Danielle Morrison's murder was the cause of the not-so-unexpected media frenzy that struck about a week later. Someone had managed to connect it to Makayla Lawrence's murder after we'd finally gotten an ID and now that was all people on the news and radio could talk bout.
"...rumor has it that as of yet, the Manhattan Special Victims Unit has no leads on either of the murders..."
"Turn that the hell off," I said loudly, not bothering to look up from the crime scene photos on my desk, and there was silence.
'They're right, you know," Elliot remarked, "We don't have any leads."
"Maybe you don't," I muttered. He looked over at me, making that annoying clicking sound with the pen in his hand.
"You holding back on us?" he asked. I glared at him.
"Why do you care?" I asked. "You're not even...oh, wait a minute. The victims were the same ages your kids used to be."
I'd crossed the line with that one, and I knew it. I was half-expecting retaliation, but also knew that it wouldn't come. Not with the captain's office door wide open. The fact that Elliot was glaring over at me meant nothing; if he thought I'd be intimidated, he was wrong.
"Why do you care?" he asked finally. "You're the one that shouldn't give a damn...your kid's not even here for you to worry about."
"That's beside the point," Olivia said, before I could retort. She cast her partner a warning look before turning back to her own copies of the crime scene photos. Footsteps caught my attention; I looked up, expecting to see a member of the brass or even IAB. Instead, I found myself looking at a girl no older than eleven.
"Are you the cops investigating Ellie's murder?" she asked, uncertainly. Olivia got to her feet and nodded.
"We are," she said, "What's your name?" The girl looked towards her for a moment before answering.
"Kayla McIntire," she replied. "Ellie is...well, was...my reading buddy at school."
Well. That was certainly something. As of that moment, Kayla was the only one who had come forward on either of the murders. Olivia motioned to me and I followed the both of them into the empty interview room. The door closed behind me and the sound echoed. I remained standing. Kayla sat on one side of the table; Olivia sat on the other.
"Why' d you come?" she asked. Suddenly, Kayla looked upset; she started fiddling with the loose strands of hair that had fallen into her eyes.
'Heard about Ellie being killed on the news this morning," she said. "Skipped school and hopped the subway to here. There...there was something Ellie said a couple of weeks ago that I thought might help."
Hell, at this point, anything would help. I shifted in my position, avoiding looking at either Kayla or Olivia as I spoke.
"What was that?" I asked. Kayla looked over at me, leaving me with no choice but to look at her.
"Something about a guy," she said faintly. "She said she was afraid to walk home alone from school even though her house was only two blocks away, so I walked with her."
"Did you ever see him?" Olivia asked, and when Kayla nodded, I asked the next question.
"Could you describe him?" Kayla nodded again and before she could start, Olivia spoke again.
"Do your parents know you're here?" she asked. No answer. I fished my cell phone out of my pocket, leaned forward and pushed it across the table.
"You should call them, let them know where you are," I said. "We'll need you to talk to a sketch artist."
"What's that?" Kayla asked, glancing at me warily. Olivia looked at me as well, and I could tell she was trying not to laugh as she answered.
"Someone who will draw the suspect while you give him a description," she said. "It shouldn't take too long."
"Oh." Kayla picked up the cell phone and flipped it open before dialing a number and waiting. A woman's voice could be heard a few seconds later, and Kayla rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, Mom," she said, "I know I'm not at school." A pause, and then, "Why? Because I'm talking to the cops, that's why."
Olivia and I exchanged glances as the conversation suddenly turned into an argument; finally, Kayla flipped the phone shut, without saying goodbye, and looked at us, shaking her head.
"Are things between you and your mom always like that?" Olivia asked carefully. Kayla eyed her for a long while before deciding that she hadn't meant anything by it and shook her head.
"Nah," she replied. "We're usually cool. She was just kinda freaked out because the school called and told her I wasn't there, and my telling her I was talking to you guys didn't really help. She thought I'd been arrested or something."
"I know," I said dryly, "We heard." Olivia cast a warning look in my direction before rising to her feet and we moved to lead Kayla out of the interview room. She walked ahead of us into the squad room; Olivia stopped me just before I could follow.
"That was uncalled for," she told me in an undertone. "You think she wanted us to hear that?"
Did I think Kayla had wanted us to hear that? Hell, no. I told her as much and she glared at me.
"You keep acting like this and I'm going to ask for you to be taken off this case," she said. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but it needs to go away. You're starting to remind me of Elliot."
Silence fell. Olivia still hadn't let go of my arm, so I pulled away, casting an irritated look at her.
"That's none of your business," I started, but she cut me off.
"The hell it's not," she retorted. "I don't know what it is, I don't care what it is, but you do need to get over it."
"Don't tell me what I do and do not have to get over," I shot back, "You don't know a damn thing about any of this, so why don't you go back to working with your partner and leave this for me to handle?"
She looked at me then as if I'd smacked her, but I was too annoyed to take back what I'd just said, and instead of apologizing, I went on.
"I didn't ask for your help on this, and I don't need it, either, Olivia, nor do I need you hovering around, telling me how to work my own damn case." By this time, silence had fallen in the squad room; I could tell by the fact that my voice was carrying. Over Olivia's shoulder, I could see Elliot; the look on his face was almost murderous, as if he were wondering how I had the nerve to talk to her that way. As tempted as I was to tell him to shove off, I didn't. Instead, I pushed past Olivia and left the squad room, and then the precinct.
Footsteps behind me told me that she'd followed. I turned, half-ready to yell at her for coming after me, again, but it wasn't her.
