"How is he?"
Detective Molly skimmed over the text messages from Tara, begging him to have Greg come home, after seeing yesterday's incident with Greg at the Timm's residence on the news, Tara was now a worried wife.
Captain Morrow sealed another manilla envelope and pulled the next document from the pile on his desk and began skimming it for signature blocks with an irritated huff.
"Not good Chris, I'd say not too good at all."
"Maybe I'll head down to twin sisters after I'm done here, check in."
Morrow glanced at the detective.
"No, you won't."
Molly raised in eyebrow, "I won't?"
The captain leaned back in his chair, offering a moment of silence, giving Christian Molly an opportunity to let the weight of the situation set in. When it was clear he was still lost, John began.
"Greg's fucked up. I've been debriefed on the scene. Even your ex-wife. Is blowing the up the department landlines, trying to figure out what the fuck happened."
"Shanda? Why the fuck would she care?"
Morrow leaned back, "She's always cared Chris, it was your affair with this fucking job that cause your problems there."
"I'm his partner, I'm going to go see the man, you can't just walk past that shit. It eats you up."
"Exactly, Molly, this is why you're going to stay away from him. I have it on good authority that Greg requested time off."
Chris choked back a scoff, "Demmer would never step away from an investigation that's starting to heat up."
John nodded, "You're right, he took time, because I pulled him off the case."
Molly stood up in shock, "which case? The Pearson's case? The Timm's case?"
"All of them, this is too personal for him."
Chris stared at his phone, Tara's messages still bleeding into his palm.
"Fuck you, Marrow. You're taking all that man has, it's his job."
John shook his head, "Give me a god damn break, I have internal affairs wanting to run him through psych evals, the WC42 plastered footage of him being carried out of the scene by the blues, all over the 9pm newscast, and now, I have the state police, ATF and FBI calling authority over our investigation, because of the call to the DA that your precious partner made for the Morris warrant."
Molly cocked an eyebrow, "what?"
The captain kicked his feet up on the desk and crossed his arms, his portly gut making the action look more uncomfortable than it probably was.
"Oh, you didn't know? There's a chance this is being perpetrated by a cult. Which makes this a jurisdiction battleground. A federal judge is how you got your warrant for the Morris devices."
Molly threw his phone across the office, shattering the standard issue, iPhone into pieces.
"That's fucking bullshit, and you know it. What the hell are you playing here?"
John sighed and put his head in his hands, rubbing his temples, "Molly, it's out of my hands, you have 24 hours to find something. Talk to the Morris girl. Follow up on the Clarey autopsy, talk to Timms, and tomorrow evening, you can meet with the team and see where you fit into the new plan."
Molly could only see blind rage. The detective picked up the shards of phone screen and mangled casing, shaking his head, attempting to hold back any misstep that would shatter the thin ice he was about to be treading. He still had so much to do.
"You're a bastard, John."
-
It took 3 hours to find someone with a key to the equipment cage.
The officer in charge of the log was overly nosey when Molly requested an iPhone replacement.
"What happened? Perp fuck it up?"
A glare of fire in the man's direction squashed the small talk.
The 3 hours gave Molly time to settle his emotions. Normally, he was cool and collected. Chris even considered himself the more levelheaded between him and his partner. With Greg taking the reigns as the more resourceful. Scruffy and old-school. But connected, living case by case, by the book.
′So why did he go in after Timms without radioing it in or calling me?′
The elevator dinged softly, signaling the 3rd floor was reached. The doors slid open to show a hall with 2 doors on either side, Alyssa and Pam were placed in B-2, on the right. The large door at the end was a sit-in, where the cameras in the corner of the 4 rooms could be monitored or played back.
As the detective walked past the first two rooms, he could hear muffled shouts.
′Alyssa's father in A-1.′
After the incident with Greg, another detective in the department offered to assist in the questioning, being brought up to speed as best he could be within a night.
′Hopefully Detective June knows what she's doing.′
Alyssa sat in the right corner of the room, Pam next to her, fiddling with Alyssa's bangs. When Molly entered the room Alyssa shifted, crossing her arms and hunching over.
′An indicator. The arms are defensive, the smaller posture is a mechanism to make yourself feel non-threatening. She thinks I've come to punish her. I have.′
Molly walked to the left side of the table, sat down a grey satchel, that'd been hung from his shoulder until now, pulled out his replacement phone, Activated the voice recorder and placed it in the middle of the table. He looked at Pam, the dark rings and messy hair showed a tiredness that only an over-worked and worried parent could have.
