Disclaimer : Exercise my grammar and have fun with the characters are my main goals. So, no copyright infringement is intended by writing this.
A/N : I owe this to two awesome girls. Thank you for your help, don't know what to do without you.
== KEN & BARBIE ==
"That was just utterly stupid."
Greg threw his partner a sideway glance while trying to focus on the road ahead, "What was stupid?"
"Cody Gable, why would he stand still at a crime scene with a knife in hand and cocaine powder all over his jacket? He might as well have done the stabbing in the precinct; in front of the officers." Riley's complaint filled the air in the Denali along with the humid air of the night.
"Jumpsuit"
"Huh?"
"He was wearing a jumpsuit. Not a jacket." Greg hit the gas pedal with full force. "And we do not work for the 'Why'; it's the 'How' that matters to us." He repeated what he had often heard from his former supervisor.
"Well, if you want the 'How' part, I got a good explanation for you." Riley shifted on her seat, "Cody and the victim fought over the crack, somehow ripped open the package. All two thousands dollars worth of white powder was gone with the wind. Cody got mad and stabbed the victim." Now facing Greg, Riley leaned closer and whispered. "Now the interesting part is; why did Cody stay at the crime scene, holding the bloody knife. If I was the one who did the stabbing, I'd just bolt away from the scene."
Greg shrugged while taking a right turn at the intersection, "Shock maybe?"
"You heard David; the TOD was five to seven hours ago. Shock wouldn't take that long" Reclined back onto the seat, Riley tapped her chin in thought.
"I don't know maybe….,"
"Turn around; we need to get back to the crime scene!" Riley sat up straight on her seat.
"No Riley. We already went through everything. Let's just get back to the lab. Nick probably is already working on the evidence and wandering what is it that's taking us so long."
"No Greg. I left my cellphone." Riley looked behind as if she could see the device on the road. "I think I left it on the shelf that I was dusting, right after I called Nick."
Greg groaned. "Gees, you call yourself a level two but still left your belonging at a crime scene."
"I got distracted. Your T-Shirt is so sparkly that it blinds me." She eyed Greg's shirt. It was shocking pink, so shocking that the LVPD vest couldn't cover its shine. Riley swore she could see the T-shirt sparkle under the street light.
"I lost a bet, okay?" Greg took a U-turn. "You know what? A CSI level 1 left her cellphone at a scene before. She went back to retrieve it, alone."
"I've heard that before. One of spooky CSI stories right?" Riley pursed her lips, "The young and restless CSI went back to the scene and ended up slaughtered to death."
"Nah," Greg shook his head.
"So, she lost her eyeballs?"
"Nu uh"
"Kidnapped by an alien and never came back?"
"No…, she just..."
"Raped by gang members and killed with a hook?"
"No and you definitely have watched too many movies."
"So what has happened to this CSI?"
"Nothing, she just found another body."
"There's nothing horrible about that Greggo."
"Hey, watch the name calling!" Greg glared at the blonde CSI.
Riley smirked, really enjoying the conversation," What? You don't like Greggo?"
Still glaring, Greg threatened, "Call me that again and you get back to the scene on foot."
"I'm sorry," Riley batted her eyelashes, "Greggo"
Greg groaned, regretting his gentleman attitude. He should let Riley go back to the scene by cab or something. "I hope there's a man waiting for you with a hook there, Level two," He mumbled, getting himself a chuckle from Riley.
"Well, there really is a man waiting for me" Riley got out from the Denali, walking toward the officer in charge. The officer was sitting in the patrol car; a two-stories warehouse was in the background, complete with police lines all around. The warehouse was their current crime scene.
"Hi Charlie, where are your partners for tonight?" Greg greeted the officer while leaning to the car.
"Jamie and Bill have gone to get coffees and bagels. Is there anything wrong? I thought you had finished." Officer Charlie Gordon tipped his LVPD cap, while yawning widely.
"Nah, just some inexperienced junior CSI left her cellphone behind." Greg nodded toward Riley who was already walking to the warehouse.
"I heard that." Riley threw a look over her shoulder. "I'll just take a moment Charlie."
"Okay," Charlie waved to her and soon had an interesting conversation with Greg.
Charlie had just finished explaining his opinion on the economy crisis when Greg glanced at his wristwatch. He realized that he had been waiting for more than ten minutes, "What is taking her so long?"
"Girls…" Charlie rolled his eyes, "They're slow at everything. My wife is always…,"
"I'll go check on her." Greg cut Charlie's speech short and started walking away.
