Chapter 85

Trowa opened the first tape with a little bit of trepidation. He had no idea at what point in Kiri's time at the house he was going to see. He looked at the date stamp on the film. It only had the month and day, not a year. He frowned at that. It would make it harder to pin down exactly when the abuse had taken place. But since Kiri was only 19, the majority of her time at that house had been as a minor.

The image was split into four screens and each screen was fed by a different camera. One camera was situated in the empty bedroom that Trowa had found in the house during their raid. He noted that there wasn't a blood stain on the floor yet. A second camera was placed in the bathroom, which made Trowa scowl. There were just some places that cameras had no business being. The third camera was in the hallway, mostly aimed at the bedroom door, but Trowa could see partly into another room just down from Kiri's room. The fourth camera was aimed at the kitchen. Trowa figured the kitchen was in this feed because that was one of the places Kiri was allowed to be in.

Since there weren't any people in any of the shots, Trowa pushed a button to speed up the feed. He stopped it as soon as he saw someone coming down the hall towards the room. It was Chase. He had Kiri by the hair and she was struggling to keep up with his long stride.

Trowa swore under his breath as he turned up the volume so he could hear everything.

Chase dragged Kiri through the bedroom and into the bathroom.

"Get in there!"

Chase forced the girl into the shower, completely clothed. He turned on a tap and Kiri tried to get away from the water.

"STAY PUT!" Chase thundered.

Trowa watched as Kiri cowered under the spray. Chase had only turned one of the knobs. Steam started to rise. Trowa hoped it didn't obscure the camera too much. They needed to know what Chase had done in order to fully charge those involved.

Kiri hissed and again tried to escape the water but Chase pushed her back under.

"You'll stay there until I say you can leave. Make another sound and I'll keep you there until tomorrow."

Trowa scowled as more steam filled the small bathroom. It was obvious that Kiri was being burned but Chase simply watched her suffer. The girl on the screen turned pleading eyes to the man torturing her, silently begging him to stop, but Chase chose to ignore her.

The threadbare jeans and t-shirt Kiri was wearing were soaked and the fabric was clinging to her body. The skin on her arms turned red before Chase reached over and turned the knobs again. The water didn't turn off. Instead, the steam cleared and Trowa realized that Chase had gone from boiling hot to icy cold without any chance for Kiri to adjust.

Kiri yelped in surprise. Chase grabbed her by the throat and forced her head under the water as he changed the flow from the shower head to the bathtub faucet. She grabbed at his hand, trying to pull it away. Trowa's hands clenched into fists as he watched Chase torturing Kiri.

"Shut up you little bitch. You should be grateful that this is all the punishment you're getting."

Chase finally let Kiri go and she collapsed, coughing up water. The man had clearly done this before because he'd known just when to stop to prevent drowning his victim.

"Sit up," Chase ordered as he changed the water back to the shower head.

Kiri managed to sit up and she edged away from the water.

"You just don't learn, do you?" Chase sneered before backhanding her. "Get under the water."

Kiri got back under the water, sitting with her arms curled around her knees. She shivered and her teeth started chattering. Eventually, she stopped shivering and just sat there under the spray.

Trowa's hatred for Chase burned with a passion. He wished he'd been the one to end the man.

When Kiri's lips were purple and her skin had a bluish hue to it, Chase reached over and turned the water off.

"Have you learned your lesson?"

Kiri gave a small nod.

"Good. Now get dried off and change your clothes. You have two minutes."

Chase left and Kiri clumsily pulled herself out of the shower. Trowa watched as she stripped down and left her wet clothes in the sink. Bruises littered her body, but she wasn't as skinny as when Quatre and Duo first found her, which Trowa figured meant that she hadn't been in Chase's clutches for very long. She went into the bedroom and pulled on dry clothes without bothering to towel off. It was just as well because as soon as she had clothes on, Chase barged into the room again. Kiri's time was up.

"Get over here."

Kiri moved to him.

He grabbed her dripping hair. "You're not dry."

Kiri looked down. Trowa growled at the screen. She hadn't had time to get dry. Even if she'd had time, Trowa doubted there was a towel that she would have been allowed to use. He'd seen the state of that bathroom. It was mostly there for show.

"I'll teach you to disobey me."

Chase dragged the girl by her hair through the house and into the kitchen. He pulled a pair of scissors out of a drawer and hacked Kiri's hair off. It wasn't even. It didn't look good. Some clumps had been cut so close to the scalp that she had bald spots.

And Kiri was completely helpless to stop it. She'd started to warm up again and was now shivering. As Chase cut ever closer to her ears Trowa could see the terror in her eyes as she tried to hold still. When Chase was satisfied with his work he threw the hair at her.

"You'll clean up every strand of hair. If I find even one you will be sorry. Do you understand?"

Kiri nodded and knelt down to pick up her hair.

