Karen Rose - Count to Ten

"Be patient, Miles. This took us seven hours. You can listen for ten minutes."

"Sorry," Westphalen mumbled, properly chastised and Reed swallowed his smile.

"Anyway," Mia said. "I talked to the head caseworker for the juvie facility. She didn't remember him, but she looked up his file. He was a model resident. Claimed he'd been forced to steal the car by his mother to feed her drug habit. Gloria Kates had a yellow sheet full of drug possession charges, so this was probably true."

"Obviously he got out," Spinnelli said.

"Yeah." Reed took up the story. "When Andrew got caught stealing the car, his mother Gloria skipped town, leaving him to hold the bag."

"Which would explain his hostility against women," Westphalen said. "Why hasn't he gone after her?"

"Because she's dead," Reed answered. "Heroin overdose, a few months later."

"So he has to go after substitutes," Westphalen mused. "Interesting."

"It gets better," Reed promised. "When Gloria left, Andrew went to juvie and Detroit placed Shane with his maternal aunt, Mary Kates, in Springdale, Indiana."

"The Thanksgiving night fire," Spinnelli murmured.

"Yes," Reed said. "I talked with the sheriff and the fire chief there about the Thanksgiving fire. The chief said they found gas cans in the backyard, but no eggs or evidence of solid accelerant. Just a gas and match affair. No fingerprints, no nothing. The sheriff said the aunt and her common-law husband Carl Gibson were found dead in their bedroom, close to the window. Their legs were broken so they couldn't get away."

"Same as the Atlantic City rape victims," Aidan said.

"And some of our victims," Reed agreed. "Nobody in Springdale was sorry or surprised to see it happen and the locals are having trouble making any headway on the case. Gibson had a history as a child predator. He was out on parole."

Westphalen nodded. "Ah. This makes sense."

"When was Gibson arrested?" Spinnelli asked.

"I checked out Gibson," Murphy said. "He had no complaints on his record when Detroit social services first placed Shane. The first charges were filed on behalf of Shane Kates. Gibson pled out, but later he was nailed for molesting two other kids."

"That's the trigger," Westphalen said. "Gibson molested Andrew's brother, then nearly ten years later this boy at Hope Center, Thad, is molested. That same night Gibson and

Andrew Kates's Aunt Many die. But ten years is a long time for such rage to lie dormant."

"That's because you got ahead of our story," Mia said. "Be patient. Miles."

Westphalen grimaced. "Sorry. Please continue."

Reed nodded. "Okay. Shane was molested by Gibson at some time during the year he was there. Based on Gibson's profile, probably multiple times. He's a sick bastard."

"Was," Mia corrected. "Now he's a dead bastard."

"Was," Reed echoed. "Shane would have been seven or eight at the time."

"Same age as Jeremy Lukowitch," Murphy noted and Mia nodded, troubled.

"I don't know what to make of that. Maybe that's why he didn't hurt Jeremy, just his mother. Sorry, Reed. Go on."

"Andrew was in juvie a year. When he got out, he was placed with his aunt, but before the first sundown, Andrew took Shane and ran away. They were picked up by Indiana police a few days later, but Andrew told them what Carl Gibson did to Shane and since the aunt had permanent custody of both of them they were put in foster care in Indiana versus being sent back to Detroit. That's when the first charges were filed against Gibson."

"It was hard to place two brothers together," Mia said, "especially with one of them having a juvie record. The local social services agency couldn't place them, so they transferred the case to Chicago who had a lot more homes available. Penny Hill was their caseworker. She placed them with Laura Dougherty who had developed a reputation for success with troubled kids. And she was willing to take them both."

"What did Laura Dougherty do that was so bad that Kates tried to kill her three times?" Westphalen asked.

"That took a little more digging," Mia said. "The DCFS manager didn't know and Penny Hill didn't write it in the file. I finally had to drive out to see Mrs. Blennard, their old friend. She remembered Shane. He was beautiful, blond and blue-eyed. At one point, Laura had considered adopting both boys, then Shane started in on one of the younger boys who was only five." She looked resigned. "Shane fondled him."

"The abused became the abuser," Westphalen said and held up his hands when Reed frowned. "It happens, Reed. However you choose to explain it, it happens."

"Well, it happened with Shane Kates," Mia inserted when Reed would have responded. "When Laura brought Penny Hill back to discuss it, Shane started breaking things on the sly. He blamed this younger boy, but Mrs. Dougherty didn't believe him."

"So who ultimately threw the boys out?" Westphalen asked.

"Mrs. Blennard said Andrew begged Laura not to send them away. Nearly broke Laura's heart. Penny got them counseling, but Shane did it again, and that time Laura caught him in the act. So Laura told them they had to go."

"So where did they go?" Spinnelli asked.

"It got harder to keep them together, but Penny Hill tried. She found a place in the country, a real rural area. She thought it would settle the boys, fresh air and chores." Mia shrugged. "Cows. This was Bill and Bitsey Young's house. They had two biological sons, older, high school age."

"This is where the records start to break down," Reed said. "It answers questions for us, but it raises a whole host for DCFS. All of this information comes from Andrew's file. Nobody can find Shane's."

Spinnelli's eyes widened. "They lost the file?"

"So it would seem," Mia said uneasily. "The boys were placed with the Youngs about ten years ago, but there aren't any more entries in Andrew's file for a whole year. Not by Penny Hill or anybody else. They were essentially abandoned."

"Abandoned by another woman," Reed added.

"Penny Hill forgot about them?" Westphalen's gray brows shot up. "That doesn't sound like the woman everyone described as dedicated to a fault."

"No, it doesn't." Mia frowned. "Penny's daughter said she worried about dropping the ball, that a kid would get hurt. Maybe they weren't foundless worries. At any rate, the next entry in Andrew's file is a year later when he's transferred to another foster home. Andrew was noted as a quiet kid, very withdrawn. Straight As." She lifted a brow. "Math club in high school. But after placement at the Youngs' there isn't another word about Shane in the state's social services files."

"We don't know what happened in the Youngs' house." Reed pulled a photo from his folder. "But we do know the house ended up looking like this."

"Burnt to the ground," Westphalen murmured. "When?"

"After the boys had been there nearly a year," Mia answered.

Murphy leaned over and picked up the photo. "How did you find this?"

"The fire was documented in insurance records." Reed shrugged. "It was a hunch."

Mia shook her head. "It was better than a hunch. I found Shane Kates's death certificate listed in the county's database. Cause of death was respiratory failure."

"From the fire," Aidan said.

Mia nodded. "Exactly. Reed looked up Shane's death date in his insurance database and cross-referenced the Youngs and found they'd filed a claim the following week for their house which had been destroyed in the fire."

"This picture was from the local fire department," Reed said. "They're pulling together the firefighters that responded that day so we can get more information, but it was almost nine years ago."

"So," Westphalen mused, "Andrew set the fire and his brother died."

Mia nodded. "The brother he'd gone to great lengths to protect."