"Dark Days" (4/?)
Sep. 2nd, 2005 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kristen999Title: Dark Days (Chapter 4)
Author: Kristen999
Category: Angst/ Drama/ Case file
Spoilers: General for seasons 1-4. Set in Season 5, but no specific spoilers for it.
Disclaimer: All rights belong to CBS and all their fine writers. Please don't sue. This is just for fun.
Summary: Detachment from a case is a necessity. Obsession, however, can be an unavoidable evil. Nick battles his demons during a case of a murdered child.
Previous chapters can be found here:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2548408/1/
Chapter 4
**********************************************
It took a while to calm both parents down to the point that some basic questions could be posed to them.
Jim Brass kept the cadence of his voice sympathetic, but it still had that needed edge. "Mrs. Todd, you went to wake up Johnny and discovered he was missing ... at what time?'
Marisa dabbed the corner of her eye. She looked up at her husband and something ominous passed between them. It was so slight that it might have gone unnoticed, but Nick caught it. The wife melted back to
immediate sobbing, while Matt Todd's grip on his wife's chair tightened.
"I went to wake him for breakfast and couldn't find him. I had already checked up on Jason, since he was running a fever and wasn't feeling good. When I couldn't find Johnny, I called my husband."
Matt stared at both Nick and Jim Brass, his intense eyes a strong indication of the turbulent emotions boiling beneath the surface. "I came home right away. We searched the backyard. I called Father Myers, and we started to get the neighbors involved in looking for him."
Nick shifted in his seat. Greg stood back against the wall. The younger CSI waited for the "moment" to be sprung. He was quickly rewarded.
"Why didn't you contact the police?" Jim asked, his chair squeaking as he leaned forward.
"Johnny has had this habit of running away the past few months. He always tried to slip away during the day and we'd find him no more that a few hours later. We thought this was another one of his shenanigans," Matt explained, his voice clipped.
"And when a few hours slipped into two days, you what? Figured it was still him goofing around?" Nick questioned.
All sets of eyes were on him. The Todds' were both outraged, while
Jim's gaze was a bit more annoyed.
Matt Todd slammed his fist on the table as he jumped out of his chair.
He was leaning far over the table, just mere inches from Nick's face,
the angry man's contorted in unabated rage. "You have no right, you asshole. You have no clue….no freaking idea what we've gone through," he seethed.
Nick sometimes had an uncanny ability to be very calm despite all the feelings swirling around in his head. Sometimes evoking a cool exterior always seemed to piss of suspects. His face still a mask of calm, Nick slowly met those bitter eyes. Jim Brass seemed ready to haul Mr. Todd away and Greg Sanders' face was an expression of surprise.
"Why don't you tell us, Mr. Todd?" Nick asked through clenched teeth as he kept his voice ever so still.
"Stop it!" Marisa wailed, grabbing at her husband, pulling him away. "Johnny is dead! He's dead!" she screamed.
Matt Todd tried to comfort his wife as she pushed him away. Her face flushed as she turned to the CSI and the Detective. "Johnny had been acting weird lately. Talking to himself. He was withdrawn, acting erratically."
Nick blinked at her. "Did you ever ask yourself why?"
Greg crossed his arms tightly around him. The tension in his legs hurt from standing up so rigidly and straight. He wondered if or when Nick was going to bring up the abuse angle. 'When was it the proper time?' he wondered.
"He wouldn't talk to us. We thought it was a bully at school or someone
bothering him, but the more we asked, the more he seemed..." Marisa
swallowed still trying to keep her crying somewhat calm. "He seemed scared."
Matt Todd stalked back and forth in the tiny room. "He wouldn't talk to us. So, we had him speak with Father Myers. Our priest told us that Johnny was afraid of someone, but he couldn't get any more information out of our son."
"What does this have to do with not reporting your son missing after 48
hours?" Nick asked incredulously.
Matt shook his head, his hand running through his head. "We thought….maybe it was a ransom, or he was kidnapped or something. "
"We just wanted to wait," Marisa said wringing her hands.
Nick looked over at the Captain; he just wasn't buying his act. Something wasn't right, the story made no sense.
"You waited....and in the meantime you threw away precious time for finding your son." Nick managed to say in an even voice, but his tone was laced with contempt.
"We're leaving." Mr. Todd announced. "Our boy is dead and we have
arrangements make."
Jim Brass took control of the situation. "I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Todd. This is a homicide investigation and I must ask you to remain here while we continue."
"Do you know of anyone who might want to hurt your son? You mentioned that you suspected a ransom demand. Do you have any enemies?" Jim asked, stirring the focus back to the investigation.
Again Marisa Todd's face clouded over, then remained neutral. "No, we don't know anyone who might have wanted to hurt him. We live a normal life."
Nick watched the wife and then her husband's own expression. Matt Todd was biting down on his lip, his fierce gaze drilling a hole in the back of his wife's head.
"Any threats at work?" Jim pressed.
"No." Matt said curtly.
"Mr. Todd, I noticed an alarm system at your home. Your son was still in his PJ's. He was taken after he was put to bed?" Nick said trying to leave the question open-ended.
