AN: Thanks to all who are reading and/or reviewing. I'm glad people are enjoying my AU. :)
"So, do you think we'll get anything out of NCIC?" JD asked Kaile as he drove them towards the center, attempting to make small talk.
"I don't know. I didn't get anything from the initial parameters, but adding in the deaf angle and how the mutilation of the ears might be linked to that might give us something." It really wasn't entirely accurate to say that she hadn't gotten anything. In fact, the opposite was true. The National Crime Information Center database had actually given her too much. Despite the fact that technology made searching the database easier and quicker, the sheer volume of material available these days was unbelievable and, unfortunately, entering in the information for a young, Caucasian female resulted in thousands of hits that were hard to narrow down. Without having the fingerprint and/or DNA of every single person in the country, there were going to be times where the computer wasn't all that much help and while Kaile hated the times she couldn't identify a victim, she wouldn't go so far as to advocate that kind of national database. It was just one of those things that law enforcement had to deal with.
They remained silent until they parked outside the community center. As they unbuckled their seat belts, JD finally asked the question Kaile knew he had been holding in since the morgue. "So, do you mind telling me what your problem with my partner is?"
"Yes, I do mind," she told him, opening her door and getting out. She closed the door and spoke to Deveraux over the top of the car. "Look, I know he's your partner and your friend, but this is something between him and me and it's not something you need to know about, so just drop it, okay?" At his slight, grudging nod, she turned towards the community center. She knew she was being an ass, but she couldn't help it. She needed to call her cousins and go out for a few drinks or something. It just seemed like the whole universe was conspiring lately to tick her off.
Entering the center, Kaile let Deveraux take the lead as they approached a woman behind a reception desk. She was already looking up at the detectives. Kaile noticed a red light shining on the desk that went off when the doors closed completely that had probably alerted the woman to their presence.
"Ms. Connors, right?" JD said, flashing his badge. "I was here a couple of days ago with my partner." Kaile assumed that JD already knew that the receptionist could read lips since he talked to her without any hesitation.
"Oh, yes, Detective…I'm sorry, I forgot your name." The woman gave them a smile, but something flashed in her eyes that Kaile couldn't quite identify. She was also quite surprised at how well the woman spoke having expected some kind of speech impediment from someone who couldn't hear. But then she knew that not everyone who was deaf was born that way and so might not have any kind of noticeable difference in their speech.
"Deveraux, Detective Deveraux," JD reminded her.
"Yes. So, how can I help you? Have you found out what happened to poor Casey? The kids around here have been really devastated about her death." The woman looked appropriately sad, but it was more as if she thought she should look sad rather than actually feeling that emotion herself. Or you could just be paranoid, Flack.
"Unfortunately not, we're still working on that. I actually came by with my colleague, Detective Flack," Kaile nodded in acknowledgement, "because we have another victim that we think someone around here might be able to help us identify."
Kaile took a picture of her vic out of her jacket pocket and handed it over to the receptionist who looked took it and looked down at the photo. "Do you recognize the woman?" Kaile about smacked herself upside the head. The woman couldn't very well know that Kaile was talking while she was looking down at the picture. Kaile tapped the photo to get the woman's attention before repeating the question. "Do you recognize the woman?"
"I'm afraid not, though she does seem familiar. But I'm only the day receptionist. We're open pretty late, so maybe if you come back later today to ask around then?" Before Kaile could continue the questioning, she heard her name from behind her.
"Kaile Flack?" She turned to face the man calling her name with the speech impediment she had expected from the receptionist.
"Munsie!" The two walked towards one another and hugged briefly. "Wow, I haven't seen you in forever." She quirked an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be pitching or something?" Jim Munson grinned at her. He began signing as his speech had never been that well developed and he much preferred signing. "Whoa, whoa, my signing is incredibly rusty, Munsie, I think we're going to need a translator." Back when Dominic and Jim and been close friends in the minors, Kaile had learned some ASL from both of them when she visited Dom. Occasionally Dominic would use her as someone to practice with when he was in New York during the off season, but he hadn't spent an off season in New York since making it to the majors.
