| Subject: Priority Mail 17 |
Author:
Nikita507
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Date Posted: Wednesday, October 27, 11:24:32pm
In reply to:
Nikita507
's message, "Priority Mail 11+" on Saturday, October 23, 03:47:01pm
Michael rubbed his hand through the back of his hair as he trudged towards the front door. He had been on his way to bed as he had a drive in the morning to settle things between himself and Walter in the morning. The fact that Adam was being so brazen with his decisions right now made Michael realize that he had to take action now to stop it – even if in the end Michael decided not to do what Adam wanted him to do.
“I sure hope that this isn’t about your favor, Nat,” Michael spoke out as he opened the door and then looked. He then stopped as he saw the petite nun standing in front of him. “Oh… Sister… I’m sorry… I thought you were someone else.”
“He said it would be safer for me to dress in my traditional wear,” Rhoda spoke to Michael Pomeroy as she extended her hand and placed her card in his hand. Michael looked at the card and blinked his eyes. “Who suggested this, Reverend Mother?”
“Please call me Sister Rhoda… or just Rhoda…” Rhoda informed Michael immediately s she pushed at the traditional habit that she only wore during ceremonies. She could see that this man was staring at her. “But you were probably right with your first statement… if you thought you were speaking to Lieutenant Nathaniel McCarty.”
Michael shoved the card into his pocket and swallowed hard. “You must be the reason why he broke my protocol before… and why he suggested that you could break my protocol.”
“You have a protocol for being asked a favor?” Rhoda questioned and Michael moved to the side of the porch and indicated for the Sister to sit down on one of the rockers that were out there as Michael did. Michael looked at this woman and tried to figure her out. She didn’t seem to act like a sister, but it was clear that she was. Michael frowned. “I could end up with more pro-bono work if I didn’t.”
“You already do more pro-bono work,” Rhoda quipped quickly.
Michael smirked. Nat had prepared her well and she was smart. That meant that this wasn’t a frivolous request that she was here about. It had to be important if even Nat had directed her to him. The rules and regulations Michael had always touted and had reprimanded Nat for breaking were starting to slip away as he warmed up to Rhoda right away. “Do you need something to drink, Rhoda?”
Sensing that Michael Pomeroy was going to at least listen to her request, Rhoda shook her head slightly from side to side. “I don’t need refreshments from you.”
“I already figured you need my skills,” Michael shrugged his shoulders slightly. Rhoda placed her hands on her lap and nervously exhaled. “I am not one to ask for favors… but when Nat couldn’t help me with Mary…”
Michael leaned forward and tilted his head to the side. “Mary? This isn’t for you.”
“Well, we call her Mary,” Rhoda looked up at the greenest eyes she had seen in a long time. She cleared her throat and looked at Michael. “Don’t you need to take notes?”
“I’m fine, Rhoda,” Michael replied back as he did not break his concentration. Rhoda looked out towards the street. She was unsure why she was waiting. She had planned on exactly what she was going to say to this expert when she finally got him to listen. But she had always thought that he would be so busy or so unsocial that she would never have a conversation like this.
“We found Mary in the church… after a couple days and it was clear that she didn’t have anywhere else to go… but she also didn’t talk… we called her Mary because I found her in front of a statue of Mary,” Rhoda explained as she twisted her hands and exhaled. “It was probably at least seven months ago… and I allowed her to stay.”
“She doesn’t talk? Maybe she has a physical condition?” Michael offered and Rhoda shook her head. “I was previously a nurse, Mr. Pomeroy…”
“Please call me Michael,” Michael interrupted and Rhoda gently smiled. “Michael, I used my contacts with the hospitals first… in case she was a missing woman from a ward…”
“You think that she has a mental health issue,” Michael bluntly spoke and Rhoda rolled her eyes. “We all have different kinds of mental health issues. Mary’s are more pronounce.”
“Then why let her stay?”
“I felt that it was my job… and that she needed a different kind of healing. I’ve learned not to question why I make my decisions that don’t seem to make sense… that I just feel that I have to do,” Rhoda explained as she pulled her hands apart and pushed them to the arms of the rocker. She swallowed and knew that she had to continue that Michael was not going to comment on what she had just stated. “Plus, although she selects not to talk the majority of the time…. Mary has said a few things.”
“Such as?”
