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What She Never Knew	By : SisterWine Category: 1 through F > Cold Case Views: 481 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Cold Case or any of its characters. My Characters are The Canne family, Monica and Stacy and Travis DiNuccio. Please do not sue. This is FICTION. I make no money.

Chapter List
- 1-One
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Six
- 7-Seven
- 8-Eight
- 9-Nine
- 1
- 2
- 3
Flip's Early Diner
They sat across from each other in a cornerbooth and gave their orders for coffee and meals to the waitress, before he opened up his pad and started writing what he knew so far. The low lighting was a yellowish and dim but bright enough for him to see what he was writing. "Alright, so... his name is Travis, right? Travis what?" Scotty asked as he wrote the name in all capital letters and paused at the last name.
"DiNuccio." She spelled it for him and watched his pen move with every formation of the letters. "He's about my age- uh, midthirties- with black hair and brown eyes. He was sent to live with my family when he was five. We grew up in Los Angeles, together. I haven't seen him in 10 years." Jennifer stared at the tip of the pen but looked up to meet his eyes as he stopped writing.
Scotty looked puzzled. "Los Angeles? So, what makes you think he's here, in Philly?" Seeing the waitress approach with the two cups of coffee, he lifted the pad off of the table and held it close to him, to keep the information private.
Jennifer thanked the waitress for the coffee and reached for the individual cups of hazelnut creamers the waitress had left in a little bowl, along with the cups of coffee. She waited until the older woman walked away before answering him. "Four years ago, I paid for a private detective to find him. Two years ago, he claimed he 'ran out of leads.' So, I started looking, myself." Worry began to show on her face as she stirred her coffee and cream. Taking a ragged breath, she turned to look out the window at the city's nightlife.
Nodding and examinging her profile, Scotty looked down at what he had written. "Okay, let's back up. You said he came to live with you. Do you know what happened? Why he wasn't with his family?" He looked back up at her and met her eyes as she turned to look at him. Replacing the pad to the table, he sat ready to write, again.
Jennifer shook her head. "I don't really know much about him. I really didn't care, growing up. But, I do know that his mom and twin brother both died. His brother died after falling from a playground slide, at two. His mom O.D.'d. Or, so everyone said. I don't know about his dad. My mom said he wasn't a very nice guy." She paused for a moment to watch him write down what she was telling him. "He came to live with us, a year after his mom died. My mom knew his mom, from UCLA. He didn't speak English, when he first came to live with us but, he was born in California. I know he could understand a little English and repeat some words but he had a horrible time trying to say sentences. In all honesty, we weren't a very good family to him. I don't know why he'd want to see me, after all I've put him through. Maybe, it's best I don't find him?"
"What makes you say that?" Scotty stopped writing and sat back, reaching for his coffee. He sipped the hot, black liquid and listened to her, noting her shifting and unease at the question.
Jennifer bowed her head and stared at her purse in her lap.
The waitress returned with two plates in her hands and announced herself as she placed the plates down, in front of the correct diners. When she straightened, she asked if there was anything else she could get them. Getting a "no" in response, she smiled and turned to check on her other patrons.
Jennifer was silent a long moment. "We treated him like a rag doll. He was just there for us to use and laugh at. But, after everything, he never said a word against us." She looked up at his writing and sighed. Her eyes fell to her plate, in front of her and she stared at the burger that waited patiently to be bit into.
Pausing in his writing again, Scotty examined her expression, again. "What was the moment that you finally did notice him? What made you want to stop being mean to him and see him as a person?" He searched her face for any other emotion as she thought back to when she changed her mind about their houseboy.
She started to shake her head but stopped as she recalled several small memories of him. Jennifer sighed again and returned to her purse in her lap, opening it and removing two photos and placing them on the table for Scotty to see. "This one" pointing to an older photo of a young boy and his mother, "is Travis and his mom, before he came to live with us." She then pointed to the second one, a newer photo of him but still old. "And this one, was at my 21st birthday party. My best friends, Monica and Stacy, and that's him in the background." Jennifer pointed to the young man, to the far right in the photo, not smiling but looking rather overwhelmed with the party guests. "That's the only photo I have of him as an adult. The other one, he left it behind."
~~~~~
20, April 1995
The house rang with loud music and excitement from partying university kids. The Cannes had gone away on holiday, leaving Jennifer to celebrate her 21st birthday at home, with a few friends. A party full of twenty-somethings ran wild throughout the house, kegs, bottles, cans and red cups littered the tables and every other flat surface on the downstairs whilst the outside was being covered with toiletpaper and litter. Lovers snuggled and cooed drunkenly as they tucked themselves into any spare corner they could find to make out.
