Chapter 19
Daisy loaded the car and made the four-hour drive to Luke’s without incident. She was actually looking forward to learning about his business. While she drove, she thought about Ace and hoped that he wasn’t gone for long and would be home soon. She was already missing him. She said a prayer for the team and their safe return as she drove. She faithfully texted Luke each time she stopped for gas or food, so he wouldn’t be worrying about her. Thankfully she made the trip without any problems.
Luke greeted her at the front door when she arrived. He led her into the house and showed her to a guest room. They spent a few hours catching up again and they had a conversation about her budding relationship with Ace. Daisy was wondering about the mysterious house guest but didn’t see her anywhere around. Luke went downstairs to the kitchen and left Daisy upstairs to rest for a while. When she came down stair a couple of hours later, Luke had supper cooking on the stove. It smelled delicious in the kitchen. Just when they were getting everything on the table for supper, Daisy heard someone entering the front door.
She turned to see a cute young woman coming into the kitchen. She was making a beeline for Luke with a huge smile on her face. She startled when she saw Daisy. Surprise crossed her face and then another emotion, jealousy? Before Daisy could say a word, Luke was headed to the young woman’s side.
“Marley, this is my sister Daisy. She is going to be staying with us for a little while. Her man is out of town and I need to keep an eye on her,” Luke said as he turned to wink at Daisy. Daisy didn’t like the way Luke had made her sound like a weakling in need of a babysitter.
“Daisy, this is Marley. Marley this is my sister, Daisy.” Daisy walked around the dining table and shook the woman’s hand. She smiled at her and Marley returned the smile. She seemed to relax once she heard that Daisy was Luke’s sister. Does she have a thing for him? Daisy wondered to herself.
They enjoyed a lovely dinner of baked spaghetti and salad. Marley enlightened Daisy about her recent misfortune and how Luke was kind enough to help her out. It turned out that Marley had worked at the local bistro where Luke went to eat frequently. They had struck up a friendship before everything had started falling apart for Marley. When Luke over heard her telling a fellow waitress her plight, he stepped in to help her out of the awful situation.
Marley related that some unknown individual or individuals had stolen her identity opened several credit cards and ran up an exurbanite amount of debit. In addition to that, they emptied her bank account including what meager savings she had. All of that led to her being unable to pay her rent and unities. She had been evicted from her apartment and her car was repossessed for lack of payment even though she was sure she had made the payments but all record of her electronic payments was gone. After that had happened her boss started getting phone calls from angry customers saying that Marley had been rude to them, over charged them, and did not wash her hands when handling their food. They threatened to call the health department and put it on Yelp if Marley wasn’t gone from there within the week.
“That’s awful, Marley! I can’t imagine why anyone would want to do such a thing,” Daisy said sadly. “Can you think of anyone you might have pissed off? I can’t imagine you doing that, you seem so sweet, but sometimes you might not even mean to anger someone, and they develop a vendetta,” Daisy puzzled over Marley’s situation.
“I have racked my brain. I mean I pretty much kept to myself, but I waited on a lot of different types of people at the bistro. Some that I worried were of questionable character, but I never interacted with them other than to take their orders and bring them their food,” Marley sighed. “I just can’t fathom why anyone would want to ruin me like this.”
“Don’t worry Marley. I will get to the bottom of this and get you your life back,” Luke declared sincerely. Luke placed his hand on her knee under the table. Marley startled, but looked to him with a soft smile. He squeezed her knee briefly. Before he could move his hand, Marley placed her hand over his and twined her fingers with his and squeezed back.
When the meal was over and the dished had been taken care of, Daisy headed to the guest room. She was more than tired and was worried about Ace and what he might be facing on his mission. She wished with all that she was, that she was over there with him. She would know immediately if anyone were injured and could help to care for them. She struggled to find sleep as the worry for Ace swirled around in her head.
The next morning at breakfast Luke asked her to ride to work with him and he would help her get oriented to the office and what he might need her to do. The first couple of days went well for Daisy. She answered the phone and took messages. She made the lunch run and grabbed coffee and afternoon snacks. She did a few Google searches, but nothing very complicated.
She helped Luke go over some camera footage of the culprit who used a fake debit card at an ATM to drain money from Marley’s bank account. The images were grainy, but with a little tweaking they finally had an image. Luke sent the film to a computer expert friend of his that had access to facial recognition software. Luke informed her it will take another day or two before they would have any more information.
