Boulevard of Broken Dreams
author: BambiBlake007
pairing(s): none yet
summary: a lil insight into Abby Walker. Danny talks to the vic's mother.
disclaimer: i do not own csi:ny or the characters. i am only playing with em :) i do own Abby Walker, tho.
author's note: i take full responsibility for mistakes. they are all mine!! R/R. feedback is love!!
Chapter 4
Abby unlocked her apartment door and stepped inside.
She turned, shut the door back, making sure to lock the door's conventional door-lock, the sliding lock above the main door-lock that had been installed before she moved into the apartment, and the dead-bolt: the one she installed the same day she gave the super her deposit. She knew it was silly to be freightened, still--it had been so long since her sister had been murdered. But there was just something about the thought of a young woman living alone, even in Miami, where she had lived for most of her life, that made Abby feel very uneasy.
Abby put her bag down on the couch, throwing her jacket over the backside of it, and kicked off her shoes. She felt more comfortable barefoot; did her best work when she was barefoot. She stretched like a lazy cat would do on a warm summer day and padded through the apartment to find something to eat. It was odd, she mused as she opened the refridgerator door to find only day old pizza which would have to suffice for now, that she did not have to report to work in the morning.
Abby pulled the box out of the refridgerator. Two slices were left, she saw. Mental note: Do Not Eat Like A Starved Dog In New York City. Check.She decided to eat both pieces, because there was no need in wasting them. She opened the cabinet over-head and got a paper plate. She was hungry, because she had not eaten at break when she was supposed to have, but that was not reason enough to be uncivilized. She didn't bother heating the pizza; a habit she had acquired from years of eating-on-the-run. She set down at the small table, which held two chairs, but never saw two people at it. She began to eat the pizza, cold and hard, but good, because she didn't think about the way it tasted in her mouth as she took slow, even bites. She was thinking about other things at the moment. Things that were still out of reach, but a definte possibility.
After eating both slices of her cold pizza, and feeling full for the first time in quite a while, Abby grabbed a juice out of the refridgerator and headed back into the living room. As Abby was taking a long sip of her juice, letting the cool liquid go down, feeling completely heavenly as it did so, there was a scratching sound at the front door. Abby crossed the room and unlocked all the locks she had only just locked back, and peered down at an adorable orange and white striped tabby, who looked back up at her with the most intense blue eyes of any cat Abby had ever seen.
"Hey, Pumpkin." Abby smiled at the cat on her doorstep. The cat purred. "Sorry about locking you out. Please, do come in," she told the cat.
The small cat stalked into the apartment like she owned it. She was not Abby's cat, by any means, just a stray that she had found to be friendly so she let come in every once in a while. This relationship was strictly beneficial for the cat, though. Nothing expected in return. Abby would feed her tuna fish and milk and she would lay around on the window sill above the sink, lazily for an hour or so, soaking up the last remaining rays of the day, then she would tip-toe through the house, sit down in front of the door, and wait. Sometimes Abby would oblige quickly and let the cat out, bidding her good-bye. Other times, she would fight the urgency and just watch her. Observe her persistence. She would not falter one bit as she set, her tail coiled around her backside, determined not to be a prisoner of this humans' house. Abby would watch as the small cat, well fed and content with being only a customer and nothing more, would come over to the couch and nuzzle at her leg.
She could be a lover when she needed to be. She could be a fighter when the situation called for it. But for the most part, Pumpkin would not give up on her demands. When she wanted something, she would work very hard for it. The way the cat functioned, doing what she needed in order to get what she wanted, had reminded Abby of herself. She would get up after a while of letting the cat nuzzle at her leg and purr happily against her skin, and let her out. She would let her go back into her secret-world, leaving Abby alone like before, in hers. But that was the way Abby liked things--consistent.
After Abby went through the regular routine of the evening with Pumpkin, she relocked all of her locks and checked her messages. It was the first thing she usually did, but on this night, because of the excitement she had been feeling all day from the prospect of going to New York and seeing... Dare she say it out loud, it might not come true... But it was OK to think it, wasn't it? She was going to see Danny Messer. She was going to see him...
