"What have we got?" I said as I shrugged off my coat and took my coffee out of Sonny's hand.
"Come on" he gestured towards Liv's office where I saw Erin and Jay waiting for us.
"What are you guys doing here?" I made my way over to them and gave each of them a hug.
"Is this the guy who hit on Rollins?" I heard Nick ask while coming into the office with Fin.
"You heard about that? Nah, some other pretty boy"
"Okay, I think everybody knows each other. Erin Lindsay, Jay Halstead, you remember detective Tutuola?"
"Fin, how are you" Erin politely said as they shook hands. Jay followed her actions.
"Hey guys, long time no see" Amanda said as she finally joined us.
"You said you two caught this in Chicago?" Fin began.
"Yeah, the fire department did." Jay said. "A fire victim, Andrew Llewellyn, he had a box full of these images that are traceable to this franchise"
"So then detective Lindsay recognized one of the young victims" Sonny said.
"Teddy Courtney is my half brother. He ran away ten years ago and my mom won't tell me how she knows, but she knows that he came to New York, so"
"And that's who we've been trying to locate?"
"NCMEC ran his face through the system and they found more images, and he's connected to a pedophilia ring"
I took the photos from her and held them so Amanda and I could both see.
"This pedophilia club is still active, and they've upgraded to live streaming"
Lindsay clenched her jaw and I brought a hand up to her shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.
"Now, the feds think this club streams from New York?" I ask.
"They don't know, but as soon as we find Teddy, we're gonna ask him"
"Well, assuming he's alive" Nick quietly said.
We all turned to look at him.
"Look, I'm-I'm sorry, but a kid goes through something like that-"
"Nick" Olivia stops him and shakes her head.
"You haven't found him in the system yet?"
"Not as an adult, no."
"We try all akas, misspellings. Check all juvie databases in the tri-state area. Run those old photos through age progression"
"And crosscheck with facial recognition against mug shots, DMV" I add.
"And morgue photos of John does?" Lindsay asks in a pained voice.
"Yeah, we're gonna need your DNA too"
We all scatter around to our desks for a couple of minutes before Liv gets called down at NCMEC. Erin, Jay, Liv, Fin and I head over there.
"No, please, please. Just let me go" the kid on the computer begs.
"Henry, keep crying like that, and I'll have to gag you" a male voice says from behind the camera.
"No, no"
"That's better. And now we have a special request from one of our members.. Gronku in the mid west.."
"Where is this streaming from?" Liv asks.
"By the accents, it seems domestic, but Florida, Canada, Queens. We don't know" the man who works there said.
"So how does this tie in with the photos Chicago found?" Fin asks.
"Those were screenshots from ten years ago when the same organization file shared videos. Calls itself the Chess & Checkers Club."
"Stop wriggling"
"Stop, please stop!"
"I have something for you, Henry."
"No"
"Just in case you feel like you're going to cry again" the man rolled up a bandana and tied it around the kids' mouth.
"The club members making requests are watching all over the world"
"And they're.. they're paying through encrypted links?" Jay asks.
The man at the computer nods.
"The feds know all of this and you can't shut it down?" I ask, disgusted by seeing what that poor kid has to go through.
"We're trying, but so far, no"
"Then we will"
"I wanna go home" the kid desperately said, tears running down his cheeks.
We'd seen enough, so we returned back to the squad room.
"What was that about?" Sonny asks once I sit down at my desk, which happens to be right across from his.
"It seems like the club is streaming live, they have another boy hostage. God, it makes me sick" I hold my stomach and rest my head against my palm, staring at the screen.
"Hey, that's not Lucas. Stop thinking like that"
I look at Sonny and nod, getting up and walking over to get myself another cup of coffee.
As I approach, I see Jay and Erin talking quietly about something, looking rather intimate. I've always known there was something going on between them, Jay and I were partners back home, but they're too blind to see it.
"Am I interrupting something?"
"No, anything yet?" Jay said after he cleared his throat.
"No. I think it might be time to call it a night"
"I'm waiting on access to the Jersey database. Let me shake that tree again" he nods towards Erin and leaves the two of us alone.
