Hey guys!

So here is the second instalment. I'd like to start off with a huge thank you to everyone that has read this story so far, left comments, PMs, and added me or this story to their alerts list. I really appreciate it, massively appreciate it. I really do! I normally like to thank everyone personally by replying to reviews but as some of you are guests I just wanted to reiterate my thanks on here. THANK YOU! Also, to LanaBanana06; yes I am a huge Scott and Bailey fan! And yes, the idea of this story came from an episode of S&B but I've added my own twist to it. I thought the story for S&B was a little too predictable (as most of the storylines in that show are) so I took the premise and rewrote it. God I love fanfiction!

Sooo... I'm now officially on my Christmas holiday (woohoo!) and hope to be able to write more often (around the eating and general Christmas merriment) so keep an eye open for the next update. Any feedback or comments would mean the world to me.

It's almost Christmas! It's amazing how at this time of year, I magically turn back into a 5 year old. Four more sleeps till Christmas! You can probably tell that on the first day of my holiday, I have spent way too much time with my 3 year old nephew... and now we're going out for dinner where I'm sure I'll be suckered into standing in the freezing cold while I watch him play on the swings. The pros and cons of being the favourite aunt/play thing.

Anyway, enough of the rambling cause I could just go on and on and... zzzzzzzzz! Let the story begin already! Ok... here it is!

Enjoy x

Lower than the Ground

"The victim's name was Dorothy Hall, she was 40 years old when she went missing. It was a co-worker who eventually reported her missing, two weeks after the first day she failed to turn up for work. At the time, an investigation was started into the Hall family and after every possible lead dried up, the investigative team listed her and two of her children as missing. From speaking to her husband, Simon Hall, who was 38 at the time, it was understood that Dorothy was troubled and not happy at home. The statements from her colleagues and the few friends she had fit with what M Hall told the police.

"The case was eventually left open as a missing persons file; the investigating officers said they had no reason to suspect Mr Hall of any wrong doing. Dorothy was known to disappear for weeks at a time but she always returned. Except on this occasion."

Sharon strode to the board and placed the magnets over two photos of the basement under the Hall family home.

"A builder was brought in by Mr Hall to fix the ceiling in the basement. Christopher Baines and his colleague, Carlos Mendes, noticed an odd stain on the floor of the basement but thought nothing of it. The basement was old and seemed to be largely unused so they put it down to disrepair. During the work period Mr Mendes fell from his ladder, landing on a trunk which burst open. They called the police when they realised what was in the trunk."

Sharon placed another photo on the board, the contents of the trunk making everyone in the room wince.

"Mrs Dorothy Hall," she said, turning to look at them all. "Two years after she disappeared."

"The officer in charge didn't do a thorough search of the place?" Flynn asked from his seat which he had rolled up to the end of Sanchez's desk.

"It would seem not," Sharon answered. "Dorothy had been strangled; the belt was still around her neck. Her bones had been broken, severed and packed tightly into the trunk. The well ventilated basement provided the perfect environment for mummification. We got lucky."

"So you were able to pull evidence from the body which led you to the husband," Tao said, his nose buried deep in the forensics file.

"Says here he tried to blame his kids," Sanchez said looking up from another file.

"Mr Hall told the police he had no idea his wife was down there," Sharon said, ignoring the disbelieving scoff from Provenza. "Agnes Hall, 17 and Michael Hall, 15, were never heard from after the incident took place. Simon laid the blame on heavy, told us how much the kids hated their mother. How Dorothy was not mentally stable and would often beat the children and force them to take part in sexual escapades."

"Says Hall hinted that his wife used the basement for soliciting," Sanchez said pointing down to his file. "I don't believe what he said about not knowing was going on. How can you not know what is going on in your own house?"

"We didn't believe him either," Sharon said. "The officer in charge took him down hard; the evidence was too strong against him but..." She sighed and turned back to the board. "He never confessed to doing it. Still to this day he claims he's innocent. Blames Agnes and Michael at every chance he gets, telling anyone who'll listen that he's serving life in prison while his kids are out there living their lives."

