The Perfect Family

Day 1 of New Investigation

Chloe:

We were all shifting through the files that sat on each of our desks.

“They found an abandoned car a few miles away from the crime scene,” Sabrina said.

“ Did anyone see anything?” Mikel asked.

"Nope” Andrew answered.

“ Did they find anything in the car?” I asked.

“Just a necklace and a lot of blood” Mikel read from the report.

“ You took the evidence up to Anthony, right?” Andrew asked me.

“Yep, Just this morning” I replied.

“Why was it a homicide instead of a missing person case?” Sabrina asked me as she got up and sat closer to me.

“Even after losing that much blood she would still be alive” I said mostly to myself.

“ Are we assuming she’s alive or dead?” Mikel asked me.

“What?” I asked as I snapped my head up from the file.

“You said she would still be alive?” Andrew told her.

“Oh, well she could be” I said.

“We should act as if she was dead”, Mikel said.

“Why?” Andrew asked him.

“The case is 12 years old” he said.

“Some kidnappers hold their victim for a long time”, Sabrina added.

“They both have a point, but we should act like it is the beginning of the investigation”. Andrew said

“But it isn’t the beginning of the investigation”, Mikel said.

“ We don’t have any proof she is alive”, Sabrina said.

“We don’t have any proof that she is dead?” I said.

“We’ll just say she’s alive until we have evidence that she isn’t”, Andrew said.

“Okay” Mikel said

After a few moments of silently looking through the files, I looked at Andrew.

“We have to go visit the family” I said.

“What is the address on the file?” he asked.

“178 Riverton Road in Spring Falls” she said, reading the address from the file.

“Sabrina, Mikel check on the evidence and Anthony’s lab is on the 7th floor.”

“Okay” they both said at the same time, causing me to laugh. Andrew and I left for the Benson’s.

When we arrived at Benson’s, I was in shock at all the teddy bears and toys surrounded by the huge tree in the middle of the front yard. I got out of the car and walked over to the tree. When I reached the tree, I touched the tree trunk and, without warning, I felt cold, dizzy, and I was pulled into a vision.Bree Benson and a young boy who she assumed was her brother Brandon. She saw them running around and playing. She was behind the tree when a man approached her.“Hi, Bree” the man said to her. “ I have candy. Do you want some?” he continued to talk to her.“I’m not supposed to take candy from strangers” she said, turning toward the man.“ I’m not a stranger, I’m your uncle” he said.“Really?”“Yes, I’m your mom’s brother.”“Then I guess it’s alright” she said.“ The candy is in my car. Come get it”“ OK” she said, walking away with the stranger.

I snapped back to reality. Andrew was watching me and I could tell that he knew what was happening.

“ A vision?” he asked

“Yes”

“ The case or personal?”

“ The case”

“What is it about?”

“I saw her get abducted”

“What happened?”

“Later”

“Now, before we go into that house” he said, upset.

“Fine, he offered her candy and then said he was her uncle.”

“ We can ask about a brother when we get in.”

Just then, a man walked over to them.

“ Can I help you?” he asked.

“ Actually we were just on our way to the front door” I said,

“ For?” he asked

“ I’m sorry you are?” I asked.

“ You're on my property.”

.” I’m Special Agent Adam and this is my partner, Special Agent Scott. We're with the FBI Cold Case Division”, I said as I flashed my badge.

“ I’m Brandon Benson”

“ Brandon,Are your parents home?”

“ Yes, but now is not a good time for my family.” I ignored Brandon and walked around him and straight to the front porch.

“ Did you not hear me?” he asked, as if I was stupid.

“ I did hear you but this is very important, and I would prefer to talk to your parents” I said to him,

Brandon ran in front of me and tried to stop me again.

“Now is not a good time” he yelled at me, blocking me.

from knocking on the door.

Andrew got tired of Brandon trying to stop me.He knew that I wasn’t going to stop until I got what I wanted.

“Brandon, please step out of the way”, Andrew asked.

“No, I said it wasn’t a good time for me and my family.”

“I will charge you with obstruction of justice if I have to” he said.

Brandon reluctantly got out of the way.

I knocked on the door. A short, skinny blond woman came to the door.

“ Brandon, did you forget…” she started to ask.

