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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
- 3
- 4
- 5
Scotty leant back in his chair with a sigh and pressed the PLAY button on the remote to the VCR he had set up in the Interview Room, his back to the door. He stifled a yawn and laid the long, dark gray remote down on the table, next to his fourth cup of coffee and Styrofoam container of Chinese takeaway. Scooping some noodles onto his fork, he took a bite with his eyes still staring at the screen. He chewed through the opening and swearing in of the first witness and swallowed his forkful of Mongolian Beef in time to see Cory rise from his chair behind the Prosecution table and walk warily up to the stand.
A knock at the closed door before it opened, gave him time to hit PAUSE as Lilly poked her head inside.
"Hey, what'cha watching?" She asked as she slipped into the room and caught a glimpse of a younger Cory on the Witness Stand.
Scotty nodded over to her and then looked back to the screen. "Homework. Shannon gave us the tapes to the trial. I took Cory's side and Will gets Vince's testimony." He wiped his mouth with the napkin that lie on the table beside him and turned back to look at her. "What's up? How'd your interview with Cory go?"
Shrugging and sitting down in the chair across from him, Lilly rest her elbows on the table. "Interestingly. I'm on my way to see Cory's rehab counselour. We'll see if Cory's really good at playing games or if he's really telling the truth."
Nodding, Scotty scooped up another forkful and raised the fork to his mouth. "He give you any trouble?" He asked before he took a bite and chewed.
Lilly shook her head. "No. Just something I can't put my finger on." She stood up and grinned as she glanced over at the still paused image of 19-year-old Cory on the stand. "Have fun with your videos." She waited for his reaction before she turned to leave, closing the door behind her.
Scotty swallowed his next mouthful and scooped up another forkful as he pressed PLAY, again. His eyes still glued to the screen as if he would miss something the lawyers both missed. He studied every move, twitch and word Cory did or said. He paid particular attention to Justin as the older brother lunged at the younger one, in front of cameras flashing and people in hysterics.
~~~~~
15, June 1984
Cory sat in the witness chair, at his father's and brothers' trial. His hand-me-down new suit was feeling a bit warm as the lawyer for his father paced back and forth, in the open space between the stand and the two tables. He tried not to look at the older man, that sat in the Defendant's chair and glared at him but it was becoming unavoidable as he had no idea where to look. His ashen face concealed all emotion, except when he was asked about his actions at the Compound.
"Mister Parker, Do you know where you are?" The tall, broad-shouldered man asked. He smirked as he stopped in front of Cory.
Cory swallowed nervously. "Yessir."
"Where?" The man raised an eyebrow and mocked listening to him. His voice carried with an arrogant tone.
Cory looked over to his mother's face and then back again. "In a court of law, sir."
The man nodded and continued. "Do you know why you are here?" He resumed pacing but stopped again as Cory had taken longer to answer him. "Mister Parker...? Shall I repeat the question?"
Cory looked to his father, who still glared at him, from across the room, and then back to the floor the lawyer paced on. "Yessir, I do. Crimes against my father's victims." His hands trembled as they laid flat on his tan suited legs. He balled them into fists to try and stop the shaking.
Again, the lawyer nodded and continued. "How old are you?"
Cory stared at the man in silence.
After a long moment, Judge Amos Stone, who sat higher than Cory, looked over the side of the bench and added, "Son, you have to answer that." An older man with receding hairline and curly gray hair on the sides, seemed more like a grandfather than a hardened judge of 32 years. His small round glasses were mainly used for reading but, he decided to wear them to get a better look at the faces of the trial participants.
Turning his head to the left and paling even more, afraid of what the judge might say or do, Cory only looked at him with embarrassed dread.
"Shall I rephrase the question, for you, Mister Parker? What year were you born?" The man's voice grew louder, thinking Cory didn't hear him.
Cory turned back to glance at the man before looking over at his mother's face, again, in silent plea for help of what to say.
The judge waited another moment and could see the red in Cory's cheeks. "Son...?"
Cory turned back to the judge and swallowed. "I don't know, sir."
Shannon stood up and called the judge's attention, exasperated. "Your Honour, please. They don't know their ages. None of the boys do. But, he's about 19, sir." She sat in the gallery, behind the Prosecutor's seat and watched as the Defense lawyer did his best to make Cory look like a simpleton. She pleaded with the judge as the lawyer questioning Cory now turned to look at her.
Judge Stone nodded and motioned for her to sit down. "Continue, Counselour."
"Thank you, your Honour." The man smiled, cheshirely. "Mister Parker, how many 'wives' would you say you've had?"
