Disclaimer: I don't own CSI:NY or Jaws. I do own Officers Wilson and Collins.
Series: 'Kindred Spirits'.
Spoilers: Like Water for Murder.
Chronology: Obviously, being English and not having watched this series from the beginning, my dates are a little off. If nothing else, Pay Up happens six months later in this series. LWFM may have been set in May in canon, I don't know. But in this series, it is.
Like Water for Murder
Meet us in the parking bay outside the ME's office. Don't fight it, Angell.
Jess had had her fair share of strange texts from her partner. Her confusion came from the fact that it was Danny who had sent this particular message, not Don.
Don't fight what?
Since the Rikki debacle, Danny had been avoiding Jess, as well as Lindsay, and she couldn't help wondering if perhaps he'd sent it to the wrong person, although the use of her name took out that theory.
So she was standing just outside the morgue; it was too cold to just stand around in the parking lot. Finally, the doors opened and two gurneys were wheeled inside.
The first held a regular body bag, but the second carried the large corpse of a shark.
Barely concealing her smirk, Jess pushed the door to the morgue open, waiting for the second gurney to be wheeled past her.
"You're gonna need a bigger boat." She commented; to her surprise, her partner didn't smile. In fact, he began – for want of a better word – pouting instead.
Danny grinned at her as he passed. "Thank you." He pulled a five-dollar bill from his pocket and handed it to Don. "Totally worth it."
Don pulled a face. "Jess, I may never forgive you for that."
"For what?" Jess asked blankly as he disappeared out into the parking lot again.
"Danny bet Flack he couldn't wait until Sid had the bodies before making a Jaws pun." Mac explained, lips twitching. "He's been setting that one up for the last hour."
Jess knew that Don could rarely resist a joke or sarcastic comment when the opportunity presented itself and that it would have been difficult, if not almost impossible, for him to resist the urge to do so. She couldn't help feeling bad for taking that away from him, but, at the same time, the way his face had fallen at her words was a little funny.
She sighed, and followed her partner outside. "Sorry about that." She called.
Don smiled weakly at her. "It's cool. I'm $5 better off."
"Not gonna give me the silent treatment then?" Jess asked with a smile, feeling slightly relieved.
"Nah." Don grinned at her. "Seems overkill, don't you think?"
Jess folded her arms. "Don, I know you. You've been dying to say that all morning and I took that away from you. You can't tell me you're not even a little bit irritated."
"Okay, I am." Don admitted. "And I'll get back to you on it. Just when you think it's safe to go back in the water."
Jess pulled a face. "That barely works. Any idea what happened."
"Well, this wasn't a boat accident." Don answered, only just concealing a smirk.
"This is you getting back at me, isn't it?" Jess groaned. "Death by Jaws quotes? You can't do that to me."
"I can do anything; I'm the chief of police." Don grinned at her. "You want a ride?"
"For once, I'm gonna say no." Jess rolled her eyes. "I got four brothers; I've seen that movie more times than I care to anyway. I really don't need to relive it." Her beeper went off and she checked it. "Home invasion. I gotta go."
"Get to it then." Don opened his car door. "Daylight's wastin'."
Jess ignored him, predicting many quotes being thrown at her over the next few days, and vowed to get back at Danny when she could.
Her crime scene was only a few blocks away and it was almost typical for a home invasion. The back window was open and Miss Sophia Masters had found a man in her kitchen, stabbing him when he made to attack her.
But something …
"Something's not right." The uniformed officer near her muttered, finishing Jess's internal assessment for her.
Jess glanced at her curiously. She was a 3-4 officer, but Jess prided herself on recognising most of the officers, at least by sight, if not by name, even if they were from another precinct.
"Why do you say that, officer?" Jess asked curiously.
The officer blushed slightly. "Oh, sorry, Detective; I was just thinking aloud."
Jess raised an eyebrow. "Well, don't stop there. I don't make a habit of shooting people I disagree with. What is it about the crime scene that makes you think something's not right?"
"Well …" She cleared her throat. "First of all, the victim is a lot bigger than Miss Masters, and yet she still managed to overpower him. Secondly, as far as I'm aware, although shootings can involve several bullets, home invasion stabbings usually only involve one strike, maybe two …"
"Why?" Jess interrupted, coming to the conclusion that the girl was a rookie, fresh out of the Academy. She'd said nothing inaccurate, but she was quoting textbooks and lecturers; Jess wanted to make sure she could use her head.
"Erm, probably because shooting someone's not as personal as stabbing them." She suggested, faltering only for a second. "The victim was stabbed about six times from the looks of it."
"Was there a third reason?" Jess prompted.
