Animal Passions
By
Tracy Wood
Disclaimer: This is a work of fan-fiction, written, and hopefully read, strictly for enjoyment. The main characters of Mark, Steve, Amanda, and Jesse, as well as Alex, Cheryl, CJ, Dion, Agent Ron Wager, Captain Newman and Chief Masters are from the series Diagnosis Murder, and as such are the property of CBS/Viacom. All other characters, especially Detective Reagan Yeager, her family, Jo/Texas Walters, Martin Robertson, Officer Campbell, Theresa Mulligan, and Doctor Dobson, the Worthington's and all the activists are mine.
This is the continuation of Rae's life in Los Angeles. The story starts a few months after Following In Her Footsteps finished. You don't need to have read that story or the first one of the series, Suffer Little Children, but as you will find out who the murderers were by reading this one, you may like to read them first. I am grateful for all the kind words I received about both my other stories, they were my first efforts and the reviews were much appreciated. I hope you will review this one too.
Once again my thanks go to my wonderful beta reader, this wouldn't be such a pleasure without her.
Vicious Animals
Steve and Rae drove towards the precinct. They had just finished giving evidence in the Levington Case.
"Glad that's ended?" Steve turned to look at his partner, he hadn't realised that he had been concerned about today, but he felt considerably happier now that it was over. He'd just given evidence, but only for about two hours. Rae had been on the witness stand for the last five days. Now all they had to do was wait for the verdict.
"Oh, yeah, I can't tell you how much. You know I've been practicing that in my mind over and over, the last couple of weeks. In some ways it all seems such a long time ago. I was afraid I would forget something and he would walk. I couldn't do that to Jesse, or everybody else who was involved." She smiled across at him, but her smile turned to concern as she felt the brakes being slammed on.
"What the…?" Steve looked through the windshield. He had been about to turn into the parking lot, but the entrance was full of people with placards.
The protester nearest to the car put his head in Rae's open window. "Hey, pig! The law protects the wrong animals." She saw Steve move for his gun, but Rae put her finger on the man's forehead.
"I suggest you move!" She pushed gently, and to her surprise and immense relief the face moved backwards.
Steve immediately pressed the window control hoping that it would work. His car was due in the shop to have it fixed. When they had left the courtroom parking lot and Rae had opened the window to pay the fee it had refused to close. This time however, everything worked as it should and the window slid silently shut. He placed his hand on the horn and having blasted it a couple of times slowly edged the car forward. The demonstrators called his bluff until the last moment and then they parted and he drove to his regular parking space.
Rae got out of the car and looked back. She reckoned there were about twenty people milling around by the entrance. She turned and followed Steve into the precinct.
"Morning, Bob, I gather we have somebody in here that our visitors outside would like back." Rae smiled at the desk sergeant. She noticed that he looked a little stressed.
"We have three people they would like back, Detective. They're all animal rights activists. They were demonstrating outside Worthington Laboratories this morning, apparently those we have here decided to try to enter the building, and got violent when they were stopped."
"Oh, well, nothing to do with us, I'm pleased to say. My caseload is too heavy as it is. See you later, Bob." Rae turned and walked up the stairs. Steve hadn't waited while she chatted and was sitting at his desk surrounded by files.
They had spent the last two weeks investigating the shooting of a night watchman on the docks. At first they had thought that they would be able to solve it with a little luck, but now they knew that luck wasn't on their side and they were about to file most of the information away, and move onto more current cases.
"Do you want me to take those down to records for you?" Rae looked over at her partner, he looked tired and a little down now that they were in the precinct. He didn't answer her so she tried again. "Would you like me to take those down to records for you?" When he still didn't reply she walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. "Steve, are you all right?"
"What, oh, sorry, Rae, did you say something?" He had obviously been miles away.
"What's up?" She sat down on the corner of his desk and looked at her friend with concern in her eyes.
"Lucy dumped me last night."
"Oh, Steve, I'm sorry. Do you want to tell me about it, or would you rather I left you in peace for a little while?"
"No, I'm fine, we hadn't been together that long, it's just that she couldn't even tell me to my face, there was a note waiting on the mat for me when I got home last night." He got up, took an armful of files and left the room.
Rae let him go, she knew that he had said all that he was going to, and that he would probably prefer her space to her company right now. She went over and made two drinks, coffee for Steve and an herbal tea for herself. She smiled, when she had got back from London, she'd found a box of herbal tea bags by the coffee machine and kettle. That had been a couple of months ago now, she had no idea if anybody else used them, but it made her feel at home.
There was a sudden commotion in the hallway outside, and the chanting sounds of the protestors floated into the squad room, closely followed by five masked demonstrators.
"Free the innocent… Animals have rights too… Pigs are cruel to animals …" Rae spun round to find herself eye to eye with the man who had got so close to her as they tried to enter the parking lot.
"Hold it right there, buddy. I don't think you really want to be in here, unless you would like me to arrest you for something." Bob was suddenly standing behind the activist, his face set like stone.
"Yeah, pig, and what can you charge me with? This is a public building. Anybody can come in here."
"Only as far as the front desk. This is the homicide division, where we always have a few unsolved cases floating about. Now out!"
The protestor spat at Bob and moved closer to Rae. Instinctively her hand reached for her gun, but she didn't remove it from her holster. Her eyes never left him, and she saw him move his fingers. She went to draw her gun and heard another one being cocked behind him.
"Freeze. Drop the weapon, or I'll fire." Steve was standing in the doorway; he looked a lot taller than his six foot two inch frame.
Rae saw and heard the knife fall to the ground. She took her handcuffs off the back of her belt and hauled the man round and not too gently she cuffed him, and pushed him towards Bob. "I think this belongs to you!"
"You were a bit slow off the mark there, we need to go to the range and practice your draw!" Steve walked over to her.
"Hey, I was there, a second behind you, but I was there!" She looked at him. "You wouldn't have shot him in here would you? My God, the paperwork alone would be enough to make me think twice."
"If he'd taken another step towards you, yes I would have. Look at this, it would do serious damage." Steve held up a knife in his gloved hand. The blade was about six inches long and had several jagged points to it, which, due to their angle, wouldn't have caused more damage going in, but would have shredded the flesh when it was removed.
Rae shuddered. "These guys mean business. How did they get in here?"
"Brute force and ignorance I guess, but he's right, this is a public building. They left their placards outside, and didn't pull on their masks until they reached the stairs." Steve smiled as Rae handed him the coffee she had been making. They walked back over to Steve's desk and he sat down. "You realise that you are gonna have to make a statement about what happened? You didn't have any plans for tonight did you?"
