Chapter Four:
Amanda opened her eyes and for an instant didn't know where she was. Then, the memories of the previous day came back to her. Her first thought was of Frannie. How come her faithful, loyal furr baby wasn't at her side, nuzzling her with all the patience of the three-year old puppy she still was, Anxious for Amanda to take her out for their morning walk? Then she remembered... Frannie was in the bedroom with the little girl she and Declan were tasked with getting out of the life before she was ever endoctrinated into it. Amanda sat up, swung her feet to the floor, and stood from the couch, heading for the door to the bedroom where the sleeping child and Frannie were likely still snuggled up together.
"That's a good girl Frannie, you clean that up." She heard Declan say from the kitchen. "See Melissa, it's ok... You didn't do anything wrong..."
"What? Didn't do anything wrong? Good girl Frannie?" Amanda's mind raced repeating what she'd just heard as she changed course and headed to the kitchen where she found Declan standing at the stove, Melissa tentatively standing nearby watching as he poured batter from a bowl into a pan and a few moments later, slid three fluffy pancakes onto a plate, and Frannie happily eating two pancakes from the floor.
Declan reached over with his free hand, careful to look directly at Melissa as he spoke and said: "Here you go sweetheart. Careful not to drop these now... Too many pancakes are no good for dogs."
Amanda stood transfixed at the site. Frannie never took food from anyone else. Amanda had trained her to take food only from her automatic feeder or herself, but no one else. Not even her neighbor Ruth who occasionally looked in on Frannie or took her for a walk was able to get the dog to take anything from her. Amanda herself had made sure to train Frannie not to take anything unless she gave her the ok. She'd deal with it later though, as there were more important things to figure out.
"Mornin yall," Amanda said finally making her presence known. She stepped further into the kitchen and looked at Declan, the ghost of a smile on her face. "How come I didn't hear you get up, and why didn't you wake me when these two got up?"
"We've been doing just fine on our own," Declan said, his own small smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "Besides, you needed the sleep."
"Wait... What? Slow down. How long have yall been up?"
"Here," Declan said half-turned back toward the stove but still keeping his face visible to Melissa so she could see his lips moving. He handed Amanda another plate loaded with pancakes, toast, and saucage. Amanda took the plate and sat down at the table, signing for Melissa's benefit, as well as instructing her to bring her plate and come sit at the table.
"I got up around 5:00 a.m., and Melissa and Frannie were still sound asleep. I took the opportunity to go to the store and grab a lot of what was on your grocery list." He indicated the cupboards which Amanda guessed held the contents of her list made the previous afternoon. "When I got back, Melissa here was just getting up, and Frannie looked as though she wanted to go out too. So I snapped her leash on and we took her for a short but necessary walk outside."
"We?" Amanda was reeling. She caught herself before she said his name and divulged too much in front of the child. "How did I not hear yall?"
"I'm sorry, he said I had to go too." Melissa's hands flew as she signed, and Amanda interpreted for Declan's benefit.
By now, Declan had loaded his own plate and joined them at the table. He watched Amanda as she signed for Melissa's benefit and spoke for his.
"Melissa you didn't do anything wrong. You don't need to be sorry." To Declan she said: "Have things changed again?"
"No, not really." Declan said. "Nothing has changed. But I figured it was a good way to get to know Melissa a little bit and get things accomplished at the same time. I don't sign anywhere near as well as you do, but we communicated well enough on our own." He smiled at Melissa. "In fact, Melissa told me about who she came up here to New York with." He eyed Amanda with a knowing look and continued. "Seems her mother's boyfriend and a lady came up here with Melissa a few days ago."
Amanda nodded slowly. "Melissa, where's your mom at sweety?"
The child's face fell and neither Amanda nor Declan missed the tears starting in her eyes. She stared at her plate until Amanda put a gentle hand under the child's chin. At first Melissa flinched, but then she slowly relaxed. Declan and Amanda waited.
"Mommy went away. She went away and never came back."
Up until this point, Declan had been eating his fill, but on hearing what Melissa told them, he put his fork down. He met Amanda's gaze and held it steadily for a long moment. Finally he pushed back his chair and came around the table to stand next to Melissa. He looked directly at her and said: "You sit here and finish eating. Amanda and I will be right back."
