Case by Case Love

Chapter 63: A Second Crack

Erin found herself standing in the same room she had stood in that morning with Jay, looking at the family pictures. Except now it was night time, and she wasn't there with her partner. She was there with Kim. Taking a deep breath, she could only hope it worked....

She only takes her eyes off of the pictures on the wall when she watches a young girl walk into the room. She smiles in seeing the cute curls at the bottom of her brown hair, remembering how Carmella tried curling her hair for one of her school dances. The appearance was not going the way she wanted, so she instead straightened it back out.

"This is Erin Lindsay and Kim Burgess," the young girl's mother Sophie says, wrapping an arm around her daughter's shoulders. The little girl had stopped at her mother's side immediately, glancing between the pair of females in the room. "They work for the police department as detectives. They are trying to find out what happened to Sterling." 

"Are you going to find out who hurt my brother and put him in jail?" Luna speaks for the first time, earning a nod of approval in response from both of the detectives. Whether it was the father, or someone else, Erin didn't care who was responsible. She was just focused on finding them and making them pay for what they did. Sterling did not deserve what happened, neither did the rest of the family. 

"They both wanted to speak with you to see if you can help them...." The comment makes the little girl confused as she looks at her mother. The response did not surprise Erin one bit, as kids were always thrown off how they could help with the innocent stuff they did not believe was not important. 

"I did not see what happened. I don't know what happened, Mommy." Kim takes the first step forward, as Erin watches her closely. It seemed when it came to creating sympathy with victims, Kim was a natural. Maybe it was because of everything she had been through herself. Maybe it was because she was a mother. Maybe it was because of everything she had helped McKayla with.

"We know that Luna," Kim states as she bends down to be eye level with the little girl. "But we want to know more about your brother as that may help us find who did this to him." Erin takes a deep breath, knowing the question that Jay would want her to ask beyond anything. However, seeing the little girl's demeanor in not being afraid, and no physical markings, there was not enough evidence for the words to escape her lips.

"Did your brother ever tell you about someone hurting or scaring him?" Erin questions as she takes a deep breath, knowing what should naturally follow based on the evidence they had seen. She could not dare mention Kenny's name, though. "Did you ever see someone hurting your brother?" 

"I did not see anything...." Luna repeats once again just like earlier, as the detectives nod their head sympathetically. Erin knew she wanted to have the conversation, but she never wanted to hurt or scare the child in doing so. It made her wonder if they should bother continuing. Normally if there was something, the child would have said it already. Unless there was a reason they were not saying anything. What if Kenny had warned Luna and Sophie about saying something? What if there was more that was happening behind closed doors here? "I saw nobody hurt my brother. He did not tell me." 

"Our home life is what you would expect from any family out there," Sophie adds, taking a deep breath in the process. "Our family would never do anything to hurt Sterling." Erin locks eyes with her, taking a deep breath, as Jay's words repeat over and over in her head. She then finds herself reflecting back on the conversation from that morning with Kenny and Sophie. The mention of his anger issues. The fact he was quick to defend every single action.

"You mentioned your husband's anger issues," Erin starts carefully, one eye on Sophie and another on Luna. She hated to be doing this. She knew she shouldn't be doing this. But they would just run around in circles. "Ms. Harper asked the principal to look into a possible abuse case. So combined with the discussion this morning and his defence, your mention of anger issues, Ms. Harper's filing, and the bruises on your son, I have to ask this question. Was there ever any issues at home surrounding your husband, Luna's father?" 

"Luna, can you tell me about your father?" Kim asks in a more gentle sense, giving a side eye glance to Erin in knowing fully stating all of that in front of the little girl was wrong. It may be true, and it should be said. But that could affect the little girl emotionally moving forward, or worse - it could change her perspective even if her father is innocent. Was that fair? 

"What is going on here?" A male voice interrupts the conversation as everybody looks towards the doorway, seeing Kenny had appeared in the room for the first time since they had arrived at the residence. Erin had been thankful that he was nowhere to be found originally. She knew it was their best chance. However, every second passing now built more fear for her. 

"Erin Lindsay came back with one of her other partners, Kim Burgess, to follow up on this morning's questions and request to speak with Luna," Sophie states the facts clearly as Erin locks eyes on the male, trying to read what he was thinking in that very moment. She tried to see everything that Jay had seen in him that morning to come to his conclusion. He was never off with his intuition. Why would this be any different? 

"They wanted me to tell them about Sterling," Luna adds as she keeps herself clung to her mother's side, her eyes not leaving Kim through the whole conversation. That was enough warning alone as Erin and Kim traded a glance of their own. "Sterling and daddy argued a lot."