Homicide Ch. 3

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Chapter 3<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Alisa followed the directions to Jake's apartment.  She had finished her case and was on call again that night.  It was Halloween, someone was going to die and she was going to get called out but the prospect of spending even a little bit of time with Jake before the call had Alisa smiling.  She went to the gym after work.  Then she just went home, took a long nap, showered, and changed into work clothes before driving to Jake's.  On the way she stopped for food.  
She pulled her car into the parking garage near Jake's building.  She was unsure if she should bring her gun and badge with her into the apartment.  Eventually she decided to lock them in the trunk and set her alarm and ignition lock.  She took the elevator up to the 6th floor and to Jake's door.  She let her gun callous hand fall and knock on his door.  
"Hey!  I'm glad you could make it!"  Jake said and pulled her into the apartment.  The faint smell of cleaning products and Fabreeze wafted in the air.  Alisa grinned at him.
"Did you clean the entire apartment or just the parts I can see?"  She asked him.  Jake bashfully rubbed the back of his head.  
"Uh, most of it.  Tanner hasn't cleaned his own shit up."  He replied.  She sat down on the sofa, dropping her purse and the bag of food on the coffee table.
"Is Tanner your roommate?"  She asked him as he joined her on the sofa.  She looked around the apartment.  It was a quintessential bachelor pad.  The most important thing in the room was the unit that housed the game consoles and a large HD TV.  It wasn't decorated with much thought, just a couple of chairs, a coffee table, and the sofa.  There were no pictures on the walls or any knick-knacks like back at her own place, but it wasn't like she had any wall space for photos or artwork because most of the walls were covered with book shelves.
"Yeah.  He's my co-star too."  She nodded, she remember seeing his name in the credits of the show.  Tanner's character was a family business owner and laid back guy.  Jake's character was a smartass college student who was antagonized by a redneck.  "What's that?"  Jake asked, pointing to the bag.  
"Food."  She told him and opened the bag and took out something that looked like a roll.  She took a bite out of it and offered him one.  
"Rolls?"  He asked her as he took it with a raised eyebrow.  
"Try it."  She said and took a bite out of her own.  She watched him take a bite out of the food and his eyebrows knitted.  
"What is that?"  He asked as he took another bite.  Alisa grinned at him as he looked in the bag.  Every one of them looked almost the same.  
"Piroshki.  It's Russian.  Mine has Bavarian sausage in it.  I think yours is probably spinach and cheese.  Good aren't they?"  She asked him.  "I've been craving Russian food all week and stopped by a Russian Deli on the way here."  
"These are good."  He replied as he finished and took another one out of the bag.  
"I'm glad you think so, most people believe Russian food is pretty bland.  It kind of is."  She told him.  "So, what do you want to do?"
"Movies?"  He asked her.  She nodded, she could go for a good horror movie.  Even though she had a habit of analyzing the movies like she would a crime scene.   He put Rob Zombie's Halloween in after getting Alisa's approval.  
"You know, you didn't have to cancel any plans you had just to hang out with me."  She told him looking him in the eyes.  "I'm sure you had some party or something to go to."  
"Nah, I didn't.  I was planning on watching movies anyways."  He said after a pause and he didn't make eye contact.
"You don't have to lie to me to make me feel better."  She told him calmly.  
"You--"  He began but Alisa gave him a slow smile.  
"I'm a detective."  She told him.  "And I'm the person they send in when we can't get the information we need in interrogation.  I'd be a pretty bad detective if I didn't know when someone was lying to me."  Jake let out a shot, nervous laugh.
"Yeah I guess that's true."  He said and the two turned their attention to the TV screen.  
An hour later Michael Myers was just warming up and Alisa and Jake were cuddling on the sofa.  Alisa had tried not to say a word about the crimes on the screen but broke it a couple of times.  Then, as the cheerleader was murdered, her phone rang from inside of her purse.  She groaned and pulled herself from Jake's arms.  She plucked the device from the bag and looked at the caller ID.  Alisa groaned again.
