trigger warning - domestic abuse

"No, no. John would never do this." Miss Haines' roommate looked away as she said it, obviously lying through her teeth.

"Miss Pierce, please." I held out an array of photos – evidence from previous domestic abuse reports. "Look at these pictures. Your roommate was being abused, and there's no way you didn't know."

"If you're worried about your own safety, we can protect you," Hanson assured her. "We can put you in a safe house until Miss Haines' killer is caught."

Miss Pierce picked up the photos with shaking hands. The first one showed Margaret Haines with a black eye; the second, with a handspan of a bruise on her left arm; the third, with a broken and bloody nose. In each case, Miss Haines had come in to report the abuse, but dropped the charges a day later.

"John, he – he was rough," Miss Pierce admitted finally. "But he loved Margie. He would never kill her."

Hanson leaned forward. "Do you know where we can find John?"

When she hesitated, I reminded her, "We can protect you. And when we catch him, he'll be off the streets for good."

That seemed to strengthen her resolve. She put the photos down and sat up straight. "His apartment's in Brooklyn. I don't have the address, but it's close to that Italian place on Vine."

I put my hands over hers. "Thank you, Miss Pierce."

We arranged for Miss Pierce to be sent to a safe house, then looked up John Winchester. His license photo showed a tanned face with blue eyes and shoulder-length brown hair. "He's a real charmer," Hanson said, reading over my shoulder. "Seven counts of domestic abuse, one count of indecent exposure, three counts of sexual harassment–"

"And each time, the charges were dropped." I sighed. "Hopefully we'll be able to match the hair from the scrunchie to him."

Hanson squinted at the computer screen. "Looks like his last known address is the Brooklyn apartment Miss Pierce mentioned."

"And he has a job as a stocker at a grocery store. Which do you want – apartment or store?"

"I'll take a few uniforms and take the store." Hanson scribbled the address down on his notepad. "You can take some uniforms and that doctor of yours and take the apartment."

"All right. I'll give you a call when we've cleared the place." I grabbed my jacket and headed towards the elevator.

Thanks for reading! Hopefully I'm making this realistic. I haven't experienced this personally, but it seems like there would be a lot of fear involved.

KenH - so many questions! They'll be answered soon enough. ;) Superlc529 - glad I can surprise you! I'm glad you appreciated the juxtaposition there.