Chapter 1 –

It was a pleasant Saturday in the park. Fall was just nipping at Little Rock’s trees with the luminous wisp of color that would soon become vibrant and rich. Children were running about while their parents were chatting away. Boys were either playing ball, chasing each other, getting into mischief, or helping their dads fire up the communal grills. Girls were congregated either on the swing sets, chatting away in secret cliques, being chased by mischievous boys, or helping their moms set the picnic tables for the neighborhood get together that was being held that day.

In all the turmoil of a neighborhood pot luck, a solitary eight year old child was hiding out in a thicket of bushes playing with a doll out of the sight of everyone that mattered.

From inside the darkest part of those bushes a solitary figure stealthily came up behind the doll’s guardian and smothered the child’s face with a cloth.

No one noticed the figure steal away with the unconscious child deeper into the forest of trees until it was too late. All they found was a doll lying on the ground that afternoon, a cloth that had traces of chloroform on it with DNA on it too that matched the child, and a sad horrible milk cartoon mystery to solve.

***

“They say you are suffering from a kind of Stockholm Syndrome and we need to let you adjust.” Mrs. Laignaux looked back at the doctor behind the desk who nodded his approval.

“I know Mom. I’m sorry. I’m sorry you found me like this. I don’t deserve to be your child anymore. I am sorry I co-operated so well. But ...” Camille stopped and couldn’t seem to say the next word. She began to shake and cry.

“Please don’t say that Honey! You will always be our child.” Mrs. Laignaux placed her hand on Camille’s knee and caressed it gently to reassure her. The touch of her mother soothed her daughter’s anxiety. Mrs. Laignaux looked towards her husband and ventured, “We more than understand. You had no choice.” The mother studied the hem of her daughter’s skirt and breathed a heavy sigh shaking her head trying to understand it all. Her daughter’s skirt was a nice burgundy pleated tweed. Even though it was more like a formal school uniform, it looked pretty on her daughter, she thought. She wondered if she chose it or it was it forced on to her. Camille looked healthy and fit for all she had been through.

She admired how she was sitting like a proper lady with her ankles crossed and knees pressed together. Her long auburn hair fell beautifully onto her petite shoulders. She had a simple thin braid done on the back of her hair on both sides which were drawn together into a cute burgundy ribbon which was almost too cute for a young woman, but sweet on the young teenage girl she was now. The blouse was a soft silk with embroidered rose flowers strategically placed to enhance the look of her youthful breasts which had clearly had formed on her recently. She looked to be a C cup. It was obvious the bra she wore was fitted correctly. She noted from the outline on her blouse that she wasn’t being pinched and the bra lifted up her breasts nicely forming what had become an ample valley with the cleavage of a woman girl who was leaving childhood behind.

“I love the braid and the bow in your hair.” she mentioned casually as she examined her daughter thinking changing the subject would help.

Camille’s face lit up and she smiled back at her. “Thank you. I saw it in this magazine and just loved it. It is a variation on a fishtail braid.” She turned her head so her mom could get a better look and then turned back. “I have been doing it for a couple of months now. It was hard at first all by myself, but I have learned to do it blindfolded. I like how delicate it is. It gives my hair almost a elf like look instead of a heavy braid. Sort of a Lord of the Rings elvish look I would think. I was hoping it would look good on me.”

Happy that her daughter was so animated, yet concerned as to why, Mrs. Laignaux calmly replied in a fashion not to convey any concern or worry, “Yes, Honey. It does look very pretty. And come to think of it, so are you. You have grown into a very pretty girl. I am glad you got to see The Hobbit and the Elves. You really captured the elvish look from the movie.” Mrs. Laignaux pretended to tweak Camille’s nose playfully like she was still a little child.

Camille giggled and smiled. “Good. I wanted to look really nice for you and Dad when you first saw me again. But, I never saw the movie The Hobbit and the Elves. I read the book The Hobbit though. Was it based on that? I loved the book. And I saw photos in some magazines on how to look like an elf. Although I vaguely remember us watching The Lord of the Rings movies together before I was ...”

Mrs. Laignaux bowed her head looking away for a moment at the weight of what her little girl just said. She changed the subject. “Did you pick the clothes yourself or are they borrowed?”

“Oh no, Mom. Mr. Jack, my captor, let me choose clothes from catalogs.” she said excitedly. “I have quite the wardrobe. I guess it was part of his sick plan for me. Sometimes, we even went into the city where he would let me shop. In fact, he encouraged me to ...” She stopped and looked at her dad for a moment and then looked back at her mom with worry written all over her face. “You need to know I didn’t really like to do it at first. I tried to resist. But, soon, I found I couldn’t help myself. It helped me from getting scared and feeling lonely. And to be honest, it became a guilty pleasure. I found I liked looking pretty and how the clothes made me feel.” Camille looked down so as not to see her mother frown at hearing this news. Tears flowed silently down her face.

Mr. Laignaux was leaning up against a wall watching the two of them. He turned away hiding a tear to look at some books on the doctor’s shelf. His lips were pursed and his expression barely hid an unexpressed level of outrage and disgust.

Mrs. Laignaux patted her on the knee. “I’m sorry, Honey. It just is hard realizing how much of your life I missed out on and what was done to you.”

“For better or worse, this is who I am now.” Camille said sorrowfully, shrugged her shoulders, and looked up into her mother’s eyes for reassurance not finding it in her dad quite yet.

“What happened? I mean, I know we aren’t supposed to ask you yet. They say we have to let you tell your story at you own pace. But, we only know that almost six years ago, you disappeared. And one month ago they found you in Mexico and repatriated you after proving you were our child thanks to DNA.”

Camille hung her head low again. “I will tell you soon. I promise. I missed you and Dad terribly. But, I had to ...” She broke down and sobbed into her hands. Mrs. Laignaux put her arm around her to comfort her. It was amazing how this moment felt so right even though it was wrong for both of them.

“Survive, you had to survive.” Cam Laignaux spoke for the first time since coming into the room. “I know that now for sure. It is just hard for me to find you like this. Where did my child go?” With more than a hint of anger, he went on to say, “When did she become a woman?”

Dr. Stanton spoke with a deliberate and measured tone into the melancholy that colored the family reunion. “Mr. and Mrs. Laignaux, here is what we know. About six years ago, a man who called himself Mr. Jack kidnapped Camille and took her to Mexico. There, he transformed her surgically, raised her as a girl, taught her well it seems, fed her properly, and from what we can tell, took good medical care of her. Then, a month ago, he chained her to a pillar in the hacienda she was raised in, left the home, and then notified the authorities where she was and who she was. Before we got in touch with you, we verified who she was before using DNA before we contacted you.”

Cam looked at him. “To what end? Why do all this? And what do you mean taught her and took good care of her?”

Dr. Stanton leaned back in his chair, “What I mean is that she was still schooled. Her captor kept up with her schooling by home schooling her. She is, according to our tests, now at the 12th grade level in all her subjects. She can speak and read Spanish fluently now too. Even though she is fourteen, she could get her GED right now if she wanted and pass it with flying colors. Further, I pulled strings and gave her a SAT exam and she scored a 2170, which could get her into an Ivy League college of her choice even with just a GED.”

“That doesn’t justify this being done to Cam ...”

Dr. Stanton interrupted Mr. Laignaux and said, “We know. The person who did this had a political agenda to justify their actions and we have a good suspicion what it was.”

“What was it?” asked Mrs. Laignaux innocently.

“They wanted to prove their theory. They wanted to show that the conventional medical procedure is antiquated. They wanted to show that parents aren’t the answer for a child that is like yours. And that taking them away from the parents is the best medicine.”

“By changing our son into a daughter against our will and against his?” Mrs. Laignaux shook her head.

“Yes. They wanted to show the world that changing a child into the sex they identified with was the right thing to do.”

Camille looked out the window with melancholy in her voice. “He was wrong. It wasn’t the right thing to do. It should have been my choice. Not his. He stole my family from me.”

Mrs. Laignaux quipped, “It’s okay honey. We will find a way to change you back into a boy if that is what you want.”

Camille winced then looked at her mom and smiled. “Please Mom, I am a girl now. I have been one for so long now that I have forgotten even what it felt like to be a boy. At least, that is who I think I am.” Camille face contorted a little showing her acceptance of what happened to her. “And frankly, I like being a girl.”

“How about the others?” came a voice from the door to the room.

Everyone turned to the man standing in the doorway. “I’m sorry. I am Detective Bishop with the Little Rock police department. I have been assigned to the case.”

Cam, her dad, turned to the detective and said incredulously, “There were others?”

Dr. Stanton interrupted. “Excuse me gentlemen. We need to discuss this out of the ears of the ladies as we had agreed upon.” He nodded to Mrs. Laignaux who nodded back.

“Come on Honey. Lets go have some girl time.” The two headed out of the room holding hands and soon were chatting away.

When they were going, Cam asked, “What is this about others?”

“It seems our Mr. Jack was tracking down suspected kids who exhibited transgender traits. Only later did we realize that this person used confidential census files that we asked schools to start keeping because of Obama administration rules implemented in 2010. The fact is that we found that those files were hacked. Your son exhibited transgender traits and it was recorded by a school counselor about six weeks before he was kidnapped. Then his records were hacked too. That meant the kidnapper knew where your son was and could plot kidnapping him.”

“For God’s sake, why? And what was in that file?”

“Well, a couple of girls said to the teacher that they caught Camy trying on their jackets and looking at himself in the mirror. He told the teacher he was wondering what he would look like if he was a girl so she could figure out how his sister might look years from now. She didn't believe him and talked to the school counselor about him. Our suspicion at this time is that the kidnapper is a wealthy individual who may have never married and is an activist as well as a sociopath. He could very well have watched someone he cared about get destroyed for coming out as transgender by his own family according to the profiler. Or he just felt strongly on the issue. Do you remember the tree huggers years ago that would spike trees.”

“Yes, I remember that. They were trying to save trees, weren’t they?”

“Yes. That part is noble. What isn’t noble is that they would spike trees so the chain saws would break and the chain snap back and badly hurt or kill the operator of the chain saw.”

“So, how about these others, then?”

“There were three other boys about the same age kidnapped around the country with similar stories. So, the FBI suspects that they were brought in as a kind of guarantee Mr. Jack would succeed. Camille remembers each of them coming in briefly and her being used to talk to them about her transformation. They would listen and then she wouldn’t see them again. We either suspect they were being raised elsewhere or they were fighting the transformation and were possibly killed off.”

“But, didn’t Mr. Jack realize we would put two and two together?”

“It is hard to tell. We are keeping hush hush about this for many reasons. We can’t use the FBI in the normal way since we suspect that Mr. Jack has an informant on the inside of the Federal government. When Obama left office, he signed an executive order than allowed cross agencies to look into the files easily of other agencies. This means that he had a chance to see who we might assign to this case. That is why we are going off the grid with this case.”

“So, that is the reason I was told that in order for Camille to survive, I have to accept him as a girl or someone might harm him, or rather her?”

“Yes. Who ever let her go wants to see her become a poster child for transitioning a boy to being a girl before the age of puberty. They will do their best to make sure she becomes a poster child for their cause celeb even if it harms her. So, they want us to bring in the FBI and for this to be advertised in the local media. That is one of the reasons we quickly determined that it needed to be kept quiet. We have to assume she is being watched.”

Around the corner from where the men were speaking, Camille and her mother slowly walked into an atrium. Camille smoothed her skirt and sat down on a bench, crossed her legs, and then adjusted her skirt. Her mother watched this and appreciated that she was so well behaved.

“Honey, I hope you weren’t punished severely during the last six years.”

“Mr. Jack was tough. I was to behave and act appropriately. He scared me. But, he said that I was to act like a lady and be a girl all the time. If I was and I did something wrong, he would punish me as a girl. If acted like a boy, I would be punished like a boy which meant a belt. I didn’t like those belt punishments. After a couple of months, I found that getting his approval meant I would have more freedom too. And, once I was healed from all the surgery, he even let me do things. I learned ballet and had special tutors that would teach me how to do make up, how to dance, and how to cook. After a while, I stopped fighting him if I fought him at all. I was pretty scared. He had a temper. Still, he promised me that if I worked hard in my studies, I would see you and Dad again. Then, for my birthday this year, he said that I had done very well and would see you in a month or two, but, he had to set the stage first.” Camille bowed her head and a tear fell from her eye.

Mrs. Laignaux didn’t say a word. She just sat down and hugged her and stroked her hair.

After a few minutes of quiet, Camille spoke out in a soft voice and said, “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, Sweetie.”

With trembling in her voice, she said, “Even as I am now?”

She smiled. “Yes, even as you are now. You are a very pretty and nice girl. Any mother would be proud to have you as a daughter.” Camille rested her head on her mother’s shoulder and closed her eyes.

Back in the Dr. Stanton’s office, Dr. Stanton was explaining, “Your child identified with the kidnapper. This is entirely normal in many kidnapping cases. Her sense of worth came from pleasing him for the last five years. What you will have to do is to become a replacement for him first and then let her decide if she was to remain as she is or change back to what she was.”

“How long will that take?”

“No one can say. It could take a year or five more. But, this is crucial, she needs your acceptance most of all, Cam. She needs to know you love her unconditionally and will do what ever it takes to help her recover her own identity, whether it be female or male. Let her explore and if she tries being a boy for a week and then goes back to being a girl, be supportive saying you will love her or him regardless.”

“What will be the sign that Camy has come around to be who Camy is supposed to be?”

“When she gets comfortable being angry and you let her. For the last five years, she has had to suppress her anger for fear of punishment. She needs to let that anger out now and she needs a safe place to do it. You have to be that safe place.”

“I will try Doctor. But, I can’t promise a thing.”

“Then tell her that too. She will understand if you are having trouble. So long as you make it clear that at the end of the day, she is still your little girl or your little boy.”

Elsewhere, breaking the silence of the atrium, Mrs. Laignaux turned to Camille and asked, “Who did your make up?”

“I did. It was one of the first things I was taught to do by Mr. Jack.” Camille pulled out her purse and showed her mother the inside. “See, all that is mine. I just don’t know what I would do without my purse.”

“I don’t know either. I love mine. You’re really good at make up. Anyway, have you thought about going back to school?” Mrs. Laignaux started going through her daughter's purse.

“I don’t know. Do you think the kids at school would accept me? I should freshen my lipstick.” Camille grabbed the tube of lipstick and redid her lips while looking into a compact. Then she grabbed a tissue and pressed her lips together on it and put everything back into the purse after tossing the tissue into a nearby trash can.

Mrs. Laignaux smiled at how well her daughter did. “I don’t see why not. What grade would you like to go into since I gather you could graduate right now if you wished?”

“I guess I could do 9th grade and pick up where I would have been anyway. But, what will the kids say about my being a girl?”

“I don’t see any reason to tell them about who you really are. We can get your birth certificate changed. And the family can cover you. Even Sammy and Jessica.”

“The twins. I forgot about them. They are what now, eight?”

“Yes. We haven’t explained you to them yet. They only know that their brother was taken from them years ago. We haven’t even explained to them that you are a girl now. I guess we will have to take it one day at a time.”

Camille looked off into the distance. “Do we still live in the same place?”

“No, we moved a few years after you disappeared. By then, we feared you were dead. Hearing that you were alive was such wonderful news.”

“And how about hearing I was a girl?” She gave her mother a look of worry.

“Hard. But, part of me already knew. I felt the doll in the bushes had to be you. You liked to do girly things.”

“I remember that day as if it was yesterday. A couple of the neighbor girls playing that day were talking about how they loved their dolls. I liked what I heard. I had to go in the bushes and see what it was like while they were distracted. Then suddenly, everything went black. I woke up, I was told, three days later. Mr. Jack already had already removed my testicles. A few days later, I had lady parts and my boy parts were officially gone. Then a week or so later, he did my face surgery. It was all so fast.”

“Do you know if he was a doctor?”

“The police think he is. I figured he must be. Or, he is trained to be a doctor. I don’t know. All I know is that turned me into a girl rather quickly.”

“Were you angry?”

“Of course I was. But, I was far more scared of him than I was angry. I didn’t understand until a year or two later what he had really done to me. Then I knew if I asked to be a boy again, he would hurt me for sure. So, I played along and hid my anger.”

“Do you like being a girl?”

“To be honest, I am comfortable with being a girl now. During the last few weeks, I found it nice to get up and not be told to act like a girl. That is when I discovered that there are things I really do like about being a girl. I found I enjoyed having my hair and nails done at a real salon. I liked dressing up and doing my make up to please me. But, I also found that I was able to watch television for the first time in years. I enjoyed watching baseball again. Dad and I used to watch the Chicago Cubs. It was comforting to watch it because Dad and I used to watch it at home together while you took care of the babies. I liked catching up on a superhero movie at a movie theater. There is a part of me that would love to be Iron Man and zoom around in that suit of his fighting bad guys. And then, I saw the new Beauty and the Beast too. I would simply love to be in that yellow dress Belle wears at the end of the movie dancing with the Beast. I found it all confusing. I asked them not to take me there anymore. Just bring me a book and I would be fine.”

“I love that dress too in the movie. Jessica wants to be Belle for Halloween.”

“I can’t wait to see them again. Oh, there is something I didn’t get to do. I never went Trick or Treating. Mr. Jack didn’t want me to celebrate Halloween.”

“Did you celebrate Christmas or Easter?”

“Yes. Christmas for sure. Mr. Jack wanted me to play Mary and made arrangements for me to dress up as Mary in a Las Posadas if I was very well behaved. And, I was and I got to dress up as her for about two or three years. I loved pretending to be pregnant and searching for an Inn with the other children. I was so afraid if I said anything about being kidnapped, that I wouldn’t get to see the other kids, so I stayed silent. And, we had a tree and presents.”

“Did you have other children to play with?”

“Yes. But, Mr. Jack placed microphones around the hacienda and I was constantly monitored while I played with them. I knew because he would ask me about conversations I had with the other children that let me know he heard everything that was said. Plus, he made sure the children didn’t know how to read and write well. So, I couldn’t sneak out a message. I didn’t even try because he promised that I would go home soon if I co-operated.”

Looking at her daughter's developing chest, she mentioned, “I wish I had been there to talk to you about your breasts. Did he explain to you about your growing them or did someone else.”

“No. He did. He started giving me hormone shots about four years ago. I started changing. Then, this last year, my boobs really started to grow. I felt awkward when he had me take off my clothes and he examined me. But, he never molested me. I really do think he is a doctor of some kind because it was clear his examination of me wasn’t sexual. It was the last time he did something to change me too.”

Mrs. Laignaux shook off the last comment. “How does having breasts make you feel?”

Camille blushed. “Well, a little scared. Excited. Different. And … um ….“

Mrs. Laignaux gave her a coy smile and said, “Sexy?”

Camille blushed an even deeper shade of red. “Yeah. I started to notice the way the boys in the village would look at me. I learned that if I leaned in front of them in just the right way, I could make them nearly trip as they walked by. It was a neat feeling.”

Cam , Detective Bishop, and Dr. Stanton wandered into the atrium.

“Hey Sweetie,” Cam cooed, “is my little girl ready to go home?” Cam walked up to her and took Camille’s hand. He beamed as she stood up. He leaned over and kissed her on the head.

The two embraced. Cam hugged her like he never wanted to let her go. Camille melted into his arms and softly cried with a big smile on her face as she rested her head on his chest knowing that she was accepted.

Copyright © 2017 by AuP reviner

Chapter 2 –

Detective Bishop sat down in the Starbucks near his Little Rock office. This was the biggest case he had ever worked on in his twelve year career. If he did a good job, he knew not only would he take out a sadistic devil that shouldn’t see the light of day for a century, but he could write his ticket into the big leagues. He could move on to being a special agent in any number of Federal agencies. Hell, he could even apply to NCIS, the inspiration of his favorite television show.

Sipping on a latte, he pushed his ambitions out of his mind and focused on the case. ‘Remember,’ he thought, ‘there is a little girl depending on you. Stay focused.’ He opened his tablet to the interviews with Camille and began to read with concentrated interest. The man he was going to have track down was a monster. The worst kind of monster. He was smart and stealthy. He hid his tracks pretty well. But, he had already made mistakes according to the file. There was DNA on the chloroform cloth that didn’t belong to Camille. There also was the fact that he spoke Spanish fluently and like a native. Further, even though he had disguised himself to both Camille and the locals in the village he had Camille stashed, he was also there for at least five years.

“Yes,” he thought, “five years was a long time to be there. Clearly long enough to make a critical mistake.” After finishing reading her interviews, he pulled up Expedia and booked a round trip to Hermosillo, Mexico. The village she was held in was located nearby and was east of the town. Because of Mexican property law, the report related, it was a rental since only Mexican citizens can own land outright in Mexico. According to the report also, the hacienda was rented for seven years for a large sum of money. The owner could visit it once a year to verify the tenant was taking good care of it. It had its own well and the tenant had improved it with solar panels shipped in from the states. The tenant’s name was Johannes Schmidt. His United States address was 10428 Geneson Oaks, New Braunfels, TX. According to Google, it was a vacant piece of land. The use of German for his name was deliberate. The fact that it translated to John Smith was not accidental.

Bishop’s flight was early the next morning. He flew from Little Rock to Dallas. Then, he caught an international flight to Hermosillo. Packing for the time of year, he quickly got on his flight to DFW and thence to Hermosillo. Officer Juan Valendez met him at the airport.

“Buenas Dias, Senor. I hope your flight was pleasant.” Juan was about five foot five and relatively thin. He was about the same age as Bishop and from all appearances, was outdoors a lot.

“Thank you. It was.” Bishop shook his hand and collected his bag from baggage claim.

“I have been assigned personally to you for the whole time. I can take you straight to the hacienda and then to the village. What is it that you are looking for?” Officer Valendez was chiefly concerned that he might be an arrogant American.

Bishop heaved a heavy sigh. “I don’t know. Anything at this point. I could really use your help and insight.” said a hopeful Bishop. Juan smiled realizing that this was someone he could work with. Not the usual Gringo.

During their one hour trip by car, they discussed the facts of the case. “I guess habits. Anything he did that stands out that might give us a clue as to who he really was. I want to learn from you what you know so I can take that home with me.”

“Well, we know he was 1.8 meters tall. He weight was around 75 kilos. He had brown hair. He was olive in skin tone. He was about 45 years of age. He didn’t have a bald spot. Most of the locals felt he was Mexican originally. He didn’t speak with an noticeable accent, but used words that were from another country. If anything, they say he sounded like he came from this area except for those foreign words.”

“The foreign part agrees with the ethic report on the DNA we found at the crime scene years ago. It said he was mostly European with some Indian tribes found in Mexico. Maybe he did come from here. Then again, his parents could have immigrated up north to America and he could be first generation American since, from what I hear, he spoke English without an accent.”

Juan realized that everything he had heard got them no closer to who Mr. Jack really was. “So, what you are saying is that we are grasping at straws, mi amigo.”

“Yeah. I guess we are.”

***

Homecoming was quietly done. The Laignaux family was not known for being loud and garish. They were of Huguenot stock. Very plain people. Although they didn’t speak the French of their ancestral land, the name Camille was a proud name that fathers enjoyed passing on to sons for generations. Usually, the men went by their second name. But, as a boy, Cam had a love of opera and greatly admired Camille Saint Saens. Instead of going by Jacques, his middle name, he insisted that he be called Cam. In typical family fashion, he named his son Camille Jean Laignaux. In the beginning, Cam would call his boy Jean, pronounced the French way which rhymes with Shawn. But about kindergarten, the boy insisted that he be called Camille or Cam Junior or just simply Camy. Camy flowed much better than Cam junior and became his all purpose name.

During the trip home, it was decided that only Camille’s sex would be changed on the birth certificate. Her name was both male and female. That way, down the road if things were to change, there would be no changes to records other than a little discreet change in the name order and maybe sex. Mrs. Laignaux was pleased with the solution. She loved Camille’s name. One of her favorite flowers was the Camillia, which, ironically, had been Camy’s Mexican name.

A native of Birmingham, AL, Mrs. Laignaux loved the reference to her home state's flower. If it hadn’t been for college, she would still be living there. But, she met and fell in love with a dapper gentleman getting a degree in business administration and followed him to his home of Little Rock. She was intensely grateful he didn’t follow the tradition of the family and become a razorback else the two would have never met.

Life was comfortable for the Laignaux family. They enjoyed an upper middle class life style. And Cam was a good provider. Their move to a less expensive home was only because they had spent a considerable sum of money on private investigators looking for Camy. After two years, they had given up hope. The flyers they had put on telephone poles around town and long since disappeared. Their lost boy and his milk cartoon story had faded into the abyss of a cold file. And, many in the community as well as their neighbors had long since forgotten about their tragedy.

And, for the moment, it was to remain that way. The curse of forgetting Camille had now turned into a blessing. The adults in the family who knew also decided to announce to the twins, their children, and to the neighbors that Camille was a cousin that they were taking in for good. She was recently left an orphan. Camille looked very different from her eight year old photo. Mr. Jack had even done a little plastic surgery on her nose making it look more like a button nose than the family nose. The police suspected that was to prevent facial recognition software from detecting her.

Mr. Jack had also done some feminizing surgery too to her face which further made her look less like a Lagnaux family member and more like she really was a cousin.

It was generally agreed that even Sammy and Jessica were not to know that she was really Camy until they were acclimated to each other and they had the maturity to understand what happened to Camille.

The only two problems that remained were much harder to ignore. First, her birthday could give her away. And second, her name, Camille is pronounced Camy. For sake of expediency, it was agreed that her birthday would now be three weeks after her real birthday. And she would go by Jean, pronounced as Joan, instead of Camille.

That, at least until the horrible Mr. Jack was caught, would be her cover. It would keep her out of the limelight. And, by keeping her under raps, they hoped Mr. Jack would feel compelled to do something to make himself known in order to out her. To this end, the home next to them was rented by a family where the two parents were police officers too.

Back in the village of Mazta, Juan and Bishop wandered around the home. It was a very nice home. The furniture that was left clearly had been bought at an Ikea and driven to the home. Nothing was special. The only unique feature was a room for a custodian.

“Whom did he hire to watch over her?”

“We only know that he had a custodian watch over her for about four months and then chose a new one. What we figure is that he found someone who wished to immigrate to the United States. For taking care of his ward, he would teach them English. And, when they were finished, he would help smuggle them up north to the United States.”

“So, that gave him the freedom of being able to leave and come back?”

“Yes. Once she was proficient in Spanish, he would hire college students to come in and teach her special subjects. She learned piano, dance, and many other subjects. All in all, not a bad way to be kidnapped.”

“Depends on your point of view. She lost valuable time with her family she can never get back. And they would have taught her the same things. She wasn’t poor by any means. A prison, no matter how nice it is, is still a prison. This place may not have bars. But, it does have high walls. Walls that prevented her from enjoying the comfort of a mother and father that loved her.”

“Yes, senor, I believe you are right. I apologize.”

“Oh, it is okay. Given the horrible nature of this crime, I find myself trying to find comfort in the same way.” Juan nodded in agreement. He liked that this man thought outside the box.

The rest of the day, they wondered around and talked to the villagers with Officer Juan doing the translating. Most of them were oblivious to what was going on or didn’t even know. But, for Bishop, he got a chance to hear, see, and feel what was in the reports. He got a chance to look into the faces of people and put a face to the name of someone in the various reports. Then there was a break. A little boy named Carlos had played at the house and fell down cutting himself badly. Mr. Jack took charge and stopped the bleeding and then stitched him up.

“How many stitches, Dr. Lopez?”

“He expertly did five stitches, Senor. The work es excellentee. When I came I saw that he had cared for boy, I askeded him where he learned it. He say that he learned it in the Navy as a medic.”

“Thank you Dr. Lopez.”

After the doctor left, Juan said, “Well, it seems you have stirred up some good information after all.”

“Couldn’t have done it with out you, mi amigo. You have been very helpful. And I know that there is a girl back home who will appreciate your spending time with me to help us capture her captor. I know you didn’t have to do this.” Juan smiled. He knew he was a member of a team and not just some dumb Mexican servant.

***
“Grandmama, when will Mommy and Daddy be home?”

Giggling, she said, “Soon Sammy. They are bringing home someone special.”

“Who is that?”

“You’ll find out.” She smiled broadly clearly bursting with joy.

“Why are you so happy?”

“Because prayers have been answered. Anyway, you run along and get dressed. We let you sleep late today. But, come next week, school starts. Are you looking forward to starting third grade?”

“Grandma, can I let Stanley in?”

She nodded yes. Jessica opened the back door and in trundled Stanley. He was an almost eight year old beagle they adopted as a pup to keep Camy happy and distracted when the twins arrived. She was very fond of Camy and took it hard when she disappeared.

Looking out the front window as she was doing the dishes from lunch, Margaret Laignaux saw the car pull up in the driveway. Holding back her enthusiasm to see that her grandchild had finally returned, she watched as her son, Cam, came around and opened the door for a beautiful young girl who took his hand and stepped out. She said in a low voice that only she could hear, “Oh my. They weren’t joking about him.” The girl stepped on her toes briefly and kissed her dad on the cheek and laughed. He smiled and put his arm around her and hugged her. It was a sweet sight to behold. Letting go, he went to the back on the Camry and pulled two large suitcases out of the trunk. Mrs. Laignaux exited from the front seat and intertwined her arm with her little girl’s arm. She noticed how much her grandchild now looked like her mother-in-law from ages past. Her features were delicate and hardly the face of the rough and tumble boy she remembered. Her smile was engaging and sweet. She could be a twin of her cousin Sally. The two were about the same age too. Looking at her grandchild casually brushing back her hair in a very feminine manner, she thought, “No, she is exactly like Sally.”

Jessica and Sammy were playing on the X-Box in the living room. Sammy’s obsession with Minecraft now included his sister joining him on his adventures. They were too into the game to notice the front door opening and their parents coming in with their long lost brother. Grandmama came up grinned at Camille commenting in a low tone. “It is so wonderful to have you back. I sure missed you too.”

With tears in her eyes, Camille could barely say, “Grandmama,” before wrapping her arms around her grandmother and hugging her as hard as she could. “I missed you so much. I love you.”

“I love you too, young lady.”

Camille whispered, “You mean, you don’t mind?”

Grandmama whispered back, “Of course not! I am just glad to have you back in one piece.”

The best moment was when Stanley perked up and smelled Camy. She bounded from her perch and wagged her tail while dancing dancing all over the place seeing her Camille once again.

“Let’s get you up to your room.” Cam said. Jessica overheard him and turned around to see the four of them standing in the foyer.

“Mom, Dad, is cousin Sally coming to stay with us?” Jessica put down her controller and ran over to them. “Wait, your not Sally. But, you sure do look like her. She doesn’t have long hair.” Camille looked over her sister and then looked to her mom wondering what to say. The sight of her sister now grown into a cute little girl reminded her of how much time she had lost.

Mrs. Laignaux interrupted the discussion with an affirmation of her being in control. “No, I think a little introduction is in order.”

“Sammy, pause your game now please. We need to have a family meeting.” Mrs. Laignaux then guided everyone into the living room. Jessica and Sammy sat on the floor in front of the flat screen television in the lotus position. Sammy leaned back on his hands while Jessica sat in the lotus position hunched over with her arms crossed. Camille smoothed her skirt and sat down on high back chair she vaguely remember from years ago, crossed her legs, and then folded her hands in her lap. She was the picture of a refined lady. There was no slouching on her part. The three adults sat down on a long couch wondering how this all would play out.

Cam started the meeting, “Jessica, Sammy, we would like you to meet Jean. She is going to be your new sister from here on out.”

Sammy pursed his lips and then exclaimed, “No way! I want a brother. How come Jessica gets a sister?”

Jessica glared at him and then interjected, “Shut up, Sammy.” She then turned her attention to Camille. “How come you look like my cousin Sally. Are you related to us?”

“Yes she is related to us.” said Mrs. Laignaux. “She lost her parents, our kissing cousins who were missionaries in Mexico, and has been away from the family for a long time in Mexico. We have decided to let Jean come into our family and take her in as our own daughter. Now, she will be the oldest in the house. But, she isn’t used to having a brother and sister. So, some things will have to change. But, Grandmama has agreed to help us. She wants to spend more time with us to help us adjust to having Jean here. Okay?”

“Hi Jessica and Sammy. I hope you accept me as your sister. I really appreciate your mom and dad taking me in on such short notice. I didn’t have anywhere else I could go. And I love the idea of having a brother and sister too.”

Sammy got up and walked up to Camille and looked at her. “Do you like playing Minecraft?”

“What is that?” came an innocent response from Camille. “Is it a board game?”

“No silly. It is a game you play on an X-Box.”

“What is an X-Box?” answered a very confused and worried Camille.

“It is a gaming platform. Haven’t you ever seen a video game before?”

“Not really. When I played games, it was mostly outside. Especially years ago because my parents insisted on it. I really liked hopscotch and hoops. And, football was fun too. I liked to climb. And we played house too. I had the nicest doll house you have ever seen.”

Sammy looked at her in disbelief. “You mean you never have played a video game before?” She shook her head no.

