Finding home

Chapter 9 - Work

"Hey Espo! How's the case going?" I shouted out to my partner as I got into the open bullpen.

He looked up at me with food in his mouth and I raised my eyebrow.

"I didn't think you would go in today" he said with full mouth.

I saw Ryan get out of the break room and look at me with wonder in his eyes.

"Beckett, what are you doing here?" he questioned and I felt stunned.

"I work here. Why the hell wouldn't I come in today?" I asked my two partners.

They gave each other one look that didn't tell me anything more than that they knew something I didn't.

"Speak" I demanded cold and harsh.

They shrugged their shoulders and Esposito decided to speak up.

"We just thought you would stay home with Alexis, where is she by the way?" he said.

"She's at my dad's house, I told you on the phone yesterday I would come in as soon as I had dropped her off so where did you get the idea of me not coming into work today?" I demanded to know what was going on.

Both my partners shrugged their shoulders and I sighed, rolling my eyes as I went to the murder board to check out what they had written down. "Marah Adams, 25, died 9:35pm, found by best friend Teresa, has a 3 y/o child, unidentified father, where's the child?" I continued to check the facts they had scribbled down, looked like they hadn't gotten any further than last time we talked.

"Have you found the one signing the adoption papers yet?" I asked and saw Ryan come up to me.

Esposito was gone and I wondered what the hell those two where up to, but I was too tired to try and find out. Whatever it was, it hopefully could wait.

"Actually, he died about one month after the adoption. Guess whoever took the kid didn't want him to help cops ID them. We have a lead on the father though, not as in we know who he is but now we know Marah didn't. She had no idea who the father was and that's why she and her old boyfriend just figured they would tell everyone it was his" Ryan informed me and I nodded.

"The kid's been gone for too long, we don't even know if he or she is still alive. Do we even know the gender by the way? Is it a boy or a girl that we're searching for?" I asked and looked at Ryan who looked down in his papers.

"It's a baby girl, we found that out from the old boyfriend, they had found out together at one of the ultra sound appointments since they wanted to get ready to become parents, not that they wanted to know how to raise it, that he was very specific about. They just wanted to get closer to the birth and their future, feeling like 'knowing the gender of their baby was the next step' " he said making quotations in the air.

I nodded, thinking. Where the hell did that kid go? And why didn't Marah tell anyone she found her baby?

"Girl, we need to talk!" I heard my best friend's voice filling the bullpen and I quickly spun around to see Esposito walk behind Lanie with a frightened look on his face.

I looked around to see how many people had heard her outburst but found no one looking at us. To my relief I let go of a breath before I turned my attention back to my best friend.

"What's wrong?" I asked and she gave me one of her looks.

"What's wrong? You're really gonna go with that? Come here" she said, taking a grip on my wrist pulling me with her into the break room.

The two men inside there saw the look on Lanie's face and immediately walked out of the room. Lanie closed the doors and pulled down the curtains before she turned to me.