Disclaimer: I do not own CSI:NY nor any of the characters. I only own the characters I created and the idea of this story.
So, I've decided to take a bit of a break from the genera I usually write for and try something different.
This is just my take on a case that could occur with the CSI: NY team. Some scenes may be a bit disturbing, but then again when isn't a murder crime disturbing. Don't worry I'll post a warning before each chapter that may have a scene that may be a bit crude.
So without further ado…Cold Hearted
**Warning: A scene in the chapter may be a bit disturbing to some people. Read with caution.**
Chapter One
The New York club scene is one that many visitors and patrons have been known to venture out on no matter what day of the week it is. But what is to be expected from the city that never sleeps? For many people, the club scene is a place to forget their lives for just a little while and become fools to the loud music and booze. For others it is some much more; a heaven and a hell all in one.
At Club Bacchus in the East Village, the normal house and funk music that is usually heard from the streets has now been temporarily replaced by the sounds of remixed pop songs being sung and danced by a few NYU students of the Greek Life. Various sorority and fraternity members participate in Mock Rock Week. A week long celebration and contest that the Greek houses put on to raise money for local charities and for bragging rights amongst the students. In reality, it's just another excuse for new pledges, current members, and some alumni to come out and have a good time acting crazy and such.
The crowd of nearly two hundred people bump and grind to the sounds blaring through the speakers, as the current team dances up on the make shift stage. The members of the Phi Kappa Lambda frat dance to the sounds of Christina Aguilera while dressed like members of the Pussycat Dolls.
Unknown to the crowd below, a dark figure wrapped a long rope around the edge of the cat walk. He then wrapped the noose end around something next to him.
As one of the sorority girls acting as the MC got up on the stage, she ushered the guys off. "Give it up to the PKL boys!!"
The crowd whooped and hollered while a few of the other frats booed the competition. The dark figure above slightly laughed at the crowd unbeknown of what they were about to witness.
"Okay now, as we all know this is the 15th anniversary of our little soiree, and as a treat we have a surprise to all of the alumni that are hear tonight and have helped keep this event going for so long. So let's take a look back at some past competitions," yelled the bubbly girl.
The club lights dimmed a bit as a video montage began to show on the makeshift big screen. As the crowd laughed and cheered at the different years and houses flashed up on the screen the figure on the catwalk grunted as he picked up the large tarp at his feet. He slowly moved toward the edge of railing and let the object in his arms fall to the crowd below.
Just as the crowd was watching the girls of Tau Kappa Omicron's first winning performance, a large canvas fell upon the stage to the sound of blood curling screams. Dangling from a noose was the body of a girl, covered in blood, and disemboweled.
About twenty minutes later, the NYPD showed up and began to assess the scene. As uniformed officers and detectives took statements, the paramedics and medical examiner took care of the area around the stage and body. A few minutes later, Detectives Mac Taylor, Stella Bonasera, and Sheldon Hawkes entered the club and took in the scene.
"What have we got here?" asked Mac as he met up with Detective Don Flack.
"A real messed up one here. And I mean really messed up," said Flack as he lead the team to the crime scene. The three CSIs took in the body hanging from the cat walk with half of her internal organs spilled out from her body.
"Victim has been identified as Michelle Verlander, twenty-one year old student at NYU. She was here with her sorority for some charity event," commented Flack as he read off his notes from his pad.
"Geez," Hawkes sighed as he took in the body and how precise the cutting was. Stella shook off her nerves knowing that she had a job to do. Mac on the other hand stood around taking in everything and who was still around for questioning.
"Okay, let's get to work," ordered Mac as he turned to his team. "Hawke take the catwalk. I'll have Adam check the back when he gets here. Stella, you and I will handle things out here."
"Got it Mac," said Sheldon as he headed off to where the stairs for the catwalk were.
"How's it going, Doc? Haven't seen you in awhile," commented Flack as he showed the CSI where to go.
"Oh, you know. Just your average typical Sunday night," Hawkes teased. "Still amazes me how creative people can be."
"You ask me, this perp has seen one to many slasher films," said Flack before walking away and continuing his questioning.