Both parents stirred in their seats. The husband directed his attention to the CSI. "I set the alarm every night."
"Then how did someone break into your home, without setting off the alarm, and without waking either of you?" Nick asked, waving his hand in the air.
"We don't know!" Mr. Todd growled.
The room remained quiet after the last outburst. Marisa Todd was not holding up well She looked ready to collapse. Nick felt that she was hiding something, but the grief was genuine. Her husband sat back down and touched her shoulder; she flinched and brushed him away, much to his dismay.
"We're going to need your permission to look inside your home, Mr. and Mrs. Todd, while we continue with our questions." Jim asked.
Matt's face reddened. "No, you can violate our home later. We want to get our family together and deal with this."
"The hours are ticking away and so is any evidence on how your son was
taken. We also have more questions for you," Nick explained rationally. The criminalist was interested if the Todds were missing any kitchen knifes.
Mr. Todd balled his hands into tight fists, his knuckles turning white. "You can't keep us here. We want to see Jason."
Nick stood up from his chair, gathering up his notes. "I'm afraid he has to remain in our custody for a little while longer." Nick didn't look at the parents while he spoke. He just shuffled his stuff around and headed for the door.
"I want my lawyer," Mr. Todd demanded. "We won't be subjected to any more of your nonsense. I won't answer any other questions till we can tend to our boy," he growled.
Nick ignored him and motioned for Greg to follow him outside. The
criminalist let Jim Brass handle the standoff with the parents.
Greg walked fast to keep up with Nick's stride down the hallway. "You didn't bring up the abuse."
Nick shook his head as he searched out one of the labs. "You have to hold all your cards for a while, Greg. Don't let them see your hand....not yet."
Nick stopped short, peering through the window of the lobby. Jason Todd sat quietly flipping through a book, while the family priest looked after him.
Greg looked at his superior and back at the child. "What kind of poker are we playing anyway? We really don't have much to hold them. I mean, they may have been negligent about calling the cops, but we don't have any evidence otherwise."
"The case has just started. It's our jobs to dig."
"What about the blanket and the toy? You didn't mention that either?" Greg mentioned, not really sure of the rules of interrogation.
Nick never took his eyes off the little boy. "I'm saving that for when we discuss their son's abuse. They represent some kind of significance." Nick almost mumbled to himself.
"Don't they have the right to know that their son was molested?" Greg asked, his voice a more even keel than how he felt.
Nick's body stiffened. "There's a difference between molestation, sexual abuse, and rape, Greg. Get your facts straight before challenging me about an aspect of an investigation that you don't understand."
The younger CSI didn't visibly flinch, but he had never experienced this kind of hostility from his coworker before. He didn't say anything for several seconds. He nodded towards the lobby. "We going to talk to the kid?"
Nick kept his eyes glued to the window. "No, I am." He cast a glance at the ex-tech. "Go help Sara and Warrick on those background checks."
Greg cleared his throat. "There are already two CSIs on that, Nick. Maybe I should start looking at other avenues?"
Nick finally locked eyes with the other man. "No. Help them out. I'm going to talk to Jason.... alone."
Nick walked towards the lobby, leaving Greg standing there, somewhat confused. Having his orders, the younger man sought out Warrick and Sara to help them with their research.
*********************
Greg Sanders, Warrick Brown, and Sara Sidle each took different notebook computers and file folders. The criminalists weighed through dozens of records.
"It seems the Todds have been moving around a lot of late," Sara explained, as she pounded away at her keyboard sending a word document to the printer.
Warrick grunted as he took each location the female CSI found and dug around for anything out of the ordinary. He was sifting through any possible medical records, as well as any possible criminal reports filed. Frankly, the CSI felt like he was looking in the dark without a flashlight.
Greg was immersed in financial records, studying any anomalies. "I'm not really sure what kind of connections or information I'm supposed to be looking for."
The other two criminalists snorted, Sara laughed slightly. "You never do Greg. It's like a big puzzle. You take each piece and try to put together anything. Follow possible weird clues or leads." She shrugged. "Every time I find a new town that the Todds moved to, I look for anything suspicious in school records. I'm also making a list of school counselors to contact.
"I'm trying to match up any possible wrongdoings by any member of the
family," Warrick piped in.
Greg blew out a long breath. "Well, Matt Todd is an architect, a very well paid one. He specialized in community buildings. Recreation centers, churches, school projects." Greg highlighted different columns. "Nothing weird about his bank records. No large transfers, withdrawals or deposits. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for the fact that he's rich."
Warrick tapped his finger as he hurried his way through more police records.
"Wait a minute....." He said attracting the attention of the others.
"I don't know if this is anything, but Sara," the CSI motioned with a chart he had made. "Every time the Todds have moved away from a city is only a few weeks after a recent missing child has been reported."
The other two criminalists moved closer to the table. Warrick wrote out a set of corresponding dates, with reports of missing children from each town.
"Now, that's interesting," Greg said studying the correlations.
Warrick played around with the stubble of his goatee. "So the question is this- why has this family moved away from a city where a child goes missing at the exact same school that their own two sons attended?"