Trowa could see tears slip silently down Kiri's cheeks as she worked to pick up every strand of hair. He knew she didn't want to be punished again. Trowa still couldn't figure out just what it was that Kiri had done to deserve this particular punishment. Maybe Chase hadn't really had a reason. Maybe he just liked dominating the helpless girl. Trowa would never ask Kiri about it, though. He didn't want to bring up those memories. He wanted her to be able to put this all behind her.

The feed continued and Trowa watched as Kiri threw away her hair. She moved through the rest of the day doing her chores. She kept her head down and flinched every time Chase came near her. Chase seemed to enjoy the reaction. Trowa hit the fast forward button when Kiri was alone. He knew that she wouldn't even talk to herself.

"What just happened?" he said to himself as he rewound the bit he'd just fast forwarded through.

One minute Kiri was pulling soiled sheets off a bed and the next she was unconscious on the floor. Trowa frowned as he watched the feed. After a few minutes, Chase came in.

"Get up you lazy slut."

Chase tried to pull Kiri to her feet but the unconscious girl simply flopped around as the man pulled on her arm. Chase knelt down and felt for Kiri's pulse and then he felt her forehead.

Chase swore and shook Kiri, trying to wake her up. When that didn't work, Chase picked up the girl and took her to her room. He put her in the bed and tucked the blankets in around her before leaving her alone.

"That's weird," Trowa said to himself. Chase lost his temper at nothing and now that Kiri was genuinely unable to follow his orders, he was treating her with kindness. Trowa had assumed the man would beat her or at least take advantage her inability to fight back. He knew Chase had never raped Kiri, but Trowa figured he had at least molested her. Instead, Chase just let her sleep.

Trowa fast forwarded the feed, noting that Chase let Kiri sleep for three days. Not only that, but he brought up soup for her and fed her regularly. The man was completely unpredictable. Trowa supposed Chase's odd behavior made some sense. He'd spent so much time and energy training Kiri to keep house for him and if she died he'd have to start all over.

When she was well enough, Chase started Kiri back on her regular duties. As she was cleaning a room, Chase came in and hit her for no reason before walking out without so much as a word.

"I guess he's done being nice to her," Trowa muttered. He now understood why Kiri had such a hard time trusting them. Every time Chase was nice to her, he followed it up by being mean when she least expected it. She had no reason to hope that anyone was going to continue to be kind to her.

He watched as Kiri picked herself up and resumed her work as though nothing had happened. There was a new bruise already forming on her cheek.

Trowa frowned at the feed but made notes about what happened and the time stamps so that the events could be reviewed again later. He was about to start the video up again when there was a knock on his door.

Trowa was surprised to see Heero already. "What's up?"

Heero looked at the laptop Trowa was using. "I'm calling a halt to this project."

Trowa raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? You want us to stop checking the tapes?"

"Yes. I don't want you watching any more. I've asked Une to assign a new team to this."

"Why?"

Heero didn't answer right away. "Our team has seen enough. I don't think it's a good idea for us to watch what happened in that house. Especially since we're so close to the victim."

"You don't trust me to be impartial?"

"It's not that. It's not…you. It's…me," Heero mumbled.

"What's going on, Heero?"

Heero sat in a chair on the other side of the room and stared at the floor while he gathered his thoughts. Trowa knew that Heero wouldn't admit to being unable to perform this task unless something significant had happened so he waited patiently for Heero to begin his explanation.

"Do you remember…after I detonated and…I went looking for the Noventa family?" Heero asked quietly.

"Yes," Trowa answered. How could he forget helping Heero to track down so many people just so that Heero could offer to let them kill him? It had been morbid then and it was still weird to Trowa, even if he understood Heero's motivation better now.

"Well…one of the names that came up on the list of deceased girls was Sylvia Noventa."

"But I thought that you tracked her down and she was fine."

"Duo did find her and bring her Earth side and she is with her grandmother, but…" Heero paused and took a deep breath before continuing. "The tapes that I was reviewing showed a girl who looked just like Sylvia. It wasn't her, but…the lengths that someone went to in order to make her look like Sylvia and they even call her Sylvia…it's just…disturbing. It seems that they registered her fingerprints and DNA under Sylvia's name as well, which is why the name came up on the list. We're not sure who she really was."

"Why would they do that? It isn't like they could possibly know that you would end up investigating this case," Trowa pointed out.

"My guess is that someone requested Sylvia as a…bedmate. So they did what they could to make it happen."

"And since Mrs. Noventa was so high profile there was no way they could possibly take Sylvia without it being a big thing. And attention was what they were trying to avoid," Trowa mused.

"Exactly."

"So even though you know it isn't her, you don't think we should watch the tapes?" Trowa asked with a frown.

Heero shook his head. "It isn't worth our mental wellbeing. I know that you want an idea of what Kiri went through but I think that we should let someone who doesn't know Kiri view the tapes. They'll be less affected by the content."

"I think I know what to expect."

"Do you?" Heero wasn't convinced.

