Guardian Angels – Ambivalent - 11

As good as his word—almost—Mike arrived twenty-five minutes later. Paddy introduced him to Vic, and vice versa. Then Mike sat in the only remaining chair by Vic's desk, looking questioningly at the two men.

"First off, we need a list of all your family members, with the last address you remember for them," Vic said, handing Mike a pad of paper and a pen.

"Oh boy. Names I can give you. Addresses, not for all of them. One aunt and her husband lived here in the city. I don't know if they still do.  My second aunt lives back east and my uncle is down south. I do know which cities, because Mandy and I spent one summer visiting them. But no way do I remember specific addresses. 

"Cities should be fine for now. Any cousins who wouldn't still be living at home?"

Mike nodded. "Five of them and they were all older than me so I'd guess they've moved out." He smiled ruefully. "I was the youngest member of the whole family."

"Grandparents?" Paddy asked.

"Last I know of, only Grandpa Bailey was still around. He was my mother's father." 

"Paddy said your mother's dead?"

"Yes." Mike sighed. "That's when things started going wrong between me and Father. He took it hard, and then he seemed to channel all his anger onto me. Okay, maybe anger isn't the right word. He had this vacant space in his life and he tried to fill it by turning me into the perfect son who would become the perfect adult. I would go to college, meet the right woman, marry, have kids and be a millionaire before I was thirty-five."  

"Grandiose dreams," Vic said.

Mike nodded. "The college bit I really had no problem with, although he did want to lay out what choices I had as far as majors went. Some of them were actually sort of interesting. As for the rest, the wife and kids, that wasn't going to happen."

"Did he know that, in the end?" Paddy asked.

"Meaning did I come out to him? No. That wasn't the reason I ran away though. I just couldn't take his trying to run every facet of my life. Hell, I even dated a couple of girls just to try to make him happy. Neither of them lived up to the standard he'd set for my future wife, which”—Mike chuckled wryly—"was probably just as well." 

Interesting. Paddy glanced at Vic.

"Did you know?" Vic mouthed since Mike wasn't looking his way.

Paddy barely shook his head 'no'. Then he returned his attention to Mike. "The list?"

"Oh. Yeah." Mike set to work, frowning at times. He looked up once to say, "I'm presuming Mandy's in Wellton. That's where they moved to, or at least Father did according to the obituary I found."

When Mike finished the list, he handed it to Vic. "I'm sorry, that's all I really know."

"At least we have names, which is a start. How old is your sister?"

"She'd be twenty-three now."

"Did the two of you get along?"

Mike waggled his hand. "She was older, she was a girl, and she was the apple of my father's eye because she did everything he wanted. What do you think?"

Paddy grinned. "A touch of sibling rivalry?"

"You could say that, but we still loved each other as much as a brother and sister can." There was a brief pause then Mike said, "Okay, that didn't come out the way I meant it."

Vic broke up. "I would hope not, but I think we got what you were saying."

When Paddy stopped laughing as well, he said, "Vic will do the research on your family. Right?"—he looked at Vic, who nodded in reply—"And I'll stick with you, Mike."

"Meaning you're coming to the shelter again as a volunteer?"

"Yep, since I am one. Mr. Jones didn't say there was a limit on how often I could be there."

"Good Lord, no. We need all the help we can get, when we can get it."

"And you're due there soon from what you said, so we might as well get moving." Paddy stood, quickly followed by Mike. "You'll call if you find out anything?" Paddy asked Vic.

"Of course. And you'll call if Mr. Keefe shows up there again?"

"You better believe it. You're the only one of us with a car. If he does show I'll do my best to keep him there long enough so you can get over there and follow him. He has to be staying somewhere in the city."

"Undoubtedly, but we know it's not under the name Keefe. At least not at any of the hotels or motels."

Mike frowned. "You already found that out?"

"He checked while we were waiting for you to get here," Paddy told him, which was the truth. Vic has used his considerable computer skills to hack into the various hotel and motel registration files, and had found nothing.

"Okay. You guys are fast."

"That's what you're paying me the big bucks for," Vic replied with a straight face.

Mike paled a little. "I thought… Paddy said…"

"He's pulling your leg," Paddy told him. He chuckled at the look of relief on Mike's face and then, after Mike thanked Vic, they left.