IN TOO DEEP

Chapter 2: Apnea

Disclaimer: 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation' and 'CSI: Miami,' characters and all related terms and concepts are trademarked property of CBS Productions and Alliance Atlantis Communications. No copyright infringement is intended or contained within this story. I am in no way affiliated or recognized by CBS, just a fan writing for fun. Pokemon and Pikachu are property of Nintendo and 4Kids Entertainment.

Note: Hello! Thanks for giving this fic a try. Please don't forget to read the author's notes at the bottom; they may contain useful information to the readers. -Carla.

Note 2: As the Mythbusters would say, "Warning! Science Content!" This chapter contains the post, so things might get really technical. Any questions, feel free to ask. -Carla, again.

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"ETD is around 4 o' clock. We got her fresh."

Eric had no comment for that particular assertion as he examined the corpse. Alexx chuckled a bit at his silence. "Water was present in her stomach and lungs, so she had to be alive at the time of submersion."

"CoD is definitely drowning, then," Delko nodded at her, making note of the conclusion.

"Yes. But I found something else that you'll find very interesting." Alexx walked around the examination table and picked up a folder. Then she walked up to Eric and presented it to him.

"What's that?" he asked her, opening it and taking a look at its contents.

"Blood test shows CO2 partial pressure is abnormally low for a common drowning victim," she pointed the numbers out to him and saw the understanding dawning in his eyes. "Suggests depletion of CO2 previous to submersion, also known as hypocapnia. Divers refer to this as Shallow Water Blackout; I'm sure you've heard of it."

"Yes, of course," he muttered, more to himself than to her. "That would explain why she was floating at the bottom of the pool. But shallow water blackout happens due to hyperventilation previous to diving... it flushes out the carbon dioxide from the body, delaying the breathing reflex. That means..." He frowned, looking at the numbers. "Not only was she alive at the time of submersion, but she was conscious."

Alexx nodded, passing a page on the folder when she believed he was done reading. "She was conscious and very agitated. Her epinephrine levels were off the charts. She must've been terribly scared. My guess is the flight impulse caused her hyperventilation."

"Makes sense, breathe heavily while running from her attacker." Eric looked back at the body. "But there was no sign of a chase in that room. What about the bruising?" he asked, pointing to the girl's shoulders, which were marked with light purple blobs.

Alexx touched the marks lightly, examining them once again. "Heavy pressure on the shoulders, could be from when she was pushed out the window."

"Do they tell us anything about the attacker?"

"Nothing, really. Anyone can make a bruise like that."

Eric looked a little disappointed. "I was hoping to have more, but I expect the water or the chlorine washed out any clues that might've lingered, right?" Alexx gave him a positive reply, and he frowned. "Anything else I should know?"

The coroner thought about it for a second. "The cut in her leg didn't come from a sharp weapon, like a knife; the skin is uneven. Though I believe from the shape that it could still be metallic in nature. A thin piece of unsharpened metal."

"We found blood in the windowsill, that's probably the source. Again, from when she was pushed."

"Yes, I see. Well, that's all I have for you, honey," she finished, accepting the folder back from Eric and moving to leave it in its place.

He gave her a smile. "That's very helpful, Alexx. Thanks. I'll make sure to put it all together so H can see it." As the examiner covered the corpse with a blanket, he gave her one last wave and left the room.

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Ryan entered the interrogation room in a hurry just as Calleigh finished asking a question. "Sorry about that, I got caught up leaving some evidence at trace." He threw her a sheepish smile as he sat down beside her. She nodded at him, dismissing his lateness, and he turned his chair around to look at the person being questioned. He went still for a second as he focused on the woman in sweatpants, bright blue socks, slippers and a t-shirt sitting in front of him. "Pamela?"

"Hi, Ryan," the blonde spoke in her usual unsure tone, giving him an unsure, albeit slightly relieved, smile.

Calleigh looked between the two. "You know each other?"

