"What?" Jimmy asked in disbelief.
"I triple checked," Maggie said as she handed him the files. "Both Cody and his brother, Zack, were kidnapped. Their statements, photos, and all the other paperwork from the case, are in those files. A rape kit was done on Cody, but not Zack. Apparently he wanted to torture one physically and the other mentally."
"Oh my God!" Toby exclaimed as he saw the pictures of Cody's back.
Jimmy began to read from some of the paperwork, "Cody had to have six surgery's. Three on his back, and three because of tearing from being raped. He was in the hospital for almost seven months." Jimmy shook his head, "My God."
"Excuse me," Maggie chimed in, "If it's alright I need to get back to my lab. I still have more catching up to do."
"Of course. Go ahead."
Toby sat in one of the chairs in the office. He picked up Zack's statement and began reading it to himself. "No wonder he ran out of the room."
He looked up and saw Jimmy giving him a 'go on' look.
"It says here that Zack was forced to watch a video of Cody being raped. From the way he explained it, it happened almost exactly like the video we watched tonight. Except Zack doesn't mention anything about a mask."
"Was the video ever recovered?"
"Uh," Toby picked up a different piece of paper, "No. Nothing was ever recovered. Apparently this guy took all evidence of himself and bolted within a twenty minute period."
"Not all evidence," Jimmy said, "He left his semen. And apparently, he left his face."
"What?" Toby said confused.
Jimmy held up two photos that the forensic artist had made twelve years before, with the help of Zack and Cody.
"We put this on our computers, add about twelve years of aging to it, then give it to magazines, put it on the internet, and post flyers."
"What about Cody?" Toby asked.
"Well," Jimmy began, "He can't work on this case anymore. Other than that, there is nothing we can really do for him."
"No, there is something else we can do."
"What's that?"
"Find the son of a bitch who did this to him."
Zack continued to hold onto Cody as he cried. Two hours went by before Cody finally calmed down.
"How are you?" Zack asked.
Cody wiped the tears from his eyes, "I'm okay."
"You sure?"
"Yeah... I'm sorry."
"For what?"
Another tear escaped Cody's eye, "For making you come out in the middle of the night to find me. And, how did you find me?"
"Toby called me... And you didn't "make" me do anything. I wanted to come."
"No you didn't."
"Okay," Zack confessed, "Maybe I didn't want to come here. But, you're my brother. I would do anything for you. Even if it meant coming back to the place I hate most. By the way, why did you come here?"
Cody shrugged, "I don't know. This is just where I ended up."
"What a place to end up."
"Yeah."
They sat in silence for a moment, just staring straight ahead at the graffiti covered wall.
"Cody," Zack said with a sigh.
"What?"
"You can't keep doing this to yourself. You have to let go of the past."
Cody shook his head, "I don't think I can. I mean, I can't forget what happened. How did you do it?"
"Cody, you'll never forget the past. You just have to move on from it. No matter how much we think about what happened, we can't change it. I can't change the fact that I was the one who convinced you to take the shortcut home. I spent years blaming myself for everything that happened, then, one day, I realized that no matter how much blaming I did, or how much heartache I felt, I couldn't change what happened. I had to let it go so I could continue living my life."
"So, you never think about it anymore?"
"Of course I do. But instead of thinking about how horrible it was, I think about how we got out alive. I think about how it sort of made me a better person. I stopped messing around and taking the easy way out of things. I mean, look what it did for you. You are an amazing detective. Every day you are helping people. You get the criminals off the street and you make people feel safe. Do you think you would have been a detective had we not been kidnapped?"
"No. I'd probably be a billionaire scientist."
Zack laughed, "True. But you always seemed to care more about people than money."
"I just don't understand how you see a bright side to this."
"Well, it's better than being dead isn't it? I mean, our lives could have been over. But there not, we're alive and healthy. And if you keep going down this dark path, then you're letting James win. There is nothing more that he would want to do then to destroy us. So, that's the one thing I will not let happen."
"You're right," Cody replied. "I've been acting as if I'm still under his control. I can't do that anymore."
Zack smiled, "Good. Now why don't I take you back to my apartment. You can sleep on the couch, then I'll take you back to your car in the morning."
"I guess it is kind pointless to go back to work right now."
"Yes it is."
"I don't want to be a bother. I could just walk to my car and go to my apartment."
"Oh please! You're coming with me."
"Bu.."
Zack cut him off, "No, no, no! I am the older brother, remember? Now come on. Let's get out here."
Cody didn't protest anymore. He didn't want to. He didn't want to be home alone.
They got up. Zack kept his arm around Cody as they walked to the car.
"Thank you," Cody said quietly.
"Don't mention it."
Toby and Jimmy stayed at the office all night. They searched for any clues they could find. Everything led to dead ends.
"I can't see anything anymore," Toby said as he rubbed his eyes.
Jimmy looked at his watch. It was five a.m., "Why don't you go lay down for a while? I'll keep looking."
"Okay. Make sure I'm up by seven."
"Will do."
Zack woke up Cassie, "Honey, honey," He whispered.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I'm getting ready to leave. Cody slept on the couch last night. I gotta take him to get his car then I'm gonna head to work early."
"Is he okay?"
"Yeah. He'll be fine. I'll see you later."
"Okay. I love you."
"Love you too."
He gave her a kiss then went into the living room.
"You ready?" He asked Cody.
"All I had to do was get up, so, yeah, I'm ready."
"Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah. To bad it was only for three hours."
"You're welcome to stay here whenever you want."
"Thanks. But, I better stay at my own apartment. Like you said, I can't let the past control me."
They got into the car and headed down the road.
"Are you going straight to work?" Zack asked.
"No, I'm gonna go home and change first."
"Alright."
It took them a while to get to Cody's car because of traffic.
By the time Cody got home it was almost five thirty. He knew the traffic would still be awful, and he had to be at work by six, so he ran up to his apartment.
A package was waiting for him outside his door. He unlocked his door and picked up the package. As he went inside he noticed that under the printed words 'send to:', it said 'To My Cody'.
"My Cody?" He said to himself. However he didn't think into it. He simply tossed the package on his couch and went to change.
He got to work right on time.
Before he could even sit at his desk, Jimmy was coming out of his office.
"Cody, we need to talk," Jimmy said.
Cody thought he knew what Jimmy wanted to talk about, "I know I kind of hurried off last night and I am really sorry bu.."
Jimmy stopped him, "Cody, we need to talk, privately."
Not to say I don't appreciate every review I get, because I seriously do, but 'imonlylookingatyou', you seriously almost made me cry with your last review! You made my day! That was so sweet of you. Thank you very much. Again, I enjoy reading every review and I appreciate them all, but I just had to let 'imonlylookingatyou' know how much that meant to me! Thank you all for reading!