"Dragunov."  She answered the phone.  
"We have a body."  She heard Dyer on the other end of the line.  He gave her directions to the crime scene.  "You better make it here before the press does."  She raised an eyebrow at that but didn't bother asking.  
"Ok.  I'll be there in a few."  She said and hung up.  She turned to Jake and shrugged.  "I'm sorry.  I knew this would happen."
"It's ok.  I understand."  He said to her with a smile.  She grinned at him as she picked up her stuff.  "You warned me anyways."  
"Thanks."  She leaned down and gave him a quick kiss.  "I'll text you later.  Ok?"  
"Ok.  Later."  He said to her as she retreated.  "Stay safe."
"Always!"  She said before walking out the door.  
**************
Alisa pulled her car up to the edge of the crowd.  She took her gun and badge from the trunk along with her flashlight.  The sun had gone down and it helped when searching crime scenes.  It was easier to focus all of your attention on the circle of light rather than a whole swath of street or an empty lot.  From the center console she took her work notepad and a pen.
Alisa was the second detective to arrive at the crime scene since it was in the next neighborhood.  It was middle class, a lot of condos, well manicured shrubs and trees lined the streets.  The crime scene itself was a community garden that had once been an empty lot.  A good crowd of concerned parents were loitering around the barrier of the crime scene tape, a few costumed children at their sides.  A uniform nodded to her and lifted the yellow tape for her.
She sighed when she saw the film crew filming the crowd.  She still hadn't gotten used to the fact that she was on a reality TV show.  She had managed to keep them out of her personal life so far.  Wong and Donovan hadn't escaped from their clutches though.  The show had framed it so it looked like Donovan was in love with Wong and Wong didn't return it.  The truth was Wong was too stupid to realize he was in love with Donovan and Donovan was madly in love with him but too stupid to go after him.  Alisa had been trying to get them together for months.  There had been many drunk nights of talking and trying to convince either of them to go after the other.  Luckily, she had recently gotten Wong to realize he was in love with Donovan.  Now he was always shy and incredibly protective of Donovan since Shaun was after Donovan now too.
Alisa walked past a little frog-plushie backpack and up to where Dyer was standing over a body.  Shaun from CSU and their ME Dr. Williams looked like they were just getting started.  She knew something was wrong when she saw him shudder.  Shudder. The man had been working LA crime scenes for ever, he even worked on the Night Stalker case, and had seen everything.  Whatever made him shudder like that was bad.  Dyer didn't look any better.  It looked like the stern man itching for a cigarette.  The film crew rejoined them as Alisa came up to Dyer and the body that was laying behind a shriveled up row of tomato plants.  
"What have we got?"  She asked but she was sure she was in for a rough night once that question was answered.  Dyer sighed when he looked at her.  
"A girl, between the ages of 5 and 7, Hispanic.  Beaten and stabbed.  TOD is approximately 1 hour ago, so around 6 p.m."  Dyer told her and then lifted the white sheet covering the body.  The little girl was laying face down, her brown hair was caked with blood, her princess costume had spots of blood and shallow cuts in her body.  She looked so small and helpless.  Shaun took pictures of the body before they turned her over.  "And strangled."  Dyer added when they saw the hand shaped bruises on her neck.  
"Who else is working this case?"  Alisa asked.  
"Donovan should be here soon."  Dyer replied.  She nodded as Shaun took a picture of the bruises.  She leaned over to get a better look at her neck.  The news vans that had suddenly sprouted up and the light from the film crew lit the crime scene so brightly she didn't need her flashlight.  There was something wrong.  The handprints were small, smaller than her own hands.  Donovan came to join them at that moment and he was briefed on the situation.  The film crew hooked up her microphone which Alisa barely noticed.
"Look at the size of the bruises."  Alisa pointed out.  Dyer and Donovan leaned over.  "Don't you think those hand prints are small?  Like a child's?"  
"Good catch."  Donovan said to her.  
