Just one more week of school. That's what most kids are thinking now as they sit in their classrooms listening to their teachers talking about something stupid, or about the up coming exams. No one was paying attention anyway so what's the point. The school is hot cause they don't want to pay more money for air conditioning, but they'll pay for new vending machines. Sitting in a sticky room waiting for the last bell could not be more annoying. Ellie Briggs sat in her last period Photography class mindlessly looking at the board with all the pictures throughout the year, and the big One Week Left printed in graffiti on the side. Her pen was poised on her paper as if she was going to do something, but her mind wasn't thinking of doing anything with it. Her brunette hair fell loosely around her face framing her clear alabaster skin perfectly. Ellie's light blue; ice like eyes were moving around the room slowly, wishing something would happen for the last week of school.
It was the last week of the rest of her high school life. She was only a year younger than her class, and happy about that. Her high school life was crap. Now she just wanted something to happen in her last few days of school. She turned over to look at one of her good friends Easton, who was playing with a penny on his desk. She took the piece of paper she had her hand on for a while and wrote a note on it. She aimed it perfectly and flicked it at him, nailing him right in the arm, landing with a thump on the floor. He picked it up and read it while Ellie looked back at the teacher. He wrote something back and flicked it back at her.
When she picked it up she heard a loud sound hitting the window, shattering it into a million pieces. A scream came from behind her before another shot came into the room hitting the blackboard where the one week was. Ellie looked around as some of the kids scattered around the room; running outside, hiding under the desks. She looked from where the shots were coming from before her body fell to the ground. A sharp shooting pain came from her shoulder as she laid there not knowing how she got on the ground. She grabbed at her arm in a split second holding it from the pain. Shots still fired close to her before stopping altogether. Her body just laid there, shaking from the pain. When she finally looked up around the now disorganized room she found only a few people in there. Easton poked his head up from one of the turned over desks and looked at her. As the world around her finally came back into perspective she heard the sound of the bell ringing for a lock down, a few papers rustling in the wind from the shattered window and the cries from a few kids who were in shock of what was happening. Ellie's wish came true, to say the least.
"So what do we have here?" Flack asked as he walked towards Stella Bonasera. It was just another typical day at work for them. They had been paired to work this case today as Mac Taylor was off with Lindsay finishing another case. Stella looked up from her notebook and smiled a little at him.
"Shooting at Bronx school for the Visual Arts. Last week too. Only shot at one classroom, came from the outside. Had about a forty- five degree trajectory angle from a few of the shards of glass. Shot from the roof to the third floor. Only one person hit, seems pretty good for this kind of shooting."
"Where's the vic now?" Stella pointed to the open ambulance. Ellie sat there getting looked after. She was expressionless and pale as the event was playing in her mind over again. Flack nodded to Stella with a smile and walked over. He cleared his throat a little and looked at the paramedic. He understood and patched her up before leaving. Ellie still hadn't come out of her shocked stage yet, making Flack worry about getting the information out of her. He sat where the paramedic once did and looked at her for a moment. Something was familiar about her, but he just could figure it out.
"Um, Miss. Briggs? I'm detective Don Flack. I'd like to ask you a few questions about the incident. Just try and remember everything you can alright?" She looked up at him slightly. He had an attractive face. Sharp features, nice blue eyes, dark combed hair. How is he a detective? Ellie nodded and put back on her brown sweater with a blood stain on it. "What do you remember about the incident between the time the first bullet hit to the last?" There was silence from her for a good long while as the memories came back to her like a flood. But just as quickly as that flood arrived, it vanished and there was nothing left for her to remember.
"There was only one thing I remember. It took approximately forty seconds for the bullet to hit me from the first,"
"How- how can you be sure of that. I mean that is an interesting answer you have there,"
"I counted. I count, in my head, things that happen repeatitively." Flack just nodded and wrote down what she told him.
"How many gun shots did you hear exactly?" Ellie's mouth twitched slightly as she counted the shots she heard.
"Seven. One that hit the window, One hit the blackboard. Another three hit the two desks around me. The one that actually hit me and then after that all I can hear are the shots." Another sigh came from Flack as he wrote down the account.
