In and out of darkness
Summery: -
Disclaimer: I do not own CSI NY
A/N:
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Stella watched as Don sat himself on the stairs of his apartment. She noticed he was turning pale and the brightness of his eyes had turned a dull and vacant blue. Walking over she sat herself next to him. His head was buried in his arms, concealing himself from the prying eyes of the department and his neighbours.
'Hey, everything's going to fine alright,' she said rubbing a hand across his back.
'I don't believe it. It just… can't be happening,' Don rubbed his hands over his face and down the back of his neck trying to collect himself. He'd been in a state of panic an hour earlier. He didn't know what to do. He'd rushed down stairs checked his apartment and even the main lobby just looking for her. He'd never felt so scared in his life. Fear, panic, terror, all sorts of feelings and emotions were flooding him as he finally picked up his cell and dialled Stella. It felt horrible and strange and he didn't know who else to call but she was comforting, her steady seriousness calmed him as she assured him she'd get a team down there as soon as possible. He waited on the front steps of his apartment until he heard the sirens pull up around the corner. Mac had greeted him, asking him to run through everything and anything he could remember. He felt horrible though, trying to recall what might happen. The thoughts of what actually happened to Jess were over whelming him. Was she kidnapped? Who was her abductor? Did this have anything to do with her previous case? Why Jessica?
'Don, we'll find her,' he looked up and stared straight at Stella, 'I promise.'
Don gave a sigh and relaxed himself, not enough to forget what was happening but enough to stop him from having some sort of panic attack.
'Detective,' a uniform came up to Stella and Don, 'Detective Taylor needs a word with you in your apartment.'
Don nodded, stood and followed the officer. Around him, cluttering the small corridor of the floor, he past officers, detectives, CSIs, everyone was trying their best to help, to find Jess. She was a police officer, she was family, and they all had vengeance on their mind for her abductor.
'Don, sit down,' Mac gestured to the dinning table chair pulled out next to him. 'I know this might be hard, but I need you to go through with me everything that happened one more time.'
He knew it was procedure, he knew Mac needed to do this, he didn't want to but just like how they'd forced Jess to tell her story over and over again Don was forced to tell his.
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She could feel herself begin to stir, waking from a long sleep. Her body felt restless, in need of movement but she felt herself trapped. Wriggling around, still with her eyes closed, she felt her hands tied together behind her and her feel bound beneath her. She was lying on her side, pressed up against a cold stone floor. She opened her eyes slowly, the light blinding her for a moment as her eyes started to focus, slowly at first but she began making out object soon enough. She had no idea how long she was out she wasn't worried about that right now, she wanted to know where she was, what was happening to her and who had done this.
Inching from side to side she attempted to struggle her way out of the ropes but failed. Lying facing the ceiling she tried to make out her surroundings; hard, cold floor, stale, moist smell, soft hum of a radio somewhere in the background.
'I'm not letting you go,' a voice crept up from behind her as the sound of heavy boots on the concert floor moved towards her. 'After everything you've done to me I can't just let you get away with it.'
'Who are you?' she finally crocked out, 'What do you want with me?'
'I want you to stop taunting me!' the voice was shouting now. It was a man's voice, deep husky, accented.
'What have I done to you?' she needed to keep him talking, get to expose as much as he could.
'You, you don't even know who I am. You pass me every single day, you even came into the shop and you didn't even notice,' his voice was rising. Frustration, angry, annoyance was all visible in his voice. 'I tried to make you notice. I tried to speak to you but you were too buys, you were too preoccupied, you and that studio boyfriend of yours!'
'What? Who? What are you talking about?' she tried to turn herself to see him but he stepped into the darkness, concealing himself.
'You don't even care do you? Everything will be alright if you just listen to me! I'm not going to hurt you, not if you just listen to me!'
'Just tell me okay! Tell me what you want!'
'No, not now,' he stepped back into the light now but before Jess could see anything she felt herself being thrown back by the kick of his boot, knocking her out once again.
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Don sat at Stella's desk fiddling with the file in front of him. He'd read it, dozens of times over in the past half hour, and along with every line his heart stopped a beat.
