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Blake: Sure.
As a Texas Ranger, Garrett Cooper was always working late and traveling throughout the state chasing criminals or offering protection to witnesses, so Blake wasn’t surprised that Garrett was still at work after eight o’clock at night. It also wasn’t unusual for the FBI and the Texas Rangers to join forces on large cases. Blake just wasn’t aware of any such open case at the moment, so he wondered why Garrett needed him to stop by.
He drove the short distance from Madigan’s to Ranger Headquarters, and garnered more than a few stares as he strode into the building. He passed by the front desk, flashing his badge at the woman who seemed to be otherwise preoccupied with someone on the phone demanding information about some ongoing investigation. She waved him by with a tense smile and he nodded, his gaze locking with Garrett’s who was already rising from his desk.
“Thanks for coming,” Garrett said, offering his hand to Blake.
“What’s going on?” Blake shook his friend's hand and clapped him on the back. “You guys lose someone?” It was a running joke between the guys that if the Rangers or P.D. ever lost a witness or criminal, they always went crying to the FBI to help locate them.
Garrett shook his head, and it was then that Blake noticed the bags under his friend’s eyes. “Hey, you okay?” Blake asked. “Cause you look like shit, my friend.”
Without answering, Garrett led him back to his desk where he sat and motioned for Blake to sit in the seat across from his desk. “It’s been a hell of a few weeks, but that’s not why I asked you to stop by.” Garrett pulled out a file and slid it across over to Blake. “Take a look.”
Eyeing Garrett with slight caution, not sure what he was going to find, Blake reached over and opened the top flap of the file. The first thing he saw was the photograph of a woman. She had brown hair and eyes, and looked to be in her early thirties. There was something familiar about her, but he couldn’t quite place her.
“That’s Teresa Graham,” Garrett supplied. “For the last several months, ever since Caden and Luke rescued Orly from that hospital in Arizona, I’ve been trying to locate her in the hopes that she might know something about her brother, maybe even where his bodies are buried, literally and metaphorically. Last trace I have of her is that she was questioned here in Dallas by the FBI.”
Blake stared at the photo. He remembered the woman now, clear as day. He’d even spoken to her just hours after that fiasco, but he hadn’t seen her since. “I talked to her,” Blake confirmed. “She refused to say a single word until we got her out of Arizona, so we brought her here. She didn’t seem to know anything besides that Russell had stuck her in that hospital against her will, and she planned to stay as far away from him as she could.”
“Did she give any reason why he would do something like that?” Garrett asked.
“No, and when I went digging into her hospital records, they all seemed to be jumbled up. I had nothing to hold her on, so I let her go with the intent to follow up, but then other cases came up, and I got shot, and then suspended, and well, you know the rest.”
“It seems no one has seen or heard from her since,” Garrett said.
“Are you implying I stashed her somewhere, because I didn’t,” Blake said, only half-jokingly.
“No, of course not. I’m only bringing this up to you because you seem to have been the last one to see her.”
“What about Russell Graham? Could he have found her, taken her to another hospital, maybe?” Blake was remembering more and more of his conversation with Teresa, and she didn’t seem all that crazy to him. Sure, she wouldn’t look him in the eye, preferring to stare at the table or the floor the entire time he was in the room with her, but that didn’t mean she was a danger to herself or others. She could’ve just been shy. “I don’t think she was crazy,” Blake finally said. “I’m not a doctor, but I don’t think she belonged in that hospital.”
Garrett tapped a pen on the desk. “Russell probably put her there to keep her quiet. She must know something big, and we both know Russell Graham will go to any lengths to keep a witness quiet. Just look at what he did to Orly.”
“We have Feds discretely keeping an eye on him out in Los Angeles. Caden has been handling that aspect of the case, but he would’ve told me if Russell was seen kidnapping people, especially his own sister.”
“I can’t help but feel like we’re all just spinning our wheels. In the meantime, I’ve got Luke breathing down my neck to find a woman who seems to have vanished.”
Blake sat up in his chair. “Hold on a second. Why is Luke putting pressure on you? There’s no reason to believe that Teresa is even in Texas anymore. For all we know she could be in Maine by now, happily living her life on a fishing boat or something.”
Garrett smirked. “Wouldn’t that be something? I wouldn’t mind being someplace like that myself right about now.” He was quiet for a long moment before saying, “I think she’s still in Texas. The border patrol checkpoint to the west has her most recent DMV photo, so I would’ve heard from them if she had tried to go back to home to Arizona, or even to Russell in California. As for going north or east, while it’s possible, I just don’t see how. She has no other living relatives aside from her step brother, and she left the hospital with no money and no vehicle - nothing. It’s been months, and the woman just vanished without a trace. I’ve checked the prisons, all the women’s shelters, hospitals, even halfway homes, and no one has seen her.” Garrett leaned back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head and interlocking his fingers at the nape of his neck. “I have a bad feeling about this, Blake. I don’t think Teresa Graham ever left Texas. I think she’s somewhere right under our noses and in serious trouble.”
Blake exhaled loudly, releasing some of the tension building up inside him at hearing his friend’s worries. He had enough on his plate dealing with Skyla, trying to steer Vivian in the wrong direction while protecting Hallie, and even Orly. Juggling the whereabouts and safety of yet another woman was more than he could handle right now. “Have you talked to Caden about this?” Blake asked, hoping his colleague might’ve given Garrett some ideas on how to handle the situation.
“Not yet. Like I said, I have her file, and you were the last person to talk to her. I kind of hoped you’d have an idea of where she was. Are you sure she didn’t say anything to you about where she was headed, or maybe some friends she might be staying with in the area?”
“No,” Blake said. “I could probably dig up the transcripts, but if she’d told me anything like that, I would’ve put it in my notes.”
“There’s nothing here. Not even a forwarding address,” Garrett said, showing him the blank field on the form.
“That’s not right. We always get an address. Let me see that.” Blake extended his arm and Garrett handed him the stack of papers in front of him that weren’t in the file. Blake looked at each field, noting how the lines were filled in. Some with his handwritten notes. Others with typed information. There were several lines that appeared blank, as if Blake had simply forgotten to fill them in, but that wasn’t possible. Caden or Avery would’ve noticed that when they processed and approved the forms for filing. Blake held the paper up to the light, noticing a fine black line going through the middle of the blank section. “I think it was deleted or whited out,” he said, more to himself than to Garrett. “Shit, someone erased the information, making it appear like it was never there to begin with.”
“Who the hell would do that?” Garrett snatched the paper out of Blake’s hand to get another look at it. “I’ve seen the Feds redact documents, but you guys don’t erase shit, do you?”
“No,” Blake said, swallowing at the thought of all the erasing they’d done to protect Hallie. But that was different. Teresa Graham didn’t need that kind of protection. “Who is this woman? Maybe she was on a most wanted list or in a witness protection program? That’s the only thing that makes sense right now.”
“I ran her name through every database I could think of. It doesn’t pop up as being in any of the witness protection programs. As for most wanted lists, that - makes no sense.” Garrett pinched the bridge of his nose. “I hate this. I hate this for Orly, for Luke, and for all of us, because Teresa Graham could be the key to putting her step brother in prison and throwing away the key. But we’ll never know unless we find her. And I can’t seem to find even a sliver of information on the woman.”
“Look, I can’t say much, but we’re working another angle in the Russell Graham case. Even if Teresa Graham could be helpful, we’ll get the S.O.B. with or without her. We just need a little more time.”
