The Monroe Legacy - G.3 Chapter 13 - Degrees of Separation

'That can't be my daughter' Gray burst out.

The mortuary assistant looked at him sympathetically, 'I know it's hard to accept Sir.' But Gray interrupted him.

'No! I mean that that is not my daughter. I haven't seen Eva in almost eleven years but that girl isn't her.'

The cops and the lab techs exchanges confused glances.

'Are you sure sir? The neighbours seemed pretty certain that this was the lady's daughter.'

'I'm positive. This girl looks younger, but more importantly she's got a darker skin tone and black hair. Eva was blonder and fairer skinned. Did the neighbour say if there was more than one daughter or did you just assume that when you saw my missing person's file and it fit neatly?'

Even as he scolded the policeman for the fear he'd endured on the flight, a huge grin was beginning to spread across Gray's face. He barely saw the dead girl in front of him or Aisha's shrouded form. Eva might be alive!

'Could the hair have been dyed?' The policeman asked the lab tech.

'No, the notes say it's natural. Without a full post mortem it's more difficult to accurately estimate age and ethnicity, a DNA comparison could at least rule out this girl as Maia Garcia.'

'Eva Monroe' Gray interrupted. 'Her name is Eva Monroe and I'm going to find her.'

Hours later a DNA comparison confirmed what Gray had already known and a lot of paperwork was signed. A few simoleons persuaded a desk jockey to tell Gray where the crime scene had been and in minutes Gray was in a taxi and headed to Aisha's last known address.

The area was crappy but not desperately poor. Dust and litter blew between sad square little houses and dogs barked from chain fenced backyards. The only sign of violence from the outside was the police tape that Gray quietly removed from the door. Putting his shoulder to the cheap wood he felt the latch give and he was inside.

The Aisha he'd known would never have let anything but desperation force her to live somewhere like this. There was a small bedroom with a double bed, a poorly fitted bathroom and a few counters which passed as a kitchen area. All of these rooms were torn apart, bullet holes and a large stain marking the bedroom as the place where it had all ended. While there was no sign of Eva there was also a little girl's room, largely untouched, and here some effort had been taken to make the place a little brighter. On the wall was a picture of Aisha and the girl who'd lain on the table next to her.

Gray felt a lump form in his throat for that stolen life. Earlier he had been so happy it wasn't his daughter but now he couldn't get away from the horrid contrast of the bright smiles in the picture and the cold faces in the morgue. Rushing outside he emptied the contents of his stomach, water and trail mix, onto the dusty drive.

'What do you want with that place' a harsh whisper echoed from the house opposite and though nobody appeared, Gray saw a curtain twitch at the window facing him.

'I'm looking for a young girl, have you seen anyone else around.'

After a pause the voice came back, 'There's no girl there any more, her mama and her are gone where there's no returning, God rest their souls'.

Gray nodded, 'I know. I'm looking for another girl. A slightly older girl. Blonde.'

For several minutes the voice was silent and losing hope, Gray made to leave.

The voice returned. Quieter than before. 

'I haven't seen any blondes. But there was another girl. I saw her with Carmen sometimes when Antonia was working nights. She always left as soon as Antonia got back, went in the direction of uptown. Black hair, coloured ends.'

Gray waited, desperate for more information, but the voice was done and the curtain stilled. Gray called a quiet thank you and pulling the door shut he made his way uptown. He had no idea how long he walked for, asking anyone he passed of they'd seen anything. Most just ignored him, a few shook their heads and fewer still actually spoke to him, this was not an area where talking to strangers was a safe activity. As the sun began to rise he stopped, exhausted and checked in to the nearest hotel, a grey, peeling affair which smelt of must and sweat. Collapsing on the bed he fell in to a deep but restless sleep, dreaming of morgues and faceless teenagers.

He was woken by his phone ringing, the battery indicator flashing red even as he answered. A panting Rachel told him that the baby was coming more than a month early and that Saffron was taking her to the hospital. Over the crackling of the signal and her heavy breathing Gray tried to comfort her forgetting for a while everything he'd discovered before his phone cut out.

Pausing only to settle the bill he rushed out and found an Internet cafe, cursing himself leaving the police station without his luggage and his charger. Once again he had allowed his obsession with finding his eldest daughter to jeopardise everything else he valued.