“Years ago, I think I did. I must have. But, it has been so long, I don’t know anything about them anymore. I wasn’t even allowed to use a computer for my schooling. I don’t really know how to use them. I was taught to use a book, paper, and a pen for school.”

Jessica got up and walked over to the other side of the chair. “Tell me that you like playing dress up at least?”

“Oh yes. I love to play dress up. Would you like to go shopping with me? I love shopping in stores. I like trying on clothes and seeing how they look on me.” Jessica got a big grin on her face and then stuck her tongue out at Sammy who squinted back at her and stuck his tongue out too.

“It’s no fair, Daddy!” Sammy said turning to his dad. “Jessica gets someone to play with and I don’t. I want a brother. I want Camy back, don’t you?”

Grandmama firmly pronounced, “Now Sammy, you now why that isn’t fair to say to your Mom and Dad. If Jean were a boy, then Jessica would feel left out. I think you both need to understand that Jean needs a family. She needs a brother and a sister equally. I am sure that with time, you will find things that Jean likes to do with you too.”

***

In a small room down at city services building, a man entered into the H.R. office. “I am Dr. Kendricks here to see Mr. Thompson.”

The secretary looked up at him and said, “He is expecting you. Please go right in. Third door down on your right.” She pointed down a hallway. Mr. Kendricks nodded and walked down and knocked on the door. A man answered and let him in.

“It is a pleasure to meet you Dr. Kendricks. I have your resume. We really need a pathologist of your caliber. It says here that you have been doing work in Mexico trying to locate the relatives of those who passed away after crossing the border. Volunteer work, right?”

“Yes. I did it for five years. But, it got to be too much to handle. You can only see so much pain before you have to quit and move on. It was my time to move on.” It was a convenient excuse that Paul knew no one would challenge.

“Where did you acquire you interest in pathology, if you don’t mind my asking? According to your file, you ought to have gone into medicine and been a physician or surgeon.”

“After my stint in the Coast Guard, I found I could deal with the dead better than the living. I am not a people person. Giving someone closure by finding their dead relative isn’t as hard as having to deal with a family member who is dying.”

“Well, we can sure use your talents. And, the staff at the morgue understands that you won’t go into the field until your recent surgery heals. Have you found a place to live yet?”

“I inherited money. So, I don’t need the income. I need the work to keep me busy. I donate my income to various charities that matter to me. I like what you are offering me.”

“Well, in any case, we want you. And, the fact that you speak Spanish will be a great asset. How long have you spoken it?”

“My father came here in the 50’s from Argentina. He married a woman from the state of Sonora, Mexico. They were wonderful parents to me and my brother Jack. But, they didn’t get along with my brother. They kicked him out of the house to teach him a lesson. He died on the streets after being targeted by a gang in Los Angeles who was trying to exploit him. They were so heart broken with what happened to him, they died soon after he did feeling they had killed him by their actions.”

“I am sorry to hear that. I see that you had to have surgery recently. I do need to know what it was for and if it will affect your job.”

“Oh, it was some facial reconstruction. I had an accident when I was boy. I ran full force into a basketball post. I had them correct my nose and repair the broken bones. I can breath better now. Of course, I don’t look like myself anymore.”

“Anyway, you have the job. Report to the morgue on Monday and Dr. Larson will fill you in on all you need to know.”

After leaving the building, Paul pulled out a photo from his wallet and looked at it. It was of a woman standing in a yard with a bougainvillea in full bloom behind her. He looked at it for a time. As he started to put it back in his wallet, he muttered, “This is for you Jack. I don’t want what happened to you to happen to Camille. If only they let you become who you were meant to be.”

He pressed the start button of his Suburau and headed home.

***

Bishop leaned back his seat. The flight home would be long. The intelligence he had gathered in Mexico was invaluable. He had a much better picture of who this Mr. Jack was. The big question was how he disposed of the other boys. Based on the discussion with Juan, he was certain that they were buried on the acreage of the hacienda. He looked at the areal map of the hacienda again. No, he had to have buried them there. He would authorize a team of searchers with ground penetrating radar to visit the hacienda. Because of the need for security, he arranged a layover in Austin to visit a friend who worked for the Texas Rangers. He knew his friend would be able to get a team out there without creating suspicions. Instinctively, he felt that if he used the resources back home, Mr. Jack would become aware of what was going on and flee to parts unknown. The best chance they had to catch this bastard was to let him feel like he was getting away with murder because Bishop was inept as an investigator, sort of like a lieutenant Columbo. Fortuitously, he had a slush fund set up for him by the feds.

The chase was on.

Copyright © 2017 by AuP reviner

Chapter 3 –

Sally squinted her eyes in disgust and said indignantly, “Dad. I just want to go out with the girls, not the boys. We aren’t trying to hook up with anybody.”

Dr. Kevin Larson wasn’t fooled for a moment. Sally was clearly trying to bypass her mother’s restrictions and use him to nullify her law. He wondered if Sally would ever figure out that once he was kid too. He played his hand well. “Oh, so if I call your Mom downstairs, she will say the same thing to me? Huh?”

“But Dad!” she whined. She knew she was caught. But, she knew she couldn’t let her dad know that.

“Now, and I mean now, this debate ends young lady. Besides, your uncle Cam needs you to come over today before school starts next week. He could use your help. I am going to give you a heads up. There is a new girl in town and she needs your expert coaching. She is a cousin of yours and she has been adopted by your aunt and uncle because her parents aren’t with us anymore. She has been living in Mexico and needs someone to help her adapt to living back in the United States.”

“Really?!”

“Yes. Oh, and she can’t discuss the circumstances of how she lost her parents because it is under police investigation. Anything she says about her circumstances could endanger the investigation. So, don’t expect her to talk about it.”

Her mother, Stella, came around the corner and joined in. “Your Dad is right, Sally. Jean needs your help. She is about to start 9th grade at your high school. Having a 10th grader helping her get accepted will be a tremendous help. Besides, according to your Grandmama, your cousin is a sweet girl and very shy.”

“You know, I have an idea. I’ll drop you off on the way to work. You can call the girls and have them visit you at your uncle’s place. That way she gets to become familiar with your crowd. She needs all the help she can get.”

“Why? Is she some sort of lame idiot?”

Her mom was going to have none of that. “No. But she has been being home schooled and living in a place where she hardly had your advantages. She doesn’t know the in and outs of being in a big school. In fact, the only classroom she has known has been filled with one student.”

“Okay Mom. So, she is a cousin? Is she really nice, or is she a goof?”

“Yes. She is nice. But there is something else I should warn you about.”

“What, don’t tell me. I figured there had to be a problem with her. She is butt ugly, isn’t she? Does she speak with bucked teeth. Duh, duh, look at me, I am a goofy girl. Boy, will that make me popular with my crowd.”

“Enough of your sarcasm young lady! She is only ugly if you are. So, stop with the attitude.”

Sally said in a snarky voice, “What do you mean by that, only if I am?”

“Jean is your doppelganger. According to your grandmother and your uncle, she looks exactly like you. In fact, the comment is that she is almost your identical “twin.” The only way, they said, they could tell she wasn’t you was that she likes wearing dresses, has long hair, and smiles too much.” Sally looked at him wide in disbelief.

“In fact, Munchkin, I need to head out to work. There might be a new doctor coming on staff and I need to approve his resume. Why don’t I drop you off right now. Grab your things.”

Mrs. Larson glared at Sally and crossed her arms. Sally retorted, “All right, all right. Let me go grab my purse and phone. Does she at least have a phone?” Mom and Dad shook their head no. “Aw man, I am getting stuck with a neanderthal! Maybe I should bring a signal mirror too.”

“Hi Jessica.” He smiled at his niece and opened his arms to give her a quick hug.

“Hi uncle Kevin.” said Sammy who was playing Minecraft. He continued his game.

That left just Jessica to deal with their cousin and have some fun. “Hi Sally. Are you here to meet your twin?” teased Jessica.

This was the second time she heard this cousin looked like her and she was getting worried. “Does she really look that much like me?”

“Oh yeah, only she acts much nicer. She doesn’t ignore me like you always do.”

“I don’t ignore you. I pretend you aren’t there so you go away. And it works.”

“Well, she doesn’t. We played last night. She really knows how to do hair and make up. She taught me how to put on mascara.”

“She taught me how to put on mass scary!” Sally responded in a mocking tone.

Having enough of his daughter’s attitude, Kevin said, “Watch your attitude young lady. This is serious. Jean has no one to integrate her at Fairview High. You have a ton of friends at school and ...”

“Buenos Dias. Hello, my name is Jean. You must be Sally. I have heard so much about you. I hope I am not too much of an inconvenience for you. I sure appreciate you coming over and helping me.”

Sally turned to the stairs and saw who had to be Jean descending. She was the picture of loveliness. She was wearing a simple yellow sun dress with a red belt. She clearly had nice boobs as well as curves. Her hair was done in a single french braid and laying on her right shoulder. She had nice simple red bracelets on her wrist and her shoes were red wedges with a kind of basket weave pattern on the heel. She was even wearing nude hose that kind of gave it a 60s feel. She was immaculate in appearance and pristine in beauty.

Sally so wanted to take an instant dislike to her, but she couldn’t. She could see how much she looked like her and she loved seeing what she could look like if only she dressed more girly. “Uh, hi Jean. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to make fun of you. I just wanted to be with my friends today. School starts in a week and this is our last chance to go out on the lake and have fun at the end of the summer.”

“Hey precious, your dad has to go to work. You have my permission to go to the lake if you go with Jean and there is one adult there.”

“I can go with them. I know how to let the girls have fun.” said Grandmama who winked at Sally. Sally smiled realizing her grandmother understood.

Jean frowned. “I don’t have a swimsuit. Besides, I have to do some shopping before school starts. I was hoping you could give me some pointers.” added Jean.

Sally couldn’t believe what she just heard. “Me, give you pointers. With you dressed like that?!”

“Why, is it wrong?” Jean answered with real concern as she looked at herself in the hallway mirror.

“No, you look drop dead gorgeous.” Sally stopped for a moment and had an evil idea. With a wicked smirk on her face, she said, “I’ll tell you what. We really aren’t going to do much except have the boys ogle us in our bikinis while we get sunburned and pay for it tomorrow. What do you say to a visit to the mall instead? I think my friends will prefer that once they meet you.” Jean didn’t realize that Sally was up to something but, by her reaction, thought it was a great idea. Sally offered her her hand. “Deal?”

“Thank you. That is very kind.” Jean shook her hand. “I know I must be a drag.”

Cam rolled his eyes at hearing they were going shopping. “Girls! Shopping! What could go wrong? Oh well, at least I don’t have to worry about anyone drowning. So, Jean, here is a credit card I got for you. It is a pre-paid one.”

Sally grinned mischievously looking at her uncle. “How much?”

Cam gulped as if he was about to faint and winked at them. “Two-thousand.”

“No way Dad! You never gave me that much!” Jessica said.

“Yeah, she is right! I don’t get that much for clothes either!”

“Sammy, you and I don’t spend $500 a year on clothes because we are guys.” Cam tickled him in the side and then they gave each other a high five. Jessica just folded her arms and pouted. Cam mussed her hair, leaned down to his little girl’s ear and whispered that she would get a card too at some point.

***
“Texas Ranger Nelson. I love the sound of that. I am impressed. It seems like yesterday we were hunting deer and wondering what would become of us after college.” Bishop’s old college room mate looked up from his desk to see his old friend.

“Good to see you too Bishop. Detective isn’t such a surprise either. You were good at solving puzzles. So, what is this case that brings you to my doorstep.” He stood up and came around. The two men hugged.

After Bishop related the story to Nelson, Nelson shook his head. “I don’t think he would have buried them there where someone could find freshly dug up earth. Is there a cave or some kind of root cellar there?”

“The hacienda is split in a couple a different wings. It once was part of a working ranch, so we suspect that he kept the other children in a different part of the ranch. He didn’t want them to get to know each other too well.”

“And the kidnappings occurred around 2012 and 2013. Four of them. Camille, John, Alvin, and Steve. Only Camille has come out alive. The other three are speculations.”

“Yes. We know that at least two boys were talked to by Camille about how, when she obeyed Mr. Jack, she was well treated. That happened about seven months after she had been kidnapped. It is clear to us that the boys were rebelling. Camille says they were dressed as boys when she last saw them which means they were beaten. We think Mr. Jack got so frustrated, he killed them in anger. The kidnappings were about two months apart.”

“Do you think Camille made it because she really is transgender?”

“Yes. I am pretty well convinced that she is. Mr. Jack isn’t that good with kids nor understanding how children are affected by transgenderism. Some boys play at being a girl to get attention or because they are curious. So, given the reactions of these other boys, it seems pretty obvious too that he misjudged them. Camille is a dutiful child and easily managed. Mrs. Laignaux is, well, was a strict authoritarian, or was at the time Camille was kidnapped. She would boss Camille around and she was used to being told what to do even before getting kidnapped. After Camille disappeared, Mrs. Laignaux backed off with her remaining children. As best as I can see, she is on a guilt trip still.”

“I can see why you don’t want this hitting the press too. Some lunatic might want copy cat it. I have some agents who have done work in Mexico before. I can send them there given the right paperwork. Apparently, the authorization is going to be directly from the FBI assistant head. So, that will keep it out of the official pipeline.”

Ranger Nelson picked up the phone and started dialing. “Need a ride to the airport Bishop?”

“Sure. Saves money on cab fare.”

“Plus, we can talk about old times too on the way and I can interrogate you at last. I have been meaning to ask you about what ever happened between you and Stacy after I left you in the bar that one night. You keep avoiding the question.”

“Oh, that is easy. Some dude named Brian got to Stacy before me. She was a cutie even if she walked a little like a man.”

“Too bad. Stacy Bishop had a nice ring to it.”

“Well, Brian had a better chance of getting Stacy in love with him than I did. I had no chance.”

***
Phyllis, Madison, and Janet were waiting impatiently by the entrance to the Food Court.

Phyllis grunted, “I can’t believe Sally nixed our plans for the lake. This had better be good.” Then she giggled, “Sometimes I could just throttle her. But, then she comes up with some really fun idea and we have to do them.”

Madison piled on. “I hate and love her. She drives me nuts and I wouldn’t ever want to lose her as a friend.”

“Oh, I just got a text from her. She says to look towards The Gap. She is coming this way.” Janet said excitedly.

They looked down the corridor and saw her. “What the hell happened to her. She looks stunning.” Madison said.

“Do you think she got a make over at the spa just over there?” Janet asked.

Phyllis mused, “No, she got abducted by aliens and given some fashion sense at last.”

They all began to wave. Jean waved back. As she got close, they seemed confused. They jumped when a voice behind them said. “Yeah, I wish I knew I could look like that too. Come to think of it, I can!” The girls turned and there was Sally in a grey hoodie.

All at once, they all said pretty much the same thing, “What are you doing here and who is that?”

Sally smugly answered, “Guys, I would like you to meet my cousin Jean.”

***

“Come on in Mrs. Laignaux. How can I help you today? You say you have a daughter who needs to start here at Fairview High.”

“Yes. Well … um … we just adopted her. Her parents, you know … um … anyway, we have taken her in as family since she is family anyway, cousins and all that. She has been home schooled. We are trying to get the transcripts right now. Here, I have test scores from her doctor and psychiatrist.”

“Fantastic, let me take a look at them so we can determine where she belongs.” Mrs. Nixon, the dean of students, looked over the scores shaking her head. “You know that she could get her GED right now. Why does she want to come in at 9th grade? She is college material right now.”

“She lived in a very rural area. She doesn’t even know how she would cope in college. She thinks if she spends time with kids her own age and gets to socialize, she will be better able to handle college. We agree.”

“You know, normally, I would disagree with you. But, in this case, it makes a lot of sense. Socialization is very important. Are you sure she won’t be too bored in class?”

“Maybe. She is hoping that she can learn how to get along with others more than worried about what kind of grades she gets. Plus, she has no computer skills at all. So, there are some things she needs to be learning here that she can’t learn elsewhere. Especially at the college level.”

“Well, she needs to come in and chose her classes.”

“No. That won’t be necessary. We talked it over and I am going to chose classes for her that will allow her to gain experience in the classroom.”

***
“No, not that one. The other vest. The one in taupe.” Jean remarked. “Can’t you put that one on, please.”

“Really?!”

“Yes. Having a muted color like taupe with a really pretty blouse like this can add a little contrast to your outfit. And since you like to wear jeans and you don’t want to come off as a boy, right? And, of course, you want to highlight your lovely figure, right? The vest properly cinched up will accent your curves and your breasts. Here, let me show you.” Jean put the vest on Sally, buttoned it up leaving the top button undone, and then cinched up the back. “Here look in the mirror. See how your nice slim narrow waist comes out?”

“Yes. I love it. I would never thought of adding a vest to my outfit. I would have thought it couldn’t accent my figure. Thanks. They really make my girls stand out too.”

“I love it too.” said Madison Albright. “You really know your fashion for someone who doesn’t get out much.”

“Fashion magazines were the only way I could hear about the outside world being in such a rural location. I used to pour over them for fashion advice. I loved cutting out outfits from the magazine and dressing up pictures in my room. It was a favorite pastime of mine.”

“Kinda like Photoshop?” added Phyllis Snodgrass who was admiring the outfit on Sally too.

“Photoshop? I have heard the name, but I don’t understand. Is it a store here in the mall?”

Madison answered, “No, silly, it is a computer program they use to make all women look perfect so we regret even being alive and not looking perfect. You can remake digital photos on a computer and make anyone look perfect.”

“I see I have lot to learn. There was no Internet where I was living. So, we didn’t play with computers at all.”

“Well, you are going to have to learn how to use them if you are going to have any chance of passing 9th grade. We all have to do work on them these days.”

“I can’t believe how much you two look alike. You really could be twins.”

“Thank you. To be accused of looking like Sally is the best compliment I have had all day.”

“Yeah, we really thought she had a complete makeover.”

“Well, I think it is going to be awesome. I was too much of a Tomboy to care growing up. In fact, I let my cousin Camy play with my dolls while I climbed trees.”

“Whatever happened to him?” Janet asked.

“We don’t know. We may never know.” she said sadly.

Jean bit her tongue and let them talk about his disappearance. In a strange sort of way, it was comforting to know that she hadn’t been forgotten. In another sense, it was disturbing to hear the speculation of what might have happened to her. If only they knew he, now she, was standing right in front of them.

Jean was shaken out of her contemplation when one of the girls said, “Can you help us now with our outfits. Pleassseee, Jean?”

Jean giggled. “Sure. I would love to do that. It is way more fun than doing it with magazine photos.”

Sally nudged her. “Come on girl. We got to get you a bunch of clothes too. This trip can’t be all about us.” Sally tugged at her arm as she pulled her towards more clothes. They went on a shopping spree for Jean who eagerly shared her clothes with Sally who was now delighted to have a chance to be girly for once.

***
Paul pulled into the parking lot and headed to the entrance. “Dr. Kendricks here to see Dr. Larson.”

“Oh, you are the new man. Wonderful.” The secretary pushed a button on the phone and called down to Dr. Larson who came scurrying down the hallway to great him.

“Dr. Kendricks?”

“Call me Paul, if you would. You are Dr. Larson?”

“Yes, please call me Kevin. It is a pleasure to work with someone of your talent. I looked over your resume. You have done some outstanding work. I hope you stay long enough with us to help get us up to speed as well. Your previous employers have all spoken about what a great job you did in making their facility work efficiently.”

“Yeah, it is what I like to do. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. Most people don’t know, but we are a small town. Yet, we have around 40 murders a year here making it one of the most dangerous cities in the world to live in. All this has happened in the last five years. The gangs have invaded our fair city and the crime rate is soaring.”

“I am sorry to hear that. I am sure that I can help modernize your operation.”

***
Bishop pulled in late to his driveway. As he entered into his home, a man passed out of the shadow to greet him. Bishop silently waved him inside. Sitting down at a table cluttered with mail, the man began to speak. “How was your trip?”

“Fruitful. As you probably already know.”

“You saw our man following you?”

“Yes, but I had been told about the precautions necessary by your boss. When did the CIA get involved in this affair?”

“We are fairly certain that one of our paid informants is involved in this crime. The problem is made worse by the fact that we have had so many leaks. Manning and Snowden are the most notorious examples of late. Whoever this creep is, we have to figure out if he could compromise even more secrets if you expose him.”

“And if he does?”

“Gitmo has rooms available still. He won’t be killed, if that is what you mean. Sanctioned killings went out with the cold war. By the way, we have swept your home for bugs and surveillance devices. You are clean.”

“How do you know it isn’t one of your guys?”

“It could always be one of us. That is why we have mechanics who routinely check underneath our hood for leaks and malfunctions. After five years, this would have been noticed. However, the methods he has used are classic spy craft. Too many techniques that we can’t divulge to you mere earthlings.”

Bishop laughed. “You sound more like a John Le Carre spook. I don’t want to know the techniques. I just want to get him off the street for good. In Gitmo or solitary makes no difference to me. Justice will be served either way.”

“Anything we can do within reason?”

“Yes. The doctor there said he was in the Navy. My guess is that the DNA needs to be checked against the NCIS database.”

“Doing so without proper legal authorization could get that evidence thrown out of court.”

“I know. But, Langley might be able to rule it out for me without divulging who it is. I have a copy of his DNA profile on this USB device here. Let me go get you a cup of coffee and we can discuss the merits of the CIA checking it for me.”

The man just grinned. “I take mine black and perked slowly.”

Ten minutes later, Bishop came back and sat down. “Well do you think I would find it in the NCIS database?”

“No, I think you would be barking up the wrong tree.” The man put his phone away.

“That was fast.” Bishop noticed that the USB drive was moved.

“Anything else?”

“Not now. I will call dial a prayer when I need help again.”

“Fair enough. I will let myself out.” The man got up and left through the front door. Bishop just sat there and thought for a moment.

Bishop picked up his phone and made a call. “Hey George. You know that DNA sample I need checked. I need a constant check on it with CODIS once a week. Okay?”

“Yea. Thanks. Oh, I will bet a Lincoln on the Dodgers. I think this is their year to get into the World Series.”

Bishop leaned back and breathed a heavy sigh. Just then, the door opened again, “Hey, I forgot to mention something. Just for your info. The Coast Guard doesn’t always do DNA. Just a thought.”

Bishop leaned forward and smiled. “Thanks for the tip.”

Chapter 4 –

Gaston Laignaux picked up his mail from the post office and headed back down the road for his morning coffee. He was on the beach which was to say that he was between assignments for his company. As a consultant, they sent him everywhere in the world as was needed. But, this one time, he decided to stay where they had recently sent him. He was staying in this really nice bed and breakfast up near the Blue Ridge parkway and the entrance into the Shenandoah National Park. It was nice there in the hills near Front Royal. He could receive emails. His boss had decided, no, agreed reluctantly to give him a week off because of the very long hours he worked to get things done on time during his last assignment. A couple of days earlier, his uncle Cam had texted him and told him to expect a special letter. Uncle Cam had given him the advice he needed which led to him going to Georgetown for his MBA. Now, he was a business consultant helping firms all over the world.

Gaston’s room had a nice balcony and he could sit on it and watch the sun cascade light and shadow on the ground. The birds were were singing. The first hint of fall was in the air each morning. He opened the letter from his uncle. It was several pages and that alone surprised him. He sat there riveted by what he was reading about Camy. He was two paragraphs into it and he couldn’t believe, for the lack of a better word, his ears. No wonder, he thought, he had to send him this by snail mail.

Picking up his laptop after finishing the letter, he sent a simple email to his uncle. All it said was, ‘Yes, Uncle Cam, I will do what you ask. I think it is a great idea and my parents will understand and agree. Love, your nephew, Gaston.’

Then he made quick arrangements to go back home to see his parents, Louis and Peggy Laignaux, in Memphis and spend the rest of the week on the beach at home.

***

“Twelve hundred dollars.” Cam smirked. Then he began to have a hardy laugh. “Women. I will never understand women. Twelve hundred dollars. Anyway, did you have fun?”

“Yes, Daddy. It was a lot of fun. And Sally is really nice. I love you.” Jean slowly walked up to him as though she wanted something. He quickly understood. He gave her a hug. She gave him a kiss on the cheek. He melted. She grinned at the knowledge of what her feminine power did to his heart.

“I love you too Jean.” Jean snuggled onto his strong chest and closed her eyes just enjoying the fact she could embrace him now. “Sally can be a bit of a pain, but I like her too.” Cam was surprised at how well he warmed to her embrace and was now accepting of her being a girl. Of course, she didn’t look anything like a boy anymore. And it surprised him to see how big her eyes were. She was so much more woman than boy that he briefly realized he would have more of a problem if she wanted to return to being a boy. More girl than man wasn’t so bad knowing she was alive and safe true. But finding her to be soft and gentle had it attractions to his manhood that rivaled his desire to have Camille be a man like him. For now, every protective instinct in him was on alert and he was becoming fiercely proud of his little girl. He casually stroked her hair. “I think you need to put that stuff away and then help your grandmother in the kitchen. I’ll help you carry it upstairs.”

“Thanks Daddy.” She stood on her toes again and he leaned down to kiss her on the cheek.

“That’s my girl. You just let Daddy be your sherpa.” Cam grabbed as many bags as he could. So many in fact, that she just had two small ones to carry upstairs. She looked at her over burdened baggage handler clumsily balancing all he was holding, giggled, and blew him a kiss. “You are the best sherpa I have ever had.” Then she headed upstairs with a spring in her step.

Jean’s room was quickly becoming a girl’s room. She had put up lace curtains and already had laid out her make up on a small table with a mirror. The bedding she chose with her mother’s help wasn’t pink. It had pretty roses and flowers. They had installed a beige canopy over the bed and it looked more like a bed for a princess than for a teenage girl. The bed had pillows with fringes that matched the canopy’s fringes. And in the midst of them was a solitary doll, not unlike the one Camille had left in the bushes so many years ago. On her night stand was a pile of books and a lamp. As he put the bags on the bed, he couldn’t help but notice the books were romance novels. The kind with an old fashioned girl in the arms of an 18th century stud who was naked from the waist up with her gazing into his lust filled eyes like she wanted him to eat her all up. Next to the books were a couple of catalogs from Saks Fifth Avenue. No doubt she was checking out what the latest fashions were. And then he saw a Marie Claire magazine too. And, it the midst of this, he also saw a book on Abraham Lincoln. It looked as though she was a bit of an historian.

He went to her closet to drop off some packages. By his wife’s standards, it was bare. Still, it was beginning to fill up with blouses, jackets, skirts, dresses, a modest collection of shoes, and the odd pairs of pants. Looking over at her dresser, the open drawers told the story of silk underwear, lingerie, and everything dainty and pretty. Looking past the dresser into her bathroom, he could see panties soaking in the sink and hose hanging in the shower drying. Anything that might have said this was once Camy, a boy, was not to be found anywhere in the room, he thought. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spied an old toy the two of them had built years ago when he was in first grade. It was a Star Wars toy. The Millennium Falcon on a stand.

Jean noticed her dad looking at the Millennium Falcon and put her arm around his waste. “Mom brought it to me when I came home. I like having it. It reminds me of the good times we had before … you know.” Cam looked at her trying to hold back a tear.

“Thanks. It is nice to know those days aren’t completely forgotten.”

Jean found herself melting now. Her dad was a softy. He loved his children more than anything. His reluctant acceptance of who she had become was hiding the fact he was mourning his loss. “Those days aren’t forgotten at all. I loved going to see The Travs with you.” She came up and put her arm around him. “The smell of hot dogs and beer. The uncomfortable seats. The yelling at the umpire because he was blind. The shouts when when we scored. The tug at our hearts when the other team scored.” Without thinking, Jean took Cam’s arm and wrapped herself around it placing herself in front of him. “I liked being with my big strong dad and experiencing it all. But most of all, I loved being at his side doing something he loved.”

For the first time, Cam began to see how small his daughter was in comparison to him. He was just above average height at five foot ten. She was a slip of a thing at five foot three. About the same height as her mom. She weighed in barely at one hundred and five pounds. And those one hundred and five pounds filled in all the right places.

As if lost in thought, he asked, “Does the doctor say you are going to grow anymore?”

“No. He says that I am at my full height now. I might grow another inch maybe, but that is about it.”

“So, than means you and Sally can wear the same clothes then?”

“Yes. She and I will always be about the same height.”

“Even if you change back?”

“Afraid so. Even if I wanted to, he said that it would be best for me to wait until I was eighteen because of the possible harm in switching puberties too soon. Frankly, I think he just said that so I would take my time.”

“Well, you have your whole life ahead of you. The important thing is you are in a place where you are loved and wanted. And you know that will never change.”

“Thanks Dad. Come on, I promised I would help with dinner. I miss cooking.”

“You cook well?”

“Oh yeah! I can cook.”

***
The Larson’s enjoyed a rare treat. Dinner together. “Sally, so what do you think of Jean? Can you pass the butter please.”

“I really like her. She is a bit naive though. But, boy does she understand fashion. She must have been born a natural girly girl.”

“That is to be expected given where she was living.” Sally cast her a strange glance trying to figure out what that meant. Her mother continued, “She hasn’t had all the breaks you have because she has been living in isolation. But, yes, you could use a little education on your clothes. Did she help you buy that outfit?”

“Yes. Do you like it? She talked me into using the vest. I would never have thought of it since I associate vests with something a man wears. And, she helped me pick out this eye liner to match the vest.”

“Very pretty. I like it when you show off your figure. And the vest acts as a kind of bustier. You have a very attractive shape. It sounds like you two could very well rub off on one another.”

Sally’s curiosity was still driving her nuts. “Why is it that we can’t talk about her parents though?”

“Not until it is time. The police have requested that she not talk about it at all. We are going to respect that in the family, okay.”

“Okay.” She shrugged and shook her head. Eventually, she thought, this was going to create a problem with her friends.

Her mother sensing this asked, “How did she get along with your friends?”

“Okay, I guess. Mostly, I got the impression they said she needs to be brought into the 21st century. They think she is freakin Amish or something. Maybe one of the castaways from Gilligan’s Island. She doesn’t know anything about computers, tablets, iPads, Apple watches, X-Boxes, or even cell phones. She totally freaked when I showed her how texting works when we set up the meet and greet with my friends at the mall. Facebook horrified her. And, when the cute guys found us because of my iPhone letting them know we were close, she nearly screamed in fright. She looked real panicked, in fact. I had to calm her down because she was afraid people could track her every movement.”

Her mother put a kind twist on it by remarking, “In other words, she needs your help fitting in as much as you need hers to go shopping.”

“Something like that.” she mused knowing in her heart that her mother ws stonewalling her. Soon, Sally began to type on her phone with her thumbs and message someone. Her mother, Stella Laignaux Larson, was texting her brother, Cam, about something too. And her dad was reading emails on his phone.

***
In honor of Jean’s arrival, it was declared “Deviceless Dinner Night.” No one was to bring their phone or tablet or electronic device to the Laingnaux dinner table.

“What did you say? This is called Steak Donna? It tastes great!” Sammy was enjoying his food. “I am going to love having you for a sister if you cook like this for us everyday. I just wish a I could have my phone at the table.”

“No, Steak Diane. It is called Steak Diane. If I were to really cook it right, I would flambe it right in front of you before I serve it. I bet you really would like that with all the flames. I like it because it is a tasty way to cook a thin slice of beef.”

“You bet I would! It would be a great way to set the house on fire too. Have the smoke alarms go off. Then I could use my phone, which has been banned from the table, to call 911 and save us.” Sammy folded his arms indignantly and gave his mother a silly grin.

Mrs. Laignaux scowled back at Sammy. “Now Sammy. I will have none of that. How is Jean going to feel part of the family if we don’t act like one and turn our devices off and work on being a family.”

“Sure Mom! I was joking.” He quietly snickered to himself confident that he had made his point only to have Jessica burst his bubble.

“No he wasn’t. I have seen him playing with matches and make videos of it. He can be really mean. Not like Jean.”

“What have I told you about tattling, Jessica! And Sammy, you shouldn’t play with matches in order to post videos on Youtube.”

“Youtube?” Jean cautiously asked. All eyes turned to her and she wanted to shrink in her chair.

“C’mon. You can’t have been that isolated in Mexico?”

Grandmama thought it was time to change the direction this conversation was taking. “You should have seen her in the kitchen. She is the queen of the place. Pretty soon, you won’t want your old grandmother around.”

Cam could sense what she was trying to do in building Jean’s self-confidence which was clearly suffering from being not with it. “So, you have competition now, eh, Ma?”

“No, we love having you here Grandmama. You’re cool!” Jessica came to her defense.

“Sure, you say that now. But come Junior High ...”

Mrs. Laignaux felt things were out of control and felt reality might just be the answer. “Jean, I’ve signed you up for your classes. I figured you need a real experience in one or two classes. You will be taking French instead of Spanish. Plus, you will be taking P.E., which will be novel for you. How are you going to react to being in a locker room with other girls? Especially getting undressed.”

