A Haunted Crime
Chapter 10: ...Ghostly Crimes
It took Grissom about 10 minutes to find Nick, Greg and Warrick and make it to the A/V lab. He walked in to find his newest employee and his A/V tech talking franticly. "You're audience has arrived." Grissom said to get their attention.
Andy turned around to see Grissom standing with his clipboard in hand. Nick was standing closest to her with his arms crossed looking interested and Warrick was standing next to Archie taking a look at the large monitor. Greg was standing the furthest away from Andy with his hands in his pockets. Andy stomach turned as she made sure not to make eye contact with him. Grissom followed Warrick's gaze and noticed the paused video on the monitor was of Andy standing at the bottom of the large staircase.
"The point of the surveillance was to look at the footage of before you arrived at the scene." Grissom told Andy.
"I know but apparently word around the lab is I was pushed down a flight of stairs. I wanted to prove to Archie that I only tripped down three. That's when we found it."
"Found what?" Nick asked
"Watch." Archie said pressing play.
Video Andy walked up the steps half way, turned quickly then started to make her way back down the steps. She got to the third step from the bottom when a white haze appeared at Andy's foot and she tripped down the last three steps hitting her head on the hard wood floor.
"What was that?" Nick asked walking closer to the monitor.
"I don't know, but it gets creepier. We found this white thing all over the place. Take a look at this." Archie said pulling up another video. Greg froze as he saw himself on the screen.
Video Greg was standing in one of the upstairs rooms when the white haze appeared about ten feet behind him. Greg turned around like someone called his name. Not seeing anything he turned back around to his work. This happened several times until the white thing got very close to Greg then disappeared. Video Greg whirled around as if something touched him. Archie pressed pause.
The hair on the back of human Greg's neck was standing up straight as Archie continued.
"And there's more where that came from. I found…" Andy cleared her throat, "…we found this all over the house." Archie and Andy shared a smile that made Greg's guilt expand to new lengths.
"Either we all have concussions or there is something in that house." Andy said proudly
"Video interference?" Grissom suggested
"A video interference that appears exactly when I trip down the steps?" Andy asked, but before she could get an answer she continued, "If that didn't do anything for you check out the pictures." Andy clicked her mouse a couple times and scrolled through the crime scene photos that she had taken. Almost every picture had some sort of distortion or white orbs blocking the view of the evidence.
"Technical malfunction." Grissom suggested. Andy just looked at Grissom with disbelief. "I noticed when you fell down the steps you dropped your camera." Grissom stated
"You refuse to believe, when the evidence is right in front of your face." Andy said, "These pictures aren't from my camera, there from Greg's." Andy and Greg made eye contact for a fraction of a second before she turned her attention back to the photos.
"Have you found out anything about our victims?" Grissom asked amused at Andy's commitment.
"Yes, but if your not going to believe then what's the point of showing you." Grissom just raised his eyebrow. "Okay fine, this is the first body Warrick and I encountered. At the scene SuperDave said there were no signs of physical trauma on the vic. This would be why." At Andy's signal, Archie pressed play and the man in the video started walking around the room. When all of a sudden the white 'video interference' appeared and the man started screaming and shaking uncontrollably. Suddenly the man fell to the floor and stopped moving. All was silent until Grissom spoke.
"So what do you do from here?" Grissom quizzed Andy.
"Go back to the house?" Andy said hopeful.
"I'm most cases yes that would be correct but in this case it's a no. Actually I have been told by Ecklie to inform all of you that no one from the night shift is aloud back to the house." Grissom replied
"What!" Andy said shocked. "But what if we need to investigate?"
"I'll pass the work to Ecklie and his crew will handle it." Grissom said. "Besides the house, what's the next best thing?
"The body." Andy stated and Grissom nodded. Sara appeared at the door.
"Nick you stay here with Archie, try to clean up some of the video. Warrick take Andy and Greg and meet me at the morgue in five minutes. I have to drop some things off at my office." Grissom left the room with Sara in route to his office.
