Culpable Homicide
Hello my lovelies, so I've been bitten by the Gail and Holly bug. I totally love these two together and I couldn't get them out of my head so I decided to write a little somethin' somethin'. Even though I'm supposed to be working on my thesis instead... As we all know, all the Rookie blue characters belong to Tassie Cameron Et al and I'm just borrowing them. so without further ado, please enjoy.
Chapter 1
I
Detective Gail Peck picked her way through the dense undergrowth following the sound of distant voices floating toward her on the muggy night air. She thanked the gods of foresight that she had put on a pair of boots this morning as she squelched her way across layers of dead wet leaves underfoot. The powerful beam from her small torch swept across the forest floor as she scanned what little she could see of her surroundings, the light casting eerie shadows behind the brush. Gail and the outdoors were not at all friends and this trek was starting to get to her. She absently scratched at a non existent itch on her left arm as she pushed past the last branch and emerged into an open space surrounding the lake that lay still and steaming ahead of her.
That was totally the last time she took a short cut through the woods. Those arseholes who'd parked the access road closed were extremely dead when she got hold of them. Not to mention the rookie who suggested the "short-cut". Just a few meters he said, easy as pie he said. She would have to think of a good way to torture him for that later. She turned toward the light and voices she'd heard earlier and made her way along the pebble beach toward the group of uniformed officers standing around idly.
She picked Chris Diaz out of the group and bee lined toward him. "What have we got?" she asked when she was easily within ear shot.
He turned, giving her an easy smile. "This way detective," he said gesturing with his left had, he knew better than to touch Gail without explicit permission. "The body is lying about 50 meters down the shore line. Elderly male, no I.D so far but he's all wrapped up in a tarp and we knew not to disturb any of the evidence until forensics has had a look."
They made their way along the shore, coming to a stop just short of a bundle with a pair of feet protruding from one end of a bright blue tarp and wispy grey hair from the other. Gail turned to survey the scene. She noted multiple foot prints in the mud, 3 distinctly different sets, possible a fourth as well. She shone her torch up the dirt track, two sets of tyre prints, made by the same vehicle it looked like, one coming, one going. She turned her attention back to the body and ran the light over it, big feet, size 10 or 11 at least. She skirted the edge of the lake to round the body, taking great care not to interfere with the scene.
Her torch light trailing over the ligatures around his ankles, following the rope to a heavy looking set of cinderblocks resting not far from his feet. "Well, well," she said, flicking her torch toward the blocks, "looks like our perp may have been interrupted during the body dump." She knelt near the edge of the tarp, snapping on a pair of latex free gloves she carried in her back pocket, no reason to increase the probability of breaking out into hives today. A trip through the forest was enough of a risk. Gently lifting the edge of the material she peaked underneath, her beam illuminating a carpet of some kind. She sighed, dropping the tarp back down to the body, "He's totally wrapped up underneath there, going to have to wait till he's back at the lab before we can get a closer look, we can't afford to compromise any trace evidence by trying to unwrap him now."
"I should Hope so Detective," came a voice that Gail didn't recognise. She shifted her eyes up toward the newcomer, scanning her from her bright green wellington boots up. Sensible foot wear, she came prepared. Stone washed blue jeans, a red jumper covered by a well worn brown leather jacket and a cream coloured scarf. The outfit was rounded off by a pair of latex gloves and what looked like a rather large lunchbox. "You better not have been messing with my evidence detective." The woman said with a lop sided grin, tilting her head to the right and nudging her glasses back up her nose with her free hand.
Gail narrowed her eyes as she stood from her crouch. She'd managed to put her right knee into the water and could now feel the cold seeping through her jeans. Great, just great. First a trek through the forest, now wet jeans and an irritating forensics person on top of it all. "You better be here to get my body back to the lab lunchbox because that is the only way I'm going to let that sass slide," Gail said as she carefully made her way back to where Chris was still standing watching the scene between the two women unfold. "And don't worry, all our precious evidence is 100% undisturbed, at least by me anyway, I can't vouch for the rest of these losers."
Gail ripped off her gloves, turning them inside out in the process and folding them around each other before shoving them into her jacket pocket. When she turned back to the unknown woman she was still standing there watching her with an amused look on her face and a raised eyebrow. "Well go on then, get on with all your nerdy stuff so we can all skedaddle back to where there is air conditioning and there is coffee," Gail said as she turned back to Chris. "Daiz," she barked loudly, making him jump, "make sure we have photos of all the shoe and tire prints around here and get casts of them too. Once you've sorted all of that out I want you to go back to the lab with lunchbox here and call me when she's done being all nerdy and has something useful for me." With that said Gail started making her way back toward the other officers in search of the civilian who had found the body.