"Yes, Pamela's..." Ryan smiled lightly at the younger woman, his eyes then coming to rest on his colleague. "She's the girl from that case I told you about, the baby that was in the hospital during the gang shooting?"

Calleigh's eyebrows rose as she recalled the incident. She looked at the other woman in a whole new light. "You kidnapped a baby?"

The woman paled visibly. "I just... you make it sound horrible, it wasn't like that..."

Ryan intervened quickly. "Those were special circumstances, Cal," he assured his partner, although he was aware that Calleigh was often of the mindset that 'special circumstances' did not make it any less of a crime. Back to the woman being questioned, his tone was less uncertain. "Sorry about that," he said, giving her a lopsided smile. "So, you're involved in this?"

Pamela pursed her lips and nodded hesitantly. "I'm the Valencias' babysitter."

Ryan whistled, a bit amused by that fact. "Wow, that must be some bad karma."

The nanny chuckled, still half in disbelief. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I hope this doesn't become a habit."

Calleigh cleared her throat; obviously they didn't know they were not here to socialize. Ryan turned to her, a bit startled, like he had forgotten she was there. He uttered an apology. Pamela started to giggle, but cut herself off when she saw the serious expression on Calleigh's face. Finally, after a few awkward seconds, the questioning continued. "Miss Warren, I noticed you said you're the 'babysitter.' That means you don't stay there, right?"

She nodded. "Yes. Um, I work there regularly, but only during the day, or on nights when Mrs. Valencia can't be there. She's a very busy woman, obviously." She paused for a moment, seeming to finally hear what she'd just said, and her eyes widened. "Not that I think she's a bad mother! She loves her children, I'm sure of that. It's not like I'm trying to kidnap Tito or anything..."

Ryan had to contain his laughter, seeing her panic this way. That made Pamela realize that she was being a bit stupid. Calleigh didn't join in the laughter, however. "Nobody said you were, Miss Warren. Now, could you tell us what you were doing around the time of the murder?"

"Tito received a videogame for his birthday the past week. It's some sort of Pokemon voice-recording game. We were playing all afternoon, in his room."

"And you didn't hear anything? You didn't notice when Miss Valencia arrived, or when she fell into the pool?"

Pamela shrugged. "Not really. I'm sure you saw that the house is really big; you can't really know what's happening from the opposite wing. Mercedes' room is in the right wing, while Tito's room is on the left wing."

"She's right, the place is huge," Ryan told Calleigh. He'd been there, and he was sure he hadn't seen even half of the rooms. It's no wonder Pamela didn't even know Mercedes Valencia was at home at the time of the murder.

Calleigh had to give him that. She hadn't been there for long, but she had seen enough of the mansion to agree. "Well, how did you find Miss Valencia's body?"

The babysitter frowned. "I went to look for Tito. He'd gone to the bathroom-- made quite a fuss about going alone. He's in his 'I'm not a baby' phase, see. And he's very spoiled, used to getting his way. So when he said he didn't need any help, I just let him; figured if I stayed in the room and scored some more points for his Pikachu, he'd stop being sulky. Sometimes, when Mrs. Valencia isn't home, he likes to use her bathroom and have a bit of a lie on her bed. He's very attached to his mother. So I waited for a bit, and then went to look for him. Found him there, and as we were coming back, I thought I saw something at the bottom of the pool." She grimaced as she remembered it. "I quickly grabbed Tito and took him to his room... He started crying; I shouldn't have let him see that at all." She sighed. "Then I called 911." Her expression then turned sad. "It was horrible, seeing her like that... and the blood floating... I didn't know her that well, she was too old for a babysitter, but the few times we talked she was really nice to me. A little wild, if the entertainment news are to be believed, but she was nice."

"It's always hard, seeing a dead body," Ryan muttered, very serious.

"Yes. You'd know about that, wouldn't you?" Pamela hugged herself, almost like she was cold. "I sure hope it's the last time for me."

