Chapter 2

"Okay, there weren't many documents in that house. We have the names of the people who bought the house, but they were renting it out. The little girl's parents had simply been tenants. The owners don't know much about them, except that it was usually the woman who paid and she simply used a surname that we are not sure is real or fake" summarized Warrick, looking wearily at his other two team members.

"They simply let out their house like that?" asked Nick in disbelief.

Sara ran a hand through her hair. "The owners are rich; they have many houses that they simply rent out. As long as the tenants pay up, they ask no questions and let them be," she explained.

"The documents that we did find were only bills and receipts. If there was a birth certificate or anything, it wasn't in that house. Or it's in someplace we didn't look," said Warrick.

"Maybe the mother kept her documents in another place which she thought was safer. Since her husband had a tendency to beat the crap out of her. She probably didn't trust him and wanted to make sure that the documents were secure. I doubt he handled many important documents," surmised Nick.

"That's a real possibility. So right now we have nothing but the child herself and whatever we can get from questioning her," said Warrick, with a frown.

"We should ask her what her name is and stop calling her `the little girl' or `the child'," said Sara quietly.

Warrick sighed and Nick looked ashamed.

"You're right Sar. We should do that," Nick said and looked at Warrick.

"Yes, we should. But we have to wait for Social Services to bring her in later. We already told them that we need to talk to her. The lady said it would be okay as long as we don't traumatize her further," said Warrick gravely.

The other two gave him withering looks.

"Okay, okay, that's just what she said okay? Not my words, I know you guys are not gonna traumatize her further," said Warrick, holding up his hands defensively against the looks.

"She's really beautiful. Her mother was definitely a head- turner," commented Nick, recalling the images on the photographs in the house that they had processed.

"All that beauty, but what did it get her? A place in a missing or presumed dead file at the LVPD," said Sara sadly.

"Why couldn't she just take her daughter and leave? It's obvious that the little girl loves her mother and that must be for very good reasons," wondered Sara.

"Sometimes, it's just not that easy," said Nick after a pause. He remembered the domestic abuse cases he been called to. The women were smart but for various reasons could not leave. Some of the women, who did leave, had ended up dead. It was a cruel world.

"Maybe she thought that it would be best for the girl if she did stay. The girl was never hurt as far as we can tell. Maybe the father loved her and some women would stay just to give their children what they think is a stable family," theorized Warrick. From his experience in handling domestic abuse cases and from his memories while growing up in the poorer part of town, he knew that there were many factors that prevented a woman from just walking out.

"We still have a lot of things to do," said Sara, coming back to the task at hand.

"Yeah," agreed Nick.

"Sara, you and I will talk to the girl when she gets here, since we met her at the scene. Is that okay with you?" asked Warrick, as Sara was leaving the room.

"Sure, I'm waiting for some results from the evidence we gathered, so I'm going to help Grissom out with something for a bit. Just page me," answered Sara.

Warrick shook his head in resignation as she left. He made eye contact with Nick, who also looked unhappy. They both wondered why some women chose to love men who would not love them back. Grissom would never lay a hand on Sara. But from what they had seen, it would be unlikely that he would ever love her in return. Sara just couldn't or wouldn't see that.

In a way, it was akin to the case that they were investigating. The woman was beautiful and could probably have many men swooning at her feet. But she chose to stay with someone who regularly abused her and hurt her physically and emotionally. Neither understood clearly either woman's reasons for their actions.

"See ya later man," said Nick, also leaving.

"Yeah," replied Warrick shortly.