Greg had already informed the rest of them about the flimsy excuse
presented by the parents. He tapped his pen. "The Todds claimed that the rallied the neighbors to help with the search. Maybe some of them might have some insight into the family," he offered.
"Nice line of thought, Greg," Sara commented. "I'll go bang on some more doors," she said winking at the two of them.
Warrick looked over at the younger criminalist. "Greggo, why don't you
contact some of the detectives on these cases. See if they had any leads or suspects."
Greg's eyes grew large at the enormous task. He nodded his head. "Will do." He grabbed the papers. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to check in with, Nick. See if any made any progress with the other son."
Both criminalists gathered their things and headed to their destinations.
******************************
An employee from Child and Family Services sat in the room with the CSI, to make sure an outside observer was present during questioning. Jason Todd stared at all the pictures from the magazine. Nick had found the boy a National Geographic to thumb through. The child was engrossed by all the pictures. He reminded Nick of a little science geek, with his glasses and enthusiasm. The article about T-Rexes had the child fairly excited.
"You like dinosaurs?" Nick asked, as he watched a somewhat amused at the kid's expression.
Jason looked up at the CSI and then back at one of the diagrams. "Yeah.
They're cool."
Nick smiled. "I used to have a whole bunch of books on dinosaurs, and space, and all sorts of things when I was a kid. Do you read a lot at home?"
The little boy shrugged. "Sometimes. I like to read about Spiderman, and Harry Potter. But, mostly I like to play with my gameboy." The boy looked at Nick, adjusting his glasses. "I left mine at home. Do you have one here?
Nick clasped his hands on the desk. "I think I might be able to find one for you."
"Do you have Pokemon Green? I have all my Pokemon on my gameboy at home."
"I don't have Pokemon here. I think I have some racing game. Is that cool?" Nick asked acting very concerned about the game choice.
Jason shook his head. "I don't like racing. I just want my gameboy." He
slide the magazine away disappointed.
Nick suppressed a laugh. He knew kids at this age could be pretty hard to handle. Jason coughed for a few minutes, and then rubbed his face.
"Sorry, you don't feel good," Nick offered, forgetting that the boy had
woken up ill a few days ago.
"It's okay. There are little germs inside me, but my medicine is like an army defending everything," he said excitedly.
Nick now grinned. "Yeah, you're right about that." Nick grew somber, the next topic was difficult to broach with a child.
"Jason, do you know what happened to your brother?"
The little boy looked down at the table, his eyes averted Nick's. "I don't know," he mumbled.
Nick kept his voice quiet. "Did you hear anything that night?"
Jason shook his head.
Nick bit his lip and looked up at the child advocate. He grit his teeth. "That's okay. Did your brother act weird the past few weeks?"
Jason shrugged, then started to fiddle with his hands. Nick didn't want to run into a dead end, not yet. "Did he ever mention someone at school that may have been mean to him?"
Jason crossed his arms. "My brother had tons of friends. He played sports and even had girls talk to him."
Nick smiled a little. "He was popular, I take it."
Another shrug from the kid.
"Did you ever notice a time when he wasn't so popular, when he was not
hanging out with his friends?"
Jason started to look around the room. He sneezed and rubbed his nose. "I didn't hang out with Johnny as much. Daddy was the one who he hung around with. He was an outfielder in little league and played defense in football." Jason's voice held a slight edgy tone.
Nick leaned over the table. "Your older brother and your dad were close?"
Jason started to squirm in his seat. "Daddy always hung out with Johnny," he complained.
"Do you ever hang out with your dad, Jason?" Nick asked.
The little boy grabbed the magazine and started to look at the pictures
again.
"Jason?" Nick pressed.
"I don't like hanging out with Dad, he always gets me in trouble," Jason whined and began to look at the magazine, almost tearing the pages out doing so.
Nick swallowed hard. "Jason, why do you get in trouble hanging out with your dad?"
Jason ignored the CSI as he played around the pages in front of him. The family counselor looked at the little boy. "It's okay to talk with Nick. He's a good man."
Jason began humming, looking anywhere but the two people in the room. The social service employee looked over at the CSI and gave him a sympathetic look.
Nick gently took away the magazine. "I promise nothing will happen to you if you talk to me. Just us, okay?'
Jason jumped out of the chair. "No!" Then he put his hands over his ears as he sang and hummed to himself.
Nick carefully got out of his seat and tried to get near the little boy. He waited for Jason to face him.
"It's okay. We don't have to talk about it anymore." Nick just looked at the child.
Jason slowly pulled away his hands. He sniffed a little, the poor child was still sick, and Nick didn't feel like pressuring him too much now.
"I'll go find you a copy of Pokemon, all right?'
"I want my copy." Jason stood there looking around the room. Then he walked over to Nick who was crouching on the floor. Jason went over to the CSI. "I just want my Mom. I want to go home." The little boy tried to brush away the tears that were sliding off his face.
Nick tried to keep himself under control. "It's alright, partner. It's
okay," he tried to soothe.
Jason rested his hands on Nick's shoulder. "Where's my Mom?" he whispered into Nick's ear.
