Chapter 3

She stirred for a few more minutes and pushed her personal life aside and hoped that the professional skills would step up. How many times had she told a family that a loved one died? She could now understand how there was nothing she could ever say to make the news easier or the pain go away.

"I have called you all together at the request of Detective Larson and Maine out of the 4-1. They are working the case on North Brother Island and have hit a dead end. It seems that all the victims have ties to this lab. We will hear from them in a few minutes…" The pause she took was uncomfortable for all in the room. Many shifted in their seats wondering if they were the only ones who felt it. "But before they take over, I need to let you know that one of the victims on the island was…Mac. I don't know any of the details of how he died, but we will get into that here today." She couldn't look into the eyes of those in the room. She had to keep the emotion under wraps; she had to keep herself dignified and strong. "Um…I will contact the NYPD and the military later this afternoon and um…" The first tear slid down her cheek and Lindsay was at her side instantly sharing in her misery and supporting her. There wasn't a dry eye in the room other than the two guest detectives who stood in the back of the room looking at each other, confused. "um…I know that this is a huge shock, I know that this is so sudden and that you are all going to need time to process this..." She broke down completely and crumbled into the seat at the table. Everyone was shocked and following Stella's lead on how to deal with this. A few of her friends looked to the back of the room for answers but the two men standing there looked as confused as the rest of them did.

"I don't understand." Larson stepped forward. "What was Mac Taylor to you? And why do you need to contact the NYPD and military?"

Angell was the only one who was able to speak with any clarity. "Mac was our friend, he was what kept us together. He used to work here and before that he was in the Marines."

"Uh, no he wasn't." Larson furrowed his brow and shook his head and went into the boxes to find the files on the victim's to make sure he wasn't wrong.

Anger, pure blind anger took over in Stella's heart. "Don't tell me I don't know what I am talking about. I knew Mac Taylor better than anyone here. He has a very distinguished record with the NYPD and Marines."

"No, he was out on parole for vehicular homicide." The file folder was opened and extended out towards Stella.

She questioned before even looking down at the paper work. "MacKenna Boyd Taylor Jr?" A few eyes went to Stella at the mention of Mac's full name.

"No, MacKinley Taylor, out on parole for the vehicular homicide of Melinda Kitano."

"What?" There was no breath in the room for Stella to pull into her lungs. If it was shocking to hear that Mac was dead, than it was even more of a shock to her system to learn that he was still alive. It was a relief, but still a shock. "Mac, my Mac is still alive." She covered her heart with one hand and her mouth with the other. Her fit of crying turned into a fit of hysterical laughter. "Mac is alive. Mac's not one of the ten that died on that island."

"No, the Mac Taylor who died was not the legendary Mac Taylor, who ran the crime lab a few years ago. I would have delivered that kind of news in person. I am sorry; I never even thought that there would be a mix up." Larson heartfully said trying to help fix any damage.

The last twelve hours of the emotionally draining walk down memory lane was for nothing. The gut wrenching agony and exhaustion falsely inflicted.

Larson stood in front of the group in the most authoritative manner that he could muster. He felt awful about what had happened and needed to do some damage control. "I am sorry again for the mistake. It never dawned on me that there would be a mix up. But I'm here because we need your help. Last Tuesday we received a 911 call from concerned parents of boy scouts. The scouts were on South Brother Island doing a service project and noticed some flashes coming from the other island. When they got home and told their parents about what they saw and the parents called 911. We went out there with Fred Narracott, the ferry pilot who'd been hired to transport people and supplies out to the island. When we arrived we found ten bodies scattered around the island killed in various fashions."

"It wasn't mass suicide?" Hawkes asked.

"No. Wargrave and Redman were shot, the first through the head, the second through the heart. Miss Pierpont and Taylor died of cyanide poisoning. Mrs. Gordon died of an overdose of chloral hydrate. Mr. Gordon's head was split open. Truby's forehead was crushed in. Zimmer died of drowning. Dunbrook's skull was fractured by a blow on the back of the head and Miss. Meyer was hanged."

"What were those names again?" Danny asked. Surely he didn't hear the names correctly because some of the people whose names spilled from the lips of the man currently in charge were responsible for some of the most senseless crimes the lab investigated. There was no way that all these people were on that one island, there was no way that all these people were out of jail, there was no way that all of these people were dead. Danny was having the same thoughts that Stella had the night before.

Detective Larson asked Maine to fish out the summative report just to check the information again and he read the names off one by one slowly. "Linda Gordon, who was Linda Cortez when she was investigated by this lab, Jerry Gordon, Justin Wargrave, Dean Truby, Felix Redman, Staci Meyer, Evelyn Pierpont, Craig Zimmer, Mac Taylor, and Robert Dunbrook."