The first message was from her mom:
"Hey, Abby! It's Mom. Call me. Love you, Baby. Bye."
The second message was from her dad:
"Hey, Abbers!! It's Daddy. I just thought I'd call ya. Nothing wrong. Miss ya. Love ya. Bye, Kiddo."
Third message:
"Sis! Guess who! It's Gabe. I just wanted to congratulate you! Wow! New York--Really? Well, me and Madeleine are very happy for you. I did some work up there last summer and it was awesome, I know you'll Love it. Anyway. The baby is still growing--wish you could see Maddy's belly--it's huge," a chuckle. "Well, I'll talk to ya later. Love ya. Bye."
The last message was from Detective Mac Taylor from New York City:
"Ms. Walker? This is Detective Mac Taylor, head of the CSI department in New York City. I am sure by now, you know that I am interested in having you come up here to work with my team. I contacted Horatio and he was supposed to speak with you. I hope you greatly consider coming here. And that you know this will be a wonderful opportunity for you. One I think you will not regret. Your services would be greatly appreciated by the department... And me. It's hard to find CSI's, who also have a Criminal Profiler background, with the kind of experience and recommendations that you carry. Anyway. Sorry, I missed you. I'll be getting in touch with you before you leave. Have a wonderful day, now. Bye."
Abby smiled. She rewound the tape again and listened to the message from Mac two more times. It was reality now. This was real. Going to New York was real. Sure, it had been a nice thought all day, since Horatio had called into his office, but this set it in stone: hearing Mac say that he wanted her to come there. Hearing him say that he would benefit from her expertise. Hearing him say that she deserved this opportunity. When it came time to go to bed, which was well past midnight, because Abby suffered miserably from insomnia, she fell asleep feeling happy and excited about what lay ahead for her in the next couple of weeks. For the first time, in a very long time, Abby Walker slept like a baby.
Lindsay stood outside of the interrogation room.
A woman who appeared to be around forty and bore a striking resemblance to the murdered girl, set at the desk. Her eyes were red-rimmed from where she had been crying for the past fifteen minutes she had been sitting there, alone.
"You ok?" Danny asked, touching her shoulder lightly from behind.
Lindsay jumped, startled. "You scared me," she hit him on his arm, playfully.
"Whoa! Sorry!" Danny grinned, putting his hands up in the air as if he were surrendering. He turned to the window that Lindsay had been peering into. "Who's she?"
"Chloe Phillips' mom." Lindsay grimmaced. "Remember the last mom, Danny? I couldn't talk to her. I totally froze. I--Can't talk to her. She's sitting there, wanting answers. And I can't bring myself to go inside. I really wanna talk to her, Danny," she lifted her eyes to him. "I just--I try to go in there and... This is as far as I seem to get. Why can't I just go in there and tell her that her daughter was murdered?"
Danny smiled at Lindsay. It wasn't his usual smirk, bad-boy smile. It was his sweet, understanding one. The one that he only gave to Lindsay. She returned it with her own, but it was uncertainty he read over her face as she did so.
He reach over and took the file from Lindsay's hands. "I got it, Montana."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. Mom's are kinda my speciality," Danny winked.
Danny stepped into the interrogation room, closing the door behind him. "Ms. Phillips, I'm Detective Messer. I'm here to speak to you about your daughter."
"Langston. My last name is Langston," the woman sniffled.
Danny glanced at the file in his hand. "So it is." He grinned at her. "I apologize."
"That's OK, Detective. I... uh... I know it's an honest mistake. Alice used a stage-name," the woman answered as she took a napkin from her bag.
"Chloe's real name is Alice?" Danny asked as he took a seat.