*********************
Nick bounded out of the room, and headed to the men's bathroom. He never saw his partner stare back at him. Warrick witnessed the whole conversation from the two way mirror. Nick put both hands on the counter in the bathroom, trying to push away dark thoughts. Images of his worried mother's face flashed through his mind, and just as quickly he pushed away the memory.
He turned on the faucet, splashed some water on his face, and exited quickly. He almost collided with Warrick in the hallway, who was about to enter the restroom.
"That didn't look like much fun," Warrick commented.
Nick ignored his remark, or simply did not hear it. "You come up with
anything on your background checks?" Nick plunged ahead.
Warrick considered asking Nick to go into an empty lab room, but thought better of it. "Yeah. There's definitely a pattern with the Todds' movement across the country."
Nick looked up expectantly. "What kind of pattern?"
"Seems like that have been missing children reported from every school their kids previously attended."
Nick's eyes grew wide. "I knew it," he muttered under his breath. Before he could start barking orders Warrick cut him off.
"Greggo's tracking down the detectives assigned to those cases. Sara's
canvassing the neighborhood for any possible witnesses when the boy was
taken."
The temporary supervisor seemed to take the news in stride. "Good. I want to talk to their priest and anyone else who had contact with the family. School counselors, coaches, anyone. I'm going to talk to Brass about getting a search warrant for the home."
None of these requests seem to faze the taller CSI. "On it. Hey, I was going to grab food, you want some grub?"
"Nah. Not hungry." Nick was ready to walk off. Warrick's hand on his
shoulder kept him still.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to find a gameboy," Nick responded and then continued on without another thought.
Warrick did not hide his frown at the answer.
*********************
Several hours later, Nick found himself back in Grissom's office. He rubbed at his burning eyes since the words on the computer screen were beginning to get fuzzy. He grabbed his cup of coffee, the third one in the past few hours and chugged down the cold sludge. He had spent half an hour on the phone concerning Sofia's newest case, and chased down Bobby Dawson about the results from his ballistic test from the local weapon's society.
So far he had put off his talk with David Hodges, since he didn't want to get roped into the some stupid inner-lab feud. In fact, he had been able to avoid Mia all night.
Nick began to press his thumbs into the pulse points above his eyes, when a small knock interrupted him. Nick looked up to see Sara leaning on the door frame.
"What's up, Sar?" he asked, not getting up from his seat.
"Just wanted you to know that Brass came up empty on the warrant and that the Todds went home a little while ago."
Nick's outrage was easy to recognize as he the muscles along his jaw
tightened, and the veins around his neck stood out. "That's a load of
bullshit. We've got possible history of physical abuse from three different hospitals on their now deceased son. We have a trail of missing kids clear across the country..."
Sara went around the desk and put her hand on the agitated criminalist. "We have no evidence to the murder of Johnny Todd. We have no prints, no DNA, no scrap of anything physical that ties the family to the crime. Johnny was an active kid who played in two different kinds of sports teams. "
Nick's eyes narrowed. "Come on. We have a hell of a lot of suspicious
circumstances as well as a family that did not call in the police when their kid went missing."
Sara tried to calm the other man down. "Matt Todd has some pretty tight
connections with a prestigious law firm. He has a priest who backs his story of devotion and a hell of a lot of neighborhood parents that back on their claim of searching for him."
Nick stood up and paced the small space.
Sara looked at him with empathy. "Nick, their neighbors speak volumes about what a close knit family the Todds are. Greg came up empty on the missing kids reports. There were no leads, no really connection between the possible kidnappings. No ransom notes, no clues. Just kids that disappeared. Johnny Todd's body was found, the pattern is off." She held up her hand to cut off his rebuttal. "Except for the possible connection we found today. However, every city has their own group of missing kids. Mathematically, the odds are strange but not on our side."
Nick seemed too lost in his own world. "I still have to talk to anyone who had contact with the family."
"Tomorrow, Nick. It's already 6:00 p.m. We've got another six hours before the start of the next shift. The interviews are going to have to wait till the morning."
He sighed. "All right. Go home, get some sleep. Tell Warrick and Greg to get some shut-eye as well."
"They already went home an hour ago." Sara allowed a small smile. "I can stay if you want."
"No, I'm fine. I've got some progress reports for the shift to turn in to Ecklie." Nick explained rubbing his neck, trying to knead the tense muscles there.
Sara rubbed his shoulder. "You need to sleep too, Nick."
He allowed a tiny grin. "I will. Now get going." Nick began to physically move Sara out of the office.
"Get some rest!" Sara said in a commanding tone.
Nick waved her away dismissively. "Yep. One more report."
The criminalist closed the door and slumped down in his chair. He pulled open a drawer and grabbed the gameboy he had managed to snag from Archie. He dropped the thing heavily on the desk, and stared at it. Nick switched on Grissom's laptop and started to dig deeper into the Todds' personal history.
tbc....
Author: Kristen999
Category: Angst/ Drama/ Case file
Spoilers: General for seasons 1-4. Set in Season 5, but no specific spoilers for it.