The blue Bic pen that was in Flack's hand was thrown onto the pad he was taking notes on. "No way, no way in hell all these people are out walking free and able to be invited to some weekend party, reality thing on an exclusive island only to get killed. These people all did stuff that they should be in jail for."

"Not all of these people were charged for anything by this lab." Stella added.

"Really, who?" Maine stepped in to show interest in what the lady had to say.

"Craig Zimmer, I can't think of anything that he would be guilty of. I don't even remember the name."

"Mac and I worked a case in his building where a woman was found in the water tower." Lindsay told the table. There were a lot more details but she didn't need to share them right now.

"Evie Pierpont was never charged with anything." Sheldon inserted.

"There was no evidence, but we were convinced that she had something to do with manipulating people's lives and at least two people ended up dead." Stella finished.

"Who the hell is Justin Wargrave? The name sounds familiar but I don't know from where." Danny questioned. He looked down at this notes and noticed that as he or someone else mentioned a detail about a case he jotted them down, but there were no noted next to Wargrave's name.

"He was the only victim not investigated here. He lived upstate and was accused of sending an innocent man to jail. The man was attacked less than a month after getting there and died. Appeals were still going through about evidence clearing his name. Turned out he was guilty after all."

The table was shocked into disbelief. Each of the people named touched the people at the table in one way or another and it didn't turn out well. "So you're telling me all these people are dead."

"uh, yeah."

"Why are you here, whoever did this did the world a favor and did it quite neatly." Danny added.

"Even if that is the case, we need some help with the investigation. We've hit a wall because of two sticky points. The first is that the coroner's timeline of deaths does not match the eye witnesses stories."

"There were no eye witnesses. You said everyone was dead when you got there." Lindsay pointed out.

"We have journals that were kept by the guests and it gave one version of the story, and then the coroner comes in and says that the bodies tell another. The second sticky point deals with the death timeline, If Miss. Meyers was the last one to die like we suspect, then there is a ghost on the island."

"You're telling us a ghost led to their deaths?"

"No, but it would help tie everything together. You see, the chair she used to stand on was not knocked over under her body like one would expect. The chair was sitting upright all the way across the room against the wall between the side table and the door way. No one could have slid the chair there while trying to hang themselves. I've had detectives try and slide it there from a standing position and it never came out perfectly in the right spot. To us, that means that she was not the last one to die. But there was no one else on the island and that just makes everything screwed up."

"So what are you asking us to do?" Stella questioned finally in a professional state of mind.

"We need you to run through the case with us and see what we might have missed. You know the kind of people that the victims were."

"Show us what you have so far." Danny requested.

The man heaved one of the boxes to the table and flipped the lid off. He pulled out little figures, a revolver, and pictures of a house, victims and whole slew of other things. He fanned everything out in front of him on the table.

"As I said before, scouts were on South Brother Island on Monday August 11th and they noticed some flashing light coming from North Brother Island. Once they got home, some of the scouts shared the information with their parents and the parents called the police. The first chance we had to get out there was the afternoon of the 12th. Fred Narracott tried to stop us. He wondered why the emergency response team that the production company hired didn't answer the distress call."

"Emergency response team? Production company?" Lindsay asked.

"Mr. Narracott was under the impression that a reality show was being filmed out on the island. It was all a cover story to keep people from going out there. He was told that the guests would be on the island for a week and that he was to pick everyone up on Friday afternoon."

"When we got to the location we found the ten victims. We carefully scanned the scene into the computer: each room, the area around the house and down by the rocks where Zimmer was found. We collected everything we considered as evidence and that might help tell the story of what happened. The main piece of evidence that we found was…" he rummaged around in a box and found a digital recorder. "…This." He pressed play then set the small device on the table. Everyone around the table leaned forward to look at the device as if it were going to jump off the table and do a little dance. Silence surrounded them as they waited for something to happen.

Into that silence came a voice. Without warning it invaded the room with its deep and gravely sounds.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Silence please!" Those who had leaned in jumped back and away from the table. The two men from out of the office snickered at the reaction. The sound bounced off the walls and around the room, they knew where it was coming from, and yet they looked around to see if it was from somewhere else. The voice went continued.

"You are charged with the following indictments: Craig Zimmer, that you did upon the 14th day of May, 2004, cause the death of Gina Mortonsen.

Evelyn Pierpont, that upon the 12th March, 2007, you were responsible for the death of Simone DeLille.

Dean Truby, that you brought about the death of Kym Tanaka on November 8th, 2006.

Staci Meyers, that on the 9th day of November, 2005, you killed Alexa Endecott and four other people.

Felix Redman, that upon many dates in January of 2009 , you were guilty of causing the deaths of hundreds of people in Guiya, China.

Robert Dunbrook, that on the 29th of October, 2008, you deliberately caused the death of Kevin Cross.

Jerry and Linda Gordon, that on the 14th of December, 2005, you brought about the death of Hunter Hudson.

