The Major Crimes team swarms the Alverez house, checking for clues. They question neighbors and ready the body for transfer to the morgue. Paramedics stand near in case the detectives find that only witness needed any medical attention.
Maya Moore sits on the sofa in her blue plaid jumper, now blood stained along with her white tights, watching the television. A blank expression paints her face.
"You really shouldn't be here." Sanchez sits next to the girl, adjusting his tan jacket so he doesn't sit on it.
She shrugs, "I'm not ready to leave yet." She doesn't look to him. Not needing to.
"Not even to change your clothes?" He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
She shakes her head, biting the corner of her lip.
He nods, offering the girl a smile, "Has anyone taken your statement yet?"
"No," She slowly glances to him, "But I have no statement to give either."
"Why?"
Maya turns to face the television again, "Abuela asked me not to."
He tilts his head to the side, "You called her your Abuela?"
"It means grandmother."
"I know what it means."
"She's a lot older than Gram. Twenty years at least...if not more." She shakes her head, "She asked me not to say anything. I'm not going to disobey her. It's a rule."
"Why though? Don't you want us to catch who did this to her?" Julio Sanchez smiles a little, this girl was wise beyond her years, especially since she was only five, "What if they hurt someone else?"
"She must have known something if she told me to say nothing." Her speech was cold and nearly calculated, "They wore black and didn't have guns. Knives. That's all I'm telling you." Maya swallows, "Sean is with Gram or the Lieutenant?"
"He's with Flynn."
"Good. He doesn't need to see this."
Julio chuckles a little, "He's the same age as you. How is you seeing this any better than him?"
"He's more impressionable than I am. He'd take it the wrong way."
"Take murder the wrong way?"
Maya shrugs, "It was like..." She shakes her head, "She talked to me before she died. Told me not to call the police. I watched the blood come from her neck because they cut deep. I touched the stuff inside...it was warm." She blinks, looking back at Sanchez, "I'm considering being a surgeon when I get older."
"Good for you." He smiles, "You called your grandmother after? You called Captain Raydor?"
"Yes."
"Okay." He offers her a lollipop from his pocket, "Thanks."
"Do you always carry candy in your pockets?" Maya offers him a smile as she takes it from him, "Thank you."
Sanchez chuckles, getting up and looking at the rest of the small house, "Just like the Captain." He smirks as he walks past Detective Sykes.
Sharon jogs into the bungalow, swarming the area, looking about for anything out of place. She notices her granddaughter sitting on the couch, watching cartoons and sucking a lollipop. "What's she still doing here?"
"She doesn't want to leave. Detective Sanchez already took her statement." Sykes nods to her boss, "He didn't get much."
"Paramedics checked her?"
The young woman nods, "She told them she wasn't wounded and asked if they could please not touch her. They are standing by just in case." Sykes pauses, glancing to her, "Eerily smart and calm considering she saw a woman killed."
"I know."
"She reminds me of you, Captain."
"That was a compliment, right?" Sharon raises an eyebrow, looking around in the kitchen.
"Yes." Sykes nods again.
"Thank you." She looks about, "We're going to have to have Crime Scene Investigators come in and test the scene more. Something just doesn't feel right. Possibly a burglary..."
Maya can hear her grandmother. She gets up, walking closer to the detectives talking, "They didn't take anything."
"Are you sure?" Sharon looks to her granddaughter.
"Positive. They spoke Spanish to her." She sighs, catching herself, "I promised her I wouldn't-"
"Why though? Why would she have you make a promise like that?" The older woman shakes her head, her arm still in a sling, but she was this woman's neighbor and due to return to desk work next week.
"I don't know." Maya shakes her head, "She didn't scream. She didn't call for help. It isn't that she couldn't, her throat tube was still together."
"Because she knew her attackers." Sharon Raydor slips her other hand into her pocket, "And that throat tube is called the trachea, which you should not have seen up close and personal. What books are you into now?"
Maya yawns, "Doctor ones. I was reading them at the hospital before I got my cast off."
"And you remembered that?" Sharon can't help but grin.
"I remember everything I read." The girl smiles to her.