Background, Chapter 5

Sorry for not updating ;x I haven't gotten many reviews though, so I haven't had much motivation. But I'm not the type of writer to quit just b/c I don't get a certain number...But I WOULD appreciate it :P

The next morning, Elliot arrived at the station around eight AM. He had taken Elizabeth and Dickie back home already. Olivia was already there, talking to Cragen.

"Where's Keagan?" Elliot asked immidiately.

Olivia nodded her head towards a smaller interview room, where Elliot could see Keagan eating breakfast. "He is pretty adamant about his parents not coming to get him, or anything," Olivia said worriedly. "There's something going on in that home. He refused to go home last night, and threatened to run away again..."

"Elliot, we can't just keep him him because he's a little emotionally messed up. He has to go back home. We have no reason to keep him here," Cragen pointed out.

"Just let us talk to him, please, captain. Maybe it'll give us some clues to where Kayla's been the past few months, and what happened."

Cragen silently fumed for a few moments, staring at the little boy. "You and Liv can go in there and interview him. Do not cross any lines, and I mean it. If he gets agitated, you end it, no questions asked. Understand?" Elliot nodded.

Elliot and Olivia went to the room where Keagan was still slowly eating and sipping a cup of juice. "Hey, Keagan," Olivia said, taking a seat next to Elliot and across from Keagan.

"Hi, Elliot..." Keagan said, looking questioningly at Olivia. "My name's Olivia. I'm Elliot's partner. Did you get enough to eat?" She asked when Keagan was finished.

Keagan grinned sheepishly and nodded. "I'm not suppose to eat that much, I'll get fat like Kayla," he said softly. "Keagan, you eat as much as you want," Olivia said, feeling angry for the kids in the family. The ones left, anyway.

"I'm full, really! Um, are my parents coming?" Keagan asked.

"They're suppose to be coming around nine to-to do some stuff," Elliot said slowly, not wanting to mention Kayla just yet.

"They won't be here to pick me up, or identify Kayla, so don't get your hopes up," he said matter-of-factly. He spoke more like a sixteen or seventeen-year-old rather than a twelve-year-old.

"You said you wanted to talk about some stuff, Keagan. But we don't want to push you," Elliot reminded him.

"No, I want to. Okay, my mom never wanted kids. My dad did. My dad came from a family with six kids and my mom was an only child, so she's use to being the main focus. But they ended up, obviously, having five of us. My mom has always made it very clear that she never wanted us, especially the girls. She could somewhat still be the star in the middle of a bunch of guys, but then she had Kayla and Kacey, too. She was embarassed by Kayla. Kayla's always been fat. Every day my mom called her names, told her to stop eating. And Kacey, she just basically ignored. She hated that Kayla was overweight and she hated that Kacey was tiny and pretty. She put Kacey in dance...I know this sounds bad, but I think she hoped that Kayla would wreck and something would happen to both of them. Kayla begged her not to make her drive, she knew she wasn't ready, but mom always made her. Always.

After Kacey died...My mom acted happy. She went around and got all Kacey's stuff and just sold it. She didn't let us grieve openly, we couldn't cry. My dad wandered around in a daze. I saw him hiding some of her stuff one day, I guess to have some momentos left over. Then Kayla started coming home really late, this was when we still lived in our apartment. She was drunk. My dad was begging her to quit, to come around, to quit coming home like that or mom was going to do something. So she did. My mom made me pack Kayla some clothes. I-I knew what Kayla liked...We were really close...So I put some of her stuff in there, too, like her journal and notes and pictures." Keagan stopped for a second, his eyes filled with tears.

"I was still awake when Kayla came home that night. My mom just put her stuff in the hallway and told her to never come back. That she killed her daughter. Kayla just stared, at my dad, begging him with her eyes, saying she was sorry, that she told them she couldn't drive-but my mom just slammed the door in her face. Then we moved. I haven't seen Kayla in a month. She would sometimes rush from the high school to catch me walking home from school and we would talk. She'd ask me how my brothers were doing, how dad was. SHe'd always make sure I knew that she didn't kill Kacey. That's all I know."

"Keagan, this is important, did she ever say something about anyone mistreating her? Did your parents ever hit her? Did she tell you who she was with? Did-" Elliot began firing off questions but Olivia touched his arm and mouthed 'slow down'.

"She had bruises on her sometimes. I'd ask and she'd just say they were from just being around. My parents never hit her. I mean, sometimes my mom would slap her, but it was never constantly or beatings or anything, especially not my dad. I know he probably didn't seem like it yesterday but he loved Kayla. And Kacey. I asked her who she was staying with one day and she said that she was in between places, sometimes she stayed with friends, sometimes with this teacher and sometimes...with no one..." Keagan answered, his voice cracking.

Cragen entered the room. "Keagan, your grandma is here to pick you up," he said, side stepping so the woman could enter. She rushed to Keagan, hugging him tightly. "Oh, no, Keagan, how could your mother do this to Kayla...To you...Oh, my poor babies," she cried. "I told that woman that I would take care of Kayla, of any of the kids, but she told me to mind my own business, then when I came to visit at the apartment, they were packing up and she told me that Kayla had gone off to some boarding school! I didn't believe her, but I didn't know what to do...She left without her child, and now my other granddaughter is dead," the old woman sobbed, talking more to herself than the detectives.

"This is what she does," she said, sweeping her hand across the police station, "causes death and destruction. I've been here twice in a year to identify dead children, she made me identify Kacey and now Kayla, too. She shouldn't have had kids. Don't let her do anything else!" The lady yelled, taking Keagan's hand as she walked out.

"That was the paternal grandmother. We were talking, she said a lot of what Keagan said. The mother was never very interested in their lives. She showed emotion at the funeral when it was socially acceptable to, but that very night she was clearing Kacey's stuff to make more room."

"As horrible as this woman is, she didn't kill Kayla," Olivia said. "We need to find out who Kayla has been with the past couple of months rather than the people she hasn't lived with or seen."

"Elliot, Olivia, go to the school, ask to see the friends that the mother mentioned. Look through the journal that Keagan mentioned. She had to have mentioned something to somebody-or something."

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w00t long chapter :D Enjoy,