𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄 ━━ 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴

⠀⠀𝟰𝟮. ❛ THE ECHOES WHISPER ❜

     However, after continuous weeks of searching, Penelope discovered a surfeit of new information on Ross Valentine. For one, his first name was Valor, but he went by his middle name instead— Ross. The man was born on November twenty-ninth, nineteen-sixty-four, in Calgary, Canada, to Mathis and Charlotte Valentine. Unfortunately, Charlotte died during labor, and Mathis was a single father until Ross was eleven. On January eleventh, nineteen-seventy-six, Mathis Valentine overdosed on an assortment of pills. According to hospital records, the man struggled with Major Depressive Disorder and took his life the day before winter break ended and schools resumed.

     No extended family members were still alive or willing to care for Ross, so he entered the foster care system. He bounced from house to house before ultimately running away at seventeen with another boy— Hennessy Jamieson Lu (who also didn't have much information on himself)— from one of the foster homes he was temporarily residing in. In the early months of nineteen-eighty-three, Ross and Hennessy were reported on in the Vancouver Sun, Prince George Citizen, Edmonton Examiner, Flin Flon Reminder, and Thunder Bay's Source for various acts of crimes.

     It wasn't until January of nineteen-eighty-four that the reports ceased and didn't resume until nineteen-ninety-two. The very year that Penelope discovered, Ross Valentine and Hennessy Lu initially met Quang Vinh Thang Le, who went and was known as Michael Le, Konaam Shirzad, and Matthew Johnston. After that, there wasn't any record of Valor Ross Valentine existing. There were no bank statements or rental properties in his name— nothing. The same applied to the other four. It was as if they had dropped off the Earth's edge.

     As for Caralyn Rosan Valentine, there was no paperwork, paper trail, digital trail, a record of her birth, or very existence. There was absolutely nothing on her, which drove Penelope mad with how little information she had to go on. Every database she knew of— she searched. She hunted through the dark web and combed through every file she could, but nothing.

     Cara Valentine didn't exist.

     All she and Spencer could figure out was that she had to have been born sometime at the beginning of nineteen-eighty-four. It was the only place in the Red Scorpion and Ross Valentine timeline that made sense. After all, Ross and Hennessy disappeared from the public eye at the beginning of that year. Moreover, when the team first met Cara in twenty-thirteen, she was only twenty-nine. The math added to nineteen-eighty-four. It was only a matter of what month and day. Two elements that held numerous possibilities.

     Although, if she was indeed born that year, that meant Ross was only nineteen— a teenager— when she was born. So, how did he care for her? Where did he care for her? And where was her mother? Another two questions that Penelope was unable to answer.

     It was safe to assume that Cara's mother was no longer alive, as she told the team years ago that she didn't have one. Though, that didn't stop Penelope from attempting to find the woman who gave birth to one of her favorite people.

     In comparison to the bubbly analyst, Kevin Lynch, and his team had found much more on their end.

     According to public records, the Red Scorpions were initially formed in two-thousand-and-five by Michael Le, Konaam Shirzad, Matthew Johnston, Person X (Ross Valentine), and Person Y (Hennessy Lu). At the Surrey Six trial, Michael Le testified that he and Shirzad initially formed the Red Scorpions after meeting at Willingdon Youth Detention Center in nineteen-ninety-two. The same year all the Founding Fathers met. So the Red Scorpions had formed as a group thirteen years before the public was made aware.

     During the trial, Le also stated that the word Scorpion was a tribute to his older brother, whose nickname was Scorpion, while the word Red was used to symbolize blood. Furthermore, Le clarified that the Bacon brothers were not founders but later joined the gang.