Episode 1 - The Beginning

Part 2


Stephen parked his car next to the crime scene tape blocking the alleyway, and got out of his car. Allen who was in the passenger seat got out as well. The air was freezing cold, biting into his exposed skin. His breath exhaled into a misty fog, and the sky showed a possibility of snow. Allen rubbed his hands together as they ducked underneath the tape. "God its cold out here," he shivered as the two of them walked past the nosy passerby's that stood behind the tape trying to get a glimpse of what was happening.

A uniformed officer approached them, "Detective Holder," he greeted with a nod, "Allen."

His face looked a little grim, and perhaps debatably sickened which was unusual. With all the stuff they saw, it really took a lot for them to be really disturbed by something. They've all built up a tolerance against the brutal stuff people do to themselves and each other. Holder nodded at him, "So what d'ya got?" he asked.

The guy shook his head gravely. "It's not pretty," that being the first thing said didn't hold much promises for a clean killing. That usually meant that the body was pretty brutalized. The two detectives were lead over to a wooden crate, where a trace of blood could be seen leaking through the unsealed cracks. "Coroner's on route. Female, early teens. So far she's Jane Doe."

He wasn't kidding. It certainly was not a pretty site. The young girl had been crammed into the crate, swimming in what was probably her own blood. He could make out her hair color as dirty blonde though a small patch at the top of her head that wasn't splattered red with blood and a rag was stuffed into her mouth. Allen could only look at her for a moment before walking away, he must have been still getting used to this part of the job. "Who found her?" Stephen asked finally tearing his eyes away from the brutalized body.

"She's over there still being questioned," the officer motioned over to where one of the cop cars was parked. Stephen could make out a young woman who was either in her late teens or early twenties, sitting in the back seat of the car with the door open talking with Duncan. "Just to warn you, she's a real religious nut," he added before walking off.

Stephen made eye contact with Allen, the two of them sharing a silent discussion on who was going to go talk to her. "I got this covered, you can talk with her," Allen spoke up. Of course he would try and avoid talking with anyone who might cause a religious debate. Stephen didn't mind however, he was pretty open to most types of religion. Just as long as she wasn't Mormon, that was pushing it.

He started toward the car, ducking back underneath the yellow crime scene tape and approaching her. The young woman was obviously shaken. Her face was sheet white, and Stephen could see a trace of dried tears on her cheeks. It was debatable whether she was shaking from the shock of it all, or the freezing temperature of the air. He nodded at Duncan, signaling to leave them alone for a moment. Duncan nodded his understanding and left almost looking relieved. "I'm Detective Holder," Stephen greeted, not seeing the need to show her his badge.

The young woman looked up at with, with gray eyes fogged with fear and confusion. "H-Hi," she greeted in a weak voice.

"Could I get your name?"

The woman looked away from him, staring off in the distance as if she was trying to remember what her name was. "Um… Oh a- Lavender Hawthorn."

Stephen nodded. What was a nice young woman like her doing in an alleyway, in the first place? "Mind telling me what happened again?"

Lavender's eyes clouded over with a haunted look. She took a deep breath before speaking. "When I came back here, I noticed the blood that was leaking out of the crate. When I looked inside, I… I found her…" she trailed off face turning a shade of green. Stephen nodded. That was certainly vague; she didn't even explain what she was doing back here. It must have shown on his face that he was suspicious of her because she continued. "I didn't know she was here."

"So what where you doing in an alleyway in the first place?" Stephen couldn't hide the accusation in his voice.

She went into the defense. "I was- I was throwing something away…" she deflated like a balloon, obviously realizing how stupid that really sounded. Her voice became panicked, "I swear I didn't know she was here. I think that God led me to her." Here comes the religious nut part of her. Stephen was wondering when he was going to find out why they were referring her as a religious nut. "I was chasing after a piece of trash, which blew into the alleyway. It stopped right in front of the crate which is why I noticed the blood."

"You chased a piece of trash into an alleyway, just to throw it away?" Stephen asked with raised eyebrows. The story sounded like a lame cover up.

Lavender let out a breath misting the cold air. "I… I was trying not to litter…"

Seriously? She couldn't come up with a better story. Even if it really was the truth, wasn't she smart enough to realize that the story sounded suspicious. She would have been better off making up another story that made more sense. "We need you to fill out a statement," he told her, and she nodded silently.

