Page 38 of 2nd Strike
Ethan does and the reply ups my hope.
Arrow232:I don’t know who he is. She’d never tell me. There are no records I can find. No pictures, no nothing.
“How did she enroll him in school without a birth certificate?” Matt asks.
“She may have one in a safe deposit box,” I say to Matt, then to Ethan, “Ask why he thinks he’s you, specifically.”
Ethan:so you think you could be me, bro? Why?
Arrow232:I look like that sketch when you were younger. Seriously, we could be brothers. Saw it on the news, looked it up online to see it up close. My school picture at that age looks exactly like you.
Mom is upset after seeing the news about Ethan—could be she’s imagining herself in Lily’s shoes. Dad is out of the picture—nothing terribly unusual about that. Arrow232 thinks he looks exactly like Ethan. Might help if we could verify that before we go farther.
“We need a picture," I tell Ethan. “Then and now, if possible."
Ethan relays the message as a question. The boy comes back with an affirmative—give me a sec.
In the intervening moments, my pulse trips over itself. Dead end or the break we've been waiting for?
Matt and I exchange a look. He's thinking the same, and wondering how much trouble he'll be in with Taylor if this somehow gives us the correct Ethan.
Any leads should go through the FBI, we both know that, but Matt and I also believe it's better to beg forgiveness than ask for permission.
I have to admit my ego has a lot riding on this. If Arrow232, by some miracle, turns out to be our kid, and I’m the one who reunites him with Carl and Lily, it’ll take a little of the tarnish off my reputation.
More than that, it’ll help me sleep better. My conscience is a tough taskmaster, and I'll never fully get over this mistake, but righting it will go a long way in me hating myself less.
Ethan quickly checks his other social media accounts while we wait. I wonder if this impatience is normal teenager behavior, or he’s as nervous as I am and trying not to show it.
Bottom line, he has more riding on this than I do. Some deeply buried motherly instinct makes me want to hug him and tell him everything will work out.
I drop my fingers on the desktop, consider getting up and grabbing a cup of coffee. The watched pot never boils, my mother always says, and that's how I feel at this moment. Maybe if I get up and go do something, anything, he'll get those damn pictures to us faster.
I stand, and Matt grins, once more keying into my emotions. He knows I hate waiting, especially for something as potentially important as this.
Before I can step away, Meg appears in the door. I sense someone––Jerome—behind her, but he stays out of view. "Sorry," she says. "I got distracted. How's it going?"
“No proof yet. We're waiting on pictures. This kid thinks he looks exactly like the sketch you did when Ethan was seven."
"Bryce," the kid corrects me.
I ignore him. "Claims he's a dead ringer for our Ethan." I pat him on the shoulder. “We don't even know his real name yet, but we might as well see him first."
“I’m changing my name to Bryce,” Ethan tells her.
“Well, okay then. I’m still calling you Ethan until that’s official.” She steps into the room, and hitches a thumb over her shoulder. “By the way, I found this guy in the parking lot."
Expecting to see Jerome, I'm surprised when JJ steps in. He's not in a suit, but casual slacks and a polo. I rarely see him like this and that adds to my surprise.
I hold up my hands in mock surrender, ready to be chewed out about what I'm doing. "I swear, we’re going to call Taylor as soon as we verify this is a legitimate lead."
He glances between me and Ethan, nodding at the kid who has stopped his social media scan. "I'm not here to give you grief about whatever it is you're doing. In fact, if you need help, I'm free."
The way he says it sends warning bells clanging in my head. “What happened?"
He sighs and sinks his hands into his pockets. "I'm on suspension."
We all look at him in shock. "You can't be serious," I say.
