Disclaimer: Any of the characters associated from Forever Knight are just being borrowed. They need to move around a bit and shake off the cobwebs. The original characters in this story belong to me. Please ask permission to use them or to archive the story. Thanks much. Thanks to Sony Pics, too, for giving us a little time with "the guys".
This story takes place directly after "After Last Knight".
Act 1
"Knight, Collins. Someone just called in a body in the park on Canaby Street. First officer on the scene says it might be the same MO as the other park cases. Let's get going on this one and finish it up, okay? It's taking way too long." Reese was still muttering to himself as he walked off.
Nick had just walked in. Katherine was working on her second cup of coffee. She was still a little unnerved by her earlier companion and grateful for a diversion from thoughts of Vachon.
She grabbed her coat, gave a quick, "Let's go" to Nick and a "we're on our way, Capt."
It was a short drive to the park. She'd remembered the way from the night before. Nick filled her in on details of the park murders that hadn't gotten into the files. As he turned the corner, the park came into view.
He pulled alongside a squad car. Before they got out of the car, Nick asked, "It was a long morning, Katherine. Are you ok?"
She nodded and reached for one more sip of coffee from her cup. *Boy, am I glad I wore jeans tonight.* She watched the activity of the officers in the park. Natalie was already there, bent over the body of a thirty-something dark-haired man. "It took more out of me than I expected, but I'll be ok. We'd better get moving."
"Daniel Givens, 32 years old," Natalie was saying into her tape recorder as they approached. "Hi guys. Getting an early start tonight. Looks like his throat was slashed, but could be drugs, see the needle marks in the webs of the fingers, left hand? Won't know till I get a closer look and the tox report." She gave Katherine a closer look. "You look rested. That couch is a good one to sleep on." She turned to Nick, "You look like hell."
"Rough sleep. Got a time yet?" Nick was looking over at the shrubbery about ten yards away.
"Ballpark figure, two hours tops. There was a struggle." Natalie looked in the same direction as Nick. "Lots of leaves and branches in his socks and shoes. Just looking at it from this angle, I'd say it's the same as the other three."
"Playing detective, now, Dr. Lambert?" Nick teased her. Simultaneously, Katherine and Nick became alert. Both heard a sound coming from the left of the bushes, a few feet in front of them. They looked at each other, drew their weapons, and wordlessly, as if they had worked together for awhile, split up and approached the noise from either side. As they neared, they each recognized the sound as soft crying, the kind a lost child makes.
"I've got it," she said, holstering her revolver. "It's ok, honey. I'm a police officer." She bent down to receive chubby little arms around her neck. A tear-stained little face buried itself into her shoulder.
"What have we here?" Nick's voice came from behind her.
"My Daddy won't wake up. He's hurt and he won't talk to me." The blond, blue-eyed child couldn't have been more than four. He was wearing a winter jacket, gloves and boots. Under his arm he hugged his well-loved stuffed dog. "He's so cold. He needs a blanket." The little one's eyes were as big as saucers.
"Did you see who did this to your Daddy?" Katherine asked the boy.
"Big bad men hit him. They were yelling at each other, then Daddy went to sleep. I can't wake him up."
"Sweetheart, what's your name?" She adjusted the sobbing bundle and hugged him closer.
"Tommy. My name is Tommy. Help my Daddy. Please help my Daddy."
Nick and Katherine looked at each other. This child had seen the entire thing. He saw the men who did this. She hugged him again.
The press started gathering like vultures. "Let's get out of here." Nick guided them back to the Caddy, avoiding the body now being placed in a bag. "I bet you're hungry. Let's run to the drive-thru."
Katherine strapped him into the back seat with a seatbelt. *This is the one thing that kills me. What did you see, my little one? What did you see?*
"Daddy told me never to get into a car with strangers." Little innocent blue eyes looked at her. She fumbled for her badge in her pocket. "See, that's me. That's my badge that says I'm a police officer."
The badge had an effect on him and she let him play with it all the way to the station. The drive seemed to take forever.
Nick carried the little boy into the station. *God, they look like fatherand son.* Tommy was full of questions, and Nick patiently answered them all.
"Collins." It was the Captain. Katherine nodded at Nick who was telling her they were going to room 1. "We have an ID on the body in the park. He was Daniel Givens. Worked for his father's insurance company here in Toronto. Divorced. Guess he had the kid for the weekend. Mother's on the way in."
"He saw it Captain, he saw who killed his dad. We need to talk with him some more."
"Not until the mother gets here. You know the drill. The mom needs to be here when the child is questioned. If he can ID someone, we don't want to mess the whole thing up. Wait until she gets here. And then you can talk with him."
"But, Captain.."
"You heard me, Collins."