"They've never been found?" Flynn asked with a frown. She shook her head.

"No record of them anywhere?" Sykes asked, disbelievingly.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he'd killed them too," Tao mumbled. Sharon was quiet for a moment and she looked back to the board where the images of the basement still hung like macabre murals.

"I take it we have new evidence," Flynn said from behind her. She could feel his eyes on her and when she turned back to look at him their eyes locked for a moment. "We wouldn't be looking at a 35 year old case if something hadn't been brought to our attention."

"The Halls had two other daughters, Julie was 15 at the time of the investigation into Dorothy's murder," Sharon cleared her throat before continuing. "She committed suicide five years later."

"Jesus," Flynn said under his breath.

"You said they had two other daughters," Sykes prompted her. Sharon nodded and folded her arms behind her back. She could feel Flynn's eyes on her again, she knew he could see her concern where few others could but she wished he'd stop looking at her like that.

"Helen Hall was 11 when the family was brought in over the disappearance of Dorothy. I had just started in Vice and I was recruited to Homicide on a temporary basis to take care of the two girls during the investigation." Sharon looked down at Provenza for a moment and he nodded at her. "Helen came in to see me today; she's started to remember what happened in the basement."

-x-

"Why now?" Flynn asked as they headed toward his car. Sharon frowned over the top of the car as she waited for him to unlock the doors.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Well," he leaned his elbows on the roof of the car and fixed his eyes on her. "It's been over 30 years. Do you really believe that she was able to burry what happened so deeply that her mind can block it out?"

"It's not unheard of," Sharon said, indicating for Flynn to open the door. "People that have experienced some kind of trauma have been known to suffer from temporary memory loss. Sometimes it's permanent. Helen's memories are returning because she's revisiting that part of her life."

"Yeah but... I just think it's odd." He unlocked the doors and Sharon slipped into the car.

"I've already set up a physical for her and an evaluation session to assess her mental state," Sharon put her belt on and looked out through the front windshield as Flynn pulled his car out. "We'll see what comes out of it."

"Do you believe her?" Flynn asked tentatively. Sharon sighed and looked across at him.

"I don't see why she'd lie about something like this," she said.

"But you have your concerns," Flynn guessed.

"I have no reason to distrust her," Sharon argued, feeling somewhat defensive of the woman she still saw as the little girl she had taken care of all those years ago.

"We wouldn't be having this conversation if you completely believed everything she was telling you," Flynn looked over at her when they stopped at a set of lights. "I can see it's bothering you and I get it. Having a case come back to bite you in the ass is a cops worse nightmare. Especially if it appears that the cops working the case missed something."

Sharon bristled silently, she knew Flynn was trying to make her feel better about the situation but true to Flynn fashion, it didn't quite work. Provenza had cornered her after their talk with Helen and had done the same thing. However, when Provenza swore to her that they would find out what really happened, that he'd do everything in his power to see Simon Hall get what he deserved, it did make her feel better. He'd pumped her with the drive and confidence to dive right into the case again. Flynn on the other hand, made her second guess. At any other time she valued her Lieutenants different approaches, but at that moment, she just really wanted him to be quiet.

"Andy, I know you're trying to make this easier for me..."

"But I'm not helping," he interrupted, giving her an apologetic smile. Sharon shrugged.

"I just want to look at the evidence," she said to him as he continued to drive. "I want to know what's down in that basement and then we can take it from there."

"You got it Captain," Flynn grinned at her. That was what Sharon needed from him. She needed the cocky grins, the smart attitude and the bad jokes. She needed him to be the one she could go to who would take her mind of whatever was troubling her, even if only for a moment. She chuckled and looked over at him. She watched the amusement in his eyes slowly die and she followed his eyes out of the front windshield.

Reporters lined the street that led up to the former Hall residence. As soon as they spotted Sharon and Flynn driving toward them, their cameras turned and began flashing. Sharon groaned and looked toward Flynn.

"News travels fast," he muttered as he slowly worked the car through the crowd of people and pulled into the drive of the house.

