The Monroe Legacy - G.2. Chapter 6 - Tears and Fears

Hallie found Gray frozen in place a few minutes later. His face was white, his eyes distant and the letter, if it could be called that, was still in his hand. It took three attempts to get Gray to tell his mother what he had found. That Aisha was gone and Eva too.

Hallie blanched and called the police, pacing the room until a detective arrived. As he questioned Gray, Hallie and Saffron started calling around their family and friends, searching for any sign of Aisha and Eva.

'Mr Monroe, we understand your daughter is missing' the man asked kindly.

Gray nodded numbly.

'When did you last see her and what was she wearing.'

Gray just stared.

The detective's tone grew more urgent,

'Mr Monroe, I know this is difficult but we need to move quickly, we need to know anything that might help us find your little girl.'

'She was wearing her pajamas, blue ones, when I tucked her in last night. I haven't seen her since. She was gone this morning.' Gray's voice was cracked and brittle.

The detective nodded. 'Is there anyone who would wish your daughter harm. Have you seen anything or anyone suspicious around the neighbourhood.'

'Her mother took her. She left a note'. Grey put the crumpled paper on the table, the first time he'd let go of it since he'd found it.

The detective unwrapped it and looked at Gray, confused. 'Her mother? Is she in violation of your custody agreement? Do you have reason to believe she might wish to harm your child?'

'No. We don't have a custody agreement. Aisha is a crap mother but I've never known her deliberately harm Eva. Leave her to cry, yes. Forget to feed her, yes. But I don't think she'd hurt her.'

'Mr Monroe. If I understand correctly, your daughter's mother, who has every right to be with her daughter, has taken her out. And you've called the police why?'

Gray looked stricken. 'Were you not listening! Aisha, she doesn't like Eva, she ignores her completely. And she's taken her, left a note. Detective, I don't know if she'll bring her back.'

The detective gathered his notes and stood to leave.

'I understand your worry but there's nothing I can do. Eva's mother has as much right to custody as you do, she's been gone less than a day and we have no reason to believe Eva to be in immediate danger. If they don't return or make contact within 48 hours, you can report them missing and then we can start to look for them. In the meantime, get yourself a good lawyer, if she's taken her before opening a custody battle you'll need all the help you can get.'

 Gray couldn't sit still for the next 48 hours. Hallie called his work and explained and they put him on compassionate leave. He spent the waiting period driving around the neighbourhood and then further out with a picture of Eva, asking everyone if they'd seen her. Saffron and Leyton helped, they even drove across two states to a distant aunt's house, Aisha's only family, but they hadn't seen them.

When the 48 hours were up, Gray reported both Aisha and Eva missing. The police finally began to search, too slowly for Gray's taste and he paced the house, tossed and turned, barely eating or sleeping.

Hallie tried to get him to talk, but all he could say was that he didn't understand why Aisha had done it, he wasn't surprised she had left, in a way it was what he had been hoping for, so that he wasn't forced to kick her out. He would even have agreed to some sort of shared custody, whatever was best for Eva, if Aisha had been willing.

But why had she taken his baby? She had never been interested, never seemed to care, especially recently. He could only assume that Aisha had wanted to hurt or punish him for some reason and that this was the best way she knew to do it.

And God did it hurt.

A week after Eva was taken, the police turned up at the door, serious looks on their faces.

Gray let them in wordlessly and the lead investigator dove straight in.

'We have a sighting,' Gray's face lit up so the officer hurried on, 'but it's not what we were hoping for.'

'Where were they?' Gray demanded, 'Tell me please!'.

The detective gestured to his colleague who pulled a grainy picture out of a cardboard folder and passed it over. Gray snatched it up. Between the picture quality and the floppy Sunday Aisha was wearing it was hard to identify her but he'd recognise his daughter anywhere. She didn't look happy.

'Mr Monroe, that photograph was taken at the Mexican border. The passports used by the people in that photograph identified them as a Mrs Antonia Garcia and her adoptive daughter, Maia.

Gray looked puzzled. 'But that's Eva. My daughter Eva'.

'And we believe you sir. However, their paperwork was all accepted as valid, they crossed the border and with that... Well things get rather more complicated. We traced Antonia Garcia's  identity  through her marriage certificate. Her maiden name - Antonia Lopez - belonged to a cadaver, now listed as a Jane Doe in a New Mexico morgue, the identity of her "adoptive daughter" belonged to a child at the same hospital which died in infancy. The transferral of these identities was done incredibly professionally. The marriage licence is fully legal, the adoption papers are expertly faked or again doctored. Mr Garcia, a Jorge Garcia, married Antonio, Aisha, whatever you wished to call her, four months ago  here in a Lucky Palms chapel a few streets over.

We don't have an address for Garcia, the one he provided was fake, but we do suspect he is involved in organised crime and possibly in trafficking both substances and people across the border. We have, so far, been unable to trace your family any further than the border.'

Gray sat, disbelieving, his head in his hands. Hallie laid a hand on his back, not knowing what to say. She looked at the detective, looked him in the eyes and asked what they had all been wondering.

'How can we get her back'.

The pained look that passed between the officers in the room did not escape her as the detective gave her a grim smile.

'We will search for her. The Mexican authorities have been informed and are on the lookout. If we find them you have an incredibly strong case for parental abduction IF we can prove their real identities. DNA samples will help with that. If we find them, we can look to extradite Aisha with Eva as a dependent, but I don't want to mislead you, this could be a very long process, especially if they are in the care of a criminal organisation who are capable of hiding them.'

Gray finally raised his head, his jaw set.

'I'm going to look for them, I will find my daughter and I will bring her home.' His tone was absolute, his certainty convincing, but the police had seen it before.

Sighing the detective replied, 'I understand your sentiment but honestly you will be most useful here, building a case under The Hague convention for parental abduction and raising awareness, TV appeals can provide new leads.'

Gray was unshaken, 'I don't care, I have to do something. I keep imagining Eva waiting for her story... Aisha never read to her. She loved .... She loved how Much Do I Love you, the one with the bunnies, you know where they-'

His voice broke and Gray started sobbing, unable to continue. Hallie sat helpless, how could she possibly make this right, she wished more than ever that Cai was here, Leyton and Saffron had helped keep the house running but nobody could make a situation make sense like Cai had. So she did the only thing she could think of, knowing how she would feel if one of her children were taken from her, she would fight,

'Gray honey, go if you need to go, find your baby. I will build the case, do the lawyer thing. Your siblings will help. You go, be safe, be courageous and bring her home.'

Unable to answer, Gray buried his face in his mother's lap, a child once again and she stroked his hair as the police filed out of the house.

The next morning Gray left, armed with desperation, hope, photographs and every penny he could scrape together.

Six months later he returned with nothing.

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Read on with - Ch. 7 - I'll Be Seeing You