My heart was pumping, my blood was racing, I could feel my heart beat pounding in my ears. Pen Pal had kidnapped a child, and with only two bodies left to find, we were screwed! I was screwed! Pen Pal was my case, it was widely known across the press as a wave of horrific rape murders swept the city. I had the whole city holding their breath waiting for an answer, and it was one I didn't think I was going to be able to give them. I wanted nothing more than to stand of the steps of the court house and announce to New York that we had caught this sick bastard and he was safely behind bars, where he belonged! At this point, I pretty much had nothing.
"Olivia, we've traced the phone call." I heard Will the phone tech say.
"Where to?" I said with a sense of urgency.
"We've traced the call to the Imogen Price."
I took the name and headed straight to my computer, I typed in Imogen Price and did what I think might have been the fastest background check I've ever done. Cragen came to my desk, he knew I needed this lead. I think you could smell the desperation coming from me.
"Anything?" Cragen asked.
I was leaning over the chair reading the notes in front of me, "She was arrested in 2003 for possession of cannabis, three unpaid parking tickets, but nothing that suggests she's ever been involved in murder." I carried on reading, slipping round the side of my chair and getting my notepad out. "She's a single mother, her son, Sean Price was taken into child services custody when he was eight, he's now fifteen and living back with his mother in Washington Heights." Before the thought had formed in my mind, my jacket was in my hands and my legs were walking towards the elevator.
"Olivia, where're you going?" Rollins asked.
"Perfect timing." I said, "We've caught a break."
"Tell me about it." Amanda said spinning on her heals and heading towards the Crown Vic parked downstairs.
"A boy called me, he sounded frightened, he said his name was Sean." I managed as we left the One – Six. I opened the car door and got in, "He sounded like he was in his teens, we traced the call to a woman called Imogen Price, she's a single mother of a fifteen year old boy."
"Named Sean right?" Amanda said filling in the gaps for herself.
"Correct." I said, I watched Amanda put her belt on, then I put my foot on the gas, hard! I flicked on the blue and twos, blue and red lights temporarily decorated buildings as we raced through the busy streets. As we got out of the worst traffic I turned the lights and sirens off.
"What do you think this is? A kid scamming something he's seen on TV?" Amanda asked.
"I believed him, the voice on the end of the phone at the end of the conversation wasn't that kid. The voice was deeper, darker. It gave me the creeps! The fear was real." I said, I navigated around the streets of Washington Heights until we pulled up at a small, run down shack of a house.
I looked at Amanda in the car, "I don't think we're going to get very far." I said honestly.
"Might as well give it a shot!" Amanda said getting out of the car.
We walked up to the front door, it was metal and looked like it had been kicked in more than once. I knocked twice and the door creaked on it's hinges. It was bent and didn't close properly anymore.
"Police! Is anyone home?" I called out.
"I think I can hear crying." Amanda said.
"We can't pull that one, not after last time." I reminded her.
"No, I really can hear someone crying." she said.
I opened the door a little more, and then I heard it too. Whimpering sounds coming from inside.
"Police!" I called out again, with guns drawn, Amanda and I entered the house. We followed each other back and forth from room to room until we cleared the house. The whimpering had stopped, then just as I was about to suggest giving up, I heard it again.
I motioned to Amanda to move to the kitchen again, Amanda had her gun pointed at the long, narrow pantry door. I pulled it open and stuffed inside was a boy gagged and bound. His eyes shot to the gun, he was naked apart from the very old, once white underwear he was wearing. Amanda lowered her gun, I helped get the boy out the cupboard. I had learnt years ago to keep gloves and evidence bags on me at all times. I put the gloves on then removed the tape from the boys mouth. I bagged it and gave it to Amanda, I did the same with his hands and the tape that bound him.
He didn't thank me, he didn't say a word, he ran. We chased him to the garden where he was digging frantically with his hands in fresh soil. I didn't need to say anything, Amanda and I ran towards him at the same time, I pulled him, Amanda moved more of the soil. She stepped back and turned, I knew that look. I've seen it so many times over the years, she'd found a body. I was just praying that it wasn't body number six. As horrible as it is, I had to hope that this woman was collateral damage, Pen Pal tried to take the kid and she fought back.
