Disclaimer - Maria Frank is my own creation. John Munch belongs to Law and Order: SVU
Maria slipped down into her work desk chair and looked around. The images on the board brought back terrifying memories, but she held her own. Stuffing her hands onto her sweatshirt pocket, she scanned the room and watched Huang step into Don's office for a moment and took the chance to see Munch walking down the steps from the second level. "Rough day?" She asked, just enough strength in her voice for him to hear her.
"Hey, are you all right?" He kept his smile small and professional, knowing 'eyes' were watching everywhere for unprofessional glances and touches. "Feeling any better?"
"Getting better, but looking at those images is pretty tough," she answered, nodding her head in the direction of the board and watched him flip it off to spare her seeing the dead twin sisters for a moment. "Where are Liv and Elliot?"
He thought of his words carefully before saying, "Picking up a couple that match the description of the girls' foster parents. They were spotted in Queens not long ago and it looks like they're trying to hide, but we won't know for sure until we get all the facts."
"The facts in my head are saying they're trying to hide, John," She muttered, barely moving her own lips as she gazed into his dark eyes. "They know I'm alive and in the city, both children they were suppose to protect are dead and I a sex crime detective who was on their case. They are either attempting to hide or...," She paused for a moment and shook her head.
Munch leaned a little closer over her desk and whispered firmly, "If anyone attempts to get you to cause harm, I'll be the first one to harm them before they lay a finger on you. Got it?"
"Got it." She agreed and resisted the urge to grab a hold of his hands and grasp them firmly in her own. When he gave her a small wink to reassure her, she cracked a faint smile and turned her head when Don approached them. "What's happening?"
"We're working on finding a judge who can get us a warrant for the couple's apartment and search for more evidence of abuse. If and when we find those photographs, we're going to need your help identifying the children in them and if there's a chance we can find them alive or not to face these people." His eyes scanned over his blank-faced detective and could tell she was hiding her fear and was hiding it well. "For now, we wait and see what the others bring back or if we get the warrant."
Maria sighed and lowered her eyes. "What are the odds we'll get a warrant with the evidence we only have, which is almost to ten percent out of hundred."
"We can only try," Munch reassured her and placed his hand on her shoulder for a moment. "Fin and I are going to try and get a warrant with what we have and see what happens. If we don't have enough, we can only hope we can find more soon."
"We'd better," she whispered back. "I don't want them out there much longer now. I want to face that bastard for the first time in years to show him he hasn't defeated me."
John could only sigh softly before leaving with Fin to find the ADA and find a reasonable judge.
"This is all you have?" The ADA, Frank Charles, asked. He gave both Munch and Fin a look and heavily sighed in concern. "Well, let's see what this gives us. The only judge I know I can get a hold of at this hour is Judge Korns. If you'd like to follow me and see what he says, we'll know if we have the warrant or not." Charles fixed his loosened tie and motioned them to follow him down the hall to a judge's chamber. After giving a swift knock on the door and getting a reply, the three men walked in.
"Ah, Frank. What brings you to my cave of the day?" Korns leaned back in his seat and scratched his middle-aged chin.
ADA Charles handed him the file and asked, "We're requesting a warrant to enter the household of a Mary and Kenneth Greene in suspicion of abusing and killing their twin foster daughters. The warrant will give detectives a chance to search for more evidence of abuse and items used for the abuse, based on the marks left on the two girls."
Korns paused for a moment after looking over what was in front of him and placed the papers on his desk slowly. "Greene?"
"Yes, sir."
"How are the foster parents suspects?"
Charles answered with a slow sigh. "They disappeared soon after the second daughter was found dead and are suspected of being in Queens. Two detectives are picking them up now to question them."
"You have your warrant," Korns sternly replied, signing the papers. Seeing he was being watched with curiosity from the three men. "I know this couple from years ago, when I was a young lawyer. I was their lawyer for the longest time." Placing his pen back down on his desk and handing Charles the warrant, he stood up and made eye contact with Munch. "Catch the bastards."
"We will, sir." John nodded, taking the warrant from Frank's hands and they swiftly left.
M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M
Swiftly kicking in the door after announcing themselves at the door, John Munch and Fin Tutuola whipped out their weapons and scanned the house, uniform officers following quickly behind them with weapons drawn as well. The small house was eerily quiet, dark and gave all of them an uncomfortable feeling. Keeping his senses up in case a person jumped out at them, John felt chills go up his back when he thought he heard a very soft sound of a child crying in pain, only to discover there was no one in the building.
Opening a door slowly and seeing a room with no windows, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise when he heard a distant and ghostly scream in his ears. Closing his eyes and struggling to compose himself, he holstered his Glock and removed his transition glasses to place a hand over his eyes. I'm not hearing this. I'm not hearing this! Swallowing heavily and waiting until the voice finally faded, he slowly removed his hand and hoped to God he wasn't going to see a ghostly image of a child before him. When he didn't see anything of that sort, he sighed heavily and scanned around the room, flipping on the ceiling light.