′She's exhausted, maybe I can use that as a plead at Alyssa's emotions. We'll see.′
Alyssa fidgeted in her seat. Molly sat down across from the pair and cleared his throat, letting a hard silence linger for a moment.
′Interviewing with a parent in the room is always hard. I have to make this quick.′
"Hello Alyssa, do you remember me? My partner Detective Demmer and I came to your house to talk about your friend Hiedi, do you remember that?"
'Alyssa nodded but didn't look up from her shoes. Another indicator, an involuntary attempt to make herself small and less threatening.'
"So, before we get started, I have to read you something called a Miranda warning, I'm going to give you a piece of paper with the same thing in it in more detail and at the bottom I would like you and your mother to sign that for me. Then I can talk to you easier."
Pam looked at Molly with fear and anger in her eyes.
"Why do we need to sign this? Is Alyssa in some kind of trouble? She's just a ki-."
Molly raised a hand and cut Mrs. Morris off, with a smile to soften the rude gesture.
"It's a legal formality I am required to give before I can speak to you more openly. So, let's begin."
′Fuck, she's going to scare her out of talking to me before I get a chance to say anything.′
Reluctantly, Pam looked at Alyssa and nodded.
"So, listen carefully, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. You have the right to be an attorney. If you cannot afford one, an attorney will be appointed to you by order of the state in respect. If at any moment you should choose to invoke these rights and request an attorney, the conversation will end, and all further communication will cease until. Said attorney is present. Do you understand these rights?"
Pam glanced at Alyssa, and after a moment of reiterating, with a reread of the script on the table, they both nodded and signed the form.
Molly nodded and reached into his satchel. Producing several documents with paperclipped photos.
'Okay Chris, we don't have time for this, hard and fast.'
"Alyssa, on the afternoon of the 9th we received a call from Ethan Pierson. Ethan was very upset on that call; do you know why Mr. Pierson was upset?"
Alyssa nodded, "Mr. Pierson was upset
because Hiedi hadn't come home yet."
Molly nodded, "Why do you think that is, Alyssa?"
Alyssa looked at her mother and then down to her shoes, shifting in her seat.
"I don't know, I guess somebody took her."
Molly and Pam exchanged a look, "Who would've taken Hiedi, Alyssa?"
Alyssa crossed her arms again and rubbed her arms as if she was chilly.
′Either a soothing technique, or she's truly cold. I turned the AC up before I came in to make sure she was nice and uncomfortable; she'll be more inclined to finish this up and get out of here.′
"I don't know, maybe the man at Roosevelt field?"
Pam huffed and snatched Alyssa's hand into hers.
'Here we go, here's where Pam becomes a problem.′
"Alyssa, you tell Detective Molly who took your friend. We know you know!"
Alyssa protested, "what?! Why would I know? I told you it was probably the man at the ball fields!"
Pam started to raise her voice, "Alyssa quit lying! We know, you know who took Hiedi!"
Molly cleared his throat, "Pam, may I speak to you in the hall for a moment?"
Pam paused, took a breath and wiped a tear on her sleeve. patted Alyssa on the shoulder and together, Molly and Pam exited the room.
_
"Mrs. Morris, I understand you're upset and experiencing mixed emotions, you want to help but you want to protect your daughter; but the fact remains that we both read what was in that journal and we know, she knows. I'm going to ask you to please let me speak to your daughter alone for a few minutes. I'll place you in A-2 and come retrieve you when I've concluded. If you could do this for me, it would be helpful."
Pam struggled with her maternal instincts for a moment. But she conceded and Molly guided her to A-2 and returned to Alyssa.
"Where's my mom?"
"Mrs. Morris has decided that it would be best if we spoke privately, this way if there's anything you couldn't say because of potentially upsetting her. You now have the opportunity."
Alyssa shifted nervously again, fidgeting with her thumb nail.
"Oh..."
"So, with that being said, is there anything you'd like to tell me?"
"What's to tell? The ball field man probably took her. I was asleep when she disappeared."
Molly leaned back and gave her a disappointed sigh.
′If only it could be that easy... oh well.′
The Detective picked up the stack of documents and laid them out in front of Alyssa.
"What's this?"
"This,-"
Molly tapped a finger on the first copy.
