Chapter 5

Lieutenant Benson and Detective Rollins had just arrived outside of Pumps, the strip club that Star confirmed she'd seen Candy before. It was a long shot, but now that they knew a serial murderer and rapist was out on the loose, they needed to find the girl. She was not only in serious condition without medical treatment, she was probably the only living person who would be able to help them find the man responsible for all of this.

Olivia looked at Amanda. "Good cop? "she suggested.

Amanda made a strange face. "The Lieutenant can't be the good cop," she pointed out. "You lost those privileges years ago, when you became the Sergeant."

Olivia nodded. "Righhhttt."

"And I'm just better at being good cop. It's more believable coming from me," Rollins defended.

The brunette tried to hide her smile, because she knew that what Amanda said was true. They both made their way into the club and began searching the perimeter.

Some of the corners were darker than the others and they got a glimpse of plenty of strippers, but none of them was their victim.

"Do you see any that look underage?" Olivia asked.

There were plenty of women there. "It's hard to tell with some of these girls. They're all young in my eyes," she pointed out.

Olivia shook her head.

An older gentleman with black and gray hair approached them. He had on an expensive Italian suit and adjusted his blazer as he looked at them. He could sense automatically that they had not come in for entertainment purposes.

"Good evening, Ladies," he began. "My name's Pete. Is there something that I can help you with?" He smiled even though he had a feeling they were cops. He tried to hide his nervousness but Amanda picked up on his constant hand-moving as he adjusted his suit.

"We're looking for one of your girls," Olivia lied. They had no idea of whether the teen worked there but they wouldn't tell him that first. The brunette lifted her phone to show him the picture on her screen.

The man paused for a while. It was obvious that he did not want to answer the question.

"She may be in danger," Amanda told him. "She's is serious medical condition and if we don't find her, she could lose her life," she continued to bluff.

"…That's Candy. She doesn't work here anymore," He studied the bruise on her face and the bandage on her neck. "What happened to her?"

"She was attacked last night," Olivia informed him as if that was all he needed to know. "She was your employee, yes?"

"Yeah, but we had to let her go a couple of months ago. She was a sweet kid."

"So you're confirming she was a kid?" Olivia interrogated.

"Not underage or anything," he answered matter-of-factly. "I card all of my girls. They're all legal. I'm not stupid enough to hire minors. Ask any of them yourself. They're all of-age."

"We will," Olivia informed him.

"We need her file," Amanda said. "Employment application, copy of identification."

"Not a problem," he answered. "Ginger," he called over to the bartender. "Go bring these nice women here Candy's file."

"You said you had to let her go?" Olivia questioned. "Why was that?"

"Drugs," he answered quickly. "She was coming to work high as a kite, arguing with the customers…It was bad for business. My girls know I have no tolerance for that crap. I need them to be clean and civil."

"I thought you said she was a sweet kid?" Olivia asked in confusion.

"She was a sweet kid at first. Things changed real fast," he confirmed.

"How long had she worked for you?" Amanda asked.

"I don't know," he replied. "Not long... A year maybe? I'm not good with time."

"And her real name?" the blonde questioned next.

"Mary?" he said unconvincingly. "Or Carrie?"

Both women stared at him with flattened facial expressions.

"Everyone called her Candy… Her information should be in her file," he added. The bartender appeared in front of them with a manila folder.

"Her name was Jackie," the woman informed them after overhearing part of their conversation.

"Jackie… that was it," Pete answered. "I'm really not good with names."

Olivia opened the file and reviewed the application. There was a home-address listed, a phone number and even an Virginia State Driver's license. "She's from out of state?" Olivia asked him.

He glanced over to see what the woman was referring to. "Yeah, she was staying with friends here in New York for a while, I'm pretty sure she mentioned."

Olivia noticed the license was off. "This license is missing the gold star on the upper right hand corner, which should show on all current Virginia licenses... It's a fake."

Pete furrowed his eyebrows. "Well, how was I supposed to know that?" he asked them. "This is New York. I'm not trained to tell a real from a fake out-of-state license like you guys are…"

Olivia shook her head in disapproval as she studied the rest of the file. The address listed on the application was different than the one listed on her license. That was a good sign unless Jackie lied about that too. The detective felt the vibration of the cellphone going off in her pocket and glanced at the screen.

It was Melinda.

"Excuse me, I have to take this," she told them and made eye contact with Amanda so she would continue to pressure them into giving more information while she was gone.

Amanda gave a soft nod.

"Hello?" Olivia said as she made her way outside to take the call.

"Olivia, I got a hit on the DNA from the girl."

"Daya? How is that possible? It's only a couple of hours. I thought it takes–"

"No," Melinda interrupted. "Not the deceased. The one you had me run from the rape kit you got from the hospital."

"Okay," Olivia answered. "That's great news. Who is she?"

There was silence on the other line.

Olivia glanced at her phone's screen to see if the call suddenly fell but it hadn't.

"Melinda?"

"I think you should come in for this one," the examiner answered, which confused Olivia.

"Melinda, just tell me," the cop pressed. She didn't like the suspense and it was beginning to really annoy her.

"Liv… you came up…"

Silence.

"Me?" Olivia repeated in a surprised tone.

"Your DNA was the only match in the system. The kinship index was over 1. You and the victim's mother have a maternal match."

"So what are you saying?" she asked even though she partly understood.

"The index level is not very high but still high enough. She's not your sister... She's your niece…" Melinda ended.