Rae groaned. "Great. No, nothing much, I was going to do all those fun things that I normally do on a Monday evening. Washing, some tidying up, maybe if I'm lucky, a little reading. You know the drill, all the things that you somehow get out of, living with your dad!" Rae smiled at him as she spoke. She sometimes wondered whether it wasn't just the job that scared the girls off, but the fact that every time they went home with him they had to get past his dad. Mark was a wonderful man, gentle, kind, funny, and he had a very special place in her heart, but she had to admit that if she were dating Steve, at her age, she would find it disconcerting to find his father at home.
Rae shook herself. A few months ago Jesse would've had a fit if he knew that she had even joined the two words dating and Steve together in the same sentence, but he had got over his insecurities, and their relationship was stronger than ever. "What files do you want to keep up here? I think we ought to keep the first set of notes that we made, and then maybe the weekly appraisals we did. That way if any names, or other pieces of information that are relevant come up we will at least have a bit of idea what we are actually looking for." She was separating files as she spoke. Soon there were six files in one pile and about thirty-eight in another. She saw Steve nod, and so she picked up the larger pile and headed out towards records.
Steve sat down. He was annoyed that they hadn't found out who killed the night watchman. From what they had discovered Matthew Franks had been a nice guy. Married, two kids and a mortgage. Nothing out of the ordinary probably just being in the wrong place at the wrong time had caused his death. He wished that he could solve all of his cases although he knew that was unrealistic, but for some reason this one bugged him. He looked up to see Rae walk back into the room, closely followed by the newest recruit to the detective division and a good friend of hers, Martin Robertson.
"Hey, Martin, what brings you to the hallowed turf of homicide, Detective." Steve put great emphasis on the last word and watched with amusement as a blush crept up the young man's face.
"Uh, I need to speak to Rae about Neville Grump."
"Who?" Steve looked confused. He heard Rae try to suppress a giggle, and fail.
"Neville Grump? Oh, boy, I bet he loves his mother. So, who pray tell is Mr. Grump?" Rae was still sniggering.
"Our animal rights protestor, the one who pulled a knife on you. I need to get your statement. This is my case. Well this and the breaking and entering at the lab. Apparently they haven't had much trouble there before, which surprises me. But still, life's full of them so they say."
Rae put her hand on Martin's shoulder. "Do you want me to come with you then, and I can tell you what happened. It shouldn't take long."
"Ok, if you would like to follow me… Detective." He smiled at her and they left the room.
Rae hadn't been gone more than about thirty seconds when her phone range. Steve got up and moved over to her desk. "Detective Yeager's phone… Oh, hi, Jess. No she's not here right now… Do you want me to get her to ring you? Oh, about an hour I would guess… Ok, see you then."
Steve sat back down with a rueful smile. He was glad that Rae and Jesse had survived the storm that had been Phil Levington, at one point he had wondered whether they would. But if he was honest, sometimes he did get a pang of jealousy when he saw them together. She was a cop too, so how come she had found somebody who was so accommodating of what she did? Oh, well, maybe he wasn't destined to be married with children.
"Hey, Steve," He was brought out of his meanderings by a voice coming across the room. "Rae wants you to go down to the main entrance."
Steve looked round, he couldn't see who had spoken, so he shrugged and wandered down the stairs. They had been back in the squad room for about two hours; all they had done was shuffle files.
Rae was standing by the front desk. "Ah, we have a slight problem here." Rae looked worried. "Martin is in the interview room down the hallway, our Mr. Grump has pulled another knife and has him in there. I hadn't gone in, so I moved away, but I'm not going back alone. Bob said that you're a trained negotiator, so it's all yours."
"Ok." Rae watched fascinated, as Steve seemed to change his personality. "Right, Rae, Bob, what do we know about this guy Grump?"
"Not much. The other four demonstrators have been interviewed and released. They weren't armed, and all of them said that Grump was the leader." Rae looked at the information she had on a pad in front of her. "Martin threw this backwards as he was grabbed, to give us some information I guess. He's pretty cool under pressure, isn't he?"
"Looks like he is gonna need to be. Rae where's his gun?"
Rae pointed to the weapon, which was lying just outside the interview room door. "He made Martin drop it before they went in. I guess with a knife at his throat, he didn't have much choice."
Bob, I want you to access the files and find out whether he has a record, and any medical history you can find. Rae, you're with me." With that, Steve headed for the interview room. The rest of the rooms close by had been quietly evacuated and soon, apart from Martin and his captor, Rae and Steve were the only people there. They chose their vantage point in the hallway with care.
Steve made sure that they kept out of sight of the two men, but close enough to advance if the situation changed. He knew that he needed more than he had to go on before he could safely talk Martin out of that room alive. It was five minutes before Bob gestured to Rae who quietly moved back towards him.
Speaking in a voice that was no more than a whisper Bob let her know what he had found out as she took hurried notes. "Apparently, according to the files Grump has been arrested twice before for assault, but never with a weapon, which isn't to say he has never used one before, but normally he seems to just lash out. The information on those two cases say that he is anti-social and inadequate."
"Inadequate? That doesn't sound to me like the type of person who would be in charge of a group of animal rights activists. I suppose you must have the right guy. There can't be two Neville Grumps' surely."
"There were fifteen on the data base I used to find out his address! Apparently he also has a problem with authority, especially the police."
"Oh, this just doesn't smell right. Who would accept the leadership of an antisocial, police-hating inadequate on a raid that you knew would end up with you being arrested?" Rae's mind was working overtime. Something was very wrong here. She had the feeling that they were being played for fools. But in the current situation it wasn't a thought process she could follow. "Ok, Bob thanks. I'll go back to Steve, you need to stay available, just go through the double doors and wait there, ok?" Upon receiving a nod from Bob, Rae went back towards the interview room and knelt down beside Steve.
"This is wrong, Steve, it's very wrong, and I think it could be more dangerous than it looks. We have got to get Martin out of there." Quickly she filled her partner in on what Bob had found out. His face grew more serious with every word he heard.
Slowly Steve raised the megaphone to his mouth. He wasn't sure if he would need it. He put it back down, he didn't want to scare the guy, and he could always use it if he couldn't hear him. "Grump, this is Lieutenant Sloan, put the knife down and come out of the room."
"That's Mr Grump to you, pig." The voice from the interview room was shaky and high pitched. Rae had a feeling that that was not a good sign.
"Mr. Grump, put the knife down, and come out with your hands up." Rae realised that she should have her gun trained on the door of the room in case he tried to make a break for it. She shifted position slightly and took a steady aim.
"I will only come out if you clear the way and let me leave, no charges, no guns, no nothing. Got it?"
Steve took a breath. At least now they had something to negotiate with. "I understand, you want to come out into a clear hallway, and be allowed to leave the station, with no charges, and no one with guns near you. I understand that. What will happen if I agree?"