II
Chris turned toward the tall brunette as she made her way to the body. She'd set her bag down on a nearby rock and was instructing two members from her forensic team as to where to put up the spot lights they'd carried down from the van. "A little to the left Sammy," she said as she knelt down almost exactly where Gail had earlier. Camera in hand, she started taking strategic snap shots of the body.
Chris inched closer to watch her work. He looked on in silence for several minutes before clearing his throat, "She's a good detective you know, she didn't mess with your scene." For some reason he couldn't explain he still felt the need to stick up for Gail, even though they were no longer dating. They were friends now though, and that's what friends did right?
The brunette looked up from her camera and smiled at the officer looming over her, his thumbs tucked into his utility belt. "I know," she said, "I was just teasing her. I'm Holly Stewart by the way, the new forensic pathologist."
"Chris Diaz, fifteen division, With detective Peck." He replied, pointing backwards over his shoulder with his thumb toward where Gail was standing with her back to them talking to the witness. "You really shouldn't tease her you know, its like baiting a wild animal."
Holly looked up at Chris's baby face and chuckled, when she looked at him all she saw was a big puppy dog, it was kind of cute actually. Her eyes slid from his face and locked onto the blonde detective listening intently to the man at her side as he gestured wildly with his hands, obviously very into his story. The grin snuck back onto Holly's face as she watched Gail, "I think I'll take my chances."
"Don't say I didn't warn you," Chris shrugged as he went in search of one of the crime scene investigators to help him collect the evidence Gail had requested.
Holly did a thorough examination of the scene, photographing everything she thought prudent to the investigation before calling the techs back to help her move the body, tarp and all into a body bag and onto a stretcher. The initial exam would have to wait for their return to the morgue where they were in controlled surroundings and at no risk of losing any evidence when they unwrapped the body. Her eyes dragged across the officers still milling about the scene, looking for the distinctive platinum blonde hair of certain detective, but Gail was nowhere to be found. Shaking her head, she began the walk back to the van wondering why the detective fascinated her so.
III
Gail was already sipping on her third cup of coffee for the morning by the time she spotted Diaz and McNally strolling into the squad room. Catching Diaz's eye she jerked her head towards her desk, beckoning them over. "What have you got for me Diaz," she said as the officers approached her.
Chris pulled out his note pad and started paging through to find the page he needed, "O.K so there were four sets of foot prints at the scene, one pair belonging to the boots of the gentleman who found the body, a Mr John St Clair and the second known set to officer Mullins, the first officer on scene. The other two sets belonging to our un subs. Both sets are small, a size 5 pair of women's Nike studio trainer cross training shoe and a size 4 flat soled boot of some kind. Unfortunately there is no tread pattern so the techs couldn't narrow it down any further, but if we find the boot they can match the imprint apparently."
"Moving on to the tyre tracks," McNally replied, reading from her own note book. "The two sets were from the same vehicle, one set coming toward the scene and the second lot away. The print was left by a firestone destination A/T, commonly found on Ford's F150 model of truck."
Gail nodded as she took in the new information. "Anything on the body yet?" she asked the two officers.
"Nothing yet, I was just down at the morgue, Dr Stewart was about to start her examination of the body when I left." Chris said.
"Right," Gail said as she stood, "I want you two out there canvassing the neighbourhood surrounding that lake. I saw a gas station and a bar a kilometre or two up the road from the turn off to the lake. See if anyone saw anything suspicious yesterday. Check if the gas station has surveillance, we might get lucky and catch something important. Ask specifically about Ford trucks in the area. I'm sure there are a few cabins around there too, see if any of them are inhabited and find out if anyone saw anything. Take Collins and Price with you."
"Sure thing boss," Andy said with a smirk as she and Chris turned to go. She didn't miss the scowl that Gail threw her way and it made her smile widen. She and Gail had been in a good place lately, after all the awkwardness with the whole Nick fiasco she had to admit that she was happy that she and Gail had once again found some middle ground, a place where they could be friends. It had taken a long time and a lot of persistence, and she wouldn't openly admit it to anyone but after all they had experienced together Gail Peck was someone important to her.