“Not Mary,” Rhoda quipped back quickly. Michael nodded his head as he leaned back in the chair. “Nat should have run missing persons… her fingerprints…”
“And he has,” Rhoda responded quickly, knowing that his man had to know that Nat would have already done all of this. “She has to have someone that cares for her… and she disappears for days and in ways I hope that she won’t come back because she has gone back to whomever she belongs with… but then I get afraid when she doesn’t come back because I’m afraid she’ll just be out there alone.”
“Does she do anything while with you? It is at a convent, right?” Michael questioned as he seemed to be studying her more. Rhoda took that as a good sign.
“She cleans… meticulous… scrubs and scrubs… she’ll help out in the kitchen, although I don’t really see her eating much… limited contact with others… especially children,” Rhoda explained as she felt her heart ache. “One of my Sisters corrected her a while back about showing a girl how to tie her shoe… and it caused Mary to cry for over a day…. And it was clear that it was so much more than being corrected.”
Michael shifted as he considered what he was hearing. “Why are you looking now? Why didn’t you try to find who she was earlier?”
“I was hoping that she would do it herself,” Rhoda admitted and she blushed slightly even in the dim light of the porch. “I hoped that I could fix her.”
“Still doesn’t tell me why now,” Michael bluntly declared and Rhoda leaned forward. “I had started to work with Nat before this happened… but the last time that Mary came back… she was bruised… pretty badly.”
Michael tensed and it was clear that he did not like the thought of a woman being hurt by anyone. Rhoda shifted and placed her hand into her pocket and pulled it out. “I was able to help clean some of her cuts… and I got her blood…”
Michael saw the bag that it was in and tilted his head. This Reverend Mother was not what one would think about when they thought about a sister. She had some tricks up her sleeves and Michael would have guessed that she would eventually figure out who Mary was sooner or later even without his help. “Blood might not be enough.”
“If you can just help us some… I’m sure that someone out there is looking for her,” Rhoda explained as she grew tense with the thought that she had just told this entire story for no reason. Michael Pomeroy had not agreed to take on this cause as a pro-bono case. If he wanted compensation, Rhoda would have to find a way to do that. She needed to get the answers for Mary.
“Do you have a picture?”
“Mary is painfully shy and she somehow is always avoiding the camera…. I can’t determine her age because she just looks so pained… I think she was once a very beautiful woman… blonde…” Rhoda answered.
Michael’s mind immediately thought about Nikita as soon as Rhoda said that this woman was blonde. Michael pushed that thought out immediately. This was nothing about Nikita. “If you can work on getting some further information… her height… her eye color…”
“Oh, I think they are light gray,” Rhoda answered and Michael forced himself not to jump up and rush this sister off of the porch. She needed to know what Michael planned on doing.
“Rhoda, I can start looking into this starting on Monday. I’m taking a weekend trip with my son,” Michael explained as he stood up. Rhoda stood up and smiled. “You have a son? Nat didn’t mention.”
“Adam is looking forward to this weekend and we don’t get away a lot,” Michael commented as he took Rhoda by the elbow and guided her towards the steps. It wasn’t a lie but Michael knew that it wasn’t the full truth. Adam wanted Michael to bypass Walter and go on a hunt for Nikita. “I will be back in touch and you should get my email address off of Nat to forward me any further information you can get to me about Mary.”
“That is very reasonable, Michael,” Rhoda commented. Michael stopped her before she walked off of the porch. “I don’t want to get your hopes up, Sister. What you want may not be feasible. It is possible that Mary is not being searched for by anyone. She may not be in any database anywhere… it is plausible I will not find an answer.”
“I believe that you will figure this out… just as I knew that I had to allow Mary to stay at the convent,” Rhoda responded with a small nod of her head. “Thank you for listening to me, Mr. Pomeroy.”
Michael stood on the porch as he watched the Sister pull the rest of her habit off before getting into a Ford Escort. Michael watched it slip away and he jerked to make sure that he had the blood sample that he had been given. He turned to enter the house and knew that it was probably the worse timing to take on another pro-bono one, especially one where this Mary sounded like she didn’t want to be found. It could just leave the Sister with more questions than she had now.
Knowing that it was late, Michael went back into the house and went directly to the lab to log the sample and to put it properly away.
Maybe he could start working on it Sunday night.
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