| Subject: Lurking In The Shadows - Chapter Four: Part I: Poca Isla |
Author:
Heidi
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Date Posted: 11:30:46 09/27/02 Fri
Okay, sorry it took so long to get back with this story. If you want to or need to catch up on the first three chapters, they're up at http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/thejunkbox
Now, a little update. Luke, Laura, Mac and Anna set about getting a search plan in place to find out if Robert is still alive. They asked Jax to provide them a ride to Venezuela and he said that he would. They decide to break up in groups and search the Islands, many of which have Fisherman communities and could have possibly picked up an injured Robert. When Laura grabbed a map of Venezuela and it's many dotted Islands, Anna focas in on one Island in particular, Poca Isla, meaning Little Island. And that's where we start off, Luke, Laura and Anna have just arrived to Poca Isla.
*******
As the plan went, Mac and Jax teamed up to check a neighboring Island while Luke, Laura and Anna went to Poca Isla, or Little Island. From the moment that Anna, Luke and Laura set foot on Poca Isla, she could feel Robert all around her. Which freaked her out more then anything else because she was thinking that if Robert had died, maybe his spirit was still there somehow, drifting around the coast of Venezuela and it’s neighboring Islands. Getting to the Island was no easy feat for Anna. The only way to get there was by ferry and that terrified Anna. But with Luke and Laura’s calming encouragement, she was able to get through the trip unharmed. Although she was a bit tired from it. “Well, we should check the courthouse first.” Luke suggested as they waited for an Island Taxi to pick them up. “Sounds like a plan to me.” Anna agrees.
Once they flagged a taxi down, it only takes them a few minutes to get to the courthouse. They enter the small building and go up to the counter and wait for several minutes for someone to show up. “Does anyone work here?” Luke gripes and slams the bell a few times. Finally a woman shows up and she gives Luke the evil eye look of annoyance. Luke decides to let either Anna or Laura handle this and steps back for a moment. Anna steps up to the desk. “Can I help you?” The woman asks Anna with a smile.
“Oh yes I hope so, I would like to look at your police records from ten years back, would that be possible?” Anna asks.
“Sure, but you’ll have to look through them by hand though, we only started putting them on the computer about five years ago. Are you looking for something specific?”
“Yes actually I am, you see ten years ago there was an explosion on a yacht off the coast of Venezuela and I’m wondering if it’s possible that any of the debris floated to this Island?” Anna explains to her. In Anna’s mind, by debris she is meaning bodies.
“Oh, you know what, there’s this box back there that has records that is marked ‘boating accident’ and I noticed that it was at least ten years old. I wonder if that’s it?” She questions a bit absent minded. “Follow me.” She then tells the three and leads them down a hallway and into a file room. They walk way to the back of the room and the lady picks up a box in the corner on a table. “Here it is.” She says to them and hands them the box. Anna notices that the box is marked ‘1992’ and she has chills going up her spine. “There’s a bigger table over there if you want to use it. And if you decide to make copies, the copier is over there behind that second filing shelf.” She tells them. “There are a few things I have to stress though.” She begins and the three of them alert their attention to her. “You see, some of these files are incomplete so don’t be surprised if you find a few words written and then nothing more.”
“Thanks for the warning.” Anna responds. “And there’s one more thing, several years ago we had a huge storm and our old building was damaged. So a lot of files were damaged or lost as well. But the worst thing is they were all jumbled up, so there could be more files belonging in that box somewhere in this room. If you come across something that you need help with, just let me know.” She tells them and heads for the door. “Thanks.” The three of them spontaneously state together. Anna carries the box over to the table and puts it down. She has to gather her composure and take a deep breath before she can do this. “Do you want us to just look Anna?” Laura offers, seeing that this is very hard on her.
“Um, no I can do this. Thanks though.” Anna says as she opens the box. Inside there are three folders stuffed with papers. “Pick a folder.” Anna says to them as she pulls out one of the folders. Luckily for them there are some chairs in the room and the three of them sit down with their chosen folders to search through them. Knowing that they are specifically searching for bodies or body parts even. They read through each one to see what the debris is, trying to stay focused on the task at hand rather then the grisliness of it, knowing that this was personal. But after a few pages, Laura has to stop for a moment to take a breather. She looks up at Anna and notices that Anna closes her eyes as she turns to a new page before she reads it. And that makes Laura feel selfish ‘how can it be so hard on me when Anna was on this yacht, this is hardest on her.’ She kicks herself and goes back to the task at hand, reading through the pages of reports.
