Chapter 5: Dealing

Nina Cassady barely finished half of her bagel before Joe tapped her on the shoulder. "Come on; we've got good news! I hope."

Reluctantly, she wrapped up the remains, ready to put them in her pocket. "You hope? If you don't know for sure, then how can you be sure-?"

"Renee Maguire! Someone fitting her description was found by the 64th," Fontana said holding her coat open for her.

"Alive?"

"That's the hope!" He took her by the elbow. "Let's go! I'll drive."

----

"I hope you know what you're looking for," Ron Carver said when he found Alex Borgia in the conference room looking up old files. "We do have cases in the here and now that can use your attention."

"This might have something to do with such a case," Alex said as she jotted down some notes. "I don't know how this ties in with that Baby Jane Doe case, but..."

Carver sighed. "When we get the people responsible we are not, I repeat, not making a deal with them, got it?"

"Loud and clear, sir." She frowned. "Do you think it's better to ask McCoy or Southerlyn about this Ashburn case?"

Carver looked over her shoulder. "Jack's easier for you to find, so… Unless you want to hang around the courthouse and try to catch Serena between cases."

"Permission to take an extended lunch, then?"

Ron looked at the young woman who followed Rubirosa's lead too well in some things – like doing her own thing when she was certain it was the right thing to do. "Fine. Just make sure Connie has what she needs from you. Keep your cell phone on, too, just in case, please." He couldn't fault this team. Their conviction rate rose significantly in recent months and as much as Carver didn't care for it, Connie could get the deals made at the higher end of the sentencing scale.

No, he decided, the Rubirosa-Borgia team was a good one and he hoped to work with them for quite a while.

----

When they walked into the 6-4 precinct, the young woman in the side room bore a faint resemblance to that in the photo Joey and Michael gave up reluctantly. The young woman's clothes were shredded under the blanket wrapped around her now. Her face was caked with more dirt than Joey's had been during their initial meeting, and scratches, bruises and scraps covered what parts of her body that were visible.

Cassady reached her first. "Renee Maguire?"

The young woman nodded, a cup of cold coffee in hand. "You found her, yes? You found the baby?"

"Yes," Cassady said. "Right now, though-."

"I had to do it," the woman continued. "To keep the baby away from that so-called father. He was going to sell her for drugs!"

Fontana sat on the bench beside her. "Who was going to sell her? Can you tell us the baby's name?"

Renee had a distant look in her face, distracted by something else. "You saved Keith, yes?"

Nina shook her head. "We're still trying to find Miss Keith."

Renee gave her a puzzled look. "If you have Kylie, you have Keith, right?" Renee shook her head. "I shouldn't have left Keith alone, but he was pulled out of my hand and there was no way that Kylie…" The young woman broke down sobbing.

Nina watched as Joe pulled her towards him. It was a while before Renee could regain her composure, but when she did…

"Damn idiot! Of course you wouldn't…." She got up, looked around for any possessions then turned her attention to both officers. "I need you to take me to Tina's, now. I mean, I know where she's probably…. I think… I mean…" Renee didn't finish as her eyes took on a determined look.

"Don't you want to know about Joey and the others?" Nina asked.

Renee looked at her, the determination still there. "I know you had to have found them and that you had to have taken them out of that hell-hole. You had to." After a moment, she added, "You better have." Renee walked to the door. "Want to help me save Keith and Kylie or not?"

Fontana slammed the door Renee had opened ajar. "Listen," he said leaning close, "Kylie, the baby girl you left in a blanket bag, the one you placed under a bush, in the middle of a cold night - she's dead. She died-."

"No she didn't!" Renee yelled. "She isn't dead! She-!" However, a realization dawned on her as she collapsed. Joe caught her before she hit the floor.

"Joe?" Nina asked kneeling beside the teenager.

"You were talking to Alex. See if she has a name of any of Tina's so-called friends. And see if she has a kid named Keith."

--

Nina stepped out into the hall where one of the other officers approached her. "Just to let you know," the officer said, "the young woman refused a rape kit. Demanded to be taken to a park, something about a baby…"

Nina would have slugged him if it did any good. It would have made her feel better, but Lieu would probably hate her for generating unnecessary paperwork. Before she could give this guy a verbal lashing, Joe opened the door, arm wrapped around Renee's shoulder, Joe's jacket now covering her.

"She's coming with us," Joe said matter-of-factly. "In the meantime, could you guys fax whatever information you can from your CSU reports? Thanks."

Nina followed behind them, noting the great care Joe took with this girl. Ordinarily, logic would have found Renee in an interrogation room demanding answers to the where's and why's of the baby's death. But, it was as if she and Joe had the same hunch, that this girl couldn't have done it.

If that was the case, then things just got worse, Nina thought. She put a call in to Alex's office only to get her voice mail. "Joe-."

He shook his head briefly as he helped Renee into the car. "Detective Cassady's going to drive to where we found Kylie," he said. "From there, we'll need your help, all right? When we're finished, there are four siblings who will want to see you."

Fontana handed her his phone after dialing the number. "Why don't you talk to them in the meantime; let them know you're all right."

