All in a Day's Work
Shipping: FlackOC, possible DL & MS
Spoilers: Through the end of Season 2; later chapters may reference Season 3, but I'll be sure to let you know if they do.
Summary: When a case hits close to home, Flack and the team must rush to keep one of NYPD's own from being killed.
Disclaimer: I don't own CSI: NY or any of its characters. Nor do I own Law and Order: SVU. Please don't sue me, I don't have any money.
A/N: Thanks to those of you who reviewed, and I realized after your comments that the change in POV was confusing, so in the future, when the story will be coming from multiple POVs, I'll try to make the transition smoother and a bit more obvious. Again, I appreciate all reviews, both positive and negative. Sorry this came up a little late, it was supposed to be up on Saturday, but some friends of mine and I were in a bad car accident, so this got pushed off. If you're confused about when these events are occurring, just look at the dates at the beginning of each chapter.
Friday, October 6, 2006
"Our vic is Shirley Johnson, a twenty-nine year old single woman who lives alone. She was found dead this morning by the building's super, who had come to drop off a package for her. He found the door ajar, and when he came in he found her like this."
Detective Elizabeth Armstrong and her partner Detective Jimmy Craig listened as the uniformed officer explained the situation for them. As members of the Special Victim's Unit, they saw plenty of disturbing scenes, but this one was one of the worst she'd seen in a long while. Their vic was lying on her stomach on the floor. Her hands were bound and attached to the legs of a heavy table while her legs were spread and tied to the handles of the doors to her bathroom and her bedroom. From the angle and positioning of her legs, the perp had likely slammed the doors shut and wrenched her legs in opposite directions while slowly tightening the rope. She had been raped and ultimately strangled, and her body was beaten bloody.
"It's amazing no one heard anything. I can't imagine she just laid there and let him do this to her." Lizzy said as Jimmy headed over to talk to the building super, who was being questioned by the uniforms.
"We found her gagged with this," the officer held up an evidence bag with a bloody rag in it. "Could explain why no one heard anything." Lizzy winced and began to walk the room as the coroner and one of the CSIs untied the rope used to bind her. Glancing up, she saw that Jimmy was heading her way and that the super had left the apartment. She set down her kit and straightened as he reached her side.
"Building super says she was a good tenant; always paid her rent on time, respectful of her neighbors, and was always willing to help anyone who needed it. He didn't think she had a boyfriend, but said she kept to herself most of the time. He's going to give us a list of all the tenants so we can canvas the building. Someone had to have buzzed him in, since you have to have a key to get in the building."
"Okay, I'm going to help process the scene. You gonna head back with the body?"
"Yeah, as soon as I get that list from the super; I'll run the list, maybe one of her neighbors has a record. I'll see you in a few hours?"
"Yeah, keep me posted." Lizzy sighed as she got to work. Today's gonna be a long day. She and several of the CSIs began to glove up and get to work.
Lizzy decided to start with the bedroom, because even though their vic had ended up in her living room, the bedroom appeared to be where everything had started. Slowly, as she began to block out the noise in the apartment—the hum of the air conditioning, the crackle of the uniforms' radios, the sounds of the other CSIs at work—Lizzy's forensic instincts began to kick in. While bagging up the sheets, which had traces of semen, blood, and some other shiny substance, she noticed a reflective glint where the headboard and the mattress met. Using a pair of tweezers she was able to pull a thin gold necklace with a four leaf clover charm free from the mattress. Engraved on the back was Kiss Me, I'm Irish. Shirley Johnson isn't an Irish name, so perhaps this is our killers'.
As Lizzy was dusting the dresser for fingerprints, she noticed some small blue and green flakesnext to a ring of water damage. Lizzy bagged a sample, and took a photo of the dresser, and moved on. Finally after two hours and six rolls of film, she and her fellow CSIs had finished processing the scene. Now to get back to the lab and start analyzing what they'd found.
Once back at the lab, she got to work. She put her samples of the flakes from the dresser into the mass spectrometer and swabbed the necklace for epithelial cells and dusted it for prints. She put the swab into CODIS and scanned the partial print through AFIS. Now she had to wait. After ten minutes of doing nothing, she called the phone company who agreed to send copies of Shirley Johnson's phone records to her ASAP; in the meantime, she figured she'd better eat while she had time, or she'd miss out later.
