Something woke him from his sleep. What was that noise? “Ringing.” Turning over in the bed he reached for the phone on the bedside table. “Yeah” he said in a gruff morning voice. “Lu? Woke you up didn’t I. Shit, I’m sorry. But I got one for you… a case that is.” The voice on the phone paused. Sitting up in bed and rubbing his face trying to loosen the hold that sleep held over him. He yawned. “You keep forgettin'. I’m retired,” he drawled into the receiver. “I don’t take cases anymore.” Switching on the lamp he squinted as the bare bulb blazed forth, casting uncaring yellow light over the room.
“Yeah…but this is a “special case”. You said you’d do special cases. Let me just run it by you and then you can decide. There is this local kid…ah, Jeremy Sabol, you may have heard of his father he owns the department store chain Sabol’s hereabouts, anyway seems the kid took off with a girl. Nothing too earth shattering right? Well turns out the girl has been named a permanent ward. Evidently without her meds she is more than a little off balance. She has done all sorts of things…shopping lifting, grand theft auto even dabbled in arson. Evidently they met a month ago and took off together. No one has heard from the girl since then and the boy stopped answering calls at the house he rented in Australia…hmmm somewhere called Coff’s Harbor. Both families are looking to find them.”
Having shaken off the last remnants of sleep he had begun to pace beside the bed as he listened. “How am I gonna follow two kids down to Australia? How did they even get out of the country? Don’t they need parental consent and a permanent ward would never get a passport.” His mind was racing already.
“Well the Sabol kid is 23 and the girl is 21. But since she is a ward…seems they got her fake papers to get out of the country. You know how it is money can buy anything. His family will pay for anything you need. Travel first class, the works.”
“Drop by with the file in 20 minutes. I’ll make some calls. Shit, I’ll have to update my goddamn passport.” “…Sure thing Lu.” With that he hung up the phone.
Shuffling into the kitchen table he realized he never got the name of the girl. “Guess I’ll have to wait until the rookie gets here with the file.” Pouring himself a cup of old coffee, black, he looked out the window. “Another “special case” Cristofuoro.” He said aloud. “They always seem to find you.”
