DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.
Chapter 2
Patrol brought Ms. Miller to the PAB and Sharon greeted her as they brought her into the Murder Room. "Ms. Miller, I am Captain Sharon Flynn of the Major Crimes division, this is Acting Deputy Chief Howard, please come this way" Sharon said to the woman and walked her over to the conference room next to her office. "Did you find my boy yet?" the woman asked Sharon as she was crying. "We are currently working on that Ms. Miller" Sharon said to her as she opened the door to the room. "Please have a seat here and we will be right with you" Sharon said and then closed the door behind her. She looked at Chief Howard. "We need to find this kid fast, let me know your progress as soon as possible" Chief Howard said to her and then left the Murder Room.
Sharon's cell phone rang and it was Andy calling her. "Hey, please tell me you found him" she said to him over the phone in a hopeful voice. "Hey, we found the car, it was empty. There's no sign of the kid anywhere" Andy said to Sharon as she looked through the glass window at Ms. Miller who was sitting at the table. "We did find a robot toy in the back seat that the kid left behind. It's the same kind that Matthew has" Andy said to Sharon and she closed her eyes for a second. She remembered Matthew being super excited about receiving that robot toy from Santa, aka them, and then when they got him another robot toy for his birthday, he was overjoyed. "Sharon?" Andy said breaking Sharon's memory and bringing her back to the present. "Okay, LAX is right down the street from your location" she said to Andy. "Yes, Julio and Amy are there right now" Andy said back to her. "Alright, have Mike wait for SID to come there. I want you and Lieutenant Provenza to head back to the office. We need to interview Ms. Miller" Sharon told Andy. "Sure Captain" Andy said. She hung up her phone as she looked at Ms. Miller. They needed to find this missing boy quickly.
Andy and Provenza arrived back at the Murder Room and saw Sharon standing by her office speaking to one of the patrol officers. They walked over to where she was standing and waited for the patrol officer to leave. Andy was holding the robot in an evidence bag. Sharon saw the toy in Andy's hand as they entered the room. "Where's the mother?" Provenza asked her. "She's sitting in the conference room, I told her that I would speak to her when we knew something" Sharon said as she looked at Provenza and then at Andy. "We heard back from Julio and Amy at LAX, no sign of the kid entering the airport" Provenza told Sharon and she nodded. "We need to ask her if she knows of anyone who would kidnap her son. I would like a background check on her as well" Sharon said to the two of them. Julio and Amy then walked back in to the Murder Room. "Captain, no sign of the boy at the airport. All other area airports have been notified, just in case" Julio said to Sharon. "Okay, can you get me a complete background on our mother here" Sharon said to Julio and Amy and they both nodded. "Right away, Captain" Amy said and headed for her desk. Julio followed Amy to his desk and sat down.
Sharon then turned around and headed over to the conference room with Andy and Provenza following her. She opened the door and stepped inside. "Ms. Miller, I believe you know my detectives" Sharon said to her as the three of them walked in to the conference room. "Yes, I spoke to them earlier. Have you found my son? Have you found Tommy yet?" she pleaded to the three of them. Andy looked at Sharon and back at the woman sitting down. "Uh, no ma'am. We are still looking for him" Provenza said to her as they all took a seat at the table. "Is there anything you can tell us about why someone would carjack your car and then kidnap your son, Ms. Miller?" Sharon asked her. "Please, call me Amanda" she said to Sharon. "Okay, Amanda" Sharon said back to her. "Um, well I went through a divorce with Tommy's father about a year and a half ago, the judge granted me full custody of Tommy back then" Amanda said to Sharon. "What is the name of your ex-husband?" Provenza asked her. "Dan Miller" she said to him. "Where is he located right now?" Sharon asked her. "He lives in LA, he should be still at work right now" Amanda answered. Sharon then reached over to Amanda's hand. "We will need his information" Sharon said to her as she handed her a pad of paper. Amanda nodded and started to write down his information.
