"Travis, give me back my stapler."
"Man, just let me use it. My desk is right here, it won't be out of your sight." Detective Travis Marks said slowly, as if talking too a second grader.
"Don't talk to me like I'm in kindergarten." Detective Wesley Mitchell glared at his partner as he snatched his stapler back.
"At least a kindergartener would let me use his stapler." Travis mumbled.
"A kindergartener would be smart enough to know not to trust you." Travis rolled his eyes and turned his chair around.
"Hey Amy, can I borrow your stapler?"
"Sorry, out of staples."
"I have some right here in my desk." Travis lifted up the box of staples to prove it. Amy looked down and her stapler and back at him, before walking out of the room.
"Kate, can I borrow your-"
"No." Travis sighed and turned around. Wes raised his eyebrows with a smug grin on his face. Travis chewed on his tongue and then got up and went into his captains office, along with the stack of papers he had to staple. As expected, his Captain was lying on the ground doing his hourly yoga. He always said it wasn't hourly, but whenever someone would walk in there he was doing yoga.
"Cap, can I use your stapler?" Captain Sutton didn't move. He laid there with his eyes still closed.
"Can't you borrow Mitchells?"
"He won't let me."
"Where's yours?" Captain Sutton opened one eye to look at Travis.
"It uh-….I think someone may of-…I think someone borrowed it?" Captain Sutton smirked and closed his eyes again.
"You can use my stapler, but you must staple your papers in here and you cannot leave with my stapler." Travis nodded, before realizing his Captain couldn't see him. He walked over to his Captains desk and stapled his report together and then put the stapler back on the desk.
"Thanks Cap." Travis walked out of his Captains office and sat back at his desk. He started doing work on his flat screen Pear computer, while Wes read over the report he had just stapled.
"HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!" A tall, brown-haired teenage ran into the robbery homicide unit, screaming his lungs out. A uniformed cop followed him. He ran right up to Detectives Mark and Mitchell.
"Wes Mitchell and Travis Marks?" they both nodded.
"HELP ME FIND MY GIRLFRIEND!" the teenage boy screamed before the cop tackled him to the ground.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? YOU GOTTA HELP ME! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG! GET OFF ME!" the cop slapped handcuffs on him, pulled him up, and pushed him into a chair. Wes and Travis kneeled down in front of him.
"Okay kid, just calm down. Relax." Wes said calmly.
"We can't help you unless your relax." Travis followed.
"Deep breaths, come on." Wes started taking deep breaths and soon after the teenage boy followed, squeezing his eyes shut. Travis stood up and turned towards the rest of the unit, who were now watching, ready to react at any new outburst the young boy may make.
"Okay everyone, we got this. Nothing to see here." As everyone turned back to their work, the Captain walked towards Wes and Travis' desk.
"Connors. Let him go." Captain said as the uniformed officer unlocked the handcuffs.
"Sorry kid, didn't know what you do. Protocall when someones freaking out in the precinct." The boy just nodded, his eyes still squeezed shut. After releasing him, Officer Connors walked out of the room.
Travis and Wes had gotten their chairs and wheeled them in front of the boy, and Captain was leaning against Wes' desk.
"Okay. Are you calm now? Are you okay?" Travis asked. The boy nodded as his lip started to quiver and tears slowly started running down his face. The Captain handed him a box of tissues, but he refused and wiped his eyes and his nose with the sleeve of his light blue UCLA hoodie.
"Relax, you're okay." Wes rubbed the boys shoulder.
"Can you tell us what's going on?" Travis tried, but the boy was still silently crying, not answering any questions. Travis and Wes looked up at the Captain desperately.
"Hey kid, are you hungry?" the boy nodded.
"Take him down to the Starbucks, get him a sandwich." Wes and Travis nodded.
"Come on kid, let's go get some coffee." The teenage boy stood up. Wes looked him up and down. A brown haired boy, eighteen or nineteen, well built, wearing dark blue jeans and a light blue UCLA hoodie and black sneakers.
Wes and Travis lead the boy down to the Starbucks attached to the building. It was three in the afternoon, a weird hour to eat so it wasn't too busy. Wes walked up to the counter to order, as Travis and the teenage boy sat down at the corner booth.
"Okay, I need you to talk to us. You came to our precinct, looking for us specifically. We can't help you, until you help us." Travis stated calmly as he reached over and put his hand on the boys shoulder.
