CSI: NY
My apology for the delay. Here is the following chapter.
My thanks to chili-peppers & xbexyboox for your reviews.
It is highly appreciated.
Please read and review.
Game of Insanity
Chapter Five
"Aren't we going to read the note?" Irina finally spoke up, having enough of watching Lindsay pacing around the room looking for a way out. "I mean, it could have something…I don't know, something important inside?"
Lindsay ignored her as she went to a nearest wall and pressed her ear against it. Irina watched her in silence. "You hear something?" After a while, Lindsay continued her pacing.
"There's got to be a door," Lindsay voiced her thoughts.
"Of course there's got to be," Irina agreed. "It's just a matter of finding it."
Lindsay rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Well, I don't see you helping me."
Irina bit her bottom lip to suppress herself from saying something she might regret later and sighed. "You don't need me helping you; help is right here in front of me." She was talking about the note in the palm of an officer which Lindsay had deliberately ignored after learning it had been staked through.
Lindsay stopped pacing and looked at her. They looked at each other in silence, the only sound they could hear was the soft gurgle of blood oozing out from the wound. The flow had ceased then. The moment Lindsay moved to stand by Irina she knew she had decided to read the note after all. "What are you waiting for?" Irina asked. "Go ahead and take it."
"No, you go," she argued, and Irina did without delaying anymore time.
Irina tried tugging it out from the stake but ended up tugging his whole arm. The body swayed, hitting her face. After a few more times of tugging and swaying of the body, she stepped back and let both of arms fell limp by her sides. "I can't yank the note out."
"No, you can't," Lindsay agreed shortly after. "You need to pull the stake out of his palm."
Irina did just like what Lindsay suggested, without any help from her. So when the note was finally in her hands, she handed it over to Lindsay as she wiped the blood on her hands away on the walls, leaving behind her bloody handprint amongst many other decorations.
"What does it say?" Irina asked walking back to her.
Detectives Irina Callahan; Lindsay Monroe,
You are deep underground. There are many levels above this room that you need to ascend before you reach ground floor. No, I am nobody sadistic who wishes to see you go through pain and torture. This is just a game. That is all there is to it – an innocent game. The ground floor has a door to your freedom. You reach that floor within the given time, you shall be free. I shall free you. You reach that floor after the countdown finishes, you shall still be free but for that to happen you have to earn it. I will tell you how, if it is necessary.
There are clues on every level. You find them and solve it. You shall not have any trouble finding the clues. It is the same as this one. In terms of color, I mean – white, a clue inside a white envelope.
I shall see you on ground floor soon, Detectives.
Here is yourClue #1:
3 OF YOUR 5 SENSES SHALL HELP.
Lindsay took a shaky breath in. This was harder than she thought. She was reliving the past that she would like to leave behind, remembering the details that she didn't want to, and letting the fear to seep back into her soul which she thought had left. It was the same fear she felt the moment she finished reading the message.
It was creeping back.
Mac waited and looked at her to see if she was okay. "Lindsay?" he tried but she didn't quite meet his eyes. Flack suddenly became concerned. His eyes traveled down her arm, stopping at her clenched fists.
They were quivering on her lap.
Flack placed his hand on her upper arm. "Hey, are you okay? You want to take a break?"
Of course, Mac thought. She had enough for today. She needed a break. So he recapped his pen and closed the writing pad on his lap as if he was a therapist. Inching himself closer to the bed, softly, he said, "That will be all for today. You did great, Lindsay."
"I'm sorry," Lindsay apologized. "I'm just tired." She lied. She wasn't tired. She just didn't want to continue from there. Not now; not today. She wanted to stop.
"I know," Mac patted her hand. "You'll rest now."
X
Not too long ago, Stella had received a rather disturbing call from Mac, stating that they need to look closer, delved more into depths about Felicia Fontane's case. It was usually not a good sign. She knew it; Danny, too. Even Hawkes did. Now that Flack had graced the room with his presence looking rather serious, they knew something was up.
"What is it, Flack?" Stella asked as he busied himself with looking at the photographs taken at the scene.
"What did Mac told you?" Flack said while craning his neck to actually see what he was seeing.
"To look closer," Danny supplied eyeing the opened manila folder before him, "to delve more into the depths of the case. What's that supposed to mean?"
