Chapter Twenty-Four
Jonah
Shane had called me as Ally had gotten into the shower and told me that Brent wanted to speak with both of us. After dressing quickly, I put Ally’s new phone on the table by the bed in plain view in case she wanted to call and check on Sam. Grabbing my keys, I went in and let Ally know I had to go out for a few hours. Setting the alarm at full power, I headed to the office to meet up with Shane before Brent got there.
As soon as I walked through the door at work, Shane waved me to come with him. I shut the door behind us as we entered his office and I started to pace. Shane took a seat at his desk and turned his computer on. While waiting for it to boot up, he took a drink of his coffee. Unlocking his file cabinet, he took out a folder with some papers in it. Grabbing a second one that was about three inches thick, I could clearly tell it was the murder investigation file. Shane sat that one to the side and logged into his computer while opening the smaller folder.
I couldn’t take the wait any longer and jumped in, “What have you found, Shane? Tell me you found something at least?”
“Well, that’s the thing. I know you were thorough with your research when you tried to investigate Ally Black. So, I went in a different direction. I went for health records, school records, accident reports. I have some contacts left, but Brent has more. I think he may have found something, but he wanted to talk to us in person. So, for now I will tell you what I did and didn’t find,” Shane said all in nearly one breath. I could tell he was excited to be investigating again. It really was his life’s passion and he was damn good at it.
“Do you realize how many Ally Blacks there are in the USA? You didn’t have a middle initial or middle name so I dug for that first,” Shane stated.
“It’s Lynn asshole,” I said heatedly.
“Well I know that now, thank you very much. If you would have included that in the file, it would have saved me at least one phone call,” Shane replied dryly.
“It’s written on the papers in the file I gave you. Can you not fucking read now?” I was pissed.
“Where, I didn’t see it dammit?” Shane questioned. He opened the folder and started going through the few pieces of papers it contained. “Well shit. Hey jerk off, it’s not on the any of the papers in here, you wrote it on the back of the fucking folder!” Shane was aggravated.
“Just fucking tell me what you found for crying out loud!” I growled.
“Ok, chill out and sit the fuck down already. Like I said, once I had her middle name I did a new search and came up with over three hundred Ally Black’s, Ally L. Black’s. and Ally Lynn Black’s even Allison Black’s. All with various spellings. The guys in IT used that program they created for people with aliases to crossmatch all databases for any matches and then near-matches with age, gender. Yes, I said gender it is two thousand seventeen, you know. Then I added females with at least one living child. IT was able to narrow it down some,” Shane said.
He took a drink of coffee and then went on, “Well, we combed through about fifty percent of those names yesterday and came up empty, Jonah.” Shane held up his hand to stave off my complaints.
“Brent called and wanted to talk to us both. He did some digging and I asked as a favor, to not go too deeply in case they really are in Witness Protection. But, something is up for him to want to talk to us in person. If he doesn’t have anything we need, then we will comb through the rest of these names and go from there. You know investigations like these can take time. I am doing my best, man,” stated Shane earnestly.
He knew I was disappointed, but he also knew that I understood too. It may be that if Brent couldn’t find anything out, that they were in fact in the WITPRO Program and we would have to leave it alone. Never would I do that, though. I cared too much. I had to get her to talk to me.
There was a knock on the door and Shane opened it welcoming Brent in. We all greeted each other being longtime friends.
“Did you find anything, Brent?” I asked with anxiety beating loudly in my chest.
“There is not even a tiny trace of an Ally Lynn Black with her description and with a child,” Brent stated solemnly.
Looking directly at me, he then said, “At least not a living one.” He let that hang there for a bit while we all absorbed it.
Fuck! We all knew what that didn’t mean. They were not in the Witness Protection Program. In some ways, her being in WITPRO would have been easier. True, had she been in it and they discovered we were on to her, they would move her soon as possible. But with her not being in the program, that meant a whole host of legal consequences I wasn’t prepared to deal with or have her deal with. Now, this meant she had a stolen identity of a living Ally Black or one of a dead Ally Black. I asked Brent the next question carefully, because depending on the answer, everything that was in play could change. “Which Ally Black is she, Brent?” Brent looked from Shane to me and then said.
“A very old and dead Ally Black from the 1920’s, Jonah. And I know I don’t have to tell you how I prayed that this wasn’t the case. This person pretending to be Ally Lynn Black, is most likely a criminal of some kind and paid a lot of money for this new identity. And her son? Samuel,” Brent shook his head again, “is the identity of a stillborn baby from the 1940’s.” Brent’s voice was filled with anger.
“WITPRO is one thing, Jonah, but these are near masterpieces of stolen identities. And to steal one from a dead baby? That shit pisses me off,” Brent said with disgust. After his last, statement we all just sat there. Trying to absorb the new information.
“None of this makes any sense, Brent. You have not even met them. If you had you would know that Ally is anything but a criminal. I know it in my gut; I know it in my heart,” I said emphatically.
“Jonah, I’m sorry but I have a duty to investigate her and to find out exactly who she is. And why she has assumed this identity. I promise to treat her with respect but what will you do if it turns out that she is a criminal? I can’t just look the other way, I’m sorry.” Brent looked truly torn.
“I know Brent, you are a good man and a good cop. I trust you to do your job but you must know this a head of time. I will protect Ally and her son to my fullest extent. And know that my extent has a wide reach. In no way, do I believe for a single second that she is a criminal. Would you at least give me a few weeks to see if I can get her to tell me what’s really going on? Can you at least do that?” I almost demanded.
Brent stared at me for a minute and finally said, “Jonah, this is my job. The best I can do is give you a few days, a week tops. I’m sorry, brother. If she is a criminal and discovers you are on to her, she could run. That would not help anyone at this point and time.”
“Fair enough, thank you,” I replied as Brent got up to leave. Shaking hands, we said our goodbyes. I headed back to my house determined to get the answers we needed desperately.