Synopsis for: Reckless

Featured characters: Tom, Cassy and Harry

Other characters: Lyam and Margaret Ryan, Evelyn St. John, Ramon, Craig Alexander, Jason Slater and many others

Warnings: Violence, language, adult situations

Storyline: Cassy's disregard for proper police procedure leads to disaster for the detective team.

Time period: Takes place between the sixth and seventh season and incorporates events occurring in my short Silk fic story : Standard Operating Procedures which can be found at:

http://geocities.datacellar.net/Hollywood/Studio/5748/ssweb.html

Warnings: This is being posted as it is written. No total part count is known.

Copyright (c) 1999 by Terri Thomas

All rights reserved

Reckless

Part 1

"What's his status?" Lt. Bill Blane asked his partner, Lt. Elizabeth Meyer.

Meyer looked from her partner to the blond woman sitting across from them and shook her head. "It doesn't look good. He's not expected to make it through to morning."

Cassy wiped away a stray tear, which rolled down her cheek, but she said nothing. Blane looked at her with a disapproving glare. "I feel I should warn you, Sergeant, that if Sgt. Ryan dies, District Attorney Alexander may have no alternative but to file manslaughter charges against you. Are you sure you do not wish to have an attorney present?"

Cassy took a deep breath and shook her head 'no'. If Tom died, she wouldn't deserve to be defended by an attorney. There was no excuse for what she had done to her partner. . .to her friend.

Blane shot a concerned glance at Meyer, who responded with a quick nod. "Okay, then let's go over it, in detail. We want to know everything about your investigation of Jason Slater and the shooting of Sgt. Thomas Ryan."

Two days earlier:

Tom Ryan pulled his Volkswagon behind the red Mustang. "How in the Hell did she beat me here?" he grumbled as he climbed from the convertible and stretched his previously cramped body to its full 6'2" height. "I had at least a two minute lead."

Two women in bikinis walked by, each flashing him a quick smile. Momentarily sidetracked, Tom admired the view as they walked away. His eyes then surveyed the crowd of police personnel and on-lookers who had gathered on the beach. He spotted his blond-headed partner talking to a uniformed officer. He headed in her direction, preparing himself for whatever horror lie ahead.

Hearing the approach of footsteps, Cassy looked over, glanced at her watch and smiled a cocky grin at the new arrival. "It's about time. What happened? Did you get lost?"

"I don’t get it, Cass. How do you do it? I left the station before you and you still beat me," Tom complained.

"It's my expert driving. I keep trying to tell you that."

Tom turned up his nose. "Yeah right. You forget, I've seen your driving. You had to have run every red light from there to here."

"It's a matter of efficiency, Thomas." Cassy started walking to where Sterling Morton was standing, writing notes on a clipboard. "I know the fastest way to get from one side of this city to the other. You, on the other hand, seem to get a charge out of taking the scenic route."

"Yeah, right, whatever." Tom redirected his attention to the still form lying beneath a plastic tarp. "What do we have?"

"Female, young. Doesn't look to be more than 15 or 16 years old," Sterling answered from his position next to the corpse. He pulled the cover away from the dead girl's face. A look of pure horror was frozen on the once delicate features. Pulling the blanket back further, the doctor revealed that the body was nude.

Tom closed his eyes, trying to push away the swell of emotion he always felt when looking at a victim, especially when that victim was a child. Cassy, keeping her voice cold and calculated, kneeled next to Morton. "Signs of sexual assault?"

"I'll have to do a full autopsy to know the extent, but yes, there are signs assault. There's deep vaginal bruising. Whoever did this to her roughed her up first." The Medical Examiner turned the girl's head to the side. He pointed to dark bruises on the neck. "Cause of death appears to be strangulation." He started to pull the blanket back over the body and then stopped. "You'll want to see these. He lifted a lifeless arm into the air. "Rope burns are on the wrists and ankles."

Tom shook his head. "What monster did this to her?" he muttered, turning away from the nightmare vision and refocusing on the blue ocean before him.

"I don't know," Cassy whispered from behind, "but I'm making it my mission to find the bastard."

"So what do you have?" Captain Harry Lipschitz asked, as Tom and Cassy took seats at the chairs in front of his desk.

"Right now, we have a Jane Doe. Morton's running her prints, but we don't expect them to be much help." Cassy opened the file folder, which rested on her lap. "The preliminary cause of death is strangulation. There are definite signs of sexual assault."

"She was young, Harry, no more than 15." Tom glanced at the photo Cassy held in her hand and then looked away. Cassy handed the picture to her Captain.

Harry took one look at the picture of death, frozen in time; he shook his head and let the photo drop to his desk. "Damn." He looked at his two detectives. "Have you run it through missing persons?"

Cassy nodded. "Yeah. The most recent runaway report is about three weeks old. No recent photo on hand."

"Have you called the parents?" Harry pressed.

Tom nodded. "We asked them to come down. We'll show them the picture first and go from there."

"Okay. Anything else?"

Tom shook his head. "We're waiting on the official report from Morton. After that, maybe we'll have some leads."

Cassy nodded. "Until then, we don't have much else to go on."

"When are the parents expected?"

"They said they'd come down immediately," Tom answered.

Harry removed his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes. "I hate this. I hope like hell this isn't their child, but at the same time, if it is, perhaps we'll have a lead to who did this to her and prevent the killer from hurting someone else."

"We're looking for Sgt. Ryan or Sgt. St. John." The middle-aged couple had their arms around each other, holding the other closely.

Tom overheard the man's request and approached quickly. Forcing a smile, he held out a hand in greeting. "Mr. and Mrs. Barbara, I'm Sgt. Ryan."

The sad eyes of Matthew Barbara met Tom's hazel. The man gripped the detective's hand and shook it. "This is my wife, Kathy." Tom shook the woman's hand. He then motioned for Cassy to come over.

"This is my partner, Sgt. St. John."

"You've found our daughter?" the distraught woman whispered, ignoring the introduction.

Cassy pointed to an empty interrogation room. "Let's go in here and talk."

She led the couple to the room while Tom grabbed the file folder, flipping it open quickly to make sure the photo was still inside. Shaking his head at the sight, he took a deep breath and followed his partner into the room.

"Oh God, it's Sarah," the father cried. His wife remained motionless, staring intently at the picture held in her husband's hands. She did not say a word. She did not cry.

Tom closed his eyes, regretting the pain that had been caused. Cassy sat down next to the distressed parents. "We're sorry." Her words were drowned out by the man's sobbing. Tom looked at Kathy. The woman had still not changed positions.

Tom cleared his throat and gently asked, "Can I get you two something. Water? Coffee?"

There was no response to the offer. He shot a worried glance at Cassy. She nodded and moved closer to the couple. "Mr. and Mrs. Barbara, we know this is hard for you, but we need to ask you a few questions about what happened."

Neither parent acted as if they had heard her words. Then Matthew raised his head and wiped the tears from his face. "I'm. . .I'm sorry."

Tom felt a surge of guilt growing inside. "It's okay." He shifted position and leaned forward in his chair. "We need to know what happened when Sarah disappeared."

The father nodded, reached out and grabbed his wife's hand. At no time did Kathy Barbara ever change expressions or look away from the picture which captured her daughter's death. The look of shock was permanently etched in her features.

End Part 1