Earthbound Angels Part 1 (12 page)

Sliding a sheet of paper across the table, he watched Graves merely glance at it and nod.

“Your fees aren’t a problem, Mr. St. Paul. Our only interest is in finding our long lost sister. If you agree to help locate her, I’m prepared to write you a check today.”

“Very well, Mr. Graves,” Graeme said. “I’ll get started on this immediately and keep you updated as I find out anything.”

Fifteen minutes later, Graeme was seeing Jefferson Graves to the door. He went back to his office, check in hand, and watched his security cameras so that he would know when to open the gates for Graves to depart. Once that was done, he sat back and reflected on what little bit of information Graves had been able to supply about his long lost, unknown sister.

Her name was Kiara Shannon and she was approximately 26 years old. Graves hadn’t known her exact birthdate. He and his brothers had managed to unearth the fact that she had been born in Moon Bay in one of the main hospitals there. That was as good a place as any for him to start.

He turned to face his computer and used his special search software to try to locate Kiara’s birth certificate. It took a few minutes to find what he was looking for, but eventually, he had the one he needed. The fact that she had a rather odd name helped as well as knowing what hospital she was born in. He did have to run the entire year because Graves didn’t have a birth month for her, but he finally hit pay dirt.

The birth certificate for Kiara Shannon showed her birth date as June 25th and her mother’s name was Renee Shannon. Renee had been 22 when Kiara was born. Father was Unknown.

Well, that’s not a huge surprise, being as her father was a very well-known businessman in town, and a married one at that. A little more research turned up that Renee Shannon was deceased and had been since Kiara was little more than 18 years old.

At least she wasn’t dumped into the system,
thought Graeme. He had to assume that Kiara never knew the elder Mr. Graves or that he was her father. After her mother’s death, it seemed that Kiara had simply gone off the grid. Graeme didn’t doubt that he would be able to find her, though.

After all, finding missing people was what he did best. It was his special calling and he never failed to find the missing person he’s meant to locate. He was ready to find Ms. Kiara Shannon no matter how much work it would take to do so.

THE NEXT MORNING, Graeme got up, made coffee and planned out his day.

He had given his housekeeper Stella the week off so that she and her husband could go on a proper vacation, which he also paid for.

Graeme was generous if he wasn’t anything else. Besides, Stella and Jerry were the closest things he had to a family her on Earth. He was glad that she seemed to be having a good time, but he couldn’t deny that he was going to be relieved to see her return. It was hard to understand how she managed to keep his house running so smoothly. That was a feat that he certainly couldn’t do.

On the other hand, making coffee was easy enough and he could have breakfast once he got to Moon Bay.

Graeme checked his appearance in the mirror before leaving the house and studied what he saw there. His height was sometimes a deterrent when he was shadowing someone because he was 6’ 5” and had a rather fit body for his height, but it was all solid muscle. His hair wasn’t grey but it was a very unique silver color that he wore in a full style. His eyes were also a silver grey in color and he always looked as if he was wearing black eyeliner. His lashes were also long and dark, making him the envy of any woman that saw them. With his lush mouth, women tended to try to get him to kiss them all the time. They kept telling him that his mouth was “kissable.” Today, however, he was dressed casually in a navy blue pullover shirt and a pair of faded jeans. This outfit would help him blend in somewhat at least where he was headed.

Another thing he was doing for this outing was driving one of his older, less conspicuous vehicles. This one could be parked anywhere and no one would pay much attention to it. As a last thought, he added a baseball cap and sunglasses to his ensemble.

Now, he might still be noticeable a bit, but he would most likely be seen just as another of Moon Bay’s unique population.

The drive only took a few minutes and, happily, it wasn’t as hard to find a parking place as he would have thought. Easing into an empty spot that was on the street, Graeme adjusted his hat and sunglasses.

Then he went in search of Kiara Shannon.

He played it cool as he talked to various shop owners, retail workers, food service workers and even some street people. Of course, he didn’t really have a lot to offer them in the way of a description.

