Back in the room Nick had sat down too and placed his pad and pen in front of him. He was a much more taking notes kind of person than Olivia was. Seeing how Liv usually took the lead though it also made more sense he took notes while she talked. This was no exception.
"So as I've already said I'm sorry we have to meet under these circumstances. We're very fond of Amanda and we're doing everything we can to get her perpetrator." Bonnie was listening closely to Liv but Jack seemed to be looking everywhere else than on the detective who was talking.
"As my captain has told you Amanda was attacked in her apartment some time during the night Thursday. She sustained a heavy blow to her head while trying to fight this person off. What we haven't told you is that two nights prior she was attacked on her way home by what we think is the same man," Liv knew that the doctor hadn't told them anything about the rape yet. She knew she would have to disclose this but figured she would wait a while seeing how it might shock them and might make them even less talkative then they already were.
"When was the last time you talked to your daughter?" Liv asked and focused in on the mother since she was about to say something.
"I talked to her Thursday. I tried Tuesday but she didn't pick up."
"Okay. What time on Thursday?"
"Around 3 pm."
"Okay what did you talk about?"
"I just asked how she was doing. She was stressed. Didn't have time to talk much. Had some case she was working on. We never talked about her job though. She knows it stresses me out." Liv just nodded.
"So what did you talk about?" Liv could see the mother's eyes turn upwards as she tried to remember the last conversation she had with her daughter. So far she kept her composure. Liv had been afraid she would crack with the first question.
"I asked if she was taking care of herself. If she was eating enough. She gets so wrapped up in things. I've never thought this job was good for her. She gets too involved. She forgets to take care of herself. She gets wrapped up in her own head. Just like her dad," she threw an angry look Jacks way but of course he had his eyes elsewhere.
"She didn't mention anything about feeling threaten?"
"No. No I would have remembered that."
"Nothing about running into someone from back home?" the mother shook her head but looked suspicious at Liv.
"Did she? Run into someone from back home?" she asked.
"We don't know. We think it's linked to Atlanta for some reasons I don't want to go into just yet. Let's just focus on the last time you spoke with your daughter." Liv had seen that look again, the one Bonnie had given Jack just before the interview. She felt the parent's knew something, the question was what.
"Anything else you can remember about that phone call?"
"No. It only lasted about ten minutes. She said she had to run out. I told her to be careful and she said the usual 'yes mom' and then we hung up."
"And when did you try and call her Tuesday?"
"It was later. Around eight at night."
"And she didn't answer?" Bonnie shook her head.
"Did you leave a message?"
"Yes. I told her to call back if she was able to."
"But you weren't worried when she didn't?"
"I always worry but no, I know she can't call me every second of the day even if I'd want her to." Liv gave her a smile. She remembered a time when her own mother too had voiced concern about her work. It was just that one time though.
"Did you talk to your daughter often?" Liv asked.
"At least once a week. It's always me who calls though. Rarely her."
"Has she ever said anything about anyone threatening her or anything like that?" Bonnie shook her head.
"No. I'm afraid I'm not the right person for that. As I said I worry too much. I'm afraid she wouldn't tell me something like that."
"How about you sir? When did you last talk to your daughter?" she turned to Jack who finally met her eye and kept it for a couple of seconds before he looked down into the table. Bonnie had picked up her glass to drink some water but stopped just before she drank and said;
"That one. He never calls her," and then she drank some water. Jack smiled nervously.
"Had it been a while since you talked to your daughter sir?" Liv tried the soft approach to weight up the less so he got from the mother of his children. His eyes came up briefly and he said:
"She called me last week. I was in the car. We talked only shortly." Liv was struck by how soft and appealing his voice sounded. It was beyond her how a man looking and sounding so gentle could come off as so unsecure and anxious. The mother seemed anxious too but still seemed to have a backbone.
"And she didn't say anything about feeling stalked or anything?" Liv tried and got a headshake as an answer from him. The mother made a grunting sound.
"She would never tell him either," she said with some bite to it.
"Then who would she tell? Her sister?" Liv turned back to the mother since she seemed to know the most. She got a sad look on her face though and then shook her head.
"Friends?"
"Well I know she kept in contact with a few from back home."
"Can you give us some names?"
