FIC: The Hiatus ~ Chapter 10
Title: The Hiatus ~ Chapter Ten
Author: bugs
Word Count: 4,300
Rating: T+
Pairing: Sharon/OC, Sharon/Flynn UST, Sharon, Rusty
Spoilers: Through season 1 of Major Crimes
Summary: Sharon must deal with her past as her everyday responsibilities call for her attention.
Chapter 10:
3:24 AM:
Rusty parked Nick's car and turned off the engine with shaking hands. He'd driven the entire way to Sunset Boulevard in second gear, the RPM's roaring. It had taken longer to arrive at the meeting spot than he'd told Adam. He hurried to the wide street, traffic still heavy at this late hour--business continued as usual, even though he'd moved on.
Javier, who usually hung out on under the streetlight beside Rusty's regular spot, wasn't there. Maybe he'd been arrested, perhaps he'd gotten a real job, or was with a customer. Rusty was glad for the privacy as he waited. Where was that bastard anyway?
His text pinged. He quickly dug the phone out of his pocket. r u there?
yes
come 2 alley
Of course. Rusty took a deep breath, and strode toward the nearby alley. Adam would wait there with his car. After their first contact, he wouldn't chance being seen on the street with the boys. He'd cruise by slowly, signal Rusty, and wait in the alley with his car door unlocked.
Rusty turned down the alley, but there was no car. He was reaching for his phone again when he caught sight of a bulky male figure approaching out of the corner of his vision.
"Rusty?" a man said.
"Yeah?" Rusty replied, squinting in the dark.
"Are you ready?"
"I'm waiting for someone," Rusty said.
"I know. It's me."
"Uh, no," Rusty said, taking a step back. Before he could get any further, he was hit with a taser barb and dropped to the ground, writhing in pain.
~*~
Sharon stared at Elah Cooper across the interview table. Beside her, Flynn shifted slightly in his chair. The legs squeaked on the floor.
"Mr. Cooper, I'm Captain Raydor," she finally said.
"Hi," he said.
She had his very slim police file before her. Speeding tickets and one failure to appear on those tickets that had resulted in a three day stay in Mendocino County jail two years ago. Which had put his fingerprints in the national database. They matched those found on a paper coffee cup found crumbled on the ground with other trash near the crime scene. It wasn't much...
"Do you enjoy fishing, Mr. Cooper?" she asked.
"Yes."
Cooper didn't look at Flynn and his intense gaze stayed locked with hers. She forced herself to maintain the steady contact.
Sharon was still getting used to interviewing criminal suspects. All those years in Internal Affairs meant most of her interviews were with other police officers. They knew all the tics and mannerisms of the guilty. A guilty cop would look you right in the eye like this, thinking it made them appear sincere.
She smiled. "Have you been fishing at the Blackpoint Reservior recently?"
He gave a quick shake of his head. "I'm not from around here. Where's that?"
Sharon had left her phone with Provenza. Had Nick called? She licked her lips.
"Off the 210, before the Grapevine."
Cooper shrugged. "I don't really know the area--"
"You're a construction worker?" said Andy. "Lot of tools in your truck."
They needed grounds for a warrant to search that truck. To see if there was any DNA evidence that Britni Collins had been in the vehicle. Or a saw with blood on its teeth.
"Yeah," Cooper said.
"Not much business these days," suggested Andy.
"Nope."
"Fishing," prompted Sharon. "Have you been recently?"
Cooper blinked once. Sharon felt like she was waiting for her computer to process data.
Finally he said, "I pulled off the highway a couple weeks ago, in the country somewhere. I had picked up a job at this Home Depot, and I wanted to take a piss before I got there." He smiled, a cold, empty expression. "Ladies don't like you to use their bathroom."
"Leave anything behind?" asked Flynn. He turned the folder file before him on the table one turn.
Cooper watched him, then looked back at Sharon.
"Don't think so--"
"Didn't just toss trash out?" suggested Sharon.
He made a production of thinking. "Probably," he finally said. "I don't like the inside of my truck to be dirty."
"Instead you litter so the rest of us have to look at it?" said Flynn aggressively.
Cooper's mouth twisted in contempt and he looked to Sharon for backup. She smiled sympathetically and shrugged.
"Guilty as charged," Cooper said lightly and she realized they were dealing with a sociopath. For a brief moment she really missed Brenda Johnson.
There was a knock on the door and Provenza stuck his head in. "Captain," he said, his hound dog face sagging.
She leapt up. "I'll be right back."
"Hey, how long are you gonna keep me here?" Cooper protested but she ignored him and pulled the door shut behind her.
"Yes, Lieutenant?" she asked.
He held out the phone. "I'll let Nick tell you."
She clutched the phone to her ear. "Yes?"
"Sharon--"
"What is it?"
"I'm at the car. It's right off Sunset, at..." She could tell he was looking around for a sign. "Olive."
"Any sign of Rusty?"
"No, it was locked but the rental company gave me another key."
She shot Provenza an alarmed look. "You didn't open the door--"
"Yes, but I opened the back door to look inside and didn't touch it with my bare hand--used my handkerchief."
She rolled her eyes. Only Nick still carried silk handkerchiefs. "Is there anything?"
"Nope, don't see anything out of place. No sign of him around either."
She held the phone against her shoulder. "Lieutenant," she said to Provenza. "You worked the stakeout to catch Stroh by putting Rusty out as a lure on Sunset?"
"You make it sound so bad," grumbled Provenza, "the kid was never out of our sight the whole time."
"What was the location?" she hissed. "Rusty's usual spot?"
"Between Olive and Crescent," he told her.
She conveyed the information to Nick. "Perhaps he wanted to talk to some old...Friends," she said weakly.