It took me a while to get the boy out of the house, when Melinda had turned up along with the cavalry, I decided then and there, no child needs to see their mother being removed from a shallow grave.
I had him put on a grey NYPD sweat shirt and matching grey sweat pants rolled up at the legs. We sat together in the soft interview room, he hadn't said a word, even though I'd tried a few times.
"Can you tell me your name?" I asked again.
The boy with sandy hair and grey eyes stared at me finally looking at me, "I'm Sean." he said clearly.
"Sean, did you call me earlier?" I asked him.
"I didn't mean anything I said in that phone call." he said coldly.
"O.K, well that's O.K. You sounded pretty scared." I didn't want to push, but I had a feeling Sean was clammed up.
"I watched my mom get murdered through the eyes of a killer." he said again still with the ice cold tone.
I took a minute to try and understand what he was saying, "Sean, I don't think I understand what you mean."
"No one does. No one understands, because they're not in here detective Benson!" Sean pointed to his head poking himself hard in the temple repeatedly.
"Sean, can you tell me what happened to your mom?" I asked still sitting.
Sean was walking around the soft interview room we used for children; "She was smoking, she always had a cup of English Rosy Lee with a joint. Then the next thing I know I'm waking up and there's blood everywhere. I can see the knife, it's glistening as the sun rays dance on the blade casting their dancing embers on the walls."
I felt confusion take over my brain. This kid was talking in riddles, and I didn't do riddles with out a fresh cup of coffee in my hands. I felt myself feeling annoyed and frustrated rather than sympathetic. Why was he using English rhyming cockney slang? I pulled my thoughts together; "Did you black out?" I asked still picturing his metaphor.
"I don't know." Sean sat back down, he looked me straight in the eyes, he was intense. I could feel the intensity coming from him, it was like watching someone on a high.
"Sean, you have to help me out here, you're the only witness we have to find your mom's killer." I said trying to reconnect.
"It's O.K, I know who did it detective."
I felt like I'd just been slapped in the face, "Who did it?"
"I can't tell you. It's on the tip of my tongue. It's that feeling, I know the name, I know the face, the name is floating around my head, only every time I try and catch it, it shoots to the other side of my brain. But I will catch it, and then I will tell you."
I nodded, "O.K Sean, you stay here for a minute, I need to talk to my Captain." I smiled and got up. I could feel Sean's eyes on me with the same intensity he'd had the entire time he was speaking. He was still leaning forward on the chair, eager and waiting for my return.
"Is this kid on something?" Cragen asked me.
"I think he should be on something Captain. I'm going to call Melissa and ask her to check the cupboards for medication in Sean's name." Melissa was our head of CSU, she's what I'd imagine a mom to be like. A nurturing mother type who gives warm hugs and makes big family feasts every sunday just to make her family happy and to have them all in one place again.
"What makes you think he's not on something to begin with Olivia? We've seen lots of kids who take drugs and hallucinate. What makes him different?"
"The call. He was scared, whatever this is, it's not the scared little boy who called me a couple hours ago. This is shock, or trauma. It's not natural I know that Captain, but just give me a chance to help him." I was almost pleading with my Captain, and I think he knew it. He knew I was grasping at straws for my case.
Amanda had listened to the conversation, "I can check medical records and school records, child services might be helpful."
Amanda always offered something helpful, I liked that she wasn't afraid to give her two cents. I looked back at Cragen who looked like he was convinced this was a bad idea, which meant one thing. I was talking to Sean for a while longer, and Amanda was going through untold records to find anything that might help us with our case.
"Ladies get to work." he motioned towards the door.
"Captain, I'd like Amanda to come in on this one."
Cragen nodded, and Rollins stepped into the interview room with me.
"Sean, this is my partner, Amanda."
Sean flicked his eyes up and down Amanda and smiled at her, his attentions quickly turned from me to her. "You have a pretty face."
"Thank you." Amanda said trying to hide how uncomfortable she was.
I sat back down, but this time, I let Amanda sit next to Sean. I leant in and asked, "Sean, does your mom give you any medications or vitamins on a regular basis?"