"She's gone." He whispered.
"Who's gone?" the boy looked up sadly, obvious signs of pain in his red, swollen eyes.
"My girlfriend." Before Travis could respond, Wes walked up with coffee and sandwiches.
"You didn't tell me what you liked, but I got you a turkey on white with lettuce and swiss. And black coffee." The boy nodded as Wes sat the refreshments down in front of him. Wes handed Travis his black coffee, and took a sip from his caramel mocha latte.
"What's your name?" Travis asked softly.
"Nathan. Nathan Munck." Wes wrote it down in his notepad as Travis continued.
"Can you tell us why you came to look for us? The whole story?"
"My girlfriend and I had a class together today. We usually meet in the café next to the building, but she wasn't there and she didn't answer her phone. She has an exam Thursday, so I figured she was just cramming. She did that a lot. The only reason she doesn't answer her phone is because she's studying or at practice. When I got to class, she wasn't there. Thought maybe she lost track of time studying, so I texted her saying class started." Wes wrote it all down as Travis nodded, urging Nathan to continue.
Nathan took a sip from his coffee and took a deep breath, before continuing.
"When she didn't show up for class, I skipped my next class and drove to her apartment. She lives off campus. When I got to her apartment, the door was open. When I walked in, her whole apartment was wrecked." Nathan started to cry into the sleeves of his hoodie again.
"Was she…" It's always hard asking questions about a dead or missing loved one. Nathan took a few more deep breaths.
"She wasn't there. Someone kidnapped her."
"Okay, what's your girlfriends name Nathan?" Wes asked.
"Meredith. Meredith Benson."
"Can you show us where her apartment is?" Nathan nodded and got up, forgetting about his food. Travis and Wes got up and followed Nathan out of the Starbucks. Travis and Wes then lead Nathan to Wes' black Range Rover.
"Turn right up here." Nathan instructed from the passengers seat of Wes' Range Rover. Travis was in the backseat, on the phone with the rest of the team, telling them how to get to the crime scene.
Wes pulled up too a nice looking apartment building. Both him and Travis raised their eyebrows at it.
"A junior in college lives here?" Wes and Travis turned to look at Nathan.
"She's been living off her moms life insurance, savings, her moms pension, and the money from selling her old house and furniture." Wes looked at the building in front of them.
"How much money did she get from all that?" Travis asked before Wes could. They may bicker like an old married couple, but they could still read each others minds.
"1.2 million? Maybe a little more…I can't remember exactly."
"What did her mom do?" Wes asked him
"She was a doctor. Brain surgeon. Wonderful woman."
"So you knew Merediths mom." Wes stated. Nathan smiled sadly.
"I went back to Ohio with Meredith for Thanksgiving break and she introduced me to her entire family. Her whole family asked me when I was going to propose because we were so in love."
"When did her mom die Nathan?" Travis asked, his head sticking out between the two front seats.
"Right after Christmas break of freshmen year. She died of stomach cancer, I took Meredith to the funeral."
The faint sound of sirens could be heard in the background. Wes and Travis started getting out.
"Come on Nathan, we just need you to show us where and then someone will take you back to the precinct." Nathan nodded slowly and got out of Wes' car.
Nathan led the pack of detectives, police officers, and crime scene investigators through the tenants parking garage.
"I was here so often, Meredith gave me her extra parking pass so I could park in here." He stated. He then pointed towards a black Prius sitting in the corner spot, three spots over from the door to the building.
"That's her car. Sitting there in her favorite spot," he looks down sadly. "She always got mad when someone snagged the spot before her."
Three members of the crime scene unit and two police officers walked over to the car. Nathan led the rest of the pack to the entrance of the building. He took his UCLA lanyard out of his pocket and swiped a key card that unlocked the door.
"You have your own key to the apartment building?" Wes asked.
"We've been dating since freshmen year. We met at freshmen oritentation. Half my stuff is here. She wanted me to move in during our senior year."
"When did she give you a key?"
"Last year." Travis nodded as they followed Nathan too the elevators. Once in, Nathan pressed seven and the elevator shot up. After landing on the seventh floor, he led them down the straight hallway to 7D and pushed the broken-in door open, revealing the mess that was left there. Police officers and crime scene techs started crawling through it.
"Was this how you found it?" Nathan nodded.
"Except the door was cracked."
