Author:
Audience Rating:
Publication:
Character Age:
Other Keywords:
Permission:
A little later than usual today, but after posting two chapters of this, and a Sk8r Grrls episode yesterday, I figured I deserved a bit of rest! Read and enjoy!
Part 14
by Edeyn Hannah Blackeney
"I don't care what the damn DNA says, science is freaky anyway, that's the sloppiest police work I've ever heard about, let alone seen! Now, you two clowns have a lot of work to do on this case to straighten this mess out, or I'd suspend both of you with no pay for this pile of shit. The only reason I'm not is I don't want to make someone else have to come in and sort out your stupidity! Get out of my office!” shouted Captain McCullough.
Kerry and Sheila exited as quickly as they could.
They went out to the car and sat. Not moving. Not saying anything. They just sat. For at least an hour.
“What the hell was that?” asked Sheila.
“An example of police efficiency. Don't list the physical details of the victim of the crime on the police report, to protect them,” replied Kerry. Hands on the wheel at ten and two. Back straight. Feet planted flat on the floorboard. Keys firmly in pocket.
“Okay. We need to start over. There's no question of the DNA, right?” his partner asked.
“Right.”
“Then where's the girl?”
“I dunno.”
“And is Jeff, Janette's — or Marlene's — son?”
“We should check that.”
“Start the damn car already, we're drawing some stares and it's hot as hell.”
“Oh,” was his clever retort.
They drove out to the Tomkins' house.
Matt was at work, and the two kids answered the door. Were they smirking or scowling? Somewhere between was the safe bet.
“Can I help you, detectives?” asked Emily.
“Ah. Sorry, kids, is your dad around?” asked Kerry.
“It's Monday. We're only 13. It's eleven in the morning. Where do you think he might be? Wait. Don't answer that... wouldn't want you to fetch my Dad's long, lost husband from Florida,” replied the girl.
“The only thing worse than being made fun of by a kid,” said Sheila, “is when they're right. Look. We're sorry. We're trying to fix things.”
“Uh-huh,” said Jeff, glaring at the two, “just trying to help.”
“Look, kid,” said Kerry ”fact is, we're back to where we started. I have to figure out who burgled your home, who killed your mother, where the daughter that your mother ran off with went, and,” Kerry paused and looked sheepish, “where the hell you came from.”
Emily shut the door in their faces.
They stood there, trying to decide whether to knock again, when the door was opened and a brush with hair in it thrust at them.
“Hair from Jeff. You have thirty seconds to leave before we sic the dog on you. Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight. Twenty-” came the imperious voice of Emily, girl Empress.
The two adults sprinted for the car, started it, and pulled away.
Kerry looked over at Sheila, who was chuckling.
“What? You think that was funny?” he demanded.
“No,” she answered, “but that girl is going to be damn scary when she grows up.”
If you liked this post, you can leave a comment and/or a kudos!
Click the Thumbs Up! button below to leave the author a kudos:
And please, remember to comment, too! Thanks.
Comments
I wonder if ...
... anyone's seen Jeff naked? *grin*
Randalynn
Spinning!
My head is spinning here. I am assuming someone did a "package" check to assure Lee Ugg that Jeff was a boy. As thick skulled as he is that wouldn't be easy. Were we all wrong it was the Mom who was insisting Jeff was a boy when he/she is not? Does his questioning rather or not he's gay bear into this? Was there surgery involved? Just what in the world is in that Diary? Mom seemed to like Brenda so that tends to make me think she would be more likely to want a girl. Argh! Just what is going on here? Regardless of that Jeff seems happy with Emily and her Dad and he seems to responsible parent. 'Nuff said.
Hugs! Edeyn!
grover in Carolina confused but still loving your story!
Reality check
Jeff is 13 - I'm sure he would know if he was missing something other boys have. Also, in the last chapter Matt told Em that he was watching them when Jeff's mom discovered Brenda, and they weren't quite three. The two had apparently been taking turns watching each other's kids for some time, so there's a good chance Matt would have noticed something.
Now, here's my really wild thought. Emily really is a girl you know, and it's been shown that Matt likes to go out and do 'guy stuff' with Jeff. What if Janette and Matt pulled a switch years ago for just this kind of eventuality?
I have to agree with the captain, this was sloppy police work. A DNA test should have been done before they ever even considered sending Jeff to Florida.
Another great chapter!
Scott
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of--but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
Lazarus Long - Robert A. Heinlein's 'Time Enough for Love'
Bree
The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.
-- Tom Clancy
http://genomorph.tglibrary.com/ (Currently broken)
http://bree-ramsey314.livejournal.com/
Twitter: @genomorph
A bit of explanation
Though it may blow the whole mystery... or it may just confuse the matter more :)
The town in which this is all happening is based a lot on my hometown, with some improvements and better attitudes. Health is not taught to kids until Frosh year in High School. It may seem incredible, but in that town, there were many kids that didn't realize that the genitals are what made boys and girls different in a physical sense until they took the class. Prevailing genetics in the area seems to be that puberty doesn't really even START until high school is starting
I've known many folks that were potty trained before they were anywhere close to two years old. If a single parent is trying to watch their daughter, and a neighbor kid at the same time in the 2-4 year old range, what are the chances that they'll accompany each child to the bathroom? Close to nil, would be my guess
As for the sloppy police work... I tried to show that they weren't bad at their job, just severely overworked, so when an obvious and easy path presented itself, in the middle of the horrible week they were having... they took it. Yes, it was sloppy and it bit them in the ass
Edeyn
Anything is possible
We are talking fictional characters here after all. For me, I grew up in the rural south (very rural and very south) and I knew the difference before I was out of elementary school. Jeff is an only child of course and I had an older brother.