Laura is about halfway through when she feels a light touch from Luke. She looks up at Luke as he puts a report in front of her, his face drawn with sadness. Laura takes the report and reads it. She reads the subject ‘remains of a body found’ and Laura gasps quietly. But Anna can hear the gasp and looks up. “What?” She asks. Luke and Laura look at each other and then to her, Laura passes the report to Anna. Anna reads the report and is left speechless, tears forming in her eyes, she turns her head away so as not to allow them to see her extreme sadness. “It may not be him Anna.” Luke tries to offer her something but Anna doesn’t respond. Instead Anna gets up from the chair and goes over to the window and looks out. Laura gets up and goes over to her and puts a hand lightly on Anna’s arm to offer her comfort. Anna looks at Laura, tears rolling down her cheeks. “It makes sense now, why I feel him so strongly here.”
“Now wait a minute Anna, we don’t know that this is Robert. Didn’t you say there was a guard on this boat also?”
“Yes, there were two of them.” Anna wipes her tears away, trying to regain her composure.
“Okay now, it could be one of them.” Luke cautions.
“But Luke..”
“Anna it could even be a fisherman that fell overboard and his buddies couldn’t find him. So there’s a whole other possibility there.”
“You’re right Luke. You’re right.” Anna tells him as she takes in a deep, sharp breath to word off the tears and gather her composure. “I know they do DNA these days, but how are we going to do that without a sample of Robert’s DNA?” The investigator in Anna kicks in.
“Well one way is to get Robin’s DNA and compare it to the DNA of this body.”
“If it’s still available that is.” Laura offers, she knows that this is a small Island. She also knows that many cultures cremate their dead. “Remember what the woman said about incomplete files, they could have identified him and didn’t report it. Or it could be lost as to who or even what they did with the body.” Laura cautions.
“She’s right Luke, how do we test a body that isn’t available?” Anna questions.
“Hmm, I don’t know but let’s see first if it is or not.” Luke offers as he gets up and goes to the door. He realizes then that he never did catch the woman’s name. “Uh, ma’am?” He calls out. The woman hearing him comes down the hallway. “I never did catch your name.” He grins embarrassingly and she chuckles. “Oh sorry about that, my name is Maria.” She tells him and pauses to see if that is all he wants. “We found something that we need more information on.” He tells her and she continues on to the room and comes in. Laura picks up the paper and hands it to her. “This one says that there was a body part found. But it doesn’t say much else about it.” Laura tells her as she hands her the paper. Maria looks it over and frowns. “Hmm, yeah like I said, these files are so incomplete. Doesn’t even say what part of the body.”
“What we want to know is would it still be available so that we can do a DNA test on it?” Luke questions. Meanwhile, Laura and Anna go back to going through the files to see if there’s more on this body. “Oh, well I could check the local cemetery records to see if there’s any unidentified bodies buried.” She offers as she makes her way to the door. “I’ll come with you.” Luke offers. “Okay.” She states and the two of them make their way to the front where the computer is. Maria goes over to the computer and taps a few keys to get into the cemetery database. “They have all the buried listed so that should be a start.” She tells him. “That’s helpful. I was wondering too about something else that I wanted to discuss but I don’t want to tell Anna and Laura just yet, not until I can confirm my own hunch.”
“Oh, okay what’s that?”
“Well see, we’re looking for a friend of ours, Robert Scorpio.”
“Is he the body part you’re hoping isn’t him?”
“Yeah, exactly. See, it’s a long story but Robert was in a lot of danger. Now, it doesn’t really matter what the danger is, more important is if Robert survived and ended up on this Island, and most likely he had been injured. Could he have gotten the help he needed here?”
“Well we have a clinic and a small hospital that’s been here for some twenty years so depending on his injuries, for the most part yes, but if he was real badly injured, he would need a more advanced institution.”
“And what would be the closest major hospital that could help him?”
“Oh, uh let me think…the biggest city would the Capitol of Venezuela, Caracas, they have a hospital there that could have taken care of a pretty badly injured person. Provided that he survives his injuries long enough to get there that is.”
“What about like Army hospitals? See, Robert was in the WSB years ago, and the WSB was looking for him. It’s possible that they could have rescued him and taken him to the nearest US Army Base hospital.”
“Oh gosh, I wouldn’t know about bases, I’ll have to look that up. But before I do that, I’ve got the list for you, would you like me to print it out?”
“Are there more then one unidentified bodies buried there?”
“Unfortunately it doesn’t say. Sorry.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, it could mean that the body was identified, or it was cremated.”
“Or it’s still around on ice?”
“After ten years?” Maria asks with surprise, wrinkling her nose at the gruesomeness of it.
“Yeah, that does sound a bit too bizarre.”
“Yes it does, but I’ll check the morgue records at the clinic.” Maria offers.
“Thanks” Luke says with a smile.
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