Disclaimer: I do not own and CSI:NY characters!
Chapter Three.
Danny and Sheldon arrive at the hotel at two a.m, they go straight up to the room as Mac had instructed them to do when they'd rung from the airport. Mac let them into the suite, he told them to be quiet as Peyton was sleeping, he brought them up to speed as to what had happened the previous day. He also told them Peyton was attending the autopsies in the morning. Then all three of them retired to sleep, with Danny and Hawkes taking a luxury couch each.
...
Mac's alarm sounds and he turns over. Peyton has already gone from next to him, panicking slightly he checks the alarm clock, it is only seven thirty a.m. He sighs with relief and drags himself out of bed. Peyton is in the kitchen area sipping a cup of tea, "Morning." She says, handing him a cup of coffee. "I left the sleeping beauties on the couches, what time did they arrive?" She asks him.
"Two a.m" he tells her, "stayed up until around three catching them up." Mac finishes. He walks to the living area, pulls back the curtains and looks across at the London Eye with all the yellow crime tape surrounding it. They were going to want the scene released as soon as possible today, a lot of money was being lost with the attraction out of service.
Crossing to the couches Mac gives first Danny a shake, then moves over to Hawkes. "Wakey, wakey!" He laughs, as they both grunt at him.
Slowly opening their eyes, both men sit up and take a look around.
"Hey Peyton." Says Hawkes sleepily.
"Hello" replies Peyton, "did you guys have a good flight?"
"Sure." Danny responds, "where's the bathroom?"
Peyton points him in the right direction.
"Up, up, up!" Mac chants at Hawkes.
"OK!" Replies Hawkes yawning.
"I want to get started, I need to get back on the London Eye so we can clear it to re-open." Mac tells him. There's a flushing noise and Danny re-appears.
"Nice place" he says admiringly.
"Get dressed Danny" demands Mac.
"Ok, ok!" He exclaims in reply.
Peyton turns to leave the room, "I'll get myself ready, and give you guys some privacy" she chuckles retreating to the bedroom.
...
Danny, Hawkes and Mac are all ready to leave in half an hour with them all taking quick turns in the shower.
"Peyton" Mac says, entering the bedroom, "we're going, Dave just called and he's meeting us at the Eye with someone who can control it, so I can check all of the angles. Give me call with the autopsy results, ok?" He finishes.
"Ok" she replies, leaning in to kiss him goodbye. Mac hurries the kiss along and leaves. Peyton hears the door close with a shout of goodbye from the other two. Sighing she goes to the bathroom, takes a quick shower and gets dressed. She leaves the room to wait in the reception area for her ride to the autopsy, which was very punctual and arrived dead on nine.
Meanwhile at the London Eye, Danny and Hawkes are marvelling at the structure. "New York has some fabulous buildings, but this is amazing!" Gasps Hawkes in his quiet voice.
"Agreed" nods Danny.
Just then footsteps can be heard behind them. Mac turns to see Sergeant Dave Jones and a uniformed lady walking towards them. On her uniform is a picture of the London Eye, this must be the Eye's handler.
"Mornin' " says Dave, shaking hands with Mac.
"Good morning," responds Mac, "this is Detective Danny Messer, and Dr. Sheldon Hawkes" he introduces his guys. Dave shakes both of their hands. "Dave." He says. They all nod to each other.
"This is Valerie, she can control the Eye, so using the walkie talkies, um, that's radios, you can ask her to stop the wheel as needs be." Dave tells them.
"Hi Valerie" Mac says to her, "thanks for doing this."
Valerie simply nods in reply.
"I plan on getting the attraction cleared for opening as soon as possible, but that pod will have to remain off limits until this is all cleared up." Mac tells whoever is listening.
"Sure Mac" answers Dave.
...
Valerie goes to the control room so the pod required can be moved to the bottom of the enormous wheel. As it falls in front of them, Mac, Danny and Hawkes climb on. Dave stays on the ground, and joins Valerie in the control room so they can all keep in contact.
"This is cool!" Danny exclaims.
"Mmmm" mumbles Mac in reply. "Can you guys start checking around for any trace and other evidence" Mac says distractedly.
"Mac?" Sheldon enquires.
"Huh? Oh, I'm just a bit confused over the second gunshot" Mac tells him. Hawkes and Danny work the scene, collecting samples and any trace. When the pod is almost to where Mac remembers the succeeding shot happening he removes the radio from his waistband, ready to ask for the wheel to be halted. Raising the radio, he clicks the button.
"Stop please!" He says urgently into it. The wheel comes to a standstill. "This is where the second shot rang out" Mac tells the other two.
Hawkes gets his laser out from his kit. Placing the end of it into the hole created by the bullet, he steadies it, and turns it on. They let their eyes follow the beam. The three of them glance at each other. The shot looks to have originated from a balcony, high on County Hall.
"Sniper?" offers Hawkes.
"To get a shot like that off you'd think so." Replies Danny awed.
"Peyton and myself are lucky they were a good shot!" Exclaims Mac, "an upwards trajectory isn't the easiest shot to take." Into the radio he asks for the Eye to start up again. "You guys done collecting here? We have a new scene!"
They nod in reply to his question. The pod finally reaches the ground.
"Lindsay is going to be so jealous, wait til I tell her" laughs Danny looking back at the London Eye as he steps onto the platform.
...
Sergeant Dave Jones is walking towards them as they exit. "What've you got?" he asks.
"My guys have taken some samples, and picked up some fibres, some of which may not even be related to the case. They also have the shell casing from the first shot, and the bullet from the second. It must've been a through and through." Mac tells him. Just as he finishes his cells phone rings.
"Mac Taylor" he answers. It's Peyton, agitated.
"They started without me Mac" she sounded exasperated.
"Ok, did they find anything unusual? Apart from the gunshot wounds I mean." He asks her.
"Actually Mac, they did" she replies, "firstly, the second victim was wired, someone was listening in, secondly, and this is strange, both of them suffered from a very rare degenerative disease called Oxybiglobin, it apparently can't be cured." She tells him.
"Have you heard of it before?" He asks her.
"No, never" replies Peyton, "evidently it's so rare, there's not even research into cures in this country" she tells him. "They don't know how advanced the disease was in either of them until they do more blood tests. I'll hang around and keep you informed." She hangs up.
"Sheldon" Mac calls Hawkes over, "You ever heard of Oxybiglobin?" He asks him.
"Sure Mac" Hawkes replies, "It's a really, really rare disease where too much oxygen enters the blood stream. It's hard to explain, but over time the blood thickens so the flow slows down, clogs up all blood vessels. To my knowledge it doesn't respond to any known treatment, no one knows why because in theory it should be simple to treat. Sufferers get headaches, seizures, and eventually the blood stops flowing and they die, if they don't have a heart attack or stroke before then!" He finishes.
"How rare is really rare?" Mac inquires.
"I've never seen someone with it, rare." Answers Hawkes.
"So if I told you both of our vics had it, you'd say?" Mac says.
"No way!" replies Hawkes.
"That's what I thought. It can't be a coincidence" states Mac.
Mac walks over to the others and tells them they can re-open the London Eye, but not the pod that's involved in the investigation. He turns to Dave and asks, "How do we get to that balcony?" Pointing high up on County Hall. Dave lets his eyes follow Mac's finger.
"Hmmmm, hopefully with permission, or we'll need a warrant." He replies.
Thank you for reading! More soon.