...starved for up to 48 hour…
…strangulation…
…several bruises and contusions…
…signs of concussion…
…signs of abuse and possibly even tortured…
He felt he couldn't stomach reading the rest of the coroner's report. The tale of Jessica Jones was a horrid one. A country girl moves to the big city with big hopes and dreams, takes on a job at a local kindergarten, lives happily and alone until she is kidnapped, held a prisoner, tortured, beaten and then finally strangled to death. The killer was never caught. He couldn't do that to Jess. He couldn't let them find her body tomorrow and not find a killer.
'Don,' Stella knocked lightly on the glass door and walked into her office clutching a set of papers looking bright and hopeful, 'We've got some results. Want to hear?'
Don nodded, letting go of the file rolled tightly in his hands.
'the finger prints we collected from the window and so of the appliances from the inside of the generator room came back to Diego Thomas,' she paused after that, looking as if she was going to continue but stopped. Her eyes flickered down to the sheet in front of her. He could see her mind was debating on telling him the rest but he needed to hear it. If the angel on her shoulder couldn't win the battle he'd make her say it himself. 'We don't know where he's take her. We have no CCTV footage, he hasn't returned to his apartment and there is no other known residence or lot or anything.'
'Jessica Jones was found in a dumpster,' his voice was shallow, soft but harsh and regretful. 'I don't want her to be found like that.'
'No Don,' Stella jumped in, 'we filled her, if he sticks to him MO then we've got another 36 hours. She safe alright,' Don looked up vacant and emotionless, she took his hand in hers, 'I promise.'
There came another soft knock at the door as Danny stood surveying them, 'I think I've got something.' He held a list in one hand a cup of coffee in the other. 'This is for you,' he popped the coffee next to Don, 'You gotta eat something too, you look horrible.'
The sun was peeping up onto the horizon and the promises of a new day brought horrors for Don. He hadn't eaten or slept since he realised she was gone. None of the team had either but the burden of known that it should be him out there and not Jess was haunting him. It kept his mind thinking, it kept him hoping they'd find something but dreading the thought of precious minutes going by.
'I got a list of all the tenants from the super and get this, there's an apartment registered to a Davros Thomas, two floors above Don. I've got Adam running the phone number we got since it doesn't register to our Diego so I'm thinking either he picked up a new cell when he got this apartment 4 months ago or we're looking at a family member helping.'
Danny hoped his words might spark a bit of sense of accomplishment in Don but seemed to fail when he still looked pale and miserable.
From the marble hall the three detectives could hear a soft pattering coming from down the hall, turning to see Adam ran towards Stella's open office door, 'I got us a guy.'
'The phone number?' Danny asked.
'Yeah, apparently Diego has a brother by the name of Davros Kingston Thomas and that's the brother's apartment. I got a current address from the cell network company and they're faxing all the details in now,' Adam smiled, rising his eyebrows at the detectives. 'How'd you like that!' he said finishing off his statement.
Stella and Danny gave a chuckle before Danny turned to Don, 'Wanna come pick up this guy?' Don took a moment to think but eventually looked up and Danny was glad to see a little light come into his eyes.
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Jess could feel the warmth of the sun pouring down on her. The floor was still cold but the warm air gave a slight comforting feel to her situation. Slowly opening her eyes her head began throbbing. She could feel the side of her face turning sticky and when she brushed it against her jumper she saw the red stairs. The kick to the head must have been harder than she thought, not just did her headache feel more like a hangover but the small cut and graze of the side of her head was now caked with dry blood.
'They're looking for you,' the man spoke again. Jess could hear him from the other side of the room. She still didn't know where she was. There was the sound of the radio, humming, in the background, too far away for her to hear what was going on. 'A detective gone missing, the police department must be having a field day.'
'Who are you?' Jess crocked out, not actually listening to what he was saying but in need of finding some way out. Turning onto her back she gazed at her surroundings, a wide window to one side but all she could see wat the sky. Dirt and gravel under neither her as well as cold concert. There was a soft breeze coming from somewhere and the smell of salt – the sea, maybe?
'That doesn't matter. What matters is that you're here, away from everyone else, away from the world, away from people, you'll be safe here,' Jess turned again, she could see the back of her captor, he wasn't facing her. Did he not think she might get up and fight him? Maybe he knew she was too weak to. 'I just want you to be safe,' his voice was soft, sympathy and concern was present in his tone. His head was bowed down and his hands covered them. He was upset but at what?
