Chapter 10

Charlie Fitz

I've always hated Boxing day; the day when people have a really bad hangover, feel sick after overindulging on chocolate and, last and no means least, it's only another 364 days until next Christmas. Oliver had a great day though, it being his first Christmas and all, he had so many presents! But now the hype is over, and soon the snow will melt and we'll be going back to normal, it that means anything at the CBI. For now, I think we'll be content with the season whilst it lasts. I hope that Cho lasted the night, it was kind of him to let me off early, and I hope the other did too. But today is a new day and something goo is going to happen, I can feel it. My wife Jessica is up and tending to Oliver; as much as I would like to stay, duty calls as they say. Cho, Jane and Willis will probably be exhausted from yesterday, so I'm gonna get in early, badger those in forensics to get that report done ASAP; the faster we can solve this case, the sooner we can focus all our efforts on finding Lisbon.

The traffic on the road is a lot busier than yesterday and there are a few local businesses open with early morning shoppers already hustling in. The weather hasn't improved though, it's still snowing; I'm surprised that there are cars on the road braving these conditions. The CBI headquarters are not too far from my house, so within 5 minutes of so, I'm parking up. More officers have made it in today too, that is going to make our operations run a whole lot smoother. Willis's Defender is parked on the other side of the car park, in between Cho's and...Lisbon's? She's back? I didn't get a call...but who cares! I walk as fast as I can to the entrance and into the foyer. Oh the temperature in here is so nice! The lift is empty, so I jump right in and head up to our floor.

"Come on," I hope the lift would hurry up.

The doors open and I launch myself out, striding past uniformed officers and into the bullpen. Jane is on his sofa as usual, Cho is at his desk and Willis is making a cup of tea in the break room.

"Where's Lisbon?" I ask.

Cho looks at me as if I've gone mad.

"I saw her car," I explain.

"I drove it here," Jane replies, "no word as of yet, but promise me something," he directs it at me.

"Sure," I answer.

"When we do find her, don't tell her that I drove it," he faintly smiles; he seems a whole lot happier than yesterday.

"No leads whatsoever?"

"No, but we've had a break on our other case," Molly buts in, "we've got a primary suspect."

"The mistress?" I guess.

Cho nods, "she's on her way in now, accompanied with some uniforms."

"How about forensics?"

"They've confirmed that the blood on the clothing and knife is that of Jenny Parker; there were no fingerprints on the murder weapon, it was wiped clean, Jane pipes in, "a bit odd, don't you think?"

"No," I answer bluntly, not really wanting to know how that man's mind works, "but please go on."

"You've just killed someone, stabbed them in the back right? So you panic and dump your short sleeve t shirt and the wiped down knife in a skip close to e crime scene?"

"Whoa, hold your theories for a minute," Cho shouts at us, "forensics have just sent me the report."

We subside into silence as he scans the page, giving off no tells as always.

After he has finished, he looks up to face us and a smile broadens on his face.

"A hair was found on the t shirt, it's a match to Cassidy Croft," he informs us.

"It's a good job that uniforms are bringing her in now," I smile.

"Yeah," Jane's voice is distant, he sounds unconvinced.

"What is it Jane?" I ask him.

"This case doesn't make much sense," he answers.

"Not many of them do," I tell him.

"They do," he sits up and I prepare myself for a speech; "there are three common motives for murder; the first is love, then it's a secret, and finally comes money."

"And what about Red John?" It comes out too quickly for me to stop.

He reacts instantly, standing up and heading straight for me, stopping only a few centimetres. Jane is taller than me and he is really intimidating.

"Red John kills to show how powerful he is, that whatever you do, you're never totally safe from him," he speaks slowly, "and some of us have learnt this the hard way."

He turns on his heels and heads for the boss's office.

"It's locked," Cho tells him as he passes, but Jane ignores him; when he reaches the door he picks the lock with ease and saunters in.

"Nice one Charlie," Molly remarks from her chair.

"I didn't…" I try to explain, but it wouldn't be much use; quickly I change the subject, "so, a slam dunk case then?"

Cho looks at me for a few seconds before saying bluntly: "guess so."

Great, not only have I pissed off Jane, but Cho as well.

There is a commotion from the foyer, before a woman is walked - reluctantly - down the corridor assisted by two uniformed officers.

"What do you call this?!" she screams, "bringing me in on Boxing day!"

"She's all yours Charlie," Cho calls across to me.

"Me?"

"Yep, off you go," his tone is emotionless; Molly however is hiding a smile behind her cup.

"Fine," I comply with Cho's orders and follow the pair of officers with the screaming woman into the interrogation room.

They tell her to sit on the chair, which she violently objects to and shifts to the corner of the room. I tell them to leave her and sit on the other chair and wait for her.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

"When you're ready, you'll sit down," I reply calmly, there is no need to escalate the situation.

"Why am I here?" she snaps, "I haven't done anything wrong!"

"Why don't you sit down and take a drink," I suggest.

"So you can get my DNA and put me in one of your databases? No way," she retaliates.

"Okay, well, why don't you tell me about Rick Gardner?"

Immediately, her demeanour changes and her body language softens.

"Rick's a sweetie," she smiles, "he promised to whisk me away to Spain next year."

"He did?"

"Yes, I went and saw him the other night and he said that," she pulls the chair towards her and sits on it.

"Really, because he said that you 'demanded to get back together with him'," I read from Molly's notes.

"We never broke up!" he voice goes up an octave, "we are in love, he said that he would leave Jenny for me, and in a few months we would go to Spain."

"Okay, so you never broke up?"

"No, we love each other," she swoons over him.

"Have you ever got in to contact with Jenny?"

"Ricky," she squeaks, "he said that she had skipped town with her friends."

"He told you this?"

"Yes."

"Are you aware that Miss Parker was found dead yesterday?"

Her face completely drains of colour.

"Dead?"

"Yes," I don't go into detail.

"No," she pauses thoughtfully, "no, I didn't, but I would never wish any harm to her I swear."

"Where were you at 1-3am yesterday morning?"

"At home, alone, I didn't kill her."

"We found this near the crime scene," I pass her a photo of the bloody t shirt, "your DNA was on it."

After a few seconds, she looks me in the eye.

"This is mine, but I lost it a few days ago, I must have left it at…"

It's hard watching the realisation hit her, that the man she claims to love has killed someone.

"And the credit card you used yesterday?"

"Jenny and I have the same card, I must have picked up hers by mistake. Here," she rummages in her bag before sliding the card across the table, and showing me hers for good measure, "it was an accident."

"I'll be back in a couple of minutes," I tell Cassidy, before retreating out of the room and bumping straight into Jane.

"Sorry," I automatically apologise.

"You did well in there," is all he says before heading to the break room.

"Thanks," I call after him, but I doubt he really cared.

"So, what's the story?" Molly asks, coming out of the bullpen.

"She claims to have lost the t shirt a few days ago," I inform her, "and I think that the boyfriend did it."

"I have something to confess," she whispers, clutching the file she is holding closer to her chest.

"What?"

"When Jane and I went to see Gardener last night and I went down the alley…"

"Yeah?"

"And I said that…well, I said that it was about nothing."
"Uh-huh."

"I went because I thought that he had used the fire escape to sneak out and kill his girlfriend, but the evidence was covered over with snow."

"Rick has motive; he said that he was going to take Cassidy to Spain, and he had opportunity. If he did use the fire escape, we might be able to find trace evidence of blood transferred when he climbed up," I tell her.

"I didn't say anything because I thought that people would think that I was stupid," she replies.

"It's not stupid," I answer honestly, "c'mon, lets tell Cho about this, this evidence might be enough to get a search warrant."