My apologies for disappearing for a few days. It's been super busy here but the good kind of busy. Time to wrap this story up. Thank you all for travelling along this journey with me.
Steve came back to when he felt a warm hand squeeze his arm. Shaking off the drowsiness, he blinked his eyes open just to find himself face to face with Mike.
"Oh…I am so sorry.", he apologized, but his partner smiled genially, as he pointed down. Following the direction, Steve noticed that Chantal was curled up against him, her head resting on his good shoulder.
Sandra Orelli stood behind Mike and waved at him for a second, before setting her purse down on the interrogation room table.
"I am sorry to hear about what happened, Inspector.", she whispered before flashing him a smile, "Thank you very much for taking care of her until I could get here."
Steve acknowledged her words with a quick nod and then turned his attention back to Mike, as the Lieutenant busied himself trying to wake the sleeping form below.
"Chantal, honey.", he whispered and Steve could feel her head against his shoulder begin to move.
Looking down, he saw Chantal open her bleary eyes, before smiling sheepishly.
"I'm afraid our nap time is officially over.", Steve mumbled and pulled his arm out of the way, before trying to decipher the nearby clock on the wall, "What time is it?"
Unable to wipe the fatherly smile off his face, Mike sighed.
"It's just after seven. I got delayed when the interrogation with Henderson went south. Rudy had to get involved and Lenny had an emergency and never even made it in. I'll fill you in on those details when we get done…how are you holding up, Buddy Boy? You look pretty rough around the edges. Do you need more pain meds?"
Shifting his eyes at his heavily decorated cast, Mike's serious expression turned warm again.
"I am fine.", Steve began, only to watch his partner frown knowingly, "Just sore. And tired."
"I can imagine…we'll call it a day after we get done here. You know the rules, so just lean back and let us do the talking."
Steve nodded, as he watched both Sandra and his partner sit down across from Chantal. Even though she'd pulled her arms off of him, the teenage girl stayed by his side, as if his presence gave her a form of protection and reassurance.
"Chantal, I am sure you remember Misses Orelli here.", Mike began and folded his hands across the file on the table, "She will be your legal guardian during this interview. I just have a few questions for you, hun. We are trying to find out what happened to Mavis Johnson. Now, Steve can stay here if you like, but he can't be part of this interview, ok?"
Chantal's weary brown eyes glanced across the table and finally came to rest on the Lieutenant, before nodding hesitantly.
Steve could sense Mike returning to his professional mode, as his bright blue eyes scanned the young girl intently. But after a day like today, even the Lieutenant was starting to look exhausted.
"Chantal, when and how did you meet Mavis?"
The young girl looked down and began to knead her hands in nervousness.
"I met her in downtown when I was visiting some friends a couple of months ago. She seemed like a nice girl, so I took her with me to my park. The Sutro Heights Park. I am friends with some of the guys there. They took me in after I ran away from my foster home. So, that's been our second home."
She glanced worriedly at Sandra, before turning her attention back to her lap.
"Mavis was scared. And lonely. She'd never ran away from home and she was hungry and had no money."
Mike took a few notes, before his eyes drifted back to the scared teenager across the table.
"Did you know she was pregnant at that time?"
Chantal nodded, but didn't say anything else.
"I am sorry I have to ask you this question, but do you know if Mavis became pregnant because she was raped? Did she ever tell you anything about that?"
Steve drew in a deep breath when Chantal reached over and wrapped her hand tightly around his elbow. The gesture hadn't escaped Mike, who quickly focused back on the girl.
"She said that it wasn't Dylan's fault. That she pushed him."
"Now, this is very important…are you absolutely sure that's what she said?"
Chantal nodded, before pointing towards Sandra.
"Yes. She wasn't raped. That I know for sure. I tried to convince her to call Misses Orelli, but she wouldn't. So I tried to get her to have an abortion but then Dylan started to show up at our hangout. He started to follow us across town and I was afraid that he would want for her to keep the baby. I have seen too many girls out on the streets hearing the same promise and ending up having to raise an only kid. I couldn't let that happen to Mavis."
Steve looked over, when the hand around his elbow threatened to cut off the circulation. It was obvious that the situation was bothering Chantal greatly. There was no telling what exactly the young girl had witnessed.
"Did Dylan ever become violent towards Mavis or yourself? Did he threaten to hurt you in any way?"
Shaking her head, Chantal inhaled deeply before inching her way farther towards Steve.
"No. He just said I was a bad influence and he wanted to talk to Mavis. I wouldn't let him. I knew how scared Mavis was about the pregnancy. We both knew she had to end it one way or another, because if her father found out, he'd kill her."