"You doing alright? Just looking at those pictures must have been rough"
"It was. You of all people know it could have easily been me in those pictures"
"I know"
"I haven't seen Teddy in a long time. It's complicated"
"You're looking at the definition of complicated and messed up family life" I gave her a sympathetic smile.
"Hey, we may have something" Fin called to us.
"We got some aged-up photos of Teddy. Now this would be him about 17. Now check out this mug shot from juvie. Arrested under the name Ted Voight five years ago for solicitation" Fin pulled up a picture of the arrest report and the aged up photo.
"Voight? Why would he be arrested under dad's name?" I asked Erin.
"They used to know each other back then. That's him, that's Teddy"
"What was the disposition of his case?"
"He was remanded to a youth center."
"There's no subsequent arrests, nothing else in public records" Nick said.
"So why don't I go talk to the people at the center?" Erin suggests.
"Let us take the first meet" I said and nodded towards Nick.
Erin nodded and sat at my desk while Nick and I drove up to the youth center.
"Since when is Voight your dad?" Nick asked on the drive.
"He's not my biological dad, he adopted me when I was 19, but I kept my name"
"Oh, I didn't know that"
"You don't know a lot of things about me, but with time maybe you will learn a thing or two"
We pulled up to the youth center and met with the woman in charge.
"Teddy Voight, yes. Repeat customer. We have more than a few of those. Our program has a good record with street kids, but some of them.."
"Are like Teddy" I finished the sentence for her.
"Yeah, he got sent here twice, ran away both times. Was here less than a week his last stint"
"Kids can just run away? I mean you have security" Nick said.
"To keep the street out, not our residents in. This isn't a prison. Hey, you remember him, George?" she shows one of her security guards the photo of Teddy.
He takes a look but shakes his head. "Uh, so many kids, Ms. Bagley. No"
"So, why now? What did he do?"
"Nothing, it's what got done to him by pedophiles when he was 13" I said.
"13? So after the first time he ran away. All our kids are damaged, but some are more damaged than others"
"Well, any idea where Teddy might be now?"
"Nowhere you'd want to take your wife and kids, that's for sure"
"Come on, please think. Is there anyone who may have stayed in touch with him?" I asked her once again.
She thought for a moment before she nodded her head. "There was this girl last time. They seemed to know each other. Jocelyn Cerpaski, one of our success stories. I still hear from her"
"Okay, thank you for your time" I said and motioned for Nick to leave.
We exited the center and got in the car, me calling Jay to tell him about Jocelyn. "Hey Jay, take Amanda with you to the address I'm gonna send you. You're looking for a Jocelyn Cerpaski"
"Copy that, we're on our way"
I ended the call and rested my head against the window.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. This case is just bringing up way too many memories"
"Like what?"
"Nice try, Amaro. It's gonna take me more than a tough case to share stories about my past with you"
"It was worth a shot"
We pulled up at the precinct and returned to the squad room.
"You okay?" Carisi asked once he saw me sit at my desk.
"Yeah, I'm fine" I gave him a fake smile, hoping he would buy it.
He eyed me suspiciously, but nodded anyway and dropped it. An hour or so passed without any new information, Amanda and Jay were still talking to Jocelyn. All of a sudden, Erin got up from Amanda's desk and stormed into Liv's office, eager to share the new information she got.
"Okay, everyone. Up we go, we're going to the Hudson River Park where Jocelyn claims that Teddy spends his time"
I took my jacket and put it on me, getting with Carisi in his car. When we got there, the park was full of men dressed as hookers, either smoking joints or laughing at something stupid.
"This is not how I imagined spending my Saturday night" I mumbled to Carisi as we walked around the dozens of hookers in the park.
"This is New York for you, get used to it"
We approached two of the men, one in a blonde wig and the other one rocking an afro.
"Hey, Rizzoli and Isles, turn that off" the black one said, gesturing to our flashlights.
"Yeah, we don't care about the weed, okay? We're looking for this kid" Sonny pulled out his phone and showed them the photo of Teddy.
