Two days after Jennifer's funeral, her phone rang, unknown caller it read. She answered it knowing the timing was no coincidence. Crews was running; his personal form of atonement like unto a punishment traversing the backbreaking, dusty switchbacks in the canyons behind his home. The beating his body took now; a substitute for the sort it used to. He wouldn't be home for awhile and the person on the other end of the phone knew it.
"Dani," Rayborn's slick oily voice slithered down the phone line. It was proud, arrogant and repulsive. She couldn't recall why she'd ever trust this man with something so important as a secret - much less Sarah.
"We know you have her," she snapped uneasily.
He chuckled. "Yes, well the note told you that, before our little social interaction." He let his little victory hang in the air a moment and then gave her the reassurance that was not reassuring. "And as you saw, she's unharmed….in case you were wondering."
"I think you know what I'd do to you if you hurt her," she threatened.
Empty air greeted her, but she could imagine him smirking. In his mind she was still a headstrong teenage girl of fourteen in a pink swimsuit at a pool party and family barbeque. Her family used to include him and forty other LAPD sworn officer, now it was just Crews and Sarah. She was determined to say something to make him understand circumstance had changed. Instead of a garden hose, now she held a straight razor. "And if that doesn't trouble you, I think you've seen what Crews can do when people he cares about are threatened."
That got his attention and he was quick to correct her, "not, threatened, sweetheart – protected. I'm protecting Sarah, like you asked me to."
"Don't call me sweetheart," she growled.
"No?" He laughed. "Only Crews can call you that I suppose," he fished.
"My relationship with my partner is none of your business," she defended and changed the topic in one breath. "Where's my daughter?"
"Your daughter?" Rayborn toyed. "I thought she was Crews' daughter, Dani."
Her mind raced. Only one person knew that little nugget of misinformation – Tidwell. How were Tidwell and Rayborn connected? She knew now that they had to be. It was just as Charlie always said everything is connected.
She batted back her own barb lest her introspection be interpreted as weakness. "So you own my captain, so what?"
"Own? People don't own people, Dani. That's barbaric and illegal," he continued to alternate between being overly amused by her discomfort and making an honest effort at truly hurting her. "And wasn't he your boyfriend? Until well….lately…It seems your tastes have changed. Tsk, tsk, your father would be so disappointed in your choices."
"I don't give a rat's ass what he would have thought or what you think," she gritted out the words trying to keep from shouting. "Now where's my kid?"
"Why she's right here with me," he said coyly. "Would you like to talk to her?"
She could hear the phone being passed, rustling noise, splashing and then Sarah's excited voice on the other.
"Hello?" her tiny mouth formed the question and Dani bit back tears of relief.
"Sarah, it's…" she began.
"Mommy, " Sarah excitedly exclaimed. "Mommy I've been swimming with Uncle Mickey and we had cheese tacos and then….Oh, and Mommy, the puppy ate some of Rosa's shoes and then we slept on a boat and it rocked and I saw seals. Where are you and Daddy? When are you coming to get me?" She stopped finally when her small lungs ran out of breath.
Dani calmed herself and concentrated on the fact that she sounded happy, whole and unharmed, rather than the waterlogged sound of her voice. She flashed to a recent lecture she'd given Crews about letting Sarah stay in the pool until her lips turned blue. God she'd give anything to be chastising her tall red haired partner while he stood holding her daughter curled against his chest both looking equally repentant. The image her mind summoned was as real as a mirage, it evaporated into the nightmarish reality of her current situation.
"Baby, are you okay? We are coming to get you real soon. I miss you."
"I miss you too mommy. When are you coming to get me?" Sarah wondered again.
It was killing Dani to not know the answer to that question. She changed the subject again. "Is Rosa taking good care of you?" She waited for the girl's quiet "yes" and then followed up with another hard question. "Is anyone hurting you?"
She heard rustling and then Mickey answered for her, "she says no. Dani I'm disappointed in you. You asked me to protect her and I'm doing that. Charlie Crews is a dangerous man."
"He'd never hurt her," she snapped.
"He'd never hurt either of you himself, but I think you are beginning to realize that traveling in the orbit of Charlie Crews' sun…one can get burned," Rayborn taunted.
She bit her tongue, as the retort on the tip of it was not for Rayborn's ears. She felt the desire to defend him, both as her partner and as whatever it was they were becoming. She hadn't yet come to grips with the depth of her feelings for Crews. She knew that she loved him, but what sort of love that would be - was not yet clear to her. She knew that he loved her and Sarah both and that love could be used to make him reckless. It confused and troubled her – but that was Rayborn's intent, to shake her confidence, to separate them, to drive a wedge between them.
He was making his point soundly. "I need to know something before I give her back to you," he used her pause tactically. "I need to know that you are committed."
"To what?" she questioned hoarse from emotion.
"To whom is the proper question?"
"To whom?" she recited sounding every bit the little schoolgirl he remembered.
"To yourself, to your daughter, to your partner…dare I say lover?" he teased. "You are what binds them together, what tethers him to reality and what enables him to be not what he was before, but who he can be."
"Who can he be?"
"Who ever he wants; whomever he chooses," Mickey replied and the unintentionally Zen nature of his answer made her want to bite her own teeth.
"I want my daughter back," she pushed.
"Then come and get her Detective," Rayborne offered. She knew it was a ploy, a tactic. She knew that by calling when he did, he intended to separate her from Crews. She also knew this chance would not come again, so she chose with her heart and trusted Crews to follow her breadcrumbs and save them both should it come to that.
Simply asking the question let Rayborn know his arrow had struck its target. "Where?"
"La Brea Tar Pits, on the greens in Hancock Park, near a bench. We're having a picnic," he said gaily right before he ended the call. The caller id read simply "unknown caller." Experience let her know that even a call to friends in tech would prove unhelpful. Crews was out of contact; his cell and his gun sat on the island in the kitchen. She had to do something and she had to do it now.
She scribbled out a quick note, "Rayborne called. I'm going to get Sarah. La Brea Tar Pits in the park near a bench," she penned. Then almost without thinking again the words were there, this time in black and white. "I love you, Dani." She stared at the words she had written without conscious thought.
The implication was no longer vague. It felt strong, it felt right, it felt good. She considered for a brief moment if this was how it came to Crews – the fact that he loved her. She wondered if he was as surprised as she; at the way knowing it changed her world and everything in it. Then she grabbed his keys and made for the location Rayborne had described. Her daughter was there now, but for how long?