Ana's Daddy

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I smile as I leave Shane's office. He never hesitates to ask for my assistance, but I know this request was humiliating for Shane. He pledged in a drunken mess after his divorce that he would never want love nor waste time looking for it.

I remember how disgracefully Shane was used and spit out by his ex-wife.

Carla Perez is now a name no one who knows Shane dares to utter. She set her sights on him, only to use him. They met at a meeting; she negotiated for the rival company a treaty to work together on a deal. They fell in love and married swiftly; it's what we all saw until Shane's world crumbled. Carla used Shane shamefully to get to all the company secrets to use them against Shane. Gaining the information, the company she worked for used it to win deals and contracts. Which tarnished the name of Shane and his company and made him almost lose the company to bankruptcy. Shane has been fortunate in friends; one of his good friends chipped in to help him save the company. Later, Jeffery and his wife passed away in peculiar circumstances. I couldn't understand the details, even though I had help from a police friend who told me we had to back off.

Leaving the building of Shane's company, I'm contemplating the best course of action to find the girl. Yes, I have to say girl; she should be around 20, but Shane and I are over 40 years old. One can argue the immorality of pursuing a young girl like that. I won't be the one to say that. I found love with a younger woman when I was 31 years old and she was then 23. I have been close to Shane and have seen firsthand the gut-wrenching pain he went through, how he lost faith and believed he was cursed in love. Shane said that since that day, love wasn't in his cards; it never was his fate.

Here we are. Faced with the possibility not that Shane would say that. I pray this girl will heal his heart and love him like he deserves.

I would gladly help Shane with anything in my power, and I will find the girl. It's easier because we know her name, Ana. It's a beautiful name. I head over to the campus to see what information I can find. I know it might be tricky to get more information from the school about her; they have their rules, after all. I think I'd question some young women and men about her since I have her name. I have a girl who helps me sometimes. She's a senior in High school.

Sometimes, it helps to have a girl ask questions closer to their age. This is one of those times I can use this. I pull the phone out of my pocket to call her and scroll down and see her name, Elinor Thomson. I made the call and am lucky she can immediately assist me. Not even 20 minutes pass before I see Elinor in the parking lot at the college. We make a plan, and she will find out what classes Ana has so we can find some classmates and talk to them. Elinor has the innocent charm that always makes people tell her anything she wants to know.

Elinor smiled, leaving the office and holding papers, meaning she got the needed information. This will make finding the right people to talk to much more effortless than shooting in the dark and asking random people questions if they know Ana.

We walk over to a bench and sit down; she hands me the papers. I take them impatiently; I can't wait to see the information on the papers. I skim over the papers. They listed Ana's classes, and there is a list of her classmates for each class. This is the best information we could hope for. I looked at Elinor, who had a smile. Yes, she should be pleased with her work; this makes the job much easier and more effective.

"How did you convince them to give you this?"

"Well, I only told them I needed help from her classmates in her different classes to plan a surprise party for her graduation. And that Ana's friends wanted to chip in to make her graduation special. The woman almost got tears in her eyes as she said she knew Ana would be so happy since she has no family."

"Elinor, you are amazing. You do an outstanding work."

" It serves well that I can look innocent, and all hours I help my father in the police station,"

I say and smile. I know they see an innocent girl when they look at me. From the age of nine, I have watched from the sideline what my father and mother do for a living, and it hardened me in some ways. It's been in my plans since the age of twelve to pursue law enforcement as an occupation. I am grateful for the job I have with Donald. It gives me some pay but also experience.

"Hey Donald, we should divide the work. I could take all the girls. Maybe they would gossip a bit with a girl like me."

"Yeah, that's a good plan. You don't look as deceptive as you are, though. Do you know that?"

I almost laugh at him. I have a shocked facial expression, get a devious grin, and, with delight, say,

"What? I swear I'm a good and innocent girl inside and out."

Which makes us both chuckle.

"Don, let's get some work done."

"Alright, let's say we meet at my car in an hour."

As I said, I still had traces of amusement in my voice; then, we parted ways to do our assignments.

I went on the search for the young men on my list. I soon saw that most of the men I needed to talk to didn't have more classes for the day. It looks like I need to come back tomorrow. I was hoping I could have wrapped up this case swiftly for Shane. I assume Elinor has the same luck; it's afternoon, after all. Shane told me he had seen Ana leave with a young man in a car. I can only imagine the jealousy he must have felt.

I leave the building and stand by my car, waiting to see Elinor. I'm standing there thinking of a plan of action for tomorrow. There she saunters towards me. She's not looking very pleased. Elinor is always dedicated to work and does everything she can for our cases. We must return tomorrow; there is not much else to do.

"Don, I'm not happy. I wanted to get some work done, but I could only find one of the girls. She told me that a young man recently broke up with Ana but she doesn't know much about it."

"Don't worry about it; we will return tomorrow and finish the work. Thanks, Elinor. I hope you can be here tomorrow as well. I'd rather get it done in the morning."

"No problem, I'll meet you here at 9 am. Bye for now."

I say as I wave to Donald and walk to my car.