Disclaimer: If I had even an hour of Wolf-dom, I'd have retired.
Summary: Two teams working two separate cases. Two trials, two different defense attorneys facing the same DA duo of Rubirosa and Borgia.
Author's Note(s): This is still an AU setup, somewhat on the timeline used/set up for Nightmares & Knots/Dreams & Strands. Yet, this is also a separate story that doesn't require the reader to be bored in reading the aforementioned titles.
Reference is made to the case/episode of year 16: "Choice of Evils' with Tina Keith's baby's gender known. The changeup for this piece is that Serena Southerlyn was the second chair, not Alex; Fontana wasn't Ed's partner, but a fill-in due to Mike's absence. Ron Carver has taken Arthur Branch's place.
Author's stubbornness includes: Keeping Jack's daughter the same, despite canon; still pairing Logan and Green/Fontana and Cassady because I can; Jack married and working elsewhere, oh, and Lennie still hosting poker games, just because.
Higher Fire
Chapter 1: Bundles
The couple walking by didn't usually take this part of the trail during their morning walks. In fact, it wasn't until they neared the middle of the path that they realized the 'major' detour. The two of them debated whether or not to continue or turn back, each facing the opposite direction. That was when the bundle, tiny as could be, was seen, under the bush.
--
Joe Fontana came up behind the medical examiner, withholding a sigh of grief, anger and disappointment at the victim. He knew the ME was taking it to heart, no matter all the years on the job – Roth whipped around on her heels and let out her frustration on him.
"If people don't want children or can't handle the responsibility, there are plenty of people who do. This child didn't stand a chance given how this pacifier was taped around his head." She practically spat out the last few words in Fontana's face.
Fontana knelt down beside her. "How long ago would you say this happened, Kali?"
"Baby's been here since last night. The poor thing would have died of starvation if she hadn't suffocated first."
"Babysitter gone bad," Fontana offered, "maybe to protect the parents?"
Roth shook her head. "Gut feeling, Joe? The parents deserve death."
-------
"Baby Jane Doe." Anita Van Buren shook her head as she set down the initial report the medical examiner had written up. "Tell me we have more to go on, please."
Fontana shook his head. "Cassady and I have canvassed the area where the body was found and the only thing we could turn up was that someone or some ones were possibly running through the park around midnight."
"And no one has thought to look into which way or towards what these possible witnesses or suspects went?" Van Buren asked, not satisfied.
Nina Cassady spoke up referencing her notepad. "We have a vague description of a car and a partial plate – none of the numbers or letters matching what others said."
Van Buren removed her glasses and rubbed away the frustration from her eyes. "We've gotta have something, people. There's no way a baby could be buried under a bush, in a blanket bag with a pacifier taped to her mouth and no one seeing something."
Fontana sympathized with her but said bluntly, "This is New York, lieu; the city with the highest levels of blindness and hearing loss."
Cassady added, "Seems to be the norm, nationally speaking."
--------
Fontana found himself at the MEs office with Cassady and Dr. Rodgers. The older woman had the baby covered up and a collection of evidence uncovered at a nearby table.
"I've a name for you, but it isn't the baby's." She held up the quilted pouch and showed them a label that had been folded under the inside seam. "Renee Maguire. Midtown."
Cassady took a closer look at the stitched label and copied down the rest of the information. "Anything else?" she asked.
Rodgers nodded. "Taking a closer look at the baby, I can tell you that the adhesives were removed from her face and that some of it was pulled off the pacifier. It looked like the caretaker was in a rush though, because not all of it was removed." She held up a hand to keep the officers from interrupting. "The baby's face was washed recently, too. No sign of adhesive. Do you want the bad news?"
"How could it get any worse?" Fontana asked, piecing together what Rodgers said. "What remained stuck to the baby's face and that's how she died."
"True," Rodgers said, surprising him. "But, given the abuse and malnutrition she's faced, she might have died anytime." She posted some x-rays on the light board. "See this? Given the broken bones, internal bleeding, bruising and-."
"So they bury the problem?" Cassady asked angrily. "When will parents like these learn?"
Rodgers gave her a look Fontana couldn't read. Instead of answering the young detective, Rodgers pulled something out of a nearby folder. "Found hair strands from the blanket and tested one of them. She isn't the birth mother."
"Adopted mother, then," Cassady said her anger not subsiding.
Fontana had a theory of his own. "The babysitter?" he offered.
Rodgers nodded. "It's a possibility. They're definitely not related, so…"
Fontana turned to his partner and said, "Well, it looks like we have to locate Ms. Maguire."