She was startled by a touch. Provenza was squeezing her shoulder and she resisted the urge to sag against him. Something was terribly wrong, but she couldn't think what it could be.
"I'm going to check around," Nick said. "Talk to some of these boys--"
"Don't be crazy," she barked, standing upright again.
Taylor appeared in the hall from the observation room. "What are you doing?" he demanded to know.
"Just letting him sweat, sir," she said crisply, hiding the phone behind her back. "He was getting control of the interview."
Taylor looked confused. "Well, okay. But get back in there."
"Yes, sir," she said, handing the phone off to Provenza before slipping into the interview room.
Flynn immediately met her gaze, but she gave him a shake of her head before taking her seat again.
When Taylor returned to the observation room, Provenza finally had the chance to check the phone. "Nick? Nick, are you there?"
The line was dead. "Dammit," he growled.
~*~
Nick checked his appearance in the new vehicle the rental company had given him. He'd rushed out without shaving or properly combing his hair, and was wearing a polo sweater under a black leather jacket with jeans, but he supposed this gave him the look of guy finishing up a night on Strip, looking for one last piece of action.
Smoothing down his hair, he adjusted his coat and looked up and down the nearly empty sidewalk, bathed in the cool light of dawn. A tall woman strolled before a shuttered nightclub, her impossibly long legs revealed by a very short skirt. But as Nick passed her, he gave her another look and decided she was actually a male transvestite. There was certainly every option out here, and he was playing a guessing game on who could help him.
At the end of the block, Nick spotted a teenage boy in the familiar droopy jeans of young men but he wore only a tight tee shirt in the winter chill. His long black hair stroked his narrow shoulders, and his dark eyes darted, watching the street and sidewalk, searching for customers and cops in the same glance.
Nick slowed down, giving the boy the once over but waiting for him to make the first move.
"Help you find somethin'?" the young man asked, his smile inviting but his eyes blank.
"Actually..." Nick glanced up and down the street. "I was looking for a guy I've seen here before--"
"I'm the only one out here," the boy said rudely. "You get what you get."
Nick pulled out his wallet and removed a twenty dollar bill. "Let's call this a finder's fee. I really liked this guy. Want to see him again."
The boy looked at the twenty, emotions warring on his face. "Who you lookin' for?"
"His name's Rusty. Blond."
"Hasn't been around since summer," the boy said quickly. "Sorry."
"Sure you didn't see him last night? I heard he was going to start coming around again."
"Nope." The boy crossed his arms over his thin chest.
Nick thought. "This was his spot?" He nodded back toward the empty stretch of sidewalk. The transvestite had disappeared.
"Yeah."
"Someone taken it over since Rusty went away?"
"Sure. Spot gets filled."
Nick shook his head in despair. "Listen, if he shows up, give me a call. There's five times this money for that call." He handed the boy the twenty and his business card.
"Nicholas Raydor, Esquire," the young man read off the card. "Fancy." He smirked.
"What's your name?" Nick asked.
"Javier."
"Thanks for your help, Javier," Nick said sincerely.
"Sure buddy. See you around," Javier said with a flirtatious lilt in his voice.
Nick was travelling up the block, keeping his eye out for Rusty or any other young men, when his phone rang.
"Yeah?"
"It's Provenza."
"Sharon heard something?"
"No, she's back in the interview. Taylor's riding her ass--"
"Fucker."
"Yeah. But I've got Mike Tao to get a trace on Rusty's phone. It's down there off Sunset."
"Shit, I can't find him--" growled Nick.
"Stay put. Tao's on the way. He can pinpoint the phone with his fancy equipment."
"All right. Tell him I'm at Olive and Sunset in my new rental car." Nick opened the car's door and settled in the front seat, drumming his fingers impatiently.
Within a few minutes, a car pulled up behind his and Nick jumped out to greet Sharon's detective.
Tao rolled down the window. "The phone's close." He tapped his tablet. "It has GPS, so we can get a pretty decent location. Not just the triangulation off the cell towers--"
"Where? Where is he?" asked Nick impatiently.
Tao nodded forward. "It looks like the signal's coming from down this alley."
He got out of the car and led Nick past another dingy club and down a dim alley which smelled of urine and stale cabbage.
"You got a weapon?" Nick suggested, his head swiveling.
Tao glanced up from his tablet. "Oh, yeah." After unsnapping the cover on his sidearm, he nodded. "Straight ahead."
Nick spotted a dumpster, and his stomach knotted. "Straight ahead," he repeated, his jaw tightening on the words.
He lifted the lid for the detective. Tao pulled his weapon and peered in.
"Not much in here," Tao said and Nick's shoulders sagged with relief.
"No body?" he asked.
"Nope, but the phone's got to be here somewhere."
The men spent a frustrating ten minutes searching. NIck eventually climbed in, grumbling and cursing, to sort through all the garbage stuck to the bottom.
"Here!" Tao called from outside the dumpster, holding up the battered cell phone.
"Damn," Nick said, managing to clamor out of the dumpster with some help from Tao.
"Password protected," said Tao as he tried to access the phone. "Battery's low too."
Nick wiped his hands on his handkerchief. "Let's get back to Sharon's place. We gotta start where we saw him last and figure out what the hell's going on."
Tao raised his eyebrows at receiving orders from a civilian. "I better check in with Lieutenant Provenza," he said.
Nick stopped and then returned, frustration on his face. "Dammit, something's wrong here--"
"We have to follow protocol. It's what the Captain would want us to do. You know her as well as any of us."
As though this summoned her, Nick's cell phone rang with Sharon's name on it.
"Is there anything?" he asked her as a greeting.
"That's my question to you," she replied, pacing outside the interview room. Cooper was being led away in handcuffs to a holding cell while they waited on a search warrant for his hotel room and truck.