"We're looking for a kid.  Fucking fantastic."  Dyer groaned.  Dyer was a father, his son was 16 years old and lived with his mother in Oregon.  His world fell apart when she left with him and Loveless was there to pick up the pieces.  Anything involving children would get to him like nothing else could.  A loud scream came from the crowd and the uniforms milling around tried to hold a screaming woman back from the line.
"My baby!  My baby!"  The woman screamed and got away from the cop holding her back.  Alisa reacted on instinct of preserving her crime scene and ran after her.  
"Stop!"  She wrapped her arms around the woman when she caught her.  "How do you know that's your daughter?"  She asked, barely above a whisper.  
"She didn't come home and that is her bag."  The woman told her.  Alisa nodded and waved over Donovan.  He jogged up to them, taking the same path Alisa had.  The film crew behind them.  "This woman thinks the girl is her daughter."
"Ma'am?  I'm Detective Chris Donovan, this is my colleague Detective Alisa Dragunov.  Let's talk some place more private.  We can go to my car.  No one will over hear us there."  Donovan told her gently and guided her to the car with a hand on her shoulder.  Alisa followed behind them.  
"You stay here."  She told the film crew who stayed behind though she knew she and Donovan still had their mics on.
Donovan opened the back door for her.  Donovan took a seat in the front and Alisa slipped into the back next to her.  It was easier for a woman to get information from a mother.  They could empathize with them and they open up easier to another woman.  Alisa took her pen and notepad out of her sweater pocket before they began.  
"Ok, can you describe what your daughter was wearing?  I want to make sure it's her before we go any farther."  Alisa really hoped the little girl wasn't her for the sake of the mother.  
"She was wearing a pink princess costume.  It had short sleeves with sheer fabric and a short puffy skirt.  She was wearing her red converses.  She has a scar on her left cheek from when she feel off the porch when she was 3."  The woman said behind the tears.  Donovan got on the walkie to confirm that the little girl they found had the same scar.  Dyer confirmed it.  Donovan nodded to Alisa, solemnly.  
"Ma'am, I know it's hard but...the girl we found was your daughter.  I'm so, so sorry for your lose."  Alisa said.  The woman wailed and she crumbled.  Alisa wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she collapsed against her.  
"My baby!  She'd never hurt a soul!  Who would do this!"  The woman said and muttered in Spanish.  "She's my little girl!"  
"Ma'am, I promise we will find the person who did this to your daughter."  Alisa promised her.  "I know it's hard now but I really need to ask you some questions, it's important."  She said.  The woman nodded, not letting go of Alisa.  Donovan took out his own notepad because it looked like the mother wasn't going to let go of her.  "Your daughter's name is Annalisa, correct?"
"Yes.  Annalisa Carpenter.  I'm Romi Carpenter."  She told her.  
"And her father?"  
"Her father left us when she was a baby, he went back to Guatemala.  I remarried when she was 2, a wonderful man named Robert Carpenter.  He adopted her after we married."  She told her.  Alisa nodded.
"Alright Mrs. Carpenter, how old was Annalisa?"  
"She was 6.  She just started school."  
"Does she have any siblings?"
"Yes, a brother, Tovias he's 12, a sister named Maria who is 8 and a 2 year old sister."  She reported.  
"And the two older kids, do they have the same father as Annalisa?"
"Yes, but they've been at their friend's house all afternoon."
"Did Robert bring any children into the marriage?  Did Annalisa have step-siblings?"
"No, no step-siblings."
"Did they all get along?"
"Yes, they loved her very, very much.  They were always making sure she had her lunch for school and Tovias always walked his sisters to school."  Alisa nodded to her.  That meant that the siblings probably didn't do it.  She would have to check with the alibis later.
"Who was she supposed to be with?"  Alisa asked her.  
"She was with going to go trick-or-treating with Kenzie Kennedy and Kristen Walsh.  Her friends from church."  
"When was this?"  
"At 5 o'clock."
"I'm going to need their addresses and their parents cell phone numbers if you have them."  Alisa told her.
