A/N: Sorry for the huge delay between posting. A lot of crazy stuff has happened to this poor author over the last several months. Hopefully I managed to pull this chapter off. Trigger warnings.. as Graphic crime scenes, and violent acts are described, some of which will be sexual in nature. Just laying it out there. This is my first crime fiction, so bare with me.
Clarke was practically salivating by the time Emori returned with their food.
A deep groan of satisfaction was heard, not long after her very first bite of the Choco-Nutty-Waffle.
Bellamy couldn't help but laugh in response, as he reached over to grab the salt and pepper. Not even his sister ate this enthusiastically, and that was saying something.
"It's that good, is it?"
After chewing several times and swallowing deeply, Clarke nodded her head and managed a muffled "Yes".
He tried not to stare, as his pretty new partner licked some whipped cream from the corner of her mouth. Fortunately his phone began to ring, giving him something else to look at.
"Hello?"
Clarke could feel her hangover melt away slowly with each bite of food. Not in it's entirety, but the food certainly helped her forget about her bad start, and regain some of that lost Griffin energy.
"Yeah it's me." He paused to drink some of his coffee.
"Of course it's me. Who else sounds this charming so early in the morning?" his eyes crinkled as he smirked into his phone. Clark thought it made him look older.
"Yeah she's with me." He coughed awkwardly.
Bellamy gave a deep sigh and signaled for their check silently, pressing his phone into his ear by way of shoulder, as he shoveled more breakfast into his mouth.
Clarke was only half listening to the phone call at this point, but understood that their time here was being cut short.
The grumpy waitress returned within seconds, and took Bellamy's card from between two of his oversized fingers.
Clarke noticed too late, and fumbled with her wallet in an attempt to take out her card."Wait! Miss! You forgot mine." Clarke stood up and waved her card in the air.
Emori ignored her, and Bellamy signaled for Clarke to keep quiet. Tugging at her sleeve to get her to sit back down. He pointed first to her plate and then to her mouth, motioning for her to finish eating.
"Yikes, Okay. Right." Taking another giant bite as he listening to the other end of the line. "Yeah? Well Shit. Okay. No, no. We're close by already. We'll be there."
Clarke picked up her pace, attempting to finish her plate before they were forced to head out. She felt bad that he paid for her meal, and decided she'd have to pay him back next time.
"Yeah, no, see you soon. Oh! And don't let them cross that line til we get there Edwards." He began scooting out of his side of the booth.
"I don't care. And no, just one guy. Just one guy Edwards, or you might as well let the entire press team go in too."
Emori dropped off his card, just as Bellamy hung up. Scribbling his name and adding a tip as Clarke barely managed to get her stuff together.
"Alright, We're heading out." Bellamy shrugged on his jacket, and reached for his scarf.
"Did they find a body?"
"Yep." Bellamy looked down at the rookie with what could only be described as genuine concern.
"Not gonna lie to you princess, this one's going to be tough to stomach, especially for a first timer." Bellamy sighed deeply as he outstretched his hand to help her up. "It's a kid."
Clarke looked down at her plate with an unreadable expression. She hated to admit it, but she had been dreading this moment.
She had seen plenty of dead bodies in her time. her mother worked at Arcadia's busiest hospital after all. Also, during her time studying forensics, she had to work on multiple cadavers.
Death was nothing new to her.
The bodies they used in the lab had all been well over 60 yrs of age however, and all had died of natural causes. This would be the first time she came face to face with the body of a child, a child who could have lived a healthy normal life if given the chance. A true victim. He was right to look worried, she thought as she accepted his hand, awkwardly stumbling out of the booth and bumping into her partners side.
"Sorry" she mumbled quietly, shrugging Bellamy's oversized black puffer coat back on, and zipping herself in.
"Not to mention the fact that you're hungover." Bellamy gave her a knowing look, and wrapped his scarf securely around his own neck.
"I'll fill you in in on the details when we get to the car. Don't want to say too much out in the open."
"Right." she nodded, joining him down the aisle. "Let's do this then."
"Let's do this."
As Bellamy grabbed the door, he remembered something important. "You don't have your gun on you, do you?"
"Shit! No, I left it at the station last night, because I knew I'd be out drinking."
Typically, I'd encourage you not to go out to a crime scene unarmed, but.. in this case the area has already been cleared, and I'm armed, so just stick by me to ensure protocol is still being kept, copy rookie?
