Disclaimer: I own nothing...TPTB please don't sue me for playing harmlessly with your creations...I'm not making any money off of this.
A/N: This is my first Cold Case fic so please be gentle. I just started watching the show (it takes up the hour between Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy lol) so forgive me if the characters aren't themselves.
Lilly Rush tapped her foot impatiently under her desk as she studied a case file. Three years ago four year old Rily Shull had gone missing from a department store where his mother was shopping. Security cameras showed Rily being led out the doors by an unidentifiable pair of teens, he hadn't been seen since and Lilly just couldn't let go.
"Lil!" Scotty's voice jarred her back to reality.
"What?"
Could you please stop that...it's driving me crazy!"
"Stop what?" Lil was genuinely confused.
"Tapping your foot," he told her.
"Oh...sorry Scotty," Lil dipped her head back down but Scotty caught the blush that spread up her pale cheeks. Scotty grinned at the top of her head before going back to work. Suddenly Lil pushed her chair out and ran over to Scotty, dropping a still from the security camera on his desk. "Look Scotty!" she said excitedly, "D'you see that?" she jabbed her finger into the page at the jacket of one of the pair. Scotty pulled the picture out from under Lilly's finger so her could see what she was pointing at. "It's a school logo," she informed him, too impatient to wait for him to figure it out himself.
They loaded the photo onto a computer and enlarged the crest just enough to make out the logo without it becoming totally pixilated. "Whaddyou think it says?" Scotty asked.
"W. Phil...Mid? West Philadelphia Middle School maybe?"
"Yeah could be, looks like a hockey stick or somethin' on there too, number sixteen maybe? So if we get the hockey roster for the past few years at West Philly middle school and we got ourselves a list of suspects."
Two hours and one subpoena later Lilly and Scotty had two suspects, the only players on the West Philly middle school hockey team to have worn the number 16 in the last ten years. They tracked down their first suspect, Layton Alexander and went to ask him a few questions.
"You Layton Alexander?" Lil asked as she and Scotty crossed the atrium at Peirce College. A sandy haired boy looked up,
"Yeah that's me. What can I do for ya?"
"Detectives Valens and Rush," Scotty introduced them. A look of terror passed over the young mans face.
"My ma...is she okay? Nothin' happened to her did it?" he asked worriedly.
"Your mother is fine," Lil told him, "You recognize this kid?" she asked showing him Rily's picture.
"Yeah sure. That's the kid that went missin' couple years ago. All over the news, AMBER alerts and everything. They ever find him?"
"No. You go to West Philly middle school?" Scotty asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Well we got reason to believe that someone who went there had somethin' to do with Rily disappearing."
"And of all the kids that've gone there how'd you come up with me?"
"There was some evidence overlooked the first time around. You have a varsity hockey jacket from middle school?" Lil asked.
"Nah, they didn't start with the jackets til after I graduated. Pissed me off too, they were nice jackets."
"Okay, thanks for your time," Scotty told him. He and Lil walked towards their car, "So where's our other suspect at now Lil?"
"Kensington high, he's a senior." Lil told him after consulting the file.
"I'm sorry detectives I can't pull a student out of class to be questioned by police," Kensington high's principal told them, "Not without his parents permission or a court order."
"Well Mrs. Selvan would you be able to contact his parents and get us permission?"
"May I ask why you want to speak with Sam? He's an excellent student and I just don't see where he could possibly fit into a police investigation."
Lilly pushed the photo of Rily Shull across the desk, "We're looking into the disappearance of this little boy and we have reason to believe that Sam may have some information that we need."
"Well that's little Rily Shull isn't it?" the principal said. "His stepsister Greer Masgok goes here, in fact she's friends Sam. They've organized all sorts of rallies and candlelight vigils for Rily, very sweet girl." Lilly and Scotty exchanged looks, no way that this was a coincidence.
"Thank you for your time Mrs. Selvan, we'll be back when we've got a court order," Scotty said.
