DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.
Chapter 6
Jeffrey was in his small office, as he liked to think of it, as he refilled the yellow bucket with water and placed the mop inside the bucket. The kids were on winter break which meant he had all the time in the world to clean the school hallways. He moved the bucket, which was on wheels, and started to walk into the farthest hallway close to the gym.
"Oh, hello Mr. Kaminski," Mrs. Gottardo said as she came upon him in the hallway. "Principal Gottardo, I didn't think anyone was here this morning," Jeffrey stated as he stopped moping the floor and watched her. "Oh, don't mind me, I was just in my office for an hour and now I'm getting ready to leave," she told him as she stood there.
"Have a good holiday," he told her, awkwardly as he placed the mop back in the bucket and wringed the mop out. "You too," she told him and then left the area. Jeffrey then continued to mop the floor and finish his task. He had a few errands to run after he was done here cleaning the school and had to make a stop in the warehouse district.
After lunch in Sharon's office, Matthew was starting to get bored. He walked over to his mom who was sitting at her desk and stood next to her. "What are you doing?" he asked as he watched her work on her computer.
"Oh, well being in charge means that I have to create a budget for my team for money to spend next year," she explained to him. "No offense Mom, but that sounds boring," he huffed as he stood there. "Hmm, boring you say," she chuckled as she looked at her son.
"I see you loosened your tie," she pointed out to him. He looked down at it and then looked up at her. "Dad did the same thing earlier today so I thought I would do that too," he shrugged his shoulders.
Sharon closed her computer and looked at Matthew. "Are you bored?" she asked him and he fidgeted and nodded his head. "Okay, well, I take it you're done with your tv show," she said. "Yes," he mumbled. "Hmm, and it looks like Lieutenant Provenza and your dad just came back from being out," she stated as she looked out her window.
"Do you want to go see what they've been up too?" she asked him and he nodded. They both left her office and walked towards Provenza's desk. "Lieutenants, anything new?" Sharon asked and crossed her arms. Matthew looked at his mom and did the same thing as he watched her ask his dad and Provenza.
Andy looked at Matthew and smiled as he was trying to mimic what Sharon was doing. "Uh, yes we found out some new information but," Provenza started to say and then looked over at Matthew.
Sharon glanced down at Matthew and sighed. Even though she told him he could go with her and find out what they were up to, she now had to send him back into her office because she didn't want him to hear about the crime they were investigating.
"Matthew, I'm sorry honey but can you go back into my office?" she asked him and Matthew hung his head. "Fine," he mumbled and walked back into her office.
Sharon turned around to Andy and Provenza. Andy gave her a questioned look and she shrugged at him. "He's getting bored. I don't know what we are going to do with him tomorrow and the rest of the week," she told them both.
"We'll think of something," Andy informed her. Sharon nodded and then focused back on this case at hand. "Okay, so what did the two of you find out?" she asked them.
"Well, we went back to the house and took a look around the place with Mike again," Provenza informed her. "Anything else stand out?" she asked them. "We found a fingerprint," Andy told her. "Who does it belong to?" she asked, wondering if this was a break for them.
"We don't know yet, Mike is at the lab currently running it with the tech there. We couldn't get a could clean lift, or however Mike put it from where it was found," Provenza explained. "Okay, anything else?" she asked as they looked like they had more to say.
"Yeah, we uh, spoke to one of the neighbors again, they said that they saw someone lurking around the house the other day, and they are sitting with a sketch artist downstairs right now, so we'll see what we get," Andy told her.
She pursed her lips as she looked at the Murder Board. "What else aren't the two of you telling me?" she asked and turned around to look at them. They both had a guilty look on their face. "Morales called me while we were out, he told us that he made a mistake with the bodies that were frozen, and they were not from Mexico like he originally thought," Provenza told her.
Sharon looked at both of them, wondering where this was heading. "A missing person's report came out on a husband, wife, and a child from their daughter. She had come home from college and noticed that her parents and brother weren't home. She waited a while before calling the police," Andy stated.
"Okay, so was Morales able to make a positive id on the bodies then?" she asked them. "Yes, a Richard Gonzalez, his wife Martha, and their child William," Provenza read their names to her. "Missing persons is handling the daughter," Andy informed her. She nodded but that didn't reassure her for some reason.
"So, we're not looking at two homicides here, now were looking at five," Sharon concluded to them and they both nodded. Now that the other bodies were identified, maybe they would be able to link their killer to them. They just had to figure that out.
