Chapter 1: "Monsters Under the Bed"

One need not be a chamber to be haunted;
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.

- Emily Dickinson

00000

"I swear, sometimes when I come to these scenes, I want to applaud the killer not catch 'em."

From the corner where he was snapping pictures of the messy apartment, Adam couldn't help but smile at Danny's blunt statement. The apartment's owner, who was doing a standup job as their current corpse, was apparently a piece of work. Drug possession, drug trafficking, assault and battery, misdemeanor child abuse… The list of charges he'd managed to accrue in what was now a relatively short lifetime was impressive, and disgusting. Their victim had been a first-class scumbag, and secretly, Adam agreed with Danny's words, but he wasn't going to say so. His general rule for the few times he was allowed out in the field was to keep quiet unless spoken to, or unless the evidence required him to talk.

"Danny…" Mac admonished mildly as he leaned closer to the body, studying the various wounds. Flack and his unis had already cleared the apartment. Now Mac and Danny were processing the body and the evidence in the immediate area, leaving the perimeter to Adam and his camera.

Danny threw his hands up quickly. "Just sayin', Mac. Guy's not getting any sympathy from me!" From the doorway, Flack snorted in amusement.

Following the trail of destruction, Adam left them to their good-natured bickering as he moved into the back bedroom. It was obvious that a fight had raged through the small apartment, but the place had started out so filthy he was having a hard time distinguishing the new chaos from the old.

He pushed the bedroom door open and cringed as the smell hit him from within the dark room.

"Thank you, Danny," he muttered, understanding now why the detective was so insistent he was needed for this case. Covering his nose with a gloved hand, he gritted his teeth and felt for the light switch. He flipped it up and down several times but nothing happened.

"Great."

He dug through his vest pockets and came up with a small flashlight. Clicking it on, he shown the beam of light in front of him and gingerly started picking his way through the grime. Thankfully, the room was small. A few flashes of his light showed four walls, a small closet without a door, an old metal bed, and the most massive amount of junk and garbage he'd ever seen. How could anyone live like this?

With resignation, he began snapping photos, hoping he didn't go blind from the brightness of his flash going off repetitively in the near total darkness.

What felt like hours later, Adam was pretty sure their actual crime scene didn't extend into this room, but he was also convinced he'd discovered several new life-forms. He really hoped his photos would be enough; he didn't want to be sent back later to process and bag this room. There weren't enough bags in the crime lab's budget for this room! They'd have to let him go just to finance this particular case!

Pushing that disturbing thought aside, Adam knelt down next to the saggy, revolting mattress and shone his light into the blackness underneath.

Two glowing eyes blinked back at him.

Adam yelped in shock and bumped his head painfully on the bed's frame, dropping his flashlight in surprise.

"Please don't be a rat, please don't be a rat!" he muttered as he found the flashlight again and gingerly lay down in the grunge to get a better look, resisting the urge to rub his head or call Danny for backup.

Slowly, he panned the light from right to left under the bed until the two eyes were staring back at him again. This time he was expecting it and moved his beam around a little, trying to see the creature. Dirty, matted fur was revealed along with too-big ears, trembling legs, and a skinny, crooked tail.

"Oh!" he whispered. "You're a kitten!"

And suddenly, he was ten-years-old again.

"No, Dad! I don't wanna!"

Flesh struck flesh, a sharp crack splitting the air. Hiccupping sobs increased.

"Don't you back-talk me, boy! You'll do it! I won't have a sissy for a son!"

"Please! Please don't make me do it!"

Harshly, Adam sucked in a deep breath and shook his head, dragging his thoughts back from the dark dregs of the past where they had no business wandering.

Looking back at the terrified kitten, his heart instantly broke. He knew Mac's rules for removing things from crime scenes, but he didn't care. No living creature should be left like that, cowering scared and hurt in the dark – that was something he personally knew better than anyone else on the team. With resolve, he removed his latex gloves and stuffed them in his vest.

"Hey, little guy," he called in what he hoped was a friendly voice. "Or girl…" he added after a second of thought. He wasn't sure if you need to be politically correct with kittens or not. "Come here," he urged gently, wiggling his fingers. "Here little kitty, kitty. I'm not gonna hurt you – promise."

The little thing didn't run but it didn't move any closer either, and the bed frame was too near to the floor for him to crawl under. He needed to get the kitten to come to him.

"All right, let's see if you like crackers."

He pulled out a package of Saltines he'd stashed in his pocket when his lunch was cut short by Danny's call to come help with this scene. Tearing away the plastic, he crumpled one of the crackers up into smaller bits and pushed it under the bed toward the wary animal. Then, he lay perfectly still, trying to show he was harmless and trustworthy.

After several minutes, the kitten crept forward an inch, then another, its small nose twitching.

"You're hungry, aren't you, little one," whispered Adam sadly. "Come on, you can eat it. It's just for you."

Hunger finally overcame fear and the animal scooted forward only to stop abruptly about three inches short of the crumbs. For the first time, Adam noticed a thin cord – maybe a shoelace – that was tied way too tightly around the kitten's neck. He ran his flashlight beam along the taunt string to find it was fastened to the leg of the bed. Anger shot through him, hot like a flame.

"I agree with Danny," he grumbled, climbing to his feet. "I'm glad this jerk's dead."