"Do you think he had anything to do with this?" Amanda asked them. "We need to make sure of everyone that could be possibly involved" Andy said to her. "Dan is not a bad person, he wouldn't do this. He loves Tommy, he wouldn't do this" Amanda said to them. Andy sat back in his chair and glanced over at Provenza while they waited for Amanda to write down her ex-husband's information. Amanda handed the pad of paper back to Sharon. "Here it is" she said to Sharon as Sharon took the paper from her. Amanda then grabbed onto Sharon's left hand. "Please find my boy, he's sick that's why he's not at school today. He needs his medicine" Amanda said to her, her eyes pleading with Sharon. "We will find him" Sharon said reassuringly and then Provenza got up followed by Sharon and Andy and they left the room. Two patrol officers stood outside the conference room keeping a watch on Amanda. Sharon handed the pad of paper to Provenza as they made their way back to the desks and the Murder Board. Provenza handed the ex-husband's information to Julio who then ran a background check on the guy. "Okay, what do we have so far?" Sharon asked everyone. "Amanda Miller, currently resides in the Franklin Hills neighborhood. She works as a secretary for an insurance company" Amy said. "Where does Tommy go to school?" Sharon asked. "He attends St. Anne's grade school. Oh, Captain, isn't that where" Amy started to say to Sharon and everyone else. "Where Matthew goes to school, yes" Sharon finished and then looked over at Andy.
"Anything on the child's father, Julio?" Provenza asked Julio. "He works as a book keeper for Martin and Sons, it's a construction firm located in downtown LA" Julio stated to the group. Just then, Mike and Buzz entered the Murder Room. "Captain, I just came from the print shed and we pulled up a set of fingerprints from the steering wheel that does not match Ms. Miller" Mike said as he sat down at his desk and ran the prints through his computer. "Good work Mike" Sharon said to him. "Julio, do we know what type of projects this construction firm works on?" Sharon asked him. "No ma'am" Julio answered. "Alright, according to Amanda Miller, Dan Miller is currently at work. Let's go down there and bring him in for questioning" Sharon said and Julio and Amy left their desks along with Provenza and Andy. Andy turned around to look at Sharon before he left. Sharon looked up from the paper she had in her hands and gave him a knowing look. Andy smiled back at Sharon and then left the office. Sharon walked over to where Buzz was sitting at his computer. "Buzz, what footage have you gone over?" Sharon asked him. "I'm currently searching the video from the parking lot where we discovered the car, frame by frame Captain to see if we can get a picture of the carjacker" Buzz explained to her. "Okay good. Keep me posted gentlemen" Sharon said to Buzz and Mike as she started to walk back to her office.
Meanwhile, Cynthia walked onto the floor of Major Crimes and entered the Murder Room in search of Sharon. "Hello Captain, I hope I am not interrupting something" Cynthia said to Sharon as Sharon was walking back to her office. "Oh, Hi Cynthia. Is everything all right?" Sharon asked her as she stopped right before her office door. "Yes Captain, I just need to schedule another home visit to make sure Matthew is doing okay" Cynthia informed Sharon as they walked in to her office. "Well, I am in the middle of a critical missing of an eight year old boy" Sharon explained to Cynthia as she sat down at her desk. "I understand Captain. We can schedule it for the end of this week, if that works for you. Either in the morning before you take him to school or in the afternoon, whichever works best" Cynthia said to Sharon. "Um, morning will be fine" Sharon answered her. "Okay, I will see you then" Cynthia said as she was leaving Sharon's office and then stopped. "I hope you find the boy, Captain" Cynthia added and then left. "I hope so too" Sharon said back to her and then turned her attention to the case at hand.
Provenza, Andy, Julio, and Amy arrived at the business office of Martin and Sons Construction. Provenza walked up to the front desk of the office where there was a secretary sitting at the desk. "Oh, Hello, LAPD. Does Dan Miller work here?" Provenza said to the secretary as he flashed his badge to her. "Um, yes he does. Let me go get him for you. Please wait here" the secretary stated to them. "Thank you" Provenza said back to her. Julio and Amy had a look around the waiting area of the office while Andy and Provenza waited at the front desk. A man walked up to the front desk. "I'm Dan Miller" the man said to Provenza and Andy and he shook their hands. "What's this about?" he asked them. "Mr. Miller, do you have a son?" Provenza asked him. "Yes, Tommy" he said. "Why, did something happen to him?" he asked. "He's currently missing" Provenza said to Dan. "Missing? How?" Dan asked them. "We'll explain everything to you but we need you to come downtown with us to our office" Andy said to him and he complied. "Okay, let me get my things and we can go" Dan said back to Andy and then went to close up his office. He then joined them at the front office and went with the team back to the PAB.
