The First Case
I was used to being gawked at while I worked, so having Spencer and Agent Rossi breathing down my neck didn't bother me too much.
"Could you help me turn the body?" I asked, to neither one in particular. They looked at each other, warily.
"You're the doc, Reid." Rossi shrugged, taking a seat nearby. Spencer moved across the table from me, pulling on a pair of gloves.
"Which way are we turning her?" It struck me that he referred to the body as "her," rather than "it." She wasn't just another victim to him, but a person.
"Facing you, please." He held the body gingerly at the shoulders, carefully rolling her on the table. I brushed the hair away, checking the scalp and hairline for any signs of an injection site. If this had in fact been a murder, the UNSUB had to have sedated her, or she would have defensive wounds, signs of a struggle. Striking out with the scalp, I turned my attention elsewhere.
"Thank you, you can lie her on her back now." I scanned the autopsy report for probably the hundredth time, checking for even the tiniest detail I could have missed. There was one more thing I wanted to check before I declared the death a suicide.
"Help me check between her fingers and toes." Spencer and I each took a hand and started spreading the fingers, then moved to her feet. Still nothing. I had examined every inch of her body and found nothing, not so much as a hair out of place. I took off my gloves, wiping my hands on my apron. I covered my eyes with my hand, thinking. Spencer and Rossi waited silently. I caught my reflection in a glass cabinet door as I turned around, and was suddenly inspired.
"Can you please hand me that magnifying glass?" I asked Spencer, putting on fresh gloves.
"What are you looking for?" He leaned over the body, watching as I closely examined the skin once again, this time under a magnifying glass.
"There," I couldn't believe I had even thought of it, but there, right in a mole on her arm, was an injection point. "They didn't see it because of the mole."
"You have got to be kidding me." Rossi stepped over to the table, shaking his head. I handed him the magnifying glass. "Unbelievable." He stared for a long time.
"If the UNSUB was able to keep her still long enough to try to hide the injection site, he had to have know the victim." Spencer took off his gloves and scratched his head.
"How did you even think to look for that? The mole?" He was looking at me with a weird expression on his face, somewhere between awe and complete confusion.
"Well, it's stupid," I was embarrassed to tell them. "But I just think really random things, and then I check it out just to make sure." Spencer and Rossi looked at each other, then back at me.
"What do you mean?" Rossi seemed intrigued. I hoped I wasn't a suspect now.
"Well like, I saw my reflection, and I have freckles, so I thought, 'wouldn't it be crazy as all get-out if i couldn't find the injection site because it was hidden by a freckle.' So I checked just in case, and it turned out to be hidden by a mole." I looked away from them, knowing for sure they both thought I was a raving lunatic.
"Incredible," Spencer said, shaking his head again.
"Well what do you know," Rossi started, patting Spencer on the back. "A genius who actually has some common sense." I let out a sigh of relief as Spencer pretended to be hurt and Rossi laughed.
I called in the coroner, to add my new information to the report. Rossi's phone rang.
"We'll be right there." His voice was urgent, but not panicked.
"There's another victim?" Reid asked, grabbing his bag.
"We have to hurry, she's still alive right now." Rossi headed toward the door. I threw off the autopsy apron as I ran after Rossi and Spencer.
When we pulled into the zoo, a security guard met us immediately.
"They said you had a doctor with you." He was out of breath, he'd probably run halfway across the zoo to meet us. I grabbed my medical bag from the floorboard and jumped out of our SUV. Kicking off my stillettos, I ran as fast as my skirt would allow me in the direction of the security vehicle. I could hear Reid's and Rossi's footsteps behind me, also running.
Hotch was already waiting for us. He saw me coming and started clearing people out of the way. I made my way to the front of the throng of security guards, first responders, and gasped when I saw what was happening. There was no question in my mind, we had a serial killer with a penchant for fairy tales.
The little girl couldn't have been older than ten. She was screaming, trying to crawl toward us, but the wolf kept grabbing her by the red hooded sweater she wore.
"Get me in there! Now!" I screamed, looking for a gate in the enclosure. "Get me a trank rifle or something!"
"Doctor, we have to wait for..." I didn't let the zookeeper finish.
"For what? For the girl to die? GET ME A DAMN TRANK OR I WILL SHOOT IT WITH MY GLOCK!"
A vet tech driving a gator skidded to a halt nearby and jumped out, with what I hoped was a rifle loaded with a tranquilizer dart. A zookeeper hurried to unlock the door. I jerked the rifle out of the tech's hand and shoved my way into the enclosure. I couldn't stand there and watch this little girl killed by a wolf. How the hell did the UNSUB get her in there?
All I knew was that I had to get her out, alive.
Dropping my bag beside me, I whistled, attracting the wolf's attention. As he charged me, I pumped the rifle and shot him square in the chest. The impact of the dart slowed the wolf down, and he staggered away. I didn't wait to make sure he went down. I picked up my bag and ran, barefoot, to the little girl. She was still screaming.
"It's gonna be ok sugar, I'm here to help you." I assured her. I fought back tears as she screamed in pain when I turned her over onto her back. I ripped the sweater off, which was already torn to shreds. So was the t-shirt underneath.
And the flesh underneath that.
