Absolution
By Midnight Caller
Disclaimer, etc., in chapter one.
And, once again, thank you for all the reviews! :)
**
Chapter 8
29 Hours Missing
Vivian stared down Doctor Gabriel Patel, who was trying his best to appear as relaxed as possible.
"You know your officers woke me up," he said. "It's almost two in the morning—"
"Why are you lying to us, Doctor?" Vivian asked calmly.
Patel laughed nervously. "What?"
Samantha frowned and stepped away from the wall, leaning onto the table.
"In 1998 you were sued for malpractice. You remember that case?" she said sternly.
Patel nodded slightly.
Samantha read from the file in her hand. "Unlawful use of Mifepristone. Care to elaborate?" She turned her eyes back to Patel, who remained silent. "Let me tell you what I think that means, then. It means you lied to us – you have performed abortions. You just didn't report them. That's illegal, in case you weren't aware. You must've had one hell of a good lawyer."
Patel licked his lips and stared at the table.
"Got anything to add to that?" Vivian asked, but got no response.
Samantha was losing her patience. "You offered to abort Andrea's baby yourself. Am I right?"
Patel looked at Sam, then back at the table.
Suddenly Sam's hand smacked the surface, hard, and Patel jumped. "Answer me!" she yelled.
He looked at her, shocked. "Yes, I offered to abort the fetus!" Off Samantha's glare, he explained, "Hey, I didn't want her going to some guy on the street who was going to use a bottle of alcohol and a rusty coat hanger."
"What about any number of clinics around here? Like Planned Parenthood?"
"Who knows what qualifications those guys have," Patel scoffed.
His justification didn't impress Sam, who was growing more and more impatient with his bravado. "So you talked her into letting you do it. And then you decided to add a little extra to the charge, make a little profit," she said, trying to keep her calm as she felt her control slipping away.
Patel cleared his throat.
Sam's blood pressure continued to rise as she asked, "How do you think someone like Andrea was supposed to get 800 dollars?"
"Hey, her friend seemed to have money," he shot back.
Samantha furrowed her brow. "What friend?"
"The friend who came with her when I told her she was pregnant. Some girl."
Samantha waited a moment, her mind churning. "What'd she look like?"
Patel rolled his eyes. "I don't rememb—"
"Think! Did she have long, dark hair?"
The doctor sighed heavily. "Yeah, I think so. Kinda looked like Andrea, too."
With a sneer of disgust, Samantha regarded Patel for another moment, and then backed away and walked out the door.
Vivian quickly followed, catching up to her in the hallway.
"The sister," Sam explained absently, her mind still reeling.
Vivian nodded slightly, and then asked quietly, "How'd you know about --"
"Lucky guess," Samantha said dryly, still walking. "I went on the hunch that the guy was a complete asshole. Guess I was right."
She unclipped her phone and dialed a number. Waited. "Danny, it's Sam. Have you found the sister yet?" She waited again, listening. "Really?" She sighed, "Yeah, okay. Listen, Karen knew about Andrea's pregnancy – she was at the doctor's with her. Yeah? All right, thanks."
Sam hung up and turned to Vivian as they walked into the bullpen. "One of Karen's neighbors saw Andrea at her sister's apartment the night she disappeared."
Vivian sighed, shaking her head. "This case makes less and less sense the more we dig into it." Breaking off from Sam's path, she took a seat at her desk.
Sam headed straight for the whiteboard, adding that Andrea was at Karen's apartment on the D.O.D. Then she perched herself on the edge of the conference table while Vivian mulled over some paperwork.
Samantha stared at Andrea's picture again, the sad eyes staring back at her.
Where are you? she asked, but before the photograph could answer, Vivian spoke.
"What are you thinking?" she asked.
Blinking, Sam cocked her head, staring at the timeline. "This girl is scared. Very scared," she observed, her voice distant, as she found herself being drawn in by the picture. "She'd gone to everyone she knew and they couldn't help her. Not even her doctor." Her eyes scanned back up to the photograph again. To the sad eyes. "Maybe she just couldn't take it anymore..." she said quietly, more as an afterthought than a theory.
"I'll put out a tap on morgues and hospitals for anyone matching Andrea's description," Vivian said from behind her, a tinge of sadness in her voice.
Sam nodded absently, and then she finally turned, opening her mouth to say thank you – when she suddenly stopped.
Jack was standing there and he was looking at her, his hands shoved into his pockets. His eyes looked reddened but she couldn't be sure.
After another long moment, he finally said, "First the boyfriend. Then the doctor. Now the sister. Makes you wonder if anyone we've talked to has been telling us the truth."
Licking her lips, Sam looked down briefly before catching his eyes again. "Yeah."
Lowering his voice, he dipped his head. "Nice read on Dr. Patel."
The compliment caught her off-guard, but Sam still managed a quiet, "Thanks."