"And did you see the shooter?" She only shook her head no and looked down.
"Flack? Paramedics said that the bullet is still intact in her arm. All the others are shattered so I think will just take her to Sid and he can get it out." Stella glanced up at Ellie who had the look of terror in her eyes. "It'll be fine. Sid is one of the best Medical Examiner's we have. You don't need to worry." She stated comfortably. Ellie nodded slowly as Flack got out of the ambulance.
"Can I go with her?" A voice came from behind the two of them. Stella turned around and looked to see a tall blonde looking at them with scared eyes.
"And you are?" Flack asked with a questioning look.
"Easton Reed. My family is taking care of her right now."
"Please? He's all I really got right now." Ellie pipped up watching from the truck. Stella nodded towards her letting him come along. He walked towards the car and got in, sitting next to Ellie. The doors closed their view of the school and of the classroom where it all took place.
Lindsay Monroe was sitting on her chair twirling around a little not knowing what to do. Mac and her finished the case way beyond the time they had and now she was forced to sit at her desk and eat peanut M & M's for the rest of her shift. She was already around six months pregnant and Danny was getting way to used to the idea of having a kid. Danny had been looking up Boy names online, his family; it was driving Lindsay crazy. But it was the good kind of crazy. Mac came into the room plopping down the marked file in her box and smiled.
"Having fun?" He asked, an eyebrow slightly raised.
"I'm not sure fun is the right word. M & M?" Mac denied the offer making Lindsay shrug and letting her pop it in her mouth.
"You can go home you know. I'm not forcing you to stay," He sat on the side of the desk and looked around her little office.
"I know, but I kinda like it here. The atmosphere is-"
"A little less crazy without Danny bombarding you with more baby talk?"
"Exactly." A smile grew on both their faces as Lindsay ate more M & M's. She sighed putting down the bag and getting up from the chair. "I think I'm gonna go get some tea. Do you want anything?"
"No, I'm okay. You just go home soon, alright?" She nodded as she walked towards the cafeteria area. Mac got off her desk and wandered back next to his office wondering when the hell he was going to get another case. He smiled as he picked up a picture frame that sat neatly tucked in the corner of his desk. He had his arms wrapped protectively around a blonde haired woman with deep blue eyes. Claire Conrad, married to Mac until the events of 9/11 happened causing her death tragically. He smiled a little remembering the day they took that picture. Before he got to into his thoughts of Claire there was a loud knock on the door. He looked up with a concerned look on his face before seeing it was Dr. Hawkes.
"Hey, Stella just called we have a live one with a bullet in her shoulder." Mac set down the picture and nodded. At least he got himself on a case.
Danny was sitting on the couch at his apartment waiting for Lindsay to get home. He had the whole day off and there was absolutely nothing to do. The house was spotless and there was nothing on TV, not even a damn baseball game! He just sat there thinking of things to do. Staring aimlessly at nothing he started to think maybe work would be a good idea. Danny finally got up and walked out; for the first time wanting to go to work on his day off. He wasn't far from the lab, so walking was not an issue, and on a nice day like this, who wouldn't want to walk.
While walking down the streets of New York he noticed a lot of people with kids. Was it a trend now a days to get pregnant? Crap, he fell into that category now. No, This was a freak accident with the woman he was in love with. It didn't matter if it was planned or not. Yeah, he was perfectly fine with that answer. Walking by a screaming baby and a frantic mother made him think. Was this going to be us? He thought walking quickly past. Please tell me we're not going to become those types of parents that can't figure out a damn thing about our kid. He shook his head and kept walking ending up at the lab faster than he had anticipated.
Opening the door; there was a furry of activity around him. He got to the almost full elevator and went up to his floor. Why didn't they call him if they were this busy? He was needed right? He noticed Mac walked towards the autopsy room rather quickly.
"Woah Mac, Slow your roll. What's going on?" Danny asked keeping pace with him.
"Sorry. Up until about a half an hour ago I would have been more than happy too, but now we got ourselves a case, and a pretty big one at that."