"There was nobody else in the house?" Calleigh cut in before Ryan could say anything else.

The younger woman shook her head. "Not that I saw, no."

"What about Mrs. Valencia? Do you know where she went in the morning?"

The response was another negative. "She didn't tell me where she was going, but I'm pretty sure she was traveling out of town. I was supposed to spend the night with Tito."

"Well, that complicates things..." Ryan whispered under his breath. The woman had to be informed of the death of her daughter, and she was nowhere to be found.

"What about Mercedes? Do you have any idea of where she went between 11:30 and 3:30?"

Pamela thought about it very hard. "I might be wrong, but I think I heard Mrs. Valencia saying something about it before she left. Something about church, and... a class? And she mentioned the name of Mercedes' boyfriend, Tommy." She shrugged. "I didn't know what she meant, she was explaining it to Tito because he wanted Mercedes to stay and play with us."

"Church on a Saturday?" Ryan wondered aloud. "And a class? She just graduated high school, why would she be attending any classes?"

The woman bit her lip. "I didn't understand it either. I'm sorry I can't be of more help."

Ryan smiled at her. "Don't worry, we'll figure it out."

"Anything else you'd like to tell us, Miss Warren?" Calleigh intervened again, rather quickly.

Pamela shook his head again. "Then I guess we're done for now," Ryan told her, and she started to stand up.

"Please don't leave the city," Calleigh reminded her.

"I won't. You guys are keeping Tito, after all," she reminded the two. Until Mrs. Valencia made an act of presence, the boy would have to remain under police custody. As Pamela was not a relative and Mrs. Valencia did not leave official documentation that the child be left in Pamela's care, there was nothing else that could be done. But she still wanted to be around just in case she was needed. It was her job to take care of the kid, after all, and she cared a lot for him, no matter how much of a brat he was. "Bye, Ryan." He responded in kind with a smile and she gave him a small wave as she crossed to the outside of the room.

As soon as the door closed behind her, Calleigh rounded on an unsuspecting Ryan. "What was that all about?" she asked him in a no-nonsense tone.

"What do you mean?" Ryan asked her, confused. He stood up, waiting for her to explain.

"You were flirting with her. During questioning." Calleigh stood up as well, giving him a hard stare.

The accusation made him frown. "What are you talking about? I wasn't. I just knew her from before."

Calleigh crossed her arms. "Give me some credit here. Your usual method of interrogation consists of telling the subject exactly how they murdered the victim, no matter how innocent they look. And usually are."

He threw her a look, like she was hallucinating, and shrugged. "So I tried being nice for once. That's not against protocol."

"You were flirting. She was flirting with you as well. It's unprofessional."

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Look, if I was, I wasn't doing it on purpose, ok? And I don't know if she was flirting with me, and if she was, it's really not my fault, anyway." He took a step back, wishing she would just chill. It was all innocent, really.

Her hands moved to her hips, and she smirked in a patronizing fashion. "Oh, I'm sorry. It's the Don Johnson jacket, it makes you irresistible." She pointed to his white jacket with something akin to disdain, or at least as close to it as the normally sweet Calleigh could produce.

"Now, that was uncalled for," Ryan looked down at her, and she held his gaze for a couple of heartbeats, never backing down. Then he sighed. "Look, she's just a girl I happen to know. I'm sorry I let that come in the way of questioning. Satisfied?"

"She's not just that, Ryan. She's a possible suspect, and you're supposed to be neutral." Her expression was serious again, voice cool and sharp like a knife as she emphasized some of the words to make her point. "I think it'd be better if you just let me do the talking from now on." She turned to leave the room.

Ryan stared at her blonde hair as she walked to the door, wondering what had crawled up her alley and died that morning. He didn't like being told what to do, but he wasn't in the mood to argue. Did they always have to fight about protocol, anyway? It was starting to get really old, really fast.