Sharon got out and ignored the reporters who were shouting questions at her. She felt Flynn's strong hand on her lower back as he guided her away from the flashing cameras and red recoding lights.

The moment she stepped through the door she felt it. The same empty feeling she'd had when she brought Helen and Julie back to get their belongings before they were sent to live with a relative. It was as if the house sapped the warmth from her, every good feeling out of reach, only darkness and dread was found. She shivered and felt Flynn step closer, his head leaning in to her ear.

"Did it always feel like this?" He asked quietly. Sharon nodded silently and quickly moved away from him. He was hot on her heels as she led the way to the basement. She stood at the doorway and watched Doctor Morales climb heavily up the stairs. He pulled his face mask off and sighed. Sharon felt her stomach drop into her knees.

"We have a problem," Morales said, indicating for the forensic tech that was just walking behind them to bring extra protective suits. He then handed Sharon and Flynn a set of latex gloves and shoe covers.

"Did you find Michael where Helen said you would?" Sharon asked as she took the protective suit from the technician.

"I don't know what we have," Morales said, not giving anything away. Sharon glanced over at Flynn worriedly as they quickly slipped into the suits and secured their gloves and shoe covers. "Dr Owen Horton was brought in when we realised what we were looking at."

"Who is Dr Horton?" Sharon asked as she tucked her hair into the hood of her protective suit and secured a face mask.

"Forensic Anthropologist," Dr Morales said. His own protective gear back in place, he led Sharon and Flynn down the wooden stairs and into the basement.

Sharon paused a moment as she took the scene in. The basement was covered in white plastic sheeting, technicians examining every piece of furniture, every object, every surface. There was a large hole in the centre of the floor, a thin layer of concrete had been cracked to reveal earth buried beneath it. There were two body bags laid by one of the walls and judging from the mounds under the black plastic, Sharon guessed that they had found not one body, but two. She turned to look at Morales's eyes, her unspoken question hanging in the air.

"Helen said Michael had been wrapped in a sheet, from the looks of the first body," he pointed to the body bag on the left. "It appeared to be wrapped in something. We'll need to get it tested to know exactly what it was of course and we'll have to do some DNA testing on the body but we're fairly certain that it's Michael."

"And the other one?" Sharon asked, nodding to the body bag on the right.

"Young male, probably in his early twenties. Did Helen mention any other young men?" Morales asked.

"No," Sharon breathed deeply. "Where is Dr Horton?"

"Over here," a voice said from the hole in the ground. A tall body unfolded, draped in white coveralls and his face covered by a plastic shield. He held a fine saw in one hand, a small paint brush in the other. He stepped out of the hole and moved toward them. "You must be Captain Raydor," he said, handing his tools to the technician closest to them.

"And this is Lieutenant Flynn," Sharon said as she and Flynn shook the doctors hand. "What do you have down there?"

"Well from the looks of it I have another young male; I can't see much of the skull or pelvis so a more accurate age range is difficult at the moment. He's been down there a long time, longer than the two we pulled out first." Dr Horton said looking down into the hole. He turned back and looked at Sharon, his pale blue eyes being the only thing she could really pick out beyond the plastic.

"There are three bodies down here?" She wasn't really asking anyone, more saying it out loud to make it feel real.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there was more," Dr Horton said as if the prospect of finding more bodies didn't horrify him.

"More?" Flynn asked. Sharon turned to look at him, taking comfort in his presence by her shoulder.

"I want to search the whole house," Dr Horton said, his eyes fixing on Sharon as if he expected her to deny his request.

"Do it," Sharon ordered.

"It's not every day that the LAPD agree to such extravagant measures," Dr Horton said with a slight mocking tone.

"Let me deal with the LAPD," she said, glaring at him. "Pull the entire house down if you have to," she said. "If we have multiple murders down here then I want to nail the person responsible for every single one of them."

Horton nodded appreciatively. "I'll have my team brought in and I'll meet you at Dr Morales's morgue in an hour."

Thanks for reading and I hope you're still enjoying it! Any comments or feedback are welcomed, your thoughts and opinion are how I improve on my writing xxx