Chapter II: The love of yours
"I hold on to your body
And feel each move you make
Your voice is warm and tender
A love that I could not forsake"
~*~
I remember Mac's first murder case in New York. It was week after we'd moved here. Mac was stressed because of the case and had forgotten his badge at home. I noticed it and decided to take it to him before going to work.
When I arrived to the building where he worked, someone told to me that he wasn't at his office but I could wait for him there.
Unfortunately, Mac had left one case file open to his desk, which he never had done before and I crashed into his reality. I'd never seen death before but through those brutal crime scene pictures, I saw it for the first time. They wiped away my sense of security that I'd always felt, no matter where I was.
I crumbled to the floor, crying and from there, Mac found me.
He spoke me with that warm and tender voice of his and calmed me down. This showed me once again that love of his that I simply couldn't forsake.
~*~
"Hey Mac, where's Stella? I thought that she'd come with you," Hawkes said when he met Mac in the corridor of the crime lab.
"I gave her a day off. This case is wearing her out," Mac replied.
"Good. She was taking it too seriously. And if nothing really big happens, we can handle one day without her," Hawkes said. They had reached Mac's office.
"Yeah. So, anything new about the case?"
"Sid's got something new about the devise," Hawkes told," He wants us all at the autopsy room".
"You go ahead. I need to take the file from my desk. I'll come after you," Mac said, entering into his office.
"OK Mac. I'll tell Sid to wait for you," Hawkes yelled after Mac, who waved his hand, signaling that he'd heard what Hawkes had said.
~*~
When Hawkes arrived at the autopsy room, everybody else but he, Mac and Stella was already there.
"Mac will come soon and Stella won't be coming at all," he told to Sid.
"Oh. Why not?" the gray-haired man asked from Hawkes.
"Mac gave her a day off," Hawkes responded to Sid's question.
"OK, so we'll wait for Mac. But what's with Stella, is she sick?"
"I don't know. Mac's worried about her and frankly, so am I. This isn't her first murder but for some reason, this case is wearing her out," Hawkes informed him. They heard the elevator and then Mac walked in.
"OK Sid, what do you have?" he went straight to the business.
"The method was known as The Wheel Torture and it was a very painful method. It was a form of a capital punishment. And the most horrific detail in this method is that the death could be prolonged to a day or more," Sid explained.
"I'm sure I'll regret this later but how did this wheel worked?" Lindsay asked.
"This wheel, Breaking Wheel was the other name to it, was a large, wooden wheel with many spokes. The victim's limbs, in this case Bessie's limbs were tied to the spokes and then the wheel was revolved," Sid continued.
"And what were those bruises?" Mac asked now. He was eyeing the crime scene pictures in the file.
"Well, the killer, or in the Middle Ages the torturer, hit the victim, Bessie, through these openings between the spokes. With an iron hammer. I don't have to tell you how easily those small bones of Bessie got broken. Then the killer simply left Bessie to die," Sid ended. Everybody shook their head in disgust.
"It is actually quite interesting," Sid said.
"Sid, ewwww," Lindsay uttered making a funny expression.
"It wasn't surprising at all that Sid would say something like this," Danny laughed to his fiancée's face and left right after her. Everyone else left too.
"Oh, Mac, wait. What's with Stella?" Sid asked from Mac who was collecting the crime scene pictures from one desk.
"I don't know Sid but this case seems to be more than she can handle," Mac said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Well, if there's anything I can do Mac, you know where to find me," Sid said.
"Thanks Sid. I think I'm gonna go and call to her," Mac thanked and left. He walked straight to his office and dialed Stella's number.
"Hello," she answered after the second beep.
"Did you get any sleep after I left babycakes?" Mac asked.
"Yeah, some. Do you need me there?" she sounded bored and was very eager to leave to work if they needed her.
"No we don't. I'll tell you everything when I come home," Mac had to disappoint Stella.
"OK but only because you ask so nicely. I miss you Mac, bye," she promised, ending the call.
"Thank you Stella. Bye," Mac said. He had just put his cell down when he heard a knock on the door. Through the glass door, he saw Danny. Mac nodded to Danny for a permission to come in.
"I've got very bad news about little Bessie. It seems that she's been tortured in other ways too, not just in the wheel," Danny told.
"How then?" Mac actually didn't want to hear the answer.
"The killer poured tabasco in her eyes," Danny replied.
"Oh god. I don't want to tell this to Stella," Mac began to fear the return to home.