Chapter 1 - The Venue
Jo Danville grabbed her case, jumped down from the Avalanche and stared up at the glittering tower of steel and glass looming above her. It seemed to sparkle invitingly like a flower attracting bees. The convention centre was bustling. Delegates swarmed everywhere, ID tags pinned to their shirts or swinging from multicoloured ribbons around their necks. Cabs pulled up to unload more visitors as the people leaving jostled to take their place. Fashion week was in full swing and judging by the number of participants alone business was booming. Jo turned away from the front of the centre and made for the police cars discretely parked to one side where Don was standing talking to a uniformed officer. He raised his hand in greeting and gestured for her to follow him.
"It's crazy around here. Not only are there five thousand attendees at Manhattan Mode but there's a gala dinner for the opening of the new mezzanine extension and the annual general meeting of the New York Association of Hygiene Product Manufacturers!" Jo looked at him quizzically. "Don't ask!" Don rolled his eyes. Jo laughed.
"What do we know so far Don?" she asked as they rounded the corner of the building and entered the side door of the convention centre.
"Patience Jo! Patience!" Don grinned at her and waggled his eyebrows. "Sheldon is just about to display the evidence for you." Jo looked at him strangely but decided it was probably best not to ask that either. Besides she felt too exhausted for anything complicated. It wasn't that work had been overwhelming. If anything it had been a little quieter than usual. They'd even managed to complete the yearly inventory in record time and they had closed two cases leaving two more that only required DNA evidence to confirm their existing findings. Jo was exhausted, not because of work but because she wasn't sleeping well, and though she was still in denial she knew it was because of Mac. He had been gone two weeks, five days and nineteen hours and even though he had called several times she hadn't heard anything in the last four days.
She pulled herself from her reverie as Don led her across the loading space, past a large white truck with a large blue and green abbreviation on the side that was pulled up to a loading bay. They climbed the steps and Don pulled aside the plastic curtain for her to step through. Sheldon looked up as she entered and raised a hand for her to wait. Then he and two other officers bent down to move one of the rolls of carpet that had been stacked in a neat pile to the side of the door ready for removal. Jo noticed five other people standing around staring in horror at what was happening. Two were clearly convention centre employees who were shaking their heads furiously and talking in hushed tones to a severe-looking woman in a tailored black suit who was impatiently drumming her long scarlet fingernails against a tablet computer nestled in the crook of her arm. The two others who stood to one side nearer the door appeared to be delivery men. Jo noted the company logo CTC on their shirts identical to the one painted on the van standing at the other side of the plastic curtains. One of the men was gripping a clipboard like it was a life-raft, his eyes like saucers as he watched Sheldon photograph the pile of carpets. Placing his camera on top of his case Sheldon bent down and gripped the edge of the near-most carpet. He nodded to the uniformed officer who had mirrored his movements and together they pushed. The dark blue carpet slowly unfurled and rolled towards Jo and Don. Don stuck out a foot and halted its progression. Silence fell as everyone looked at the body of a man sprawled in the centre of the carpet.
"Ta! Da!" announced Don with satisfaction. Jo rolled her eyes and put down her case. She pulled a pair of gloves from one pocket and then took the plastic bootees Sheldon was holding out to her. "It seems our two convention workers over there were looking for their trolley and they noticed the bulge in the carpet. Think they were surprised to find a pair of shoes at one end." Jo looked over at the two men who swallowed heavily under her gaze. Carefully covering their shoes to avoid cross-contamination Jo and Sheldon stepped onto the carpet and crouched down by the body of the man.
"Caucasian, early forties, clear signs of strangulation." Sheldon pulled back the collar to show a thin red line around the man's throat. He lifted one of the eye-lids to reveal the man's blood-shot dark eyes. "Signs of petechial haemorrhaging. No obvious defensive wounds but there's blood on his finger-tips." Jo nodded as she searched the man's pockets.
"Nothing. Strange. Robbery gone bad?"
Sheldon nodded in agreement. He opened the suit jacket. "Mmm. French labels … wait … what's this?" There was a small bulge in the jacket lining. Sheldon carefully opened the small, almost invisible zip fastener and took out a slim leather wallet which held a photo ID. He showed it to Jo his eyebrows knitting together. Jo gasped as she looked at it. Don, who had been waiting at the edge of the carpet, craned to see what they were looking at as did the two delivery men.
"What is it?" Jo and Sheldon turned to look at him. "Who is he?"
"According to this, his name is Jean-Luc Gallet and he's a lieutenant with Interpol."
"CSI:NY – CSI:NY – CSI:NY"
The elevator doors opened with a quiet ding as Sheldon made his way into the autopsy room. Sid glanced up and peered at him over the top of his glasses. "You got anything for me Sid."
Sid straightened up and stretched the kinks out of his back. He unclipped his glasses to focus on the younger man. "Well I can confirm your original findings as to the cause of death. Definitely a garotte. Look at this." Sid turned to a computer and put a close-up photograph of the man's neck on the large screen suspended over the autopsy table.
"Very distinct markings," Sheldon muttered to himself. "Wire?" He looked questioningly at Sid who nodded in agreement.
"Cheese wire to be exact, probably wielded by someone who was left-handed." Sheldon looked impressed as Sid continued. "The wire is very sharp. As you can see it has actually broken the skin in a number of places hence the blood on our vic's fingertips." Sid simulated trying to loosen a garotte. "The indentations on the right side of the neck are deeper than on the left suggesting more force was used with the left hand. "
Sheldon nodded seeing where Sid was coming from and leaned closer to peer at the man's neck. "If he was attacked from behind, the perp looped the wire around his neck, crossing his hands and pulled down harder with his left than his right indicating a left-handed man."