Nick quickly updated her. "His phone was in an alley. I've questioned a boy on the street, but there's no more out there this early in the morning. I think we should check his room. I just ran out. Didn't really look around."
She thought furiously. "Yes, you're right. We've got to start treating this like an investigation. I'll get the team together and meet you there."
Flynn and Provenza were waiting as she disconnected the call.
"Captain, I don't want to say this--" Flynn started. "But Taylor's not going to let this team work a second case--"
"I have to find him."
"We understand," Provenza broke in. "But let me be the voice of forty years of experience on the streets. He's had a shitty childhood, was a street hustler, then saw a murderer dumping a body. These sort of kids have trouble adjusting into a stable life. Has anything happened recently which could have set him off?"
Sharon opened her mouth to protest, but then she had to drop her head. "We had a heated discussion last night."
Flynn and Provenza's gazes met over her bowed head.
"He...He said he wanted to leave...But he was going to call his social worker and ask for a new placement, not run back to the streets!" Sharon strode toward her office. "We're going to my place first. We'll search his room and see if there's any clue as to who's taken him."
Her lieutenants remained standing in the hall. She looked back at them. "Are you coming?"
"Yes, Captain," they said in unison.
Nick has let Tao into the condo already when Sharon arrived with Flynn and Provenza. She'd sent Sanchez, Sykes and Buzz on to the hotel room where Cooper had been living.
"Let's just take a quick look around his room," Sharon announced, her gaze scanning her familiar home for anything out of place.
"When was the last time either of you saw Rusty?" Flynn asked, taking out his notebook.
Sharon blinked. She was the witness, not the lead investigator.
"As I said, we had a disagreement over dinner. It was later, about eight. He went to his bedroom for a few minutes, then came out and said he wanted to move to a new foster home."
Flynn wrote this down.
"I saw him sometime in the night," announced Nick.
She stared at Nick. He explained: "I was on the couch asleep--"
Flynn ducked his head to hide his smirk.
Nick still saw it. He continued, "I stayed up working until about midnight. I don't know how long it was, but I know I was deeply asleep--"
"You fall asleep in a second though," Sharon pointed out.
"It was pitch dark, so what time is dawn?" said Nick. "Five thirty?"
He stopped, remembering the scene. "He usually wears a tee shirt to bed, right?"
"Yes." Sharon led the group to Rusty's bedroom. She picked up the white tee shirt draped over the room's chair. "This."
"He was wearing something dark," said Nick, shaking his head in frustration. "I remember the room was black; I only sensed movement--"
"Maybe you weren't that deeply asleep if he woke you up," suggested Provenza.
"I wake easily, particularly if someone's sneaking around in the dark," Nick said.
"He was sneaking?" said Flynn.
Nick looked at the other man for a long moment. "Yes, I guess he was. He said he was getting a drink..." Nick closed his eyes for a moment. "But yes, he was wearing something heavy...A black sweatshirt? I saw it when the door opened and the light lit him."
"Okay, do we have permission to toss the room?" Provenza asked Sharon.
She nodded. "Let's do it."
Sitting in the chair out of the way, Tao hooked Rusty's cell phone to his tablet. "Password?" he asked.
Sharon gave him the password and he began downloading the texts and call history.
Sharon remained out of the search, but paced in tight circles.
Properly gloved, Flynn took the bedside table, pulling everything out and lying it on the made bed. Finding nothing of interest, he moved to the bureau and stacked the folded clothes on the end of the mattress.
Provenza had put on another set of gloves and started on the closet, rooting through the garments and items on the floor like an old dog.
Nick stayed by the door, biting at his thick mustache, tense. His phone rang, startling everyone.
"Yeah?" His expression darkened. "You take the lead, Lola. I'll be in later."
He listened to his associate's response, but jumped right back in with his response. "It's a family emergency. I have complete faith in your ability, Lola. You wouldn't be in my firm if I didn't."
Sharon tried to get his attention, but he waved her off. "Get it done," he barked to Lola, then hung up before she could respond.
He gave Sharon's elbow a squeeze and they turned back to watching the two lieutenants searching.
From the bottom of a bureau drawer, Flynn held up two small foil packets. "Condoms," he said.
Sharon huffed in agitation. "I didn't get him those."
Nick lifted his hands. "I did."
She whirled on him. "What?!"
"Before the dance," he explained. "You gotta understand teenage boys--"
"Did he ask you to buy him those?"
"I already had them," Nick admitted. "And no, I offered, he didn't ask."
Flynn rolled his eyes, and placed the condoms in a separated pile.
"You gave him just two? Or that was all you had left?" Sharon said tightly.
"I gave him only those two. He didn't want to take them, but I told him better safe than sorry," Nick grumbled.
Sharon shook her head in disgust.
Provenza grunted and shuffled backward from the closet.
"Found something?" asked Sharon quickly.
In his blunt fingertips, the older man held up the end of a joint.
"Oh my God," gasped Sharon, "where the hell did that come from?"
"Could it be your son's?" suggested Flynn.
"Well...Uh..." came from behind them.
Spinning on her heel, Sharon glared down her nose at her husband. "Nick--"
He held up his hands again. "Listen it's just some weed--"
"Did you give him that too?" she challenged.
"No!" Nick hunched his shoulders. "I caught him with it about a week ago. Just told him not to do that around you--"
"And you chose not to tell me? I have accepted responsibility for this young man. What if he'd been caught by the police? How would that look?" she raged.
"It was just some weed," Nick repeated. "He said it wasn't a regular thing."
"I don't believe this." Sharon got in his face. "What else is there, Nick? What else haven't you told me...As usual!"