Clark nodded.
….
By this time, 'Old faithful' was covered in a thick frost. Her doors were hard to open, so Bellamy rammed into the driver and passenger side doors with his hip to unseal them. He started the engine, while Clarke started scraping at the windows with an old credit card.
Bellamy started scraping too, but with an actual scraper that he had pulled from the car, and they were finished in no time.
"Thanks Blake."
"No problem Griffin."
"So what are we heading in to?" She waited for him to get into the car before asking.
He turned the heater up and buckled himself in.
"Girl roughly 14yrs of age, found in a shipping container just North-East of here." Waiting for Clarke to finish buckling, he headed out as soon as she was done.
"Victim appears to be a student at North Point Middle School, according to her school uniform. Her identity is to be treated as unknown, but the description matches that of one Tris Malbridge.
Her last known appearance was 5 days ago in the school parking lot. The Special Victims team on call has been requested to come by and assist. I hope I don't need to explain why?" Clark nodded grimly. "All indications point to a pretty violent homicide, committed sometime within the last 24 hrs. Forensics team should be there upon our arrival, but they've been told to hold off until we get there."
Clarke swallowed the lump in her throat.
"You okay Griffin?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm okay." She lied.
….
Both detectives rode in silence the rest of the way there. It was a short drive, and Clarke felt as though she had little time to prepare herself for her first Crime scene. Despite her nerves however, Clarke remained outwardly calm.
As they walked through the open doors of the shipping container however, the horrifying scene in front of them nearly broke all of that built up composure.
A young girl, barely recognizable lay dead in the middle of the container. Her hair matted with the blood that had pooled around her body. Her neck showed clear signs of a strangulation, her face bruised and beaten, and her clothes were half torn from her body.
Clarke looked up at Bellamy's stoic face. She hadn't known her partner for more than 24 hrs, but she could sense the anger and the repulsion beneath his calm outer mask. Something in the way he said nothing. His eyes raking in the scene, his arms crossed over his chest, his lips tight and unmoving. This was getting to him.
Clarke didn't waste any time. Grabbing a pair of gloves and a voice recorder from a member of the forensics team, who were all on standby waiting for Clarke to finish her initial examination. She approached the body cautiously, a little unsure of her footing, not wanting to contaminate the blood splatter below.
Bellamy grabbed some gloves too, but he left the examination of the body to his new partner, as he explored the shipping container for other clues. Partly because he couldn't stomach the sight of such a young girl left in that state, and also because he wanted to see how his new partner handled it.
Clarke took her time. She hovered over the body at first, only glancing her surroundings, drawing conclusions, and then squatting down right next to the girl, in an attempt to take in some finer details.
"There's severe bruising around the neck, indicating strangulation as the most likely cause of death." Her hands trailed over the bruises, and she found it hard to breathe. "The perpetrator was most likely male, do to the size of the markings on her neck. Yes, they're quite large...and also the.. " Clarke faltered only momentarily. "The sexual nature of the crime." She felt bile rise up from the pits of her alcohol infused stomach.
"The victim appears to have suffered a head trauma as well. The initial impact spatter, and first signs of bleeding appear to have originated from another location further into the container. The blood surrounding her head is significant, however based on the location of the head wound, and the nature of the trauma, the wound appears to be non-fatal." Clarke took a moment to regain herself. This was proving a lot harder than she thought possible.
"There are several bruises on and around her face."
'Deep breath Griffin, you can do this' She took a deep breath and continued.
"Some appear older than others"
-pause-
"Clothes appear unwashed and torn, leaving her exposed."
-pause-
"Her body appears to have been wiped clean before she was left here. A Semen sample is unlikely, though there is evidence of forced trauma. Fingers have been clipped and cleaned as well, he was meticulous. Forensics will have to see if they can pick up anything in the lab from their other samples. This is Clarke Griffin, badge number,112-M283 end tape."
"This is pretty F'd up Blake."
"You can say that again." He nudged her gently with his knee as he came to stand right next to her. "Let's make sure we catch this guy before someone-else's kid ends up like that."
Clarke nodded, wiping tears from the corner of her eyes on the inside of the scarf she borrowed. "Right. That's definitely a motivator to get my shit together."
"Isn't it just though?" He offered her his hand, and for the second time that day she took it.
"It really is Partner."
….