The music blared from a boombox that one of the guests had brought with them, located in the den, where the lights had been dimmed considerably and the fire in the fireplace roared, setting romance for the group that stayed to the one room.
Jennifer had started the partying early and was more than high and sloshed by the time the majority of the partiers had come through the door. She and her two friends wandered throughout the house, laughing and joking with other guests and making sure drinks were well-filled and platters of food were plentiful. She turned and stopped in front of the fireplace and held up a Polaroid camera and exclaimed "Smile!" to her two best friends, Monica and Stacy.
Monica threw her arm around Stacy and mugged for the photo while Stacy stuck her tongue out and gave Monica bunny ears as a loud crash came from the other side of the room. A flash startled them and Stacy demanded another one taken.
Travis sighed as he watched Mr. Canne's 300-year-old giant vase crash to the floor and the two lovers that had bumped against it, laugh and run out of the room in a drunken state. He looked over at Jennifer after the first flash caught his eye and his tired look then became immortalised in a photo. After the second flash, he turned back and made his way over to clean up the broken vase. Kneeling down and picking up the big pieces and placing them in the bottom of the vase, that sat on a low platform base, he heard Jennifer screech his name from the other side of the room. Tossing a glance over his left shoulder, he found her standing in front of the long row of tables that were placed against the wall, in front of the windows, holding an empty drink tray.
"Hey houseboy! Thirsty people, over here!" Jennifer stared at him with annoyance. She held up the empty tray for him to see and snapped her fingers as if she were calling a waiter.
Placing the handful of broken vase into the base and standing up, he made his way back over to retrieve the tray from her, careful not to stare at her, and flinched as she shoved the tray at him. As Travis stopped in front of her, his eyes quickly shifted up and back down to her navel. He froze as she screeched at him.
Jennifer let go of the tray as he took it from her and gave him a disgusted look. "Did you just stare at my breast?? Oh my god! Someone call the police, this creep just stared at my breasts!" Her tone carried over the loud music, catching the attention of a few of the partiers close by. "Or, is that how you like it?" She shifted her weight to her left foot and ran a finger along the seam of her white button down shirt as she stepped closer to him.
Shaking his head and trying to look anywhere but where she and her friends were, Travis swallowed nervously as he heard several people in the room laugh and gasp playfully at the scene. He froze again as she stepped closer still and placed a hand on the front of his jeans. Pressing herself against him, he felt her unzip his jeans and then shoved him backward, to sprawl flat on the floor before laughing at him and announcing to everyone at the party that he was excited at the display.
"What a loser!" As Jennifer turned to walk away, she tripped over her own neon pink high-heeled shoe and fell to the floor, scraping her head on the padded arm of the sofa that faced the fireplace.
When she didn't get up, Monica gasped and called her name, bending down to see if her friend was alright.
Travis scurried to Jennifer's side and gingerly turned her over, checking for any injury she might have sustained in her fall. "Miss Jennifer? Not dead, not dead, not dead, please, not dead." His breath caught as he felt for her pulse at her jugular. With his back to the doorway, he heard a drunk girl call out.
"Is she dead?" The party-goer, who was barely 20, announced that the host was dead and grabbed her boyfriend, whom she had been in the coat closet with and ran for the door. Several people followed as a terrified Travis tried to remain calm and explain that he hadn't killed her and to stay and enjoy the party.
Travis scooped Jennifer up into his arms and carried her out of the den and up the stairs, Monica and Stacy following close behind him. At the top of the stairs, he paused and turned to walk to the second door on the right and stop at the closed door. When Monica opened the door, he remained standing in the doorway, not sure if he was allowed to go inside and if he did, what would Monica and Stacy tell Jennifer, when she woke up.
"Go on. What are you waiting for?" Stacy, who stood to Travis's right, asked.
Travis swallowed. "I'm not allowed inside."
Monica, who held the small camcorder, pushed stop and lowered it. She stood to his left and raised an eyebrow at his terrified expression. "Go on. It's not like you're gonna sit down and have tea. Besides, we're right here. All you're doing is putting her on her bed."
Stacy smiled and slapped his back, trying to nudge him inside. "Yea, we won't tell." She saw the uncertainty in his expression as he shivered and took a step in before making his way over to the nearest side of bed and carefully laid their friend down before making his exit.