Mike clenched his jaw and wrote down a few more notes. In the fluorescent light of the interrogation room, his skin looked almost gray. Steve knew how much this case ate away at his own nerves; there was no telling what it was doing to Mike.
And worse yet, if the interrogation with Mavis' parents had gone south, what did that mean for their murder charge?
"Chantal, when we…when we found Mavis' body, there were traces of previous injuries on her face and upper body. It seemed that somebody had beaten her with their fists and a belt a couple of days before her death. Do you know anything about that?"
Steve wasn't prepared for the girl's immediate reaction, when she leaned over and buried her head in his chest, before starting to cry.
He could feel her shake violently and quickly glanced over at Sandra Orelli for help, only to see her shrug uncomfortably. Using his good arm to wrap around the young girl, he drew in a deep breath before clearing his throat.
"Hey listen…Chantal…remember how I told you that I went to college? See, I took a few psychology classes, and I learned something really cool. Sometimes, the things we see or hear bother us greatly, and I think what happened to Mavis upset you a lot, didn't it?"
When he felt her nod, Steve made a point to hold her a little tighter.
"Ok, so I learned that you can control those emotions, if you allow yourself to calm down, you know? Just remember that you are in a safe place, ok? Mike and I are both here to protect you. And when you are ready, take a few deep breaths. You think you can do that for me?"
Chantal nodded again, and he felt her shift.
"Alright, so why don't we do it together? First you inhale, and hold your breath for a few seconds…"
Steve swallowed against the pain in his lungs from his earlier attempt of becoming a hood ornament. But the sensation of Chantal following his lead was well worth it.
"And then you exhale slowly…"
Again, she followed his lead and he could feel her relax. After a few more rounds, the hand clenching his dress shirt was letting go and her weight against his chest was diminishing, as she leaned back to straighten out.
Mike nodded at him in appreciation and waited patiently for the girl to regain her composure.
"See, I told you it works wonders."
Swallowing a sob, Chantal nodded dully. With her hand still wrapped around Steve's elbow, she cleared her throat before looking at the water carafe ahead. He eyes glazed over as she began to talk.
"Mavis' father found us somehow. We tried to run but he caught up with her and dragged her away. I don't know where they went. But when I saw her again a day later, she had been beaten badly. She was bleeding from her mouth still and she was hurting all over."
Steve knew as well as Mike that this part of her statement would only further add to the pile of circumstantial evidence against Harry Johnson. What they really needed was an actual witness testimony, somebody who saw it happen.
And the sole person to do so was currently siding with her husband out of fear for suffering the same fate.
"At any time, did Mavis tell you that it was her father who beat her?", Mike wanted to know next, as he scribbled down more notes.
"No. I just knew it. It was obvious. You could see that look on her face…that fear every time we talked about her father. But when I brought it up, she refused to say anything."
Exchanging a knowing glance with his partner, Steve tried hard to mask his disappointment.
"So, after you saw her again and she was hurt…can you tell us what happened next?"
"She was very afraid. I had never seen her this afraid before.", Chantal explained, as a tear ran down her cheek, "I tried to get her to eat something but she wouldn't. She just stayed in our hideout at the park all day and was crying. Nothing I could say or do changed anything."
"I am sure that scared you a little bit too, didn't it?", Mike took a sip of water, before smiling wearily, "I remember a few times when I was a kid and I got so scared. I felt like I couldn't tell anybody about what happened. I was afraid that if I did talk about it, it would happen all over again."
Chantal nodded and flashed a faint smile at the Lieutenant.
"Just know that both Steve and I will do everything in our power to solve Mavis' murder and protect you from harm. Do you understand that?"
The teenager once again nodded but remained quiet.
"Ok, after you found Mavis, she was very distraught. What happened next?"
"We just hunkered down for a few days. She was afraid that somebody might find her again. She would only talk to me and after a day or so she allowed me to bring her food, but none of the other guys were allowed. She was very afraid of men at that time…I promised her that I would keep her safe with everything I had, so I went out on the streets to make sure nobody was looking for her and everything seemed quiet again. I tried to take her out to the beach with me like we did before. It's always been one of my favorite places to be when I needed to…when I needed to think clear again."
"That's a big responsibility, you know.", Mike breathed and made eye contact with the young girl, "You did an amazing job trying to keep your friend safe. Now say, what did you mean when you said you were going to keep Mavis safe with everything you had?"
Chantal pursed her lips, before looking back down in her lap.
"When I ran away from my last foster home, I took their handgun with me. I wanted something to protect myself and I knew they wouldn't register it as stolen, because they weren't supposed to have a gun in a foster home."
Mike and Steve exchanged a worried glance, but it was Sandra Orelli who put a hand in front of her mouth.