"Someone broke in." Nathan backed out of the apartment and slid down the wall in the hallway. Travis walked up to him and squatted down.
"Look, how about I take you back to the precinct? You can be alone and in the quiet and surrounded by cops." He smiled softly at Nathan. Before Nathan could respond, Wes walked out of the apartment.
"Nathan, did you and Meredith have sex recently?" Nathan looked up at him.
"Why?"
"We found semen on the sheets. We can test it, but if you say its yours it goes faster." Wes sat down next to him and smiled, trying to lighten the mood.
"How recent is recently?"
"A week or two." Nathan nodded.
"Monday was our anniversary. We spent the whole day together and I decorated her apartment with rose petals and candles and everything." Wes nodded. Travis smiled and put his hand on Nathans shoulder.
"You're a good kid." Nathan nodded and looked down.
"Was it her first time? Or was she on her period? There's blood." Nathan looked up, alarmed.
"Not enough to do any fatal damage. Just a small amount of dried blood, it looks to be a few days old." Wes said at Nathans alarm. Nathan relaxed a little before answering.
"I think she started her period Tuesday. She asked to pick up tampons on my way over after my law class." Wes nodded.
"Do you have a recent picture of Meredith?" Nathan nodded and took his wallet out of his back pocket. He handed Wes his wallet and Wes started flipping through the pictures as Travis moved behind Wes so he could look too.
The first photo had a slim, fair-skinned girl with long, wavy blonde hair. She was wearing a too big, UCLA hoodie, no doubt the one Nathan was wearing today, with dark blue skinny jeans and gray sneakers. Nathan had his arms wrapped around her from behind and was kissing her cheek. The blonde girl was had a big, happy smile on her face.
The second photo was a picture of just Meredith with a big smile on her face. Her blonde hair was wet and wavy, and she was wearing a light blue one piece swimsuit with the UCLA Bruins logo on it. She had three metals and a pair of goggles around her neck and a silver swim cap and big golden trophy in her hands.
The third photo was a picture of Nathan and Meredith kissing, her arms around his neck and his arms around her waist.
The fourth picture had Nathan in it too. Meredith was wearing a blue UCLA swim team hoodie and skinny jeans. Nathan was wearing a red t-shirt and jeans. She was sitting on his lap, leaning towards the camera. Her head was turned slightly towards Nathan, but you could see she was laughing. Nathan was smiling and had his arms around her waist.
The fifth photo had Meredith and Nathan both in swimsuits, on the beach. She had a dark pink bikini on and Nathan had blue and gray swim trunks on. They were standing together with Nathans arm hanging loosely around her neck and his other arm holding a surfboard. Meredith was smiling and leaning towards Nathan, her tongue out, and holding up the "hang loose" sign
The sixth and final photo was placed where a drivers license normal went. It was a picture of Nathan and Meredith at a swim meet. She was wearing the same UCLA swimsuit and had the same goggles and metals around her neck. The trophy was in her right hand and her left was around Nathans waist. She was smiling at the camera, and Nathan was proudly smiling down at her, happy to have such an amazing girl on his arm.
"When was this swim meet photo taken?" Wes held up the picture of Meredith with the metals and the trophy.
"Three weeks ago. She won States for us." He smiled sadly at the photo. Wes looked down at the photo and then at Travis.
"Okay Nathan, you go with Travis back to the precinct and we'll copy this and then give it back to you. Alright?" Nathan nodded and stood up. Wes handed his wallet back to him before him and Travis started walking towards the elevators. Wes reluctantly tossed his keys to Travis.
"Don't crash my car." Travis waved him off as him and Nathan got in the elevator.
"Blood and Semen on the bed." Wes heard a tech say as he walked into the bedroom.
"Meredith and Nathan had sex here on Monday and she got her period on Tuesday." The CSU tech nodded and wrote it down. Wes looked around the bedroom. There was at least ten pictures of Meredith and Nathan hanging or sitting in frames. There was even more out in the living room around the TV and on the desk.
"Detective? You might want to see this." Wes followed a different CSU tech towards the kitchen. When he got there, he was shocked at what he saw.
On the island in the middle of the kitchen, lay a picture of Meredith and Nathan. A bigger version of the same picture Nathan had in his wallet. Meredith laughing, sitting in his lap. Except there was one thing that made this picture different then the one in Nathans wallet.
This one, had a knife through it.