Chapter 16: The Evidence.

Luke was lying on the couch, wide awake. He hadn’t been able to sleep. Laura hadn’t
either, until he convinced her to take a sleeping pill. Now she was still sleeping
upstairs.
Luke stared at all of the pictures on the mantle. All of the pictures Laura loved.
The ones she had so painstakingly, and in some cases foolishly and dangerously,
collected over the years.

How could it have gone wrong so quickly? Why couldn’t they have gotten there sooner?
‘Maybe if I had run faster, I would have been able to get to my son on time’ he
thought.

A particular picture caught his attention. One which he had not wanted Laura to keep,
because it might have gotten them caught while they were on the run. Now, though, he
was glad that she had kept it.
It was of him and Lucky in Mexico. They were standing in front of a huge fountain in
downtown Guadalajara. Lucky was about six in this picture. He was smiling, and his
blue eyes shined with merriment. Luke had him up on his shoulders and was also
smiling.
‘Will I ever see my son again?’ Luke wondered. ‘Will I ever see those baby blues
shine like that again?’
He was sinking deeper and deeper into a depression when the phone rang loudly at his
side. He picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Luke, it’s Mac...”.
Luke cut him off . “Have you found anything?”
“We searched Tom Baker’s apartment and found a few things. I would like for you and
Laura to come and take a look”.
“Is it bad?” Luke asked.
“Just get here” Mac said and hung up.

********

Thirty minutes later, Luke and Laura were seated at the PCPD observation room waiting
for Mac.
Mac came in holding the shoe box they had found in Baker’s desk, Garcia right behind
him.
He had debated long and hard over showing the items in the box to Lucky’s parents.
Mac knew, however, that Luke and Laura needed to see this, because they had to
prepare themselves for the worst. What was in the box showed what an unbalanced
individual Tom Baker was. If he hadn’t killed Lucky yet, he was certainly capable of
it.

“What did you find, Bubba?” Luke asked.
“I need you to be calm for this, ok?”
“Just show us” Laura said.
Mac placed the box in front of them and sat at the other side of the table. “We found
this in a drawer in Tom Baker’s desk at his house. Fingerprint analyses have already
been conducted, so you’re free to touch the items.

Luke hesitated for a moment before opening the box and extracting the pictures and
yearbook. They both gasped in shock as they realized the implications of what they
were seeing. Laura was even crying. Sobbing, really.
They slowly went through every item, including the panties, examining each one
carefully. Dread, hopelessness, and even guilt was slowly replacing the hope they had
worked so hard to maintain.

“Son of a bitch” Luke said when he was finished looking at the items. Laura slumped
against him, at a loss for words.
“How could he? They’re just kids. How did he get away with it? Wasn’t the police
watching him?” Luke was getting angrier by the minute. Not just angry at the PCPD or
Tom Baker, but also angry at himself.
“The PCPD doesn’t watch blackmailers” Taggert said as he walked into the room.
Luke stood and turned towards him, giving Taggert a whitening look. “Does the PCPD
watch murderers?” Luke said, feeling a cold fear descend over him as he uttered the
words.
“Mr. Spencer, all Lieutenant Taggert is saying is that it’s not procedure to keep
tabs on blackmailers until they commit a worse crime” Garcia said, trying to smooth
things over. Luke just glared at him too. He leaned down and helped Laura up.
“Luke, those pictures don’t mean anything” Mac said.
“Like hell they don’t. The guy obviously held a grudge towards my son. How does that
not mean anything?”
“We’re doing everything in our power to find him. We will find him. As of this
afternoon, we have extended our search to the surrounding states as well”.
“You think they’re out of the state?” Laura asked.
“It’s been a little over 36 hours, and there’s no sign of them here. The river turned
out empty. They must have left the state by now. All we have to do now is figure out
in which direction they went”.
“Let us know when you find anything” Laura said and walked towards the door, Luke
behind her.
“By the way” Mac said. “Keep the existence of these pictures to yourselves. Don’t
tell anyone, especially Miss Webber”.
Luke just nodded and left the room.

“Well, that could have been worse” Taggert said.
“It also could have gone better” Mac said.
“What were you thinking, Taggert?” Garcia asked. “Do you hate both Luke and Lucky
Spencer so much that you would rub Lucky’s disappearance in his parent’s face?”
“I just stated a simple fact” Taggert said. “If they didn’t like it, it’s not my
problem” he said and walked out.
Mac shook his head. “It’s useless, Garcia. I don’t think he has any compassion for
that particular family”.

********

Taggert found himself outside headquarters. Garcia’s little comment had gotten to
him, though he wouldn’t show it. He hadn’t meant to rub anything in, he was just
stating a fact. True, he despised Luke Spencer and what he did for a living, but
Lucky wasn’t included in that. No matter how much of a punk Taggert thought Lucky
was, he didn’t deserve what had happened to him.
Taggert had seen how much what Tom did to Elizabeth had affected Lucky, and he was
almost touched by it. He also had to admire the kid’s courage. That day outside the
court room when Tom baited Elizabeth with the comment about Valentine’s day, Lucky
had attacked Tom. Taggert could gave easily hauled him to jail for assault, but didn’
t because he knew Baker deserved it. He deserved that and much more.
Lucky was just a kid. If there was anything that Taggert hated, it was violence
against kids. Taggert would do anything he could, to find Lucky.
He owed him that much.

********

Luke and Laura went home. It was early evening by the time they got back from the
police station.
They had gone by to pick up Lulu from Bobbie’s, but she had convinced them that they
needed a break and that Lulu should stay with her. After a little convincing, they
had agreed, and Lulu was delighted to have a sleep over.
They wearily sat on the couch. They were both still in shock about the pictures Mac
had shown them. They were both frightened and neither knew what to say to make the
other feel better.
Finally, Laura spoke. “Do you think Tom would really kill Lucky?” Laura asked so
softly that, at first, Luke thought that he’d imagined it.
He didn’t want to say what he was really thinking because he didn’t want to scare
her.

He was afraid. Those pictures were proof that Tom Baker was unstable. Someone that
could be capable of anything. He was afraid for his son, and what he must be going
trough. Luke had to find him. He knew the PCPD were doing something, but he really
didn’t have much faith in them. He needed more help.
“I don’t know, Angel” he said truthfully.

He got up and raised Laura with him. He knew she was tired, and he wanted to put her
in bed before he left. They went up to their room and Luke convinced her to take
another sleeping pill. She did, and he stayed with her until she fell asleep.
Then he left to find another alternative.

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