Chapter Twenty-Six: Rose's Secret

Casey tapped his fingers agitatedly as he watched Rollins and McNeal escort Cody out of the interrogation room. He scowled deeply in annoyance as he had been waiting for somebody to inform him of something since waiting for hours outside the room.

"Ah, Mr. Clark, if you'll just hang on. I want to have a word with you and then we'll take you home," Rollins informed him as he stepped out of the room first. He quickly made a beeline to his office, grabbing the phone.

He took out a piece of paper from his pocket of a phone number given to him, immediately dialing it when he picked up the phone.

"Hello?" A woman's voice answered.

"Rose Polniaczek?" Rollins asked.

"Yes. It is. I got your message yesterday regarding my daughter. I'll tell you whatever you need if it'll help find her. What do I need to do?"

"Well, ma'am...You won't need to come here. If it's alright with you, I'd like to come visit tonight. I know it's probably a bit late. My visit won't be long. I just need to ask you a few questions about your daughter and then I'll be out of your hair. Is that OK with you?"

"Sure. Whatever you need. I just want…no…need…to see my baby again. I'll tell you whatever you need to know if that's what it'll take to make sure she'll be OK."

"Well, in that case, I'll be at your place in a hour or two. Just handling some business here back at the office. Thank you, ma'am."

With that, Rollins hung up the phone, walking back to meet with McNeal, Cody and the other officers. He had arrived just in time to see Cody make an inappropriate remark to Casey about Blair, grinning smugly to himself.

"Come back here, you little fucking shit!" Casey yelled, ready to leap upon Cody.

Cody only laughed and began taunting Casey with lewd body gestures. An infuriated Casey could only watch as several officers restrained him from beating Cody into a bloody pulp.

Rollins only sighed tiredly. It's gonna be a long fucking night, he thought.

"Hello," Rose Polniaczek greeted Ted Rollins an hour and a half later as he stood in front of her apartment in the Bronx.

"Thank you, ma'am. Thank you for allowing me the chance to talk you to today," Rollins said to her.

Rose nodded politely. "It's not a problem, Investigator. I wish I had said something sooner when you summoned us all that day at your headquarters but I just was too afraid to talk – especially with Charlie sitting right there. I do apologize for that."

"So there is something you want to admit? I thought Natalie Green calling me, insisting that I talk to you would be a waste of time. Does it explain your daughter's disappearance and her involvement with this robbery?" Rollins asked. "I'd really like to know, ma'am."

Rose sighed, bowing her head. "Why don't we have a seat and I'll explain everything," she said. She then motioned her arm towards the inside of her apartment, inviting Rollins inside.

After Rollins walked inside and Rose had closed the door, she sat down in a chair in her small living room and pointed to another chair across from her coffee table for Rollins to sit in.

"Would you like something, sir? Coffee? Tea? Water?" Rose offered.

Rollins shook his head, sitting down. "No, thank you," he said. "I'd like to listen you."

Rose nodded. "Of course," she replied. She then sighed. "Where do I begin? Well…I'd say after Jo's father and I split up and he went to jail, one of my siblings in Texas suggested to me that Jo and I move there for a fresh start. I thought it was a great idea, so we did. We moved to a small town outside San Antonio and I got a job working as a waitress in a honky-tonk bar. The tips were great, the customers were friendly and I got along great with the staff. The owner of the bar was a man named Frank Hanley, He was a fifty-something old man, kind of handsome with big brown eyes and a a bit of a crew cut. He hired me on the spot."

She smiled faintly as she continued on with her story. "That bar had live music every day and night and it had some of the most interesting patrons. There were some who were a little handsy but Mr. Hanley had the waitresses' backs. He always exchanged words with some of the patrons who dared try to grope us. Jo would always come to the bar after school to see me while I worked. She liked to talk me and just hang out with her mom, watching me work."

Tears began to slip from her eyes. "When Mr. Hanley noticed that Jo started coming everyday and that she was my daughter, he would talk to her and give her free food and talk about how pretty she looked all the time. I admit, at first, I didn't think much of it because Mr. Hanley was like a protective dad to all of us and he was so warm and kind to everyone. So I never thought anything bad about him and Jo."

She then gripped the arms of the chair with her fingernails so hard, Rollins thought the fabric on the upholstery would rip.

