the girl who lost things

the start

𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭.

flashback—

"Good morning, Officer. Prentiss," he says, slapping a folder on my desk,

" aww come on, it's 8:30- I haven't even had my coffee yet," I say, opening the folder.

" a young boy found frozen to death," he says as I continue to look through the case files.

no name
estimated age: 11
no family

" why, do you want me to work the case?"

" well, you're looking for a promotion, aren't ya?"
I nod and grab my jacket.

" I guess we're going to Lakewood."

The car ride goes fast; we jump out of the car into the cold. The boys' fingers were slipping out of the tarp.
Blue.

" what are we looking at?" the detective asked me.

isn't that your job? " maybe, an incident? , probably drowning or since, no missing persons report perhaps runaway; who couldn't find shelter.

pov change—

" What happened to Tommy?"

" he wasn't strong enough. he couldn't take the cold."
He says, fixing my jacket.

" but you, molly and Liam. You guys are strong." I smile, realizing; it was a compliment. He puts us into the car and drives; I adore the icy country scenery.

" we're here!" Liam shouts from the backseat. It was a huge house, probably three stories- he takes off our jackets and leads us into the house with the other kids.

pov change—

" did you run his fingerprints through missing persons and exploited children." I asked,

" yes, no match- but here's the interesting thing, the time of death shows around 7 hours ago. I thought it was just this incident with the cold, but look-"

she shows his feet, purple instead of light blue like the rest of his body.

" what does this mean?"

" the skin layers from the toes are different colors. which means he's at least gone through hypothermic shock six times in the past year."

" but, the temperature only started to drop last week. does that mean this was torture?"

" my assumption, yes, or at least some type of ritual."

are we looking at a cult? " or maybe abuse?"

" who would do this to their kid?" the detective says, walking out of the medical examiners' office.

What if this wasn't their kid? Maybe abuse foster parents or kidnappings?

" thank you," I say, running back into the warm car.

How many social service and child welfare offices are there?

" in this county, maybe like 3, I know the one about 6 miles from here." So I make the motion for him to drive, and we make our way there.

- about 10 minutes later -

I get out of the car and make my way towards the front desk,

" hello, Denver county police." I pull out my identification, so does detective derry.

" yes, what may I help you with?"

" We are looking for your foster care/child adoption team." She stands up and guides us down a hall into a room.

" Hello, ma'am, this is the police." The lady nods and leaves.

" hi, we are wondering if you've seen this boy or probably put him in a home?" She looks at him in shock.

" that's mason smith, the carigers kid. Is he dead?!" I nod my head.

" the carigers? Does that mean he was fostered?" she nods and types on her computer. At the same time, she was trying to hold back her tears and disgust.

" yes, they've fostered over five kids. They seemed to be doing so well- did they report this?" I shake my head as a file from the printer comes out.

" This is their house address; please send them my condolences." she hands me the paper and goes back to her paperwork.

" thank you." we drive towards the house.

" looks empty." The detective says.

*no dip, sherlock*

I go around back to see the window open, run back to the front, and look through the door window- I see four kids' backpacks, dishes in the sink, and I look at the paper.

the carigers,
lucy and Micheal cariger
lucy is a stay at home mother
Micheal works at a meat-packing industry
they currently foster molly, Jessie, Liam, and recently deceased mason

" I think they just went somewhere,"

" how do you know that?"

" the window is open, dishes in the sink and no sign or a hurry also coats are taken." he looks at me then at the house.

" Maybe we should come back later?"  he says, walking to the car.

I nod and look at the case file; the kids look happy in the family photo- I look a little closer at their fingers.
Blue.

" This has to be a connection-" I show him, and confusions strike his face.

" mason also had blue fingers, but we thought that was due to the frozen weather, but they all have blue fingers."

" what does that mean?" sometimes, I wonder how the man got the lead detective role at the station.

" theirs something deeper going on here."

" I think you know what we have to do." He looks at me and then back at the house.

" Please, don't tell me a stakeout," he smiles. So I'm going to stay in a car with a pre-pubescent detective, who can't even solve a case by himself.

We first drive to get some food, burgers, and coffee.

The first hour went by fast, just eating and studying more about the family. The second hour, the same thing; I was studying the children while derry was eating another burger. Then the third hour and I saw something go in the driveway; I shake Derry up.

" huh, what?" I shush him and point.

The kids came out of the minivan with no coats or even shirts, just undershirts and underwear.

I step out of the car,

" um, police! I show my badge. we want to ask you guys a few questions." I say, ushering the kids inside.

" yes, like why these kids don't have clothes on," Derry says.

The lady looks afraid, but the husband remains calm.