December 27th, 2007, 07:45
The few detectives that were in the homicide area grinned as CSI Ryan Wolfe walked towards Frank's desk. Ryan felt that it was harder and harder to come up with new pranks to pull on Frank. He hadn't done many, but it was still hard.
Lets see. I've used needles under his chair, Frank has thrown water over me after I did it to him. He painted my hummer green… what else? Oh yes, I gave him a shower in the car wash and then he poured syrup and flour on me, Ryan thought and grinned. Water, needles, syrup and flour was out of the question. So then what?
Ryan grinned and looked down at what he was holding in his hands. A soda can. He had intended on drinking it himself, but it was better to just give it to Frank. After shaking it a few times, Ryan put the soda down on Frank's desk. Then he decided to loosen the legs on Frank's chair. It wasn't the kind of chair that you could spin around with. It was an ordinary chair, like a kitchen chair. With screws holding the it together.
"Anybody got a screwdriver?" Ryan asked.
The detectives shook their heads. Ryan decided to use a scissor instead. When he was done he left. Less then two minutes later, Frank walked towards his desk. Unaware of that Ryan had just been there.
Frank raised his eyebrows at the soda can, he opened it and shouted.
"What the hell!" He growled as soda splashed into his face and wet down his suit. Frank threw the soda can away and wiped his face with his hands.
"Dammit Wolfe." He growled as he sat down, "Ah!" He yelled as two of his chair's legs broke and Frank fell down on the floor. He muttered as he stood up and glared at the other detectives, who were laughing.
"Alright, this game just became more serious." Frank muttered to himself.
Ryan who had seen the whole thing behind a corner laughed as he entered the elevator. Some young officers looked at the CSI as if he had lost his mind.
Once he stepped out of the elevator at the lab floor, Calleigh and Natalia looked confused at him.
"Okay, what did you do?" Calleigh asked.
"Just a little prank on Frank."
Calleigh shook her head and Natalia chuckled.
"I guess its his turn to do something on you." She said.
"Not if I outsmart him fist." Ryan smirked.
"Yeah, like that's ever going to happen." Natalia snorted and left Ryan alone.
-I-
08:00
The team had a meeting in the layout room. Their two cases had turned out to be connected to each other, but that didn't mean that the two different culprits were working together. One was a child abductor and the other an arsonist. The arsonist was a woman, and the kidnapper a man.
"Alright, we know that our two victims from the fires died in the fire and not before. However, when I processed the crime scene I noticed one thing." Horatio said, "The fire spread slowly. That means both victims should have had time to get out."
"But what was used to start the fire?" Natalia asked.
"Gasoline. But only at the porch door. Not in all the rooms." Horatio said.
"And the victims were both found in their living rooms right?" Eric asked and Horatio nodded.
Ryan placed a map of the two houses on the table in front of everyone.
"Alright, at the first scene, the kitchen was the only house that wasn't destroyed. That's how we were able to find the photos." He said, "Danielle Williams died in the living room, we don't know if she tried to get out of the house."
"If she was then she was going the wrong way." Eric said and pointed at the map, "First there's the front door and then kitchen, bedroom, back porch, bedroom, living room and bathroom."
"We don't know where she was when the fire started." Frank said, "Either way, is it a coincidence that both victims died in the living room?"
"Nope." Calleigh said, "So how do you make sure someone dies in a specific room?"
"You block all the other exits." Horatio said, "By looking the doors."
"They weren't looked when we got there." Ryan said.
"So our arsonist was able to walk inside the house during the fire." Frank said, "And to do that you need the exact same suit as the firemen."
"So maybe we are dealing with a female firemen... firewoman, who… sets houses on fire, because...? Ryan asked.
The rest of the team shrugged. They all knew that there had been no female fire workers at the crime scenes, so the arsonist was not a fire worker with a hero complex who simply wanted to be the first one on the scene to save lives.
"Lets check if the fire department is missing a suit." Horatio said, "But first, any luck on finding the children?"
"No, they're gone. We don't know who kidnapped them, or when and how." Eric sighed.
