Second Chance:

[robb1313]

And Cliff comes from the back of the pack to take the lead!

Thanks Grand!

[OR Medic]

Another great chapter! And another cliff hanger too!

Thanks for all your hard work, even if it is a labor of love. This is a very good, well written story.

Jim

[Gwynmael]

Oh my, Grand! You sure pegged the rising panic of a parent who's child has gone missing. Got my heart thumping, but good!
Two chapters in 6 days. You're buttering us up because you're going to be incommunicado for 2 weeks for the move, aren't you?.

Thank you.

[Grand58742]

You're buttering us up because you're going to be incommunicado for 2 weeks for the move, aren't you?

Would I do something like that? Leave a chapter hanging like this?

[Gwynmael]

ROFL! I had to reply so no one got snookered by you posting. ~ugh, this came out wrong; probably a good thing I'm not a writer!
I sincerely appreciate your willingness to share your writing with us - for free, no less. I honestly do check at LEAST three times a day to see if you've posted a new chapter.

[RunAndGun]

I know your busy, but this is my favorite story. More please?

[Ozarks Lady]

Grand you have a mean streak in you , you know that? LOL

[Abigailnumber2]

I am guilty of checking multiple times a day. Just can't get enough.

[50BMG]

More Cow Bell ! .......uh I mean more Second Chance!

[Grand58742]

CHAPTER 47



“Are the attorney’s for Tennessee present?” asked the Justice for the Sixth Circuit Court.

“Present sir,” said the Tennessee Attorney General.

“And New York?” asked the Justice.

They were alone in his chambers although he had to be formal and ask anyway. Since the case was unusual, it was held behind closed doors and not put on the docket like most cases heard were. It was another political move for Tennessee in keeping this out of the limelight as much as possible while building their case.

“No counsel present, please annotate that for the records,” said the Justice to the court reporter. “And as there is no defense present and no evidence was presented that has contradicted the court brief filed by the State of Tennessee, I will rule in favor of the State of Tennessee in the matter regarding Tennessee versus New York Child Protective Services. I hereby order a complete and full investigation by members of the State of New York Police as well as the senior teams from the Child Protective Services in the matter of one Cynthia Grant and her home environment. Based on the evidence presented by the State of Tennessee in a lawful deposition, the home environment for her is completely unacceptable and she must be protected by the New York State authorities.”

“Additionally, evidence points to corruption on the parts of certain State Agents during the original investigation and I order a complete investigation of them as well. Furthermore, as the State of New York does not seem to care for her welfare, I have ordered her to remain with a foster family in the State of Tennessee until such time as the situation in New York has resolved itself. The family she has been placed in with Tennessee has shown all the good qualities of a stable family life and has promoted her continued emotional and intellectual growth and she should remain there until such time as the investigation is complete. It is my opinion she will continue to stay with them until such time as New York clears the family and its environment. Furthermore, the State of New York seems adamant on sending her back to her family so I believe it’s in her best interests to continue to stay with the foster family in Tennessee until such time as it is deemed safe for her to return.”

“Please have the order written up for my signature tomorrow morning,” said the Justice as he finished his pro forma speech. The court reported nodded and gathered her things before stepping out to start writing everything up in the unusual case. “Strange they didn’t send anyone down here.”

“I contacted the New York Attorney General’s Office myself. Said they didn’t have anyone to send and really didn’t care what our courts said,” said the Attorney General.

“I had my secretary call and inform them of the meeting. They acknowledged the scheduled time, but never stated whether they could come or not. Guess they aren’t coming,” said the Justice.

“Their loss I suppose,” said the Attorney General.

“I suppose this will slap them in the face when it gets there and gets filed with the Justice Department and it hits their attorney general,” said the Justice.

“Unless the Justice sides with them,” said the Attorney General.

“With the evidence you presented? Probably not,” said the Justice. “Outcome you are looking for?”

“Get her back to a stable family environment and prosecute the offenders in the case,” said the Attorney General.

“What are you willing to settle for?” asked the Justice.

“Nothing less,” said the Attorney General as he had been instructed.

“Fair enough. That new Governor of yours certainly has some fire doesn’t he?” asked the Justice.

“That’s putting it mildly,” said the Attorney General.

“You don’t agree with him?” asked the Justice.

“Not entirely. I think this is a New York State matter and we shouldn’t be getting involved,” said the Attorney General.

“Why did you press it so much?” asked the Justice.

“Because it is what’s right. Although I don’t agree with out State getting involved, I do agree the girl needs to be protected and her father put in jail with the evidence we gathered,” said the Attorney General.

“Did you ever interview the father?” asked the Justice.