Jack turned to head into his office, avoiding Vivian's look as he passed her desk. "Let me know when Martin and Danny get here with the sister," he called back.
**
31 Hours Missing
Jack sat up his chair, blinking rapidly in an attempt to keep his eyes open. He stifled a yawn, stretching his neck side to side before glancing at the clock: 4:02am.
Letting out a deep breath, he rubbed his temples, and then looked over into the bullpen. Vivian had gone home to get a few hours' sleep, but he wasn't sure if Samantha had been as wise. Seeing a faint glow from her desk, he sighed.
Staring at his desk again, he finally pushed back his chair and strolled across the empty office.
As he approached Samantha's desk, he suddenly slowed his pace, walking very lightly on his feet. He guessed that she'd fallen asleep right in the middle of reading something.
When he was a few feet away, he stopped, tilting his head to the side, watching her. Her head rested flat on her hand, which was acting as a pillow between her and the desk. Most of her hair had fallen behind her head, away from her face, but a few strands were strewn across her cheeks. There was a wrinkle across her forehead, as if she was still frowning, even in her sleep.
Before he could even stop himself, he was reaching out to tuck one of those stray locks behind her ear. She stirred slightly, taking a deep breath, but then she relaxed.
A surge of brazenness suddenly shot through him and again his hand found her head, his fingers trailing on her warm skin as he gently lifted the hair off of her cheeks.
His heart skipped a beat when her eyelids fluttered, and he quickly withdrew his hand, but she only sighed again. He took one more moment to look at her, and then quietly cleared his throat. When she still didn't wake up, a tiny smirk crossed his lips. He'd forgotten how deeply she could sleep when she was tired.
"Sam," he called quietly, and eventually, one of her eyes opened, followed quickly by the other.
She suddenly realized where she was and shot up straight in her chair, her hand rubbing her eyes as she tried to cover up her embarrassment.
"I'm sorry," she slurred, her brain still hazy with sleep.
Jack leaned against the edge of her desk and crossed his arms, still looking down at her. She caught his gaze and her hand involuntarily flew to her hair, smoothing down any fly-aways. He was still looking at her.
"What?" she asked, her eyes darting around the room self-consciously.
His lips seemed to move as if he was about to say something, and she could sense something hiding in his eyes, a kind of vulnerability that she'd only seen a few times before, when they'd shared some deep, personal secret with each other.
"I just feel like we're losing her," he admitted. "We have to find her."
She'd never heard him sound like this before. Desperate. "We will, Jack."
"We found Doris, too, but..." His eyes glazed over as he found himself unable to complete the thought.
Samantha stood, moving in front of him, and lightly placed a hand on his arm. "Look at me," she said, trying to catch his eyes. Tightening her grip on his arm, she pleaded, "Look at me, Jack."
Finally, he looked up with his reddened eyes, filled with such sadness and regret.
"Saving Doris Lovitt wouldn't have brought back your mother," Samantha said cautiously, aware that she was treading on extremely sensitive ground. "It wasn't your fault that either of them died."
"I can't..." he shut his eyes, trying to gather himself. "I can't let it go," he confessed, his voice wavering slightly.
"Letting go doesn't mean you're forgetting them. You have to stop blaming yourself," she whispered.
Jack slowly nodded in agreement until he opened his eyes again. Samantha was looking at him, her hand applying slightly pressure on his arm as she squeezed it gently.
The moment didn't last long.
He suddenly looked away, embarrassment flooding over his face. "Shit," he sighed, rubbing his fingers over his eyes.
Her hand dropped to her side.
He stood quickly and turned away, clearing his throat. He could still feel her eyes on him, and when he looked back, she was standing stiffly, her arms crossed defiantly over her chest.
After a moment, she turned her back to him and sat at her desk to shuffle through a file.
He'd shut her out again, and she'd let him do it, perhaps for the last time. The finality of that thought suddenly struck him, sending a wave of panic through his body. He wanted to run back and tell her everything, be comforted by her, wrap his arms around her body, forget his marriage and his job and just lose himself in her eyes and the warmth of her touch...
His wishful thinking was cut short by the ringing of his cell, and if it had been any other day, he would have gladly let it ring forever. But this wasn't any other day, and he reluctantly flipped it open.
"Malone," he practically shouted into the phone. "Yeah, bring her in." He hung up and then stared at Samantha's back, willing her to turn around. "Look, Sam..."
He was startled by Vivian's voice behind him. "Did I miss anything?" she asked, her voice lilting as if she knew she'd just interrupted a moment.
Jack turned, hoping his eyes were less red than before. "Danny and Martin found Karen."
Vivian nodded, and then chirped, "Well, I could use a coffee. You want any?"
"Please," Jack said.
"Samantha?" Vivian asked, still looking at Jack.
Eventually, the blonde swiveled away from her paperwork. "If you don't mind," she replied curtly before turning back to her desk.
Vivian shot Jack a knowing look as she headed toward the coffee machine.
**
tbc…