'What exactly do you want from me?' Jess finally said lifting her aching body into a sitting position. Her hands were tied behind her, her feet bound underneath. He hadn't gagged her; did he not care if anyone heard them?
'I want you to be safe.'
'From who?'
'Everybody,' he got up from his seat, he still hadn't turned but his hands were in a tight grip that turned his knuckles white. 'Don't you see,' he turned to her now. He was tall, rugged, dressed in a thick brown coat, jeans and doc martins. 'I need you to be here with me, because here I can protect you,' he was walking over to her now, big strides, big purposeful strides. When he reached her he crouched down, 'I've wanted you for so long.'
'How long have you known me?' Jess tired to lean back, furthering the proximity between them.
'Years, we live in the same condo… but you never saw me,' he turned away from her, disappointed. 'I tried to make you see me but you never did. You were always with someone else or at work or with your friends,' his voice was rising, his temper too. 'All I wanted was you and you couldn't see that!'
He stood from crouching in front of Jess and grabbed her hair, forcing her to look up at him, 'Why didn't you see me? Why didn't you listen to me? Everything I did for you and you never notice, instead you used to stand there, in al your glory, your perfectness, I loved that. I loved you but you couldn't see that!'
He raised a fist and again the last thing Jess saw, before the haunting darkness was, his fist coming down at her.
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'Davros,' Don paced around his suspect, 'Where is he?'
'Who?' Davros Thomas was just like his brother, tall dark, Latino.
'Your brother, Davros. Who else?' Don slammed his hand against the table, Davros didn't flinch but from the other side of the table Danny did, worrying about Don - wondering if letting him do the interrogation was the best choice.
'I haven't seen him in ages!' Davros turned to look at Don.
'Then why is he living in your apartment?'
'He has a key! That apartment was just a sort of safe hold for my family. If anything ever happened then at least they had somewhere to go.'
'Did you know your brother was living there?' Don temper had calmed a bit but he was still shifty, waiting to pounce at anything that was said.
'No, he has his own apartment but I dunno maybe he got kicked out so he's staying there. He never tells me okay!'
'Listen,' Danny tired staying calm focusing on the task ahead, 'Do you if your brother has any other properties or anything like that?'
'No okay, I know for sure he doesn't because a few months ago he was asking for rent from my mom for his current apartment. He'd never be able to sustain another residence.'
'Okay, we're going to need to search you apartment then. The, um, other one not the one your staying in.'
'Yeah, sure go a head. Listen, I don't know what my brother has done okay, maybe you can tell me and I can help.'
Danny moved his gaze towards Don, but he just shook his head and moved to the corner of the interrogation room.
'We think your brother has kidnapped one of our officers,' Danny fed it to him simply, and quickly; he didn't want to dwell too much on the details.
'What? Why?'
'We found his prints in the room that our officer was last seen in. Also he was a suspect in a case a few years back with a similar MO. That case was never solved so we're thinking he might have committed both.'
'A female officer is missing right?' Davros asked it bluntly, acting a detective himself at the moment.
'Yeah.'
'I remember the case a few years ago, the police was certain he kidnapped the other girl but they had no proof.'
'Do you think your brother is capable of doing it?' Don asked this, turning his attention to Davros he listens intently from behind.
'Well, he's not well, he believes things that aren't real and acts strangely sometimes. I mean he's done strange things like kidnap our neighbour's dog when we were kids but I dunno if he's capable of kidnapping a person.'
'You said he's not well?'
'Well, he has anger issues, mood problems. He can be a real nice guy one second but hate you the next. He was a little troubled as a kid since our dad wasn't the best of fathers. He was an alcoholic, he used to beat my mom, sometimes beat us. Diego found it hard to socialise after that. So he kept to him a lot.'
There was moment of silence as Danny watched Don carefully, he'd gone pale again but before Danny could say anything he quickly turned to the door and left.
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A/N: Hope that was alright. Beware for I may not be posting much in the next few weeks due to it being Examination week tomorrow. So, review please and make my revision less painful. Thank you so much!