"Nothing! There's nothing!" insisted Nick. "I know this looks bad, but it's just usual teenage boy shit. I'm sure when you check the laptop, there'll be some porn!"
"Not the laptop," Tao said from behind him, his tone deadly. "His phone."
They gathered around the chair to view the tablet's screen. When Sharon saw the image of Rusty, naked, engaged in a sexual act with another boy, she gagged.
Nick grabbed her, pulling her away. "Son of a bitch, bud," he growled at Tao.
"Sorry," Tao said quickly. "I forgot we're not on a case."
"But we are," Flynn said grimly. "Walk us through this, Mike."
"Okay," said Tao, recovering. "The photo was deleted, but I retrieved it. It was sent yesterday by this phone number--" He pointed to the screen. "Just a preliminary scan, but it seems to be the first contact with this number, which is not in his address book. I'm also checking..." He pulled up another tab on his browser. "--it's a disposable. Not assigned to any credit card."
"Oh, this isn't sounding good," said Provenza, then quickly shot Sharon a worried look, realizing he wasn't talking about just any case.
"There's only two calls, and a few texts. The second call is around eight last night--" He glanced up. "That's when you said he came out of the bedroom and said he that he wanted to move out, right?"
Sharon nodded,wrapping her arms tightly around her waist.
Tao continued: "The last communication is at 3:32 this morning and it sounds like Rusty is lured into that alley where we found the phone." Tao read the exchange of texts from the morning.
Sharon put a shaking hand over her mouth, fighting nausea again. "My God," she whispered. "Who could this be?"
Squinting, Provenza looked at the photograph again. "Could you enlarge the faces, Tao," he asked. "I don't want to see anything below the waist," he insisted.
Examining at the other boy's face, he said, "This guy doesn't look any older than fourteen or fifteen himself. I can't see him tracking down Rusty."
Sharon forced herself to refocus. "Yes, how would this boy find Rusty? He's been in protective custody since he was released from the hospital. He's been attending a private school which doesn't have to report its student rolls. This phone is under my name. How could anyone get his number?" She looked at Tao. "You're saying this number contacts Rusty first?"
"Yes."
She looked to Nick next. "I would swear that Rusty hasn't had any contact with anyone outside of school who I don't know. Have you seen him with anyone? Has he told you about anybody?"
"Me?" said Nick with a chuckle. "He only tolerates me because of you. He's not telling me about any of his friends."
"I thought--" She waved her hand at the evidence on the bed.
"This is all I know about, I swear," Nick promised her.
Provenza read through the text messages again. "I hate to say it again, but I'm gonna, because this is what Taylor would say. You've got a street kid who was hiding stuff from you. Maybe he's just taken off--"
Before Sharon could protest, Nick stepped forward. "He was a smart street kid," he pointed out. "He took care of himself, but if he decided to go back to that life, why didn't he take his backpack--" He nodded toward the worn bag by the door. "Or his chess set. That's his most treasured possession." He slipped his arm around Sharon's waist. "He wouldn't have left without his things. He wouldn't have left you," he said to her.
"I don't know--" She stared at the joint. "I wouldn't have thought he'd do drugs--"
"He wasn't 'doing drugs'," Nick insisted. "He got wasted one afternoon."
"But if he was in some sort of trouble...Why didn't he come to me..." She looked at Andy. "Or to you--Provenza?"
Nick tried to calm her. "Okay, that may be my fault. He's been after me to get out of here, and I keep telling him that he better be ready to step up and protect you--"
"What!?" she yelled at him again. "What the hell are you talking about?"
He shook his head. "If he were in some sort of trouble, I can imagine he thought he had to handle it himself. I just didn't think--"
"That's it, Nick! You didn't think! Again!" she spat at him.
"Hey, hey," broke in Provenza. "You gotta understand how men's minds work, Captain."
She glared at him and he took a step back.
Andy dared to speak up. "Listen, I'm the last one to defend Raydor, but I don't think you can put this all on him."
Nick rolled his eyes.
Flynn ignored him. "I know this kid pretty well, and hell, know too many women like his mother. His whole life, he's had to take care of her. That's fifteen years of training you've got to break, Sharon."
She conceded the point with a short nod.
"He's gotten into some shit with someone. And instead of bringing it to you, he thought he could handle it himself," Flynn said, frustrated.
"But who..." Sharon squared her shoulders and stepped over to the chair where Tao still sat. "Let me see that again, Lieutenant."
Tao held up the tablet for her. She slid the scroll bar down, moving the image down from the faces to the legs. She took a deep breath. "This was taken before he was attacked by Philip Stroh. There's no scar on his calf."
Provenza and Flynn leaned in to check.
"Son of a bitch," said Provenza.
Sharon's face went white. "Stroh--"
"We would have been notified if they released him on bail. I know his attorney's been petitioning the courts for weeks, but haven't heard he's gotten any judge to let him out," insisted Flynn.
"I'll double-check that," said Provenza, digging out his phone.
Sharon nodded, still staring at Rusty's bare leg.
"I say you start with his classmates," said Nick, "those are the only people he's in regular contact with, and you don't know all of them--"
"It's going to be a lot of time, and we're going to need some warrants," Tao pointed out. "I'll try to trace this caller."
"Stroh's still locked up," reported Provenza. "Not to say he couldn't get someone to go after Rusty."
Buoyed by the support of her squad and Nick, Sharon placed her hands on her hips. "Exactly. Rusty is an important material witness in a murder trial. Philip Stroh has used surrogates to perpetuate his crimes before."
There was a knock on the front door.
"I'll get that," said Nick. He hurried to the door and flung it open.
Taylor looked over his shoulder. "I seem to have misplaced my Major Crimes squad. Are they here?" he asked, his tone deadly.
