I had posted this story before, as you can all tell, and some of you may have read or started to read. However, I felt that since not many of you were leaving a review I had to assume that something was wrong with it. This to me means that I wasn't getting across to you what I was seeing. But I'm having to guess so I hope you all like the improvements. I hope this actually posts... hmmm. Anyways, rant is over. Please leave a review and let me know of any mistakes, what you think etc. Reviews motivate me.
Fire Safety
The gun locker door slammed shut at the 33rd Precinct Station and Clare Brooks, a young woman with dark hair and a medium height, turned to her partner and long time friend Ashley Grey, a young man who had brown sandy hair. Brooks cringed at him, which made him curious so she explained.. "I've made the worst mistake of my life." She put her coat on and her partner looked at her and grinned.
"This I gotta hear." he said, with a small laugh expecting her story to be amusing. She gave him the I'm-not-amused expression and walked away from him, knowing he would be following. Like most cops he was as curious as a dog and as stubborn about it too.
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A middle-aged man sat at his desk, it was dark outside and he had his hands on a blue presentation folder. He was caressing it like it meant everything to him, like it held his life within it and it somehow meant more to him than his body did. He was in a world of his own, sitting quietly with a beer, in a softly lit study room. This was his domain, his castle and this was where he had his peace but something troubled him and he couldn't place where that trouble was coming from or where it had started. All he knew was that he would never let any trouble control him. Never.
He took a sip of his beer and put the bottle down on the desk. Picked his folder up and carried it out of the room and to it's special place, the place of pride.
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Jessica Marshall hurried towards her car at the parking garage where she worked for a law firm, and before she opened the car she pulled out her cell phone, dialing the same number she had been for weeks. "Come on, please pick up!" the frustration in her voice was obvious. A passer by, a colleague, looked at her with amusement - she didn't even try to supress the huge grin that formed on her face.
"Boyfriend not answering again, Jess?" The woman laughed and didn't wait for an answer, she just carried on walking towards her own car. Jess growled in frustration and pulled open the car door and slammed it shut behind her. When the ringing stopped and it reached voice mail she threw her cell onto the passenger seat. Anger welling up inside of her from a place she could not ignore. Her mind racing and the thought that occupied it as she turned the key in the ignition was that she would never be treated this way.
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"I never meant for this to happen! I wanted ... I do want us to be together, Darren!" Clare Brooks was almost yelling at her boyfriend, Darren, as he scrunched up the paper in his hands.
"Really, then would you like to tell me what this is about?" His anger was causing him to shout at her as he waved the hand written note in front of her face.
"Look, it was nothing, it was an accident." She tried to explain as he began to pacing his apartment, which was bright, filled with lots of CD's and equipment but kept tidy and arranged in a specific order.
"Just how is sleeping with someone else an accident? What did you do? Fall onto each other. Please!" He shouted, his unoriginal sarcasm was not well recieved by Brooks, a cop who knew better than to take that from any body let alone any man. "I thought we were good together. I thought you were better than that. I can see that I was wrong." He turned and began to walk away from her. She grabbed his arm, trying to get him to stay so that she could explain her mistake, explain what had happened. She loved him, she really did, she didn't want him to leave.
"No, please, let's talk about this..." He turned and suddenly slapped her in the face, the sting she felt sent her hand instantly to where he had hit her. Her eyes filled with tears from the stinging and from the hurt she had caused him and herself. The stinging caused the love to be replaced with hate for the way he lashed at her.
"I - Oh, forget it!!" He stormed out of his apartment and left Clare to cry alone, holding her face in shock.
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Clare Brooks walked into her house and closes the door quietly, she looks around the room. The room is not lit up at all, but she can still make out the small amount of furniture that she owns - small amount because she had wanted to concentrate on becoming a cop, protecting people - people like her mother. She leaves the light off as she heads up the stairs. She doesn't undress before she gets onto her bed, puts her badge and piece on the nightstand and allows the tears to fall once more as the regret fills her body. She had known it was a mistake but at the time there was no reasoning - there was no logic, there just was him and her and... alcohol. She also knew that that was a pathetic excuse that many had used before, she'd seen it all the time on the job but how could she explain that a demanding man and alcohol were not a good mix to a kind, decent man who'd never seen anything like that in his life.
