Waking from hibernation
驚蟄 [18] / [20]
"The investigator has retired already. And we don't need to meet him for this case. You already have every report he's compiled, including pictures. But there's nothing useful about finding out who Sarah is. The person you assumed to be Lucas has said nothing about the incident, and he left soon after for good. Also, the orphanage didn't seem very concerned,"
she handed him a paper.
"Patrick Collins, unknown age, about 15, 16, he said. Is that all they wrote down about an orphan they had living with them?"
He was stunned. The document was too sparse.
"We cannot blame them for that. Most of the orphanages cannot help relying on what the orphan said about him/herself."
Alexander kept thinking. He was not very optimistic. He felt like even if Lucas was really that Collins boy, Lucas wouldn't give them a clue about Sarah. He feared they were at a fatal impasse. A dead end. Unless . . .
"Are there any medical records for the boy on file? They should've done blood work at some point."
It was a long shot. When they booked Lucas, they noted his blood type as AB negative; an extremely rare blood type, which, to this point, had been fairly irrelevant. Cynthia called the orphanage. As it turned out, there was a medical file on the Collins boy, but, for some reason, it wasn't included in the main dossier.
"You know how these places are," said Alexander,
"Kids are shuffled in and out with regular frequency, so a lot of stuff gets lost in the shuffle, misplaced, or just tossed out. Our tax dollars at work."
The orphanage agreed to send over the full report the next morning, refraining from releasing any details over the phone due to privacy concerns.
"Privacy concerns,"
said Alexander sarcastically, with a scoff.
“As if these people could be fucked to even remember the kid's name after all these years."
Cynthia smiled, amused, shaking her head. Alex had been stuck in the office all day, and hadn't had a chance for a smoke break.
The next day, at around 9 am, they got their answer: AB negative. It wasn't a sure thing, but it narrowed things down considerably and gave Alexander enough ammunition to at the very least try to get Lucas to admit if he was indeed Patrick Collins. It was still a long shot, but worth a bluff.