“Thank you for doing all this for me. I would have been lost. As to P. E., I don’t know how I will handle it. I did go into the bathrooms at the mall with the girls today. But, there were cubicles. I was a bit nervous with so many people. I think they knew it, but not entirely why. I had to explain to them that it was all new to me. I hope that I didn’t scare them off with my fears of being in the mall. They must think I am very strange. But, all the people who lived in the village where I lived could fit in less than half that food court. I have never had to undress in front of people other than, you know, the ones raising me, if you know what I mean.” Jean picked at her food trying not to make her changed condition a conspicuous point of contention the adults couldn’t explain to her brother and sister.

Her mother, understanding the hidden meaning, wondered out loud to her, “How about High School? How will you be able to handle that when you have to be there every day Monday through Friday?”

Cam interceded. “Honey, you both worry too much. Jean will be just fine. It will be an experience with its ups and downs like any other. But, it would be far worse if she were in college with kids who are too old. She needs to be in school with kids her own age.”

“Why would she go to college instead?” asked a perplexed grandmother who wasn’t quite understanding the subtext of what was really being said.

“Because she has been home schooled and has already hit the 12th grade in her studies. She could get her GED right now if she wished and move on into college.” said a very proud mother. Jean smiled at her grandmother and just shrugged her shoulders.

“But, how is that possible?” Grandmama asked.

“I was taught using a Bob Jones home school program. It allowed me to advance beyond where I was currently. Or to put it simply, I was allowed to skip grades. And, with no distraction of devices, computer games, and other electronic devices, I just pigged out on learning instead because it kept my mind busy. I really finished high school about two months ago.”

“So, it was just the home school program and nothing else?”

“Not just that exactly. I love to read. I read all sorts of books on history too. I read about subjects ranging from the Puritans who settled in Plymouth to Desert Storm in the Gulf. I read science books too. I read about advances in DNA research, biology, space flight, and atomic research. I would read anything I could get my hands on.”

“Is that all?”

“I also read classic books. Dickens, Austen, Bronte, Shakespeare, Tolkien, and more.”

“Did you go to see movies at least?” asked Jessica.

“No. I only saw those we could get on VHS tape. I especially loved Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Lion King.”

“VHS tape? What the hell is that?” asked Sammy. The adults rolled their eyes and looked each other shaking their heads.

Sammy was taken back even further by what she said after being asked by Jessica, “Have you never been to a movie theater at all?”

“Oh yes. I did go to a movie theater when I returned to the States and saw the live version of Beauty and the Beast. I really liked it. And, the movie theater was huge. So was the screen. Of course, I was told it was a small dollar theater. But, how would I know. I hadn’t been in one for a very long time. I can barely remember seeing a movie about a car that could talk racing other cars.”

“Oh man. Don’t you know. Lighting McQueen has retired in the latest movie.” Sammy was belittling Jean, but didn’t understand it. Jean was beginning to feel overwhelmed.

“I want to be Belle for Halloween!” exclaimed Jessica trying to make her sister feel better. “I love her dress. She is such a pretty woman. I loved the actress in the Harry Potter movies.” But, even that little try at helping her sister fell apart.

“Harry Potter has been made into a movie?” The two children and the parents and the grandparent gasped and looked at Jean with their mouths hanging open. For the first time it was clear to everyone just how isolated Jean had been. Of course, to the adults it was a sad shock because they knew more than anyone what that lack of interaction with the real world cost her.

Now even Sammy was trying to help her because, he too, had begun to realize how much help she needed in order to assimilate into the present day world. “Sure it has. I think we have it on DVD too if you would like to watch it. We could watch it together.”

“Sounds great.” she said somewhat feeling like a fish out of water, but grateful that Sammy was being nice to her at last. Then Jean leaned over and meekly asked her dad not knowing what Sammy was talking about, “What is DVD?”

Copyright © 2017 by AuP reviner

Chapter 5 –

Dr. Lipscomb finished his preliminary examination of Jean. He was the right doctor at the right time.

“Okay Ms. Laignaux, what is your current dosage?”

“Two milligrams of Estradiol a day, or a shot every fifteen days.”

“Which do you prefer?”

“Believe it or not, the shot. It is easier on me.”

“I will leave it to your gynecologist to examine you more fully. But, I would like to know about your breast size since they are a fair size. Is can’t be all natural?”

“No Sir. I was augmented about ten months ago to give me a C cup. Mr. Jack said I was probably not going to develop more than I had, so I needed help.”

“Do you have the brand of the implant.”

“It is with the records the police found. I will ask them to deliver you a copy.” said Mrs. Laignaux while fishing through the paperwork in her lap. “Oh, I’m sorry. I already have it here.” Mrs. Laignaux gave the doctor the rest of the paperwork.

“When did you start to bud, Jean?”

“When I was ten, almost eleven. I grew to a size B by the time I was just about to turn thirteen. The man who had kidnapped me arranged for me to have breast augmentation feeling that I had hit the maximum size I would every develop. Something about breast tissue varying from male to male.”

“He has to be well trained to know that. He is mostly right. It must have been harrowing to live out your story.” Looking to her mother, he added, “Okay, I have to keep it confidential Mrs. Laignaux, so you need not worry that it will leave the office. Not even my staff is going to know, which is why you are in this room. Are there any questions?”

“Yes, the doctor who first examined Jean said she won’t be growing taller. Is that true?” asked Mrs. Laignaux.

“Pretty much. Looking at the records you handed me, it looks like she will remain pretty petite the rest of her life. Which ought to make it easier for her to pass. Plus, I can see the facial surgery really changed you into an attractive girl. Are you feeling fine? No depression or anxiety?”

“No doctor. Well, I am nervous about going to school, but I don’t think it is because I am a nut case.”

“My dear, you would be a nut case not to be nervous about starting high school. But, I assure you, you will be fine. You look all girl and frankly, unless someone asks you about your menstrual cycle, they won’t know that you don’t have female reproductive organs.”

“Is there another way for her to get her hormones other than her getting a shot or taking a pill?” asked her Mom.

“We have patches that can do the same job. They might be easier on her than a shot and less likely to be forgotten than a pill. When are you going to see your gynecologist?”

“Right after this, Dr. Lipscomb. She is just down the hallway.”

“Dr. Abernathy?”

“Yes. Oh, she is good. My wife goes to her. She says she is the best in the county. And my wife is very picky when it comes to doctors. I had to get three referrals and ten testimonials before she would even date me. Of course, it could have been because aside from being a general practitioner, I am also a psychiatrist. And we all know psychiatrists are crazy in ze head.” Dr. Lipscomb winked at Jean who giggled.

After paying the bill and picking up her hormone prescription for patches, the two ladies walked hand in hand down the hallway to Dr. Abernathy’s office. It was delightfully decorated. It even had a section where little kids could play.

“Well, honey, you look excellent. Whoever did your surgery is talented. It looks just as good as any other woman’s would. Do you dilate on a regular schedule?”

“Yes Ma’am. I dilate four times a week at twice a day for a total of an hour per day.”

“I think you can cut down to three and once a day for an hour. I don’t see any hairs in your vagina, so you don’t have the problem many transgenders have. How about lubrication. Have you experienced it yet?”

“Yes Ma’am. Although, I was told that it will be insufficient and I should carry lubricant if I wish to have intercourse. I use a little lubricant during dilation.” She was afraid to mention that sometimes she didn’t.

“Do you see yourself becoming sexually active?”

“Not yet.” Jean blushed. It was a brutally honest question. Especially in front of her mom.

“Well, you need to know that the inner walls of your vagina can develop a fistula during intercourse. It goes with out saying that if intercourse is painful, you need to stop right away. But, should your partner notice any bleeding, he has to stop immediately too. You have to tell him that. He might think it is normal because girls bleed from their periods or losing their virginity and continue.”

On the way out of the office, Mrs. Laignaux remarked, “I saw the glass dildos in the drawers. I think we need to find a way to hide them from your siblings. I will see about getting you a safe. Just one question though.”

“What Mom?”

“I notice that one of them is a vibrator instead of all glass. Have you used to, well, um … stimulate yourself?”

Jean blushed. “Yes Mom. I have. Mr. Jack gave it to me when I was eleven and said that using it would make the time go by faster and encourage me to use it more often. He never watched.”

“The doctor from the government said that was to encourage you to feel more like a woman. Every time you got enjoyment out of it, you were less and less a boy.”

“I think I was less a boy anyway. I am sorry Mom. But, there really was a part of me that liked what he did to me. I felt guilty about it too. I felt he killed your boy and you would hate me for helping him murder him.”

“Oh no, Honey. I am so okay with you being a girl. And you can’t murder what you never were in the first place. I am just mad that you didn’t get a chance to become a girl under our roof.”

“Me too.”

***

“Miss Jean Laignaux.”

“Here.”

Jean looked around the room as attendance was taken. She seemed to be a little overdressed. She was the only girl not in jeans. She was also the only one sitting properly at her desk. Everyone else was slouched or bent over trying to sleep or talking to another student or playing with their phone. Being dropped off at school was another cultural shock as well. The hustle and bustle to get to her locker. The clanging of the lockers. And getting in her seat before the first bell rang was chaotic to say the least.

As she looked around the room, she vaguely remembered her days as a third grader sitting in a classroom. She realized that not much had changed. Well, not much as students go. She had changed considerably though.

Jean knew she was more mature. Quieter. She was used to sitting down in her little classroom at the hacienda and opening up her studies each morning. It got to be a rhythm. As the days, weeks, and months flew by, she would keep learning. Learning for her was an escape from the reality that she was far from home and what she had been before. It became a form of escape.

Of course, with no other students in her old world, there were no spring breaks. There were no summer breaks with days off for recreation. Almost every day was a school day in the world she came from. At least that aspect of her being there made this more than tolerable. Not having something to learn or do was torture and this was better than siting home and wondering what to do with her messed up life.

Then there was the feature of her change of sex. Before, in third grade, she ran with the boys during recess. She played dodge ball, basketball, and flag football. Though she liked playing with the girls and doing girly things, those things were forbidden fruit way back then. While playing basketball, she remembered that she could spy the girls in their groups doing things “he” wanted to participate in. Now the slipper was on the other foot.

The boys around her ogled the girls with teenage lust in their eyes. The girls ignored them because these boys weren’t mature enough for them. They wanted to be chased by a mature man, not a lustful boy. Still, the girls played games with the boys in the room. They were showing off their wares in strategic pantomimes of reaching for an item from a purse or putting something underneath their desk in an exaggerated way that showed off their developing chest or curve. They were flirting but not flirting. And for someone like Jean who had no recent history in the classroom, the body language of teenagers was acutely obvious. Had she been in a regular classroom since third grade, her observations would have been about what someone was wearing, not how they were behaving.

After attendance was taken, Mrs. Hubbard began to talk to her U. S. History class.

“Well, how was everyone’s summer? Yeah, I can tell by your faces that school started up again too soon. Okay, this is your first year in High School. This is your first period history class. I think a good way to start history is to hear a little of your history first.” In general, most of the students just said they grew up in town and came from whatever junior high.

And then came Jean’s turn. “I recently came from where I lived in Mexico. I was home schooled, so this is my first real school. This is all very new too me. I am not used to having other students.”

“Really? Are you Mexican? With a name like Laignaux, I would think you are French. And you don’t speak with an accent.”

“I was born here and raised there by my missionary folks. Anyway, I was home schooled, so I didn’t go to school there.”

“Well, then I guess you get to learn about your country then. We will be starting with the settlement of Jamestown.”

Jean responded automatically. “It was founded on the 13th of May, 1607.”

“Very good Jean. So, have you studied the history of Jamestown.”

“Yes, I read a really good book in June called ‘Love and Hate in Jamestown.’ It chronicled the problems the settlers had in founding the colony and how John Smith was successful in helping the colony survive.”

“Very good. I am impressed. It pays to read rather than watch television or play on the computer.” Several students looked at Jean and glared shaking their heads disdainfully.

“I didn’t have television or a computer to speak of, so all I could do was read. Television was a rare treat.”

Alice Marcum snipped sarcastically. “Not even blu ray?”

“What’s blu ray?” The whole class erupted in laughter and Jean sank back in her seat.

“Class! Don’t laugh. It is rude.”

“Hey, we have Gilligan!”

“No, Mary Ann!”

“No, Ginger!”

Jean was on the verge of tears. She was being picked on and she didn’t even know why. Mrs. Hubbard was getting furious.

“Okay class, since you are going to make fun of Ms. Laignaux. I think you might benefit from a little lesson about life. Not everyone is going to have the benefits of living in the richest country in the world with all the bells and whistles of modern life. So, how many in here have a cell phone?”

All but Jean raised their hands. “See, Jean here doesn’t have a cell phone. Are you going to pick on her for that next?”

“How many of you have a Facebook account?” Almost everyone raised their hand but Jean. “See, Jean doesn’t have a Facebook account.”

“How many of you hate getting dislikes on your Facebook account? In fact, let me rephrase that question, raise you hands if you get mad and hurt at them?” All the kids raised their hands but Jean who didn’t understand the question.

“Keep your hands up. Since Jean doesn’t have a Facebook account. She just got twenty-three dislikes because you picked on her. How does that make you feel? You have just bullied another student. Is that how you want to start the year? You can lower your hands now.”

Janet Smith seated next to Jean turned to her and said, “Sorry. We didn’t mean to make fun of you.”

“It’s okay.” But it wasn’t. She began wondering if she should just take the GED instead.

Mrs. Hubbard continued. “I could have asked one more question. I could have asked who in here knew that Jamestown was found on the 13th of May, 1607. I bet only one student would have known that here. I think it is important that we realize that Jean came here after living in a country that doesn’t have our lifestyle and from a part of that country that doesn’t have all of our modern benefits. So, please, don’t make fun of her for not knowing what you know. And, I am sure that she won’t make fun of you for not knowing what she knows about American history.”

Jean looked back at Janet. Janet smiled and mouthed the words, “It will be okay.” Jean relaxed.

The rest of the morning went pretty well until it came time for lunch. She stood outside the doorway to the hallway in front of her last classroom and pondered what to do. “Can I help you cuz?” came a voice from behind her. Jean turned and saw Sally. The two embraced.

“Oh yes! I am so glad to see you. I am so lost. This is all so new to me.”

Sally giggled and grabbed Jean’s arm. “I thought you would be. Come on Gilligan. I’ll help you.” Sally began to lead her down to the school cafeteria.

“Oh, Cuz, I am going to introduce you to a bunch of my girlfriends during lunch. There are 10th, 11th, and 12th graders in our clique. So, you will be well protected.”

“Thank you so much. By the way, someone called me Gilligan earlier today.”

Sally giggled. “I am not surprised.”

“Sally, who’s Gilligan?”

***
“Dr. Kendricks, come on in. Let me show you first how we do things here before you start helping us do it right.” For the next hour, Dr. Larson went through the procedures and policies of the city morgue.

“Well, what do you think?”

“You need a lot of changes. To begin with, do you have all the staff’s DNA on file?”

“No, not yet.”

“Well, mine is. I made sure of that. You will find it properly filed in CODIS as well. Not that I am a criminal, mind you, but since I process DNA, I have to be careful that I don’t contaminate the DNA I do collect. Having it in CODIS means that if I send a sample off to the FBI or some other place, they can separate my DNA from the sample.”

Just then, a knock came on the door. “Hello, Dr. Larson. I am Detective Bishop. I got a message that you had a hit on CODIS for a cold case. I have been assigned to that case.”

“Yes, please come on it. This is Dr. Paul Kendricks, by the way. He just joined our department. He has been working down along the border of Mexico for the last five or six years.”

Bishop looked over Dr. Kendricks, but quickly turned his attention back to Dr. Larson. “What case?”

“The one that involved the kidnapping of the eight year old boy, Camille Laignaux. We got a possible hit. Not the kidnapper sadly. A relative. I suspect that he is a nephew. His name is Jesus Patron. Twenty three years old. He was picked up with a group of illegal aliens who crossed the border and were caught stealing a car. His DNA was taken because he was involved in a felony. Although, according to the report, he had nothing to do with it. Here is the paperwork.”

Paul smiled at his good fortune. He knew he needed to create a false DNA trail back when he kidnapped Camille. By a superb stroke of luck, he was having lunch at an upscale restaurant in Phoenix when he spotted Alonso Carmen, one of the least involved family members of the Magdido crime syndicate, having lunch too. He was known to the CIA as a decent man who ignored the dealings of the family members at large, but enjoyed their protection.

After Alonso left, Paul pocketed the man’s napkin in an evidence bag he had. He stored it until he could use it too. What made it awesome was that he knew that Alonso was adopted, so the likelihood he would be tied to the kidnapping via a known DNA in CODIS where numerous members of the Magdido family were in the database already was pretty slim. Now, some other family would be suspect which would really screw up their investigation.

“You say you spent the last several years on the border?”

“Yes, I was cataloging and trying to track down illegals who perished in crossing into Arizona. In most cases, we just find the bones. It was a daunting task. I think I was only able to reunite about twelve families out of hundreds of remains.”

“Well, that is better than nothing. Where did you matriculate?”

“I got my doctoral degree at University of Texas at Austin on the G.I. Bill.”

“Where you in the service?”

“I was in the Coast Guard for most of my duty, but transferred for a couple of months at the end to the Navy because of Desert Storm.”

“Kendricks was just telling me how we need to have the staff in CODIS to prevent contamination of the sample from entering CODIS.”

“Oh, you are in it already.”

“Sure am. If I can ever help you on a case, let me know.”

Bishop left the building and pondered if Dr. Kendricks could be his man. HE thought, “His height, weight, and age were correct. But, if he is in CODIS already, he can’t be our man. However, he could have encountered him in his travels at some point.”

Back in the morgue, Paul felt that he had won a victory. He could be close to the investigator and at the same time far away.

“Is this a picture of your daughter?” Paul asked Dr. Larson.

“Yes. She is a gem. She has a look a like cousin who just moved here from Mexico.”

“Oh, really? How strange. Kind of like that old Patty Duke show. Identical cousins.” chuckled Paul thinking he did a good job on feminizing Camille’s face. The only thing for him to figure out now was how and when to let the cat out of the bag that Camille had returned as a girl.

Driving back to the office, Bishop called his Texas Ranger friend, “Hey Nelson. I had another thought. Could you examine the hacienda for any evidence of DNA. I was told that the house had been thorough cleaned prior to her being released and they found no DNA. But, I would like a second opinion or, rather, a second sample I could work with.”

“Sure Bishop. Sounds like a good idea.”

***
“You mean you had no television at all?”

“None. Well, almost none. I did have a collection of VHS tapes. And there was one series I was able to watch.”

“My dad showed me one of those old VHS machines. They were huge.”

“What was the series you were able to watch?”

“A television show called Northern Exposure. It was about living in a small town in Alaska. I liked it. Especially how Maggie’s boyfriends would die.”

“How would they die?”

“Well, one was hit by a falling satellite. Another fell asleep on a glacier and froze to death. Another was hit by lighting. There were others. It was a running gag in the show. I loved her character. I wanted to be like her. A pilot. A business woman.”

“Maybe we can stream it on Netflix?” Jean looked baffled.

“You don’t know what Netflix is, do you?” Jean shook her head no.

“You really are Gilligan, aren’t you?”

“I think I prefer that other person’s name. Was it Ginger Ann?”

“Ginger Ann. I like it. I think we just found a nickname for you. Ginger Ann.” teased Sally who hugged Jean.

“Oh, if any 9th grader gives you any trouble Ginger Ann, you just let them know the 10th and 11th graders have your back.”

“Don’t leave us seniors out either.”

“Then it is agreed. Her official High School nickname is Ginger Ann.”

“So, when do you help me get a make over, Ginger Ann?” asked Leann Starling. “I hear you have quite the eye for fashion.”

***
“Juan. Good to see you again. How is your mother? I hope she is feeling better.” Ranger Nelson gave him a friendly hug.

“Yes. She is feeling better. Thank you for asking. I have secured the hacienda. I don’t think you will find any DNA. There was a strong odor of chlorine through out the buildings.”

“I wasn’t planning on looking in the building for the DNA. There is a source that the kidnapper would have overlooked because he didn’t think it needed cleaning.”

Juan stared at him for a moment. “Where would that be?”

“The toilet and the sewage system. I have brought along some special equipment. And a few plumbers. We are going to get the DNA samples from the sewer system.”

“That means you will likely get all of the people working for him too.”

“True. But, his room is where will will go first. He liked to be isolated.”

“Good. What else can I do for you?”

“Well, after we get there, while my plumbers do their thing, I have more investigative work for the two of us. My suspicion is that our Mr. Jack also had full internet available to him. He needed it in order to stay in touch with the real world.”

“How would that be possible?”

“Satellite service. You see, when I saw that he used a faked Texas address, it occurred to me that the oil workers I have met in west Texas use a satellite feed to keep up with each site pumps out put per day. One of them bragged to me that they have half the bandwidth of one of the transponders. It wouldn’t be too hard for our Mr. Jack to piggy back his needs on someone else’s dime.”

“But, wouldn’t the company notice?”

“Not if the traffic was light and encrypted. Mr. Jack only needed to check email, send email, and otherwise monitor his subjects. In the stack of photos you have, there is on the roof patio for Mr. Jack’s private room, a series of four holes in a beam.” Nelson pulled out a tablet and showed him the photo.

“I think he had a roof top mount there for a dish. I want to go up there and see if anything stands out. It is just a hunch. But, Mr. Jack was there too often not to not have stashed something up there that could be helpful to us.”

“You mean like a business card?”

“Yes. I am hoping that he overlooked something which might lead us elsewhere.”

“I have one more thought, Senor.”

“What is that?”

“There is a hill behind the hacienda. What if he mounted the satellite dish back there and put devices in the house to monitor us?”

“Excellent point.” Nelson turned to the back seat of the van where his crew were talking about baseball.

“Hey guys. Do you think you can do a sweep of the hill behind the house before we start working on it?”

Herman Stanley, a veteran CSI investigator, thought for a moment. “Yea, I brought some equipment that ought to help. The satellite uses the VHF band which means that I can tune a receiver to hear the satellite pings the dish gives off. If I were to know that my place was being watched. I would ping about once a minute to let someone know the status of my place. If we set up in the back and someone walks to the front door. I bet we can scan for a ping.”

“Do it.” said Nelson. “I want to know if we are being watched first.”

A few hours later, Juan walked up to the front door and began to check the police tape to make sure the house had not been broken into in their absence. If someone was watching, they figured, it would look normal.

Soon after Juan’s inspection, in the woods behind the hacienda, Herman picked up 72 mhz signals as well as 2.4 ghz signals from the hacienda. He triangulated on them and they figured out where the dish was and the router in the home.

“We are in luck. I searched around the dish. There are no cameras that I can spot yet. We have a storm moving in about midnight with some heavy rain. I suggest we secure the dish during that time as the VHF signals can’t penetrate the cloud cover. I can scan for wireless devices during that time and disable them in such a way that he will think the storm knocked them over. During that time, the crew can sweep the home for devices too.”

Nelson turned to Juan. “Thanks. You saved our butts by suggesting this.”

Later that night, the crews went to work during the heavy down pour. Cameras found near the dish were discovered and rendered useless allowing a strategic path to the dish. It used a solar panel, so it was determined that between four at night till a little after sunrise, the detection system went offline. Clearly, Mr. Jack didn’t think anything would happened during that time.

Leaving the search for those times, Nelson had the crew sweep the septic system for DNA. He also used hi intensity light in the upper patio to look for clues. About six in the morning, he found a doozy. In a crevice between the roof deck and an adobe wall, he discovered a receipt for hardware supplies. They were bought in Nogales, Arizona, about two weeks before Camille was released.

Stanley came up to talk to Nelson before they quit for the day. “I think we got plenty of samples that we can test for DNA.”

“How long before you get results?”

“Well, I am going to use a lab at the University of Arizona. They were the ones that developed the technology that allowed them to identify Bin Laden’s DNA in a matter of hours.”

“You think they can turn it around that fast?”

“No. But, they have a robust DNA lab we can use. I figure that you will have results in about six to eight weeks. Maybe sooner.”

Before they left, the next night they repaired a few of the camera’s they had disabled in such a way to make it look like nature temporarily blinded the camera. They made sure that the camera’s in the hacienda didn’t record any movement and send it along. The only visual Mr. Jack had was Juan doing a routine check of the perimeter of the hacienda.

***
Hiding behind a VPN, Paul downloaded photos from a secret server on the net. Looking through the photos, he saw Juan checking the perimeter of the house. While a surprise, the fact that he didn’t go into the hacienda was a good sign. Leaning back in his chair, he said to himself, “All right. I might just arrange a break in to contaminate the scene in the future so I can remove all the surveillance equipment before it gets discovered.”

Switching windows on his laptop, he brought up the high school records of Camille. Slowly, he looked through her class list. Looking at the notes, he saw that she did well on her SAT. “Good girl! I am not surprised at all. And, I see they have changed your birth certificate to give you a new birth date, but haven’t changed your name, only switched the order of the names. Well, that won’t last too long. I’ll give it till the end of the first quarter. Then, I think we will start letting the cat out of the bag.”

Shuffling through some paper on his desk, he pulled a business card from the stack. It was for the Little Rock Herald. Jason Mandrake was a reputable reporter who had covered the disappearance of Camille some five years ago. It would be easy to out him. Just deliver the two birth certificates to him and let him know that DNA shows her to be Camille. And she is hiding in plain sight.

***
“You throw pretty good for a girl.” Sammy and Jean were in the backyard. It was a nice one with a big lawn and an above ground pool that had already been emptied for the season.

“Thanks. It has been a while since I threw a ball with someone, Sammy. I used to do it with someone I cared very much about as a kid.”

“How was High School today?” Sammy was just making small talk with his new sister. He knew that one day, he would be in high school too and was curious.

“Scary. I am not used to being a big school. How do you handle it?” Sammy thought it was cool that his new big sister needed his advice.

“I dunno. It has always been big to me. I have lots of friends at school too. I like that. I hate studying though. Dad says you like baseball.”

“Yup.”

“I don’t know many girls who like baseball.”

“I am hoping to join the softball team at school. Would you help me?”

“Sure, Sis. I didn’t realize I would be able to have fun with you. I thought you would be all there for Jessica. She hates baseball.”

“I’ll be there for both of you. You know, girls can do guy stuff.” Jean teased back.

“Like what else?”

“Help you build your Pinewood Derby car in January.”

“Usually I just watch Youtube videos and learn how to make one that way.”

“I keep hearing about this Youtube. I know you can watch videos on it. But, being outside throwing a ball with you is much more interesting.”

“I like you throwing a ball with me too. But, it would be a lot more fun if you could play X-Box with me. I mean, you really need help with modern stuff.”

“I know. I guess I am going to need your help and have you teach me some of those things. For instance, I am beginning to realize I am going to need a phone. Although, I hate the idea. All the girls at school during breaks seem to lower their heads and stare into a cell phone while using their thumbs to talk to each other across the room. It is creepy and weird. It makes it hard to get to know someone.”

“You think so? I don’t see a problem. But, then, I have a phone.”

“Well I do see a problem. Thank God I don’t have a phone. I was accused today of actually cheating. My geography teacher gave us a preliminary test to see what we knew of geography. I scored a one hundred. He asked me for my phone because he was sure I was cheating. All the class giggled and laughed as he found out I didn’t have one. I had to prove I didn’t use someone else's phone by answering live questions. And then he figured out that I probably didn’t need to take the course. He was pleased I knew where Tuscaloosa is.”

“Where is Tuscaloosa?”

“Alabama, just outside of Birmingham. That is where Mom went to school with Daddy.”

“Mom and Dad and you have grown close real fast.”

“I hope you don’t mind. I hope you know I want to grow as close to you too.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re family. Because without you, I would be all alone. Because I love you and I think you are a wonderful brother.”

“You do? You hardly know me.”

“I have always wanted a brother and a sister. I am very grateful to have you in my life. I hope I you feel the same way.”

“Well, you sure can cook. And while you throw a pretty weak ball, at least you don’t throw totally like a girl.”

“Would you mind teaching me how to throw a ball like a boy? I think I would like to try out for softball.”

“You bet.”

“Well, I need to go in now. I promised I would cook Mexican tonight. Do you prefer spicy or cheesy?”

“Cheesy.”

“You let me know what kind of foods you like and I will make sure to cook as many as I can for the family.”

“Just don’t chase away Grandmama.”

“I don’t see that happening. I need her too much.”

Jean went over and handed Sammy the ball. She gave him a big hug and kissed him on the head. “I love you Sammy. You are the best brother I could have ever had. I really appreciate you accepting me into your close family.”

“Sure, Sis.”

“Oh, remind me to hem your pants. I can sew too you know.”

“Thanks.” As she walked away, he mused to himself, “I think I am beginning to love you too.”

***
“So, Sally, how did school go today?”

“It went okay. Oh, Jean has a new nickname. She is Ginger Ann. Everyone was laughing at how little she knows about technology. It is almost like she was a castaway on Gilligan’s Island.”

“I hope you weren’t being mean to her.”

“Oh no. I think the girls really like her. She is so naive that it is kind of sweet. In fact, when Margaret Lang said that she has tickets for seeing Taylor Swift in concert in October, Jean asked who ‘he’ was and was ‘he’ a good singer.”

“Oh dear. I hope you guys didn’t make too much fun of her.”

“No. We did laugh when she said that. But, then we started to tell her about our favorite singers and songs. The things we like to do. In a weird sort of way, it was a lot of fun talking to someone who doesn’t know about all the fun stuff we do. She is so clueless that teaching her about the things and people we love is fun. She gets so wide eyed and excited about every new thing we tell her. It made everyone smile.”

“Well, good. She needs friends. I think it is wonderful what you are doing for her.”

“What was really humbling is that at the end of lunch, without thinking, she started to collect all our trays, empty them, and put them up for us. She didn’t even notice she was doing it. She is so polite and kind. Not at all stuck up like me.”

“That bothers you?”

“Well, yeah! When you are an only child like I am, it makes you see things clearly when you meet someone like her who, until recently, has been an only child too. I guess I am learning how selfish I have been sometimes.”

Her mother put her arm around her and said, “Sally, you are just a lonely only. You’ve never really been selfish or self centered. It is just with no brother or sister to compete for our attention, it can appear that way to others. Look how you easily accepted Jean and your friends. You have been just as kind.”

Sally liked hearing that. “You know what was really cool?”

“What?”

“Seeing all these 9th graders walking past us and seeing how much we look alike. You could tell they were doing a double take. A couple from her classes said hello to her and asked if I was her twin sister. So, it has gotten out that we are identical cousins.”

***

“The morning was not fun. The kids were kind of mean to me. But, when every one saw me with Sally during lunch, it was a totally different story in the afternoon. I was suddenly cool. I think it was in part because we look alike. Of course, a few teachers called me Sally when I first came in their room. They mentioned I looked like her and were fascinated to know we were just cousins.”

“So, you want to get a phone?” her mom asked incredulously.

“Not really. I hate the idea. But, I guess I should have one. I mean, if that is the way people talk these days.”

“We can get one during the weekend if you would like.”

“Ugh. What is the matter with using the English language. Can’t people just look each other in the eye without having to use an eye moe jay.”

“That’s an emoji, sis.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Emotive icon.”

“Okay, forgive me for sounding stupid. But what is an emotive icon, Daddy.”

Cam pulled out a piece of paper and showed Jean what he was talking about. “They are a couple of symbols that represent what kind of emotion you want to express in your text. For example, here, a colon followed by a hyphen follow by a right parenthesis looks like a sideways happy face. Change it to a left parenthesis and it now becomes a sideways sad face.”

“Oh, okay.”

“There are different combinations of punctuation symbols to say different things. And, some letter codes too. For example ‘BTW’ means by the way.”

Jessica added, “Or ROFL for rolling on the floor laughing.”

“Don’t forget LOL for laughing out loud.” said Sammy.

Jean seemed shaken. “That is scary. I don’t want a phone then. It sounds like bad stuff happens when one uses a phone. I think I am just going to live up to my new nickname, Ginger Ann.”

Cam teased, “After Gilligan, right?”

Jean giggled. “I am never going to live this down, am I?”

Cam leaned over, hugged Jean, and then kissed her on the cheek. “Never. But, I think it is nice that they have accepted you so easily. It is also a testimony to your aunt’s intervention and your cousin’s love of family too.”

***
“The MRI results are pretty clear. The micro-structures of her brain are consistent with a female. The CEOAEs are consistent with adolescent females. Physically, her vocal patterns are consistent with female ranges. Morphology is typically female too. Results of comparing female norms to her hips as well as how her arms hang from her shoulders are also nominal. Her vagina is a surprise, though. The surgeon used a technique common in India and used tissue from the inside abdomen, the peritoneum, to construct a vagina. It makes sense really. There wasn’t enough skin from the shaft of the penis to give her much of a pocket for her vagina and using tissue from the small intestine would have run risks of a serious infection. Still, it points to the source of training for the surgeon. They were third world trained.”

“Meaning that except for the lack of female reproductive organs, her secondary characteristics and her outside appearance is all girl. Thank you Dr. Singleton. Please forward the results to my office. Good bye.” Dr. Shelley Angstrom hung up the phone and called her secretary. “Please call Mrs. Laignaux and set up an appointment. Kindly tell them the results of the tests are in and I would like a standard ninety minute session with both her and her daughter. And then bring me her HIPPA permission forms. I need to verify I can share her results.”