"Sure. Sarah Clarke has been a friend since preschool. They still keep in touch. From college she has Kathryn Beckett who came from a neighboring town. And then there was a Lauren and a Bethany but I'm afraid I don't remember their last names. One of them are here in New York though, she said she met her for lunch a couple of weeks back. Bethany." They got a few more names of people she'd met in the police academy, all were people they had already talked to though.
"What about old boyfriends?" Liv saw Bonnie give Jack that glance again and was certain now that they kept something back. The previous spouses seemed so alienated but still seemed to be sharing a secret. It could just be the fact that their daughter was fighting for her life at a hospital nearby though Liv added to her thought.
"Is that really appropriate?" Bonnie asked. It was Liv's turn to glance over at Nick. They both knew they had to deal with the full extent of the assault sooner or later. Liv drew a big breath and got to it:
"I'm afraid it is because Amanda didn't just sustain a head injury two nights ago. She was also raped." The mother rapidly took a breath and then covered her mouth with her hand as her eyes looked like they would pop out again. The father just got, if possible, even paler but didn't move a muscle.
"I'm so sorry to have to tell you that. Are you okay?" Liv tried a smile to Bonnie whose eyes now got back to normal and she looked down on the glass in front of her. Liv wasn't really sure what to do. Nick squirmed awkwardly in his chair.
"She had a boyfriend in high school but it ended kind of abruptly." Both Liv and Nick got surprised when Bonnie started talking. She still had her hand over her mouth but now put it down.
"She did date a bit in college but I don't think there was anyone serious. She was very focused on her studies. I think she was rather serious with someone at the police station a couple of years ago. I don't know how, or why that ended though. I met him once. By a fluke. He was handsome. Polite. Nice eyes. I don't know why she didn't keep him around," Bonnie's voice had lost that high pitch. She sounded stunned and rightfully so.
"Amanda has never been that boy hungry." Liv picked up on the glance Bonnie once more shot Jack and Liv got a sick feeling in her stomach. Did dad have something to do with Amanda's short list of boyfriends? Liv looked at Jack and felt her fist tighten on the table. Nick picked up on his partners gesture but wasn't with her in what she was thinking. He was mostly thinking that every family get-together at the Rollins house must be like a Wes Andersson movie. Liv turned her eyes back to Bonnie. And if Jack was involved then it seemed the mother knew about it.
"She was nothing like her sister. Justine always ran after boys. And Amanda ran after Justine so in a way I guess…" Bonnie went silent.
"I can't believe she was…" Bonnie started but stopped by putting her fist to her mouth. Liv's thoughts were running wild as the mother took a minute. Could Jade be Jack? Could they have misheard? But he was not the man who had attacked Amanda this time. They had the photo. DNA from the second attack. They would have spotted if the DNA was family related. He had just flown into town this morning. Or hadn't he? Liv tried to calm down. She knew this case was personal to all of them. She wondered if she should take Nick outside for a while and fill him in on her chain of thoughts. Get her own head screwed back on before she continued hearing them. She could not screw this up.
Meanwhile on the other side of the mirror Fin had picked up on the glances Bonnie shot Jack too. He and Cragen had been quiet the whole time but then Cragen's phone buzzed. He checked it and then looked up at Fin.
"No change over at the hospital," he told him. Fin threw him a quick look and then turned back to the interview room.
"They're hiding something," Fin said.
"Yeah?" Cragen looked at the couple too. "I'm picking up a lot of anxiety and then hostility between the two but what could they be hiding that would be significant to Amanda's assault?"
"Something," Fin whispered and focused on the interview again. He knew Liv was on to them.
"During the first assault Amanda mentioned a name while in and out of consciousness. Maybe you could help us with that. Does the name Jade mean anything to you?" Both Bonnie's and Jack's eyes flew up when she mentioned the name.
"That's our other daughter," Bonnie said with some confusion in her voice.
"What?" Liv wasn't following, did they have a third daughter? Bonnie shook her head briefly and then went on to explain.
"Jade is Justine. Jade and Amber. That's the nicknames Justine came up with. Justine was five when Amanda was born and she was a very proud big sister. Our daughters both have family names but Justine started calling Amanda Amber, as the stone. Well it's not actually a stone but Justine thought so at five and since someone called Amanda 'a little gem' she thought it was perfect. Our two little gems she said to us. Later on of course that became solid rocks, two rock solid sister and such things a teenager would come up with. Justine has always been… well she's been living in a fantasy world. Just like Jack. Amanda is more realistic, like me. But they called each other Jade and Amber, still does to this day."
