Thanks to everyone for making this story reach the big milestone of 100 reviews. It is so awesome. I wasn't expecting to hit it this early, but I'm tickled pink that it has. While I continue to grin like an idiot, you folks go read and enjoy.
"Did you see it?" Russ asked eagerly when he rejoined her after the game.
"See what?" she asked, feigning confusion.
He huffed and rolled his eyes. "My triple."
Emily chuckled. "Just kidding," she teased, earning a dirty look from him. She passed him one of the bottles of chocolate milk. "You need to learn how to slide."
Though Emily had spent the majority of her time watching the people entering and leaving the park, she kept one eye on the game. In the sixth, Russ hit a screamer into right field. The ball got hung up in the corner and he decided to stretch the easy double into a triple. A little over half way there, he tripped over his feet and belly flopped on top of third base. Russ being Russ, he bounced to his feet with a big grin on his face and covered in dirt.
Russ' eyes lit up at the possibility of learning something new. "Can you show me?" he asked, taking a big gulp of his milk.
"Not with this busted ankle," she apologized. "I'm afraid it's going to be a couple of months before its back to normal and I can do things like that."
"Oh," he said and hid his disappointment by taking a cookie from the tin Emily had placed between them.
"I'm sure you'll learn how to slide from your coach when you play Little League this summer," she suggested, trying to soothe his bruised feelings.
"That's not going to happen," he said with a sigh and stared at the half eaten cookie in his hand.
Emily frowned at the news. "Why not?"
"Aunt Helen says it's a luxury." Russ scrunched up his face. "What does she mean by that?"
She ran a hand through her hair. "Umm…I believe she's saying that she can't afford to pay for it." It made Emily wonder how expensive Little League actually was or if the aunt was simply being cheap.
"Oh, okay," he said with a nod. He finished the cookie and reached for another.
Emily let Russ devour four more before broaching the subject of the convenient store. "Russ, you up to talking about that day?"
"I guess," he said with a shrug. "But you heard it already."
"I know. But what I want to do is a cognitive interview," she explained.
Russ gave her a dubious look. "Is it going to hurt?"
She chuckled. "No. It's more about what you sensed and heard. You'll be surprised at how much you actually remember."
"Huh," he said and downed the rest of his milk.
Emily shifted sideways on the bench so that she could see his eyes and rested her hand lightly on his thin shoulder. "How about we start with something easy? Tell me about Mr. Abrams. Did you like him?"
Another shrug. "He was okay for an old guy." Emily smiled, wondering what his definition of old was. Old like her or old like Warren? "He seemed to like me. Always called me Mr. Hammond like I'm a grownup. He also asks how my Aunt Helen is doing."
"He does sound nice. Did he greet Geoff and Vince the same way?"
Russ frowned. "Yes. But he sounds more like my aunt when he does. He doesn't like them."
"Oh? Why not?"
"Because they were always stealing stuff," he admitted. "That's one of the reasons why Aunt Helen doesn't want me hanging around with them."
Emily's eyebrows went up. "Then why were you?"
He gave her a defiant grin. "Because she told me not to."
She nodded in understanding and hid a smile behind her hand. Typical pre-teenager behavior, do the opposite of what your parent told you to do. It was something she was very familiar with that she probably could teach a class on it. It drove her mother up a wall, which only made her do it more.
"Okay," she continued. "Let's move to the back of the store. Geoff and Vince were arguing."
"Yeah. They couldn't make up their minds on what they wanted to drink. I was thinking about going to pay for mine but I changed my mind."
"Why?"
"I was afraid they would steal something and I didn't want to get in trouble," he confessed.
"Makes sense," Emily said with a nod. "Then what happened?"
"The bell over the door rang and the bad guy came in."
Emily moved closer to him and lowered her voice into a soothing tone. "Describe him to me."
Russ shot her an annoyed look. "You already know what he looks like."
"Humor me," she said with a soft smile.
The boy let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine. He was tall and he was dressed in black."
She nodded. "What about his build? Was he thin like me or more muscular?"
He answered immediately. "Thin like you."
"Good. Did you see his face?"
"No," he said with a shake of his head. "He had a baseball hat on."
"Did you see any hair sticking out below it?" she asked. He nodded. "What color was it?"
Russ thought about for a moment. "Brown. But not as dark as yours," he added. "Oh! His face was shadowy."
Emily frowned. "How so?"
The boy rubbed his face along the jaw line. "It was right here."
