A Name

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Authors Note: Thanks for reading! Hope you all enjoy!

Hailey POV

I'm starring at this young girl in front of me trying to figure out my next move. I ask her "You told Detective Burgess that you ran to protect yourself! What are you protecting yourself from" she just shook her head no, staring at the floor, and repeatedly saying "I can't." She eventually goes quiet.

For the past 15 minutes this girl has completely shut down. Just as she looks up and I think I have a shot to get more information there was a knock on the glass. I look towards the girl and say, "I will be back."

I leave the room to find Jay and Voight and I say, "Please tell me you have information give me something so I can get something out of this girl."

Jay says "Yes, I looked into schools in the area with the uniforms, reached out to the unis, and found a match. Our victim goes to Sacred Heart, I contacted the head of the middle school and he identified our friend in interrogation. He identified her as Sophie Langford, 12, she's a foster kid. He also said "You can never find Sophie without Savannah Sutton." "We reached out to the Sutton Family, they stated that Savannah never made it home, they are on their way over."

I looked at Jay and said "Wait she kind of revealed she is living in that alleyway we found the victim is there any record of her running away for her foster home, that some how the school didn't find out about?"

He replied, "She isn't missing, I contacted social services her social worker will be here as soon as she wraps things up with an emergency case. So we have a limited time frame."

I shook my head and head back into the room. I sit down and say, "Hey Sophie, the young dead girl in the alley it is Savannah isn't?" She looks up in shock and says "How?" I replied "We are the police we would figure it out eventually. Your social worker is on her way, so if you don't want to go to jail for something I know you didn't do, start talking now Sophie, before I can't help you. You can start by telling me what you were doing in that alleyway considering you aren't reported as missing or a runaway from your foster home."

She looks at me and says, "I do live in that alleyway in empty storage space behind the market on the corner. Savannah usually comes over to me because her parents don't want her to hang out with the foster trash. I was sitting on the air mattress when I heard the shots I opened my door ran outside and peaked around the corner I saw some guy running, I realized Savannah was the one lying on the ground. I ran to her, I put my hands on her chest wound. I checked for pulse I couldn't find one. I stood up and was going to run into the market to get help when the two other detectives showed up. I panicked and I ran. Now I'm here with you. My foster parents and I made an agreement they kept getting the check, I didn't have to live there and they wouldn't report me as a runaway. Wait you said my social worker was coming?!"

I replied, "Yes she was going to take you back to your foster home if we didn't formally press charges, but I'm going to have to report to her that you weren't living there."

She slammed her hand the table and started yelling, "You cant do that. THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I RAN! I can't go back to living in fosters homes. I can't I can't!."

Wow I didn't think she would have this kind of a reaction! I move towards the girl trying to calm her down and she jumps back and yells "Don't touch me." I reply, "I promise I'm not here to hurt you. I need you to calm down and why can't you go back to living in foster homes?"

She replied, "Because they have all sucked! In one way or another they have hurt me. I can't handle being hurt anymore. Group homes aren't any better the last one I was in I ended up being in hospitalized after the other kids beat me up. I have been in this system since I was 6, I'm 12 now and still haven't been adopted. I started taking care of myself at the age of 4 after my Mom died and my Dad chose to cope with drugs and cared about them more than me. When he wasn't worried about getting high, he was beating the crap out of me. Like I said I've always taken care of myself so why can't I now? Honestly, I'm just going to leave wherever shitty home I end up in next. I would rather go to jail then go to a new foster home so please arrest me."

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