"He's cute. If you find him, let me know"
We let it go and continued walking, asking more people but nobody seemed to have seen Teddy anywhere.
We approached a bench where a blonde man with a beard and make up on was fooling around with a big bald white guy. We flashed our lights towards him and I realized it was Teddy.
"Hey"
"One at a time. Take a number, there's plenty for everybody" Teddy raised him hand up and struggled not to fall.
"Go away" I motioned to the guy Teddy was with and he ran off.
"You two look like you're looking to party. Well, maybe we can work something out" he fell into Sonny's chest, barely able to stand on his own.
"Okay, back up"
"You, me and her. " he took off his leather jacket and put it on the bench. "Well, I can be the bread, the meat, or the spread" he finished off with a pirouette.
"Okay, let's go"
We took him back to the squad room, where Erin was waiting with Olivia. They were stood face to face, Erin looking Teddy up and down while his eyes fixated on Erin's face.
"Hey, Teddy" Erin said in a shaky voice.
"I'm not Teddy anymore" he sneered in her face.
"Why don't you take a seat and we can talk?" Olivia motioned for him to sit at Fin's desk while silently telling us to leave the room.
I went to the locker room eating a snack alone, when I heard footsteps come in and Carisi appeared next to me.
"Hey"
"Hey"
"So, did you know Teddy?"
"No, he didn't really hang out at our house when he was in Chicago, he stayed with Erin's mom mostly"
"When we found Teddy's juvie records you said he had your dad's name. Voight's your dad?"
I hadn't told anyone about my relationship with Hank, people would've thought that I had got the job in Intelligence because he was my dad.
"It's not like that, well not really. Hank adopted me when I was 19, took me off the streets and gave me a chance at a better life" I explained, avoiding eye contact.
He sat down next to me and put his hand on my knee, squeezing it.
"What happened to your real family?" I tensed up, not wanting to go down that memory lane.
"It's.. complicated. I'd rather not talk about it here"
"You can't avoid telling me forever. I want to be there for you, you're my partner"
"I know, and I promise I'm gonna tell you soon, just not right now"
I gave him the best puppy eyes that I could muster, and he shook his head and got up, leaving me once again alone with my thoughts.
After a couple of minutes, I get up and return to the squad room.
"What's he saying?"
"Not much, he doesn't want to talk to anybody, especially Lindsay"
I looked in Erin's direction and saw her with Liv looking into the cell where Teddy was being held. They turned around and began walking towards us, speaking in hushed voices.
"You need anything from us, sarge?" I asked as I approached them with Nick.
"I don't know. We have hit a wall with our friend Teddy"
"His friend, Jocelyn, was right about him working at the piers. She might know more" I said.
Olivia nodded. "Take another run at her"
We met with Jocelyn in a coffee shop where she usually studied and sat at a table with her.
"You found Teddy? Great. So, we're done"
"Well, we still need some background on him. Alright, when was it that you two first met?"
"I don't know. On the street" she vaguely answered.
"Look, did he- did he ever talk to you about his early days in New York?" Nick asked, moving closer to her.
"Not really. Why?"
"When he was 13, Teddy was the victim of a sex trafficking ring"
She tensed up and looked at her hands. "He was the victim?"
I nodded and she shuffled in her seat, shaking her head. She started picking up her books in a hurry. "Jocelyn, what's going on?"
"Um, nothing" she picked up her bag and started walking backwards towards the exit. "I don't need this now, I have to get to class" she lastly said before storming out of the coffee shop.
"Did they mention the pedophilia ring when they first talked to her?" I asked Nick.
"No, but she got arrested at 14 for hooking. I'm guessing we know how she got turned out"
We exchanged glances and made our way back to the NCMEC center.
"This is Jocelyn Cerpaski's mugshot from a prostitution arrest five years ago"
"And you ran her face through the system?"
"Yeah. And hit the bad jackpot" he switched to the photos from the same bedroom where Teddy was kept and Henry is currently in. "These images are from the same Chess & Checkers Club. In this one, a member named Bigman paid to see straight intercourse. Well, she looks terrified"
The man played the video of Jocelyn sitting down on the bed, chained up, and a man sitting on the bed next to her. I immediately noticed the tattoo on his back.
