Not What Kills You

Chapter 9

Henry walks up to Lucas, seeing him taking notes over the body. He smiles at Lucas before kneeling down at the body.

All the happiness he was feeling, soon vanishes as he sees a young girl, no older than twelve laying lifeless and wet near the river. He sighs, putting on his gloves he gently takes hold of her arm, examining the many scars and bruises that remain against her skin. The ends of cigarettes seemed to be a favourite for whoever it was that abused her. He pulls off her shoes gently, wanting to see what other damage there could be. As he pulls them off, he feels that they are immensely heavy for normal shoes.

Examining, inside he sees these pebble shaped objects, grey in colour and small, but he knew looking at them that they were indeed weights. Weights that were used to hold things in place such as a price of cloth over something. There had to be at least twenty in each show, leading him to the grim conclusion that this young girl was indeed murdered. He looked at her lungs to see less water intake than he had expected, making him to believe that perhaps she was knocked unconscious before thrown into the river.

Looking at her features, he takes note. She has dark brown hair, hispanic skin with the lightest mount of freckles along her nose and cheeks, her cheek bones were slightly high reminding him of Jo almost. She was wearing a torn up button up school top and skirt. Neither of which had an identifiable school emblem on it.

As he is deep in thought, Jo comes walking over to him. She bends down next to Henry watching as he studied this young girl, pain is shown all over his face as she watches him.

She then turns her attention to the victim. Seeing the blue, white and red skirt checkered skirt along with the white blouse. She feels her heart grow heavy. She could recognise that uniform anyway, it's the middle school she had belonged to so many years ago.

"I know where she's from." Jo says before standing up.

Jo had lived a tough life growing up her brother and father going down paths of drinking and stealing. She had to admit she wasn't completely innocent but the difference between them and her, was that she got her life back on track. Jo lived in downtown Brooklyn going to a public middle school there. She couldn't quite remember the name of the school but she knew the uniform and that was enough to convince her that this young girl was a victim of society.

"Looks like we have to take a visit to downtown Brooklyn." She says more in a mutter.

Jo had already had a conversation with Henry about how her father wasn't the best role model and how her brother followed in his footpath but she was ashamed of where she's from so she hadn't told him she was from downtown Brooklyn. She walks to the car, Henry following after ordering Lucas and the rest of their team to bring the body back to the morgue.

"Are you okay?" He asks her, worried about how this case is affecting her. She doesn't answer, Henry, being the man that he is, needed to know she was okay so as she went to unlock her car, he took the keys off her to make her look at him.

"Jo...are you okay?" He asks.

Jo just forces a smile and nods her head. Henry doesn't believe her but drops the topic. Henry hands Jo the keys back and gets into the car with her. He takes hold of her hand as soon as the opportunity arises inside the car. Caressing her hand. They both know, he knows this case is eating at her but neither of them spoke a word the whole way to the precinct.

Before they go out, Henry makes Jo turn to him. Her eyes look tired and exhausted and he compliance frightened him a little. Usually she would not put up with him taking the keys. He leans in and presses his lips sweetly against hers, a frail attempt to show her that he is here for her. As he pulls his lips from hers, she smiles weakly at him before they both get out of the car and make their way inside the precinct. Jo walked to her desk as Henry walked up the stairs to his office. Lucas was there examining the body, and days like today, were days that Henry did not enjoy the work he did.

"Prep the body for the autopsy and I will be out in one moment." Henry says to Lucas as he walks passed him and into his office. He sits behind his desk, a sigh escapes his lips as he thinks of Jo. It doesn't take a genius to deduct that Jo obviously felt connected to the victim, Henry just didn't know it was because the victim is Hispanic like Jo or if it was something more.

Henry walked back out of his office, ready to do the autopsy. As he walks over, he sees the girls face is covered. Looking up at Lucas with a questioning stare, Lucas gulps visibly.

"I didn't want to have to see such an innocent face while the autopsy was being performed." Henry nods his head, usually he would scroll Lucas for doing something like this as there would be evidence on her face which could help them, but he understood, and he would look for clues there later when Lucas was on his lunch hour.

The autopsy confirmed what Henry had thought to be true. This child was one of abuse, and was a child from a rough neighbourhood, she was definitely unconscious from the blow on the back of the head he had found on Lucas' lunch hour.

Henry went to the lift, a popping a couple pain killers as he rode it down, his gunshot wound starting to ache. Henry walked to his desk, to tell her the findings he had. She wasn't there, turning to detective Hanson, he handed him the findings.

"Where is she?" Henry asks.

"She went into the back room where the people doing overnight work sleep for a couple hours." Henry nods his head and walks toward the room. Knocking softly, no on answered so he opened the door.

He sees her laying there on one of the beds, no one else in the room. Locking the door, he walks to her, he lays down next to her, wrapping his arms around her, she looks up at him and gives a weak smile, she hadn't been able to fall asleep yet. He holds her in his arms, her hands tangled in his in front of her as her back is against his stomach. He kisses her neck soft and sweetly.

"Do you want to talk about what's wrong?" Henry whispers softly into her ear as she rests against him.

"The school she went to, that's where I went as a kid. I grew up in that neighbourhood." She says softly to Henry.

"So, you feel attached to her? Because you see yourself in her?" Henry asks. Jo just nods.

"My father, he wasn't the best man, always in trouble and when he was mad, no one wanted to be in his way. I started down that path too...stealing, selling loosies on the streets. But I had someone help me. A young man, he was a doctor, if I remember correctly." As Jo said the last sentence Henry's heart started to beat so rapidly. He remembers her.

The doctor who helped her so long ago was him, before he turned to the M.E he is today, he was a doctor he would go around the downtown area of Brooklyn to help people who couldn't afford it.

She was so small and sweet, she was this timid girl, who had so much anger and pain that he couldn't help but feel some sort of protectiveness over her.

"I'm glad someone was there for you." He whispered softly into her ear.

She gives a weak smile before standing up, Henry doing the same. Her lunch hour was over so she had to get back to the office.

Standing up she walks to the door, but before she can, Henry takes hold of her wrist and spins her around, as soon as she is facing him, he presses his lips against hers. Her arms wrap around to the back of his neck as he moves his lips slowly against hers.

"It'll be alright." Henry says softly, his forehead against hers. Holding her hands in his. She smiles softly, knowing it'll be okay with him by her side.