Chapter 9:
"I've got something on one of the victim's neighbours," Nick was digging through some of the interviews in the file. "It's confirming the suspicions of the parents that the death of the wife hadn't been accidental, the neighbour mentions that they vic and his wife had frequent fights... one of several occasions, and the wife had been threatened by our vic..."
"Her parents probably knew about her situation, it's no wonder they were against the case being claimed an accident..." Greg added.
"One of the neighbours had been a fellow native; he mentioned the funeral being unusual..." Nick read through further. "The wife's corpse wore red rather than the traditional black or white."
"I thought red was supposed to be happy, celebrating colour," Greg interjected. "What's so cheery about a dead relative?"
"According to the natives, the red in the funeral signifies injustice and that the spirit would become hell bent on revenge..."
"So maybe, the spirit had a little help; did the wife have any close friends?" Greg asked.
"Maybe we'll find something in her file, according to this; she was professor on Egyptian History," flipping through the a few pages, Nick continued. "Description says she was passionate of the subject, I've got a few names of friends here, come on Greg."
Both were heading out the door when Warrick came in the room.
"Hey Warrick, we've got some possible leads on some of the wife's friends."
"That's good, hey Greg, could you do me a favour?"
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
The blonde peered through the crack of the door and the black-haired teen almost dozing off on the laptop. He noted how tired the teenager looked before entering.
"Hey kid!"
Danny jolted awake and looked around dazedly to see Greg in the room.
"You mind if I use my laptop for a second? I just need to check up on a few files, you like hell, better get nap on the couch kiddo," Greg helped the teen who immediately fell asleep on the couch.
Making sure the boy was out of commission, he quickly scanned through the laptop's history.
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
"Woah." Was the only thing Nick could say at the moment.
"I know. The kid's faster than us in crime-solving; I think he could replace me." Greg concluded, sounding a bit nervous that he might really be replaced as he relayed the information concerning Danny to Warrick and the rest of the CSI. "He already knew about the red funeral thing, in fact, it looks like he was solving the whole thing one his own by the looks of it."
"Seriously?" Nick was still on one-word replies and questions.
"He's already looking up where the funeral home the victim's wife was put in." The young CSI added.
"Why the wife?" Warrick asked.
"Maybe he had a hunch? I dunno, but half of his research was on supernatural junk, it could be related to the wife's culture, he could be linking it back to her parents."
"Maybe..." Warrick looked doubtful. If Danny was intelligent enough to go this far without any help from evidence, why would he go this far for something as trivial as superstitions? The kid knew something they didn't; he was pretty damn sure about that. "Does Grissom know about this yet?"
"Warrick!" a shout came through the door where a panicked Catherine barged through. "I can't find him!"
"Cath, calm down! Who are you talking about?"
"Danny! I can't find him anywhere!"
"What?"
Just like that, everyone went into a state of frenzy, a first in the Crime Scene Investigative labs of Las Vegas. The officers at entrances were questioned; Danny wasn't allowed to go out without someone of authority. He had to be somewhere in building. At least that was what everyone else thought. In all the commotion, an oblivious teenager wondered if he would be missed.
The halfa flew to the back of the building, phasing through walls silently. Danny hoped that they wouldn't notice him missing for a little while, but he had little choice when his ghost's sense went off... and it was the bad kind. He figured out his ghost sense was triggered by a ghost nearby, but said ghost had be pretty powerful to be able to let off such a long-range aura. He was already by-passing the second block. The ghost from last time was tough to beat but he captured it nevertheless. This one had to be new.
Finally, he could feel the pulse of ecto-energy unbearably close. Just around the corner, the teen surmised.
He swerved straight into an alley only to turn even paler than his alter ego. He almost lost his breakfast at the sight. A small little girl, glowing in an unearthly red, chewed at the woman's intestines as if they were candy. He could see the blood pooling at the dirty ally floor. The woman's face was contorted in a horrified expression. Another malevolent ghost, just as violent as the last one. The demonic looking spirits seemed unaware of the halfa hovering behind her. Danny shakily took out his thermos, never experiencing the last attack on the victim as early in stage as this. The man had been already dead and unrecognizable by then, and the ghost had been leaving when he had arrived.
He really, really hoped this was all just a nightmare.
Knowing how dangerous and violent these spirits could become, Danny slowing and carefully reached for his thermos. If he was lucky, maybe he could just grab the ghost before he'll face any retaliation. But his luck never was on his side...
The small ghost froze and quickly turned to towards the halfa, twisting her neck unnaturally in a contorted angle.
"Hello ghost child..."
Green eyes widened in shock. This ghost knew he was. That was bad.
"I believe you have a companion of mine, quite a beast is she? Of course, a halfa as powerful as you shouldn't have any difficulty in defeating her... But I wonder how you'll fare with me?"
Barely giving him time to react, the spirit moved fast towards Danny who almost didn't see the attack coming. By a few millimetres, he saved himself from the sharp rows of green teeth already deeply stained in blood. Swerving to the left sharply and hurtling at the halfa once more, the demonic ghost missed him again.
"What are you! Why are you hurting these people?" the teen blurted out.
For a second, the terrifying ghost morphed into a shape of an innocent little girl crying and softly replying.
"Because they hurt me."
The image dissipated into the air. Suddenly it reappeared, throwing itself at him again; keen to dig its teeth into his flesh. Pushing up shield, he winces at the sheer force of the ghostly body slamming against his barrier. It seemed to have dazed the spirit for a split second, giving him a chance to throw a ice beam, freezing it on the spot.
Quickly, he sucked the frozen spirit into his trusty thermos, breathing a sigh of relief as morphed back to his human form.
"Danny?"
