It's Ok to Cry

“Find my baby! Please!! Find him!” a crying women with curly black hair yelled at Luke while he took down information of the boy.

For some reason the name sounded familiar to Michelle, but she decided to give up on trying to remember why, when they approached the high school where the victim was last seen.

“We’re trying our hardest Ma’am. We’ll find him. Don’t worry.” Luke said while glancing down at the ground, indicating that he was lying.

He always looked down to the ground when he was lying.

It was something Michelle picked up on since having him as a partner for the last year.

As Luke questioned the women, who was the victims mother, Michelle decided to take a walk around the perimeter to see if there was anything out of place.

Maybe a clue or a sign that there was a scuffle of some sort.

While walking through the baseball diamond towards the parking lot she saw something shiny laying on the cement next to some tire tracks.

As she made her way closer to it she radioed for a lab tech to meet her by the parking lot.

As she stepped over the curb and onto the cement of the parking lot she realized it was a watch of some sort.

Maybe it’s the kidnappers, or maybe the victims. Let’s just pray that it is.

“What do you need?” the slightly older looking girl with long black hair asked her once she was standing next to her.

“I need you to document this watch. Get it to the lab and check for skin samples and if any, run it through the database. See if we get any hits. Also, these skid marks, someone must have hit the gas hard from a stop. See how it fades off and you can see the actual tire tread, take a lift of it. Maybe we can figure out what kinda car it is by running some tests.” she ordered out and then watched the girl get to work on the what she was told.

As the lab tech was putting the watch into her little silver suitcase, Michelle stopped her and asked her for the bag.

“I just need to check something really quick.” she said to her while grabbing the bag from the girl.

She made her way over towards Luke and Denise, the victims mother, and held up the bag so they both could see it clearly.

“Is this you’re son’s or does it look familiar?” she asked the women who responded with, “No. Why would it look familiar?”

“The attacker might have been someone you’re son knew and maybe that’s why he got into the vehicle.” she answered the women while handing off the bag to the lab tech who was standing behind her.

“You really think it would have been someone that he knew?” she asked while wiping away some of her tears.

“I think it’s a possibility. Seeing as how we don’t know if there was any type of self defense. It’s all a big question mark right now. But don’t worry. We’re gonna find him. Hopefully we’ll get a ransom call or note.”

“But wouldn’t that be worse?” Denise asked back, fear settling in that it could be somebody that they knew and trusted.

“No. It would actually help us out even more.” Luke answered, trying to get a word in and help in any way possible.

“Ya see, if we get a note or a call, it’s easier to track the guy down. Handwriting analysis or tracking of the phone call. Plus, then in return we ask for proof of life to ensure that he’s still alive.” Michelle said, but then noticed Denise’s eyes start to get teary-eyed when asking, “You think he might be dead?”

“No. We don’t know anything right now. But we will soon enough. Don’t worry. We’re gonna find him.” Michelle answered back and offered her a small smile which she returned.

A cell phone went off and it turned out to be Denise’s and she scrambled around, trying to open it up.

“Hello?” she asked into the phone and that’s when Luke and Michelle turned away to fill each other in on what they knew so far.

“Basically, kid had baseball practice. Older brother was supposed to pick him up. That’s him over there.” Luke informed her while pointing over to a guy who was sitting on a picnic table off to the side of the dug out, maybe in his late 30’s, not much older than herself with dark curly hair and his hands over his face. “And when he got here, there was no sign of Frankie. Called his mom, asking if she came and picked him up and then they called the rest of the family. She showed up here and looked around before calling the cops. His teammate, Jake, was the last one who saw him.” he finished up while pointing over to a young boy with shaggy light brown hair standing next to an older man, that was most likely his father.

“What about the teacher?” Michelle asked, looking at the older brother, who for some reason looked strangely familiar to her.

“He apparently had something to get to, so he left. He’s gonna be kicking himself later for leaving practice early.” Luke said with a lightened tone, trying to keep everything from being too serious. “But what do you got?” he asked while flipping his notepad shut and stuffing it in his pocket.

“Basically just some tire treads the tech lifted and is gonna run some tests on. Also, that watch. Nothing else though. No sign of anything. So which one do you want to take?” Michelle asked while looking back and forth between the older brother and the younger boy and his father.

“I’ll take the father and son. You take the older brother. I know you’re not the greatest with kids.” he said while a chuckle before getting his notepad out again and making his way over the two of them while Michelle took a deep breath and walked over to the older brother, getting her notepad and pencil out.

“Hi. I’m Agent Hillbrook. I’m one of the officers working on your brothers case. Can you tell me what happened or what you know?” she asked while situating her notepad in her hand.

“Umm….hi. I’m Kevin. Frankie’s older brother. I was supposed to pick him up. But…when I got here….I couldn’t find him.” he said through his deep breaths and hands before taking them away to shake hands with her.

And that’s when she realized why all of these names and people looked familiar.

It was the Jonas’s.

The Jonas’s.

She remembered growing up and listening to their CD’s. “Hold on” had become her own personal theme song for her when the incident happened.

“What did you do when you couldn’t find him?” she asked, trying to keep herself composed from actually meeting one of the Jonas brothers.

It wasn’t really the time or place to ask for an autograph. Plus, she had a job to do. And that was to find his younger brother.

“I walked over here to the baseball diamond. And then walked into the school by the gym entrance, where he normally comes from after he changes. When I got in the locker room, no one was in there except for Jake. I asked him where Frankie was and he said that someone already picked him up. I called my mom and asked her if she did and she said no. I ended up calling my other brothers, asking them. Joe didn’t answer his phone and Nick said no. That’s when I called my mom again. She came down here, insisted that Frankie was still here and after searching for 10 minutes and still not finding him, she called you guys.”

