Disclaimer: The characters of Mark Sloan, Steve Sloan, Amanda Bentley, Jesse Travis, Cheryl Banks and Captain Newman do not belong to me but to CBS, Viacom et al. All other individuals are once again the product of my own undisciplined imagination, and any dubious resemblance to any living person is totally unintentional. With regard to Fairweather's Finest and Choc-o-Fine, as far as I have been able to determine, no such products actually exist, which is probably a good thing.
I don't remember how I ended up with the Easter virtual season episode, but the title came spinning out of nowhere, and one thing just kind of led to another. Thanks to all the VS group who encouraged this sort of thing!
"Yuck," Steve Sloan commented, surveying their latest crime scene. The Easter Bunny Cottage at Benson's Department Store looked like a furious tornado had spun through it; decorations, toys and candy were scattered hither and thither, fat puffs of shredded cotton and bits of cellophane grass lay strewn in every direction. The cottage itself looked like it had attempted, unsuccessfully, to withstand several blows from a sledgehammer; its roof tilted crazily over the three surviving walls, which were pockmarked with holes. The fourth wall seemed to be missing – no, here it was, underneath the central display, which Steve doubted had been the original primary focus. He stepped forward gingerly, sliding on his gloves, reluctant to actually touch what he was seeing.
"You know, if I were a chocoholic, this would definitely make me reconsider," Cheryl remarked. She was squatting next to the loose wall and its grisly contents, poking it cautiously, an expression of distaste on her elegant face.
Unsure he could trust himself to contribute anything intelligent to the conversation just yet, Steve nodded, staring in sick fascination. The wall looked like it had been ripped from the cottage, but the violence of its removal was minor compared to what it held. There sat the largest Easter basket he had ever seen; easily the size of a vat, bulging with fake Easter eggs, candy and toys, wrapped in colored cellophane – and sprawled on top of the contents, inside the cellophane, a very large and very dead Easter bunny, its body as well as what could be seen of the face smeared with chocolate. He turned away in disgust and yelled for the photographer.
"Hey, Andy! Hurry up and get your pictures, will you?"
Unruffled, the police photographer wandered up with his camera and started in calmly. He was sucking on a lollipop and seemed totally unperturbed by the scene in front of him. Steve swallowed thickly, but managed to restrain any comment until the pictures were complete. Then he squatted down next to his partner, and they slowly began to pull at the cellophane around the corpse, loosening it only enough to fold it back so they could make a preliminary examination before the crime scene unit moved in.
Partially exposed, the bunny was even more of a ghastly sight. It was, of course, not a bunny, but a man, presumably Benson's seasonal employee, in a bunny suit. The costume head had been pushed back off of the victim's own, and the ears had been used as a gag, covering what looked like more chocolate as well as shreds of green cellophane grass sticking out of his mouth. He was kneeling in the basket, his hands bound behind him and secured to his ankles. His face was a nasty shade of purplish-white, the eyes bulging either in terror or from lack of air.
Cheryl took a deep breath. "Looks like he may have still been alive when he was – "
"Bagged?" Steve said wryly. "Yeah. And it does look like an execution." He turned to the store manager, who had just returned after making a hasty exit upon getting a good look at the body.
The manager thought for a minute. "We have – had – three Easter bunnies altogether. I'm not sure, but he looks like Howard Ragsdale." He stared at the basket, his hands trembling.
Cheryl rose and put her hand on his shoulder to calm him. "We're going to need his personnel file and any other information the store has for him, Mr. Wilson. Would you mind putting that together for us? We'll let you know if we need you to do anything else here." She watched as he left, obvious relief on his face, and turned back to her partner. "You're thinking mob, Steve?"
He made a face. "Could be. But it's a little out there for their usual style. I mean, a bullet would have sufficed." He stood, idly noticing a twinge of reluctance in one knee and as idly dismissing it, and turned to the CS unit waiting patiently. "All yours, guys. Let us know what you find."
The CS leader nodded, and he and his team got to work. Steve and Cheryl had just started to depart when there was a startled exclamation from one of the analysts, and they turned back. "What is it?" Steve asked.
The tech was holding what looked like a large chunk of chocolate rather gingerly as he examined it. "Hair and blood – the victim was hit with this." He glanced down at the candy-smeared body and grimaced. "Guess once we get this cleaned up, we'll be able to tell if it was the cause of death – "
"Or enough to knock him out so he could be – uh – packaged?" Steve questioned. "By a piece of chocolate?" He sounded doubtful.
The other man pulled a face. "Oh, yes. And not just any piece of chocolate. One's missing, but the other ear's still there."
Steve and Cheryl glanced around at the smiling foil rabbity faces lying about on the floor, then at each other, neither one wanting to express the thought aloud. The tech did it for them. "He was bludgeoned with a solid chocolate bunny." A pause, and then he remarked, "And they sell those to our kids." He shook his head and went back to his work, leaving the two detectives to make their exit, pensively considering the ramifications of potentially lethal Easter candy.