"Let's process both crime scenes again." Horatio said, "Natalia take the first one, Ryan and Eric the other one. Frank you and I are going to the fire department."
-I-
10:45
Natalia sighed, she had processed the first crime scene, the house of Danielle Williams again and she hadn't found anything new. It made her very frustrated, and she wasn't the only one. The whole team were frustrated, since there was a child abductor, most likely the man was a pedophile too, and a crazy woman setting houses on fire in the city. Fire scared Natalia the most. The worst way for her to die, would be to drown or burn up.
The two victims had been quite badly burned, but not so bad that you couldn't recognize them right away. Thanks to the fire department, their bodies had been saved from a lot of damage. Unfortunately the fire made it almost impossible to know if the victims had tried to crawl away or somehow been passed out and unaware of the fire. Though it seemed as if the 2nd victim, Chleo Manson had been alive when the fire started.
Natalia's biggest concern though, was the children. Were they alive or dead? What was the kidnapper doing to them? She hated even thinking about what they could be going through right now.
"Nat." Frank said from behind her.
Natalia jumped in fear and sighed in relief when she saw that it was Frank.
"You scared me." She chuckled.
"Sorry about that, just wondering how everything is going." Frank smiled.
"Well, bad. I haven't found anything." Natalia sighed, "This crime scene is empty of evidence."
"Have you checked the back yard?"
Natalia shook her head and Frank walked out with her to the backyard. It was small, but there could still be evidence there. She felt stupid, she was a CSI, she should have known to check the backyard.
"What?" Frank asked.
"I should have known to check out here."
"Hey, we all forget sometimes. It's no big deal."
"What if there is important evidence out here and I would have left." Natalia said, "Thanks Frank."
"Don't mention it."
Natalia smiled at him and started checking the grass for anything out of the ordinary. She found a piece of plastic and bagged it. She also found a lighter in some bushes. After thirty minutes of very narrow processing, she was done.
"Find anything?" Frank asked.
"A piece of plastic and a lighter." Natalia smiled, "Maybe I can find a fingerprint on the lighter."
-I-
11:30
Alexx was performing an autopsy on a man. It was a John Doe. She was singing quietly to herself. But she stopped singing when she thought she smelled smoke.
She stopped what she was doing and walked into the officer of the other ME on dayshift. His name was Daniel Bronson, an old, nice man. He wasn't working with the team. Instead he worked under Alexx's supervision and simply helped her with the bodies. So that there wouldn't 40 bodies lying in the corridors. It was when he was expected to retire in three years that Jason would take his place. Only then Jason would actually be working more with team, it would be easier for both the team and Alexx to have an extra hand on cases.
"Daniel do you smell smoke?" Alexx asked.
Daniel sniffed and nodded, "That can't be someone outside, right?" He asked.
"No, it's coming from inside."
Daniel nodded and left his officer with Alexx. They met a few guys working in the morgue and told them to get out. Somewhere in the morgue something was burning.
Alexx followed the smell to the toilets. She carefully felt the handle of the door, it wasn't warm. She opened the door and saw the janitor Mary Stansfield's body on the floor. On fire. The fire was spreading towards the door.
"Get out!" Alexx shouted and led Daniel outside the morgue.
Just as they were able to get outside a loud explosion was heard that rocked the building. Alexx and Daniel threw themselves to the ground.
Alexx sat up and looked over at Daniel, he was shaking and gasping.
"Daniel?" Alexx asked, "What happened?"
Daniel looked at Alexx with fear in his eyes. He pointed at his chest. He was having a heart attack!
"Call an ambulance!" Alexx shouted.
--
11:55
Daniel had been loaded into an ambulance and was now on his way towards the hospital. Alexx was with him. Everybody had heard the explosion. The team were waiting for access to the morgue. But the fire wasn't completely out yet. The explosion hadn't been big, and hadn't destroyed more then the bathrooms and the corridor. The labs stayed intact, as well as the bodies.
"Eric take pictures of the crowd. Arsonists likes to watch the fire they started." Horatio whispered in Eric's ear.
Eric nodded and innocently started snapping pictures of the crowd.