What appeared to be dried blood splattered the dark walls and wooden floorboards. Even the clean ceiling light cover wasn't safe from being splattered and John heavily swallowed again, feeling the bile rising in his throat. From what he had gathered from Maria, years upon years of dried blood was embedded in every possible crack, dent and groove in the small and dark room. The knowledge of knowing this was where Maria suffered most of her time with this couple terrified him and felt the color drain from his face - he could be staring at years old blood from Maria and wouldn't have known it.
"John!"
Fin's voice snapped him out of his daze and flipped the light off, leaving the room as fast as he could to where Tutuola was standing. "What'd you find?" His dark partner held up a photo album with a pained face. "No way. Is that the photos Maria was talking about?"
"Looks like it. I skimmed it really fast to see what's in it and the images are not photos of children playing in parks. I didn't see one that looks like Mar, but I wasn't even thinking about that when I skimmed." He handed the album to Munch and watched as he flipped through it quickly. The colored images showed various children of different ethnics, races, genders and ages and all had the same expression - emotionless and dead stares. "How many children do you think are in there, Munch?"
"Gotta be a hundred or more in here. Hard to tell, really." Using a gloved hand to pull out one photo and flipping it over, he saw no date and no name. "Nothing on the back to know who this is right away, so hopefully Maria will be able to identify most of these, except for those who came after her." He tucked the photo back where it belonged. The blank stare of the girl in the photo gave him chills, until he noticed something familiar about it. "Oh, my God."
Fin straightened up from looking over a book shelf and turned his attention to his partner's pale face. "What's the matter?"
"It's Maria." His body felt cold and he pulled the photo back out, holding it close to his face. "This is her in this photo. Jesus Christ... look at these bruises." Both men looked over the tell-tale marks of small bruises on her face and neck with a big black and blue bruise over one eye. Her hair was tangled and messy, resulting from limited chances of getting clean and her remarkable green eyes were lifeless and empty. A cut on her bottom lip was in the midst of healing and the dingy wallpaper was the same in the room they were standing in. "This is it. This is the real house of horrors."
Resting her eyes for a moment in The Crib, Maria Frank rolled on her side and folded her arms over her chest to warm her hands. She was still exhausted from the night before and Don had ordered her to lay down for a few minutes to close her tired eyes and relax. Squeezing her eyes tightly together when an photographed image of a child flashed through her mind, Frank reached for an extra pillow and placed it over her head, wishing for it to absorb the haunting images that continued to disturb her. "Go away. Please, just go away," She whispered to herself, inhaling a slow breath to steady her breathing.
"Maria?" Don called her name gently and waited for her to turn and face him, seeing a unknown expression on his face. "John and Fin found something at the house."
"They got the warrant?"
He nodded sternly and watched her pull her ankle-high boots back on. "They did and CSU is still going over the property. They found a photo album with photos of children in it. They strongly believe it's the one you were talking about."
"They found it?"
"It seems to be the right one. There's possibly over a hundred photos in it of children of various ages, races, ethnics and genders. Sound familiar?"
Maria nodded her head and slowly stood up, rubbing her hands on her pants. "Yes, that sounds about right actually. Did they check over the entire house?"
"Most of it. The CSU team is doing the detailed work and keeping it wrapped up tighter then a clam's shell. John's not looking too good, however." Her face instantly changed to concern and he closed the door to The Crib, making sure no one heard them. "He's not saying anything, but mentioned something of a small dark room with dried blood splattered all over the place - including the ceiling light."
Frank paled and sat back down. "Jesus fucking Christ... that room." Biting her bottom lip and inhaling a slow breath, she raised her head and observed Cragen sitting down on the bed near her. "That's the room where ninety-nine percent of the beatings were in. Windows were removed long before they began their 'pet project' of turning different ethnic background children into one of their twisted Neo-Nazi life."
"That explains a lot."
She nodded her head slowly, exhaling a breath through her nostrils. "Yep. He helped me and now I need to help him, once we figure out the photo album. Makes me wonder where the survivors are, if many are still alive that is."
Don nodded his head in one direction and mentioned, "Well, you're still here, right?"
"Right."
"So," he paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts. Maria was possibly one of his best detectives and kept her badge clean when it came to doing her work. She followed his orders, rarely questioned the methods to his madness, and only brought up concerns about his methods to him and didn't talk about it behind his back. "You watched your parents commit murder and suicide, you survived the abuse and neglect of foster parents, ran away to save yourself and lived in Boston, gave birth and lost a child to the first man you've ever loved, raped and tortured by a former Boston partner and you are still here with us. You, Maria D. Frank, are a fighter."
Sitting in silence for a few minutes while she thought over what he said and allowed various images of what he had mentioned flash through her mind, she held her chin up high and stood back up, looking down at her boss. "Let's do this."
