Daddy Issues

Monica and I sat on our bed in our Undersea Hotel Room...We were still investigating the death of a young Swim and Diving Instructor ,who it turned out was leading a double life as a high priced prostitute down her in Octopus Gardens...

"So Nate, Do you ever wonder why I am drawn to death?...Why I am a Homicide cop?" she asked again..

I didn't answer...I just stared at her...

"As you know...I am a Mutant and My Twin sister Monique is not!....My Mother is also a mutant..."she said.

Their mother was a fox too...Monica and Monique and their mother could all pass for twins ,except for the hair...Their mother had Grey Hair...Monique had Reddish brown hair and Monica had Black hair...Three beautiful women in one household..Incredible..

Monica  continued-

"I always felt that my daddy favored Monique more because she like him was normal...They did things together...I got the impression he was afraid of me...Somehow...I don't know why....I was sent to Professor Xavier's school for "Gifted Children" ie-Mutants..I didn't go to the same schools as Monique..."she said.

''Yeah, but you were an Honor Student...You were the Valedictorian..."I said.

"Wow, you investigated me huh?" Monica laughed..

''When I first met you, When I became your partner....I wanted to know everything about you....When I wasn't with you...I was thinking about you...So I looked you up.." I said.

"Awwww booo." she said. "Well anyway....When I discovered that girl's dead body with that tattoo on it..and I called my daddy...It was the first time..We did something together...The first time we had a common interest....When he came home at night, the entire time he was working the case...He talked to me..It made me feel special...And like I said...I went to college, did a stint in the Air force and thought about being a lawyer and all the while I knew from that day, when I discovered that girl with the Mermaid tattoo..

I knew I was going to be a cop....A Detective...Just like my daddy...I felt bad that that was the one case he never closed...He was philosophical about it...He said that there are some cases that just go cold like that...Cases you'll never solve...He said at his retirement that he was glad that out of all his homicide cases, that that was the only one he left behind and not more..."she said.

''Was he proud of you when you graduated as "Honor Recruit"? I asked.

"WOW!!! You really did do your homework on me didn't you? Yes...He was very proud...It brought tears to his eyes...He told me that he loved both of his daughters equally and that he never meant for me to feel any other way....I went on to make detective and then to join Homicide and you should hear how he brags about me and Monique....Both of us kind of deal with the dead...Speak for the dead..Just like he did.."she beamed...

I leaned over and kissed her passionately......

"You were just waiting to do that weren't you?" asked Monica.

"Yeah...you know that!"I said...

 Monica giggled and took me in her arms and we kissed and made out on that bed like two teenagers!


Soon we were undressed and making love yet again...


''Wow" I said...


"I know right?" said Monica..."We are really giving this bed a workout.." she said..


She wrapped her legs around my waist and soon I was plunging deep inside her wet and warm center...


"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Nate...Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuu , don't stop babyyy!" she moaned...


"Awwww my goodness Mo-Mo.."I said in between hungry, sloppy kisses....


Her body was as soft as a newborn baby and she smelled great....I was losing my mind slowly as we made love...


Five hours slipped by slowly and we were still making love...


"I love you Nate" she whispered softly...


"I love you too Mo-Mo."I said softly...


A school of fish swam by our window...We laughed a little bit...

Another hour went by before we both came together ,holding each other tightly and kissing each other slowly ,softly and passionately...



II-

Some hours later ,We were back at the apartment of our victim with a Crime Scene Investigation team...going over the apartment for prints and DNA...It was fastidious work....

I supervised the entire thing, They seperated the victims DNA and Fingerprints from several men who had been in the apartment and in the bed...

Monica checked off all of the johns we interviewed and swim and dive students...Which narrowed down the DNA and Fingerprints to one person....One person that wasn't on our list...

Detective Kylie White called us back...

''Whoever that DNA and fingerprints belonged to,it's not anybody in the system...I can't find it...I've called the FBI and Interpol...I'll call you back when I get something.."she said.

Finally I looked at Monica...

"We've done everything we can do here...We might as well head back to the surface."I said..

"Maybe there is one more thing...We can do "said Monica.

We scrubbed the cameras of a bar ,she was known to frequent and that she visited later on on the night she was last seen alive...After an hour of looking, we found it and found our man..

"This guy right here....Look...He's tall, slender ,blonde and wearing a trenchcoat down here in this controlled air enviroment...He 's having a drink with her and they are leaving together..."I said..

"You know...He matches the profile of my dad's suspect....I'm not saying that the two cases are mixed....but that's mighty funny and peculiar...and I swear he sure looks familiar from the back...Something about the way he stands...and walks.. I'd swear I'd seen this guy before."said Monica.

Again we sent the  photo to Detective Kylie White...

