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Missing Love	By : SisterWine Category: 1 through F > Cold Case Views: 1032 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Lilly Rush and the Cold Case team belong to Meredith Stiehm. I make no money from this nor do I wish any harm or slandre against this series. The OCs, including the ME and Tom Cort, are my own inventions. THIS WORK IS FICTION

Chapter List
- 1-One
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Six
- 7-Seven
- 8-Eight
- 9-Nine
- 10-Ten
- 11-Eleven
- 12-Twelve
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Stillman called the team into his office, the next morning. He waited until they each took a seat before he pushed play on his VCR. "This video is news footage of a trial back in 1983. The man on trial was Vincent Casey Parker. He and his three sons would kidnap young women and keep them for wives." He paused the tape as Vince's profile came into view, sitting at the Defendant's table and smirking at the terrified woman on the stand. Pushing play again, the video jumped to footage of his youngest son and "wife" walking amidst a crowd of reporters. "Cory Alan Parker and his mother, Shannon. Shannon was believed to be the first victim of Parker's. She went missing back in '59. Justin Aaron was the oldest and his younger brother Nicholas Tyler also shared in their father's madness but Cory was the only one to take the stand against them, in support of the victims. Due to intimidation and threats of murder, Cory was granted a chambers hearing, by the judge, for his own crimes within the family compound. However, seeing as how he cooperated with the victims and knowingly let one escape to run for help, the judge was more lenient for him." He paused the tape again at the police footage of the compound and the mugshots of Vince and the two oldest boys in a column on the right side of the screen with the compound in the background. "After the police raided the compound, the land was searched and taped off. It's been collecting dust since 1983."
"What was the ruling on the case?" Lilly turned around and looked up at Stillman, sitting on the edge of his desk, holding the controller.
Will stood up and came closer to the screen. "I remember this story. After Shannon disappeared, girls started disappearing around the mid-70s. Jessica Tate was the last girl Vince kidnapped and the first one to make it out alive. The trial lasted for months." He stared at the younger face of Vince and swallowed harshly. "He was a different kind of monster."
Pushing off of the desk, standing up, Stillman pressed play again as they group watched silent video footage of the walkthrough of the compound. The cameraman moved consecutively through each cabin and tool shed, surveying the remains of the scene. "Vince and the two oldest all received twenty years upstate but Cory and his mother were given lesser sentences. Cory received ten years, five for good behaviour, in a minimum security facility and had to attend counseling for Domestic Abuse and Rape Crisis. He was released in 1988, for good behaviour. Since he and his brothers built their own cabins, the judge in his case referred him to a carpentry company, here in town."
Scotty leant forward in his chair with a quizzical look on his face. "Why was Shannon tried? They still put victims on trial back then?"
Stillman shook his head. "She was given a weaker sentence because she was a victim. She had her own rotation in a care facility for abused women. The judge ordered it for her part in aiding the rape and abuse of the other victims in the case. He showed leniency on her because, like Cory and the other two boys, she was just doing what she was told to, under duress."
With his eyes still glued to the screen with footage of the trial and snips of each young adult boy's face, as well as photos of each victim/wife that made it out alive, Nick Vera was having a hard time stomaching the content. "So, how do we approach this?" He asked as he turned from the larger photo of Vince, as it flashed on the screen, to look at Stillman.
"Jessica Tate vanished in early to mid 1982 and made it out in July of '83. She lives in Allentown, now. Vera, why don't you and Miller take a ride out there and ask her how many more victims there might have been, if any. Go easy. This might be thirty years old but that kind of torment sticks with you." Stillman glanced at Vera, on one side of the room and then looked over to Miller, who stood next to the door. "Scotty, Will, go see Shannon, in Old Town. After the trial, she moved in with her brother. Lill, we'll go see Cory. Maybe they can help us find where Vince disappeared to." Stillman gave one last look at the faces on the screen before shutting off the player and TV.
The rest of the group filed out rather quickly, each taking a box of evidence, from the warehouse, to look through for better knowledge when questioning their assignments.
Standing and turning to look at the evidence box that sat on Stillman's desk, Lilly made her way through it, looking for anything to help them in their questioning of the youngest kidnapper. "How old was Cory at the time of Tessa's disappearance?" She asked as she picked up an old teddy bear that had seen better days.
