Chapter 23 - Tutuola

Lyrics by Simple Plan – Perfect World

I never could have seen this far
I never could have seen this coming
In a perfect world
This could never happen
I used to think that I was strong
Until the day it all went wrong
I think I need a miracle to make it through
I wish that I could turn back time
And it makes no sense
I can just pick up the pieces
But to you this means nothing
Nothing at all
I don't know what I should do now
I don't know where I should go…

Tutuola

"So what's going on?" I wondered aloud to no one in particular as John and I walked into the squad room.

"We may have a lead on Brent," Cragen suddenly hung his head and torso out of his office. He held a hand up and ushered the two of us in with him.

"What is it?" John asked for the both of us once we inside the Captain's office with the door closed behind us.

"More like who," he corrected John, walking over towards a window blind on one of his walls.

My partner and I looked at each other a moment before we followed Cragen. Once we got to the window, he pulled the blinds up and revealed a one way mirror, looking into a room containing a woman in her mid-fifties. She had blond hair, a petite frame, slender facial features, and was glancing around the room nervously, awaiting an impending doom.

"And she would be..?" John looked over the rims of his glasses at Cragen with an irked expression that I easily read – you-dragged-us-down-here-for-this?

"Brent's mother," he simply stated, slipping his hands into the pockets of his slacks.

"What is she going to tell us?" I semi-snapped, taking on the same temperament as John. "How her son couldn't possibly have done anything?"

Cragen just slightly frowned as he looked down on us. After a minute of glaring, he spoke again. "She saw Brent this morning."

John and I turned to meet each other's gazes again, shock written on both our faces.

"You can send me a formally written apology later," Cragen remarked, opening his door so that we could go question her.

As I walked by him, I gave an apologetic nod for snapping at him earlier. He responded with a nod as well, dismissing my behavior. I think we both understood how stressed out we all were. And after how he snapped at me the other day ago, I'd consider us even.

"Hello? Mrs. Silvestri?" John greeted the woman as we entered the room.

"Yes, that's me." She stood up and hesitantly shook hands with John.

"I'm Detective John Munch and this is my partner, Detective Odafin Tutuola." He introduced us to the woman.

"Hi." She looked across the room at me and gave a small smile and subconscious nod.

"Nice to met you," I nodded back. As she turned back to John, I propped myself up on the wall, leaning against the wood paneling.

"What is this all about?" Mrs. Silvestri looked up at my partner. She was standing, but she barely came up to his chest.

"This morning, you told one of our detectives that you saw your son, Brent?" I asked her, pulling her stare back towards me.

"Yes." She nodded. "They came to my house asking about him and I said I saw him." Slight puzzlement and annoyance came over her face as she spoke again. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"Mrs. Silvestri, are you aware that last Tuesday night, your son assaulted his girlfriend?" John pulled a chair up across the table from where the woman had been sitting.

"What are you talking about? My Brent would never do that." She became defensive as she sat back down at the table.

I ran my tongue under my bottom lip as I turned towards the one way mirror that I knew Cragen was standing behind. I gave him an I-told-you-so look before pushing myself off of the wall. I knew it would take both of us applying pressure to this woman to get her to talk.

"Mrs. Silvestri, we have witnesses placing Molly and Brent at the restaurant together and leaving together on Tuesday night." I started walking closer towards her. "We also have witnesses saying they both went into her apartment." Once I was at the table, I leaned my hands against it, staring right at her. I threateningly lowered my face closer and closer towards hers. "And we also have a doctor report saying that sometime after that, someone beat the crap out of her." I was only a few inches away from her face, my eyes boring into hers.

For such a small woman, this lady had a lot of presence and fight in her. It sort of reminded me of one of those little hyperactive toy breed dogs that think they can take on a dog five times their size.

She just stared right back at me, never flinching. "My son wouldn't do that," she placidly insisted, turning her gaze back to the wall.

I sighed and bit my tongue and looked at John. If she was this resilient against her son just assaulting someone, she'd never believe us if we even suggested that he raped someone.

"Look ma'am, we're not here to convince you that your son did or didn't do anything. We just want to know about this morning." John took on the roll of good cop, me already unconsciously taking the bad cop. It was just one of a million different tactics we'd repeatedly used when interrogating someone.

"Oh, just forget it John!" I stood up suddenly, pushing the table back slightly. "She probably didn't even see him! She just wants some attention."

"Excuse me!" Mrs. Silvestri didn't miss a beat. She immediately snapped right back at me. "I was simply answering that policeman's questions when he told me that I had to come down here for questioning!" She easily matched me glare for glare as anger flashed through her eyes.

As we were caught in a stare-down, I spoke to John. "So John, what was the maximum sentence for aiding a criminal and hindering a police investigation?" As soon as I spoke, I saw a fleeting moment of fear on her face. She quickly tried to cover it as she spoke.

"Your threats don't scare me."

"I think they do," I said, relentless in my pursuit.

