Author note: I finally managed to finish. Thank you so much for the reviews, and thank you to ManateeMama for catching the problem with an officer handing a gun over to a civilian! I've fixed a few typos, made Molly an only child, and tried to fix the gun problem in chapter 13, but haven't made any plot changes in the chapters that have already been posted. Thank you for reading!
The Closer is owned by Warner Brothers Television. I wrote this story purely for fun.
"Bad news, folks," Sanchez said grimly as he walked into the murder room. He was holding up a FedEx package bound with blue tape. Flynn felt his stomach tighten. The room fell silent as all eyes turned to the Chief. He saw her take a deep breath and set her jaw before striding toward Sanchez, pulling on gloves as she went.
"When did this arrive, Detective?" she said in clipped tones.
"Delivered this morning. It just got through the screeners. It has a mail-drop return address, just like the others."
They had all gathered around the Chief now, faces tight as they watched her examine the small package. Tao held out the duster and she let him run it over the outside. He shook his head.
"Damn," she muttered as she slid a box cutter under the tape. Carefully, she removed the tape and lifted the lid off the box. Inside was a flash drive, and next to it, nestled in bloody surgical gauze, was a small toe, tiny nail still painted with chipped pearl pink polish.