Grimacing as he looked down at the box's contents, Stillman sighed. "At the time of the trial, he was said to be about 19. The prosecutor repeatedly badgered him about his age and when he didn't know it, Shannon told the judge that none of the boys knew their ages. But, she said he was born in 1964, which would make him about 17 or 18. Tessa disappeared in May of '81. She worked for a magazine under the name Tessa Bright." He stepped back from the desk and turned as he saw movement at the door.
Sherry opened the door and handed him a file of the autopsy. Her face looked grim as she stood there and watched him look through it. "Tessa gave birth before she died. Widening of the pelvic bone indicates that it was just prior to death. Maybe, a couple of weeks or months." Her black hair, pulled back into a bun, was coming undone from lack of sleep and constant frustration of the case. There was hardly any tissue left on the remains however, she did find a few strands of hair mixed into the soil that confirmed it was Tessa.
Somehow, Stillman already knew that.
"Did you find any other remains at the sight?" Lilly looked up from the box, quizzical.
Shaking her head, Sherry glanced at the box of evidence and then back to Stillman. "Cause of death was a shot to the T3, T5 and T6 vertebra. Also, fragments scattered around the back of the ribcage, indicating..."
"Buckshot." Stillman spoke before Sherry finished her assessment. "The kind of weapon found in Vince Parker's cabin was a modified shotgun that took buckshot canisters."
Sherry nodded. "The staining on the inside of the ribcage and deep into the soil suggests she was still alive when she was buried. Dental records also confirmed it's her but I didn't really need those. She had shoulder surgery when she was 15. The metal plate on her trapezius told me who she was before I even got her out of the ground."
Stillman nodded in agreeance. He had been there, with her father, after the surgery. He thanked her for the report, eventhough it came out as under his breath. After a nod and turn away to go back to her office, Stillman waited until Sherry was out of earshot to continue. He felt ill. "At least now, we have a little bit more to go on. During the trial, Cory mentioned he had one child but no child was found with his DNA markers."
"Maybe Vince got rid of the baby, too." Lilly still held the bear in the bag and looked down at it as she said the words. "Do we bring him in?"
Stillman nodded, his eyes fixed on the line of the report that stated the victim had given birth before dying.
~~~
Cory Alan Parker sat in the gray drab Interrogation Room and waited uneasily for the door to open. Every so often, he would glance at the mirror, across from him, and quickly look away. Two officers had pulled up at his work and escorted him down to the precinct, citing they had a victim he needed to identify and it would probably take a few hours to discuss. He had been working a jobsite that morning and had just sat down for lunch when they called him over.
The forty-two-year-old Cory felt same unease as his nineteen-year-old self did, as he sat in the witness box, in court. His breathing became laboured and he wanted his mum. He swallowed and sat back from leaning on the cold table, as the door opened and Lilly walked in, holding the bear in the evidence bag and a file folder. His eyes fell on the item and remained there, even after she tossed it onto the table between them.
"Hi, Cory. I'm Detective Rush. I'd like to talk to you about a break in an old case. Perhaps, you know how to help. It involves Tessa Cort." Lilly smiled and sat down in the chair across from him, her back to the mirror. She watched his expression change from unease to terror as his eyes lifted from the bear to her for the first time.
Thin features paled at the name. His once long, sun-bleached blond hair had shortened to shoulder length and darkened to a dirty blond, almost brown colour. Big blue eyes blinked at her and once again, he was the nineteen-year-old boy on trial for rape and subsequent murder of his father's victims. "Tessa." His eyes fell back to the bear on the table as he whispered her name.
Lilly nodded. "Yeah, Tessa. Some hunters found her remains a few miles from where your father's compound was." To emphasize her point, she opened the file and spread out the photos of the site where the remains had been found. She watched as he glanced at the top photo of her top portion, still embedded in the dark, rich soil and then looked away, possibly for a route to escape the room. She waited for a moment as the room got eerily quiet. "Do you know what happened to Tessa, Cory? Autopsy came back a little while ago. Why don't you tell me about her last days."
His head turned away from the photos on the table, his breath still ragged, whimpered softly as he recalled his initial meeting with her, and then the loss of their child. "She was... my... wife. Pa gave her to me." He shivered as he recalled their "wedding night" and felt ill after hearing him say it aloud.
"What happened?" Lilly asked quietly.