After he finished his story he started to cry, probably having the full effect of everything now finally hitting him.

It was normal for it to take about an hour after something like this happens to let if fully register.

“It’s all my fault. If I would’ve been on time he would still be here. And I’m the oldest one. The responsible one. Now look at what happened because of me?!” he started to yell at himself as more tears started to fall down his face.

Michelle instinctively wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into an awkward hug.

It was against jurisdiction to show any sort of sympathy towards a victim or a victim’s family, it was unprofessional. But she knew what it felt like to blame yourself for something like this. She still blamed herself for what happened that day, no matter what others told her.

“It’s not your fault. None of it is you’re fault. If it was planned and thought out, they would have waited another day to strike. It’s not your fault. Don’t blame yourself. We’ll find him. Don’t worry. We will.” she said to him and then pulled herself away from him.

Never get attached. That’s rule number one. And rule number two, never show sympathy. I can’t believe I just violated the first two rules that you learn at the academy.

“Agent Hillbrook. Get over here! Quick!” Luke yelled over to her, making her abandon Kevin and run over towards where he was now standing with Mrs. Jonas and a couple of other law enforcement personnal who were pulling wires out and hooking them up the things rather quickly.

“What is it?” she whispered towards Luke while still trying to recover from her mistakes she had just made with Kevin.

“Kidnapper.” he whispered back.

“We can’t get that much money, that fast. Please, let’s talk about this and-” Denise started but then looked up at everybody and began to cry.

“What happened? You need to tell us.” Luke said before anybody else could say anything.

“He said…he said….that he wanted…$100,000 within the next 24 hours or….he…he’s gonna….he’s gonna kill Frankie.”

She screamed out the last sentence and then fell to the grass, shaking and crying profusely, only to be joined by Kevin who had pushed his way through everyone to wrap his mother into him.

Luke and Michelle both looked over towards the other police officers, but received nothing but head shakes and disappointment.

“Well he’s gonna have to call back. He didn’t list a drop off place.” Luke spoke, clearly meaning it for himself only to hear and then snapped his attention towards Denise and Kevin.

“Are you sure it was a guy? Did his voice sound distorted?” Luke asked quickly while bending down to get closer to them.

“No. It sounded normal and kinda familiar.” she responded to him while hugging Kevin back and letting her tears slowly fade away again, either from not being able to cry anymore or realizing that they needed to act fast and crying with everyone watching wasn’t going to make things any better.

“What do you mean? Like you’ve heard that voice before over the phone? People sound slightly different over the phone.” Luke informed her while she and Kevin stood up again, both clutching to each other still.

“Yeah. I think I’ve talked to him before over the phone.” she said while wiping her tears away and then finally letting go of Kevin.

“Do you remember what his name is?” Luke asked, getting more and more ecstatic every second that passed by.

The only down side to ransom calls was that you had to have the person on the phone long enough in order to track them, which they didn’t accomplish, and they normally wouldn’t talk to police, which would be easier because they’re trained to listen to back ground noises, not just the caller, in order to figure out if they might be calling from a house or from a car parked on the street. Or maybe even the victim in the background.

“No. I’m sorry. I talk to a lot of people on the phone. Half the time I forget what we’re even talking about let alone who I’m talking to. But I know that I’ve heard that voice within the last couple of days.” she said to Luke while hugging Kevin again.

“Ok, I want call logs of her cell phone and the home phone for the last month. Maybe somebody else has talked to him or he’s tried calling a couple of times to get in touch. This is clearly not a stranger anymore. This is someone they have seen and known and to some level Frankie might have trusted. Let’s go!” Luke yelled out so everyone could hear him.

“In the mean time, we need to get to you’re house quickly. He might have called your house or maybe your husband. There’s no way to know who he’ll call next since he could be threatening Frankie into telling him all you’re phone numbers to keep us just enough in the loop but far enough out of it. We also need you’re whole family in the house at all times if possible. Just to keep all phones in the same area that way can hook it up and trace it.” Luke said while leading Denise towards the parking lot where about half a dozen squad cars were sitting along with Kevin and her vehicle as well.

“You and me need to talk on the way there. Fill each other in.” Luke informed Michelle while she nodded her head in agreement.

Once Denise and Kevin pulled out of the parking lot, the two pulled out after them and followed them to their house.

“I got some helpful information from Jake. Frankie got into a white van with a guy. When I asked why he didn’t stop him, he said that one of Frankie’s brother’s were moving out. They just thought it was one of his brothers picking him up and going straight to the new house to unload the van. He didn’t think twice about it. What about you? Did you get anything from the brother?” Luke asked, eyes glued to the road and his knuckles turning white from gripping the steering wheel so tight.

“Nothing. He just thinks its his fault that Frankie is missing because he didn’t show up on time.” she reported back to him, somewhat dazed.

“Are you sure you’re going to be able to handle this case? I mean, it’s somewhat similar to-”

“Yes. I’m a professional. I can do this.” Michelle cut him off while she snapped her head in his direction with a stern face.

“Ok, ok. I’m just worried about you. Don’t push it though. If you want out, just let me know. Ok?” he asked, his voice lowering to a calm and caring one.

“Ok.” Michelle simply stated while looking back towards the road and reaching into her shirt collar to find the chain that held her cross on it.

She started to fiddle with it in between her index finger and thumb while taking a deep breath.

I’m a professional. I can do this. Just listen to the rules. Don’t get attached and don’t show sympathy.

I can do that.

I think.

I hope.