A knock on the door was heard; he put down his spoon and fork and went to the door to see who it was. He saw a familiar face and opened the door to greet him. "Detective Taylor, what a pleasant surprise, it's good to see you" Mr. Angell exclaimed happily.
"It's good to see you too Mr. Angell" Mac said with a smile, hoping that what he has to say won't destroy his happy mood.
"Come in, please, can I get you something?" Mr. Angell politely asked while Mac sat down in the living room.
"Thank you" Mac said "But I'm on the clock, I just stopped by to ask you a few questions, if that's okay with you"
"Me? Uh alright sure" Mr. Angell said taking a seat in front of Mac, he was definitely surprised as to why a homicide detective would want to ask him some questions, he was pretty sure he hasn't done anything, but was still nervous.
"It's about Jessica…" Mac said with a straight face looking in to his eyes and seeing that a wave of surprise and sorrow hit him at brining up her name.
"Jess? What about her?" Mr. Angell asked as his eyes grew big and his voice shook. What did he need from his daughter who was already dead?
"This might be hard for you Mr. Angell but I need to ask your permission in something, you don't have to agree." Mac said assuring him that it was okay to say no, even if he needed a yes.
"Okay?" Mr. Angell said gesturing him to continue, still with wide eyes, but now with a scared nervous tone in his voice.
Mac inhaled and exhaled a deep breath before talking again. "Mr. Angell, if it's okay with you, I want your permission to exhume Jessica's body…" He asked cautiously and slowly.
With this Mr. Angell entered full shock mode, he sat up straight with wide eyes and a slight open mouth staring at Mac wordlessly. "E-exhume her? As in dig her up? Why? What for?" Mr. Angell asked as his voice slightly grew higher.
Mac tried to keep a straight face; he knew how hard this was. "We found evidence in a 7 time murder case that leads back to her, and digging up her body might give us some answers." Mac said looking at Mr. Angell's face trying to read his thoughts.
Mr. Angell stood up with a hand on his waist and the other on his mouth looking up and around, Mac stood up "Mr. Angell…"
"What good will it do? It's been years Mac" Mr. Angell slightly shouted looking at Mac dead in the eye.
"Mr. Angell calm down we j…"
"Calm down?" Mr. Angell said cutting him off "How can I calm down when you want to exhume my daughter's body?"
"Mr. Angell, we just want to make sure of something" Mac said keeping a steady voice to keep things under control.
Mr. Angell took a deep breath and put both of his hands on his face as he was calming down. "Jessica would've wanted me to agree; Jessica would've wanted me to agree" Mr. Angell kept on repeating to himself, he looked up and groaned at what he was going to say "You have my permission, but please Mac, take care of my daughter" He said close to tears.
"You have my word Mr. Angell, don't worry" Mac said now feeling a slight relief.
Mr. Angell just nodded, obviously too emotional to speak. "Uhm, I don't want to delay you any longer…"
Mac just looked at Mr. Angell thoughtfully; he understood what he was going through and knew that he wanted to be alone at the moment "If there's anything you need…" Mac didn't continue as Mr. Angell already knew what he was going to say, Mr. Angell nodded and went to the door and opened it. Mac followed quietly and went out, but before he was fully out he looked at Jessica's father "I'm truly sorry Cliff…" Mr. Angell nodded an 'I know you are' nod, and with that, Mac took off.
Flack was sitting at his desk at the precinct filling out some papers when a young female teenager about 15 years old entered the precinct with a panic look on her face. She rushed over to Flack's desk "Please tell me nothing bad happened to her" said the young female teen in front of him.
Flack looked up with a confused face and stood.
"I-I'm Trish's sister, Ellie Cardoza, please tell me she'll be alright"
This was the moment he hated, he took a deep breath "Miss Cardoza can you please come with me"
Both the detective and the victim's sister went into one of the interrogation rooms, they both sat down and that's when Flack began to talk. "Ellie" Flack used her first name to connect with her more "I'm not going to lie to you, but your sister was found dead today at the library"
"No! No, this isn't possible, she, no…" Ellie said and began crying.
Flack hated seeing someone grief over their loved ones, especially when it was just a kid, he walked to her and put a hand on her shoulder, he wanted to comfort her in any way possible "Let it all out sweetheart, it's okay" Flack said in the most thoughtful voice with his other hand rubbing her back. "Don't worry we'll catch who did this to your sister, ssshh, you'll be alright" Flack continued soothing her, although this wasn't something he usually did, he just couldn't help himself.
Stella knocked the door and came in, Flack and Ellie both looked up to see who it was. Stella curled her lips when she saw Ellie "Hey there sweetie, you okay?" Stella asked in genuine care for the young teen as she sat down "Do you have any relatives we can contact, anyone who can take care of you?"
"No" Ellie said continuing to sob "Trish was all I have left"
Stella felt her heart break and put her hand on Ellie's and rubbed it "its okay sweetie, its okay"
"Ellie, hey" Flack said with a smile. She looked up to see him "Can you help us catch who did this to your sister?"
"H-how do I do that?" Ellie asked trying to stop her tears to concentrate on what he was saying.
"Well" Flack began as he walked behind Stella "We're going to need you to answer some questions that will help us catch your sister's murderer, can you do that?" Flack asked with an encouraging look on his face.
"I-I guess so" Ellie said feeling a little confident. Flack smiled back at her impressed.
