Gillian Foster arrived at the police station looking haggard and pale. She was exhausted, hungry, and in desperate need of a hug from Cal. He knew it as soon as she entered the small incident room they had been given.
As soon as they made eye contact he was taking quick long strides to greet her. He placed his hands on her biceps as he looked intently at her face. He wanted to see if she would accept his comfort publicly first, not wanting to embarrass or demean her in front of their employees and the cops.
She smiled at him as he did and placed her hand at his waist, the other flat against his chest before moving towards him. She thought that he looked like she felt. They would never do this under normal circumstances, but right at that moment they abandoned all pretenses. This was not a normal circumstance.
They kept the hug brief, still conscious of their audience and the need to close out this case before they could relax. A quick, firm embrace and then they both entered the room again.
"How's the kids? And Amy?" Cal opened.
"They'll be ok. At least Amy was able to talk, I think it helped her as much as us. The older boy, he's being kept for observations. Has an IV to treat him for dehydration, some treatment for malnutrition and skin conditions from poor hygiene. He's being assessed too for… well, for everything. The baby, similar but more serious. He'll be kept in for longer, but they think he'll be ok. The older boy still hasn't spoken. Not sure if he's nonverbal or just too scared. Long term, he has the biggest challenges."
While everyone absorbed her update on the survivors of the house, Gillian switched the topic.
"What's happening with the case? How come you guys aren't interviewing the brothers? Did they confess?"
"Not fully. Not yet. They're still blaming each other and not giving up the full story. But right now, we've held them for long enough that they've reached their entitled rest period. We need to do this right, so they get a few hours to sleep," Wallowski filled her in with a summary before they all sat down to review the evidence in greater detail.
"We'll need to get DNA from those kids. If one or both brothers have paternity this case will be much easier to prosecute. We'll also need more evidence on Claudia. We'll have beat cops on the streets tomorrow with photos, asking around if anyone knew her. It's a long shot, but we need as much as we can. She can't testify, and neither can anyone else who was there," Wallowski's assessment of the case triggered a thought with Ria Torres.
"What about the group home she was in? Caleb was too, right? They might have crossed paths at some point. We should check, see if they were in the same place at the same time. They're around the same age."
With a quick glance from Gillian, Mark was picking up his phone to call Loker back at the lab.
"You knew Claudia Kabuso."
Affirmation sparked in his eyes. He had known her.
"You were both in a group foster home together as teenagers."
A memory triggered a flash of anger, then desire.
"Tell us about her, Caleb."
Head bowed, eyes on the table. He didn't want to talk about it. Shame, and pain, and embarrassment, all at once.
"Did you like her? Is that why you took her? You saw her after you both left that place and you took her. Is that what happened, Caleb? Why did you take her?"
"I didn't take her!"
"So how'd she end up in your house? In your basement, with two kids? How'd she end up dumped into a ditch out of your car, Caleb?"
He stared at her. His face devoid of any recognizable expression. As though his mind was no longer present.
"Did you put her in the car? Drive her out to that field, dump the body? We know you didn't kill her. Not directly at least. But you did dump her body, didn't you?"
"Charlie says -"
"Forget what Charlie Says! Charlie's willing to let you go to jail for this. Charlie's saying it was all you."
He looked scornful at her. Disgusted at the suggestion.
"Charlie wouldn't say that. Charlie takes care of me."
And then he shut down. Completely unresponsive to anything else she said. The interview was over for now.
"He's more protective of his brother than his brother is of him," Gillian commented from behind the two-way mirror.
"Yeah. But hard to know for certain who did what. They'll never get it through a trial if they don't have a consistent story. Too high profile," Cal reasoned.
"I find it hard to believe that Caleb acted alone in any of this. He doesn't seem capable of leading his brother towards it. And if he did act alone, why would Charlie go along with it? Why cover it all up for him?"
"Wait 'til you see Charlie in action. Cold blooded. He's calculated. But I do think if they can rile him up, get him angry and hit the right marks he'll lose it. Tell us everything then."
"I hope you're right."
Mark entered the room quietly behind them then. "Just off the phone with Eli. They were both in St Benedict's home for children for six months back in 2003. Ria's gonna head over there tomorrow morning, see if she can get any of the staff who may have been there to remember anything, just in case that helps."
"Thanks. Good job," Gillian nodded to him appreciatively. "Go home Mark. You must be exhausted. There's nothing more you can do here tonight."
"I'm alright. Any progress?" he asked as he inclined his head towards the suspect in the other room.
"Not really. Seriously, go home. We need you at the lab tomorrow, help Loker catch up with the Bachman case and be on standby in case anything else comes up for this one. Go. Get some rest."
Mark looked at Cal, curious if this would turn out to be some kind of test in his eyes, even though he was certain of Gillian's sincerity. Cal smirked; his eyes crinkled in amusement at the man's predicament. He waited a beat before nodding to him in confirmation.
"Alright. OK. I'll see you tomorrow."
After he left, Gillian turned to Cal, judgment and amusement clouding her features in equal measure.
"What?"
"Stop making him second guess everything."
"He's a grown man. He should be well capable of guessing on the first attempt."
"Be nice to him. He's a good kid."
"You're too soft. Always have been", he smiled at her and shoved her gently. She shoved him right back.
Wallowski walked in at that moment and fought the urge to roll her eyes at the pair.
"We're done for tonight. Gotta let those two get a night's rest, lawyers are insisting. We're close though. We'll start on Charlie again tomorrow. Hopefully then we'll have a better case file ready."
"We should take a bit of time in the morning, discuss tactics. How to get under his skin so he messes up. We'll go through the interviews again and pinpoint the parts that triggered him."
"Yeah. Sounds like a plan. See you tomorrow."
She walked out of the room again then, leaving Cal and Gillian alone to gather their things and get home for a few hours of sleep.