IV
Gail picked her keys up off the desk and tossed her empty coffee cup into the trash as she made her way out of the station and over to the morgue. On the short drive over her stomach started to protest the fact that it had not yet been fed. Luckily there happened to be a place just around the corner that made some of the best donuts in town.
Pedro smiled as he saw Gail pushing open the door to his shop, she was by far one of his favourite customers. Not only because she probably spent at least a quarter of her salary here but she had a great sense of humour and although she didn't show it he could tell she had a soft heart. "Ah Officer Peck, your usual?" He questioned as she walked up to the counter.
Gail smiled, "Sure thing Pedro, and throw in a few extra today if you can spare them, and maybe one of those health biscuit things you make."
She watched as he went about packing a selection of donuts into a box for her and then started on her coffee.
"No uniform today officer?" he said as he placed her order onto the shelf.
"No uniform anymore at all actually, I made Detective two weeks ago," Gail replied, blushing when she saw the pride on Pedro's face, dropping her eyes to the box in front of her. Sometimes she wished her mother would look at her that way. All she got from her when she'd heard about the promotion was a card with the word congratulations printed in gaudy red letters on the inside, her mother had scribbled four words in the card - don't screw this up.
He was still beaming down at her when she looked up. "I always knew you were meant for great things. Detective Gail Peck, that has a nice ring to it." He winked at her, causing her blush to deepen further.
Gail cleared her throat and reached for her wallet in the back pocket of her jeans. "Oh no, no, this one's on the house," Pedro said, refusing to take the money Gail held out to him. "Well done on your promotion Detective Peck."
"Thanks Pedro," Gail said with a shy smile. She picked up the box and the coffee and made her way to the door, throwing a quick wave over her shoulder as she pushed out the door.
She looked over at the coffee sitting on top of the donut box on her passenger seat. Another cup was probably not a good idea. She wondered if the doctor was a coffee drinker, bribery might come in useful somewhere along the line, she thought to herself with a smile.
V
Gail strolled into the morgue, coffee and donuts in hand. She made her way over to the front desk and smiled when she saw Tony behind the desk. The guard was a burly man in his late forties with thinning brown hair. Gail had worked hard for the little soft spot he had for her, it was always a good idea to have someone like Tony on your side. He may not look it but he was the town gossip, he knew anything and everything there was to know about anybody in the Toronto police world.
"Hey Tony," she greeted him, opening the box of donuts for him to inspect. "Donut?" she asked as he smacked his lips together.
"Hey Gail. Don't mind if I do," he said, picking up a caramel glaze in his pudgy fingers. "So what brings you all the way out here to the morgue on such a fine day?"
"I'm looking for Dr Stewart actually, she picked up a John Doe who's case I'm working." Gail said as she watched Tony munch his donut.
"Oh yeah, the guy from the lake. She's just started with him over in bay two. This is her first case since she transferred in from Vancouver. Rumour has it she is pretty good at what she does. Heard the bosses think she's quite a catch, plan on grooming her to take over the head honcho position pretty soon. If it happens in the next two years she'll be the youngest pathologist ever to head the Toronto lab," he said as he popped the last piece of his donut into his mouth and started licking the icing off of his fingers.
Gail gestured to the box, signalling that he should help himself to another donut, she wanted to keep Tony talking for a little longer and maybe get a little more dirt on the new doctor. You never knew what could come in handy one day.
Tony took a big bite of the cream filled he had in his hand and continued, "Graduated top of her class from med school at McGill, stayed on there to complete her pathology residency then moved on to Vancouver's medical examiners office after that. She helped them close some tough cases up there. Little bit of a genius our Dr Stewart." He chewed for a while before looking around conspiratorially before beckoning Gail closer. "You didn't hear this from me missy but I've been told by a reliable source that our Doc in there is a bit of a hit with the ladies, if you know what I mean," he whispered near Gail's ear as she leant over the counter.
Gail grinned, bingo. That was totally something she could use. Gail knew she was a bit of a looker and wasn't averse to using that to get what she wanted. Hell, a little harmless flirting never hurt anyone and besides if it got her what she needed to solve a case quicker who was she to look a gift horse in the mouth.
VI
She stood outside the autopsy suite observing Dr Stewart through the glass for a minute. The body was unwrapped from the tarp and underlying carpet which she noted were spread out on separate tables to the left of the gurney that held the now naked elderly looking man. The doctor was busy with her external examination, scribbling furiously on a body diagram as she walked around the gurney inspecting the body from every angle. Ever so often she would push her glasses back up her nose with her left hand. As she rounded the body for the second time she caught sight of Gail through the glass and stopped. She tilted her head to the left and gave Gail a questioning lop sided grin, as if to say,'why are you out there?'
