Missing

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N:

Chapter 10 (Witnesses and Theories)

"Beck, we need you to think back." Jade sat across from her husband at the metal table in the questioning room. Tori was leaning against the double sided mirror and had her arms crossed. Her eyes were sunken and her mouth was shaped in a tight scowl, but not towards Beck, since he was innocent in all this.

Still, she was letting Jade do the questioning. It was probably better for them to have someone else question when it came to having personal connections to someone, but Beck was a simple witness and nothing more.

"I still can't believe there's a possibility Robbie took her." Beck swept his fingers through his hair and closed his eyes. "It doesn't sound right." He dropped his hand to the table and let his shoulders fall. His face shook with anger and grief, and his eyes narrowed. "But I'll tell you what I can remember. We were hanging out in my RV most of the morning, talking about god knows what."

"If you can remember anything specific, honey, tell us. Every little detail could bring us another step closer to solving this."

"I know. Damn. Robbie?" He shook his head and looked down to his hands folded on the table. After several seconds of intensive thought, he looked back to Jade and gave her a solemn nod. "He seemed to be depressed. He was always depressed, but more so than usual that morning. That's why we were hanging out, because I was trying to get him to cheer up."

Tori pushed herself from the wall and bent over the table, leaning against her arms. Her shadow hovered over Beck and drew his attention up to her. "What was he depressed about, Beck?"

"He wouldn't say." His eyes met her and his lips fell. "He was going on and on about how he had no future, and how his life was over. He wanted to tell me goodbye, or something to that extent and I didn't know what was going on. Since the first investigators never asked any questions about him, I didn't think his behavior was relevant."

"I see." She stood straight and rolled her head back, cracking her neck. "So, he was depressed and distressed, talking about things without telling you what exactly he wanted." It was clear Robbie had been hiding something, because the man never kept quiet about something bothering him. "Usually very open and receptive, but now dodging the issue hand. Doesn't seem like Robbie."

Jade looked up at her, then looked back to Beck. "Tell us about the phone call. Did Robbie receive a phone call?" Beck scratched his neck and looked up to the left.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think he did. He said it was his grandmother and she needed him to pick something up for her. I thought it was peculiar that he didn't have the ringtone set for her. There was a particular tone he used for her, but this tone was just the default cell."

Her stomach knotted up and her hands began to shake. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to find Robbie and strangle him. "He could have been telling the truth, he could have gone to visit his grandmother, but a witness puts him in a dark colored jeep right where Trina was taken."

"A jeep? Robbie had a jeep back then."

"I remember. What can you tell us about his reaction to the phone call?"

"I was focused on the TV, and only looked once. He looked horrified, and then turned his back to me when I had looked. He hung up, said he was going to pick something up for his grandma, and that was it. I never thought anything more about it until I was asked to confirm that he'd been at my place."

"Thank you." She pat Jade's shoulder with the back of her hand and motioned for her to step outside. The woman stood and followed her out of the room. "This is making me sick."

"I feel the same way, I'm just…I'm shocked to think Robbie had anything to do with it." Jade's head shook left and right, and she reached up to rub her neck. "It couldn't be a case of mistaken identity, could it?"

"I don't know. I don't think Trina new anybody matching that description besides Robbie. We need to see if the team working the Shapiro murder has had any luck in locating him."

In her peripheral, she saw Sam walking with her coworker, Jesse, much to her surprise. "Sam? Jesse? What are you two doing here?" She only knew Jesse by seeing him at the department a few times. He and Sam usually came over because a team needed help from narcotics, and their small town narcotics team worked closely with Los Angeles. "Helping a case?"

"Yeah," Sam replied, "We were actually called in to look over the Megan Shapiro murder. They needed help determining if her death could have been drug related." Her eyebrows rose and Jesse looked over his shoulder.

"Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be." He crossed his arms and brought his hand up to his chin. "It does look like a drug hit would be, but I can't see someone on a drug bust going out of their way to kill the child the way they had. Plus the drugs that the team found had been a small amount, and the only amount of drugs in the house."

"No drugs found in the victim's body either."

"It was staged like a drug hit, in my opinion." Jesse removed his hand with a sigh and furrowed his brow. "Cleverly." He looked over and motioned to them. "How are you doing on your case? Sam says you're working a cold kidnapping case?"

"That's correct." Tori nodded and swayed to the right. "My sister's case, actually. Turns out an old friend of mine may have been involved, but we're having difficulty locating him. As a matter of fact, we were about to ask those working on the Shapiro case if they found the victim's brother yet."

"Unfortunately not." He rubbed the back of his head and Sam's lips parted slightly. "We asked the same, but it turns out his family has no idea if he's alive. The only one that could have an idea was his grandmother, but she passed away four years ago."

"She did?" Her voice sank to a whisper and her hand clenched. "Damn." There was no way to question the woman now, to find out if she had called him that day. "Well. Jesse, Sam, if we need your expertise on this, we'll let you know. Doesn't seem like there's any drugs involved, I know my sister wasn't into that."

"Good, then we'll hold out hope that you won't need our expertise." He smirked with confidence and Tori chuckled. It was good to know that these two would have their backs if need be, because at this rate, she had nowhere else to look.

"The only suspicious activity Trina was involved in that day was going to the hospital and a woman's shelter. She was pregnant." Jesse jerked his head back and tilted it to the right. He knew the basics of the case, but not much. "We found her child, that's why the case is reopened."

"You think she's still alive?"

"I hope so. I hope this is an indicator that she is."