"Drop things off in his office my ass." Warrick mumbled with a smile. Nick laughed and gave each other a high five.
"This is bullshit" Andy said once Grissom was out of earshot.
"Your heard Grissom, you're not going back to that house. Period." Nick demanded knowing exactly what she was talking about.
"I want to go back to that house." Andy stated the obvious.
"You don't exactly have a choice." Warrick said explained, knowing her stubbornness.
"Look, if I..."
"Andy..." Nick said cutting her off. "I recommended you for this position...don't make me regret it." Nick said. Andy glanced at Greg then back at the back of Nick's head. She was only on her second day of work and it was already being hinted that she didn't belong. She rolled her eyes and picked up her jacket from the back of the chair she was sitting in.
"Whatever, I'll be in the break room when you are ready to go." Andy said to Warrick. She gave the back of Nicks head one last look then left the room. Greg took a deep breath and followed her.
"Hey Andy, can we talk?"
"No." She said reaching in the fridge for a bottle of water.
"Come on, I feel horrible…"
"But you do still owe me breakfast." She said as she walked over to the table and took a seat.
"You're going to let me buy you breakfast?" Greg said confused
"Not anytime soon…but you kind of have a lot of explaining to do." She said looking up at him from the table. "But gossip in this place spreads like wild fire. We could speak in an extinct language and Hodges will find a way to translate it."
"Yeah...how about after shift today?" Greg said hopeful
"I said not anytime soon. Greg you insulted me in ways that you can't just jump back from. Whether you meant it or not you said it." She looked at her water bottle picking at the label. "Who knows, maybe you might even turn out to be right."
"Andy I…" Greg wanted to talk more, to make this okay. But he knew that nothing he could say now would help the situation. He hates it when he knows someone doesn't like him. Especially if it's someone he thinks he may really like back. Andy looked up from her water bottle and met Greg's eyes. She was extremely grateful when Warrick walked in the break room, because she was feeling herself about to do something she would regret.
"Hey I'm...I'm sorry," She said looking up at Warrick, averting her attention away from Greg. "It's just frustrating to try to solve a murder you can't investigate."
"Nah, don't worry about it. You're just as stubborn as your brother." Warrick said and they both laughed. "Hey Greg can you meet us there I need to talk to Andy."
"Sure" Greg said and vacated the break room in record breaking speed. Warrick took a deep breath as they slowly made there way to the morgue.
"Grissom told me what you did." Warrick started, Andy looked at him confused so he elaborated. "In the interrogation..."
"Don't worry about it." Andy said realizing he was referring to Ortega asking her to give up Warrick as the spark to the confrontation.
"There's not one day that goes by that I don't think about..." Warrick stopped walking.
"Hey, you don't need to explain yourself to me." She said turning to look at him.
"Yeah I do..."
"No you don't okay, you really don't. That was the past; it was a long time ago. Think of me as your second chance." Andy said starting to walk again.
"Some would say I already blew that."
"Look, this is no one's fault other than Mark himself." Andy said starting to get annoyed, "So I would appreciate it if you and Nick would stop trying to pin this on yourselves. You're only making it harder for me to deal with." Warrick just nodded his head and stopped in front of two large doors that were labeled 'Morgue'.
"Thank you for not feeding me to the dogs."
"Yeah, you owe me so big" She said and they both stifled a laugh. "Now let's get this over with." She pointed to the double doors behind Warrick.
--
"Sorry I'm late." Grissom apologized as he walked into the morgue. Warrick and Greg stood up from there sitting position and Andy was leaning her back against the wall, trying not to make it obvious that she was attempting to get as far away from the body Doc Robins was currently working on. Which happened to be the body she helped Warrick process at the scene, except a lot more exposed.
"What happened to 'meet in five minutes'?" Warrick asked looking at his watch.