"This tape showed her being punished for no reason. She was tortured and then Chase cut her hair off because she wasn't physically able to follow his instructions to the letter. She ended up sick and all of a sudden Chase was kind to her, nursing her back to health. Once she was better he was back to beating her for no reason," Trowa answered. "Based on Kiri's reactions to us when we found her, I'm pretty sure that's how he treated her the whole time."

"You're probably right," Heero conceded. "However, you don't know that he didn't do worse things to her. What if he abused her…in other ways?"

"We already know he didn't rape her."

"That isn't the only way to sexually abuse someone," Heero pointed out. "Didn't you tell me that Carter forced her to give him a hand job before he cut her eye? And you thought he'd have forced her to go farther if he wasn't holding onto Catherine? Clearly he knew that she'd been trained to do that. If you were to see everything they forced her to do, how do you think you'd react?"

"I…" Trowa glared at the computer. "I don't really know," he admitted.

"And if you watched that and then went to see Kiri, do you think you could avoid letting your emotions show? Or would you end up frightening Kiri without meaning to?"

"I'd probably be angry or…or I might not be able to stop myself from mentioning it, which would just bring up bad memories for her."

"Bad memories that she might not be able to forgive you for bringing up," Heero added. "She's got enough going on without getting stuck in her past. And I think that we would do well to let these tapes alone and let another team examine them."

Trowa nodded slowly. "Yeah…I see your point." He closed the lid of the laptop and placed the notebook on top of it. "Here. Take these with you so I'm not tempted to look anymore."

Heero got up and took the laptop and notes. "Thank you for not fighting me on this."

"You should know that this means I won't have anything to do but visit Kiri."

"Hai. And as long as you take it easy that will be permitted. I suggest sitting with her instead of pacing the room. Maybe talking to her will help her wake up."

"Hasn't Quatre tried that already?"

Heero shrugged. "I have no idea. But it can't hurt anything, can it?"

Trowa took Heero's advice and talked to Kiri when he sat with her. At first he wasn't really sure what to say. When they were alone he told her stories about the circus. He told her about training the animals. He told her stories about Torvald and the members of the side show. He even told her stories about Cathy. He refrained from telling stories about Heavyarms. Trowa wasn't entirely sure how much of his rambling was getting through to Kiri and he didn't want to give her nightmares. He hoped that if he was influencing her dreams that she was having nice ones.

After a couple of days Trowa started making promises to Kiri. He promised her that she could go to the circus. He promised her that he would make sure she was happy for the rest of her life. He promised that he would protect her forever. The longer Kiri stayed asleep, the worse Trowa worried and the more promises he made. If only she would wake up, he swore he would keep every single promise he'd made to her. He ran out of things to talk to her about and started pacing the floor again.

"Okay, Trowa, this has got to stop," Sally scolded after checking his shoulder. "Your arm isn't healing like it should and since you can't rest when you see Kiri, I'm going to restrict you to your room for the next week."

"You can't do that! What if she wakes up?"

"Then she wakes up. You need to take better care of yourself. I know that the others have already talked to you about it and you say you're going to rest but then you don't."

"I rest enough," Trowa grunted.

"If I agreed with that statement we wouldn't be having this conversation," Sally snapped. "I have left orders at the nurse's station that you are not to wander. Please don't violate this order because they will sedate you if necessary."

"But-!"

"But nothing," Sally interrupted. "If you can behave today and tomorrow I may consider lifting the restriction a little bit. But you have to earn it."

"This is bullshit," Trowa muttered.

Sally rolled her eyes. "So is this repetitive conversation. Don't make me restrain you."

Sally left the room and wasn't surprised to hear the stream of curses after she shut the door. Trowa wasn't taking this well at all but there wasn't anything Sally could do to make Kiri wake up sooner. Her body needed time to heal. That was all there was to it.

Trowa didn't like being told he couldn't see Kiri, but he took Sally's threat seriously and stayed in his room for the next two days. When Sally came in to check his shoulder on the third day, she had to admit that he was starting to heal really well. The rest was doing a lot of good. But she wasn't about to let him know that.

"This is looking better. BUT I still want you to rest. So I will allow you to visit Kiri for one hour a day for the rest of the week. After that, I'll assess your shoulder again and we'll go from there. Deal?"

"You really expect me to sit here for 23 hours a day?"

"If you'd prefer you can stay in here until your arm is completely healed," Sally threatened.

"I'll take the hour," Trowa grumbled. "Can I at least choose which hour I go see her? I mean, if Quatre tells me she's awake and I have to wait to see her she'll be asleep again."

"I suppose," Sally conceded. "However, if you've already been in to see her and she happens to wake up after you leave you'll have to wait to see her the next day. Understood?"

Trowa nodded with a frown. "It's only for the rest of this week though, right?"

"That's right. I'm sure that you can handle that much. Unless you screw up your shoulder again."

Trowa sighed. "Okay, Sally. If that's what it takes to get to see Kiri, that's what I'll do."

"Finally," Sally muttered under her breath as she left Trowa's room. She only hoped that Kiri would come out of it this week. She wasn't sure how much longer Trowa would be able to control his anxiety.