Amanda got up and followed him, signing quicly to Melissa that they would be just in the other room. She followed Declan into the living room. He pulled her into a corner of the room furthest from the kitchen doorway and Melissa's line of sight.
"This presents a problem. Her mother going away could mean anything from she's dead, to she's in jail, to she ran off and left the girl with this piece of scum boyfriend who trafficked her here to New York. It could also mean the mother has been trafficked as well. We need to find out what she knows, but at the same time we need to reach out to John Munch, see if he can do some digging off the record and help us out. You said he's cool. How sure of this are you?"
"Very," Amanda said. "I've known Munch for almost four years now. I'm pretty sure he'll play ball. But what do we want him to do other than get her to a safe location? And when are we turning her over?"
"We need him to do some digging and see if, after we get some more information from her, he can find out what happened to this little girl's mother; if there's any family willing or able to take responsibility for her; and I want to find out as much intel on the boyfriend and this lady friend of his... See if they can't be tracked down now... Find out why they had to bring her up to New York three days ahead of schedule." He leaned in close and said softly, "For now though, we have to stick to at least part of the initial plan before we turn Melissa over to Child Services or any other safe alternative."
Amanda nodded. "Ok. I'll go back in there, get what all I can out of her." Amanda added as an afterthought, "I noticed you didn't drop the Irish accent when you were talking to Melissa. She must not have trouble reading your lips even with"
"As I said before Amanda, I don't sign anywhere near as well as you two do, but I do know a little about ASL. As long as I'm clear when I speak to Melissa or in front of her, she'll be able to read my lips well enough."
"Ok..." Amanda said. Before she thought too much about it she added, "Anything on our mystery girl? You said you guys took Frannie for a walk this morning... See anything worthwhile out there this morning?"
"Oh you mean other than Frannie eyeballing some squirrels she would have loved nothing better than to chase after if I'd let her off the leash? No, I didn't see our mystery girl." Declan smiled. "I'm going out for a bit. I have a couple things to do, places to go... I'll be back in a couple hours."
Amanda retreated to the kitchen and back to Melissa. She had very little with which to work, but she knew the child was their best shot at finding out at least some of the information they needed. She sat down at the table and watched as Melissa went to the sink and rinsed her plate.
"Hey sweety, I can do that," Amanda signed when Melissa turned around to face her.
"It's ok. I'm supposed to be a good girl and do what I'm told."
"Who told you that?"
"Jeff my mom's boyfriend and the lady that he gave me to. They said I was going to stay with a new mom and dad and I had to do what they told me."
Amanda thought about it for a moment and came up with an idea. Instead of interrogating the girl, it might not be a bad idea to let her think they were in fact the new mom and dad. Declan did say they'd have to color outside the lines, and that initially the plan had been for them to keep her anyhow. Before she could think about the consequences, she signed: "Are you a good girl Melissa? Do you do what you're told?"
"Yes." Melissa sat down at the table and kept her focus on Amanda.
"What else did they tell you?"
"I had to be a good girl; do what I was told; don't talk back or ask questions. If I wasn't a good girl my new mom and dad would be really mad at me. Are you my new mom?"
"Well you're going to stay with us for right now. And I don't want you to worry about being a good girl or not asking questions. We won't get mad at you." Amanda smiled at Melissa. "Hey is there anything you'd like to do? Are there any books you like or anything you want?"
"Can we take Frannie for a walk again later? Can I go outside and see the snow?"
"I'll tell you what. When Declan comes back maybe we can all go for a walk." Amanda eyed Frannie in the corner and snapped her fingers. The dog came bounding over to her, tail wagging happily.
"Melissa, I need to ask you something. When you were brought up here to New York and left with Carlos, did he do anything to you?"
"No, he just hit me a lot. I thought he was the new dad I got told about, but he said he wasn't my new dad. But he said my new dad would want me to do what I was told not be a bad girl like I was being for him."
Amanda and Melissa talked for another hour and a half before Declan's key turned in the lock. Amanda looked up as he came into the kitchen, a self-satisfied grin on his face.
"Well ladies, how are you getting along?"