Disclaimer: All rights belong to CBS and all their fine writers. Please don't sue. This is just for fun.
Summary: Detachment from a case is a necessity. Obsession, however, can be an unavoidable evil. Nick battles his demons during a case of a murdered child.
Previous chapters can be found here:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2548408/1/
Chapter 4
**********************************************
It took a while to calm both parents down to the point that some basic questions could be posed to them.
Jim Brass kept the cadence of his voice sympathetic, but it still had that needed edge. "Mrs. Todd, you went to wake up Johnny and discovered he was missing ... at what time?'
Marisa dabbed the corner of her eye. She looked up at her husband and something ominous passed between them. It was so slight that it might have gone unnoticed, but Nick caught it. The wife melted back to
immediate sobbing, while Matt Todd's grip on his wife's chair tightened.
"I went to wake him for breakfast and couldn't find him. I had already checked up on Jason, since he was running a fever and wasn't feeling good. When I couldn't find Johnny, I called my husband."
Matt stared at both Nick and Jim Brass, his intense eyes a strong indication of the turbulent emotions boiling beneath the surface. "I came home right away. We searched the backyard. I called Father Myers, and we started to get the neighbors involved in looking for him."
Nick shifted in his seat. Greg stood back against the wall. The younger CSI waited for the "moment" to be sprung. He was quickly rewarded.
"Why didn't you contact the police?" Jim asked, his chair squeaking as he leaned forward.
"Johnny has had this habit of running away the past few months. He always tried to slip away during the day and we'd find him no more that a few hours later. We thought this was another one of his shenanigans," Matt explained, his voice clipped.
"And when a few hours slipped into two days, you what? Figured it was still him goofing around?" Nick questioned.
All sets of eyes were on him. The Todds' were both outraged, while
Jim's gaze was a bit more annoyed.
Matt Todd slammed his fist on the table as he jumped out of his chair.
He was leaning far over the table, just mere inches from Nick's face,
the angry man's contorted in unabated rage. "You have no right, you asshole. You have no clue….no freaking idea what we've gone through," he seethed.
Nick sometimes had an uncanny ability to be very calm despite all the feelings swirling around in his head. Sometimes evoking a cool exterior always seemed to piss of suspects. His face still a mask of calm, Nick slowly met those bitter eyes. Jim Brass seemed ready to haul Mr. Todd away and Greg Sanders' face was an expression of surprise.
"Why don't you tell us, Mr. Todd?" Nick asked through clenched teeth as he kept his voice ever so still.
"Stop it!" Marisa wailed, grabbing at her husband, pulling him away. "Johnny is dead! He's dead!" she screamed.
Matt Todd tried to comfort his wife as she pushed him away. Her face flushed as she turned to the CSI and the Detective. "Johnny had been acting weird lately. Talking to himself. He was withdrawn, acting erratically."
Nick blinked at her. "Did you ever ask yourself why?"
Greg crossed his arms tightly around him. The tension in his legs hurt from standing up so rigidly and straight. He wondered if or when Nick was going to bring up the abuse angle. 'When was it the proper time?' he wondered.
"He wouldn't talk to us. We thought it was a bully at school or someone
bothering him, but the more we asked, the more he seemed..." Marisa
swallowed still trying to keep her crying somewhat calm. "He seemed scared."
Matt Todd stalked back and forth in the tiny room. "He wouldn't talk to us. So, we had him speak with Father Myers. Our priest told us that Johnny was afraid of someone, but he couldn't get any more information out of our son."
"What does this have to do with not reporting your son missing after 48
hours?" Nick asked incredulously.
Matt shook his head, his hand running through his head. "We thought….maybe it was a ransom, or he was kidnapped or something. "
"We just wanted to wait," Marisa said wringing her hands.
Nick looked over at the Captain; he just wasn't buying his act. Something wasn't right, the story made no sense.
"You waited....and in the meantime you threw away precious time for finding your son." Nick managed to say in an even voice, but his tone was laced with contempt.
"We're leaving." Mr. Todd announced. "Our boy is dead and we have
arrangements make."
Jim Brass took control of the situation. "I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Todd. This is a homicide investigation and I must ask you to remain here while we continue."
"Do you know of anyone who might want to hurt your son? You mentioned that you suspected a ransom demand. Do you have any enemies?" Jim asked, stirring the focus back to the investigation.
Again Marisa Todd's face clouded over, then remained neutral. "No, we don't know anyone who might have wanted to hurt him. We live a normal life."
Nick watched the wife and then her husband's own expression. Matt Todd was biting down on his lip, his fierce gaze drilling a hole in the back of his wife's head.
"Any threats at work?" Jim pressed.
"No." Matt said curtly.
"Mr. Todd, I noticed an alarm system at your home. Your son was still in his PJ's. He was taken after he was put to bed?" Nick said trying to leave the question open-ended.
Both parents stirred in their seats. The husband directed his attention to the CSI. "I set the alarm every night."
"Then how did someone break into your home, without setting off the alarm, and without waking either of you?" Nick asked, waving his hand in the air.
"We don't know!" Mr. Todd growled.