"You know, now that you mention it, something suspicious to me-" Tori spotted Gary walking into the building and her eyes drifted to the clock, he was right on time.

"Hold that thought, Jesse, one of our witnesses actually came in for questioning." She smirked and moved past him, her eyes were locked onto Gary as though he were her prey. "Gary Malone, so nice of you to keep your word." Gary turned his head and smiled. She never expected him to keep true to coming in. "Jade will take you to the examination room."

Jade hurried after him and Tori turned back to Jesse. "Now, what were you about to say? I'm sorry about that."

"I was thinking out loud, we have to get going. There's a drug raid we're prepping for."

"Alright. I've got your contact information if I need your assistance on anything. You've got mine."

"Yes."

"Great." She made her way into the observation room, feeling it was best in this case to let Jade lead entirely. Gary could change his answers with her presence.

Gary was leaning back in his chair. His eyes were focused on the wall to the side and his left index finger was gently tapping his the side of his face. "So the first thing I want to ask you," Jade began, "Is where you were on the day of Trina Vega's abduction."

He curled his finger down into his palm and shrugged. "I don't remember." Tori's heart lurched forward and her teeth clenched together. Common in many cold cases was the 'I don't remember' defense, but that was usually for cases that were much older.

"It was nine years ago, surely you remember something?"

"I don't remember." Those who were innocent would remember, she remembered hearing this from two investigators that truly inspired her many years ago. "I might have been driving around."

"Driving around?" Jade flipped through the pages in his file and her eyebrows rose with skepticism. "Any ideas where you were driving to, or where you were driving?"

"You know what?" He dropped his forearm to the table and clicked his tongue. "I really don't remember. I think I was waiting for Holly to pack her things and let me know when to swing by and pick her up."

"So Holly needed you to pick her up?"

"Yes. She didn't want to take the car because it belonged to David."

That was a clear lie on his part, and Tori knew it, but only because she was there at the time. Holly didn't care whose name the car was in, she considered the silver minivan to be her car, and she took the vehicle with her when she left.

She also demanded that David switch it into her name when the divorce was finalized. Why lie about this? Tori set her wrists behind her back and narrowed her glare on the man.

"I'd like to ask another question. Do you know a Robbie Shapiro, and have you ever come into contact with him?"

"I think I've seen the kid driving around once or twice back then in some jeep. Why? Is he a suspect?"

"We are trying to locate him for questioning. We do not know if he is a suspect just yet."

"I see." Gary turned towards Jade and his dull eyes locked with hers. "I don't remember a whole lot, but I've told you what I can remember. Are we done here?" Jade breathed out heavily and ran her hand across her forehead.

"We are. Thank you for agreeing to come in." She stood and guided the man out of the room. Tori turned in time for Jade to walk into the observation room. "He's lying. I can tell. He wouldn't even look at me."

"Yeah, not until the end." It was a shame they couldn't keep him longer than he wanted, but since they weren't charging him with anything, he was free to go. "We need to find Robbie, but since we can't find him right now, we'll have to start investigate what his actions were like that day."

"Beck already told us a little bit, and we know he was outside that hospital." Jade put her hands to her hips and furrowed her brow. "Do you think he really 'ran into' Trina at the hospital, or was he following her?"

"He could very well have been following her. If Holly had anything to do with the kidnapping, she would have to be able to manipulate somebody into getting Trina, because she would know the girl would never go anywhere with her."

"And Robbie's easy to manipulate." Tori chuckled as Jade moved her hand up to her chest. "I know this because I've manipulated the sucker in high school all the time. What are the chances, if Holly is indeed involved, that she was waiting for the perfect opportunity-and when Trina went for that walk, it was the perfect opportunity to call up the kidnapper…Robbie, and tell him to grab her?"

"Do you think he acted alone?"

"I think Robbie was a scared little shit." Jade looked back to the door and pointed out. "I think that man that just walked out had something to do with it, and it's all connected."

"We have to find evidence linking them together. If there's a conspiracy involved, we need to figure out what it is and why."

"There's one thing. If Holly is indeed involved, and she's married to Gary, then he's most certainly involved. The question then becomes what reason would they have to use Robbie, what could they have done or used to force him to nab Trina, and could he still be around?"

"Or…could he be dead?" She pushed open the door and walked to the other exam room where Beck was waiting. She crossed her arms outside the door and stared back at the puzzled look on Jade's face. "Either he's in a ditch somewhere and hasn't been found, has been found and is sitting on a cold case shelf himself, or he's alive and with the kidnappers as we speak." As the thoughts came rushing to her mind, she snapped her fingers and pointed to a doorway down the hall. "And what if the death of Megan Shapiro and her daughter are connected?"

"It's too bad we can't get ahold of Andre and Cat either, because I'm almost certain they interacted with Robbie that day as well. Speaking of which, when did they leave again?"

"All of them left within the year, Jade." She opened the door and Beck looked up from the table as the two women walked in. "Though the strangest thing earlier today while talking to Holly. She had two plumbers over, arguing about tools. They sounded a little like Robbie and Andre, but that couldn't be possible."

"It would certainly give credence towards my theory."

If you pay attention to body language and expression you can tell when someone is lying. Two suspects, both cooperative but one is truthful the other's avoidant. I made the one that was avoiding based off the questioning of a guilty suspect on the Cold Justice episode. A good brief talk with Sam and Jesse, damn Gary's timing though because Jesse was just about to bring up his monthly visits from the mysterious woman at the cafe.