Her email folder already had the information. She scanned over some of the details and something caught her eye. She reread it and smiled.

A moment or two later, the secretary stepped into her office and handed her the HIPPA forms. “It is scheduled for Wednesday at 3:30. It will be your last appointment for the day.”

“Well done. Thank you Evelyn. I don’t know what I would do with out you.”

Evelyn winked and said, “Dr. Angstrom, you would go so crazy that you would need to see the psychiatrist I would be working for instead.”

Shelley giggled, “You are probably right.” She lifted up the phone and called Officer Bishop. “Hey Bishop, I can give you more information about Ms. Laignaux. I just got her report. The surgeries performed on her show a high level of expertise. Who ever did the surgery knew exactly what they were doing. However, the techniques that the forensic surgeon found that were used are standard techniques used in the United States operating rooms. However, he did note that the MRI scan showed one technique used for shaving a bone on her skull that wasn’t done until four years ago, It was created by a Dr. Elliot of Los Angles who developed it in his practice. It is a special way of shaving bone that protects the brain from injury.”

“I don’t understand. How does that apply to this case?”

“Her surgery was done right after she was kidnapped. Which means that the surgeon would have to know Dr. Elliot or have seen the technique used.”

“Thanks. How do I get in touch with him and find out who might have learned it from him?”

“I have a suggestion. You may not like it, but given the circumstance, you might benefit from a private medical investigator. Many lawyers who do malpractice lawsuits use special investigators who know how surgeries are done and can go in and find out what you need to know faster than you can.”

“Do you have someone in mind?”

“There is a special investigator in Los Angeles by the name of Artemis Holston. He used to work for the NYPD and was shot in the line of duty. He spent so much time in rehabilitation, that he soon learned how to investigate the industry. He couldn’t run anymore and would be regulated to a desk job. So, he took his pension, moved out west, and went to work for a few lawyer friends he had there. It was a marriage made in heaven. After twenty years at it, he has the expertise you need.”

“Do you think he would consult with me?”

“Yes. By the way, because of full disclosure, I have to tell you that he works primarily for my brother in law, Ronald Stetson, a malpractice lawyer in Burbank. So, he knows something about plastic surgery and more than likely knows Dr. Elliot.”

“Thank you Dr. Angstrom. You have been more than helpful.”

“You’re welcome.” Bishop hung up the phone and looked at a sketch of Mr. Jack put on a dart board hanging on his wall.

“The noose is tightening my friend.”

Copyright © 2017 by AuP reviner

Chapter 6 –

Bishop got a call from Nelson in the morning that brightened his whole day. “We set up surveillance cameras on the hacienda after our recent visit. Last night, the hacienda was broken into and ransacked. Nothing major. Some minor thefts. We got photos of the perps doing it. License numbers, etc. We inspected the hacienda today and found all the equipment for surveillance had been removed as well as the dish. In addition, we found evidence that chlorine was flushed down each toilet, sink, bar sink, and in the laundry rooms. So, Mr. Jack thinks he has won.”

“Did you find the guys that did it?”

“No need. They are known associates of a cartel that is working near the border of Texas near El Paso, Texas. This means that Mr. Jack has done work for a cartel.”

“Thanks. I will pass that along to an investigator in California.”

Artemis heard his door bell ring. A Fed-Ex driver handed him a package and he signed for it. He took the package over to his dinning room table and he opened it. He picked up his cell phone and called Bishop. “Hey Bishop. I got it. What exactly is it?”

“A skull printed on a 3D printer. It is the skull of our live victim. It is how they were able to examine the marks on her skull and determine the technique used. You should be able to use it to talk with Dr. Elliot.”

“Creepy, but helpful.”

“I thought so too. But, it should help you with Dr. Elliot. There might be something in the tool marks that show him something. If it helps, I have information that our surgeon may have done work for a Mexican cartel. There is also an indication that he has done work in third world countries. If that is the case, then I think they would have been interested in techniques of facial reconstruction in order to change the appearance of their cartel members.”

A little while later in Dr. Elliot’s office, Artemis handed him the skull. “Yes, it is my rig all right. I can see the bore holes here in the chin and the back of the skull too for registering the rig. You see it isn’t really a technique. It is a tool that I developed with the Trifecta Medical Equipment corporation. It is a rig that fits around the patients skull and locks down. Then, I can carefully place the tool in the rig to do delicate work on certain parts of the skull. I can reshape parts of the forehead, nose, and other parts with a high degree of accuracy and safety. I was testing it officially about five years ago for the FDA.”

“Did you have test rigs made?”

“Yes, the prototypes were developed in a lab down in Hermosillo, Mexico, per my plans and patents.”

“Can you get me the info on who was in on the creation of the prototype?”

“Sure.”

***
“Mr. and Mrs. Laignaux, good to meet you. Please come in and sit down.”

“Doctor Angstrom, have you had the chance to evaluate Camille?”

“Yes, I have. As the court appointed psychiatrist and medical expert who first handled Jean, we investigated a full range of indicators, backgrounds, tests, and many other measures including preliminary interviews with your daughter to determine what was done to her, how she would be able to handle it, and what kind of future we could help her have.”

“And what is your conclusion?”

“I am fairly certain that she is transgender. No, I know she is transgender without a doubt.”

“Then Mr. Jack was right in what he did?” said Cam shaking his head.

“No. Most certainly not. He was lucky. Most children who are initially diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder grow out of it. For those whom the identity disorder persists past three years, it is another story. However, medical science is torn currently on the best approach on helping children transition. There are those who believe that a course of puberty blockers will insure that the child has the best options. Then there are those who feel that is best to wait until the child is past puberty.”

“Where do you lean on the issue?”

“Myself. I guess I think it best to wait myself. Not just because the child isn’t mature enough emotionally to make that serious a choice about the amputation of their sex organs, but because I don’t think we fully understand what puberty blockers really do to a child yet. There are long term consequences that we just don’t fully understand yet because the technology is just so new. You just have to turn on your television and see the lawyer ads for a drug’s bad effects that years earlier was being advertised on television as a wonder drug for a medical condition. We don’t have any controls to compare our results with. Worse still, because of the political nature of the country right now, it is politically incorrect to ask these important medical questions.”

Dr. Angstrom got up and walked over to a white board and began to write. “Here. These are the issues that we don’t know about that concern me. 1. Bone density. 2. Circulatory system. 3. Organs.”

“Each one of these three basic items involves understanding what the long term affects will be. At the age of fifty, for example, Camille could become susceptible to bone fracture. Or, at the age of thirty five, she could become asthmatic. Or, by the age of sixty, she could develop any number of heart and lung conditions.”

“What I am saying is that I am, for the most part, cautious. My instincts tell me allowing her to have gone through a male puberty or partial male puberty before she was reassigned could help her to avoid many health problems down the road.”

“How about physically right now?”

“There is no doubt that Camille is in good physical health. Mr. Jack saw to that. But, she still has some benefits from being XY. Her heart is a different size than a normal girl of her age. It is bigger which could give her a stamina advantage even though she has been receiving hormones since the age of eight. Her heart rate is also lower than a normal girl her age.”

“Then there is her breast development. Your family is small breasted Mrs. Laignaux. That meant she was a candidate in Mr. Jack’s mind for a breast implant. I think she was too young and he should have waited. We could remove them now, but that would have an impact on her mental state. So, in good conscious, I wouldn’t recommend that now. But, it was wrong to have done it in the first place.”

“How about her condition mentally if she is outed?”

“That has yet to be seen. She is a passive fighter. So, if she is outed, will she lose that fight? That is the greatest concern I have. Mr. Jack is going to out her at some point if we don’t get him first. I have grave concerns about her being able to handle the rejection of her classmates, her new found friends, and family. And then, the media attention would be harmful too.”

Dr. Angstrom continued, “I need you to understand that I am fully on board with helping the Transgender. I only object to the puberty blockers as I believe they can harm a developing child. That being said, there is likely 75,000 children under eighteen in the county right now who would be classified transgender according to the statisticians. 39.5 million students are in school making it about 39,500 students who are transgendered in school at any time. That may sound like a high number. It isn’t. It is a very low number. How low? Well, there are over 150,000 public elementary, junior, and high schools in the United States. That translates to less than one possible transgendered student per two schools. Many of these students aren’t diagnosed until the graduate, meaning that she likely wouldn’t know another transgendered student at all.”

“So, what are you saying?”

“I am saying that regardless of whether or not Camille is truly transgender, which I know she is, the odds of another student in any of the schools she attends being transgender is so remote that she will likely go through school being the only transgender student in the school district. Pragmatically, if she hadn’t had the sexual reassignment surgery, she would be still having difficulties anyway due to a lack of a good support group. Which means that her family, you, has to be there for her.”

“So, is it best to take the child away from the parents like Mr. Jack wants?”

“No. Of course not! But it does make the deck stacked against the transgendered student regardless of which side of the debate you are on. They are such a small minority that just focusing on bathroom rights or other rights pales in comparison to their genuine overall needs. I talked to one of my patients, who has given me his permission to talk about his story, and about his experience. He realized that he was transgender by age eleven back in the late 60s, early 70s. All the signs were there. He loved shopping with his mom and choosing clothes for her. His friends were mostly girls. And more. He also realized once he got older that he was likely the only transgendered student in the district he was in. He has also said that in his lifetime, even though he has lived in two areas of the country known for LGBT freedoms before he moved here, he has only ever met one transwoman personally in his daily dealings. But, he says, he has met and has known may gay individuals both as good friends and acquaintances.”

“Over the years, in his youth, as he came to understand his dilemma, he also understood that the possible outcomes of his future with transitioning and becoming a woman would marginalize him for the rest of his life's goals of having a family, friends, career, etc. In the end, my patient knew his only chance to have children was to remain as he was. So he bit the bullet.”

“I called him to chat with him in private because I was curious about what his reaction was about Caitlyn Jenner when she came out. Mostly disappointment because of her being in a reality program that he considered vapid. But, ironically, he wasn’t surprised that she was transgender.”

“I was startled. I asked him why. It turns out that he is a big ‘Murder, She Wrote’ fan. He remembered watching an episode in which Bruce Jenner appeared playing a coach. At the end of the episode, Jenner’s character hears the news that his daughter is getting all the stock of the football team Mrs. Fletcher owns and he smiles. He said at that moment, he saw something in Jenner as an actor that he saw in himself and wondered. He said he filed it away because it was a look the role didn’t ask for him to play.”

“My patient went on to say that while the world is changing, the suicide rate for transgenders coming out is so high that he fears that the popularity of being transgender in the media masks the harsh reality for a student coming out. In the end, he said, there are really no good answers for the kind of support a transgender child needs, only best attitudes of acceptance and love by those surrounding them. The condition is so rare as to make it difficult for the individual no matter what road they take.”

“So, we would be faced with hard choices whether or not she was kidnapped and forced to change by Mr. Jack?”

“Yes. The best answer for your daughter right now is to let her be her without anyone knowing. At least, for the time being. But, if this hadn’t happened, who is to say what we would be discussing now. I would like to believe it would be us discussing how to help her to transition just after high school. And knowing you both, she would have had awesome parents who would have helped her.”

“Would you have given us a prescription for puberty blockers if we asked?”

“I don’t know. I just may have even though I feel it is wrong.”

***
“Don’t worry. I’m safe. He used a condom.” Alice was recounting her liaison with Charles Bedford.

“Under the bleachers? With everyone nearby who could hear? You are so wicked.” Teresa giggled.

"It made me climax harder to know we could be heard." Alice added.

Jean concentrated on eating her lunch. This was a side of being around the girls she didn’t expect. Still, the details of Alice’s tryst enthralled her and she had to listen to every detail. She began to think about what it would be like to be kissed by a boy and then feel him inside her. She knew she had to change the subject because she began to feel funny in a weird sort of way.

“Maria, can I ask you a question about softball in the spring?”

“Sure, Ginger Ann.”

Jean smirked. She was beginning to like the nickname. “I know I am just a freshman, but what should I do about joining. Maybe not this year since I have a lot to learn, but I would enjoy becoming part of the team.”

Maria enjoyed hearing the question. “Well, we need a ball girl. Someone who maintains the bats and equipment for us. It would give you a chance to learn about the game and see if you are softball material.”

After lunch, she headed off to the bathroom before heading to her French class. Lifting up her skirt to sit down and then pulling her panties down to her knees, she noticed that there was a little wet spot on her panties. For a second, she wondered if her bladder was leaking and then she realized from the smell that she had gotten wet thinking about having sex. A warm feeling of pride came over her as she emptied her bladder that she felt that way about having sex with a boy. She reached down and wiped front to back.

Using an emergency pair of underwear she kept in her purse – her mother’s idea – she exchanged pairs before leaving the stall. Before leaving the rest room too, she washed the pair she soiled quickly in the sink, put it in a plastic ziplock bag and placed it back in her purse. She was happy that she was able to do it all by herself with no one seeing her do it. She made sure she washed her hands to get rid of the strong smell.

In French class, the immersion method was familiar to her. “Bonjour Classe. Comment t’allez vous?” said Madame Renaud.

Madame Renaud asked Jean, “Comment dit-on, ‘I don’t know?”

Jean smiled and said, “No tengo ni idea.”

Madame Renaud said with a wink and a laugh, “Tsk, tsk. On parle francais ici, Madmoiselle Laignaux. Classe, on dit, ‘je ne sais pas.’”

***
Jason Mandrake had worked all weekend on an expose on a theft ring robbing tourists visiting the many resorts in Arkansas. He wanted to relax and his boss was letting him relax by giving him a fluff piece on the Komen Race for the Cure scheduled for the first of October. An email popped up on his screen at his desk with the subject header, “I have information on a kidnapping.” Opening the email, the writer of the email said, “I have information of the kidnapping of Camille Laignaux from five years ago. Are you interested?” signed by a I. B. Anonymous.

Jason looked over the email and responded, “Give me something to prove you are for real” and hit send.

***
Bishop’s plane arrived in Oklahoma City. He snickered that their airport was named after a famous comedian and political satirist who died in a plane crash. ‘Oh, the irony!’ he thought. He rented a car and headed west of town to the local federal facility.

Jesus Patron was brought into a conference room. “It is okay. You can remove the cuffs.”

“Do you speak English?”

“Yes, a little. I speak English.” Nevertheless, the rest of the conversation was aided via an interpreter who was in the room.

“Jesus, I am not here about your legal problem. That is why no lawyer is needed. But, I can tell you that if you help me with my problem, I will be able to help you with yours and have all charges dropped.”

“What is your problem senor?”

“We took your DNA and it shows that you are an uncle of someone who may have kidnapped a child here in the USA and taken the child to Mexico.”

“I am listening. I cannot promise anything. I am loyal to my family.”

“The man is in his late forties.”

“That is impossible. I come from a large family. But, my oldest sister has only girls who are old enough to be my mother. It is rumored that she did have a boy and the boy was taken from her to be raised by another family as payment of a debt. It could be that boy.”

“Do you think you can find out who that family is?”

“No. But they have to be powerfully strong. No mother in her right mind would give up a boy. When I asked my sister about it one day, she said to never talk about it. She had fear when she said that, not anger, in her eyes.”

“Where in Columbia are you from?”

“I am from Turbo.”

“Okay. Thank you very much. I think you have given me far more than I expected. I will recommend they drop the charges. I may need to keep you here in the states as a material witness in fact. I will make arrangements to have you transferred to Texas to the witness protection program.”

The two men shook hands and Bishop left. He messaged Nelson. ‘Our instincts are right to find other DNA. I believe the DNA at the crime scene five years ago was a plant.’

A few minutes later, Nelson texted back, “The DNA is being processed in Tucson. I will check on its progress.”

***
Paul thought carefully about what he needed to send as proof. He pulled a digital photo that he took of Camille he took of her dressed the last time as a boy in front of an adobe wall at the hacienda. It was clear who he was. He took it in order to have a baseline for his facial surgeries. Now, it would serve a different purpose. He scrubbed the photo of the meta data, photoshopped it into a scene of a market in Mexico with an adobe wall, and sent it off in an email. “Camille is alive. Here he is shortly after he was kidnapped. I was taking photos and realized this was the boy who was kidnapped only later.”

Back at the newspaper office, Jason looked at the photo. The boy looked like the one photo that was passed around the town five years earlier. He looked scared.

Jason emailed back asking, “I’m listening. Tell me more.”

After he sent that, a pang of conscious hit his soul, Jason picked up the phone and contacted a friend in the Little Rock police department. He got Bishop’s number and called him. “Hello, Officer Bishop. This is Jason Mandrake from the Little Rock Hearld. I just wanted to interview you about an old case.”

“Yes. How can I help you? Please make it quick. I am about to board a flight to DFW.”

“Not a problem. I will contact you when you get back.” Jason hated himself. Now the pangs of reporter’s remorse were kicking in. He realized that a story of major significance had fallen into his lap and he wasn’t going to waste it.

“I will be back tomorrow. Give me a call around 11:00 am.”

“Sure thing.”

Bishop hung up and brought up a text message on his phone from an officer in the police department. “Jason Mandrake will be contacting you about Laignaux case. Gave him your number per your instructions.”

Bishop then called the District Attorney Norm Stevenson. “Hey Norm, I need a couple of special wire taps placed on a reporter. Jason Mandrake. See me tonight when I get back at my place. Around 10:30.”

***
“Mom, can we talk alone?”

“Sure, honey.” Looking at Jean and seeing the need in her eyes, she added, “Maybe we should go for a walk?”

After they left the front door, Mrs. Laignaux turned to Jean and asked, “Okay Sweetie, what is the problem?”

“One of the girls at school was bragging about having sex with a boy. And, I kinda got ...”

“In trouble for telling her she shouldn't?”

“Not exactly. I just listened that’s all. But, I didn’t realize that I, well ...”

Mrs. Laignaux thought for a second as they walked along and chuckled as she realized what Jean was trying to communicate. “Found out that you were a little excited, did we?”

“Yeah.”

“And a wet spot formed ...”

“Yeah.”

“Glad I had you carry a spare pair of underwear?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, your emotions are all over the place now. Just so you know, they would have been even if you had been born a girl in the beginning. Now, if this were Suzanne, I might be talking birth control or a chastity belt. But you can’t get pregnant. At the same time, you know what the doctor said. If you get sexually active, you will have to let your partner know that blood could be a sign of a fistula. That could give away what you were and are now.”

“I guess I should wait. I don’t want to be found out.”

“You ought to wait anyway. But, what concerns me is the pressure from the girls at school to lose your virginity will be enormous. I don’t think it makes sense to lose it in order to become accepted. What is more important is that you stand for yourself and what you want.”

“Well, thinking about getting kissed by a boy was something I really wanted today.”

Mrs. Laignaux laughed. “It was spin the bottle when I was a kid. You would spin the bottle and you had to kiss the boy whom it pointed to when it came to a stop. I couldn’t wait to do it, even though I complained.”

“Was it fun?”

“Well, hell yes. I really enjoyed it. So, I have been there myself.”

“When did you lose your virginity?” she winced once she asked her mom the question. This was her mom, after all, she thought. Moms don’t have sex. They reproduce spontaneously.

Mrs. Laignaux put her arm around Jean. “It’s okay to ask. Sadly, I lost mine at my junior prom in high school. Everyone was expected to do it. Harlan Thompson wasn’t bad. It just was empty. Something you had to do or else he would be hurt by all the boys in his clique. I felt sorry for him, so I did it with him. I wish I hadn’t. I was bummed afterwards.”

Jean looked at her mom who had a tear in her eye, hugged her, and said, “Thank you for being so honest. I want my first time to be special. I am sorry yours wasn’t.”

“Well, you will have a first time. Just don’t feel you have to make someone happy if you aren’t. Sex is supposed to make both of you happy. So, you have started to notice boys. Anyone in particular?”

“Well, there is this one boy in my French class who is kind of cute. He is a bit shy. And he has these dreamy puppy dog eyes.”

“What’s his name?”

“Hank.”

“Is he a ninth grader?”

“No, he is a tenth grader. Foreign language doesn’t start until tenth grade I am told. So, I am the only ninth grader in the class which makes me popular with the boys.”

“Yes, I forgot about the tenth grade requirement. They told me they would accept you because you had learned Spanish so well as an older child. So, tell me more about Hank.”

“When Hank smiles at me, I get weak in the knees. I get all flustered trying to say something in French too. I think the teacher has noticed. She just smiles and gently corrects me.”

“I bet you blush too.” Jean turned a beet red at her mom’s observation.

Mrs. Laignaux just smiled and shook her head. She started to sing, “And they call it puppy loooveee.”

Jean rolled her eyes and said, “Mom! I don’t love him. At least, I don’t think I love him.”

Mrs. Laignaux chortled, “I know, but my little girl has her first crush. And, I am so happy for her.” Jean couldn’t help but giggle too and twirled around flouncing her skirt.

As they progressed down the street, Mrs. Laignaux came back to earth and inquired, “How is your wardrobe for school? Do you think you look okay in school? Do you need new clothes?”

“I suppose I may. The kids notice I like to dress up. I think out of every one hundred girls, only three wear a dress, and I am one of those three. In fact, I just ordered online this cute dress for school. It is a long sleeve A line black top with a long brown knit skirt with a black belt and large black buttons on the front of the skirt. The skirt drops below my knees. It meets dress code and is stunning. I can’t wait to wear it to school. It is very French looking and so cute. I can wear nice black shoes with it too. It will go very well with my auburn hair. I may get a beret to go with it.”

“I can’t believe what I just heard! You used a computer to buy a dress?”

“Yes, I know. But Jessica had to give me a lot of help though. She showed me how. We spent hours last night looking at all sorts of outfits on her computer. And then she helped me use the pre-paid card Dad gave me to purchase the dress. Then, I helped her get an outfit too. I found her a marvelous party dress for the holidays that is so pretty and sweet. Jessica was so happy.”

“Oh, thank you! I have been having the hardest time getting that girl interested in shopping with me. I guess it is because I am too opinionated or just an old fart.”

“Mom, I can’t believe you just said that.”

“I told you about losing my virginity, didn’t I?”

“Oh, yeah.” Jean blushed.

As they began to walk back to the house hand in hand chatting away about boys and fashion, a solitary figure hidden behind some trees at the corner was watching them.

He scribbled a couple of notes on a small pad and walked down to a Subaru, got in, and drove off.

Copyright © 2017 by AuP reviner

Chapter 7 –

Two men working at a library in Memphis met up in a break room. “Langely called and left us a message.”

“What did they say?”

“The trail is going to lead to our free lancer soon.”

“That isn’t good for our business, is it?”

“We have to neutralize him as soon as possible. He is becoming a liability for the company and could compromise a crucial relationship.”

“Sort of like Siegel?”

“No, far worse. He isn’t just a braggart. Or even like that idiot creator of The Gong Show. He has dirty blood soaked hands and could well prove to be an international embarrassment to enterprises he has touched. We can’t taint our corporate image.”

“Suggestions?”

“Well, we can’t take him out if that is what you imply. No, this is best left to the cleaning crew. They will know what to do and how to do it.”

“Have they been engaged to clean up the mess?”

“As of an hour ago. The board of directors has voted to disavow his contract with us and disentangle our relationship with him in as discrete a manner as possible with no lose ends.”

“So, is there a delivery package for me then?”

“Affirmative.”

***
Fairview High’s teacher’s lounge was typical. Plain and ordinary. A coffee pot with the kitty jar for buying more coffee. And a microwave and a refrigerator to keep the teacher’s lunch for the day. But, it kept the teacher’s sanity intact. It was a room sans students and their chatter. Which meant the teachers could chatter about.

“How are your students this year, Michael?”

“They are typical. My English classes are filled with the usual immature raging hormones. The boys trying to read the girls and not crack the books. The girls pretending to read while enjoying the attention. And the teacher caught in the middle.”

“Well, I have this one student who is a real interesting character. She moved back here recently from Mexico. She has really read a book instead of just pretending to read it. I am going to love having her in my history class.”

“Was it Jean Laignaux?”

“Oh, you know about her! She is real bright and I get the feeling that she doesn’t need us. I thought she was getting answers from her phone on the first day’s sample quiz, so I asked her questions about where things were. She knew where Wounded Knee Creek was for crying out loud. She accurately knew where the Strait of Magellan was. She could point to where the battle of Hastings was fought. I threw in the battles of Agincourt, Bosworth Field, Battle of the Bulge, and the Battle of Midway too. Switching gears on her, she traced the route of Lewis and Clark with reasonable accuracy, was able to identify countries in Africa, South American, and in Far East Asia.”

“Tell me about it. I have her for Algebra I. The class before hers is Trigonometry. One student asked another what the definition of a general solution was. Jean answered. And, she was correct. I mean, she is just starting Algebra. She ought not to even understand that concept yet let alone know about it.”

“From what I hear, she could easily advance a couple of grades.”

“I wonder why she doesn’t?”

Principal Clayton intervened, “Because her parents want her to have the benefit of going to high school, she is content to be where she is. She has been home schooled for a long time now. Apparently, she is a very good student, but needs help socializing with other children her age because of having lived in Mexico for so long.”

“Well, I love having her as a student. She is well behaved and participates well in class. Even more, she is developing quite a relationship with a certain boy too. I think they are falling in love. C’est l’amour, n’est pas ?”

Her biology teacher, Mrs. Dodson, thought for a moment, “Still, something is oddly familiar about her. I used to teach a 3rd grade boy named Camy Laignaux back when I taught elementary school before I got married.”

“Isn’t that the boy that got kidnapped?”

“Yes. Sad case that. He was only a student of mine for a little over a month before he disappeared. I hardly had the chance to get to know him.”

“Did they ever find him?”

“I haven’t heard anything. But it is interesting that this girl shares the same name almost.”

Principal Clayton stepped in. “Yes, they are the same family and the same parents who had a boy kidnapped. In any event, Jean’s parents are no longer with us and the Laignaux’s have adopted her as their own. It turns out that Jean is a cousin. Which should explain why Jean and Sally Larson look almost identical.”

***
Jean locked her door and went into the bathroom to prep her glass dildos. Her mom was well aware why she locked the door and removed into a private area three times a week. Her dilatation was the continued price of being a girl in addition to HRT that would follow her the rest of her life. It wasn’t so much a chore as it was a constant reminder of what she once was. Every so often, during her dilation, she would sometimes try to remember what it was like to have a penis. To stand and pee. The memory had long since faded. The high maintenance of her sex was worth it she had been told again and again by her captor.

In the beginning, Mr. Jack would supervise the ‘Blessed Time’ as he came to call it. He kept telling her that it was a blessing to her future lover and spouse as well as to her. That she was really doing it for them and not her. The Blessed Time was a duty and that duty was good and proper.

Realizing that for the rest of her life that she was condemned to use a sex toy on herself on a regular basis, she had come to understand how important it was that she made the decision by herself, not some stranger using a protocol to reassign her sex. She did resent that part enormously even if being a girl was something she enjoyed.

But now, this session took on a whole different twist. She stripped below the waist and looked at herself in the mirror. Her pubic hair covered her sex. She realized she looked like a woman in every respect. A woman that she hoped any man would find desirable and sexy. She pulled out a special water proof blanket and spread it on her bed. She lubed her sex and inserted the smaller appliance into herself gently. After five years, this process was now routine. She tensed and relaxed her muscles getting ready for the larger one. After about five minutes of getting warmed up, she lubed up the longer appliance and inserted it noting the depth was a little over eight inches now spreading the lubrication inside her first which got her ready for the final appliance. Finally, she inserted the 38 mm device that did the dirty work of dilation. She would have to ask the doctor if this was the correct procedure. It was what Mr. Jack taught her.

While marking the time on a clock to time her session, she started to think about Hank and his dreamy eyes. She longed for him to kiss her. She wondered what it would be like to have his hands all over her body and for him to kiss her passionately. Without thinking, she reached up and massaged her breasts giving special attention to her now erect nipples. They responded with incredible sensation. Her breathing deepened and she found herself panting as she traced with her finger her protruding nipples that pushed through her blouse. Almost without thought, she leaned forward and took of her blouse and sports bra. Little by little, she forgot about the duty she was supposed to focus on during the Blessed Time and began to translate the experience into a foreshadowing of real sex with a man. As she was about to complete her time, she moved the appliance in and out then rubbed the heel of her palm on her sex. The other hand continued to massage her breasts. Thoughts of Hank taking off her clothes and seeing him delight in her sexy body were peculating in her head. But, when she had thoughts about what his rock hard appendage might look like, her bubble burst in an explosion of quivering release that enveloped her entire corps and pleased it no end such that it shuddered like an earthquake.

For the first time in recent memory, the Blessed Time really lived up to its promise.

As she cleaned up quickly and got dressed, she said to herself with a smile and a bit of pride in her powerful reaction, “No turning back now. I know how to get my penis back. Borrow it.”

A knock came at her door. “Honey, are you okay?” Her Mom sounded concerned but also a little amused.

Having put on her pajamas quickly, Jean opened the door a crack, “Yes Mom. Sorry.”

“Well, next time, do what I used to do when I was your age.”

Awkwardly blushing, Jean stumbled out a simple interrogative. “W-what?”

Her mom winked and whispered, “Use a pillow to keep the noise down.”

***
His room looked the same, but something didn’t feel right. After a long nights work reworking how the city morgue worked, Paul just wanted to go to bed. But, when he entered his house, it seemed, somehow, like it had been violated. As he walked around his house, he carefully noted the look of everything. Something was out of place, but he couldn’t remember what. Finally, after thirty minutes of searching, he gave up.

Switching into his pajamas, he went to his laptop and opened a secure window into an email service. Opening an email from his contacts in Mexico, he read a short and loaded message, “Matter disposed of that we talked about. Now need your skills asap as payment. Individual needs a change. When can you come soonest?”

Flipping through his day planner, he wrote back, “Provided the need only takes a day and a half, I can come next week. Limited to El Paso though. And, I can’t come unless there is a good cover story.” He clicked send.

A moment later, he heard back. “Agreed. #06-384”

Paul looked up #06-384 in his files, which was a teenage male that was found in 2006 near Deming, New Mexico. He then booked a flight to El Paso. Next, he wrote Kevin a quick note. “Hey Kevin, I have a lead on a possible name for one of the set of bones I was assigned to identify. I will be out of town for two days next week during my ‘weekend’ off. Just letting you know in case there is an emergency need for me. Thanks, Paul.”

Paul climbed into bed and fell asleep right away.

***
“Ladies, these are your lockers. You have each been assigned a locker for this period. We expect you to take your uniforms home each week and wash the stink out of them. We also expect you to have extra undergarments in case it is that time of the month.” Coach Manson handed each girl a card with a combination on it. “These are for your lockers. Don’t lose them or give the combo out. We have keys to get into your locker should you forget your combo. Every Friday, your locker will be cleared out at the end of class and open for inspection at the end of class. That way the staff can clean the lockers during the weekend. Is this understood?”

Shelley smirked at her combo and said to Jean. “I have an easy one.”

“Get dressed ladies and meet me out at the basketball court.”

Jean looked around. All the girls were getting changed. It startled her to see them strip naked. She had never seen anyone other than herself and a few village girls half naked. And seeing the village girls was before any of them had boobs. It was, to be certain, every boys wet dream to be in here. But, after being around these girls, she smiled realizing that being in here had no effect on her desires sexually.

The girls were in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Frankly, it was dull. She put on her cotton underwear and sports bra. Then her top and shorts. Then came the crew socks. She hated that she couldn’t wear ankle socks, but the school insisted on tall socks that covered the ankle at least. She pulled her hair back and put a scrunchy on it. After changing, she put all of her clothes and backpack into the locker. She was mindful about putting the combo in her pocket, but memorized it first.

Jean was surprised that they weren’t going to play basketball. Instead, the first nine weeks was going to be volleyball. She hadn’t played it before, but it sounded fun.

The first order of the day was for them to do drills to teach the various techniques used in volleyball. Serving, spiking, setting, bumping, and spiking. Jean loved playing with the other girls and was surprised by how well she did. She wasn’t the best, but she wasn’t the worst either.

While standing in line to do a set as the coach instructed us, Jean was watching a junior or senior boy practice basketball in the court nearest them. He had his shirt off and was twirling the ball on his index finger to show off to the other guys. She was admiring how strong he was and his six packs. He was handsome too. All smiles and confident. Suddenly, a ball bounced off her head launched by the coach who was smiling at her reason for distraction. “Wake up girl! You can’t play volleyball if you are smitten by the basketball players!”

The class giggled. Jean smiled and blushed. Sharon, who was behind her in line, said, “Isn’t he a dream! Bet he would never show us any interest. We are just freshman.” Jean looked back over to the boy briefly and asked herself what would be to be held by him? What would he smell like? What would it be like to be kissed by him? After the last question, Jean turned her attention back to the class. She didn’t want to be called out again.

At the end of the class, the hardest part for her was the quick shower she needed to take with the other girls. The surprise was how few of the girls actually took a shower. The locker room seemed bathed in perfume rather than steam from the shower. Nevertheless, Jean took a quick shower, toweled off, and got dressed. Jean smiled at the fact that no one accused her of being a boy or even thought she looked manly. Of course, no one noticed her patch either which in a sense could have given it away. At least that she was on an HRT program. It was a great relief and bode well for the year.