"You don't have a good photo of his face...Can't get photo recognition...This is all you got?" she asked.

"Yeah....That's all we got." I sighed...

"Like you said...We are done here...Let's go home Bae." said Monica.

I passed her the keys to the Hyper Sub we rented and we headed back to shore...Back to Philadelphia.

III-

As our Hyper Sub mored....Monica and I were met by Monique and the Zigster.....

"Hi Sis, Brother ....I've missed you two.."said Monique ,hugging us...

"Just stop it...You and the Lieutenant have been having Mind Blowing sex every night we were gone.."said Monica..

''Shoot, not just every night...Lunch time...After Dinner...Midnight...Whew...I'm exhausted...I did miss yall." she said...

"That's the sister I love." said Monica...

"You guys look like you could use a drink." said the Zigster...

"You read our minds Zig!" I said...

Monique punched me playfully...

"I'm not the only one that was having mind blowing sex....I see you sweated my sister's perm out."said Monique...

''Well damn girl...You made her look too sexy...I couldn't control myself...Next time tone it down.."I laughed..

Monica kissed me...

"What was that for?" I asked, laughing.

''For always making me feel special.." she laughed...and hugged me.

IV-

Monica and I went home, changed our clothes and headed for her house...The House she grew up in....

"Nate, you really think my mom is a fox huh?" she laughed... I knew she had read my mind...

"I think all the women in your family that I've met are foxes... You, Your sister and your mom....I mean, you all look alike.."I said Honestly...

"Yeah, when the boys found out that Monique had an identical twin sister...There was a hoard of visitors to our house and then when they met my mom, even more...A couple of guys tried to hit on my mom until they found out who my daddy was and what he did for a living.."she laughed. "I think some of their fathers had their eyes on my mom!" she said...We both laughed.

"Are you serious?" I asked..

"Yeah!" laughed Monica...

We arrived at the house she grew up in.....Her mother answered the door..

Mrs. Talbert came to the door..She had a short haircut that was just starting to gray....Outside of that ,she looked just like Monica and Monique...She was wearing a gray Mini-Skirt and stylish Gray heels...Her father was a very happy man,I'm sure..

"Mo-Mo....Is that you?  and Nate....Come here...give your mother in law a hug..."said Mrs. Talbert...

"Hello Mrs. Talbert..."I said.

"Hi Mommy."said Monica.

"How's my baby?" asked Mrs. Talbert who gave her youngest daughter,by three minutes, a big hug.....

And then the man of the hour showed up...Former Detective Ray Talbert...The man, the legend...

Tall, cool, suave and urbane...Ray Talbert looked Legendary....Like the great detective he was....Who Always got his man...He looked a lot younger than he actually was...I wondered if anybody in this family ever aged!

He hugged his daughter and spun her around...


"Mo-Mo!" he said...

Monica giggled like a school girl...


"Hi Daddy!" she said.

"Come on stay...Have dinner with us.....I've got two more steaks to throw on the grill.."said Mrs. Talbert.

We had a wonderful dinner...Steaks, Baked Potato, string beans, Corn on the Cob and a nice salad...

We had a nice tall glass of Ice Tea to chase it down...

"Delicious Meal Mrs. Talbert.."I said and got up and began collecting and washing the dishes....Both parents were stunned..

"Alright...What's going on? You two visit out of the blue...Have dinner with us....Oh My God....Mo-Mo are you pregnant?" asked Mrs. Talbert

"Noooo ma, but it's not for Nate's lack of trying...He can't keep his hands off of me.." laughed Monica..

"Okay...So why are you guys here???...You two didn't just pop over here for nothin."said Ray...

"Daddy, I got a ...Nate and Me have a case....and it's bothering us...Me ,especially ,It's bothering me!" said Monica..

"Mo-Mo...I told you when you made Detective that there would be cases like this...It's the job..."he said and smiled.

Monica showed him a photo of the Hyper Sub with the dead blonde in it...Her mother gasped.

 ''Mo-Mo...she's got a bullet wound in her head....I told Ray the day you found that other girl's body that he should have shielded your eyes...Not let you see such a thing."said Mrs. Talbert ,who had been a school teacher.

"Mommy I had already seen her.." said Monica...

"Water under the bridge.. She had already seen it...and she was afraid.. What was I supposed to do? I had to explain it to her..."said Ray Talbert..."Now both of my babies work together in the noble profession of speaking for those who can't speak for themselves anymore...I couldn't be prouder.." he said with a glimmer in his eye as he hugged Monica.

"Dad...Look!" said Monica. "Nate and Me found her in this Hyper Sub, day before last, look at the tattoo on the calf...and her name is Sandy too!" she said.

Ray Talbert looked like he'd seen a ghost...

"Oh My God! He's back....After all these years....He's claimed another one.."he said..Visibly shaken..

