felt the need to askwhy Jack had really come to "help." "So, Jack, what suddenly prompted you to join the
investigation? The way you reacted to me earlier, I thought
you would steer clear of this case, except mocking us from the
sidelines, of course, " Steve asked. "Well, I couldn't resist the opportunity to spend quality
time with you guys," Jack said as he grinned sarcastically. "No," Steve corrected, "You couldn't resist the free ticket
into a women's boarding house." Jack shrugged his shoulders and changed the subject, "So,
what's happening with the case?" Steve filled him in on the background and all of the latest
developments. "So this Felicity person is really Felix, who runs this
joint; Harold in the dead guy; Bryan
Carter is Felix's x-lover turned stalker/murder; and Geraldine
is who? Chief Masters? This is crazy, Steve," Jack said. "Well just keep your mouth shut or you're out of here,
understand?" Steve snapped. "Got it, just making sure I had the story right," Jack
responded as Jesse looked on, not knowingquite what to think of
his predecessor. Steve ignored the rest of Jack's wisecracks and set up his
laptop. Jesse and Jack crowdedbehind Steve as he loaded his
phone book CD-ROM into the machine. "You know, there must be a million Bryan Carters in LA,
this is going to take forever, and he may not even be our
man," Jesse commented while thoughts of Susan entered his mind. "Let's hope not," Steve said as he typed in Bryan's name. When the results came up, Steve scrolled down, and sure
enough, there were hundredsof Bryan Carters listed. " This
is no use, there are too many names here. We'll have to go to
the precinct to print this out and find all of these
people on a map," Steve sighed, "Let's go back up to the
penthouse and tell the Chief and Felix what's going on." Jesse groaned at the delay, but made no comment, as Steve
packed up his laptop. Thethree of them each gave a tug on their
pantyhose, adjusted their bras, rolled their eyes and
headed out the door. They made their way through the halls,
with Jack checking out all of the passer-bys, and back up to the penthouse. When they arrived, Steve knocked lightly on the door then
entered. The dogs greeted them once again, only this time more
anxiously. Steve panned the room for Felix and Chief
Masters, but no one was there. Jack and Jesse exchanged puzzled
looks while Steve checked the other rooms. Steve
emerged with a negative look on his face and shook his head. "Maybe they went out for ice cream," Jesse offered. " I don't think so, Jess. Wherever the Chief and Felix
are, I think they'll find more trouble than they could on any trip for ice cream." * * * "You mean they just disappeared?" Amanda confirmed, as she
sat up on Mark's couch, after hearing Steve fill her and Mark in
on what had just happened. "Gone. No sign of them all," Steve said. "No signs of breaking and entering, no signs of a struggle,
nothing Steve?" Mark confirmed. "I had my men comb the place and nothing...not even a
finger print," Steve said. "Do you suppose they left willingly?" Amanda suggested. "My guess is that someone, probably Carter, walked in and
held a gun to them; if you consider that making someone go
with you willingly," Steve said. " Surely one of the ladies living there would have
recognized an outsider, especially if it was a man sneaking
around," Amanda responded. "Yeah, even if the person(s) were disguised, they had to
stand out. The ladies surely would know if someone strange was
sneaking around and disguised," Mark offered. "Not necessarily," Jack broke in, laughing, "Steve walks
around there all the time and no notices his disguise." Everyone broke into laughter except Steve. "No one picked up on yours too fast either, Jack," Steve
snapped "I guess you all make great women, huh?" Amanda joked. With that final remark, Steve and Jack both felt defeated
and put their minds back on the case. "So what exactly do you know about this Bryan Carter,
Steve?" Amanda asked. "Nothing, except that there are only about a thousand
others in LA," Steve responded. "You don't even know enough to narrow it down?" Mark
asked. "Not on his location, but I did check the database, for
men with his name and description with a record and I came up
with this," Steve said as he handed a printout to his father. Mark unfolded his glasses and read the printout aloud,
"Let's see, Bryan Carter, age 25, two counts of aggravated
assault, one count of misleading an officer and numerous
addressees and aliases." "Sounds like the typical criminal profile to me, not much
to go on," Amanda commented, "Your best bet isit to investigate
further anything the ladies at Chez Felicity may
have told you." "That's the problem, Amanda. No one saw anything."
Part 9
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