As Mac dealt with processing and taking pictures of the body and the stage, Stella began to take photos of the rest of the bar and looked around the stage area for clues of any sort. A few feet away from them, a uniformed officer questioned a young couple who looked physically shaken up.
"So what you're telling me is that you didn't see anything," the tough uniformed asked trying to get them to crack.
"No," croaked the girl. "We were just watching the show and what was on the screens."
"We didn't see anything until…that happened," added the young man as he gestured toward the stage. He grabbed a hold of his girlfriend who was shaking like a leaf.
"You two didn't see a shadow? No masked guy or hooded figure?" questioned the officer.
"No! How many times do we have to tell you," cried the girl.
"Look ma'am all I'm trying to find out is what happened to your friend," said the officer realizing that he may have over stepped his questions.
"Well I don't know! Okay! One minute everything is fine and the next…it's like a scene from Saw or Hostel!" yelled the girl.
"Hey!" yelled a woman as she walked over toward the three of them. "Lay off them. Can't you tell that they are in shock?"
The woman of about late twenties or early thirties wrapped a blanket around the frazzled girl and forced her to look at her.
"You're going to be okay, hon," she said softly to the young woman before turning toward her boyfriend. "You think you can walk her over to those paramedics by the door?" The young man nodded eager to get away from the police and away from the horror scene.
Once the young couple, the woman then turned toward the young looking officer. "What the hell is the matter with you? Couldn't you tell that they were completely upset to be questioned or are you just too eager to show off in front of your superiors?"
"Ma'am I don't think that is any of your business," commented the officer.
"No, you're right. It is none of my business to witness a hot shot uniform harassing the hell out of two kids. Nope, just another one of the NYPD's finest trying to make a name for himself," barked the woman.
Flack was finishing up with a witness when he heard some sort of commotion going on a few feet behind him. When he turned around, he saw a woman of about five four with light brown hair arguing with a new uniform officer. As he walked over to help calm the situation down, he caught the tail end of her rant.
"Hey Richards, go take a walk," ordered Flack as he fully took in the irate woman. "You want to calm down there ma'am. What seems to be the problem?"
The woman tried to not roll her eyes as she now had to deal with clearly a detective now. "Oh nothing really, just another rookie trying to make it the big bad department by bullying a couple of frightened kids."
The moment the words left her mouth she knew she was in for it. "Sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I just…hate it when people do stupid things."
"Well people do act differently when they witness things out of the ordinary," said Flack trying to use his words carefully as he glanced over at the body. The woman followed where his eyes had gone too.
"Oh, that's nothing compared to what I've seen over the years," said the woman. Flack raised his eyebrows at her comment as a few warning bells began to go off in his head.
"Sorry," cringed the woman. "I tend to have a problem with inserting my foot into my mouth."
Flack nodded at her apology as he opened his book once again to take down her information. "You've seen worse?"
"Sort of. I'm an ER resident at Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit."
The warning bells began to subside after hearing her line of work and realized that she was telling the truth. "You're a long way from home then Doctor…?"
"Madsen. Alexis Madsen. I'm in New York for a conference at the Waldorf Astoria," said Alexis as she watched the young looking detective take down her statement.
"What brings you here tonight, Doc?" asked Flack as he looked into her blue-grey eyes.
"I ran into a couple of old friends and we came here to catch up Detective…"Alexis answered as she tried to get his name.
"Flack. You frequently come to college bars?" Flack asked a little suspicious of why she was actually here.
"No not really. Only when I want to take a trip down memory lane," she said with a hint of sarcasm in her tone. Flack raised an eyebrow at her statement, but deep down he swallowed the small chuckle that wanted to break free.
Taking his silence a means of not being amused, she clarified what she meant to say. "My friends and I were part of one the sororities that were competing tonight when we attended NYU. We just wanted to see how much had changed."
"So you're here reliving your youth?" he questioned. He was a bit surprised that someone that looked to be about his age would be trying to relive the past so quickly. He normally knew women in their mid to late thirties try and recapture their 'glory days of beauty'.
