Major Crimes Mysteries
The Family McCoy
Chapter 19
The following day the team was sitting at their desks looking at the board in the murder room. Sharon was processing with the team next steps they should take. They were quickly running out of potential suspects as everyone who looked great on paper had a solid alibi as to where they were the night of the murder. No one on the team wanted this case to go cold, but it had the feeling like it had the potential to.
Just as Sharon was getting ready to comment on the cold case feeling, Dr. Morales walked in holding the DNA report from the spit found on Rebecca's shoulder. He was waving it in the air with an air of excitement like it was hot off the press.
"I know this is late, but I asked them to run this one twice." Morales told the group. The team looked at him confused. Morales continued. "I thought you told me that the McCoys only had three girls."
Sharon was the first to respond. She had a look of sheer confusion on her face. "Yes, Doctor. They only have three girls, Doctor. What are you saying?"
"Well, Rebecca McCoy had a son, and he was present the night of the murder. The spit that was found on the shoulder of Rebecca McCoy belonged to a male child of hers. Oh and Dr. McCoy wasn't the father." Morales said with a proud look on his face. "Got it right here in the DNA report."
The team looked at Dr. Morales with a look of confusion and awe on their faces. "Let me get this straight." Provenza said. "Rebecca McCoy had a son who was not the son of Dr. McCoy. Did your little test tell us how old this boy was? Maybe where to find him?" Provenza continued now with sarcasm in his tone.
Morales, always the forensic doctor responded "Listen. I don't know who he is, how old he is or what he looks like. What I can tell you is that the DNA had a familiar match with the mother, but not the father.
"What?" Sharon said with an incredulous tone to her voice. "How could this be held back from us by her parents?" Sharon said into the air as she walked into her office. The team watched as she opened up a file and picked up her phone. They assumed she was calling Rebecca McCoy's parents and they were correct.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Parkey. This is Commander Sharon Raydor-Flynn with the LAPD. We had something come up today and I wanted to ask you about it." There was a pause before Sharon continued.
"Of course, Commander. How can I help you?" Mrs. Parkey responded. Mrs. Parkey had let Sharon know a couple of days before that she and her husband had decided to return to Modesto. "It is just too painful here." Eleanora said to Sharon. "We can get back down here quickly if we need to, but even staying at the McCoys just brings up memories of times with our daughter and her family."
"This may come as a shock, but did Rebecca have a son?" Sharon asked the woman clearly who was still grieving.
"What? No!" Eleanora Parkey almost screamed at Sharon. "How dare you, Commander? Is this how you smear your victims?" She continued.
"Mrs. Parkey, I'm sorry, but this is something that has come up and I need to look deeper into it." Sharon said trying to calm her.
"My daughter was a good girl her entire life, Commander. No. My daughter has never had a son, so whoever gave you that piece of trifling trash gossip was just jealous of my beautiful daughter who was nothing but fantastic to anyone blessed to have known her. I had a wonderful relationship with my daughter. If my daughter ever would have had a child, I would have known as I was one of the first to know with each of my granddaughters. We all celebrated those girls." Eleanora said. "Have a good day, Commander and unless you are calling me to tell me you finally have done your job in finding out who would slaughter a perfectly respectable family, please do not call me again. Clearly, you have chosen to listen to idle gossip and to slander the victim rather than find their killer." With that and without giving Sharon an opportunity to respond, Eleanora Parkey hung the phone up on Sharon.
Sharon stood there for several minutes looking at the receiver in her hand before hanging up the phone and walking out of her office. She touched Andy lightly on the shoulder and pointed back towards the murder board. Andy stood up to follow her.
She explained the phone call with Eleanora Parkey and that Mrs. Parkey swore that there was no way that Rebecca had a son. "Well, we have DNA that says otherwise." Andy responded to her.
"Well, I couldn't really tell her that Andy. And, frankly, I think she would have thought the DNA was wrong no matter how many times we ran it." Sharon told him.
The team started to talk amongst themselves on ways this could have occurred. Sharon cleared her throat trying to get their attention, but it wasn't working.
Sharon stood up tall and took back control of the group. "Excuse me!" Sharon said. All the team laughed at her. The early team was reminded of the voice she used when they were sending her on wild goose chases to keep her out of Brenda Leigh Johnson's way when Chief Johnson was going after two bikers who had killed a couple of officers. "Mike, I want you to do a records search for any birth records that list Rebecca McCoy as the mother. Go back at least to the time she would have started her periods." Sharon said. Mike blew out an exasperated breath at the massive undertaking of the task assigned to him.
"Wes and Cami, please go back and reinterview all of Katey's friends. See if a brother was ever spoken about. Amy and Buzz, I want you to speak with Jason Walkmire again. See if he knew of any rumor or discussion with Dr. McCoy about a fourth child. Lieutenant and Andy, meet with Dr. McCoy's friends and partners. See if there were any issues with the McCoy's regarding affairs or an illegitimate son." With that Sharon waved off the group and returned to her office.
The group packed up their belongings and all headed out the door to complete their assigned tasks. Sharon sat in her office trying to figure out what secrets laid behind the doors of the McCoy home and what happened to make a son participate in not only the murder of his own mother, but the entire McCoy family including a three-year-old toddler.