He quickly followed her. They had to continue the investigation, after all. He found her talking with Natalia. "...Haven't seen him," she was saying, and Natalia seemed disappointed. "Sorry."

"That's ok, I was just hoping," Natalia dismissed the apology. "Did you finish questioning the nanny? Where are you off to?"

"Actually, we don't know yet," Calleigh's voice was back to its sweet tone, like their argument had never happened. "Her details were very vague. Something about going to church, and then a class, but we don't know what class she could be going to on a Saturday, and after church?" She was at a loss.

Natalia's brow furrowed like she'd heard something similar before. "Well, she was Catholic, right? And engaged? Maybe she was going to premarital courses, they're usually on Saturdays."

"Premarital course? In a church?" that gave Calleigh pause.

Natalia nodded. "It's not unheard of. In Florida you need to take the course in order to get a license anyway, and the Catholic Church usually encourages people that want to have a Catholic ceremony to take the course within their fold. I'd know; I had to, when I got married," she explained.

"That makes sense," Ryan intervened.

"We can find out which parish they belong to," Calleigh immediately took out her phone, starting to dial. She smiled at the CSI trainee. "Thanks, Natalia." She started walking towards the exit. "You coming?" she threw back at Ryan, who was still standing there without a purpose. He nodded and followed her, as she put her cell phone to her ear.

Natalia watched them go. She was about to go back to see if she could call Horatio, when she noticed something on the TV screen near the exit. A mob of people with cameras and microphones was surrounding someone's apartment complex. Security guards were trying to keep the people at bay, but the whole situation was getting out of control. And the title of the news story was "Just in: Mercedes Valencia murdered," with a subtitle that explained that the building in question was that of Tommy Mendez, the boyfriend.

The media frenzy had begun.

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Horatio could barely see the figure of the young man in the middle of the reporters. He was covering his face with his hand so they couldn't get it on camera, and he was pushing his way out as the media men kept shooting questions at him, all at the same time. His "no comments" were getting him nowhere.

The Head Investigator quickly pulled out his badge and with a loud "MDPD! Coming through!" he started to make his way through the crowd.

After much struggling he finally got a hold of the man's arm. "Lt. Horatio Caine, CSI. I need you to come with me, sir; we've some questions for you."

The man was a little relieved to be out of the spotlight as he was pulled into the Hummer, but he was too anxious for the relief to stick. "Officer, is it true? What they were asking? Is Merce..."

Horatio's expression was empathic to the young man's anguish as he started the car. "I'm afraid it is. I'm sorry."

Tommy's hand rose to cover his eyes as they shut together tightly, like he was in pain. "Oh, my God..."

Horatio could offer no words of comfort as the man leaned his head against the window and grieved.

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Author's notes: Whoa, I'm going through this thing fast. I'm usually a really slow writer, but the sentences are just flowing out of me for this one. And this chapter was longer than the previous one (7 pages!). Not to mention that the plot is starting to pick up. I hope you found it interesting and still want to know what happens next.

Just FYI, because I'm a nerd and I have to explain stuff, the chapter title, "Apnea," is just a fancy term for the suspension of breathing (whether it be by holding your breath, or external causes, it doesn't matter). Pamela Warren appeared in episode 3.12 ("Shootout"); she was a nanny who kidnapped a baby and accidentally almost choked her in the process, though she had a good reason for it, I guess. The episode stuck in my mind because Ryan remained particularly nice to her even if she did turn out to be a kidnapper. I needed a nanny for this, and I like Judy Greer, so I decided to re-use Pamela.

Thanks, you guys, for your reviews for last chapter! I've written many fanfiction stories, but I'm shaking in my pants a bit with this one, because I'm not sure I can pull off a CSI plot. But your comments definitely make me feel better! I hope you guys still feel that way after this one. RC shippers will probably find the beginning of a little something in this chapter :)

In the next chapter!: A late afternoon visit to a priest, interrogating the fiancé, and the mother finally makes an appearance. There might be a new suspect, maybe.