"You care to fill me in here, or will I be playing twenty questions?" Mac laughed a little and directed Danny to Autopsy.
"A girl from the Bronx school for the Visual Arts just got shot. The only class to get attacked from the unknown attacker." Mac handed him the file. Danny looked it over for a moment before letting him proceed. "We have a young girl in there now with a still in tacked bullet in her left shoulder. Who ever this person was, was defiantly wanting someone dead. Nearly killed her in the process." They opened the doors to the viewing area of the room. Ellie sat there waiting for Sid to get the bullet out.
"Sucks for her. You said she's graduating?" Mac nodded looking over at Ellie now talking to Easton. "She looks young."
"She's not that young. Only seventeen. She's brilliant though. 4.0 GPA and don't get me started on her SAT scores. She's already accepted into NYU for Writing, full scholarship."
"Hate to see a talent like that go in a second. It said in the file that her parents have disappeared?"
"Her friend had said that her mother disappeared a month ago and they had been taking care of her. He said that she can't stay alone for a long period of time. She has a slight case of separation anxiety which also causes OCD which is shown by her need to count things making our job just slightly easier."
"What about her father?" Danny watched the girl on the table talking away. She had nice eyes. Kinda reminded him of his only had a slight flick of green to them. She looked so damn familiar.
"Her mother was sixteen when she had Ellie. The only thing we got out of her was that she used to live in Australia till she was seven. The only thing she knows about her father was that he lived in New York and that's the reason why they went back."
"Well that's a sucky life."
"Your tellin' me. Look I gotta go make some calls. Can you assist Sid. Hawkes and Stell went to the school. There's something there to tell us who this shooter is, and what the hell he was shooting at." Mac said his goodbyes before walking away leaving Danny to two teenagers. As he walked in their talking stopped and all eyes were on him.
"Hi, I'm Danny Messer. You must be Ellie and you are?" He looked at Easton who was looking a little protective of Ellie at that moment. He got up, noticing the size of Danny, He would get creamed if he actually tried to defend himself. Easton finally coward down and sighed.
"I'm Easton Reed. I'm taking care of Ellie while her mom is away." Danny just nodded and looked over at Ellie.
"You okay over there?"
"She's not good with more than one guy in the room that could over power her in a minute."
"Gotchea. You want me to leave?"
"It's not that. I think I've seen you before. Maybe, I don't know, never mind." Danny just had one eyebrow up looking at her before Sid walked into the room.
"Alright Ellie, well this is going to hurt I'm not going to lie about that. But I will try and get this over with as fast as I possibly can. You know I normally do this on dead people, it's such a rarity that I operate with a live person."
"Sid, Your going to that uncomfortable place again."
"Sorry." Sid walked towards Ellie cautiously. "Easton right? Would you like to hold her hand. It might be a good idea to try and keep her calm so not to much blood interferes." Easton nodded and walked over to Ellie taking her hand lightly, linking it through his.
"You guys like a couple or something?" Danny spat out not really knowing what he was saying.
"No, we're just good friends." Easton retorted. Danny nodded then watched the procedure go on. Sid was very gentle taking out the bullet from her wound. He hated seeing her flinch every time it hurt her. She was a much different girl than most. She was the kind that you hate seeing hurt and no matter what you just want to make her day brighter any way you could. Danny couldn't stop watching her, it was a strange thing. Every time she did something, like a slight face twitch or hand motion, it reminded her of someone, but he couldn't for the life of him figure it out.
"Alright, your done. Now I'll just stitch you up and you can go on home." Ellie nodded and Sid got up with the bullet to get it to processing.
When he returned it looked like he had something in his hand. "Okay, don't be alarmed but I just talked to Mac and he said that because you are under eighteen we're supposed to contact your parents. Now we know that your mom is gone but we do have a chance at finding your father, but we are going to need some DNA."
"Like a hair sample or a finger nail?" She asked wearily. Sid shook his head and looked down.
"I'm sorry, but we're gonna have to take some blood." You could see the color go right out of her face. There was no way Ellie was ever going to let anyone near her with a needle. "If you want you can lay down?"
