Chapter 5

"Hey Calvin, how are you doing?" Olivia asked from just outside the TARU office that she'd booked for a few hours. She'd called the young man to tell him that she wasn't going to be home that night, Stephanie was still missing.

"Fine. Sally is hanging out here since her date with Uncle Fin was cancelled," he told her.

"Give her my best and my thanks. I hope to see you tomorrow," she said.

"I hope you find that lady," Calvin said.

"I hope so too kiddo. I love you," Olivia told him.

"Love you too Mom," the call ended before it even really hit her with what he'd said. He hadn't called her that in a long time and she couldn't help but smile. Walking back into the room where technician Rena Jones had queued up the first of the DVDs, Olivia sat down next to the African American woman. They both figured they should start with the discs with Stephanie's name on them.

"All righty here we go," Rena hit 'play' on the remote and the video popped up.

"Ok sweetie so we're going to start with your writing," it was Mr. Smythe, whose first name happened to be Alan.

"Ok," Stephanie seemed happy and Alan handed her the workbook they found and a pencil. She opened the book and started working.

"It's looking much better. Probably better than mine," he chuckled. Stephanie had looked at him and smiled. They seemed to be having a perfectly good relationship.

"What the hell are we watching for?" Rena was confused and so was Olivia.

"Fast forward. Maybe what we assumed was going on is later in the video," the detective said. Rena nodded and buzzed through the video. It stopped after an hour, asking if the viewer wanted to go to the next video.

"There was nothing there," Olivia was confused.

"Maybe on the next one?" Rena pressed 'play' again and the second video started. Alan and Stephanie were sitting on the twin bed and the mentally handicapped woman was holding that bear they'd found in her bed.

"Everything ok sweetie?" Alan seemed concerned.

"I can't do it," Stephanie frowned.

"Can't do what?" He wanted to know. Stephanie just pointed back to her desk and Alan leaned over and grabbed the workbook off the piece of furniture.

"Math can be tricky, but I think if we work together, you can get it. In fact, I know you can," he was being nice, reassuring.

"I'm too dumb," she said.

"No, you are not. You're just struggling a little. We all do. Come on, you can bring Teddy. He should learn too," Alan winked at her.

"Ok, I'm super confused. I thought you said they found a crap load of used condoms in the apartment," Rena hit pause.

"We did. Fast forward," Olivia told her. The TARU tech sped up the video and started the next one. There was nothing untoward on the first disc.

"Is he grooming her?" Rena asked as she ejected the first disc and went to the second one.

"Maybe building up her trust, getting her to let him in, before he made his advance?" Olivia shrugged as the woman started playing the next disc. Disc after disc, they found nothing improper. It appeared that Alan was just chronicling the progress of Stephanie's educational rehabilitation.

"All righty so why did poor Alan have to die?" Rena wondered.

"Maybe that's on one of the other discs?" Olivia shrugged and they moved to a disc labeled 'Ashley'. The room was now the room where the DVDs had been found. Two people came into the frame, neither one of them appeared to be the Smythes. They were all over each other and soon ended up on the bed. Rena hit 'pause'.

"Am I going to regret eating dinner?" She asked.

"You haven't had to watch too many of these have you?" Olivia gave her a look.

"My bread and butter is usually surveillance tapes, not a porn stash," Rena told her.

"Easily embarrassed, are you?" The detective didn't want to make a comment regarding the tech's sex life, especially since it might include Kenny Briscoe.

"I just never saw the point in watching other people get it on. I mean there are plenty of other ways to have fun," she explained. Olivia nodded and they resumed watching the video. If it was a homemade porn movie, it wasn't doing a good job, and that's when Olivia hit 'pause'.

"So, who makes a homemade movie with little to no dialogue and actually hiding their bodies under the blankets?" She asked.

"Someone who doesn't know they're being filmed?" Rena wondered.

"Bingo. Fast forward a little bit, slow speed," Olivia said. Rena nodded and pressed the 'fast forward' button. It didn't take long for a third person to show up on the screen and the TARU tech paused it.

"Who is that?" She asked.

"That would be Alan Smythe," Olivia confirmed.

"Do we wanna know what happens next?" Rena wondered.

"Well originally we thought that Linda killed Alan because she found him assaulting Stephanie. This could go toward motive. This apartment must have been just being used as a sex pad and to keep Stephanie away from prying eyes," the detective frowned. Something was still off about the whole thing.

"Why kidnap a mentally challenged lady and hide her in a sex pad? I mean they went through a lot of trouble to kidnap her," the tech said.

"That's what makes no sense. We have to go through the rest of these videos. I have a bad feeling that we haven't seen everything we need to see," Olivia said. Rena nodded and started the video up again.

To Be Continued…