Cory looked from the judge to the lawyer and then over to his mother and back before answering. "Four, sir." He blinked, emotionless.
"Four. FOUR women you have raped and called your 'loving wife.' Four women, you kept chained to your bed, in a separate house than your father's." The man held out a hand behind him, referencing where Vince Parker sat, pausing between the two men and looking at Cory on the stand. "Yet, you made no effort to let them go, if you truly disagreed with how your father governed you. Why is that? Do you even remember their names?" The man continued pacing, holding onto his lapels of his brown suit.
Cory watched him. "Yes, I do."
At this point, the Prosecutor stood and objected. "Objection, your Honour. The witness is not on trial, here. This trial is for Vincent Parker, not his son." A younger man with bushy brown hair and a maroon suit. A thin jawline and a framed mustache, the opposite of his colleague, who was barrel-chested with a square jaw and full gray hair.
The judge nodded. "Sustained. Counselour, move on." The judge looked bored as he looked from one lawyer to the other.
"Yes, sir." The Defense smiled. "Mister Parker. Isn't it true you and your brothers helped kidnap those four -and more- women?"
Again, Cory sat and stared blankly at the man in front of him. "Yessir."
"And yet, you're sitting in this box to stand against him? Why? You are just as guilty as he is. Do you think you are exempt from these charges?" Mister Roberts, a man learned from Southern Georgia law school, stepped forward and placed his hands on the stand's banister as he asked the questions.
"Objection, badgering."
The judge shifted. "Sustained. Counselour, I won't warn you again."
Roberts smirked at Cory and then concealed it, turning to the judge. "No further questions, your Honour."
Nodding, the judge looked over to the Prosecutor.
"Redirect, your Honour?" The prosecutor stood and made his way over to where Cory still sat, passing Roberts in the middle. "Cory," he inhaled, "why are you on this stand, today?" He smiled and half-nodded that it was alright to speak the truth.
"I want to give my mama and the other girls justice. Um, I want to help....?" He stole a glance over to Shannon, who smiled at him kindly.
Thomas Hunter nodded again and added, "even though, you had a part in their mistreatment, too?" His tone was more comforting and calm than Mister Roberts'.
Cory shifted uneasily. "Yessir."
"What made you want to speak out against your father and brothers?" Hunter stood at the railing and leant on an elbow, as he spoke to Cory.
His breathing became shallow and he stifled himself against visible shaking as Cory caught sight of his father's silent anger. "I don't think a man should hurt his wife, sir." Cory's voice lowered as he tried unsuccessfully to curb the terror in it.
"You believe he's a bad man...?"
"Yessir."
Hunter nodded. "You've seen your father strike your mother?"
Cory swallowed and glanced over at his father, who dared him to answer. "Yes sir."
Disorder in the court as Justin stood, climbing over the table they sat behind and charged at his youngest brother, screaming obscenities and threats. The judge pounded his gavel heavily on the bench and called for "order" as two bailiffs ran after the oldest son, pulling him off of a cowering Cory, at the back of the witness stand.
"You stupid idiot! You're a disgrace to your name! I'll kill you for what you said!" Justin's voice carried out into the hallway as the bailiff's handcuffed him and carried him out of the room.
Mister Hunter and a third bailiff helped Cory up and sat him back on the Witness Stand, staying close to him, in case another outburst happened. Hunter placed a hand on his shoulder and could feel Cory shaking uncontrollably as the judge's gavel still banged on the bench, until the noise from outside stopped.
Judge Stone turned to look at Cory, placing his gavel back down, in front of him. "I'll hear the remainder of this testimony, in my chambers. Counselours." The corner of his eye caught sight of Vince, still sitting calmly in the chair, at the table, but smiling as if he was the cat that ate the canary.
----
Cory sat in a chair, beside the judge's desk, whilst Mister Hunter finished his line of questioning. He eyed both counselours, as well as the court reporter, as she sat to his right, by the frosted glass window, and typed everything that was said. A video recorder was placed in front of the door, to catch the entire interview. He felt nervous as his mother was not allowed in chambers.
Mister Hunter took a breath before resuming. "Cory, what was the very moment you decided to take a stand against your father?" He motioned to the man sitting shackled in a chair, between two, muscular bailiffs.
Swallowing nervously and eyeing his father, Cory closed his eyes for a moment and calmed himself. "After Tessa."
"What happened to Tessa?" Hunter asked, interested.
