Here's chapter 8. :) Thank you to those who reviewed! I appriciate each and every review. :) I hope you all like this chapter!
Chapter 8:
"If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us." Hermann Hesse
Emily and David looked at each other, as they drove up the driveway to the Dayton House. Their objective was to pick up Jared Morris. Pulling up next to the curb, they noticed the cars in the driveway and a middle aged woman was unloading suitcases from a black car. Cautiously, the agents exited the vehicle. A quick visual sweep clued them into their surroundings.
The closing of the SVU doors got her attention. She turned, when she realized she didn't recognize the people who were walking up her driveway she paused, setting the bag she was holding on the gravel drive.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
"I'm Emily Prentiss of the FBI, this is Agent Rossi. We are looking for Jared Morris; we believe that he may have some information that is relevant to a Federal Investigation," Emily said, showing her credentials. The woman barely glanced at it.
"He's currently at work." Taking a stance, she stared down the agents.
"What about Nicole Morris? May we speak to her?" Emily continued.
"I'm her Mother. She's upstairs doing homework. You can talk to her though; her room is the one with the Taylor Swift poster on it," Mrs. Morris directed.
Emily and David walked into the house. Turning to go up the stairs, they quickly found the room with the Taylor Swift poster. Emily gently knocked. No one answered, but there was a girl's voice coming through the closed door and Emily gently pushed on it. The door quietly swung open and Emily peeked into Nicole's room.
She could see posters hanging on the walls: X-Men, Finding Nemo, and a close up picture of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine were just a few. The cream colored walls off-set the purple curtains on the window. Right above the desk was a George Washington University pendent and on the desk there was a pile of textbooks and a few papers strewn across the top. It was obvious that Nicole had in fact been doing homework earlier.
"What are you doing?" Emily asked herself as she stepped in. Peeking around a corner to see where Nicole was, she could hear her voice - louder now. Bringing the teenager into view, they could see she was dancing and singing to herself. Emily almost immediately recognized the lyrics as a Demi Lovato song:
"I don't want to be afraid; I want to wake up feeling beautiful today and know that I'm okay, because everyone's perfect in usual ways. So see I just want to believe in me"
Dave moved to interrupt Nicole, but Emily put a hand to his chest and kept looking around the teenager's room. Nicole being distracted gave her a chance to profile the girl's room a little bit.
There was laundry strewn about - a clear sign that they had just gotten back from a trip. Souvenirs strewn on the dresser indicated just that. Emily pointed to the Hawaiian one, and one that was obviously from Maine.
"Weren't there some stabbings in Maine?" she asked in a low tone.
"Yeah, and there was one in Hawaii." Dave pointed to a Hawaiian Lei.
Emily nodded in understanding. Nicole was turning around now, she saw Emily in her doorway and her mouth dropped open in surprise and she accidentally dropped her CD player, it broke open and the ear buds were jerked from Nicole's ears.
"Hi," Nicole greeted nervously, obviously surprised to see strangers in her room.
"Are you Nicole?" Emily asked.
The teen nodded. "Yeah."
"Hi, my name is Emily Prentiss, this is David Rossi; we're with the FBI. Could we ask you a few questions?"
Nicole's mouth dropped open when Emily said the letters FBI. "Wow, FBI?" she asked, "what did I do?"
Emily smiled. "Neither Agent Rossi or I think you did anything, Nicole; we just have a couple of questions regarding a case we're working on. We were told you might have the answers we're looking for."
Nicole shrugged, "Well I don't know about being able to help you catch a bad guy, but I'll try to help, what are your questions?"
"Could you tell us about your trip to Big Stone Gap?" Emily asked. Nicole's forehead bunched in confusion.
"I don't remember going to Big Stone Gap," she replied hesitantly.
"Its right by Jefferson National Forest," Emily stated, trying to jog the girl's memory.
"Oh yeah," Nicole seemed to remember now. "Why don't you two sit down?" She invited both agents into the room.
"Thank you Nicole." Emily smiled and sat at the desk. Nicole sat cross legged on the bed while Rossi remained standing.
"We went a couple of years ago- it was a birthday present for me from Mr. Dayton." Both agents raised an eyebrow. "We share a birthday. Anyways, we were there for a couple of days. I think we went through the park- the scenery was really pretty, but it was boring, too." Nicole paused. "Then we went home."
"Was there anything out of the ordinary that happened?"
"No," Nicole shook her head. Her reply was too quick.
"Try and think anything you saw, anyone you saw acting oddly?" Rossi prompted.