As she closed her locker, Jean was startled back into reality when a kind voice behind her said, “Ginger Ann, got a moment?”

Jean turned and saw what was now a familiar face. “Oh, hi Phyllis! Sure.”

“Hey, the girls and I have been talking. I don’t know if you would be interested, but have you ever thought of trying out for the cheerleading squad?”

Jean sat down on a bench next to her locker. She was totally taken back by the question. “No, Phyllis. Not really. I don’t think I am pretty enough or talented enough to be a cheerleader. They are so perfect.”

Phyllis couldn’t help but smile. She sat down next to Jean. “Think about it. I know you would enjoy it. And it would be a way for you to get to know other people.”

“Well, I guess I should ask about it. I know nothing. I just see these cute girls running around in these darling outfits. And ...” Phyllis could tell by her face that she was open to doing it.

“Look, I know this is all new to you. But, that is what makes it special. The girls on the cheerleading squad aren’t stuck up. And they don’t want perfect. They even have a Down syndrome cheer leader. They heard about you being teased for not having a cell phone and not knowing anything about modern technology. And, they have observed how kind and considerate you are to others around you. I think you would enjoy becoming a cheer leader.”

“Thanks. I will think about it. How does one join?”

“There are going to be tryouts next Wednesday. I can come along and support you if you would like.”

“Oh yes. Thank you very much. I would very much appreciate it.”

***
Jason pulled out his notebook with pencil at the ready. “Hello, Mr. Laignaux?”

“Yes, may I ask who is calling?”

“Jason Mandrake of the Little Rock Herald. I am doing research on old stories and came across the disappearance of your son Camille. I was wondering if you had any updates.”

“Not right now. Or, should I say, ‘No Comment.’ Because of the nature of the case, we are referring all media to my attorney, Mr. Oscar Litner, phone number 555-3412. It is more for the family’s sanity than anything else. I hope you understand. If you want to arrange an interview and find out more, please go through him first.”

“I understand. In the meantime, I gather there is nothing new to report.”

Cam related his carefully scripted words for the reporter, “Nothing worth reporting, I am afraid. I wish I could tell you more.”

“Thank you very much for your time. And, I am sorry for your loss.” Jason hung up the phone. His years in newspaper work told him something was up. He just couldn’t put a finger on it. He replayed Cam’s remarks in his mind. The seemed sensible enough. Cam sounded resigned and no longer in denial. It was, if anything, a very cordial phone conversation. But, still, it bothered him. Maybe it was the contact from this mysterious informant that gave him pause.

“Hello, Officer Bishop?”

“Yes.”

“I finally get a hold of you at last. This Jason Mandrake of the Little Rock Herald. Can I ask you a few questions about the Laignaux kidnapping case?”

“Sure.”

“Are you the officer in charge now?”

“Yes.”

“I talked to Mr. Laignaux this morning and he reports that there are no new developments worth reporting. I am just checking our cold case newspaper files and wondering if there has been any changes in the case?”

“Yes and no. Yes, I have been assigned the case as of the beginning of last month. I have been putting fresh eyes on the case to see if I can possibly ferret out something the prior investigators couldn’t. No, there hasn’t been any new developments that are getting us closer to the kidnapper and what happened to the Laignaux boy.”

“That is very interesting.”

The set up was beautiful. Jason would be squirming with the next question. Bishop knew he had to play his cards right. “Is it more than coincidence that you called me Jason? I don’t suppose you have come into information that could help us in our investigation? I have to ask. Because this case is very tough and, as I told a fellow officer the other day about this case, I am grasping at straws.”

“As a matter of fact, there is. Can we meet for lunch and can you promise me an exclusive if I do help.”

“I’d promise you the moon at this point, provided I could get funding for it. This case has me up at night and I am desperate for any new leads.”

“Three O’Clock at the Starbucks near my paper’s offices?”

“The one almost at Main Street and 2nd Avenue?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be there! I know what you look like from your picture at the newspaper.” Bishop hung up the phone.

Bishop’s one regret was that the DA wouldn’t authorize a wire tap. Freedom of the press allowed Jason to operate freely. He looked at the clock and headed over to the FBI office to talk to Agent Morrison about the case.

***

Paul tossed and turned in his bed. He was having a nightmare about his brother Jack. No, wait, no his sister Jacqueline. She was calling out to him. I am coming, he shouted. She was naked and running away from him not realizing it was him. “I am not Mom or Dad. Don’t run away from me, please! I am here for you! I should have been here for you and not off in India.” he shouted. He was too late in the dream. He found her dead and floating in a lake.

Paul never had friends in school or any other place. He was very close to his brother who would nurture him like a mother when he was growing up and keep the bullies away.

Paul woke up. He was seething in anger. Why did his parents have to destroy the one person in his life who loved him and watched out for him. Someone who knew how important he was to the world and appreciated it. Someone special like his Jack, his Jacqueline was too important to a man like him to leave in the hands of ignorant people like his parents. His brother who became his sister would still be alive today if she had the support to make her transition without parental interference and prejudice.

He looked over his journal notes from his observations, “Because Camille, now Jean, was allowed to transition in a supportive environment, her parents are now accepting her. I observed her walking with her mother. I overheard their conversation using a shotgun mike. Her mom and Jean were having a good conversation about her dating boys and having sex for the first time. This goes to show my method is the correct method. For Jack’s memory, what I am doing will save so many needless grief. I am doing the right thing. I did the right thing. My actions will save so many from wanting to kill themselves. It was worth the high cost.”

Paul smiled at his last paragraph in his journal. “In the future, I will be hailed as a hero, not a villain. The end justifies the means. This is working. Plus, as I had hoped, her sexuality is blossoming. She is becoming sexually active. And using my techniques, she will be forever too afraid to go back home.”

Then he felt so stimulated and aroused, he found pleasure in his own hands thinking about what he was doing to Jean. He then afterward cleaned up after himself. He had not had any in over a month. This shutting down of his usual appetites in Mexico was driving him nuts. He couldn’t wait to get back to where he would have sex on demand. But, he was excited that Camille was final maturing so she would be the one he would have sex with when ever he wanted. That was a nice advantage of the transgirl.

Yes, he thought, she would soon be ripe fruit he could pick and have all to himself. So, not only would it help people like his late sister, but he would have a lovely sex toy who was always ready, didn’t have to stop because of her period, or even could get pregnant. She would be smart. No more of these dumb ignorant Mexican whores he had to have to meet his needs. Not only would he out her, he would take her home to the hills of Argentina where he had already set up a retreat in the mountains. A new prison for her. His work for the cartels had brought him millions. Camille would be his forever because he would have a contract out on her so if she ever left, she would die and so would her family. This reunion only proved to him that he would win and her fear of seeing harm done to her family would over rule her inhibitions and make her his perfect woman.

Camille would be the perfect woman. Compliant and easily controlled. Paul will finally have his intellectual and sexual equal. In addition, he would be able to avenge those like his brother. A win win for him.

Copyright © 2017 by AuP reviner

Chapter 8 –

“Doing the dishes this early in the morning? It is Saturday. You should be in bed, Honey.” Grandmama trundled into the kitchen finding Jean cleaning up some dishes at 6:30 am.

“I prepared an egg and bacon casserole for breakfast. Should be done in about twenty minutes, Grandmama.”

“You are happy, aren’t you?” Jean was smiling ear to ear.

“Yeah, I am kind of happy.”

Grandmama tried to resist smiling but failed, “What is his name?”

Jean looked at her grandmother with a look of surprise and a bit of pride. “How do you know I am happy because of a boy?”

“I was a teenage girl once too, you know?”

Cam walked into the kitchen and heard the exchange. “Well, who is he? I want to vet him. I polished up my shotgun earlier this week. Oh, did you just make just make a fresh pot of coffee? Oh boy does it smell good.”

“Yes, Dad. It is fresh coffee. And his name is Hank. And he asked me if he could take me to a movie today. It is being shown at the College. It is a French film, so we get extra credit. I think it is called Au Revoir Les Enfants. It is about two boys forming a friendship at school.”

“Okay. So, is he picking you up?”

“Well, no, he is fifteen after all. Almost sixteen in fact. His mom is driving both of us to the film and then driving us back.”

Cam said sarcastically, “So it is not a real date?”

“Camille Jacques Laignaux. Stop it. She is going out on her first date.” interjected her grandmother. “I seem to remember a fifteen year old boy I drove to the school dance one time with his darling fourteen year old ...”

“Okay, Ma! I get it.” Cam just laughed. Jean looked at him inquisitively. “I know it is a double standard, Jean. But you are my daughter and ...” Jean came over and hugged him before he could say another word. She began to cry.

Cam looked puzzled as to why Jean was hugging him and crying too. He looked to his mother who chuckled. Pointing to her and then hugging her back, he mouthed at her, ‘Why?”

“Because you love and accept your daughter so much that you would defend her honor.” Grandmama beamed.

“Oh.”

“Its important to her dear. That is all you need to know.” Mrs. Laignaux had just come in and saw the whole thing. As she poured herself a cup of coffee, her daughter Jean let go of her Dad. She went over to get a kleenex and blow her nose. She gave her Mom a morning kiss.

“Thanks Mom, I knew you would understand.”

“Understand what? What did I do right?” Cam asked. The women just giggled.

“What time is the movie showing?” asked Grandmama.

“12:30 to 3:00 at the community theater on the Community College campus. Two bucks gets you in.”

“Is he paying?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll give you some money anyway. Boys can be distracted and do the dumbest things.” Dad said.

“Jessica and Sammy have soccer games today. I will have to take them. Who is driving you to the theater, Jean?”

“Hank’s Mom.”

“What are you going to about lunch?”

“Good question. I think we are going next door to a fast food place afterwards to grab something to eat while we wait for his mom to pick us up. His treat.”

“Seems a little late for lunch. Do you know if they serve food at the theater?”

“Probably not. She ought to have a small lunch before she goes.”

Jean pulled the casserole from the oven. She placed it on the breakfast table and put out serving spoons. Mrs. Laignaux called upstairs to Jessica and Sammy while Jean put out the dishes and silverware.

Grandmama poured milk and orange juices for everyone. After they all had gathered and said Grace, they began to eat.

“Dad?”

“Yes, Sammy?”

“How come you don’t pray for Camy anymore. You usually say something about him when we say Grace these days.”

“You know, you are right. It is just with Jean coming into the family, I thought it might be best to hold off for a while mentioning something sad.”

Jean looked at her dad and mom as if she had an idea. She turned to her brother and stated, “You know Sammy, we could pray for him to be blessed and protected where ever he is next time. Maybe changing the prayer will bring him home even faster.”

Jessica mentioned, “I love that idea. Now that I have a sister, it would be nice for Sammy to have a brother too.”

Cam nodded and asked for everyone to pray again. This time he asked for Camy to be blessed and protected where ever he was. “We will have to ask the intercessors at church to modify their prayers too.” he added.

When Jessica found out that Jean was going to be on a ‘date,’ she said,“I was hoping you would come to my game, Jean.”

“Oh, I am certain it won’t happen again. This is just for extra credit in French class. We are going to see a film called ‘Au Revoir Les Enfants.’ It is about World War II I think and two boys who become friends in France. One is Jewish and the other is Catholic. So, it really isn’t a normal date. Especially since it is just for class.”

“Oh, okay. But, can we spend some time together this weekend?”

“We’ll see. But I know we can next week for sure.”

***
Nelson picked up the phone and called his contact in Tucson. “Hey Consuelo, how are the DNA samples coming?”

“It looks like we have isolated about five individuals. Right now, we are in the process of replicating the samples for further testing. I think we may have something for you in about ten days.”

“Thanks.” Nelson hung up the phone. His next move was easier. He messaged Bishop with the information that DNA test results were expected in about eleven days.

***
Sammy was toweling off his face after his shower when Jean opened the door to the bathroom. It was her turn to clean the toilet in there and she didn’t think anyone was using it. Jean saw her brother naked and realized that he didn’t look that much different than he did at that age. For a split second, she looked at his penis and flashed back to being the bathroom years ago looking at herself in the mirror wondering about this thing that was between her legs. She apologized immediately to her brother and closed the door.

Standing outside the bathroom door waiting for him to come out, she began to think about her life as a boy for the first time in years. She wasn’t that miserable being a boy yet. There were fun things to do. Playing tag and running around the playground at school with the other kids. She smiled remembering Dan Folsom running into the basketball pole and knocking himself out. It wasn’t funny then, but he got teased about it. Then she remembered seeing him the other day at Fairview High. He had grown to be about five foot eight. He was built like a football player and had handsome features. She had seen him naked when they skinny dipped in Culver pond one hot afternoon in May.

That was before she was kidnapped. She didn’t think anything about what it was like to see a boy naked or skinny dip around them back then. Why would she? She was just like them. Sure, she was a little embarrassed at the time. The comments from the other boys about you don’t have anything we haven’t seen already convinced a young eight year old Camy that he wasn’t anything special either.

Funny, now the way Dan looked at her the other day was very different. It wasn’t with recognition of his old friend from his youth. Rather, Jean could see his wheels turning and it was clear that he was undressing Jean in his mind. Being precocious and having developed early, Dan was drooling at her body because he was programmed to lust after the female form. Jean had become a ripe fruit to be picked. And, while it was disturbing on some levels, it was also exhilarating on a sexual level. It was intoxicating to be seen as an object of desire. To know that a flash of her breast could cause him to be putty in her hands was hard to believe and powerfully intriguing to her now.

She tried to imagine what it would be like to be a typical clumsy 9th grade boy with his acne and changing voice talking to one of her new girlfriends. There was a laugh. Had it not been for the kidnapping and surgery, he could be in the boys locker room now gazing at naked boys and comparing their equipment to his own like any other guy might do. Would he want to or would he even care if he were still a boy?

“Hey Sammy, I am real sorry for walking in on your like that.”

“No problem Sis.” Sammy headed off to his room with the towel wrapped around his waist.

Jean took the cleaning basket and went into the bathroom. She stood and stared at the mirror. She put down the basket and reached up and pulled her hair back as if to see what a boy version of her would look like. For the first time since her release, she felt something she hadn’t felt before. Anger. Why?! In a very angry tone, she said, “Can you tell me why?” She lowered her voice and her eyes got fierce. “The choice was mine to make, not yours Mr. Jack!”

Sammy poked his head around the door. “What choice? Who is Mr. Jack?”

“Oh, nothing Sammy. It is something I can’t talk about. Not until the police have cleared things up.”

Dad was in the next room and heard what she said. He came around the corner, went into the bathroom. Jean just looked up him. He held her in his arms. She started to sob angry tears. “It’s okay. I can take it. Go ahead and vent.” Jean found herself pounding her dad’s chest. He closed the door and took it like a man.

Jean put the seat down on the toilet and sat down. “Dad, it just pisses me off. I can never have children of my own flesh and blood. I can never be like you. I admired you. I wanted to be like you too at one time. Not just mom.”

“I know Honey.”

“Dad, I need to know. If I hadn’t been, you know, would you have accepted me like this.”

“Oh my. I have been asking myself that question a bunch of times over the last few weeks. I have to be honest. I would have had a hard time at first. But, yes, I love you too much to have held on to that. I guess I found my answer when I realized that I didn’t keep you from playing with you baby sister Jessica and her dolls way back when. I thought it was cute that you would play with your baby sister like that. I admired your nurturing behavior. I still do. What ever talents you have because of the way you are wired upstairs, I think you are awesome.”

Jean hugged her dad. “Thanks Dad. I needed to hear that. Sorry.”

Cam hugged her back. “No worries. You can talk to me anytime, Sweetie. I am here for you.” Jean nodded and smiled. She went back to cleaning the bathroom while Cam opened the bathroom door only to find Jessica with her hands on her hips looking up at him with accusing eyes.

“What do you mean ‘play with you baby sister Jessica?’ Who is she really, Dad?”

***
Paul thought carefully about his next move. He had to get out the word that Camy had returned home and was a girl now. His quick trip back to Mexico to do plastic surgery on a cartel member might give him a chance to do it in a way that makes it international. Just one possibility he thought. He was a pilot. He could fly to here first.

Arriving in El Paso early on an early morning flight, he headed off over the mountain pass to exit 0 on I-10 on the border of New Mexico and Texas. Behind a sign announcing New Mexico, he saw a gentleman waiting. He pulled up and rolled down his window. “Can you smell the cows, mi amigo?”

“No, the wind needs to blow from the east, mister.”

“Good. What do I need to do?”

“Driver will be here in a five minutes. Grab your suitcase. I will drive your car to Deming and return it here on Sunday to wait for you.”

“What about border inspection?”

“No worries. I am an American. I look like you too.”

In an hour, Paul found himself in a tunnel being secreted to the Mexican side. The tunnel was too valuable to use for contraband or illegals to cross. It was specially for high value assets to pass between the two countries undiscovered. The fact that it hadn’t been found meant that it was a gentleman’s agreement that whomever came through it was allowed by the CIA. A deal, ironically, which Paul had brokered. Once on the other side, he was introduced to a cartel member who needed his special talents as a plastic surgeon. He also found out the disturbing news that he would be needed for a few more weekends. That would be fine, he thought.

Back in Deming, Paul’s rental car came to a Motel 6 and stopped. The driver went in and checked in using Paul’s credentials and went in for the night. He rose when someone knocked at the door. “Hello, who is it?”

“Just a plumber. Just verifying that all went according to Hoyle.”

He opened the door. “Yes, the fix is in.”

“Good. Here is your payment. You will get paid each time for the next few weekends that you do this per our agreement.”

“Thank you. It is a pleasure doing business with you. Am I allowed to ask why you need him to do the surgery?”

“No. It is on a need to know basis. Just do your job.”

“Got it.”

***
In the master bedroom, Grandmama, Cam, and Mrs. Laignaux sat in a semi circle around Jessica. Jean stood off a ways from the group who were explaining to Jessica what had happened.

“So, Jean is really my sister. I mean my brother, but now my sister.” She looked at Jean up and down as if she was searching for something indefinable that would connect the dots.

“Yes, Jessica. And there is a bad person who wants to still harm her. Do you know the couple who has rented the house across the street from us?”

“Yes. They are cops. They have been watching our house night and day for the last several weeks. And, where ever we go, we are watched by electronic monitors placed on our cars, your bikes, and other items.”

“How long will we have to live like this?” A little panic was in her voice.

“The police tell me that they are rapidly solving the case. They think they can find Camy’s, I mean, Jean’s kidnapper by the end of next month or so.”

With Jessica in agreement, the adults left the master bedroom leaving the two sisters sitting on the bed.

“It is extremely important that you not even tell Sammy or your best friend.”

“It is just creepy to find out your ‘new sister’ is really your old brother.”

“Jessica, I love you. I used to change your diapers. I played dolls with you as a toddler. I hope you can accept me as a girl. Please?”

“Did you like being a boy?”

“I don’t really remember. I wasn’t very fond of being a boy. I was just beginning to realize I loved playing with your toys and that I was a girl inside. I was fascinated by how different you were built than I was. And, I was jealous that I wasn’t built like you too. I had just begun to fantasize what it would be like to be a girl.”

“Did you put on girl’s clothes?”

“Yes. I was talking to Melissa way back then, a girl who lived down the street from us, and telling her about you and Sammy. I asked if I could try on girl clothes so I could see what it felt like to be a girl. It was so much fun and I enjoyed it.”

“And then?”

“Then I was kidnapped. And the choice was made for me.”

“Are you okay with being a girl?”

“Yes and no. But, it is just ...”

“Just what?”

“When I see a baby now and realize that I can’t be a daddy or a mommy to my own flesh and blood, it hurts. Mr. Jack took that away from me without asking. I loved taking care of you two with Mommy. It was a lot of hard work for Mommy, so my helping her take care of you was really important. There was something in me that wanted more. I wanted to be able to breast feed you too like Mom did when you were a baby. When I held you, burped you, and sang to you, I felt girly. I started to know what it was like to be a girl. Then, I knew I was a girl and then, at the same time, I knew I wasn’t and a part of me thought about being your daddy.”

“How about now that you are a girl?”

“Oh, I love it more since coming home. Like when you and I were, what did you call it, surfing the net. We were looking at outfits and sharing opinions about what looked good and what didn’t.”

“Can we go shopping for real?”

“You bet. I would love that more than anything.”

Jessica began to cry. “I never thought I would see you. And here you are.” Jean teared up too. They didn’t need to say anything more. They just held on to each other and bonded.

Finally, Jessica said through her tears, “I am so happy to have you back.”

Through sniffles and sobs, Jean exclaimed, “Me too!”

“Jean, when I grow up, I could give you one of my babies. I don’t like to see you unhappy. I think you would make a wonderful mommy.”

Jean picked up Jessica and put her on her left hip. Jessica wrapped her arms and legs around Jean. Holding on to each other they went downstairs talking about where they would like to go shopping and what they would like to buy.

As Jean walked by Sammy holding Jessica, he grimaced at the sight of the two of them holding on to each other.

“Girls!” He went back to playing Minecraft.

Copyright © 2017 by AuP reviner

Chapter 9 –

Hank knocked on the door and then rang the doorbell just in case. Was he nervous? Oh yeah! Sitting next to Jean in French class was the best thing that could have happened to him. All the other girls were his own age. They were too sophisticated for the immature brat they thought he was. But, here was a pretty girl who liked him. No, not just liked him. She laughed at his jokes and blushed when he said nice things about her. Now, he steeled himself for the grand inquisition of the father. His mother sat in the car. This was one rite of being a boy, no, a man, that she would not assist him with. He looked back at her smiling at him. He turned to see the door opening and his executioner standing in the gap. He sighed and said to himself, ‘Lord, let it be a swift execution, please!’

“You must be Hank?” Cam asked nicely.

“A-ah, yes sir. My name is Hank Roads. Do I have the pleasure of speaking to Mr. Laignaux?” He wanted to run away. What a stupid formal idiotic thing to say. Was it too late to join the Foreign Legion? Damn, he would need to learn French first!

Cam had waited for this moment all day. Years ago, he was the goofy teenager who had to stand in front of a door and be ushered into the living room and be told by the man of the house exactly where he stood in the grand scheme of things. He could tell the poor boy was going to pee in his pants at any moment. ‘Good,’ he thought, ‘time to put the fear of the Dad god into this man-child.’ “Yes,” he said with cool disdain, “come on in please.”

Cam stepped aside and watched the poor wretched creature slither in. He snickered as the mass of Jello cast quick glances at him as he entered to see if he would survive the inferno that was about to descend upon him. “Please sit down. Jean will be down in a moment.” He cast hot knifes at him with his eyes launching each one by a roll of his eyebrows savoring each delicious strike. All those years of watching Eastwood movies were paying off. The boy was pudding with legs.

“Thank you sir.” After his inevitable neutering at the hand of Jean’s dad, Hank knew he had a career as a diplomat at least.

“So, you two are going to see a movie for school today?” Looking past the boy, he saw his own mother with a smirk on her face. He knew she would rescue the poor lad on cue. But not before he had his pound of sweat from his daughter’s hormone driven suitor.

“Yes sir.”

Seeing that he was properly a puddle of nervous teenage goo, he prodded him. “I expect you to treat her with respect and be a total gentleman. Is that understood?”

“Oh yes, sir!” Hank almost fell over as he sat down and looked scared beyond belief as he waited for death.

Before that could happen, his unseen protector entered the room and took charge. “Oh, I know you will take good care of my granddaughter. Hello, I am Jean’s grandmother. I have heard so much about you, Hank.” Cam’s mother came over and stood next to her son. Cam looked at her and winked. They knew what they were doing and had rehearsed this before hand. Both of them looked upstairs and nodded to Mrs. Laignaux who headed down the hallway to get Jean.

Jean wore a simple faux wrap dress with a tulip hem that she had fallen in love with at the mall when shopping with the girls. She wore some black hose and natural beige wedges. Her hair was drawn back into a pretty French braid. She used a little make-up. Her lipstick was a soft pink. She had used mascara and a neutral tan for her eye shadow. She was simply stunning but not overly dressed for going out to a movie and an afternoon date. She grabbed a white purse and proceeded to make her entrance. As she came downstairs, Cam watched the eyes of Hank as he lit up. Nothing, he thought, makes the entrance of a beautiful girl look more appealing than facing the fire of a father before he is granted her hand for a date.

Jean waved to Hank. Upon descending the stairs, she stood on her toes and kissed her dad on the cheek. “Thanks Dad, I love you.”

“I love you too, Honey. Now her grandmother will be here waiting for you to drop her off. We have games to go to this afternoon with our other children. You guys have a good time.” As he ushered the young children out the door, he could swear he heard fluid squishing in Hank’s shoes as he walked out the door.

“Son, you scared the hell out of that boy.”

Cam beamed with pride. “Yeah, I did, didn’t I?”

Outside, Jean laughed and coyly took Hank’s hand. “I see you survived. Good.”

“Barely. I almost died back there.”

“I would have attended your funeral if you had.”

“Is that why you are dressed in black.” he quipped.

“Darn right.” Jean squeezed his hand as he opened the door for her.

“Thank you, Hank. I knew you were a gentleman.” Hank closed her door.

“Hello Mrs. Roads. Thank you for driving us to the movie. It is very kind of you.”

“You are very welcome Jean. I gather my son survived.” The two giggled. The door opened and Hank climbed into the back with Jean. He listened to the two of them giggling.

Jean could see that Hank wanted to shout at his mother. She took his hand, “It’s okay. I think you are my hero for surviving my dad.” Hank blushed.

“You look very nice today, Jean. Don’t you think so, Hank?” said Mrs. Roads.

“Yes, you always do. I wish more girls at school cared to look as nice as you.”

“Thank you Hank. You don’t look so bad yourself.”

Mrs. Roads dropped them off at the movie. She told them she would meet them at the deli across the street afterwards giving them enough time to have a late lunch.

As she drove away, she looked into her rear view mirror and saw Hank take Jean’s hand. They walked slowly into the College student union.

***

Riding over to her game with her mom, Jessica asked, “Mom, what did the bad guy do to turn Camy into a girl?”

“I think you are a little young for the total description. But, essentially, the bad guy took Camy’s boy part and turned it inside of her. Then he removed a couple of parts that would allow him to father children and grow into a man.”

“So, she can never have children. She told me that. I think it is so sad. I told her I would let her have one of my babies when I grow up.”

“Well, you don’t have to go that far. You can give her one of your eggs and then she can have someone else give birth to the baby.”

“That would be nice. I am so glad to have her home. But, she seems very angry about what was done to her. Will she always be a little angry?”

“More than just a little angry, I would think. I believe that she would have been your sister anyway. But, it was her choice to make. Someone stole that from her. So, there is a part of her that feels her selfish need to become a girl robbed her of a family she loves.” She pulled into the parking lot to take Jessica into the game.

“Jessica, how do you feel when someone answers a question for you and you knew the answer all along.”

“Cheated.”

“Now, multiply that by five years. Every day, every hour, and every minute, someone is answering for you even though you know the answer.”

“Is that how Jean feels?”

“Yes. That is how the doctor explained it to your dad and me. And what is worse, I used to treat her that way too. I used to tell her what to do and how to do it. The hardest thing for me to accept is that I was just as bad as the bad man because I made her easy to manage.”

“I don’t think you are. You let us make our own decisions all the time.”

“I do now. But, back then, I knew your brother ran off to the bushes because I had caught him wearing girl’s clothes at Melissa’s and told him never to do it again. I knew he went into those bushes to hide from me.” She began to cry.

“It wasn’t your fault, Mom.”

“No, Honey. I feel guilty. I just feel if I had been more accepting of his desire to be a girl, I wouldn’t have lost almost six years of his life.”

“I think you need to tell Jean this.”

“I think you are right. When did you get to be so smart?”

“I learned it from my mom.”

***
Bishop sat in the Starbucks with his back to the barristas and watched the main door. About 3:05, he saw Jason Mandrake come into the Starbucks. Before he announced himself, Bishop watched him for a moment to size him up. He wasn’t overweight. He was in his early 40s, but still had a youthful appearance. When Jason looked in his direction, Bishop waved. Jason pointed to himself. Bishop nodded yes and gave him a come here wave. Jason made his way through the tables and greeted Bishop.

“You are Officer Bishop?”

“Yes.”

“Can I get some drugs from the barrista first?” Jason winked.

“Sure. I am just as guilty.” Bishop laughed and raised his latte macchito to signal his approval.

After a few minutes, Jason sat down with a frappaccunio and a chocolate scone. “So, you have been assigned to the Laignaux case?”

“Yes, and it is very frustrating, let me tell you. The case went from hot to ice cold as an Alberta Clipper in March. No signs, no sightings, no ransom demands, no suspects, and no resolution for over five years. We are coming up on the sixth year very soon. So, what can I answer for you that might bring the case to light again?”

“Nothing at this point.” Jason pulled out his notebook. “Let’s go over the facts first.” For the next ten minutes, Jason methodically went over the particulars. Who, what, when, and where. His last question was the most illuminating. “What kind of assistance do you need from the press?”

Bishop shrugged his shoulders. “Well, obviously, to keep the story alive. But, I guess the most helpful thing is to bring us any kind of lead so we can work on it. Maybe a new officer and a new reporter can break this story open. What do you say?”

Jason smiled. “Which means that if a new reporter works with a new officer he gets a new exclusive if he helps.”

“Anything that will bring the Laignaux family closure, yes. So long as you don’t exploit them and just exploit me.”

Jason though a moment and toyed with his coffee. “Deal!” He shook Bishop’s hand and pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. Unfolding it, he passed them across the tablet to Bishop.

Bishop acted astonished and read the emails from the Anonymous source. “This really looks to be a photo of the boy.”

“Yes, and look in the corner there. There is a newspaper from Mexico City. I researched it and it came out a week after he had been kidnapped. So, it is proof. I think.”

“What makes you suspicious?” Bishop asked.

“I had one of the boys from photo look at it. He told me the shadow on the boy is a 28 degree angle opposite from the shadow behind the candle on the table with the paper. He thinks it was Photoshopped.”

“Which means that this is likely the kidnapper. Good work, Jason. Has he or she contacted you back?”

“No. I am waiting for him or her to contact me.”

“If he does. Can you ask him for proof of life evidence? No, wait. If the child is dead, then he might be doing this to return his remains out of guilt. Asking for proof of life is what cops ask for.”

“Reporters too, for that matter.”

“I know from talking to our guys in IT that all we need is the full header to analyze where it came from.”

“Won’t help. I had our IT guys look at it too. He or she is a using a free anonymous email server in Bangladesh. I know you government guys are good, but this isn’t going to crack like one of those NCIS shows where McGee and Abby pull a magic IP address out of a hat and solve the crime.”

“You are most certainly right there. There are three possible reasons. One, he is dead and wants to return the remains. Two, he is dead and he wants to extract money from the Laignaux family to reveal where he is. Three, he is alive and wants to return him for money or just to return him.”

“Personally, I would go with one or two. I don’t see number three happening.”

“Well, be forewarned, our kidnapper will try and deceive you somehow. Be wary. And let me know immediately, please. You have my personal cell phone. I have yours programmed in. I will answer asap the moment you call. And, thanks for helping. Can I keep these emails or do you want them back?”

“They are evidence, you could take them.”

“Yes, but you are an informant at this point. I know I can court order them from you if I need to do so. But, I would rather not. What you have shared with me is as valuable as having them. Good work and thank you.” Bishop put out his hand to shake Jason’s hand.

“You’re welcome. Please, keep them.”

“Again, thank you. I hope that with our combined efforts, we can bring closure to the Laignaux family.”

After Jason left, Bishop walked to his car. On the way, he made a phone call. “Yeah, we just had a reporter call. I will email you photos of the emails. They had full headers.”

“Thanks.”

“Will you be able to research the source past the firewalls?”

“Not saying yes. Not saying no.”

“Not saying naught.”

“Yup.”

***

“Mrs. Roads, Hank, all I am allowed to tell you is that something very bad happened to Jean south of the border before she came here. She saw some things no child should ever have to see happen to a couple of boys she cared about. She can’t talk about it nor can I because it is under investigation. But, let’s just say that the movie reminded her of those bad things and brought back the horrible memories.”

“She said something about not wanting to see him die again, Detective Bishop, she was so scared. I have never seen anything like it.” Hank was trembling, but not for himself, for Jean.

“I know Hank. You are just going to have to trust me. And, don’t let anyone else know at the school, okay. She is getting professional help.” He sent them on their way.

Bishop was relieved to hear that they were the only students from the school that attended. Nobody went to those extra credit movies until later in the school year. It was also a good thing he knew the campus cop personally that was called to the scene. She was someone he would sometimes date too, but not right now. He turned and could see Mrs. Laignaux come in. She looked at him. He could tell she had been crying. Following her was her daughter Jessica. He was about to panic himself when she said, “It’s okay. Jessica knows now. She overheard her dad and Jean talking. Go to her, Honey.” She motioned for her to go to her child huddled in a chair being comforted by a lady officer. “What happened?”