The browser eventually loaded and Skype brought him crackly picture of Saffron who turned the phone to Rachel, she gave him a weak smile. Gray#s guilt intensified at her pale, worried face.

'Rachel, I'm so sorry I didn't call. I'm so sorry you're doing this alone, what do the doctors say?'

Gritting her teeth whenever a contraction hit Rachel managed, as always, to reason him out of his panic. 'Don't be silly Gray, we couldn't have guessed this would happen. I'm more worried about you, doctors think the baby will be fine, just little. What's happening there?

How was the... Was it- was it them?'

Even as his wife struggled to breathe through her contractions, clutching his sister's hand it was him she was worried about. Gray couldn't believe that after all his mistakes with Aisha life had granted him the love of somebody like Rachel.

Wishing more than ever to be by her side  Gray pressed his finger to her cheek on the screen.

'It wasn't Eva, Aisha is gone but Eva might still be out there. Don't think on it though, I'll be back as soon as I can. I love you so much.'

Rachel's smile at the good news was cut off by a cry of pain as another contraction hit, followed by a kerfuffle as the doctor came to check her and announced she was fully dilated. Saffron tried to follow as they pushed Rachel out and towards the delivery suite, the already blurry picture becoming illegible.

The forty minutes that followed were among the hardest of Gray's life. Saffron tried to tell him what was happening whilst helping Rachel, every scream torturing Gray with his absence. After a particularly harrowing yell the proprietor of the otherwise empty Internet cafe put a glass of rum by Gray's computer with a sympathetic look.

Casper Jude Monroe arrived shortly afterwards, his prematurity may have made him little but it certainly hadn't made him quiet. Gray watched the nurses hand the tiny, screaming bundle to Rachel to kiss before whisking their son off to be checked in the NCU. As Rachel began to doze Saffron kept him updated, Casper would be fine but would need to stay in the hospital until he was a little bigger than his current four pounds.

Gray signed off, booked a flight home and stepped outside, wondering how to get to back to the station it get his passport. As he emerged into the bright sunlight he almost ran in to a couple of teenagers who were loitering outside the door, barely acknowledging the odd stare one of them gave him.

As he looked around for a cab, something was niggling at his mind. He had missed so ruby, but what. He turned back to look at the cafe and the teenagers and it clicked.

The eyes of the girl who had looked at him so oddly, they were a clear bright green. They were eyes he had dreamed of for over a decade. And the hair was black, black with purple ends.

Starting towards them with a strangled yell of, 'EVA?!' his progress was blocked by the young man who had been with her.

'Who are you and who told you to call her that? Her name is Maia.' The teenager was surprisingly strong in his resistance to Gray's pushing.

With his eyes fixed on the girl sat stock still in the shadowy entrance, Gray responded.

'I'm Eva's dad, I've been looking for her!' Gray cried desperately, 'Eva it's me! Do you remember at all. Aisha must have told you something. Eva!'

As Gray's pushing gradually closed the gap between him and the girl he was sure was Eva, the proprietor of the cafe came out, responding to the ruckus in his yard with a gun. As Gray stepped back and raised his hands the boy stepped behind him and pulled Eva protectively close.

Speaking calmly but still aiming the gun the owner asked the pair,

'What's going on here? Milo, do you know this man?'

Milo shook his head,

'He says that he's Maia's father, and he knows her real name.'

The proprietor's eyes widened and he lowered his weapon.

'Milo, take Maia inside and close up the place. I'm going to get to the bottom of this.'

Before Milo could comply, Maia, Eva, whatever her name was, stepped out from his shadow and into the light. She was more beautiful than he'd imagined, her skin smooth and golden and her features a combination of his and her mother. Her hair was dyed black, blonde roots beginning to show through and she was dressed all in black and wearing heavy make-up. She looked so grown up but Gray could see hints of the little girl he'd read to sleep in her face.

She stared at Gray, her expression unreadable, hope, fear and anger seemed to chase through those unmistakeable eyes.

In a voice so different from those remembered baby words, a woman's voice with a definite Latina twang she spoke for the first time.

'I remember you.'

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Read on with Chapter 14 - Home Truths