"Is he being cryptic again?" Hawkes pondered, getting himself one photograph from in front of him laid out on the table. "I thought we're about to close this case."
"We came close to," Mac said upon entering the room with an evidence bag and a manila folder. It contained the silver necklace they found in the warehouse, not too far from where the body was. "I'm sure all of you remember about this necklace."
Danny shrugged a shoulder. "It's Felicia's one." He still had no idea of where this was leading to.
"And her friend has one too," Mac added.
"Lilith Crawford," Stella said. "She lost it."
"That's right," Flack said, "and guess where she lost it?"
Stella, Danny and Hawkes were quiet for a moment.
"The warehouse," Hawkes stated.
"Wait," Danny spoke up, "you mean she was in the warehouse?"
"That's what the evidence is telling me," Mac reasoned.
"Lilith Crawford?" Stella questioned, "How can you be so sure, Mac? It could have been someone else's one, similar to this one."
"Mrs. Fontane came by earlier to give me Felicia's necklace and I asked her if the necklace we found at the scene is Lilith's and she confirmed it," Flack offered.
"You do remember what Mrs. Fontane said – it has its own significance to it. Same custom-made pendant but not exactly the same," Mac explained. "That's what I mean by looking closer." He pulled out a photograph from the manila folder in his hand and placed it on the table – a photograph of both Felicia Fontane and Lilith Crawford with the same silver necklace and blue pendant around their necks. "It looks exactly the same at first glance, doesn't it?"
Danny nodded. "Yeah, it does."
Stella looked closer, focusing mainly on the pendants. Her eyes compared with the one worn by Lilith to the worn by Felicia, scrutinizing it down. Then, she saw it. The different color shade; Lilith's one was lighter while Felicia's one was darker. When Mac confirmed that she was right, she was still confused.
"But we've got the guy who killed Felicia, Mac," Stella stated.
"We did," he agreed, "but maybe, Edward Smith is not responsible for her death. He may be responsible for what he did to Lindsay and Irina and those people that we found down there but that doesn't necessarily mean that Edward Smith is the guy responsible."
"This is absolutely perplexing," Hawkes remarked, rubbing his forehead. "Edward Smith killed the four teenagers we found underground, correct? Now, according to family and Lilith herself, those four teenagers were close friends with her and Felicia. Don't you see the connection here?"
Danny nodded. "I see it. Edward killed the four teenagers which, like Hawkes had said it earlier, that they were close friends with Lilith and Felicia. Now that those four are dead in the hands of Edward, he could have killed Felicia, too, because they were related in a way."
Stella nodded, "in terms of friendship."
"That's true," Mac agreed, "but you guys don't see how Flack and I see it. Those four are dead, so is Felicia, and they were close friends of Lilith. So since the evidence is telling me that Lilith was in the warehouse and that they were close friends of Lilith, then why Edward didn't kill her as well?"
Then the room fell silent – eerily silent. Mac had a point there but Stella apparently had some more theories about this.
"Maybe she wasn't there at all," Stella tried. "Maybe Felicia took her necklace without her knowing it and when it was found at the scene, it has made it seem as if Lilith was there."
"She said she lost it, Stella," Mac argued.
"Yeah, lost it to Felicia," she said.
But Hawkes had a different theory of his own.
"Let's say she was actually there with her," Hawkes suggested. "Edward was already inside and when he attacked Felicia, Lilith ran away. There must have been some sort of struggle to have the necklace tossed to the ground."
"Even so," Flack said after being quiet for quite some time, "she's not telling us the whole truth. She was in the warehouse and she witnessed the attack but she didn't admit it when I interrogated her the other day."
"Well, the more reason why we should bring her in for another round of interrogation," Mac declared, taking the photograph earlier and the evidence bag with him. "Come on, we don't want to keep our guest waiting."
"But Mac," Stella stopped him from walking. "Why the sudden interest of looking closer and delving into the depths? You were certain that it was Edward Smith behind this."
"Lindsay said that when she arrived, the body wasn't there," Mac informed. "And the possible suspect alive is Lilith Crawford."
Danny looked at Mac. "I don't understand."
"You'll get the picture soon, Danny," Mac simply said before walking out, on his way to one of the Interrogation Room.