“We weren’t allowed to and New York has refused all attempts at our agencies to do so,” said the Attorney General.

“Might have cleared things up easier that way,” said the Justice.

“Could have, but they were being fairly stubborn and kept on falling back on the original report,” said the Attorney General.

“Fair enough answer,” said the Justice. “I’ll probably be getting a phone call from Justice over this in a few days.”

“What are you going to tell them?” asked the Attorney General.

“To force the issue. Basically, I want to see this one through as well. They can’t argue with the evidence you presented here,” said the Justice.

“And if they refuse to support the position?” asked the Attorney General.

“The order will still be legally binding and the matter will have to be resolved at the Supreme Court level. But until it’s heard, the order I impose here will still be binding until heard. You know how long that typically takes and the fact is they will probably side with us as well,” said the Justice.

“You sure about that?” asked the Attorney General.

“With the makeup they have? And even the more progressive members will lean our way on this one since it involves a child in danger. It’s hard to be the voice of dissent when it comes down to protecting a child. I’d say probably a six-three or seven-two split,” said the Justice, already forming his opinion on the matter to be passed up the chain.

“As long as Cindy Grant gets protected,” said the Attorney General as he rose to leave the chambers. One thing was for certain, some of what they had talked about was right, but it certainly wasn’t going to go the way they thought.

********************

“Paging Cindy Gray, paging Cindy Gray. Please meet your family at the customer service register,” said the saleswoman over the intercom in the store. She looked at the worried faces of the man and women in front of her and figured they were about at wit’s end.

“Charlie,” started Erica.

“I know,” he said in a tone. Every conceivable bad thing that could happen to her was going through his mind right then, from kidnapping all the way to her lying somewhere hurt.

“I’m scared something happened to her,” said Erica.

“I am too Erica,” he said in a worried tone. He was about to pull out his cell phone to call the police when a voice stopped him from behind.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” asked Cindy as she walked up with Portia Forster.

“Where have you been?!” demanded Charlie as he took her into a hug.

“I was outside getting a soda with Portia,” said Cindy, wondering what the fuss was all about. “I ran into her a few minutes ago.”

“You gave us quite the scare running off like that!” said Erica as she breathed in a sigh of relief.

“What’s the big deal? I didn’t go anywhere else,” said Cindy.

“Portia, can you give us a minute alone?” asked Charlie.

“Sure Mister Gray, bye Cindy,” said Portia as she walked away and wondered what the grownups were all in a fuss about.

“You wandered off and didn’t tell anyone where you were going! You had Erica and I worried sick that something bad had happened to you!” objected Charlie.

“I didn’t leave the store and I thought you two would call my cell phone if we got separated,” said Cindy, still confused about why the adults were making a big fuss over this.

“I tried calling your cell phone!” said Charlie. Cindy pulled out her phone and realized it had gotten switched off in her pocket.

“Sorry, it got switched off,” said Cindy as she turned the device back on. She noticed eight missed calls, five from Charlie and three from Erica.

“Sorry? We were worried sick and all you can say is sorry?” demanded Charlie.

“I didn’t know it was turned off,” said Cindy meekly.

“I thought someone might have run off with you or you were hurt somewhere. I didn’t know what happened to you!” he said.

“I really am sorry,” said Cindy meekly again. She hadn’t seen this side of Charlie before and it reminded her of the stages before her father turned to physical violence. She started withdrawing into herself and her posture took on a subdued look as she often had to do with her father.

“Why don’t we talk about it later, okay?” said Erica as she put her hand on Charlie’s arm. She saw the fear growing in Cindy and knew he needed to be calmed. Cindy still looked worried about the situation.

“Yes, later would be better,” said Charlie, relieved she was okay. But he didn’t know these words had a different meaning for Cindy.

“Can we talk about it now? In public?” she asked, worried about the “later” portion of his comment.

“I’d prefer to do it later after we’ve all calmed down a bit,” said Charlie, wondering what was going on right then.

“I’d…just rather have people around me when you talk to me about this,” said Cindy quietly.

“Why?” asked Charlie with a confused tone.

“I know what ‘talk to you later’ means,” she said quietly. “My father used to say the same thing.”

“Oh Cindy,” said Erica as she took her into a hug. “Charlie is not your father! He wouldn’t do anything like that!”

Charlie was confused over the situation until he realized her father used to resort to physical violence behind closed doors. A moment of anger swept over him right then, partially at Cindy since he was still somewhat heated over the fact she had disappeared and she would think he would do such terrible things to her, but more towards her father who would solve problems in an overly physical manner.

“I wouldn’t ever think of laying a hand on you!” he objected. “Do you honestly think I would do something like that?”

“I don’t know,” said Cindy quietly.