"Fin…" I heard John's warning tone and simply ignored it. I also ignored the pounding on the one way. I knew it was Cragen, either warning me or demanding that I come outside. I didn't let up and I didn't leave.

"I can stand here all day," I informed the woman.

"What do you want?" She begged, finally faltering.

"Tell us about this morning," I finally backed off as well, getting what I wanted.

She seemed depleted as she sat back down in the hard wooden chair. "Fine. Brent came over to my house about eight o'clock this morning. He was pounding on my door."

"What did he say?" John asked her, his pen and pad out already, writing things down.

"Not much," she frowned, thinking back to that day like something about it was bothering her. "He just asked if he could borrow some money."

"Was that out of the ordinary for him?" John took the lead of the questioning as I drifted back off to my corner.

A slightly amused look crossed her face. "Not really. He'd ask at least every month for some money for this or that." She shrugged. "Today he needed money for his rent." When she saw the disapproving look John was giving her, the amusement vanished and she became defensive again. "He's my son. What am I supposed to do? Let him live on the street?"

I opened my mouth to come back with a flippant response, but John caught me and shook his head. I snapped my mouth closed and paced to the other corner behind Mrs. Silvestri.

"Did he say anything else to you? Like if he had any plans later today?"

She thought a moment before shaking her head. "No. He seemed in a hurry. I just gave him the money and he left."

"Mrs. Silvestri, was anything else about his visit strange? Did he say or do anything out of character?"

"Not really…" She chewed her lip thoughtfully for a moment. "Well, there was something. He looked kind of… tousled. Come to think of it, it was also strange for him to come visit me at my house. Normally when he needs money I just wire it over to him. My house is kind of far from his apartment." I assumed she was finished when she spoke again. "So can I go now? I do have things to do today." She rose to her feet, cautiously turning towards me, fearing I'd jump her or something.

"Sure." John pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "Here's my card. Call me if you remember anything else."

"Right." She hesitantly accepted the card as John led her out into the squad room.

I braced myself for a face to face with Cragen as I followed them out. I grumbled to myself, angry that she gave us nothing really to go on. In other words, I put my ass on the line just to find out that he was a deadbeat still mooching off of his fifty-something mother.

"Fin, what the hell was that?" Sure enough, I ran right into Cragen.

"Cap, I just-"

"You just what?" He snapped me off, glaring at me. "The last thing this squad needs right now is a harassment suit slapped on it!" He was breathing heavily, an accusing finger pointing at me.

"You aren't mad at me," I informed him, catching on. "You're mad at the fact that she didn't give us anything and that we still haven't found him yet."

Cragen face twisted up in frustration as soon as I said that. I knew that I had hit his feelings dead on.

"Cap, we all want to find him and we're doing our best." I put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Me and Munch'll go poke around in his history some more. I think we should probably release the picture now." While I spoke, I felt John's presence behind me.

"And a warrant for his apartment couldn't hurt," my partner added.

Cragen nodded, his forehead scrunched up in thought. "I'll talk to Novak, see what she can do."

"We'll go see if any leads have popped up or something," John volunteered us.

"Go," he motioned with his head, giving us permission.

"So where should we start first?" John looked to me as we were leaving the station house.

"Well, Mrs. Silvestri said that Brent was going to use the money she gave him for rent, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then let's go find his super and see if he has made any rent payments lately."

"And what will that tell us?" He wondered, slightly puzzled.

I sighed and shrugged, throwing my hands up. "I'm the blind leading the blind here John. You got a better idea, I'd love to hear it."

--XXX--

"Well that was the biggest waste of time I've ever experienced," John commented as we stepped out of the apartment that belonged to Brent's superintendent.

"I don't see you brainstorming any brilliant ideas either Einstein!" I snarled defensively. He was either shooting down all of my ideas or ridiculing them after the fact and it was gnawing at my last ounce of patience.

"Down boy," he took a step back from me and held his hands up. "Relax."

"Yeah, right," I snapped again. "I'll relax when I see this bastard behind bars!"

"You know, that behavior does seem kind of ridiculous when someone else is acting it out." He shook his finger at me.

"What 'behavior'?" I automatically asked, quickening my pace.

"That whole anger thing." He slid his hands into the pockets in his trench coat. "It's also quite tiring."

"You want to talk about tiring?" I halted and faced him. "Try not sleeping for more than two hours every night for the past three nights, then talk to me about tiring."

"Maybe you should go home and get some sleep." He glanced at me over his sunglasses, his eyebrows raised.

"Not 'till we find him," I said as I started walking again.

"Fin…" John hurried after me and grabbed my arm, stopping me. "You aren't going to help anyone if you're too tired from exhaustion to even think straight, especially Olivia," he added quietly.

I paused and studied his face for a moment. I was really tired… "Call me if you get even the slightest lead?" I asked.

"Of course," he said like it was a given.

"All right…" I finally gave in to the temptation of a nice warm bed.