Nicole stiffened a little bit. "My mom was on her period."
"Who are you?" A voice suddenly interrupted the conversation.
The agents turned as the man entered the room. Rossi stepped forward with his credentials displayed. "My name is David Rossi, and my partner is Emily Prentiss; we're with the FBI. We had a couple of questions for Nicole."
"Why wasn't I told about this?" he demanded.
"We asked her mother…" Emily started.
"You," the man pointed a finger at Emily, "quiet." He turned to Rossi. "Why wasn't I told about this?" he repeated.
"I'm sorry for not informing you that my partner and I were questioning Nicole," Rossi replied, taking a subtle defensive stance. His job was to profile and so far his technique was dead on. "We asked her mother and she granted us permission. We assumed that she informed you."
"I'm Jared Morris, and this is my daughter and I would like to be here," he retorted, inviting himself into the room. Stepping over to the bed, he picked Nicole up and sat her on his lap. He did it so quickly that Nicole didn't have a chance to stop him. Once she was on his lap though, she scooted off and shot an annoyed look at him.
"I can sit on my bed on my own, Dad," she snapped, turning so that her back was to the wall and curling up so her body was as small as she could make it.
The look he suddenly gave Nicole made Emily take in a breath; it was a look that she'd received from her own father. One she hadn't liked being on the receiving end of. "You're my daughter, I will hold you how I want," he reprimanded in French, but Emily who spoke some French, understood him.
"We just have a couple more questions," Emily said, "and then we can leave." But other than the look that made her defenses go up, it was Jared Morris's actions that set off the alarm bells. Unfortunately, receiving a creepy feeling from a suspect was not grounds for an arrest. But it was a start.
"She has a doctor's appointment soon, make it quick." His eyes refused to meet Emily's but his tone was dismissive.
"Dad we both know what the doctor's going to say," Nicole groaned, rolling her eyes. Looking at the detectives' confusion she clarified the reason for her doctor's visit. "I think I've got a urinary tract infection. I'm pretty good at diagnosing them; it's my fourth one just this year."
"Well, I just got over one myself. I recommend drinking lots of water, and Cranberry juice is good too," Emily recommended.
"Thank you, Agent Prentiss," Nicole answered noncommittally.
"If you are finished diagnosing my daughter's medical problems, I would appreciate that you wrap your questioning up so we can leave," Nicole's father leveled at the agents.
Emily's eye brows lowered as she looked at Nicole, something was up. She was curled up as tight as she possibly could get. There was something in her eyes. Nicole was trying to tell her something. But what?
After asking a couple more questions, Emily and Rossi turned to leave. Emily dug into her pocket and took out one of her business cards, she handed it to Nicole.
"Here, if you remember anything else, please be sure to call me. No detail is too small or insignificant."
Nicole reached out and took the card, moving so she could stick the card in her back pocket. She got up off the bad, standing awkwardly. "If I think of anything I'll call," she promised.
While Emily talked with Nicole, Dave turned to Jared. "Mr. Morris, we would like to ask you a few questions at the FBI Building in Quantico."
Jared looked annoyed. "I need to take my daughter to the doctor; she needs medical treatment."
"Mom can take me," Nicole suggested. "She doesn't have work until tomorrow. She has the time."
"You need an adult there who has worked with this doctor before." The meaning was clear.
"Half the time Dr. Brewster only talks to me anyway, because I'm so smart." Nicole shrugged. "The-" she paused but quickly continued speaking. "The sooner you leave and get back from Quantico the sooner we can…" Another pause. "We can continue with the film project we were working on last night."
Emily raised an eyebrow at the crypticness of the suggestion. Nicole was taking deep breaths, as if forcing herself to stay calm. The look in Nicole's eyes worried Emily: something was very wrong.
"All right Nicole," Jared said softly, "I'll hurry back."
"I'll have everything ready," Nicole said softly. Emily recognized the tone. While Nicole was saying that she would have everything ready, her body language said that she was not looking forward to whatever their film project was.
Emily and Nicole locked eyes for a moment as Jared and Dave left the room. The teen forced a smile and grabbed a textbook. "I'll be sure to call you if I think of anything else," Nicole assured softly.
Emily felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. She knew she was missing something big, but it was evading her. At the moment all she could do was nod in response to Nicole's words before turning to leave the room.
Shaking her head, she followed Rossi out to the hallway, Jared leading the way
"All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair." Mitch Albom (The Five People You Meet in Heaven)
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