"No, please. Can't you just say you tried to find him but can't?"
"I'm afraid we can't lie on the reports. Sorry kid." Danny said sympathetically. His cell rang and he picked it up quickly. One thing he hates about coming down here are the needles he sees. He's just as big of a wuss as Ellie was being. "Messer." He quickly got out of there leaving Sid to do his work. I'm sure he didn't need Danny's help any with that.
Stella had been over every inch of the roof and found absolutely nothing wrong with it. She double checked that it was the right spot for the shot to happen and made triple sure she was in the right location of the school. It was completely clean. Hawkes walked up beside her and looked around.
"Nothing. There is absolutely nothing here to suggest that this was the place of the shooting. no foot marks, no casings. I swear if that girl wasn't shot I would have had to say it was just some stupid last week of school prank." Stella shook her head. She watched the other side of the roof where the classroom was. She could almost see the shooting take place. The only thing she couldn't see was the shooter himself. Hawkes had left her to walk around the roof, there had to have been one clue they missed. From the looks of it, the only access to the roof was from the opposite side.
"In order for the shooter to make a quick get away he would have had to stash the weapon somewhere either on his person or under something here. If the school was already in a lock down they would have easily spotted the gun." Hawkes ran in his head out loud. "So the only way to be able to leave unseen would be to hide the gun." He walked around the perimeter of the roof, his eyes landing on the dumpster of the school below. "Bingo."
Stella waited outside of the dumpster for Hawkes to fish out whatever he was looking for. She paced slowly in front of it looking at her watch every few seconds.
"Hawkes are you done in there or did you get eaten by the mystery meat?"
"Ha ha, very funny," He finally poked his head out of the garbage. "No, Look here." He handed her a shirt covered in yesterday's sloppy Joe's.
"Okay, great. Food fight."
"No, it's what's on it besides the lunch." She just gave him the 'I need the info quick' glance. "Gun powder residue on the shirt, plus check out the symbol. Sonny cleaners."
"Sonny as in-"
"I think Danny should be in on this one."
Lindsay had made herself quite comfortable in the cafeteria. She had called Danny to come join her after hearing he had made a stop off at work. Flack had joined her after getting himself some coffee and Adam had already been there eating his lunch while listening to his Michael Jackson.
"So this new case we're working looks to be a long one. The girl doesn't look like she's able to talk, and the guy, he's protecting her from anyone and everyone. All the others talk just as much as the girl."
"Why don't you offer her candy. Kids like candy don't they?" Adam asked looking up from his sandwich.
"Now you just sound like a kidnapper Adam." He shrugged and continued to eat. "All's I know is that unless Stella comes up with something, that chick in there is useless."
"Where are her parents?" Lindsay asked in her motherly tone. She more or less acquired it over the months of her pregnancy.
"Gone. Well at least the mother is. I guess being a teen mom was not the glamour she thought." Flack took a sip of his coffee and looked around at the furry of activity. It had been come busy in the past half hour; they hated days like that.
Danny walked into the cafe looking around before landing his eyes on his beautiful wife. He smiled walking over to join in on the conversation.
"Looks like you guys are working hard."
"At least someone appreciates the work we do." Flack said with a smile. "Get anywhere with the child prodigy?"
"Nah, she ain't talking. Pissed scared though. She'll come around. Did Stell come back?" Shakes of heads made Danny sit down in between Lindsay and Adam.
They all waited in the cafe for a good hour before Stella came back with the evidence. Hawkes and Stella walked towards the group and held up the shirt with the logo showing Danny.
"Look who's back in town." Stella stated looking at Danny with worried eyes.
"We caught him. He went away for a long while, how can he be-"
"It could just be someone that works there, but Danny- it's his company. There was a reason they were shooting that classroom. Linds can you get this into processing?" Lindsay nodded and got up following Hawkes who carried the shirt. "Danny, I think you gotta talk to Sonny about this."
"Oh no. No way Stell. I can't talk to that man. I swore I was done with the whole gang."
