I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 103 : Interviewing

"Are you sure about this Greg ?" Donovan asked, saton the edge of her desk.
"Come on Sally, you've the state ofthis flat. I'm not saying that she killed him on purpose or anything,but you can't possibly believe that it's just a coincidence that theflat was full of larvae and that a baby died apparently heavilyundernourished according to the paramedics's report." retorted herboss, trying not to look to the pictures of the flat that were beingdownloaded on the computer beside him.
"You know that she isjust 20. If it's not her fault you would have put a young grievingmother through the process of a police interview hours after thedeath of her child for nothing." remarked the young woman. Shewasn't against the idea of the detective but she was applying thetechnique she had learnt at the police academy of always to trying todebate this kind of sensible decision to make sure you were reallytaking the best decision possible.
"It's a risk worth taking."stated the inspector. "We are talking about the death of a child.If we don't do anything the tabloids won't let us rest in peace. Wedon't have anyone else to interview. No known boyfriend orgirlfriend, no parents or friends. We can't just stay here hoping foran angel to bless us with an answer."
"Alright, I'll ask forher transfer from the hospital." nodded his colleague, grabbing herphone.

As he had the more experience in sensible case, thetask of leading the interview felt on Greg who was now sitting in thesame room he had been awaiting his boyfriend in a couple of weeksearlier but not in any way in the same mood. A young constableintroduced the woman in the room before closing the door behind him.The detective glanced a quick look up in the CCTV camera linked to anearby office where he knew that Sally was watching him beforestanding up from his chair and inviting the young mother to satdown.
"My name is Greg and I will be the officer who will leadthis conversation." he told her on a soft tone, not willing tobrowbeat her. "I'm here to talk to you, not to shout at you and I'mvery very aware that you've just suffer a terrible loss and you'velost a baby child. Do you understand you've been arrested ? What doyou understand you've been arrested for ?"
"They said I'vekilled my baby." replied the woman, not making eye contact.
"Yes,on suspicion of murder." nodded the policeman.
"He was such agood boy ..." the mother moaned, finally looking up to theinspector.
"I know, I know ... You are just twenty and you'vegot three very young children. How are you coping ? Is there anyonewho help you out with them ?" questioned the DI, trying not to rushher but still willing to have answers to his questions.
"No. Youknow for my age I'm capable." denied the young girl. "Yeah, I'mcapable."
"So you don't have a boyfriend or a mother, asister, no one who sometime come to help you with the kids, give youa hand ?" the yarder wondered once more to make sure she had beenanswering his question when saying 'no'.
"No. I'm their mother.I'm taking charge of them." repeated the woman, shaking her headslightly.
"I'm sorry I have to ask you this question but I wouldreally really want to know, your little boy, he was six months oldright ? How were you feeding him ? Were you breastfeeding him ?"Greg asked, trying his best to remain gentle, the girl opposite himobviously being quite shocked and confused.
"Bottle milk. I wasgiving him bottle milk for about two weeks." replied themother.
"And before that you were breastfeeding him ?"clarified the detective.
"Yes. But now it was bottle milk."confirmed the young woman.
"Alright, but there is something thatis bothering me. How does it come that in two weeks of not drinkinghis milk properly or not the same milk he would become emaciated."remarked the DI.
"What do you mean emaciated ?" requested thegirl.
"Skinny." the yarder enlighten her.
"No, he wasn'tthat skinny." denied the teenage mother.
"Well, I'm only goingwith what I've got from the medical report and it said that he lookundernourished which means that he hasn't been fed enough." thepoliceman scolded her softly.
"No, no, my son had been fed, hehad been fed." the woman retorted, shaking her head once again.
"Myonly concern is that I think it's longer than just those last twoweek, you understand ? I'm just trying to understand what havehappened, I'm not trying to accuse you of anything." replied theinspector.
"Yes, yes. But he wasn't that skinny." the motherclaimed once more.
"Alright, alright ... So, tell me more aboutyour flat now, could you please describe it for me ?" nodded theyarder, not willing to force her to admit something and end theconversation doing so.
"It's in a really bad mess." the womanadmitted. "It's only been like that these few days."
"Itlooks like it's more than just these few days if I care to be honestwith you." Gregory commented.
"I know it's bad but it's beenlike that only for a few days." the young girl persisted.
"Yeah,because I've been there earlier today and there was a lot of raw foodin the kitchen, that was really mouldy and full of flies." thedetective tried to make her reacted once again.
"Yeah, I know, Iwas going to clean that up." the woman simply answered.
"I'msorry but I really don't understand, how do we have this caringmother, struggling on her own with three children at your agesuddenly letting her place becoming what it has become today ?" theinspector shook his head. "You say that it have been like that fora few days but I've been in a lot of houses in this kind of mess andI'm saying you take far more than a couple of day to get thatbad."
"I know but I've just lost track these last few days butusually I'm not like that. Usually the house is very clean." themother repeated.
"I understand, but what I really want to knowit's how long this 'lost track' lasted. You understand ? Because itcan't have lasted just two or three days or even a couple of weeks.It takes a very very long time before a flat turn out to be the messyours is and it takes a while before the food you had in your kitchendecay like that. So I really want to understand what happened for youto lost it like this. It's very important for me to understand,alright ?" the yarder scolded her once more.
"Yes, but it'sonly been a few days. But I was going to clean." the young ladyreplied once more.
"Ok, tell me a bit about you then." Gregtried, giving up on his question about the flat, understanding thathe wouldn't have other answers for now about it. "How did you endedup with three children by your own at such a young age ? Where areyour parents ?"
"My parents died when I was a child, I've beento foster care but I've been kicked out from the house at 15 becauseI had stolen some money from this other girl so that my boyfriendcould by his stuff." answered the girl, looking up at the CCTVcamera.
"Alright. This bloke, is he the father of your child ?What happened to him ?" the inspector pushed her, happy to finallyobtain real and genuine answer to one of his questions.
"Yeah,he is the father. But he is in prison now because he've stabbedsomeone." nodded the young woman.
"Ok. He was a good father ?He helped you to take care from the kids ?" tried the yarder with alittle encouraging smile.
"Not really, he was always outside,selling his drug. But he liked them I think and he was bringing themback some toys and some sweets." pouted the mother.
"Sincewhen is he in prison ? Was your baby already born ?" questioned thepoliceman, taking advantage o her being in a good mood to answer totry to have as much of his questions answered to.
"No. He'vebeen taken in March. The 8th or the 9th I think." denied thegirl.
"Right. And since then you're alone, isn't it ?" noddedthe inspector.
"Yes. But I'm a good mum you know. I'm capable."repeated the young woman, falling back into her usual answers.

