Page 21 of Special Agent Joseph

Distressed for being called to task by a kid half his age, Joe found himself getting a bit testy. “Yeah? Well I’m here now. Want a ride or not?”

“No thanks. I’d rather melt in the heat and die of exposure.” She turned her back to him, leaving him feeling sad. To be truthful, the exchange had devasted him. He took offense to being called a crook. So what was up with that? Completely discombobulated, he drove on slowly to finally meet the man who had begun to haunt him.

Now, with Megan beside him, once again he had to return to that same room and pretend he knew what the fuck was expected of him. And… agree to filling the role.

Only this time, he had a bit of an upper hand. He’d seen Vinnie’s face when Megan had burst in on them about his missing granddaughter. The older man had been truly alarmed. Mixed in with worry had been an enormous love Vinnie had for this runaway. Seeing that small hint of the man’s humanity had registered with Joe.

Once he knew there was a point of pressure that could be used against Vinnie and his group of lawbreakers, he filed it away. One never knew when they could use that very information to save lives and bring the criminals to justice.

Christ, what the hell am I thinking? Fuck’s sake… I’m one of those bad guys.

***

Vinnie was on the phone when they approached his office, but he hung up as soon as he saw them. “Did you find her?”

Joe answered. “Nothing. We put in a call for backup with the local authorities and stopped at all the centers and a few of the drug houses where teens often end up. Unfortunately, no sign of Lucia anywhere.”

Vinnie sat down hard, his fancy leather chair creaking from his weight. “I’ve put out the word that my granddaughter is not to be harmed. But that only works for the people who know me or work for me. Others don’t give a rat’s ass about my orders. In fact, one of my associates has a brother living on the streets, and he says there’s a large group of women who are always on the lookout for runaways. They befriend them and coax the youngsters to come home with them. Then once they get their hooks into the kids, they have a way of indoctrinating them into one of their houses and selling them to the tourists who come to town looking for a good time.”

Suddenly, Vinnie slammed the desk with his fist, his face flaming with anger. “I’ll not have my Lucia become one of those - those nasty, street-walking hookers. I won’t have it.”

Megan, who’d held back, stepped forward. “Did they happen to tell you the name of any of these women stalking girls or where they hang out? Maybe I can work my way inside and get close to one of them who might know of Lucia.”

Vinnie spit out his reply. “You’re too old. They won’t be looking for someone like you.”

Not taking offense, Megan frowned as if she were thinking. Knowing that the wig she wore, plus the dowdy clothes made her look different than usual, she suggested, “I can wear a wig, dress like a kid, add some makeup, and pretend I’m hiding out. They might be fooled.”

Joe said nothing while the conversation happened. But now he pointed out, “We don’t even know for sure that’s where she is. But I do think Megan has a point. Maybe we should be following Lucia’s footsteps, and if Megan could carry if off, she could ask around, say as Lucia’s sister so that it wouldn’t seem strange for her to have questions. She could say they got separated. Show her picture, stuff like that.”

Megan jumped on the idea. “Mr. Farina, I feel terrible about Lucia. She was my responsibility. I don’t want to walk away from this without doing everything I can to bring her home.”

Vinnie stared up at her, his hands forming a temple for his lips to rest on. Megan had a feeling he did this to control his temper and hoped it would work. “Fine. Go. You and Joseph work together and find her.” He pointed at Joe. “Our business is on hold for now anyway. Right?”

Joe just nodded.

“I’ll still expect you to get back to me with the info you promised but until then, Lucia is our top priority.”

Chapter Fourteen

Megan waited for Joseph show up. Having promised to escort her to where she guessed she could make contact or be picked up by the same people who might have taken the girl, she’d decided to let him take lead.

Once back at her place, she removed the dark wig, thrilled to give up the constriction and then added pink streaks of color to the long, golden pigtail she fixed on the left side. Hedging, she ended up deciding not to give up her total disguise and kept the sapphire eye contacts to retain that slight concealment.

Next, she’d robbed her closet to find just the right outfit of snug, ragged jean shorts, an off the shoulder, drapey black t-shirt that had seen better days, and then wiped away all her makeup, leaving her looking years younger. Adding just some lip gloss, the type she knew was Lucia’s favorite, she slipped thick-soled flip-flops on her feet and stood in front of the mirror.

Not one to leave home without her face on, she had to admit that this lack of makeup gave her a more youthful image, takingher back a lot of years. Back to when life hadn’t been all that wonderful. Back to when she’d first had her heart broken.

Stella, her mother had been good in many ways but her caring only happened when she was around. Which wasn’t often enough for a girl who needed her. Not that Stella had been out on the town having a good time. No. The woman worked two jobs for as long as Megan could remember, and when she wasn’t working, she’d be cleaning their shabby place and doing all the chores to keep a household thriving. From as far back as Megan could remember, Stella had given up on men. Not knowing all the facts, Megan often thought of her as the perfect martyr. One who not only didn’t understand a teenage girl’s needs, but a buzzkill who intended to ruin her life.

Around that time, her brother Dean suddenly died in a motorcycle accident, shocking the family. The night they’d buried his ashes, mother and daughter slumped on the couch together in tears. That’s the day the normally sober Stella finished off the left-over half bottle of wine from the small celebration of life event they’d held for his friends and close neighbors. For a woman who never drank, stories began to emerge, and the truth came out.

In pain and with the lock loosened on her determination to keep her past to herself, Stella explained a lot of what Megan most needed to hear. Being dumped by her husband had the most to do with Stella’s attitude and behavior. Drunkenly she told Megan about how she’d met Jason, Megan’s father, and how she’d fallen madly in love.

On this sad night, it all came pouring out. About how her father’s main pastime was cheating on Stella and using her hard-earned money to do it with. The loser seldom held down a job more than a month or two at a time. The rest of his drinking, gambling, and whoring, he did on her dime and bitched about there not being enough of it.

Over the years, Megan had heard some things about Jason. But from the way Dean would talk about their dad, she knew he hated him, so she remained skeptical about his grumblings. When she’d ask him what he remembered most, he’d told her about the yelling and getting slapped when their mother wasn’t around. “Dad was a good-for-nothing prick, Meggie. And he didn’t like kids, especially his own.”

Seeing her mother waiting for a response, she admitted her lack of memory. “Dean lived with him more than me. I don’t remember him much.”

---