"I know but if it's gonna help us-"
"It's not. There not going to rat out the guy that shot the school. He won't say anything to that sort." Stella sighed and nodded. "We'll have more of a chance figuring it out on our own."
Lindsay had more than enough to do as soon as she got to the office. Blood work of the victim, the bullet and of course the shirt. She sat down and got right to work on the shirt, looking for any DNA to connect with the shooter. After taking off the food the she could from the shirt she examined it from head to toe. Danny walked into the room and slipped is hands around her stomach.
"You got anything on the shirt yet?" He asked kissing her neck lightly.
"The shirt that Hawkes had found in the dumpster did have traces of gun powder residue consistent with our 9mm from the bullet. But the only thing is, our suspect wasn't wearing the shirt. The patterns on the shirt suggest that the gun was wrapped up in it when it was fired; obviously to hide it out of site. Now the blood splatter on the side of the shirt could only be caused from a cut on the suspects hands when he gripped the gun to shoot; our main suspect got his hands a little bloody from the powder of the gun shots"
"DNA hooks us with a suspect. Good job Montana. You need any help with the other evidence?"
"If you want to start working on the blood work of Ellie. She's in Mac's office waiting to go home."
"So why don't they let her? It's gonna take hours to get the blood back."
"Mac doesn't want her to go home, just in case. He's looking for the other kids in the class. He was looking for someone."
"Yeah and by the looks of it he was looking for someone right around where Ellie was sitting." Adam said walking into the room. He was holding one of the laptops with a computer generated crime scene of the classroom. "The shot happened around here," He pointed where the simulated gun shot was fired. "Now according to where the bullets landed we can figure out that the shooter was looking for someone around this area." The simulation grew a large semi circle around the window."
"Great, you just narrowed it down to half the classroom. That still leaves around twelve kids that could have been the hit."
"Not necessarily. Look," He opened up another file with the names of the kids that sat around the window. "In order to be associated with the Tanglewood Boys like you said Danny, They would have to have lived around the same place. None of these kids lived or used to live in Staten Island. All but two." He pulled up the simulation again and zoomed in. "Zach De Luca and of course our own Ellie Briggs. Briggs is an Australian last name defiantly not common with Staten Island, but Italian, more common. Zack sat two seats in front of Ellie-"
"Which could mean we found our almost victim." Danny interjected. Adam nodded and looked at him for a moment before back down at the simulation playing again. "So I guess we better go talk to Mr. Zach De Luca." Danny and Adam started walking out of the processing room. Lindsay put up her hands looking at them.
"Danny, you were going to help me with the blood work?" He looked back at her and winced. "Go. I'll do it. But when you get back, your going to be doing a lot more than helping me process." He smiled kissing her cheek then jutted off to go find Zach.
Ellie sat in Detective Mac Taylor's office with a book in her hand. She saw it laying on Sid's desk and thought it looked interesting. Easton was sitting next to her watching people walk past. All Ellie wanted to do was go home but from Mac's words, It was better safe than sorry, whatever that means. She put down the book down when she reached page forty and looked at Easton.
"You got to page forty already?" She nodded and Easton smiled. "You ever going to finish a book?"
"You know one that's forty pages long?" A small laugh escaped Easton. Ellie looked over out the window of Mac's office. Easton watched as she counted out forty people that past. One of them was a bit of a red head. He had an interesting walk, almost as if he was dancing to music. He turned slightly to Mac's room and walked inside.
"It's the Eye Of The Tiger. It's the cream of the fight, rising up to the challenge of the rivals," Adam sung putting down a file on his desk. As he turned around he noticed the two teens staring at him. "Woah. Sorry. Didn't realize anyone was in here." The kids didn't say anything just awkwardly sat there. "War of the Roses? This is a pretty heavy read. You liking it so far?" Adam asked noticing the book in Ellie's hand.
"I just got to page forty. But it seems good."
"Well when you finish it, let me know what you thought of it. It's one of my favorite books." He smiled this awkward smile to her.
"I finished reading it." He looked at her for a moment.
"But I thought you said-"
"I can only read books up until page forty."