"Holder!" Allen called out to him. Stephen nodded at Lavender trying not to look at her too suspiciously, then headed back to where his partner was still working the crime scene. The Coroner had arrived while he was talking with Lavender, and the dead girl was in the process of being transferred to the morgue. He stared at the girls bloody face disappearing as they zipped up the body bag, the tough exterior he was still building up, was starting to fail. Who would do this to anyone let alone a girl so young?

Allen approached him, and Stephen noticed that he was holding some sort of card that was sealed in an evidence bag. "We found a student ID card," Allen told him gravely. "Stephanie Tanner…"


Danny tried not to think about all the 'what if' idea's that were swirling around in his head. Yes Stephanie never came home from school, and wasn't answering her cell phone… But that didn't mean something was wrong. She's fourteen years old, starting up in the rebellious high school years. She and Gia were probably at the mall or something. He dialed Gia's cell phone number and listened to it ring a couple times. Relief came over him when she answered; if they were together at least they weren't in trouble. If they were in trouble it was nothing compared to the trouble Stephanie would be in when she got home. "Hi Gia, this is Danny Tanner."

"I know Mr. Tanner, I recognized the number," Gia replied on the other end. Going by her voice she might as well should have said 'no duh.'

"Is Stephanie with you right now?" he asked and a silence fell on the other end. It lasted so long that Danny thought they might have been cut off. "Hello? You still there?"

"Um… No she's not with me," she finally replied then asked with a bit of hesitance. "Is she not at home?"

Danny didn't like how she asked that question. She almost sounded worried as well, did she know something? Did Stephanie say something at school today? "She's not. Did she say anything to do you today?"

"…No. But she didn't meet up at our lockers after school today. So I thought that she went home early."

A sigh escaped Danny's lips. It sounded like Stephanie decided to ditch school today. But a voice in the back of his head reminded him that you never ditch school by yourself. So if it wasn't Gia, who was she ditching with? "Ok, thanks," he hung up the phone and looked over at his brother in law Jesse, who was in the process of emptying groceries out of a bag. "Gia hasn't seen her… I swear I'm going to ground her for life," he sighed worriedly.

Jesse pulled a head of lettuce out of the bag and opened the refrigerator. "Danny relax, you can kill her when she gets home," he told him not looking worried at all, and placed the lettuce in the bottom drawer. "Any minute now she's going to walk through that door, and be able to explain where she's been all day." As if on cue the doorbell rang. Jesse pointed at the door that lead into the front room "That's probably her now."

"Why would she ring the doorbell?" Danny asked as he walked into the front room, but secretly hoped that Jesse was correct. He'd be happy to find Stephanie with the police just as long as he knew she was ok. Jesse followed him. Danny's best friend Joey was already in there sitting on the couch watching Yogi Bear with his other daughter Michelle and Jesse's twin boys Nicky and Alex. Danny opened the front door where a man stood wearing jeans, and a gray hoodie sweatshirt with a jacket over it. "Are you Daniel Tanner?" he asked.

Danny was dismayed that it wasn't Stephanie. It was probably some sort of salesman that didn't know you needed to dress in a suit to be taken seriously. "Yes may I help you?"

The man pulled a long chain out from under his shirt revealing a badge, which meant that his first assumption was very wrong. It was a good thing he didn't follow his first instinct on dealing with salesmen, by telling them to get lost and slamming the door in there face. "I'm Detective Holder form the Seattle PD. May I come in?" Danny felt his stomach drop. This could not been good, police coming to your house for any reason was never good news. However he stood aside and allowed the detective to come into the house. Detective Holder looked around at everyone in the room; everyone's attention was now on them. "It would be better if we talked in privet; is Mrs. Tanner around?" he asked.

Danny felt a lump suddenly form in his throat. Even after all this time it still hurt to talk about Pam, and the way this man brings her up so casually made his anger flare up in the slightest. He held back a snappy retort and replied, "N-No- My wife… she died 9 years ago."

"Um… guys lets go into the kitchen and start dinner," Joey stood up and motioned for Michelle and the boys the follow him.

"It looks like Stephanie's in trouble," Michelle commented as she walked into the kitchen.

Considering that his middle daughter was currently MIA, unless it involved D.J. Michelle was probably correct. Danny looked back at Detective Holder, "Is this about Stephanie?" he asked dreading the answer.

Detective Holder shifted uncomfortably. "It is…" he replied looking grave.


