15th of December
Greg's shadows under his eyes told Sofia, her friend was waken up by his twins more than once. Twice she had been awake because she heard the babies crying and she was sure, they had cried more than twice and he, who stayed in the same room, heard it all the time. The black coffee he had was essential to get his eyes open.
"Morning."
"Morning."
"You look terrible." She gave him a hug. "The babies were active?"
"Very. I guess I slept maybe three hours in total."
"Shit."
"Yes."
"Maybe you should sleep on the couch instead in the room. You need more sleep when you have to work."
"I know. But I don't want to leave all the work to Jules."
"She understands and knows you need your sleep. You're the one who brings the money home at the moment, you have to be fit. Otherwise you're no a help. Not her and not me at work."
"Are we going back to the last scene today?"
"No, we work on the evidence and the Peevers come over at ten. There are a few more questions. Until then we have to get through a few more things."
"What shall I do?"
"First of all you have your coffee and then you drink another one while I prepare us some scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast. This will wake you up a little bit more. Then we say goodbye to the twins and go to work."
"Why are you this awake? I'm sure you heard them too."
"We did. I got up with Sara, who works early today, took the dogs out, had an ice cold shower and already two cups of coffee. Plus I woke up twice and had five or six hours of sleep. Not a lot but enough."
"I'm sorry they keep you awake."
"The best training for our own child. Want some parsley in the eggs?"
"Sure. Vitamins."
"Exactly dad, you've to set a good example for your kids later. Fruits, vegetables, milk, juice. No junk food."
"At the moment it doesn't matter what I eat, they get their milk and have no clue about the rest."
"Your fiancé is a milk bar."
"That doesn't sound sexy. Jules is very sexy. I'm not one of these men who think their woman isn't sexy after she gave birth to a child. Seeing her this strong and powerful for my babies, see her suffer so I can be happy, makes me very proud. She glowed when she was pregnant, she continues so now she's a mommy. Pride, love and the most amazing smile I've ever seen. No, I'm still in love with her. More than before."
"Good, everything else would be stupid."
"I'm not stupid, only tired."
"Is Jules awake?"
"No, when I got up they were all asleep and I wanted her to get some sleep before they keep her awake for the rest of the day. And busy."
"It's supposed to be a nice day, my parents can take them out later and she has some quiet time. Time for Christmas shopping, clothes shopping."
"Don't remind me." Greg rolled his eyes. "She complained nothing fits anymore. Her old clothes are too tight and the things she wore the last weeks are too big. Women always find an excuse why they have to go shopping. And then they ask you, if you think, they're fat."
"Is she?"
"Of course not!"
"But her clothes don't fit anymore."
"She put on some weight while she was pregnant, every woman does. And she didn't lose all the weight when she delivered. No surprise. In my eyes she's still sexy, but if she thinks, she has to lose weight, she can do it. I'm sure the twins keep her active, will make her lose some weight without going on a diet."
"Probably. A little bit of sport and she'll be fine in a few weeks."
"Yes. Sara will take her around the reservoir every night. First only walking then jogging. Plus, you don't start a diet when it's almost Christmas."
"No, you don't want to miss out all the sweet cookies, cakes and chocolate. The bad diet time comes later. The resolution for the new year. No sweets, no cakes, more sport, no alcohol, more vitamins. Three days later you forgot them and are back to your old life."
"You're that weak? Only three days?"
"When it comes to no sweets three days are like eternity."
"No coffee."
"No way!" Sofia grinned. Without coffee her day couldn't start. She needed her caffeine boost in the morning to be prepared for the day.
Nothing. Nada. No matter how often Sofia checked on the evidence, she couldn't find a single tiny piece that gave her any conclusions about who kidnapped Annabelle. All traces she found were from the family and the chloroform tissue, that had been on every scene so far, wasn't there. Did she have to go back and check the whole premises again? And the premises next to it.
