The Artist's Amour (BWWM) ✓

Chapter 34: Steve Garret

Chris's POV

"So what's the first step in all this?" I asked as I watched Aria and her mother pull out documents among documents from their briefcases.

"First, we must build a case. I need to know every fine detail from the past couple months. With Lacey still in the hospital, Aria and I will dig up everything we can on Steve Garret. Hopefully, something more will come to light to not only convict him on domestic abuse, but hammer him with various charges to keep him in jail." Ms. Lane explained, as Aria pulled out my laptop.

"Getting a man convicted of domestic violence is challenging, it's even more challenging for them to spend the recommended time in jail. What we need to do, is discredit every excuse the defense will try to throw our way during the trial. Steve was arrested last night. He was brought in for questioning but quickly lawyered up. The trial will be held three days from today." Aria explained, as her fingers typed away.

"It feels as if we are gearing up for war." I commented, watching both Aria and her mother as they got down to business.

"Steve's lawyer is a big shot from New York. This very well could be war." Aria's mom commented. I nodded, pulling the sleep deprived Nick into my arms as he cuddled further into my chest.

"Are you guys gunna get the bad guy that hurt mama?" Nick asked sleepily.

"You bet your ass we are." I replied, patting his back gently.

"Ass?" Nick questioned.

"Let's pretend daddy never said that word, okay? And let's not mention this to mommy, like ever." I coaxed him, glancing away from Aria and their mother as they gave me a disapproving look.

"Your secrets safe with me, father." Nick nodded, his eye lids heavily lifting as he struggled to stay awake.

"I'm first going to reverse search for his name in any criminal databases." Aria's mom said, as she pulled out her note pad to take notes. "That's weird." She said after some time.

"What?" Aria asked, glancing away from her screen to look at her moms.

"Nothing came up. No misdemeanors, no parking tickets, nothing. I can run paper trails next." Ms. Lane decided, pulling up a new tab.

"When we went out to eat, do you know who paid for the reservation? And do you know how they paid?" Aria asked, turning to me.

"I think it was Lacey, and most likely her credit card." I replied, trying to remember whether anyone laid cash down on the table before we left, besides the tip.

"Okay, what about living arrangement?" Aria's mom asked.

"I think he's been living with Lacey." I replied, lifting Nick up as he lay asleep in my arms. "Give me a minute, I'm going to go tuck this booger in." I nodded to the two ladies, before walking down the hallway towards his room. Not so gracefully, I juggled this dead weight kid in my arms as I tried to get open the door, before finally succeeding.

It was crazy how much of my life had changed in the past month and a half. It was even crazier how calm and collected Nick was about it. Some days, I felt as if he was handling this situation better than I was. I had taken him to see him mom earlier today, which Lacey was less happy about but agreed to. She didn't want Nick to see her like that but in all honesty, she looked much better than she did when I first saw her the morning after the incident. Her normal color had returned to her face, and the swelling had gone down. We still had pictures of how bad it was before, to show in court.

I gently laid Nick down into the mattress before pulling the covers out from underneath him and covering him with it. He didn't even stir as I tucked him in. I swear, this kid could sleep through the zombie apocalypse.

His room still looked so... Dis-conjoined. Aria and I were actually thinking of painting over that other room in her home, since I was over at her house more than she was at mine. The creepy wall paper would have to go first, before I even though of putting a bed in there.

I exited the room after making sure he was comfortable, before heading back into the living room. "What do we have so far?" I asked.

"This is all so confusing." Aria whispered, as both her and her mother continued to do their research.

"Why?" I asked, taking my seat across from them.

"Well, according to the criminal network, Steve Garret had never been arrested until now, and according to his paper trails, he doesn't have any." Aria explained.

"What exactly are paper trails?" I asked.

"They are basically the reports of every credit card purchase that that person has made within their lifetime. For Steve to not have a single paper trail, it would mean that either Steve Garret doesn't exist, or he's been using cash to pay for quite literally everything." Aria's mom added.

"Couldn't you do facial recognition or something?" I asked, trying to wrap my head around what I was just hearing.

"We can't, only government based have that system. Even if we could, we can't confirm that it would help us any. If Steve has been this good with keeping who he really is a secret, odds are, any files of who he was prior to this new alias, could all be exempt. As far as anyone knows, he is Steve Garret. I gotta ask you, have you noticed anything weird about the guy?" Aria asked, glancing up from her screen to look at me.

I tried to think back to when I first met him, at Lacey's. Everything about him put me off from the get go, but intuition wouldn't hold up in court. I remembered pulling back out of the driveway... "His vehicle, it was unlisted. There was no tabs on the car, and the license plate was fresh print, yet the car wasn't new." I recalled, trying to see if I remembered the plates.

"Did you get a good look at the license plate?" Aria asked.

"No, I mean I did, but I don't remember what it was exactly. Partial plate was 147-S. I know the make was a Honda Civic Coupe, older model." I explained.

"I could run that against his name." Ms. Lane nodded, her fingers already typing at the speed of sound. "Okay, looks like this vehicle was involved in a string of robberies back in the 2000's. The prime suspect in these robberies was a guy named Pat Gonzales." Ms. Lane read. She spun the laptop around to show us a picture of Pat Gonzales...

...otherwise known as Steve Garret.

"Something isn't right here..." Aria said, pulling up a file on Pat with her own screen.

"What?" I asked, standing up to peer over her shoulder.

"It says Pat Gonzales was killed in a shootout three years ago... According to this, Pat Gonzales is deceased."

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Y'all know it wouldn't be a book by me if some shit didn't go down ;)