Chapter 12- Forever

The man who had been walking towards her thrust a small plastic cup of water down in front of her. While she wanted to do nothing more than throw it back in his face she knew how thirsty she was. She quickly drank the entire cup before looking back up at the man in front of her. He wasn't one of the mean from her house, he looked much younger than them, and he looked around 17. He was trying to be tough, but when he looked down into her eyes she could tell that he didn't want to be there anymore than she did.

"Where am I?" she asked, not bothering to keep the anger out of her voice.

"What do you think I'm stupid or something?" he said looking down at her again. He saw the bruises that had begun to appear on her face and saw the split in her lip and the dried blood beneath it. He knew that getting involved in this wasn't right but he had wanted to prove himself to them. Show them that he wasn't a coward.

"Well you look pretty stupid. You do realise don't you that your now an accessory in the kidnapping of a police officer." Her interrogation techniques weren't exactly up to par given her current location and the throbbing pain in her head.

"You're a cop?" he said looking slightly nervous. Jesus Christ. What had he gotten himself into?

"Yep, Philadelphia PD, homicide. You're telling me those guys didn't tell you?" Lily relaxed slightly. This guy was getting more and more nervous by the minutes. Hopefully he would leak something to her soon.

"No they didn't," he said before picking up the cup and heading back towards the door. He couldn't stand being in the room with her any longer. He wasn't supposed to have any feelings, he was supposed to be totally cold and shut off. But he felt sorry for her and knew that the guys were already pissed at her for her performance earlier. They hadn't expected her to fight back much; she was just a girl. That's why they had taken her and not the other guy, he would have been harder to get. He only knew all of this because he'd overheard them talking about if before. He had to admit he was scared for her. If she fought back again next time she might not be so lucky to escape with only a few cuts and bruises. He had seen them kill before and knew they wouldn't be hesitant about doing it again.


Scotty had spent the rest of the afternoon sitting at his desk waiting for the call from forensics. If there was anything it would be there only lead, he had questioned her neighbours and they had seen and heard nothing. He was surprised when he heard a voice behind him.

"Det. Valens?" she asked.

"Yeah who's asking?" he said turning around to face her. She looked like she was in her mid twenties; she was tall with lightly tanned skin and dark brown-red hair. She was an attractive woman and he noticed that just above the visitors pass that had been clipped to her chest was a name tag- CSI Boswell.

"I'm Rachel Boswell from the crime lab, I was going to call but I thought you'd rather see the reports in person."

"Of course, I'm sorry, please have a seat," he said motioning for her to sit in the seat near his desk.

" No need to apologise, Det. Rush is your partner isn't she?" she asked. As soon as she said this Scotty felt relieved. She had said is your partner, not was which meant that as far as they knew she must be alive.

"Yes she is. Did you finish processing the scene?"

"Yeah, some of the evidence is still being examined but I thought that I would come and tell you what we have so far. The cloth that was found near the door has some chemical substance on it, we don't know what yet, its still being analysed. The piece of nail found near the cloth belongs to Lily, the blood on top of the nail came back as hers and there were skin cells underneath- they were being run through CODIS as I left. The blood spatter on the wall was hers and it was mixed with saliva; we think she might have been hit across the face." At this thought Scotty flinched. If Rachel noticed she didn't show it.

"So what about the broken mirror and the blood there?"

"Well the blood is hers, but the broken mirror and the formation of the blood drops doesn't fit with everything else."

"Well what do you think happened?"

"I think she broke the mirror and then went to clean it up. But then before she could finish she was interrupted. I also think she broke the mirror on purpose. The shatter pattern of the glass is consistent with it being smashed against something, and there were paint scrapings on the back."

" So you think she was annoyed or upset about something and took her frustration out on the mirror?" asked Scotty wondering whether he was in some way responsible for her anger and pain.

"I think I was more out of hurt or pain than annoyance. I've seen her record, she seems like she can control her anger."

"Yeah alright," he said a now familiar feeling of nausea coming over him, "what about the blood? There didn't seem to be much of it."

"Well it might have only been a shallow cut. We found a bloody tissue in the hall so we think she dropped it. I'm sorry I can't be of more help to you. I'll call you if I get anything else." They both stood up and Scotty shook her hand and thanked her for her help.

"Oh and before I go, we had to examine her cats to see if they had picked up any traces of evidence, but we are done with them now, do you know of anyone who would look after them for her? Otherwise they have to go to a boarding place."

"I can look after them for her," said Scotty knowing that Lily wouldn't want her cats being looked after by someone she didn't know.

"Ok I'll have someone get in contact with you later so that you can collect them. Thank you for that."

She left and Scotty sat back down at his desk resting his head in his hands. He had to help her. He wasn't going to let her become just another case file, or just another white box in storage. He would find her, even if it took him forever.