Look After You
Chapter 1: Burnt to a Crisp
"If I don't say this now,
I will surely break"
"What the hell happened here?" Stella asks, covering her nose as she enters the apartment.
"Someone torched this place," Flack says.
"That's a bit obvious."
"I'd say it was no accident. Luckily it was contained in this apartment. The vic is in the bedroom; I can't even begin to tell if it could be the woman who owns the place."
"Do we have witnesses?"
"Nope. The guy in the hall called it in. You want to talk to him?"
"Yeah. Let me take a look around first." After looking around the apartment for five minutes, she joins Don in the hall.
"Find anything?" he asks hopefully.
"Fire originated just inside the door; I'll swab it in a minute for an accelerant. Everything was pretty much ruined by the fire or water. All I can tell you about the vic is that it's a female."
"How can you tell where the fire started?" a man beside Flack asks.
"Light bulbs melt and point to the source of the heat when they reach a certain temperature. The light bulb in the entrance hall way is pointing to the door."
"This is James Morris; he called in the fire," Don tells her. "I'll call and have someone pick up the body soon."
"Okay. I'm Detective Bonasera. Can you tell me how you discovered the fire?"
"I live a few apartments down. I was going home from work and smelled smoke as I was going by this door. When I knocked on the door, it was hot; no one answered so I called 911."
"You didn't try to go in at all?"
"I'm sorry the woman died, but I wasn't going to risk my life by going in there."
"Do you know the woman who lives here?"
"No," he shakes his head. "I probably saw her once or twice, but I don't know her name or anything."
"Thanks for your help. Here's my card if you think of anything else that could help." Stella turns around and gets a swab from her kit.
James is still standing behind her when she starts swabbing the floor in the entry way. "Can I ask you something?"
She faces him, "Sure."
"Do you think… would you like… to get dinner… with me sometime?"
"I… That's not such a good idea. I mean, with you being involved in the case. Not that I think you started the fire."
"Oh. It's alright. Maybe after you solve the case."
"Maybe," she repeats. James wasn't bad looking, and he seemed like a decent man after all.
"I can go, right?"
"Yeah. We'll contact you if we have further questions."
Flack comes up behind her. "What are you still doing out here? Can't you scientists use anything in there? Or are you scared to be in there alone with the body?"
She glares at him. "For your information, I was out here talking to our witness. And no, there isn't much for us to use in there."
"Whoa, Stella, I was just kidding."
She smiles, hitting him lightly on the chest. "You're not funny."
"And Mac is?"
"I don't remember talking about Mac. And he's not funny either."
"What's going on between you two anyway?"
"First, that's none of your business. Second, we're just friends. We may be closer since he and Peyton broke up, but we're nothing more than best friends."
"I won't tell anybody, Stel. Plus you'd be helping me get a few extra bucks."
"You have a bet on us?" she yells incredulously.
"Of course not. But you can't deny the…," he searches for the perfect word, "…chemistry between you and Mac."
A/N: So sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. I'm going to try to post the next chapter tomorrow if you guys review. Then I'll be gone until the eighth because our band is going to play at halftime for the BCS championship football game. Hopefully the time away will make me feel like posting more often. I don't know what's wrong; I just haven't felt like posting stories lately. I'm still writing though. I've got one other one done, plus another I did for CSI Santa, and two stories are started. I'm making progress on the one but am putting the other one off. This story is twnety-four chapters so I hope you guys will stick with it even though it might be a while. And to add to that only about half is typed so far. But my brother starts indoor soccer soon so I should be getting more typing time. And if you didn't care for this chapter, Mac is in the next one, though I don't think there's anything really between them much. But in chapter four it gets exciting. Mac will have to save her from this guy that is stalking her. Sorry, it's not Drew. This was mostly written before that. So... I guess that's it. I hope you all had a good Christmas and have a good New Year. And please review. I'd like to know what you think. Thanks.