"Well, if you don't, cop, he dies." With that Grump moved round so that they could see the knife pressed against Martin's throat. There was a trickle of blood running down towards his shirt, and his face had no colour left in it, but his shoulders were square, and he looked straight ahead. He would not give in to this man.
"If you let him go, maybe we can negotiate." Steve knew that he shouldn't make demands, but he wanted to get Martin out of there as quick as possible. He had scanned the notes that Rae had made, she was right, something was way off here, and he didn't like it, any more than she did.
He went to start talking again, but stopped short, as something happened in the room. As they both looked on, Martin moved one arm up and used the other one to elbow Grump in the stomach. In almost the same movement he grabbed the knife and pulled it away from his throat. It all happened in a split second and Grump was on the ground. Rae stood up and raced into the room, her gun drawn and for the second time that day she cuffed the activist and hauled him out of the room and in to the waiting arms of Steve.
She turned to Martin, who now had blood running heavily down his shirt. She yelled out of the door. "Bob, call an ambulance." She put her arm round his shoulder and guided him to a chair. He sat down without a word. "Martin, are you ok? That was an incredibly stupid thing to do, whatever possessed you?"
Martin seemed to shudder and bring himself back to normality. Rae checked his throat, took a handful of paper tissues from the box on the windowsill and with her other hand pressed his fingers onto the wound to staunch the flow of blood. "This isn't too bad, you'll be fine. But my question still stands, what the hell were you doing?"
"I felt the pressure slacken on my throat. I knew that I was the only one who would be aware of that and I just did what I did. But thank you, Rae, for being there. I don't think I could have cuffed him." He put his hands out in front of him and Rae saw how violently his hands were shaking. "I'm sorry, I just can't seem to stop them."
"Hey, don't worry about it. I know what it's like." Rae smiled at him. As she started to talk again a medic came in through the door. She stood. "I will leave you in this young man's capable hands, Martin. Let me know the next time you are on duty." She turned, "Oh, and take care of yourself, huh?" She smiled at him and left the room.
Steve was upstairs in an interview room with Neville Grump and two armed guards on the door when Rae arrived. She tapped on the glass; Steve got up and left the room. Both guards then entered and glared at their prisoner. Rae guessed that his anti police feelings would have multiplied enormously by the time he got out of the station.
"Martin is being treated by the medics now. I think he'll have to go to Community General, if only to get a tetanus jab and a few stitches, God knows where else this knife has been." This time it was Rae who held up the weapon, which whilst not as nasty looking as the first one was more than adequate to have done the job of slitting somebody's throat with little or no problem. "Someone will have to have a word about searching suspects, this should never have been allowed to happen."
"Are you coming in to help conduct the interview? I could use a little assistance, if only to keep me from throttling him!" Steve looked over at her. He saw her nod and he re-entered the room with her. They didn't leave it again for just over three hours.
"And I wanted to help you with that for what reason?" Rae ran her fingers through her hair, and then flexed the fingers of her right hand.
"You ok, Rae?" Steve looked at her with concern in his eyes. He knew that she had had some problems with her hand since she had injured it a few months back when Phil Levington had filled her desk with glass.
"Yes, thanks. It just aches a bit by the end of a busy day, that's all." Rae looked at her watch. "Jesse will be wondering where I have got to, I said I would probably be home about six, it's almost eight already… What?"
Steve had pulled a face. "He called, I said you would call back. That was about four hours ago! Sorry, Rae."
Rae gave him what she hoped was a withering glare, but knew was probably just a frown and picked up the phone. "Jess…Sorry, honey, I only just got the message…I'm leaving in a minute… Yeah, I'll go past Bob's and pick something up… I'll tell you when I get home…Bye." Rae picked up her jacket from the back of her chair, moved her cell phone from her jeans into the inside pocket and looked over at her partner. "Now, if there are no more jobs that you can't manage without me I will head home." She smiled as she said it, and Steve took no offence.
"I'm on my way to Bob's, it's my shift tonight. I'm as late as you are, Alex'll be tearing his hair out."
They walked out of the station together. The parking lot was quiet now, and there was no evidence of the earlier invasion. Rae wandered over to where she had parked Tom and got in her car. She pulled out of the station and saw Steve pull in behind her. They drove in tandem the whole way to the restaurant, and then walked in together.
"Hey, Steve, Rae. How did the court case go today?" Alex looked over at them. He no longer carried the obvious scars of what Levington had done to him, and had already given his evidence. But Rae knew that it would be a long time before she would forget seeing his lifeless body lying in the lot outside Bob's, after he had pushed Jesse out of danger, by hurling himself into the path of an oncoming car.
"I'm finished now, thank goodness. Five days in that witness box was enough for me…"
"Sorry, Rae, the witness what?" Alex looked at her. "I guess that is what you call it in England, huh? Do you keep your witnesses in little boxes then?"
"No, it's an open box." Rae stuck her tongue out at him and carried on talking. "I shall be glad when I know he's behind bars. Right, change of subject; I need a takeout for two, Alex, please. You know what we normally have." She turned round to see Steve already serving a customer sitting in the back of the restaurant. She sat down and grabbed a mineral water. Fifteen minutes later she was back in Tom and heading for her apartment.
Jesse was waiting in the hallway when Rae turned the corner. "Hey, beautiful, I saw you get out of the car. Where do you want to eat, my place or yours?" He walked forward and took the box out of her hands.
"My place, if you don't mind. Much as I would like to leave you all the washing up, I am shattered, I could do with an early night."
"Ok, that's fine by me, honey." Jesse put his hand on her arm. Their lives had been uneventful over the last couple of months, well uneventful for them that is. Rae had talked a girl attempting suicide out of jumping from the window of an apartment block in Van Nuys, arrested an eighty year old man who had murdered his forty year old girlfriend, and helped Steve arrange a police activity afternoon where she had persuaded her partner to take a turn in the dunking booth. Come to think of it, that was next weekend, and just to confuse things there was a fund raising ball for the hospital the same night. Jesse couldn't wait, he'd get to drown Steve and then escort Rae to their first joint dance. As for his life lately, well nothing out of the ordinary, although last week he'd had to deal with a three car pile up where a box of snakes had gotten loose and bitten four of the victims, two medics and a traffic cop. Yep, life had been uneventful.
They walked together to Rae's apartment and she opened the door. It had been completely re-furbished after Levington had trashed it. Now it was painted a pale gold colour and the furnishings were terracotta's and deep oranges. The landlord had been very sympathetic when he heard why she wanted to re-decorate, and had even said that he wouldn't expect her to put it back the way it was before she moved out. Move out – I only have six and a half months left; I don't even want to think about that.
Jesse saw her face change, she suddenly looked very sad. "Rae, sweetheart, are you ok?"