Jim rolled his eyes and pointed to his left before beginning to sign again. "That's what Doug is here for," a man said, translating for Jim. "That would be me by the way, Doug Sinclair," the man introduced himself, holding out his hand for Kaile to shake.
"Nice to meet you," she replied. Turning slightly she motioned JD over. "This is my colleague, Detective John Deveraux." She waited for Sinclair to finish translating that and for Jim to focus on her lips again. "So, you've got a translator these days, huh? Benefits of the big bucks." It sounded harsh, but Kaile had learned early after meeting Jim Munson that that was how he liked it. Harsh to him was ten times better than patronizing in any way.
"Yeah, I picked Doug out to match my car," Sinclair translated faithfully, though rolling his eyes at the comment. Obviously the man was used to statements like that.
"So, what are you doing here?" Kaile asked him.
Jim raised an eyebrow. "Selling insurance." Kaile couldn't help but laugh, she had pretty much walked into that one. "Actually," Jim continued through Doug, "I run a small baseball clinic for deaf kids out of here a couple times a month. We go to a nearby baseball diamond, but we meet here." His face got even more serious. "But I'm guessing you didn't come here to discuss my volunteering activities. I heard about Casey Walker's death." He paused for a moment, seemingly distressed.
"Did you know her?" Kaile asked gently.
"Yes. Rather well, in fact. I met her here at the center not long after I signed with the Yankees. We broke up several months ago, but we had dated for about a year." Jim pulled out his wallet and flipped to a picture of him and their first victim.
"I'm so sorry, Jim," Kaile told him. She wondered if he had put the picture back in his wallet to remember her after her death, or if he hadn't been able to bring himself to take out the picture when their relationship broke up.
"Have you found out who…hurt her?" Jim asked after putting away his wallet, his fingers stumbling over what to say had happened to her, obviously struggling with the fact that she had been murdered.
"Unfortunately, no. Detective Deveraux and his partner are working on it. I actually came here today to see if anyone recognized another victim who was found yesterday." She handed over the picture and almost immediately there was a stunned reaction from Jim. She could see the picture trembling in his hands. Tapping the picture to get his attention, she asked him what she already knew. "Did you know her too, Jim?"
He nodded before abruptly handing the picture back to Kaile. "Her name is…was…Abigail Jones." Jim wiped a tear away from his eyes before he continued signing. "What happened to her?"
"How did you know her, Jim?" The answer she got was going to take this investigation in a whole new direction.
"We dated for a couple of months right after I broke up with Casey. She had just broken up with someone too and we eventually realized that we were both on the rebound and it wouldn't work, but we stayed friends." He looked back and forth between the faces of the two detectives. "You don't think I'm connected to all of this, do you?"
That was exactly what Kaile was afraid of.
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Sheldon Hawkes shuffled papers around his desk. Some days he felt that was all he did. Maybe he would do an autopsy today, or supervise one of the younger MEs. He knew they wouldn't like having him look over their shoulders, but he didn't much care. He just wanted to get out of his office. Or maybe he could call Kaile and find out whether she had identified that victim yet…
The phone on his desk rang and he picked it up without looking at the caller ID. "Hawkes."
"Hey, Uncle Sheldon."
"Dominic! To what do I owe this pleasant surprise?" Hawkes inquired, settling back into his chair, gladly leaving his tedious paperwork.
Dom chuckled. "Getting tired of paperwork again?"
"You know it." It wasn't exactly a secret that Hawkes didn't do well with extended amounts of paperwork. He liked getting his hands dirty and while he hadn't minded paperwork for most of his professional career, when the forms and red tape had started taking up more time than actual casework, he hadn't kept his annoyance quiet.
"Well, I was just calling to find out whether you guys knew for sure that Aunt Tessa was going to get tickets to the All Star game for you guys, or whether you needed me to handle it. It's better to let my agent know sooner rather than later about this kind of thing so he can finagle them easier."
"Tessa managed four tickets. Shayna said she would stop by and see you while you were in town, but she's too swamped to go to the game itself and worry about being presentable to her mother's political connections and Will said he didn't think he could get the time away from his internship, so it will just be me, Tess, Carla and whichever friend she decides to bring. We told her she could bring her boyfriend and she's thinking about it, but he hasn't met the full family yet and I think Carla's afraid you all will scare the poor boy off."