"A five o'clock shadow?" Emily guessed.
"Huh?" he asked, scrunching up his face in confusion.
She chuckled. "The beginnings of a beard," she explained.
His eyes lit up in understanding. "I got it."
Emily smiled and reached over to give his shoulder a squeeze. "You're doing great, Russ," she said in encouragement.
"I am?"
"Mm hmm. You are."
He sat a little straighter on the bench and puffed out his chest at the praise. "Cool. But are we done yet?" he asked. As much as he liked helping Emily, he was itching to do something else.
"Just a few more questions, okay?" she asked.
"Okay," he agreed and decided to have another cookie.
She waited patiently for the boy to finish it. As she had said before, Russ was doing a great job. But he was also a twelve-year-old boy with a limited attention span so she didn't want to push him too hard.
"Like I said, I have two questions left. Was there anything odd that stood out about his clothes? Any logos on the hat or on the jacket?"
Russ was quick to answer. "No. They were just black. I did think it was weird that he was wearing gloves. It was warm out. Why would he be doing that?"
"So that he wouldn't leave any fingerprints," Emily clarified for him.
"Ah," he said, slowly swinging his feet back and forth. He gave her a beseeching look, telling Emily he had just about reached his limit.
"One more then you can go, okay?" He nodded. "Now I know you said that you couldn't hear what they we saying but what their tone? Was it heated or friendly?"
Russ scrunched up his face again as he thought. "It was nice at first but them Mr. Abrams started to sound the way he does when he catches you doing something you're not supposed to be doing."
"He was mad?"
"Yeah. He was." His feet stopped swinging. "We done now?" he asked hopefully.
Emily couldn't help but laugh at his impatience. "Yes. We're done. Thanks, Russ, for answering my questions. I know it seemed to be pointless to you, but it was a big help to me."
Russ grinned. "Cool," he said, picking up his glove and hopping off the bench. "Can we play catch for awhile?"
"Sure," she agreed and fished her mitt out of the messenger bag.
With a grin of her own, Emily made a waving motion for him to back up. When Russ was far enough away, she tossed him the ball and watched him catch it easily. Now it was Russ' turn. He made sure he had the proper grip, planted his feet and threw it as hard as he could. He grimaced in apology when he saw that he was off target with his throw. Russ was about to chase it down when Emily's arm snapped out and snatched the baseball out of the air just as it was about to pass her. He stared at her, not because she had made an awesome catch, but because of what happened when her arm had moved. The sleeve of the jacket Emily was wearing had pulled back revealing her wrist.
"His hand!" Russ exclaimed, eyes wide in realization.
"Pardon?" Emily asked in confusion, pausing in mid throw.
Russ came running back to her. "When the bad guy pulled out the gun, I saw something on the back of his wrist," he said excitedly.
Emily lowered her arm, just as excited as he was about the new bit of information though she didn't let it show in her voice. "Can you describe it to me?"
"Sort of." His face fell in disappointment.
Sort of wasn't going to work. Emily had to come at it from a different direction. "Do you think you could draw it?"
His enthusiasm returned. "Yeah," he agreed with an eager nod.
"Great," she said with a smile.
She took off the baseball glove to retrieve a small notepad and pencil from her bag. She handed them over to Russ, who used the bench as a desk. Just like when he had signed her cast, he worked with the tip of his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth. Emily refrained from looking over his shoulder and accidentally putting undue pressure on him. After a few false starts, he finally came up with a drawing he was satisfied with.
"Here you go," Russ said, proudly holding out the notepad.
Emily took the drawing and studied it. Russ had drawn what looked like two crossed swords. A tattoo. The shooter had a tattoo on the back of his wrist. This was something Penelope could send through her computers. Odds were that there was a database of skin art out there on the web.
"Does it help?" Russ asked eagerly as he watched a smile slowly spread across her face.
"More than you know, Russ. More than you know." Her smile grew wider. "See, I told you that you would remember something important that you had forgotten."
His grin matched her. "I guess I did. Can we keep playing?" he asked, his mind switching gears in mid thought and going back to baseball.
"You bet," Emily agreed, picking up her mitt. "Oh. Wait. I got something for you." She put it back down and reached into the messenger bag.
Russ' eyes lit up at the possibility of getting a gift. He loved getting presents. "What is it?" he asked, sitting on the edge of the bench and bouncing up and down in anticipation.
"You'll see," she teased and took her time looking for it.
When he looked like he was about to burst, Emily pulled it out. "I got you a cell phone."