Daisy was settling into a routine with Luke and Marley. She had breakfast and supper with them most every day. She headed up to her room shortly after as she felt like they wanted some privacy. Luke hadn’t said anything, but Daisy was certain that Luke liked Marley as more than a client. On her fourth day there, Luke called her to his office.
“I need you to do me a favor,” Luke informed her as soon as she entered his office. He seemed a little nervous which had her curiosity peaked. “Sure, Luke what do you need me to do?” Daisy asked. She moved to his side to look at his computer screen.
“I have a name and address of the perp that used the ATM card. I want you to go check out the address, get some pictures, do a little surveillance. I DON’T want you to go inside or try to talk to anyone, okay? Just get some information so we can formulate a plan on how to approach this guy,” Luke gave Daisy the I’m-the-big-brother-do-as-I-have-instructed look.
Daisy smiled at him, demurely. “Of course, Luke. I know what you mean. I won’t do anything foolish,” Luke looked at her skeptically. Before he could comment, his phone rang about that time.
“Luke here,” He listened intently. He paled slightly and quickly looked to Daisy. She frowned in question to him. What was going on? What had upset him so badly? “You’re sure?” Luke continued. “Yeah, she’s here with me at the office…Okay, what’s the ETA...Alright, we’ll be here,” Luke ended the call without saying goodbye.
“What’s going on Luke? Who was on the phone?” Daisy asked. She suddenly had a very bad feeling that something awful was about to happen that would change her life forever. When he didn’t respond right away and refused to look her in the eye, Daisy became agitated. “Luke! What the hell is wrong? Talk to me!” Daisy was shouting by this time and some of the other staff had come to peer inside to see what was going on.
“Daisy, that was a friend of mine with the Navy. He wanted to make sure you are here with me. They have been looking for you but couldn’t find you at home and you weren’t answering your cell phone, so he called me,” Luke looked at Daisy then with sympathy in his eyes. Daisy grabbed her phone from her back pocket. She had five missed calls from unknown numbers. She saw that her phone was on silent. She rectified the situation and placed it into her back pocket. What was going on? “The casualty assistance team has been looking for you. They remembered your name from a few weeks ago when they had to contact me when you went MIA so they were hoping I would know where you were.” Again, Luke paused in his explanation.
“Why would they be looking for me?” Daisy whispered the question, but she already knew the answer. She didn’t want to believe it though. Surely, Ace had not put her down as his next of kin, but if he did, was he dead? Daisy felt the blood drain from her body as the fear set in and bile rose in her throat. It couldn’t be true. He couldn’t be gone. She just found him. “NO!” Daisy didn’t even realize she had said it out loud, much less shouted. Luke was suddenly there gathering her to him.
Daisy was shaking violently. Tears had begun to run down her face. This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t survive this, if he was gone. Before she could question Luke further about what the caller had said, there was a knock on his office door. Daisy looked up to see two uniformed officers standing in the doorway. She swallowed hard trying to get herself under control. The men entered the room when Luke waved them in. They closed the door, softly behind them, but the sound of the click was deafening to Daisy. It was the sound of finality.
“Are you Dr. Daisy Duke Robertson?” The first officer asked Daisy once they had entered and shut the door.
“Y-yes,” Daisy choked out around her tears.
“Could we speak to you in private?” The second officer asked. Daisy looked to Luke. She couldn’t bear this alone. She needed her brother with her.
“Can you just tell me?” Daisy demanded.
“Dr. Robertson. You have been listed as the next of kin for Gunnery Sargent Ethan Gibson. We are here to inform you that he is currently missing in action. We have reason to believe that they are alive and well, but there has been no contact with his team for 2 days. We are here to assist you with anything you might need,” The first Officer informed her. “Is there anyone else you would like for us to call for you? Family or close friends?”
Daisy melted to her knees with both fear and relief. She was thankful they were not here to tell her he was dead, but the fact they didn’t know where he was or how he was doing was terrifying to her. She tried to gather her thoughts quickly.
“Can you tell me if Hawk his former team leader has been notified? He works at Camp Lejeune. He’s a Captain. Cpt. Jordan Jackson,” Daisy was grasping for the man’s formal name. She only met him the one time.