"Thank god that Alexx is okay." Frank said, "I hope Daniel makes it too."
"I'm sure he will." Calleigh said.
"What do we do until we can access the scene?" Ryan asked.
"Well, we know that it was the janitor Mary who died in the fire, see if you can find out if she had a missing child." Horatio told Ryan, "Natalia go with him, and Calleigh… the lab."
Calleigh chuckled and left the scene. The only downside of being pregnant was that she couldn't be out in the field. But she was willing to sacrifice that for a few months. She and Ryan were going to have their first ultrasound later in the afternoon. When she entered her ballistics lab a scared Valera hugged Calleigh.
"How is Alexx doing?" She asked.
"She's fine. Daniel had a heart attack." Cal said sadly.
"Oh my god."
"I'm sure he'll be fine. He's a lot stronger then you might think." Cal said and gave Valera small smile.
Valera nodded. Fortunately Jason hadn't been in the morgue during the fire. He was sick and had stayed home.
During the day the team were able to start processing the new crime scene. Alexx would perform an autopsy on Mary as soon as she got back to the morgue. She refused to leave the hospital until she knew that Daniel would be alright.
-I-
13:30
Ryan and Natalia had been at Mary's home. Mary had a missing four year old son, James. Now Ryan and Natalia were looking at pictures of James in the lab, they had been sent to Maria over the last week.
"Why didn't she say anything?" Natalia asked.
"None of these women did. The kidnapper must have threatened to kill their children if they did."
"So instead they went out in the media?"
"Only Danielle Williams did that."
"Have you talked anymore to Erica Sykes?" Natalia asked.
"No, I hope I don't have too." Ryan sighed.
"I can talk to her." Natalia said, "I'll see her at her work later today."
Ryan nodded. Mary's house had been quite empty. She was about to move away actually. The only thing visible had been the photos of James.
"We need to check phone records." Ryan said, "None of the victims had any threatening letters sent to them, so the kidnapper must have called them."
"You check phone records and I'll talk to Sykes." Natalia said.
When Ryan nodded she left the lab to go and look for the one person she least of all wanted to meet. But she had to. Ryan made some calls and got a warrant for the phone records of the victims.
After an hour he had a few tapes with phone calls on them. The first tape was phone calls made to and from Danielle William's house in the last fourteen days.
The first eight calls had been hung ups. But on the day that Danielle's daughter Jane went missing, someone actually spoke on the other end.
"Hello, this is Danielle."
"Hello Danielle… have you picked up your daughter yet?"
"Who is this?"
"It doesn't matter who I am."
"How do you know about my daughter?"
"I've seen her a few times in the last week. She's cute."
"I'm calling the police."
"If you call the police I will cut you open like a fish! Now you listen very carefully, I have Jane here with me… and if you call the police I will send you her ear and then her fingers… and then her tongue."
"Oh my god!"
"Shut up! Jane will stay here with me until you have suffered enough."
"What have I ever done to you?"
"Not you. Him."
"Him?"
"You know who I mean… twenty years ago… He made a mistake, and now you and your daughter will pay for it."
"What do I need to do?"
"Just wait."
The phone call ended and Ryan sighed. The kidnapper's voice was fake and sounded like something from a movie. Ryan was quite sure that Cooper could get the real voice, but it would take some time.
While Ryan was listening to tapes, Natalia had searched for Erica almost an hour. She finally found her at a beach, reporting something about an accidental drowning.
"Well, well, well, Natalia Boa Vista." Erica smirked when she saw Natalia approach her.
"Erica Sykes." Natalia said, "Tell me about Danielle Williams."
"That was quick." Erica snorted, "No please?"
"You don't deserve one."
"Danielle Williams was a lonely mother who's child was missing, end of story."
"Why did she come to you?" Natalia asked.
"She wanted help with finding her daughter, and I am a good reporter. Who else would she go to if not the most popular reporter in Miami, who can make sure that your face is shown on TV?"
"Maybe someone who actually cares about human lives." Natalia snapped, "You only care about money."
"Thousands of children goes missing everyday, and every once and a while a scared mother needs to make an appearance in TV." Erica smirked, "It gives me more viewers and more money."
