Chapter 10 – Mute Witness
Archie and Sara were re-watching again and again the videotape, trying to figured put what the second voice was saying. An hour before, Archie could separate the voice from the noise underlying. He was playing with the controls with thorough calm, sure of not making any mistakes.
He played again the videotape and pay attention to what was said. It was only like a whisper. "Honesty is always worthy of praise, even though does not report utility, neither compensates, nor benefit" "Confess what you've done or your son will suffer the consequences"
"Cicerone" Sara said in a whisper.
"What?" Archie asked confused.
"He is quoting Cicerone, Archie" He looked at her with and odd look. He didn't understand what she was saying.
"That means, that whoever this man is, he's intelligent or has studied Philosophy" She said without enthusiasm. She knew that this quote didn't have a real signification, but it was something to help them to make the profile of Carl Roth's killer.
"You're not a philosopher and you knew the quote" He pointed with a smile in his lips.
"Yeah, but I studied the great philosophers when I was in college, and I have a good memory" She added with a wink at him.
He smiled at her. That was the old Sara he missed, the one that occasionally flirt with him.
Archie played again the videotape. He frowned and concentrated on the voice. He stopped the videotape after a moment and looked to Sara.
"There's another voice"
"What do you mean?" She asked turning to Archie.
"I think that there is a third voice in the tape." He replied it again. "First I thought that there were two voices, one from the vic and the other one that you just heard, but, the tone of the voice in the spectrograph it's different. Doesn't match the one we just listened. I mean, the quote you just identify, doesn't match the followed sentence."
"Play it again, Archie" She said putting on the earphones again.
"Confess what you've done or your son will suffer the consequences" Archie was right, it was another voice. A voice full of controlled rage. Sara could imagine someone speaking with his teeth greeted.
"Put the voice so that it can be heard at first, and compare it with this one" She said.
Archie did it. On the second screen they had the audio spectrograph. The lines where forming themselves corners upside and down.
"Tell them what happened next!!" They heard again the imperative of the voice. It was an order.
"It's a match." He said to her. "There was another person with them."
At this moment Sara's pager went off. She looked at the message. It was from Brass. 'The boy woke up', she could read. She stood up and told Archie she needed to go and to inform Catherine of her whereabouts. He nodded and put on the earphones again.
Sara went to the police station in search of Brass. She founded him talking to Catherine outside of his office. Brass was the first to saw her, and greeted her with a smile in her lips.
"He is asking for you" Brass said to her.
"Obviously you did a good job with the boy because he only wants to talk to you." Catherine said. "I just been here since Brass informed you, but as I told you, you don't need me here" She said with a smile in her face.
Junior had been crying all the time, but when he saw Sara he looked at her with hopeful eyes. There were many people around and he didn't like it. The only one who he could trust was the brunette that found him.
She entered the office with decision and kneeled in front of the boy who was seated in Brass' couch. He looked at her with expectant eyes. Brass and Catherine were observing her, Sara could feel them, watching every move she made. It made her uncomfortable.
"Hi Junior" She said shyly. "Do you remember me?"
The boy nodded to her. He directed a look to the other two persons in the room. He was tensed, and afraid.
"It's all right, Junior. You do remember Captain Brass, don't you?" She asked gentle.
The boy nodded again. He then looked at Catherine who had a slight smile. He could trust her, but was afraid of too many people. He turned rapidly his head to Sara, and looked her with supplicant eyes.
She nodded to Junior, letting him know that she understood his request, and go to Brass and Catherine.
"We need some privacy in here. Do you mind if I try to speak to him alone?" She asked looking at Catherine. She was going to said something but dismissed.
"We'll be outside if you need us". With that Brass and Catherine left the office letting the door half open.
Sara returned to the boy and seated next to him. She had brought him chocolate from the coffee machine.
"Here, this is for you" She said offering him the mug of chocolate. "It warm you, it's chocolate"
The boy took it and drank a little. His eyes were somewhere, fixed on the wall in front of him. Sara didn't know how to act in front of him. There was an intense silence. She was watching the wall like the answers to her questions were written there. She needed to question the boy so she turned to him.
"Carl" She called. But the boy didn't responded. He kept looking the wall.
"Junior" She asked again using his nickname. This time the boy reacted. He turned to her expecting.
"I need to ask you a few questions. Is that ok with you?" She asked. The boy seemed to consider it a few moments and then nodded. His movements were slow. He brought the cup of chocolate to his lips, when a sleeve of the shirt he was wearing showed a purple in his arm.