"That tattoo right there, that's Teddy's tattoo"
"How do you know it's his?"
"I noticed it when Carisi and I picked him up at the piers"
"So, who gets to tell Lindsay this?"
"I'll do it, it's better that way"
We thanked the man from NCMEC and returned to the squad room. I was thinking about how I was gonna break the news to Lindsay, and how she was gonna react.
When I saw Lindsay already looking at me, I motioned for her to follow me into the room where Teddy was waiting for us.
"Hey Teddy, we have some follow up things we'd like you to clear up" I began, taking a seat and opening the file with the photos from NCMEC. "So when we mentioned Jocelyn's name last night, you shut down. Is this why?" I put the photo of the two of them in front of him, but he still didn't seem fazed.
"It's just another day at the office"
"She's a kid, Teddy, You're looking at rape"
"They can send you away for 20 years" Erin added.
"I don't see you for 10 years, now you want to lock me up for 20?" he asked her with disbelief. "One hell of a big sister"
"Teddy, that's not what any of us want. What we want is for you to help us get the people who made you do this to her"
"Nobody made me"
"How many videos did they force you to do?" I pressed. "Starting at 13. Teddy, we know that none of this was your choice"
"What does it matter?"
"It does matter. Because they drugged you. They broke you, and then they twisted you"
He scoffed and shook his head again.
"This isn't you. And this isn't you. I know that. You were the sweetest boy. You would never hurt anybody" Erin said, desperately trying to get him to work with us.
"But I did. I had to"
"So they forced you"
"No. It was my idea. Because I knew who they'd send in if it wasn't me. Someone older, rougher. She wasn't ready for that. Jocelyn was my friend!" he raised his voice, his face starting to turn a dark shade of red. "And you're right, they were done with me. I could do what I want. So I went out on my own"
"Until you were arrested"
"About a year later. I saw Jocelyn at the center. I didn't know what to say" a tear fell down his cheek which he quickly wiped.
"She's okay now. But you've got to help us find these people"
"What do you want to know? I was a kid. I never knew where I was, I never knew anybody's name. I was in a dark room on a lousy mattress eating corn chips when I wasn't doing-"
"Okay, okay, Teddy. Where did this happen?"
"A bunch of places. I don't know, all crappy. Do you know anything about the men who did this to you?" Erin asked.
"It was different men, coming and going. There was one guy everybody was scared of."
"Do you know his name?" he shook his head. "Was he in any of the videos?"
"No, he was never on camera. He would just come in at night and do me in the dark sometimes."
"What did he look like?" I whispered, not wanting to cause him any more terror.
"White, middle-aged guy. He was average"
"How did they get to you initially?"
"The first time that I went to the youth center, I hated it. And there was this guy who worker there. He said he knew a way I could get out, make some money, have a room of my own"
"Who was he?"
"A security guard, George I think"
Erin looked at me and nodded, which made me get up and brief the others.
"Carisi, Amanda, Teddy said that a security guard from the youth center approached him about the ring. His name is George, go"
They nodded and took off, and I went to get back to Teddy and Erin but when I saw them together, I decided to leave them be and just sit at my desk for a while.
A couple of hours flew by, time in which Erin had decided to join Sonny and Amanda at the youth center, but I hadn't heard back from them in a while. When I looked up, I saw Hank coming in the squad room.
"Dad?" I got up and made my way over to him, pulling him a hug.
"Hey sweetheart, how are you?"
"I'm good, what are you doing here? Where's Erin?"
"Erin got a concussion while chasing down the security guard, I sent her home"
"Oh, okay"
"I have to go and talk to Olivia"
"Sure"
He patted my arm and went into Olivia's office.
Sonny and Amanda came back half an hour later with the suspect, putting him in an interrogation room. I got up and stood in front of the glass, listening to the interview.
"That's where Henry is now, George" Nick said when he showed him the broadcast. "You know, Henry, your friend"
"Do you understand how he got there?"