"We're fine," Amanda said. "Melissa was telling me about her trip up from Georgia and how she was told she would be staying with a new mom and dad."
Declan never lost his smile and pulled something out from behind his back. "While I was out I thought I'd get Melissa here a little something special." He put a box on the table in front of Melissa and winked.
Melissa looked at the box and then to Declan and Amanda before signing: "Can I open it now?"
"Of course you can," Declan said still smiling. Then to Amanda he said, "I got you something too." He reached into his jacket and handed her a thumb drive. "We'll take a look at this after Melissa opens her present."
Melissa began opening the box. At first, all that came out was packing material and a booklet. Then, out slid a sleek, new tablet.
"I thought you might like something to keep busy with. It has games, some books on it, and there's something on it for you to draw if you like."
Amanda smiled warmly at Declan and said as she signed: "Wow Melissa, that's pretty cool!" To Declan she added, "I was wondering what we should do for her. She didn't have anything with her when she came up here."
"That thought crossed my mind too," Declan said. "I thought this would be something fun and also helpful too. Especially the drawing app on the tablet." He grinned at Amanda. "Sorry your present isn't going to be as much fun though," he said.
Melissa smiled and signed: "Thank you."
Declan reached out and pressed the power button on the tablet. "Melissa," he said, "I need to talk with Amanda in the office. You check out your new tablet, and we'll be right back."
Without a word, Amanda stood and followed Declan into the smallest of the three bedrooms Declan had turned into an office. She still held the thumb drive in her hand and didn't say anything about it until Declan closed the door behind them.
"What did you find out?" Declan asked without any preamble.
Amanda filled him in on all that Melissa had told her. He listened, saying nothing, and then frowned.
"Declan, she thinks we're her new mom and dad, and she's convinced she has to be a good girl, do what she's told, not ask questions... She thinks that if she isn't a good girl and if she does ask questions that we'll get mad at her."
"Did she say anything about anyone hurting her?"
Amanda shook her head no. "She says all Carlos did was slap her around. But he did tell her that her new dad would want her to be a very good girl. Sounds to me like Melissa was told in a roundabout way she was going to be pimped out. Now she never said that exactly, but given how she's obsessed with making sure she's a good girl and doesn't make us mad..."
"Holy Mother." Declan stared blankly at his hands for a moment and continued. "What about how she came up here? Could she give you any information about that?"
"Melissa says that her mother's boyfriend Jeff no last name gave her to a lady who said she would bring Melissa up here to New York. The lady, presumably someone's bottom, gave Melissa to a guy who took her to Carlos. That's all Melissa knows."
"Ok," Declan said. "For now, she stays with us. We keep her hidden and protected for the time being. She thinks we're her new family, then that's what we will have to pretend to be until we have more information. In the meantime, I want you to look at this drive. I took it off Carlos when I paid him a little visit and finished what I started last night. See what information is on that and I want you to reach out to John Munch. Have him do some digging... Discretely though. Have him check to see if there've been any reports of missing deaf children about Melissa's age down south. There's a burner cell in the desk there."
Amanda sat at the desk and turned on the laptop. As it booted up she asked, "So what are we going to do? How much do I tell Munch?"
"Have him find out if there are any reports of missing kids, if any Amber Alerts have been issued. Do not tell him we have a child here yet. Explain to him that it's concerning a case you're working that needs to be kept very quiet for the time being."
The laptop finally having booted into Windows, Amanda slid the thumb drive into one of the USB ports. She clicked on the icon that popped up and chose to open the folder to view the files.
Declan watched her for a minute before turning for the door. "I'm going to go out and see how our girl is doing."
Amanda began scrolling through the screens of information as Declan left the office. She couldn't help but wonder why things were going back and forth so much. First he wanted to keep the girl; then he said they needed to get her out and into a safe place; now he said they were keeping her until further notice, and he was coming back with presents for her and files for Amanda to pour over.
"Declan," Amanda thought to herself, "when this is all over I'm going to have some serious questions to ask you concerning a lot of things."