“ Hello, Ms. Benson, how are you? I’m Special Agent Adam and this is my partner, Special Agent Scott. We are with the FBI Cold Case Division. We are here with your daughter, Bree Benson.”

“ Did you find her? Is she dead? Please tell me she isn’t dead” she said as she started to cry.

Andrew moved forward to comfort Ms. Benson “Ma’am we are just reopening a cold case that we believe can be solved.”

“ Would you like to come inside?” she said, still crying.

“ Yes, thank you.”

She led them inside and introduced them to Mr. Benson

“ Brandon, these people are with the FBI. They think that they can solve Bree’s case”. Brandon Sr. looked at them in doubt.

“Why would you open my daughter's case again after all of this time?” he asked.

“ We just think that with all the time that has passed , and with the new technology, there is a chance that it could be solved.” I explained.

“ We also wanted to see if you remember anything different”, Andrew continued.

After a few moments of silence, Mr.Benson said "Please sit down."

“Thank you” Andrew said.

“Do you remember where you were when your daughter was abducted?” I asked him.

“I was on the side of the house making a phone call”

“ Who was calling?”

“ My boss was in the middle of a very important business deal and he couldn't find the file”

“Did he find the file?”

“ Yes”

“ Ms. Benson,Where were you at?”

“ I was in the house making lunch” she answered.

“ Brandon, where were you at?” I asked, turning towards him.

“I was looking for her. We were playing hide and seek.”

“Where did she normally hide?”

“ Near the big tree in the yard, when I told her to come out she didn’t, so I told my mom and dad”

" Did you notice anything different when you were playing?"

"No, everything seemed normal."

“ When did you realize that she was missing?"

“ We knew immediately” Brandon Sr. said as he finished. Heather Benson busted into tears.

“I’m sorry Ms.Benson, I know that this is hard for you”, Andrew told her, handing her a tissue.

"Mr Benson, Do you or your wife have any siblings?" I asked as Andrew and Brandon were comforting Mrs.Benson.

"I'm an only child but my wife has 3 brothers", Andrew started to write again.

"Okay, can you tell me their names?"

"Theodore,Mark,Charlie, all their last names are Brookson."

“ Can I get more information on your brother, Ms.Benson?” I asked when she stopped sobbing.

“ We aren’t a close family. We hadn’t talked even before Bree went missing. They didn’t even come to my wedding.”

“ Was there a family fight?”

“No, we just grew apart as a family and when our mom died there was no one to hold us together.”

“ Do you think one of your brothers would hurt your daughter?”

“ I mean we don’t even talk, so why would they hurt my daughter? “ she asked, confused. “ Do you think that one of my brothers took her?”

“No, we are just making sure it's not a possibility,” Andrew answered.

“Is there anyone who would hurt you or your family” Chloe asked Mr. Benson

“No, not that I know of” he answered them.

“Okay, thank you for your cooperation. That’s all the questions we have for now,” Andrew said as he stood up.

I wasn't done with all the questions I had but I stood up too.

“Please call us if you have any questions or concerns about the new investigation” he continued as he handed Mr. and Mrs. Benson a card.

They left the house and got in the car. While in the car, Andrew looked at me.

“ Do you want to talk about the vision?” he asked.

“ No” I said

“Why?”

“ Its personal”

“ Not when it happens on the job, especially when it happens on the field,” he said, getting upset.

“ Well, I am fine and thanks for caring, but I’m done talking about it.”

“ Does the Director know about your visions coming back?”

“ No, but I will tell him when it gets bad.”

“ We don’t know if it really happened?”

“It happened.” I said, slightly annoyed.

“ It could be wrong.”

“It’s not wrong and you damned well know it. Besides, it was right last time.”

“Last time you almost got yourself killed “ he said, pissed off at her.

“ You wouldn’t listen and we had to catch him and we did” I said, finishing with that particular conversation. He always brings up the summer darkness case when he thinks about my visions. I can't help them. They just come to me sometimes. I can usually suppress them, but if I did it too much it would drain all of my energy.

"Did you see her?" He asked.

"No, I didn't see her"

"If you see her you'll tell me, right?"

“Yes,Are you still mad at me?” I asked him after a few moments of silence.

