Livi

Chapter 7: Trust

"Here," Hailey tossed the keys to you, you looked back at her,
"You drive." You threw them back, without thinking, it was a habit. Driving puts you at a tactical disadvantage, something you learned when you used to work undercover.
You got in Haileys jeep and started to type in the location on her gps.
"I get it." Hailey said, you looked at her, she kept her eyes on the road.
"The trust thing," She continued.
"I don't trust just anyone either." She took her eyes off the road for a second and glanced at you.
"You're smarter than I thought you were."
"You saying You thought I was dumb?" Hailey grinned from ear to ear.
"It's an cop thing, driving makes you more vulnerable." Hailey stated, she turned the radio on as background noise. It wasn't just a cop thing, it was an undercover thing.
"What unit did you go under for?" You said after a minute, you half expected her not to answer because she didn't say anything for so long.
"Do you profile everyone like that?" Hailey laughed but looked stunned that you figured out she worked undercover.
"Sorry,"
"We're gonna be in a car two hours, might as well get to know each other." Hailey brushed it off, you looked at the gps, she were right, the gps read 2 hours 11 minutes.  A few silent minutes went by, it was more tense than when you and Jay sat in silence but you didn't mind.
"Robbery homicide, that's who I went under for," Hailey said after a minute, she looked away from the road and at you.
"You?" She said, she had connected the dots and realized that you must have gone undercover too.
"Some fucking half ass Criminal psychology unit in New York." You choked out, Hailey laughed, she didn't expect you to say that.
"Almost got me killed." You laughed, Hailey looked at you, waiting for you to finish.
"What you want the whole story?" You laughed, surprised that she was interested.
"We gotta talk about something," Hailey shrugged.
"So, I was in deep undercover for 3 months in New York," You started, Hailey was watching the road but you could tell she was listening.
"I checked in twice a day, right, other than that there was no contact. A camera was hidden outside, and in my motel, they told me I was being closely monitored incase anything went sideways."
"Key words, they told you." Hailey said, laughing,
"That usually means people are lying." Hailey stated, s
"So, the two guys I was working, showed up, they weren't supposed to I was supposed to come to them"
"These guys broke into my motel, started questioning me,"
"So, keep in mind this was a criminal psychology unit, we worked criminals with abnormal motives or mental illnesses."
"One of them was a fucking psychopath, the other was his little brother."
"So right then, I'm relying on the team to come help, there was a camera outside and inside, they could see me."
"I said the safe word, no contact."
"I had to talk my way out of a fucking serial killer killing me." You laughed.
"Are you serious?" Hailey laughed.
"I mean really, apparently in his spare time he liked to dissect squirrels he found in the backyard."
"If that doesn't scream insane I don't know what the hell does." Hailey said, she stifled her laughter as she got on the highway to make better time.
"So, I make it out, call my boss, apparently he went on lunch break for an hour and didn't have anyone cover for him."
"What a dick." Hailey laughed, you could tell she liked you.
"What was your case, why were you under?" You said, Hailey's demeanor changed, something was off, you shouldn't have asked that. She obviously didn't want to remember the case.
"I uh- This guy named Ron, big time dealer, robbery homicide wouldn't have gotten involved if he didn't keep dropping bodies." Hailey said before you had time to change the subject.
"He was tying off loose ends, so I went under, caught him with the dope, case closed." Her words weren't like they were a minute ago, now they were short, nervous, her eyes were fixed on the road.
Your phone vibrated in the cup holder on the dash, Jay was calling. Hailey saw the picture of Jay and you In a squad car that was his contact photo, you looked like siblings in the photo, it must have been 6 years ago.
"It's Jay, I'm gonna answer it." You told Hailey.
"Hey, what's up?" You put your phone on speaker and set it on the dash.
"We just stopped at Sarah's moms house," Jay said, they had the closest location out of the six of you, Sarah's mom Ellen had never left Chicago.
"She said she didn't have anything to give us other than a name, Sarah's boyfriend, his name isn't in the file yet"
"That's weird, I worked that investigation for a year and she never talked,"
"Grief does a lot to a person,"
"Apparently in the five years the case was cold she decided she was gonna talk." Kevin said, something was off, something wasn't right.
"Yeah but why now, only when a detective showed up at her door," Hailey furrowed her brows, she had caught on to that too.
"Couldn't tell you, but she did say," Jay paused, you saw Kevin flipping through his notes.
"Somethings not adding up." You say before he could speak.
"I don't know what y'all are on to but she seemed like a solid lady, just wanted to help."
"People tend to want to help when there is a chance of finding their child or their loved one," you shot a glance at Hailey,
"Once the child is out of the equation they want to forget it all, it's a trauma response, they disassociate, sweep it under the rug."
"When I worked her daughters murder, she didn't see the body, theoretically she wouldn't know if it ever was her daughter."
"So she wouldn't have accepted it yet, she would have talked, done everything she could incase the police had isldrntified her wrong and she was still being held.
"But she didn't talk," Jay stated.
"I remember it we brought her in she sat there and didnt even look at any of us."
"Exactly, she knew her daughter was dead, she already accepted it,"
"And we know that Kenny held her and killed her,"
"So either Ellen knows kenny and he showed her the body or some other way she already knew Sarah was dead."
"So Ellen knows something," Jay concluded
"More than we have right now."

"What else did she say?"
"Not much, apparently Sarah was having a hard time, depression, substance abuse."
"Alright listen,"
"I want you to go back in, ask her some questions about her faith, does she go to church, did Sarah?"
"You think this has something to do with her religion?" Jay and Kevin looked at each other.
"I don't know,"
"Whatever you do, don't scare her off, Ellen stayed in Chicago this long she must not think we are onto her story."
"Livi we need a little more to go off than that, what are you thinking?"
"People have abused the Bible for centuries, twisted it to excuse the terrible things they do. You say Sarah fell of the deep end, she probably did things Ellen didn't like, if Ellen's overly religious maybe she took her to church."
"Hold on, Kenny was a priest you think they went to his church?"
"They lived two blocks from the church I think it begs the question."
"That would explain how Ellen would know Kenny." Hailey added.
"It also gives us a reason to bring her in if she admits to withholding information." Jay said.
"Livi you are genius." Jay laughed lightly, stunned by how fast you put the peices together.
"Let me know what you find, were stuck in a box on wheels the next 90 minutes." You said, Hailey laughed, she didn't like road trips either.
"Gotcha." Kevin said, Jay hung up.
"The victims mother knows her daughters murderer somehow, finding out why is the first key to getting information out of her."
"Information, you think you can get her to talk?"
"At least give us a clue."