"So they still have good contact?" Liv had got the impression from the previous mention of Justine that the relationship wasn't that good. Bonnie shook her head again.
"No, you see Justine is at a mental institution."
"It's an open unit," Jack speaking made everyone surprised.
"Well it's still a mental institution," Bonnie bit back. She turned back to Liv.
"You see Justine has borderline personality disorder." This time it was Jack who gave Bonnie a look. For Liv this information just got her thoughts going again. She knew studies had shown a strong correlation between child abuse, especially sexual abuse, and the development of BPD.
"When was she diagnosed?" Liv asked trying to keep her temper down.
"Only about five years ago. You see she was a drug addict."
"Bonnie." Jack hissed at her. He looked shocked.
"What? It's the police. They probably have her records anyways. They won't tell your neighbors, you don't have to worry about them finding out." There were obviously some shame issues going on here. Liv had seen it many times before, the 'what if the neighbors find out' fear could keep many folks hiding things they shouldn't.
"When did she start using drugs Bonnie?" Liv turned the question directly to the mother seeing how the dad wasn't that much of a talker, especially when it came to airing their daughters dirty laundry so to speak.
"In college. She got mixed up with the wrong kind of people. We tried getting her help but nothing seemed to help. It was up and down for many years but then finally she wanted to get clean for good and then all of a sudden she was branded with a personality disorder. We had no clue that's what was going on. Maybe we should have picked up on the mood swings in her adolescence or when she started to distance herself from her teammates and dropped out of her sports activities but we just thought it was a part of growing up. She was our first born. We didn't know better." Liv smiled at her since she seemed to need one. Liv had a hard time focusing. Maybe it was a combination of the lack of sleep and the inner turmoil that came with a partner being the victim but she also struggled with the fathers part in this.
"I'm sorry but I need to go check on something. It will only take a minute or two," Liv said when the mother didn't continue talking.
"Can we get you anything? Do you need a toilet break maybe?" she asked as she rose. Both parents shook their heads.
"Feel free to stretch your legs," Liv said with a smile as she headed out the door with Nick in tow. They headed straight into Cragen's office. Nick closed the door behind them as Liv took a deep breath and put her hands on her head. Fin and Cragen had turned and was facing them.
"The father," Fin just said and Liv let her hands fall down to her sides.
"Right?!" she said, happy to learn someone was with her in her thinking.
"You think he did something to his daughters?" Cragen asked both of them. Liv spoke since she felt she was boiling over.
"We know the correlation between sexual abuse and BPD," Liv pointed to one of her fingers and then went over to another one. "Amanda's almost the total opposite. No boyfriends, no promiscuousness."
"That we know off," Nick said and got a stern look from Liv but she knew he had a point. She turned back to Cragen.
"The looks they keep exchanging. The fact he's nervous as hell. Something's going on."
"But he's surely not the one who attacked Amanda now is he? Is that what we are thinking?" Nick had to ask.
"I don't think so but can we just make sure he really flew in from Atlanta this morning?" Cragen nodded at Liv's request. They got interrupted by a conversation that started in the next room.
"What?" Bonnie said with that high pitched voice again. Jack shook his head.
"Now what?" she repeated and turned her head to him.
"Did you really have to tell them all that?" he muttered.
"It's the police. You don't lie to the police Jack."
"No but you don't necessarily have to serve them everything on a gold platter."
"Well excuse me but maybe then you should open your mouth. It is after all you who are the good one at keeping things from the police." Bonnie crossed her arms in front of her and turned her head away from him.
Liv threw her hands out in a 'I told you so' gesture.
"We don't know what they're talking about Liv," Cragen felt the need to ground her.
"But something. But do I focus on here and now or should I nail the bastard?" she directed the question to both Cragen and Fin. Cragen looked to Fin and then back at Liv.
"Leave it for now. Get some more on the sister. If she's done drugs in the past she might be back on it again and that might mean this is her friend from Atlanta that the narcotic squad recognizes. And show them the photo. We'll deal with the father later." Liv nodded and then turned to Fin.
"Anything?" she asked.
"You're doing great. We think alike. I trust you," he just said and Liv and Nick headed back in.