DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 3

Andy stirred in his sleep as he pulled Sharon's body closer to him. His phone was ringing, which woke him up. As he reluctantly let go of Sharon's body, he rolled over to answer his phone. Briefly looking at the screen before answering he saw Provenza's name. "Yeah?" Andy answered quietly, trying not to wake up Sharon. "Sorry to wake you Flynn, but we have a dead 13 year old child that just washed up in the LA River" Provenza said to him over the phone. "What?" Andy said as he started to get out of bed and rubbed his eyes. "I don't know all the details yet, Sykes called me a couple of minutes ago" Provenza said as Andy walked over to their closet to get dressed. "I'll meet you at the bike path and Los Feliz Boulevard" Andy said as he hung up his phone. He glanced at the time, it was 2:50 in the morning. 'What was a 13 year old kid doing down there at this time of night?' Andy thought to himself as he got dressed.

Sharon rolled over when Andy got up from bed and briefly hearing the one-sided conversation, she knew they had just caught a case. She got out of bed and went to their closet, joining Andy as soon as he hung up his phone. "Sorry I woke you" Andy said as he rubbed her arm. Sharon went through and grabbed a blouse, jeans, and a cardigan sweater. "You don't have to come with, I can call you later" Andy suggested to Sharon but she shook her head. "If a child is involved, I want to be there" Sharon said to him as she made her way with her clothes to their bathroom to change. 'Yep, this is going to be a long day' Andy thought to himself as he finished getting dressed.

After getting ready, Andy picked up his phone and dialed Rusty's number. "Rusty, sorry to wake you, but we need you to come stay at the house. Your mom and I just got called out to a crime scene" Andy said to Rusty over the phone. "Uh, okay I'll be there in like five minutes" Rusty said sleeping as he hung up his phone. Rusty made his way over from the apartment over the garage to the main house. Andy was already in the kitchen grabbing a quick bite to eat when he heard Rusty unlock the back door. "Matthew's still sleeping upstairs" Andy said to Rusty as Rusty walked in to the kitchen. Sharon then came downstairs and met them in the kitchen. "Thank you for coming over" Sharon said to Rusty as she gathered her things. "No problem, good luck" Rusty said to them as they left the house. He turned around, deciding what to do next.

Sharon and Andy got in their car and drove to the crime scene. It only took them fifteen minutes to get there. As Andy pulled up to the entrance of the bike path on Los Feliz, they saw that the coroner's van was already on site. Sharon and Andy stepped out of their vehicle and made their way down the path to where the body was discovered. Provenza was standing at the scene as they approached. "Captain, sorry to disturb you this early on a Saturday" Provenza said to her. "What do we have, Lieutenant?" Sharon asked. "A 13 year old boy who was discovered by a passerby on a bike this evening. The boy was washed up on the rocks of the river. Body was found over there" Provenza said to Sharon as he pointed to the direction where the body was found. Sharon walked over to the body as Kendall was performing a preliminary exam. Andy followed her to where Kendall was examining the body.

"Captain, we'll know more once we bring the body down to the morgue, but I can tell you that time of death was around 10:30 last night. No signs of a struggle either" Kendall said to Sharon as she knelt down on the ground to get a better look at the body. Sharon stared at the body for a couple of minutes before Andy placed his hand on her shoulder. Sharon stood back up and walked with Provenza and Andy. "Captain, Julio is interviewing the biker that discovered the body and I have Amy with patrol officers scouring the bike path up and down, looking for evidence" Provenza told Sharon as they approached where Mike was standing with Buzz.

Mike was looking at his pad of paper when Sharon, Provenza, and Andy approached him. "Ah, Captain, I've been inquiring with Robby Oderno to see if there are any reports of a missing 13 year old boy, so far nothing's popped up" Mike said to Sharon as he glanced over at Andy and Provenza. "Okay, keep on that Mike, thank you" Sharon said to Mike and then turned her attention to Buzz. "Captain, there are no surveillance cameras in the area of the bike path. I took some videos of the area where we are standing at and where the body was discovered" Buzz said to Sharon. "Thank you Buzz" Sharon said to him and then turned around to look at Andy and Provenza. "We need to know who this child is" Sharon said to them as she watched the body being carried over to the coroner's van. Andy placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Aren't there access points all along the river system for this bike path?" Provenza said to them. "Yes, I think it starts up at Griffith Park and then runs down towards Glendale Junction" Andy said. "That's assuming that this child was on the bike path when he was killed, Lieutenants" Sharon said to Andy and Provenza. "He could have gotten in the river anywhere and ended up at this location" Andy said to her. "Exactly" Sharon said to them as she turned around and headed to where Julio was talking with the passerby. Andy watched Sharon walk away and he shook his head and sighed. Provenza glanced at Andy. "This is not going to be pretty, no matter what the outcome of this is" Provenza said to Andy. "Yeah" Andy said to him as he folded his arms across his chest and watched Sharon speak to Julio.

"Ma'am, I just spoke with Jaime Anderson, the passerby on the bike that discovered the kid's body" Julio started to say to Sharon as she glanced over where this passerby was standing, now talking with patrol officers. She then turned her attention back to Julio. "He was out riding his bike this late because he's training for an ironman competition and this time of the night, the bike path is not crowded at all. Anyway, he says he saw an object floating by the rocks over there and when he approached the object, he saw it was a body. He called 911 right away and reported it, waiting for patrol officers to come on the scene" Julio said to Sharon. "What does he do for work?" Sharon asked Julio. "He's a broker for a financial firm in downtown LA" Julio answered her. Sharon glanced over at Jaime Anderson and then looked at Julio. "His story checks out, ma'am. He's done several ironman competitions in the past according to this website" Julio said to Sharon as he showed her his phone with the information. Sharon nodded her head and took a deep breath. "Thank you" she said to Julio as she left to rejoin Andy who was now standing where an overlook was located.

