Episode 6: Ordinateur
A woman wearing a pale brown coat short dark hair walked into the Franklin and Bash law offices like she owned the place. She didn't but here own boyfriend did. He was the Franklin in Franklin and Bash.
"Ryan honey I'm here like you texted me." The woman said after she knocked on the door received no answer. She reached for the handle and turned it. The door gave way and opened. Once she saw inside she screamed and rushed to help him.
Not even two seconds later two cops burst into the room with their guns drawn.
"Drop the weapon and put your hands in the air."
"I didn't do it. I was trying to help him."
"I still have to detain you." Flack said putting the cuffs on the now sobbing woman. "If you are proven not to be the killer you will be allowed to leave." Flack told the woman when he placed her in to the squad car.
An hour later found Flack in one of the interrogation rooms. He sat in a metal chair glancing through a file he had been given on the suspect. She was twenty-eight years old and a fledgling fashion designer. Her name was Martha Houston. He took one last look and closed the file.
"Tell us why you killed him Martha." Flack said. "From what I can tell up until today you were an upstanding citizen not even a traffic ticket to your name."
"I didn't kill him." Martha replied.
"Then tell us how we found you in his office standing over his dead body with the murder weapon in your hand."
"I didn't kill him. We had a fight this morning and I got a text message from him apologizing and asking me to eat dinner with him so I went to his office like he asked and found him but instead of a nice dinner out I found him dead with the letter opener sticking out of his chest. I thought I was helping when I pulled it out but I just made it worse and the blood just flowed out and that's when you guys came in."
"Give us one moment." Flack said.
He pushed back from the table and motioned for Detective Lovato to follow him out.
Once they got back to their desk in the bull pen.
"I don't know if I can believe her." Flack said. "All of what she said could be true but we have no way to prove it."
"Well I just got a text from Danny the prints on the weapon came back to the victim and our only suspect. Martha's prints were on the weapon but Danny can't tell if they were in the blood or under the blood but he's running test to see what they say." Lovato said. "He also says the DNA is still being processed."
"We have to book her now but something doesn't seem right."
"You are right but we have our job to do."
Flack reluctantly walked back into the interrogation room to arrest Martha.
"Martha Houston you are under arrest for the murder of Ryan Franklin. You have the right to remain silent… " Flack read her rights and took her to booking.
Now that their suspect was being charged Adam knew he had to find something that proved that or at least help proved it because of this he was once again delegated to working in the computer lab. He didn't mind because he got to work with all kinds of gadgets that he wouldn't have access to if he was in any other part of the crime lab. And at the moment he was going over Ryan Franklin's computer, cellphone and iPad. He had been through them all once before just getting the basics but now he was going deeper into them.
"What are you working on Adam?" Danny asked. He had come in to the computer lab looking for something to do now that he passed the weapon on to Lindsey for DNA and other things.
"The victims cell phone." Adam replied. "I have been through every thing but the text messages and I'm doing that now and I think I just found something that I can give to Mac and Jo."
"What is it?"
"Take a look for yourself." Adam replied
-I'm going to kill you Franklin-
"It was sent an hour before he was killed."
"Trace the number." Danny replied.
"Already on it." Adam replied as he entered the number. "And the number is registered to one Martha Houston."
"That's the victims girl friend. Flack just arrested her because I found her prints are on the murder weapon."
"Just another tick in the guilty column."
"What about security footage?" Danny asked.
"Mac wanted me to go through the computer, phone and iPad first."
"I will take care of the security footage I need something to do."
Danny took a seat in front of another computer terminal and started going through the the security footage. The footage didn't help all that much because there were no cameras in Franklins office but Mr. Franklin came out alive with every visitor that entered his office except the last one his girl friend Martha Houston.
"Danny Adam told me you took over the security footage. Have you found anything?"
"Franklin was alive after every one visited him but Miss. Huston." Danny replied. "But I figured I could go back to the scene and see if there was any way for someone to get in without having been seen."