Across town, Jeffrey made his way towards the warehouse district. He pulled up to the cold storage freezer he was renting and made his way inside the building. There was a small office that had some of his things inside and then another room to the right of that. That room had plastic tarps laying on the floor and there was dried blood on some of the tarps.
He then made his way to the room that had the cold storage freezer and unlocked the door. As he opened the door, a blast of cold air came out and he stepped inside. To the left of the doorway were two bodies that were frozen. He walked over to them, admiring his handiwork and then turned to the ice chest on the other side of the wall.
He opened that and inside were frozen hands, arms, and the two fingers he took from poor Mrs. Miller. He closed the ice chest and then walked out of the cold storage, back into the warmth of the warehouse. He brushed off some of the ice that was starting to form on his jacket and then walked back towards the small office in the warehouse.
He picked up the phone in the office and dialed a number. "Hey, it's Jeffrey. Yeah, I'm at the warehouse and everything seems to be okay here so I'm not sure what alarm you're talking about," he told the other person over the phone.
He had gotten a voicemail stating that there was an alarm going off in the freezer area by the guy that owns the cold storage facility. Jeffrey hung up his phone and left the small office. He left the cold storage facility and headed home.
Back at the PAB, the team was running the background on the newly identified bodies when another visitor entered their office. Andy was the first to notice him. "Ricky!" he said, standing up to greet his step-son as he walked further into the office.
"Hey Andy," Ricky smiled and looked around the room. "I heard you and Mom caught a case and had brought Matthew here this morning," he told Andy, as he shook his hand. Andy nodded. "Yeah, I know your mother wanted to take this week off and spend time with everyone but," he sighed.
"Ricky, what are you doing here?" Sharon asked as she saw her son speaking with Andy. Ricky moved and gave his mother a hug. "I decided to drive down early and surprise you guys but then I spoke to Emily over the phone and she told me you had caught a case and Matthew was here with you," he paused for a second. "And let's face it Mom, it's kind of boring here if you're a kid," he continued.
He moved away from Sharon and looked at the rest of the team. Provenza was on the phone. Julio was speaking to Amy about something. "Anyway, from the look of things, it looks like you are both going to be here for a while so I thought I would stop here and pick up Matthew, hang out with him, you know," Ricky suggested.
"Oh, well I'm sure he'll be happy to see you," Sharon told him and all three of them entered Sharon's office again. "Matthew, look who stopped by to see you," Sharon told Matthew. He looked up from his book and saw Ricky standing there.
"Ricky!" he shouted with joy and got up to greet him. "Hey kid," Ricky replied when Matthew hugged him. "What do you say about busting out of this joint and heading home to hang out with your oldest brother?" Ricky asked him.
Matthew looked to Sharon and Andy and they both smiled at him. That was the encouragement he needed. "Yes, okay," Matthew replied and started to gather his things in his backpack. "So, don't worry about dinner, Mom, I'll stop on the way home or we'll go out and get something," Ricky assured her.
"No junk food," she told them both when Matthew reappeared in her office, ready to go. Andy spoke to Matthew while Sharon was talking with Ricky.
"Are you sure you're okay with this?" she asked Ricky. "Mom, of course, he's my little brother, and we had fun the last time I was here," Ricky told her and gave her a kiss on her cheek.
"Be good for your brother okay?" Andy told Matthew and slipped him a $20 bill. "Use this to pay for dinner tonight," he told Matthew and Matthew took it in his hand.
"Alright Matthew, let's go paint the town," Ricky joked and Sharon gave him a stern look. "Kidding, just kidding Mom," Ricky said and the two of them left her office. "Bye Matthew," Sharon called out to him as they walked behind the two.
Matthew waved to his mom and then stopped at Provenza's desk. "Night Uncle Louie," Matthew told him. "Oh, good night Matthew," Provenza stammered as he was thrown off by Matthew's gesture and waved to the kid as they walked out.
When Matthew and Ricky entered the hallway and made their way towards the elevators, Matthew showed Ricky the $20 bill that Andy had given him. "Dad gave me this for our dinner tonight," Matthew said as he pushed the button for the elevator. "He wanted to treat us," he added before Ricky could question anything.
"So how come you wore a suit today?" Ricky asked as the elevator doors closed. "I wanted to look like Dad and fit in with the rest of the team," Matthew told him as the elevator descended.
Meanwhile, in the Murder Room, the team came up with something interesting on the background of Richard Gonzalez. "Richard Gonzalez worked as a maintenance person for the local school district," Julio stated. "Hmm, so wouldn't you think the school district would have reported him missing when he didn't show up 2 months ago?" Provenza asked.
