Chapter 10 – Lithium & Bruises

Agreeing to finish processing the victim's hair, Dave continued looking at her neck, realizing that he may have jumped to conclusions in the actions that led to her death. Nick had headed to the lab to process her belongings and see what else he could uncover about this young victim. Dave, looking down in concentration, was deciding that he should open her up to check her larynx and surrounding tissue to confirm his initial diagnosis of asphyxia as cause of death, as he sent the swabs to trace to see who had come in contact with her long locks.

On the evidence table lay the belongings of Marie Valente, and as Nick was pulling on his gloves, he decided to tackle the young lady's purse first. A woman's purse always held a wealth of information about the person carrying it. He emptied the entire bag on the table when something pale orange caught his eye. An empty prescription bottle, he noted. Nick's first thought was why someone would carry around an empty bottle, but everyone has their habits, or maybe she had just taken the last dosage before she died. Reading the bottle, he started to jot down the information. Name, date of birth, address. Lithium. 90 count. 400mgs each. As he came across the date, Nick's eyes widened as he realized that she had filled the prescription two days prior. Maybe this wasn't a murder after all. But what about the ligature marks? Nick furrowed his brows in confusion as the pieces to what they thought was an easy puzzle were not fitting together as nicely as they should.

He headed back down to the morgue, and as he pushed open the door, he found Dave standing over the body with the same look of confusion, the victim's throat neatly lying open.

"Something's not adding up," Dave mused in a voice like an after thought, not looking up as Nick came to stand beside him.

"No," Nick agreed, slightly uneasy with the victim's insides on display, but took Dave's lead at the casualness with which he was observing the bloody mess, "and I found an empty bottle of Lithium in her bag. What have you found in there?"

"Well, so far I've noted that even though there are marks around her neck, it wasn't enough pressure to cause the asphyxiation I noted. That was my first impression. So I did the autopsy on her larynx, and it's barely been touched, there is no occlusion of the carotid artery, and there is no petechial hemorrhaging," with that, Dave lifted one of the victim's eyelids to show that there were no signs she had been strangled to death.

Nick knew he had to get a tox report to see what was in her system, but the question still remained. Who tried to strangle her and didn't succeed?

Jim Brass had sent for videos from the casino to try to piece together the information he was getting from different eye witnesses and Mr. Addison, who provided little information other than a guy with a temper and a predilection for binge drinking. He watched closely in one of the videos as Marie Valente pulled a bottle out from her bag. Nervously she looked around until a man's arm swung her around, her bottle of pills falling to the ground along with her bag. She yelled at him, he yelled back, and as she wrenched free of his grip, she knelt down, collected her things and stormed out. Clenching his fists, the man spun around and stumbled after her, his eyes narrowing with inebriation and rage.

So far, this all adds up,Jim thought. After that there is no more footage of either of them, and nothing to explain what happened after the casino altercation.

Just then there was a knock on his door, and Nick stood expectantly in the doorway.

"Come on in, Nick." Brass waved his hand to motion the young man into his office.

"We have some new evidence that leads me to think this wasn't a murder." Nick handed Brass the paperwork from the tox screen.

Brass furrowed his brows as he took the papers from Nick's hand, looking over the results.

"Valente had 36,000 milligrams of Lithium in her system? As well as alcohol? That was quite the lethal cocktail."

"Exactly," Nick noted. "I'm starting to think there were some horrible coincidences and that maybe she indeed was attacked, but she was on her way out before her assailant ever laid a hand on her."

Brass looked back at the screen. There has to be something else he could find that would give some kind of clue as to the events that unfolded. The only other person that could offer them anything blacked out and ended up at the station with nothing but liquor and an attitude on his breath.

"I think we need to grab Archie to review this week's tapes," Brass stated, "and I think we need to go interview some patrons and employees, see if anyone saw anything unusual."

"Ready when you are," the Texan drawled. And with that, the two headed to the Bellagio.

XXXXX

Greg brushed a soft wave out of Tessa's face, and as he leaned in to kiss her, his hand fell absentmindedly on her shoulder. When Tessa recoiled slightly from the touch, Greg snapped back in worry. When Tessa avoided eye contact, Greg immediately became suspicious.

Tessa knew she couldn't hide this from him, not without him wondering why all of a sudden she wouldn't take off her clothes in front of him, so wordlessly she removed her shirt, the waves of her hair crashing down over her bare shoulders.

Greg brought his hand down to sweep her long tresses over her shoulder when an unfamiliar hue caught his eye. Faint tinges of bluish-yellow decorated the top of her shoulder, with a deep purple thumbprint near her collarbone. His eyes widened in disbelief as he looked from her shoulder to her face, only to find a look of shame for what another individual could do to her.

Feeling like she had been caught doing something wrong, Tessa burst into tears, quickly shielding her face with her hands. Greg continued to look at her in disbelief. It was the first time he truly understood how insidious abuse can be, and why someone like Tessa…beautiful, smart, loving…could think so negatively about herself. As he watched her crumble in front of him, he knew she had been blaming herself for everything that has transpired, and even now, torturing herself for something she didn't do. He then put his arms around her, careful to avoid the traces of violence, as he pulled her in close to hold her up as she fell down from the happenings of the day.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about him, I'm sorry that this is causing you so much distress, I didn't want to keep it from you, I just…I just didn't want you to know how bad it was. I was afraid…am afraid…that just…" Tessa choked on her words between sobs, trying to explain through the currents of her emotions.

Much calmer now to have her in the safety of his apartment, Greg exhaled as he smoothed her hair away from her face as the tears streamed down. "Tess," he said softly, "please don't apologize. For anything. You did nothing wrong. You are the victim here. You have nothing to be sorry for."

Tessa looked up at him with pleading eyes. "But…I'm the one that got myself into this situation…and now you are involved in this mess too. Because of me."

"But don't you get it?" Greg looked straight into her brown eyes. "You left. You got out of that situation. You didn't stay. That took so much. HE followed YOU. HE is the one causing all these problems, not you. And if being involved in this situation keeps you safe, I wouldn't trade my role for anything."

"Really?" Tessa asked, her eyes still betraying her panic.

"Really," Greg reassured. Feeling the apprehension radiating from her small form, he added, "I'm not going anywhere." As her shoulders relaxed, he cupped her face with one of his hands, saying, "Now please, at least tell me what happened tonight, and you can tell me about the past whenever you feel you can."

With that, Tessa inhaled slowly, steadying the balance she had lost in her mind.

"I was coming into work, looking for my badge, and I hadn't even been paying attention as I walked right into him. He must have been coming out from being interrogated. He put his hand on my shoulder, and when I tried to get away, he grabbed harder, digging his fingers into me." She brought her hand up reflexively to cradle her aching shoulder. "That's when Warrick showed up and got him to leave me alone." Greg leaned closer to look at the prints, when suddenly it dawned on him. Tessa could now be evidence.

"Stay here a minute?" Tessa nodded slowly, and with that, Greg raced out to his car and back to get his kit.

"May I?" he asked, as he took out his camera, wanting to get any kind of documentation that would help keep this guy far away. He violated his restraining order just by seeing her; leaving his handprint on her was another line crossed entirely.

Tessa just nodded, and Greg processed her, capturing the bruises, swabbing her shirt, and took down a statement. He didn't want to miss a thing in trying to keep her safe.

"This guy is going to pay. He's not going to hurt you or anyone ever again. And that I most definitely promise." Greg's featured were determined, and in the dark recesses of his mind, he tried not to think how he had already taken one man's life; he hoped with all he had that he wouldn't be put in that position again.