Charlie crossed over and grabbed her in a hug after Erica put her hand on his arm again in a nonverbal way of calming him down again. “I would never do anything like that. These were just unfortunate circumstances and I was worried. But you’re safe now and I’m over it. Just please keep your cell phone on from now on.”

“You aren’t mad?” she asked meekly and looked up at him.

“No, I’m relieved you are okay,” he said with a smile.

“You sure? You looked pretty mad,” said Cindy.

“I’ll be just fine now that I know you’re okay,” he said with another smile.

Cindy realized again this was not her father standing in front of her, although he would have been a good one. Countless times she had compared the actions of Charlie to him and found her father coming up short. And since she was mainly out of the doghouse for the moment, she smiled back at him. “Sorry for making you two worry.”

“And I’m sorry for making you remember some things,” said Charlie.

“Am I going to be grounded or something now?” asked Cindy with half a grin.

“Cleaning the chicken coops,” said Charlie with a nod and a smile.

“Ewww, I’d rather take a whipping,” she grinned a little more, relieved she wasn’t going to be beaten.

“Come on, let’s get your bathing suit and head back home,” said Charlie and ignoring the remark. It infuriated him to think she would get beaten over something so simple. While he was worried sick while she was “missing” he would never think to lay a hand on her over something like that since she turned out okay. They went back to the women’s department and picked up the bathing suit. Heading to the register, Erica grabbed at his hand once again and he squeezed gently as they walked along. She saw the good side of Charlie and knew he was a far better man than most people took him for. And he hoped Cindy saw that as well.

********************

“Did you get the background check I requested?” asked Abdul Ali.

“Yes, it appears the only family Hassan has left is his brother. If something was to happen to them, Haseena would have to come back to her father,” said the man.

“No other living relatives?” asked Abdul.

“None that we can find save some cousins and distant aunts and uncles,” said the man.

“Any of them likely to step in?” asked Abdul.

“No, probably not,” said the man.

“So with the brother out of the picture, it’s certain she would have to be returned to here?” asked Abdul even though he knew for certain.

“Most likely,” said the man.

“Good work,” said Abdul as he planned on the eventual outcome of the “accident” he would cause. It wasn’t easy to make it look like an accident without arousing suspicion, but then again, he had a lot of practice in doing so. He walked over to see the Imam and inform him of the situation. “I believe we can gain an advantage here.”

“How is that?” asked the Imam.

“By making the relatives of Mohammed Hassan a non-issue,” said Abdul without revealing anything further.

“And why would we want that again?” asked the Imam.

“Because it leaves Hassan as the only living relative of Haseena and they would be certain to release her back to her family when it’s all said and done,” said Abdul.

“This is certain?” asked the Imam.

“Maybe not certain, but more than likely given the circumstances,” said Abdul.

“Do what you feel is right,” said the Imam without giving clear orders. But he had been working with Abdul long enough to make his point clear.

“Insha’ Allah, it will be done” said Abdul, making plans in his head.

********************

“Jack! It’s been far too long!” exclaimed the Director of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

“That it has Jeff. How’s the wife and kids?” asked the Attorney General of New York.

“Doing good and growing up. My daughter is considering Syracuse next fall,” said the Director.

“Tell her to give my office a call. I know the Dean of admissions,” said the Attorney General.

“I’ll have her do that,” said the Director as he took a seat behind his desk. “What brings you to Washington?”

“We have a problem we might need your help with,” said the Attorney General.

“Oh? What kind of problem?” asked the Director.

“The inter-state kind,” said the Attorney General.

“Do tell,” said the Director. The New York Attorney General spent several minutes outlining the problems they were currently having with Tennessee, although omitting the parts his friend didn’t need to really know about. They went all the way back to college where they had been inducted into the same fraternity in their freshman year and had kept close since then.

“And you are telling me Tennessee…the duly elected government of Tennessee is refusing to give this girl up?” asked the Director.

“In a nut shell, yes,” said the Attorney General.

“What’s the prognosis on this case?” asked the Director. “And furthermore, why bring it to me?”

“We only want to see the child returned to her loving family and to see she receives the treatment. Additionally, one of the doctor’s claims she might be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and possibly needs medical treatment. Additionally, we would request the State of Tennessee bring the family keeping her up on charges of kidnapping and obstruction of justice charges,” said the Attorney General.

“And why hasn’t this happened yet?” asked the Director.

“Because they are taking her side and absolutely refusing to see our point of view on the matter,” said the Attorney General.

“And what does she have to say about this?” asked the Director.

“Pretty much made some outlandish claims. But since she ran away a second time, we’ve had no contact with her,” said the Director.

“Say what?” asked the Director.