"Chantal…why didn't you just come back to the office? Why didn't you call me? Anything would have been better than you roaming the streets with a gun on you."
"I got tired of being placed with people who didn't care about me.", the teenager growled, as her hand around Steve's elbow tightened once again. In a gesture of peace, Mike raised his hands and quickly glanced at the CPS director in no uncertain terms.
"What type of gun was it, Chantal? Was it a big handgun? Or a small one? Was it a revolver or a semi automatic? Could you point it out if I showed you some pictures?"
"It was a .22. I heard my foster dad talk about it once. It had six bullets in it."
Mike shifted uncomfortably, trying not to let his foreboding concern boil to the surface.
"And you had that gun on you all the time?"
Chantal nodded insecurely, as her eyes remained stubbornly focused on the carafe of water.
"Then, let me ask you this, hun… and I need you to be honest with me, ok?...Where is that gun now? You aren't wearing it. What did you do with it?"
Steve felt the young teenager's fingernails dig into his elbow, deep enough that it was starting to hurt.
Glancing over at Mike for a second, he clenched his jaw. The message was understood loud and clear.
"Did you use the gun, Chantal?"
The room fell silent for many long moments. Chantal's eyes never moved from the carafe, as if a horrible movie kept playing over and over again in front of her eyes. Mike watched the scene intently, as he took a deep breath, using up his fading energy and patience to tie the last lose end.
The one they'd all been afraid to see happen.
"I begged her to reconsider. I begged…and I begged…but in the end…"
"What really happened?", Mike asked as he leaned closer towards the teenager.
His steel blue eyes were flooded with raw emotions. Steve could only imagine what was going through his head, torn between being a father and a homicide detective all at the same time.
As Chantal's tears began to flow freely, Steve bit the inside of his cheek, trying hard to regain his own composure.
"I convinced her to go to the beach with me but she wanted to wait until after the sunset. She was afraid what people might think of her bruises. So we went there late at night and talked. I told her that I was tired of running…that I'd spent so much time running away that I didn't even know what it meant to belong into one place anymore. All of a sudden Mavis talked about a friend of hers who killed himself. It was a twelve-year-old boy who had been bullied and he threw himself off the Golden Gate Bridge last year."
Mike clenched his jaw and nodded somberly.
"We were involved in that case. We know who she was talking about, hun.", he mumbled underneath a shuddered breath. The case may be a year old now, but the horror was still fresh in the minds of everyone involved.
"She started to talk about how she regretted ever being born. How she was a failure to her parents. How she wanted for all of it to end."
Wiping away some of the tears, Chantal shook her head in denial.
"We started to argue and then we heard some people walk along the beach. Mavis was afraid that it might be her father looking for her again, so we hid in a drain pipe close by. We must have been there for an hour and when I pulled out a small flashlight…and Mavis saw my gun."
Steve felt himself break out in a cold sweat, as he locked eyes with his knowing partner. It was a certainty he had wanted to avoid at all cost. And now that his worst fears unfolded, he had a hard time handling the truth.
Mike had been right. All along. Making him the fool who tried tirelessly to get Mavis' parents indicted. Wasted energy that could have been used to find Chantal sooner.
"Did she want to use it to commit suicide?", Mike asked, his voice barely a whisper.
Chantal nodded again, and leaned forward, before covering her face with her hands. Steve shared a quick glance with Sandra, whose eyes were welling up with tears. Holding onto her purse tightly, she bit her lip trying to contain her emotions.
"And she reached for it and you two started to fight about the gun…And then it went off."
Steve drew in a deep breath, when Chantal buried her head in his chest once again. Feeling her shake and sob uncontrollably, he wrapped his good arm around her back and held on as tightly as he could.
"I didn't want her to die. And yet I killed her."
Fighting with his own tears, Steve rested his chin on the young teenager's head, as she wrapped her arms around his upper body, almost squeezing the air out of his lungs.
"I didn't mean to kill her, Steve.", she pleaded, as he used his hand to gently perform circles on her heaving back.
"We know that, Chantal. Believe me, we do."
Trying to wrap his injured arm around the frightened girl, Steve's eyes fell onto the cast.
By the looks of it, Chantal had continued to turn it into a painting long after he'd fallen asleep. Almost the entire cast was blue from her drawings. Amongst an assortment of dragons and unicorns, he saw a beach scene underneath the San Francisco Bridge. A rainbow extended from the one side of the drawing to the other and Chantal had added two stick figures holding hands, one smaller than the other one. Below it, she'd carved the words "Friends Forever."
Knowing that Mavis had been taller than the petite girl, he figured it was her way of channeling the terrible incident. But suddenly, he recognized another symbol next to the taller stick figure.
It was a police badge.