Several hours later…
"So we have no match in AFIS or CODIS with the evidence we've found so far. The only phone calls she makes besides those to her work—she's a receptionist in a high powered law firm, Jenkins, Schreker, and Boothe—are to her building super, a few takeout restaurants, a local pharmacy, and her doctor's office." Lizzy said as she set the forensics report down on her desk with a sigh.
"Does this girl have any friends?" Jimmy asked.
"According to what we've found so far—no. Did you get anything from the super's tenant list?"
"Well we have a guy who lives two floors down with two DUIs. A guy three floors up who's been arrested for petty theft and B & E. A woman who has a history of domestic assault, I know, you don't hear that one too often." Jimmy said at Lizzy's look of surprise.
"However, the guy who lived down the hall from Shirley has two priors for sexual assault. William Ackerson, 34, spent five years in Sing Sing, then another four in Attica for separate charges of sexual assault. He got out on good behavior both times, and when he was released from Attica he claimed he'd been 'healed' and no longer had any licentious thoughts towards women."
"What a load of bull! Healed my ass! Did you talk to the super about him?"
"Yeah, said the guy seemed all right, kept to himself. The super didn't know Ackerson was an ex-con, though. He said he wouldn't have rented to him if he'd known."
"Well, I pulled a few partials from the scene, so maybe we'll get a hit off of those that'll match us to Ackerson. In the meantime, we should go talk to our ex-con and see what he's got to say for himself. I can't help but wonder how an ex-con managed to get an apartment in such an expensive building."
"According to his file, he comes from a family with old money. Ackerson Shipping & Trading has apparently been in business since New York became a state, according to the background info in his file." Jimmy said, showing her the page on Ackerson's family history.
"Lovely. He's not just a perv, he's a perv with resources. That's just fantastic."
When they arrived at Ackerson's apartment he was home and unsurprised at seeing them at his door. He let them in, but not without shooting a sleazy smile at Lizzy. She managed to suppress a shudder, but only just. She also wished she was wearing something that covered up more skin. Though her shirt was far from indecent, it showed more cleavage than she wanted Ackerson to see.
"I'm Detective Craig, this is my partner, Detective Armstrong. We have a few questions to ask you regarding the death of Shirley Johnson."
"What can I do for you officers?" Ackerson said as he sat on his sofa. Lizzy walked around the room as Jimmy began questioning Ackerson about his whereabouts the previous night.
"I was at work, with ten other people. I'm a proofreader at a legal firm. I go in and proof legal documents with legal students and English majors. I was at Bergstrom, Peterson, and Strong last night. I have their business card on the desk," he said nodding towards the desk in question. "So you can call them up and verify my alibi."
"Work as a proofreader is about the only job I can get that doesn't involve cleaning or mechanical work, and since I have a master's in English…" Ackerson trailed off and shrugged. "Plus, some of the students who proof with me are quite lovely. As are you Detective…Armstrong, you said? How did such a lovely woman such as you end up as a cop?" He smiled, and it made Lizzy feel sick.
"How well did you know Ms. Johnson?" Jimmy asked, after shooting a glance at Lizzy who had picked up the business card and was copying the information into.
"Not at all; I'd pass her in the hallway, but that's about it. I don't really speak with any of my neighbors. They aren't my type," he said and this time, he didn't hide the look he shot at Lizzy.
"Hey, you if don't cut that out I'm gonna haul you to the station for questioning."
"Well, if Detective Armstrong gets to put the handcuffs on me, I wouldn't mind."
"That's it! I'm haulin' you in, punk. Get on your feet, hands behind your back."
"What am I being charged with officer?"
"Harassment of a police officer; you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense. Do you understand?"
"Of course," Ackerson said, he glanced at Liz and raised his eyebrows. "Aren't you going to help, Detective?" Lizzy scowled at him at opened the door to his apartment, pulling out her radio she called in that they were bringing in Ackerson on harassment charges.
Two hours later
"I can't believe that asshole gets to leave! Why not let all the creeps with records back onto the streets? Argh!" Furious, Lizzy slammed her hands down on her desk and tried to calm down. Jimmy came over and rested his hand on her shoulder.
"I know it sucks, Lizzy. But unfortunately, according to the Captain, his behavior wasn't a crime. But we can still look at him for Shirley Johnson's murder. Let's compare his prints to the ones we pulled from her apartment, I'll check out his alibi, see if he really was at work." With a sigh, Lizzy stood and decided to get to work.
"I guess I'll get on his prints. I'll also see if Ackerson has worked as a proofreader at the law firm Shirley Johnson worked at."
A/N: Chapter 3 is well on its way to being finished so I'll probably post it tomorrow.