"Female. Approximately five years old. Stab wounds to her left and right shoulder blades … Possible strangulation. BP 90 over 60." The emergency room doctor began, talking past Elliot and Olivia to the nurses walking briskly beside the gurney. Gliding through the halls, resting on her back, a girl (approximately five years old) appeared, at first glance, to be sleeping. Elliot noted her yellow and green sun dress.
"Hypothermia," the doctor called out. The girl's hands and feet showed blue at their tips.
In the heat of the waiting room, Elliot's own coat left him feeling warm as he stood next to Olivia. The gurney disappeared in a rush of doctors and nurses behind a door swinging shut to reveal DO NOT ENTER in red lettering. Elliot thought over the girl. She was found with no coat, gloves or socks. Her shallow breath became instantly panicked as the EMTs lifted her out of the trunk and into a waiting ambulance. Her eyes stayed shut as the ambulance sped down Central Park West, beating the encroaching rush hour traffic. Elliot had ridden with her. Blood clotted in the girl's hair – short, curly and wild around her head. The monitors registered a faint and, it seemed to Elliot, almost lifeless heart. Dried blood beneath her nose indicated a recent nose bleed. At these moments, Elliot often thought of his own children, remembering them at the age of the victim playing in the park or about to be tucked into bed – eager for a story. Doing that always caused him something close to pain. He guessed that it was more of a longing, a deep pull to be instantly with them in those moments. Still, he found himself with someone else's child who was bruised, battered or scared. Always.
"She's dressed like she's going to the beach." Elliot turned to his partner who was standing with her hands crossed over her chest next to the admitting desk.
"CSI found no other articles of clothing around her – a jacket tossed off, socks, shoes. Nothing. Looks like whoever brought her out to that park in that car brought her out like that."
"Detectives," A woman dressed in ill-fitting scrubs approached them and introduced herself as Dr. Ryan, "I understand that the girl was found in the trunk of a car … Stab wounds did not sever any major arteries, but she's lost a lot of blood. Her fingers and toes are frost bitten. We're trying to save them, but the ones on her right hand are pretty bad. She's severely dehydrated and it looks like she hasn't eaten in a few days. Missing underwear and the troubling nature of what she was found wearing – I did a rape kit. There is bruising on her inner thighs …it could be consistent with her other injuries. My best guess, though, is that she was raped."
