Little Girl Lost
Chapter One
A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty. -Rudyard Kipling
The trip over the Coroner's Office was slightly uneasy for both parties, small talk was batted back and forth between Tim Speedle and Reese Parker circulating around the average questions one normally used to probe someone new and find out a few things about them. Neither one really seemed to find solid ground with the other as they jumped from subject to subject rather quickly. In fact, as they walked in through the doors that would lead them down the hall to the exam room, Tim glanced over at the redhead walking alongside him.
"So, what brings you out from California anyways? A transfer all the way here to Florida seems a bit of a stretch." Tim watched her reaction, noting the shrug she gave back before explaining her part in the transfer.
"I've been wanting to get away from the West Coast for a while now. Take a step outside of what I know and find a new change of pace." Reese shrugged while glancing about her surroundings briefly. There wasn't much difference between the Coroner's Office in San Diego and this one here in Miami, but it still felt a bit alien at the moment.
Tim nodded as he understood that a certain degree as he himself hailed from New York. "You definitely picked a rather interesting city for a change of pace." He mused with a raised brow while casting a quick glance from the corner of his eye. "San Diego not wild enough for ya?"
Reese grinned a bit as they approached the doors to the exam room. "Trust me, I don't think there's much difference between California and Florida, unless you want to throw alligators and crocodiles into the mix."
Opening his mouth to say something, Tim closed it promptly and just shook his head before pulling down on the steel handle and yanking the door open. With a inward sweeping gesture of his arm, he looked back at Reese with a lifted look. "After you, rookie."
Rolling her eyes as she walked into the exam room, stepping straight into the theater, Reese found herself almost directly face to face with two dead male bodies set out on the cold stainless steel tables she was all too familiar with. "Some things never change, no matter what city you live in." She mumbled under her breath while staring between the two victims.
"Baby, I think the same thing everyday." The familiar voice of the ME drifted in from seemingly nowhere, catching the attention of both Tim and Reese off to their immediate right. Dr. Alexx Woods stepped up to the two CSI's while pulling on a set of latex gloves. "Looks like Horatio sent you straight to the action." She grinned with amused look on her face.
"I guess it just means I get to showcase just how much of a steel stomach I have right off the bat." Reese shrugged while nabbing a pair of latex gloves from the nearby counter. "So, what's the four one one on these two?" A rather serious look overtook her face as she slipped her hands inside the smooth material of the gloves.
Alexx shot Tim a rather impressed look as she conveyed her personal liking to the new girl on the team. Giving a meager shrug with his brows, Tim yanked on a pair of gloves as well before moving over to join the two women at the exam tables.
"Well, long story short, our two boys here were killed by blunt force trauma. To the back of the head, to the right temple." Alexx turned the heads of each victim, showcasing the rather nasty looking wounds inflicted by a weapon of some kind. The bone of the skull was crushed in with hair, blood, and flesh forming a rather gruesome mixture about the injury. "Both have defensive wounds and bruising on their forearms and hands. At least they put up a fight before going down for the count." Alexx exhaled a sigh, her expression clinging to a sense of remorse at young lives lost to senseless violence.
Just by looking at them it was evident they couldn't be anywhere outside of their early thirties. Reese noted that both men were good-looking, clean cut in appearance with a bit of that metrosexual look that was becoming rather popular. Something you would expect from art dealers or at least sales associates in art galleries.
"What'd you find on them?" Tim glanced up at Alexx with a questioning look on his face.
"Foreign substance under the fingernails on Mark Sidle over here." Alexx moved towards the blonde haired one of the pair, lifting up his right hand to indicate where she had found evidence. "I scraped it and sent it to Trace." Gently setting his hand down, Alexx moved up towards his head and opened his mouth. "There were a few red fibers caught in his teeth, possibly from his attacker. The bruising around the left side of his mouth suggests he took one straight on." Her fingers circled about the dark purple and green splotch of blood trapped beneath the skin.
