Alright - I'm in a very excited and therefore update mood now - so I'll give you two updates for the price of one ;-) A little note on this one: The animal part that's coming is sort of autobiographical - just that my Peruvian is a girl and does not go to exhibitions (her name is Eleni - that's Melina's second name btw) and of course you should NEVER let one guinea pig live alone! Never.
Enjoy and please review!
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Chapter 10 – Bartholomew or: Beam Me Up, Scotty!
Stella entered the room, keeping an eye on every little detail left and right of her. When she started looking on the other side of the bed, something quickly moved in a cage that was placed next to the window.
"Whoops! Hey, what's that? A rat?" she asked without looking closer, a little startled by the sudden movement.
"A RAT?!" an indignant, snobbish voice shrieked from the door.
Stella looked up in surprise. Mac's eyes also followed the direction the voice had come from.
"Mrs. Prescott, I'm Detective Taylor, this is Detective Bonasera. We're with the NYPD crime lab," he introduced them.
The woman ignored the polite introduction and turned to Stella without looking at Mac.
"Bartholomew…" she took a deep breath to point out the importance of her words by a theatrical break, "... is a prize-winning Peruvian guinea pig of best heritage!"
Her tone left no doubt that she expected anyone to see that on his own at first sight.
Stella slightly raised her brows and critically eyed the animal 'of best heritage' who was just cleaning its rear end with its mouth.
"Bartholomew …" she mouthed, wrinkling her nose and forehead with a'this-isn't-true-or-what-?' look that only Mac noticed because he knew her and could predict her reactions like a seismograph could predict an earthquake.
They looked at each other briefly, both raising their eyebrows, shrugging at the same time so lightly that nobody else would notice and then quickly focused on something else to avoid bursting out laughing.
Stella continued processing the room while Mac started talking to Mrs. Prescott. He knew that in this case it was the much smarter idea to handle things this way. Normally he would let Stella have a female-to-female conversation with the mother of a missing child, but here he knew the moment they arrived at the mansion that this was a special situation.
When the butler had told them the lady of the house had an appointment with her hair dresser at the beauty parlor that she couldn't cancel – Stella was already close to hitting the roof. Their child was missing and the mother's only concern was her looks?
Nah, it would just go smoother this way.
After a while he knew as much as before. Mrs. Prescott had said goodnight to little Nathan, then Rogers had taken the boy to bed. In the morning, she had learned from her butler that the boy went missing over night and that her husband had already talked to his golf buddy the commissioner and so she had figured she could go to her appointment. That was all she had to tell him.
Still wondering about the attitude of some human beings, Mac had another thing on his mind which he already knew in advance would cause 'a little problem'.
"Mrs. Prescott, we will have to take the guinea pig and the cage to our lab to…"
He didn't get very far with his attempt to explain.
"But you can't take Bartholomew with you!" Mrs. Prescott screamed. "He has an appointment with his personal trainer twice a week and TODAY is one of those days. He has an important exhibition in Canada in two weeks and anything that distracts him now may harm his performance! Do you have ANY idea how much psychological stress this will be for him?"
Mac turned around because he knew what would be coming since Mrs. Prescott hadn't exactly spoken quietly. But it was too late…
"For God's sake, your child is missing and this beast here is evidence!"
Stella's hot temper finally won.
She had watched the scene from the other side of the room without paying much attention to the conversation. But she had been unable to miss the last part of it. Mac looked over to her, unsure if he should rather try to calm her down – which as he knew from experience was likely impossible in such a moment – or try to ease the situation with Mrs. Prescott who looked as if she was close to fainting after Stella's little outbreak.
He smiled, but just inwardly, then cleared his throat – a sign for Stella not to go any further. She knew she'd been close to crossing the line, but she couldn't help herself, this person was driving her nuts.
Mac gave her an appeasing 'Yeah, I know, but there's nothing we can do about it, that's not part of our job' look.
Then he turned back to Mrs. Prescott who was leaning against the doorframe, still gasping for air.
"What Detective Bonasera means with 'evidence' is that little Bartholomew here is our only witness. See, there might be trace in or on the cage or on him. So we need to take the whole cage and him with us to make sure we don't lose any evidence that might help us to find your son. I personally assure you that we won't do him any harm and that we will do our best to ensure that he doesn't suffer from any negative psychological damage. And of course we will try to make sure that he returns as quickly as possible so that he can keep his appointment today."
Geez, I wonder if it sounds as ridiculous to listeners as it sounds to me while I'm saying this…
"We will make sure he gets everything he needs to be comfortable. Detective Bonasera is very good with animals," he added to assure Mrs. Prescott. He could feel Stella's piercing look on his back without even looking at her.
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When they were back on the way to their car, Stella sighed heavily.
"Beam me up, Scotty. There's no intelligent life down here!"
Mac chuckled.
"What the hell did you have for breakfast? Where did you come up with this stuff you just told her? I'm really surprised …"
Mac, carrying the cage and a small pet transport box with the precious animal in it, looked over to her.
"I made it up while I was talking… She was hysterical. What if she had refused to hand us the cage and the pig? Those people are not very rational and we have to face that and act accordingly. You could say – extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary action," he explained in feigned seriousness.
Stella shook her head, blowing a little air through her nose.
"Huh. Sometimes I really wonder about you."
He smiled as he waited for her to get into the car, then he opened his door and put the little transport box with the animal in.
"Take this, will you?" he asked, pushing the box onto her lap. After this, he opened the trunk to place the cage in it.
"Great…" Stella grumbled.
"Okay, little fur ball - listen to me: Take a seat, close your mouth – and no smoking during the ride, are we clear?"
Mac grinned and burst out in laughter when the pig suddenly gave a short'Squeak!' in return.
"Guess that was a 'yes'," he chuckled.
TBC
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Okay, this was the first part - don't forget to review and then move over to check out the update on "Picking Up The Pieces" - I finally managed to finish a chapter on the episode "Grand Master". Tried something new, little drama involved. Hope you like this one - and the other one :-)
xxxlittlesheepxxx