"I'm sorry, Jess, I was just thinking, I'm halfway through my time here, in six and a half months I have to go back to London… and I don't want to go." As she said it she knew that it was true. London wasn't home any more, Los Angeles was, or more to the point anywhere that Jesse was, that was home to her now. "I want to be with you, I miss my children, you know that, but they can visit me regularly and they will always be my kids. I don't have custody of them anymore, so they don't live with me even when I am in London, but I can't bear the thought of being separated from you." She picked up the plates and cutlery that she had taken out of the cupboard and they moved into the living area. Jesse opened the box and started to help himself.
"There has to be a way for you to be able to stay, Rae, can't you ask to be transferred permanently? Or apply for citizenship, then you could become a proper cop."
"A proper cop, what do you think I do now? Make the tea and hold their tiny hands after a bad day on the streets!" Rae hadn't meant to shout, but it came out a little loud.
"Honey, I didn't mean it like it sounded. I meant that you could become a proper…Oh, not a police woman, but a cop." Jesse stopped; he knew he wasn't saying what he meant. Then he saw a smile cross her face.
"I know what you mean. Maybe. I will have to make some enquiries. Here and in London." She leant over and took her plate, and picked up a rib. It was a good job she wasn't vegetarian; they seemed to live on barbeque at the moment. Even eating together was a luxury, as their lives seemed to get busier by the day.
It was just after half past ten when Rae kissed Jesse goodbye at the door, and headed for the shower. She had been in there about five minutes when the phone rang. "Oh, great!" She got out, padded into the other room and picked up the handset. "Detective Yeager… Steve? I thought you were at the restaurant tonight…Oh, you're joking… Can't somebody else do it…? Or couldn't we do it in the morning…? Ok, I'll meet you there in about an hour… Bye." Rae put the phone down, growled at herself as she passed the mirror and almost in defiance got back in the shower, for just a few more minutes.
It was almost twenty minutes before she was back in her car and on her way to Worthington Laboratories. Steve was already parked there when she arrived. She got out of Tom and made her way over to him.
"You know even in the dark I could see your little red car as it made it's way down the hill towards us, I guess he's growing on me."
"Don't flatter my car, Lieutenant! It won't make me any happier about being here. Unless somebody has been killed why are we standing in this parking lot instead of either working in a restaurant or, in my case, sleeping in bed?"
"We are here because somebody triggered the silent alarm in the main building. Martin is in the hospital, and we are the only other pair who have all the information about what went on today."
"Oh." Rae couldn't think of anything else to say, so she followed her partner as he entered the building, both of them showing their ID to the security guard as they passed.
"We got the call about ten minutes before I called you. File cabinets and computer discs have been broken into or removed." Steve checked his pad. "There should be a Miss Jo Walters somewhere around here."
"Ah, that would be me. Lieutenant Sloan?" A dark haired young woman emerged from the shadows. She was quietly spoken, with what might have been a southern accent and was about four inches taller than Rae.
Steve reached out to shake her hand, and smiled at her. "Yes, I'm Lieutenant Steve Sloan, and this is my partner, Detective Reagan Yeager."
Jo turned to Rae, "I've seen you in the papers haven't I, Detective?" She smiled as she said it, and Rae smiled back.
"For my sins, yes you have. I won't ask you which paper; I don't think I want to know. Uh, is there someplace we can go sit and talk to you privately?" Rae felt instantly at ease with Miss Walters, but had no desire to talk about her recent notoriety.
"Sure, y'all come this way, an' we'll find someplace big enough for us all." Jo walked down the hallway, turning on a few lights as she went. "Should I have touched them?" She turned with a worried look.
"Were the lights on when you got here?" Steve stopped walking as he spoke. He saw her shake her head. "I guess it's ok then."
Miss Walters walked a little further on, then she stopped, took out a key and unlocked a door. After opening it she gestured for Steve and Rae to enter.
The room in front of them was large and stylishly furnished. The carpet was deep blue velvet and the furniture was a beautiful dark oak. There was a large table in the middle of the room with all the trappings of an executive boardroom.
"Sit wherever you want, folks. I'll just put some coffee on."
Steve looked at Rae and they sat next to each other close to the entrance. "I feel like I'm here for an interview. Or a reprimand." He whispered to her and Rae giggled.
"Did you wipe your shoes before you came in and wear clean…? Sorry." She was surprised how alive she felt. Before Steve had called her she had been ready to hit the sack and not move a muscle until at least ten the next morning. Now she had a feeling that she would be lucky to get home again before then, and at the moment she wasn't at all bothered.
Jo Walters came back into the room and sat down opposite Rae. "What d'you want to know then, Detective Yeager?"
Rae noticed that the young woman's hands were held in tight fists. "It's Rae, and this is Steve. Relax, Miss Walters, we only want to ask you some questions, not bring you up on charges."
"Sorry, I only came back to the office to get my cell phone which I left here earlier, it was such a shock to find somebody standin' over me with a gun in his hand." Her hands began to shake and Rae quickly got up and went to get her a drink. There was no tea, which she usually gave to people who were suffering from shock, so she made her a black coffee, and hoped that she wouldn't get too much of a caffeine rush.
As she re-entered the room she could hear Steve talking about nothing in particular to try to get her to calm down. "Here you go, Miss Walters, have a drink of this. We can wait until you have calmed down. It's not a problem, ok?"
Rae walked back up the room. She had seen a pile of brochures with Worthington Laboratories on the front cover as she had entered the room from the kitchen area. She picked two up, and headed back down to Steve.
"Do you mind if we have a look at these?" Rae spoke quietly to Jo as she passed. Receiving just a nod in return she sat back down and started to flick through the pages. There were photos of different laboratories within the building, the offices, with Jo at what Rae presumed was her desk, and a photo of a James Worthington sitting just about where Steve was now. On the next page there were photos of various types of animals, and their 'working conditions'. Rae couldn't think of another way to describe it. She wasn't sure how she felt about animal testing. She knew she was dead against it for cosmetic or frivolous items, but for medicinal purposes, she didn't know.
"Rae!" By the tone of his voice, Rae guessed that Steve had already called her name more than once.
"Sorry, I was miles away. Yes, I'm with you now!" Rae felt embarrassed; she looked over at Jo Walters and was relieved to see that she was smiling pleasantly.
"Can you tell us what happened, Miss Walters? From the start, when you arrived outside the building." Steve took his pen out and wrote the date at the top of the page, and Jo started to talk.
"As I said, I only came back to get my 'phone, but I'm a key holder, so I knew it wouldn't be a problem. I turned the alarm off an' just headed straight for my desk. As I passed Mr. Worthington's office I heard a noise, or I thought I did. I went quietly towards the door, an' it opened. There was a guy standin' right in front of me, with a gun raised." This time she laughed when she mentioned him. "I don't know who was more scared! He sort of growled at me, an' just ran off." Rae had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing. She had never talked to someone with such an accent before, and every time the woman said I, it came out Ah. It reminded her of John's last trip to the dentist. The poor child had had to have three teeth pulled because his jaws simply weren't big enough to hold them all, he had talked like that for about three hours!