Hurrying down the stairs and finding the lower level void of any university student, Travis quickly busied himself gathering up the trays, plates and silverware and utensils to be washed and made his way to the kitchen. Dumping the items into the sink, he took a moment to make some coffee for the long night ahead and went back to his chore of washing the dishes. As he turned to place the dishes into the dishwasher, to his right, he caught the two girls coming into the kitchen and sitting down at the island countre. Travis straightened from putting the silverware into the holder and pointed to the coffeemaker that had just finished making a full pot.
Both girls nodded and asked for the cream and sugar.
Travis poured them each a cup and placed them in front of the girls before getting another mug from the cabinet and pouring his own coffee. Once the dishes had been gathered and washed, he cleaned the countres and sink before pulling out a few large black rubbish sacks from the floor of the cleaning closet, in the laundry room, and heading out into the rest of the house to gather plastics left behind by the partiers. He hadn't expected for the only other sobre people at the party to offer to help so he forced himself not to show his shock as Monica and Stacy both accepted the extra rubbish sacks and helped clean up.
~~~~~~
It was later in the afternoon when Jennifer rolled over to change positions and ended up smacking something that was in bed with her. She lie on her back and quickly opened her eyes and sat up to see who was with her and how she managed to get into her own bed. The figure to her right was covered by the lavender comforter and she poked it, catching a flinching movement from the lump underneath. "Hey." Jennifer croaked, groggily.
Stacy slept on her right side and moved the covers as she rolled onto her back and opened one eye to see Jennifer staring at her. "Hey beautiful." She rubbed a hand over her face and sat up. "Good morning." She sighed and turned to dump her pillow over the side of the bed to land on Monica, who made a pallet on the floor to sleep on. "Monnie, hey, Monnie... look who's awake." Stacy had been Jennifer's friend from fourth grade was more of a friend to Monica as Jennifer was known to be a spoilt brat at times.
"How did I get in my room?" Jennifer asked as she looked around her room for an unknown answer.
Having heard another voice, Monica pushed herself to sit up and look over the top of the bed. "He carried you, Travis did." Raising herself to her knees and then crawling up onto the bed to sit across from Stacy, Monica answered as she curled her bare legs underneath her and shivered from the cool air of the room. Monica had known Jennifer since second grade and was the often the voice of reason between the two, mostly knew how Jennifer would react and tried to quell any hysterics before they'd start.
Jennifer's eyes widened. "He was in my room?"
Stacy hummed. "Relax, he wasn't in here that long. In fact, we had to push him in here. He laid you down and then split faster than he came in." She yawned and glanced over at Jennifer.
"Yea, ya know, I've never understood why you're so mean to him. He's a nice guy, and totally funny." Monica rubbed her eyes and cleared her throat.
Stacy closed her eyes and licked her lips, remembering the delicious meals he had made for them. "And such a good cook. He made an omelet, this morning, that was to die for. Unh, and his Rubens.... Heaven." She had praised him for his cooking and giggled as he wasn't sure how to take the compliments.
Jennifer smiled, annoyed. "Great. Glad you liked them. Where is he?"
Monica yawned. "We sent him to bed a couple of hours ago."
"You did what?!" Jennifer's jaw dropped. She turned and shoved the covers off of her and started to climb out of bed before being pulled back by Stacy.
"Whoa whoa whoa. Jen, he was pretty beat. The poor thing was falling asleep in his Cheerios, I don't know how he made it to lunch. We shoved him to bed around one, then we slunk our way up here, to do the same." Monica shifted, ready to crawl after her friend and stop her from disturbing Travis' sleep. The digital clock on the nightstand next to Stacy's side of the bed read 4:30 and she knew it was not enough time to recuperate from two whole days and nights of chasing around three young women, cleaning up after them.
Stacy reached out and grabbed Jennifer's arm. "Let him sleep. He really needs it after following us around all week."
Monica smiled and nodded. "Yea, we'll order a pizza or something."
"Hello? There was a party here, last night. He has to clean up. My parents get home tomorrow." Jennifer was unamused by their pleas.
Monica shifted again and scoot closer to Jennifer, who now stood next to the bed. "He did clean up. It took all night."
Stacy nodded. "Yea, we helped." She hadn't let go of Jennifer's arm until she sat back down. "You know, you really should try to be more nice to him. He's really a sweetheart."
"Right. After he tried to rape me, last night? No thanks." Jennifer scoffed.