Sara contemplated it. She needed to know if that purples were made by his father or by another person.
"Did your father make this to you?" She said pointing the purple in his right arm. There was kindness in her voice, but the mention of his father made Junior shake, dropping the cup of coffee to the floor, spilling the chocolate through the floor.
It was the answer that Sara needed, and that made her mad. But another feeling was there, pity.
The boy started to cry silently and began to shake. Sara took his hands in hers.
"It's ok, Junior. He's not here, he's not going to hurt you. You're safe"
That calmed the boy. He needed to focus on this woman, that woman was going to protect him from his father and the others.
After a moment and when the sacking subsided, she cleaned the chocolate that was on the floor. After that she looked into the boy's eyes.
"I know this is difficult to you, but, did you see your father this morning?"
The boy shook her head.
"Did you see him yesterday?" She asked, trying to put a time line. He shook again his head.
"Did you see him the day before yesterday?" She asked again
This time the boy nodded and began to shake again.
"Did he beat you?" She asked, trying to suppress the rage that was boiling inside her.
Junior nodded again and began to cry silently. Sara put her hand on his shoulder and brought him to her. The boy didn't resist and gave in as his sobs increased.
"It's okay, don't worry. It's going to be all right." She said, but she knew out of experience that it wasn't going to be all right. He was going to be on the system and with luck he'll found a good family, but those were counted cases.
When he calmed down, he pulled back without breaking the contact completely. She needed to know if the boy had saw anybody else apart from his father. He was a possible witness.
"Junior, the last time you saw your father…did you see anyone else?"
He nodded again. So there was somebody with him Sara thought to herself. "Is it was a man?" The boy nodded.
"Could you see him?" She asked hopefully. He shook his head. This was going to be more difficult than it was before. She thought about the tape and the third voice.
"You did very good, Junior" She said passing a hand trough his air and smiling to him. It was a sad smile, because she knew that he had to listen the tape, or at least part of the tape.
She heard someone outside Brass' office. She turned to see a woman in his fifties, talking with Brass and Catherine.
She turned to the boy who was watching the scene in front of them. They could see it through the office window. A feeling of protectiveness started to show on Sara's eyes. She knew that the woman was from Child Services and that she was going to take Junior away from them, away from her. It broke her heart, but it was the procedure.
"I'm going outside a moment." She said. Junior grasped her hand like his life depended of it. He didn't want to be alone. "It's only a minute, and I'll be just there" She added pointing to where the three persons where. "You can see me through the window" She said with a smile.
The boy studied her like he didn't know if she was telling the truth or not. He nodded, and let go of her hand. She stood up and went to meet the woman.
"We are making progress in this investigation, thanks to the boy. You can't take him now" Catherine was saying to the woman.
"I understand Miss Willows, but we need to take care of him, and a police station it's not the place to be for a boy"
"Catherine, can I talk to you for a minute?" Sara asked to the blonde interrupting the conversation.
"Miss…" The other woman started, but was cut by Catherine who just dismissed her, leaving her with Brass and going with Sara.
"Child Services is here to take the boy. Our time is off." Catherine said to Sara.
"I know, but I need Junior to listen the tape" She said serious.
Catherine arched a brown. She noticed that Sara had call him 'Junior' instead of 'the boy'. It wasn't a good sign to her.
"What? Are you crazy? He can't listen the tape. It could affect him too much. You could add another trauma to the poor boy" She was astonished about Sara's request.
"Not the entirely tape, and even less see it. I just need him to listen the voices." Catherine was about to protest when she cut her. "Look, Archie and I found a third voice on the tape. He only needs to listen to a few fragments and nothing else, to see if he could recognize the voice."
Catherine looked at the brunette eyes. There were beautiful eyes full of determination. Sara wasn't about to take a 'no' as a response.
The blonde sighed and looked to the young boy. He was watching them with an intense and haunted look. It was going to be a hell to convince the woman of Child Services, but they needed to try.
"Okay" She said without breaking the eye contact with the boy. "But" she added this time directing her to Sara "this is not going to prove anything. We don't know who the other voice is, neither the second"
"I know, but we may try, Cath" She said. With that she entered again in Brass's office, took her phone and dialed Archie's number.
"Archie, It's Sara. I need you to prepare some fragments of the tape. Just audio"
TBC