Vince had stayed quiet for the majority of questioning multiple witnesses but this time, he could tell that, given the chance, Cory would bring him down. "Boy." he growled. His gravelly voice was enough to send a cold chill up the young man's spine.
The gavel banged on the desk as the judge warned Mister Roberts to "control his client."
Roberts nodded and whispered to Vince to be quiet.
"Cory," Hunter regained Cory's attention with a calm tone, "what happened to Tessa?" He could see Cory staring at his father and becoming more and more wary of answering so, Thomas Hunter moved to stand in front of Vince, to block his view, and asked again. "Where is Tessa, Cory?"
Cory took a breath and released it. "She was... my... third wife." He refocused his eyes on the floor, in front of him. "Pa said, she was supposed to have my baby but, she wouldn't eat. She got ill and the baby wasn't okay. It was a long.... birth... and she was tired and feverish. When it was born, she didn't want to hold it or touch it or look at it or nothing. She spat at me when I tried to help her. I slept on the floor, in the corner of our room and listened to her cry and beg me to kill her." He took a moment to collect himself, after admitting such an awful truth. "After a week, I took her to the washroom, to clean up. I turned around to get her a towel and she begged me to let her go." He wiped the tears from his cheeks, discreetly. "I waited until it was after Pa had gone to bed and then, I let her leave. The next morning, I told Pa she got past me and he grabbed his shotgun and left with Justin. They came back a few hours later. I never saw her again." He hung his head in shame, hearing his father's low growling.
"Thank you, Cory."
~~~~~~
Sheila Garrett, the manager of the counseling centre walked along the shaded path around the basketball courts and small-scale version of baseball diamond. She carried a clipboard and hugged it to her chest, as she showed Lilly around the sectioned off campus, waving at children as they played. "Cory is a sweet young man who really, genuinely, wants to help. I don't know what I can tell you about him. What is it that you're looking for?" Short, curly golden hair waved in the breeze and shone in the sunlight as they walked.
"What was he like, when he first came to you?" Lilly asked, smiling at the seven-year-old boy who passed them slowly on roller skates.
Thinking for a moment, Sheila shook her head and smiled as she thought about the first day Cory Parker had arrived there. "Well, his first day here was not much to talk about. He's a really sweet kid. Didn't say much of anything for at least two years. It was a treat if we got him to say five words to .... anybody. Mainly, he stayed in his room. One day, his mom came to visit him. I think that was the first time I'd ever seen him smile." She squinted as she looked over to Lilly, the sun catching her eyes.
Lilly paused and looked over to the woman. "Shannon was here?"
Sheila nodded. "She'd always come alone and bring a book for him to read. Poetry, mainly. He loved to read poetry. Longfellow and Cummings." They started walking again.
Lilly nodded. "What was his job here?"
Again, Sheila thought. "He started out in the kitchen. I think he preferred being behind-the-scenes. Most of our families are women. We do have a few male volunteers here but, I think he thought they were going to chase him out with torches and pitchforks. He was terrified to tell anybody his name, for the longest time. Eventually, he loosened up."
"Did he ever interact with anyone here?"
Sheila sighed. "Oh yes. Our staff has some teachers that school the kids and adults that need it. He'd always sit in the back and do his assignments quietly. His second year here, we started splitting the kids up into teams, for projects. He was paired with a young girl, who has down-syndrome. They got to be great friends and still sit and talk and share meals together."
Lilly smiled. "How do the other residents take to him?"
They stopped at the edge of the walk and stared out, at the baseball diamond. "He volunteers here a few times a week. He teaches a woodworking class and poetry readings and writings class. The kids adore him. He's kind and patient and he's become a real strong supporter of what we do here."
"He still comes here?" Lilly seemed a bit off-guard at learning Cory had stayed longer than his sentence allotted.
Sheila smiled again. "Oh, yes. The judge has even made a few visits here and asked why he stayed." She paused and looked over at Lilly. "To be honest, this was the last place he wanted to be, the first time he walked through our doors. He says he feels quite safe here."
Lilly squinted as she looked at Sheila, the sun now catching both their eyes as it started to recede from the sky. "Any of them know who he was?"
"A few. He was asked to stay away and carry different schedules than they had and he was always with an escort, when he was around any females." Sheila shook her head in retrospect of the incident. "Detective, our job is not to punish victims. Even though, he's moved on from it, he was and is still a victim."
Nodding again, Lilly shifted. "Did he ever say anything to you about how he felt when that happened?"
Again, Sheila shook her head. "Nope. He'd just nod, shrug and do his best to keep out of everyone's way."

Continued.
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Missing Love