"But the life of the child is not important to you?"
"Oh come on, you cops were already looking for the kid right?"
"No, Danielle Williams hadn't told the police about her daughter. That's why we need to know what she told you."
"Nothing." Erica said, "She told me the same thing she said on TV."
Natalia sighed, "I might come back." She said and left.
-I-
14:15
Ryan and Calleigh had left the lab for a short while to go to their first ultrasound. They were led into a small room, by Dr. Boston. The same doctor who had done the ultrasound on Calleigh just before her miscarriage.
"Are you taking your medication Calleigh?" Boston asked.
"Yeah, so far so good." Cal smiled.
"Good. You might soon start becoming nauseous and not being able to keep the food inside your stomach, so you should start eating much now, so you won't be so sick later on." Boston said, "It's a side effect of the medicine to throw up."
Calleigh nodded, then Boston started the ultrasound. Ryan hadn't said anything yet, he gaped when he saw his and Calleigh's baby on the monitor.
"There it is. There's your baby." Boston smiled.
Calleigh grinned and grabbed Ryan's hand. Ryan softly kissed her hand.
"You are about six weeks pregnant, so that means the baby will be born sometime in the beginning of September." Boston said, "I can give you a more exact date later."
"Thank you doctor." Ryan smiled.
Before Calleigh and Ryan left the both received a picture of the baby from the monitor.
--
Horatio and Frank were down in the morgue were Alexx had just finished her autopsy on Mary. Daniel was still in the hospital, but alive and doing well. He would be back at work in two weeks.
"Mary died of blunt force trauma." Alexx sighed, "Then she was lit of fire."
"Her body is very badly burnt." Frank said.
"Yeah, well she must have been burning for quite some times before anyone smelled the smoke." Alexx said, "I can't tell you what caused the blunt force trauma though, her body is to badly burnt."
"Well, I'm sure it wasn't an accident." Horatio said.
"Nope." Frank said, "So what now?"
"We process her clothes." Horatio said, "And then we hope that Eric found something in the bathroom."
Frank and Horatio thanked Alexx for her time and then went back to the lab. Eric met them in the hallway with a sad look.
"Nothing?" Horatio asked and Eric nodded.
"The room was to badly burnt." He said.
"Dammit." Frank growled.
"We'll get our arsonist some other way, let's hope Ryan can find something more from the tapes." Horatio said.
"Well he and Cal are back from the their ultrasound." Eric smiled and pointed at the break room.
In the break room Ryan and Cal were looking at the first picture of their baby.
"Is that a picture of your baby?" Valera asked as she opened the door.
She shrieked as Calleigh nodded and looked at the picture. Frank, Horatio, Eric and Alexx soon joined them in the break room, everyone took a good look at the picture.
"It's a girl." Frank said.
"You can't tell that until after the 16th week." Ryan said.
"I know it's a girl. I have three daughters myself and I know a girl when I see one." Frank grinned.
"Well, if it is I owe you thirty bucks." Horatio said.
"You have a bet about that?" Cal asked.
"Yeah, I say it's a boy." Horatio grinned, "So how far along are you?"
"Six weeks." Cal smiled, "Frank will you be the godfather?"
Frank smiled widely and nodded, "Sure!"
"And Natalia, does godmother sound good to you?" Ryan asked smiling.
"Oh yeah!" Natalia chuckled.
-I-
20:00
Frank had stayed behind at the PD to do some paperwork and to prepare his prank on Ryan. When he got home the first thing he noticed an envelope on the floor.
He picked it up and went to the living room. He smiled as he opened it and read the letter.
Frank.
I forgot to give you your Christmas Gift, so here it is only a bit late.
Eric
Frank grinned and saw a small photo in envelope. He took it out and laughed out loud as he looked at it. It was a photo of Horatio with chicken pox, and Horatio had a small smile on his face.
This was the best Christmas gift Frank had gotten so far. He remember that he had asked Horatio if he could take a picture of him when he had had chicken pox. Horatio had said no, but seemed to have changed his mind.
TBC…
AN: Please review!
