Back to the Beginning
Dani and Charlie looked at each other and then back at the other two detectives. How did they know who the victim was without any ID? Charlie gave the two detectives another smile and spoke.
"So…who is our dead guy?" he asked, trying to be polite.
"His name is Frances Vaughn," Rhonda answered. Her partner opened up the decedent wallet to search it.
"There's no ID. Coroner already looked," Dani informed him.
"I wasn't looking for his ID," the other detective answered.
"Is he in there, Dave?" Rhonda asked and Dave shook his head.
"Looking for someone else in a dead man's wallet?" Charlie asked. Dani cringed a little at Charlie's bizarre question.
"Look, why don't you come back to homicide and explain this to us," Dani suggested just as the coroner began zipping up the body bag.
"I'll send over the results of the autopsy as soon as it's complete," he said.
"Check finger print records," Dani said.
"Of course," he stated and climbed into the ambulance.
"It's going to confirm he is Frances Vaughn," Dave said gruffly.
Dani didn't say anything. Instead the two sets of cops went their separate ways. Dani grabbed the keys from Charlie and got in the driver side.
"Should you be driving right now?" Charlie asked.
"Why shouldn't I?" she snapped back.
"Well, Reese. You seem a little…angry. And angry people aren't always the best people behind the wheel," Charlie said.
"If that's some lame attempt at an alcoholic metaphor I'm going to hit you," Dani said.
"No…no metaphor," Charlie said. With that, Dani sped off down the street. Rhonda and Dave followed in the general direction. Rhonda ran a hand through her curly locks and sighed.
"Look…maybe it's a good thing that we are letting them know what's going on. The sooner we find the kid, the sooner we can get him home," Dave suggested.
"This is our case, Dave. I thought we agreed to keep it that," Rhonda grumbled.
"All I'm saying is more manpower won't hurt," Dave replied and their car fell silent. Both cars arrived at the precinct around the same time. Dani and Charlie walked up to the front doors and inside. Rhonda and Dave followed at a distance. Inter-division cooperation was not a real strong point with the LAPD. Then again, were most cops in different divisions thrilled to work with each other?
As they entered the squad room, Rhonda and Dave felt all eyes on them. They were the odd kids out and they knew it. They caught Charlie's hand waving them towards and open door. All four detectives sat down across from Lieutenant Davis.
"One of you please explain why I'm looking at two sex crimes cops in my precinct," Karen said.
"Apparently our dead body is a suspect in their case," Dani answered.
"Have them fill you in on the victim's history and move on," Karen said.
"Maybe…it would be easier if we worked together," Charlie suggested. Rhonda and Dani cringed at his suggestion.
"No…I think we can work two separate investigations," Rhonda said but Karen shook her head.
"Fine. Work it together. But you report to me first," she said and dismissed them. Both Dani and Rhonda pulled their partners aside.
"What are you doing?" Dani hissed.
"They're hiding something. I want to know what," Charlie answered with a shrug and sat down at his desk. Rhonda asked much the same question of her partner.
"Like I said…more manpower," Dave whispered.
"So…fill us in on our friend Frances," Dani said, pulling out a notepad and pen. Rhonda and Dave hared a look before pulling up chairs.
"He's had a couple of solicitation charges…mostly soliciting minors. Collared him on possession of child porn on his computer. He was recently paroled," Dave answered.
"Ok…well have you talked to his PO? Has he missed any appointments?" Dani pressed.
"If I were running a kid porn ring…I think I'd keep appointments with my parole officer," Charlie interjected.
"Do you have one of those, Crews?" Rhonda asked.
"No…but I hear they're nice people," Charlie replied coolly.
"So what made you pin Frances as your lead suspect?" Dani asked.
"Past behavior," Dave answered.
"You said something at the scene about a child abduction?" Charlie interrupted again. Dave and Rhonda shared a nervous glance and neither said a word.
"Look…if we're going to work this together, you've got to be straight with us. Is there a child missing?" Dani said firmly. She hated being yanked around like this.
"A little boy named Noah Larson. He's six years old. Went missing from a playground four days ago," Rhonda said through pursed lips.
"A couple witnesses put a man in his mid to late thirties on the playground around the time Noah went missing," Dave added after a minute of silence.
"I don't know. Soliciting minors to kidnapping seems a bit of a stretch," Charlie admitted.
"We were sure he was our guy," Dave grumbled.
"Did you search his house?" Charlie asked.
"We were working on a warrant," Rhonda said hastily.
"Well you've called the Feds in right?" Dani probed.
"He hasn't left the state," Rhonda replied. There was no way she was going to let Dani take this investigation away from her. This was her case and she was going to solve it without help from the Feds.
"That doesn't matter. Any kidnapping case is automatically Federal jurisdiction. Or did you sleep through that part of procedures at the Academy," Dani spat.
"I know all about jurisdiction, Reese. I don't need you to tell me how to do my job," Rhonda spat back.
"Well apparently someone has to because obviously your partner here can't," Dani groaned and picked up the phone.
"What are you doing?" Rhonda rasped.
"Doing what you should have done at the start of this investigation. Calling the Feds," Dani said. Charlie just sat at his desk and watched the interaction. He hadn't dealt with a kidnapping in a long time. This was going to be interesting.