Page 99 of Jackass
We all failed.
“Why did he grab so much?” Declan asked, holding the book in one hand and a glass in the other.
“We didn’t know if Samantha had been in her room, so we wanted to have a few items to make sure the fingerprints are all the same,” King explained.
“If she’s in the system, her picture will come up,” Declan told his brother. “I only need one thing.”
The sheriff started with the glass, explaining that was likely the best surface to get a clean print.
He dusted the glass, and the powder revealed multiple prints. Transferring the print to a small clear vinyl tab, he handed it to Nav, who took a picture and uploaded it to his computer.
“Do I wanna know where you’re running that print through?” Declan asked Nav.
Nav looked up at the sheriff and smiled. “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” Then focused back on his computer.
The sheriff groaned. He didn’t like when we straddled the line, but he understood it. It didn’t stop him from looking over Nav’s shoulder, waiting for the results.
“Fuck!” Declan muttered, right after Nav’s computer pinged, letting us know the results were in. “I knew I recognized her.”
“Who is she?” I asked as we all stood and walked over to Nav’s computer. We all crowded around to get a look.
“You guys know I can put it on the screen, right?” Nav said, pointing to the mug shot showing on the large screen at the front of the room.
The picture on the screen was a younger version of the woman we knew as Carrie. Her real name was Marsha Wade,thirty-four years old. She spent two years in prison for aggravated assault against a social worker.
In 2015, CPS removed Marsha’s daughter from her custody on the grounds of medical abuse. Doctors discovered that Marsha/Carrie suffered from Munchausen’s by Proxy.
Munchausen’s by Proxy was a serious mental disorder where individuals fabricated illnesses in others to receive attention. The victims were most commonly children and the elderly. Innocents who often had no way of fighting back.
Marsha had been poisoning her two-year-old daughter to make her appear sick. After changing her doctor for the fifth time in sixteen months and a battery of tests that revealed what was going on, the doctor reported his findings to Child Protective Services, who then removed the child and placed her in foster care.
In 2016, Marsha attacked the social worker during a supervised visitation, putting the woman in the hospital. She received a sentence of two years in prison. While in prison, the courts stripped Marsha of her parental rights.
After being released, she changed her identity and became Carrie St. James.
“Son of a bitch!” I hissed. “She has been taking care of Charlie since she was born. What if she hurt her?”
“We can talk to Sammy tomorrow and find out how often she’s had to take her to get checked. We can also talk to Charlie and see what she can tell us,” Blade suggested.
“No.” I looked at my brother. “I don’t want Sammy to know about this. She’ll blame herself.”
“We have to tell her, Jack. You can’t keep this from her,” King pointed out.
“Shit.”
“Hey, she’s with us now. She’s safe,” Gunner said as he tried to calm me down.
“What do we do when we find her?” Colt questioned. “She hasn’t actually done anything illegal.”
“She has a warrant,” Nav replied.
“For what?” I asked.
If there was a warrant, we could hand her over to Declan.
“Marsha Wade was released on parole. She changed her identity and never checked in with her PO,” Nav told us.
“That makes her a fugitive. Find her and I can take her in. She’s been running for over five years. She’ll go back for quite a few,” the sheriff informed us.