"Well, the window is the only point of entry I can see." The officer seemed to have been thrown off by the arrival of one of her colleagues, who had a familiar look on his face.
Girl doesn't know what she's talking about.
Jess had seen it many times herself. She cleared her throat. "Officer? Point of entry?"
"Right. The door wasn't kicked in or forced in, which suggests he came through the window, but he can't have done."
Jess followed her gaze. "That's …"
"That's enough, Wilson." The other officer barked. "I'm sorry, Detective."
"I'm not, Collins." Jess forced herself not to roll her eyes. "You should know I like hearing your opinions by now."
"This is her third crime scene." Collins told her, a note of contempt in his voice, proving her earlier thoughts right. "Doesn't know what she's talking about."
Jess folded her arms. "This wouldn't be because she's a 'she', right?"
"Of course not, Detective." Collins insisted. "That's got nothing to do with it. I just don't think she's cut out for the job."
"So you think it's perfectly plausible for the victim to have broken in through the window?" Jess asked.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Collins shrugged.
"Officer Wilson?" Jess turned to her. "Why don't you think the victim came through the window?"
"Well, Miss Masters has a lot of things on her window-sill, Detective." Wilson answered softly. "If he'd climbed through, he'd have knocked them all down. I doubt he was nice enough to put them all back where they'd been before."
"Some people clean when they're nervous." Collins shrugged. "Maybe Miss Masters put them back while she was waiting for us; something to do. Wouldn't be the first time."
"I don't think so." Wilson disagreed. "I looked at that shelf; there's dust everywhere. She wouldn't put them back exactly were the voids were unless she had OCD or something and, if she did, there wouldn't be any dust anyway."
Collins went over to the shelf and looked. "Well, I'll be damned."
Jess smiled at her. "Don't pay attention what that guy says to you; you're going places."
Once again, when Jess got back to her apartment, Don was sitting outside, but she wasn't surprised. She let him in without a word and handed him a beer from the fridge.
"How was your case?" He asked hoarsely.
"Woman's ex-boyfriend showed up at her house to talk to her about getting back together." Jess answered. "She let him in, conveniently not mentioning that she knew he'd cheated on her and then stabbed him six times."
"And this was after they'd broken up?" Don shook his head. "Hell hath no fury …"
"I hear you've got a serial killer." Jess frowned.
"Jess, don't say that." Don chided.
Jess raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
A ghost of a smile appeared on Don's face. "It's all psychological. You yell barracuda, everybody says, 'Huh? What?' You yell shark, we've got a panic on our hands on the fourth of July."
Jess sighed, realising she should've seen that coming. "That's alright; it's only May. And I swear to God, Flack, one more Jaws quote and I will shoot you myself."
Don held his hands up. "Alright. No more."
"Good." Jess sighed. "So what's going on with the serial-that's-not-a-serial?"
"We have three bodies; one washed up on Jersey Shore; two on Coney Island." Don told her. "Only connection is that all three advertised their services on billboards – we have two real estate agents and an attorney."
"Causes of death?" Jess prompted.
"Carbon monoxide poisoning, which is what killed the shark." Don explained. "Only our first vic didn't get quite enough; he had to strangle her. Second, actually, because Ben Melvoy was killed first. This guy's a cab-driver; Linds found traces of the passengers' bill of rights under one of our victim's fingernails."
"The gas must be pumped directly into the back seat." Jess murmured, closing her eyes, trying not to imagine the horror of being trapped like that.
"All three also had interesting marks on the backs of their necks; L2729." Don added.
"But we're not releasing that." Jess guessed. "Any idea what it means?"
"None whatsoever." Don groaned.
Jess patted his arm sympathetically. "Anything else?"
"Well, Mac and Stella tracked down the billboards; the next one along was for another real estate agent – PJ Davis."
"And?" Jess asked.
"She's safe." Don told her. "We've found her." His phone went off and he answered it. "Flack. Got it." He hung up. "We've got another victim."
"PJ Davis?" Jess asked.
Don shook his head. "Male."
"What's the connection between him and the other victims then?" Jess asked. "Surely if this guy was working through the billboards, he'd have waited until he could get to her?"
Don sighed. "Honestly, Jess; my gut's telling me that we're dealing with the worst kind of serial killer. The kind who doesn't care who his victims are."
"What does that mean?" Jess whispered.
"It means," Don stated grimly, "that no one in this city's safe until we catch the son-of-a-bitch."
AN: I'm rewriting Isobel Wilson's introduction in Taxi to bring her in here instead. It won't be that big, just to make sure continuity works (it'll bug me otherwise). And who else watched 'Scared Stiff'? I was actually scared for a while there ... Review please!