"How come an alarm was triggered if you had turned them off?" It was Rae who spoke.
"The file cabinets an' computers are all linked to another circuit. You have to turn that off separately. I don't know how they bypassed the alarm to get in the first time, it was armed when I got here." Rae was chewing her tongue again. File was fahl, bypassed was bahpassed, and time was tahm. If she hadn't seemed so nice, Rae would have wondered if Miss Walters wasn't related to JR Ewing. Finally, she decided she had to ask or die trying not to ask.
"I'm sorry, Miss Walters, but you wouldn't be from Texas by any chance, would you?"
The young woman sat up straighter and beamed. "Yes, ma'am, I was born and raised on a little spread not far from Houston."
"How did you know that, Rae?" Steve looked across at his partner, whose eyes were sparkling.
"Oh, Dallas was very popular in Britain."
Miss Walters folded her arms and leaned back in her chair. She would have seemed angry if not for the glint of humour in her eyes. "I wouldn't say that too loudly in Houston, if I were you."
Puzzled, Rae asked, "Why not?"
"Let's just say, in some circles, there is a strong rivalry between the two cities."
"Oh, I see," Rae said, though she really didn't, and she put it down to something only a Texan would understand.
"An' Detective Yeager, you wouldn't be from England now would you?"
"I wonder what gave that away." Rae smiled at her.
"Oh, Upstairs Downstairs was very popular in our house. Now," Miss Walters asked, "what else do y'all need to know?"
"What did you do, after he ran off, I mean." Steve looked at her, she had beautiful eyes, they were brown, with green rings round the edge. He looked away. Concentrate, Sloan, for crying out loud. She's probably taken.
"Ok, first of all I turned to jelly, slid down the wall, an' just sat there for a few minutes. Then I sort of pulled myself together an' called you guys. I wanted to speak to Detective Robertson, but they said he was on sick leave. He sure seemed fine this mornin'."
"He was injured later in the day." At Miss Walters's concerned look, Rae hastened to add, "But I don't think it'll be too long before we turn this case back over to him." Rae smiled at her. "So, do you know what was taken? Or will we have to wait for your boss to get in?" She checked her watch. It was now almost twenty past twelve, and she was beginning to run out of steam again.
"I can't get into the files, an' I've tried callin', but there's no answer on the home phone or Mr. Worthington's. I guess they must both be out of town. I know he is. He's holdin' a meetin' in Baja."
At that moment a young officer put his head around the door. "Lieutenant, could I speak to you please, sir?"
Steve turned to his partner. "Rae, would you mind?" She shook her head and left the room.
"Is Mr. Worthington due to be in the office in the morning, Miss Walters?"
"Steve, please call me Jo. I feel like my maiden aunt when you call me that, an' she's 93! Sorry what was the question?"
Steve was delighted to see her blush. Down, Sloan. You're working remember. "Uh, the question, the question was… Um, oh, is your boss in the office tomorrow?" Now it was his turn to blush.
"Yep, Tuesday is the day he spends in the lab. He used to be a scientist, an' I guess it's his way of keepin' his hand in, as they say. He's never off on a Tuesday." She turned as she saw Rae come back into the room.
"Steve, I need a moment. Excuse us, Jo." Rae's face was worried and Steve didn't like the look she gave to their companion. He got up and left the room.
"We just got a call to attend a murder scene in the hills. The body of a Mrs Candi Worthington was found at her house about an hour ago. Dispatch, in a moment of rare enlightenment, joined the two cases together, and we just got lumbered with the whole thing, animal rights, murder and theft. Just what you need on a Monday night, I've arranged for the computer room and Worthington's office to be taped off until tomorrow." Rae ran both hands through her hair. She couldn't believe the amount of cases they had at the moment. Still if she worked things right, maybe they could get Martin to join with them, and deal with this as a trio.
"I guess we'd better get over there then. What are we going to do with Jo, er, I mean Miss Walters?" Steve looked at his partner, a frown spread across his face.
"Hey, down boy. You go back into the room. Terminate the interview, ask her to dinner at Bob's later on in the week, and I'll meet you by our cars in ten minutes, ok?" She turned with a smile on her face. Lucy didn't know what she was missing.
Steve had no idea that she'd realised he was interested in the young woman in more than a purely professional way. The thought cheered him considerably. What he couldn't tell Jo, however, didn't.
"Miss Walters, we have to leave to attend another call. Could you let me have the number for Mr. Worthington? His cell phone would be best, and a pager if he has one." Steve got his pen back out. After he had written the numbers down, he turned to Jo once again.
"Ah, I wondered, if you aren't doing anything, whether I could buy you dinner later in the week, maybe about eight on Thursday night? Anywhere you like, although I do part own a barbeque restaurant, BBQ Bob's."
"Do you try to pick up every woman you interview, Lieutenant, or do you just feel sorry for me?"
Steve was so embarrassed he just turned and left the room. He couldn't believe that she had blown him off like that.
Rae watched him storm across the parking lot, and she knew that he had just been hurt and possibly humiliated. "Steve?" she walked towards him. "Slow down, the woman's dead, a few more minutes won't matter." She put her hand on his shoulder, only to have it forcibly removed as he headed for his car.
"Brilliant suggestion of yours, Detective, can we go please?"
Rae's mind raced for a minute. "Hold on, Steve, I left my brochure in there, I think we might need it, I'm gonna go back for it." She turned and walked away before he could say anything, and was soon tapping on the boardroom door.
"What?" Jo's voice was quiet and distant.
"Can I come back in? I left my brochure here, and I would like to read up on your company, so that I can do a good job. Jo, are you all right? What's the matter?"
The young woman was sitting in the same position as when Rae had left her. She had her head in her hands. "What? Oh, sure take whatever you want."
"Jo, look at me." Rae's voice was soft, and she was relieved when the young lady turned and looked up at her. "What's the matter?" She couldn't believe that Steve would have told her where they were going.
"Your partner came on to me. I thought he was nice when he first came in, guess I was wrong." Her face was sad, but Rae could see anger in her eyes.
Jo's accent was stronger now that she was upset, and Rae found it a bit odd that her unfortunate misunderstanding with Steve would disturb her more than reliving the experience of nearly being shot. She might ask about it later, but for now Rae filed the thought away, "He wouldn't do that, Jo. He is a nice guy, and honourable. If he asked you out, it was because he meant it, not because he does it to everybody he sees. Trust me." Rae smiled at her. "Would you like to re-consider?"
Jo nodded her head. "Maybe I read him wrong. But he won't be interested now. He asked me to his restaurant an' I lost it. I guess tonight affected me more than I thought."