"Sure."  Romi nodded, detached herself from Alisa, and took out her cell phone.  She gave the information to Donovan who wrote them down for later.  
"Did she get along with Kristen and Kenzie?  Did they tease her at all?  Did she ever come home from play-dates with bruises or anything?"  Alisa asked her.
"No, why would think that?  They got along great."  She told her.  "Do you--Do you think that another child did this to her?"  Romi's eyes went wide in shock.  Donovan and Alisa shared a look, both weren't willing to confirm it just yet.  "How could a child do this!  How!"
"It's rare but it does happen.  There are a few...notable cases."  Alisa told her.  She put a hand on her shoulder.  "No one ever expects it.  I don't think you would have known their intentions anyways.  Children can be just as devious and manipulative as adults."  
"No one ever bothered her!  She was a sweet girl!"  Romi cried.  
"Did she hang out with anyone else?"  She asked her.
"No-no...she's a sweet girl but she's very shy."  Alisa tried not to sigh in frustration.  
"Where were you for the last two hours Mrs. Carpenter?"  Donovan asked her.  
"I was at home.  I saw the crowd from the street and I went to see what had happened.  Someone told me they found a body, I saw Annalisa's backpack and I knew it was her.  Robert is out trick-or-treating with the kids...they...they don't know anything!"  Romi started crying against Alisa's sweater again.  The only thing Alisa could do was rub her back and promise her that they would find her daughter's murderer.  Alisa couldn't imagine losing a child.  She had lost her cousin, someone she was very close to, when she was a teenager and it tore her apart.  She had cried for days.  Having to lose someone that close, a child you love more than anything, would be unimaginable to her.  
"Mrs. Carpenter, if you want me to, I can tell them myself so you don't have to or I can be there when you tell them."  Alisa offered.  
"No, but thank you.  This is something I need to do.  I want to tell my family privately."  Romi told her.  Alisa nodded and was secretly glad she didn't have to do that again.  It was a cliche to say that the hardest part of the job was giving families bad news of the death of a loved one but if the shoe fits...
"Ok, I know it's not fair to ask you to repeat all of this but I need you to make a formal statement and we may need to talk to rest of your family eventually.  Do you think you can be there in about 2 hours?  Someone else may be taking your statements but I assure you we will treat you with the upmost respect Mrs. Carpenter."  Alisa asked her.  She took a business card from her pocket and wrote a number on the bottom on the front and a name and number on the back.  "On the front is my cell phone number, you can call me whenever you need me.  You can call about anything at all.  On the back is the name of a grief counselor named Debbie Woodrow, she specializes in the loss of a child.  I want you to contact her.  She's good with children.  Ok?"  
"Yes, thank you Detective Dragunov."  She said and gave her a hug.  "Thank you too Detective Donovan."  She got out of the car, refusing the ride back to her house since it was in walking distance.  
"We need to talk to those girls."  Donovan told her.  
"We need to tell Dyer we're sending the mother in for a statement."  Alisa said to him and dug out a pack of smokes and a lighter she knew Donovan kept in the middle consol.  "This is going to be a rough one."  Alisa took a long drag from the cigarette as Donovan lit his own.  He gave her the parent's information.
"I'll call him, you call the parents and tell them to meet us at headquarters."  Donovan said as he put the key in the ignition.  Alisa got out of the car and went to her own as she dialed Kenzie Kennedy's mom's cell number.  The film crew caught up with her.  On the third ring a woman picked up.  Alisa could hear giggling girls in the background.
"Hello?"  The woman answered the phone.
"Is this Mrs. Kennedy?"  Alisa asked as she dug her keys out of her pocket and unlocked her door.  She sat in the car, waiting for the film crew to join her.  
"Yes."  She answered.
"I'm Detective Alisa Dragunov with LAPD's homicide unit.  I need to ask you and your daughter Kenzie a few questions back at headquarters."  Alisa told her as she put her keys in the ignition.  
"What is this about?"  She asked, a little affronted.  
