Happy New Year, guys! Hope you'll have a great 2018!
It's been a while since I felt in the mood to upload a new story, but here it finally is. Hope you enjoy it! Leave me a Review if you like, I really appreciate your opinion :)
"...Next thing I know, she's sitting on my couch completely naked!" officer Spencer said excited as he told Greg a story he claimed had happened last night.
Greg was in the middle of investigating a crime scene and couldn't stand to listen to Spencer's macho stories any more. "Y-You know what?" he said unnerved. "How about you go outside and lend Nick a hand?"
"...Nick? Outside?"
"Yeah, he's checking out where the murderer came in. I'm sure he'll appreciate you helping him and... entertaining... him with your stories." Normally he wouldn't feel good about sending Spencer to annoy Nick, but he was angry with his friend and therefore didn't mind today.
"...Don't you appreciate...?"
Greg quickly added, "...It's getting a little tricky and I need to concentrate, so..."
"Oh. Okay. Sure. I'll catch up with you later, alright?"
"Sure," Greg replied with a sigh. After the officer finally left him alone in the bedroom in this big house in Henderson, he walked over to the dead body David had already processed an hour ago. He was finally able to dedicate his time to this poor man who had lost his life in here tonight. He wasn't much older than Greg himself and was now lying there next to the bed with a gunshot wound to his once handsome face, his hair stained with the blood that had formed a pool on the floor. The CSI started taking pictures and looking for an ID, but the dead man didn't have one on him. He put his camera down as he started to take a closer look on the bed. The covers had been torn halfway off the bed and a pillow was lying next to the body on the floor.
"Who the hell is that?" a man asked as he made his way into the bedroom.
Greg startled. "...Excuse me, you can't be in here. Who are you?"
"This is my house!" he yelled desperately. "I'm Lee Price."
Greg had no idea how he got in the house without any officer stopping him, but he needed him to get out. "Sir, I'm with the crime lab. We're here to investigate this murder... You need to wait outside."
Price ignored Greg completely and walked a few steps closer to look at the victim. "Who is he? What's he doing in my house?!"
"Mr. Price, please." Greg guided him back quite gently. "You're contaminating the scene."
"What happened in here? ...Oh my god. Where's Chelsea? Is she alright?"
"An officer will explain everything to you..." Greg yelled for Spencer but he didn't respond.
"...I know him."
"You do?" Greg asked interested. He didn't want Price in the house, but he did want to find out who the victim was. "Do you know his name?"
"...That whore! I'm gonna kill her!" Price suddenly yelled, shoving Greg to the side to reach the night stand. While doing that, he stepped into some blood.
"Alright, that's it. I'm sorry, but we have to take you into custody." Again, Greg yelled for Spencer or any other cop nearby. No one responded. "...Great, just great..." Greg whispered to himself over the lack of support and backup he received while he grabbed his radio.
Price grabbed a gun from the night stand and turned around to Greg.
"...Mr. Price, what are you doing?" he asked frightened as he put his hands up.
"Get out of my way." Price had a crazed stare as he walked up to Greg.
The CSI took a few steps back as the gunman came closer. "Calm down, Mr. Price..."
He noticed the gun Greg was carrying. "Give me that!" When Greg was slowly reaching down to his hip to get the gun, Price made another few steps forward with the gun pointing at Greg's face. "No, stop! I'll get it!" As he took the gun from Greg, he told him to sit down on the bed. He hesitated for a moment, knowing this would mean he would contaminate the crime scene. But at this point, he didn't have much of a choice. He tried talking himself out of having to do it, but Price wasn't in the mood for that, so he pushed Greg onto the bed. The man put his belt off to tie the CSI to the bed by his hands.
"Mr. Price, what you're doing could get you in prison for a long time and..."
Price interrupted him by pointing the gun to his face again. "Shut up! Just shut up!" He left the room. Greg tried to get himself out of the belt as he didn't dare yelling for officer Spencer or Nick again. He feared Mr. Price could come back to shut him up for good, so he just hoped that the guys downstairs would be able to deal with him. When he heard several gunshots, he was scared for his colleagues' lives.
"It shouldn't have happened! It shouldn't have been possible to happen!" Greg said annoyed as he walked alongside Nick through the lab's halls.
Nick nodded. "We already told you we're sorry." He patted Greg on the back. "But we were all busy outside. I tried to explain to you that..."
Greg interrupted him. "Yeah well you shouldn't have been that busy." He wasn't in the mood for Nick's excuses. He felt let down by him.
"What's wrong with you today? You're giving me the cold shoulder since we left the lab."
