she’s our main victim here.”
“What?” Holm and I both asked in unison, twin looks of confusion etched across our faces.
“I told you,” she muttered bitterly. “It’s a mess.”
6
Olivia
Olivia woke up early the next day, intent on speaking with Eddy once again. Speaking with Barbara Newark yesterday had been a bust, and until they could find another lead to follow, the only thing she could do was try to pull whatever information she could from the boy. Mrs. Abernathy had given Olivia her contact information and the address of the home where Eddy would be staying for the time being, and Olivia wanted to do right by him as quickly as she possibly could.
She had just finished getting dressed when her phone rang. She frowned when she saw it was her director calling.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Agent Hastings,” Director Evans greeted her. “There’s someone here to see you. A Ms. Christina Newark. She says she might have information about the missing child case.”
Olivia felt as though her heart had just skipped a beat. Had she heard him correctly? The woman she’d spoken to on the phone had really come to Miami all the way from Pennsylvania?
“I’ll be right there,” she replied before ending the call.
With her earlier plans abandoned, she rushed down to the FBI office.
Olivia had known that something wasn’t adding up yesterday after her disastrous phone call with Barbara Newark. The fact that her daughter Christina had come all the way here proved that there was more to the story.
She headed straight to her boss’s office the moment she made it in. Even before she made it to the door, she could see the young woman sitting inside.
“Director Evans,” Olivia greeted her boss with a nod as she strode into his office.
“Agent Hastings.” He nodded back before turning to look at the young woman sitting on the couch pressed against the far wall of the office. “This is Christina Newark.”
The first thing Olivia noticed was the girl’s eyes. They were the exact stunning shade of icy blue that Eddy’s had been. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that the two were somehow related.
“I spoke to you on the phone yesterday,” Olivia stated as she reached down to shake the girl’s hand.
“Yeah, I remember.” She muttered shyly.
“I appreciate you coming all this way,” Olivia said as she sat down in one of the chairs adjacent to the couch. “May I ask why you wanted to see me?”
“Oh, it wasn’t all that far.” Christina shrugged. “I go to Jacksonville State, so it was only a few hours’ drive. And I just couldn’t stop thinking about what happened yesterday.”
“You mean our talk?” Olivia prompted.
“Yeah, that,” Christina replied. “But also my mom. About an hour after we talked, she called me screaming. She was completely hysterical, crying and yelling and asking me if it was true that I had spoken to you. It was all so crazy that I just wanted to come and talk to you.”
“Well, I’m glad you did,” Olivia replied. “Did your mother say anything else about the boy?”
“No.” Christina shook her head. “Or, if she did, I didn’t manage to catch it. It was hard to understand what she was saying, to be honest. Ever since my dad died, and I left for college, it seems like the smallest things send her over the edge.”
Olivia felt a little bad now. She hadn’t intended to upset the poor woman, but she had to do what she had to do to get to the bottom of this case.
“Anyway,” Christina mumbled nervously. “You said this kid was, like, related to me, right?”
“Yes, we think so.” Olivia nodded slowly. “Why?”
“Well, can I meet him?” she muttered meekly. “I mean, I dunno what my mom’s deal is or why she’s lying since she's obviously hiding something and this kid apparently is related to us, but, like, if he’s my family, I wanna meet him.”
Olivia turned to look at her boss. Honestly, she wasn’t sure if she had the authority to make that call.
“Social Service’s ultimate goal is almost always to reunite children with blood family.” Director Evans shrugged. “I’ll make a call and see what they say.”
“Really?” Christina exclaimed, her eyes going wide. “Yes, please do that. Thank you so much.”
He smiled at her before picking up his desk phone to make the call.
“You seem really excited about meeting him,” Olivia remarked quietly to her. She could hear the director speaking on the phone. She didn’t want to speak loudly enough to disturb him, but she didn’t want to make the girl sit in silence, either.
“I just couldn’t stop thinking about him all night,” she confessed. “I was an only child growing up, and I got lonely sometimes. At least I had my mom and dad, though. But then I imagined him all alone, a little kid with no one around him in a big scary police station. It just didn’t feel right to just forget about it when he might actually be my long-lost cousin or something, you know?”