"Let me know what you get. I'm going to see Sid."
"Got it Mac."
Mac left Danny at the computer and made is way down to the morgue to see Sid. The man in question had his head bent over the victims body with his glasses perched on the end of his nose.
"Sid do you have anything for me?" Mac asked.
"Nothing concrete yet. My gut tells me cause of death was blood loss but I can't be sure until I complete the autopsy."
"So no good news." Mac said.
"His toxs results came back and he had high levels of Vicodin and THC in his system but that could be because of the break I found in his right foot. Sorry I don't have more."
"You gave me enough. He had a client arrested for felony possession last year. He lost the case and the victim was given a death threat from his disgruntled client at least that's what his partners at the firm say."
"So we have another suspect?"
"Yes and the suspect count is now at two." Mac replied before leaving the room.
A few minutes later he made his way over to the police station to see Flack. He had to wait a few minutes because Flack was busy with another case.
"Mac I was told you needed me."
"Yeah we have another suspect. An old client of the vics. You want to come and get him?"
"Yeah, I've been stuck here all day." Flack said gesturing to the room around him.
Twenty minutes later they pulled up to an apartment building. The guy they wanted to talk with was on the fourth floor and there was no elevator.
"Better get to walking." Flack said when he saw the out of order sign on the elevator door.
They walked up to the guys apartment and knocked on the door five times before the guy answered.
"If you are selling something or want me to sign something don't bother I won't do either of those."
"We are here about your lawyer Ryan Franklin. He was murdered yesterday."
"That idiot didn't do anything to help me. Got me three months in the state penn. Why would I want to help him?"
"Because you threatened to kill him when he lost your case." Mac said.
"I was pissed. It's not like I meant it. You should look in to his partner Bash. I heard those two arguing like cats and dogs because of some client that Franklin didn't want Bash to bring in. My gut tells me it was the mob."
"Don't leave town." Flack said. "And don't forget we'll be watching."
Flack and Mac made their way back to the law firm to see Franklin's partner Jameson Bash. The man was in his office going through boxes of files.
"I hope you aren't destroying evidence." Mac said.
"How can I help you officers?" Bash asked.
"We want to know who you and Franklin argued about bring in as a client."
"I can't tell you that. My clients expect privacy and telling you who a potential client was would negate their trust in me."
"Very well sir but you might want to rethink that." Mac said.
"Look the guy was going to give me a hundred grand to represent him in his divorce that's all but when I turned him down he went to a lawyer Donald Trump uses."
"So you lost out on a hundred grand. People have killed for less."
"I didn't kill Ryan, no matter how much I hated him. He had some one stalking him. Someone that he was afraid of getting to Martha. I don't think she is the one that killed him."
"Did he tell you the stalkers name?"
"No but I believe he kept the information some where in his office or on his computer which I saw your guys take out yesterday."
"Can we have your alibi for the time of Ryan's Death."
"I was in court at the time. Judge Myerson can testify to that." Bash replied.
"Don't leave town."
"I have too many needy and whine clients to runaway."
"We had to warn you."
The two men left Jameson Bash to do his work before making their way over to Ryan Franklin's office. Danny was already inside printing both sides of the window.
"Find anything?" Mac asked.
"A bunch of smudged prints and two clear ones. Why are you here?" Danny replied.
"The Vic's partner said that he had a stalker and might have left he information in here."
"Once I'm done I'll help you look."
"Take your time."
"Flack you take the filing cabinets and I'll take the desk."
Mac sat down in the victims desk chair and went through the papers on top first before he moved on to the draws. He came up empty with each one until he got to the bottom right drawer. That drawer was locked.
"Flack you haven't come across a key have you?" Mac asked.
"No and there is nothing in the files that tells us who his stalker might be just a bunch of vague client files."
"I can get that open." Danny said holding up a small gold key. "It was wedged into that window over there."