When he strode inside the warehouse, the smell of dust attacked his nostrils. There were several light bulbs that were still working. Their light illuminated the warehouse and made it easier for Greg to look around. The first floor was filled with cardboard boxes and Styrofoam, all haphazardly laid on the floor. The crime scene was on the second floor and Greg climbed the stairs slowly.
"Riley!" He called out then suddenly stopped in the middle of the stairs. The back door was slightly ajar and he knew it had been closed before. Knowing full well that no officers were guarding the back of the building he drew his gun out. "Riley!"
There was no answer and the building was suspiciously quiet. It only took him three steps to get to the second floor. "Riley!" he called again before hopping to the right, effectively avoiding the blood-stained floor. With his gun trained forward, he opened the door that led to a room where they had found the suspect.
"Charlie! Get in here!" He shouted with all his might. There, on the dusty concrete floor, laid Riley's body. She was on her chest and seemed unconscious. Her cellphone was broken, about two feet away from her hand. Greg looked to the right and to the left, making sure that no one was in the room.
"Riley! What happened?" He kneeled and scooped the younger CSI in his arms, patting her cheek to wake her. Riley opened her eyes slowly right when Greg started talking to dispatch. She tried to shift Greg's attention to the door, but he was too busy with his phone.
"Dispatch, This is C32, I need back up and ambulance in ….," Greg's words were cut short by a sudden hit on his neck. He fell forward, trapping Riley beneath his body. Someone was behind him and that someone definitely had a gun. Greg heard the familiar click of a trigger.
"Let go of the cellphone and the gun." Greg saw horror in Riley's eyes as he heard the order. He released the cellphone but tightened his grip on the gun.
"Let go of the gun!" A different voice was speaking this time. One foot kicked Greg's cellphone away and another foot stepped on his hand.
"Ouch," Greg didn't have any choice but to let go of his gun. "Wait! Wait! Let's talk" He tried to turn around. Before he had a chance to see their attackers, one of them kicked him in the face, sending him flat to the floor.
He grunted while Riley was trying to prop him up. "Greg! Are you okay?" her hand smoothed his hair back, inspecting the contusion on his head. "You're bleeding." She turned her attention to the attackers. "What the hell do you want?" She shouted at one of them, the one who didn't have any gun with him.
Her question went unanswered as Charlie stormed into the room. "Drop your weapon!"
The presence of the officer startled everyone, sending a wave of frantic movements. Greg scooted to reach for his gun but one of the attackers stopped him by kicking him again. He fell hard onto the shelves, tumbling aside. Riley tried to help Greg, but the other attacker fired a shot toward her, narrowly missing her leg. Tripping over her own foot, Riley fell on top of Greg, knocking him on his already contused head. He felt dizzy, the room spinning around him.
"Hey! I said drop your gun!" Greg heard Charlie's voice as he was trapped beneath one of the attackers. Even with his pounding head, Greg could see Charlie shooting the gun-totting attacker right on his ankle, making the man fall on his knee.
Then everybody was trying to get a hand on the gun. Everybody was shouting and moving, sending clouds of dust into the air. Greg felt the commotion get him dizzier. Then there was gunfire, followed by another one, and another one, before the room fell into a horrible silence.
"Riley," Greg, now on his back, reached for Riley who was lying beside him.
"I'm okay," Riley coughed before rising on her knees. She saw Charlie on the floor. Blood stained his uniform. "Officer Gordon!"
"Stay where you are!" One of the attackers, two guns in hands, stood in the middle of the room. His friend, leaning over the wall with his bleeding ankle, also held one gun in his shaking hands.
"Curtis, what have we done?" The bleeding-ankle guy asked his friend.
Greg laid still while observing the criminals. Judging by their postures and faces, they couldn't be a day older than twenty years old. Greg hissed, juvenile crime always ended horribly, he thought to himself.
"I don't know, this cop was shooting at you man. I just tried to save you. Larry gonna be mad at us for this. He might kill us." The other guy sighed. His hand, still holding the gun, messed his hair around. "And we haven't found the package yet."
"Why don't you just surrender? We can protect you from this Larry guy." Although she didn't quite catch the situation, Riley tried to negotiate.
"Shut up! No one can save us from Larry." Curtis glared at Riley then shifted his attention to his friend. "We can't leave them here," Curtis gestured to Greg and Riley. "Zach, bring them to the truck."
"Then what, Curt? It's bad enough that you've killed the cop." He took a wobbly step and hovered over Officer Gordon's body. "We might go to jail for this man, let's just walk away. I need something for this wound too, my ankle is killing me"
Having been silent for awhile, Greg chimed in from his position on the floor. "That's right Curtis. Don't get yourself into more trouble than you can afford." He wiped his brow, feeling his bleeding wound.
