AN: I don't own any of the CSI:NY Characters or any of the show's storylines that I may refer to from time to time, but the rest of the plot is mine.
2. Taxi Service?
Across the city ...
Mac Taylor ducked under the crime tape with his kit in his hand and entered the apartment. He was greeted by Sheldon Hawkes standing by an open set of French doors with a balcony beyond. Sheldon stepped aside to reveal a body hanging the wrong side of the balcony, held in place by what appeared to be a thin sheet of plastic. A jelly like substance trailed from the body into the apartment.
"What happened here?" Mac asked, looking past Hawkes at the man hanging by a thread or so it seemed from the 5th storey balcony.
Hawkes stepped up beside his boss, "Looks like he was trying to get in the hard way. He's wearing street clothes and seems reasonably fit and from here there's no bruising visible, it looks like he's just been suspended."
Mac looked back at him, eyebrows raised, "Your telling me he's just sleeping, hanging by his arms from a balcony by this ... stuff?" he looked curiously at the thin bonds that held him hanging.
Hawkes smiled, "I dunno, wanna wake him up and ask? Angell just went down the hall to ask his neighbours if they saw or heard anything, problem is-"
"There's never any witnesses," Mac finished, turning back to the room and crouching to inspect the jelly like trail.
"This time there is," Angell announced, entering the room with her notebook, "next door neighbour heard a commotion from this apartment about three hours ago. Said she thought it may have been burglars since she was told by Francesca Collins that she wouldn't be in this week and to let her husband know."
"Francesca Collins?" Mac asked, for clarification. "I don't know about you, but he doesn't look like a Francesca."
Hawkes stood up after bagging a broken finger nail, "Then where is she and who is he?"
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"Where's the cat now?" asked Stella, as she photographed the room.
"Animal Welfare took it, Adam's drawn the short straw to process it."
"Adam? Thought he didn't like cats." Stella grinned.
"Can't be worse than Don with his allergy." Came the reply.
"Hey talking of Flack, what is he up to?" asked Stella.
"I hope he's unpacking, but there's a Rangers game on tonight, so I doubt much will get done." She answered.
"It's a good thing you've got the weekend off then" Stella laughed as she collected samples from the body. "Looks like cat hairs all over him." She commented. "Who owns the cat?"
"According to the neighbours it's a stray, which he kind of adopted."
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"DB taxi service has arrived, we only do one way tickets but please settle back and enjoy the ride," Sid announced, manoeuvring a stretcher through the apartment door before himself.
Mac stood up tall and watched silently as Sid stopped beside them and looked out at the man. Hawkes stood up and moved over to them.
"This him?" Sid asked, as he leaned forward on the stretcher, indicating the body.
"That's him, but we didn't touch him yet, Hawkes thinks he might be asleep so be careful, we wouldn't want to wake him until he's in custody or witness protection," Mac said. "Oh, and we don't know what this is, so be careful about that too."
"Will do, and this," he bent to inspect the bonds that strapped the man to the balcony, "this is an uncut production line of carrier bags, I once saw an incident where this was used, they really should get this creative in Clue, anyway, the man was held up in the machinery of a factory by a long line of these bags. He had bruising around his neck but the brand of the supermarket was imprinted on his skin all through the funeral-"
"Sid! Creepy place ... we need to move the body now," Hawkes said, abruptly pulling Hammerbeck from story land and refocusing him on the subject at hand.
"OK, I'm going, but I have to be done quick, I've got to fetch a Jason Crowe for a morgue drop off before midnight or he'll miss his autopsy appointment. Stella and Laura are waiting on me at the crime scene."
"Lets go," Mac instructed.
Mac and Sid slowly stepped out onto the balcony and looked over the edge. The carrier bag production line was cutting into the dead flesh and was strained.
they reached carefully over and took his arms. They hauled him up a bit to pull him onto the stretcher, but, with a nasty crackling sound, the bag line split in half and the body slipped from their grasp, proceeding to fall to the ground 5 floors below.
Mac looked out and then back at Sid, "Our crime scene has just moved."
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Stella closed her phone and turned to Laura "We're going to be a while, Sid is retrieving a body from Mac's scene, but they've got a second scene to process first"
"I thought they had a body on a balcony, what happened?" Laura looked slightly annoyed.
"Seems the body was on the wrong side and fell 5 floors during retrieval." Stella replied.
"And I hoped to get home for dinner." Laura sighed. "Don promised to cook tonight."
"With a Ranger's game on? You're honoured" Stella teased.
"That's the price he has to pay for uninterrupted viewing." Laura told her.
AN: Hello and welcome back to...well it hasn't got a proper name yet but... Yep, you guessed it - this is the sequel to Crossed Paths!!!
DL to come! Stay tuned for more after the break! To chose further events or to keep the teams spirits up please give a review!
We need them to write!!!!
AN2: This is a collaboration with my wacky daughter who wrote the above!