Chapter 14

Well Mrs. Ramos, I would like to start our conversation by asking you what it was like to have Vincent as a child," spoke Grace. Veronica sat there next to Grace and tried to act as if this was the most normal setting to be in. She felt very out of place. She did not like it when people treated others unfairly and that is how she felt that the Ramos had done with their help. She hated feeling this way because she knew that everyone had the right to do what they were going to do as long as they are not hurting another human being.

Mrs. Ramos wrung her hands and seemed quite concerned having to think about what Vincent was like as a child. This is kind of strange, thought Grace. I thought that most moms would love to recount what their child was like when they were younger. She reminded herself that not every parent had had an easy time raising their child; maybe this was the case with Vincent. Grace gave Mrs. Ramos plenty of time to start talking, when she decided that maybe she needed some prompting.

"Mrs. Ramos, could you tell me what was Vincent's favorite sport to play when he was growing up."

"Well you see, I really didn't see Vincent very much. He was gone to boarding school for most of his life. I did not want to really be bothered by having to raise a child. When he was at home, the nanny looked after him. I just gave birth to him, I didn't really want him. It was his father who had wanted to have him."

Grace could not believe what she was hearing. How could a woman who had given birth to a child want nothing to do with the rearing of the child? She wondered if this was going to play a part in what had happened to Vincent. She was sure that it was going to impact the way that he viewed the world. He probably knew that his mom had not wanted to have him and that was bound to impact him. Now the task was to find out how much it had impacted him. Grace wondered if she would be able to find that information out from his mother or if it would be more profitable for them to go and talk to his friends.

Grace decided that it would be best to finish the interview and to find out as much as possible from Vincent's mother. Yes, it would appear true that she did not have much to offer to the case, but there might be some pearl of wisdom from her. She was trying to figure out how to get the mother to offer some more constructive bits of information. Grace then looked over at Veronica and realized that she had her ace in the hole. She asked Mrs. Ramos if they could have a minute, and she actually looked relieved; Grace couldn't believe it.

"Veronica, in this instance I think that it would be best for you to conduct the interview."

"I thought that we had agreed that you had an interview style that was more appealing for this case."

"I know that is what we had decided but I think that you might have more success with this mother. I have never seen a mother less motherly than this woman. I am just at a loss as to what to do. I have never encountered a woman like this before and I am going crazy. Please take it over."

"Okay Grace," Veronica placed her hand on Grace's shoulder, "I have no problem doing that. But I would like to know if I will be handling all of these cases or if it will be just this one interview?"

"I don't know Veronica; I think that we should take it person by person. I would hate for use to settle on one thing and then have it go the other. It is always good to be flexible. I know that you are not use to it, but I think that it is the best thing that we can do."

Veronica looked hurt by what she had said, however she nodded and then started looking through her note pad. She had her questions that she had decided upon the night before and she decided to use them now. It was too late into the conversation, as Grace called it, to change the questions that she had already prepared. She knew that the questions were not polished but they were going to have to do. She would show Grace who was flexible and who wasn't.

When Mrs. Ramos returned to the living room with glasses of ice tea for all of them, Veronica stood. Right away, Grace did not like the stance that she was using. It was too much of her to handle but that is what she had to do; she needed to let her to take the bull by the horns and find out what she could from this mother. It was not going to be easy but Grace knew that if anyone could do it that it would be Veronica. She was a no nonsense type of woman and that was exactly what needed to be seen right.

"May I ask you, when was the last time you saw Vincent?" Veronica asked.

"Well, let me see....He was killed what two weeks ago and I saw him three weeks before that. So that would make it five weeks ago that I saw him. He came up here to visit with my husband."

"I see. And did he stay over night or was it just a quick visit?"

"Oh he was here for about three days. He also visited a couple of his old friends from his high school years. I am always amazed that they have stayed in contact after all of these years."

Grace was wondering if they stayed in contact because it was the only family that they had. Often when a person does not get along with the family that they were born into, they will seek out thos who they spent the most time with to consider their family. She could not figure out why anyone would want to send their children away for school. It made her think on Harry Potter. He had a family that did not love him and so he had to make friends from school. Maybe the same was for Vincent.

“Okay so you say that you last saw him three weeks before he was killed is that correct?”

“Yes,” Mrs. Ramos seemed distracted.

“Did anything unusual happen during the time that he was here?”

“No, I can’t think of anything. I do know that he tried to reconnect with his old girlfriend from high school, but she did not want to rekindle what they had had. If I remember correctly she had since gotten married and has started a family of her own.”

Veronica was very carefully taking notes. It appeared to Grace that they were getting no where. She didn’t really see the value in this conversation. Yes it was true that they needed to contact the ex-girlfriend to see if she had noticed anything unusual but other than that there was nothing of consequence here. Veronica asked a few more questions and then they let her know that they would be contacting her if they had any further questions. Grace made sure to ask for the phone number of Vincent’s ex-girlfriend, she thought that she might have some pertinent information to give them about the way that Vincent was acting the last time he came up here. Grace did not think that they would have anything else to talk to her about but they wanted to keep the door open incase they did.

As Veronica and Grace were walking to the car, Veronica looked over at Grace, “Well I think that we might have figured out why Vincent did not have much contact with his mother. She is not exactly the warm motherly type that you would want to come home and talk to on a weekly basis.”

“I would agree with you. I think that we might have more luck if we speak to his ex-girlfriend. Maybe she can give us some insight into what he was like.”

With that the two of them got into their care and made their way to Manhattan to the office building where Dawn Tally worked. They were hoping that they would gain more from her than they did from his mother. It was a sad day when a mother could not really tell you anything important about the way that their own child was raised. Grace could not get that out of her mind, but she needed to so she could focus on what she hoped to learn from Dawn.