Alexis chuckled at his question understanding how it may look anyone outside of her circle of friends. "Actually it was more like having a laugh at what these kids have thought up. This is far more…elaborate then when I was a student." 'Wow that made me just sound like some old lady.'
"Okay then. So what did you see while you're with your party," asked Flack returning back to tough cop mode.
"Well I was with my friends at one of the tables near the bar. We were watching the video clips that were on the screen. I felt my phone go off in my purse, so I bent down to pick it up. The next think I heard were the screams and saw the body dangling from the catwalk," said Alexis as a small chill ran down her back upon remembering the scene. "I then called 911 and saw a couple of girls get hurt while everyone was trying to get out. I went over to help and keep those from getting injured any worse then they already were."
"Where was this?" Don asked.
"Uhh…over there," nodded Alexis toward an area some ten feet directly behind Flack.
"Okay then. Did you see anything else? Hear anything?"
"Just screams. But I did see someone heading back behind the stage area. Didn't get a good look at him."
"You're sure it was a man?"
"Yes. He was about five eleven, maybe six, six one at most."
"Hair color?"
"Dark? He could have been wearing a hat or something. I'm sorry. Like I said, I only saw him for a split second."
"No. That's fine. So then you continued to attend to the injured?"
"Until the paramedics arrived. Then a kid started having an asthma attack, so I got him calmed down enough. Then I ran into the hot shot rookie," said Alexis getting a little agitated just thinking about how the uniform was acting.
"Why don't we lay off the name calling for now doc," said Flack a little defensively.
Alexis could tell that she was dealing a cop that would stick up for any of his fellow comrades no matter if he or she was in the wrong. 'Oh great. I just pissed him off even more.'
"Sorry," she said apologetically. "I just have a difficult time dealing with the boys in blue thinking that scaring kids who are already frightened out of their minds is going to get them somewhere."
"You deal with a lot of officers in your line of work?" asked Don.
"More so then I would like too. Especially with all the corruption with the DPD and everything else that went on in the city. Plus it also doesn't really help when you have several relatives working for the department," said Alexis off handedly.
"Father? Brother?"
"Uncles and cousins, especially in Chicago and here in the city. Now do you want to know what I got on my sixth birthday or are you finished playing twenty questions about my life, which frankly is none of your business," Alexis snapped. Normally she held all officers with the highest respect, but there was something about this one that just seemed a bit…off.
"Simply asking a few questions here Doc," said Flack trying to keep his own temper in check.
"And finding out my family history is a matter of importance to this case?" she spat out quicker than she could stop herself.
"I'm starting to not like your tone," Flack growled.
"Well, frankly I'm getting a little tired of your bullshit questions that are none of your business, Detective."
Flack was about retort to this smart mouth doctor, when he was stopped by Stella. "Hey Flack I think we got something here."
Stella saw that Flack was getting into a pretty heated argument with one of the witnesses and quickly decided to put a stop to it before he did something he would regret later on or possibly cost him a headache with a complaint. However once she had gotten there and saw whom he was arguing with, her entire mood changed.
"Lexie?" questioned Stella.
Alexis had closed her eyes a moment before the joining officer decided to step in. She silently thanked the gods for sending this person before she had done something that would have probably landed her in jail for the evening. But when she heard the officer called her by her nickname, it took her off guard.
Upon opening her eyes she found she was face to face with an old friend. "Stella? Oh my god! Wow!" laughed Alexis as she went to give her a hug.
"W-what are you doing here? I thought you were still in Detroit?" asked Stella as she wrapped her arms around the young woman she thought of as a younger sister.
"I am. I'm in town for a conference, and I happened to meet up with some friends," Alexis chuckled as she scratched the back of her neck. As the two women began to catch up for a bit with Flack looking on, the three of them heard a voice from behind.
"Hey Stell, did you…" said Mac until he caught a look at whom his colleague was talking too. "Lex?"
"Hey Mac," chuckled Alexis as she shook her head. "Should have known you'd be here too."
Mac stared at her for a moment before a smile broke across his face. "Come here you." He quickly discarded his gloves into his kit before wrapping his arms around his favorite cousin.
