Page 35 of Secrets in the Dark

“That can’t be right. That would mean the Senator…ugh the Senator knocked up a girl when he was in high school.” Pratt groaned doing the math with the Senators age and the year the suspect was born.

“Boys will be boys and it really wasn’t unheard of back then, redhead!” Gene laughed at Pratt’s look she was giving him.

“Well, I can say this, he’s got one hell of a tan. Wonder what his momma looks like.” Diesel mumbled looking at the photo of the suspect, turning her head side to side.

“What the hell?” Sgt. Brocard, York and Cortez all said together staring at Diesel like she’d grown a second head.

“Seriously, look at him. With what we know about how the old man thinks, wouldn’t surprise me if the old man raped a woman of a different race, such as a black woman, Hispanic woman or someone from another country.” Diesel pointed out, reminding everyone of the Senator’s past.

“Shit, Diesel’s right. Of course, none of this showed up when he ran for congress, so she was either paid off, silenced like the wife, or was too afraid to come forward.” York agreed with Diesel on her assessment.

“Brody, what information about the mother can you find? It doesn’t show here who raised Jackson.” Sgt. Brocard asked Brody, in regard to the dossier that was done on Jackson.

“He was raised in foster care. In and out of homes until he aged out. No information on his biological parents. Seems all that was erased out of the system, including where he was born.”

Alvarez, Carter and Pratt all looked over at Gene at the same time in confusion. “Wasn’t me guys, nor was it anyone in our agency.”

“Well, you technically do if it’s someone who went to work for you.” Pratt answered before Alvarez and Carter could say anything, causing them both to look at her in surprise.

“True, but I can tell you he’s not one of ours. These two would know if someone in our agency had gone rogue. I’m not that old I wouldn’t remember someone named Jackson joining either.” Gene stared Pratt down as he answered her comment.

“Gene’s right. Nothing against Brody, but had this Jackson guy been one of ours, the information hedidfind, he wouldn’t have found that. He would have found a falsified background that would have been way more, should I say, implemented, than what he did.” Carter informed the room, reminding Pratt how her godfather works.

Breaking the stare down with Gene, Pratt then looked over at Carter and Alvarez and then nodded. “You’re right. But whoever did take out information on this, sucks ass.”

“What makes you think that?” Ian questioned, confused at her train of thought.

Diesel spoke up before anyone else could. “Why take out where he was born, where he was raised and who raised him, but not the fact he was in and out of foster care. They erased mention of the mother off the birth certificate, but not much else.”

York nodded, following along with Diesel’s thought process. “It’s almost like they want us to sympathize with the guy. No mention of the mother, no true mention of the foster care system other than he was in and out of it, no mention of the father, and no true mention of what he did after he aged out of the system. Making it seem like he had no choice but to turn to a life of crime and that’s bullshit!”

Carter looked over at York, watching her to see what she would say or do next. Ian and the rest of Trident Security looked up at her statement.

“You speak as if you have experience with the foster care system.” Alvarez said as if a statement instead of question.

Highlander and his SEALs looked at each in confusion before looking over at Alpha Squad who was giving each other a look as if wanting to step in and protect their teammate from criticism.

“Actually, Ms. Alvarez, two of my teammates grew up in foster care. The only reason you know about Pratt’s background is because this case touches a lot of it. Two grew up in the foster care system, one grew up as an outcast in the gypsy community, and three grew up in a tight knit family with one tight enough that they smothered them in a time of tragedy that made them leave home and rarely go back.” Sgt Brocard counted off on her fingers as she used numbers instead of names and didn’t look at any of her team members to give them away.

“Okay then, now, back to Jackson…how do we want to deal with this? I mean this guy is practically a ghost. He’s already proven he can get to us, even as tight as you have this place locked down without a brick wall taller than the buildings.” Diesel said, breaking the tension in the group.

Highlander coughed as he looked around the room to see the state of mind everyone was in. “Why not have Doc and Marco go to the hospital, check on this Asia guy, see, if anything, we can get anything out of his personal belongings.”

“Sounds like a good idea, Highlander. Marco, go with Doc, see if we can’t get his personal belongings, and an update on his condition. I’ll call Swift and see if she can’t meet you there at the hospital and help you with getting the cooperation of the medical staff.” Ian suggested to Marco, nodding towards Doc.

“We’re on it.”

Doc and Marco left the conference room for the hospital while Ian called Swift to have her meet them at the hospital. Once he hung up, Ian looked around the room and sighed heavily.

“What’s on your mind, Boss Man?” Devon asked his brother.

“Something isn’t sounding right with all this. This Jackson character has stayed off the radar this long, why come up now?”

Several of the people in the room looked around the room at the others. Everyone seemed to agree with Ian’s assessment and wanted to know the answer which seemed to evade everyone.

“He surfaced when Red showed up into town.” Larry answered everyone’s unspoken question.

“Yeah, but she wouldn’t have been here if it hadn’t been for our bolo…”

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