"This is a list of your text messages to an out of state number over the course of 21 days."
Alyssa's eyes widened, "What? You went through my phone?!"
"Oh yes, and your computer, and your journal."
Molly pointed to the next copy.
"On this date, you spoke about making angels for the first time. Prior to this, all your texts were hypersexual in nature with 'Hunter".
You also spoke of 'worship making your throat hurt.' I'll let you choose which to tell me about first. What do you know about Hunter, and what do you know about making angels?"
Alyssa stared at the documents in silence, jaw agape. Tears began to flow but she remained silent. Trying to form some way to explain all the truths so blatantly exposed in front of her.
"I don-"
Molly raised his hand and shook his head.
"Before you consider lying to me, just know that without the full story, I'll have to place you in custody for assisting in the abduction of a minor, obstruction of justice and if we find out Hiedi has been murdered? Well, that's an accomplice charge. Do you know what that means?"
Alyssa stared blankly ahead, tears flowing and shook her head.
Molly leaned in, "that means you'll go to a juvenile detention center until your 18th birthday, and from there? To a prison. Who knows when you'll see your mom or dad again."
Molly let everything set in for a moment. The full weight of the situation, starting to seep into the young girl.
Molly continued, "So, tell me about Hunter. How did you meet?"
Alyssa wiped her tears and took a deep breath.
"I met Garrett first, on an app."
Molly made a note.
"Which app?"
"Hushle. It's an app to have random conversations anonymously."
"Okay so you met Garrett first, and you exchanged numbers?"
Alyssa nodded, starting to rub her arms again.
"How old is Garrett?"
"He's 13."
Molly leaned back.
"So, you meet Garrett on an anonymous chat app and find out hes the same age as you. So, you decide to exchange numbers. Tell me more."
Alyssa shook up head, talking to herself into telling Molly the story.
"Garrett told me about how his dad only lets him date angels. They live in a special place where they turn girls into angels though, and if I wanted to date him, I'd have to become an angel."
Molly flipped the page of notes and kept writing.
"In your journal you say that you have to help turn Hiedi into an angel for Hunter first. Who's Hunter?"
"Hunter is Garrett's dad."
Molly raised an eyebrow.
"Why would Garrett's dad need Hiedi?"
"Garrett said that his mom was an angel, but she died giving birth to him. So, his dad needs to make a new angel before Garrett can have one."
Molly nodded, understanding the horror that was so Mischievously trickled into this young girl's mind.
"So, you suggested Hiedi."
Alyssa shook her head, "No, I would never. I wanted to be an angel. They told me it had to be Hiedi."
"How did they know about her?"
"Because we video called them."
Molly's mind seized for a moment.
"So, you and Hiedi video called them? So, you've seen them then."
Alyssa shook her head again, "No, they don't have faces like us. They don't get a face until they have an angel. So, they kept the camera off.
"So, in your journal, you say that you're meeting Hunter for prayer again, and mention worship hurting your throat the last time. So, you've met Hunter. What does Hunter look like?"
Alyssa shrugged, "I don't know, old? He wore a mask because h-"
Molly shook his head, showing he was following along, "He doesn't have a face, because his wife died. So, no angel means no face."
Alyssa sunk into her chair and nodded.
"How did he teach you to give worship?"
Alyssa hesitated but forced the words out.
"Hunter... he... made me prove I would be good for Garrett by showing him I could give worship... on him."
Molly hesitated and an understanding grew between them, "and that's why it hurt your throat..."
Alyssa held back tears and nodded again.
"Did Hunter have any scars or marks on him anywhere?"
Alyssa started to shake her head, but then her eyes lit up with a memory.
"There's an Aspen Tree, on his forearm."
Molly made a note and slid Alyssa his pad.
"Write down the address and draw me a map to the forest where this meet took place."
Alyssa did as she was told.
Molly sat in silence for a while. Letting the tick of the clock ground everything that was said between them. Alyssa relaxed after a few minutes.
"Okay Alyssa, I need you to tell me how and where, they took Hiedi."
Alyssa frowned, "If you take Hiedi back, I'll never be with Garrett."
Molly shook his head, "Alyssa, listen to me G-"
Alyssa cut him off with defeat, "Garrett isn't real... is he?"
Molly stayed quiet and Alyssa began to weep.
After an age, the broken girl finally told him how Hiedi was taken...