Declan reentered the kitchen and found Melissa drawing on her new tablet. He took the seat Amanda had previously occupied and smiled at her. He couldn't imagine how anyone would want to hurt a child, especially one as sweet and clearly innocent as Melissa was. He'd only worked a few cases involving children a long time ago at the beginning of his career, but even in those instances the kids had always been on the periphery. It wasn't until he'd begun working deep undercover and investigating the underage sex trafficking that he began to work more and more with younger and younger kids. He had a hard time reconciling himself with the fact children Melissa's age and younger were being bought and sold like cattle. It made him sick inside to even think of what these animals did to the children they trafficked, and even sicker still when he had to align himself with them, act like he was one of them. He knew it was just him doing his job, and he knew he could do what needed to be done. It was only that what he was doing and how he had to go about doing it waged a war within his soul. He was of the firm belief a woman was to be treated with respect. Even when he'd been earning Johnny D's trust, the girls he'd been in charge of at various times, those he'd either pimped out or sold to Johnny D were never treated roughly or manhandled when in his care. His bark was far worse than his bite, and the only time he ever bit was when it was absolutely called for. Even at his worst appearances as Bishop the crazy son of a bitch, he never harmed any of the women or girls. Kicking the shit out of a few of the pimps or Johns when necessary wasn't out of the question though.
He shook himself mentally, forcing himself back to the present. "What are you drawing?" Declan asked. He watched Melissa intently, waiting to see if she would sign or show him what it was. She slid the tablet over to him and he gazed at the screen. Melissa had drawn what appeared to be a picture of a house with a woman standing outside, and a dog nearby.
"Melissa, is this your house? Is this your dog?"
The girl shook her head sadly and signed: "Not anymore. I don't live there anymore. Mommy doesn't live there anymore."
It took Declan a minute to interpret what Melissa was saying and then he asked softly, "What was your dog's name?"
"Chance," Melissa replied. "Mommy said he got a second chance at a home with us, so we named him Chance."
"Now that's a good name for a dog. Where is Chance now?"
"Gone," was the girl's only reply. She reached for the tablet and began drawing again.
Declan watched for a few minutes more before standing up and heading over to the sink. He began washing up the dishes from their breakfast, periodically looking back to see how Melissa was getting along. As he set about his task, he couldn't help but think about what it would be like to have a family... A real family. He knew as well as anyone that this job and his commitment to it had cost him dearly all those years ago when Moira had left him. He hadn't thought of her and not remembered how his u.c. work had driven her away, literally. Even all these years later it still haunted him.
When he'd finished tidying up the kitchen, he returned to Melissa at the table. He noticed she was still drawing, only this time she was drawing what Declan could only imagine was a picture of herself. He watched her for a minute or two more before glancing over at Frannie who was curled up on the floor beside Melissa's chair. Melissa really was attached to Frannie, and seemingly the feeling was mutual. He snapped his fingers, and the dog trotted over to him. She put her muzzle against his leg and looked up at him. Declan scratched the dog behind the ears and under her chin. He really did like Frannie. Perhaps when this was all over and he came back in from the cold as Amanda had put it, perhaps when he was back at SVU fulltime he'd get himself a dog. Maybe even a mut.
As he petted Frannie's silky coat, he looked over at Melissa who stopped drawing on her tablet and signed: "Could we take Frannie out for a walk again? Can I go outside and see the snow?"
"I think that might be able to be arranged. Have you ever seen snow before Melissa?" Melissa shook her head. Declan smiled. "Well, I promise you'll get to see snow."
Declan walked out of the kitchen and straight to the office. Amanda was on the phone as he entered, and at a look from her, Declan closed the door and stood, arms at his sides waiting.
"No, I understand. Thanks for looking Munch, I owe you one... Uh, no, I can't get into anymore of the specifics of the case at the moment. But when I can, you'll be my first call. I really appreciate all your help so far."
Amanda ended the call and turned to look at Declan. From the look on her face, he knew this wasn't going to be something he was going to want to hear.
"Munch says there are no Amber Alerts out anywhere for any children who are deaf or even remotely hearing impaired. Not down south, not up north, nowhere."
"Well unfortunately that puts us in the terrible position of being greatful for that much at least at the moment." Declan scratched his head and frowned. "I had a theory behind getting Melissa that tablet you know. I wanted to see if maybe she'd draw some pictures for us, maybe they could tell us what she couldn't."
"And has she drawn anything so far?" Amanda asked.