"OK." She was disappointed. Something told her that the mom was not going to be so cooperative. "Nick took him to room 1. We bought him dinner."
"That's good." He looked up at the front desk. "Looks like the press got wind of things. Keep him isolated and tell your partner to wait before you go asking any questions, you hear?"
She nodded as she headed to room 1, by way of the ladies room. She wanted to give Nick a little time with the boy.
----
"Hey, Tommy, the men your Daddy was talking with, can you tell me what they looked like?" Nick watched him play with his french fries in the ketchup and suddenly got hungry. He forced the feeling deep into a corner of his brain. "Tommy?" Nick leaned closer to him. "This is important."
"Those men hurt my Daddy. He won't wake up. They were mean and noisy. They were yelling at my Daddy."
"What were they saying, do you remember?"
The fries were too distracting. Nick waited patiently. "They said that Daddy told them he'd help them get something and that he better stick to his promise. They said if he didn't, he'd be sorry. Daddy kept saying he didn't know what they were talking about and that's when the big yellow one hit him." Tommy was staring into space as if he was replaying the whole thing.
"Why do you call him the yellow one?"
"He wore a yellow jacket like the firemen do. Then they started hitting my Daddy. He made funny noises. They yelled a little more. Daddy fell into the bushes, and they picked him up and hit him some more. Daddy kept saying no, he didn't want to do what they wanted him to. Then the other one gave my Daddy a big hug and he fell down. That's when he went to sleep."
"What did the other one look like, Tommy?"
"He had a big brown jacket on and a funny blue hat." He played with his fries.
"What was so funny about it?" Nick was trying to be patient, but it was becoming more difficult.
"It had a big blue ball on top and a tiger on the front. Do you have some ice cream?"
Nick smiled at those big blue eyes. "I think we could find some. Say, if I showed you some pictures, do you think you could pick the bad guys out?"
Tommy nodded. "The big one in the yellow coat was a monster. And the blue hat had shiny teeth. Can I have the ice cream now?" He slipped off his chair and headed for the door.
"I think you earned it." Nick held out his hand and soon little fingers were wrapped around the big hand, all trusting.
Katherine met them in the hall. "Well?"
Nick smiled at her. "We just might have something here. Tommy's been a very good detective and he's earned some ice cream." A uniformed officer was coming down the hall in search of Tommy. "Tommy, you go with this nice police officer, and I bet she'll find you some ice cream." Nick straightened up. "Take real good care of my friend, here," He told her.
After she left, Katherine told him, "Oh, I was supposed to tell you we were to wait for mom to show up before we questioned him. Guess I was too late."
"And you were going to tell me?when?" Nick rolled his eyes at her.
"Hey, I had to go to the bathroom. I'm telling you now." She looked at him as innocently as she could. "I really had to go, you know."
"Uh, huh." Nick caught on. She had given him time to get the information they'd needed.
There was a big rumble from the press up front. They all surged on a well-dressed woman in a long winter coat. "Tommy's mom's here," Katherine said. " Here we go..."
Act 2
Escorted by another uniformed officer, Tommy's mother made her way through a maze of journalists, each of whom had questions for the lady. She ignored all of them.
"This is Mrs. McDaniels," the officer spoke, then nodded. "Detectives Knight and Collins."
"Mrs. McDaniels." Nick took her arm and began to lead her back to room 1. "Let's get out of this noise."
"Where's Tommy?" She asked, looking around.
"He's ok. Another officer is helping him find some ice cream," Katherine said from behind them. Then she offered, " He wasn't hurt, ma'am, just a little confused by it all."
They entered the stark room. Mrs. McDaniels was quite an imposing figure: 5'9", slender, dark hair, dark eyes. She wore a camel-colored wool coat over a navy blue business suit. Not a hair was out of place, make-up perfect, even at this late hour. As she stood there, waiting for answers, Katherine decided there was something very unmaternal about this woman.
"I want my son, detective. I am here to take him home. His father was never responsible enough to keep an eye on him. Where is he?"
With a slight edge in his voice, Nick asked, "Ma'am, are you aware that Tommy may have witnessed a murder tonight? We think he might have seen who killed his father. If that gets out, his life could be in danger." Nick noted indifference in her face. *What kind of mother is this woman?*
"My son saw no such thing. Four-year olds are always making up stories, detective." She glared at him, irritated. "Obviously, you have no children, or you would know this. Now, where is he?"
"We really need his help, Mrs. McDaniels." Katherine interjected. "He could be instrumental in our finding who did this." She tried her most compassionate, woman-to-woman look and tone, without success.
"I'll not allow him to talk with any of you. He's going home." She walked to the door as if to leave.