"I've missed you," he said soft to her as he gave her a quick squeeze.
"Missed you, too," Alexis replied as she gave him a peck on the cheek before pulling away.
"Why didn't you call me to tell me you were in town?" he questioned. "When did you get in?"
"Whoa! Take it easy there big cuz! I got in this morning and I did you call…twice. But apparently you didn't check your messages," laughed Alexis as she shook her head. "I knew I should have called the lab. I would have probably had better luck there."
"Yeah yeah yeah," said Mac as he tried to not roll his eyes. He noticed Don standing there for a moment before he began to walk away from them.
"Flack, wait. I'd like to introduce the pride of the Taylor family…."
"More like the headache and black sheep," said Alexis in a low tone. Mac gave her a quick glare before continuing his introduction.
"My cousin Alexis Taylor-Madsen."
"We've met," said Flack dryly.
Alexis glared at the detective for a moment at him for his tone before explaining to Stella and Mac. "Yes, your friend here was just questioning me about what happened."
"While stopping her from pissing off one of the uniforms," Flack added.
Alexis turned to face Flack before firing back her own response. "Your uniform was lucky that those kids were in shock and didn't threaten to have mommy and daddy sue your department."
"Hey we can take care of ourselves," Flack retorted.
"I'm sure you can there Kojak," Alexis replied before being pulled away by Mac.
"Okay, I think that's enough," said Stella as she pushed Flack in the opposite direction. "Lexie I'll catch up with you later."
"Sure Stell. It was a pleasure meeting you detective," she yelled. Once she turned back around to face Mac she knew she was in for it.
"Lex what the hell was that?" he asked, amazed at his cousin's behavior.
Alexis sighed deeply as she tried to calm down with her encounter. "Sorry Mac. I know he's one of your guys, but…seeing them treat those kids like that…"
"Hey Flack's a good guy. He's just going through some hard times now," said Mac offhandedly. He watched as Stella took Flack outside for some air and felt a bit sorry for him. Ever since Jessica Angell's death, some six months prior, his comrade and friend hadn't been the same.
"Aren't we all these days?" Alexis questioned as she took a deep breath.
Mac let out a small chuckle at her remark. He didn't realize until this moment how much he missed this woman that he thought of more as a sister then a cousin. "So what are you doing here Lexie?"
"I'm in for a conference that I'm presenting at. When I arrived at JFK I ran into my old friend Jane. She's in town for this, Mock Rock," explained Alexis.
"Mock Rock?"
Alexis explained what the event really was and how the Greek Houses of NYU raised money for several charities and local hospitals.
"Is this a one night deal?" he asked.
"It used to be. Now it's pretty much a week long event," said Alexis.
"Students have time for all of this?" Mac questioned as he took in the club scene.
"Mac, since when have you known college students to not make up an excuse to not study?"
"Good point. So…you and Jane came here for this anniversary and then what?"
"We had a couple of drinks with some other people we knew. Then my phone went off and then all hell broke loose," said Alexis as she shook her head while glancing at the body. "Mac I've seen some pretty gruesome things. But to pull this at a charity event?"
Mac nodded in understanding wondering the same thing. "Did you see anything or anyone?"
"I told Columbo over there everything I saw. There was someone that went out the back way but I didn't really get a good look at him," Alexis said as she nodded toward where Flack and Stella stood looking over evidence.
Mac raised an eyebrow at her comment before asking his next question. "Where are you staying at Lex?"
"The ASCP is putting me up at the Waldorf," said Alexis casually.
"How tragic for you," commented Mac dryly which caused a smile to spread across Alexis's face.
"Mac can I leave now? I'm really tired and it's been a very long night," she asked as she rubbed her tired eyes.
"Yeah. Yeah, I need to get back to the scene. I'll call you later?"
"Okay. If you remember," she said with a smirk. "I'll see you later cuz."
Mac shook his head as he made sure she left the scene without any hassle. A small smile remained on his face until he put another pair of latex gloves on and went back to work.
Well there is chapter one!
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