The room remained quiet after the last outburst. Marisa Todd was not holding up well She looked ready to collapse. Nick felt that she was hiding something, but the grief was genuine. Her husband sat back down and touched her shoulder; she flinched and brushed him away, much to his dismay.
"We're going to need your permission to look inside your home, Mr. and Mrs. Todd, while we continue with our questions." Jim asked.
Matt's face reddened. "No, you can violate our home later. We want to get our family together and deal with this."
"The hours are ticking away and so is any evidence on how your son was
taken. We also have more questions for you," Nick explained rationally. The criminalist was interested if the Todds were missing any kitchen knifes.
Mr. Todd balled his hands into tight fists, his knuckles turning white. "You can't keep us here. We want to see Jason."
Nick stood up from his chair, gathering up his notes. "I'm afraid he has to remain in our custody for a little while longer." Nick didn't look at the parents while he spoke. He just shuffled his stuff around and headed for the door.
"I want my lawyer," Mr. Todd demanded. "We won't be subjected to any more of your nonsense. I won't answer any other questions till we can tend to our boy," he growled.
Nick ignored him and motioned for Greg to follow him outside. The
criminalist let Jim Brass handle the standoff with the parents.
Greg walked fast to keep up with Nick's stride down the hallway. "You didn't bring up the abuse."
Nick shook his head as he searched out one of the labs. "You have to hold all your cards for a while, Greg. Don't let them see your hand....not yet."
Nick stopped short, peering through the window of the lobby. Jason Todd sat quietly flipping through a book, while the family priest looked after him.
Greg looked at his superior and back at the child. "What kind of poker are we playing anyway? We really don't have much to hold them. I mean, they may have been negligent about calling the cops, but we don't have any evidence otherwise."
"The case has just started. It's our jobs to dig."
"What about the blanket and the toy? You didn't mention that either?" Greg mentioned, not really sure of the rules of interrogation.
Nick never took his eyes off the little boy. "I'm saving that for when we discuss their son's abuse. They represent some kind of significance." Nick almost mumbled to himself.
"Don't they have the right to know that their son was molested?" Greg asked, his voice a more even keel than how he felt.
Nick's body stiffened. "There's a difference between molestation, sexual abuse, and rape, Greg. Get your facts straight before challenging me about an aspect of an investigation that you don't understand."
The younger CSI didn't visibly flinch, but he had never experienced this kind of hostility from his coworker before. He didn't say anything for several seconds. He nodded towards the lobby. "We going to talk to the kid?"
Nick kept his eyes glued to the window. "No, I am." He cast a glance at the ex-tech. "Go help Sara and Warrick on those background checks."
Greg cleared his throat. "There are already two CSIs on that, Nick. Maybe I should start looking at other avenues?"
Nick finally locked eyes with the other man. "No. Help them out. I'm going to talk to Jason.... alone."
Nick walked towards the lobby, leaving Greg standing there, somewhat confused. Having his orders, the younger man sought out Warrick and Sara to help them with their research.
*********************
Greg Sanders, Warrick Brown, and Sara Sidle each took different notebook computers and file folders. The criminalists weighed through dozens of records.
"It seems the Todds have been moving around a lot of late," Sara explained, as she pounded away at her keyboard sending a word document to the printer.
Warrick grunted as he took each location the female CSI found and dug around for anything out of the ordinary. He was sifting through any possible medical records, as well as any possible criminal reports filed. Frankly, the CSI felt like he was looking in the dark without a flashlight.
Greg was immersed in financial records, studying any anomalies. "I'm not really sure what kind of connections or information I'm supposed to be looking for."
The other two criminalists snorted, Sara laughed slightly. "You never do Greg. It's like a big puzzle. You take each piece and try to put together anything. Follow possible weird clues or leads." She shrugged. "Every time I find a new town that the Todds moved to, I look for anything suspicious in school records. I'm also making a list of school counselors to contact.
"I'm trying to match up any possible wrongdoings by any member of the
family," Warrick piped in.
Greg blew out a long breath. "Well, Matt Todd is an architect, a very well paid one. He specialized in community buildings. Recreation centers, churches, school projects." Greg highlighted different columns. "Nothing weird about his bank records. No large transfers, withdrawals or deposits. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for the fact that he's rich."
Warrick tapped his finger as he hurried his way through more police records.
"Wait a minute....." He said attracting the attention of the others.
"I don't know if this is anything, but Sara," the CSI motioned with a chart he had made. "Every time the Todds have moved away from a city is only a few weeks after a recent missing child has been reported."
The other two criminalists moved closer to the table. Warrick wrote out a set of corresponding dates, with reports of missing children from each town.
"Now, that's interesting," Greg said studying the correlations.
Warrick played around with the stubble of his goatee. "So the question is this- why has this family moved away from a city where a child goes missing at the exact same school that their own two sons attended?"
Greg had already informed the rest of them about the flimsy excuse
presented by the parents. He tapped his pen. "The Todds claimed that the rallied the neighbors to help with the search. Maybe some of them might have some insight into the family," he offered.