"I really do wish I could help you detectives but my hands are tied," the principal showed them out.
"Guys!" Josie yelled across the room as Scotty and Lil stepped off the elevator. She gestured for them to follow her and they exchanged confused looks before moving quickly to the room she'd disappeared into.
"What is it Josie?" Lil asked as they walked in to the darkened room.
"Okay so I was going over the security tape and I found something," Josie advanced the tape frame by frame as the teens led Rily towards the door. Suddenly she stopped, "There! You see that?" Lilly and Scotty stared at the screen. Reflected in the glass doors of the store were the faces of their abductors, one of whom was clearly Sam Kroegger and the other, an unidentified girl. Lilly turned and left the room, going to her desk and riffling through Rily Shull's file until she found what she was looking for. She reentered the room,
"Abductor number two," she held up the picture, "Greer Masgok, Rily's stepsister."
"No wonder the kid didn't put up a fuss, he knew his abductors."
Lilly and Scotty returned to the school with warrants for the detention and questioning of Sam Kroegger and Greer Masgok. The teens were quietly removed from class to meet with the detectives individually at the station, first was Sam Kroegger.
"So Sam, we have some evidence in the abduction of Rily Shull that implicates you in his disappearance," Scotty told him, double checking to see that the tape recorder was still running.
"Do I need a lawyer?"
"It's your call, answer our questions now or we can put you in lockup to wait for a lawyer."
"Okay, okay...whaddya wanna know?"
"Did you abduct Rily Shull?" Scotty asked.
"I helped yeah," Sam replied, "Wasn't my idea though."
"Whose was it?" Lilly asked, sure she already knew the answer.
"Greer's. She told me she was supposed to be babysittin' him and we were gonna take him to the park while her mom shopped..." The door to the interrogation room in flew open as Sam Kroegger's father stormed in.
"What the hell is going on here?" the irate man demanded.
"Sir this is a police investigation, we're going to have to ask you to leave." Lil said calmly.
"Fuck off you little bitch. You got no right talkin' to my kid without my permission," Lilly was shocked at his attitude.
"Hey!" Scotty piped up, "Sir if you don't want to be arrested for verbally assaulting an officer you're going to apologize to detective Rush and then you'll leave or we'll arrest you for obstruction of justice." The man turned an stormed out of the room, leaving Lil and Scotty to get back to questioning Sam.
"So did you take him to the park?" Lil asked.
"No...Greer said she had a fort back in the woods she thought we'd like so we went there. She had all sortsa stuff there."
"Like what?" Lil prodded.
"Knives, rope...weird stuff ya know? Kinda freaked me out," Sam shivered at the memory. "I was gonna leave, take Rily to the park or somethin' but Greer called me a pussy and said that if I left she'd tell everyone..." his voice dropped, "tell everyone I was gay. She was the only one who knew! I trusted her! So I stayed. She tied Rily to a tree...that's when he started to cry, said he didn't like this game and wanted his mommy. I tried to get Greer to bring him back but she wouldn't," Sam stopped talking and began sobbing into his hands.
The detectives gave him a moment before asking the million dollar question, "What happened to Rily, Sam?"
"I saw Greer putting little cuts in his arms and legs with one of her knives. Then she wrapped this thing around his neck...it was like a cord with a piece of wood on it and she started to twist it. Rily stopped crying and started to turn kinda blue and then he passed out. I screamed for Greer to stop but she wouldn't! She just kept twisting and twisting. She made me hold onto the piece of wood and she took a knife and slit his throat...he was just a baby! I passed out after that and when I woke up I couldn't see Rily. I asked Greer where he was, I hoped maybe I'd dreamed everything and then she pointed to a big garbage bag. I could see blood everywhere around it. She killed her little brother! She told me that I could never ever tell anyone or she'd out me, besides I was an accomplice by then. So we cleaned up and dumped the bag down a ravine and Greer said that we had to pretend like we were trying to find Rily, like put up posters and stuff so no one would suspect us." Lilly turned and walked out of the room when Sam was finished his sordid tale, Scotty found her hunched over a toilet in the washroom.