Gail raised the now half empty box of donuts and the coffee she was still clutching for the Doctor to see. Dr Stewart put down the clip bored and shed her apron and gloves as she made her way to the door, stopping briefly to wash her hands before stepping out of the autopsy suite and making her way over to Gail.
"And here I was thinking you had a weak stomach detective," the Doctor said with a grin as she stopped next to where Gail stood.
"Nah, just not all that keen on contaminating my breakfast," Gail replied, holding the coffee cup out towards the brunette who hesitated before reaching for it. She hadn't expected such a kind gesture from the detective. Gail narrowed her eyes and withdrew the coffee before Holly's hand could close around it. "You aren't going to contaminate my breakfast are you?" She asked as she ran her eyes up and down the brunette's body suspiciously.
Holly chuckled, holding up her hands in defence, "Nope, left all the icky protective gear inside and I've scrubbed my hands too."
Gail eyed her suspiciously for another few seconds before extending her hand holding the coffee toward the brunette once again.
Holly hummed in appreciation as she sipped the warm liquid. "Thanks," she said as she wrapped her long fingers around the cup.
"I didn't know how you take your coffee so I kind of guessed. You look like a low fat milk no sugar kind of girl." Gail said as she lifted the lid on the box and picked out an apple danish, her favourite, and took an enormous bite out of it. She turned the box toward Holly who just raised an eyebrow at her skeptically.
"You call this breakfast? Do you eat like this every morning?" Holly asked amused, "If so I don't even want to know what your cholesterol levels are like."
"Hey, I brought you coffee. I was being nice, which means you don't get to bad mouth my choice of sustenance." Gail said, pretending to be offended. "Or I might just take that coffee back," she said around a mouthful of gooey apple cinnamony goodness.
Holly clutched the coffee cup closer to her chest theatrically as she looked back at Gail who was still munching on her danish. "I won't say another word."
Gail nodded in approval as she took another pastry from the box while still chewing her last bite of the previous one. "And if you look carefully you will notice that I even picked up one of the ridiculous health biscuits for you, but now I don't think you deserve it anymore." She said as she started closing the box again.
Holly's stomach chose just that moment to growl rather loudly, causing Gail to smirk. "So what do you say nerd, seems your stomach really wants your disgusting cookie," Gail said wiggling the box in front of Holly's nose.
Holly turned to face Gail completely, putting on her best puppy dog eyes she said, "Please may I have the awesome health cookie you went out of your way to procure just for me." She blinked at Gail a few times, pouting her lips. Gail stood very still watching her for a few seconds, making no move to open the box. Just when Holy thought she was never going to get her cookie and had resigned herself to going hungry for a few more hours Gail shrugged and opened the box for her.
She reached in to pick up the cookie, her eyes flickering up to Gail's face as she grabbed the only other apple danish in the box and retracted her hand quickly and taking a bite.
"Hey!" Gail exclaimed in indignation, "That's not yours, put it back."
Holly put on the most innocent look she could muster and pointed at the danish. "But I've contaminated it," she said as she took another bite. Gail scowled at Holly as she slowly finished off the danish, purposefully enjoying every bite. Gail threw her hands up in a huff, she picked up the box to go leave at the front desk for Tony to finish off the last two donuts and the horrible biscuit.
"Hey, what about my health cookie?" Holly asked with a smile as Gail stomped off.
"You don't deserve it nerd," she called behind her as she rounded the corner.
Holly chuckled, this was going to be interesting, she thought to herself as she made her way back into the autopsy suit to gown and glove for the internal examination.
VII
Holly was elbow deep in the victim's chest cavity when Gail reappeared. She honestly hadn't expected her to come back after her earlier theatrics. She raised an eyebrow at her from under her face shield as she removed the heart from its place within the mediastinum and placed it onto the scale to her left, noting it's mass.
"What," Gail said, looking from Holly to the heart in the steal dish, "I came here for answers and now I'm damn well going to get a few seeing as you stole my danish. This is a give and take kind of relationship Dr Stewart."
"Holly," said the brunette as she stuck her hands back into the thoracic cavity intent on removing the lungs next. "Seeing as we have reached the stage where I steal your food I think we should probably be on a first name basis."
