The phone rang insistently as Dov and Chloe stared at it in the clear evidence bag. "Are you going to answer it?" Chloe asked as she continued to peer at the device.
"Why would I answer it?" Dov retorted as he swivelled the chair he was sitting in towards the computer monitor.
"Well... one of the reasons I think you should answer it is: we can finally figure out who this Mrs. O'Neil is working with... another reason... the phone number on the display is the precinct's number."
"Shit!" Dov wheeled the chair back towards the phone and snatched it out of the evidence bag. He pressed the accept button.
"Took you long enough to answer the damned phone. Don't talk just listen..." the voice said through the phone. "You have to get out of town... the cops have me locked up and I think they may be on to us. Now, don't start... they don't have enough on me to hold me much longer... when I get out, I will meet you at the cabin."
Dov stared at the phone after the call ended, a smug smile etched itself on his face.
"So..." Chloe began as she waited for her boyfriend to let her in on the news. "Who was it?"
"I think you can guess who it was." Dov replied as he stood up and placed the phone back into the bag. "It is time to visit our friend again."
The two officers left the evidence room quietly as they quickly walked back towards the interrogation room.
"Start talking," Dov said as he entered the room and stared at Gregory.
"I don't have anything to say to you," Gregory insisted as he turns in his chair to face the wall beside him.
"Oh, I think you do," Dov replied as he threw the evidence bag containing the phone on the table.
Mr. Schlenz's eyes grew large as he turned to face the noise and stared at the device on the table. "What the hell is that?" He asked trying to sound innocent, but failing miserably.
"We know you know what it is," Chloe stated as she sat down in one of the chairs on the other side of the table. "What we want to know is... why did you do it? Why did you two plan to murder your wife? And where is this cabin?"
The suspect folded his arms across his chest and muttered, "I want a lawyer." Gregory stared sullenly at the table while the two officers walked out of the room and closed the door.
"Ugh! We almost had him!" Chloe exclaimed as she threw her hands in the air and allowed them fall against her thighs. "When you threw the phone on the table, I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head! Man, it was awesome!"
Dov smirked as he started to walk down the hall. "Yeah, it was pretty cool, wasn't it? I just wish that he cracked. It would have made this a lot easier."
"Well, at least we were able to get one thing out of him," Price said as she followed her boyfriend down the corridor.
"What is that?"
"The dead woman isn't his wife."
Epstein stopped in his tracks and turned to face the female officer. A look of confusion etched across his face. "How did you get that from our conversation with him?"
Chloe shrugged her shoulders. "It was pretty simple to figure out, I guess. When you asked him why they had planned to murder his wife, he looked really confused. You just have to read people's facial expressions." She thought for a moment as she stared down the hallway, her eyes not really focusing on anything. "Also, when we were at his house, when he mentioned that he hasn't spoke to his wife in a while, he kept fidgeting. It was like he was lying horribly."
"Why didn't you bring this up sooner?" Dov questioned as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"I really didn't think about it until now really." The officer said as she shrugged again. "And besides, it is hard to think with Gail and Holly stuck in that room."
"When will they get us out of here?" Gail moaned as she wiped the sweat off her forehead with her forearm. "I would have thought we would be out of here by now."
"They are probably taking every precaution necessary, Sweetie," Holly said reassuringly though she did not feel the least bit calm herself.
"I just wish this was all over and that we were back at your place," the blonde said with a little bit of wistfulness etching her voice. "Why did they have to pair me with Chloe today?"
Holly laughed slightly as she turned to look at Gail. "Well, I am glad that you were paired with her today."
"Why would you be glad?"
"Well, if she was paired with someone else, I might be in this locked room with someone else and we would have never patched things up." Holly replied as she continued to stare at the officer.
"That is true."
The couple continued to stare at each other, trying desperately to remember every nuance of the other as if this were their last day on Earth. Suddenly, air hissed from the doorway and the door slid open causing both women to jump off the table and towards the door. They walked tentatively towards the door and were greeted by Traci and Steve on the other side.
"What the hell just happened?" Traci asked as she took a step back from the two women.
"I think that may be the best thing you should do right about now," Holly said as she watched the detective step away from them. "But then again, both you and Steve had went into the room to see the blood splatter on the floor. Even that small amount of time could have contaminated you as well. Has anyone contacted the morgue lately?"
"What did you guys do to get out of there?" Sam asked as he moved closer to the group.
"You might want to stay back, Sam," Holly said as she backed further into the room she had just been released from. "The door must be on a timer, because we didn't touch anything. And I assume you guys didn't touch anything either."
"No, we didn't," Steve replied as he looked over his shoulder when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Just got off the phone with the morgue. Everything was clear, we really need to find a way to get them..." Elaine stopped mid-sentence when she saw her daughter and Holly in front of the open doorway. "Gail!" She exclaimed and tried to reach for her daughter's hand. Gail recoiled from the touch and her mother rolled her eyes. "Relax, Gail. I just got off the phone with the morgue, they had finished up the autopsy on the victim. There were no signs of any problems... with the exception of her left lung, which was punctured. She was a very healthy woman until she ran across whoever had killed her."
Holly pulled off her gloves and mask. "So they ruled it a homicide?"
"Based on the bruising, yes. There was a particularly interesting bruise that captured the tread-marks of the assailant's shoe... antemortem, by the way. And they where able to capture some very clear pictures after they were able to distinguish it from the livor mortis."
"How about an ID?" Gail asked as she breathed a sigh of relief and pulled the mask off of her face when she saw Holly do the same.
"That's the interesting part. It seems that the victim is a Dr. Patricia O'Neal. She used to work..."
"Wait... wasn't that the name of the woman you interviewed earlier today?" Andy asked Traci as she moved closer to the group. McNally's eyes grew wide as she realised that she had just interrupted the Elaine Peck. "I am soo sorry Superintendent Peck... I just...I... I'm just going to shut up now."
Traci glanced at the Superintendent who nodded her head in consent. "Yes, that is the name that the suspect had given us. Without a doubt, this woman, who claimed to be Mrs. O'Neal, is now a suspect in all of this. How were they able to identify the prints, Superintendent Peck?"
"I was just about to get to that," Elaine said as she looked towards Andy. "Dr. O'Neal used to work with the U.S. Army at Fort Detrick, in Frederick, Maryland. They have all personnel's fingerprints on file, so it was only a matter of minutes before they got a hit." She looked about the basement and her eyes lingered on the room that her daughter was trapped in. "None of it explains this room you two were trapped in though."
"It explains some things to me," Holly said as she moves away from the room. "Fort Detrick is the home of USAMRIID, also known as the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. She was used to working in negative-pressure rooms, but it was very unlikely she would bring her work home. Like, myself, her work wouldn't allow her to take it home... unless it was paperwork she did in her office. Did she still work there?"
"Early retirement," Elaine said as she cleared her throat. "When we get back to the station, I was going to look into the reason why... we find out that, we may find out the reason why she had this room. I am going to post surveillance around the house, to make sure no one enters. Let's head back to the station, except for you two..." She turned to look at Holly and Gail. "I think you two had enough excitement for one day."