Lost Love – Ch 5
A few months had past since John and Angie had decided to work on a relationship. During that time, they had started ‘dating’. They went out and spent quality time together. They got to know each other, the people they’d become in the time that they were apart. While they were growing together, they had not discussed their future or ‘getting a baby like MJ’. They were taking it day by day.
They’d had some heated discussions about how to handle life issues, like how to handle certain things with Dani and Evangeline going back to work. They had talked and since Evangeline was a former attorney, she had agreed to work as a counselor at the community center. Some of the kids were in trouble with the juvenile system. She had needed something to help pass the time since she wasn’t teaching music presently and they had finally agreed on Dani attending pre-school for 5 hours each day.
One good thing that John and Evangeline had found was that they still respected each other; each others opinions, each others concerns, and each others feelings about topics. On occasion, John would bounce theories off Evangeline about a case. She would get his opinion about one of the kids she was helping at the community center. On all counts, they were a team.
Even though they made a great team, when Evangeline received the first anonymous note on her car outside the community center, she’d kept it from John. She didn’t want him to worry or to start giving orders right away. She didn’t ignore the note, but she didn’t give it a lot of credence either. The note had only said ‘You’re going to get what’s coming to you’. She was careful with it, in case it needed to be dusted for fingerprints. She did take the time to go to the police department. She knew that John was at home with Dani that afternoon. He had picked her up from a play date with Jaime Vega. So she wouldn’t be running into him at the station.
She did sit down with Antonio, who was now Chief of Detectives. She gave him the note and explained to him that she didn’t want the information shared with anyone, including John. She’d been around him, John and the FBI long enough to be able to scope out an area and determine if she was being followed as well as check for anything suspicious. If she felt it was anything other than a prank, she’d be the first to report it and get some help. What she didn’t want was to panic the family or put John’s back up. She wanted the opportunity to handle it herself, as she thought it was nothing. If it turned out that it was something, she would go to the authorities as quickly as possible. She’d been through too much in the past, to put her family in danger.
When she’d gotten the second note a few days later, she grew more wary. It was a notch more threatening. It said, ‘I’m coming for you.’ That had scared her. The note had been left on the desk that she occupied at the community center. This could mean any number of things. The thing it most likely meant was that the person that left it was someone that she’d met recently. She asked around the community center to see who had seen someone near the desk where she worked and found that it could have been anyone. Andrea, another counselor at the center, had used the desk the day before and the letter hadn’t been there. Nobody had seen anyone or anything.
That afternoon she went back to the police station to check in with Antonio and ran into John. When he saw her, his face lit.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" he asked pecking her on the lips.
"I’m here to see Antonio," she replied quietly.
"About what?" he asked with a frown.
She sighed, "I got a threatening note today at the community center."
"What?"
"This is the second one I’ve received in a week’s time. So I’m here to talk to Antonio."
"What do you mean the second one you’ve received? Why didn’t you tell me about this?"
"Because I didn’t want you to worry. I made Antonio promise not to tell you about the first note."
"Antonio knew. What is this? You’re keeping secrets from me again," John voice was lowered which meant he was pretty pissed.
"John, I didn’t tell you about the first note, because I know how you are. Yes, I made a decision not to tell you. I made that decision because as I said before I didn’t want you to worry. I wasn’t worried; I thought it was just a prank. When I got the second note today, I knew that you would have to be told. I didn’t think that first note was important enough to make you worry. You worry enough as it is."
"You didn’t think that your life was important enough for me to worry," John said through clenched teeth.
"John, you’re over reacting. I didn’t think my life was in any danger. For all I knew, the note could have been put on the wrong car. Anything?"
"What if something happened to you or Dani for that matter, because you decided not to tell me this?"
"John, nothing is going to happen to Dani. I would never let that happen. I would never put her in danger."
"You could have by not telling me what was going on. If someone is after you, they could try to get to you through Dani or the family. You’re a defense attorney. You know how the game works."
"I haven’t been a defense attorney in years, but yes I do know how the game works and I was more worried about someone trying to get to you if you started investigating this. I know you and how you won’t let things go. I didn’t want you to get hurt."
"You should have told me what was going on. You can’t keep facing things on your own. That’s over. Contrary to popular belief, you aren’t Wonder Woman. We face things together from now on. Got it?"
"Okay you win. Now you know what’s going on. What do we do about it?"
