Ch 17

Two weeks after Coreen came back from Salem she announced Kerrie would be coming up to Toronto for a week to look for a place to stay for the summer. Originally she was planing on staying with Coreen but her landlord wouldn't budge about Kerrie's dog. Kerrie arrived at Vicki's office in a cab. She trudged up the stairs with her bag.

'You should have called me.'

'Taking a cab isn't a big deal. Before my flight I just booked my spring break trip. Come March 17th I'll be hanging out on a beach in Fort Lauderdale.'

'I hate you. Even though I'm anti Florida that sounds nice.'

'Granted Kayte and Aimee will be there I'll only be dropping them off for their crazy adventures and then I'll have some down time.'

'You really suck, I want to go away but I'm broke.'

'Don't whine, you need to do a better job with your finances and then you can travel and take time off when you want to. Maybe you can start saving up because in the fall I'm thinking about backpacking through Europe.'

'You are out of your mind, but I'll start saving. That would be an awesome trip.' Coreen started packing her things up. 'Vicki, we're going to go get something for lunch. Do you want anything?'

'Just a coffee on your way back.' Vicki had several fliles strewn over her desk and looked extremely stressed.

'Ok, be back in a bit.'

The girls had lunch at a local pizza place then picked up a coffee before heading back to Vicki's office. Not long after they arrived Vicki got off the phone and called Coreen into the room.

'Can you bring these down to the station? They are for the case that is overlapping with Mike's. After that you can head home.'

'Sure, have a good night.' Coreen took the file and shut down her computer as Kerrie grabbed her bag.

The girls got a cab to the station and in the lobby two female police officers were trying to speak to a young girl who wasn't responding. The girl who looked to be around 10 or 12 started stopping her feet and flapping her arms.

'I can help, I think she may be autistic.' Kerrie said putting her bag down and kneeling in front of the girl. She made some motions with her hands then began to speak.

'Hi, my name's Kerrie. What's yours?' As she signed it out.

'Heather.' The girls said softly.

'Hi Heather, what's the matter?'

'I got lost and I want my mom.'

'Do you know your mom's name?' She shook her head no as tears started to fall from her eyes. 'It's ok. We'll find her.' Kerrie said pulling her into a hug.

'Thanks, she wouldn't talk to any of us. What do you need?'

'Do you have a room we can sit in? Heather are you hungary or thirsty?' She nodded her head as the large crowd started to disband.

Coreen was standing by the homicide door speaking to Mike who was watching the scene unfold.

'We have a room this way, thank you so much.'

'Not a problem, I worked with autistic children for three years.' Kerrie sat in the room with Heather who wouldn't leave her side.