"Coffee?" Brandon came with two cups of coffee into her office. His long brown hair was tied back to a ponytail, a sign of he was busy and not happy.
"Thanks. When I look at your hair you didn't find something, did you?"
"No, nothing. The buggy is clean, only fingerprints of the parents. The front door had prints from people, who were there the last days to visit. Honestly I've no idea what to tell the parents when they come here in a few minutes."
"Me neither. I thought of going back. There must be a chloroform tissue somewhere, they left it every time. Why would they change their pattern? It's not like it helped us with anything."
"Yeah. And why did nobody see the van? I talked to a few neighbors, they are very aware of what's going on on their street. One could tell me since when we were there, when the first police car arrived and who else stayed at home to watch us doing our job."
"And he didn't see the van? Not yesterday and not three days ago?"
"No."
"Strange." Was it only a coincidence? Sofia tend not to believe in coincidence when it came to cases. "What about the soil?"
"Trace is working on it, so far they haven't found any soil that caught their interest. Everything belongs to the house, the premises. Did the police find anything?"
"No. I talked to Don, they have no more witnesses, knocked on all doors, talked to all neighbors, on the same road and the next three roads up the hill if they have seen a van or a man watching the area. Nothing."
"And all private camera tapes we got didn't help neither." Brandon's cell phone rang. "Okay, we're coming." He ended the call. "The Peevers are here. Lets talk to them."
"Explain them why we don't have anything?"
"There are no explanations."
"No, there aren't." Sofia sighed. This part of her job wasn't something she enjoyed. They had to tell the parents of the little girl, there was nothing to give them some hope, nothing that indicated they could have their baby girl back. Like they couldn't tell all the other parents good news.
"Misses Peevers, Mister Peevers, have a seat." Brandon greeted them.
"Did you find our baby girl?" Misses Peevers asked.
"No. Would you care for some coffee?" Sofia offered.
"I don't want coffee, I want my girl back!"
"A black one would be nice." Mister Peevers said.
"I'll be right back." She left the room to get a coffee. A devastated woman, who started working a week after she delivered. How could a woman love her baby so much and leave it alone after only a few days? While her husband seemed not to be overly sad. Or he played his feelings down very good. Most men were raised not to show feelings, most forgot this when it came to their own baby, other managed to keep their face straight.
With the coffee she came back and sat down.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
"What are you doing the whole day when you haven't found out anything yet?" Misses Peevers asked Brandon.
"We work on what we have. The problem is, there aren't a lot of things to work on and what we found out so far, pointed to nowhere. We have the prints of your family and the neighbor who was over two days ago. That's it. All fresh prints were from you and your husband."
"You can tell if a print is old or not?" Mister Peevers asked.
"Yes. The kidnapper didn't cut himself when he cut the glass, he didn't leave a shoeprint behind, we have no evidence he was in or around your house. Our lab is working on the soil we found in the house, so far it all belonged to your premises."
"How do you plan to get our baby back to us when you have nothing?" Misses Peevers sobbed.
"We hope we find something."
"When?"
"Hopefully soon. Mister Peevers, we need to ask you about the van again. We talked to all your neighbors, one could give us a really good enumeration about what vehicles drove across the road, who was at home and when a person walked by. He didn't see the van, not yesterday and not three days ago."
"Then he must have missed it. Used the bathroom at this time …like I did yesterday…they must have seen me…how could they see me?"
Another question they couldn't answer. Sofia had checked on the surroundings, she didn't find a place from where you could watch the kitchen unseen. All possible angles didn't work out and when she tried to climb into the bushes, thorns stopped her before she managed to get half inside.
Her cell phone rang.
"Excuse me." It showed Don's number. Stepping out of the room she answered the call. "Hey, we're talking to the Peevers at the moment. Do you have anything?"
"I'm afraid I have." His voice said more than the words. He had news, not good news. Very bad news.
"No."
"A jogger found a body in Griffith Park. A baby body and from what I can tell, it looks a lot like Annabelle. The photos we saw, the one we have, I'm certain it is her."