His eyes grew into the size of saucers and he took it gingerly from her, afraid it might break. "This is so awesome!" he declared, breaking out into a broad grin. "I always wanted one."
"Don't get too excited," she cautioned. "I got it for you as a way we can stay in contact with each other." She tapped the instrument in his hand. "This is for emergencies only. No calling friends or sending text messages. I'll be getting the bill so I will know if you did. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
He nodded. "Emergencies only," he repeated.
"Good." Emily flipped the phone open, pushed the top right button to bring up the phone book and showed it to him. "I have programmed in my work, home, and cell numbers."
She scrolled down past them to another set of numbers. "These are the numbers for my co-workers." She pointed to Derek, JJ and Penelope's names. "If you can't reach me for some reason, call one of them. They are aware of what is going on. Got it so far?" she asked.
"Yup."
Emily nodded and brought up one more number. "This is the number for my boss Agent Hotchner. You are only to call him if you are unable to contact any of my co-workers or me. Understood?"
"Got it," Russ said and gave her a thumbs up.
She smiled at the gesture. "Do you know how to use the phone?" she asked.
Russ scratched his head. "Ummm…no," he confessed.
"No problem," she said and gave him a quick lesson on how the phone and it functions worked. When done, she handed back the phone. "Now make sure your aunt doesn't find this. If she does, she'll probably kill me and you'll be grounded until your thirtieth birthday."
"I won't," he assured her. "I'll keep it in my backpack when I'm home. She never looks in there."
"And make sure it stays there when you are at school and that it is turned off. You don't want it taken away."
"Nope," he said with a shake of the head. "Because Aunt Helen will hear about it and like you said, she'll kill you and I'll be grounded for forever."
She laughed. "Right," she agreed then she gave him a serious look. "If you see anyone or something that scares you, you call me immediately and I'll get to you as fast as I can."
"Okay," he said and pocketed the phone. "I will."
"Good," Emily said and reached over to tousle his hair. "Now lets play catch."
At the far end of the park, the UnSub stood half hidden behind a tree. He had finally found the third kid in the video. He had originally thought it would be easy to find him because his red hair would stand out like a sore thumb, but he had proven to be elusive. Now he just had to figure out the perfect accident for him to have and how to get him alone. Every time he had observed him, the boy had been with someone and that was annoying. He wanted to get it over with.
As he watched the kid playing catch, the dark haired woman he was with paused and turned her gaze in his attention. He retreated further behind the tree. He didn't like the way her eyes narrowed, as if she could see him. Earlier he had seen her scanning the park like she was on guard duty. Did she sense the boy was in danger? Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. But what had him a bit worried was the way she had been holding her right hand. From his viewpoint it looked like she had her hand resting on a gun. If she were some type of bodyguard, he would have to be more cautious and take her out first. Then the boy would be easy prey.
Emily hadn't been back in her apartment for very long when Derek had called to say that JJ had paved the way for them to view the original crime scene. He had said he would pick her up at six and she was out waiting by the curb at a quarter to.
"Raring to go, Hopalong?" he teased as he put her crutches in the bed of his pickup truck.
"I just don't want to keep the cops waiting after they had been nice enough to let us into the convenient store," she explained as she maneuvered around to get in his vehicle.
"You need some help there?"
She shot him lay off look. "Nope. I got it," she said, wrapping her hand around the handle built into the top of the doorframe and pulled herself up into the cab of the truck.
Derek shut her door and shook his head in amusement as he trotted around to the driver's side. She's so damn stubborn, he thought. She can't let anyone help her, always insisting that she can do it on her own.
"Did JJ say who was going to meet us there?" Emily asked after he had pulled away from the curb and merged with the traffic.
"Just the detective in charge of the case," Derek said, glancing at her to gauge her reaction.
"Wonderful," she muttered, earning a chuckle from him.
Emily turned her focus to the scenery rolling past her window, not look forward to seeing Detective Tate again. Their first encounter had been a disaster, resulting in him trying to file a complaint against her. She mentally winced as she wondered how many concessions JJ had to make to get him to agree to this meeting. After this was all over, she would figure out a way to make it up to her friend. Meanwhile she would have to swallow her pride and suck up to him to emerge from this second encounter unscathed.
Uh oh. Looks like the baddie has his sights locked on Russ. That isn't good. And what also isn't good is that Emily is on a collision course with Detective Tate. Do come back next week to see the fireworks. Until then.