Thank you for the reads, follow/favorite and reviews. Reading your reviews is really awesome! I'm sorry I couldn't upload this chapter yesterday, but here it is.
It was busy on the streets when he drove through San Diego. He was honestly a bit disappointed at how it started. He had expected it to be more fun and to be more exciting, but there were to many people and cars on the street for him to enjoy it. The weather was good though, he liked that. That worked well for his plans tonight too. He was aiming for midnight, he had so from the moment his fantasy was born and he thought it would be really romantic if that would work out. But there was a lot of preparation to be done. He didn't want to do them before hand. It was actually an internal debate he had for weeks, but he had decided to do it all in one evening. This would be the right way for him.
He sighed again as he was nearing his first stop. If he was lucky he would be in and out of the store in 10 minutes. It would then be 16:15 am and he would have enough time before it was midnight.
Mike was sitting with the children in the living room. Each of them, with the exception of Brandon, was looking at him with questions on their face. They were looking at him for answers. He wouldn't give them though, he couldn't. Not only was it up to Stef and Lena, but there wasn't very much to tell. Nothing good anyway. It felt like hours when they finally entered the room and this caused the children, now including Brandon, to turn their faces towards their moms.
"Could you please tell us now what is going on?" Mariana asked. Her voiced trembled and there were tears welling in her eyes.
It was clear that she was about to cry. Looking over at Stef it was clear that she already had cried and that made the anxiety with the children only worse.
"Well honey," Stef started.
"They haven't found her yet, but everyone is taking it very serious. There are officers on the street looking for her and following every lead. The best people are on it. There will be some detectives coming over in a while to ask us all some questions. Is that allright with you guys?" Stef asked them.
"Bullshit, you know more then you are telling us!"
For a moment Mike thought it was Jesus that screamed, or maybe even Brandon. It wasn't, it was Jude, Jude who was usually very quiet and more to himself. The young boy looked suddenly more like an old man hiding inside the body of a small boy. He probably knew this world all to well. He probable has seen to many things in his young life to believe there would be a happy ending to this story. And Mike hated to admit it, but his gut told him nothing better. Lena stepped forward to Jude and sat with him. For a moment Stef and Lena glanced at each other before Lena started to speak.
"There isn't much to tell, other then that her backpack was found. We don't know more then that, but maybe the detectives can tell us a bit more when they come over. It won't be long I think." Lena said.
Jude returned to be the quiet boy, all to himself and staring at his hands. Brandon however was nervously drumming his fingers on the ground where he sat. There was something on his son's mind that was bothering him, beside the disappearance of Callie, and it worried him. He knew however, that his son was not going to talk right now. He would just have to keep an eye on him.
Andrew Brody parked his car in front of the Foster residence and turned the ignition off. It was a quiet street with family houses on both sides. The Foster residence looked like a beautiful family home, where a peaceful family should live in. Brody found cases involving children always difficult. Especially if the victim was the same age as one of his children he found it harder. But knowing the family and have seen the girl at the station before, made it all the worse for him. He didn't knew Stef very well, but he knew she was a great police officer and a woman with a big heart. She not only took care of her own son, but fostered and adopted 4 other children. He found it difficult enough to care for his two children, let alone 5. He had seen Callie once at the station with her mom when Stef needed to pick something up. He hadn't talked to her but he remembered the way Stef was with that young girl. Everyone knew that her newly foster daughter came from a rough place and it was amazing to see how she looked up at her new foster mother, almost as if it was her own biological mother. There was definitely a strong bond between those two. It was that, with all the other reasons why he dreaded to knock on the door and inform them about their newest discovery. As his partner stepped out of the car he followed him with reluctance and walked over to the door.
They didn't need to knock or ring the doorbell, Stef openend it even before they had reached the patio.
"Come in." was all she said and she walked over to what seemed to be the kitchen. Her wife Lena was already there and looked in anticipation towards the two detectives.
"Please just tell us everything you have found out so far." The cop in front of him pleaded.
"No chitchat, we need to know what is going on." Stef said.
Informing family or informing family who are with the force was always completely different, so he complied and just told them what they had discovered.
"Okay Stef, why don't we take a seat first." Brody replied.
Everyone sat down and his partner quickly took 2 bottles of water that were standing on the counter and put them on the table in front of the women.
"As you know we had picked up a last signal from Callie's phone and we went to check out that location. We had the help from other officers and we soon found Callie's backpack in an alley close to where her last signal was. So far we haven't found any traces on the backpack, no blood or anything like that, so that is the good news. We thought maybe it was Callie herself who threw away her backpack. However, we kept looking and we turned the alley upside down. That is when we found a syringe." Brody told them. Both women gasped and they were trying to keep themselves together while he continued.
"It looked like it was used only hours ago. We send the syringe to the lab for DNA and to identify the content. They are working on it right now. But we also found something on the main street not far from the alley and we want to show it to you to see if you recognize it." Andrew Brody told them while he pulled out his phone to show them a picture. On the picture were two navy green, old and worn down shoes. As soon as he showed the picture to Stef and Lena he didn't need to hear more. They were Callie's.
Lena's hand went over to Stef, who found it and took it in her own hands. Their faces, who were already pale, turned another shade lighter and new tears made their appearance while they nodded their confirmation.
It was Stef who spoke the first.
"So, ehm, what does this mean. I mean, what do you think that happened?" Her trembled voice asked. Brody sighed, how different it felt to tell a cop bad news, how much the same the reactions were. Right now Stef wasn't a cop, right now Stef was the mother of a victim.
"If, and I mean only if the syringe was used on Callie, than we can presume that Callie is abducted. It doesn't look like there was any violence in the alley other then the possibility of being drugged." Brody carefully stated.
"You know very well that in those cases the vicim often knows the abductor. And in case the victim is a child, it is usually a relative. With a teenager there are also love affairs to reconsider" Brody reminded her.
"So what I am going to ask you two, is to make a list of every person you know and write their relation with Callie behind their names. In the mean time, if it is okay with the both of you, we would like to talk to your other children. We would like to talk especially with Brandon since the ice cream place wasn't far from the street where we found her shoes. He most likely is the last person who saw her." Brody finished and looked over towards his partner who shook his head in agreement.
Stef walked over to the living room where Mike and the children were still waiting. Lena was looking for some papers and pens so everyone could make list. They didn't want to forget any person, so she thought it would be for the best if everyone helped.
Brody and Miller wanted to speak with Brandon first which she understood. She just wished that she knew what else was on her sons mind and what it was about the dent in the car. Her kids were very good in hiding important stuff so they wouldn't get into trouble. She could only hope he was smart enough to tell every little detail that he knew and remembered.
"Hey guys." Stef greeted her kids.
"Detective Brody and Miller would like to ask you guys some questions. They need to see the whole picture and maybe you guys have seen something without knowing it." Stef told them. She hoped they weren't scared talking to the cops alone. Detective Brody and Miller thought it for the best if Stef and Lena weren't there while they talked to them one by one.
"Brandon, why don't you go first." Stef addressed her oldest.
"Come, I walk with you to the kitchen." She said when it appeared he wasn't going to stand up.
He did stand up, even though he took his time. There was a pained look on his face and Stef's heart broke. She knew he would blame himself. Just before they stepped into the kitchen she pulled her son towards her and gave him a hug.
"Just answer their questions and tell them all you know, okay love?" Stef said. Brandon just nodded and with a sad face he stepped into the kitchen.
Let me know what you think, tomorrow I will post chapter 5.