Case by Case Love

Chapter 58: A New Case

Hank comes out of his office with a stack of file folders, placing a single one on each of his detective's desks. Jay and Erin catch a glance of each other, before looking down at what now rested before them.

"We have a new case as per special request from the Mayor as the child is personal friends with the family," Hank states as Jay takes a deep breath, as he opens the file. Cases involving children always seemed to hit harder with the entire team. Cases involving the army hit harder with him too, obviously. "Meet six-year-old Sterling Reynolds, who was found dead in an alley by patrol officers about 12 hours ago."

"Why are we just finding out about it now Sarge?" Adam asks, which was a good question considering they normally got these calls within hours of things happening. Why were they finding out hours after the fact for a change? 

"Homicide originally picked up the case, but the mayor transferred it to our office in wanting my unit to handle it." It was a reasonable request as it wasn't the first time this had happened for any of the members of intelligence. Anything high profile or controversial always showed up in their lap. "There were bruises all over the young man's body, with strangulation being ruled as the cause of deat-"

"How well does the mayor know this family?" Everybody knew what Adam was implying by those words, and it did not surprise Jay one bit. He also knew it could very well be the reason for this happening and wanted to explore that angle as well. He knew the least suspecting parents could be the reason for it happening as he takes a deep breath, scanning the file before him. It was making him sick.

"Normally abuse starts at home," Erin adds, knowing from her own experience, thanks to her mental anguish all of her life with Bunny. Hank should know that better than anyone with having saved Erin when she was a teenager. "Were they fresh bruises, or were some of them aged?" 

"They are assuming they are from his attack to his death," Hank comments, already wanting to turn the unit away from the angle they were heading. He was not about to get himself in the midst of a controversial situation with the mayor by going after the father of a friend of his for child abuse. 

"We'll speak with the parents, check with the coroner, and check with the hospital to see if there's a history of injuries," Jay states which was normal protocol for any of these cases. Whether the parents were the cause or not, a conversation needed to be had. You always went to the child's parents to learn more about them before you chased after other leads that could possibly be out there. 

"Someone should also speak with the officers on scene to see if there's anything else that is worth noting that we do not have in this file," Erin adds, to which Jay nods his head in agreement. Again, it was part of the normal protocol when it came to taking over a case from another set of officers.

"You may also want to speak to his sister eight-year-old Luna Reynolds to learn more about Sterling, but can only do so with a parent present," Hank offers, having wished the team would have began to open the file and learn more details before they went off on these angles. 

"Someone should speak to his teacher," Kim suggests as she thinks back to her childhood. She knew herself from other children that sometimes they would share details with their teacher that others did not know. "He or she may be able to offer light into what Sterling was like as a student, at school and away from his parents." 

"So other than abuse - which is obvious, what other angle could there be?" Adam wonders, still stuck on that based on the markings he was seeing of the child in the file. "I mean, why else would someone kill a six-year-old?" 

"There's some sick people out there who get joy from selling kids for drugs," Erin comments, having felt that fear in having overheard a conversation with Bunny and one of her suppliers. "Some people like to be pedo with children, and then get a joy out of watching them in pain. So parents sell them to those people for drug money. Or the people just kidnap them to do that. Abuse is the easy angle based on what we're seeing, but you can't just assume that. There are other possibilities." 

"What if it is-" Jay goes to start, knowing it would not just be like any other case in knowing it was a special request from the mayor. 

"We will cross that bridge when we need to, but we are handling this like any other case," Hank comments, actually growing annoyed by the conversation. He had expected each of them to read through the file quickly, and then head off in the aforementioned directions in hopes of solving this as quickly as possible. Why were they discussing it all? 

"So who is taking who?" Kim asks, knowing they all had to get started somewhere and get to work. They were just wasting time at this point and she could see the annoyance on Hank's face. "I assume you want the parents, Hank." 

"I think Jay and I should handle the parents," Erin suggests, worried that Hank's push against their initial theories could cloud his judgement. She just hoped that she wasn't pushed on her comment. 

"Jay and Erin take the parents as well as his sister Luna, Kevin and I get the patrol officers and the coroner, and Adam and Kim will handle the teacher," Hank states as Kevin could not help but feel a bit of surprise in being partnered with the boss. He had never been partnered or kept close to him, unless he was in hot water. He had not done anything wrong lately with Jay and Erin taking all of the headlines. Why was he doing this now?