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Eugene, Oregon was not on the top five of Remy LeBeau’s favorite places to visit. Oh, the town could be a lot of fun, no doubt about that. But it didn’t really have the spark or life that he looked for in the cities he loved, though they had a damn good underground art scene that he’d found some great pieces through and had sold some even better ones. What the city lacked for him, though, it more than made up for with the people who lived there. Or, more specifically, the family.
If only he were here for the pleasure visit that he'd originally planned. That was what he'd wanted to do with this time off. He'd wanted to come and see the old friends that he had that lived here, get in a short visit with them, and then round of his vacation by going to visit Spencer. Only, when he'd arrived in town, his plans had ended up changing drastically.
Remy sat on the couch in a living room that he'd been inside of many times before and he looked at one of his oldest friends, hating the sorrow that he saw on that face. Mikhail Allen looked smaller than Remy could remember ever seeing him. He was folded in on himself, a shell of his usual self. He had always been a big, burly sort of man, with laughing grey eyes that were set in a weathered face, full of lines from years of laughter and smiles. Today, there was no smile in sight. Neither one of them felt like smiling.
Mikhail's daughter, eighteen year old Maxine, was missing.
They'd scoured every inch of the town and found no sight of her. When Remy had showed up the day before yesterday, Maxine had been out to stay the night with some friends. Neither one had thought anything of not seeing her that night. It wasn't until the next day when they went to pick her up that her friend told them she'd never showed.
From there things had become chaotic. A whirlwind of activity that Remy stood at the center of, orchestrating as best as he could to help do anything to find the girl who he would always think of as the chubby cheeked kid who grinned at him and called him Uncle Remy and bounced on his knee as she begged for another story, please, just one more!
Now, forty eight hours later, she was still gone, and the police seemed to have no leads. Mentally, Remy scoffed. Not that he thought they were looking all that hard. As soon as they'd seen a picture of the girl and had noticed her kaleidoscope eyes, their concern for finding a missing kid had dwindled quite a bit. Not many in law enforcement ever seemed to care all that much when their potential victim was a mutant.
Remy reached out to every contact that he had. He scoured the streets, hoping for word that way, using all the resources that a thief like him had at his disposal. there had to be something that he could do! She couldn’t just be gone. She just couldn't!
Unfortunately, he knew the truth far better than Mikhail would. He knew what kind of odds there were for a girl her age after being gone this long. Even if he hadn't lived on the streets and learned it the hard way, his years with Spencer had taught him even more just how horrible those odds were. Spencer worked as a profiler at the BAU. He knew statistics for things like this. As Remy sat on that couch and tried to think of something, anything, that he could do, he wished that he didn't remember those odds so well right now. He wished Spencer had never taught him. Because those numbers kept running through his mind now and he couldn't make them go away. He didn't want to think of his little Maxi like that. She was more than just a number. More than a statistic. She was a beautiful little girl just hitting the start of her life, not even old enough to drink yet. She was the sweet girl who smiled so brightly at him, with those amazing eyes sparkling as she told him about the new boy that she'd met, and wasn't he cute Uncle Remy?
“I don't know what to do.” Mikhail said, breaking the silence. Remy looked over to see that his friend was sitting forward, arms on his legs and his hands up to run through his salt and pepper hair. The lines on his face seemed even deeper than normal and his eyes were haunted. “What do I do here, Rem? I feel like, like I should be doing something, but what do I do? I can’t just sit here and wait. My…my little girl, she’s out there somewhere.”
Remy’s heart gave a painful throb. He pushed himself forward off the couch, moving to kneel in front of one of his oldest friends. He reached out and laid a hand on the man’s knee, drawing his gaze. “We’re doin’ everyt’ing we can, Kail. De police are lookin’,” he paused when Mikhail snorted, then continued on as if he hadn’t made a sound. “M’ contacts are still lookin’, too. If dere’s anyt’ing t’ find, we’ll find it. Y’ just gotta hold on.”
The words tasted bitter on Remy’s tongue. The practical part of him, the part that knew better than all this, was already preparing for the worst. His words felt like lies as they tumbled past his lips. Yet wasn’t a lie better in this situation than the blunt truth? Better false hope than no hope at all.