"Yeah." The woman blew her nose, rather loudly. "She liked the meaning of Chloe. It was Greek; meant flowering. She always thought of herself as a flower, you know? She wanted to blossom one day, be a huge star. Be famous and use it to help others. Alice was a good girl, Detective. She was..." Her voice broke off, but Danny noticed there was a faint smile over her face as she remembered her little girl as she had once been.
Danny nodded, slowly. He readjusted his glasses as he licked at his lips. An unconscious habit on his part. "Ms. Langston--"
"Please, call me Renee. I'm not an old woman, Detective."
"Ok. Renee, then you can call me Danny, if you like," he told her.
Renee nodded as she wiped at her nose again.
"Do you know of anyone who would want to hurt Alice?" Danny asked, slowly.
Renee scratched her eye brow. "I don't know. A couple girls at her old high school were jealous of her because she got that part in a commercial for American Eagle. But..." she tilted her head to the side for a moment. "For the most part, everyone Loved Alice. She just--She had a good heart... Danny... And..."
"It's hard, I know." Danny reach over and took a hold of Renee's hand that rested on the table top.
"Thank you," Renee smiled, her voice soft and even, but still holding some emotion behind it.
Danny took his hand away. "I need to know if Alice was into drugs or anything of that nature."
Renee looked up. "No. I mean, teenagers experiment, right?"
Danny nodded.
"Alice was a responsible kid, though. I don't think she would have--"
"That's alright. Tox will tell us if anything was in her system," Danny assured her.
Renee nodded as she dabbed at her eyes. It was hard for her to hear that her daughter might have been doing drugs on the night that she was murdered, but Danny knew that it was better to give her a little light into what might have been going on instead of leaving her there in the dark. That was just the way Danny's mind worked. He didn't want to be a liar. Not even a half-ass one.
"Did Alice have a boyfriend?" Danny asked, as he pulled out a clean sheet of paper from the file.
"Sean. His, uh, name is Sean Buckley. You don't think..."
"We just have to rule him out. OK?" Danny jotted the name down. "Any close friends?"
"Yeah. Alice had a lot of friends, but she had three best friends. She met em after we moved down here from Boston. Michelle Lehman, Ashley DuGray, and Kris Whitmore. They practically grew up together." Renee's eyes darkened suddenly. "Oh, God! I didn't call them. I don't want them to find out from the news. Can I go now? I have a lot of stuff that needs to be taken care of." She stood up to leave.
Danny nodded. "Of course." He stood. "We have your number. I'll call ya if we need to ask you anymore questions."
"Thank you." Renee stopped at the door. "She was my baby. I would have given my life for her." She paused, "Do you have any kids?"
Danny shook his head.
"Too bad. You seem like the kind of man who would make a wonderful father."
"Someday," Danny agreed.
"Yeah. Someday." Renee resisted the urge to cry again. "God gives them. And God takes them away. I think..." Her eyes glossed over. "Alice is in Heaven. She was my Angel. And this way, she'll always be an Angel."
Renee was smiling through her tears, but Danny knew it hurt her to come to this realization. She would never see her daughter alive, again. She knew that. Deep down in her heart, she knew that she was still alive and her baby daughter was dead. She just had to hold onto the hope that her death was something that God willed for her. If she didn't believe in that, then she would surely go crazy. But Danny didn't have any answers for her at the moment. Things were not answered for him as it was. He couldn't tell her what she longed to hear. That the person who killed her kid would never do it again. He wasn't sure about that yet. The prospect of the perp killing again was still high, because they had very little to go on. But he knew, at that very moment, that he would not forget the look in this woman's eyes. The desperation she let shine through. She wanted answers, and if Danny had to chase the man himself, without Flack, Lindsay, or anyone else at his side, he would catch the bastard who had murdered Renee Langston's beloved daughter.
Renee smiled one last time at Danny, reguarding him as she would any casual aquaintance. She said nothing more and Danny decided it would be best if he didn't speak, either. She left the interogation room, leaving Danny with only his determination to solve this murder and the anger toward the coward who had committed the crime, boiling over inside of him.
