Motionless Masterpiece

The P.I.

[Chris's POV] 

Patience, something I was normally good at, was proving to be a challenge as of late. I'm certain I was driving everyone crazy as of late with my pacing and obsessing over my daughter, even though they never said an ill-thing to me.

We had just made it into Oklahoma and had two hours to the venue when my phone began ringing for facetime.

"It's the private investigator." I blurted out before I made my way to the back of the tour bus for privacy. 

I answered the call and his face popped up.

"Did you find her?" I asked him.

He nodded his head. "It wasn't hard."

"Okay, so what is next, have you found out where her and her mother live?" I pressed.

He gave me a somber look. "I've been on the case since you set me on payroll. I'm calling you to inform you what I have managed to gather prematurely as I feel it is imperative for you to know. It took little digging to discover that miss Tierney Givings, the mother of the child passed away six years ago. The child Josephine Givings has been in the system since then. Her current foster family is one of the bad homes. I've sent over photos and documents of my findings so you can see yourself. Again, I am sorry."

It took some mental processing to come to terms with Tierney's passing. Then it made me sick to my stomach when I realized that my daughter went the past six years in a foster home when she could've been with me.

Then I remembered that my private investigator said she was placed in one of the bad homes and he had sent photos. I grabbed my ipad from my bunk and pulled up my emails opening the one with the attachments. 

As I looked through the photos I knew had been shot through the P.I.'s long range camera lenses I felt sick to my stomach. There was even a video.

Without a word I broke down and started crying, I didn't care that I let myself flop onto the floor and curl up into a ball like a child in the fetal position. I didn't care that I wailed like a dying animal. 

When the guys joined my side and I managed to string together a coherent sentence between my tears, did I explain Tierney's death six years ago, Josephine's placement in foster care, and the fact that she had been living in a house where she was being abused to an extent that I wasn't sure of, but I knew it was bad.

"Fuck this!" Vinny said, picking up the ipad. "We are supposed to be in OKC this evening to start rehearsing, but fuck all of this. We are going to to get your daughter."

The P.I. had the address of Josephine's foster home in the email so we talked to the driver of our tour bus and updated the gps. We were an hour out.

I tuned in and out of the conversations going on between my band mates and their phone calls. Them explaining that they were going to be running late so rehearsals might be cut short, but that we were still planning on making the concert.

As the bus slowed down in the Norman city limits and we began going down residential roads my heart began racing.  Fourteen years.

"Okay, we are here. Look, don't do anything stupid that's going to get you locked up ok?" Justin said as I rose to my feet and stared at the house that held my daughter prisoner.

I gave a silent nod and then pocketed my phone as I left the tour bus and started up the path to the front porch. I was just about to knock when I heard yelling inside.

"I hate you! Why won't you just send me back!" The voice of a girl screamed.

Then a loud smack filled the air.

"Don't you fucking touch me, don't you dare fucking touch me or I swear to god!" The voice of the girl screamed.

I heard the sound of gagging before what sounded like something large slamming against a wall. 

"You're going to learn to behave or you won't live to see your next birthday."

"I can't breath." I heard her choke out and that's all it took to unfreeze me from my place on the door mat. 

In one swift motion I took a step back and with my foot I kicked the door in and rushed forward throwing a punch at the man that was her foster father, before he could get a word out.

A woman in the kitchen screamed and a teenage boy came running out of his bedroom.

"What did you do to my dad, you fuckin prick!" The boy shouted from the far end of the hall as his mother threatened to call the police for my breaking and entering.

Ignoring the boy and the woman I gave my attention to the girl collapsed on the floor in front of me. "Are you okay?" I asked her, my voice trembling. 

I didn't know what to do, other than speak to her and ask if she was okay. Right now that was the important thing. Once that was done and she was safe would we worry about everything else.

She clutched at her neck as she leaned slightly away from me -a stranger to her- and as I glanced at her neck I saw the bruises from her foster father.

"Okay, you're coming with me, I'm going to take you to the hospital to make sure you are okay. Then I am going to call the police. This ass hole should be locked up, they all should be."

I helped her to her feet and we started towards the door when police cars suddenly swarmed the house. A pair of officers cautiously approached us and I held up my hands to show I wasn't armed.

"I've been called for a breaking and entering and assault with an attempted kidnapping, what's going on?"

Before I could say anything in my defense Justin and Ricky were making their way to my side, Justin had the ipad and Ricky my wallet.

"Look, officer, this man has been through a lot these past couple days. He found out after 14 years that he had a daughter through his ancestry dna app. Hours ago he found out his ex, his daughters mom passed away six years ago and his daughter was put in a foster home, and through the private investigator we hired we found out that his daughters foster family has been abusing her."

Without another word Justin handed the police officer the ipad that had the photo evidence from the private investigator. We were on our way to Paycom because we have a show tomorrow, but we couldn't leave her to continue being abused knowing what was happening to her. 

The entire time Justin spoke to the officer Josephine held my gaze with an unreadable expression. It was like I was looking into her mothers eyes, but it was my face.

"I was coming to peacefully gather her when I heard her foster father assaulting her. I broke the door down to gain entry and asserted just enough force to get him off of her. He had her lifted off the floor, his hands around her neck. You can see the bruises. Look, if you need to arrest me, fine, but please do not allow her to return to that house and get her medical attention."

"Sir, based off what you've both told me and the evidence I will not be arresting you, but I will be taking her foster father into custody. If you would like to be the one to transport her to the hospital I will allow it, I believe in cases like this custody will be removed from her foster family, but what happens after that I do not know. Her case manager will be notified from the hospital and there will be an exam done and a formal investigation opened based on these photos." The cop explained.

The officer turned to Josephine and addressed her. "One of my female officers will escort you inside to grab anything you need to take with you. Whatever you cannot replace I would pack."

After she had gathered her things I explained that I would be taking her to the OU Medical Center and that any police needing to interview her could do so there. Once I got her case managers number I led Josephine to the tour bus.

I didn't know what was going to happen next, but I knew for certain that as long as I had my daughter I would do everything I could to protect her and make up for the last fourteen years even though I knew that was impossible.