Anything else he might’ve said to try and reassure the man was cut off by a knock on the door.
Remy pushed himself up to his feet. He gave Mikhail’s shoulder a squeeze before making his way over to the door. He’d been dealing with everyone so far. Mikhail didn’t need that kind of stress. He was barely holding it together as it was. After losing his wife during childbirth, the thought of losing the only thing he had left, the only part of her that carried on, was threatening to crush him.
It wasn’t all that surprising that it was police at the door. Two officers, with a few more standing outside. What was surprising was when the one looked at Remy with a calm mask and asked him “Do you mind stepping outside for a moment, Mr. LeBeau?”
Remy’s first thought was that they’d found her. Dieu, they’d found her, and it wasn’t good. It couldn’t be good with them looking at him like that. Pushing out the door, Remy yanked it shut behind him and dropped his voice down low, his eyes wide behind his sunglasses. “Y’ found her?” The words came out like a croak and Remy couldn’t bring himself to care.
He was stunned completely when firm hands caught hold of him and drew him out towards the car. “Remy LeBeau, you are under arrest for the kidnapping and murder of Maxine Allen, Jessica Barnes, Alice Munch, and Isabelle Matheny.” One of the officers said. “You have the right to remain silent…”
The words washed over Remy like white noise. For the kidnapping and murder of Maxine Allen. A shudder ran down Remy and for one moment he closed his eyes and ignored the cops as grief filled him. Maxi. Little Maxi. She was gone. Oh, God, she was gone. The Cajun squeezed his eyes shut and battled back the tears that wanted to flow. His sweet little niece was gone. Never again would she run up and throw her arms around him. Never again would he get to sit next to her and listen to her gossip about boys, or give her dating advice. He wouldn’t get to see those beautiful eyes light up with the kaleidoscope of colors.
Years of practice gave Remy the strength to shove it all down. He felt the cuffs closing around his wrists and he pulled the control he’d learned as a child around himself now. Remy had lost plenty of people in his life. It hurt, it would always hurt, but he’d learned how to work around it. Especially when there were other things at stake. Right now, as callous as it was, he had to focus on himself. Because these weren’t some little charges being thrown his way. They were arresting him for murder.
“I want m’ lawyer.” Remy said flatly as soon as the cop’s speech was finished.
The officer sneered at him and jerked on his arm, tugging him forward. “Yeah, yeah. We’ll get you your lawyer. Just shut up and get in the car.”
Remy bit his tongue and resisted the sarcastic remark that boiled up. This wasn’t his usual arrest that he could mockingly talk his way around and through before his lawyer came in and got him out. This was a damn murder charge. Multiple murder charges. He needed to play this one very, very carefully. It was already obvious that the officers arresting him had no love for mutants. Whatever reasons they had for arresting him better be a damn sight more than just dislike of mutants, though, or his lawyer was going to rip them to shreds. All of that ran through Remy’s mind as a hand on his head shoved him down into the back seat of the cop car.
Booking was an experience that Remy was familiar with. He’d been brought in more than once, though he was proud to say that it had mostly been in his teen years, back when he’d been stupid enough to actually get caught. Only this time there was no Jean-Luc there to bail his ass out of trouble. Hell, at the moment there was no one to bail him out of trouble. A call to his lawyer’s office left him not just frustrated, but pissed off too. It would seem his lawyer had to take an emergency trip out of town and wouldn’t be back until Monday—which was four days away. Using one of the others at that firm wasn’t an option, either. He’d been very careful with who he picked as his legal representation. Someone who knew what he wanted, was unaware of things that were best kept private, and had no qualms about Remy being a mutant.
Staring down at the phone, Remy tried to think of what the hell he could do now. He didn’t have a whole lot of options. Take a public defender who wouldn’t give a damn about him, wait till Monday for his lawyer to get back, or…head snapping up, Remy turned quickly to look at the officer beside him. “M’ lawyer aint in an he won’t be back till Monday. Can I place one more call?”
“To who?”
“M’ husband.” Remy answered. “If dere’s anyone dat can fix dis, it’d be him. He’ll know what to do.”