Reese nodded as she listened to Alexx speak, wondering if maybe she should voice her own opinion on the matter or remain silent since she would only be running evidence between the different areas in the lab. However, Reese opted to at least say something. "Red fibers could have been transferred during the initial blow. If they guy got sucker punched, the arm of his attacker would continue off to the side forward enough for whatever he was wearing to get snagged on the teeth briefly." She had seen a few of these before back in San Diego. Whenever a street brawl broke out between rival gang members or whoever had beef with who at the moment, punches to the face normally left behind more than just bruises and broken teeth. Long sleeved shirts were a choice of wear for a lot in gangs, sporting their colors as a badge of honor, and the cuffs often being what caught in the teeth during an upper cut or hook of any kind.
"It's possible." Tim more or less agreed with the theory, but his usual deadpan personality made it seem as though he wasn't thinking much of her observations, or at least it sounded that way to Reese. After all, she had just met the guy that day about an hour ago, not exactly enough time to get used to his personality. "What about the other guy Alexx, what'd you find on him?"
Alexx gave Tim a brief smirk before gesturing for the two CSI's to follow her to the next table. "Our little Matthew Spencer here had a few extra things on him aside from the same foreign substance under the nails. Unlike Mark, this one has a few smaller bruises in some rather daring areas." Alexx turned the brunette haired man's head to the side and tilted his jaw up a bit. Right underneath his jawline was a rather odd looking bruise.
In fact, on closer inspection with a magnifier at the hands of Tim Speedle, the odd looking bruise was concluded to be two bruises almost overlapping one another. "A hickey?"
"And not just there either honey." Alexx interjected while moving further south to the chest of the deceased and pointed two more bruises on his collarbone that could be considered as identical to the ones on his jawline. Once those were pointed out, Alexx moved even further south, causing an amused look to cut across Reese's face when Alexx lifted the sheet covering the lower extremities. "Our boy was a player."
"Or on his way to having a really nice night before being murdered." Reese murmured while coming around the table to stand beside Alexx. Her inquisitive and curious nature made her a valued member on the San Diego CSI team, but sometimes that nature of hers got confused with other things, which of course at the moment had Tim lifting a brow from his place next to Alexx.
"I swabbed the bruises and sent it off to Valera." Alexx sighed while setting the sheet back down in its place. Twisting slightly to reach behind her, Alexx plucked a small manila envelope with red tape from the medical tray holding a few unused tools of the trade, and handed it directly over to Reese with a grin. "I found what looks like sand in Matthew's ear this morning before you showed up. It's all yours baby."
Taking the envelope from her, Reese nodded with a brief smirk. "I'll get it to Trace."
"Alexx, when the tox reports come in have Reese run them to Calleigh or Eric." Tim caught the gaze of the ME as she was peeling the gloves from her hands.
"Sure thing Timmy." Alexx nodded while glancing over at the spoken of CSI who was currently looking over the blonde victim again, blue eyes narrowing upon the body in a deeply studious manner. I keep thinking she's a fresh rookie. Baby's got a look that I see all the time around here. I can only begin to imagine how long she's been at this. "Reese, honey, you seeing something?"
"Not sure." The redhead replied while reaching for a pair of tweezers on the medical tray near at hand. Her eyes were slowly narrowing in on something lost amongst the dead man's blonde hair, or at least hadn't been caught right away. "The ID on the guy, did happen to mention what his hair color is?" Her question almost a near murmur as she leaned in over the body, tweezers pinching a hold on a single strand of the man's hair before plucking it out as carefully as possible to save the follicle.
Tim lifted a brow while taking up the chart hanging off the end of the same table. "Hair color...brown?" He stared down at the blonde and then glanced over at the brunette. "That can't be right."
"No it is." Reese sighed while lifting the hair up to show it off beneath the light. "He just had help with either hair dye or a bleaching kit to change his look." The blonde strand held a dark root about an inch down to the follicle.
Alexx tutted under breath while shaking her head. "Why someone would want to damage their hair like that, I'll never understand." She half grinned while jotting something down on another chart.
Reese chuckled lightly. "Then maybe you shouldn't take a trip out to California. Particularly Orange County." A snicker was held back from being heard as Reese couldn't get the last image of "You want me to tag it?" She glanced over at Tim, who was eying the strand of hair as well.
"Might as well." He shrugged. "Run it over to DNA, let's make sure this guy is who his ID said he is."
