Chapter 9 – A Message From No One
His smirk was still there when he sat at his desk. The station wasn't busy because of the shift change. So it was the perfect time to look over the case, document what he knew about the three people involved, and to look them up in the database.
"I'm going to bust these bastards."
Waiting for the computer to load, he reached over to pick up his yellow legal pad from its usual spot on his desk only to discover it missing. His smirk went into a straight line.
He looked in his drawers, not there. He looked in his trays, not there. He looked on the floor and in the wastebasket, not there.
He remembered leaving it on his desk yesterday…
And he also remembered leaving Spencer at his desk… unattended.
Leaning over his desk, he put a hand to his head and took some deep breaths trying to subdue the anger that was building up.
"Carlton."
"What!" He snapped looking up with a glare. His glare was met with indifference from his partner as she tossed a legal pad on his desk.
"Shawn must've left this on my desk and Chief wants to see you in her office."
She walked away.
He stared at her, wide eyed. "What's wrong with her?"
Internally shrugging, he chalked it up to the usual female mood swings.
Sliding the pad in front of him, he opened it to the last page of his notes on the Parma Park murders and quickly wrote down what he could remember about the three people.
Their attire:
Their mannerism:
Their motive:
Then he remembered Leo mentioning an Ethan and something about stema. He wrote those down.
Closing the legal pad and tucking it in his top drawer, he stood up and made his way to Chief Vick's office. He glanced at O'Hara, who was busy at her desk. Her whole demeanor had changed since entering the station.
He knocked on the Chief Vick's blind-covered door and opened it when he heard her answer. She was sitting at her desk flipping through paperwork.
"You called me, Chief."
"Detective Lassiter, close the door." He did as he was told and she closed the folder before meeting her eyes with his. "I've just spoken with Detective O'Hara on what happened yesterday at the Brentford factory. From her account, many things occurred including you and her being taken hostage at one point. I want you to write me a recount of your side of the events." She held out the familiar statement forms. "And give it back to me when you are finished."
He accepted the papers from her.
"You can use one of the empty conference rooms." She said and diverted her attention back to the paperwork on her desk. Figuring she was done talking, he walked out heading toward the nearest unoccupied room.
An hour later, he stepped out of the conference room. Quickly, he placed his statement on the Chief's unoccupied desk and walked back out, determined to do something to get the memory of the girl's screams out of his head. He settled on grabbing a cup of coffee, which didn't taste as filling as the one from Starbucks this morning, but he sipped it as he sat at his desk.
The memory disappeared a bit.
Logging in to the computer, he pulled out the case file and the legal pad again. He opened the database and set his fingers on the keyboard thinking.
The descriptions he had of the three people were too general and were more likely to receive over a thousand hits. Even the mentioning of an actually person's name, like Ethan, was going to be a pointless search. Leo and Bear were more or less nicknames.
"There has to be something specific I can use to search the database with. Leo did say something about checking my stema, whatever that means."
He pulled up Google and put stema in the box. Information about a steel company and a hotel in Greece popped up. He scrolled down, nothing useful. He sighed and pulled the case file in front of him.
A shadow loomed over him as he flipped through its pages. He ignored it.
"Detective Lassiter, sir."
He looked up annoyed. A nervous Buzz McNab stood beside his desk.
"You dropped this by the coffee pot." McNab held out a small black notebook and added quickly. "I didn't look in it."
He accepted the book and muttered a thank you before turning his attention back to the case file. He felt McNab hover there for a moment before hurrying away.
After reviewing the file and his notes for a second time, he sighed leaning back in his chair.
"This is getting nowhere."
The station was buzzing with activity. He noticed a few officers glancing at him and giving him strange looks.
"They must be gossiping about what happened."
He ignored it, trying to keep himself from yelling at them.
"The case is what matters." He thought, and then quickly added. "Leo did say they were going to contact me for the next step, whatever that is. And when they do I'll make sure to set a little trap of my own."
He smiled at the spying officers, who quickly turned and walked away, acting as if they were doing something important. He dropped the smile when they were out of his line of sight.