Sighing and turning to crawl off the end of the bed and grab her camcorder that sat charging on the antique dresser, next to the door, Monica returned with it and turned it on to replay the events that lead up to Jennifer passing out. "Um, more like you attacked him. Practically molested him, in front of everyone, and then shoved him to the floor." She rewound the tape and pressed PLAY before turning the screen around for Jennifer to see. While Jennifer's eyes were glued to the screen, she and Stacy both gave their friend an unamused look.
Having watched the video with mild interest, Jennifer was ready to wretch as the camera caught a closeup of Travis' reaction to being knocked to the floor and the terror in his expression as he feared her dead, along with the other party-goers. Taking a deep breath and handing the camcorder back to Monica, Jennifer was silent for a long while.
~~~~~~~~~
Scotty had taken a bite out of his Philly cheesesteak and chewed slowly, in a long moment of silence. He stared at her and remained silent as she recalled the night of the party with mostly flawless detail. He swallowed and replaced his sandwich to his plate before he finally spoke. "Your friends sound like they really cared about him. Do you still talk to them?"
Nodding but not looking up from her plate of untouched food, Jennifer gave a small smile. "Yea, they did." She took a breath before answering his second question. "Monnie is a Legal Assistant, in Dayton and Stacy is a RN in Memphis. Both have wonderful families and at least two beautiful kids."
"So, because of that incident, you haven't moved on? No family or children?"
Jennifer sighed and finally looked up to stare out the window at the night traffic. "Never married, no. I do have a little boy. He is sweet and perfect. He's staying with my sister, right now."
Scotty cleared his throat and sat back. "So, tell me a little more about you. How have you changed since that day, you last saw him? Or, the day after the party?"
Shrugging, Jennifer shifted on her bench. "After I graduated, I didn't really have a job. I helped my dad with his work, some times. I did some traveling, here and there. Then, I became a photographer for a landscaping magazine. It's a good job. I get to travel and take gorgeous photos of sceneries. I've always liked taking photos. Always had a camera in my hand." Jennifer bit her lip as the waitress walked up to the table and asked how they were doing.
Scotty smiled and answered that they were fine and after catching a return smile before the waitress walked away, he looked back at Jennifer and waited patiently. "What else can you tell me about yourself? What about your relationships with your family, after this incident? Do they share your feelings toward him?"
Jennifer shook her head. "My dad,... he never liked Travis. Daddy said he looked at Travis and saw his dad. I guess the guy was a real loser and that's what he thought about Travis; a 'shouldn't-have-happened' type of thing, ya know? My mom, after he left, took his stuff and put it into a small 5x5. He really didn't have even that much. My brother Bryan is at Harvard and could care less about him. Glad he's gone, I guess. But, my sister.... Before Travis left, she said that he would visit the free clinic she worked at. She couldn't say anything about him but, when he left, I found pill bottles for a heart condition and doctor notes to him about how much it would cost to fix a valve in his heart. He was saving up to do so. I wonder if he ever did it." She took a deep breath and released it slowly. "My mom and Becky, our maid, really loved him. Now that he's gone, I find myself thinking back to how terrible I was to him and wishing I got to know the little boy who smiled so brightly, rather than the young man who was terrified of living with monsters. He hated the dark. Did I tell you?" She glanced up at him long enough to see him shake his head, and then looked away. "He did. My sister, Rachel, said that she came home one night, from a date. It was raining and storming and she found him huddled under a table, next to the stairs, where we kept the phone. She found one of my brother's old nightlights and gave it to him. He couldn't sleep without it. It was a... one of those cartoon superheroes.... you know? Of course, like an arrogant idiot.... made fun of him for that, too."
Scotty had taken another bite of his sandwich and chewed and swallowed, slowly. "Is there anything you didn't make fun of him for?"
Thinking for a minute, Jennifer recalled the sketchpad she kept with her. "His art. Well, it's stupid but I never thought he would be an artist. I mean, all of these side-glances or watching me from afar, I thought he was a creep, ya know? But, he..." she bit her lip in thought, "he could have drawn a troll with my name on it or drawn a scenario of how he felt about me and my family but,.... he didn't. He drew me. He had every detail, every curve and it was so beautiful. He drew it all from memory and never took his anger out in his work." For the first time, she smiled as she thought about the sketchbook full of penciled drawings of her and her moments of happiness and sadness and accomplishment.
Smiling also and reaching over to nudge her plate a little closer to her, Scotty offered that they pause on the happy note and eat their food before it became too cold. Jennifer agreed and picked up her hamburger for a bite.
Continued.
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What She Never Knew