"More like 15." Greg added
"I got held up. I'm a very busy man." Grissom defended himself. "Are you ready?" He added looking at Andy with a smile and an eager look upon his face.
"As I'll ever be…You're going to get enjoyment out of my discomfort aren't you?" She asked. His only reply was a smile.
"What have you got for us Doc?" Grissom asked as he walked over to the table Doc was currently working on. His three CSI's followed.
"Let's start with the trio." Doc said abandoning his current post and walking over to three tables with white sheets covering the contents. "The two males are Lucas and Lenny Black." Doc said handing two folders to Grissom and pulling the sheets down to their waists. Andy took a step back from the shock of the mangled bodies.
"A little warning would have been nice." Andy said trying to recover from the shock.
"Is this your first autopsy?" Doc asked. All she could do was nod her head.
"Brothers?" Grissom asked putting the conversation back on track.
"Twin's actually 24 years old." Doc replied. "COD is multiple abrasions on the jugular vein, they both bled out." Andy swallowed hard as Doc pointed to the deep cuts on their throats. "The girl is Layla Black, sister; 19 years old," He put his hand on the sheet and looked at Andy, "here I go." and pulled the sheet down to the girl's waist. Andy put her hand over her mouth at the sight of the stab wounds on the girl's chest. "Multiple stab wounds to the chest punctured both lungs, which is your cause of death. Unlike her brothers these…" he pointed to the wounds on her arms and legs, "were inflicted post mortem."
"There all related but we found her nude…incest?" Warrick said
"No sign's of sexual activity" Doc stated
"That doesn't make since." Greg said
"It does if she didn't come to the house with them." Andy said trying her best to hold her composure. "Overprotective brother's maybe. They follow her to the house and find her getting comfy with our suicide victim and…" Andy was cut off by Doc Robins.
"What suicide victim?" He asked.
"Gun shot wound to the head, suicide victim." Warrick stated
"This guy?" Doc asked pulling the sheet down on a male gun shot victim. The victim looked to be about 19 years of age, with light brown hair, with an entry wound on his left temple.
"Oh I didn't process him." Andy stated and then looked at Warrick and Greg.
"I never saw the guy." Greg confessed
"Me neither." Warrick added
"Well someone had to process it." Grissom said slightly annoyed.
"Maybe Nick did." Greg said picking up the man's file. "His name's on the form." Greg stated.
"This wound isn't self inflicted, Nick should have noticed that. There's no GSR around the wound so it wasn't close range. And if you look on his hands, he has calluses on his right hand and not his left indicating he was right handed. The entry wound is on the left."
"So he was murdered?" Greg asked
"Yes. And last but not least." Doc said pointing to the body he was working on prior to the CSI's visit. Andy walked over to the opposite side of the table and looked down at the body. Slightly sickened by the man's chest being propped open, she managed to notice something that wasn't right.
"He doesn't have a heart." Andy said pointing to where the heart should be.
"Yes he does," Doc claimed, then without a second to think he placed the man's heart in Andy's hands.
"Oh…my god." Her eyes shot real big and she looked up to see Grissom and Warrick smiling at her expense. Greg was still in the dog house so he thought it best to keep his smile hidden. She returned her eyes and glued them on Doc Robins, refusing to look at the organ in her hands. "And that's the cause of death. Heart attack, but there were no signs of heart damage. It's like it just happened."
"Could he have been scared to death?" Andy asked still not taking her eyes of coroner.
"It's unlikely but not impossible." Doc answered. Andy looked at Grissom with a smile on her face. She looked really uncomfortable. "Are you okay Andy?"
"Yeah." She answered her voice a little too high. Grissom held out a metal bowl with a small smirk and she placed the heart in it.
"Where's the bathroom?" Andy asked. Doc pointed to the door Grissom had entered from earlier. "Thank you," Andy held her composure and walked slowly to the door, once the door closed behind her she broke into a run for the ladies room.