"Nice line of thought, Greg," Sara commented. "I'll go bang on some more doors," she said winking at the two of them.
Warrick looked over at the younger criminalist. "Greggo, why don't you
contact some of the detectives on these cases. See if they had any leads or suspects."
Greg's eyes grew large at the enormous task. He nodded his head. "Will do." He grabbed the papers. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to check in with, Nick. See if any made any progress with the other son."
Both criminalists gathered their things and headed to their destinations.
******************************
An employee from Child and Family Services sat in the room with the CSI, to make sure an outside observer was present during questioning. Jason Todd stared at all the pictures from the magazine. Nick had found the boy a National Geographic to thumb through. The child was engrossed by all the pictures. He reminded Nick of a little science geek, with his glasses and enthusiasm. The article about T-Rexes had the child fairly excited.
"You like dinosaurs?" Nick asked, as he watched a somewhat amused at the kid's expression.
Jason looked up at the CSI and then back at one of the diagrams. "Yeah.
They're cool."
Nick smiled. "I used to have a whole bunch of books on dinosaurs, and space, and all sorts of things when I was a kid. Do you read a lot at home?"
The little boy shrugged. "Sometimes. I like to read about Spiderman, and Harry Potter. But, mostly I like to play with my gameboy." The boy looked at Nick, adjusting his glasses. "I left mine at home. Do you have one here?
Nick clasped his hands on the desk. "I think I might be able to find one for you."
"Do you have Pokemon Green? I have all my Pokemon on my gameboy at home."
"I don't have Pokemon here. I think I have some racing game. Is that cool?" Nick asked acting very concerned about the game choice.
Jason shook his head. "I don't like racing. I just want my gameboy." He
slide the magazine away disappointed.
Nick suppressed a laugh. He knew kids at this age could be pretty hard to handle. Jason coughed for a few minutes, and then rubbed his face.
"Sorry, you don't feel good," Nick offered, forgetting that the boy had
woken up ill a few days ago.
"It's okay. There are little germs inside me, but my medicine is like an army defending everything," he said excitedly.
Nick now grinned. "Yeah, you're right about that." Nick grew somber, the next topic was difficult to broach with a child.
"Jason, do you know what happened to your brother?"
The little boy looked down at the table, his eyes averted Nick's. "I don't know," he mumbled.
Nick kept his voice quiet. "Did you hear anything that night?"
Jason shook his head.
Nick bit his lip and looked up at the child advocate. He grit his teeth. "That's okay. Did your brother act weird the past few weeks?"
Jason shrugged, then started to fiddle with his hands. Nick didn't want to run into a dead end, not yet. "Did he ever mention someone at school that may have been mean to him?"
Jason crossed his arms. "My brother had tons of friends. He played sports and even had girls talk to him."
Nick smiled a little. "He was popular, I take it."
Another shrug from the kid.
"Did you ever notice a time when he wasn't so popular, when he was not
hanging out with his friends?"
Jason started to look around the room. He sneezed and rubbed his nose. "I didn't hang out with Johnny as much. Daddy was the one who he hung around with. He was an outfielder in little league and played defense in football." Jason's voice held a slight edgy tone.
Nick leaned over the table. "Your older brother and your dad were close?"
Jason started to squirm in his seat. "Daddy always hung out with Johnny," he complained.
"Do you ever hang out with your dad, Jason?" Nick asked.
The little boy grabbed the magazine and started to look at the pictures
again.
"Jason?" Nick pressed.
"I don't like hanging out with Dad, he always gets me in trouble," Jason whined and began to look at the magazine, almost tearing the pages out doing so.
Nick swallowed hard. "Jason, why do you get in trouble hanging out with your dad?"
Jason ignored the CSI as he played around the pages in front of him. The family counselor looked at the little boy. "It's okay to talk with Nick. He's a good man."
Jason began humming, looking anywhere but the two people in the room. The social service employee looked over at the CSI and gave him a sympathetic look.
Nick gently took away the magazine. "I promise nothing will happen to you if you talk to me. Just us, okay?'
Jason jumped out of the chair. "No!" Then he put his hands over his ears as he sang and hummed to himself.
Nick carefully got out of his seat and tried to get near the little boy. He waited for Jason to face him.
"It's okay. We don't have to talk about it anymore." Nick just looked at the child.
Jason slowly pulled away his hands. He sniffed a little, the poor child was still sick, and Nick didn't feel like pressuring him too much now.
"I'll go find you a copy of Pokemon, all right?'
"I want my copy." Jason stood there looking around the room. Then he walked over to Nick who was crouching on the floor. Jason went over to the CSI. "I just want my Mom. I want to go home." The little boy tried to brush away the tears that were sliding off his face.
Nick tried to keep himself under control. "It's alright, partner. It's
okay," he tried to soothe.
Jason rested his hands on Nick's shoulder. "Where's my Mom?" he whispered into Nick's ear.
*********************
Nick bounded out of the room, and headed to the men's bathroom. He never saw his partner stare back at him. Warrick witnessed the whole conversation from the two way mirror. Nick put both hands on the counter in the bathroom, trying to push away dark thoughts. Images of his worried mother's face flashed through his mind, and just as quickly he pushed away the memory.