"Look, I happen to know that he is working there tonight, from about nine, maybe you and I could go out for a bite to eat, what do you say?"
"Are you sure you wouldn't mind?" Jo smiled up at Rae again, and breathed a sigh of relief. "That would be great. I'll meet you outside at about nine fifteen, ok?"
"Sure, now I have to go, are you certain you'll be all right? Can you get back home ok?"
"Yeah, my car is outside. I'm ok, really. I'll see ya tomorrow night, ah that would be tonight, wouldn't it? Thanks, Rae."
Rae raised a hand in acknowledgement and left the room. She had no intention of telling Steve what she had arranged, so when she got closer to the cars she changed her expression.
"Ok, Steve, let's go. I would imagine that even a corpse would be fed up with waiting by now." She got into her own car without another word and started it up. Steve, feeling fed up and bemused just followed along behind her.
The Worthington's lived in a large mock Tudor style mansion, which looked as if Sherlock Holmes would come out to greet them. Instead it was a very grey Detective Chapman who was waiting for them.
"Steve, Rae, I'm happy to hand this over to you. I haven't been to bed since Saturday afternoon. There is a housekeeper inside, she will tell you what has happened." With that, before either of them could ask him anything, he turned, walked down the drive, and out to his car.
"Well, I guess he is even more tired than we are. Ok, let's find the housekeeper." Rae hurried up the steps and into the house, nodding at the officer on duty on the door as she passed. Inside it was even more in keeping with the great detective than it was outside. Rae looked around. "You know I could move in here tomorrow, what a fabulous house." She saw a middle aged woman walking towards her, and if she says her name is Mrs. Hudson, I will cease to believe in all reality.
"Good morning, Detective, my name is Mrs Barraclough, thank you for coming." The woman didn't look at all distressed, just businesslike and extremely efficient. Rae had a feeling that the discovery of a body in the house wouldn't mean any changes in her routine.
"Can you tell us what happened here, Mrs Barraclough?" Rae held out her hand as she talked and found it in a strong handshake.
"I heard a noise, just after eleven and came downstairs to see what was happening. As I got half way down I heard a crash and a scream and then nothing. I didn't go any further than the phone after that. I called 911 and just sat in that chair over by the door and waited for the police." There was no emotion in the woman's voice, and her face hadn't changed since she had started her tale.
"I see, well, if you could wait here for a few more minutes with this officer we'll just go and see what we have." As Steve turned to walk down the hallway he saw Amanda coming out of a room halfway down.
"Steve, Rae, I'm glad it's you. She's in here, but be warned, it's not pretty." She went back into the room and they followed. The room looked like a slaughter had taken place, which in a way it had. Mrs Worthington had been strung up by the neck, with a broom handle through the back of her top. Her arms were outstretched horizontally in line with her shoulders; she looked like a grotesque marionette. To complete the bizarre scene she'd had her throat and wrists cut. There was blood everywhere. Daubed on the wall, quite probably in her own blood were the words, 'How do you like it?'.
Rae swallowed hard, and looking over she saw Steve do the same. "My God, Amanda, what kind of vicious animals would do such a thing?" A thought suddenly struck her. "With all this blood, she was alive when they did this to her wasn't she?" Amanda just nodded. "But Mrs Barraclough said that she heard a crash and a scream, not screaming, but a scream. Maybe she passed out before they started." But Rae knew that wasn't the case. The housekeeper had called the police as soon as she heard the noise. The scream would have been Mrs Worthington's last breath; she had known what happened to her.
Steve was watching his partner; he saw her try to suppress a shudder. "Rae, let's move out of here, and let Amanda finish up. We can come back later." He moved back and Rae went towards the door. As he reached the doorway, he motioned to the pathologist. "Amanda, are you gonna be alright in here?"
"Thanks, Steve, yeah, I'll be alright. It's been a while since I had one this bad, but I'll manage. I'll come and get you when I've finished." She looked down at herself, her clothes were already covered with blood, and she knew that she would look worse before she finished.
"We'll come back to you, ok?" Steve was looking at her clothes too.
Rae had reached Mrs Barraclough before Steve had left the room. She waited until he caught her up. "Is she all right?" She saw him nod, and turned her attention back to the housekeeper. Rae knew that she couldn't possibly have looked inside the room. There was no way she could keep herself this cool if she had.
"Shall we find somewhere other than the hallway to have our little chat?" Rae looked over at her partner. "Maybe the kitchen?" She was relieved when the woman stood up and headed in the opposite direction to the murder scene.
Soon they were all sitting around a large kitchen table, with steaming cups of hot chocolate in front of them. Steve took his pad out, drew a line under the notes from Jo Walters, pushed down the feelings of humiliation that rushed to the surface, and turned to face Rae.
"Mrs Barraclough, do you know what made you wake up?" Steve had his pen poised over the paper.
"You know, I have no idea. All of a sudden I was just awake and I lay there for a few minutes, I wasn't really sure why I was conscious, so I listened as hard as I could, but I heard nothing. Then as I came down the stairs I heard the noise I mentioned and the scream. I didn't want to investigate; Mrs Worthington and I were the only two people in the house. Mr. Worthington is away on business overnight, and the maid and the cook only work days."
"How long had you been upstairs, Mrs Barraclough?" Rae felt her heart sinking, she had a feeling they weren't going to get much to help them on this.
"I retired to my room just after seven. Mr. Worthington was away, I don't care to watch television, so I decided to start the new novel I had bought at the weekend. 'I Promise' it's called, my daughter said it was wonderful."
"So when you came back down just after eleven you had been up there for over four hours." She was right, there was nothing here. The house could have been stripped clean in four hours, with no witness to help with what happened.
"Did you see anybody, or anything else that you need to mention to us?" Steve had written about six lines, not exactly enough to help solve a murder, not one like this anyway.
"No, I'm sorry, I didn't see anybody." She paused for a minute, and Rae got the impression that the seriousness of the situation had just hit her. "It is Mrs Worthington in there isn't it? The first officer here said that somebody had been killed, but he didn't say anything else.
"Yes, ma'am, it is Mrs Worthington, and she is dead I'm afraid. Is there anybody who you can stay with?" Rae put her hand over the elder woman's arm. "You can't remain here, this is now a murder scene. We need you to move out for a little while, and we need to get in touch with your boss."
The woman turned a pale shade of grey. "I will call my daughter, she lives in Venice Beach. I can stay there. It won't take me long to drive to her place."
As the housekeeper finished talking Steve and Rae heard a car draw up towards the house. Rae got up and headed for the door. It had become an unwritten rule between them that Rae broke the news about bereavements and Steve asked the questions of murder suspects, at least to start with.
Rae reached the front hallway before Mr. Worthington; I guess it's him that must be an old picture in the brochure opened the front door.