Greg didn't answer. He didn't want his friend to know that the reason he was mad at him was a rather petty one, but it still hurt his feelings. "Can we just focus on the case, please?"
As they attempted to walk into the evidence room, Russell walked by. "Hey guys. I just heard about your incident on the scene. Are you two alright?"
Nick nodded. "It's fine, Russell," he explained, "The guy'll stay in a hospital bed for a few weeks, but luckily none of our guys were hurt." When Mr. Price walked outside, he opened fire at Nick and the police officers. They had to shoot at him to stop him.
"Actually, it's not okay. Russell, we need to talk." Greg had an angered look on his face.
The supervisor nodded. "I agree. Follow me into my office. Nick, go ahead, Greg will meet you in the evidence room in a minute."
As Russell walked Greg to the office, the younger CSI kept talking. "It's gotten unbearable. Did you know that incidences at crime scenes are going up? I think that's because the police officers are getting negligent. They think that because we're carrying guns they don't have to be present all the time. This could've gotten people killed today and I'm sick and tired of it."
Russell stopped in front of the door, standing in the way so that Greg couldn't reach the door knob. "I agree. I'll let Brass know, he can talk to his guys."
"...Thank you." Greg nodded appreciative, trying to reach the door knob again, but Russell still didn't let him. He looked at his supervisor confused. "Anything wrong?"
"This is probably not the best moment for this, but I don't really think there ever will be a good moment. There's someone sitting inside my office right now, waiting to meet you."
"Oh yeah? Who?" He smiled.
"Just know that it's okay not to do this, alright? I wouldn't put you in this situation if I didn't think you were ready, but it's still perfectly fine not to agree to meet him, okay?"
Greg's smile formed into a frown. "Wow, you're scaring me. What's going on? Who is it?"
Russell took a step to the side to make Greg's face turn away from the door. Telling Greg the following was hard for him. "Listen, Greg. You don't have to do this. If you don't want to, just tell me and I'll take care of it. But... Neil Novak's brother is here and he wants to meet you."
"Huh? ...What? ...N-Novak's... his... his brother's in your office? Right now?" When Russell nodded, Greg's eyes wandered to the door. Without much hesitation, he walked towards it, opened up and walked in.
A baffled Russell followed behind and closed the door.
When Kyle Novak heard the door open, he rose from his seat quite nervously. "Mr. Sanders, hi. It's... It's a pleasure to finally meet you." He reached his hand out for him to shake it, which the CSI did with a weird, confused look on his face after a short moment of hesitation. "My name's Kyle... Novak. I'm..."
"I know," he said, staring at the man. The resemblance was daunting. He had to keep reminding himself that this wasn't Neil Novak himself.
Russell felt the suffocating awkwardness in the room as Greg kept staring without saying anything. "Take a seat, Greg." He walked over to his chair to sit down. "Mr. Novak, I took the liberty to tell Greg why you're here. I hope you don't mind."
"No, of course not. I... You can call me Kyle." He chuckled nervously. "I'm so sorry, this is such a surreal moment for me. I just don't know what to say. There's just too much I'd like to tell you, Mr. Sanders, but... I feel like nothing I ever could say would be enough."
While he hardly took his eyes off Greg, the CSI mostly looked at Russell or the floor. He was overwhelmed with the situation. "...There's nothing to say. ...Nothing you need to say."
"That's nice of you to say, but I disagree. I think of you a lot, you know. I wanted to reach out to you for a long time now, but I was embarrassed and didn't expect you to care to talk to me. And now that I sit here with you, I don't know how to apologize to you for what my brother did. Just know that I am deeply sorry for what happened to you."
"...Thank you, but it's not necessary."
A weird moment of silence followed before Russell started talking, "So Mr. Novak... Kyle... You told me over the phone that your brother's health has been declining in the past few months."
He nodded. "Here's the thing, Mr. Sanders... Can I call you Greg?" He didn't receive an answer, so he just went on, "It's a weird situation for me, too. Neil and I weren't close. You see, he grew up with his mother while I lived with our father. We're half-brothers. When I heard about what he did, it was... weird. Sorry, I know I'm repeating myself, I'm a bit overwhelmed." He smiled. "Anyway, his mom Ella contacted me and she told me... He's getting worse. His chances of recovery were almost non-existing from the beginning. She asked me to help her come to a decision, but I didn't want to do it without consulting you first, Mr. Sanders. See, the thing is... I didn't even know him that well. I'm not sure what to do, but she can't make that decision, either. So I feel like you should make that decision, really."