I'd never seen anything like it. From her shoulders to her waist, front and back, were deep gashes and large areas of skin removed, nothing left but bloody teeth marks. As I flipped open my medical bag I heard quick footsteps approaching. Hotch knelt in front of me, on the other side of the girl.
"What can I do?" He asked, calm but serious.
I'm going to need a sheet, or a towel, or something to bind all these cuts at once. there are just too many." The little girl's screaming rang in my ears as I applied a tourniquet to her bleeding arm. Hotch hurried away, quickly returning with a baby's blanket.
"Help me, pull it as tight as you can," I was frantic. The child was losing too much blood. I was covered nearly to my elbows. "Make it like a corset."
Hotch and I wrapped the girl tightly in the blanket. Her color was fading.
"Where's the ambulance?" Hotch called out to the crowd. I couldn't even focus on their voices over the dying girl in front of me.
"We have to get her to a hospital. Now." Hotch nodded, immediately reading my mind. He bent to pick up the girl, but I pulled her to my chest and picked her up. Hotch got my bag and followed me. The crowd parted as I carried the child to the government SUV. Spencer jumped in the back seat and helped me in with the girl. He pulled the seatbelt around her, so that I could hold her tightly to me, trying to stop the bleeding. Hotch hit the sirens and floored the gas, peeling out of the zoo entrance like we were racing in the Daytona 500. I reached up to brush my hair away from my face with my right hand, smearind blood across my face and through my hair.
"Sugar, it's going to be ok, we're getting you to the hospital. They'll make it stop hurting, I promise." I spoke into the girl's hair, holding her tighter to me. I finally let the tears go as Hotch drifted into the emergency entrance at the hospital. Spencer was unbuckled and jumped out of the SUV before it was even fully stopped. He ran to my side and helped me out. The girl hadn't made a sound since we left the zoo. Hotch went to park as Spencer and I hurried into the emergency room. The nurses gasped and scattered out of our way when I rushed straight back with the girl.
"We're doctors, this girl needs to get into surgery right away, we're losing her!" I screamed to no one in particular, all the time praying someone would help. A surgeon and an ER doctor rushed toward me with an empty gurney, and I laid the limp body on it. Standing in the middle of the emergency room barefoot, hands covered in blood, blood up to my elbows and across my face, I was sure I looked like an insane person. Another doctor approached me.
"Are you hurt as well, ma'am?" he asked me, eyeing the blood all over my clothes and hands. I shook my head no, tears pouring down my face. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and Spencer led me to the waiting room. We found seats, and I finally let go. I sobbed until my chest and throat hurt. Spencer brought me a box of tissues from the nurse's station. When I had calmed down a little, a nurse approached us with a clipboard.
"Sir, can I get you two to fill out some information about your daughter?" She held the clipboard out to Spencer.
"She's not our daughter," he replied, showing her his FBI credentials. Hotch came in and spotted us. He stopped in his tracks when he saw me, and I was positive this time I looked like a nutcase.
"Her name is Lacey. She's nine. There's been an amber alert out on her since early this morning." Hotch sat near us as he spoke. I wanted to say her name out loud, but my vocal chords didn't want to work right.
The surgeon who had taken Lacey from me came into the lobby. I froze. It was too quick.
He merely shook his head. Hotch nodded back.
I started sobbing all over again, even harder this time.
"Reid, take Carrie back to the station. I'll wait here for Veronica and JJ." Hotch tossed Spencer the keys. I couldn't move. Spencer took me by the elbow and guided me out of the ER and into the parking lot. I was barely aware that the vehicle was moving by the time we pulled in at the police station.
I had lost patients before, but it had never affected me like this.
"Carrie, are you ok?" I couldn't blame Spencer for not being able to think of a less obvious question to ask, under the circumstances.
I tried to take slow, even breaths. "At the zoo...they just..."
He waited for me to compose myself.
"They just stood there." I pleaded with him with my eyes. "How could they just stand there?" I wiped my bloody hands on my face again, not caring. That little girl didn't have to die. Lacey. Lacey didn't have to die.
"I'm so sorry, Carrie. I really wish this hadn't happened on your first day." Spencer stared out the windshield as he spoke.
"She didn't have to--" I couldn't finish the sentence. Another sob rose in my chest. I was already exhausted, and I knew I looked a mess. "Will you take me home?" Spencer pulled out his phone and dialed.
"Hotch, I think I should take Carrie back home. Is that ok?" He paused for a moment, then put the key back in the ignition. "Ok I'll call you when we get there."
It was evening when we got to my house. Spencer had seemed on edge for the entire car ride. I had been silent, afraid if I spoke, the sobs would just start again.
"They think I can't handle this job." I didn't pose it as a question, but stated it as fact.
"Carrie, I don't know anyone who could have handled that on their first day. What you did was so brave." Spencer didn't look at me even though his words were meant to be comforting. I opened the car door and started to get out. "I'm going to stay out here and call Hotch. I'll be right in." I didn't argue the fact that he could just as easily call Hotch from inside my house.
"I'm going to get in the shower, I'll leave the front door unlocked so you can come on in when you're ready." He nodded at me, and I shut the door. Walking barefoot to my front porch, I vaguely thought to wonder what had happened to my shoes. It didn't matter. I was home, I had other shoes.
I stood still in the shower for at least thirty minutes, just letting the hot water wash over me, taking most of the blood off.