II

Questions

Murder is not the crime of criminals, but that of law-abiding citizens.

- Emmanuel Teney -

Ryan couldn't think of a single thing to say. He sat across the table from Jay, watching as she silently clutched the plastic bottle of water he'd gotten her. She was staring at the table blankly, her eyes red and puffy and her silky black hair was tousled.

She had gone with them silently when they said they needed to take her to the station to interview her. She hadn't even put up the slightest bit of a fight when Horatio had asked her for her fingerprints. She had barely flinched when a patrol officer began gently pressing her fingertips on a pad of ink and then transferring them to a blank ten-card. When it was done, she had silently cleaned off her hands with a wet wipe.

Jay was clearly in shock even though her tears had long ceased to flow. Ryan wanted so much to reach out to her, tell her everything was going to be all right and he would find out what happened to Mark.

She had saved his life, after all. He owed her everything. If it hadn't been for Jay's tireless efforts and minor application of jujitsu, he might have died last year when he'd been dosed with that crazy doctor's neurotoxin. With the team's help, especially Natalia's, she'd given him back his life.

But right now, he couldn't be her friend. There was a death to be solved here. Although preliminary observation had suggested it was a suicide, Ryan had to do his job and investigate. That included interrogating possible witnesses or suspects, and right now Jay was one or the other.

Horatio walked into the interrogation room and placed a small styrofoam cup of coffee in front of Jay. She gave him a tremulous smile and whispered her thanks.

"Dr. Karishma, I know this is very difficult," Horatio began slowly. "Do you have any idea what happened?"

Jay took a sip of coffee, wincing at the bitter taste. She sighed heavily. "No. This makes absolutely no sense to me," she answered quietly in her delicate voice. Her Indian-tinged British accent was a little more discernible than usual, probably because she was upset.

"What was he on antidepressants for?" Horatio asked.

Jay frowned up at him. "He wasn't," she said confusedly. "Not that I know of."

Horatio opened the case file and pulled out a photograph of the empty medication bottle he'd found at the scene. He slid it across the table to her.

Jay took the photo in her shaking fingers and looked at it closely. Her frown deepened. "I've never seen these before," she remarked. She was silent for a moment as she thought. "I mean... I suppose he could have gotten them at work... Or written himself a prescription..."

She suddenly shook her head. "No," she stated flatly. "He wouldn't. He couldn't!"

Jay glared at Ryan and Horatio, her gaze darting back and forth between them. "Mark wouldn't commit suicide," she insisted. "He was never on antidepressants. He was never diagnosed with a condition. He would never abuse drugs. He never even exhibited the typical signs of depression!"

Ryan's heart twisted. Jay sounded just like every family member that came through here when someone was killed, whether by their own hands or someone else's. It was truly shocking sometimes how little people knew about their own family.

Love is blinding, he guessed.

Jay made an angry growling noise and ran a hand over her hair. "Ever since he started working at that horrid place...," she whispered. "I told him not to..."

Ryan and Horatio both shifted at the same time, their mutual interest piqued. "What place, Jay?" Ryan asked.

She sighed again. "Marble Tree. It's a psychiatric hospital in Miami Beach. The disreputable part."

"Did he have problems at work?" Horatio asked.

Jay rubbed her forehead, looking exhausted. "He said it was a strange place. He never really told me why he thought so. But sometimes he would come home and would just seem so... preoccupied. He always shrugged me off, but I could tell something was bothering him about that place. But then again, working with mentally ill patients always takes a toll on us."

With those last few words, Jay met Ryan's eyes, her gaze full of emotion. He looked back at her evenly, understanding shining within his hazel eyes.

Jay gave him a small smile and reached across the table to put her warm hand atop his. "There's not a day that goes by when I don't wish all of my patients would come through like you did."

A sad smile flickered at the corners of his mouth. "I was lucky," he said quietly.

Horatio watched them silently, barely moving. Ever since he'd been declared fit for duty about a month after his brush with death at the hands of Dr. Franci, Ryan had never spoken about the ordeal. None of the team had ever pressed him, either. However horrible it had been for them to see, they knew his poison-induced spiral into madness had been a thousand times more terrible for Ryan. In the time immediately following that nightmare, he claimed to not remember much. But sometimes he got a look in his eyes that told Horatio he was keeping something bottled up inside.

Suicide cases especially seemed to hit home for Ryan these days. He'd always been effected by his work, one of the things that made him so good at it, but some things were different now. Horatio assumed it was because each time Ryan saw someone who had destroyed their own life, it forced him to remember how close he'd come to doing the exact same thing. Granted, he'd been under the influence of a severely mind-altering substance, but that didn't make it any less scary.

Jay removed her hand from Ryan's. "Anyway...," she said quietly. "I never liked the look or feeling of that place. I'd been there a few times, like if any of my patients had to be housed there for a time until a bed opened up in my ward. Mental patients are always a little disconcerting, but this place was different. Like there's something wrong there."

Horatio frowned. "How so?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "It's silly. It just has a history of being a little shady."

"That doesn't sound silly, it sounds like we should be looking into this place," Horatio remarked.

Jay shrugged gracefully. "There have been investigations in the past. Nothing's ever turned up. And even if something did..." She looked down at her hands, her bottom lip trembling slightly. "That wouldn't explain why Mark would kill himself."

Ryan's heart went out to her. This woman saved him. He would do anything to help her find the truth about her lover's death.

"Maybe not," he told her quietly. "But it might explain why someone would want him dead."

Author's Note: You like so far? :D I do, so there! haha. Jay seems pretty distraught about her boyfriend... but does she know more than she's letting on? What is this Marble Tree place she was talking about? Find out more later!

lol I'm acting like Melxxwholuvsya with the questions at the end of the chapters. Oh, on that note, if you're looking for another good story to read, go check out Mel's "Sounds of Screaming." It's awesome! And me. fergie's "Breaking lives down to their knees" is fantastic too for all you Wolfe Packers out there. Go leave them lots of reviews! haha