Cory took a deep breath and released it. "Pa came home that night, with her. She was sleeping in the front seat and he handed her to my brother and told them to get her ready. Pa took me into his house and poured me some whiskey. He told me that I was gonna give him a grandson. I had two big drinks but, it wasn't enough. Then, he cleaned me up and took me over to my cabin, um, where she was waiting for me." He stopped and shifted, uneasily. He could feel his father's cold eyes staring at him but he knew Vince was not in the room. "Pa performed the wedding, then he told me to... um... 'poke her.' She was screaming so loud... She called me names, told me I was a horrible person for raping her." Guilt entered his voice and he had to stop talking in order to swallow the lump in his throat.
Lilly nodded and held back her feelings of empathy and anger. "Where was your father and mother in all this?"
Pressing his tongue into his top teeth on the right side of his mouth, Cory waited until he stopped shivering before he answered her. "He sent Ma back to the main house, to fix his dinner while Pa sat in a chair, in the doorway, and watched."
Lilly's brow furrowed, disgusted. "Did he do that for all the 'brides' or just you?" She was careful to keep her own emotion neutral but it was becoming harder and harder the more he described the daily events.
"Just me." Cory felt colder than when he was brought into the room. He pulled his thick, creme-coloured workcoat around him, embarrassed at what he was talking about. "The wife before her, she killed herself, after the fifth week. She drank rat poison in her water. They all said the same thing. They'd rather be dead than live with me." After another breath, Cory sat back in his chair, his arms around him as if to comfort himself from the harsh words that screamed in his ears.
"Why did he watch you with Tessa?"
Raising a shaky hand to wipe at a tear, Cory still refused to make eye contact with her or the bear, again. "He found out what I was doing, after we... uh... after I... poked them."
Again, Lilly's brow furrowed. "What did you do?"
A relaxed sigh. "I would give them a wash bowl and cloth and let them... clean themselves. After Erin, Pa found the vinegar water and cloth, in my washroom, and uh, he poked her until she bled. He- he got so rough that uh, she bled for days. I couldn't stop it. She died, three days later. He couldn't let that happen to Tessa so, he made me poke her a few more times and then I sat with him on the front step of my cabin, all night. He wouldn't let me back inside for two days." Cory sniffled and wiped his runny nose on his jacket sleeve. "The baby was born but it wasn't healthy. She refused to eat anything I fixed for her. Told me it was all poisoned or drugged or something. Threw it back at me. Pa smacked her a couple of times and made Ma forcefeed her. He died just shortly after he was born." He swallowed again. "A couple days later, she ran away." He sighed calmly and finally looked up at the detective who stared back at him. "I never knew what happened to her."
~~~
Allentown, PA
Vera knocked on the door to the small block house with a white-picket fence around the yard. He stepped back on the small, cement porchstep and waited as the woman came to the door and opened it. "Jessica Tate?" He looked at the woman who stood just a hair shorter than him, in her late thirties, and looking as if she had just come home from grocery shopping.
"Yes...? Only it's Claremont, now. Can I help you?" The woman looked confused briefly as they showed her their badges and introduced themselves. Her face paled and her mouth opened as they said the name she never wanted to hear again; Vince Parker. Closing her eyes and opening the door wider, she waved them in to a cluttered front room bull of boxes of clothing and books and other toys to donate. "My daughter and I are donating old things to the church." She closed the door behind them and offered the sofa to them, after scooping off the piles of old books.
Miller scooped up a small pile of books left on the sofa and glanced at the titles before handing them to Jessica. "We'd like to talk to you about your time at the Parker Compound. In particular, anything you can tell us about Vince or Cory Parker." She sat down on the left of Vera, who sat on the end of the sofa, next to the door. The sun shown through the large clean window and warmed their backs as well as brightening up the room.
Jessica exhaled at the names but scooped up the books that sat in a plush tan recliner and sat down. "Vincent Parker. I was camping with my fiancé, in Mount Minsi. Woke up one morning to find our camp had been ransacked and my fiancé was talking to a ranger who passed by, looking for a bear who woke up hungry. Later that day, Todd went missing after he went to get more firewood and a few hours later, Vince happened by, again. We were having coffee one minute and the next, I was waking up in the bed of his old pickup, tied up and gagged and underneath a blue tarp." Her auburn curls fell into her face and she constantly swept them back absently with a pale hand.
"So, he took his victims from other parks and ranges. That's why the police never found anyone." Vera looked up from his writing in his notepad and studied the woman in the chair, across from them.
