Chapter 4. Jacquero

"You're mean,"

"Rowan-"

"Nope, you're mean, no two ways about it, you're mean,"

Danny and Flack exchanged amused glances and glanced up at the rear-view mirror to see Rowan sitting with her arms folded, leaning back in the seat, a perfectly neutral expression on her face.

"Rowan, how are we mean?" Rowan raised her eyebrow again.

"You're throwing me in the deep end on my first day, this new girl shit is not gonna fly, I'll tell you that for free," Danny shook his head and laughed silently. Oh, this one's a card, he thought.

"Uh, we're here, look, uh, Rowan, we wouldn't force you to do this on your first day, it's just, we don't know of anyone else in the lab or precinct who speaks fluent Spanish, I-" Flack stopped and glared at the wide grin on Rowan's face as she opened her door.

"You need to chill, you're on too much coffee," Flack growled as she slid from her seat, slammed her door and walked briskly up to the front door, Danny launched out of the car, not quite gracefully to catch up, Flack bringing up a disgruntled rear. Danny nudged him grinning and received an elbow back but he ceased his grumbling.

Rowan took a deep breath and raised her fist, pausing for a moment before knocking three times quickly and once after a pause. After about ten seconds, which consisted of Rowan wringing her hands and Danny chewing his lip as he watched her, the door opened. Rowan dropped her hands as Mrs Vinetti peered around the door.

"¿Detectives, qué hace usted espalda aquí, encontró usted a asesino de Ana?" Rowan shook her head.

"Tengo miedo no Senora Vinetti, nosostros quisimos realamente preguntarle hijo un par de preguntas, ¿esta él en casa?" Mrs Vinetti shook her head, not budging from the door to invite them in this time; she took on an expression made up of equal portions of hurt and worry.

"Perdon, el esta en el trabajo. ¿Qué tiene que hacer él con este de todos modos?" Rowan looked visibly uncomfortable for a split second before her features cleared and she said easily with a nonchalant shrug.

"Nosotros sólo quisimos preguntarle un par de preguntas, son todo procedimiento uniforme, ¿dónde trabaja él?" Mrs Vinetti sighed.

"Distrito de almacén de Brooklyn," Rowan nodded with a smile, backing away from the step.

"Gracias, adios Senora," Danny and Flack repeated the last words and they all headed back to the car. Flack shook his head.

"Nice, I wish I could do that, so where're we goin' now?" Rowan slid back into her seat, fumbling for a second with the belt.

"Brooklyn warehouse district, you get to witness more language expertise, almost no-one there speaks fluent English anymore, I used to know a guy who worked down there on odd days, he didn't like spendin' a lot of time there 'cos almost no-one knew what he was sayin'," Danny chuckled.

Once they got the district, Flack raised his eyebrows and ushered Rowan forwards, which earned him a raised finger in response, with a sly grin.

They had stopped at the opening to a giant sort of driveway, kind of a truck yard with warehouse garages opening off it on either side for about a mile down, around fifty odd trucks and vans were parked outside garage doors, crates stood in piles and stacks, bags in heaps and mounds, either outside garage openings or beside truck ramps.

The first guy they came to who wasn't working like a mule was a slightly older guy with a greying beard and a red baseball cap, Rowan glanced at it. Mets, good taste…Stepping up to him she waited for him to look up from the clipboard he was half reading before she spoke.

"Hey, you speak English friend?" the guy frowned for a second in slight confusion before shaking his head apologetically and leaning back against a stack of crates piled beside a truck.

"Italiano," Rowan smiled and looked back over her shoulder at Danny, who was now grinning at Flack who rolled his eyes and folded his arms as Danny stepped forwards beside rowan.

"Nessuno problema," he said brightly, he twitched his jacket revealing his badge, and Rowan did likewise, while Flack raised his in front of hi from behind them. The man nodded and his mouth twitched into a slight smile. Rowan smiled back as Danny dove straight in.

"Lei sa Jacquero Vinetti, lei sa dove é?" the guy nodded and pointed at a white a blue truck halfway down the yard, there were five guys hauling and wheeling crates there.

"L'un nella giacca verde, ció é Jac, é nei guai?" Rowan shrugged and raised her arms with it slightly, she did this a lot, punctuating her words with movements of her arms, but it came out a lot more when she spoke Italian.

"Forse, non forse, andiamo scoprire. Lei sa sua sorella, Ana?" he nodded smiling. Rowan resisted the urge to bite her lip; she glanced at Danny who inclined his head slightly.

"Si, la so, la ragazza dolce, é nei guai, é approva?" Rowan sighed.

"No, é morta, é stato assassinata," the man's jaw dropped.

"Ció é terribile! Il Jac non sa? Finirá circo adesso…" Rowan nodded and thanked him.

"Grazie," Danny muttered following his new partner in the direction of their vic's brother.

"Hey Jac!" he called as they got closer. Jac looked up from where he sat on the truck ramp, Danny, Rowan and Flack simultaneously raised their badges to eye level. Jac swallowed slowly and climbed down, walking to them.

"I can help you Detectives?" he asked haltingly. Clearly his English wasn't fantastic.

"Yeah, yeah maybe you can, since this is the only one so far who's spoken a word of English, I'll do some talkin' this time a'ight?" Flack raised his eyebrows at the CSI's beside him who wee fighting not to grin at him. Their smiles vanished as they turned back to Jac.

"A'ight, where were you last night?" Jac frowned.

"Me I was home, con mis padres, mi madre, she went to bed at eight, mi padre y yo, we played cards for a while, why?" The three detectives exchanged looks.

"You sister and her fiancée were murdered last night Jac, your mother didn't tell you?" Jac went white; he reached back to grip the ramp.

"I-I haven't been back to mi casa since, since…" he struggled for the word, then giving up he sighed "Viernes," Rowan glanced at the questioning faces of her co-worker.

"Friday," she supplied. Jac nodded.

"I was staying at mi novia's place over the weekend," he gasped "She'll be so upset, she loves mi hermana," two lone tears dropped from his eyes and hit his jacket as he stared at the ground. Rowan sighed.

"Look Jac, we found your blood at the scene," Jac's head snapped up.

"Impossible, I was at home, unless…Ana broke her vial…" Rowan groaned inwardly.

"Her vial? Your sister kept a vial of your blood?" Jac nodded eagerly. He fished at the neck of his shirt.

"I have a vial of hers, we gave them to each other when we were in high school, a sibling bond kind of thing, she must have broken it somehow, I was at home," Rowan narrowed her eyes, his English was suddenly improving.

"Yeah, yeah, you've done that bit, we'll be in touch, I'm sure you'll want to know what we found, right?" Danny bored his gaze into the young man who shuddered, almost, but not quite, unnoticeable and nodded.

"A'ight, adios," Rowan nodded curtly at him. Flack did likewise.

"Adios,"

Once they were back in the car and on their way back to the lab Danny looked up into the rear-view to see Rowan's face in exactly the same expression it had been while they were questioning Jac.

"What's up Rowan?"

"His English," Flack frowned.

"What about it?" she shrugged and leant her forehead against the window; Danny hadn't taken his eyes off her.

"It was very good," Rowan stated to the glass. Danny now looked away and out of the window.

"She's right, it did suddenly get better, more fluent, like he forgot to act like he only half understood," he glanced back at Rowan again.

"Well, let's get back and see what we can dig up on that glass,"