"She has OCD. She can only count to forty, do things forty times over-" Easton clarified for him.
"Gotcha. So those gun shots must have really annoyed you." She nodded.
"I had to count to forty as soon as I started hearing the shots." Adam thought for a moment before he excused himself quickly.
Adam walked down to the police floor and walked over to Flack's desk. He was out at the moment but the right file was on his desk. Adam picked it up and looked at the police report of Ellie's account. He looked it over and noticed that it took the shooter forty seconds from the first shot to the time she hit her. Adam sighed taking the file and walked towards the processing room. This was going to get interesting.
Mac was sitting down just outside his office watching Ellie count the things on his desk. He turned his head slightly watching her take something off and put it on the shelf behind her. Adam sat next to him and watched as well for a few minutes. There was something serene about watching her organize Mac's desk.
"Mac. I think your gonna wanna hear this." Adam finally pipped in looking at him.
"There's something intriguing about her. Watching her go about her routine. Doing something out of compulsion."
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. In her report it said she told Flack it took the bullet forty seconds for it to hit her from the first. Now she told me that she couldn't read past page forty in the War of the Roses. The guy also said she counts to forty, does things over forty times. She has a complete obsession with forty. I'm not so sure we can believe that it took forty seconds from the first bullet till it hit her. For all we know it could have been the first."
"Adam, why does that matter?" He sighed and looked at Ellie who was now counting everything on the table next to the desk.
"I'm just saying OCD changes peoples perception. We can't rely on what she said about the incident." Mac nodded and kept watching.
"Even if it doesn't match, the shots were fired. It's just up to us to figure out who was shooting, and who they were shooting at."
Danny and Flack had driven all the way to Staten Island, through traffic and grid lock just to find Zach. They had gone to his home near the school but his mother had said he went to visit his aunt for a few days. Danny was in the passengers seat navigating his old town. He knew every street name and exactly where to go. Zach's aunt was living a few streets away from Danny's old home. He laughed as soon as Flack turned down the street.
"What's so funny?" Flack asked looking over at his best friend.
"Nothing just... all these memories are coming back to me now. This is the same street Becca Collins lived on."
"Becca Collins? Sounds hot."
"She was. I never knew what happened to her though. One day we were going out, happy couple and what not, the next I go out with my brother and when I come back after the weekend, she was gone. No one knew where she went. Her parents wouldn't tell me anything, just vanished."
"Ouch. You guys get into it?" His eyebrow went up and a small smirk crawled across his face.
"Only once. She was all about the waiting till you get married. I changed her mind about that... then she left."
"Well that stings," He stopped across from the home of Zach's aunt. "We're here."
"Great, let's get this thing over with." Danny was the first out of the car and up the driveway of the home. He knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. Flack made it up the driveway just in time to see Zach open the door.
"Yeah?" He asked in his New York accent. He looked like a regular teen. Baggy clothes; A deep florescent blue top with Volcom written on it, dark blue jeans ten times the size they should be and no belt. He had shaggy brown hair that should really be getting cut soon.
"Zach De Luca? I'm Detective Danny Messer and this is detective Don Flack, we just want to talk to you about the shooting that happened early today?"
"What do you wanna know?"
"Are you aware of a group called The Tanglewood Boys?" Danny asked quickly.
"Yeah. But everyone does. There not exactly secretive here. But other than that I'm at a loss."
"Does anyone in your family associate with them?"
"My cousin used to before he found out about Sonny and Louis." Flack looked over at Danny who noticeably flinched. "After that my cousin didn't want anything to do with Sonny."
"Have you come into any contact with Sonny in the last month?" Flack continued. Danny was not in the position to continue questioning as soon as his brother was put into the mix.
"No. I haven't seen him since my cousin quit three years ago."
"Is your aunt at home right now, or your cousin?"
"Nah, my aunt went to the grocery store and my cousin is in California, been there for two weeks." He stood a little slumped, obviously not afraid of either Flack or Danny.
"Do you know a girl of the name Ellie Briggs?"