~ end Chapter 10
Author: bugs
Word Count: 4,300
Rating: T+
Pairing: Sharon/OC, Sharon/Flynn UST, Sharon, Rusty
Spoilers: Through season 1 of Major Crimes
Summary: Sharon must deal with her past as her everyday responsibilities call for her attention.
Chapter 10:
3:24 AM:
Rusty parked Nick's car and turned off the engine with shaking hands. He'd driven the entire way to Sunset Boulevard in second gear, the RPM's roaring. It had taken longer to arrive at the meeting spot than he'd told Adam. He hurried to the wide street, traffic still heavy at this late hour--business continued as usual, even though he'd moved on.
Javier, who usually hung out on under the streetlight beside Rusty's regular spot, wasn't there. Maybe he'd been arrested, perhaps he'd gotten a real job, or was with a customer. Rusty was glad for the privacy as he waited. Where was that bastard anyway?
His text pinged. He quickly dug the phone out of his pocket. r u there?
yes
come 2 alley
Of course. Rusty took a deep breath, and strode toward the nearby alley. Adam would wait there with his car. After their first contact, he wouldn't chance being seen on the street with the boys. He'd cruise by slowly, signal Rusty, and wait in the alley with his car door unlocked.
Rusty turned down the alley, but there was no car. He was reaching for his phone again when he caught sight of a bulky male figure approaching out of the corner of his vision.
"Rusty?" a man said.
"Yeah?" Rusty replied, squinting in the dark.
"Are you ready?"
"I'm waiting for someone," Rusty said.
"I know. It's me."
"Uh, no," Rusty said, taking a step back. Before he could get any further, he was hit with a taser barb and dropped to the ground, writhing in pain.
~*~
Sharon stared at Elah Cooper across the interview table. Beside her, Flynn shifted slightly in his chair. The legs squeaked on the floor.
"Mr. Cooper, I'm Captain Raydor," she finally said.
"Hi," he said.
She had his very slim police file before her. Speeding tickets and one failure to appear on those tickets that had resulted in a three day stay in Mendocino County jail two years ago. Which had put his fingerprints in the national database. They matched those found on a paper coffee cup found crumbled on the ground with other trash near the crime scene. It wasn't much...
"Do you enjoy fishing, Mr. Cooper?" she asked.
"Yes."
Cooper didn't look at Flynn and his intense gaze stayed locked with hers. She forced herself to maintain the steady contact.
Sharon was still getting used to interviewing criminal suspects. All those years in Internal Affairs meant most of her interviews were with other police officers. They knew all the tics and mannerisms of the guilty. A guilty cop would look you right in the eye like this, thinking it made them appear sincere.
She smiled. "Have you been fishing at the Blackpoint Reservior recently?"
He gave a quick shake of his head. "I'm not from around here. Where's that?"
Sharon had left her phone with Provenza. Had Nick called? She licked her lips.
"Off the 210, before the Grapevine."
Cooper shrugged. "I don't really know the area--"
"You're a construction worker?" said Andy. "Lot of tools in your truck."
They needed grounds for a warrant to search that truck. To see if there was any DNA evidence that Britni Collins had been in the vehicle. Or a saw with blood on its teeth.
"Yeah," Cooper said.
"Not much business these days," suggested Andy.
"Nope."
"Fishing," prompted Sharon. "Have you been recently?"
Cooper blinked once. Sharon felt like she was waiting for her computer to process data.
Finally he said, "I pulled off the highway a couple weeks ago, in the country somewhere. I had picked up a job at this Home Depot, and I wanted to take a piss before I got there." He smiled, a cold, empty expression. "Ladies don't like you to use their bathroom."
"Leave anything behind?" asked Flynn. He turned the folder file before him on the table one turn.
Cooper watched him, then looked back at Sharon.
"Don't think so--"
"Didn't just toss trash out?" suggested Sharon.
He made a production of thinking. "Probably," he finally said. "I don't like the inside of my truck to be dirty."
"Instead you litter so the rest of us have to look at it?" said Flynn aggressively.
Cooper's mouth twisted in contempt and he looked to Sharon for backup. She smiled sympathetically and shrugged.
"Guilty as charged," Cooper said lightly and she realized they were dealing with a sociopath. For a brief moment she really missed Brenda Johnson.
There was a knock on the door and Provenza stuck his head in. "Captain," he said, his hound dog face sagging.
She leapt up. "I'll be right back."
"Hey, how long are you gonna keep me here?" Cooper protested but she ignored him and pulled the door shut behind her.
"Yes, Lieutenant?" she asked.
He held out the phone. "I'll let Nick tell you."
She clutched the phone to her ear. "Yes?"
"Sharon--"
"What is it?"
"I'm at the car. It's right off Sunset, at..." She could tell he was looking around for a sign. "Olive."
"Any sign of Rusty?"
"No, it was locked but the rental company gave me another key."
She shot Provenza an alarmed look. "You didn't open the door--"
"Yes, but I opened the back door to look inside and didn't touch it with my bare hand--used my handkerchief."
She rolled her eyes. Only Nick still carried silk handkerchiefs. "Is there anything?"
"Nope, don't see anything out of place. No sign of him around either."
She held the phone against her shoulder. "Lieutenant," she said to Provenza. "You worked the stakeout to catch Stroh by putting Rusty out as a lure on Sunset?"
"You make it sound so bad," grumbled Provenza, "the kid was never out of our sight the whole time."
"What was the location?" she hissed. "Rusty's usual spot?"
"Between Olive and Crescent," he told her.
She conveyed the information to Nick. "Perhaps he wanted to talk to some old...Friends," she said weakly.