Sean nodded, after his crazy talk something seemed to break in his eyes, a sadness washed over him that almost drowned him. I had to remind him to breath after he'd slipped into a world of his own.
"I'm sorry detectives, I got a bit confused."
"It's O.K Sean." I said.
"I don't take medication." Sean's eyes filled with tears, "When I was little I watched my dad get shot, he was trying to clean up our streets and someone didn't like it. He was shot twenty two times in a drive by. Ever since then, if I see something that horrible, I retreat and this weird riddle version of me comes out. I saw someone about it, they said it was a defence mechanism and that as I get older I should grow out of it. I guess she lied." Sean couldn't or didn't make eye contact with me. He seemed nervous, shy, a lot more like the child I spoke to on the phone earlier.
"Sean is there anyone you can stay with?" Amanda asked.
"My mom was the only family I had left."
I was dying to call Melinda, I wanted to know if this self defence thing was real, but I didn't have the chance to call Melissa yet and with this tiny little movement in the case, it's snowballed in my brain, so many what if's, too many why's and a whole load of how the hell's. It was going to be a long day, and night, and if I was lucky, one long day after that. One thing they never prepare you for in the academy, is the lack of sleep!
"Amanda can you stay with Sean for me, I'm going to make a couple calls."
I left the interview room and headed straight for my desk, I hit speed dial on my phone and called Melissa, she already had the answer to my question.
"No medication here Liv, sorry sweetie. Anything else I can help you with?" Melissa asked.
"Everything you find is worth keeping in this case. Anything you find is better than what I had before." I admitted.
"I'll do my best sweetie." Melissa hung up, and within seconds, Melinda was calling me.
"Benson."
"Olivia, what can you tell me about the body?"
I smiled, I loved it when Melinda asked me the question I must have asked her a thousand times over. "When we arrived on the scene we cleared the house, we found Sean in the pantry, he was gagged and bound, I gave them to Melissa. Sean ran into the garden when his hands were free, he started digging in the garden frantically. It's how we identified the body."
"O.K, now what can I do for you?"
"How did you know?" I asked rhetorically. "If you witness a trauma, can you form a defence mechanism, like a personality shield?"
"I'm not sure I know what you mean Olivia."
"Sean said he witnessed his dad being murdered, and since then when he sees something horrific, he retreats inside himself, and a very intense kid comes out who speaks in metaphors and riddles. It was like something switched inside him, when we mentioned his mom, he reverted back to a grieving child."
"It's possible, I know a lot of it is bravado in most cases. Usually, the person will crack under the pressure of lying to themselves."
I shook my head like Melinda could see me, "This was different, this wasn't like a kid putting on a front, something changed. It was like watching someone snap and break, then somehow revert back to normal."
"The best way I can describe it is, a defence mechanism where he literally becomes this character he has made up. He's created the metaphor and riddle side of him, maybe to look intelligent, he's alluding you with riddles."
"I don't think he did it. He doesn't have that much anger inside him. When I saw Super Sean, it was like he was alluding me so I couldn't get into his head. Like he was scared, but he wasn't going to let me know." I felt horrible. I had wanted to ask Melinda's opinion, then I went against most of it.
"It's possible Liv, I'm bringing Mrs. Price back to the morgue now."
"Thanks Melinda, call me after the autopsy, or..."
"Or if I find anything you should know about straight away." Melinda laughed and said goodbye, as did I. It felt good to smile, even if it was just for a second.
I went back to the interview room, "Sean, I'm going to make some calls so we can find somewhere for you to stay until we can find you a family." I hated telling kids we had to place them with a replacement family. It always felt wrong.
Amanda stood up, "Actually Liv, Sean and I have spoken and he's going to stay with me for a few days, for a sense of security."
A/N: Thank you for reading this chapter - I'm really enjoying writing this because I pretty much have the entire thing planned in my head, but I always go off course. However, I will have more time to update my stories now, this being the second update today (Writers Block has also been updated chapter 29) and over the course of this week I will be getting Kidnapped and Recovery back up and running! I love those stories, and I miss writing them. Thank you for reading xoxo