A Life Cut Short
Chapter 2
Nick and Sara were in the break room having a much needed cup of coffee. They had crime scene photos spread out on the table in front of them. It had been nearly 3 hours since Nick had spoke to Doc Robbins and still the little girl remained unidentified and they had no new leads to help track down her killer. Nick and Sara were beyond frustrated.
"Want some more coffee?" Sara asked standing up.
"I want to solve this case." Nick muttered.
Sara grabbed Nick's cup anyway and walked over to the coffee pot and poured two more cups. She brought them back to the table and set them down.
"Thanks" Nick said as he took a sip.
"What should we do now? We are at a dead end." He said.
"Let's go back through what we know." Sara said.
"Alright sounds like a good idea."
"We have a dead little girl that was found in bushes in a very bad area of the city. We have not identified her and she was not reported missing. Her clothing suggests that she comes from a very poor family possibly even homeless. There was a hair on her clothing that did not belong to her as well as a fiber found on her lips that could not be indentified. There were no signs of sexual abuse." She took a breath and then said "Now where does that all lead us?"
"Up the crick without a paddle." Nick said looking dismayed.
"I agree it sure doesn't give us a lot to go on." Sara said shaking her head.
Nick's cell phone vibrated in his pocket, letting him know he had a text message.
He glanced at the message "Tox came back, no drugs were found in her system." He said.
Sara nodded.
A few minutes later Nick's cell phone rang. "It's Mandy." He said as he glanced at the caller's name.
"Mandy please tell me you have something we can use." He said.
He was so desperate he did not even say hello first.
"I do, meet me in the DNA lab." She told him.
Nick quickly got up and gathered all the crime scene pictures
"Come on, Mandy has something for us." He said.
They quickly went to the DNA lab.
"I got some DNA off the hair you found on your victims clothing and I got a match."
"Who is it?" Sara asked eagerly.
"The DNA belongs to a Debbie Hobbs, she's in the system for several petty thefts." Mandy said. "What's her last address that was listed?" Nick asked.
"1281 Darkner Road." Mandy said.
"That's right around the corner from Simmons Avenue." Nick said, he could feel his adrenaline kick in, this was the first promising lead they had gotten.
"Come on Sara, I say we pay Ms. Hobbs a visit."
"Right behind you." Sara said.
Both of the CSI'S thanked Mandy and then hurriedly left the lab.
While walking briskly down the hallway Nick heard his name being called. He turned around and saw Hodges motioning for him to come over towards him. Nick sighed but he and Sara both went to see what Hodges wanted.
"I got results on your mystery fiber." Hodges said.
"Yeah, what is it from?" Nick asked.
"It's from a throw pillow."
Nick again felt his adrenaline rise, his theory about the little girl being suffocated by a pillow was looking promising.
"Thanks Hodges." Nick said as he and Sara continued down the hallway to the parking garage.
When they got to 1281 Darkner Road they immediately noticed the house. It was a disaster on the outside, the lawn looked like it had not been mowed for months, the siding was coming off the house and there were bags upon bags of garbage in the front yard.
Nick rang the doorbell.
A woman answered "Yes may I help you?" She said.
"Hi, I'm Nick Stokes and this is my colleague Sara Sidle, we are with the Vegas Crime Lab, and we are looking for Debbie Hobbs."
"I'm Debbie Hobbs" the woman answered.
"May we come in, we would like to ask you a few questions?" Nick said.
The woman let them in and led them into the kitchen.
"Have a seat." She said.
Nick and Sara sat down.
"Ma'am do you recognize this little girl?" Nick asked, showing her a picture of the little girl.
"Yes, that's my daughter Elise." She said.
Nick took a deep breath
"Ma'am I am very sorry to have to tell you this but Elise was found dead tonight."
Instead of bursting into tears or getting hysterical the woman looked almost stone faced.
Obviously that was not the reaction the CSI'S were expecting.
"Ma'am, are you alright?" Sara asked.
The woman nodded yes and she was still as calm as could be.
"Mommy who are they?" a little voice asked.
The three adults looked up and saw a little boy standing there.
"Jayden go back to bed." Debbie instructed and without another word the little boy turned around and wandered out of eyesight.
After the little boy was gone Sara said "Ma'am your daughter was not in any missing person's database, why didn't you report her missing?"
"I didn't report her missing because she was never missing."