She shuddered when she considered what he might be thinking, feeling. Brooks knew it was going to be anything but good.
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Outside her house someone wearing dark leather gloves is leaving the house through the back gate and doesn't look back as they just head straight out of the neighborhood on foot. Rips off the leather gloves and puts them in the trash bin of a nearby house. They know that can't be seen because they're wearing all black, it's early morning and nobody is around to say boo.
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Credits Roll
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Fireman worked hard to put out the last remnants of the fire at Clare Brooks house. The remains of the building was still smoking as Detectives Eames and Detective Davis, a female detective, walked over to Detective Goren and the chief fire officer, Adam Branning. "The fire was started by a gas leak and the electric sockets switched on next to the gas in the kitchen. It wouldn't have started straight away and the victim may never have noticed but the tiniest spark from the electricity outlets could have started the fire." Branning told the Detectives. "One of the worst ways to go - in your own home." He walked away from them and the three looked at each other. It was one of the worst ways to go, you'd never know if you were heavy sleeper. Goren's mind was already racing through some possibilities, he was already considering possible reasons for the fire, possible scenarios.
"It couldn't have been an accident." Goren said, almost absent mindedly as he opened his brown portfolio and walked upto the house but stopped short of going in, he couldn't go in.
His partner, Eames, nodded in agreement. "She wouldn't turn on all her electrical appliances and gas taps." It seemed to make sense to her, why would someone do that.
"Not unless it was suicide." Davis argued, with some reasoning she guessed it could make sense. All three Detectives seemed to be considering that possibility before Eames shook her head.
"Brooks was a Police Officer who was being considered for being a Detective. There was no reason for her to commit suicide." Eames told Davis and then walked over to her partner, she looked at him. "Why wait for yourself to die in your sleep? Surely there are easier ways to go?"
"We need to find out if there was reason for her to kill herself." He told her in response to her unvoiced question, she nodded and they turned away from the house.
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33rd Precinct
Desk of Officer Ashley Grey
"I just can't believe that she was killed in a house fire. She's been my partner for 4 years now." Officer Grey was sat at his desk just shaking his head in stunned shock. "We've been friends for longer though, we - uh - we went to the academy together." He looked up at Detective Goren and Detective Eames for the first time. Goren and Eames looked at each other and then Eames looked back at Grey whilst Goren sat down at the Brooks' desk.
"We were hoping if you could tell us if Officer Brooks was suicial recently?" Eames asked, politely but abrupt whilst her partner began rummaging through Brooks' desk.
"Suicidal? Clare? No way. She loved her job and her life." Grey replied, stunned by the question. He couldn't understand why these Detectives that of her, his partner, his friend.
"Was Brooks having any kind of personal trouble that she may have confided to you about?" Eames asked, allowing her partner to look through Brooks desk. Goren was flicking through books and reading her schedule and shift logs.
"Not really. I guess she was having a bit of a problem with her boyfriend but Clare was tough, you know, she could handle herself."
"Boyfriend?" Goren asked, looking up at Grey for the first time, taking his eyes away from her paperwork. Proving that, once again, that whilst he is searching through things he is still paying attention to what is being said around him.
"Yeah, a Darren something, he works for some music company. She said they were hitting the rocks." Grey explained very matter-of-factly.
"Darren something? She didn't tell you his last name?" Eames asked him as he looked at his papers, he seemed to be trying to remember.
"She may have, I really can't remember it."
"What about this music company? Do you remember that?" Eames was trying to be patient whilst Grey seemed to be doing some kind of mind jogging when he was trying to remember.
"You don't have a problem with your memory do you, Officer Grey?" asked Goren, standing up looking at him intently, "Because I can't help but notice that you seem to be going through the hurdles trying to answer my partners' questions." Whilst he spoke Goren rotated his hand around his head.