"Lil?" he asked tentatively, watching as her she threw up into the toilet. "Oh Lil," he sighed. He waited until she'd regained her composure before asking, "Why don't you let me handle Greer."
"No Scotty, I'm fine," she rinsed her mouth out and popped a piece of gum. "Let's do this," she said with far more confidence than she felt. Scotty shook his head and followed her to the interrogation room to face Greer Masgok. Both detectives were rather surprised at the young woman who sat in front of them. The blonde haired blue eyed girl was dressed like an aristocrat's spoiled little girl and showed no evidence that she would have the makings of a killer. "Hello Greer," Lilly greeted her coldly.
"Hi! So have you reopened Rily's case? I know my mom and step dad would really like to know what happened to him."
"Why don't you tell us Greer? We know the pretty much what happened but we'd like to hear it from you." Greer's face fell,
"That fairy sold me out, didn't he? Fucking queer!" Greer yelled, pounding the table with her fists. "Ever since my mom married my step dad she's cared less and less about me, then she has Rily and the whole fuckin' world revolves around him. I need attention too!"
"You killed your baby brother because you were jealous?" Lil couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Yeah so? People have done stuff like it before! Like that Jamie Bulger kid? That's where I got the idea to take him from the store. And JonBenet Ramsey? That's how I found out what a garotte was. The torture and chopping him up was all my idea though. It was fun!" Greer grinned maniacally and Lil left the room and Scotty arrested Greer, charging her with her little brother's torture and murder.
Scotty found Lil sitting on the bathroom floor with her head in her hands, "How could she do that Scotty? He was a baby!" She looked up at him, eyes shining with unshed tears. Scotty sat down beside her and pulled her into his arms,
"I don't know Lil." After a few minutes of silence Scotty spoke, "Whaddya say we go get some takeout and go watch a movie at my place?"
"Okay," Lil whispered.
Scotty and Lil entered his apartment after stopping at hers to feed Olivia and Tripod and then going to pick up Chinese take-out.
"You go pick a movie and I'll grab drinks and plates," Scotty said, dropping the bag of take-out onto the coffee table. Scotty returned with two wine glasses and a bottle of Piat d'Or. He set it down and poured two glasses before going to get the plates. When her returned Lil had queued the DVD up to the beginning and pressed play as he sat beside her.
When the food was done Scotty poured each of them another glass of wine and reclined back on the couch, motioning Lilly closer. She moved tentatively, tensing when he wrapped an arm around her waist.
"Relax Lil," he whispered, smiling when he felt her muscles loosen as she leaned into him, taking a sip from her glass. Scotty noticed Lil's breathing evening out as she fell asleep so he gently removed the glass from her fingers and set it on the table before scooping her up, noting how tiny she felt. He laid her down on his be and pulled a blanket over her, smiling when she unconsciously snuggled into the blankets. "Night Lil," he whispered, going back out to clean up. He moved quietly around the livingroom, gathering up all the dishes and putting them in the sink. A sound made him pause as he was washing the wine glasses, he listened harder and realized the sound was coming from his room. He moved quietly and nudged the door open, seeing Lil thrashing around on the bed.
"No! Leave him alone! He's a baby!" she mumbled. Scotty moved to the bedside and stroked her hair gently.
"Shhh, it's okay Lil. It's just a dream," Lil's eyed snapped open and Scotty's heart broke to see the pain in those beautiful baby blues. "Oh Lilly," he sighed, crawling onto the bed and pulling her into his arms, surprised when she didn't resist. He felt her relax as they lay silently and soon she was asleep, as was he.
A/N2: Stole the idea for the names of the victim and killers from another writer (ForensicsFreak1988) (used anagrams). Rily Shull is Lilly Rush, Selvan (high school principal) isValens, Greer Masgok is George Marks and Sam Kroegger isGeorge Marks.