"Yeah, she's in my photography class. Is she okay? I heard someone got hit. I got out of the classroom after the first two or three shots."
"She's fine now. Um. Thanks for your time. Anything else you can recall, or if Sonny or anyone from the Tanglewood boys try and contact you. Give us a call alright?"
"Yeah thanks." He took the card Flack held out and looked at it before pocketing it. Danny didn't say anything else just walked back towards the car. Flack did a few seconds after and got into the car. They sat there in complete silence for a long time.
"Danny. I don't know what to say man. I really don't."
"Then don't say anything. I'll be fine. We just need to figure this out before someone else gets hurt because of Sonny."
"If Zach's cousin was in the Tanglewood boys and got out of there, Sonny might want to mess with his cousin a bit, you know show what he could loose if he says anything, or hell do anything against them." Danny didn't answer. Just thought about his brother. "But, you do know that if Zach wasn't the one that was targeted, Ellie was," Danny just nodded his head and looked out at nothing. Flack could tell Danny went to that little place in his head that he sometimes went to when he needed to be alone. Flack understood and turned on the car ready to go back to the crime lab.
Lindsay was busy working away diligently on processing the evidence. She was in her own little world laughing a little each time the baby kicked. Hawkes came in a few times to give her a hand as well as Adam. They just finished the blood work and was just waiting for the results when Mac came into the room.
"Danny and Flack just called. They talked to Zach De Luca. They're still not sure if it was him Sonny was shooting at." The three stopped and looked up at him. "Lindsay, Could you be the one to talk to Ellie about her involvement with Sonny?"
"Sure Mac." She just smiled and got up from the chair. Walking down the hallway she stopped off at the vending machine. Maybe Adam was right. Maybe candy was the way to worm into the heart of kids. She always loved candy when she was Ellie's age, why not? She paid for Gummie Bears and kept walking to Mac's room.
Ellie was sitting on the couch drawing something on a paper. She was getting more bored by the second. She had satisfied her annoyance for everything that was not forty and now she just sat back and enjoyed the moment of drawing. Easton had gone to the cafe to get something to eat for the two of them. Lindsay walked in softly watching her draw. It was like she was in her own little world when she drew. Her focus was dead on drawing whatever it was. Linds sat down and opened the bag a little.
"Ellie?" She asked softly not trying to scare her. She didn't look up for a long period of time till she signed her name on the page.
"Yeah?" She only said when she finally looked up. Her smile lit up the room. She did not look like the kid that came into the crime lab earlier today; scared and timid. She had this nice glow to her that Lindsay took as odd. She had felt that glow before. That loving, withdrawn almost glow. She couldn't remember where she felt it before but it was recent. She pushed her thought out of her mind and handed the bag to Ellie.
"You hungry?" Ellie looked at the bag for a moment before taking a few red ones. "Your a fan of the red I see. I'm more of a green girl. So how you holding up?"
"Okay. As good as I can right now." Ellie shrugged. She popped one in her mouth and started to chew.
"Can I ask you a question?" Ellie just looked at her. "Do you know someone by the name of Sonny Sassone?" Ellie stopped chewing.
"Yeah," She stopped short for a moment. "Well not personally. He came over to my house a week before my mom left. I answered the door. He wanted my mom. I don't know for what. He seemed nice though." Lindsay just nodded and ate another gummie bear.
"Other than that you have no idea who he is?" Ellie just shook her head and played with one of her bears. "Ellie, where's your mother now?"
"On a business trip."
"When is she going to get back and do you have a number I can reach her so we can tell her what's going on back at home." Ellie had put her head down but kept playing with her gummie bears. "Ellie?"
"I don't have a number. I don't know where she is. She just left. Didn't take much, but the car and a few clothes. Didn't tell me where she went... just left." Lindsay sighed leaning back in the seat. How could a mother do that to her kid. That was completely unfair. " Didn't even get to say goodbye to her in the morning she was already gone."
"No note?" Ellie shook her head, not even looking at Lindsay at all. Lindsay put down the bag of gummie bears and sat in the silence. She bit the side of her cheek thinking of why her mother would ever do that to her.