"What to do until then?" He muttered.
Looking at his desk, his eyes slid to the black notebook.
"Maybe this was a clue to the second step …or it could be nonsense."
He picked it up and flipped to the page of interest. After reading it three times, he tossed the notebook on his desk.
"I still don't understand. The first sentence is directed at me, obviously. The colors could mean anything. The year, grandfather, and flower could have a connection to Leo or to something else, and the last statement seems totally random. Unless…" His mind pulled up a certain pet statement Leo made. "He was talking about…"
He looked over to his partner's desk. She wasn't there and his heart thumped in his chest. He almost stood up, but his eyes caught sight of O'Hara talking to the Chief in her office. Leaning back, he exhaled and rubbed a hand on his face.
"Stop jumping to conclusions." He muttered to himself.
He looked at the notebook again. "Why would he want me to stay away from her?"
His eyes wandered to the open legal pad and he sat up taking notice of something.
"This can't be right."
He pulled the two next to each other, comparing.
"There's no way this could be right." He muttered.
He grabbed a pen out of his desk holder and wrote on the next page of the notebook.
Maybe they were right.
He flipped between the two pages.
Although the original was haphazardly written, the similarities were uncanny.
"What the…"
"Carlton."
He looked up, quickly covering his confusion with a neutral expression. His partner stood there with an odd look on her face.
"Chief wants you in her office, again."
Her eyes drifted and he slid a hand over the notebook.
"Okay." He nodded his head and stood up.
She turned and walked away. Following O'Hara, he pocketed the notebook in his jacket, praying that it would not fall out again.
He stepped in the office behind O'Hara. Chief was looking at some paperwork.
"Okay Chief, he's here. I'll be taking my leave."
"No O'Hara. Stay. I need to talk to you, too."
Chief Vick wrote something down and then looked up at them.
"I've reviewed both your statements. It's obvious yesterday was a very eventful evening and I can see that both of you aren't at your peak today. I want you both to go home early and get some rest."
"But Chief…" He and O'Hara protested at the same time.
"No buts. Go get some sleep and I don't want to see any of you until tomorrow. I'll call if something major comes up. O'Hara, you're dismissed."
He glanced at his partner. She looked at him and walked out closing the door behind her.
"Chief, I don't…"
Chief Vick gave him a looked. He immediately shut his mouth.
"Now based on both you and O'Hara's statements, it seems you were acting out of character last night and that you don't remember. I want you to go get some test done to make sure nothing is in your system. After that, you can leave. The clinic already has instructions. You are dismissed."
He nodded his head and walked out.
O'Hara was back at her desk talking on her cell phone. Their eyes briefly met before she turned away from him. The Chief's words were turning in his head.
"You were acting out of character…"
He turned away heading toward the department's clinic.
With the way his partner was acting, it seemed to all click.
"I hope I didn't go back in that room."
But O'Hara looked fine.
"Unless something else happened when I blacked out."
The thought hung in the air and as he pushed open the doors to the clinic, he shove away everything to focus on getting these tests done as fast as possible.
An hour and a half later, he was stepping out; a sour expression plastered on his face.
"Chief didn't mention that they were going to do the full run through. I've wasted so much time."
Heading back to his desk, O'Hara jumped in front of him before he could pass her desk.
A smile was on her face.
"Hey Carlton, you want to go get lunch?" O'Hara asked. "Then we can go get your car."
He gave her a strange look before nodding his head.
"What is up with these sudden mood changes?"
Author Note: Who thinks Juliet has something up her sleeve? *raises hand.*
I know the police department wouldn't have a full fledge clinic. But for convenience purposes, it must be done. The show did the same with giving them a morgue.
And a quick fact about this chapter, the Google search was real. I didn't know what it meant either, but now I do. Also there's something intentionally wrong in the chapter. It'll appear in a later chapter, fully corrected and you will have an 'Oh' moment, when you figure it out. Unless you already figured it out. Then kudos to you!