"Well, kids run away"
"Yeah, but you didn't know he'd end up like that, did you? I mean, you're a family man. You're a decent guy"
"Yeah, I am"
"Is the bastard talking?" Sonny said as he came to stand next to me with two coffees. "Here, you need it"
"Thanks. No, he's not" I turned off the sound and rested my back against the glass.
"You're thinking about your son, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I mean that could've easily been him, he's young and vulnerable just like those kids"
"Yeah, but it's not him. He's safe at home with his dad, right?" I nodded. "Then you have nothing to worry about. Call him after the case, it'll calm you down"
"Thanks" I smiled at him and left the corridor, sitting behind my desk.
"Okay, so TARU still can't trace that feed, neither can NCMEC"
"Showtime in two hours"
"The youth center is still looking for Henry's parents"
"So they can watch this?"
Hank and Olivia come out of the interrogation room, my dad smiling while talking to Olivia.
I smiled at the two of them. He's definitely into her, and she doesn't mind it either. I ship it.
"We talked to that girl, Jocelyn" Amanda and I approach dad. "The one who's been in the room more recently. Maybe she'll remember something"
"So bring her in"
"We went pretty hard on her. She doesn't remember anything, she hates cops, she won't come"
"Then arrest her"
"For what?"
"Point taken. Hey Benson, you any good at undercover?" he asked Liv who was talking to Teddy.
They went in undercover as Henry's parents with Nick and Amanda while Sonny, Fin and I still talked to TARU and NCMEC, hoping we would get a hit on that live feed.
Jay walked in the squad room and sat at my desk, running a hand over his face.
"She okay?"
"Yeah, she's on her way home"
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me"
I nodded and saw Amanda and Nick come back with Jocelyn.
"Garner, good you're here. These are Henry's parents, so let's make sure that they get some privacy"
"Sure. Mr and Mrs Thorne, come with me" I led them to Olivia's office and closed the door, focusing our attention on the room where Teddy was.
We listened to their interaction until we got some useful information about their location.
"Okay, cross-reference Bob Clintons in Staten Island with any owners of gray SUVs. Let's go, let's go"
I nodded and briefed the others in the squad room, immediately getting to work.
"I got one. Address is 57 Nelson Avenue in Staten Island"
I called out and we all got into our cars and drove up to the location.
"Rollins, the DMV address was out of date. Neighbors said he moved somewhere across Armstrong." Nick said.
"Okay, I'll check utility bills. And I'm running his tag number through the plate reader database to see where it's been picked up recently"
"Hurry"
"Okay, I may have something here. Get Benson and Voight South to Eltingville"
"Copy that"
We made our way back to the squad room after Olivia told us that they got the guys and rescued Henry.
"Three pieces of crap delivered" Carisi said as they all came in with one defendant each.
"Nice work. Who are these other two with Clinton?" Jay asked.
"Tech support, they don't know anything"
"You believe them?"
"By the way they were crying in the car, yeah I do"
"If they had anything to offer, they would have given it up"
"Guys, we got a problem"
Amanda put her laptop on the table, and there was a small girl with two black ponytails and a sign that said "Tune in tomorrow".
"They're still in business"
"Yeah, from God knows where"
"We got that prick, but we still don't have the head of the snake"
"Okay, so Teddy said there was a guy that everybody was scared of"
"Let's see if Clinton will give him up"
"What happened?" I asked dad once he got off the phone.
Clinton was found dead earlier today in prison, a shiv to his neck.
"The fire victim who had the pictures that started all of this, and one of our own. Murdered" he said.
"Jesus"
"Look, there's nothing you can do from here anymore, so I'll pick this up in Chicago and maybe get to the bottom of this" dad said as he picked up his jacket and walked over to me. "You stay here, we got it home. Take care of yourself" he kissed my forehead and left in a hurry.
"Okay, it's been a long weekend, so everybody go home and rest"
Amanda and I said goodbye to everyone and drove home, beat up and absolutely exhausted.
"Can you spare me the interrogation another day, please? I need to run myself a long bath and call Lucas"
"Yeah, we both need some peace"
I thanked her and retreated to my room, thinking about this case and the fear of my own kid being on those tapes still in the back of my mind.