Trying not to disturb the mess, he picked his way to the other side of the bedframe. His flashlight found the offending shoelace and he knelt again, slipping the Cub Scout pocketknife he'd carried ever since he was eight from his jeans. The small blade easily severed the leash.

"Okay, little guy," he said, setting the knife down and keeping hold of the end of the shoelace. "Let's get you out of here." Slowly, he pulled on the string until he could reach down and grasp the kitten by the scruff of its neck. It let out a frightened yelp, but Adam quickly brought it close to his chest, cradling it securely.

"Sh, sh, it's okay," he soothed, rubbing his fingers down its grimy head. Using one hand, he carefully worked the string off its neck and dropped it on the ground. Then he crumbled the other cracker up in his fist and opened his hand, palm up, in front of the little kitten's nose. Immediately, it began to inhale the crumbs, its rough tongue running across Adam's palm as it ate. He grinned at the sensation.

Now that it was closer, he turned his light on it again. In a former life, it had been a bright ginger color, like a little tiger, but its fur was so dirty now it was actually brown. Its eyes were weepy and there were small cuts around its nose, not to mention that something was obviously wrong with its tail. But what really made Adam fume was the fact that someone had deliberately cut off the kitten's whiskers, leaving short, little nubs. He closed his eyes, trying to contain his anger, and didn't open them until the kitten nudged his hand, looking for more food.

"I'm gonna have to find more than just a cracker for you, aren't I?" said Adam, thoughtfully. "What am I gonna do with – "

"Adam! You done in there?"

Danny's yell startled both Adam and the kitten. Acting without thinking, he tucked the trembling ball of fur inside his vest into an inner pocket, and then turned around just as Danny pushed the door open, his flashlight beam hitting Adam directly in the eyes.

"Ouch!" Adam yelped, cringing and snapping his eyes shut, temporarily blinded.

"Sorry, buddy," Danny said with a laugh, moving the light to the side as he wrinkled his nose at the odor. "You read to go, though? It stinks worse than Jersey in here, and Mac's ready to head back to the lab."

"Yeah," answered Adam softly, getting to his feet and moving toward the doorway.

"Um, Adam? Ain't you forgettin' something?" asked Danny with a grin.

Adam squeaked, his hand flying to his vest protectively. Was it really that obvious?

"Am I?" he stammered.

"Camera?" suggested Danny in his "duh" voice.

"Oh, yeah. Right. Camera," Adam prattled nervously. He stumbled back to where he'd left it and grabbed it up quickly. Adam prayed Danny wouldn't notice that he was no longer wearing gloves. That would raise too many questions.

"Come on, let's go then," urged Danny impatiently.

They left the dark room and moved back down the hallway, Adam's thoughts in turmoil. He'd just stolen something from a crime scene! He could lose his job! He could go to jail! Mac was gonna kill him!

He had to tell Mac – he'd understand right?

But what if they had to treat the kitten as evidence? Maybe they'd have to kill it, or give it back to someone who would continue the abuse it had suffered? That was unacceptable. It was hungry and sick and frightened and…and…

And Adam found he couldn't lose this small animal – he just couldn't do that again. The tiny purr coming from his vest was a literal representation of the imprint that was suddenly on his heart.

But, his conscience was still telling him he needed to say something to Mac.

The main room of the apartment was strangely bright after where he'd just been and Adam found he had to squint to see for a few minutes. The body was gone and little evidence markers now littered the place. Mac and Flack were both in separate corners, talking on their phones, and the unis that had been at the door had apparently been dismissed to other tasks. Mac and Danny's kits were missing, so at least one of them had already made a trip down to the waiting cars to stash the evidence they'd collected for safe transport back to the lab.

A life had ended and it only took two hours to wrap it up – Adam found that oddly sad, even if he was still angry at the man who'd been carted off in a body bag.

Mac's phone snapped shut with a click and he turned to the lab tech. "Did you find anything interesting, Adam?"

Adam gulped. Why did Mac have to ask that exact question?

"Erm…well…Boss…" he stuttered.

Mac gave him a patient look, the one that said he was used to the younger man's stammering, but still wanted him to get to the point. It was the "I-can-see-right-through-you" look.

Adam couldn't do it. He couldn't keep this secret. Not from Mac the Human Lie Detector. "Boss I was looking around, snapping pictures of everything, just like you asked me to," he said, words abruptly tumbling from his mouth without him really giving them permission. "And I was checking under the bed and I found –"

Gunshots suddenly rang through the hallway outside the apartment, cutting off his impromptu confession. A storm of shouted profanity and arguing followed, punctuated with even more gunfire. Flack, Danny, and Mac sprang into action as one, guns instantly drawn before Adam even realized he was cringing back against the wall.

"Stay here!" Mac barked the order sharply at him without looking back, already on his way out the door to cover for Flack and Danny.

"Stay here," Adam muttered when the sound of pounding feet and yelling had faded a bit. "Right. Bad guys with guns outside and they want me to chill in the dead guy's apartment. No big deal."

Looking around the room, he saw an old piece of wood. He picked it up and held it in front of himself – just in case – and then perched on the very edge of an old trunk, trying not to let his eyes drift to the rather large pools of blood still shining in the middle of the floor.

He hoped they caught the perps fast. This place was really giving him the creeps, and the constant purr coming from his vest was starting to tickle.