A/N: ok. this is my third story. hope u like it! i have no idea where it'll go... i just write what comes to mind... anyways, enjoy! :P
***I own nothing!***No copyright infringement intended!***
Everything started normally that day. It was early on a Saturday morning. Being Calleigh's first day-off in months, she was enjoying as much sleep as she could get. Suddenly, her beeper started beeping.
"Oooh… What now?..." she said to herself with a sleepy voice. She caught her beeper and moved her long blond hair out of her eyes in order to see the number. 639? That's Horatio's number… I'd better call him… She thought and got off the bed. She went to the kitchen and started making coffee while dialing the number.
"Horatio? Hey. I just got your call." said Calleigh when Horacio picked up the phone.
"Calleigh. Yeah. Listen, I know it's your day-off and that you need it a lot but we are short-handed down here." he said apologetically.
"Oh, ok. I'm on my way." said Calleigh without thinking her answer. It's my job. I must be there when they need me. And that includes my day-offs… She thought while answering to Horatio.
"I made sure you take a minor case." said Horacio to make her feel better about having to work when she wasn't supposed to.
"Cause it's my day-off?" she asked with a smile on her face.
"Yes. It's a shop-lifting five blocks away from your apartment. You'll be done pretty soon."
"Ok. I'll head there right away!" she said happily with her sweet voice.
"Ok. Oh and Calleigh?" added Horatio.
"Yes?"
"Thank you." he said and Calleigh imagined him putting on his glasses.
"No problem, Horatio." she answered smiling, hung up the phone and sighted.
Ok, it's 8:30. This means that I have half an hour to go there before another complaint is added against me in my file… Horacio will definitely not like that… So, ten minutes to take my morning shower and another ten to fifteen to get dressed. That leaves me with five minutes to go to the crime scene… What if I reduce the shower time to five minutes and the dressing time to ten? Then I'll have fifteen minutes left… She was thinking while she was walking around the house and doing little things like turning on the heater for her shower and drinking her coffee. She finally decided that reducing both shower and dressing time had never worked for her in the past so she just did everything as fast as she could without a specific schedule.
~~Thirty Minutes Later~~
"CSI Duquesne." Calleigh identified herself while showing her badge to the very tall -and pretty handsome- police officer who was standing in front of the yellow tape saying 'Police Line. Please Do Not Cross'. The young police officer smiled kindly, raised the yellow tape and let Calleigh get in the crime scene.
"Thank you." whispered Calleigh as she passed through and requited the smile.
"Hey Cal." greeted Natalia who was already there, processing the scene when she saw Calleigh approaching. "Thought you weren't working today."
"Hey." she replied while putting on a pair of latex gloves. "Horacio told me that you need some extra hands here." she continued smiling.
"True... Hey, police officer's kinda cute, huh?" said Natalia and winked.
"I know." replied Calleigh while glancing at the young policeman. "I'm already taken though." she continued without taking her eyes off him.
"Girl, I feel sorry for you." teased Natalia.
"Ok Natalia. That's enough of these." said Calleigh and smiled. "So, what do we have here?" she added.
"Yes. Um..." Natalia cleared her throat and continued: "Nothing special... Somebody broke in early in the morning. Around 6am. Stole about 70$..."
"That's it?" asked Calleigh who was surprised about how simple the case was. "No shooting?"
"Yep. We'll be done in a couple of hours." answered Natalia.
" Have you started processing yet?"
"I checked the area around the cash register for prints. Apart from the owner's, I found an extra set."
"Well... You think our thief was naive enough not to wear gloves?"
"Could be... They don't pay as much attention as they used to..." said Natalia with a kinda sad look on her face. "I was always fond of challenges." she continued.
"Yeah... That's true. Our job is becoming simpler and simpler. Next thing you know, they'll be leaving their business cards behind!" said Calleigh who also thought a little bit of challenge in the work field was always fascinating. "Anyway... Have you started taking photos yet?" she continued.
"No. Not yet. I was just about to." answered Natalia.
"Never mind. You go talk to the owner and see if there are any witnesses. I'll take the photos and finish processing."
"Okay. Oh. And you might wanna check the big freezer in the back too. Something smells awful there." said Natalia and left to go and talk to the owner of the store.
As she walked away, Calleigh caught her hair up in a pony tail. She didn't want any of her hairs possibly compromise the entire case and put it into questioning. She then grabbed her camera and started shooting. The lock of the cash register was clearly smashed open and so was the entrance door. As she was walking behind the counter, she noticed a cigarette but. She took a photo and then picked it up and placed it with the rest of the evidence.
Calleigh looked at Natalia and the shop owner who were talking as she walked to the back room. Natalia was right. There was an awful smell back there. Calleigh thought that if she stayed any longer it was very possible she was going to pass out. She covered her mouth and nose with her hand, turned on her flash light and started searching for the source of that unbelievable stink. There it was. A very old refrigerator was standing in the back corner of the room. It was locked with chains and the locket seemed like it hadn't been opened for a pretty long time. She took a photo of it and then one of the locket. She was about to process it for prints when she hear shouting coming from outside. She sighed and exited the room.
"Sir! Sir you can't go in there! It's an active crime scene! Sir!" Natalia was shouting at a man who was trying to go inside the shop. The man pushed Natalia who lost her footing for a moment.
"Excuse me, sir!" said Calleigh who exited the store and approached him. She tried not to be too abrupt. "Sir, you do realize that I can have you arrested for assaulting a police officer, right?" That seemed to calm him down a bit. "Now why don't you tell me what it is that you want?" she continued once she saw that the man was no longer trying to push his way inside.
"Are you with CSI?" he asked.
"Yes. I'm CSI Duquesne. How can I help you?"
"I need to go inside."
"And why is that?"
"I can't tell. I just wanna go inside!"
"Sir, I can't let you go inside. It's a crime scene and no one is allowed to enter."
"But-"
"No 'but'. Unless you tell me who you are and what you want, I can't do anything for you." The man was about to answer but Calleigh gestured him to stop with her hand.
"Anybody hears a ticking noise?" she asked looking around.
"I don't hear anything..." answered Natalia.
"Now it's to late." said the man.
"Too late for what?" asked Calleigh. "What is it?"
"At this point, you might wanna run." he said and run away as fast as he could.
"What? Sir!" yelled Calleigh but she realized there was no point in doing so. A few seconds later, she told Natalia to take the crowd away from there as fast as she could.
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"I'm going to check inside." replied Calleigh.
"Check for what?"
"The bomb." she said and walked inside the shop.
"No way!" said Natalia who ran and stood in front of Calleigh so that she couldn't move any further. "you are not going in there! Especially if there's a bomb!"
"Natalia, please just tell the people to move away from here." The ticking sound was becoming more and more frequent.
"Calleigh, there isn't time! Come outside! Please!" said Natalia and grabbed Calleigh's arm. Suddenly, the noise stopped. "That can't be good." whispered Natalia and pulled Calleigh away. The two women ran and started moving the crowd away from the scene. It was then that the whole shop exploded making a very loud noise that nearly deafened everyone.
A/N: OK... hope u liked it. i'll write more when i have free time :D
Thnx 4 reading! Plz review! TBC