A Course of Passion

28: Getting to the Bottom

I open the box up slowly and see two donuts, one with blue frosting and one with pink, "what's this?" I eye him, flipping open the containers lid and looking at him.

He bites one side of his lip to try and hide his smile, "I was kind of hoping you'd wanna find out the gender of the babies?"

I snort back a laugh, "and you thought bringing me some donuts in gender favorite colors would convince me?"

He shrugs, "no, I just thought you and the babies would be hungry in the morning."

I squint my eyes at him keeping a straight face. He keeps his own poker face on and I quickly lose, smiling back and leaning in to kiss him. As I do, I admit, "hate to break it to you, but I already ate."

I enjoy the look of defeat I put on his face when he heard the first part of my sentence then the look of relief when I said the second, "does that mean we can find out what we're having?"

"Yes Sonny, we can find out what we're having." I promise him and his face lights up.

"I love you." He tells me, leaning me down on he couch to lay on top of me.

I kiss him back, "I love you too."

He goes to try and pull my pants down but I quickly wriggle out of it and stand up, "everything okay?" He asks, sitting up.

I shrug, "I'm just.. Sorry, I just can't stop seeing Keisha in that cage when I close my eyes. How can any parent do that to their kids?" I ask him.

He wraps me into his arms and leans us back against the couch, "some people shouldn't become parents." He simply whispers.

On Monday morning, Amanda and Olivia make time to visit Barba to discuss the Keisha case. The entire team agrees with the idea that child services was neglectful and Keisha could still be alive if they did their job correctly. When they finish talking to him, they call and send Sonny and I back to the offices of child services. "This is a caseworker and a supervisor's worst nightmare." Keith's supervisor says as she walks us to her desk with Keith standing behind her.

"Yeah, the whole city's heartbroken." Sonny says matter of factually to her.

She pokes a bit, "just tell me Manuela is not gonna get away with this."

"Well, this brings us to why we're here." I tell her back, "we're looking to document Manuela's abuse."

Sonny goes on, "now, Keith, you told me that you visited the apartment two weeks ago."

"Yeah, that's right, and I've got that right here." Jeanette jumps in eagerly, opening a folder on her desk, "home visit, July 27th around 2:00 pm." She reads off the notes "Manuela Ozuna is present and sober. Son, Bruno, and daughter, Keisha, are also present, clean, and seem healthy."

"Okay, so Keisha was there, because when we talked you said you weren't sure." Sonny looks to Keith.

He answers back, looking at him then his boss, "no, I said I had to check my notes."

She backs him up, "yes, which we did. And we've gone through these with a fine-tooth comb."

I stop her from going on, "okay, hold on, so you're saying that two weeks ago, that Keisha looked healthy?" I move to go stand behind her, wanting to read the notes myself.

"Yeah, that's what the report says, but you know, these situations with parents on a drug binge, they can deteriorate like that." Jeanette answers, snapping her fingers for emphasis.

A man quickly walks into her office, stopping our conversation, "Jeanette, you should've brought me in." He says to her, then looks to myself and Sonny, "Matt Sheridan, Deputy Commissioner. Let me assure you that our agency is reviewing every moment and action that led up to this tragedy."

"So is our ADA, so we're gonna need Keith's laptop and all of his case files." I respond to him.

"We're here to cooperate, but because of confidentiality issues, we can't hand anything over without a subpoena." He replies.

Sonny and I look at each and he stands up and replies, "we'll be in touch." We leave the office and call Olivia on the way out, "there's a file but it's gotta be faked! There's no way Keisha looked healthy two weeks ago." Olivia says something back to him and he answers her with, "well, their deputy commissioner stopped out interview so we'll need to return with papers." A few more seconds and he says, "yeah, we're on our way."