“ I was never mad at you”

“ I called you and you ignored my phone call. You never ignored my phone calls.”

“ I was giving you space.”

“ I said I was sorry that I was nervous. I didn’t know what to say.” I tried to explain myself.

“ You called it a mistake. Was it a mistake?Do you really think that?”

“ Of course not, but what was I supposed to say? She walked in on us."

“Okay then we'll talk after work"” he said.

When they were back at the office before going to talk to Sabrina and Mikel, I had made a phone call to Edward Payne.

“Hello Edward speaking” he answered the phone,

“Edward, could you look up the brother of Heather Benson for me?”

"More info"he said

"Theodore,Mark and Charlie Brookson. All in connection with the Bree Benson case."

“ Yes, I can. Would you like anything else?”

“ No, not right now, but thank you”

“ Just doing my job” he said before hanging up.

I finished her phone call and went to my desk.

Sabrina and Mikel had just finished going through all of the evidence that Anthony had given them.

“ Hey” I said to both of them.

“ So what happened at the family house?” Sabrina asked.

Andrew gave a brief statement of what happened to them at Benson’s house, excluding my vision.

“Are we going to have a problem?” Mikel asked, looking at Andrew, “ because we will need the family for more information if we are going to keep investigating the crime.”

“ It’s going to be fine. We're going to investigate with or without the family's help, but I think that Heather and Brandon Sr. are going to be more than helpful to us”, I said confidently.

“Yeah , I mean who wouldn’t want to know what happened to their child?” Sabrina added in the conversation.

“ So what did you learn by going through the evidence report?” Andrew asked Sabrina.

“There was outside help?” Mikel said.

“ What does that have to do with the evidence report?” Andrew asked.

“ It was in the evidence report” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

“ Digital or hard copy?” I asked.

“ The hard copy wasn’t on the digital,” he answered.

“ I compared the digital and the hard copy. The hard copy has the most information on it. It’s like that whole report but the digital copy, the one that we would look at first, is missing a lot of information.

“ What information?” I asked.

“The other detectives, not all the suspects are on here, the evidence isn’t even on the digital copy.”

“ That sounds fishy.”

“ Why were there 3 detectives?” Mikel asked.

“Outside, help remember “Sabrina answered.

“ No, the case was inside our jurisdiction.”

“ I’ll look up the detectives that worked the case.” said Sabrina, excited.

Andrew:

Everyone moved away from Sabrina's desk so she could focus on finding the detectives. I followed Chloe to her desk and leaned on the side of the chair.

“ The case is going well so far “ she said to me.

“ The 3 detectives just added to the list of questions we already had” I said.

“ Be positive” she said.

"Don't" I said

"Don't what?"

"Don't get too involved emotionally" he said, lowering his voice.

"I'm not I..." I cut her off.Chloe had a history of making cases personal. "It's not personal."

"I know" she said, looking a little sad.

I looked at the clock and tapped Chloe on the shoulder.

“Huh what?” she asked.

“ Time to go” I said as he waited for her to gather her things.

“ Sabrina, Mikel, time to go” I said loud enough for them to hear.

Chloe and I left the office together and went to Annabelle's house to pick up the twins. When we got to Annabelle's house, Chloe waited in the car. Chloe and Annabelle don't get along well. That was part of the reason Chloe and I had trouble in our relationship. Whenever they are in the same room, an argument happens.

When I knocked on the door, Annabelle answered looking mad.

"Everything okay?" I asked her.

"everything is fine"

"Are the twins ready to go?"

"They started getting ready when we saw your car pull into the driveway."she said as she stepped to the side to let me in.

" So she's not coming in?"

"No"

"Why can't she handle the truth?" She said with a smile.

"Don't start with me right now" I said, shaking my head.

"Christian and Christiana hurry up and let's go" I said, raising my voice loud enough for them to hear me.

They came running down the stairs dragging their book bags behind them.

"Dad' they said as they ran to give me a hug.

"Hey, guys missed you too. Come on Chloes, in the car waiting for us." As soon as I opened the door, they ran toward the car. Chloe got out of the car to help them inside of the car. Annabelle glared at her.Chloe smiled and waved at her.I shook my head as Annabelle went into the house and slammed the door.