He was about to give up for the day when he decided that he would make one last stop in a convenience store that seemed to be pretty busy and popular. And, well, he had a “feeling” about it.

The scene he walked in on was nothing like he expected, though.

STANDING BETWEEN THE counter and an aisle stood a disheveled-looking woman shielding a teenage boy from the shop owner and a couple of other customers.

“Please, don’t hurt him!” she was pleading. “We’ll just put this back and leave quietly. He was just hungry and didn’t have enough money to pay. Please, let us go! I promise you’ll never see us again.”

“Excuse me,” Graeme said as he stepped forward. “What seems to be the problem?”

The shop owner started explaining angrily that the boy had grabbed a box of crackers and a can of deviled ham and was racing toward the door without paying for it. Other customers also seemed to be pretty irate about the situation as they were being made to wait while the shop owner sorted it out. Graeme looked at the young woman and the boy.

Instantly, he knew he had found Kiara.

Taking his wallet from his jeans, he handed the shop owner a $20 bill.

“There, that should take care of what the boy owes you,” he said. “There’s no need to take this any further. He was only hungry. Now you’ve been paid and then some for your trouble. I’ll get them out of your shop.”

Turning to the young woman, he found her to be rather unkempt, wearing an oversized man’s shirt and what looked to be sweat pants of some sort. Her uncombed hair was shoved under a baseball hat and sticking out in tufts. Her dirty sneakers looked too big for her feet. He would never have realized that he was looking at an heiress if he hadn’t already known who she was.

She was looking at him with huge violet eyes. When she realized that he was actually going to pay for the food, she started to ease her way around him, still shielding the boy, and made her way toward the door. Graeme knew that if she made it outside, he would have one hell of a time catching her again, so as she tried to pass him, he gripped her arm and escorted her and the boy out of the shop.

“What are you doing?” she demanded as she tried to pull away from him. “Oh wait, I suppose you want some sort of repayment for bailing us out in there. Fine. Follow me.”

Looking at him with an expression that mixed disgust and defeat, she seemed resigned to the fact that he most likely wanted some sort of sexual favors from her.

He wanted to correct her immediately, but figured he would do better if he just followed her. Once they were at the destination she was leading them to, he could talk to her. So he let her lead the way.

She held onto the boy’s hand the entire way. Graeme thought it was odd that the boy hadn’t yet said a single word. But he didn’t find it odd that the girl kept looking at him in a way that said that any moment he looked elsewhere, brother and sister would be gone.

He hid a grin. Well, she would be very disappointed. He was a hundred percent sure he would find them, wherever they hide.

Finally, she stopped at the back of an old building.

It looked a lot like an abandoned warehouse. Graeme couldn’t figure out what she was doing until she pulled out a loose board revealing an opening that proved to be a way into the building.

She and the boy slipped inside and then she turned around and looked at him.

“Come on, then,” she said abruptly.

“What is this place?” Graeme asked as he squeezed himself in the opening.

“Home sweet home,” she said in a tone dripping with derision. “Sorry, it’s not the TajMahal.”

“Are you telling me that this is where you live?” he asked, stunned.

“More or less,” she said.

All Graeme could do was shake his head. He was also surprised to find that his eyes had tears in them. Rarely did things affect him so much anymore, but this… there were no words for this situation.

This poor woman and whoever this boy was should not have been forced to live this way. No one should be forced to live this way.

As he looked around the very large room, he saw a couple of bare mattresses lying on the floor along with an assortment of blankets. There was what looked to be a propane camping stove and some things that looked like a couple of eating utensils and plates. There were boxes and other things that he was unable to identify.

“Look,” she said, her voice hard but husky, trying with difficulty to show bravado, “let me get him settled and then I’ll settle up with you.”

She took the boy by the hand again and led him over to one of the mattresses. As Graeme watched, she put his crackers and deviled ham on a plate and spoke softly to him. But her face was cold and hard again when she turned around and walked back over to him.