“We would have provided it, but the State of Tennessee has kept her location a secret,” said the Attorney General.

“Have they now? Why is that?” asked the Director, sensing something wasn’t right about the case. But it wasn’t like his friend to bring something to his attention that wasn’t worthwhile.

“We don’t know,” lied the Attorney General. He knew why Tennessee was keeping the location secret.

“Do they know you are here?” asked the Director.

“No, we told them we might have to get the FBI and you guys involved, but they just don’t care,” said the Attorney General. “Plus, we think they might be going to the Sixth Circuit Court.”

“What good will that do?” asked the Director.

“They believe they can force the issue by getting a Federal Judge on line with their side,” said the Attorney General. “But they don’t have our side of the story.”

“Was your office sent a copy of their report?” asked the Director.

“No, the Tennessee Government has provided no contrary evidence to the original report to my office,” said the Attorney General. It was a stretch of the truth since the report had been sent to the New York State Police and the Child Protective Services. But he also knew there was contrary evidence but ignored that same evidence until they got an outcome they wanted.

“What’s your ultimate goal here?” asked the Director.

“To get her back to her family and move on past this. Tennessee is being a royal pain about it and keeps adding fiction to an already grand tale,” said the Attorney General.

“It almost sounds like kidnapping on a government approved scale,” observed the Director.

“Yes,” confirmed the Attorney General. He knew his friend was heading the same way he wanted him to go.

“I haven’t seen anything on the news about this,” remarked the Director. “Normally Wolf News eats this kind of thing up. The talk show hosts love it when two States get into it.”

“I believe we both want to keep it low key enough and out of the press. No sense in getting the nation in an uproar over something so trivial,” said the Attorney General.

“Why would they be in an uproar?” asked the Director.

“Because her parents are Muslims and certain news agencies would play that card in an anti-Islamic fashion. We just want to return the girl to her family and not have to worry about the press beating down our doors,” said the Attorney General. This time he was telling the truth, but from a certain point of view.

“I could see that based on the circumstances,” said the Director as he looked over the medical report again. “Did we have another doctor take a look at this?”

“We did, but without interviewing the girl specifically, he cannot make a medical diagnosis. We also passed on that information to Tennessee but are unaware if they had her medically examined,” said the Attorney General.

“So the proper Tennessee agencies were informed about this?” asked the Director.

“They were and refused to even hear the matter out,” said the Attorney General.

“So they are obstructing your investigation and refusing medical treatment to the girl as well?” asked the Director.

“We can safely assume so,” said the Attorney General.

“Why?” asked the Director.

“That’s why I’m here. The Governor and I believe it’s about time to move into the Federal involvement stage,” said the Attorney General.

“Yes, this is a matter which has gone on long enough,” said the Director.

“Can we expect the support of your office and the Attorney General?” asked the New York Attorney General.

“Absolutely! No matter what, the State of Tennessee is wrong for keeping her in that State and not at the very least releasing her into your custody! She needs to be returned to her family immediately and the Governor and whoever else in Tennessee that helped make those decisions should be prosecuted for obstruction to the full extent of the law!” exclaimed the Director. “To think they are withholding medical treatment from that poor girl and keeping her away from her family!”

“We tried being reasonable, but Tennessee was being obstinate,” said the Attorney General.

“Well, once we get a hold of them, they’ll be more open-minded,” said the Director. He was sadly wrong on that part. One thing about Southern politics he had never learned. You never, ever tell a Southerner they have to do something they feel won’t be in the best interests. But he was about to get a wake-up call on that little fact.

“And you’ll talk to the Attorney General?” asked the New York Attorney General.

“Of course. Tennessee will be lucky to have a Governor after I get done telling him about this,” said the Director with a wry smile.

[Grand58742]

CHAPTER 47 CONTINUED

********************

Two days later

[robb1313]

Woo-Hoo!

A two-parter!

Thanks Grand!

[Gwynmael]

I'm with robb - Woo-Hoo!

I have to mention something that's been bugging me ever since it was introduced in Ch 45. What are Charlie & Mitch thinking? Maybe they're not because neither of them seems to have considered the potentially catastrophic consequences of taking Cindy out of the State of Tennessee! I know the situation type is new to them and pretty unique. I just think that it would get their minds churning with possible scenarios, especially with Charlie being a novelist!

No criticism Grand, just venting my own frustrations & scenario spinnings. And yes, I'm one of those people that yell at the tv. :-)

[Ozarks Lady]

Woot?? Two fer one?

Grand your hard on my BP. LOL

Thanks for two great new chapters.

[Gwynmael]

See, now you spoiled us. You will warn us when you're going to be incommunicado because of the move , right?
Please & Thank you.