Fractured

Chapter 7

Shutting their door quietly, hoping Clare wouldn't wake, we headed back to my room where my lamp lit the entire area and our faces. We shut my door behind us and headed towards my bed.  He set Jack down on my bed before he sat on the edge, looking over to all the papers scattered as I climbed up and sat with my back against the headboard.  He didn't look too happy now.

"You have school tomorrow and I have work.  Did that cross your mind?" He asked, not sounding exactly mad but he sure wasn't happy.

I sighed.  "Look I couldn't fall asleep.  I've stayed up late the whole break. You can't expect me to be able to just fall asleep early now.  Plus, Jack was crying again.  So why not skim through the file if I couldn't sleep?"

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.  He didn't say anything for a moment.  Finally he turned towards me more and lifted his legs, crossing them on the bed as he completely faced me and all the papers before us.  "So you must have found something good if it couldn't wait until tomorrow night."

I nodded, lifting up the specific papers I woke him up over.  "Yeah, I did.  I finally found her parents names," I smiled.  It was actually a big deal.  I always use to ask her questions about her past.  Like who are my grandparents?  What did they do to make you such a heartless person?  Even if I asked nicely about anything that had to do with the past - a very rare event if I tried to get something out of her - she would shut down and never say a word on the matter.  I was always curious about it.  And finally, I had an answer. 

I handed Luke the papers and he looked them over.  When he found the names, he read them aloud.  "Regina Spencer... and Martin Spencer."

I nodded.  "Now, I know it's only their names.  But if you can somehow track them down, we could get answers then--"

"No," he said, shaking his head.  I just stared at him.

"No?  What do you mean no?"

"That's way too risky."

"What?" I asked.  He couldn't be serious. This was huge and could help us out more than anything has so far.  "Do you know how important it is?"

"Like I said, it's too risky," he said, setting down the papers in front of him.  Looking with sympathy into my eyes, he explained it to me.  "If we find them, question them, that will be a little more than suspicious, especially if they then contact Clare and tell her."

I scoffed.  "But they don't talk with her.  Tell me something: has Clare ever once told you about them?"

He pursed his lips and after a moment, shook his head.  "No.  Every time I brought it up or asked, she would get pissy and block me out."

"Exactly,"  I sighed.  "I mean come on, this could really help us."

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before opening them again.  Full of sleep and the need to just get out of this mess of finding evidence, he didn't want to be doing this especially now.  But he could see how serious this was and would take it seriously.

"You could only find their names?" he asked.

I nodded.  "That's all it said.  Look," I handed him another paper with their names on it.  "Every time I see their name, it's from when they had to take Clare to the hospital as a kid.  This one, Clare suffered from a head injury.  From a very bad 'fall'."  I frowned.  "I think she was abused and that's exactly what we need to find out."

"Alright, this is what I will do.  I will look into their backgrounds, find out what I can at the station that could help.  But we can't go and meet these people.  It's too risky."