Katherine gave it one last shot. "Your son has been through a traumatic experience. He's handling it well now, but later, when everything sets in, he'll need to talk about it. He was very concerned about his father. He must have loved him very much. Please let us talk with him to find out how much he did see. What he remembers."
"No, you're right, he's been through enough. I'll not have him further upset by your questions."
Nick and Katherine sighed in unison. They could see it would do no good to press on.
"Very well, Mrs. McDaniels, if Tommy indicates he wants to talk about what happened, we'd appreciate a call. We really could use his help." Nick handed her his business card as he answered a knock on the door. There stood Tommy with ice cream in hand. Nick bent down to face him. " Hey, trooper, see you found that ice cream."
"I sure did!" Tommy looked over Nick's shoulder and caught sight of his mother... "Mommy, Mommy, I got to ride in a real police car and this policeman let me play with her badge." His little face beamed excitement from under a thin layer of chocolate ice cream.
Laura McDaniels kept her position. "Tommy, look at how dirty you've gotten. All that ice cream on your face. I think you need a bath. Let's go home now." She grabbed his hand. "And did you lose your jacket again?" She looked at Nick who stood there dumbfounded. "Are we done?"
Slowly, he nodded his head. "Please keep in mind what we've talked about. It's very important."
>From down below, a little voice floated up, " Goodbye, Nick. Goodbye, Katherine. Thank-you for dinner and the ice cream. I had a great time." He turned back to wave at them as his mother led him down the hall.
"She's got my vote for mother of the year." Katherine slumped against the wall. "How could anyone be that cold to a little boy like that? He was so sweet."
"Yeah, I know. But right now we have two pressing questions, who did he see murder his father and how are we going to protect him?"
"Hey, Knight! Phone, line 2," one of the officers called from across the room.
"Knight."
"This is your favorite ME. I think you and your partner ought to get down here."
Minutes later, Nick and Katherine walked into the morgue. The body of Daniel Givens lay on the cold metallic table in front of them. Natalie was getting ready to do her internal exam.
"So, what's up?" Katherine's voice bounced off the walls. Both Nick and Natalie looked at each other in surprise. "Did I say something wrong?" Katherine asked, picking up on the tension in the air.
"No, it's just that at that moment, you sounded exactly like Tracy." Natalie turned to the counter to pick up some lab reports.
"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't know." She stood there feeling very foolish.
Nick recovered. "You have something, Nat?"
"What's wrong with this picture? Tox report is clean. No use of any street drugs in the last 24-48 hours. Yet those needle marks in his left hand were fresh."
"Prescription drugs?" Katherine asked.
"It's an awfully unusual place to be injecting yourself. Insulin, heparin are the usual self-administered meds. This is weird. Kind of like our attention was being diverted." Natalie looked at the body. "Anyway, thought you two should know. He's clean as far as I'm concerned. I was just about to do the internal. But I don't expect to find anything. Death by exsanguination, secondary to his throat being slashed. Just like the others. Did you find the little boy's mom?"
Nick and Katherine exchanged looks. "Yeah, we did. Real motherly type. Scolded him for being dirty. Never even asked him if he was ok." Nick shook his head. "Takes all kinds, I guess."
Natalie was finishing donning her gloves and began to arrange her instruments. "Staying?" She looked at the two.
Nick said thanks and started to leave, Katherine stood quietly for a few seconds, "Maybe another time. Haven't done forensic work in a while."
Neither one of them had much to say during the short drive back to the precinct from the morgue. Both of them were playing out scenarios that might be possible as a result of Natalie's discovery. From what little they knew about Daniel Givens, shooting drugs would be the last thing they'd expect on his profile.
"Someone's framing him for something." Nick finally broke the silence as they made their way into the station.
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. But what?" Katherine plopped into her desk chair, suddenly feeling very old and very tired.
Joe Reese made a point to pause between their desks on his way back to his office. "I need a preliminary report on that Givens thing on my desk before you leave. Seems to me there are a few other reports I've asked for recently that need to make an appearance too." He squinted at Knight and Collins. "Let's get going people. Idle hands you know."
"They'll be ready," Nick promised Reese, then he looked at his partner. "Well, you heard the Captain, what are you waiting for?" Katherine threw the pencil she had in her hand at him and set to work.
"It's going to be morning soon." Katherine looked at her watch and leaned back in her chair. Paperwork was not on her top ten list of things to do. "Let's call it a day."
Nick was looking over his notes for the millionth time. Something that Tommy had said was still bothering him, but he couldn't put his finger on it. *It's so obvious, I must be seeing right through it.* He threw his pad down on the desk. "I guess you're right. We're not getting anywhere here." He looked up at her. " Any chance of a repeat of yesterday?"
She shook her head. "Questions, huh? No, Nick, forgive me, but I'm pooped. That little kid took a lot out of me. I promise to answer your questions soon."