"Who are you?" Mr. Worthington was a large, grey haired man, with a huge moustache, and his hair was brushed back off his face.
Rae had her ID in her hand. "My name is Detective Reagan Yeager, and you are?"
"Worthington, James Worthington, what are you doing in my house, where is my wife, and Mrs Barraclough?"
"Mr. Worthington, we need to talk privately, could you follow me?" Rae led him to the room next to the one where Steve and the housekeeper were sitting. It was a parlour like room, with comfortable furniture in it. "This will be fine, please sit down, Mr. Worthington."
"I will, it is my house after all. Now, would you please tell me what is going on?"
Rae knew that he would not appreciate her prevaricating so she got down to the matter at hand straight away. Her voice was soft but businesslike. "Mr. Worthington, I'm afraid that your wife was killed while you were away. We'll need to take a statement from you, and get you to identify the body as soon as you are ready, but right now, I just want to make sure that you have somebody to stay with you. Your housekeeper is going to stay with her daughter. Is there somewhere you can go?"
"Yes, I expect so. How did she die, Detective, can I see her?"
Rae could see tears threatening to overflow from the big man's eyes. She had calculated that he was about twenty years older than his wife, but he had obviously loved her.
"No, Mr. Worthington, not yet. There are procedures that have to be followed. I am sure that by later on today, or maybe tomorrow we can arrange that for you."
"I have been in Baja since mid afternoon. I had a meeting just outside Ensenada with a supplier. After what happened this morning I decided to visit him instead of the other way round. Oh, God, if I hadn't changed my arrangements I would have been here. Oh, Candi, honey, I'm so sorry." The man collapsed in tears and Rae moved over and put her arms around his heaving shoulders. As she did so she saw the door open, and Mrs Barraclough came in.
"I can handle this, Detective, I have looked after Mr. Worthington for twenty-five years. I'll take him with me to my daughter's house, and keep him there for as long as you need this house to be cordoned off." She handed a piece of paper to Rae with a telephone number on it and then moved over to her employer. Rae was suddenly embarrassed and felt she was intruding, so she quietly left the room.
Steve was waiting for her in the hallway. "Let's go and see how Amanda is getting on. She must still be here, she would have got somebody to tell us if she was leaving." They walked down the hallway together, neither of them really wanting to go back into the room containing the body. They could hear Mr. Worthington's sobs gradually calming as they walked away from him.
Amanda was just finishing up as they entered the room. The body had been taken down and was lying, uncovered on a gurney. The ropes and broom handle were lying in an evidence bag and on the gurney, respectively. "I thought you would just want to have a closer look before I remove her. I would say that she might have been conscious throughout her ordeal until a few minutes before her death. But I can't be sure. She died from massive blood loss by the look of it. I will know for certain later today. The blade used was serrated and hasn't been found yet. That's it, guys, I have nothing else now. Amanda looked tired and drawn. She took a deep breath, looked at her two friends and then began to talk once more. "It was a horrible way to die. I'm not sure how her family will react. I know I would be devastated." She shuddered and headed towards the door. The medic behind her zipped up the body bag and began to follow her. "Oh, pictures have been taken of the wall and the body as it was found. I'll see you later."
Steve looked over at Rae and they began to look around the room. Rae pulled on a pair of latex gloves and went to work. The room was obviously an office. There was a computer in the corner, but from what she could see no discs. There was a holder but it was empty. "Looks like they took the computer discs again." In a tray by the edge of the desk there appeared to be a pile of paperwork, although most of it was covered with blood. Rae sighed, got an evidence bag out of her pocket and carefully put the saturated papers into it. This was going to be a messy, distressing case. Whoever had carried this out obviously had no conscience.
Steve opened one of the drawers in the desk, he didn't really expect to find very much, he had a feeling that the perpetrators of this crime had had plenty of time to look for whatever it was they wanted. Mrs Barraclough had been upstairs for four hours, which was more than enough time to trash this room and then put it back neat and tidy if the murder or murderers had felt like it. As he moved around to the other side of the desk he saw something glinting on the carpet. He knelt down and picked it up.
"Rae, what do you make of this?" Steve had a small badge in his hand. The picture on the front of it was of a rabbit's face superimposed over a drop of red blood. "I think this may prove valuable. Did any of our visitors to the station yesterday have one of these?"
"I didn't see one, but I would say that it looks like the type of thing that would appeal to the animal rights movement." She held open a bag and Steve dropped it in.
They didn't find anything else of value in the room, although they searched it for almost two hours. Mrs Barraclough and Mr. Worthington had left about twenty minutes after they had started their search. It was just after ten to four in the morning, and Rae felt that she could sleep anywhere, even in this awful room, if she didn't get to her bed before too much longer.
"Steve, can we call it a night? I can't think anymore, I need my bed. We're supposed to be starting again at eleven, that's only seven hours away, and we haven't slept since Sunday." She yawned as she finished her sentence and gave a lop sided grin at the end of it.
"Yeah, come on, we aren't going to do any more good here. Let's go home and I'll see you at the station at about lunchtime. I have to be at Bob's by nine, but we should get a full day at this. I'll just let the officer at the door know we're going and we can call it quits until later."
Steve stretched his aching muscles, shut the office door behind him, and then with his arm on Rae's back he walked towards the door.
Rae smiled at him. She was so tired that she wasn't sure how she was going to get home, but a loud cd, and all the windows open would probably do the trick. She hoped that it would be safe to do that, at least for a little way, because she didn't want to fall asleep at the wheel. After about ten minutes Rae was so cold she had to stop and put her coat on, and shut all the windows. Still, now she was awake, at least for a few minutes. She must have been on autopilot, because before she knew it she was drawing up to her apartment building and staggering up the steps.
It was just after ten the next morning before Rae woke up. She had somehow managed to drag herself through the shower the night before this morning, I went to bed and got up the same morning, uugh and then she had fallen asleep almost as soon as she hit the pillow. Her dreams had been muddled, mixtures of the case, Jesse and her eating takeout in the murder room and Steve driving around in Tom, because it was growing on him. She tried to remember more about the dream, but thankfully these days her dreams disappeared as soon as she woke.
Rae opened the blind in the bedroom, saw a perfect blue sky out of the window and headed for the bathroom. Once she was dressed and eating her breakfast she picked up the phone and rang the station. "Lieutenant Sloan, please." She knew he would already be there, she had yet to beat him in.
"Sloan here…Oh, hi, Rae… About fifty-five minutes… No, nothing yet, I was going to wait for you and then head over there…Oh, right. I'll see you there then." Steve put the phone down and started towards the door. He almost made it.
"Sloan, my office, if you would be so kind." The Chief's voice floated out across the squad room and Steve's heart sank. He knew he was in trouble if the Chief was being nice.