"Gail," said the blonde detective simply as she watched as Holly removed both lungs, making a note regarding their colour and consistency before reaching for a large knife, slicing into one and inspecting the underlying tissue. Gail had inched closer to get a better look as the doctor worked.
"If you plan on standing that close I suggest you put on some protective gear, unless you'd like to wear bloody clothes for the rest of the day." Holly said as the detective lent over the body to get a better look. She pointed out the shoe covers, gowns and face shields near the doorway and watched out of the corner of her eye as Gail complied and covered up. She shook her head as Gail made her way back over, this woman was very intriguing indeed.
Gail silently watched the pathologist work for a few minutes more before clearing her throat to get Holly's attention. "So what can you tell me so far?" She asked, focusing her attention on Holly's steady hands as she slid the liver from the abdomen and inspected it closely.
"Well, our victim is Martin Brandenburg, a 67 year old Toronto native, confirmed by his drivers licence and I also took the liberty of requesting and comparing his dental records to known records on file. He is definitely our guy. I found his wallet in the front pocket of his shorts when we unwrapped him earlier. I receipted it to officer Price who took it over to prints to check if anyone else may have touched it seeing as it was devoid of any cash. His external exam came back clear, I couldn't find any external signs of trauma. No obvious contusions, incisions or lacerations severe enough to have caused his death. Although I did find a small mark in his right cubical fossa in keeping with a blood draw of IV injection of some kind. That could be significant, we'll know more once the tox results come back. I managed to get hold of his primary care physician who provided us with a medical history, he had a Myocardial infarction two years ago and his cardiologist had to stent his left anterior descending artery. He is also an insulin dependent type 2 diabetic and suffered from hypertension."
Holly looked over to see Gail giving her a disdainful look, "Not all of us speak nerd lunchbox, how about plain english."
Holly gave her an apologetic look, "Sorry, sometimes I forget. Basically he's had a heart attack, had a problem controlling his blood sugar so he needed to inject himself with insulin and took medicine for his blood pressure."
"So basically what you are saying is you don't really know what killed him yet." Gail said looking on while Holly returned the organs she had removed to their respective cavities.
"Not yet no," she said as she began to suture the Y incision closed. "We can definitely rule out trauma and it wasn't a heart attack or a stroke. His brain and internal organs all appear to be normal other than the expected age related changes. Now it's a bit of a waiting game for the histology and toxicology to come back."
Gail looked a bit despondent as she began to strip off her protective gear and dump it into the red trash bins. "What about time of death?" she asked as she lent up against the door frame watching Holly secure the last suture.
"Well his rigor has come and gone. Taking the ambient temperature outdoors, his liver temperature and the general state of the body into account I would put time of death at between 34 and 38 hours ago. He was definitely left in a sitting position for some time after death, at least six hours, and then moved later. She motioned Gail over when she saw the confused look on her face. She folded the victim's arm furthest from her over his chest and bent the knee on the same side, angling it over the other leg facing her, grabbing his shoulder and his hip she rolled the body towards herself with one practiced move. Steadying the body with the hand on his hip she pointed to the reddish purple discolouration over the victims buttocks, thighs and feet. "Livor mortis," she said as she rolled him back carefully. "Starts setting in about 20-30 minutes after death. It's caused by pooling of blood within the subcutaneous tissue due to gravity. If he had been lying on his back you would have seen a completely different pattern."
Gail's i phone pinged as a text landed, she dug it out of her pocket and swiped across the screen to read the message from Diaz. "As much fun as this has been, I've gotta run doc, you know, things to do, people to see⦠murders to solve" she said as she made her way to the door. Just before walking out she turned and did something very un-Gail like. "Thanks for the help nerd." She said, slapping the door frame as she left.
"Any time detective," Holly said with one of her lop sided smiles crossing her face. She lent against the door frame as she watched Gail walk away. "FYI, I can totally be bought with a good pastry!" She called after Gail who chuckled and waved over her shoulder without turning around.
Wow. The only word that came to Holly's mind as she turned back to the body and began to cover it with the sheet. It had been a while since she'd felt this kind of attraction for someone. She'd met her less than 24 hrs ago and already the snarky detective was getting under her skin, in a good way. "Easy there Stewart," she mumbled to herself as she went through the rest of her routine, "you hardly know anything about her, hell, you don't even know if she's gay." Holly sighed as she made her way to her office wondering when she'd get to see Gail again, secretly hoping that fate would throw them together again soon.