''We've been in Octopus Gardens for two days...searching for clues...We found the guy who did this Tattoo and your murder victim's tattoo, but he alibied out..He's not our guy...He admitted to us that he lied to you years ago about making the tattoo."I said.

"That would be Charlie S."said Ray Talbert, who had a keen memory ."

"Right Daddy." said Monica.

"He's still around chasing women?" he asked.

"Yeah...He's in Octopus Gardens now..." said Monica.

"That's where his daddy banished him ....They're kind of ashamed of him.....I interviewed him three times but he had a solid alibi and plus...He never struck me as the violent type."said Ray...

"Did you have any other leads Dad?" asked Monica.

"One more, but I told you about him....He alibied out too and he died of a heart attack, right after I stopped investigating this and got involved in another case. My partner Rick thought that he looked good for the murder..I never did..." said Ray..

 "Nate and I ran into Uncle Rick a few days ago...when we were investigating our vic's condo."said Monica.

"Oh You did huh? I haven't seen him in years...Since I left the force...We were partners...but ole Rick...He had wandering eyes...and that's what busted him and Nellie up...and after they broke up...He got distant..Happens sometimes.."said Ray Talbert..getting meloncholly as he thought of his old partner.

Monica sensed her father's sadness at the loss of closeness with his old partner and changed the subject..

"Those were special times Daddy, you and me investigating a case.." said Monica..

"It's what lead you to where you are now...This is your murder....Not mine...What have you done?" he asked.

 "We interviewed all of her family members and all of the people she works with...She's a Swim and dive instructor...We found a second phone with the names of all of her male clients and we interviewed them and they all alibied out..."I said.

He nodded in approval..

''We went to Octopus Gardens and we traced Charlie S. We found him by accident...We reconstructed her final hours...We used credit and debit cards and we scrubbed the business and hotel cams and we found Charlie S. ,but he alibied out...but look who we did find...This guy!"said Monica.

"We had the room scrubbed for prints and DNA...We isolated and ruled out all but one set of prints and DNA....It's not in the system...and because we don't have this guy's face...We can't get facial recognition."I sighed...

''Which brings you guys here....To me...This guy looks familliar...I would swear I'd seen him before..HE's tall..but he's got all of that hair and I can't see his face...This isn't really a good photo Mo-Mo."said Ray Talbert, playfully punching his daughter in the shoulder.

"Yeah! I know.." said Monica, laughing.

"Your murder has some simularities...Both victims name was Sandy...Mine was an outright prostitute ,Yours was leading a double life...Our only suspect was a tall thin man,possibly wearing a hairpiece, who was smart enough to never get his face on camera...and both of our trails went cold from there right.?" he said.

"Pretty Much."said Monica...

Mrs. Talbert looked at me...

"Nate...While they are talking cop talk...Let me take the time to thank you for looking after my daughters....They both love you....Mo-Mo says she never has felt safer than when you're out there on the street with her, having her back...And she has never been as happy as when she talks about you.. And my other daughter Monique...Well she has loved you since the first time Mo-Mo brought you over here to meet us...She loves how happy you make her sister and she says you're funny and she loves it that the three of you live together...Thank you...for making my girls happy and safe...And I like it that you think I'm hot!" she said and winked at me...

"Monica told you I said that?" I said embarrassed...

"Mo-Mo talks about you so much it's not funny.... I know she acts like a tough cookie.. But you have melted her down.. You are her weakness.. She's crazy about you Nate." she said.

"I'm crazy about her too.."I said.

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, that's so sweet....Oh I know you are...I see the way you look at her..."she said.

Monica continued talking to her father...

"I never wanted this to happen to you baby....But I suppose it happens to every detective...That one case that haunts you...the one killer you can't catch.....Don't let it tear you apart...You got a good husband, who adores you...Be happy and satisfied with that.. By the way...Is that Lieutenant of yours ever going to put a ring on my other daughter's finger?" he asked..

"Ahhhhh you need to uhhh talk to Monique about that..."said Monica diplomatically..

Ray hugged his daughter....

"Baby..if anybody can crack this case...You can!!!!...Go back over everything...Make sure you didn't miss anything..." he said.

"Thank you Daddy,."said Monica.

I put my arms around Monica and I whispered in her ear..

"We are gonna crack this baby..It's no more complex than other cases we've cracked.."I said.

Monica hugged me...

"Let's go Home Nate." she said... "Mom, Dad...Love you."said Monica.

"Love you too baby! See ya Kids..Tell Monique to call me..." said Mrs. Talbert...

"Go Get Em Kid. Whoever did this better look out...My daughter is on their trail!" said Ray Talbert...

That meant more to Monica than anyone could know.

(TO BE CONTINUED)