Jesse Katsopolis pulled a rump roast out of the refrigerator. He believed this is what Danny was planning on having for dinner…? If it wasn't, then his brother in law had enough to deal with and wouldn't care too much at this point. The problem was, he didn't know how to cook a roast, and it was Danny that usually cooked it. He glanced over at Joey, who was organizing Michelle and the boys in setting the table. That guy wouldn't know how to make a roast any more then he could.

Luckily help was coming down the stairs. "Hey Beck, come help me with this roast," he called to his wife Becky.

Just as Becky reached the bottom step Nicky came running over to greet her. "Where's Danny? Doesn't he usually cook the roast?" she asked squatting down to give the boy a hug.

Jesse unconsciously glanced back at the door leading into the front room, sighing in obvious distress. He turned back to look at Becky, "Well… he's got his hands full in the other room," Jesse was tempted to go back into the front room and find out what was going on. Danny had been in there with the cop for almost ten minutes now. He had only just unwrapped the roast when Danny walked into the kitchen. Jesse knew at once that something was horribly wrong.

Danny's face was white; he stared out vacantly looking shell shocked. Every eye in the room was looking at him. "Danny what's wrong?" Becky asked alarmed, taking a step toward him..

"Did something happen?" Joey added looking just as alarmed.

"What did he say?" Jesse asked approaching the older man and grabbing his arm. He gave Danny a little shake when it looked like he was too much of a shock to answer. "Danny?"

Danny shook his head a little coming back down to earth. "N-Nothing," he replied unsuccessful at making them all believe it was true. "I… I have to go out," he continued grabbing the car keys from his pants pocket and hastily walked out of the kitchen.

Everyone else in the room started calling out questions to him at the same time but Jesse was the only one who followed Danny into the front room. The cop was no longer there, he must have left before Danny came into the kitchen. He must have told him something about Stephanie. He grabbed Danny's arm to stop him as Danny strode toward the front door. "Danny wait?" Jesse said to him. They both stood in the middle of the front room. "Is Stephanie all right?"

Danny hesitated big time. Jesse could see his eyes cloud over with grief, something he hadn't seen in years. In fact the last time he saw this happen was when he got the news that Pamela died, which wasn't a good sign. Danny opened his mouth but no words came out, it took him four or five attempts to produce words. "S… Steph- The police found Stephanie's body…"


Lavender parked her car in front of her home, but made no attempts to get out of the car. The rain was falling heavily, seeming to match her mood. She stared blankly at the rain spattered window, for God only knows how long. When the rain started to let up, Lavender pulled the keys out of the ignition, grabbed her purse and got out of the car. She slung the strap of her purse over her shoulder while walking toward the front door of her house.

At least the only person who seemed to be home was her brother Eddie. All other cars were gone except for his, out of everyone in her family Eddie was the one person she was going to miss. The two of them got along better then everyone else by far. Lavender unlocked the front door and stepped inside, sighing with relief as the change in temperature. The air outside was freezing. She closed the door behind her, reaching backward until her fingers felt the cool lock of the door, and then turned it into the locked position.

Rubbing her hands together, she started up the steps and met her brother at the top of the steps. He had just exited his bed room, looking like he had just showered going by his wet hair and faint smell of soap. The two exchanged soft smiles with each other, "Hi Lav, I was just about to go get something for dinner. Did you want anything?" he asked.

Her stomach lurched at the thought of food, as her stomach already felt queasy from the days events. But she still managed to smile at him, "No thanks Eddie. I have some stuff I need to get done, but I'll eat later."

The two of them passed each other, going there separate ways. Lavender closed the door of her bedroom and sat on the bed. It felt like there were snakes squirming in her stomach, so she took deep breaths in order to keep it under control. She heard Eddie leave the house, the front door opening and closing, then the sound of his junkie old car groaning to life. The sound of his car driving off got softer and softer until all she could hear were the pitter patter of rain on the roof. This was when she lost the batter with her stomach. Lavender suddenly jumped to her feet, ran into the bathroom and vomited into the toilet.


DJ Tanner had come home from her college classes that day to find the house in an air of deep anxiety. Apparently Stephanie had gone missing that day, and after the police came by the house her dad left and hasn't been seen since. She had gotten this information from Joey and Aunt Becky, and they think that Uncle Jesse knew more then them. She figured they were right going from the way he had barely spoken since she got home.