“The movie is about two boys. One of them is taken away by the Nazis to be killed at the end of the movie. That is when she broke into a panic attack. She started to sob and cry. All she kept saying was ‘Do I have to watch him die again.’ The doctors feared this. They felt she had seen one of the boys murdered by Mr. Jack, but couldn’t break through that wall.”

“Oh my. Poor girl.” Over in the corner of the room, she could see Jean holding onto Jessica.”

Out of the corner of his eye, a nicely dressed man came around the corner. “Hello, Detective Bishop, I am Dr. Lipscomb, Jean’s psychiatrist. Can you fill me in on what happened.” While they were discussing it, Mrs. Laignaux went over to Jean to console her.

“Oh, Mom. It was awful. I had a flashback. I remember hearing him die. It all came back to me.”

“I know dear. I was told that your memories would come back. That is one of the reasons you don’t know much about things like DVDs. You have suppressed so many things. I just didn’t expect to happen when you were on a date. Can you talk to me about it?”

The campus cop sat down next to her. “If it is okay, I would like to hear it too.”

“Yes. Okay. Mom, it was about a year after I was kidnapped.” The lady officer, a Ms. Allison Trevor, sat bugged eyed as Jean began to retell what had happened so many years ago.

“You do know that you are to keep this silent. My daughter was kidnapped about six years ago.”

“I thought her name seemed familiar. Anyway, go on please.”

“Well, Mr. Jack had forcibly changed him too. But, he wasn’t happy. He kept trying to climb the walls. I told him it was no use. But he was determined. After he was put in boy clothes and thoroughly punished with a belt, he scaled the roof and tried to jump over the wall to freedom. Mr. Jack was so angry that I saw him go out the front door and chase after him with a baseball bat. All I heard on the other side of the door were screams. And then, silence. When I saw Mr. Jack again, he had blood on him. Nothing was ever said again. I knew I was never to bring it up or the same fate would be mine.”

Officer Bishop had come up a moment earlier with the doctor. “Did you ever hear his name?”

“Yes, it was Steve Louis Hogan. He said he was born in St. Louis and that was why he was named Louis. But, Mr. Jack wanted him to be Louise.”

Mrs. Laignaux started to ask, “Was that ...” and Bishop slowly nodded yes.

“Bishop, shouldn’t we be writing this down and taking a statement.” said Allison.

“We can’t Allison. It happened in Mexico. Out of our jurisdiction. But, I will give Officer Juan a call and arrange for him to come here to take her statement. I would enjoy seeing him again anyway.”

She leaned against him so the others couldn’t hear and said, “So, this was the big case you were working on that kept you from going out with me.” Bishop looked anxious. “It’s okay. She is such a sweet girl. I understand. A little young for you maybe, but I understand.” She gave Bishop a coy smile. He breathed a heavy sigh and shook his head trying not to grin as the two looked at each other. She gave him that look that said she knew what she had done to him.

“Thanks for your help, Allison. I really appreciate it. Jean really appreciates it. I was thrilled when I found out that you were the responding officer. I knew she would be in wonderful hands.”

“She means a lot to you.”

“Well, with what she has been through and her family … you understand. Anyway, I owe you.”

“I will hold you to that mister.” Allison turned around and looked at the family working with Dr. Lipscomb. “I think they need this room more than we do.”

“I think you are right. Good call.”

“Cup of coffee?”

“Tsk, tsk. Do you know the penalty for trying to bribe a detective, Miss?”

“Why, what is it, Sir?”

“A friendly chat and a warm feeling I hope.”

Before they closed the door, they let the family know they could use the room for counseling and they would be just outside the door having some coffee.

***

“So, she moved here from Mexico. You know nothing more than that. Well, she seemed like such a nice girl too. But, if what they hinted at was true, she must have witnessed something horrific. I wouldn’t talk about it if I were you.”

“Can I see her again? I mean, I really like her.”

“I don’t know, Darling. I think she needs to work through her emotional problems before she dates someone again. This was way more than a nervous breakdown. I think she needs to get her issues straight before she goes out on a date again. I don’t think it was fair to you to have this happen to you. I think it just best that you forget her.”

Hank looked out the car window in pain and muttered to himself, “But how can I when I love her?”

“What was that honey?”

“Mom, I read in the news that the cartels in Mexico cut off heads of their victims. What if she saw that happen to a boy she knew?”

“And how do you know that the bad guys aren’t going to come after her again and do the same thing to you? Have you thought about that?”

***

Dr. Lipscomb didn’t expect an impromptu session there in the midst of a holding/conference room at the College. But, his patient was the reason he was here. “I was expecting this to happen at some point Camy. I know what you have been through. I am absolutely thrilled that your sister is here too to comfort you.”

“Mom, I think you need to tell Jean what you told me. I think she needs to hear it too.”

Dr. Lipscomb was taken back. “Do you think it will help Jessica?” Jessica nodded yes.

“Today, Camy, I was telling Jessica that I felt very guilty. Years ago, when I caught you wearing a dress at the neighbors, I got mad at you and told you never to do it again. I feel that if I had been more understanding and let you explore your feelings, you wouldn’t have had to hide in that bush and wouldn’t have been kidnapped. I realized that my being bossy and demanding made you susceptible to Mr. Jack’s influence too.”

“Thank you for sharing that Mrs. Laignaux. How does that make you feel hearing that Camy?”

“I feel guilty too. If I hadn’t been such a jerk and tried on clothes at school, Mr. Jack wouldn’t have found out about me and I wouldn’t have been kidnapped. I might still be your precious little boy. I feel guilty because I got what I wanted, but it cost Steve his life. I hate what being a girl in a boy’s body did to someone else. I really hurt.”

Dr. Lipscomb looked at the three ladies. He started by addressing the elephant in the room. “None of you should feel any guilt. When Mr. Jack took it upon himself to do what he did, he is the one that became a real criminal. Mrs. Laignaux, you would have changed as a parent like every other parent on the planet earth. Camy was your first born and you were doing exactly what parents always do with their first born. They expect and demand too much of them. Camy, you have a right to be a child and explore the world you were born into. Yes, your mother set up boundaries that weren’t sensitive to your every need. But, you know what, I honestly believe that your father would have intervened. Believe it or not, it is not uncommon for one parent to get it and then talk to the other parent about it. Your dad gets it. He was taking you to those baseball games not to bring the boy out in you, but to connect to you. And, in reality, he was finding that you wanted to be with him and didn’t care about the game. He was already beginning to see you as a girl, not a boy. He just didn’t know it yet.”

“Does this mean I am a bad parent?” sniffed Mrs. Laignaux.

“No, but, the beauty of a two parent family is that there is a diverse and alternative view of how to raise a child. Cam would have come to you and talked it over. Eventually, you would have come around and allowed Camy to become what she was meant to be. And to both your credits, you have a strong marriage and a strong commitment to raising your kids right. I have found that neither of you really has ego in the game. You love your children more than anything. Or, else you would be divorced by now.”

“Well, I suppose you are right. I just don’t feel it right now.”

“And that is because, like any other parent, you are learning as you go. There are no set answers. If there were, we could have robots raise our children with no mistakes. Every child is different. And, we often forget that so is every parent. They need just as much room to grow as their child. Just because some parents accept a transgendered child right away doesn’t mean that every parent is a bad parent and won’t eventually come around.”

Mrs. Laignaux nodded in agreement. “So, where do we go from here?”

“Well, I will want to start working with Camy on her repressed memories for one thing. It will take a while, but I know we can get her the closure she needs. The second thing is ladies, Jessica is right, you need to talk about your feelings. This has affected all three of you. Yes, even you Jessica. I would suggest a weekly night out for just you three where you can discuss your feelings. The sooner you let those feelings out, the better for everyone. Let me give you an example. Camy, do you think less of your mother for feeling guilty?”

“No, it makes me feel like she loves me and cares about me even more.”

“Mrs. Laignaux, do you feel ashamed of Camy for sharing her feelings?”

“No, I like sharing with her. It makes me feel like she trusts me. I have come to really enjoy our talks.”

“And lastly, Jessica, when you are part of their sharing their feelings, do you feel less left out?” Jessica smiled and nodded yes.

Dr. Lipscomb folded his arms and said in a silly voice, “Well, then, what do you need me for. I feel so useless now.”

The ladies all complemented him and said of course they needed him. “Oh, okay, but only because you insist. I want to thank you all for working so well together. I want you to know that because you are opening up about your feelings, the healing of Camy and the rest of the family will happen all the faster.”

Jean asked, “What about the men in the family?”

“Well,” said Dr. Lipscomb, “I know from personal experience that men don’t discuss feelings. I think they will work it out in other ways with your help. So, they won’t be forgotten. But, that is a good question. My advice is to give them time too. Already, I can see Cam is head over heels in love with Jean. The same way he feels about Jessica and Sammy are just about the same. My guess is that the boys won’t take as long.”

Mrs. Laignaux said with a little amusement in her voice, “So, you are saying the girls are a little more complicated than the boys?”

Dr. Lipscomb smiled and responded to the bait, “Of course. And I wouldn’t have it any other way Mrs. Laignaux.”

“Well said. Please, call me Sandra. Mrs. Laignaux sounds too formal to me now.”

“Very well Sandra, please call me Bill.” He felt victory. Sandra had changed at last.

Copyright © 2017 by AuP reviner

Chapter 10 –

Paul entered the ranch’s house and checked out the surgery. “Adequate. Do you have the supplies I need?”

“Yes.”

“And, how is my special ward?”

“Doing well. We are keeping him alive as you asked.”

“Mind if I check on him?”

“Sure. Follow me.”

Paul was led down a path to an out building guest house which was in a run down state. It had little in the way of amenities, but it did function as an excellent prison for the occupant.

Paul opened the door and saw a scruffy looking man who was chained to a central pillar. “Hello Dr. Kendricks.”

“Who are you?” came a resigned response.

“The only person keeping you alive whether you like it or not. You can call me Paul. We have the same first name it seems.” Paul said in a distant rather matter of fact manner. He was enjoying the sense of empowerment this was giving him. Seeing his plans beginning to bear fruit with Camille successfully integrating as a female in school and at home. Then, she was becoming sexually aware of erotic longings. And, even though he was about to tear that apart, he was seeing his role in changing things as a pioneer. All of this justified in his mind what he did to this poor man.

“What are you going to do with me?” came a painful resigned response.

“That, my sorry friend, is on a need to know basis. You will find out soon enough. I am almost done. By the way, you have a new job. I hope you like it. They may keep you on. In the meantime, you are my insurance policy. If all goes well, you should be out of here in two to three weeks. I have been known to keep my word for those that follow my instructions. Just relax and don’t try to escape.”

Paul returned to the surgery and completed his assigned task for that weekend changing the looks a lieutenant in the cartel. With his work done, then he had a three hour session with four woman getting rid of some pent up energy and then he was returned to Exit 0 where his car was waiting for him. He was looking forward to the next week’s release of energy too.

***

Sally and her mom were enjoying a mani-pedi when a cell phone went off. Mine? Yours? The ringtones were the same. That was dumb. It was answered as soon as one of them figured out whose phone was ringing. “Yes. … A break down. … I understand. When did it happen. … Jessica knows now, huh? Couldn’t keep it from her forever. … Right. No, we are just having some girl time. Jean’s fault really, bless her brilliant fashion sense. … Yes, I think that would be prudent now. … No, I think she can handle it. She is remarkably mature for her age. Family first and all that. … About five, I should think. We are at Shannon’s Nails and are half way done. … Yup. How about Skip’s across the street? … No, you’re right. Not private enough. Okay, Rosettes. … That will do. See you in a few.”

Sally asked, “Who was that?”

“Your aunt. Honey, don’t you have a date tonight?”

“Yeah.”

“What time?”

“6:30.”

“Can you get a thirty minute delay.”

“We are going to a movie. And the movie starts at 7:00. Gerald was going to pick me up.”

“Call the Thompson boy and see if you can meet him at the movie theater at 7:00 instead. This is important.”

“Mom, unless it is critical, I would rather not.”

“Sally, that was your Aunt Sandra calling us about a family situation. We need to meet with her to discuss a family crisis. It is critical that you be included in the discussion.”

Sally was taken back by the serious tone of her mother as well as being curious to hear that someone of her age in the family was needed to be included. She reached for her phone and texted her date, “Slight emergency. Can I meet you at theater at 7:00 instead of you picking me up?”

“No problem. See you at 7:00 at movie theater. xoxoxo” came the reply.

She texted back, ‘TY xoxoxo.’

Rosettes was a coffee shop around the corner from Shannon’s Nail Salon. It was fashioned inside to look like a red bricked Tuscan home with discrete nooks and crannies where you could sit with a friend, or more than two, or a even a group in front of a fireplace to discuss over a cup of coffee and an entree secrets of the sisterhood. And since you pre-ordered and picked up your food beforehand, bused your own table, and got drink refills on your own, you could almost discuss national security without fear of being over heard by the Russians at the table next to your table unless you entreated them to pass the salt. Like that every did any good.

Stella and Sally, fresh from the nail salon, came wandering in. Stella searched the place for her sister-in-law. After a moment, they both found each other. There was her aunt and her cousin Jean along with her. She was pleased to see that they had ordered and had at the table a pot of tea with the place’s infamous large cinnamon bundt cake in the middle of the table meaning that everyone could share. The two were quickly seated such that Sally and Jean were next to each other. Sally noticed immediately that Jean looked exhausted and cried out.

“What is this about?” Sally asked realizing that all eyes were upon her now.

“Jean had a PTSD breakdown after the French movie. It has come out that she saw a murder in Mexico. Now, right now, that is all that might get out. But, it could get worse.” said her mom. Sally was startled by the fact that her mother knew something and had been keeping it from her.

Before Sally could call her mother on it, Sally’s aunt Sandra then added, “We need you to help protect Jean if the real truth gets out. She may not have any one on her side if it does, Sally. She could be really hurt more than you could possibly know. The women in this family have to protect her. It’s our duty.”

Sally looked at Jean wondering what it could be that would cause them to say this. Jean looked down clearly trembling from fear of something. Sally’s heart melted for her cousin. In the last few weeks, she had come to love her like a sister. Whatever it was, it was as critical as she had been told. At that moment, Jessica came back from the bathroom and sat next to Jean. She, too, Sally thought, looked frightened for her new sister.

“What could be worse than viewing a murder? That ought to bring her sympathy I would think.” Sally asked cautiously.

“Sally,” Stella said to her daughter, “it is time for you to know the truth. You remember Camy, right?”

A horrible thought hit her and she went with it. “Was Jean a witness to his murder?”

Shaking her head, Stella just came out with it. “No, Sally, Jean is Camy.” Sally’s face drained of blood. She looked at Jean whose worried expression and sad eyes confirmed the truth.

Sally sat there silently taking it in and put her hands up to her face as her mother, Stella, explained what had had happened after the kidnapping. For the first time, it all made sense. Slowly, with tears streaming down her face, Sally embraced her cousin and told her it would be okay and that she was loved beyond measure.

The family circle of girls was now completely protecting Jean.

***

“So, this is an American high school. Very nice.” The bell rang soon after the two men entered a tiled hallway to head to the main office from the side door where Bishop parked his police car. The walls were white and the floor glistened. The pristine hallway soon turned into a deluge of hustling bodies pushing to and fro in a chaotic wave of students rushing to their next class.

Bishop teased out, “I know. Scary, isn’t it? It contains the strangest animal known to man. The teenager.”

Juan laughed and added, “I know. They are just as scary in my country too.”

The two men stayed on course as best they could. No one paid any attention to Juan’s crisp white uniform shirt with its dark blue shoulder epaulettes and Juan’s seven pointed star which said Policia Municipal. They just pushed on by with regard only to their next class or the flirting glances they could use on someone that caught their eye. Nor did they notice Bishop’s golden badge hanging on his belt as they moved along. They probably thought he was a security guard instead of a highly trained police officer. They were adults and to be ignored. There, in the hallway, was all that mattered. They were the future of the country and they had become self-aware.

As they worked through the hallway towards the officer on duty’s room, suddenly Juan was assaulted, much to his sincere delight. “Senor Juan. It’s you, it’s really you.” The beautiful teenage girl threw herself onto him and hugged him hard. She was beaming ear to ear even though she was shedding a tear or two.”

“Camillia, it is so good to see you again.” The two cheek kissed. Juan smiled enthusiastically and said, “I came here to see you, you know.”

“I know. I love the uniform. I am so glad you wore it. You look so very handsome in it. Just how a policeman should look.” said a giddy Jean.

“Well, I am on duty.” he said proudly.

“But, I have to get to class or I will get a tardy. When will I see you?” she pleaded.

“What class are you in, Jean?”

“French.”

“We will call you out in a bit. I hope you don’t mind.”

“I know why.” Jean looked down feeling the weight of what she had to face. Then she lifted her face and her smile returned. “See you in a few minutes then.” and she skipped off down the hallway.

Bishop laughed after the whole exchange and said, “I feel so left out. It’s the uniform, isn’t it? It always gets the girl.”

Juan shrugged his shoulders and teased Bishop. “Well, with or without the uniform, some of us just have it while others don’t.”

Bishop put his arm on Juan’s shoulder and mused, “Gee, thanks. Do you have to rub it in?” The two men continued on their way teasing the heck out of each other.

Somewhat stung from the weekend, Hank watched the whole encounter with Juan unfold. He could see the Mexican flag on Juan’s uniform and the memory of her collapsing during the weekend into a balling frightened girl made some sort of sense. He was jealous of her treatment of Juan. He wanted that hug and kind of unconditional love. He wanted to be the knight gallant whose embrace brought her joy. He cautiously approached her after she left them and said, “Can I please walk you to class, Jean?”

“Oh would you?” she warmly smiled at him, “I would love it. I am sorry about this weekend.” She took his free hand which seemed to make him feel better. Maybe he could be her knight after all.

With a degree of worry in his voice, Hank asked, “Is that officer here to see you about your bad experience?”

“Yes, Hank, he is. I can’t discuss it with you, but I can tell you that I witnessed someone murder a child. That is why the movie caused me problems. I had what they call a flashback.”

“So, there wasn’t a cartel involved, was there?”

“Oh no. If that were the case, I would be under witness protection. The fact is that my folks want me to live here with family after all that bad stuff happened. They wanted me to be safe. It was time for me to leave anyhow. They had been talking about having me move back to Little rock for a while since I was born here. But, they feel their job wasn’t done in Mexico.” Jean continued the lie in order to not talk directly about the truth.

“Do you miss them?”

“Yes. I will see them on occasion. But, this is much better for me than staying there. I needed to get out of the dark ages. And I love my new family, well, my old family since I have a rather large one. I don’t know what I would do without them. It has been a good change. Scary at times, but good. I needed counseling I couldn’t get in Mexico as you recently found out.”

“Do you think you will get over it?”

“I hope so. I hope your Mom wasn’t too bothered and upset by what happened.”

“Well, yes. She says I should stop seeing you.”

Jean stopped and looked up at him. Her frown betrayed her growing feelings for him. He stopped and looked down at her and compassion filled his heart. Tears were in her eyes and she couldn’t look at him in the eye. She timidly inquired, “Do you feel the same way?” Hank could see the fear in her eyes as she asked and knew she was being genuine with him. He could also see she really cared about him more than he at first thought.

“No. I really like you Jean. Nothing has changed.” He wanted to tell her he loved her, but something held him back. Maybe it was his mom.

“Oh Hank, thank you.” She looked into his eyes once again and gave him a warm hug. He felt awkward at first not knowing how to handle a girl pressing her chest into his, but returned it.

“C’mon. We gotta get to class.” he finally said. The two walked to class hand in hand.

A little while later, Jean was released for the day. Juan opened the door for her and she climbed into the car’s front seat like the lady she was with Bishop driving and they all headed off to the station so she could be interviewed by both countries and issue a formal statement to be used later in court in both countries as might be needed.

***

Paul pulled into his parking place feeling exhausted. Dr. Larson was just coming out. “Hey Paul, how was your weekend?”

“Good. I identified another teenager. His family will have closure.”

“I understand. It was a busy weekend though. We had two gang killings. I just finished processing the victims for trace evidence. I would love it if you did their autopsies.”

“No problem. That is the easy part.”

“Not easy for me. You don’t have a teenage daughter.”

“So, one of them is a girl.” Kevin nodded yes. “Sorry to hear that. I will get on it right away.”

“The family is likely to stop by. They only speak Spanish, so, I was wondering if you would handle them for me?”

“Okay, Kevin. Just don’t make it a habit, please. I am not really good at counseling anybody. I can tell them how somebody died. The why isn’t something I can explain.”

***

Cam finished his yearly evaluations of personal and dropped off the work to be reviewed by his district manager. He breathed a sigh of relief. As he was coming out of his office’s parking lot, he turned and headed out to the police department to pick up Jean. They were going on a father daughter date soon. He smiled at the thought. He mused that he had a teenage daughter and when did that happen. He pulled over in his Camry and texted Bishop to say he was on his way. He forgot he was supposed to do that. In a moment, he got a text back saying they would meet him in front of the station when he got there.

When he got there, Jean was waiting with Detective Bishop and Officer Juan. “How did it go?” he asked all three.

“She was a champ. The statement should be ready in the next day or so for her to sign.”

“Dad, I would like to meet Senor Juan. He was the one who released me from the chains. He is a real gentleman and cute too, for a policeman.” Juan smiled at her tease.

“Sir, I can’t thank you enough for rescuing my daughter. I …” Cam began to get choked up and in a broken voice he continued, “… can never repay you for your kindness to her.” The two men hugged. Juan felt in the embrace where Jean’s strength came from.

“You are welcome Senor Cam. It was my pleasure. You have a very beautiful daughter. You must be so proud.”

He looked at Jean and put his arm around her, “You got that one right. Thank you again. Both of you.”

As Cam drove off with his daughter, Bishop turned to Juan and said, “A girl throwing herself at you. A man giving you a hug. Man, I have got to get the name of your cologne.”

Juan looked back at Bishop. “Easy my friend. Old Spice.” Bishop lost it.

***
“Hey Mom.”

“How was school today?”

“Fine.”

“Did you let Jean down easy?”

“Didn’t get a chance. A policeman from Mexico came in and she went off with him.”

“In handcuffs?” she asked worriedly.

“No. As a matter of fact, she knew the policeman and was very happy to see him. By the way, when I asked her about it briefly, she did mention that she saw a boy murdered, but that she can’t talk about it.”

“Oh my. That would explain a lot of her reaction on Saturday.”

“Yeah, based on what she said, I think her parents sent her up here to be with family because she couldn’t get the counseling she needed down there.” Hank hoped humanizing Jean would sway his mother’s angst about her.

“So, they are still alive. I thought they were dead.”

“Seems they are alive. I am getting the feeling that the murder she witnessed was pretty brutal.”

“So it could have been a cartel killing. I thought so.”

“No. If that had been the case, she would be in witness protection.”

“How do you know? Maybe I am right.”

“Maybe you are wrong. Anyway, the rumor mill is going. She was seen going out with him and another officer this afternoon. They were chummy, so the rumor mill says she is involved in some hush hush legal stuff. Rather than squashing her appeal, it appears to be adding to her popularity.”

“Interesting.”

“That means I could lose her to some of the other guys in the 10th grade who think she is some sort of mystery and potentially dangerous foreign spy.”

“That wouldn’t be so bad. That girl is trouble. Trust your mother on this.”

Hank muttered under his breath, “No, I trust dad. Wish you did too.”

***

Juan ordered a steak while Bishop ordered a salad. “Got to keep my girlish figure.” Bishop quipped.

Allison nudged him and teased, “Hey, I am the one with the girlish figure here. Juan, I am so happy to meet you. You stole my date night from me and I needed to make sure it wasn’t with another woman.” Allison tickled Bishop.

“I have to thank you and apologize to you Bishop. When you first came to my country, I thought you would be an arrogant American. I was proved wrong.”

“You’re welcome. Sadly, I guess I could have been arrogant. Truth be told, I read the reports before I came. I was struck by how thorough you were in them and the kindness you showed Jean. So, I already knew how good you were even before I laid eyes on you.”

Allison and Bishop spied a young woman coming to their table. “Well, because you stole another date night from us,” Allison giggled, “we have a surprise for you.” Bishop stood up to greet her. Juan, seeing the reason why, stood up also. A lovely young blond woman about twenty-four with a nice body and a withering smile approached their table. She waved. “Hey Claudine, I am glad you could make it. This is Officer Juan Valendez of the Hermisillo police department. Juan, this is Claudine Lansing of my detective division. She is my back up on this case.”

Claudine looked over Juan and by her reaction, both Bishop and Allison knew that she really liked what she saw. Juan, took her hand and gave it a latin kiss. “Buenos Noches mi Senorita bonita.” Juan then pulled out a chair for her.

“Well, Bishop. How come you didn’t learn any manners while you were in Mexico? Officer Juan knows how to treat a lady right.” Claudine said with a wink.

The three sat down. “Please call me Juan. May I call you Claudine.”

“Yes, by all means. Bishop has brought me up to speed on the case. I looked over your reports. They were very well done. I did have one question.”

Bishop looked impressed wondering if there was something he missed. But, that is what partners are for, to catch what you don’t. “I know that she ordered a lot of her clothes from catalogs. But, what is missing from the crime scene is all the labels, receipts, and other stuff one would expect by an investigative crew. Nor was there any found by the Texas ranger crew that went in recently. However, the crime scene had most of the catalogs she had been ordering from. My question is how do you think Mr. Jack collected and ordered the clothes?”

“Probably used a drop box in the city to place the orders and get them.”

“I don’t think so.” said Claudine. “I am thinking he had them made. In the report, Camille never mentions that the clothes were returned. I order clothes from catalogs all the time because my hours prevent me from going shopping like I like to do.” She glanced at Allison who responded with a knowing nod. “My guess is that he had them custom made because there were no labels in the clothes. I mean, why remove the labels and yet keep the catalogs.”

Bishop and Juan looked at each other saying almost in unison, “Why didn’t we catch that?”

Allison chuckled and casually stroked Bishop’s arm. “Because you are guys. You go to the Wal-Mart and put on what fits. You don’t care. But we gals do.”

Allison then looked over at her and said, “Nice catch Claudine.”

A wicked smile came over Bishop’s face. He whispered into Allison’s ear and she giggled. “Well, Claudine, would you like to help Juan find the place that made her clothes?” Allison asked. Claudine turned a beat red. Juan just grinned.

“Seriously. We can grab some of her clothes that she got recently and track down who made it. I mean, China isn’t the only place these days that does copy catting.”

“For that, we would need the catalogs.”

“We have them in my office. And we have digital photos of the outfits. But, we don’t have the staff to look them over with me.” Juan added.

Bishop looked at Claudine. “Volunteers?”

Claudine snapped back with a quick, “Yes, sir. I am ready to report for duty.” She punctuated it with a brief salute and then turned to Juan to ask, “Do you mind, Juan?”

“Of course not.” Allison and Bishop exchanged a quick glance and a knowing smirk.

For the next hour, during their dinner, they chatted and laughed. Finally, Juan asked Bishop something to bring them back to the case. “Mi amigo. There is something I have been meaning to ask you. This isn’t your first case like it, is it?”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, you seemed too comfortable with what you were dealing with. I know, once I found out what happened to Camille, I had to change my mind about things I always assumed were right. But, you seemed, how shall I say, not to care as though you had already dealt with it before.”

Bishop laughed sadly. “You are a good policeman. You read me correctly. I have had to deal with two unique cases involving someone like Camille. The first involved an older transwoman who had been kidnapped and turned into a sex slave. The second was a transwoman, really girl, who had been left on the side of the road dead after been used up in the sex trade.” Bishop looked away. He was clearly tearing up.

“You don’t have to talk about it, hon.” Allison said in an effort to comfort him.

“No, I should. Not if we are going to be good cops. We can’t hide the fact that man’s inhumanity to man doesn’t get to us. Or else we will become jaded.”

***
Louis and Peggy Laignaux drove up to the police headquarters early Tuesday morning from Memphis. Gaston's message a few weeks earlier that Jean needed a cover family, or, rather cover parents was the reason they were there for Jean. Juan, Bishop, and Jean were there to greet them. Hugs all around. Jean’s resemblance to Louis and Peggy, like the rest of the family, was unmistakable. However, Louis had not been seen often in these parts, so few if any knew him. They wore plain clothes like there were country bumpkins. Unlike their usual pattern of being well kept, they let themselves look un made up and quite ordinary.

Bishop handed Juan the keys and playfully shook his finger at him as he patted his car with his other hand. Juan opened the door for Peggy while on the other side of the car, Louis opened the car door for Jean who smoothed her dress and got in the back seat. Louis walked around to the other side quickly. He and Juan entered the car at the same time.

Bishop and Claudine waved as they drove off. At Fairview High, it was the height of kids dragging themselves into school. It was the bustle of the start of a second day of a new week with kids wandering in not wanting the weekend to end still and hungry for the next one to come as soon as possible. Summer vacation hadn't passed from their daily thinking yet. Juan drove up to the circle and got out with his uniform looking sharp. He opened the door for Jean while Louis opened the door for Peggy. They walked up to the curb to meet a waiting Sally. They all said hello. Sally kissed and hugged Louis and Peggy.

Sally held Jean who was crying a little and smiling. They waved goodbye to Juan, Louis, and Peggy as they drove away. Sally then held her arm around Jean comforting her as they entered the school that day. The amount of students who saw this scene was numerous. But, the one that mattered most to Jean watched from the front of the building. Hank thought to himself exactly what he was supposed to think. That, these were her parents up here for a visit. And they were going home with Juan. As Sally went into the entrance, she looked around at the other students. She could tell by their faces, the rumor mill was satisfied. They saw what they expected.

***

At a lab in Langley, a tech was asked. “How long before you can do it?”

“Based on the sample we got from the police, about two weeks.”

“Do what you can. ASAP though.” The man quietly looked at his phone as he said that. An email just sent had an ominous overtone.

***

Jason looked over his work for the morning. A bunch of story leads. A new call to stop drugs. A plea or two to do a story on the gangs that were changing Little Rock. And then, an email about Camille. The subject was ‘proof of life.’

Jason,

The photo I am sending you is proof of life. It was taken four months ago in Mexico. It shows a man walking with a young child. The child is Camille in disguise.

I. B. Anonymous

Jason pulled up the photo. It was of a man and a child walking away from the camera into a farmer’s market. The child walking was a girl and looking up at the man. Baffled by what he saw, he sent a note to Bishop. They needed to talk asap.

After taking Juan and Claudine to the airport, Bishop swung around to see Jason. He was waiting for him at the Starbucks. “I have a girlfriend you know.”

Jason chuckled. He gave him the email with a print out. “Can’t be Camille. It’s a girl in the photo. How is that proof?"

“I was wondering the same thing. It is just that ...”

“What?”

“She is Caucasian and all the other people in the photo are Mexican. I don’t know. I turned on a Novella the other night while channel surfing and the actors look every bit of being American as watching Big Bang Theory.”

“True. In order for there to be real proof, this isn’t enough. But, who knows it could be true. That is one way of hiding a child.”

“I know, a few minutes ago, he sent me this.”

Bishop read an email that said, “I was able to obtain a DNA sample from this child and sent it in to GenTreeMaster.com. I have been notified that the results will be in by the end of the month. That is only two weeks away.”

“Okay. Let’s assume it is this child and that the DNA proves it. What does I. B. want? Ransom. Finder’s fee.”

“As long as it brings him back, I guess that is the important thing. Don’t you think?”

“Sorry, years of being a skeptic. Thank you for bringing this to me. But, be cautious. The only way to get that spit sample is for the person being tested to do it voluntarily. Just as a guess, one of two things happened. Either this is the child and he is trying to find a way to be traced or there is a good Samaritan who has figured out a way to check his story.”

“Yeah. I am skeptical too. We are almost at the six year mark later this month. Nothing has been heard since the kidnapping. Now, out of the blue, here is someone claiming to know the victim and know he is alive.”

“Makes me wonder what I. B. chose DNA. Does he or she know something we don’t.”

“DNA doesn’t lie.”

“True. But, with this amount of time, it is conceivable that he or she has obtained a family member’s DNA.

Bishop thought through the various scenarios where this could go. He knew that Mr. Jack was setting a trap and he was likely to get burned. He remembered a class at university where the professor was discussing the nature of the tense combat between police and the press. It was a love hate relationship. This was a fork he didn’t want. Technically, he should walk from the table. However, his pray partner had sent him a suggestion. A simple one. Just one word explained it all. He had a week to think about it and it was time to see if the word would work. Embed.

“Jason, do you know what an embeded reporter is?”

“Not really, I have heard of it because of the Gulf wars.”

Bishop pulled out an envelope to hand to Jason. “I talked it over with my boss after our discussion the other day. This is an agreement to embed you in our investigation. There will be no limitations on what you can report. Just when you can report it. You will be able to be in on our discussions and intel, so long as you keep the total story out of the press until it successfully prosecuted. And you will be able to report on a limited basis any press releases before anyone else before it is prosecuted.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. I think we can trust you. You have been extremely helpful. If this is really turning up the truth, you will be on the inside from here on out. I will leave you to think it over and discuss it with your boss. She has to sign on to it too. It is legally binding on both of us. But, here is what is crucial, you will have all rights to the story from here on out.”