"We'll only scare him off if it's necessary," Dominic protested.
"Like with that boy on Memorial Day a few years back," Sheldon shot back.
"Hey, now, Shayna called us over there. Besides, he wasn't a boyfriend."
"I know, I know, I'm just teasing," Sheldon assured him. It was a funny family story now, but he was grateful Shayna's cousins had been there to back her up that day. "So, let me guess, Will came to you begging for tickets?"
Dominic laughed. "Should I even ask how you knew that?"
"I told you weeks ago that you didn't have to worry about getting tickets for anyone in my family, but here you are asking anyway. I had a hunch that Will had changed his mind and didn't want to admit it to his mother and me."
"Well, to be fair it was more like his new girlfriend's mind changed," Dominic told him. "Evidently when Will told her he could get tickets to the All Star game she thought they would be in the nosebleeds and she figured it would be better to watch it on TV. Then she finds out he's got a cousin in the game and that his mom has connections and suddenly she wants to go."
Sheldon snorted. "Even more reason why Will didn't want to ask us for tickets now, considering we didn't even know he had a girlfriend."
"Yeah, well, don't let on that I spilled the beans."
"Little hard there, Dominic, considering you're the only other member of the family out in Chicago."
His nephew mock sighed. "Yeah, well, then I guess I should get him those tickets as an apology, huh?"
"Let me talk to Tess first and see if she can get two more tickets. She might have to cash in a few favors, but it would be nice if Will could, you know, actually sit with his family."
"You might want him to sit with the rest of the family. Kaile and the twins will set this girl straight if she's just hanging on to Will now because of his connections."
Hawkes shook his head. The second generation of their crazy family was even more protective of each other than the first generation had been, something that he wouldn't have thought possible. "You know, maybe Will needs to figure that out himself."
"But where's the fun in that?" Dom countered.
Sheldon just dropped that and moved on to a slightly different topic. "So, is it confirmed that everyone else is going to be able to make it? I've been swamped lately and haven't really been able to talk about anything but work with your parents and uncles."
"Mom, Dad, Ana and Jack and Ella are confirmed and evidently Ella is bringing Detective Deveraux, though I've been strictly told to not make a big deal about that. Devon can't make it this year. Uncle Mac and Uncle Don are tentative, but I've got tickets set aside for them if things don't conspire to keep them away."
"And Kaile?" Sheldon asked, pointedly asking about the one family member Dominic had left out.
A sigh came over the phone. "I don't know, Uncle Sheldon. I'm kind of on shaky ground with her lately." Hawkes was a little surprised by the admission, but he supposed he was the easiest member of the family for Dominic to really talk about it with.
"Have you talked to her?" He had found that talking solved most perceived problems.
"Kind of. I need to talk to her face to face, but I'm not going to be in town until the All Star game and even then things will be so crazy I don't know if I'll get any time to talk to her alone."
"Why don't you set up a web cam conference with her then?" Hawkes suggested. "It's not as great as being here in person, but it's better than nothing."
"I don't think she'll agree to it. She was the one that hung up on me the last time we talked."
Hawkes racked his brain. "Well, you could always ambush her. Use your sisters if you have to."
The other side of the line was quiet as Dominic seemed to roll the idea around in his head. "She'll hate it, but it just might work. The twins won't want to ambush Kaile, but Ella at least owes me for the ticket I got for her pseudo-boyfriend." He paused again. "I just might try that. Thanks, Uncle Sheldon."
"No problem. You got me out of doing paperwork for awhile, so it was the least I could do."
Dominic chuckled. "Well, unfortunately I can't keep you any longer, I've got to get ready to leave for the ballpark."
"Okay, good luck at the game. Hit a homer or something."
"Or something," Dominic promised. "Talk to ya later."
"Bye, Dom." Sheldon set down his phone and stared towards his office door without really seeing it. He really hoped Kaile and Dominic managed to work things out. The family had just started to really recover from Ella's shooting and didn't need any more turmoil right now.