M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M*M
Once entering the squad room and seeing the photo album on John's desk, Frank reached a hand out and slowly traced a finger gently over the spine. The rough leather brought back many memories from being constantly drilled about names and faces by the foster parents. "Been a long time, book." She muttered, clenching her jaw tightly and imaged herself tossing it into the fiery pits of Hell. "Where's John?" She asked, noticing he wasn't around once she lifted her head, removing her hand from the book.
Fin nodded towards the direction of the restrooms. "He's not lookin' good, baby. Headed that way a few minutes ago and didn't say a word of why."
"I know why," She sighed out, heading towards the direction Fin's head nodded in. Knocking on the men's room door and peering in to see no one else was in the restroom except the sound of someone being ill, Maria quietly walked in and pushed stall doors opened until she came across one that was locked. Knocking once on the door, she asked softly, "John?"
"Go away." Came a hoarse voice from the other side. "This stall is taken. Try the next one, fella."
"John, it's me. It's Mar." Knowing he was having a hard time recognizing her voice, she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against separator of the bathroom stalls. "Don told me you weren't looking too good and then Fin tells me you headed in this direction and didn't tell anyone." She kept her voice low and gentle, trying to get him to unlock the door and let her in. "I saw the photo album, I heard you saw the windowless room and the dried blood. Don't tell me you're just doing the call to nature."
Coughing what vomit was still hanging around his throat and grabbing for a few squares of toilet paper to wipe off his mouth, he reached a hand back and fumbled with the lock, undoing the door a few moments later. "I must have had some bad yogurt or something. Need to toss those and get fresher ones at the store next time."
"Yeah, sure." Maria carefully opened the door and saw him kneeling in front of the toilet, his legs shaking from being sick and his hands gripping the round edges of the porcelain Goddess. She could clearly see the back of his neck was wet from sweat and his transition glasses had been placed on the back of the toilet. "Oh, baby... I'm so sorry you had to see it in person," She apologized gently, walking into the small space and placing her hands on his back. The muscles between his shoulder blades were spasming and his upper arms shook from the strain. "I'm so sorry."
He shook his head slowly, gripping the seat harder as another wave of nausea washed over him. "I-It's not your fault. I was going to see it whether you wanted me to or not," He explained hoarsely, bowing his head as his body struggled to either bring up more stomach contents or not. Breathing heavily, his body gave up the fight and gave into bringing up more. Maria quickly grabbed for some paper towels and got them as cold as possible from the sink water. Wringing one out just enough, she placed it on the back of his neck and used the other to cool down his face once he lifted his head slightly. "This isn't stopping, no matter how much I try to fight this."
"Don't fight it. Just let your body do what it needs to do." Frank held the paper towel to his forehead and gently kissed the back of his head, feeling the sweat against her lips. Using her other hand to rub his back and shoulders firmly, she listened to him panting heavily and wished for that moment, she could remove those images from his memories. "Just focus on breathing, John. Open your eyes and focus on steadying your breathing."
Opening his eyes slowly and allowing tears to fall down his face, he reached a hand out and tapped down the handle to flush the toilet. Slowly swallowing and feeling himself starting to finally relax the more he focused on breathing, John released the toilet edges and carefully adjusted his legs until he was almost sitting on the floor, leaning against Maria's legs for support - the same thing she did once she faced her rapist those years ago. "I think that's it," he whispered slowly, his throat sore and burning from being ill. "I can't stand being like this, especially with you seeing this."
"Don't worry about it now," Maria sighed gently, removing the wet paper towel from the back of his neck and used it to wipe his mouth clean. Carefully hoisting him up and sitting him down in the handicapped stall toilet to get a few more fresh cold paper towels and cool him down. Slipping her fingers in his tie and loosening it to dab his neck with one paper towel, Frank began to notice his color was starting to slowly improve. "Hey." He raised his eyes and look straight into her's. "I'm proud of you. Not many would be able to look at the contents of that building and walk out without burning it down."
"I wanted to, but it would have made it difficult for CSU to find any valuable evidence we're going to need." John explained, his voice still hoarse and, when Maria ran her fingers through his salt and pepper hair, still soaked in sweat. "Would have also been difficult for you to find closure in this shit of a case."
Taking a moment from cleaning him up to straighten up and place her hands on her hips, Maria looked down at him and thought over everything they had been through since Adva's body had been found. It was a surprise to her to believe Munch had hung on as long as possible before his body began to rebel. "Feeling good enough to write down some names when I look through that album?"
Inhaling a deep and slow breath, John slowly nodded his head and straightened his tie. "I'm going to get some cold water and find my mouthwash first before we go any further. Mind giving me a few minutes?"
"Sure." Standing back up and cupping his chin for a moment with a sad smile on her face, Maria gradually released him and gave him the space he needed to clean up and prep himself to facing the case once more. Slumping down in her desk chair and exhaling a slow breath, she balled up her left hand into a fist and stared down at the scar from many years ago. Smirking to herself and seeing Munch had finally returned - dressed in a spare shirt from his locker - she knew it was time. "Let the games begin."
To be continued...
