Disclaimer: You know, I don't own anything but Nicole
Special thanks again to my beta DF95, who did the greatest work ever those past days when I actually finished this story, and she managed to beta everything in such a short amount of time, it's amazing. Thank you so much!
8. You might have to queue, though
Only an hour later, Nicole and Ryan sat opposite Marcus MacLellan and his lawyer. Ryan showed him a piece of paper. "Mr MacLellan, this is a warrant for your DNA."
"Whit d'yeh want with me DNA? Ah didn't do anything!"
"Well, then I'm sure you don't mind giving your DNA. If you're innocent, it can't hurt." Ryan produced a Q-Tip. "Say 'ah'."
MacLellan turned to his lawyer. "Why don't yeh say something?"
The lawyer shrugged, "Can't do anything, Sir. They have a warrant."
MacLellan gave him a look, but then complied with Ryan's demand. Ryan took a swab and bagged it. "Thanks for your cooperation. So… is there anything you might want to tell us? Like, for instance, about the relationship between you and your wife?"
"Whit d'yeh mean? Ah loved her."
"I see… Show me your hands, please."
MacLellan was now really annoyed, "Ah don't ken whit this is all aboot. But ah don't think that ah have to do whitever yeh want me to do."
Ryan tilted his head, "Unfortunately, this is exactly what you have to do. Now show me your hands, please. Or do I have to make you?" MacLellan murmured something rather unpleasant, but finally positioned his hands on the table. Ryan spotted the cuts on his hands immediately, "Those are nasty cuts. Did you have a fight?"
"Ah'm a butcher! Ah cut meself all the time!" MacLellan responded impatiently.
Nicole, who had been silent up to now, only said, "And you didn't butcher yer wife, by any chance?"
MacLellan hammered his fist on the table, "Yeh little Bessie! Ah did never hurt me Grandis!"
"Aw, well we heard something different, numpty. We heard that you actually tried to rape her in order to make her pregnant so that she would stay at home with you, have your child, instead of running around tryna save the world. Unfortunately she had a black belt and prolly would have ripped yer balls off if you weren't married. So you decided to put Xanax and Midazolam in her food and kill her. It's as easy as that."
"That is a god damn lie! I'll bring up a complaint against you!"
"Do so. Please bring your complaint up before Lieutenant Rick Stetler from IAB. You might have to queue, though." She put her pencil down. "Now listen, hard way or easy way, we're gonna get your DNA. You'd help us a lot finding the killer of your wife if you cooperate and thereby save us a lot of time. Your choice."
MacLellan gave her a last look, but then nodded and allowed Ryan to take a swab.
Valera shook her head, "Nothing."
"What? You can't be serious?"
Valera gave Ryan a look, "If I say 'nothing', it means 'nothing'! What do you think, that I'd tell you I haven't found anything and then run to Horatio telling him that I cracked the case?"
Ryan shook his head, "No, of course not. I'm just…hell, I was so sure it was him! Everything was perfect!"
Natalia, who had just entered with two cups of coffee in her hands, replied, "You know, Ryan, that's one of the problems in this world. Nothing's perfect. Nothing in this god damn cruel world is perfect. Here's your coffee, Maxine."
Ryan scratched his head, "What happened to you, Natalia? Normally you're all positive and stuff, and now…"
Natalia took a sip of her coffee and grimaced, "They should build a Starbucks round the corner. This is awful." Then she said, "I just ran into Walter. He's all sad and very different. I think he hasn't gotten a letter today. Or a letter that told him 'D.' is not interested in him anymore."
Valera, who had in the meantime downed the coffee, sighed, "Crying shame. If I get my hands on 'D', I'll give her or him a piece of my mind."
Natalia nodded and apparently wanted to add something, when suddenly the door opened and Walter himself entered. Ryan had to admit Natalia was right; he looked awful. Trembling, on the verge of tears, carrying papers. "Hey guys. I just wanted to bring that to Nicole. She around?"
Natalia frowned, "Isn't she with Travers?"
"Nope. I thought she was with one of you girls."
"Oh my god, something must have happened." Valera said, "If she's neither with me nor Travers…"
"Yeah, she's probably in the ladies…" Natalia murmured. "What's it about, Walter?"