Right now the family was all sitting around the dinner table eating. DJ kept exchanging anxiously glances with Joey and Aunt Becky. The three of them, and Uncle Jesse all didn't seem to have much of an appetite, in fact out of the four of them only Joey was eating and he was only taking the occasional bite. Aunt Becky and Joey looked nervous and worried, however Uncle Jesse was staring blankly off into space as if he were completely lost in his own thoughts. Michelle, Nicky, and Alex were the only ones that looked relaxed and were eating normally. "Uncle Jesse," DJ whispered over at him. "What's wrong?"

Uncle Jesse just shook his head slightly, and then nodded his head toward Michelle, and the boys who were obliviously eating their food. "Daddy why you not eating?" Alex suddenly asked breaking the tense silence.

Uncle Jesse shifted uncomfortably in his chair, "Just not hungry son," he replied quickly. Careful not to make complete contact with his son.

This made Michelle notice for the first time the tenseness in the air. She looked curiously around at everyone's worried faces, and opened her mouth to ask a question but Joey beat her too it. "So does anyone want dessert?"

"I do!" both Nicky and Alex called out at the same time, raising their hands in the air.

Joey got up from the table, and grabbed ice-cream from the refrigerator. "Can I have Steph's dessert since she's not here?" Michelle asked.

"No Michelle, one bowl is enough," Uncle Jesse replied a little harshly making Michelle look down at her plate apologizing. DJ didn't know exactly what had happened but she knew it had something to do with Stephanie and it wasn't good. Michelle slowly fiddled with her napkin in her hands, and then asked with a little hesitancy. "When are dad and Steph going to be back?"

"Later," Joey answered quickly obviously trying to stop Uncle Jesse from snapping at her again. He pulled out bowls from a cupboard, and some spoons from a drawer.

The house phone rang while Joey was scooping out ice-cream into three bowls, making Uncle Jesse jump to his feet to answer it. "Its Danny," he announced after looking at the caller ID then pressed the talk button and put the phone to his ear. "Danny?" Another tense silence fell into the room while DJ's dad spoke; they were all waiting for information. Even Joey paused in the middle of tossing a scoop of ice-cream into Nicky's bowl. The silence seemed to have lasted for hours but at last Uncle Jesse spoke again. "O-Ok, ok we'll be there as soon as we can," he hung up the phone and turned to the table. "D'J can you watch Michelle and the boys?"

This wasn't a good sign. Resisting the urge to ask questions DJ nodded her head. "We'll be back soon," Uncle Jesse continued and motioned for Joey to follow him. "Beck, Joey come on. I'll explain on the way."


Sarah sat at the kitchen table in her apartment, reading Savanna's case file which lay open on table. A half eaten piece of pizza lay completely forgotten next to her while she read the file like it was the most fascinating thing she had never seen in her life. Something about this case seemed familiar to her, and she couldn't figure out what it was. Perhaps it was the fact that the last time she worked on a case that was the murder of a prostitute… it didn't work out very well. But there was no connections between the two cases as all, they weren't even killed the same way.

Jack was on the other room, sipping on his coca-cola while flipping through channels seeming to have a hard time finding something interesting to watch. She had gotten used to him doing this, and trained her mind to phase out the noise. But a single name being called out got her attention. "Brandon Allborne."

Her head shot up to look at what was on the television. Jack had the channel 6 news on at the moment, but before she had a chance to find out what they were saying about Allborne her son had flipped the channel again.

"Jack turn that back," she ordered getting to her feet and walking into the room to get a better look at the television.

He sighed with annoyance but did as she said. The TV screen showed a video of City Hall probably taken from a helicopter. The news reporter was talking about something Mayor Richmond had said but that wasn't what Sarah was interested in. She was reading the headline that scrolled around the bottom of the screen. "City Council Board member Brandon Allborne found dead in his home. Presumed suicide."

Walking back into the kitchen, Sarah reached out and pulled Savanna's open case file toward her, and started flipping pages. She kept flipping pages until she found the one was looking for, making sure that she had it right. Yes she did. Brandon Allborne was the last known client she had before her death. That couldn't be just a coincidence…


"So, father confirmed her identity. Stephanie left for school that morning and never came home. We'll have to go to the school tomorrow and find out if she was there at all today." Stephen sat at his desk, at the Seattle police department rehashing everything he learned to Allen. He reached up to massage his eyes which were itching with tiredness. It had been a very long day.