"Well, they would have if they hadn't let him go, about 2 months ago," Julio stated. "The school district had to release him because they switched to non-union personnel, it was a huge outrage in the school district," Julio explained more.
"By the time the decision was reversed, Richard had already been killed, along with his wife and son, who also attended the school were his dad worked," Julio continued.
"So then why didn't the school report the child missing?" Sharon asked. "Apparently the Gonzalez's pulled William out of the school when Richard was let go. They informed the school that they were moving," Julio answered.
"That whole scenario seems a little odd to me," Amy stated and Sharon turned around to look at her. "Why is that, Amy?" Sharon asked her. "Well, I get that the school changed to having non-union maintenance workers at the schools, but as soon as that happens, they pull the kid out of the school and then tell them that they are moving?" Amy reiterated what Julio had said.
"According to this, the Gonzalez's didn't put their home up for sale and they didn't tell their daughter about moving to another place either," Amy stated. "So, what was going on then?" Andy asked in general.
"None of this is making sense," Sharon stated as she looked at the board. "You expect it to make sense, Commander?" Provenza joked.
"Look, it's obvious these people have nothing in common to link them together," Provenza quickly pointed out. "What else did the daughter have to say about her parents?" he asked and Amy looked up the report on her computer.
"Nothing out of the ordinary. She stated that the last time she saw them was two months ago, via a phone conversation," she read the report. "So, she didn't think it was odd that they didn't keep in touch after that?" Provenza asked.
"What Provenza, do you think she had something to do with their murders?" Andy quickly asked him. "Well, she can't be ruled out!" he answered him and Andy shook his head.
"She can be when she was at college in Pennsylvania, sir," Julio pointed out to Provenza. "And, can corroborate that by her professors and roommates," Amy added and Provenza leaned back into his chair.
"Lieutenant, call Mike and ask him how much longer he's going to be at the lab," Sharon asked Provenza and he nodded, picking up his cell phone. "In the meantime, what are some ways to keep frozen bodies?" Sharon asked the rest of the team.
"In a freezer, ma'am," Julio blurted out. "Thank you, detective," Sharon quipped back. "How about a cold storage facility?" Andy suggested. "We saw it before in a previous case," he shrugged his shoulders.
"Wouldn't that be a little overkill Lieutenant, all that storage space for a couple of bodies?" Amy added. "Depends on how many bodies we're talking about," Sharon added as she looked at Andy and then at Amy.
"Maybe this guy has a freezer in his basement?" Julio added to the discussion.
Meanwhile, Provenza called Mike on his cell phone while sitting at his desk and listened to the ringing before Mike answered. "Yes Provenza?" Mike said as he was sitting on a stool in the lab. "Uh, the Commander wants to know your progress," Provenza told him.
"I'm still waiting on the technician to be able to get a good read on the print we lifted," Mike informed him. Provenza rolled his eyes and sighed. "Wait a minute," he heard Mike say and he waited.
"I think we got it Lieutenant Mike," Provenza heard the technician over the phone. Mike and the technician looked at the fingerprint up on the screen and high-fived each other.
"Provenza, we got it. Now I just have to run the print and see if it's in our system," Mike said over the phone. "Well, hopefully it is," Provenza said and waited. There was a long pause. "Are you coming back to the office to run it or are you staying there?" he asked him.
"I'm printing it out and I will return to the office to run it," Mike informed him. "Good see you then," Provenza said and hung up the phone.
"Commander, Mike was able to get a good print and he will be back soon to run it here," Provenza informed Sharon. "Finally, some good news hopefully," she said. Andy walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder.
She smiled slightly at him. "I want you to pursue the cold storage facility idea, find out how many are in the LA area and who owns them," Sharon told him and he nodded. "Sure," he gave her a small smile and then returned to his desk.
He sat down at his desk and started working on his research.
After an hour, Mike returned to the office. "Gee Mike! What took you so long?" Provenza, almost sounding like he was complaining. "Traffic!" Mike simply said as he made his way to his desk and sat down.
He logged onto his computer and opened up the program for running fingerprints. He scanned the fingerprint into the system and waited.
Sharon looked out of her office and saw Mike had returned. She walked out of her office and stood by Provenza's desk as they both looked in the direction of Mike. Mike watched his computer screen as it flashed every couple of seconds while the program ran its course.
"I don't know how long this is going to take, Commander," Mike said as he glanced over his glasses at Sharon. "Hopefully we won't be here all night," Provenza mumbled.
TBC