She was startled by a touch. Provenza was squeezing her shoulder and she resisted the urge to sag against him. Something was terribly wrong, but she couldn't think what it could be.
"I'm going to check around," Nick said. "Talk to some of these boys--"
"Don't be crazy," she barked, standing upright again.
Taylor appeared in the hall from the observation room. "What are you doing?" he demanded to know.
"Just letting him sweat, sir," she said crisply, hiding the phone behind her back. "He was getting control of the interview."
Taylor looked confused. "Well, okay. But get back in there."
"Yes, sir," she said, handing the phone off to Provenza before slipping into the interview room.
Flynn immediately met her gaze, but she gave him a shake of her head before taking her seat again.
When Taylor returned to the observation room, Provenza finally had the chance to check the phone. "Nick? Nick, are you there?"
The line was dead. "Dammit," he growled.
~*~
Nick checked his appearance in the new vehicle the rental company had given him. He'd rushed out without shaving or properly combing his hair, and was wearing a polo sweater under a black leather jacket with jeans, but he supposed this gave him the look of guy finishing up a night on Strip, looking for one last piece of action.
Smoothing down his hair, he adjusted his coat and looked up and down the nearly empty sidewalk, bathed in the cool light of dawn. A tall woman strolled before a shuttered nightclub, her impossibly long legs revealed by a very short skirt. But as Nick passed her, he gave her another look and decided she was actually a male transvestite. There was certainly every option out here, and he was playing a guessing game on who could help him.
At the end of the block, Nick spotted a teenage boy in the familiar droopy jeans of young men but he wore only a tight tee shirt in the winter chill. His long black hair stroked his narrow shoulders, and his dark eyes darted, watching the street and sidewalk, searching for customers and cops in the same glance.
Nick slowed down, giving the boy the once over but waiting for him to make the first move.
"Help you find somethin'?" the young man asked, his smile inviting but his eyes blank.
"Actually..." Nick glanced up and down the street. "I was looking for a guy I've seen here before--"
"I'm the only one out here," the boy said rudely. "You get what you get."
Nick pulled out his wallet and removed a twenty dollar bill. "Let's call this a finder's fee. I really liked this guy. Want to see him again."
The boy looked at the twenty, emotions warring on his face. "Who you lookin' for?"
"His name's Rusty. Blond."
"Hasn't been around since summer," the boy said quickly. "Sorry."
"Sure you didn't see him last night? I heard he was going to start coming around again."
"Nope." The boy crossed his arms over his thin chest.
Nick thought. "This was his spot?" He nodded back toward the empty stretch of sidewalk. The transvestite had disappeared.
"Yeah."
"Someone taken it over since Rusty went away?"
"Sure. Spot gets filled."
Nick shook his head in despair. "Listen, if he shows up, give me a call. There's five times this money for that call." He handed the boy the twenty and his business card.
"Nicholas Raydor, Esquire," the young man read off the card. "Fancy." He smirked.
"What's your name?" Nick asked.
"Javier."
"Thanks for your help, Javier," Nick said sincerely.
"Sure buddy. See you around," Javier said with a flirtatious lilt in his voice.
Nick was travelling up the block, keeping his eye out for Rusty or any other young men, when his phone rang.
"Yeah?"
"It's Provenza."
"Sharon heard something?"
"No, she's back in the interview. Taylor's riding her ass--"
"Fucker."
"Yeah. But I've got Mike Tao to get a trace on Rusty's phone. It's down there off Sunset."
"Shit, I can't find him--" growled Nick.
"Stay put. Tao's on the way. He can pinpoint the phone with his fancy equipment."
"All right. Tell him I'm at Olive and Sunset in my new rental car." Nick opened the car's door and settled in the front seat, drumming his fingers impatiently.
Within a few minutes, a car pulled up behind his and Nick jumped out to greet Sharon's detective.
Tao rolled down the window. "The phone's close." He tapped his tablet. "It has GPS, so we can get a pretty decent location. Not just the triangulation off the cell towers--"
"Where? Where is he?" asked Nick impatiently.
Tao nodded forward. "It looks like the signal's coming from down this alley."
He got out of the car and led Nick past another dingy club and down a dim alley which smelled of urine and stale cabbage.
"You got a weapon?" Nick suggested, his head swiveling.
Tao glanced up from his tablet. "Oh, yeah." After unsnapping the cover on his sidearm, he nodded. "Straight ahead."
Nick spotted a dumpster, and his stomach knotted. "Straight ahead," he repeated, his jaw tightening on the words.
He lifted the lid for the detective. Tao pulled his weapon and peered in.
"Not much in here," Tao said and Nick's shoulders sagged with relief.
"No body?" he asked.
"Nope, but the phone's got to be here somewhere."
The men spent a frustrating ten minutes searching. NIck eventually climbed in, grumbling and cursing, to sort through all the garbage stuck to the bottom.
"Here!" Tao called from outside the dumpster, holding up the battered cell phone.
"Damn," Nick said, managing to clamor out of the dumpster with some help from Tao.
"Password protected," said Tao as he tried to access the phone. "Battery's low too."
Nick wiped his hands on his handkerchief. "Let's get back to Sharon's place. We gotta start where we saw him last and figure out what the hell's going on."
Tao raised his eyebrows at receiving orders from a civilian. "I better check in with Lieutenant Provenza," he said.
Nick stopped and then returned, frustration on his face. "Dammit, something's wrong here--"
"We have to follow protocol. It's what the Captain would want us to do. You know her as well as any of us."
As though this summoned her, Nick's cell phone rang with Sharon's name on it.
"Is there anything?" he asked her as a greeting.
"That's my question to you," she replied, pacing outside the interview room. Cooper was being led away in handcuffs to a holding cell while they waited on a search warrant for his hotel room and truck.