"Usually, when Jo came by everyday to see me at work after school, I would be there. But one day, I had switched shifts with a fellow co-worker and I had to show up in the morning instead of the afternoon. I had forgotten to tell Jo. I went home after my shift and realized later she had probably went to my job to find me. I went back to the bar to get her and there she was. Almost right away, I noticed there was something odd going on with her but she refused to talk about it. Months went by where her grades started slipping. She started playing hooky instead of going to school, getting involved in fights, acting out in class, talking back to her teachers and hanging out with rough crowds. A teacher suggested she see a therapist and Jo adamantly refused. Instead, she pleaded with me to move back to New York because she was so miserable in Texas."

"Well, ma'am…what exactly was wrong with your daughter?" Rollins asked curiously.

Rose sighed, her eyes beginning to well up with tears.

"I did what she wanted and we moved back to New York but things there just got worse. She joined a gang and got herself a boyfriend I wasn't exactly fond of. Her attitude in New York was the same as it was in Texas. I knew of her potential as an intelligent young woman and didn't want to see her talents wasted so I enrolled her in a private girls school in Peekskill called Eastland. It was there that she flourished. She did have her moments there where it seemed she would throw in the towel or completely blow it but she did extremely well. However, when she was set to graduate from Eastland, I received a letter from a lawyer who informed me that Mr. Hanley was now in prison, doing time for the aggravated assault and rape of a young girl. She was the daughter of a worker of his at the same bar I had worked in in Texas. Mr. Hanley had given up names of other girls he had abused over the years and…and…and…"

Rose stopped talking and began sobbing.

Rollins got up from his seat, placing a comforting hand on Rose's shoulder.

"Hanley named your daughter as one of his victims?" He asked grimly.

Rose only slightly nodded.

"So your daughter never told you she was raped? You never went to court?" Rollins asked in confusion.

"Jo had been doing so well at Eastland. I know it probably seems a little selfish on my part but I didn't want to trigger any bad memories and have something bad happen to her. I even wrote to the prosecutor and begged not to have Jo testify because I was afraid of the possibility setting her off. I didn't want my baby to hurt herself because of what that monster did to her. The prosecutor already gave me the details of what happened to Jo. He raped her in a bathroom and forced her not to tell anyone or he'd do something worse. She probably kept her mouth shut because she thought she was protecting me. When I think about that, it hurts my heart. What a unbearable load for a young girl to have to bear. My poor baby."

Rose then buried her head in her lap, weeping loudly. "As far as I know, she hasn't told a soul. She didn't even tell me. I don't know how or why she and Blair ended up robbing a store. I haven't seen my baby since two weeks ago and nothing in her demeanor indicated she would be capable of doing that. I don't know if she went looking for Hanley to kill him or what. I'm not sure if she even knows he went to prison.I just don't know. Ever since you all told us of the robbery, we've all been worried sick."

Rollins sighed. "Well, ma'am, to tell you the truth, I don't think your daughter and her friend are looking for your daughter's rapist."

Rose looked up at Rollins, perplexed.

"We're actually connecting them with a murder. I hate to have to tell you this bit we have reason to believe your daughter and her friend murdered a man in East Aurora and are en route to Mexico to as means of escaping and evading the law."

Rose gave Rollins a disbelieving look. "But..but…that's impossible! Sure, my daughter may have been a little rough around the edges but she is not a killer! And neither is Blair! I don't know what got into them as far as robbing a convenience store but slaughtering people? I'm sorry but that's a very serious accusation that I just don't believe!"

Rollins only shook his head. "Ma'am, I'm sorry you feel that way," he said. "But I'm telling you we have plenty of evidence regarding the murder case and the robbery and all of it points to them." He then placed a comforting hand on Rose's shoulder, feeling sympathy for her. "Trust us. I know hearing this news about your daughter is a lot but believe me when I tell you the evidence we have is damning."

Rose didn't answer. She only rose up from her seat, a faraway look in her eyes. "Damning, you say?" She asked.

Rollins nodded. "Yes, ma'am," he told her sadly. "Damning."

"Well, if you ever get the chance to speak to her, please convince her to turn herself in. I don't know what I would do if something were to happen to her. She's strong but…even the strong can only handle so much. Can you please try to convince her and Blair to turn themselves in? I know Monica would agree with me if something were to ever happen to Blair."

Rose's face then twisted up into the most saddest face Rollins had ever seen. Rose then screamed out a long, loud sob as she then hit the floor.

Rollins immediately pulled Rose up off the floor and wrapped her into a tight hug, trying his best to comfort Rose as best he could. "I'll do my very best, ma'am," he said to her softly as he listened to the heartbroken mother sob openly on his shoulder.