John sighed and rubbed his hand over his hair with his eyes closed. Evangeline stood there waiting for him to speak. When he opened his eyes, looking at her, she continued to stand there without saying a word.
"We need to go touch base with Antonio and I need to see both of these notes."
-----------
Antonio frowned at the second note while John looked at the first. The notes were escalating and it appeared that the perpetrator knew Evangeline’s schedule at the community center, based on the fact that the perp put the note on the desk that day. Or the perp could have been following her.
"Have you noticed any strange people around?" Antonio asked.
"No, I’ve been watching. I know how to check for a tail. I haven’t been followed by car. I haven’t noticed anything strange. A couple of times I’ve felt like someone might be watching me, but there hasn’t been anyone suspicious around."
"Someone could have been following her without her knowing," John said to Antonio, "or it’s someone who works at the center since both notes have popped up there."
"I’m sitting right here John. Don’t talk about me like I’m invisible."
"I apologize. The notes are escalating. We need to make sure that you have protection."
"No. I’ve had protection for as long as I can remember. I don’t ever want that again."
"Angie. This is not negotiable. We’re talking about our family’s protection here."
"John, do you really think I’m in danger?" She asked with sincerity in her eyes.
"Yes, I do," he replied in kind, "and because of that, we need to check out the people at the community center and your former clients."
"Do you have any idea how much work it’s going to take to check on former clients?" she asked.
"That many clients, huh?" He said with a smile.
"Well, yes, but that’s not what I’m talking about. It’s been 4 years and I don’t have those files anymore. When the FBI put me in custody, they destroyed all my files. The only way to find out is to go to the court and check for the attorney of record. I’m not sure that the information is computerized, so we’d have to check the files, not only in Llanview, but in D.C. too. There is no way to do any of this easily. The thing I can do is check my legal journal and get the names of the clients. You could potentially run them through the police computer. That won’t necessarily mean we’ll get the right person. You know, it could be someone with the same name or they could have changed their name."
"Okay, that’s not gonna work. We’d never get anywhere."
"So, I need to keep doing what I’m doing."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I need to be out in the open to catch whoever is doing this."
"No! You’re not doing that. You have a 3-year old daughter to raise. You are not putting yourself or her in danger like that."
"John…"
"No! You’re not doing it. That’s final."
Evangeline took a deep breath and made eye contact with Antonio with an eyebrow raised, as if to say, this is why I didn’t want him to know.
"John, Evangeline being out in the open may be the only way to catch this guy," Antonio said quietly.
"What? How can you even consider putting her out there?"
"John, I know how you feel about this."
"No, I don’t think you do," he said to Antonio and then the Evangeline he said, "we need to talk about this at home."
"Okay."
"Antonio, I may be back. I’m not sure yet."
"Take your time. I’m here for the rest of the day. I’ll have the lab run this new note for fingerprints and see if we can get anything."
"Good, let me know what you come up with," he said before taking Evangeline’s hand and leading her from the station.
----------
She had walked to the community center, so the ride back to his condo was quiet. He was determined to protect her and she was determined to protect her family by finding out who was after her and catching them.
John knew that it would be easier to find this person if Evangeline was out in the open, but he didn’t like it. He wanted her safe with him and he wasn’t sure how to get that. She was looking out the window and he knew what she was thinking. She had always been one to take on a challenge head-on instead of allowing someone else to do the work, but this time had to be different. They had a little girl. She had to come first.
He knew he was finding reasons other than the real one. He didn’t know if he’d make it if something happened to her. In the time that she’d come back to him, he had grown to love her more than he’d ever thought possible. He couldn’t lose her, but he couldn’t control her either.
She, like their daughter, was pretty independent and liked living according to her own set of rules; even when those rules put her in danger. He could remember the whole RJ investigation. That had been a mess, but nothing he’d said or did would make her let it go. That was what had led her to the information on the Santis and look where that had gotten them. They would have to compromise in this case. He was aware of it even if he didn’t like it.
She didn’t want to fight with John, but she knew that she was going to have to be out there to get this guy to make a move. What she didn’t want was for John or Dani to get caught in the crossfire. She had been going over in her mind, the potential clients that would have tried to come after her and she couldn’t come up with one.
The FBI had told her that the Santis were no more, but could it be a straggler from the organization that was after her now? She wouldn’t put it past them. She thought back to the dream she’d had months ago, maybe subconsciously she knew something was going to happen. Well the dream wasn’t going to come true. She wasn’t letting anything happen to John.