Jason seemed taken back. “Are you hiding something from me?”

Bishop turned on the charm and smiled. “Well, if I am, I certainly am doing something stupid by letting you in on everything. Hell, I can’t even write a story about it if it turns out to be sensational because you will have all the rights to it. Well, except the family will have their rights still. But you will have an exclusive. And frankly, I think you deserve it. I have admired your investigative reporting for years. You are a damn good reporter.”

Jason looked over the form. “I have been told beware things that are too good to be true.”

“Jason, this form is coming to you because of your twenty years of hard work. If you were a cub reporter just starting out, you wouldn’t be getting this deal.”

“Well, I will take it to my boss and see what she has to say.”

“That is all I can ask. Let me know as soon as you can. I would like to introduce you to the rest of the team. Well, what will be the team if this turns out to be true. You will notice that we have notarized our signatures. Be sure to do the same. Once you do, it becomes active when you deliver it to me.”

Copyright © 2017 by AuP reviner

Chapter 11 –

Hank tapped his pencil’s eraser on his arm as worked on the surprise quiz in French class. Jean couldn’t help but notice he was frustrated. She focused her attention back on doing the surprise quiz and easily answered the questions. It was relatively easier for her than the rest of the class for many reasons. She had picked up Spanish after the age of seven, meaning that the skill set she used to learn Spanish were the same skills she was applying now in learning French. French was turning into a fun language which made it enjoyable to learn, except when she was often corrected for having too thick a Spanish accent. But, even that was beginning to change as she practiced her pronunciation every night in front of a mirror. In fact, she now found it a great way to ignore the mundane chore of her Blessed Time.

Jean got down to the last question. It was so simple for her. The hard part was hearing ‘him’ instead of ‘her’ when ever the word ‘elle’ was spoken. But when it was written, knowing it was a female reference was easy. ‘Elle apprend la langue Francaise.’ Then she conjugated the verb ‘Apprendre.’ It was very much like the Spanish verb Apprender. The main thing was to learn the different verb endings. And Apprendre could be conflated with the Spanish version, so she studied it every night so she wouldn’t mess up on it.

She got up and placed the quiz on Madame Renaud’s desk. She took note that she was the first one up there with their quiz completed. Madame Renaud took the quiz and looked at it. She winked at Jean and gave her a thumbs up meaning that she scored a ten out of ten. That didn’t escape Hank’s notice. He was more than a little frustrated with the quiz. He kept tapping his pencil’s eraser against his shoulder to keep it quiet but it communicated his anxiety well enough that it hurt Jean to see him suffering so much. Student after student went up and dropped off their quiz. Finally, Hank stood up last and dropped his off. Jean could tell by his body language, he had not done well at all.

At the end of the class, Jean stopped him and asked him as they left classroom, “Hank, would you like to study together?”

Feeling awkward that he wasn’t the superior student that he wanted to be, Hank stammered out, “Would you? I really need the help.”

She gently put her hand on his arm. “Of course I would. This is my third language. So, I have already developed the skills to learn a language. You haven’t. It was frustrating to me when I was forced to learn Spanish. I could teach you techniques for learning French that I used to learn Spanish.” She said shyly looking down from his pride hurt eyes, “That is, unless your mother thinks otherwise.”

Hank seemed more focused on her than his academics when he asked, “Were those your ... possibly ... your folks this morning?”

“Maybe.” Jean didn’t want to lie, but she knew that the family was covering her origins in order to protect her from being an object of conflict and dissension. The reasons for her looking down now were that she was trying to hid a tear falling down her cheek over the thought of being attacked for something she had no say in.

Hank misread the tear rolling down her cheek as her missing her parents. He thought it must be breaking their heart to send their daughter away like that. Maybe he should comfort her, he thought. “They seemed nice. I could tell they really love you.”

“They are nice. I really love them too. They are courageous and noble. And so is Senor Juan. I wish I was as courageous and noble. I think I am a coward in comparison.” she said painfully the one truth she clearly she had to state.

Hank was beginning to see how much she could be the fragile flower that his mother warned him about. He asked worriedly, “Will you have to go to Mexico and testify?”

“Perhaps. One day. They think my statement will be good enough to get him to confess.” And then, he realized she wasn’t a coward. She just was scared, like anyone else would be.

“Okay, the reality is what can I say to my mother that will convince her that things will not go wrong again.”

Jean’s tender reply was, “Just tell her the truth. They can go wrong. But, if we are chaperoned by my grandmother, I will have someone to help me if it goes wrong. But, I don’t think it will. If you and I know now that my trigger is seeing a child hurt by a man, then we just avoid that until I get better.”

“Sure.” The way it came out showed how resigned he was to accepting the obvious shadow hanging over their young love suffocating it from the warm spring sun and spring showers. His mother, in his mind, took the form of a high dark thunderhead with its ominous ferocity dominating the landscape. Trying to convince himself it would work, he offered, “So, if we just study, until my mother relaxes, I am sure that will be okay, do you think?”

Was this an olive branch that could work? “Yes, until it can become something else.” she said with hope rising in her voice.

“That would be nice.” Hank smiled. “Besides, maybe taking things slow isn’t so bad if it means we end up speaking the same language together with the same meaning.” Hank found her to be honest in her feelings. Maybe too honest.

Jean blushed. Still, she couldn’t help but put out a thousand watt smile and whimsically tilted her head looking up into his eyes at last. “A truly romantic and a sweet poetic way of looking at it. Those are things I love about you.”

Her sweetness and frankness were so appealing to Hank. That were things he loved about her too. Thinking of their being together again, his puppy dog eyes barked and yipped back at her in their hopeful and innocent excitement too.

***

“Just sit there there. Not a word please. No matter what. You are now on the inside and all will be explained about what you are about to see. Just watch and then I am going to share with you the internal files off site.” Jason sat as he was told. The stern voice of Bishop was novel. But he felt curious as to what Bishop was up to at that moment. Why had he gone to all this trouble, he wondered. Even down to his disguise.

Cam came in the door with Jean holding his hand. Bishop greeted them along with Claudine. “It is good to see you both. Claudine will you have Jean do the signing in the conference room. The statement from the FBI is ready for you to sign.” As they turned the corner, Bishop turned to Jason and put his finger on his lips to signal to stay quiet. Jason sat there with his mouth hanging open. As he raced ahead and opened the door for all three, Jean stopped and gave Bishop a hug.

“Thank you.” she said. He hugged her back and winked. After the door closed, he turned to Jason who sat there dumbfounded.

Bishop said in a low voice, “Come on Jason, there is a short time to catch you up to speed. We have a special trip to make. Say nothing until we are alone and I give you the okay, understood?” Jason nodded. It helped that Jason had been picked up and disguised earlier that day. No one would recognize him at the moment. He looked like a tramp the police brought in for questioning.

They headed out to Bishop’s car and drove to an abandoned office building a couple of blocks away. After looking around, Bishop ushered him into the building and they went through a beat up door finding a man in a suit sitting at a table waiting for them. He stood up.

“Jason, this is agent Morrison with the FBI. Okay, you can talk now.”

“And I have total access?”

“As promised.”

Jason looked at Bishop shaking his head in disbelief. “That girl. She is the one in the photo, isn’t she?”

“Yes, she is. That is Camy Laignaux.” The look of shock on Jason’s face was unmistakable. Bishop continued. “On the table there is the case file and Morrison and I are here to answer all your questions. But, most importantly, you don’t need to take notes. You will have access to this information as though you were one of the investigators. We will tell you how later. Just right now, read the case file. It will answer many of your questions.”

After an hour, of reading and answering questions, Jason shook his head. “Fantastic job, guys. I am very impressed. But, you took a real gamble letting me in like this, didn’t you? How do you know I won’t betray you?”

“We don’t. It is just my gut. I think you are smart enough to know that Mr. Jack is the one in contact with you and he is hell bent on using you to hurt this poor child for his own twisted purposes. I believed in your humanity and your reporter ethics even before I met you.”

“To not report this?”

“Not exactly, you still have a hell of a story. And I want you to report it. It is your bread and butter. But, I trust in your discretion. There are three murders and a horror story here too. I can’t stop you, but I would like it if you found a way to leave Jean out of this. So, in making this arrangement, we have left that to your discretion. Cam, Jean’s father agrees. He saw you as he entered and knows why you were there. He wanted you to see his daughter so you would see she is real and she is fragile.”

“Can I interview Jean at some point?”

“Sure. If that is what you want.”

Jason looked down at that file, the photos of the missing boys, the pictures of the hacienda, Jean’s statement about the murder of Steve, and the photo Jean chained up to the pillar. Anger was filling his heart. He was as livid as he could have ever been at what had been done to her. “No. I won’t interview her. You have not withheld anything from me and I really respect that. I see this man’s evil for what it is. To report this would be to rape this poor child. You are spot on. I will just report on the murders in Mexico. Anything to get this f***ing b****rd and make him pay. I don’t like being manipulated either. If I had a gun, I would shoot the &*%$#! myself.”

“Well, the same constitution that prevents us from stopping you from telling this story also explicitly forbids us from shooting him willy nilly. But, we can’t help but agree with your assessment about who he is.”

Feeling now he was part of team trying to take out a bad guy, rather than just an investigative reporter trying to take out bad guys, he queried them asking,“How can I help?”

“Behave as you would normally if there were no agreement and we are hiding stuff from you. In your conversations with us now and dealings from here on out, you have to be an investigative reporter doing what you would have done normally. Mr. Jack, we think, is going to be watching you to make sure you are on his side.”

“In other words, be a suspicious a**hole with a nose for news as well as a hoax.”

The two men laughed. Bishop responded, “Precisely. And, no, you may be one, but I love your reporting. You are a credit to your profession.”

Claudine came into the room, “Is Jason up to speed?”

“Almost. We have some details to work out. Jason, this is Claudine, my very talented colleague. She is about to travel to Hermisillo to work on a lead she has developed. She believes … ”

“Don’t tell me. If I need to know, I can ask.” Jason looked at Bishop who nodded yes.

After a brief discussion on how they could stay in touch, Bishop said, “It’s your call. Even though you are a reporter, you are a member of the team. If you want to do this from the inside, we would be very happy. If you want to stay on the outside, we are okay with that too and we will catch you up after he is caught.”

“Okay, I think it best if I stay on the outside and let Mr. Jack think he can use me. Will you be able to pick up on my signals if I do?”

“Yes. We have our code words now as well as support personal in place. Good luck.” The men shook hands and Jason left the building. He had his story. He also had an appreciation for an honest detective who respected him. And that was worth its weight in gold.

***

“So, where do you want to go on your Daddy date?” asked Cam after he came home from work.

Jean was veritably giddy as she twirled in the foyer and then let out an excited shriek. There was no doubt in Cam’s mind that Jean was all girl. Jean was ready for his question. She had spent time considering where to go and she had a place in mind. “Well, Daddy, I will have to get dressed up, right? So, that means you have to wear a suit and tie. I bet you look handsome when you are all dolled up too.” she gently teased.

“I was hoping it would be a casual affair.” He said vainly hoping he could change her mind.

Nope. She was all woman. Jean was not going to have any of this casual night out. “No way! I want our date to be special.” Jean giggled and excitedly said. “I want to go to Le Cafe De La Princess et de La Grenouille." Pleased with herself, she announced, "I am off to get dressed.”

Jean left her dad standing there shaking his head. What had he gotten himself into. Sandra, who suggested the whole Daddy date thing, came up behind him and put her arms around his waist. “You got yourself into this mess. I would suggest a nice shower and shave before hand. And, of course, your best suit my love.”

Cam looked at Jean racing up the stairs, “A mess at your urging too I might add. Well, anyway, Honey, when did she become so, so …”

“Girly. That is easy. I think when she found out her Daddy was so macho, macho, man.” She tickled his stomach instead of performing the village people song all the way through. He giggled and slapped her hand that was teasing him playfully away.

“Hey, with you ladies are ganging up on me, a guy around here doesn’t stand a chance.” Cam tried feigning displeasure, but Sandra saw through it as well as his mother who was watching all of the this from the living room.

“Oh, Cam, you know you love it. Sandra’s right. Go take a shower and get your best suit on.” He looked at them both and grinned. They knew him too well. “Go for the double-breasted pin strip. I think it will go with any of her outfits.” Sandra winked at him and nodded in agreement with her mother-in-law. The ladies giggled as he pulled himself up the stairs resigned to doing what they asked.

As he passed Jean’s door, he could hear her frantically going through her closet trying to figure out what to wear. He chuckled. Cam trudged on into the master bedroom and took a quick shower making sure to shave and to look nice. On the way down in his double breasted suit and looking like he was going out on a real date, he heard her shower going. He knew that she must have made a choice. Downstairs, both his wife and mother approved of his outfit as well as fussing over him to make him look perfect.

Cam called and made a reservation, per the suggestion of Sandra, for an hour later. He thought they would be there in thirty minutes, being the restaurant was ten minutes away, but he bowed to the superior knowledge of his wife. And, of course, she was right.

Cam heard a cry from upstairs, “Mom, do you have any primer or concealer. I am running low. I need some help.”

“Yes dear, I will be right up.” Cam watched his wife go upstairs. She was clearly loving this. And, he realized so was he. He would have to tell her later how much, up close and personal, in private, with the door closed and locked.

After an eternity of waiting, Cam, sitting in the living room, stood up to see his sweet little fourteen year old daughter descend the staircase followed by his very proud wife. Jean was in a stunning A line cocktail dress with a princess cowl that nicely hid her youthful breasts. Appropriately modest for a young girl, he thought, but quite sophisticated in how they showed off her well endowed chest. The dress’s olive green went well with her auburn hair too. It was accentuated with a simple belt that had a sequined kind of buckle that beautifully highlighted her mid-drift giving an elegant point of interest that highlighted her slim waist. Her shoes were four inch silver stilettos that were wispy and very mature looking.

And the way she walked in them showed she could be sultry too and quite a catch for a young man. She had a small silver purse hanging from her shoulders. Hanging from her pierced ears were nice tear drop silver snowflakes that glistened as they swayed with her every movement. Around her wrist a was a faux diamond encrusted watch that was as delicate as its wearer. Damn, she looked like her mother, he thought!

After she came down, Cam offered her his arm and said, “M’lady, your chariot awaits.” Jean pinched the side of her dress and curtsied to her dad bowing her head and then just as delicately raising her head and taking his arm. Sandra went ahead of them and opened the front door for them both so Cam could lead her down to his Camry. As he opened the passenger door, and helped her in, she smoothed her dress and turned into the car seat gathering her dress with her knees together as though she had down this a thousand times. She was a natural. Cam was very impressed with her poise and gracefulness.

Jean looked back up at him expressed her gratitude. “Thank you, Daddy. You look so very handsome tonight. Any girl would be blessed to have you as her escort.”

Cam bowed a little and remarked, “And you look like the princess you are.” Jean blushed and giggled. She blew him a kiss. Now he giggled as he closed her door gently.

At the restaurant, he repeated the procedure in reverse. Giving the valet his key, after opening her door, he took her hand and took this little cloud of femininity and ushered her into the restaurant to their waiting table where she ensconced herself on the chair he pulled out for her like she was a feather. He found the feather was light as he helped her pull her chair in too. She crossed her legs, adjusted her dress, and placed the napkin on the table in her with a unified and refined motion of a lady. He noted her nails were nicely matching her dress. He admired how every detail, from her nails, to her hair, to her ear rings all spoke of a lady.

“What would you like tonight?” Cam inquired after sitting down and picking up the menu.

“Oh, I would love some medallions of lamb, if that is okay?” Cam nodded yes appreciating that she was concerned about the price of everything. He didn’t care. She was worth it. But it showed she wasn’t using her womanhood to her advantage. He was proud of her. So very proud to be seen with her too.

He ordered a plain steak with fries. As the two sat and ate their salads, Cam asked, “So, are you going out for cheerleading tomorrow?”

“I don’t know Daddy. I am really scared. I don’t know if I should.”

“How well did you do with ballet?”

“I did okay. Of course, because of the special circumstances, I never danced with others. I just practiced and did solo performances for Mr. Jack with my instructor telling him how well I did.”

“So, what is really concerning you is how well you will work with others since you have never done it before?” added Cam as an observation.

She looked back at her dad as if a light switch had turned on. “I guess you are right. Thanks Daddy. I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

“Does that mean you will give it a try?” Jean nodded yes. “Good. I like to see you try new things and get experience. My little butterfly needs to spread her beautiful wings.” Jean blushed and delicately ate her salad.

As they were served their entrees, Jean confessed, “Boy, I sure wish we could do a father daughter dance for our next date. But, the high school doesn’t seem to have one.” Jean shrugged her shoulders.

Cam sighed and looked at her. “I don’t think that will be a problem. Next month, our church, Fellowship of Life, is doing a father daughter dance. I hadn’t told you, but I have signed us up.” Jean got wide eyed.

Ignoring all decorum, Jean jumped up from her seat and hugged her dad saying “Oh thank you! I love you!” She planted kisses on his cheek. “Now, now. We must behave young lady.” Jean started to correct herself, but, in a second realized that it was her dad not letting go right away as he was planting kisses on her cheek too. She sat back down and continue to have a great meal with her handsome and sophisticated date.

For dessert, she had chocolate mousse and Cam had crème brulee. As he escorted her to their car, they bumped into Mrs. Renaud coming in with her husband. “Oh my word, you look so enchanting my chere petite Mademoiselle Laignaux. Monsieur Laignaux, I so enjoy having your daughter in my French class.”

Jean giggled as Cam put his arm around her and squeezed her tenderly as he thanked her teacher for the nice things she said. “Merci Madame.” she said courteously in response too to her wonderful teacher.

“Of course, do you know you have competition Monsieur Laignaux?” Mrs. Renaud winked at Jean. “I can tell Hank is smitten with you.” Jean smiled and blushed. “And it looks like the feeling is mutual.”

Jean didn’t protest one bit at the moment, but on the way out to the car, Cam could see she was sad. “Don’t worry Princess, I think Hank will find a way for you to be together again. There is something about him that tells me that.”

With hope in her heart, she remarked, “Oh, that would be so nice, Daddy. I really like him.”

Cam hugged her knowing that just as he was reclaiming his princess from an awful dragon, he was about to lose her again to another man. But this time, he mused, it wouldn’t be such a devastating loss as it would be a devastating gain.

***
After Jean had gone to bed, he came into the kitchen for a glass of water. Sandra came in for a cup of sleeping tea. “So, how did your Daddy date go?”

“Wonderful. Why did you have me go on a date with her?”

“Because, my dad did it with me. By taking me on a Daddy date, he taught me how a real man treats a lady and trained me to understand how men should behave around me. It was his way of letting me into his world view of how men were to behave and helping me get over being overly depressed after my first high school prom.” She thought of her confession to Jean about how she lost her virginity. It didn’t seem to be the moment to explain why to a dad who was overly protected of his teenage daughter.

“I must say. I actually enjoyed it immensely. Thank you for suggesting it.”

***

“Grandmama, how did Granddad die?”

Jolted awake by such a question so early in the morning, she took her coffee and looked pale as she sat down to talk to Jean about his passing.

“He had a stroke about six months after Camy was kidnapped. Camy was his little champ. He loved taking Camy for walks and seeing Camy grow. It broke his heart when Camy disappeared. He died about a year after that.”

Jessica and Sammy came into the room. “Why don’t I drive you to school and we can talk more.” she whispered into Jean’s ear. Jean signaled that would be good.

***

“Hey Artemis, what have you got for me?”

“I went down to the factory in Mexico and talked to the staff. I found someone who dealt with someone matching Mr. Jack’s description. Using some of my skills from the old days, I managed to get a revised sketch done of Mr. Jack for you.”

“Can you email me it?”

“Already done. Check your inbox.”

“Thanks. You went above and beyond of what I asked you.”

“No problem. Knowing what this mad man did, I just couldn’t do the bare minimum. How is she doing?”

“She is doing well. If we can get this bastard before he does any more damage, then I think she will have a good life ahead of her.”

Bishop pulled out his laptop and up popped the new sketch. Looking at it, he said out loud, “Damn. I have met you in the last few weeks. But where and when? You look so familiar.”

Picking up his secret phone, he texted Cam. ‘Have something for Jean to look at. When can I see her?’

‘After cheerleading tryouts this afternoon. Figure about 9:30 pm.’

‘Have her meet me at neighbors across the street. Time you met them anyway.’

‘Deal. See you then.’

Just then, he got a text from Tucson. ‘Results in tomorrow. Will be entering it to CODIS right away.’

A knock came at his door, he opened it and smiled.

“Somebody call dial a prayer?”

***

CODIS didn’t cough up anything yet for Bishop as he had hoped. None of the DNA samples yielded anything. Was it a dark hole they fell into? Only time would tell.

A week later, Bishop picked up Claudine at the airport. She had little to report except that they did find the place that did the outfits. It was as she suspected. He had the outfits hand made in Mexico. She had a sketch done of the purchaser. Looking at it and the one Artemis did, they looked very much alike.

At his wits end, Bishop signaled Jason with a simple word left on his desk at work by a pre-arranged method. “Wildcard!” It was a hail Mary pass. Would it work?

***

It was a few days before the DNA tests were going to be completed on Camille. Jason walked into Dr. Larson’s office at the city morgue and sat down. “Can you tell me how DNA works. How does it help identify who is whom?”

“Well, it is blueprint for making you you. It turns out that when you have children, they get half of your blueprint. And in turn, they pass on to their children half of their blueprint of you.”

“Sounds easy.”

“It isn’t and it is. You see, half of the blueprint that you pass to your children is random. Say you have A B C D. You could pass to your boy, A and D, you could pass to you daughter B and C. But, your wife will pass A B C D genes on too. So, she could pass both her B to both children as well. In whatever mixture your child gets, you and your wife will pass along enough DNA to your two children that we can identify them as brother and sister.”

For the next forty-five minutes, Dr. Larson explained how DNA, CODIS, and popular websites like GenTreeMonster.com work. But, for Jason, he got most of the answers he was looking for with the next series of questions. Of course, they were rigged and no one was the wiser. Ironic, since neither Jason or Bishop knew that Paul was really Mr. Jack.

As Jason sat there and finished listening to him, he looked at the photo on Dr. Larson’s desk. He knowingly asked without showing it, “Is this your daughter?”

“Yes, so she has half of my DNA and half of my wife’s DNA.”

Jason picked up the photo and asked, “Does she look more like you or your wife?”

“My wife. So she takes after her good looks.”

“Which aren’t Larson. What are they?”

“Laignaux. Her maiden name is Laignaux.”

“Really?! Thank you Dr. Larson. I appreciate it. By the way, have you and your family ever taken a trip to Mexico?”

“Yes. Two years ago. We went to Cancun. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, nothing. Did you go to the farmer’s market by any chance?”

“Yes, we stayed there a week and enjoyed cooking our own meals.”

“Well, thank you Dr. Larson. You have given me a ton of information. I appreciate you giving me your time to help me understand how DNA works in criminal investigations.”

Jason left and wrote an email to I. B. Anonymous …

I. B.,

I visited with Dr. Larson at the morgue and had a long talk and asked questions about how DNA identification works. I saw a picture of his daughter. She is a Laignaux. She looks exactly like the girl in the photo you sent me. They were in Cancun two years ago. They visited a farmer’s market.

I suspect you are a fraud trying to extort money from the family. I need more proof than just DNA.

Jason

***

At almost the same time, at Langely, the supervisor looked over the work his tech had done. Then he sternly commanded, “Hack into the New Orleans network and upload this to CODIS stat.”

The worker began to do as she was told. “What is the reason for uploading I should give?”

“She was involved in serial prostitution making her eligible for uploading to CODIS since, according to three strikes you are out, she is a felon. So, her blood samples were processed for DNA as part of normal procedure.”

“Very well done. Now we need to work on the Mexican matter …”

***

Bishop got a call from Claudine early the next morning sounding very excited. “We have a hit on CODIS for one of the samples from Tucson.”

“Is it a total match?”

“No, it is a sibling, a brother. He is dead, Bishop. I am trying to get the records now.”

“Doesn’t mater if we can’t talk to him, does it? Email me the particulars when you can. This changes everything doesn’t it, Claudine?”

“Yes, it most certainly does. We finally found our link to a real person. Now all we need to do is find what brother it links to and I hope we will have our villain.”

“Oh, Claudine?”

“Yes?”

“Good work. You are one hell of a detective. I appreciate your hard work.”

“Thank you. That means a lot coming from you.”

The chase was on. Bishop sent an email message to their boss. In the next thirty-six hours, they could have Mr. Jack thanks to the CODIS hit. Bishop felt it in his bones.

***

As Paul left the office that morning, his phone beeped. He scanned the latest message briefly plus an older one. He winced and muttered some expletives. He texted a message that said, ‘Get Plane ready and fully fueled. File flight plan to ELP tonight.’ Looking around after he pressed send, he quickly went back into his office and grabbed a bag under his desk. Then he rushed out and got into his car and headed out in a hurry.

He had things to do. He wasn’t planning on coming back or going away alone.

Copyright © 2017 by AuP reviner

Chapter 12 –

“J’apprends, tu apprend ...” Mrs. Roads listened to Hank studying in front a of mirror. She knocked on Hank’s open door. It had been a couple of weeks since Jean’s break down and she was frustrated that his infatuation with Jean wasn’t over. Knowing he was focused on being a straight A student, maybe she could use that against him.

Hank turned from the mirror on his desk to look at her and took off his headphones. She could hear French on the headphones. His mother seeing her chance, ventured, “How is French class Honey? Maybe you should drop it. You can take it during the summer and we can get you a tutor to teach you during the year. That way you will be ready and get the grade you want.” She wanted to get him out of that class.

“No Mom. I am doing much better. I have been working hard and it is paying off. I am almost getting an A right now. But the by end of the quarter, I should be a solid A again. I just needed to apply myself which I have.”

She came in and sat on his bed. Looking around his room, she could see the tapestry of the nearly sixteen years of his life. Off in the corner was his old stuffed wolf he called Alvin, named after a cartoon chipmunk. She remembered the nights he had to have with him when he went to bed because it would protect him from the bad monsters under his bed. Then there was posters for his favorite Lord of the Rings characters. He really liked Strider and wanted to be Strider. There was a shelf filled with his Lego creations. She fondly remembered the battles he would have with his friends on the floor of his room as they pretended the little storm troupers were real.

It seemed ages to her that he had his friends over to play or just play video games on the Playstation. Now that he was in High School, Hank seemed to her to lost and alone without a compass. He appeared to be trying to find himself in a new world he didn’t understand and she couldn’t help him find his place in. Her belief was that Jean was going to harm him to distraction stunting his growth into an outstanding young man. She also realized that the divorce two years ago seemed to mark the time his friends stopped coming over. And she blamed herself for that fiasco. His friends walked in on her huge blowup with her husband and his dad. She tore his dad apart verbally and he stormed out the door not saying a word. That was how her marriage ended.

The way her marriage ended, she thought, was how his friendships ended too. He must have dumped on them too. She could only imagine what Jean might do to him if she had an episode at school. He would become a social pariah.

Of course, what she didn’t know is that Hank went over to his friends’ homes still because they didn’t want to be around her. He didn’t dump on them. He dumped on her and apologized to his friends for her behavior. So, he never really lost his friends. She was too caustic and bitter for their tastes and Hank respected that. She didn’t know Hank’s friends found her to be mean spirited towards them too. As a consequence, Hank stopped talking about them around her because it was just easier than dealing with her snide remarks about their behavior. Jean wasn’t the first person in his life that his mother disliked. Nor, it seemed, would she be the last.

Her next comment was typical of how she treated his friends too. “Honey, I really will get you a tutor. Please think about it. Or at least switch some classes so you don’t have to be in the same room as that awful girl.” He cast her an angry glance, but didn’t say anything.

After turning off the French exercises on his computer, Hank said, “I think I need to go for a walk to clear my head. I’ll be back about dinner time.” She sighed and watched him leave his room. Jean’s house wasn’t that far, though. Maybe he could catch a glimpse of her and then talk to her about his plans before it was too late for them both.

Hank hadn’t seen much of her since she became a cheerleader. She looked cute in her cheerleading outfit and was finding new friends fast. The mystic of the police officers visiting the school made her a hot property. Boys were chasing her now like a femme fatale. The football team was marveling at her perky squeaks during their football practices. There was no doubt now in his mind that she was no longer in his league. Yet, everyday, her eyes would always fall on him or follow him. She found ways to talk to him and encourage him. In fact, she went out of her way to do so.

But, aside from Jean, he had a heavy decision to make on this walk too. He was turning sixteen on the tenth of January and the divorce agreement said he could decide then which parent he could live with. It was going to be a hard decision no matter which direction he went.

His thoughts drifted back to the fact that every day in class, the way Jean looked at him, she told him with her eyes that she loved him more than anything. It made him wonder if he was choosing his dad for the wrong reasons. He wondered if the way they talked to each day other briefly gave him hope and simply clouded his judgment. Yet, her daily suggestion on how to improve his French were helping him so much too. Practicing in front of a mirror was one of those suggestions. And, then, the awesome suggestion. Getting comic books in French would really help him. Those really helped. He found that little by little, he was learning French. Daily, he listened to a podcast called ‘News In Slow French’ that Jean had found out about. So, she was becoming savvy about tech after all. And he had to admit, he was falling in love with Jean more every day. Was it wrong to move in with his dad simply because of this?

During his walk, the choice he had to make was pushed back while he considered other factors. Now his thoughts were of her smile and her sexy body. He concluded that she appealed to his mind as well as his loins. That made the long walk to her house pass by quickly. Several houses away from hers, he saw a man in a bush. Something told him to hide.

Hank ducked behind a Subaru and then hid in the bushes nearby to see what was going on. As he spied on the man, Hank realized that the man was watching Jean’s house. Every nerve fiber in his being was on high alert now. Behind the Laignaux home was greenbelt. He watched the man move out of the bushes and walk between two houses into the greenbelt. He watched as the man disappeared into the forest.

A police car came slowly down the street just then and stopped just past the Subaru. Feeling awkward after having hid in the bushes, Hank started to walk back home. “Son, may I talk to you?” A female officer called to him. Hank dutifully stopped and turned around.

“Yes Ma’am?”

“Does this Subaru belong to you?” ‘What a relief,’ he thought, ‘she didn’t see me hiding in the bushes.’

“No Ma’am. I am not even old enough to drive yet. I only recently got my learner’s permit.”

“What street do you live on?”

“Magnolia Garden Terrace, Ma’am. I have a friend or two on this street. They weren’t home.”

“What is your name?”

“Hank Roads, Ma’am.”

“You look familiar. You are Scott Road’s kid, aren’t you?”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“All right. Thank you. You have a good night. Say hi to your dad for me. I am officer Lansing. He isn’t my sergeant, but I sure wish he was.” She started to inspect the Subaru. Hank over heard her say to the mike hanging from her shoulder, “Call CID to Sherwood Garden Terrace. I found the Subaru parked here referenced in their recent BOLO.” That announcement bothered Hank. She got back in her police cruiser and headed off quickly. He knew why. It was change of shift. The car wasn’t high enough priority for her to stay with it. Plus, she called CID which meant it was an internal investigation. Probably some cop shagging a neighbor’s wife instead of writing her a ticket for running a stop sign, he ruminated cynically.

After a couple of houses, feeling uneasy about the man in the woods and the presence of the Subaru, he too walked between two homes and headed into the greenbelt which was thick with trees. It was part of a hill that back up on the homes on Sherwood Garden Terrace and gave it its name. Fall rains had caused the vegetation inside to be dampened down. Still, there were briers all over the place. He was grateful he was wearing leather hiking boots and jeans.

After about fifty feet into the tree line, he spied a kind of trail left obviously by kids who had played back here for years. He knew a few of them. Getting on it, he found he was able to get close to Jean’s house. Before then, however, that sixth sense of his kicked in again. He stepped off the trail and did some bushwhacking towards Jean’s house. His instincts were proven to be solid. The man he had seen earlier was crouched down behind a short bush with binoculars looking at the back end of Jean’s house. He had a large backpack on, so maybe he was prepared in some way to do something with her or to her. Chills went down Hank’s spine. He was concerned.

Hank started to take inventory on what his situation was. It was what his dad taught him to do when he approached a problem. He didn’t have his phone. When he left, he didn’t want his mother to harass him, so he left it at home. The sun was going to set in less than an hour. Maybe even half an hour. Any movement on his part could alert the man. Not knowing what was in the backpack was troubling too. His presence watching the watcher was the best course of action for the moment he concluded. He quietly hunkered down behind a bush and continued to watch him.

Hank saw the man take off the backpack. Out of the backpack, he pulled out a Glock and a police radio. He clipped the Glock in its holster to his side. He added a few ammo clips. He recognized the style of radio from seeing his dad with one as he went to work recently. He put in an ear piece. He figured it was a bluetooth earpiece tied to the radio. This meant he was listening to the police band.