Sharon walked over to Andy and stood next to him as he watched the flow of the river. "Why was this kid out so late?" Andy said to her. "I don't know" Sharon said as she glanced up at him. "And how come his parents aren't looking for him?" Andy asked in a harsher tone. Sharon touched his arm with her hand. "Come on, let's head in to the office where we can go over all of the information gathered tonight" Sharon said to him as she tugged on his jacket. Andy turned towards her and followed her back to the car. "Lieutenant, let's head back to the Murder Room so we can go over everything at once" Sharon said to Provenza as they passed him up on the way to their car. "Yes Captain" he said to her as he looked around and gestured for Mike, Buzz, and Julio to wrap everything up.

As Andy and Sharon drove to the PAB, the ride over there was silent. Sharon was staring out the window. Andy glanced over at her, she seemed lost in thought. This was not what Andy had in mind at 4 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday none the less. No, he'd rather be still in bed with Sharon, wrapped in his arms. Instead, they are driving into work to try and find out why a 13 year old boy was killed and found in the LA River. Andy's concentration was broke when Sharon spoke to him. He glanced over at her and she was watching him. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" Andy said to her as he pulled in to the parking garage of the PAB. She grabbed his right hand that was on the console and squeezed it. "I asked if you were okay, you seemed a little out of it driving back here" Sharon said to him as they pulled into a parking spot.

"I'm fine" he said to her as they both got out of the vehicle and headed towards the elevators. She grabbed his hand as they stepped inside and Sharon gave his hand a little squeeze before the doors closed. Sharon glanced at her watch, 4:30 it said. She leaned her head on Andy's shoulder as they rode up to their floor. The doors opened and they stepped out and walked towards their office. As they stepped inside, Provenza was sitting at his desk collecting coins in his jar as Julio had printed up some information. Julio then placed them up on the Murder Board. Sharon walked to her office and placed her things on her desk before joining her team in front of the board.

"We don't have an ID on the kid yet, Captain" Provenza said as she was looking at the pictures on the board. Andy leaned up on the desk next to where Sharon was standing. Mike hung up his phone and sat back in his chair. "Missing persons still doesn't have any reports in their system about a missing 13 year old boy" Mike said to the group. "Amy is still looking over the area with patrol. She said she would call if they found anything" Provenza said to Sharon as he held up his cell phone. Julio hung up his phone. "Ma'am that was Dr. Morales. He said to give him two hours and he'll be ready for us by then" Julio said to Sharon.

"Okay, in the meantime, let's find out where the river starts its flow down towards LA, perhaps we're not looking in the right area for a missing person's report" Sharon said to the team as she headed in to her office. Provenza looked at Andy who looked at Mike who was looking at Julio. Buzz walked by their desks and handed Mike a map of the Los Angeles River system. "Thanks Buzz" Mike said as he unfolded the map and placed it across an empty desk. "Okay, so the river starts up here were the two creeks join together in Canoga Park" Mike said as he pointed at the map. "Right behind a high school" Andy said to them. "A 13 year old would be in 8th grade" Mike said to Andy. "So the river flows downward through residential communities until it gets to Sepulveda Basin. It then goes through the park, back through residential communities of Sherman Oaks, Reseda, Studio City" Mike said. "And so on and so on" Provenza said interrupting Mike as Mike gave him a look. "Until it reaches Griffith Park, here" Mike said as he pointed to the area on the map. "This kid could be from anywhere" Andy said to them as he glanced at the picture on the Murder Board.

Meanwhile, Amy was looking over the area with patrol officers. They were across from the Los Angeles Zoo, still on the bike path. She was searching the area with her flashlight looking for any signs of an entry point into the river. "Detective" Sergeant Miller said to Amy as he approached her. "Sergeant" Amy said as he came up to her. "We've looked up and down this bike path for an entry into the river, if it's here, we can't see it" Sergeant Miller said to Amy. "The sun is going to come up in two hours, perhaps with the sunlight, we will be able to see more" Sergeant Miller stated. Amy called Provenza on her cell phone.

Provenza was sitting at his desk when his cell phone rang. "Sykes, please tell me you got something!" Provenza said as he answered his phone. "Sorry Lieutenant. We've searched the bike path from where the body was discovered all the way up to the LA Zoo. We can't find an entry point into the river" Amy said to Provenza. Provenza huffed. "Okay Sykes" he said to her. "Sergeant Miller suggests that we wait for the sun to come up and then use the daylight to possibly find an entry point" Amy said to him. Provenza shook his head. Andy was watching him. "Alright, we'll resume when the sun comes up I guess" Provenza said as he rubbed his hand over his face. "Come on back to the office" Provenza told Amy and then hung up his phone.

"Sykes has hit a dead end with the bike path. She's heading back now" Provenza said to Andy, Mike, Julio, and Buzz as he leaned back in his chair. Andy glanced over at Sharon in her office. She was sitting behind her desk on her laptop computer. "Tao, I want you to check on any missing kids reported a week ago anywhere from Canoga Park and along the river route" Provenza said to Mike. "On it" Mike said as he turned his chair around and started typing on his computer. "Julio, let's contact the Police Academy and get some recruits to help us with the search when the sun comes up" Provenza said to Julio. "Yes sir" Julio said. "Come on Flynn, let's go brief the Captain on what we know so far" Provenza said as he stood up and walked with Andy to Sharon's office. "Which isn't much" Andy said as he knocked on her door.

TBC