Her AU Book Three

They'll Have to Go Through Me

"All right. Let's hit it." Hank commanded after putting one on his own badge. "Lindsay."

Erin followed the older man into his Office and Ana merely watched as the door closed behind them.

*At the Home of Matilda Hughes: A Little While Later*

Jay and Antonio had been standing around the poor woman's body when their Sergeant walked in with his daughter right behind him.

"So?" Hank wondered, stealing a quick glance at Ana before putting his attention on the corpse.

Just because the brunette had the unfortunate experience of witnessing much worse doesn't mean he wasn't still concerned for her well-being.

"Couldn't find any other evidence linking her to Andrew Lewellen. Her computer and cell are missing." The second in command explained.

"How long was she working at DCFS?" The older man inquired as he crouched down to get a better look at the body.

"15 years." The younger Detective replied.

"And how long was Lewellen paying for her mom at the home?" The Sergeant wondered.

"Almost as long." Jay muttered.

"So she was funneling kids to New York through DCFS." Ana realized in a grim tone.

"I think that's the theory to beat right now, yeah." Her father nodded as he stood back up.

"She's not the shot-caller, though." The younger Detective pointed out.

"Yeah, Teddy said the man in charge was a white man." The firefighter agreed.

"This is gonna end bad, I just know it." Antonio sighed.

"Well, I'm getting everyone else over to her office at Child Services. We need to turn this place inside-out." Hank commanded, pulling out his phone and pressing it to his ear.

"I'll help." Ana murmured, grabbing a pair of gloves off of a nearby CSI.

She slipped them on before heading over to the closest set of drawers. The older man didn't show it, of course, but his entire being filled with pride for his little girl in that very moment.

*Back in the Bullpen: A Few Hours Later*

"All right, DCFS employee funnels kids to foster parent, who, with the financial help of Lewellen, funnels kids to New York, where this guy photographs and organizes the abuse." Jay summarized, gesturing to photos of all the players on the whiteboard as he spoke. "Now, is this hired muscle? The man in charge?"

"Well, we're still looking for Amy Kleinpass and Chris Sepka, believed to be abducted." Nick chimed in, handing the younger Detectives a couple pictures of the kids which he then proceeded to tape up.

"These are all the people that are in Matilda's office." Kevin spoke up from a second whiteboard that had been situated across the room from the first. "Already interviewed about half of them, but none of them had a clue what she was up to."

"What about the guy Matilda was seeing?" Hank wondered. "Uh, Gary Miller."

"No, I got her phone records. There's no calls to a Gary Miller. I checked her cloud. There's nothing there either." Adam shook his head.

The older man stole a glance at Ana and turned to face her fully when he found her staring blankly at all the DCFS photos.

"Hey, you okay?" He murmured, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder and breaking her out of whatever trance she seemed to be in.