Nick quickly updated her. "His phone was in an alley. I've questioned a boy on the street, but there's no more out there this early in the morning. I think we should check his room. I just ran out. Didn't really look around."
She thought furiously. "Yes, you're right. We've got to start treating this like an investigation. I'll get the team together and meet you there."
Flynn and Provenza were waiting as she disconnected the call.
"Captain, I don't want to say this--" Flynn started. "But Taylor's not going to let this team work a second case--"
"I have to find him."
"We understand," Provenza broke in. "But let me be the voice of forty years of experience on the streets. He's had a shitty childhood, was a street hustler, then saw a murderer dumping a body. These sort of kids have trouble adjusting into a stable life. Has anything happened recently which could have set him off?"
Sharon opened her mouth to protest, but then she had to drop her head. "We had a heated discussion last night."
Flynn and Provenza's gazes met over her bowed head.
"He...He said he wanted to leave...But he was going to call his social worker and ask for a new placement, not run back to the streets!" Sharon strode toward her office. "We're going to my place first. We'll search his room and see if there's any clue as to who's taken him."
Her lieutenants remained standing in the hall. She looked back at them. "Are you coming?"
"Yes, Captain," they said in unison.
Nick has let Tao into the condo already when Sharon arrived with Flynn and Provenza. She'd sent Sanchez, Sykes and Buzz on to the hotel room where Cooper had been living.
"Let's just take a quick look around his room," Sharon announced, her gaze scanning her familiar home for anything out of place.
"When was the last time either of you saw Rusty?" Flynn asked, taking out his notebook.
Sharon blinked. She was the witness, not the lead investigator.
"As I said, we had a disagreement over dinner. It was later, about eight. He went to his bedroom for a few minutes, then came out and said he wanted to move to a new foster home."
Flynn wrote this down.
"I saw him sometime in the night," announced Nick.
She stared at Nick. He explained: "I was on the couch asleep--"
Flynn ducked his head to hide his smirk.
Nick still saw it. He continued, "I stayed up working until about midnight. I don't know how long it was, but I know I was deeply asleep--"
"You fall asleep in a second though," Sharon pointed out.
"It was pitch dark, so what time is dawn?" said Nick. "Five thirty?"
He stopped, remembering the scene. "He usually wears a tee shirt to bed, right?"
"Yes." Sharon led the group to Rusty's bedroom. She picked up the white tee shirt draped over the room's chair. "This."
"He was wearing something dark," said Nick, shaking his head in frustration. "I remember the room was black; I only sensed movement--"
"Maybe you weren't that deeply asleep if he woke you up," suggested Provenza.
"I wake easily, particularly if someone's sneaking around in the dark," Nick said.
"He was sneaking?" said Flynn.
Nick looked at the other man for a long moment. "Yes, I guess he was. He said he was getting a drink..." Nick closed his eyes for a moment. "But yes, he was wearing something heavy...A black sweatshirt? I saw it when the door opened and the light lit him."
"Okay, do we have permission to toss the room?" Provenza asked Sharon.
She nodded. "Let's do it."
Sitting in the chair out of the way, Tao hooked Rusty's cell phone to his tablet. "Password?" he asked.
Sharon gave him the password and he began downloading the texts and call history.
Sharon remained out of the search, but paced in tight circles.
Properly gloved, Flynn took the bedside table, pulling everything out and lying it on the made bed. Finding nothing of interest, he moved to the bureau and stacked the folded clothes on the end of the mattress.
Provenza had put on another set of gloves and started on the closet, rooting through the garments and items on the floor like an old dog.
Nick stayed by the door, biting at his thick mustache, tense. His phone rang, startling everyone.
"Yeah?" His expression darkened. "You take the lead, Lola. I'll be in later."
He listened to his associate's response, but jumped right back in with his response. "It's a family emergency. I have complete faith in your ability, Lola. You wouldn't be in my firm if I didn't."
Sharon tried to get his attention, but he waved her off. "Get it done," he barked to Lola, then hung up before she could respond.
He gave Sharon's elbow a squeeze and they turned back to watching the two lieutenants searching.
From the bottom of a bureau drawer, Flynn held up two small foil packets. "Condoms," he said.
Sharon huffed in agitation. "I didn't get him those."
Nick lifted his hands. "I did."
She whirled on him. "What?!"
"Before the dance," he explained. "You gotta understand teenage boys--"
"Did he ask you to buy him those?"
"I already had them," Nick admitted. "And no, I offered, he didn't ask."
Flynn rolled his eyes, and placed the condoms in a separated pile.
"You gave him just two? Or that was all you had left?" Sharon said tightly.
"I gave him only those two. He didn't want to take them, but I told him better safe than sorry," Nick grumbled.
Sharon shook her head in disgust.
Provenza grunted and shuffled backward from the closet.
"Found something?" asked Sharon quickly.
In his blunt fingertips, the older man held up the end of a joint.
"Oh my God," gasped Sharon, "where the hell did that come from?"
"Could it be your son's?" suggested Flynn.
"Well...Uh..." came from behind them.
Spinning on her heel, Sharon glared down her nose at her husband. "Nick--"
He held up his hands again. "Listen it's just some weed--"
"Did you give him that too?" she challenged.
"No!" Nick hunched his shoulders. "I caught him with it about a week ago. Just told him not to do that around you--"
"And you chose not to tell me? I have accepted responsibility for this young man. What if he'd been caught by the police? How would that look?" she raged.
"It was just some weed," Nick repeated. "He said it wasn't a regular thing."
"I don't believe this." Sharon got in his face. "What else is there, Nick? What else haven't you told me...As usual!"