"No, I don't. I've been pulling double shifts, we all have. So was Clare, you were looking at her logs. Look, if I do remember I'll call you." He spoke with such fanality that the Detectives took that as their cue to leave. Goren couldn't help but notice that Grey seemed more annoyed with their presence than helpful to them. He also noticed that he didn't seemed to be upset. Not the way Goren would be if he ever lost his partner.
As they left Goren spoke quietly to Eames, "Her boyfriends name is Darren O'Rourke, he lives in this apartment on 73rd." he passed her a small card and Eames just grinned as she followed him out of the station. Lucky for them, Brooks kept a contact book full of cards and this one happened to have his music shop written on it.
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Interrogation Room
One Police Plaza
"Look, I don't know what she told you about me but I didn't hurt her." O'Rourke was sat opposite the two Detectives, facing the one-way mirror with a feeling that he was being accused of something. He just knew that he had to defend himself from whatever she had said.
"Really?" Eames asked "What do you think she's said about you?" She shared a look with her partner and looked back at O'Rourke expecting an answer.
"I don't know. We got into an argument last night and it got heated. There's no need for her to bring me up on charges though." He explained, desperately wanting to get of that room, he didn't like the way her partner was watching him.
"Why would she bring you up on charges, Darren?" Goren asked, looking down at his portfolio and then at O'Rourke who refused to answer, he just shook his head.
"What did you do to her?" Eames asked, picking up on his reluctance.
"I told you we argued. It was personal. There's no need for her to bring you guys in on it." Goren stood up and pushed his chair under the table, shaking his head at him.
"You didn't answer her question." He said simply, pointing at his partner, before sitting down next to him. "Would you like to know what did happen to her?" It wasn't really a question and O'Rourke never had the chance to answer before Eames placed photo's of the burnt corpse of Clare Brooks lying on the morgue slabs.
O'Rourke stared at each photo in turn and then closed his eyes in shock, he then turned back to Goren and spoke quickly when he realised what they were implying. "Oh God, no, I didn't do that. Oh My God." He turned away from him and looked at Eames. "I didn't even know that - that - happened to her." O'Rourke felt like his world had just been turned inside out and upside down. He'd never seen anything like this, now he really did have to let them know that he didn't hurt her. He realised what they were implying and it saddened him further.
"Why would she bring you up on charges?" Goren asked one last time.
With tears in his eyes, which he angrily swiped away, he answered "Because I slapped her on the face. I thought - I thought that she was going to pull some strings... or something. Oh my God!" He covered his eyes and cried with shame and grief.
Eames looked at her partner and sighed, "Why did you slap her?"
"Because... of... what I found out. I was angry. I didn't mean to."
"What did you find out?" she asked, feeling like she was going to have to drag the answer out of him.
"Some guy sent me a letter, a stupid note. The bastard even signed the damn thing." He looked at them both, again wiping tears from his eyes. "I couldn't believe what it said but when I asked her she just said it was true. I mean, the guy even said he had proof of what they'd done."
"She slept with someone else." Eames reasoned and O'Rourke nodded.
"Did he say what proof he had?" Goren asked, and watched as O'Rourke just shook his head and put his head on the table and started to cry incredibly hard. Goren looked at Eames and they both got up out of the chairs and left the room closing the door behind them.
They walked into the observation room to see Captain Ross stood there shaking his head. "So, we're in agreement that it wasn't a suicide?" He asked them, they looked at each other and nodded. "And this guy?" he pointed to the window with his thumb.
"I don't think he could've done it even if it was angry at her." Goren replied, looking through the window. "He didn't even know she was dead."
"Hold him until you alibi him." Ross told them and Eames nodded to him. "One more thing, I want you two to work with Logan and Wheeler on this. I don't appreciate the Chief of D's breathing down my neck. Apparently Officer Brooks was well respected and he had high hopes for her." He walked to the door, "Let's try to do her some justice." They watched him as he left the room and then turned to each other and Eames sighed.
"I don't think this one's going to be easy. Not that they ever are." Goren didn't respond to her he just watched O'Rourke through the window as he was staring at the pictures of Brooks that they have left on the table.
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to be continued,
let me know what you think guys.