Disclaimer: None of the Magnificent 7 belong to me and I don't make any money from this story.
Warnings: Small amount of child violence but nothing very graphical
Rating: PG-15
Main Characters: Buck (as a boy), Chris, OMC
Closed AU at the moment, but I won't stop you if you want to write in the AU.
Thanks to:
Lara for her plot bunny which prompted me to write this.
Katy for her wonderful betaing and helping out a great deal with this story - I couldn't have done it without her.
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Chapter 1
It was a Sunday night in early January, and the town of Purgatorio was suffering from a terrible storm. Trees were blackened by lightning and the lower roads were fast becoming like rivers. Most of the town was asleep - except for those who were working night shifts.
One of those people was Detective Chris Larabee, who was investigating a string of murders of beautiful young women. When only two women had been found murdered, it hadn't seemed like the murders were connected, but then more bodies of young women on low incomes were found. All the dead women had earned money by allowing men to pay to use their bodies. All the murdered women had been mothers and - judging by their ages and their children's - they had left school early after falling pregnant. With no qualifications to get decent jobs, they had resorted to prostitution to support their families.
Chris Larabee was just getting ready to go to the scene of the most recent of the 'Working Girl Murders'. This one was located, like all the others, in a seedy part of town in a low-rent apartment block. The prostitute was identified as Miss Belinda Wilmington, a woman with a kind heart, always ready to help a friend in need. She had a son of approximately ten years old but when her neighbour had found the mother's body, she couldn't find the son after looking all over for him. The boy wasn't usually allowed out of the apartment because that part of the town wasn't safe for children to be out alone, especially at night, so he must be hiding somewhere in the apartment.
Larabee stood up from his desk and put on his coat and hat, then gathered up the few things he would need at the crime scene. After managing to find a pen and notebook, he grabbed his car keys and left the office.
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Buck Wilmington hid in the large closet in the apartment's bedroom; he was safe here for the moment. He could hear the police in the other room looking around the crime-scene. Soon they would take her body away and he would never see her again. He wanted to cry for her loss, but found he was unable to. He wanted to find the murderer and kill the person himself, but wouldn't know where to start looking. This whole neighbourhood had many people capable of killing, and Buck had no idea which one might've killed his mom. He had been in the bedroom when he'd heard all the noises in the sitting room, then the gunshot. The boy knew what had happened in the other room without going to investigate, because he'd heard about all the previous murders of other poor children's moms and had been afraid his mom might be next.
He heard a new voice and realised the detective must've arrived; the man who was most qualified to track down his mother's killer. The other cops had talked about the detective and said he would be there soon. Buck really wanted to run to the man and talk to him, but if he revealed himself, they would send him to a foster home. Then he would probably be abused like some of his friends had - they had met up with him and shown him their bruises, telling him stories of their cruel foster parents. Foster parents didn't love children that weren't really theirs, Buck was pretty sure of it.
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Detective Larabee examined the sitting room of the apartment carefully, looking for anything that might help his investigation. It looked like the killer had been very careful not to leave any clues; not an unusual occurrence these days, as criminals seemed to be getting smarter, which was unfortunate for the police. It looked like the murderer must have come in the front door as there was no noticeable damage to any of the closed windows.
Chris wanted desperately to find the boy and comfort him - he would be really upset about what had happened, assuming he knew - maybe he was out somewhere and had no knowledge of what had befallen Belinda. Chris continued to search for clues - he desperately wanted to find Buck but he had to investigate the crime scene first.
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Buck held his breath while he hid in the closet - he knew the detective was in the other room now and he was worried the detective would come to find him. He decided he should make his escape while they were all in the sitting room.
Buck climbed out of the closet and walked to the small window. He looked out - it was too far to jump down, but he could climb onto the roof easily and make his way across to the fire escape ladder.
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Later that night, Buck hid behind some large dumpsters in an alleyway - he was safe here for now. He couldn't sleep here though - it smelt too awful, so he decided to visit his mom's friend Matt - he would look after him for now and give him somewhere safe to sleep. Even though Matt wasn't always kind to him, he would shelter him now that Buck had nowhere to go.
Buck at least had money in his pockets to pay for some food; he had taken all the money remaining in his mom's money tin. He hadn't wanted the cops to steal her money. His mom had told him that when her friend Maxine had been found dead, her money had been stolen by the police and they would have spent it on the luxuries poor people didn't have, like designer clothes.
Buck stood up and headed for Matt's apartment block.
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In the early hours of the morning, Buck sat down on the sitting room floor of his mom's friend's apartment. Matt had said that he could sleep on a thin blanket on the floor, as there wasn't a spare bed for him and the sofa was falling apart so would be too uncomfortable. Buck didn't mind - at least he was safe from strangers and would be sheltered from the heavy rain outside.
Buck took the photo of his mother out of his pocket and gazed into her beautiful blue eyes, wondering why they had chosen to take her. Tears began to form in his eyes as he studied the picture of the smiling young woman with long, curly brown hair. The picture had been taken not long before Belinda had been killed and Buck wished he could turn back the clock to that day.
"You're supposed to be asleep!" said the angry voice of Matt Smith as he entered the sitting room. Matt approached Buck and saw what the boy was holding. His mouth curled into an angry expression and he snatched the picture from Buck.
"That's mine, you can't have it," yelled Buck trying to grab the photo back off Matt.
Matt just moved further away and replied, "I don't have anything to remember your mother by so I'm keeping this. You saw her everyday and can remember her better than me - you don't need any photos." The man put the photo into his pocket and left the room.
Buck looked up at the ceiling and cried hard. That was his only picture and now it was gone. He wanted to leave this place, but he didn't know where he could go. Most of his mom's friends were either dead, in prison or else they'd moved away. Buck wished his mother could come back; it wasn't fair that she'd been taken from him.
"Mom, if you're in Heaven lookin' down on me, please try and do somethin' so I don't have to live here with Matt too long. If I don't find somewhere better to live soon I might come and join you one day real soon." After finishing talking to his mother - who he thought was an angel now - Buck laid down to get some sleep before morning.
To be continued...