He turned on the faucet, splashed some water on his face, and exited quickly. He almost collided with Warrick in the hallway, who was about to enter the restroom.
"That didn't look like much fun," Warrick commented.
Nick ignored his remark, or simply did not hear it. "You come up with
anything on your background checks?" Nick plunged ahead.
Warrick considered asking Nick to go into an empty lab room, but thought better of it. "Yeah. There's definitely a pattern with the Todds' movement across the country."
Nick looked up expectantly. "What kind of pattern?"
"Seems like that have been missing children reported from every school their kids previously attended."
Nick's eyes grew wide. "I knew it," he muttered under his breath. Before he could start barking orders Warrick cut him off.
"Greggo's tracking down the detectives assigned to those cases. Sara's
canvassing the neighborhood for any possible witnesses when the boy was
taken."
The temporary supervisor seemed to take the news in stride. "Good. I want to talk to their priest and anyone else who had contact with the family. School counselors, coaches, anyone. I'm going to talk to Brass about getting a search warrant for the home."
None of these requests seem to faze the taller CSI. "On it. Hey, I was going to grab food, you want some grub?"
"Nah. Not hungry." Nick was ready to walk off. Warrick's hand on his
shoulder kept him still.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to find a gameboy," Nick responded and then continued on without another thought.
Warrick did not hide his frown at the answer.
*********************
Several hours later, Nick found himself back in Grissom's office. He rubbed at his burning eyes since the words on the computer screen were beginning to get fuzzy. He grabbed his cup of coffee, the third one in the past few hours and chugged down the cold sludge. He had spent half an hour on the phone concerning Sofia's newest case, and chased down Bobby Dawson about the results from his ballistic test from the local weapon's society.
So far he had put off his talk with David Hodges, since he didn't want to get roped into the some stupid inner-lab feud. In fact, he had been able to avoid Mia all night.
Nick began to press his thumbs into the pulse points above his eyes, when a small knock interrupted him. Nick looked up to see Sara leaning on the door frame.
"What's up, Sar?" he asked, not getting up from his seat.
"Just wanted you to know that Brass came up empty on the warrant and that the Todds went home a little while ago."
Nick's outrage was easy to recognize as he the muscles along his jaw
tightened, and the veins around his neck stood out. "That's a load of
bullshit. We've got possible history of physical abuse from three different hospitals on their now deceased son. We have a trail of missing kids clear across the country..."
Sara went around the desk and put her hand on the agitated criminalist. "We have no evidence to the murder of Johnny Todd. We have no prints, no DNA, no scrap of anything physical that ties the family to the crime. Johnny was an active kid who played in two different kinds of sports teams. "
Nick's eyes narrowed. "Come on. We have a hell of a lot of suspicious
circumstances as well as a family that did not call in the police when their kid went missing."
Sara tried to calm the other man down. "Matt Todd has some pretty tight
connections with a prestigious law firm. He has a priest who backs his story of devotion and a hell of a lot of neighborhood parents that back on their claim of searching for him."
Nick stood up and paced the small space.
Sara looked at him with empathy. "Nick, their neighbors speak volumes about what a close knit family the Todds are. Greg came up empty on the missing kids reports. There were no leads, no really connection between the possible kidnappings. No ransom notes, no clues. Just kids that disappeared. Johnny Todd's body was found, the pattern is off." She held up her hand to cut off his rebuttal. "Except for the possible connection we found today. However, every city has their own group of missing kids. Mathematically, the odds are strange but not on our side."
Nick seemed too lost in his own world. "I still have to talk to anyone who had contact with the family."
"Tomorrow, Nick. It's already 6:00 p.m. We've got another six hours before the start of the next shift. The interviews are going to have to wait till the morning."
He sighed. "All right. Go home, get some sleep. Tell Warrick and Greg to get some shut-eye as well."
"They already went home an hour ago." Sara allowed a small smile. "I can stay if you want."
"No, I'm fine. I've got some progress reports for the shift to turn in to Ecklie." Nick explained rubbing his neck, trying to knead the tense muscles there.
Sara rubbed his shoulder. "You need to sleep too, Nick."
He allowed a tiny grin. "I will. Now get going." Nick began to physically move Sara out of the office.
"Get some rest!" Sara said in a commanding tone.
Nick waved her away dismissively. "Yep. One more report."
The criminalist closed the door and slumped down in his chair. He pulled open a drawer and grabbed the gameboy he had managed to snag from Archie. He dropped the thing heavily on the desk, and stared at it. Nick switched on Grissom's laptop and started to dig deeper into the Todds' personal history.
tbc....
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Date: 2005-09-02 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-02 03:38 pm (UTC)So, since I'm so uncreative, I sent a whole bunch of vidoe clips to Kaye to help make a Warrick and Nick vid...all she's waiting on from me is a damn song!
Benn banging my head over just the proper one...its a frinedship themed one for the first one..but why or why is this so hard? I think its b/c they are both manly men and every song I think of is too cheesy.
GRRRRR
Okay now I'm done :-)