Nodding, Jessica recalled the other girls she came into contact with whilst she was there. They all had the same experience with Vince and coming to live at the horrid place. "Justin was about 20something and uh, he was the most vicious of the three. Just like Vince. They both had a mean temper and both liked to get rough with the women. Nicholas, was a little older than Cory, by about seven or eight months. Carla, Nicholas's 'wife' used to be a dancer. She knew how to please him. I was studying to be a bartender as well as putting myself through school. Vince liked them to be a bit older than his boys but, I think Justin's was the youngest."
"What was Cory like? Did he like the rough stuff, too?" Miller asked, eyeing what Vera wrote down.
After a moment of thought, Jessica shook her head. "No. No, he was more gentle. Almost shy. Hardly ever spoke." She leant back and stared up at the ceiling as she recalled one conversation with the youngest of the Parker boys. "A few months after I arrived, Cory and Vince were working on a new room for Cory's cabin. They went to town to get some supplies and while they were gone, I was to fix Cory's lunch and scrub the floors for when they came back. I was busy scrubbing the kitchen when Justin came in." She stopped and shook her head. Looking back at the two detectives, she continued, embarrassedly. "They didn't give us much for clothes and no panties or bras or anything like that. So, I wore one of Cory's old shirts and a skirt, I made out of some old sheets. Anyway, Justin came up behind me and pulled me over to the table. He ripped my skirt off and laid me down before he raped me. Told me how pretty I was and that it wasn't fair that his simple-minded brother had the best looking cherry. In the middle of it, Cory walked in and saw what Justin had done. They had a terrible fight. Just horrible. Vince was just laughing. Patting his oldest son on the back and just a smiling at it." She paused again and blinked. "That was the angriest I ever saw Cory."
**
The Compound, 1982
It was late in the afternoon when Cory and Vince arrived back home. Vince slammed the door to the truck shut and shouted at Cory about the wrong sized measurements for the window pane. He had parked the truck where he always had, on the east side of the main cabin and then lead the way back over to where Cory's smaller cabin stood. "Dammit, boy! You're just like your damned Ma! Can't tell a fuckin' screw from a hole in the head!" Grabbing a fistful of Cory's hair from the back of his head, Vince held his son next to him as he screamed his ire.
"Sorry, Pa." Cory winced in pain and reached a hand up to hold his father's hand at his hair, in attempt to lessen the hold in his hair.
Vince growled in anger and shoved Cory away as they reached the steps to the house. He opened the door to the kitchen and grabbed Cory by the arm, shoving him inside only to stop behind him and stare at the scene. Vince howled in delight as Justin bent over the end of the long, wooden handmade table, his pants pooling at his thick knees and thrusting himself into a squirming and screaming Jessica. Cackling loudly and clapping his hands, he didn't look over to see Cory's face pale and jaw drop before the youngest son attacked the oldest in a sudden pang of rage.
Justin had turned to look back and see his father and brother standing in the doorway. He smiled at his father's cheers and pulled up his dirty jeans before Cory lunged at him, knocking him to the floor of the kitchen and pinned him there. "Hey, Cor. Your bitch is in heat. I had to satisfy her!" He laughed before Cory punched him in the jaw, angering him. He shoved his brother off of him and scrambled to his knees, defensively.
"She's mine!" Cory screamed as the shove knocked him back to slam his back against the wall, next to the door. His eyes opened wide at the pain from hitting the wall but he picked himself up and grabbed Justin by the shirt, pulling him, back through the door and out into the gravel. The middle of the compound had been lined with light gray rocks and loose gravel, whilst the cabins were built around them. He fumed as he pulled his brother into the middle of the yard and punched him in the cheek, sending Justin sprawling to the left.
Vince had stayed out of the way and now stood out on the porch, watching the fight, whilst Jessica slumped to the floor, half naked and shaking from the ill-mannered attention she had received. Loud clapping and whistling was heard from the porch as Jessica lay there, crying.
Blow after blow, scream after obscenity-ridden scream, the boys fought until they were dirty and bloody. One final blow from Cory as Justin fell back to the ground and stared up at his brother, wiping the bloodied snot from his cheek. "Stay away from her or I'll kill you! Do you hear me?!" His whole body shook. He had never raised his voice or punched his brother in anger, before. He was left there, in the misty rain as Vince congratulated his oldest and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, walking back to the main house with Justin.