"I can't really say much but it looks like your daughter was one of the last people to see another little girl alive."  Alisa replied she could hear a gasp on the other end.  Mrs. Kennedy was talking to someone in the room with her.  
"We'll be there as soon as possible.  Is this..."  Mrs. Kennedy paused and lowered her voice to a whisper.  "Is this about the body in the community garden?"  
"I can't say ma'am.  I'll meet you at the homicide unit in less than an hour."  She told her and hung up.  Alisa switched on the bluetooth in her car to call Kristen Walsh's parent.  She dialed the second number in the list and a man picked up this time.  
"Richard Walsh."  He answered.
"Hello Mr. Walsh, I'm Detective Alisa Donovan from LAPD's homicide unit."  She told him.  "I need to speak with you and your daughter Kristen back at the office.  It's very important."
"Can you say what this is about?"  He asked.
"Not now, I'll tell you when you get there."  Alisa told him.  
*****
Alisa smiled down at the little blond girl standing in front of her nervous mother.  She felt horrible about having to break her little heart.  No 6-year-old should even know what murder was much less lose a friend that way.  It was traumatizing.  Alisa could relate to that.  She had been 5-years-old when she had lost one of her uncles in the demonstrations during the revolution.  He had been brought back into the house where her mother and father and her other uncle had tried to stop the bleeding from somewhere but they couldn't find the wound in time.  Alisa stood, mesmerized and horrified, on the stairs and watched him die and watch her mother and uncle, a very strong man, sob as they held his dead body.   From a psychological point of view she supposed that was a huge influence on why she chose to join the homicide unit.  She knew what an untimely, unnatural death did to a family.  
"Hello, you must be Kenzie.  I'm detective Alisa Dragunov.  You can call me Alisa, ok?"  She told her as she stooped down to look her in the eyes, a big smile plastered to her face.  Donovan already had Mr. Walsh in another interrogation room with the little girl.
"Hi Alisa!"  She said happily.  At least the girl wasn't shy.  
"Do you think I could talk to your mother for a second, just the two of us?"  Alisa asked and the girl nodded.  "Ok, why don't you go hang out with Detective Wong over there for a little while.  Thanks."  Alisa stood up to look Mrs. Kennedy in the eyes.  "Ma'am, if you don't mind following me."  Alisa lead the other woman into an interrogation room with a loaded, rolling camera ready to record the conversation.  
"What is this about?"  The woman asked her nervously.
"Mrs. Kennedy, Annalisa Carpenter was found murdered earlier."  She told her.  The blond woman's dainty hand hid her gasp.  
"Oh my God!"  She exclaimed.  "Poor Romi, she was such a good little girl."  
"We were told that you had planned to take her trick-or-treating with you and Kenzie tonight.  What happened?"  She asked her and pulled her notebook out of her pocket.  She had bought it two weeks ago and it was already half full.  She decided on forgoing the moleskin notebooks and their convenient size for a bigger one next time.
"We were in the building, we live in condo building next to the Carpenters, and we were trick-or-treating on the fourth floor when Rebecca Goodman invited her to go trick-or-treating with her and Tovias.  She's Tovias' friend and goes to our church too."  Mrs. Kennedy said.  Alisa wrote that down.  
"She went with Rebecca ?"  She asked her.
"Yes, I didn't see her after that."  
"How old is Rebecca ?"  
"12."  
"And did you see Annalisa's brother with her?"
"No...now that I think of it."  
"What church is it?"
"Saint Joseph's."
"What is Rebecca like?  What is her demeanor like?"  
"Well, she a bit...odd.  I've seen her terrorizing stray cats and dogs in the area.  There have been missing pets around actually.  She likes to see people cry and just acts...strangely..."  Mrs. Kennedy told her.  Alisa tapped her pen on her pad and thought.  This Rebecca  girl was bad news.  A warning sign of violent behavior was torturing smaller animals, it was in the history of several serial killers.  
"What do you mean by strangely?"  She asked her.  