"Or you can just surrender; at least the sentence won't be too bad." Riley eyed Curtis, considering his mental state. They had been trained for this; luring the criminals to surrender was their best chance to get out from this situation.
"I said shut up!" Curtis slapped Riley with the side of the gun, instantly creating a bruise on the corner of her mouth.
"Hey!" Greg launched himself forward but was tackled by Curtis. He kicked Greg twice in the stomach before shouting at his friend.
"Tie them up Zach, use this wire." He yanked a loop of wire from the shelf. "Let's bring them and walk away from here. We can figure out what to do later."
Riley blinked; their chance to be saved had just been narrowed down by Greg's heroic action.
Soon, Greg and Riley were back to back, their hands tied together. Curtis had ordered them to walk in front of him. His guns trained to them, while Zach following them close with his limp leg. Together they got out from the warehouse.
They reached a gray rusty truck right when police sirens started ringing in the distance.
"Back up always comes too late right?" Riley tried to speak to Greg; his silence since he had got kicked made her uncomfortable. She couldn't see how he was doing now that they were tied against each other.
"I hope Charlie is okay." Greg mumbled, he knew his hope was far too high. He saw two bullet wounds across the officer's chest. Greg was simply entertaining himself.
"He'll be fine, he'll be fine." He heard Riley's whisper as they were loaded on the truck.
"Zach, you drive!" Curtis climbed in after them. "Don't think of doing anything stupid!" He warned the CSIs.
"Where to, Curt? Larry's?"
"No. Are you crazy? We need someplace safe." Curtis messed his hair again, "Your house! Right, your house. Your parents won't be back until Monday right?"
"No way man. I'm not bringing them to my place. Let's just bring them to Larry's." Zach flinched as he hit the gas pedal. His ankle was definitely aching.
"We haven't got the rest of the package yet idiot. Keep them in your garage while we're searching for it. As long as we get the package, Larry will be happy dealing with these two without involving us."
"Right, right." Zach nodded, "My place it is."
Crammed into the seat, Riley could feel that Greg was hunching down. "Greg, are you okay?"
He didn't answer her.
"Greg? Curtis, what's happening to him?" she demanded an explanation. She was facing the driver window and couldn't see what was happening behind her. However she could feel the weight of Greg's body pulling further in the opposite direction.
"Man, I think I kicked him too much." Curtis' words were stabbing Riley's ears, sending shivers down her spine.
"What?" She tried her best to take a look over her shoulder. She saw nothing but Greg's shoulders.
"He's bleeding, man," Curtis poked Greg with one of the guns, "I think he's passing out."
"No!" Panic started flooding Riley's mind. She wriggled hard, trying to see her friend. "Greg! Greg! Stop this car! Stop! Pull over!"
The car slowed down as Zach hit the brakes. However, Curtis was having none of that. "Zach! What are you doing! Don't stop!" He glared over Greg's slouched head, holding the gun against Riley's head. "Are you trying to impress this woman?"
"No Curt," Zach gulped, "I just don't want you to kill another cop."
"I need to see Greg!" Riley demanded. "Zach, please slow down. I need to check if he's alright." Knowing that Zach was the weak link of the team, she pleaded. "Zach, you don't want to hurt another policeman. What would your parents think if they knew about this?"
"Aaaargh!" Riley's words triggered a burst of anger from Curtis. He released a shot. A bullet ran through the driver window, missing Riley's temple and Zach's nose by a mere inch.
"I said shut up!" He hit Riley hard with his fist. "Keep driving Zach! The cops are searching for us!"
Seeing stars behind her lids, Riley whispered to Greg. "Greg, please wake up, Greg." Greg didn't answer her. Riley started to feel fear engulfing her.
She shook her head, trying to get a better view and cleared her mind. The truck was entering a suburban area. Despite the swarming houses, no one was outside, considering it was probably only four in the morning. Riley thought of the advantage if she could shout and wake people up. Some people might have heard the last gunfire anyway. She took a deep breath.
"Don't even think of that." A click of a trigger echoed in her ears. "Shout and I'll blow your partner's head!"
Riley gulped down. She knew Curtis meant every word.
The rest of the drive was mostly accompanied by silence. Riley tried to shift her body every now and then, her poor attempts to wake Greg up. After a couple of miles, Curtis came out with this bright idea of blindfolding Riley so she couldn't see where they were going. Eyes covered with a foul-smelling scarf, Riley could only hope for the best. Please, don't let anything happen to Greg, she pleaded in her mind.
TBC?
Thank you for reading, and as always, Reviews and comments are loved:)