The team arrived back and entered the Murder Room with Dan Miller next to them. Sharon knew they had arrived because Andy had sent her a quick text message. Sharon left her office and met them in front. "Captain, this is Dan Miller, Tommy's father" Andy said to her. "Please Mr. Miller, come this way" Sharon said to him and then he followed them towards the interview room. "Have a seat, Mr. Miller" Sharon said to him as he entered the room. Andy and Sharon then took a seat across the table from him. "Where's Tommy at?" he asked them. "We currently do not know, Mr. Miller. We were hoping you could tell us that" Sharon said to him. "How should I know, I haven't seen him since Christmas night when I stopped by the house for a scheduled visit" Dan said to them. "Have you asked my ex-wife where he's at?" Dan added. "We have spoken to your ex-wife Amanda, because your son was with her this morning as they were picking up a prescription from a local pharmacy. Your ex-wife's car was carjacked while Tommy was inside of it and the driver took off in the vehicle with your son" Sharon said to him as she handed him a picture of the video feed they took from the surveillance camera. He was in shock. "What? No" he said. "They threatened to go after me, but they never mentioned Tommy" he said quietly. "Who's they, Mr. Miller?" Andy asked him as he looked right at him. Dan didn't answer right away which made Andy mad. Andy slammed his fist on the top of the table. "Who's they?" he asked again, in a louder voice. Sharon touched Andy's arm slightly after his outburst. "Mr. Miller, the quicker you tell us the names of the people who threatened you, the quicker we will be able to find your son" Sharon said to him. Dan looked up at Sharon and then at Andy. "These people are dangerous" Dan said to them. "Who is it?" Sharon asked him. "Ricky D'Angelo" Dan finally answered them.
"Ricky D'Angelo is tied to the mob, sir" Julio said to Provenza in the electronics room as they watched the interview between Dan, Sharon, and Andy. "Great, the kid was taken deliberately because of something his father did or didn't do" Provenza said to the group in electronics. "I'll look up his information" Julio said to Provenza and then walked out of the room. "The mob threatened you, and you didn't think of alerting the authorities on that?" Andy said to Dan. "What did they say to you?" Sharon looked back at Andy and then at Dan. "They wanted me to help them with cooking the books for their business" Dan said to them as he took a deep breath. "But I refused to do that. They threatened to harm me, make my life miserable. I told him that I was divorced from my wife and that I barely see my kid so how much more miserable could it get" Dan said, fingering the picture now. "Mr. Miller, is the construction firm you work at involved in any of this?" Sharon asked him. He looked up at her. "No, they are not involved" Dan answered her. "This was supposed to be a little side job for some extra money that I was going to receive" he said to her. Sharon then looked at Andy who was staring back at Dan. "Alright, please wait here Mr. Miller" Sharon said as she stood up walked out of the room with Andy joining her. A patrol officer watched Dan as he sat forward on his chair with his head in his hands.
Sharon and Andy joined Provenza and Buzz in the electronics room. "Julio is looking up some information on Ricky D'Angelo" Provenza said to her and she nodded her head. Mike entered the electronics room and interrupted them. "Captain, I have a match to one of the fingerprints we pulled off of Ms. Miller's car. This belongs to a Jimmy Caputo. He has a rap sheet for auto theft, among other things" Mike said to Sharon as he handed the piece of paper to her. She glanced at it and then looked back at Mike. "Do we know where Jimmy Caputo is located right now?" she asked. "No, but Amy is currently working on that as we speak" Mike said. "Ok, once she locates him, bring him in. I want to know where he took Tommy" Sharon said as she started to walk out of the room. "Captain, you're not thinking about taking down the mob, are you?" Provenza said to her as they walked in the room. "If the mob took Tommy, then yes, Lieutenant that is exactly what I am going to do" Sharon said to Provenza and then she left the room. Provenza looked back at Andy. Andy looked at Provenza and then turned around to follow Sharon. Provenza then sat back on his chair and looked up at the ceiling and sighed. He then got up from his chair and followed everyone out of the room.
TBC