A little bell jingled as Erin enter Pat's Pawn Shop. It was a quaint little place, not like most pawn shops Erin had been in where most of the stock was stolen.
"Can I help you with something little missy?" An older gentlemen said, coming in from the back.
"Are you Pat?" Erin asked.
"I am." The man answered.
"Do you have someone called Riley working here?" Erin said.
"I do. She's not in today though." Pat said.
"What can you tell me about her?" Erin asked.
"Not much.. sweet girl, does a nice job sweeping up, keeps to herself, not a big talker, which I like... Why you asking about her?" Pat said, giving Erin a look.
Erin's reply to him was a flash of a badge.
"Huh.. can't imagine that little lady's being in trouble with the law." He said with a slight chuckle. "Look... She's homeless, she works for cheap and does a really nice honest job here. I keep her guitar locked up in the back for her so no punk on the street mugs her for it. I think she's staying somewhere near that junkyard out that way." He said pointing. "I see her coming and going from that area a lot these past few days.."
"Thank you" Erin said sincerely.
Erin walked a crossed the street and through a field before she came upon the junkyard. She did a quick surveillance of the area, noting that there weren't any security cameras, in fact, the whole area looked pretty abandoned. Erin slipped through a hole in fence and took a look around.
Erin was alerted to what sounded like the muffled sound of a car door closing. She headed in the direction of the sound when she saw the person she was looking for.
"Hey!" Erin called out.
Without even turning to look her way Riley took off.
"Hey! Riley! Wait! Hey!" Erin called after her as she gave chase. She had to admit.. this kid was fast. Riley made a hard right around one of the edges of the junk pile. Erin followed but stopped when she rounded the corner for Riley was on the ground, her leg badly wrapped up in some barbed wire.
"Hey, stop struggling.. let me help you." Erin said as she came closer.
Riley stopped struggling and jerking around on the ground and looked up. "I..know you...Detective Lindsay?"
Erin nodded as she knelt down at Riley's feet and examined the sharp wire that was cutting into Riley's ankle.
"Ok, I'm going to get my knife and see if we can get this off of you... I won't hurt you." Erin added as she saw a small flash of fear in the girl's eyes.
Riley nodded before laying her head back down on the ground as Erin went to work. The girl grimaced a few times but did not shed a tear. She was a tough little thing.
Finally Erin cut and pulled away the last piece of the barbed wire. "Alright your leg is free, but I think you're going to need a few stitches."
The girl got to her feet and dusted herself off, as did Erin.
"Come on, I'll take you to the hospital." Erin said.
"Its ok I'm fine." Riley said, "I have some bandaids and some gauze I can wrap it up in."
"Where?" Erin asked.
"Over here" Riley said, pointing to an old abandoned car.
"You keep your belongings in the car?" Erin said.
"I.. live in the car." Riley said with a shrug.
"Ok, I'm taking you to the hospital whether you like it or not." Erin said firmly.
At Erin's change of tone the girl looked as if she was going to take a step back. Finally she nodded.
"Detective Lindsay. Your friend's all good to go." A doctor said coming up to meet her in the hospital lobby. "She'll need a few dressing changes to make sure infection doesn't set in, but we've given her a tetanus shot and a shot of antibiotics to help with that. She'll have a limp for a day or two, but after that she should be fine. The cuts weren't too deep so just bring her back in about 7 days and we'll remove the stitches."
"Thanks so much for doing this" Erin said.
"Oh no problem" the doctor said, "but I gotta ask though... How well do you know this girl?"
"She's a possible witness I'm working on.. maybe hoping to turn her into a CI... Why?" Erin asked.
"Walk with me" the doctor said, "I think your friend has been abused."
"My boss suspected that too. Do you know how recently" Erin said.
"Not for a while, but I found some slight discoloration in some areas of her skin that appear to be old traumas... I took an X-ray of her ankle, just as a precaution to make sure the barbed wire didn't damage anything interior and I found heal hair-line fractures."
"So whoever beat her knew how to do some damage with leaving as little evidence is possible." Erin surmised.
"I would say so... Do you know if she's a member of a gang? She has a tattoo." The doctor said.
"We looked in the small possibility but didn't find anything. Plus not many gangs are running around with flowers and roses cascading down their arms." Erin respond.
"She's also partially blind in her right eye due to some type of blunt force trauma.." The doctor finished.
"Did you ask her about it?" Erin said.
"I did, but she said it happened when she was young and that she doesn't remember." The doctor said with a shrug. "Do I need to alert DCFS?"
"No, she's 18." Erin said running her fingers through her hair.
"Ok, she just seemed young to me. Take care detective."
"So tell me something Riley." Erin said as she and Riley got in the car.
"Ok" Riley said.
Erin looked at her with a bit of a smile, "Ok, so how long you been living on the streets."
Riley thought for a moment. "Nine months. I'm saving up to get a place though."
Erin wanted to asked her how she ending up on the streets in the first place and about her old injures, but she didn't. Riley was actually talking and Erin felt she would shut down if she tried to push her. So she kept the conversation light.
"Yeah, you close?" Erin said.
The girl shook her head "I got a good chunk saved up, but not enough to make a dent."
"You have any trouble out here on the streets." Erin asked.
"Got jumped once or twice... had some things stolen from me when I stayed at a few shelters, been messed with by other people on the streets." Riley said as she turned from Erin to picking her fingernails.
"I get it." Erin said, placing her hand on the girl's shoulder. "I was on the streets once too."
Riley turned to look at her.
"I wanna help you Riley." Erin said.
"Because you think I know something." Riley said.
Erin could hear the defensiveness coming back into the young girl's voice.
"I do... but that's not why I want to help you." Erin said as she brushed a piece of Riley's hair.
Riley flinched at the contacted. "Sorry.." she murmured.
"It's ok." Erin said softly.
"I wanna take you some place safe to stay at... at least until your leg heals up and your stitches come out. Then you can bolt if you want to." Erin said.
The girl looked down at her hand for a few minutes before looking back up at Erin. "Ok."
Erin smiled, "Ok"
Erin put the key in the ignition and picked up her phone.
"Hey Kelly, it's Erin. I have a favor to ask.."
To be continued... :) Hey Friends! Thanks for the reads, reviews, favorites, and follows! It means a lot to me :) Keep it up! R&R. See you for Chapter 3.