"She...it's hard to explain...she's locked her brothers and parents out of the condo before when she was younger.  The police were called actually.  She screams and acts up around her friends for attention."  She told her.  "It also seems like the kids in the neighborhood don't really want to hang out with her but she manipulates them to.  Like she'll tell them that she'll do things to them if they don't want to hang out with her.  She also listens to music she shouldn't.  She's always bragging about it.  My older daughter, Maggie, they have a mutual friend, this friend told Maggie that Rebecca actually stole the cd's as well as the iPod it's on and a play station portable.  Rebecca was suspended from school for stealing the PSP."  Alisa figured that was all she could get from her on Rebecca that wasn't second hand.  She could probably get a warrant for the girl's house just on the fact that she was the last person that was with Annalisa.  
"What school does Rebecca go to?"  
"Um...I think Fuller Middle school."  
"What does Rebecca look like?"  Alisa asked.
"Blond, short hair, pretty tall for her age.  She has really German facial features too."  Mrs. Kennedy told her.  Alisa thanked her and got her to write a statement before she left.  
As she escorted the Kennedy's out of the unit she passed Dyer who was bringing a pirate and Darth Vader into another interrogation room.  Witnesses, she thought, based on the relaxed body language she read off of them.  And Dyer didn't look too upset as he brought them in.  When she bid a very disturbed Mrs. Kennedy and a confused Kenzie goodbye Donovan was walking back from his interrogation room with the Walsh family.  Donovan met her at her cubical when he walked back.
"Rebecca Goodman?"  Donovan asked her and she nodded.  "Strange girl.  Dyer said he had witnesses seeing her leaving the scene of the crime.  Do you really think a 12-year-old could do this?"
"It's not common but children and adolescents do commit murder.  Edmund Kemper, Mary Bell, Leopold and Loeb, Alyssa Bustamante, and the two kids that beat James Bulger to death are just a few, that's not including kids that get mixed up in gangs, money motivated murders, and school shootings too."  Alisa replied as she tapped her pen on her notepad.  "The scary thing is when they can't be tried as adults and are released out into the world again.  The kids in the Jonesboro school shooting only did about five and seven years for their crime.  Kemper was tried as a juvenile and was released from prison when he was 18, he went on to become a serial killer.  You can't reform a kid in seven years."  
"Children shouldn't put themselves in that position, period.  Murders should be psychopaths, gang-bangers, and drug dealers not children..."  Donovan replied.  "I can't get my mind around that and this was a really person crime.  She had to have been terrified."  Donovan shut his eyes and Alisa knew what he was thinking about, Annalisa, terrified and dying all alone with her (alleged) murderer, Rebecca Goodman, watching her die.  Alisa had the same mental image of a crying, bloody little girl begging for her life.  "Do you believe that people can just be born bad?"
"No."  Alisa replied simply as Dyer exited the interrogation room quickly.  Both waited, with their full attention, for orders from the sergeant.
"Draft a warrant for Rebecca Goodman.  I want an arrest warrant and I want to search that condo.  We need all the evidence we can get if we're charging that kid with murder."  He ordered and Alisa turned to her computer to write up the warrant before calling their legal department.
"What happened in there?"  Donovan asked Dyer who was in a fury.  
"Those two teenagers saw Rebecca Goodman leave the crime scene.  They're friends of her older brother so they recognized her.  They said they saw her dump something in a trashcan in an ally.  CSU is looking for it now."  Dyer replied.  Alisa looked up from her computer to share a look with Donovan.
"I have a statement from a Mrs. Kennedy who said that the victim left with Goodman."  Alisa told him.  Calling Annalisa "the victim" made talking about the murder a whole lot less uncomfortable for everyone involved.  
"Kristen Walsh is only 7 but I got a statement with someone from CACD present saying the same thing."  Donovan reported.  The Crimes Against Children Division must be happy they dodged a bullet investigating a murder but they might have to be brought in to question Rebecca.
"Jesus Christ...In the 9 years I've worked in homicide I've never had to arrest a fucking child for a homicide."  Dyer said.