By Aunty Pasta
A murder at a TV station isn't as simple as it seems.
Author's notes: This story was born from the frustration I felt when I was fired as a cameraperson at the station where I also work in Master Control. This is just me getting even with my former boss. Names were changed to protect the innocent… and the guilty.
Chapter one
Silence permeated the room as Melanie Spencer waited. A row of TV monitors sporting colored bars waited in a neat row on the shelf, just under shoulder height, in front of her. Under the row of monitors, there were no less than 4 computer monitors waiting to control the programming that would begin in mere minutes. Rows of knots, dials, and buttons separated the monitors and Melanie fiddled with them as she waited, each touch of a button putting a new image on her preview screen.
She stopped on the button that showed her the darkened news studio. A strange shadow made her start, but seeing it was time to begin the broadcast day, she signed on the 5 stations she controlled, each being beamed to a different part of the state.
After making sure all of the stations were running properly, Melanie set out down the hall to the studio and pushed the door open. She flipped the lights on and saw the shadow in full light. There, in the anchor's seat, was the body of Krista Buthe.
In the big screen monitor of the interview set, a chair and loveseat in front of a shelving unit on which the flat screen plasma monitor sat, was a perfect one shot of the victim. Gil Grissom studied the shot as behind him his people worked the scene. Every so often the flash of a camera would momentarily light up the screen in front of him.
It took Gil a moment to realize that he wasn't alone in his study of the monitor where David, the assistant Medical Examiner was readying the body for transport.
"Find anything, Nick?" he asked without taking his attention from the monitor.
"A few prints," the younger criminalist, Nick Stokes, replied. "David wants to get her back to the morgue before he makes a final determination on COD. TOD was 6-8 hours ago."
Gil looked up at him over the rim of his glasses. " He can't make a guess on cause of death?"
Nick shook his head. " No obvious signs of struggle. He can say for sure, she was killed where she is." He paused to gesture to the monitor. "The camera shot would seem to suggest it was deliberate."
Gil nodded "I was thinking that myself." He glanced to the monitor then nodded to the girl across the room standing with Brass and wringing her hands. "She the only person in the building?"
Nick nodded. " All night," he replied.
"Let's have a talk with her," Gil said as he crossed the room, Nick followed closely.
"Melanie Spencer?" Gil asked the girl lifted her head and nodded as affirmative. "You were the only person in the building last night?"
"As far as I know," Mel replied. "Most everyone leaves after the news around 10:35 pm. Sometimes as late as 11, But the door isn't locked so, who knows." She shrugged and rubbed her tired eyes. "Can't hear much when I'm back in the cave."
"The cave?" Grissom asked.
"That's what we call Master Control," Mel replied. "No windows and it is in the back part of the building. With all the noise the equipment makes, nothing outside the room can be heard."
"How did you find the body?" Nick asked
"I was bored waiting for sign on," she began. "I was playing with the preview buttons and when I hit the button for the studio, I noticed this strange shaped shadow. I came down to check it out after signing the stations on."
"I don't suppose you could tell us about the camera shot," Gil asked with a gesture to the screen across the room.
It's a classic MCU shot," she replied with a shrug. "Probably still set up from last night." She glanced to the door as someone called her name. "We done?" she asked. "My boss is here."
Gil nodded and Melanie went to speak with the newcomer. He looked back to the widescreen monitor.
"And the shot just happens to be perfectly centered and focused," Nick commented.
Gil nodded as David rolled by with the body on a stretcher. "I don't think she was the anchor."