"John, I have to help get whoever might be after me. You know this could still be about someone else. Maybe I got both notes by mistake."
"Maybe, but I doubt it."
"What are we going to do?"
"Well, at least you asked the right question. We are going to find out who this is and put them away."
"How?"
"Well, what you’re not going to do is go out alone. I’ll drop you at the community center and pick you up. There’s also Dani. We’ve got to keep a close eye on her. She’s becoming more independent by the day. We are going to also have to tell the family. Shannon is at the community center with you, but everyone else could catch some fall out. They have to be told."
"I hate this. The reason Dani is so independent is because she wasn’t allowed to just do and now for the first time in her life, she can just be and grow and explore. At least she could until this," Evangeline said with tears in her eyes, "I’m responsible for this. Now the family has to be on the watch for someone that is after me. This is just great."
"Hey, stop being so hard on yourself. This is not your fault. We need to find the nut who’s doing this. Then we go back to our lives."
"I hope you’re right."
They went home and tried to relax. They called the McBain family over to the condo and had a family meeting. After John briefed the family on the situation, Eve moved to the sofa beside Evangeline and took her hand. Evangeline was extremely moved by the concern that the McBain family had for her. She’d been concerned that they would be angry at the disruption in their lives. They’d surprised her and it surprised her that they truly thought of her as one of them. She really had a family.
"Well, what are we going to do about Dani?" Michael asked. His niece and MJ were upstairs in her room. The adults could hear the two of them talking over the baby monitor. MJ was babbling and Dani was telling him stories. If the situation wasn’t serious, they all would have been laughing.
"Well, I’m not sure. She needs to be with someone during the time that she isn’t at school."
"I’ll take her in the afternoons, if Evangeline is still at the center," Eve said and then turned to Evangeline, "Are you going to continue at the center?"
Evangeline looked up at John who stood near the fireplace, "I plan to, but I’m going to play it by ear. I don’t want to put anyone at the center in danger; especially Shannon since people tend to think of us as family."
"Don’t worry about me Evangeline. I’ll be fine."
"I know that Shannon. I’m going to make sure of it."
"Look, nothing going to happen to anyone. We’re going to catch whoever’s doing this. And no one in this family is going to get hurt," John said. Then he cocked his head, he didn’t hear anything. "I’m going to check on the kids," he said walking out of the room.
"Van, how are you doing with this?" asked Michael.
"I’m fine. It’s your brother I’m worried about," replied Evangeline.
"He’s worried about you. That’s all. He’ll be okay."
"I hope so. I need him to be okay. He’s pretty upset that I want to stay in the open to catch this guy," replied Evangeline.
"Are you sure it’s a guy?"
Evangeline had a perplexed look on her face at that comment. She then said, "You know, I’m not. I made the assumption that it’s a guy because of the tone of the notes, but it could very well be a woman."
"But what woman would do something like this?"
"A very angry one," John said coming back into the room with both children.
"Mommy? When can we get a baby like MJ?" asked Dani.
"Dani, I don’t know," Evangeline said over the chuckles that went around the room.
"Well, I want one for Christmas."
"Thank you for sharing that."
In that moment, MJ cried out and that distracted Dani enough to get away from that conversation. Eve looked at Evangeline and said with a smile, "You know she’s not going to forget that."
"Yes, I know, but I’m not responding to it."
"I don’t think you’ll need to. I figure it’s only a matter of time. Anyone in their right mind can see that you and John are very much in love. I’m so happy for the both of you."
"Thanks, but I don’t know how this new development will change us. We have been getting closer, but we really haven’t had to deal with any other obstacles. I don’t know if this will be good or bad."
"I can tell you’ve been getting closer. The two of you can hardly be in a room without touching each other or following each other with your eyes. That is pretty special. I remember what that was like."
"With John’s father?" Evangeline asked.
Eve just nodded.
"You’ll find it again. He will come."
"I hope so, but in the meantime, I love the fact that my sons have found it and I have grandchildren. Things can’t get much better than that."
"What are you two so chummy about over here?" asked John as he moved to the sofa between the two women. He placed an arm around each of them.
"We’re talking about you," said his mother.
"Oh, well I know that has to be good," he said with a smirk.
"Eve, he’s so humble, too," Evangeline said.
John was so glad to see his mother and the love of his life so close. He had a feeling they were going to need each other before this threat was removed from their lives. His only goal was to make sure that they all lived through it. This was one time he couldn’t fail.
