The doctors left the room in a flurry, most scurrying away down the corridors to their next patients. One doctor approached them, explaining that Amy had calmed somewhat after they had given her a mild sedative. She was still conscious, but she was less than lucid.
With permission, Gillian entered the room first with Cal and Wallowski following behind her but keeping a distance.
"Amy?"
The girl looked sluggishly towards Gillian.
"Hi, Amy. My name is Gillian. How are you feeling?"
Amy's attention remained fixed on Gillian, but it was clear that she had no intention of engaging in small talk. Gillian's friendly but professional smile remained in place as she approached the bed with calm and open body language.
She gestured politely to the seat beside the bed. "Mind if I sit?"
Amy turned her attention to the chair, then back to Gillian. She gave no indication as to how she felt about Gillian sitting. She took this as permission, lowering herself to the seat with grace.
"I'm here to talk to you about what happened. Do you think you can help us to find who did this so we can arrest them?"
Amy tensed up, fear filling her eyes.
"We're going to help you, Amy. I promise you; we'll do everything we can to help."
Tears filled the girl's eyes and Gillian reached out her hand and laid it beside Amy's on the hospital bed.
"I know it doesn't feel like it right now, but it's going to be ok. Your mom is outside the room. I'm going to ask you a few questions, and if you need her she can come in straight away. But the only way we can help is by asking you about this. You don't even have to talk to us if you don't want to."
Amy looked unconvinced. Her eyes turned to the small window, a partial view of her parents unveiled between half opened curtains. She looked back to Gillian, over to Cal and Wallowski with curiosity in her gaze. Eventually, Amy turned back to Gillian again with determination peeking through the fear.
"Did you see who took you? Where they took you to?"
Amy's fear intensified. Her body tensed up, her eyes widening.
"Did you escape from a house, Amy?"
Amy's eyes darted around the room, looking to the door before turning back to Gillian and nodding almost imperceptibly.
"Amy. Does the name Charlie, or Caleb, mean anything –?"
Amy's tears returned as she sobbed "mom", softly. Cal moved to signal to the Hamiltons, indicating that for the moment only Mrs Hamilton was requested. As Amy's mother entered the room and moved to her daughters' side, Gillian vacating the chair in favour of the woman, Cal stood firm in the doorway blocking the entry of an angry Kyle Hamilton.
"It's ok Amy. We have the police at the house. If you can tell us if it was them, we can start to question them", Wallowski assured her, doing her best to adopt Gillian's tone.
Amy nodded, sobbing, "The man took me. He took me from the bus stop! I got out and ran when he left in the morning, before the other one was up! They wanted me to replace her! They wanted a new mommy!" Amy broke down, unable to continue. Gillian pressed the call button on the bed. The interview was over for now, but looking to Wallowski for confirmation she knew they had enough to bring the brothers in.
Gillian placed her hand on Julia Hamilton's arm as she thanked her before the trio left the room, hurrying out of the hospital.
As they walked from the hospital doors towards the car park, Detective Sharon Wallowski dialled Officer Pugh's cell phone while Cal dialled Ria Torres'. Each updating their respective colleagues as to the developments in their case. There was no further activity from inside the house and wanting to avoid the risk of triggering the brothers into action they all agreed it would be best to wait until the investigating group reunited with back-up before attempting to bring Charlie and Caleb in for questioning.
They deliberated briefly on whether someone should stay at the hospital in case Amy was ready to volunteer more information, but ultimately agreed they were unlikely to get anything until the teenager rested. Cal wanted Gillian's input where it was needed most. Wallowski wanted to have Cal on hand when the brothers were questioned. And Gillian was keen to get back to the Morris house, the shadow of an idea still haunting her from their previous interactions. She wished she could pinpoint exactly what it was in the back of her mind that was bothering her about Caleb and the house, but instead the tendril of a theory just teased the back of her mind.
By the time they arrived back at the Morris house there were several police cars placed at the end of the small estate and strategically placed around the area, waiting to support in case anything went wrong at the house or there was cause to give chase.
An old car was now parked in the driveway at the house. An unremarkable black SUV. Detective Ibrahim Hamed ran the plates as soon as he could after Charlie Morris arrived home. The car was registered to him with not so much as a parking violation or speeding ticket on record. The Morris brothers were remarkably unlikely suspects on paper. The car looked clean, apart from some recently dried dirt embedded in the threads of the rear tyres. Ibrahim had already sent photos of the vehicle to the investigating teams in both Baltimore and Belle Haven. At first glance they seemed consistent with the tracks found near the body of Claudia Kabuso, but it was a common enough vehicle.
As Cal and Wallowski spoke with Ria Torres and the other police officers, Gillian watched the house with concern. As detectives Wallowski and Hamed moved to take the lead in approaching the house with Cal bringing up the rear, Cal noticed Gillian's distraction again.
Placing his hand on the small of her back to get her attention he asked, "You coming?"
Gillian shook away her distraction and began to move, acknowledging her partner with a quiet "yeah".
"What is it?", he asked.
"They're still hiding something."
The detectives knocked on the door and announced themselves loudly for the brothers inside to hear.
After a few moments of silence, muffled raised voices could be heard and an angry exchange between those inside. Then came the sound of doors and cupboards opening and closing. It sounded like someone with something to hide.