"Nothing! There's nothing!" insisted Nick. "I know this looks bad, but it's just usual teenage boy shit. I'm sure when you check the laptop, there'll be some porn!"
"Not the laptop," Tao said from behind him, his tone deadly. "His phone."
They gathered around the chair to view the tablet's screen. When Sharon saw the image of Rusty, naked, engaged in a sexual act with another boy, she gagged.
Nick grabbed her, pulling her away. "Son of a bitch, bud," he growled at Tao.
"Sorry," Tao said quickly. "I forgot we're not on a case."
"But we are," Flynn said grimly. "Walk us through this, Mike."
"Okay," said Tao, recovering. "The photo was deleted, but I retrieved it. It was sent yesterday by this phone number--" He pointed to the screen. "Just a preliminary scan, but it seems to be the first contact with this number, which is not in his address book. I'm also checking..." He pulled up another tab on his browser. "--it's a disposable. Not assigned to any credit card."
"Oh, this isn't sounding good," said Provenza, then quickly shot Sharon a worried look, realizing he wasn't talking about just any case.
"There's only two calls, and a few texts. The second call is around eight last night--" He glanced up. "That's when you said he came out of the bedroom and said he that he wanted to move out, right?"
Sharon nodded,wrapping her arms tightly around her waist.
Tao continued: "The last communication is at 3:32 this morning and it sounds like Rusty is lured into that alley where we found the phone." Tao read the exchange of texts from the morning.
Sharon put a shaking hand over her mouth, fighting nausea again. "My God," she whispered. "Who could this be?"
Squinting, Provenza looked at the photograph again. "Could you enlarge the faces, Tao," he asked. "I don't want to see anything below the waist," he insisted.
Examining at the other boy's face, he said, "This guy doesn't look any older than fourteen or fifteen himself. I can't see him tracking down Rusty."
Sharon forced herself to refocus. "Yes, how would this boy find Rusty? He's been in protective custody since he was released from the hospital. He's been attending a private school which doesn't have to report its student rolls. This phone is under my name. How could anyone get his number?" She looked at Tao. "You're saying this number contacts Rusty first?"
"Yes."
She looked to Nick next. "I would swear that Rusty hasn't had any contact with anyone outside of school who I don't know. Have you seen him with anyone? Has he told you about anybody?"
"Me?" said Nick with a chuckle. "He only tolerates me because of you. He's not telling me about any of his friends."
"I thought--" She waved her hand at the evidence on the bed.
"This is all I know about, I swear," Nick promised her.
Provenza read through the text messages again. "I hate to say it again, but I'm gonna, because this is what Taylor would say. You've got a street kid who was hiding stuff from you. Maybe he's just taken off--"
Before Sharon could protest, Nick stepped forward. "He was a smart street kid," he pointed out. "He took care of himself, but if he decided to go back to that life, why didn't he take his backpack--" He nodded toward the worn bag by the door. "Or his chess set. That's his most treasured possession." He slipped his arm around Sharon's waist. "He wouldn't have left without his things. He wouldn't have left you," he said to her.
"I don't know--" She stared at the joint. "I wouldn't have thought he'd do drugs--"
"He wasn't 'doing drugs'," Nick insisted. "He got wasted one afternoon."
"But if he was in some sort of trouble...Why didn't he come to me..." She looked at Andy. "Or to you--Provenza?"
Nick tried to calm her. "Okay, that may be my fault. He's been after me to get out of here, and I keep telling him that he better be ready to step up and protect you--"
"What!?" she yelled at him again. "What the hell are you talking about?"
He shook his head. "If he were in some sort of trouble, I can imagine he thought he had to handle it himself. I just didn't think--"
"That's it, Nick! You didn't think! Again!" she spat at him.
"Hey, hey," broke in Provenza. "You gotta understand how men's minds work, Captain."
She glared at him and he took a step back.
Andy dared to speak up. "Listen, I'm the last one to defend Raydor, but I don't think you can put this all on him."
Nick rolled his eyes.
Flynn ignored him. "I know this kid pretty well, and hell, know too many women like his mother. His whole life, he's had to take care of her. That's fifteen years of training you've got to break, Sharon."
She conceded the point with a short nod.
"He's gotten into some shit with someone. And instead of bringing it to you, he thought he could handle it himself," Flynn said, frustrated.
"But who..." Sharon squared her shoulders and stepped over to the chair where Tao still sat. "Let me see that again, Lieutenant."
Tao held up the tablet for her. She slid the scroll bar down, moving the image down from the faces to the legs. She took a deep breath. "This was taken before he was attacked by Philip Stroh. There's no scar on his calf."
Provenza and Flynn leaned in to check.
"Son of a bitch," said Provenza.
Sharon's face went white. "Stroh--"
"We would have been notified if they released him on bail. I know his attorney's been petitioning the courts for weeks, but haven't heard he's gotten any judge to let him out," insisted Flynn.
"I'll double-check that," said Provenza, digging out his phone.
Sharon nodded, still staring at Rusty's bare leg.
"I say you start with his classmates," said Nick, "those are the only people he's in regular contact with, and you don't know all of them--"
"It's going to be a lot of time, and we're going to need some warrants," Tao pointed out. "I'll try to trace this caller."
"Stroh's still locked up," reported Provenza. "Not to say he couldn't get someone to go after Rusty."
Buoyed by the support of her squad and Nick, Sharon placed her hands on her hips. "Exactly. Rusty is an important material witness in a murder trial. Philip Stroh has used surrogates to perpetuate his crimes before."
There was a knock on the front door.
"I'll get that," said Nick. He hurried to the door and flung it open.
Taylor looked over his shoulder. "I seem to have misplaced my Major Crimes squad. Are they here?" he asked, his tone deadly.
~ end Chapter 10