It'sonly several hours later, after having the confirmation from theflies and larvae's expert and having had a post-mortem performed onthe baby, revealing that his stomach and bladder were empty and thathe was suffering from global undernourishment and dehydration thatGreg decided to end up the interview and to charge the mother withmanslaughter and neglect and to hold her in custody.
He had triedhis best to understand what had been going on during those past fewweeks for the young woman to completely lost it but she had keptrepeating that things weren't that bad and that it had been like thisonly for a few days. The detective was quite sure she hadn'tpurposely let her baby die from hunger or had any kind of maliciousintent but it was now clear that the death of the infant was thedirect result of the way he had lived his last weeks.
Trying tounderstand what had happened would certainly take quite a while butthe DI was determined to find out, not able to put aside the face ofAlden which had been stuck to his retina all day long. He had learntto put his private life aside when working, but in this kind ofcircumstances, it was incredibly hard not to think of your own child,especially when they were the same age than one of those involved inthe case.
It was already way past midnight when Gregory finallymade it home but Mycroft was still up, wrapped in a dressing gown,waiting for him. He had, by some way unknown to the policeman, learntwhat had happened in Camden the same morning and had thought, quiterightly, that his partner would need some comforting after such anawful day.
He hugged him tightly despite the inspector protestingthat he was smelling like the flat he had investigated 12 hoursearlier. They stayed close one to another during a few minutes, thepoliceman taking comfort from his husband body warmth, the auburnfeeling his boyfriend's heartbeat calming down. Then, Greg unwrappedthe elder Holmes arms from around his body and made his way to theroom of his fast asleep son and sat on the floor, beside the littleboy bed. The official had followed him upstairs, but, understandingthat it was a way for his lover to calm himself down and turn thepage, he let him alone with the toddler and made his way to thebathroom enclosed in their room and filled the bathtub with warmwater and prepared a comfortable bathrobe for when the detective willbe ready to wash himself up from his day.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you Amy and Timeo for the help with this couple of chapter.

I hope you liked it.

xxx Dan