On the potty training - I have no experience at all there, unless you consider my own which is way too far back for me to remember. :)
A technical note: the hair on Jeff's brush may be useless for determining if he is related to Ugg, or even determining gender. The hair shaft contains only mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited solely from the mother. In order to determine paternity there would have to be hairs with follicles still attached, which could be problematic, especially from someone as young as Jeff. An oral swab is a more reliable and common method for DNA typing. (If you already know this just ignore me, sometimes I get way too hung up on technical stuff. :)
Scott
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of--but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
Lazarus Long - Robert A. Heinlein's 'Time Enough for Love'
Bree
The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.
-- Tom Clancy
http://genomorph.tglibrary.com/ (Currently broken)
http://bree-ramsey314.livejournal.com/
Twitter: @genomorph
The assumption
...that the police are working on now, is that Jeff is not Ugg's kid. So they're gonna find out if he's Janette's kid. That's what they wanted the DNA to test. And yes, I know an oral swab is better... but c'mon. Do you really see Jeff letting either of those cops near him?
Edeyn
UGG
I'm with Randalynn, Even Emily has seen Jeff nekid I'm sure. Mis-spelling intentional!
I agree with the headache trying to keep all of this straight.
I like Scott's approach. What say Emily is really the girl in question, and Jeffry is really Matt's son, that they switched each of them for this eventuality. That may be why Jeffries mother liked Brenda. Knowing Brenda made her feel safe because UGG hurt her. Plus possibly gave her the idea to swap the two kids in the first place. Hide them in plain sight.
Cool premise. But like Randalynn said, did anyone check between Jeffries legs?
Joni w
Perhaps a better question
Perhaps a better question would be why did Mrs Ugg run off with her kid in the first place?
Perhaps because when her child was born it (he/she) was inter-sexed (or something) and while the doctors fixed the child one way the father wouldn't accept that decision. So she ran off because the father wasn't being reasonable.
Perhaps the father is a weirdo who doesn't like boys and so treated his son as his daughter.
Perhaps Emily is Jessica and Jeff is Matt's son.
Lots of clues but not enough yet.
:D
JC
The Legendary Lost Ninja
Well, I'm Glad to Get Over...
...my first theory, which was that Kerry knew it all the time (but didn't bother telling Sheila, for unknown reasons) and was trying to warn Jeff about it afterwards, but Jeff kept avoiding him.
There's still a little left of the other half of that theory, which was that Jeff, in reading the pre-abduction part of his mom's diary, may not have seen Jessica's name, but couldn't have avoided noticing that sentences with the words "my (or "our") baby" were all followed by the pronouns "she" and "her". Which would mean that Jeff saw this coming, in some way, and knew he had to get out of that skirt before Lee Ugg saw him. (But why wouldn't he have told someone on the way downtown?)
I'm a bit disappointed in Edeyn's note that we need to consider the possibility that Jeff has female genitals and has never discovered that. Where and when I'm from (San Francisco public schools, born 1950), stripping in front of other boys, putting on gym clothes and shoes, and showering after gym amounted (for better or worse) to a coming-of-age experience at age 12. I realize that's no longer the case today, both because the replacement of junior high with middle school lowered the starting age and because some thrifty soul realized that they could save lots of money by turning off the showers until afterschool sports. But I still have trouble with the concept that a kid who plays basketball for fun, has gone through eight years of public education, has been best friends with a girl (albeit one whose gender is equally fuzzy) long enough that they've slept in the same room and probably seen each other change clothes, is that totally unclear on the concept of sex division.
It also seems to make the whole thing too easy, given all the misdirection that we've seen that presumably was necessary to get Jeff and his mother out of Florida, if the entire disguise thing amounted to putting pants on Jessica and calling her Jeff.
But it would make the interaction with Devin easier to understand. Everyone else looking at Jeff has been predisposed to think "boy" (Katarina because he's registered that way at school, the police because that's how he was introduced to them after his mother's killing, neighbors and Emily from long experience), but Devin, one could theorize, comes in without preconceptions, sees a girl there, and proceeds accordingly.
One more question comes up: has Jeff been wearing girls' panties all this time without realizing there's a difference? Edeyn has told us that Jeff doesn't know how a girl stands up or, presumably, sits, so anyone who wanted one has probably had a good view under that skirt at some point before he changed back to Jeff's clothes. If Jeff did change underwear, he'd presumably have stripped in Devin's presence, and she'd know the answer now whether she'd figured it out before or not.
(Assuming Jeff is Ugg's child, that emancipation ruling ought to be a moot issue, since Devin had it dated before anyone knew Jeff had a living parent. In a contested rehearing, if the judge even retains jurisdiction (with the supporting parent living in Florida, there's lots of reason for any decision to be made down there), there's no way he can justify setting a kid free at age 13 unless he can establish that the living parent (one who, remember, had prevailed over the mother to get legal custody last time the issue came up) is now legally unfit.)
Eric
(BTW, that could be Emily's hair brush -- or Matt's. Or the one from Brenda's wig, if they really want to confuse the issue. The kids haven't shown me any sign that they want to play fair here.)
Theories
I'm very pleased at all the theories and comments with this story :)
But, let me say this. When it's all done, I'm gonna schedule a time that I'll be on IRC to answer any and all questions about FTS -- I'd really like it if you were there. Actually, the two that have done the most theorizing (you and Scott Ramsey) would be awesome if you could make it
I'll then post the log (after I clean it up) as a 'Behind the Scenes' for FTS... sort of a DVD Special Feature :)
Edeyn