Allen sat in a chair across from him, leaning back with his feet propped up on the desk munching on a half eaten burrito without much enthusiasm. It seemed that seeing that poor girl in the crate had zapped him of much of his appetite. And Stephen couldn't totally blame him, it made him feel nauseous every time he pictured her brutalized body. When he had to show Mr. Tanner the body, he was carful not to show too much. Basically only showed him her head. "What about dad's alibi?" he asked with his mouth full of food. He swallowed before continuing, "Is he cleared as a suspect?"

"Yeah…" Stephen replied exhaustedly, suppressing a yawn. God was he tried, when was the last time he got a full nights sleep. His mind was getting less and less on the case, and more and more on his bed. "He's the host on some talk show or whatever. Was there all morning, and he went home with his co-host Rebecca Donaldson afterwards."

"He banging his co-host?" Allen asked with a knowing smirk.

Stephen cracked a smile. Sometimes it was scary how similar he and Allen were, the guy reminded him of a little brother at times. "You'd think so, wouldn't you? But naw, she's married to his brother in law and they all live in the same house. Tomorrow a unit going to go over there and search our girls room."

Allen took another bite of his burrito, and chewed it slowly. "Well…" he said after swallowing. "There was nothing else at the crime scene. What about our little saint? Was her alibi cleared?"

"Not yet. We're going to have a hard time completely clearing her. She was running errands all morning at various stores went home around 10am and didn't leave again until 3pm. She says her brother Edward should be able to confirm when she came home. They didn't see each other when she left again, but he was still home and she's assuming that he heard her leave."

"That's another thing we need to do tomorrow," Allen said with a sigh. Stephen couldn't blame him; the list of to-do's to do tomorrow was ever growing. Hopefully this case won't turn out to be as complex as his last case; or worse yet the Rosie Larsen case. It was time to go catch some Z's.


Episode Ending

Gia Mahan opened the top drawer of her dresser, and pulled a slip of paper that was hidden up on the underside of the desk. She looked at the front of it for a moment before shoving it into her backpack. Anxiety consumed her, she knew that something was off. What had happened to Stephanie? She had never just disappeared from a class before, and had never once not met her at the lockers without informing her first. Gia zipped up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. She was just heading out of her bedroom when a buzzing from her pocket stopped her. She grabbed her phone and looked at it.

DJ sat on the couch in the front room. Something was terribly wrong here, Stephanie was missing, and her dad had been gone for hours, after a phone call everyone else suddenly left. She let out an anxious breath, wringing her hands together. "Please dear God let everything be ok…" she whispered.

Stephen was just packing up everything for the night. He was more then a little ready to fall into his bed and sleep for a week. The door to his office suddenly slammed open, and Linden stood there looking like she was really shaken by something. "Have you watched the news?" she asked without ceremony. If his mind hadn't felt so sleep deprived at the moment he might have been able figure out what she was talking about. But all he could do was stare at her with a confused look. "Brandon Allborne, Savanna's last client. He committed suicide today." Wow… that was certainly unexpected.

Danny sat in the darkness of his car, with the rain pouring down around him. His mind was in shock, he couldn't get the image of his little girls face pale and lifeless out of his mind. He couldn't believe this had happened, he wouldn't believe it, he didn't know how to believe it. He had already lost his wife… how could be survive going through this again?


Character ages

Jessie Katsopolis – 34

Joey Gladstone – 38

Michelle Tanner – 10

Nicky Katsopolis – 5

Alex Katsopolis – 5

DJ Tanner – 19

Edward Hawthorn – 25


Suspect Tracker (Last Chapters results were tied between the New Partner and the Pastor)

Danny Tanner – The Father. Votes: 0

Rebecca Katsopolis – The Aunt. Votes: 0

Josh Brown – The New Partner. Votes: 1

Lavender Hawthorn – The Christian. Votes: 0

Robert Hardly – The Pastor. Votes: 1

Jack Linden – Sarah's son. Votes: 0

Eric Carlson – Stephan's boss. Votes: 0

Gia Mahan – The best friend. Votes: 0

Jesse Katsopolis – The Uncle. Votes: 0

Joey Gladstone – The Comedian. Votes: 0

DJ Tanner – The Older Sister. Votes: 0

Edward Hawthorn – Lavenders Brother: Votes: 0

Here's the ending of Episode 1 ^^ sorry if Holders voice is completely off, I've never been real good as writing streetwise slang. But I did the best I could. Remember to review :)