"Sir, what can I do for you?" Steve stepped inside the lion's den and closed the door after him. He didn't think they had missed anything last night, and following the activities at the station the day before he had made sure that a brief outline of everything that had happened had been on the Chief's desk a half hour ago.
"I want you to concentrate on this animal rights case above everything else, Lieutenant. James Worthington is a good friend of mine, and I have assured him that the LAPD will work tirelessly on his behalf. Don't let me down."
"No, Sir, we won't. I'm just off to Community General to get the autopsy report from Dr. Bentley and then Rae and I will be going to interview Mr. Worthington. We thought it best to leave it last night." Great, just what we need a personal friend of the Chief of Police. Steve stood. "If I may be excused, Sir?"
"In a moment, Lieutenant. There will be no special treatment, I have told Mr. Worthington that I will make sure that two of my best officers will be on the case. That is where my involvement will cease. I would appreciate it if you could make your files available to me, but I have no intention of interfering. However, I would suggest that there be no running off on wild hunches. You and Detective Yeager will do everything by the book, especially Detective Yeager. Is that understood?"
Steve thought for a moment. He knew his boss was a fair man, and would give them every opportunity to do their jobs the way they always did. However, he wasn't sure if the Chief would be able to keep completely away from it, he had a feeling he wouldn't if he was in his shoes. Then a thought struck him, the Chief liked Rae, he would send everything through her. Feeling much better, Steve stood. "I understand, Sir. We won't disappoint you." Then he paused. There was never any point in saying too much to the Chief, he was blunt and to the point, and you had to be too. Steve waited, as the Chief let his face relax just a bit.
"Good, you are dismissed then, Lieutenant."
He got in his car and headed for Community General. Every time he had been personally involved in a case with the Chief things happened to him. He had nearly died after infiltrating the Ganza crime family, and almost lost his job when a local politician had tried to bring down the hierarchy of the department, with a lot of help from his then Captain and a crooked cop. Stop it. Let it be. You will be fine, if you can keep Rae on a tight leash! Oh that makes me feel so much better, I've got to stop thinking. Steve pulled into Community General's doctor's parking lot and headed for the ER. As he exited the elevator he saw Rae and Jesse chatting together in a corner. He smiled and walked towards them, as he got nearer he could hear them talking.
"Jo was really upset. But I have sorted things out for toni… But I can ring her later and apologise." Rae hastily changed the subject as she saw Steve come towards her, but Jesse had his back to him and was completely confused.
"What? Who, Jo?" she had a problem not laughing at Jesse. His face was a picture as he stuttered out his words.
"My sister, that's right… Josie!" Rae was desperately gesticulating with her hands.
"Your sister is called Hazel…commonly known as Josie." Jesse suddenly realised that he was missing something and turned round. "Hey, Steve."
"Jo? Are you talking about Miss Walters?" Steve was instantly on the defensive. Rae glared at Jesse and turned from him. Men!
"No, Steve, my sister, she has decided to go by the name of Josie – mid life crisis if you ask me, now can we get on? I guess Amanda is waiting." With that she walked away from Steve and for once he was forced to chase after her.
Amanda looked up as the two detectives entered her lab. She looked tired and saddened. Rae wasn't surprised.
"Hi, Amanda, are you ok? I'm sorry we have to go through all this now." Rae didn't quite know what to say, but she felt she ought to say something. Amanda was usually so detached about her cases, but they had all been sickened by what they had seen last night.
"Ok." She was immediately businesslike. "She died of a combination of shock and massive blood loss. The wounds were made with a serrated edged knife, which is apparent if you look at the marks left on the flesh." Amanda stopped talking and looked up. "Like when you carve a chicken. It's not so noticeable on human flesh but there are signs. Also there were marks left on the bones in both wrists." She stopped. She didn't need to say anymore, they had all seen the hands practically hanging off the previous evening.
"How long had she been dead when you got there?" Steve was making notes, Rae walked over to him.
"Since when have you taken so many notes at an autopsy carried out by Amanda? You know you'll get everything you need in her report."
"Don't ask. I'll tell you later. Let's just say that it concerns the Chief."
"Hardly anytime at all." Amanda continued as if they hadn't spoken. "She was still warm when we arrived. I would say no more than about an hour, tops."
Somehow that made it even worse, and Rae felt instantly discouraged, although she had no idea why. She turned back to the body on the table and for the first time took a good look at the dead woman's face.
Candi Worthington had been in her late thirties, she was blonde, natural by the colour of her eyebrows, but then you can dye anything these days. She had a small, pretty face, not a trophy wife, but loved if last night's emotions had been anything to go on.
Rae shuddered. She didn't want to ask the next question, and she hoped Amanda wouldn't be able to answer it. "Is there any way to know if she was conscious when all of this happened?"
"No, not really, but going by experience, I would say that she may have passed out through pure fear…" Amanda paused, and Rae had to strain to hear her next few words. "At least I hope she did."
"Ok, Amanda, thanks. I want as much detail as you can get on this one, as quickly as you can get it. Was the writing on the wall done in her blood?"
Amanda shook her head. "No, it was animal blood, probably from a slaughter house, from a cow."
"Are you sure?" Rae stopped. "Yes, of course, you are. Sorry. But why would animal rights activists use animal blood? Something else to worry about I guess? Thanks Amanda.
"Rae, come on, we don't have time to chat." With that Steve was gone.
"Well, I guess I'm going too. Apparently, I don't have time to chat!"
"RAE! Come on."
"OK! Bye, Amanda, I'll see you soon, if I live that long." Rae hurried towards the elevator, where she could see Steve holding the door open with an impatient look on his face.
Steve moved inside the elevator and Rae hurried in beside him. They travelled down in silence, and nothing was said until they got to their cars. As Steve went to press the button to unlock his car, Rae took the device out of his hand. "Ok, hold up. I have no intention of spending today with you if you are gonna be like a bear with a sore head. What's wrong? And I don't want any excuses, I want the truth now, or I'm going home."
"Just get in the car, Rae. I don't have time to stand and talk." All of a sudden Steve was furious. He knew that Rae had been telling Jesse how Jo had blown him off. "And another thing, my private life is my own affair, it is not open for discussion between you and Jesse. Just because you are Mr and Mrs Perfect Couple does not give you the right to examine my less than wonderful existence, you can butt out." He snatched the remote control back, and opened his car.
"Have you finished with your hissy fit? Maybe you could stamp your foot a little too. Just to complete the image of a spoilt child!" Rae felt her temper rise as she spoke to him.
Steve climbed into the car without another word and before Rae could do anything had screeched out of the parking lot.
Rae sighed, got into Tom and followed along behind. She had no intention of catching him up, she knew he didn't lose his temper with her very often, but she had been here long enough to know to keep her distance for a while when he did.
