Two days on, and Ashlee’s condition was stable, she was still unconscious, but the doctor was positive she would soon make a full recovery with no permanent problems. She had been lucky enough to be struck on the side rather than back, which meant her spinal cord had been protected when the impact occurred, and her arms were the first to hit the ground, meaning basically they stood her head gaining the full impact of the ground.
Nick had been debating over the idea of going to where she worked, the hospital had called earlier telling her boss the details of her condition, a nurse had informed Nick he didn’t really seem to care much.
He took a deep breath and pushed open the glass doors that sprawled out into the large foyer of the law firm Johnson & Martin. There was a tall thin girl, no more than 19 years of age sitting behind the curved wooden desk. She looked up and smiled slightly as she flicked her dyed blond hair behind her ears.
“Can I help you?” she smiled, pouting her painted red lips as she talked
“Ah, I'm looking for the manager, uh, Mr. Johnson or someone” Nick muttered
“Mr. Johnson is in a meeting, and Mr. Martin is away at the moment, perhaps I could help?”
Nick sighed quietly to himself before looking across at her name tag, Tracy it read.
“Uh, maybe you could Tracy, did you work with an Ashlee Ryan?” Nick questioned, flashing a smile that was destined to demand cooperation.
“Sure, she was the office junior around here, wasn’t on front desk, she was kind of like Mr. Johnson’s personal secretary”
“You heard what happened?”
“Yeah hit and run, sounds horrible” Tracy spoke, compassion completely lacking in her voice
Nick noticed that immediately and made a mental note, Tracy didn’t seem to like Ashlee, that or she didn’t care.
“You wouldn’t know about her family would you?”
“Doesn’t have any as far as I know. Why do you care so much about Ashlee anyway? You don’t look like a cop” she sighed, putting extreme influence on Ashlee’s name with haunting disgust
“I'm a friend. What do you mean she doesn’t have any?”
“They died when Ashlee was young or something, she’s just had a run of foster homes” Tracy shrugged
“You seem to know a bit about her, were you friends?”
Tracy smirked.
“I suppose” she shrugged, flicking a piece of loose polish from her nails
“Well thanks for your time” Nick smiled slightly, as he backed away
“No problem” she spoke
“One more thing, do you know where she was going lunchtime when she got hit?” Nick questioned, poised at the front door
“To see her boyfriend I think, Jacob or something”
Nick thanked her again and left.
One of the previous addresses were noted with a male, Jacob Cunningham, he would pay him a visit next. Nick was unsure why he’s become fascinated with piecing together a strangers life, she just seemed to look so sad and despite his every ounce of mind power telling him to stay out of it, his heart longed to know why. The ringing of his cell phone jolted him from his daydream.
“Hello?” he answered as he wandered down the semi busy street
“Aren’t you supposed be somewhere?” Amanda spat down the phone line
“Uh” Nick muttered, struggling to remember what it was he’d forgotten
“How about lunch with ME? We made the arrangements last night”
“Shit” Nick whispered to himself, he’d been paying no attention to what Amanda had been saying last night
“So? What are you doing that’s more important than me?”
“Nothing, nothing, where are you?”
“Floyd’s, be here in 5 minutes or I'm leaving”
“Okay, I'm sorry, I’ll be there in a second” Nick sighed
The phone went dead and he shoved it back into his pocket and jumped into his car.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“God, I don’t understand why you are taking so much interest” Amanda sighed as she twirled her fork around her green salad
“She was hit by a car and she’s in intensive care, I think somebody should care about that” Nick replied, staring down at the food in front of him with a complete lack of interest
“So? People die all the time, and people get hurt all the time, you’re not here to play god” she replied with distain strongly in her voice
“What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing, just leave her be, the hospital will do what needs to be done” she shrugged
Nick sighed, “Fine”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I found something I thought might interest you” Mike smiled as he stood in the doorway of Rebecca’s office
She put down the latest copy of Cosmopolitain and smiled.
“You do? What’s that?” she questioned sweetly
“Uh” Mike began, rubbing his eyebrow nervously “the girl, uh, Ashlee, her parents died in a plane accident when she was 10, she’s been shipped around to Aunts and Uncles, and foster homes since then, the latest one was one she left when she was 18, Manhattan, New York, Mr. & Mrs. Baker, she’s had a string of last names, but two years ago reverted to her mothers maiden name, Ryan, as far as I can tell she’s been out here for the last 2 years” he smiled as he finished his sentence.
Rebecca looked up from the pad where she’d scribbled some notes.
“Thanks Mike, I appreciate it”
“No problem” he gushed “Uh Rebecca?”
“Uhuh?” she replied, looking up again
“Maybe we could uh, go out sometime” he snorted
“That’s sweet Mike, but I don’t think Brian would like that very much, maybe we could just keep been friends, how about that?”
He nodded sighing as he walked out of her office, shutting the door behind him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Nick waved goodbye to Amanda as she drove off in the Silver Viper he’d given her last Christmas, as he was walking to his own car, his phone began to ring.
“Hello?” he questioned, putting the phone to his ear
“I found the last bunch of foster parents” Rebecca announced proudly
“You did?”
“Well *I* didn’t, but that doesn’t really matter” she laughed “Got a pen?”
“Hold on” Nick entreated as he ran to his car, opened the door and fumbled around for a pen and paper
“Okay go”
“Mr. and Mrs. Baker, B A K E R, Manhattan, New York”
“An address, phone number?”
“Hold on” Rebecca sighed as she skimmed down the print out Mike had given her
“The area code, whatever that is, then 645-4568”
“645-4568?”
“Yip”
“Thanks Bec, I owe you one”
“Na, you owe Mike a lunch date” she snickered before they said their goodbyes