Shannon's soft and quiet footsteps came closer to him and she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, telling him to sit down and wait, whilst she cleaned Jessica up.
Cory only nodded and sat down on the top step, just outside of the door, whilst Shannon picked Jessica up from the floor and walked her into the washroom. He stared at the dirt, in front of the cabin as he listened to Jessica's sobs and Shannon's hushes. When it was done, and Shannon stepped out, onto the porch, he numbly looked up at her but remained silent.
Shannon sat down beside him and wrapped her arms around him, holding him for a long while. "Give her time, Cory. Just be gentle."
Cory nodded silently and sat there, after she had stood to leave. He listened to Jessica sob, as she lie on the bed, a new skirt and shirt to wear. After the sobs died down, he stood up and slowly went inside. He stood in the bedroom doorway and watched her.
~~~
"He didn't try anything after that?" Miller leant in, interested.
"Cory? No." Jessica shifted. "When he did come in, he went to the bathroom and started to clean himself up. He came back out, a minute later, and sat down on the bed beside me. Shannon had left me there, unchained. He reached for me and I swatted him away, called him some horrible name and spat at him. I curled into a ball and screamed I wanted to go home. The expression on his face was like, I had just stabbed him in the heart. He stood there a minute and then looked outside and listened. The next thing I knew, he grabbed my arm and hauled me over to the kitchen door, opened it and threw me out. He told me that if I wanted to run, I could. Just leave. And that, he didn't want to share his bed with someone who didn't want to be with him, in it. It was dark out, then, and the porchlight to the main house came on and Vince stood there, in the doorway to his cabin and stared at me. The look on his face..." She took a deep breath. "Cory had walked away from the door and started to clean the table. I didn't like the eerie look Vince was staring at me with so, I calmed down and went back inside."
Vera looked up from his writing and was silent for a moment. "How'd he react to that?"
Jessica swallowed and shifted again in her seat. "He didn't look at me. I waited for the porchlight at Vince's to go off before I took Cory's hand and led him into the bedroom. I sat him down on the bed and then knelt in front of him and apologised. I told him I must have lead Justin on and not thought about what happened. He said he was sorry too. Then, I lead him into the bathroom and cleaned him up. We ended up sitting in the bath and talking for most of the night. He was real eager to learn. Anything." She smiled for the first time since telling her story.
A cardoor slammed shut outside and a few seconds later, the screendoor opened and her daughter Julie stepped in. "Mom? Whose car is out front?" The 23-year-old daughter looked concerned for her mother. A blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl in jeans and a creme-coloured knit sweater stood just inside and eyed the two detectives on the sofa.
Jessica stood up and raised her hands to calm her daughter. "It's okay, honey. They're detectives asking about something that happened awhile ago. Why don't you get yourself a snack and I'll be in, in a minute?" She waited until Julie reluctantly left the room and went into the kitchen before looking back over at the faces of the detectives, who stood up at Julie's entrance. They didn't ask but she knew they knew who the father was. Her own guilty expression concluded it.
Miller saw the family photo sitting on the mantle of the large fireplace and knew right away it was Cory's daughter but didn't say anything. When Vera opened his mouth, she tapped his arm and nudged him to the door. "Thank you for your cooperation. If we have anymore questions, or if you do, here's our cards." Nodding to the door, she walked Vera silently outside, with Jessica standing at the door, watching them leave.
"You mean to tell me, she kept that monster's baby? After all she's been through?" Vera asked as they drove down the block.
Miller only shook her head. "It might have been too late to do anything about it."
Vera glanced over at his partner in the passenger seat. He stopped at a stop sign and turned to look at her. "That could be but, a child of rape usually isn't well-received to the family. There were other options, then, too. She didn't have to keep that kid's baby."
"No, she didn't. But, it was her choice to keep it and love it just the same. Besides, a woman's attachment to a child, rape or not, is her own choice. You heard what she said and how she talked about Cory. He wasn't the monster of the family. And, maybe, the daughter doesn't know about him. All babies need love. No matter how they were conceived." Miller controlled her temper as they started from the stop sign.
Sighing and looking ahead, Vera exhaled. "I'm just saying. She could have been brainwashed by the guy and then the whole zoo of reporters and court proceedings... I don't think I would have kept a baby from that."
Miller sighed, frustrated. "Well, it's a good thing men don't have babies."

Continued.
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Missing Love