Authors note: hello everyone. Just wanted to let you know this is my first Cold Case fanfic, be nice, please. Just to forewarn you, some of the songs I've selected may not have been at the exact time of the story events but it's not such a huge distraction that it will cause any strife (there mainly just songs that haven't been released till a few months later). I own nothign, but Nice reviews make me write quicker.
Special thanks to my wonderful Beta, greyslostwho, who deserves at least half of the credit, for helping me to get this going.
The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event.
(December 1963 (what a night) Four Season)
11th August 1976
It was hot. Barely midday and already over seventy degrees, according to the radio, blaring out old tracks through crackly speakers that had seen better days.
The house sat baking in the heat. It was a huge white building that looked like a cross between a Roman bathhouse; a Moorish castle and an English country house… a white elephant of a house, unsuitable for anything.
To Jessica Black, her T-shirt sticking to the seat, it looked creepy, especially with all the windows open, through the wound down windows of the beat up hatchback. Like a haunted house, maybe, the sort she'd seen in movies, that her mother and brother didn't know she'd watched. The giant gaping windows left her thinking of open mouths, as if the house was hungry for something…
Matt and Roxanne weren't talking. That didn't surprise Jess at all. They had spent the first two hours of the trip arguing, but since they had picked up Doug and Jodie, they had sat in silence.
She shifted, trying to ease herself off the brown leather seats of her brother's car and desperately trying to shut Jodie's voice out. Since she'd realised that Matt and Rox weren't talking, she'd more than made up for it.
"...like I said, you're going to love it here. My parent used to stay here in the sixties. Place was like a hippy commune."
"Sounds interesting," Roxanne said, politely. "Jess sweetie, can you pass me some water?"
Jess nodded and retrieved one of the metal water bottles their mother had packed before they left.
She took the opportunity to look at the two people sitting next to her.
Jodie Ellen was a dishwater blonde with pale skin. Her nicest feature was probably her eyes, big and grey and pale, surrounded by dark shadows that made her look almost ghostlike. She was pretty, Jess thought, but in a washed up, rag doll kind of way. Doug Adams on the other hand was a hunk. All the girls at school had a crush on him, with his blonde hair and brooding indigo eyes. Not that you could see them at the moment, as he was asleep.
She straightened up, unscrewing the top off the water bottle. Roxanne was skinny with tiny wrists that meant she always needed help opening bottles and jars.
"Thanks sweetie." Roxanne said, reaching back and shaking her thick brown curls out of her face, but the car hit a bump, sending the open bottle spinning out of Jess' hands and all over the back seat. Doug jerked awake, as the water hit his grubby jeans and dust stained shirt. Jodie screamed; her peasant blouse and denim miniskirt were soaked.
Matt swore.
"Why are there so many blasted potholes?" He demanded of Jodie, running his hand through his uncustomary long black hair, meaning that it hung around his collar, rather than in its customary crew cut. It didn't suit him, and seemed to add to his frustrations.
Doug, stripping off his shirt effortlessly, in a manner half of Jess' high school class would have died for, answered.
"The pool's a way out from the hotel. Guess the new owner didn't reckon on anyone taking a car down here."
He turned to Jodie, a half smile teasing his lips, "Chill out babe. It'll dry."
Roxanne placed her hand on Matt's knee. Everyone is hot and tired, she seemed to say.
He nodded - the tension still present in his eyes.
The trees that lined the roads parted to reveal a clear, sparkling pool in the middle of the clearing. Rocks ran along the edge and a blonde haired boy and a girl were making out on top of one of them. They broke apart at the sound of the car. Jess leant across Doug to open the door, eager to escape the blistering car, as the two figures came over.
Sarah Shalom was tall, with long blonde hair that hung loosely around her shoulders. She was wearing cut off jeans and a blue T shirt. Her face was contorted in the correct expression of sorrow, but she still managed to look beautiful.
"Matt. I was really sorry to hear about Charlie."
Matt nodded, his face grim, as he moved towards the trunk of the car. Mike held out a hand, his hair also long and a dark blonde.
"Why don't Doug and I take the cases up to the hotel? We know a short cut and it'll give you guys a chance to cool off."
Roxanne had got out of the car and slipped her fingers around Matt's. "Sounds great. Thanks Mike."
Matt made a noise that might or might not be agreement, but he let himself be led off by Roxanne, who was talking to Jodie and Sarah about a diving rock. Jess hurried behind them.
Mike let out a sigh.
"Guess I'm still not forgiven then."
"You really thought you would be?" Doug asked, grabbing a case.
Mike shrugged.
"How was the trip?"
"Horrendous." They both paused with the suitcase to take a look at the clearing. Jess had walked or fallen into the water. She loved it, splashing around and getting completely soaked. Matt and Roxanne were calling to her, while trying very hard not to laugh.
"This week is really what we need." Matt said firmly, almost as if he was trying to convince himself.
Doug, however, shook himself.
"Hope you're right." He spoke slowly, shuddering a little, "I think someone just walked over my grave."
He shook his head and headed up towards the house.
It's raining, great sheets that drench everything in their path. The sky is black, the ground is grey, the rain is grey – the perfect picture of misery, as their world crumbles around them.
Jess sits in the back of a police car, wrapped in a blanket.
Roxanne is in Matt's arms. He holds her to his chest, his face grim, his eyes watching the porch of the inn, as they stand under black umbrellas. Sarah stands apart from them. She's soaked to the skin, but hardly seems to notice.
The door opens. Jess pulls the blanket up to hide her face; Roxanne buries hers in Matt's chest, he drops his head. Only Sarah remains where she is. She is the only one who sees the progress of the ambulance men, with their grey bag on a stretcher. She is the only one looking while they lift it into the coroner's van. Her eyes watch the second bag make the same grizzly journey.
Then they turn back to the forest, still as expressionless as ever.
Philadelphia 2007
"What's up, Boss?" Lilly Rush asked stepping out of the car. The scene was one of organised chaos. Lieutenant Stillman was kneeling by a large hole in the ground, but he got to his feet at the greeting.
"New owner wants to put in a hot tub. Workers were cutting the ground, found this." He led them over to the hole.
Reverently tended by the CSIs, a skeleton gazed up at them through empty sockets, large yellow beads lining the ribs.
"Love beads?" Kat Miller had joined the others by the grave. "This guy from the sixties?"
"You guys ever hear of Mike Eagle?"
They shook their heads.
"Guy was chief suspect in a double homicide back in '76."
"Suicide?" Kat asked.
Frannie Ching rolled her eyes.
"Not unless a guy can stab himself in the back." She said. She pointed to a rusty blade sticking out through the ribs.
"Any idea as to time of death?" Kat asked.
Frannie shook her head.
"So," Lilly asked. "Who killed him?"
(Cue intro)