"Exactly. And … I believe that this isn't his first victim." Sid's eyebrows lifted and a slight smirk curved his lips.
"What?" Sheldon's jaw dropped as he twisted his head to look at Sid.
Sid looked a little embarrassed, nervously running a hand down the back of his hair. "I ...er ... subscribe to forum for pathologists where we share information about unusual cases ... unsolved murders, strange murder weapons, bizarre findings. This particular method has come up in a case in Hawaii."
"Hawaii?"
"Yes, my good friend Max wrote up a case about a year ago that has an identical MO. A local man by the name of Lee Chang who runs an import-export business. Case is still unsolved as far as I know." Sid held out a file. "I ... er ... took the liberty of printing out the details and adding it to my findings … you know … just in case."
"Okay thanks. Sid, what would we do without you?"
Sid beamed with pleasure.
Sheldon devoured the contents of the file as he made his way back up to the conference room where he found Don and Jo comparing notes.
"The drivers check out." Don was saying. "They were there for a regular pick-up. I even have a copy of the docket." Don waved a piece of paper. "They were due to pick up the carpets and take them for recycling and then go onto the port to pick up a load of plastic balls." Jo arched an eyebrow. "For a ball-pit at a kindergarten in Queens." Don shrugged. "What is odd though is that the two guys who were due to take up the carpet in Hall 4A and move it to the loading bay swear that they rolled only half of the carpet before their shift ended. They left it there last night intending to finish off this morning in time for the pick-up. However when they got to Hall 4A they discovered that the carpet was gone so they assumed that someone else had been assigned to finish off the job. Cruella De Vil assures me that was not the case. She can offer no explanation as to how the carpets got moved there or how a dead body got inside."
"Cruella De Vil?" laughed Sheldon as he sat next to Don.
"Ah come on Doc. You saw her. All she needed was the fur coat. I'm sure she flays all the convention centre workers with those nails of hers. She'd have no problem skinning puppies."
"There are times I worry about you Don." Sheldon placed the folder on the table chuckling at Don's mock hurt face. "Now Sid has some fascinating information for us."
While Sheldon was updating Jo and Don, Lindsay and Danny were stood in a darkened room in front of a row of monitors. Totally unaware of the epithet now assigned to her, Alicia Davenport drummed her red-painted fingernails on the desk in front of her as the small bespectacled man tapped away the keyboard in front of him. "You must have something?" she snapped.
Freddy cringed at her sharp voice and glanced nervously at her nails. Danny waggled his fingers and threw Lindsay a look to indicate that he thought that Don may have a point which earned him a dig in the ribs. "Er … the security cameras don't operate when the power to the hall is off," Freddy stammered glancing apologetically at Danny and Lindsay. "But there is footage from the hallway..."
"Can you show us that?" asked Lindsay kindly feeling sorry for the nervous little man.
"Er .. yeah!" He glanced nervously again at his boss. "Just give me a minute."
"Miss Davenport, could you tell us what Hall 4A was being used for?" asked Danny hoping to distract the over-bearing woman from terrorizing the poor guy.
"Er … oh!" Alicia Davenport turned away from Freddy and looked at Danny as though irritated by his interruption. She poked at her PC tablet and ran a manicured nail down the screen. "It was being used as an extension to Manhattan Mode to showcase up and coming talent. Their little show finished last weekend so we started dismantling yesterday." Her disdain for the up and coming talent was evident. "The carpets were due for renewal and are to be replaced tomorrow with Aztec Green … lovely shade … chose it myself … ready for the Global Peace Forum which starts next Monday." Alicia Davenport narrowed her eyes and stared hard at Danny and Lindsay. "I do hope your investigation will not impede the set up of the hall. We are on a very tight schedule. We have over five hundred delegates and some very important VIPs. I cannot allow the schedule to be interrupted. The carpet has to be laid tomorrow to allow the seating to be set up on Thursday. We're due for lighting, sound and security set up on Friday and Saturday with a final security check on Sunday. Woe betide us if we're not ready," she finished dramatically waggling a blood-red claw in their direction.
Danny and Lindsay didn't fail to miss the gulp and shudder from Freddy. Danny screwed up his face. "I thought all VIPs were very important," he muttered earning himself another dig.
"What?" asked Alicia not quite picking up Danny's comment.
"Danny!" hissed Lindsay.
"Er I've got it ..." Freddy announced. They all turned to look at the screen. Freddy fast-forwarded the video feed.
"Hold it. Can you rewind that?" Lindsay pointed towards the screen. Freddy stopped the image, rewound it and hit play. A tall figure walked away from the camera down a long dimly lit corridor pushing a braked pallet truck piled high with the two meter rolls of carpet.
"Who the bloody hell is that?" Everyone turned to stare at Alicia as she in turned stared open-mouthed at the darkly robed and hooded man on the screen, the only visible part of his body being his long pale fingers that gripped the handle of the pallet truck. Alicia swung out of the room. "Where is Derek? I'll skin him alive." Lindsay had to concede. Don and her husband did have a point!
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A/N : Couldn't resist a little nod to Max from Hawaii 5-0 who ranks up there with Sid, Ducky and Quincy on my list of favourite quirky MEs!