“You’re a sweet girl.” Olivia smiled warmly at her.
“Okay,” Director Evans declared a few moments later as he hung up the phone. “I’ve spoken with Mrs. Abernathy. She’s waiting for both of you now.”
Christina made a sound like an excited yelp and shot up off the couch.
“Let’s go,” she said, a wide grin spread across her face.
“Alright,” Olivia agreed as she stood up after her. “Let’s go.”
Olivia could feel the excitement radiating off of Christina on the drive over to the group home. It was cute, seeing how excited she was to meet Eddy, but it was also a bit concerning. If the kid turned out not to be related to her, then it would only hurt more if she got her hopes up.
“We’re here,” Olivia announced as they pulled up to the unassuming house.
These days, rather than large austere buildings packed to the brim with displaced children, an effort was made to provide temporary homes that were as normal and welcoming as possible.
The door opened wide as they were walking up the driveway, and Mrs. Abernathy stepped out to greet them.
“Good to see you again, Agent Hastings,” she greeted Olivia. “And you must be Christina.”
Olivia noted how her eyes immediately went wide as she took in Christina’s appearance. She must have noticed the similarity as well.
“That’s me,” the young woman replied shyly.
“Well, come on in.” Mrs. Abernathy gestured for them to walk through the door. “Oh, but take your shoes off before you step into the den, won’t you? The little ones tend to crawl around, so I try to keep the floor as clean as possible.”
“Oh, of course.” Christina hurried to slip her sandals off.
“Right this way.” Mrs. Abernathy beckoned us further into the house and into the living room. I spotted the curly mop of blond ringlets right away.
“Eddy,” she called softly. “You’ve got a visitor.”
“Oh my--” Christina gasped as the boy sitting on the couch turned to look in our direction.
It was evident that Mrs. Abernathy had put a lot of love into getting Eddy cleaned up. The rat’s nest he’d been sporting the last time Olivia had seen him was gone, replaced with long, bouncy curls blonder than she’d realized. He’d been so covered in filth that it had looked almost brown.
“Mo
mmy?” Eddy mumbled as he looked up at Christina, the expression on his face just as shocked as hers.
Olivia and Mrs. Abernathy exchanged an alarmed look as Eddy clambered off the couch and waddled toward the girl.
“He looks just like me,” she muttered as she crouched down to get closer to the boy’s eye level.
She was right. Their hair and eye colors were identical. The only big difference was that Eddy’s skin tone was several shades darker and currently mottled red by the burns.
“Mommy,” he mumbled again as he looked up at her, though this time he sounded less sure.
“Oh, honey,” Christina muttered as she looked down at him. She sounded as though she was about to start crying. “I’m not your mom.”
Eddy stared at her for a long moment before lifting his arms up at her. Christina reacted right away and wrapped her arms around him.
Olivia exchanged another concerned glance with the social worker. It was a touching scene, and though there was no doubt in Olivia’s mind that the two were related, it was still a tenuous situation.
“Why don’t we all have a seat on the couch?” Mrs. Abernathy suggested kindly.
“Good idea.” Christina sniffed as she wiped a tear from her eye. She stood up straight and took Eddy’s hand as she moved over to the corduroy-upholstered couch. He clung to her every step of the way.
“He opened up to you quite fast,” Mrs. Abernathy noted a few minutes later after the four of them had spent some time talking. Though it would have been more accurate to say that Agent Olivia and Mrs. Abernathy mostly watched while Christina and Eddy talked. He was still answering in stilted, one-word sentences, but at least he was answering.
“That’s good, right?” Christina smiled as she ran a hand through Eddy’s locks.
“It is.” Mrs. Abernathy nodded cautiously. “Are you absolutely certain there isn’t anything else you can tell us about him? Anything your parents might have mentioned over the years?”
“No.” Christina shook her head helplessly. “I mean, I always suspected there was something my mom was hiding. And then, after the way she freaked out yesterday, I knew something was up, you know? I just can’t imagine why she would hide him from me.”