Mac Taylor, that you on November 19, 2008 did bring about the death of Daniel Oka.

Justin Wargrave, that upon the 10th day of June, 2006, you were guilty of the murder of Edward Seton.

Prisoners at the bar, have you anything to say in your defense?"

The voice stopped. No breaths were taken. Silence filled the room again and then Adam sneezed and everyone jumped again. Sid was the first one to take a breath.

"That all sounds about right." Stella spoke the first words.

"The details are exact." Maine backed her up. "I looked into each accusation and found them to be right on the mark. The victims came to the conclusion that they were brought to the island to pay for the crimes that they did. However most of them paid their penalty with jail time or probation."

"Yeah, but a few did not pay at all and were let off because of technicalities, questionable forensics, or because of the amount of money that they had in their pocket at the time, I'm sure." Angell kept the discussion going.

"Last night on the phone you stated that there were eleven victims. You only named ten found on the island. What about the eleventh?" Stella questioned remembering more of their conversation from the night before.

"That would be Terrance Davis." Maine added.

"What does he have to do with all this?" Flack bolted upright in his chair, remembering how much help Terrance had been in the past both professionally and personally.

"He died on the night of August 8th. Took an overdose of sleeping pills and yet we found no prescription bottles in the apartment for that drug or any drug."

"Again, what does he have to do with this case?" Flack was growing a little impatient.

"He made all the arrangements for transportation, construction, food, and hired help. He was working for a third party and he made that point very clear when he talked to people."

"And he's dead too?"

"Yes."

"And you think it's connected?" Others at the table watched the two have their conversation as if it were a tennis game.

"Yes. Almost everyone who might have known who set this whole thing up was killed."

"So in your opinion what do you think happened when?" Lindsay asked. A blank sheet of paper laid on the table in front of her ready to lay it all out in order.

"We're not quite clueless about how things went down on the island. Staci Meyers kept a diary, so did Evie Pierpont. Wargrave made some notes, cryptic stuff. And Truby made notes too. All those accounts are the same. The deaths occurred in this order: Taylor, Mrs. Gordon, Dunbrook, Mr. Rogers, Miss Pierpont, Wargrave and then Armstrong disappeared."

"There are a lot of theories about what happened next. Armstrong kills them all and then throws himself to the river either trying to escape or kill himself. However the coroner states that he'd been dead at least thirty six hours and we noted tide levels and he was pulled up out of the water and taken higher than the tide line, so someone had to be alive after Zimmer."

"We tried to imagine what could have happened with the final three, but with the evidence and coroner's report nothing really adds up." Larson and Maine threw out the theories that they tossed around while back in their building, but they all seemed to fall apart at some point. Stella looked at the photos and tried to get a feeling for the house. She looked at the house plans and just got confused about where things were found and how it all went together.

"Detective, can we go out and into the house?" Stella asked.

"Yes. Since we have been out there and back it's been all locked up and under NYPD security. We can head out there first thing in the morning if the weather is clear. There was that huge storm weekend before last that had the current in the East River was raging. If it's that way again, it gets dicey pulling up to the island."

"Okay, that settles it." She addressed the room. "This is the only case that we are on. Before the end of the day brief other on the cases that you are working on and hand them off. Document everything for them so that they can for the other investigators. I will make all the arrangements for the hours and overtime. Sid I know this is your last week with us, but if you would like to extend your time and see it thru, it be a great story at all the retirement parties that are thrown for you. Flack, Angell, I will talk to your supervisor and get you assigned to this case." Appreciative nods came from both. "We meet tomorrow, 9 AM, at the dock where Fred Narracott runs his water taxi out of. I would like to talk to him and see what he remembers. Then we walk the scene." Everyone was taking notes about what she had just said. "See you in the morning. Get some sleep and come comfortable we're gonna be crawling around in the elements tomorrow."

The table broke apart and everyone went in all directions. Danny stayed behind to talk further with the two leads from the Bronx. Stella watched him use all the skills that he'd learned from watching Mac. He oozed confidence and strength in the job that he stepped into. She was proud of him and what he'd achieved. A smile flashed on her face. It came from the knowledge that she could call Mac once again and thank him for the push to get Danny into that position.

**

Everyone spent hours at their desks sending e-mails out to the new detectives who would be taking over their cases. Stella had to laugh as she passed the offices because they all looked like students were who doing write-offs. Each shuffled papers, wrote information meticulously, and checked their computers for updates. The sun went down and the team stayed for a little longer. Slowly the rooms and halls emptied and Stella finally felt comfortable leaving the lab and going home for some sleep.

She tried Mac's phone one more time and left him a message when the voice mail picked up. She told him that she missed him and how she couldn't wait for him to get home and share information about his adventure.


So now its all laid out. What do you think? Good, bad, ugly? There are so many places that it can go from here.

Let me know what you think? Read and review.