Devil's Breath
Chapter Two
It was shortly before five o'clock in the afternoon on the day after Greg's night off when a knock came loudly at his door, causing Greg to stir, but not fully awaken as a wave of dizziness fell upon him once he attempted to open his eyes and so he ignored the knocking and wearily pulled his blanket up over his head, despite the more urgent the banging became. However, he was unable to fall back asleep when he suddenly felt someone shaking him gently and then pull back the blanket from off of his head.
"Greg, can you hear me?" Nick asked in concern as he leaned over him. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Greg answered sluggishly as he finally lifted his head and then slowly began to sit up, still wrapped up within the blanket while he attempted to clear his vision and mind to look up at his friend. "My head is killing me, and I… I must have had a little too much to drink last night, although, I don't remember drinking. Why are you inside my apartment?"
Nick backed off a little and then responded, "I tried calling you a few times before I came over and then decided to come over to see how things went with your friend last night. I knocked a few times, but you didn't answer. I was about to leave until I saw you lying here on your floor through the window and was worried that you were hurt so I kind of broke in. You may want to get a new lock for your door. You look like crap, man. You do realize that you have to work tonight, right?"
Greg slowly looked around and tried to become aware of his surroundings, then looked up at Nick as he replied, "I don't think I'm going to make it in tonight. Something doesn't… I don't feel right. I know what a hangover is like and this isn't it."
"Let me help you up and we can head down to… oh my god!" Nick began, then exclaimed fearfully as he looked his friend over, noticing what he knew to be blood covering his shirt as Greg finally pulled the blanket back. "Greg, you've got blood all over your shirt. What the hell happened last night? Are you hurt?"
"No, I don't know," Greg answered as Nick quickly began to look him over to check for any injuries that might explain the blood, fearing Greg might be injured. "I mean, my head hurts and my mind and vision are hazy, but nothing else is wrong, at least not that I know of."
Nick looked directly into his friend's eyes as he asked, "Greg, what did you do last night?"
As Greg struggled to think, he spoke again saying, "I don't… I can't remember. I can't remember anything!"
Twenty-five minutes later, D.B. and Julie arrived at Greg's apartment in order to speak with Greg and to begin a thorough examination of his place, while Nick and Morgan, who had arrived earlier with their kits, worked on examining him, as they would anyone else involved in the investigators' cases.
"Russell, I don't know why I can't remember what I did last night, but there's no way I could have hurt anybody," Greg pleaded as his boss and coworker walked over to them. "I wouldn't, but I can't explain the blood."
"Just relax, Greg," D.B. responded. "Try not to worry about anything right now. We all know that you would never harm anyone, but we do need to figure out whose blood is covering your shirt, or… did either of you already rule out animal blood?"
Without looking up from the tests he was running, Nick replied, "That was one of the first tests we ran aside from Greg's physical exam. The blood is definitely human. Right now, I'm running a test on his hands for possible gunshot residue."
Morgan spoke up as he said, "Thankfully, Greg isn't physically hurt in anyway, but his eyes are dilated and sensitive to the light. He says that his head is throbbing and he's having trouble focusing."
"What is the last thing you do remember?" Julie asked.
"I remember leaving work the morning of my day off and then going to breakfast Nick at the diner we usually go to," Greg began as he fought through the fog surrounding his mind. After that, I went home and went to bed."
Nick quickly added, "While we were at the diner, you received a call from your friend, remember? He called you to ask to meet up with you because you said he wanted your help with something, but you seemed nervous, like something felt off about you meeting up with him again."
Greg nodded and answered, "I vaguely remember getting that call, but I don't remember if I actually met up with him or not. My god, what if something happened to him?"
"Well, I can't tell you if the blood belongs to your friend or not or if he's okay, but I'm afraid your hands have tested positive for gunshot residue," Nick responded sullenly. "Man, I only ran the test in hope of ruling out that you hurt someone. I didn't actually expect to find anything."
"What if I killed them?" Greg asked fearfully. "What if I killed more than just one person?"
Russell spoke up again saying, "Easy; we don't know anything right now. What's important is that you go to the hospital in order to get yourself checked out by a doctor, just to make sure that there are no drugs in your system and to make sure that you're going to be all right. I promise that we'll do whatever it takes to help you, no matter what we find out. You're going to be fine."
Morgan replied, "Besides, you're the least of us that could ever be suspected of killing anyone."
"Then, you obviously don't know me as well as you think you do," Greg said angrily and then stormed out of his apartment in order to get some space before he headed to the hospital. Nick didn't follow right away, knowing that he needed to explain to everyone the details of the Demetrius James case, as none of his colleagues in the apartment were with the crime lab at the time.
"What's he talking about?" Morgan asked in confusion. "Greg isn't a killer."
Nick shook his head as he answered, "No, you're right. He's not a killer, but a part of him is still blaming himself and will always blame himself for killing a college student that attacked him one night when he drove down to a market in the city to collect a piece of evidence in our case at the time. A large group of students were going around beating up tourists for kicks. One of the victims was killed. When Greg arrived a few blocks from the store, he discovered the suspects beating one of the other victims in an alley. He turned down it and honked his horn in hope of scaring the kids away and it did; at first, except for one. Demetrius James didn't run and attempted to use a rock to finish off the kids' victim, but at last minute he turned and looked at Greg, still in his car. The student then ran toward Greg with every intent to kill him instead, so Greg had no choice, but to hit him with his vehicle. Greg killed him in self defense, but the kid's family, the public, and the media all gave him hell for it."
D.B. looked down, then turned to Morgan, and responded, "I heard about this case. After he defended himself, the other students came back, broke the driver's side window, and pulled Greg out, then began to beat him, nearly to death, right? He was lucky."
"My God," Morgan stated softly after the revelation.
"Stay with him, Morgan," D.B. replied. "Help give him the moral support and reassurance that he needs right now."
"I plan to," she replied.
"What do you think, Russ?" Nick asked after she left to find Greg. "We always arrest suspects with this much evidence stacked up against him. We can't do that to Greg."
It was then that Jim Brass walked inside as he said, "Don't worry, for now I can keep this quiet in order to buy you all little time, but be quick and know that if any more evidence appears that's bad news for our boy, I won't have a choice. I'll have to book him."
D.B. answered, "We understand. Thank you, Jim."
"Why don't we go find Greg's friend and see what he has to say," Julie spoke up again. "It's as good a place as any to start."
"Sounds good to me," Nick and Russell said simultaneously. "Let's go."