Chapter 2

Caroline," Miles greeted the coroner.

"Hello Ray, hell of a day today, that building fire is keeping us plenty busy." In the early morning of the 5th of March a building fire raged, killing 15, 4 of whom were children who failed to escape their father's apartment.

"Agreed," Miles said nodding. He had read up on the arson and was familiar with the lead investigator on the case. "What news do you have for us?" Chandler and Miles arraigned themselves around the table where Gretchen's body lay.

"Well the stab wound happened first. I can tell you that much," Dr. Llewellyn walked to the right side of the autopsy table, opposite of the two detectives. "A small metal object, painted with inexpensive paint. It was round somewhere between 2mm and 3mm in circumference. Not very sharp either, but driven with enough force and in the proper place it managed to pierce her heart. And now either the stabbing was an accident and he needed to finish her off so he suffocated her, or the stab didn't do the job he wanted and he got impatient waiting for her to bleed out and suffocated her. Looks like he took his hands and placed them over her nose and mouth to smother her. It doesn't look like she put up much of a fight, no injuries consistent with someone putting up one hell of a struggle which you would see in a suffocation in that manner."

"So either he had a good hold of her while he did it or she was drugged," Miles finished for her.

"Yeah," she agreed.

"Anything else?" Chandler asked.

"She has small puncture wounds to her hip all the way to her bone, almost the same size as the hole in her heart, however these were made with an aspiration needle. Almost as if they were looking to harvest her bone marrow but doing a poor job of it. She was also pregnant, poor thing. 3 months along, just starting to show," Dr. Llewellyn put her head down and shook it, "we are looking to see if she was drugged the labs not finished with her blood work. Once I get the toxicology reports I'll forward them along."

"You don't have them yet?" Chandler sounded annoyed.

"The lab is a little backed up, I'll give them too you as soon as possible."

"See that you do." With that he turned and walked quickly out of the room. Miles nodded to Caroline and followed Chandler out of the room.

"That was a bit harsh, don't you think?" Miles walked quickly to keep up with Chandler's fast pace.

"When we are trying to catch a killer speed is of the essence." He gave no other explanation.

Back at the incident room Chandler quickly scanned the room. Kent and Vivi were seated behind Kent's desk, heads together silently talking and looking at the computer screen. Although they were no closer than any other two people sharing a computer screen Chandler felt they looked too close.

"What's the news from Dr. Llewellyn?" Finlay asked when he saw Miles enter the room.

"Poor girl was pregnant." Miles said, using the same terminology and mannerisms Llewellyn used when giving her report.

"Just like you called it," Kent said to Basen.

"What was that?" Chandler yelled a little louder than he intended.

"Vivi said she was pregnant. Something about her cupboards." All eyes turned to Vivi and waited.

"Yeah well," Vivi started a little uncomfortable with the attention she suddenly garnered. "There was an open bottle of wine inventoried in the back of her fridge, with a few unopened ones in the wine rack on the counter. From some of the pictures you can see fruit and vegetables around but there are cookies and chips pushed back, almost hidden. The amount she had and her body type wouldn't suggest to me that this is something she has on hand on a regular basis. Most of the food she had on hand was healthy, organic, low fat, low sugar, crap like that. So why would a young woman who normally eats healthy suddenly need high sugar high salty foods? Preggers." Miles nodded at this. It made a little sense and now seemed obvious now that they knew what they did.

"What about the murder weapon any thought on that?" He asked her.

"Not about what was used to suffocate her but her needles are missing."

"What?" Chandler asked again. He was starting to feel a little over whelmed. The person wasn't supposed to show up his team. She had been here less than 2 hours and suddenly she knew everything. But shouldn't he be happy about this? If this case is cleared quickly then she may be out of his hair all that much sooner.

"She was making something right?" Vivi flipped through the manila folder on her desk. "Looks like she was making socks or booties most likely. From the picture she was using I think size 2 or 3 double pointed knitting needles. I'm not sure what that translates to in British but we can look it up to confirm. They come in packs of 4 or 5, if one is missing then that is most likely your stabbing weapon." This was met with complete silence. No one had thought about the project she had been working on before she was killed and not a soul had taken a glimpse of her cabinets and come to the same conclusion about their victim.

"Can I see you in my office," Chandler walked into his office without waiting for an answer. Vivi stood up and followed.

He sat behind his desk. "Close the door please." Vivi closed the door as instructed. He didn't offer her a seat. There really wasn't a chair available in his office even if he had offered.

"DC Basen, we follow certain protocols in this office. We appreciate a certain since of order and…" He didn't get an opportunity to finish his sentence before she interrupted.

"I'm sorry, am I getting reamed because I found clues?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand what that means, I just wanted to point out-"

"Wait, I understand what you are 'pointing out'" She used her hands and made air quotes. "It just seems useless and asinine. A different pair of eyes on the case can always help. How many men in your squad knit? Trust me I haven't missed any meals which is why I'm a little familiar with the snacks and how their handled. Maybe someone with kids may have been able to spot the food thing but that's just how my mind works." Vivi's voice was rising and she had stepped up to his desk.

Chandler was looking for a way to escape. He hadn't expected this at all. People in DC Basen's position normally try to make as little waves as possible. He didn't think this person was capable of keeping quiet. She was making the idiom "brash American" to the extreme. She was solidifying his hatred for her, but she still found clues the rest of the team hadn't. He found his voice and countered.

"If you are quite well finished it would be appreciated if you lowered your voice." Vivi closed her mouth and struggled to put her hands down by her side. "Let me explain something to you. You will work in this office until you are placed somewhere else. Here, we do things in a certain way and in a certain order. We conduct ourselves in a certain manner. While I do not find fault in the fact that you've assisted greatly in the case, how you are conducting yourself is not appreciated." He paused and straightened paper work that was already neat. "We dress respectfully in the office. Something professional is appreciated, and nothing too revealing. When sitting with our coworkers-."

So here it was she thought. She was stepping on toes was she? She hadn't pegged Kent for swinging that way but she guessed it made sense, junior member of the squad getting "assistance" from the lieutenant or whatever they seem to call each other here. He didn't have that much to worry about she had about 10 years on the kid and she guessed hitting on the bosses "lad" was frowned upon everywhere.

"Look," She said struggling to keep her hands down by her side, fighting the urge of pointing her fingers right into his face. "I'm a damn good detective. I'm tops at what I do. Let me work and I'll come back with results. I may have some things to work on to ensure it's done in your wonderful British way but I can get there. You may think you know what happened in the states but let me tell you, no one knows what happened. No one knows the full story so you can stop the predisposed speculation. And as for your Kent…" Vivi didn't get an opportunity to finish, Miles chose that moment to rap at the door quickly and poked his head through.

"We have another one." He explained. "There is another body found in a building on Hobsons Pl."

Chandler got up from behind his desk he and Vivi started to follow Miles back through the door when he grabbed her by the arm and stopped her.

"We'll finish this conversation later." He bent down to say this in her ear as not to be over heard by the others. This move gave him the opportunity to smell her soap again, making him wonder what she did to still smell like soap so far into the day. Most scents faded but hers seemed just as strong as it had been when she first stepped into his office earlier. The gesture also gave her an opportunity to assess Joe in a closer inspection.

Too tall for his own good, deep blue eyes with perfectly styled hair and a good eye for fashion "Too bad he's gay." She thought. "I bet he's one hell of a ride."