"Okay Ellie, what we know is that your parents died two years after your brother Terrance died, so we were just wondering…..
"Uumm" Ellie said cutting off what Stella was saying "I'm uuh, adopted…"
Stella was surprised, she was completely caught off guard "And since then you've been growing up under your sister's care?" Stella asked.
Ellie just nodded. Flack quickly changed the subject so Ellie wouldn't remember her sister's death. "Did she ever tell you about Terrance?"
"Yeah…" Ellie said obviously having something on her mind.
"And?"
Ellie looked up to meet Flack's eyes and began to tear up "Detective Flack, I…" and started crying so hard.
Flack quickly went behind her and put both his hands on her shoulders and began rubbing them "Hey, hey, it's okay, take your time sweetie, it's okay"
Ellie wiped her tears "Uuh, it's easier if I just tell you everything right?" Ellie said looking up at Flack.
Flack said gave her a supportive smile "Yeah sure"
Ellie took a deep breath and began "Well it all started one week ago, I just turned 15 and I asked her how Terrance looked like, she said that she lost all his pictures, but I think 5 days ago she came to me with a box and said that she found it, we began looking at some pictures, but there was one picture that she stopped in, she stared at it for a very long time and told me that she had to leave, and when I asked her where, she said the precinct." Stella and Flack looked at each other like the same idea popped into their heads.
"Do you still have that picture with you?" Stella asked full of hope.
"Yes, it's in the picture box" Ellie answered wondering why their face expressions changed.
"Thank you so much Ellie" Stella thanked her for her help and bravery.
"You did great" Flack said rubbing her head like she was little puppy, which made her laugh slightly. Both Flack and Stella were extremely happy to see her laugh.
It was already night-fall; Mac was looking at Angell's grave, unsure of what he will find. "Alright, let's do this" About 3 people came from behind; they were the grave diggers responsible for these kind of things, each with a shovel in their hands. "You sure about this?" One of the diggers asked. Mac nodded looking at her grave.
[Hours later]
It was dark and late, one more layer of soil was left to remove, and it took about 20 minutes to remove, once it was removed, and the coffin was exposed, Mac opened it and saw that Angell's decomposed corpse was there, her decayed bones, everything….
Well it was supposed to; instead it was empty, totally empty. Mac was completely shocked; his eyes opened wide staring at the empty void in the coffin, his mouth opened and dropped. He couldn't believe his eyes. Angell died and was buried here, in this grave, she was in there, and soil covered her, what happened? This was it; this was his proof and answer that Angell was alive and out there somewhere!
[Two hours later]
Mac was at his office staring out his window, the image of Angell's coffin, the finger print match, Sid saying he didn't do an autopsy, all kept flashing in his mind, he was so lost and so deep in thought that he didn't even here Stella knock his door.
"Mac?" Stella asked confused. Stella tried knocking again, "Maac" She called.
Mac turned surprised but with a look on him like he had a headache "Oh, Stella, I didn't hear you knock, come in"
Stella entered the room "Hey Mac" She said smiling trying to lighten the mood, after she got his attention, she began informing him about their case "So our Vic is Trish Cardoza, sister of Terrance Cardoza, you remember him right?"
Mac nodded "Unsolved case…"
"Yeah, and a few days ago, she remembered her brother's murderer, possibly motive?" Stella said telling Mac what they found and figured.
"It could be, but what about the other victims, I don't think they're related in any way possible to the Cardozas or their case" Mac said.
Stella nodded in understanding what he meant. "Rewind that a little bit to the Cardoza case; I think we might know who Terrance's murderer is".
Mac looked at her in an impressed surprised way.
"Well, Trish's sister said that when they were looking through some old photos, Trish stopped at a picture with her brother's friend on it, and she remembered" She noticed a questioning look on Mac's face. "Adopted" She explained.
"Aah, Or he could've reminded her of his face" Mac said "Either way, we're going to need to talk to him"
"Yeah Flack's gone searching for him" Mac just nodded. It was silent for a while, and Stella couldn't take it anymore "Mac are you okay?"
Mac looked at her "I'm fine Stella" he said not wanting to worry her.
Stella didn't buy it "Mac you wouldn't put me in charge unless it was for something important, and look at you, you look exhausted"
"Stella I'm fine, I just needed to take of something" Mac explained but saw that Stella's expression didn't change.
Stella felt hurt, she was worrying about him all day, waiting for him to see him and talk to him. "Okay…" Stella nodded and went out of his office. Mac just watched her feeling guilty. "You know she's been worrying about you the whole day" Flack told Mac as he entered his office.
"Don" was all Mac said.
"Anyway, I wasn't able to track down the friend, I asked around the neighborhood, said that this guy" Flack said pointing to his face in the picture "is Luther Martin"
Mac stared at the picture but with no reply, his mind was not concentrating at the moment.
"Mac" Flack called "You okay?" He asked wondering what was wrong with him.
Mac looked at Flack and sighed tiredly "yeah"
"You sure?" Flack asked.
Mac nodded.
"Huh, well okay then, I … am going home, night Mac" Flack said in a tired voice then turned to leave. Mac thought hard about telling him what he has found out "Wait, Don" Mac called him before he could press the elevator button. Flack turned around seeing Mac exit his office and heading towards him.
"Don, there's something I have to tell you" Mac said.
"Sure" was Flack's reply.