"We need a search warrant, asap", Wallowski declared quietly to her partner before knocking once again on the front door.
When the door opened, a tall man a few years older than Caleb opened the door. The two brothers held little resemblance to one another. Where Caleb was just below average height and slightly overweight, with light brown skin and hazel-coloured eyes, Charlie was tall with a light skin tone and brown hair and blue eyes.
"Charlie Morris?" asked Wallowski, seeking confirmation but her voice was tinged with an air of curiosity.
"Yes? May I help you?" he replied with well-practiced self-assurance.
"I'm detective Wallowski, this is my colleague detective Hamed. We'd like to ask you and your brother Caleb a few questions. It's about a missing persons case."
"I'm sure we don't know anything about it. We tend to keep to ourselves."
"That's fine Mr Morris, but we'd like to ask you to assist with our enquiries anyway. Hopefully we can eliminate you and Caleb quickly, but we'd like for you to accompany us down to the precinct regardless."
"We don't really have time for this detective", he replied dismissively. "I've had a long day, I'm about to make some dinner, and my brother has an early shift tomorrow. Besides, neither of us know anything about your case. And my brother is a bit simple, he won't be able to answer your questions."
"Mr Morris. We have witnesses who suggested to us that you and your brother may be persons of interest in this case, or at the very least may have information that could be of value in our investigations. I'm going to have to insist that you accompany us."
"Am I under arrest?"
"Not at this time, but we do have to insist that you accompany us down to the station for questioning."
"Lawyer."
"Pardon me, sir?"
"We would like to request that an attorney be present. Before we speak to anyone."
"Well, feel free to call one. Or we can have them request a state attorney as soon as you arrive at the station, that's no problem at all."
While the detective and their suspect continued their exchange, Gillian took a step back to observe the house and the man in the doorway. He was far more controlled than his younger brother. He was tense but only the slightest movement of the muscles in his cheek and sideways movement of his shoulder gave away that he had something to hide. Gillian was now convinced there was something inside the house that would incriminate them. Looking at the house, it seemed to hold minor differences from the others on the street, although most houses had variations and alterations.
By now the detectives had managed to cajole Charlie into agreeing to leave the house and go with them. He called for Caleb to join him and when the younger man appeared he pulled Charlie almost out of view behind the door. The two quietly argued until eventually Charlie raised his voice to the timid young man.
"That's enough, Caleb!", he snapped. "We'll go and clear everything up with these detectives. We'll make a statement that we don't know anything. That's all we have to say. This is a misunderstanding. Everything will. Be. Fine!"
Charlie then grabbed Caleb by the arm, physically propelling him out the door and down the drive as Caleb looked back towards the door repeating "no" as his eyes filled with tears.
Gillian put her hand on Cal's arm before he could think to follow the police with their suspects. He turned to her with similar concern.
"You're right. Something's going on there."
"We need to get inside that house Cal."
"I'm not sure that's your best idea, love. That's far more my style than yours," he looked concerned as he looked at her. "You were dead against even looking through a window earlier."
"Did you see the way he kept looking back to the house? The fear? That wasn't fear for himself. He didn't just want to stay to avoid questioning."
"He's afraid for what's in there. He's afraid for someone else? You think? There's no other reports of missing people Gill."
"Nobody reported Claudia Kabuso missing either."
"Lightman!"
Cal turned to look apologetically at the yelling detective, holding up an index finger signalling that she wait a moment.
"We need to be there for the interviews."
"Not all of us. You need to go, maybe take Torres?"
"And what? Leave you here to break into a murder suspects house by yourself?", he blurted incredulously.
She held her hands out, palms up towards him. "They're not in there. Something feels really off about this, Cal."
"Oh yeah, all the more reason to leave you here alone."
Cal sighed, defeated. He knew that Gillian's instincts were rarely off in these things. He looked to the sky before holding his hand up to her in an identical gesture to the one he had given Wallowski. Moving towards the detective he said simply, "I'll follow you there. Give us a few minutes, just… don't ask, ok?"
"Now's not the time to have a fight with your girlfriend, Lightman."
"That's not what this is, alright. Just… Don't ask. Trust us."
She raised an eyebrow with a side-eyed glare as she turned away and shrugged. As they left with the suspects, Cal returned to his partner and they moved up the driveway. Ria Torres chased after them keen to find the reason for the delay.
"You go ahead, Torres", Cal said. "We'll follow you in a bit, yeah?"
Torres didn't look at all happy with the dismissal but did as told. Officer Davis, who was remaining to preserve the scene as a precaution while they awaited the possibility of a search warrant, stood in front of the scientists to block their path.
"What do you think you're doing Dr Lightman?"
"Just gonna have a little look is all", Cal pushed passed him, Gillian at his side. "You might want to go take a quick comfort break or check in with the office for an update for a few minutes though, yeah?"
"We don't have a search warrant for this premises yet," Davis pleaded.
Cal took his lock picking kit out of his jacket pocket as they moved around towards the back of the house.
"Well then it's a good thing we're not cops", came the argument from Gillian.
Cal tried to hide his smile as they walked away.
"You've been spending too much time with me, love", he said to her quietly, causing her to turn bashful.
Davis looked distraught but he didn't follow them, hoping for plausible deniability if it all went wrong.