Mac took the key and inserted it into the lock and turn turned it. There was a click and the draw piped forward a tiny bit. He pulled the draw out.
"I think the draw has a false bottom. It doesn't go as far as it should." Mac said. "Danny take these files."
Mac removed all the files and handed them to Danny. Now they had been removed Mac could see a small hole in the bottom of the drawer. He stuck the end of his finger into the hole and pulled up. The wooden bottom came up with his hand. He removed it completely and spotted a flat silver box he picked it up and replaced the bottom and placed the files back after taking pictures of the names written on them.
"I think we are done here." Mac said. "We'll take everything back to the lab to be processed."
Danny picked up his kit and followed Mac and Flack out the door. Mac dropped Flack off at the precinct before going back to the lab.
Once they got back to the lab Danny he dropped his things into his locker and gave the prints over to Hawks and went to work on the murder weapon again. He wanted to see if Martha's prints were on the knife after the victim was killed or before he was killed.
Mac had gone to his office and took the small silver box out and looked at it. He took it to the trace lab and cataloged everything inside of the case after he printed the outside.
The silver box was packed to the brim with paper and one by one Mac pulled each item out photographed it and made sure to account for it in his notes. Once every thing was accounted for Mac had fifty-six letters (snail-mail), forty-nine emails and over six dozen photographs of a blond woman in rather provocative clothing that clearly wasn't Martha.
"Mac do you have any thing?" Jo asked.
"I think I found another suspect." He replied gesturing to the photos on the table.
"You try facial rec yet?"
"Not yet you can take them if you want. I still haven't gone over the letters and emails yet and I need to." Mac said. "Try and see where they photos where taken. That could help us figure out who that woman is."
"I have to do something to keep busy till my shift ends."
Jo took the photos over to a computer with a scanner and scanned each of the photos into the computer and ran the clearest view the girl's face and ran it through the facial recognition program. It would take a while for any thing to come up. So she looked deeply in to each photograph hoping they would tell her were they were taken. She could tell that most if not all of them were taken in New York.
Two hours after she entered the woman's face into the program Jo hear the alarm sound telling her there was a match. She turned her attention back to the computer and on the screen was the face of the woman from the photographs looking completely different.
"Mac I got a hit." Jo said into the phone.
Mac stopped reading the letters that had been sent to the victim.
"What's her name?" and walked over to Jo and the computer she was using. Jo held up a photograph next to the one on the screen.
"Melanie or any variation of the name according to her aliases. Doesn't she look familiar to you?" Jo asked.
"Get her address to Flack and have him pick her up."
"I will."
Twenty minutes after getting the call from Jo; Flack found himself back in the interrogation room sitting across from a cold woman, whom he also suspected as being psychopathic from the way she was staring at him.
Not even a minute after he picked up the woman known as Melanie Carter and she was spilling her secrets. Not that they were really secrets with they way she was openly talking about them.
"You are confessing to Ryan Franklin's murder?"
"Why would I let some one else take credit for something that I did. It was a master piece after all. I even had you guys thinking it was his slut of a girlfriend."
"How was that?" Flack said.
"I hacked her phone." Melanie said. "Way to easy if you think about it. I could show you if you want me to." She had now taken her foot and ran it up Flack's leg causing him to flinch.
He stood up to stop her movements just as Lovato came into the room. She smirked at Flack clearly she knew what the woman was doing to him.
"How did you get into his office? I climbed in using the window from the floor above. Those lawyers alway forget to lock the windows." Melanie said. "He hadn't come back in yet. I hid where he could see me when he walked back in. I waited until I knew he would be alone for a while stepped out and stabbed it. Also way to easy if you ask me."
Flack left the room and Lovato continued to question Melanie. Once the woman had said every thing she wanted to Lovato had her write everything down and sign it.
Not that far away Martha Houston was being let go and being apologized to by Mac.
"It wasn't your fault the evidence led you to me." Martha replied. "But do me a favor make sure the woman who killed Ryan goes to jail where she belongs."