“Okay, follow me.”

Graeme did follow her but not for the reasons she thought. When they were out of sight of the boy, she turned to face him with a determined look on her face.

She also looked very pale. And this time, she was not looking at him.

With trembling hands, she reached for the waist of his jeans.

Graeme just couldn’t let that go on. His hands reached and gripped her wrist, stopping her from touching him.

She jumped and wide eyes flew to his face.

He lived as an angel for what constituted like eternity to humans like this woman, and that should be enough for him to feel validated about where his stood.

But as she looked at him like that, he felt like he was really a very bad person.

“No. Look, you’ve got the wrong idea. It is true that I need to talk to you, but it’s not what you think. This isn’t what I need. I wanted to ask you something.”

“What is it?” she asked, not even hiding the fact about how relieved she was. Color had come back to her face, and she wanted to believe him so much that she was asking.

“What is your name?”

She frowned, and again, she looked defensive and very suspicious. “Why do you give a fuck what my name is?” she asked him crudely.

“Because I’m looking for someone and I think you may be that person. But before I can be sure, I need for you to tell me your name.”

She remained looking at him, her lips thinning, her eyes distrustful.

“Please. I promise you that you can trust me. My name is Graeme St. Paul and I’m a private investigator, not a cop. If you give me the right name, I’ve got a very wonderful surprise for you.” He made it sound as if he was going to give her money, and they both knew she needed it badly enough. “But you’ve got to tell me what your name is.”

But she wasn’t easily swayed. She still did not trust completely. “Seriously? Is game playing something that gets you off, man? What? I tell you my name and then your ‘wonderful surprise’ turns out to be you whipping your dick out of your pants and shouting ‘surprise’! I don’t think so. Now, let’s just get this over with or go the fuck away and leave us alone.”

“That’s some mouth you’ve got on you,” Graeme commented. “I wanted do this the nice way, but you’re obviously not going to let me do that. So, you really give me no choice.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” she demanded, still giving him a serious glare.

“I’m talking about the fact that all I need from you is your name. If you’ve got the right name, I’m going to change your life. Now, may I please have your name?”

“Fine,” she muttered, looking very tired suddenly. “My name’s Kiara.”

“Kiara,” Graeme repeated. “Now that wasn’t so hard, was it? That’s a beautiful name. May I have your last name?”

“I am Kiara Shannon,” she mumbled.

“Thank you, Kiara,” Graeme said. “It’s lovely to finally meet you. Who is that young man with you?”

“He’s my brother,” Kiara replied, still glaring at him.

“Ah, I see. I wasn’t aware that you had a younger brother. It doesn’t matter. I need for both of you to come with me, please. I’ve got some really wonderful and important information for you.”

“Why would I trust you? I don’t know you!” Kiara protested.

“Kiara, I totally understand what you’re saying. Tell me what would make you feel more comfortable about coming with me and I’ll do it. I’ve also got a pretty great place for you and your brother to hang out until we’ve got everything sorted.”

Kiara continued to stare at him with those incredible eyes. She was no more than 5’3 to 5’4 and was a tiny bit on the too slender side. But she had such amazing energy coming off of her in waves. Suddenly, it seemed as if she simply caved in.

“Fine,” she said in a defeated tone. “We’ll come with you. I don’t suppose you can do anything worse to us than others have tried. You need to understand one thing, though. I’m not quite as fragile as I look and if you do anything to hurt my little brother, I
will
fuck you up! Do we understand each other?”

“I swear to you that I will not hurt you or your brother,” he said in a voice soft and sincere.

She shrugged and without preamble, walked away in the direction of where her brother sat shoveling the crackers and deviled ham into his mouth. It was obvious she did not give much value to promises, and for some reason, he could not blame her. Stooping down, she spoke quietly to the boy, who looked over at Graeme and stared the rest of the time that Kiara spoke to him. Finally, he nodded and got to his feet.