"Actually, yes. She's drawn what appears to be a house she lived in, a picture of her mother, and a dog she had. Now, what did you learn other than nobody is missing or looking for this little girl?"
Amanda turned back to the laptop and grimaced. "I've been reading the files on this drive, and it looks like these are records of different houses in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronks, Staten Island, and in Nasaw County." Amanda clicked the mouse and the screen came to life. "These are records of the day to day opperations of all these houses, how many girls, earnings, even indications of who is going to be rotated where."
"Holy Mother," Declan said. "So you're telling me what we have here is a bonified paper trail. Damn. We got these assholes!"
"Well, yes and no." Amanda pushed back from the desk and stood up, stretching her back. "It's definitely a paper trail, but no names are ever listed in here. They have all these details here but nothing to tie it to a particular person or group."
For a moment, Declan looked as though he wanted to hit something. He took a breath and focused. "Ok. So we find a way to tie these documents to individuals in particular. Oh, and Melissa asked if we could take Frannie for a walk again. She wants to see snow."
"Is it safe to do that?" Amanda clicked on the start menu and shut the laptop down. "I know you said Melissa would have to be kept hidden."
"Unfortunately since we've found no trace of anyone looking for this little girl, as long as we are with her at all times I don't see why we can't take her out a bit. To be safe though I would suggest we stick close to this area though. I realize it's changing the game again, but when working u.c. nothing is set in stone. Everything has to be flexible."
Amanda nodded. "Munch did also say he'd keep helping me if I needed." She paused and looked directly at Declan as she said, "He wants to meet me though. He said somewhere out of the way. He didn't say specifically, but I think he knows I'm working u.c. at the moment."
"Why? What makes you say that? I thought I told you not to tell him anything."
"I didn't say anything about it. But when he suggested we meet and talk later on, it sounds to me like he knows more than we think he knows. Munch didn't get to be where he is today by staying in the dark about things. He was a damn good sergeant when he was with us, and I can only imagine he's gotten better as a special investigator for the D.A." Amanda took a breath before continuing. This probably wouldn't go over too well, but she went ahead with it anyway. "And there's something else."
"Which is?" Declan's mind was racing with the different possible sinareos, ranging from the most likely to the least likely and back again. There was something he'd been considering since Amanda had mentioned it only a little while ago, but he wasn't at all sure how he could go about doing it, especially now when they had Melissa with them.
"Melissa came up from Georgia. I'm thinking we're going to need to do some digging in that area too."
"And you want to know if one of us should be going down there... Namely you, because you have a few connections down there still... I don't know Amanda, it could be way too risky. You run into anyone from your old squad down there, and your cover is blown up here. Let me think about it for now. If the time comes and we have to cross that bridge, we'll figure something out. What time is that meeting with John Munch set up for?"
"He wants to meet me tonight at a coffee shop... Sometime around 5:00 p.m. He said that would give him enough time to get into this a bit more."
"Okay," Declan said. "You go to that meeting, and I'll take Melissa and Frannie out for a walk. I want you to check in with me though and let me know what you find out." He paused for a moment and continued. "By the way, I heard Timmer got what was coming to him... For what he did to your girl Ariel..."
"Oh? And how'd you hear that? Did you have anything to do with..."
Declan shook his head. Of course she would think he'd had something to do with it. After all, he was in many ways unpredictable when he was u.c. "I just heard about it. Probably reprisal from Johnny D for ratting him out to your squad. But in any case, it's done."
Amanda didn't doubt it, and she said nothing. She exited the office ahead of Declan and headed for the kitchen. She loved kids well enough, but she needed something to do that was mindless. Since to her way of thinking, cooking was just that, mindless, she decided to whip up lunch. As she began going through the refrigerator and cupboards to see what they had for lunch, a million thoughts ran through her mind. How was it Declan managed to come up with the info he had so far, and how was it he managed to get himself into the most complex and complicated situations when working u.c. as she'd seen in the short time she'd known him? She told him everything he needed to know from her conversation with Munch, but there was one thing she held back. Munch had asked her to hold back one piece of information for all of their sakes. If this got out, it would jeopardize the entire case, not to mention both her and Declan's lives if not their careers.