"The MacLellan Case." He turned to Ryan, "She asked me to do some research on the guys involved. Husband's a butcher. Great reputation, apparently best meat in the city. Husband's brother is a doctor. Great reputation as well." He handed Ryan over the papers. "If anyone needs me, you know where to find me." He left again.
Valera turned to Natalia, "You're right. He wasn't himself today. I'll ask Nicole to ask Travers to ask Walter what's up."
"Yeah, do that. Poor guy."
Ryan had in the meantime read the papers Walter had given him. A bright smile appeared on his face.
Natalia noticed, "What's so funny?"
Ryan looked up, "Remember when Walter said Daniel MacLellan was a doctor?"
"It happened like 10 seconds ago, so, yeah, I do remember."
Ryan handed her over the sheet, "He's not only a doctor. He's an anaesthetist."
Natalia suddenly grinned back. "Midazolam."
"Precisely. I think we just got ourselves a new suspect."
Frank Tripp brought Daniel MacLellan in just after Ryan had found Nicole in the nearest coffee bar. They sat down opposite him in the interrogation room. Ryan started, "So, Mr MacLellan, I heard you're a doctor."
"Ah ken that. Yeh didn't call me in jist to tell me that?"
"No, no, don't worry. But I've heard you're an anaesthetist?"
"Yeah. So whit?"
Ryan leaned back in his chair, "We found traces of Xanax and Midazolam in Grandis' blood. Any idea how that ended up there?"
Daniel frowned, "Nah, no idea. Grandis wasn't in surgery lately, and she never took any pills."
Nicole grinned, "I'm sure that was not what CSI Wolfe meant. Let me help you: Did you spike your sister-in-law's food with any of the above mentioned drugs and then kill her?"
MacLellan must have felt like a bomb had been dropped on him. He looked at Nicole, first incredulous, then furious, "Are yeh kiddin' me? Yeh really think I'd do that? This is absolute rubbish! Ah should bring a complaint up against you!"
"You do that. Rick Stetler, IAB. You might even run into your brother there. Did you two gang up to kill Grandis? Why? Because she wouldn't have his child? Was that smothering the honour of the family? Did you want more little lassies and laddies with Scottish heritage here in Miami?"
"That isnae true! Ah loved Grandis, she wis a sweetheart!"
"Did you love her so much you killed her? Because she was with your brother?"
"NO! Ah didn't mean it like that, ah…" He ran his fingers through his hair. "Listen, ah could never ever hurt Grandis. Ah didn't spike anything with Midazolam or Xanax! Yer after the wrong man!"
Ryan produced a Q-Tip. "If that's the case, you surely won't mind giving us a sample of your DNA."
"Are you kidding me?" Valera gave Ryan her angriest look. "You bring in the DNA sample of the brother of the husband whose DNA I ran against the killer's DNA just a few hours ago? Have you paid attention? If the brother was the killer, hubby's DNA would have been a partial match to the killer! It wasn't! Now, you bring me extra workload? Are you kidding me?"
Ryan leaned against the door. "Valera…. Maxine… I know how this works. Still, you know it's got to be done. If the DNA had matched, I would have brought you a swab of the brother too. So, it doesn't make any difference. Now, please, Maxine, will you run that swab for me. Maybe one of them is adopted."
"Okay, yeah that's a possibility," she had to admit. "I just had this fantastic coffee Nicole brought from the bar, and now I might be a bit… hyperactive. Have you found out about Walter?"
Ryan shook his head, "No, but then again, I was investigating a murder, so I didn't really have chance to concentrate on somebody else's love life. I thought you sent Nicole to Travers?"
"Did. But Travers doesn't know anything, so I thought.. You know, Cardoza probably knows…"
"And you want me to go and ask Cardoza?"
"Yes."
"No. Now run that DNA."
Valera turned away without another word. Ryan was just on the way outside when he received a text message. I wanna feel you. Now. Come to my flat. Erica. Ryan looked at the cell phone. One minute, two minutes. Only Valera almost throwing her cup of coffee at him made him leave. He walked over the parking spot to his car, his cell phone still clenched tightly in his hands. It was the car that drove to Erica on an automatism, not him.
Okay, so there was no review for the last chapter. I try not to feel bad about it. As long as you enjoy reading it...