"She's dead?" A stupid question, he just told her, they found a body.
"Yes. The coroner is on her way, I can't give you a verified COD, to me it looks like strangulation."
"Was she buried?"
"Thrown in a bush, buried a little bit, not deep, the jogger found her because her dog stopped and didn't come, when she called it."
"Fuck. Okay…uhm…I tell Brandon and then…we come over. Without the Peevers."
"Okay. I send you the address."
"Thanks." She ended the call. This wasn't what she hoped would happen. They had a dead baby. If it was Annabelle they had to ask themselves the question, if all the other babies were dead too. Had they been wrong? Was kidnapping and selling the babies not what these men planed? Had they other reasons? Worse?
Sofia was afraid Don had been right. The body of the little baby in Griffith Park was Annabelle. Buried under a bush away from the footpath in the south of the park, somebody tried to make sure the girl wasn't found easily. The nose of the dog changed this, let the plan fail.
"She's so small." Sofia swallowed a few times. How could people do this? How could they kill a baby? It was defenseless, didn't harm anybody. Why? What could be your reason for such a cruel act?
Don put his hand on her shoulder. "It's Annabelle, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"Do you want…want to take care of her? Or shall I call Brandon? Is Greg back?"
"He's in the lab, it's better he doesn't see this." Sofia knew Greg would see the photo she was about to take. It was his case, he couldn't avoid evidence. But she hoped seeing a photo wasn't as bad as seeing it for real. "I take care of her."
"Okay. We try to get witnesses, people who are here regularly. And inform the Peevers when Annabelle is with the coroner. She has to confirm her identity first."
"It's her." Sofia took a deep breath and walked to the coroner and the baby. "Hi Cherry."
"Hey Sofia, how are you?"
"This isn't good, this gives the whole case a new destiny."
"They killed before."
"Yes, but never the babies. We thought they sell them. If we were wrong they killed them the whole time and around here might be more bodies." They had to order search dogs, search the whole area. If there were more bodies, it was likely they were all around this area and they could have a few more bodies by the end of the day.
"Recruits and dogs are ordered to check the area. Lets hope they won't find anything."
Sofia hoped so. On the other hand was she aware of the possibility, the other bodies were at another place, another part of the park. Griffith park was huge, it was almost impossible to check the whole area, it would take ages.
"Don said she was strangled." The blonde saw the strangu-lation marks on the small throat. It didn't take a lot of force to kill a baby this way.
"Yes. Which can help us."
"How?"
"The killer used his hands. See here?" Cherry pointed to a bruise. "It's a thumb."
"You can get us a photo of it we can use?"
"You bet I will. He killed her and left something of him behind. See if you can get some traces before I take care of her."
"Thanks." Sofia started with photos. Concentrate on the job, don't think about you're working on a baby, you don't see her as a fragile little person, see her as evidence. Stay focused, be a professional, she told herself. It seemed impossible to do so.
Sara. She had to call her lover when she was done here. Her voice, talking to her, it was essential for a case like this. Only the words of her lover could make her feel better, get her head clean.
After taking photos she looked at the closer area around the body. Shoeprints. One, two, three, four at least five different pair of shoes. The coroner, the police, the jogger, who else? She needed the shoes of all people, who were here. Maybe they got lucky and the killer's prints were also left behind. Securing two prints she kneed next to the body. Don't look at the face. Look for evidence.
There were a few hairs, looked like they came from the dog. She bagged them. Another hair, long. The jogger maybe? Sofia didn't know if the jogger was male or female, had long or short hair and it didn't matter now, the hair was evidence. Soil and bugs. The body had been here a while and bugs didn't need much time find it, start eating it. Because Annabelle had been buried there were no signs of larger animals. Her clothes were a little bit torn, to Sofia it looked like it might have happened when the dogs started digging. Don't let this be a sexual assault, please. Please don't make it worse. She had suffered enough.
