Chapter Fifty

In his first support-group session, Hunter had also drawn a blank. He had used the name Jonathan instead of Brian and the story that he had told his group was pretty similar to the one Garcia had used. The main difference was that, in Hunter's story, his friend had broken his daughter's fingers, not his son's.

In their original list, Research had discovered twenty-five domestic violence support groups scattered around LA – eleven catering to help those who perpetrated the violence, and fourteen catering to help those at the receiving end of it. The eleven that catered to help those who perpetrated the violence all met in the evenings, spread throughout six of the seven days in the week – two on Mondays, two on Tuesdays, one on Wednesdays, one on Thursdays, four on Fridays and one on Sundays. Hunter and Garcia divided the workload as equally as possible, with Hunter attending six of the eleven meetings and Garcia the remaining five. Two of the Friday meetings would have to wait for the following week.

With every support-group meeting, Hunter and Garcia used different names for different sessions, but their tactics stayed the same – act shy, eyes low and do your best to get a look at everyone's hands and fingers. In every group meeting, they used the same story, told in the exact same way. When asked, they both declined the option to have other group members comment or suggest something. At the end of every session, both of them would hang out alone outside, pretending to smoke a cigarette, while all the other members left. But despite playing their roles to near Oscar-winning performances, the rest of Hunter and Garcia's week had been a carbon copy of their first night – no fingers oddly bent at the knuckles, no telltale reflexes from anyone at the mention of the angry outburst against the imaginary kids… and no one approaching either of them once the meeting was over.

As the following week began, Hunter and Garcia were faced with a dilemma – stay with the eleven ‘abusive' domestic violence support groups for a second week, or move on to the fourteen ‘abused' ones. They discussed it for a moment and they both agreed that a single week with the abusive groups wasn't nearly enough. They had to keep trying, so on Monday evening, Hunter and Garcia went back to the same support groups they had attended the week before. In Garcia's group, he got almost the exact same group of people as the week before, with the exception of an overweight man who didn't turn up, but this time Garcia passed when his turn to share came up.

In Hunter's case, a new member had joined, while two from the previous week were missing. The new member was a woman in her late twenties, who had apparently been physically abusing her husband for quite a while.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were exactly the same, with both of them going back to the same support groups they had attended the week before. The faces were pretty much the same throughout, with the exception of one new member in Garcia's Tuesday evening group, and one in Hunter's Thursday evening one. Neither of the new members gave either Hunter or Garcia reason to worry.

Friday was the only evening with four different support groups, which meant that, in their second week, both Hunter and Garcia would be attending brand-new groups on their Friday visits.

With all eleven ‘abusive' domestic violence support groups, the rules were exactly the same – no cellphones allowed, no interrupting when another member was sharing an account, and be courteous; everyone was there for the same reason – to try to better themselves. But with every new group they attended, their frustration grew another notch.

Sure, after almost two full weeks and eleven support groups, with an average of six to twelve members per group, of course there were a few members who had caught either Hunter's or Garcia's attention. Some of them had looked up when either detective had shared their made-up stories. Some of them had shaken their heads, or widened their eyes, or even rubbed their hands at the mention of the broken fingers, but none of them had fingers that bent awkwardly at the knuckles, none of them fit the basic physical description they already had, and absolutely no one had approached either Hunter or Garcia as they hung out alone outside the group-meeting venues…

…until that last Friday.