It was their first case being back in the saddle. God, Dani thought I really hate Tidwell's cowboy metaphors. But right now she tried to focus as Tidwell was announcing the fact pattern to them both, while deliberately ignoring her and shooting daggers at Crews. She had to admit he multitasked pretty well.
"Caucasian male, early 40's, head bashed in with ….ha! An aluminum baseball bat…." Probably stole the wrong guy's girl", he said while looking pointedly at Crews.
Crews arched an eyebrow and took a half a step forward. Tidwell lowered his head and tightened his shoulders. Jesus, she thought… I do not need this drama.
"Come on, Crews let's go", she said grabbing her partner by the lapels of his very expensive suit and dragged him out the door before the two of them could get into a fight. This prompted Charlie to smile and Reese to scowl at him all the way to the elevator. "Got an address Captain?" She shouted behind her. Tidwell's tone changed to an icy cool, slightly apologetic and lower tone as he offered it to her.
"7758 Halloway, Warehouse District…" He said. Then added lower, just for her ears "and Detective? Be careful". He still cared for her and worried each time that she left his sight, it might be for the last.
Tidwell let them go, but shouted after them, more specifically Crews…"betcha the dude had it coming".
The doors to the elevator shut, leaving them alone for the ride to the parking garage. Charlie pulled an apple from his suit pocket and began shining it on his sleeve and studiously ignoring what just occurred. Reese pulled the elevator stop button and looked up at him and ignoring their near foot height distance, she put on her most intimidating senior detective glare.
"Is this how it's going to be?" she asked him with a bit more bite than she intended.
"What?" Charlie said innocently, holding both hands out to his sides. She continued to stare pointedly at him raising her eyebrows. "He started it" Charlie continued sheepishly.
"You need to remember where we are…who we are…. He can make a lot of trouble for you, Crews" she said. She always called him Crews at work. Dani was very good at separating work from play. She always had been. Charlie had a hard time keeping his hands and eyes off his partner, turned lover. Perhaps it was because ever since prison – life was almost all play to him. "Every day I spend above ground is a reason to celebrate" he'd told Carl Ames and he believed it.
He said nothing, but sighed heavily and acquiesced. "All right…I'll try harder." He said. Satisfied Reese pushed the stop button back in and they began to move again.
"You do that, Charlie." She added quietly to let him know it wasn't all his fault, she wasn't that mad and he hoped because when she said Charlie, it meant she was thinking about kissing him.
"Reese?" he beckoned to her just as they arrived in the parking garage. She turned to look at him. "You're gonna make a really good mom someday, because that – that look – that was scary." She rolled her eyes and stepped out quickly as soon as the doors opened, leaving Crews scrambling to catch up with his much smaller partner.
She was smiling, he knew, she just didn't want him to see her doing it.
He loved the insight into her mannerisms he was gaining. Everyday with Reese he was learning something new and wonderful about her, from the way he could get the hair to curl around his hand while she slept to what the set of her jaw and eyes meant. He was fascinated by her and had to remind himself not to watch her all the time. It kinda freaked her out.
"Reese" he continued. "Do you know why baseball is played with a bat?" he launched into one of the endless bits of trivia that he stored for car rides and generally to annoy her.
"All the other weapons were spoken for?" she offered.
"No" it's actually related to the English sport of Cricket and some people believe baseball actually came from Cricket and isn't really a unique sport at all but rather…" he rattled on.
"Uh, uh…no…no… " she said sharply reaching the car and turning to face him. "We are not going to talk….what am I saying…I don't talk….you talk…. You are not going to talk all the way to the crime scene about baseball, cricket, rugby or the origin of any other sport that I don't give a damn about."
Without realizing Reese had begun to pick up Crews talent for carrying on a conversation without input from anyone else and she had just done it. He stared at her and then she realized it. "Oh, god. I'm doing it again aren't I? Talking to myself?"
He simply smiled that enigmatic smile of his, the one that reached all the way to his eyes like he alone understood all things at all times. "Crews?" she questioned. "Aren't you going to say something?"
"About baseball?" he said then paused for effect "No way".
She sighed an exasperated noise that reminded him of a sound she could make in bed and climbed into the car, throwing herself behind the wheel and slamming the door.
"Not a word, Crews. Nothing - all the way to the scene. Or so help me, I'm putting you out on the street and going by myself." She gritted her teeth, throwing the unmarked into reverse and leaving the parking lot way too fast for the lighting there.
Charlie finally bit into the apple he'd been polishing loudly. She looked at him and he smiled brightly, but said nothing. He turned twenty degrees in his seat to enjoy an uninterrupted opportunity to look at her with no distractions. He could be in this moment….happily.
They arrived in the warehouse district to find 7785 Halloway was a done up studio loft style apartment for an aspiring artist. The thing about the briefing is that it never quite prepares you for the scene. Words can not accurately convey certain kinds of butchery and the smell of blood.
She should have known it was bad, by the way the uniforms were skulking around outside in the heat, instead of perched indoors fouling up the scene. The ways none of them would meet her eyes and the dour tone and quietness that pervaded the area. You could actually hear the clicking sound from the wigwags on their unmarked in the alley.
