"But I told you that already," Alicia whined, brushing the tears off her face. She's been thrown into custody, and now she was being interrogated.
"You did?" Brass asked, pretending to be mildly shocked by that information. "Well, it must have slipped my mind. Why don't you tell me again, then?" he continued.
Alicia shuffled around uncomfortably in her chair.
"Whatever… I used to work as a hooker since I was eighteen. I didn't want to, but you know, I was young, stupid, I needed money. In the beginning, it seemed like good fun. I'd get drinks for free, a bit of attention now and then… But nice things don't last long. My 'customers' were filthier and filthier one by one, they wanted weirder and weirder service, and it just got unbearable. I practically stopped eating 'cause I was yelled at every other day for being, I quote, "fat bitch". Like many other women I wanted out, but my pimp wouldn't just let me go. When I said no to something, he'd beat me up. However, things changed three years ago. I was at Tangiers with him one night, and he got wasted. Anytime he's under influence, he's very abusive. And it happened that night that Nick was there investigating a homicide. And when he saw that brutal creature laying his hand on me, he stopped him and had him arrested for physical assault. Nonetheless, he got out in less than six hours. I guess he just knew which strings to pull. Anyway, Nick let me stay at his apartment for a week or so, giving me time to pull myself together. Then, he introduced me to this guy, one of his friends actually, who rented me a small apartment for an acceptable price. I'll never be able to thank him enough,"
"Let's say what you're saying is true," Brass said, looking her in the eyes. "Now, do you have anybody who'd be able to confirm this story?" he asked.
"Yeah, my brothers," Alicia said triumphantly.
"You have brothers?"
"Correct. They're twins and they live six miles south of my farm,"
"And what's your relationship with them like?"
"We're kinda close. They helped me when I needed it,"
"That's how you got your ranch?"
"Yeah, I called them once I was outta the 'scheme'. They invited me to live with them on their farm, so I grabbed the chance. After some time they offered me to move down to my current home. I got a bunch of goats and four horses, plus some pets, including a dog, cats, and achatinas,"
"We'll be more than happy to check up on that," Brass closed the discussion, looking at the one-way mirror.
On the other side of it stood Grissom and Warrick. They were both carefully observing their suspect throughout the whole questioning, noting every little detail of her behaviour, reactions, and last but not least- her body language. That was especially Grissom's forte.
"So, do you believe her?" Grissom asked, not taking his eyes off Alicia.
"She's telling the truth," Warrick replied quietly. Grissom turned to face him, and asked,
"How come you so sure?"
"Well, let's say I know her," Warrick answered, rather cagily.
"Know her how?" Grissom demanded, raising his eyebrows.
"You know, Nick told me about her. Man, she really was a wreck back then. Look, she had a tough childhood, problems at school…"
"Touching," Grissom snapped. "And why am I the last one to know about it?"
"Hey, I-I… You didn't ask… Hey! Grissom! Where you going?!" the younger man shouted as his supervisor left the room rather abruptly, without saying a word.
The door to the interrogation room flew wide open as Grissom walked in. His mood could have been described as something between confident and angry.
"Miss Kent, I heard you hadn't had a pleasant childhood. Is that correct?" he inquired. She looked a bit taken aback by his sudden appearance, but recovered quickly, saying,
"Well, foster care usually sucks," she retorted.
"What happened to your parents?" he continued.
"Father? Never heard of him. Mother? She committed suicide when I was eight. Ehm, what's that supposed to do with Nick's kidnapping again?" she said, raising her voice.
"I like to know my way around," Grissom shot back, smiling. "What were your foster parents like?"
"Look, I know what you think. You think that I did it and that I'm now playing the victim. But let me tell you something… Give me one reason why I would do it. He was the one who got me off the street, he believed in me, and HE didn't give up on me when everyone else did… I owe that man a lot. I'm willing to do anything that might lead to finding him," she growled, clenching her fists.
"Then answer my question," he said, letting nothing upset him.
"Okay, you won. Kent's family took care of me briefly after my biological mom killed herself right in front of me. I came from school one day, and she stood there, in the living room, revolver in her hand, and she… She just turned to face me, and said, "Don't forget to do the dishes, honey," And then- bang… The Kents already had their own children, twins named George and Geoffrey. They were six when I came, but they were nice to me nevertheless. And so was the dad. He treated me and liked me like his own. He surely was a great man. The mother, however… Well, let's say she was just tough. She'd chide me twice a day for something I haven't done, she'd yell at me for no reason… But matters got even worse. When I was eighteen, daddy died in a car accident. He was on his way to pick me up from school when it occurred. And she blamed me for that. Like she blamed me for anything else, though. Anyway, I went through Hell then. She told me I could live in her house on the condition that I'll pay her one thousand bucks a month. I needed to live somewhere, so I agreed. The first two months were okay, but then I ran out of money. I tried applying for a job, but no one was interested in me. That's how I ended up as a prostitute,"
For a minute or so nobody said a word. Alicia was wriggling in her chair, while Grissom was deep in his thoughts.
"George and Geoffrey. Tell me about them," Grissom then said, breaking the silence that had taken over the room.
"Well, they're identical twins who live together on the ranch I've told your friend about before. They're single 'cause they're married to their work. We had always been good friends 'till I started walking the street. They cut me off. I was nothing for them. But we made it up when I quit that slavery," she replied, smiling mildly.
At that moment the door opened again. This time, Sara appeared in the doorway.
"Grissom, I've got something for you," she said, waving a case file at him.
A/N: I'm so sorry I kept you waiting this long! Unfortunately, I had some personal stuff to care about, so I couldn't really get to writing... This chapter might be a little boring, but I thought that it was important to mention some things. I promise it'll get more exciting next time :) And as always, thanks for reading/reviewing :-)