Nina got into the driver's seat and drove to the park. The crime scene tape was where it was, some of it tangled in the branches. Joe held Renee's hand as they took slow steps to the site.

Renee knelt down, a hand to her mouth as the other reached out for where she had left the bundle. "He would have caught up with me, to get Kylie. He didn't realize I left her here, behind, away from him until he caught up with me in the…." Renee's hand trembled. "I had meant to come back for her, to go back for Keith. I meant to…"

"You meant to what?" Nina asked kneeling down beside her. "What did you mean to do?"

Renee was silent a moment. "I meant to deal with this my way - once and for all."

Nina didn't know what to make of that. By the look on his face, it seemed Joe didn't either. "Think you could help us retrace your steps back?" Nina asked. As much as she wanted to go forward, retracing seemed a better thing to deal with right now.

Renee nodded. On foot, she and Nina walked towards some run-down apartments several blocks away; Joe followed in the car.

------

Alex Borgia tentatively knocked on the office door that was ajar. She relaxed when she heard an all-too familiar voice call out, "Come in."

She smiled as she took the few steps in to the small space – not much larger than her own office, she thought. How two desks fit in here was beyond her. "Hi, Jack."

He beamed. "Alex!" Jack McCoy rose to walk to her; embraced her then held her away at arm's length. "You're a sight for sore eyes." He gestured for her to have a seat. "It seems you and I have been going to different poker game nights. How have you been doing?"

"All right," she said, setting her bag aside after removing a few files. "I came to pick your brain about something."

He narrowed his eyes. "If this is Ron's idea of-."

"Oh, no! He approved of my bugging you….about an old case that you and Serena had." She selected the paper she wanted to focus on. "What do you know about Tina Keith, Jack?"

He nodded, appreciating her getting to the point, as he leaned back in his chair, reflecting. "Tina Keith," he repeated. "Tina Keith…. Damn. I know we joked about how her name would come up again, but we thought we had at least fifteen years before it did."

"What happened?"

Jack relayed the old case involving Danny Ashburn, murdered by his mother, Allison. "Sad thing was," he said, "Serena made it a point to go check up on her, Tina I mean; get her to counseling and see what the best decision was, for her and the unborn baby. Serena would have continued looking out for Tina and her son…. But…" He paused. "It's not my place to say whether or not Tina should have given life to her little boy. I know it was her responsibility to take care of him, like a parent should."

"Oh," Alex said. "Then I guess I was wrong about the Baby Jane Doe deal," she said.

Jack furrowed his brow. "I seem to recall Serena telling me that Tina mentioned she had a new boyfriend – homeless like Danny. That might have resulted in…Have you checked birth certificate records under her last name?"

"Not yet."

He nodded. "Keith. That was the name she gave the boy. Keith Ashburn. He'd be about…five or six now, I'd think." Jack looked her in the eye. "That's not the only reason why you came by, though."

Alex looked down at hands stalling for time. "Guilty," she said sheepishly. "I know I should be able to find this information on my own, but…. I'd rather ask you about them, seeing as how you've dealt with Ms. Keith and all."

Jack smiled. "So, looking at solving the cases before prosecuting them now, are you? Should I start calling you Perry Mason, then? Well, Allison Ashburn got out on probation last year, if I read that correctly. Sad, too, given how and why she killed her son. Lies are seldom a useful thing, Alex, especially in a marriage. In the end, I feel for John Ashburn and their children. I mean, what do you say to a parent who is now on their own to raise a family?"

Alex had a questioning look on her face. "I guess I'm a stranger to that. My parents just celebrated another anniversary a couple of months ago."

"It's not always by divorce, Alex," he said. "Look at that taxi driver, Terrance Dahashi. His wife died before they were to leave the country. I don't remember if he was able to stay long enough for the funeral or if he grabbed the kids that night and fled. His eldest daughter was already established as a citizen and was set-."

"Wait, I thought they had a falling out. Her press releases said-."

"Oh, they had a falling out," he said sagely, "but she wanted to keep the relationship going, out in the open. Her father said 'no' because he thought that would restrict her work somehow, like it did her mother's."

"Was that why she was killed, Jack?"

He shook his head. "No, most reports said it had to do with his political associations, like many of the other workers back there. Really, it was a matter of the wrong place at the wrong time. He did right by his kids, though, that's for sure."

"Do you think Teri will take her younger siblings in?"

Jack shrugged. "That depends on how the will was drawn up and how strong of a case she has should someone else get custody."

Alex's cell phone rang. "Excuse me," she said before answering it. At conversation's end, she asked, "How likely is it for Tina Keith to hide out at her mother's?"

"Karla would just as soon kill her daughter just as easily as Allison killed her son. Why?"

------

Cassady hung up the phone. "They say it's unlikely," she told Fontana.

"Well, so far this whole thing's bloody unlikely. Did you get an address?"

She nodded. It didn't make the pain go away or dissipate the anger she felt or put Renee at ease. If anything, the poor girl's guilt doubled.

Buried in the corner under a pile of garbage was the body of a five-year-old child – that of Keith Ashburn.