The police had recently switched to an all digital system which meant the public could no longer hear what was being broadcast over the police bands. His dad, along with many other officers, had been happy about this change as they didn’t have to worry about the bad guys hearing their conversations anymore. This, he could tell, was a game changer. The police wouldn’t know he was able to hear their every move. He could outwit them and they wouldn’t know why.

The man continued to outfit himself. Out of his backpack, he pulled out a big knife in its scabbard. He hooked it to his belt. He pulled out more changes of clothes and, soon, he was in all black, fully armed, and listening to the police radio. Hank breathed a sigh of relief that he had not alerted to his presence. Maybe his dark hair and dark shirt helped. Of course, he realized that the watcher wasn’t expecting him either.

Still, for safety sake, Hank dropped down further behind the bush he was behind such that he could still watch the man. The only bad thing was that the woods were darkening. That meant he would lose all of his advantages in less than twenty minutes. It would also mean that he would make easy prey since he noticed the man had night time goggles too. The good news was that he put them back into the backpack. Then the man heard something on the police radio, stopped what he was doing, and seemed to be on alert now looking deep into the woods around them for something or someone. The man ducked behind some bushes.

Hank slithered further behind the bushes grateful to find a few protrusions of granite coming out of the forest floor to gain better cover. He knew he was lucky to be in the part of the green belt that was part of a steep hill. Feeling secure for the moment, all he could do was listen for the man to do something so he could move too.

Rustling, Hank heard rustling. Then, in an instant, a flashlight beam danced across the trees for a moment or two and then he heard a soft thud. Carefully looking around the bush in front of him, he was horrified to see that the man was wiping off his knife on the ground. And on the ground next to where he was wiping, he could see an officer lying motionless. He held his breath and remained quiet though he wanted to scream with all of his might ‘murderer!’

In his heart, he knew the poor surprised officer was dead and that the man had just taken him down was now more deadly than ever. Who ever this man was, he wasn’t done either. He watched him purposely drag the officer off the trail and use brush to hide the body. Thankfully, or ominously not, the man began moving in toward Jean’s house leaving Hank alone in the woods with the apparently dead officer. The man moved in behind the Laignaux’ backyard shed.

Hank wondered briefly what brought the officer there. Then he realized that both he and the man went through houses to get to the green belt. Somebody might have reported it and an officer was just doing a quick check to keep a homeowner happy. Anything else would have caused the man to vacate the area. This would mean, however, that it would still be some time before they came looking for a missing officer. Hank concluded that he was the only one on the scene who was able to act and he knew he had accepted a heavy burden.

Seeing the need to proceed in haste, Hank stealthily moved out to the other side of the trail he had been on. This allowed him to approach where the man had been moments before. Once there, he spied the man working his way behind a shed in the backyard of the Laignaux home inching around it as if he was about to make entry and looking for someone on the inside to see him. Like many homes in that area, there wasn’t any fencing. The man’s attention was on the house and not on Hank luckily. While he had no real cover, he had the man’s attention on the Laignaux home to keep him from being seen as he moved into the bushes where the man had been just a couple of minutes earlier. The sky and wood had become quite dark now. In the gathering gloom, he pulled away the branches and checked the officer for a pulse. He was clearly dead even if he hadn’t checked. When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Hank could see that his throat had been cut cleanly. It was gruesome to see a dead body, but he didn’t have time to react. He could barely see his name tag. ‘Holman’ it said.

By his portliness and his age, Hank guessed he had been on the force for about eighteen years. The beat in this neighborhood was for senior officers. Whoever he was, he wasn’t expecting a man in black to kill him. Hank figured that he couldn’t use his radio since that would alert the man who still had his ear piece in. He spied in one the officers chest pockets a cell phone and pulled it out. He wiped off some blood. It was a Samsung Galaxy 7, like his. All the cops at the station liked having a 7 or an iPhone. He tried to open it to make a call. It was locked.

Hank realized the officer was left handed because of where his gun was. So, he took his left index finger and opened the phone. Bringing up the messaging app, he entered his dad’s cell phone number. ‘Dad - Bad man. Has glock/knife. Officer down woods nxt 2 Jean Laignaux’s home - Sherwood Ter. - with cut throat. Off. Holman. Perp has police radio. Can hear what U say. Dangerous. He is entering Laignaux home via back door -- Hank. P.S. No joke!!!’ Hank pressed send.

Thinking quickly, he grabbed the officer’s service weapon. It was a 9mm semi-automatic Barreta M9. It was the same gun his dad had him use on the pistol range and obstacle course. Checking the clip, it had all ten rounds. He texted one last time. ‘In pursuit. I have officer’s weapon. Alert backup. Man in Laignaux home murdered officer’. He left the phone under the officer so if it was called, the man approaching Jean would not be alerted and they could use the phone to locate the officer’s body. Hank was going it alone. Looking back to the house, he could see the man had indeed just entered by the back door.

Hank took the gun and held it as he had been taught by his dad. He took the safety off and indexed his trigger finger on the barrel. It felt good. His dad had not only trained him at the range to fire an M9, how to index, but also how to shoot bad guys on the state’s obstacle course. There, his dad taught him to make split second decisions. It was their way of bonding now that his mom had kicked his dad out of the house. It was his Dad’s way of teaching Hank about good choices, bad choices, and difficult choices that needed to be made in the spur of the moment too.

Hank had come to understand that this was his Dad’s way of explaining how the divorce happened and why he left home. His dad knew to stay was only going to escalate their differences.

Stealthy, Hank moved quickly to the back of Jean’s door making sure he was not seen. He knew the interior lights, which were bright, would blind someone on the inside from seeing him. As he entered through the open door, he looked towards the breakfast table first. An older woman had been cold cocked and was lying on the floor at its feet. She looked like Jean’s grandmother. At least he didn’t cut her throat. But, she wasn’t going to get up anytime soon based on the lump on her forehead. Bit by bit, he warily entered the house. Voices, he heard voices. One forceful, one sobbing.

The home was like many tract homes in this neighborhood. He knew the layout even though he had been in their house only once. He knew that the kitchen opened up to the living room from around where the refrigerator was. The kitchen was also the way to the garage, so if he had to, he could hide there. Steadily, he moved around to the frig and listened in on the conversation.

“Get down here or I will kill your grandmother right now. And if your parents and you brother and sister show up and you aren’t down here, they will be killed by me.” Hank heard a scared girl coming down the stairs. “You were meant to be my Pygmalion, Camillia. Do you know how many transgenders will be helped when I out you. I had it all set up, and then that damn fool reporter turned out to be a fraud. I found out today that he was in it with the cops. And now they are on to me and about to figure out who I really am. So, I have to act quickly if I am to get the word out about you and get away too. I wanted to give you a little more time with your family before I took you away for good. Oh well. They have found me out and I need to escape before I get trapped.”

“Why did you do this to me? It was my choice!” Jean shouted.

“But I knew you wanted to be a girl. So, I turned you into one. Be honest, you like what I did to you. You wanted it.”

“Not like this! I hadn’t even had a chance to find out what being a boy named Camy was all about. You stole six years from my family so you could experiment on me? Every day, I had to do what you wanted, not what I wanted. You are a monster. You killed Steve with a baseball bat and I had to witness it! You killed two other boys too. Now you are threatening my family like the bully you are.”

“But, look at the girl you have turned into, Jean. Who would ever think you are once were a boy named Camille Jean Laignaux. Who would realize that you have completed High School already in your home schooling. Who would know you scored over 2,100 on your SATs. I am so proud of what you have accomplished with my help. I gave you the life of being a girl. I gave you your dream life. The one your parents would have stolen from you if I hadn’t intervened. They only accept you now as a girl because I changed you. In reality, they don’t want you. They really want their Camy back. And they don’t love you like I love you! I will show you proof later.” Hank thought, ‘You mean you will make it up.’

“Kids. Do you know I want kids? I love children. That is also a life I dream about too. You tore my balls off my body without asking my permission. You violated me! You are a sick man. I can’t say this is what I wanted because I had no say in it. How do I tell the boy I have fallen in love with, whom I dream about every night, that I can never have kids like a normal girl with him because I once was a boy? What is Hank going to think of me when he learns the truth about me? And how about my dream of being a teacher. I love tutoring other students. I like watching them get it and succeeding. I have so many dreams and all you want to do is give me one. One which I didn’t ask you for and you forced on me.”

Hank paused at what she had to say. She loved him too. Now everything made sense. He remembered the kidnapping years ago. His dad worked the case. His girlfriend was Camy. But even knowing the rest of the story, he knew that she was all girl. ‘So what,’ he thought, ‘she is my girl and not yours, you S.O.B. . I love her. You don’t.’

“Hank will get over it. That is why I have to take you away now too. And when he finds out the truth, he will count him self lucky because he is really a bigot I bet. He will reject you. You don’t have to worry. I won’t. I love you. I accept you as a girl because I made you a girl five years ago. I intend to take you away from this family that doesn’t deserve you. And from this community which will kill your dreams anyway. So, if you try to come back, I will have your family killed. And Jessica will be first.”

“You animal!” Jean lunged at him and he easily knocked her to the floor.

Jean sobbed more as Hank heard her crawling on the floor, “What are you going to do with me?” Hank heard him grab her and force her up. Then he heard him pushing her towards the kitchen.

“Time for us to go Camillia. And what am I going to do? I am going to take you to your new home in Argentina. We are flying out in my private plane tonight to El Paso to begin our journey. When they hear you have been kidnapped again, all the reporters in the world will report who you once were and interrupt their news programming or newspaper with a breaking story. You world here will be shattered any. Now get into the kitchen and find the car keys. What’s that? I heard a noise from the kitchen. Oh, its your grandmother. See, I didn’t kill her. Yet! So do what I say or she gets it!” Grandmama had indeed let out a moan. Hank readied himself in case she woke up and saw him. He knew the garage was in between him and Jean’s tormentor. The man obviously needed a different car and there was one in the garage.

Positioning himself against the pantry nook he found that the pocket door to the walk in pantry was open. He assumed a semi-shooter position and waited just inside the pantry doorway until Jean was pushed past where he was by the man on the way to garage door. “Find the keys to your car like I told you to do or your grandmother will be a dead woman on display in the morgue your uncle runs. Remember, I can make another one of you too in case you get any ideas too.”

Then, as the man came into view with his gun pointed at Jean who was terrified, her grandmother let out another groan. Despite her groan, the man turned towards Hank in the pantry instead and saw him for the first time. He looked panicked to see him standing there. Before he could react and shoot Hank, Hank quickly assumed a full shooters position, putting his finger on the trigger, and let lose with a barrage of bullets into the man. In reeling from the shots hitting his body, Mr. Jack fired his gun nearly hitting Hank and then firing a shot into the refrigertor. But, Hank didn’t stop until he had emptied half of dead officer Holman’s clip into him and he saw the life force leave Mr. Jack’s eyes.

A terrified Jean stood there looking as her dead tormentor crumpled to the floor. His gun fell out of his hand. His blood began to empty out. Then she looked up and saw Hank was the shooter. Hank kicked Mr. Jack’s gun away and then put his gun down on a kitchen island and went to Jean who was too stunned to know what had just happened.

Not realizing at first it was Hank, but then comprehending what he just did for her, her mind raced to try and explain things. Slowly, she perceived through the haze of the last few minutes that it was Hank who had saved her. “Oh Hank, I was so scared. How did you ...” She fell into his arms and sobbed.

“There, there. I had to protect my girlfriend. I don’t care that you were once a boy named Camy. You are my girl now and always will be. And I love you too.”

“But how? Where? Wow! Your girlfriend? Really! Oh Hank! Thank you!”

“I was coming over to tell you I was going to move in with my dad in January when I turned sixteen. That way we could date again. Then I saw the man outside your house.”

“But you had a gun? How?”

Just then, an officer burst into the back door and pointed a gun at the two. He lowered it right away. “Hank, are you okay son?” His dad looked at the man on the ground and nodded. He knew already what his son had just done.

“Yes Dad, I am. This is Jean. My girlfriend.” Jean looked up at Hank and smiled at hearing that again. Even through the haze of the moment, she heard that she was his girlfriend again. She hugged him and closed her eyes.

“He is your dad? Your dad is a policeman?”

“Yes, he is my dad. I got the gun from a policeman the dead man here killed in the woods just outside your house. And Jean, I heard everything in there about who you really are. I don’t care. You are my girlfriend and I love you, got it?” She held on to him and nodded yes.

Police vehicles had surrounded the Laignaux home. It was controlled chaos, Hank thought. A reporter named Jason stood there with his notebook writing down observations. He was the only reporter on scene. They even had a police vest around him so no one would question his being there.

Officers Bishop, Claudine, and Allison were there too. Hank looked at Cam’s appreciative expression as he slowly let go of his terrified little girl’s hand. “It will be okay Jean, I just have to give a statement. Mr. Laignaux, this is my dad, by the way, his name is Sargent Roads.”

“Nice to meet you sir and your daughter Jean. Now I get a chance to finally meet the girl who stole my boy’s heart.” Jean beamed when she heard that. Her dad shook Hank’s hand vigorously thanking him before sitting down next to his daughter while Hank’s dad, Mr. Roads, sat on the other side of Jean. They would protect his girlfriend while he gave his statement.

Hank was taken out back by a CID officer with a police lawyer there to represent Hank. He was briefly informed of his rights. Hank waved them. “You know. This isn’t an officer involved shooting, but we have to investigate as though it was because of who your dad is.”

“I understand, sir.”

“But, I want you to know. There is an officer’s family that is grateful that you avenged their loved one’s murder.”

“I know. I just wish I could have prevented it.” The three stepped outside and sat down at an outdoor table.

“First things first. Why did you shoot him?”

“Because I knew that if he had murdered officer Holman, my life was in danger too the moment he saw me. I also knew from what he said to Jean, that her life was in danger also. So too was her grandmother. I knew he was going to shoot me.”

“Why did you follow him into the house?”

“I knew that if he had just murdered an officer, he wasn’t safe in anybody’s house. And because he murdered the officer, his intent was likely to kill someone.”

“What legal right did you have to go after him?”

“I had the duty as a citizen to do what I could to insure that evil was stopped and the rule of law kept safe. ‘To protect and serve.’ My dad taught me that. He says that if he didn’t believe that, he couldn’t put on his badge every day and go out to do his job. When I saw this man murder a police officer, I knew that this man could take another person’s life just as easily and I had the capacity and training to stop him. I knew what I had to do. I had to pursue him and stop further bloodshed.” The police lawyer nodded and smiled.

“You could have been killed?”

“Yes. But, with great training like I have received from my dad, comes great responsibility. I don’t do drugs. I don’t steal. I honor the kind of man who has taught me to be a man. My dad. He taught me how to use that weapon. He is an NRA instructor and a range officer. He taught me when to use that weapon. He taught me right from wrong. Killing is wrong unless it is in self defense or defending the life of the innocent.”

“Yet you killed someone tonight using that training. Is that wrong?”

“And I will have to live with that for the rest of my life. But, I will also know at the same time that I saved Jean and probably a few other officers tonight because it was a justified shooting. That was the right thing to do. And that makes it worth living with. It doesn’t make me a hero. It makes me a man because I stood for right and not wrong. He made bad choices and I made the only one that could stop him from making more bad choices.”

For the next hour, Hank gave his full statement. The CID officer patted Hank on the back as he said goodbye and shook his hand. The police lawyer hugged him and shook his hand too. Both men were happy with what Hank did in defense of life.

After they went in to talk to Jean and get her statement, Sgt. Roads came out to take his son over to the scene of the deceased officer.

“Hello Hank. My name is Detective Bishop. I was supposed to protect Jean. I owe you. Well son, is this how you found Officer Holman?” asked the detective.

“I already knew your name sir. My dad told me that it was you who interviewed Jean at the High School. Yes, this is how I found him after moving the bushes covering him. I only moved his left arm to open his phone and took his phone out.”

“Excellent. According to what the first arriving officer, your dad, said, you heard him taken down by the man in black. When you raised your self up, you saw him wiping off a knife. Can you show us where you were. I know it is dark.” Bishop handed him a flashlight and he directed them to the spot where he was hiding.

“Show me how you were on the ground.” Hank assumed the position he was in. Bishop stood next to him and dropped to a knee. “Very good Hank. I think you were very smart to chose this location.” He offered Hank a hand up. “Now walk me through your steps after he vacated the scene and headed to the shed.”

Hank walked him through the steps. When they arrived back at the officer’s body, he noticed that the coroner looked up at him and smiled.

Standing up, he said, “Hello Hank. I want to thank you for deposing of the mole in my office. I am Dr. Larson, Sally’s dad and Jean’s uncle.” He shook Hank’s hand. “However, we are waiting on an independent coroner from the state to come in and take over the scene. Very complicated this crime scene is from a legal standpoint.”

“Please tell me, was it quick for the officer?” Hank asked worriedly.

“Yes. It appears he broke his neck as well as cut his throat. But, the other coroner will verify that. I can only visually inspect at the moment. But, the way his head is positioned, there is no doubt on my part that the neck is broken.”

As they walked back to the house, Hank realized he needed to go home at some point. He dreaded seeing his mom. “Dad, can I stay with you tonight. I really don’t want a dressing down by Mom.”

“It just so happens that the D. A. has given me temporary custody of you. So, you would have had to stay with me anyway.” He put his arm around his son.

“What you did tonight. It was very brave. I am proud of you.”

“Thanks Dad. I used all the skills you taught me on the obstacle course. I knew I could handle it. Like there was any choice. Dad, I have a question.”

“Fire away. I mean, ask away.”

“Why is Mom so bitter. The reason I was coming over tonight to see Jean was to tell her I was moving in with you in January. I couldn’t take Mom’s bitterness any longer. She wouldn’t even let me date Jean because of her flashback at the movie.”

“Flashback. Yeah, speaking of that. You are going to probably have them too now. I have arranged for counseling for you.”

“But Dad!”

“No, you need it. In most cities, the officer involved in a shooting that takes a life is required to take time off, with pay, to get counseling and intervention. Taking a human life has changed you. It will help to talk it out. You are going to go through the stages of grief too. Much like Jean is probably doing also.”

“Okay. I guess I can see your point.” Hank knew his dad was right.

“And that brings up another thing. You and Jean shouldn’t have sex until you both get the all clear from your counselors. Trust me on that. Right now, it would be a narcotic and lead to bad things. You both need to discuss it and give yourselves breathing room emotionally or your future as a married couple could collapse.”

“Is that what happened with you and Mom?”

“Yes, sadly. Her father, your grandfather, abused her. I won’t say how. I found out after we were married. That is why she doesn’t talk about him. Her anger at you and at me stems from her mistrust of her emotions and the emotions of those around her.” Hank’s dad turned to him to emphasize his next point.

“Son, all bitterness and resentment does is create a lover’s triangle where no one wins. That is why I taught you on the obstacle course. You learn there to take out the bad guys and protect the good guys.”

“Like that scene from Men In Black, where he shoots the girl carrying a physics book.” His dad chuckled and nodded yes. Hank ventured, “Well, maybe this will convince her to seek help.”

“I am sure it will. Already, the counselor just talked to her a few minutes ago on the phone. He casually mentioned to her that she would need counseling too in order to help you.”

“Oh great, I kill a man and kill two birds with one stone.” Sgt. Roads laughed and patted him on the back.

“Good one son! Just makes sure you don’t kill the love birds. I really like Jean. She is the sweetest girl I have ever met. I think you both were meant for each other.”

“So, do you know the truth about her now?”

“Yes, and I have been sworn to secrecy. I am one of the few officers who worked her kidnapping six years ago who will now know the whole truth.”

“Please don’t tell Mom until we are married and our children are in High School. Maybe college.”

“Don’t be hard on your mother. You becoming bitter isn’t going to make her any better either. At this point, I think you know she isn’t getting you back until she has recovered her soul in counseling and lets go of her bitterness.”

A few days later, seven officers raised their riffles and shot once, lowered them, then raised them again and shot, and then lowered them again and raised them again and shot. The Chief of Police took three casings from the team that fired the rifles and brought them to the military honor guard who then folded the flag draped over the officer’s coffin into a triangle. They then placed the casings into the folded American flag and delivered it to the officer’s widow and children.

Hank stood proudly next to his Dad who was in his dress uniform. He wanted to be able to salute like they were, but he was a civilian. He watched with pride his dad salute. He loved his dad so much.

The widow looked over at Hank and smiled through her tears. She mouthed the words, ‘Thank you’ and was escorted past the coffin to kiss it goodbye along with her grieving children.

As people left the graveside passing by the casket, Jean came over and squeezed Hank’s hand and held it. She was wearing the dress she wore on their first date. She had joked about wearing it to Hank’s funeral on their first date. And sadly, it could have turned out that way. Hank looked across the rows of mourners and saw his mom who silently waved at him. He knew they needed to talk. But not today. Finally, his mom and his dad were talking again. It was decided that Hank would stay with his dad until they worked things out. She had a change of heart. About time, he thought. He loved her too.

After most everyone left, there was just the team left, as Hank had come to know them over the last week. Jason Mandrake, Officer Juan, who had come up from Mexico to be a pallbearer, Detective Bishop, Officer Allison, Officer Claudine, Sergeant Roads, Texas Ranger Nelson who was also a pallbearer, and FBI Agent Morrison who was one too. The remaining three were one officer from the force, one from the military police which Officer Holman served on in the Army, and the last one, Hank himself. As a man, for that is what they called him now, he was the one who took out the man who killed Officer Holman, the family asked if he would be a pallbearer too.

Hank took Jean’s hand and confidently approached her dad. “Sir, may I have the honor of dating your daughter?”

“Same rules apply. Treat her with respect and be a gentleman. And guard her secrets.”

“Yes sir. I will. I shall. I promise to do all of that.”

“Then I would be honored to have you date my daughter.” Hank and Cam hugged. He asked if he could take her to the wake. Cam nodded yes.

As Hank walked to their car with his dad and Jean, he kept holding Jean’s hand. It was a bit of a hike, so they could talk along the way.

Hank asked, “So, you got over 2,100 on the SAT test? I am not surprised. You are so smart.”

“Yes, I did. I am only going to high school because I need to acclimate to living in the real world again. I could go to college right now if I wanted. But, the real reason I am so smart is that I studied as a means of escaping from my captivity. In those hours and hours of study, I was transported away from the hacienda into the real world and away from his evil.”

“Well, it looks like I will have a secret weapon to do well in school. Thank you for your French advice. It has been really helping. I am almost back to an A again.”

“Good. And it looks like I have a secret weapon too who will protect me.”

“Yes Ma’am. I am here to protect and serve. I hope for the rest of my life.” Jean giggled and was very happy with what he said.

Jean looked back up at Hank and said excitedly, “Is it true that your parents are going to try and get back together?”

“Yes. My dad never dated since the divorce. He kept hoping that my mother would see how caustic and mean she had become so they could get back together. I think that she has now seen that.”

“Good. Is she getting counseling?”

“Yes. It seems that lots of good things are happening in my life finally. You being one of them.” Hank stopped, looked at her in the eyes, then he leaned down and kissed Jean. She liked it. She leaned up and kissed him back.

Officer Roads stopped, turned around, and remarked, “Come on you two love birds. I am still your chaperon for the day. And we have a reception to get to right now.”

“Yes sir.” Hank and Jean said in unison.

Hank was ever the gentleman and opened the door for her again. They drove off together holding hands with his dad checking on them in the rear view mirror this time.

“Dad, how will the press cover this?”

“The reporter you saw at the crime scene is writing a story saying that a man impersonating Dr. Kendricks was planted in the corner’s office by a Cartel as a mole. While working there, he became infatuated with Dr. Larson’s daughter. Hearing that she had a look alike cousin, once he found out that his cover was blown, he went to kidnap her and take her to Mexico. In the process, he killed an officer.”

“How will my story appear in the paper, Dad?”

“You were going over to see your girlfriend using the old path to the home you used to use as a kid. You found the deceased officer, saw Mr. Jenkins enter their home with a weapon, and then used the officer’s gun to take him down before he could harm Jean. Your dad, an NRA instructor as you know, had taught you how to handle the weapon. You used his training to take out Mr. Jenkins.”

“What if it gets out who Mr. Jack really is?”

“It won’t. Detective Bishop and CID have it under judicial seal because minors were involved. Jason Mandrake says he will assist and keep you and Jean out of it too. In seventy-five years, the truth will come out, but by then, no one will care. By the way, you should read Mr. Mandrake’s article on the murder of the three boys. I have already seen it. He does reference Paul, just not Mr. Jack. The story goes on to say that Dr. Kendrick’s was saved by the Mexican authorities because of the investigation into their kidnappings had already identified the cartel as the source of their kidnappings. It seems Mr. Jenkins was using the boys as payment for his sexual appetites. Then the cartel moved him into being part of the operation of the morgue where they could taint evidence and then access the city’s network for intel. Paul was and is considered a mole and a sexual predator.”

“Sgt. Roads. What will the article say about me?” asked a worried Jean.

“He just says that you witnessed recently an unrelated crime in Mexico. Plus, that until they catch the criminal who is unaware that you witnessed his crime, you are to remain silent about what you saw. It will go on to say that they suspect that Jenkins chose you over your cousin Sally because you already speak Spanish. Sadly, for the future, it will be assumed that Camille Jean Laignaux is dead and you, Jean, were adopted by his parents and your real parents are in Mexico still. It will remain as a cold case with Bishop permanently in charge of the case. Jason and his boss have agreed to subtly squash any story about it.”

The three pulled up to the funeral reception. This was just for the cop’s family, friends, and those closest to them. Bishop and Juan were there along with Allison and Claudine.

Jean gave Juan a warm hug, “I am glad you came up.”

“The family asked and I was honored to say yes. Plus, it would mean that I see you again.”

“I don’t think I am the only reason now.” Jean said with a giddy smirk. “I think there is something between you and Claudine. Isn’t there?”

Juan blushed. “Please don’t tell her. Agent Morrison has arranged for me to get a year’s training in Virginia as part of an international deal. Coincidentally, Claudine will be attending the same class.” He winked and rolled his eyes with a whistle.

As Jean saw her walking over to them, she replied, “I think she already knows you really like her.” Even Hank let out a giggle as Claudine came over to talk to Juan. They let the two of them talk alone. Hank thought they looked cute together. Jean agreed.

Hank and Jean went over and greeted the widow who thanked Hank. “I know that you would have saved him if you could have. But knowing that you stopped the man with Nick’s gun made us at least know that justice was served and served quickly. And I am glad Hank saved you, Jean. You are lovely girl. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to find you were being kidnapped by a monster. You are so lucky to have Hank. Never lose him dear.”

“I don’t intend to lose him. I love my boyfriend.” Jean answered proudly. She reached out and held his hand once again.

Bishop later wandered over and put his arm around Hank. “So, please tell me, are you going to follow in your old man’s shoes?”

“Not exactly sir, I think I am going to law school and join the D.A.’s office.”

“Good for you. They need someone with a sharp mind who can size up things quickly. And, thank you for protecting Jean unconditionally. You know what I mean?”

“No problem Sir. I fell in love with her the moment I first met her. I could never do anything to hurt the person she has become. I have never met someone who is more real in who she is than Jean.” Hank looked at her and beamed. Hank thought it was sweet that she began to get a little teary eyed.

“And you, young lady. I hope you are you happy with who you are? Because we all sure are.”

“Thank you Detective Bishop. I am very happy with who I am now. More than ever. Thanks to you, Senor Juan, Hank, my parents, and my family, I really know who I am and, ever better, I have discovered I am very happy in my own skin now.”

“Do you plan to tell Sammy?”

Cam came up as the questions were being asked. He announced, “When he is older and can accept it. Jessica was ready. Sammy will take a while. He is at that age where he hates girls and doesn’t appreciate them yet. How about you? Did I hear something from Allison about a ring?”

“Yes, thank you, I asked her to marry me, finally. Speaking of which, Jean, would you go over to talk to Allison, please. There is an important question she needs to ask you.”

Bishop, Cam, and Hank watched Jean go over and talk to Allison. Bishop said, “One, two, three, ...” Hank looked at Bishop suspiciously.

Just then, Hank heard a cry of joy coming from Jean. She raced over to Hank to hug Hank. “I am going to be a bridesmaid! Can you imagine that?”

As if on cue, Bishop asked Hank, “Well, then, Mr. Roads, would you be interested in being a groomsman? This young lady needs an escort apparently.” Bishop boldly went on to say, “If you say no then ...”

“All right! No need to convince me! Yes sir, I would love that. When is the wedding?”

“It will be on January 27th, 2018. Officer Juan is going to be my Best Man. And Claudine is going to be Allison’s Maid of Honor.”

Having made their plans known, Bishop and Allison left the two lovebirds alone.

Hank led Jean outside and the two sat down on a bench away from everyone. Hank took her hands and said, “I want to talk about our future. I know you want kids. We can adopt.”

Jean whispered, “That is sweet, but Jessica has promised me her eggs. I think we can have our own.” She winked and giggled.

“Oh my, even better, with new techniques for implanting a uterus, you could even carry the baby, possibly?” Hank was happy.

“Yes, that would be wonderful.” Jean beamed with excitement.

“But, there is something more important I need to tell you. Because Mr. Jack took away your choice, I am giving you mine. You say when and where we do it for the first time. It is your choice, not mine. I just insist on one thing. We wait until our therapists say we are ready and that our past won’t harm our physical relations.”

Jean looked down for a moment and then back up at him, “Even if it isn’t until we get married?”

“Even if it isn’t until we get married. Of course, I get to pop the question.”

“After ...” she said sternly.

Hank rolled his eyes clearly pretending to be annoyed and said, “I ask your dad for permission to marry you.”

“I love you Hank. You seem to always know the right thing to say.”

“I seem to know how to say the right thing when I am around you. I love you too!”

The two sat and talked about their future. She wanted to go on to be a teacher while he studied law. She agreed they should wait until they both had counseling and had healed enough from their emotional wounds before having sex. It made more sense when Jean heard that was why Hank’s mom was so bitter.

When they returned to school, Hank found that Jean and he had become the talk of the school. Hank found that everyone knew already that they were in madly in love with each other and will eventually get married. He was hailed as a hero for protecting her from a rapist. And, because of Jean’s great grades, Jean went ahead and advanced to the 10th grade so she could be closer to her Hank and graduate with him.

Hank chuckled during lunch at school one day. Jean already has Sally talking about getting her maid of honor dress for April 8th, 2024, for a wedding occurring during a total eclipse of the sun that passes just north of Little Rock. So, that day, there will be two spectacular diamond rings to share with their family, friends, and loved ones.

Hank liked the idea. He said he can deliver the moon and a diamond ring on the same day to the woman of his dreams. But, he reminded her that he needs to pop the question first.

One morning before school, Hank’s dad knocked on his door. “C’mon snigglefritz, time to get up for school. I see you rustling and hiding in your bed.” Hank looked back at his dad with pleading eyes.

“Oh! I understand. There is breakfast in the kitchen. Take care of your problem.” Hank’s dad chuckled and headed to their small apartment’s kitchen. He figured out that Hank had just woken up with morning wood.

A few minutes later at the breakfast table, “Thanks dad. Mom would have embarrassed me for sure. That is something I like about living with you instead.”

“I don’t think that is fair judgment on your part. I know your mom would have understood too and left you alone just like I did to, how shall I say, iron out your difficulties.”

“Bad one dad! Really bad one.” The two laughed. “I thought women would only understand the monthly thing they endlessly complain about which, thankfully, I won’t have to hear about from Jean. How would women understand us guys and how it feels in the morning to wake up in a state like that anyway?”

“Well son, just like men, women can also wake up and find they are in an excited state that is embarrassing. So often, we assume men and women don’t have things in common sexually when they do. In this case, women can also wake up in the morning excited except they are just wet instead of being stiff like we are. It is our body’s way of testing our sex response and making sure everything is in working order. That’s all. It is natural and not evil.”

Hank blushed as he realized that his dad was giving him another lecture on sex, aka, the birds and the bees. “Women do also? Really! That can happen to Jean too.” Hank’s dad nodded yes. “So, wow, it can really happen to Jean.”

“Probably has already happened a few times, especially since she is in love with you. And, based on what you are telling me about her, she has, like many women, developed romantic desires for you two already. And believe it or not, that is normal too. And, from what I can see, Jean behaves like a normal and healthy girl who just happens to not have reproductive organs to deal with but has the ability now to relate to you as any other normal girl would. And that is worth you having a relationship with her for a lifetime.” Hank blushed.

Sgt. Roads went on to say as he poured some coffee for himself at the stove, “So, what your morning condition simply means is that according to mother nature, a body has matured and is functioning as it should reminding someone they are physically ready as a man or a woman to desire to be in a loving, fulfilling, pleasing, and intimate physical relationship with someone else. And making that a personal goal isn’t such a bad thing.” Sgt. Roads rubbed his son’s hair and sat down at the breakfast table.

“Okay, I get it Dad. Well if my morning wood shows I am mature enough to desire to have a physical and satisfying relationship with Jean, I am curious to know what on earth Jean’s is called that lets her know she is mature enough to desire to have a physical and satisfying relationship with me?”

Hank’s dad snickered and said, “Morning dew.”

– THE END –

Copyright © 2017 by AuP reviner