Gail pulled to a stop in front of Maria Carson's house. She lived in a pleasant looking residential neighborhood in a ranch style house.
"You want to split up? I go right you go left?", Gail asked when they stepped out.
"No, let's do this together. Hopefully we don't have to knock on too many doors."
Gail shrugged and followed Juliet to the neighbor on the left. Juliet knocked on the door and a woman about their age answered. "Officers, what can I do for you?"
"Hi, I'm Officer Ward, this is Officer Peck. We just had a couple questions about your neighbor, Ms. Carson."
"Oh, my. Did something happen?"
"We're not at liberty to divulge any information. But we were hoping you could be able to tell us if there was any other family that lived there. Or maybe somebody she spoke of."
"Well besides her daughter, she lives alone."
"Her daughter?", Gail asked.
"Yeah, Lacey. But she's real young, 4 or 5. I don't think that's going to help you."
"Actually," Juliet said, "Do you happen to know where Lacey is? School maybe?"
"Yeah, she goes to the same school as my boy. He's in grade 2 though, she's only in kindergarten. You want the number for there?"
"If you could," Juliet said.
"Sure, let me get it." She disappeared back in to the house.
"I'm going to call social services, get them started on this," Gail said.
"Here you go," the neighbor handed Ward a piece of paper with the school's name, number and address on it.
"What about Lacey's father? Is he ever around?", Juliet asked.
"No, I've never seen him. I think he may be in jail.
"Thank you," Juliet said. "You've been very helpful. Can I get your name for my notes?"
Gail took the piece of paper and relayed the information through to Children's Services. Back in the car she said, "They're sending somebody over to the school. She'll be in their care until we can find a next of kin."
"Maybe she'll know of somebody. A cousin, or uncle, or something for us to follow," Juliet said, searching for some hope.
The crowd in the ER waiting room was starting to fade away. Some cops had left either back on shift or gone home. The rush of victims from the accident scene had been survived and everything was starting to return to normal there. Oliver walked in and looked around, spotting Nash holding Mia. He walked over and sat down next to them.
"Isn't she beautiful? Mia, you don't look too bad either," Oliver tried to joke to ease some tension.
"Yeah, right," Traci played along. "What a day."
"Yeah. Where's Sammy?"
"They took him to wait in the recovery area."
"Any updates?"
"He texted me, broken arm and leg. No head trauma or more serious injuries."
"That's really good to hear. So, what are we going to do with the little one?"
"Sam says Marlo's on her way."
Oliver nodded and they sat in some silence, reflecting on how they got there that day. "Oh, I got your message, you wanted to run something by me?"
Traci took a moment for her mind to click back on to that track. "Right. Well, Anderson, Epstein, Ward and I had a meeting with Jacob Blackstone today, about the drug dealing roommate case. At the end of it he said he couldn't give us drug squad's files, he didn't have clearance or the squad doesn't do that kind of thing. Something like that. Anyway, he basically told us to walk away and, I quote 'leave it in the capable hands of the Drug Squad.'"
"Yeah, we've heard that before."
"And it didn't go all that well."
"So, what are you thinking about doing?"
"I'm not sure. That's what I wanted to talk to you about."
"You mean, you wanted to know if I could throw my rank around, help out a bit. Maybe bring in Jarvis for some extra muscle?", Oliver raised an eyebrow.
"I wouldn't put it that way…"
"I'm just messing with you, Nash. Don't worry about it. I call over there tomorrow, talk to his boss and see if we can't come to an understanding."
"Thanks Staff. If we don't at least get something from those files, we're at dead ends all around."
Oliver was about to say something else when his phone rang. "Shaw."
He listened as Juliet filled him in on what they figured out. "Good work, both of you. Get over here, you've done what you can. I'll call Price and see if she's got anything." He hung up and dialed Chloe.
"Hey Price, you got anything for me?"
"Well, C.O.D. confirmed. Broken neck from the ejection and impact so no surprises there. Toxicology results came back clean for narcotics and alcohol. So, it really seems like a case of bad conditions and texting that caused the accident. Speaking of which, How's Andy? Dov texted me that she was still awake and they took her to surgery."
"Yeah, they did. A broken arm and leg, nothing else serious so she got lucky."
"That's a relief. Like I can't even tell you the wave of stress and tension rolling off of me finally. It was a lot."
"Listen Price, can you check something in her records? Are they convenient?"
"Uh yeah, they're right here. What do you need?"
"We're struggling to locate a net of kin for her. Do her records list an emergency contact?"
"Let me check. Uhm, …, young daughter, …, here we go. Maybe something."
"What is it?"
"Lists an uncle, Jason Carson, of Buffalo, New York. He's not an emergency contact, per se. But he's the closest alive relative that I can see."
"Good work, I'll get Epstein to run that. You can leave and come over here if you want. If there isn't going to be anything else."
"Yeah, I'll check with the coroner one more time but I think we're done here."
"Sounds good."
Oliver stood up and, after hanging up, said he was going to the cafeteria. He needed a lemonade. And a sandwich, no pickles.
A couple hours later, Marlo had come, picked up Mia, and gone. Most of the cops had also left with the exception of Traci and Oliver. They were hanging around until Andy woke up. She was out of surgery but still under the anesthesia. Sam was now in the recovery room with her, holding her hand. He didn't know what else he could do. Virtually, everybody they cared about was at the hospital at some point today. The only exception being Andy's dad, Tommy. He was enjoying his annual sobriety cruise and would be out of contact for some time. They'd just have to fill him in later. Sam even called his sister, Sarah, and left a message letting her know. He wasn't sure why, but something inside told him he should do it.
Now he'd done everything he could and there was nothing else left but to be here, with his wife, waiting for her to wake up. The doctors told him she made it through the surgery very well. Both operations are, at this point, a success. Now, the only thing left to do was to wait.
At 15, Dov was working late. He had tracked down a number for Jason Carson and informed him of is niece's death. Mr. Carson didn't seem that troubled. He informed Dov that the whole family was pretty estranged from one-another. The news that he had a 4-year old great-niece didn't seem to have any effect with him. Dov felt like he was talking to a complete stranger, not a blood relative. Might as well have picked some random person on the street. Might have even gotten more sympathy or emotion. When he told Gail, who was also working late, she wasn't that phased by it.
"Families can be messed up, believe me," she said.
Dov knew that she had basically been disowned by her family for not lying in the stand during Steve's trial. But the Peck "family" was not the standard for a normal one. The Pecks were a legacy, more than a family. Were. Now that was over, and they laid the blame for that not only at Steve's feet for committing the crimes but also at Gail's for not covering for him.
"Did you inform Children's Services of that? That Lacey will probably have to be fostered, hopefully adopted?"
"Yeah, they're sending somebody over to talk with us and get Mr. Carson's information. They aren't holding out much hope either but they still have to talk to him."
"Well, you can handle that. I'm going home."
As if on cue, Frankie emerged from her office and walked over to them. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah, let's get out of here." Dov walked with them to the front door and through to the reception area just as a woman walked in, stuffing a file into her bag. Dov knew a social worker when he saw one. She looked up and Dov recognized her but couldn't place it. He wasn't the only one who recognized her either.
"Lauralee?"