"It's been over a month since I last saw her. That's when I started counting to forty. The last thing I ever saw my mother do was count out forty dollars before putting it in her wallet. I can't get forty out of my head. I just start counting forty things. Hoping it's a clue or a way to tell my mother to come and get me. I don't know. I just want to keep counting forty things." Ellie had tears streaming down her face as she finally looked up at Lindsay. She could tell the distress in her voice as she spoke. Lindsay got up from her chair and made her way over to Ellie. She sat down next to her and just hugged her. She couldn't see Ellie like that anymore, she couldn't see her cry. "The only parent I've ever known left me. Am I that much of a mistake?"
Danny and Flack got back to the lab slower than anticipated. After a call from Mac stating that they now had a missing person's in the case they were pretty annoyed with the traffic. Lindsay had gotten all the information she could from Ellie about her mother before she couldn't handle the questioning. They all met in processing to talk about the case.
"Alright, what do we know so far about this case?" Mac asked waiting for all the clues to be put together.
"Ellie was the target in the shooting by one of Sonny's men. A month and a half prior she gets an unexpected visit from him, a week later, she was gone." Lindsay said as Mac wrote it down on the board.
"We know that her mother had some thing going on with Sonny years before, the connection is still unknown. Ellie said she thought she heard something about her as a baby, but it's still unclear." Lindsay told Mac again writing it down.
"Do we know the name of Ellie's mother?" Mac asked looking at the board.
"She said it was Becca Briggs but her last name was different. She changed the name when they got to Australia."
"Stella, can you call the US consulate in Australia, see if they have any record of a Becca Briggs as a changed name." Stella nodded and wrote it down in her book. "Danny, I want you and Lindsay to keep her safe. I know you guys can hide her better than her friend can. If Sonny knows where she goes to school, chances are he knows where she's living know." Lindsay smiled and nodded, Danny didn't do much. "Flack, can you make sure there are officers around the school for when she goes back, not so many that they are distracting, just enough to get her through the last week of school. If the Tanglewood Boys are involved in this case, we wanna know why. See if you can go talk to Sonny about this, or one of his associates. Don't go over board, say you can link the bullets to one of his men in the school shooting, maybe get one of them to crack." They all nodded before getting into gear. "Lindsay, You better go home. Take Ellie with you, she needs rest just as much as you do. Danny see to it both of them get home safe."
"You got it boss." He grinned before helping Lindsay out of the room. Lindsay looked up at her husband and smiled.
"At least Ellie won't be in so much danger anymore." Danny just nodded. He was still thinking. That name; Becca having an association with Sonny. The only one he knew that was in association was the one he fell in love with when he was sixteen. This was all getting to strange for Danny. Now this kid gets into trouble with Sonny and the mother disappears just as fast as his Becca did those years ago. It made him wonder.
"You think... Never mind." Danny shook his head quickly before walking into Mac's room. He took a good hard look at Ellie for the first time. She remind him so much of Becca Collins, but there was something so different about her, something so familiar.
"Ellie? Mac said it would be better if you would come home with us instead." Ellie was sitting next to Easton looking up at them with confusing eyes. "I know it's not the greatest but if Sonny knows where your going to school, chances are he'll know where your staying." Lindsay clarified.
"Yeah, and we would like to help you out you know. Be closer if you need us for anything." Danny said with a small smile. Easton grabbed Ellie's hand and brought it closer to him.
"I don't think that's a good idea." Danny moved his glance over to Easton. Why the hell wouldn't he let her go. "I mean then we can't take care of her and you guys don't know her at all."
"Yes, but she would be a sitting duck if we let her go home with you." Danny said watching him as he uncomfortably sat there.
"East, maybe I should just go." His grip tightened and she flinched a little taking away her hand.
"Woah, Okay. Ellie, get up; we're taking you home with us." Danny said sternly. Ellie got up looking at Easton. Danny took Ellie's hand checking it out before walking with them out of the office slowly. Ellie slightly looked back at Easton who was just staring at her. She turned back around and looked down at the floor, counting out forty tiles.