The first thing you notice when you enter a place where a lot of blood has been let is the smell, or more accurately the taste. It was slightly metallic, tinny, like sucking on a copper penny and sticky like molasses as blood ceased being blood and began to congeal into gelatinous substance like some sick version of a jello mold.
Crews said what everyone was thinking "there's so much blood", stating the obvious, but it still needed to be said. It was literally everywhere. Reese knew now why they never said who the deceased was, you really couldn't tell. He was literally beaten to a pulp.
Blood spatter lined the walls and the ceiling, "medium velocity spatter consistent with a large object being swung repeatedly" Reese pronounced clinically as she snapped on rubber gloves and picked a path to the body. "Basic rule of blood spatter holds the first blow is the freebie, after that each additional strike picks up blood and consecutive blows sling it off the end of the object – in this case a baseball bat in an arch."
"There's a void over there" she continued "meaning something was there when the blood was being sprayed, but removed before we got here. Need to check with the uniforms. Have them start a canvas, maybe someone saw someone leaving." Reese noticed the absence of Crews in the conversation and turned to find him staring at the area furthest from the actual scene.
"So much blood" Crews said again, his head cocked to the side she could tell he was seeing something no one else did, as he usually did. Most of the time it was something important. But something in his face made Dani focused not on where he was looking but Crews himself.
"Crews?" Reese asked softly. "What is it?"
She had not realized her natural tendency to become more attuned to him until that instant. She could feel his unease and it became hers. He looked back at the void and then again beyond the scene. Reese walked to where he stood to gain his perspective, hoping that standing in his space would give her insight into what was going on in his head.
When that did not work, Reese resorted to physicality, grabbing his tie and forcing him to focus on her. She looked into his eyes willing him to her "Crews. What do you see?" she asked quietly.
When she got no response she asked more softly, "Charlie?" effectively communicating her fear by slipping into the personal while at work. Reese never did that.
The sound of his name from her lips caused Crews to look at her mouth. He began to hear what she'd been asking him "what do you see?"
"The void…" Crews began "it's so small…". He looked again at the space created when something got between the blood on the object and the surface it was being slung onto. "If someone ran from her covered with blood…." Crews trailed off.
"Some one would have seen them" Reese finished. "Unless…"
"Unless they are still here." Crews finished.
Now his apprehension was her apprehension. Both unholstered their weapons and began angling through the scene, moving closely together, each covering the other's back. But the house was clear. No one was there, but neither could shake the feeling of unease. They exchanged quizzical looks as Reese began to consider all the blood was just freaking them both out.
Crews pulled his phone from his pocket and called dispatch. "I need a canine unit" Crews pronounced. Reese arched her eyebrows in question. "There's something here" he said like she didn't believe him.
"Crews, maybe it's all the blood. Maybe you should take a break" she told him.
"Reese…" he said very seriously "there's someone here".
"Where?" she questioned "we've looked everywhere, closets, bathrooms, the shower, the pantry…there's no one here" she patiently told him.
"Reese" Crews locked eyes with her "do you trust me?" he asked.
She glared at him "you know I do" she said annoyed.
"Then trust me…there is someone here" he was certain, his tone was low and dangerous. He could feel the presence…. like when they would wait for him in prison, wait for him so they could do things to him….things that remembering made Charlie shudder. "There's some one here" he said again quietly almost to himself.
Reese focused on the body, while Crews stood guard against the phantom presence. She observed the fragments of his skull cap in the congealing blood because his skull ceased to be a solid object at some point and fractured into tiny pieces. "This took an enormous amount of force" she said.
"Or hate" Crews added, prompting her to look at him again. He levelly returned her gaze, letting what he'd said sinking in.
"That's a lot of hate." Reese said. "That's a lot of blood" she repeated his earlier comment.
Then a small noise came from the area of the bedroom and both their heads snapped in the direction of the sound. It was not a building groan or creak, not an animal noise, not a bird or a ceiling fan or A/C unit cycling. It was a distinctly human sound like a choked cry or a sob.
"There's someone here" Crews whispered harshly again.
They both carefully, but stealthily crept into the room. This time listening rather than looking, they took great care to be silent. Crews cocked his head and listened, like a dog hearing a strange noise and looked down at the bed. "It's there" he whispered. Reese looked at him strangely. "It's under the bed." He whispered.
"That's impossible, Crews." She pronounced incredulously. "It has to be a dog, a cat, it's too small to be a person" she said so sure of herself that she holstered her pistol and climbed down onto the floor with her flashlight to find the hidden animal and calm Crews down. They needed to get back to work on the case and stop chasing shadows.
Still focused on Crews, Reese flicked her glance from her examination to his face, which was still troubled. "There's no room under here for a…" and then she saw something that stopped her heart. "Oh, my God…" she swore softly.
"What is it?" Crews peered over her shoulder, his weapon now nowhere to be seen either. He clambered down beside her. There under the bed was a small child of maybe five or six, covered in blood. "The void" they breathed together.
"That's why it was so small" Crews stated. "It's a kid."
Dani couldn't speak because the child held her eyes. Bright blue green eyes rimmed with red from silent tears locked onto hers. Crews spoke in the background, asking her questions and talking excitedly on the phone, but Dani couldn't move. Even when he knelt beside her and touched her shoulder again, she didn't react. She found she couldn't sever the connection to the child and those sea green eyes.