Waterfall
By Dimgwrthien
Disclaimer: I do not own CSI: NY or affiliates.
Sounds of rushing water filled their ears, brightening the gloomy day. Mac held a metal bar from an amusement park ride straight in one hand, trying to dust it for fingerprints with the other. Stella heard him curse under his breath.
"Too many people have touched it," she sighed, looking around the crime scene again.
The young man still sat in the front compartment of the ride, the end of the bar shallowly thrust in his throat, tearing it. The cart was his clothes were still wet from when the roller coaster went through the watery plunge to start the ride off.
"It's an amusement park," Stella reminded him, trying to look at the seat behind the boy. "Gum. Could you hand me tweezers and a bag?"
Mac handed them to her and watched her scrap the gum off. "Fingerprints still help."
"Not in an amusement park. Where's the guy working here?"
Turning slightly, Mac called to the man standing behind the control panels. He looked shifty, bouncing from one foot to the other, trying his best to keep his eyes from the body. "Yeah?"
"Could you unhook the cart?"
He nodded quickly, bending next to Stella to start working apart the cart, unhooking it from the trailing ones. Once he finished, he jumped away behind the controls again, eyeing the two. Stella turned to Mac.
"Do we have an evidence bag big enough for this?"
Mac grinned at her. "Alright. We can just look over it here and get someone from the lab to bring it over. I'm not trying to put that in the car."
Both squatted down by the opening into the cart. Mac raised a gloved hand to trace the rusted and torn edges of where the metal bar had attached before. "Obviously from the security bar," he murmured. Stella looked at where he pointed and saw how easily the two edges matched up.
"Why's it rusted, though?"
Mac squinted at it. "Rust is oxygen and water on steel. Takes a while to form this bad." He looked over his shoulder at the man. "How old are these?"
The man shifted, looking up at the sky as he tried to think. "Around four years, maybe."
Mac nodded and turned back. "I'd say they were new, started to rust a little after they were being used. If we could get this up to Hawkes, we could figure out whether the other side is as badly rusted."
Stella stood up, bending the head forehead forward to look. "Rust on the seat where they hit. No point to bothering Hawkes with that."
They stared at the rusted edge again until Stella moved the head back into place and called Mac's name. He glanced up at her hands.
"Look." She tilted the head back into place, letting him hear the heavy cracking and see the awkward bend in the bones. "Broken neck. I didn't do that."
Mac frowned. "Looks consistent with a head being snapped back. Looks like a straight cut in the bone. Sooner we get him into Hawkes, the better."
Stella pulled out her cell phone, nodding at Mac, and dialed back to the lab. Wandering around a several foot radius while she spoke, Stella gave Hawkes the address of the scene and a quick description of it. She paused as he answered, thanked him, and hung up.
"He'll be here in half an hour," she said. "Have you seen anything else?"
Mac glanced around, then climbed into the second cart. "A bit of blood. Not enough to be everything he bled out." He pointed at the vertical drops. "Slid down only a little."
Stella pushed the body forward. On the back and the seat was a trail of blood, thick and slightly wet. "That's where it all went."
They both leaned until they could get a good view of the floor. Only a small puddle of blood sat under the man's feet.
As usual, the two walked around the crime scene several times, finding only a drop or two of blood at a time. Stella swabbed the thick trail behind the man and stuffed the sample away. By the time they had gone over the carts, looking for every bit of evidence they could, Hawkes was standing behind them, looking at the body.
"Any ID yet?"
Stella shook her head. "Not until we send this up to DNA. No one here knows him."
With the help of two police officers who had been standing around the perimeters of the scene, Hawkes managed to load the body into a body bag, slowly carrying it away. "I'll give you a call once I figure something out!" he yelled back at Mac and Stella as he climbed into the car.
The same two police officers took the cart off of the rail and set it on a tarp, wrapping up the edges loosely. Neither of the detectives seemed to notice. Stella turned to the operator.
"Do you think we could get a ride?" she asked.
He jumped a little, then nodded. "Sure, sure! I didn't think you'd want to but…"
"It's evidence." Stella get into next cart, patting the seat for Mac. He raised his eyebrow and sat down. The man worked with the controls for a minute, getting them set, then pressing a button to start up the ride. Stella could hear the chains pulling the cart forward and up the tall hill. The sounds of rushing water came nearer.
At the peak, Mac pointed over the side. "Look. Blood right there." He turned slightly and called back to the controller. "Could you stop it here?"
The man nodded and pushed the button again. The cart fell down the waterslide mountain, gaining speed. The metal security bar seemed to screech at them, making a sharp noise. Stella grabbed onto it, trying to force it back into place, but on of the edges seemed to fray off of the frame, coming up and hitting Mac next to the collar. He grabbed the bar and forced it down with one arm, still yelling back at the controller.
When they hit the water, Stella turned back to Mac, her hair dripping. The ride started to slow, bumping oddly in the waves they created.
"Goddamn it," Mac hissed, getting out of the cart gingerly. Stella flexed her wrists where the bar hit her worst. Mac's voice rose. "Couldn't you have stopped it back there?"
The man looked around, then at Mac. "I tried to! The chains weren't working correctly."
"None of it was," Stella countered, raising the free end of the bar. "Look at this? I think that could have killed someone!"
Still behind the booth, the man's face seemed to melt into the saddest frown either had ever seen. "I was hooked up correctly before! I don't know - I wasn't on the last shift!"
Stella raised her hand, about to yell at him, when her cell phone went off. She gave the man a dirty look and answered it. "Bonasera."
"Stella! I finished with the autopsy. You'll be amused by this."
"What?"
"Perfectly straight cut back on the neck muscles and spine. The bar goes to the side of the spine. I think your vic died from a cracked neck before the bar hit him. The ride was going to fast or stopped too suddenly."
"Yeah, we got that figured out." She rubbed her neck, noticing how much it hurt to move. "Tried looking for evidence. I have a crick and Mac got hit with the bar."
There was silence from his end before he asked, "You went on the ride?"
"Yes. And it's a damn death trap." He glanced up at the man again, noticing that one of the police officers was holding him firmly.
"I need to get out onto the field more often, then," Hawkes said. "Faulty equipment? That's all?"
"I don't think we have a real murderer here except for the manager. Rust from the machines broke the chain and bars, I think."
Hawkes agreed, Stella thanked him, and the both hung up. Stella turned back to Mac, who was questioning the controller about the systems and the manager. The man answered in a low voice, red in the face, looking terrified.
When Mac noticed her, he pulled away from the man. "The officers are looking for the manager now. Put him in prison and be done with the case." He rubbed his collar bone and winced. "Fun ride, wasn't it?"
Stella grinned. "I could have done without it."
"So could I. I'm going to head back to the lab and find an ice pack somewhere."
Stella pulled at his tie, causing Mac to give her a curious look. When she got it off, she unbuttoned his collar enough to see the bone. "No. Don't bother. Get to the doctor. It looks broken." She touched one of the broken edges, watching Mac wince. "And no more metal bars for you."
"I'd rather take the other kind of bar," he sighed. "Want to meet somewhere after work?"
She nodded. "Sure. Drink away memories of the worst amusement park in New York." She clapped his uninjured shoulder. "See you around six."