Chapter One

October, 2104

Jason Culver was on the late-night patrol in Elko, Nevada. He checked the communicator on his wrist and saw the time was four thirty in the morning. His shift would be ending in two and a half hours. This was going to be his last late shift. Beginning Monday, he would be transferring to the day shift of the Elko Police Department. He was more than ready to get on a regular day schedule like most of the other people in the world. What he did realize was this had been a good shift for him, at least when he was single. Most people were at home in bed and not out making mischief or breaking laws. On the day shift he would see much more action.

His mental musings were interrupted when he saw something in the under lights of his hovercraft that caused him to land and go to investigate what seemed to be too bizarre to be true.

As soon as he landed, he left his craft and hurried to where a little boy, wearing pajamas with no shoes, stood on the sidewalk crying.

“I’m Officer Culver,” he said as he approached the child. “Where is your mother?”

The boy sniffed loudly and proclaimed in heavily accented English, “My mama won’t wake up.”

Jason knelt in front of the child. “What’s your name?”

“Marco.”

“Do you know where you live?”

He nodded his head and pointed to an apartment complex.

“Did you have a bad dream?”

Marco shook his head.

“It’s very late. This is the time when everyone should be in bed sleeping. Let me take you to your apartment. I’m certain your mother is very worried about you.”

Again, Marco shook his head. “She’s been asleep for a long time. I tried to wake her up when I got up in the daytime. She wouldn’t wake up. I’m hungry.”

Jason noticed the child’s words, although they were spoken in English, sometimes sounded more like Spanish. Looking closer, he could tell the boy was of Mexican descent. It was possible his mother was in the country illegally. There could be drugs involved. Anything was possible.

Picking Marco up, he made his way inside the building. After checking the listing of tenants, he saw the name Tessa Almanor. It was the only name that sounded as though it could be Mexican. The apartment number beside the name was two fifty-two.

Rather than taking the elevator, Jason carried Marco up the stairs to the second floor. The door with the right number stood open. Before entering, Jason put the child down.

“I’m going to check on your mother. You stay here.”

His heart pounded almost out of his chest as he made his way through the dark apartment. He shone his flashlight around the neat living room as well as the pristine kitchen. It looked like Tessa kept a clean house. To his right was a hallway. It led down to a bathroom and two doors that looked like they led into bedrooms. In the first room, he saw a single bed, with decorations that denoted it belonged to a small child. Moving on, he went into the other room where he could see a woman sleeping on the bed.

“Ms. Almanor? Can you hear me?”

When he received no response, he touched her shoulder. To his horror, her skin was cold and her body stiff. It was evident she’d been dead for several hours.

He immediately contacted his superior officer on his communicator. He also requested the medical examiner as well as social services and backup.

Remembering Marco, he hurried back out into the hall. The child was still whimpering, although now his cries weren’t loud, big tears rolled down his cheeks as he sucked his thumb.

“Do you know where your father is?” Jason asked.

Without taking his thumb from his mouth, Marco shook his head no.

“Do you have other family here in town?”

Again, the child indicated no.

It wasn’t long before social services arrived and took the child away. With his duty to little Marco finished, he returned to the apartment. He started going through the rooms, looking for any information that would help him find the family of either the deceased woman or the child. He was shocked to see there were no papers identifying either Tessa or Marco. It was entirely possible those weren’t even their names.

“What do we have here?” his superior officer asked when he entered the apartment with the medical examiner.

“I saw a little boy out on the sidewalk at four thirty this morning. He was wearing pajamas with no shoes and he was crying. He said his mother wouldn’t wake up. I was certain he’d had a bad dream and woke up frightened. I brought him into this building and surmised the apartment rented under the name of Tessa Almanor had to belong to his mother. I left him in the hall and found his mother in the bedroom. It’s evident she’s been dead for several hours.”

“Do you suspect foul play?”

Jason thought for a moment “I don’t think so. The apartment is too neat to have a murder take place here, there are no signs of a struggle. There also wasn’t any blood that I could see. It’s possible she died of natural causes.”

“Where is the boy now?”

“Social services got here before you did. They took him. He was very distraught and he said he was hungry. He’s only three, maybe four, and just thinks his mother is sleeping. From what I gathered, he tried to wake her up yesterday when he got up and he couldn’t. He’s probably been alone ever since. It’s possible he went out onto the street to see if someone could wake up his mother.”

“Well, if that don’t beat all. We’ve got to find out where the kid’s father or any other relatives are. If we don’t…”

Before his supervisor could continue, the medical examiner came out of the bedroom. “I won’t know anything until we do an autopsy, but it looks like she might have suffered either a massive heart attack or an aneurism. What have you found out about her identity?”

“Next to nothing,” Jason replied. “We’ll know more when we can talk to the owner of this apartment building in the morning. He can probably shed some light on her background.”

~ * ~

The woman who took Marco’s hand and led him away from the apartment he’d shared with his mother seemed nice enough. She tried to ask him several questions, but he remembered what his mother told him about talking to strangers.

We can’t let him find us, Marco. If he does, he’ll take you away from me and I’ll never see you again.

His mother’s words of warning rang in his head. Remembering them, he could hear the bad man who wanted Marco to call him Papa. They ran away from him and left their home in Arizona in the middle of the night. He also remembered his mother calling him Paco but telling him from now on he would be called Marco.

Even though the nice lady got him some food to eat, he knew he had to protect the secret his mother told him never to tell.

~ * ~

Two weeks into the investigation, Jason knew no more about Tessa Almanor than he had the morning he found her dead in her bed.

He didn’t know how many times he’d read the report from the medical examiner. What it showed was that in the past she’d suffered a severe beating, so severe that it caused her a slow and painful death from the internal bruising. It was entirely possible she’d been slowly bleeding internally for several days, if not weeks.

The interview with the owner of the apartment building didn’t give them any more information than they already had. Tessa and her son moved into the furnished apartment less than two weeks before her death and she’d paid him cash for the first two month’s rent. Other than that, he had no further information. Knowing the area where the apartment building was located, he realized cash talked very loudly and often it paid for no questions asked about someone’s past.

To add insult to injury, he’d heard from social services that since no family could be found for Marco, he’d been sent to a boy’s ranch in a remote area of Nevada called Henderson Ranch. It was probably the best thing that could have happened to the boy. He would be able to grow up in a healthy environment. Being an orphan, as well as his Mexican heritage, made his chances of being adopted slim to none.