Show Me A Sane Man-0-
By A. Rhea King
Following the stories: 'When Seconds Matter' and 'The Art of Going Insane'
Chapter 1
Jim pulled into the parking lot and watched a helicopter lower a car onto the tarmac. He got out and joined Catherine and Langston. When the car had landed, the tethers were removed and then David and another M.E. moved in to remove the bodies inside from the front and back seats. The CSI and Jim walked forward. David pulled a wallet from a coat pocket and unfolded it. He suddenly grinned, looking up at them.
"Guess what?" David asked.
"What?" Catherine asked.
David held the wallet open, showing the picture on the driver's license. "Look familiar?"
Catherine pulled on a glove and took it. "Nate Hutchins."
"Ten to one that other fella will be Hugh," Jim said.
Catherine nodded.
Langston leaned in. "I think we should let Nick take this one."
She looked up, seeing a Denali pull up behind her Tahoe. Nick got out, grabbed his kit from the back and headed toward them.
"Me too. I'll tell him and then we'll take the other scene in town."
Catherine walked toward Nick, stopping him. He smiled.
"Good to be back on?" she asked.
He nodded. "What do you have for me?"
"A couple of fishermen found a car on their fish sonar. Divers found two bodies inside."
"That looks like the car I found at the picnic area when I went looking for Miranda."
"Could be." She held up the driver's license. "He look familiar?"
Nick almost grabbed it bare handed. He dropped his kit, pulled on gloves and took it.
"That's Nate!"
"And the other's probably Hugh. I think you should take this alone and add a few nail to Julia and Katrick's coffin."
"Thanks, Catherine. I really appreciate it."
"No problem, but remember..." Nick recited with her, "A CSI 1 has to keep the supervisor informed on all processes." Nick chuckled and then added, "Been demoted three days and you've already drilled it into my head. Got it."
Catherine leaned in, laying her hand on his shoulder. "It won't be forever. We both know the truth.
"I'm not worried. Haven't had this much free time for a while."
"Just for that…" She shook her finger at him as she walked away.
Nick stared at the picture, aware of Warrick leaning over his arm. "I'm going to really enjoy this crime scene. Course, any crime scene that adds years to Julia and Jeff's sentence is enjoyable."
"Got that right," Nick quietly finished.
"Let's get this wrapped up, man. I want cake."
Nick smiled, grabbing his kit. "What is with you and cake?" he whispered.
Warrick laughed, following him on to the crime scene. Nick had a hard time he was actually walking onto a crime scene after everything that had happened."
Nick shifted in his chair, trying not to look as uncomfortable as he felt. He glanced to his left. Warrick was sitting in a chair next to him, looking like he was asleep. Hallucinations apparently got bored too. There was another man sitting in the chair. Nick thought about striking up a conversation, but he wasn't really interested in talking.
"Mister Stokes?" a voice said.
He looked up at the woman standing in the door. Nick grabbed his coat and followed her into the room beyond. She motioned to an uncomfortable plastic chair that faced another and then sat down.
"Julia Green," she said, holding out her hand. "You will call me Doctor Green."
While Nick was a little put off by the introduction, he maintained his smile and shook her hand.
"You're name sounds familiar," she said. "Have we met before?"
"I don't know. Maybe we worked a case together. You are the police shrink."
She smiled. "I really don't like 'shrink,' Nick. Can I call you Nick?"
"Sounds like you don't really have a choice," Warrick said as he walked between them and took a seat in her desk chair.
"Sure," Nick answered.
She settled back in her chair, picking up a notepad and pen from the side table. "This will be a two day evaluation where I will determine if you are mentally capable of continuing duty following an attempt to strike a supervisor. I understand you've been seeing a therapist outside of the department."
"Yeah."
Julia looked at the notepad, scribbling something on it. "I'll need you to sign a form to release your session notes to me."
"Maybe when hell freezes, lady!" Warrick blurted.
"No," told her without hesitation.
Julia looked up at him. "Excuse me?"
"I'm not releasing anything to you. This is an evaluation. You don't need any of that."
"I'm the psychiatrist, I'll determine that."
"Tell you what, you give Greta a call. If she feels you need that information, she'll tell me, and then I'll release it."
"You don't trust me?"
"No!" Warrick snarled, moving to stand behind Julia. "You've got our bitch radar going off."
Nick couldn't agree more. "Unless you can provide me with an undisputable argument as to why you need that information, and Greta agrees with it, I'm not releasing anything."
"This isn't going to help your evaluation."
"You're saying my refusing to release private information from my therapist to you will automatically fail my evaluation?"
"No. It means it's going to take four weeks before I will clear you, instead of two days. And during that time, I'm recommending you be suspended."
"This is just a psych eval. Why would it take four weeks?"
"Because without those records, I'm going to have to start from scratch. And I'll need to see you every other day."
Nick let out a slow sigh. "Fine. Guess we'll get to know each other real well for four weeks."
Julie jotted something down. "Very well. Let's get started. Can you—"
"Ma'am, I need a breather before we get started."
"You only have an hour."
Nick scrubbed his fingers across his forehead.
"You seem agitated."
Nick looked up at her.
"Was that a rhetorical question?" Warrick said. He was fuming. And since Nick had come to realize he voiced the anger that Nick often bottled, that mean Nick was fuming.
"Fine. Let's get started," Nick told her between gritted teeth. "And then I can go get agitated on a boxing bag."
"So you do have a healthy way of venting anger. That's good to hear."
Nick didn't comment.
"Tell me about your background, Nick. What was your childhood like?"
"Oh God! Kill me now!" Warrick cried. He made a fist and pretended to be stab himself.
Nick resisted smiling at his hallucination's antics. Instead he started giving unimportant details of his childhood to the shrink – he would call her that behind her back from now on since she didn't like it.