"Before you say anything, I took time off, and I brought the old files with me." Abby shoved a number of folders into my arms before I could ask her what she was doing, and shifted her arms to keep the ones she was still holding from falling.
"Abby, what the hell are you doing here?" I asked. "I told you I'd call if I needed these..." She cut me off, as if she hadn't heard me.
"Bayliss and Howard are coming up," she said quickly, "I...I kinda told them what was going on."
"You what?" I dropped the folders she'd just shoved at me and stared at her in disbelief, before shaking my head. "Rose has no idea what you're up to, does she?" Abby shook her head.
"No," she said. "I couldn't...I couldn't tell her, ok? I didn't want her to know about it in case this bastard gets off again."
"I told you we don't even know if it's the same guy. For God's sake, Abby, this could be something completely unrelated..." I said.
"Two murders in two weeks?" Abby demanded, nearly dropping her own files as I bent down to retrieve the ones that had fallen. "I'll be damned if it's completely unrelated."
I'd expected nothing less. In fact, I'd been wondering what she was going to do, and now that I knew, I couldn't help but feel relieved that she had come. It'd probably make things a lot easier on the rest of the squad, especially when my former colleagues showed up.
"You need to call Rose," I said finally, rising to my feet. "Knowing her, she's probably freaking out. When did you leave Baltimore?"
"Before she woke up," Abby replied. "'Bout 6:30." I looked at my watch. It was now nearly ten o'clock.
"You eat anything yet?" I asked. Abby shook her head again.
"Didn't have time," she said. "You know me, I probably would have set the smoke alarms off trying to make something and Rose would've woken up."
"So basically, you just left her hanging because you thought she'd stop you from coming," I said, reaching into my pocket for my keys. "Honestly, Abby, when has she ever been able to stop you from doing something?"
"Never, really, but that's beside the point," said Abby, walking after me as I headed to where my car was. "The point is that these New York people don't know how to..." I cut her off.
"It's not that they don't know how to, Abby," I said. "It's that I don't know how to...well, I do, but I..." I trailed off and sighed. She eyed me for a long moment before pulling the passenger's side door open and getting in, motioning for me to get in as well, so I did.
"You're not the only one," she said. "You should have seen Kay when I told her what was happening up here. I thought she was going to faint right there in the squad room."
That was definitely a surprise. Out of the few lady cops that I actually had somewhat of a relationship with, Kay was the last one I'd expected to hear that about. I glanced at Abby as we left the parking lot and sighed again.
"Funny, I never got the impression that she really cared either way," I remarked. Abby swatted at me.
"Those murders were some of the worst any of you had ever seen," she said quietly. "Of course she cared."
"What did Bayliss do?" I asked, for some reason wanting to change the subject. "He wasn't there the first time around..."
"I know, but Meldrick just caught a red-ball and he couldn't leave." said Abby. "He...well, he seemed to take a cue from Kay's reaction, but when she left, he asked me what the deal was."
"What'd you tell him?" I asked. Abby motioned to the files that I'd shoved off into her lap.
"Showed him these," she said, "He's not exactly a rookie anymore, but I really thought he was going to be sick."
I decided at this point to leave out the fact that upon reading the note from Danielle's crime scene, I myself had nearly been sick. The reason for this was simple: if Abby did decide to call Rose and tell her about it, she wouldn't have to think twice about getting me pulled. She'd come close to doing the same last time and I had no doubts that she'd do it again this time.
"So they're coming up here?" I asked. "How'd they manage to get that approved?"
"I don't know, and I don't want to know," said Abby, quoting something I'd heard Meldrick say many times before. "All I needed to know was that they'd be able to come up here."
"When exactly are they going to be here?" I asked. Two murders had already been committed this month. I wondered if there were going to be any more, or if it was going to follow the same pattern as the first round. And then my cell phone rang.
"You going to answer that, or what?" Abby asked. I glanced at her as I turned again, and shook my head.
"You do it, I'm driving," I replied. She rolled her eyes, but picked it up and flipped it open.
"Hello?" Olivia's voice floated in my direction, sounding confused; I bit back the impulse to laugh as Abby scowled.
"This is Assistant State's Attorney Abby Williams," she said, obviously in reply to whatever Olivia had said. "Who is this?" This time, I laughed, and held my hand out.
"Abby...Abby, give me the phone, huh?" I said. Abby scowled again at the device in her hands before handing it over.
"Who was that?" Olivia demanded, and I cast an amused look at Abby before replying.
"Friend of mine from Baltimore," I said vaguely. "What do you want now?" Abby swatted at me again, catching me in the shoulder; I gave her a look, silently thankful that we'd come to another stoplight.
"Don't be rude," she told me. It was something I'd heard from Rose more often than not, and I rolled my eyes as Olivia answered.
"There's been another murder," she said. "Think you can manage to drag yourself down here?"
"Last time I checked, I was perfectly capable of driving," I said sarcastically. "Where are you this time?" She rattled off an address and instead of turning left like I'd originally planned, I went straight as I flipped the phone shut.
"I'd like to know where she gets off asking me who I am like that," Abby remarked, opening the first of the files still residing in her lap.
"That's just Olivia," I said. "I don't think she was expecting a woman to be answering my phone."
"Doesn't really say a lot for you, now does it?"
"If I might remind you, I happen to be married, and happily so, for once."
"Oh, yeah...guess I'm just used to you being single all the time. Where are we going?"
"Crime scene. There's been a third murder."