Chapter 11:
Death House
Lindsay walked out of the nursery where she been getting Lucy back to sleep and made her way back out to the kitchen where Stella and Jess were waiting for her return so they could continue their game of poker.
"Sorry, guys," Lindsay said sitting back down.
"No worries," Jess replied dealing the cards, "Having kids means interruptions."
"Speaking of which, how are you dealing?" Stella asked. It had been a week since Jess had announced that she was pregnant; since then she had been relatively quiet about the topic.
"I was freaked," Jess admitted. "Hence the Houdini act I pulled a few weeks ago, but I just needed time to adjust."
"But you are happy right?" Lindsay asked.
"I'm terrified and happy," Jess declared. "If that makes any sense."
"Oh, trust me, it does," Lindsay replied.
"I'm just shocked," Jess stated. "This was not planned."
"The best surprises are not planned," Lindsay responded.
"Were you thinking about it at all?" Stella asked.
Jess smiled. "Yes," she admitted, "I've fantasized about starting a family with Don numerous times. I've never done that with any other boyfriend, so I know he is the right guy. However, it has always been further in the future: further in my career. I always figured I would at least have made first grade before I settle down and had kids. Now I have to come out of the field and keep my desk warm for nine months. That's time and experience I'll lose. I don't sound that excited do I? I am. I'm just…."
"Shocked, scared," Lindsay finished for her. "I know the feeling; Hell, I've been there."
"What if I have a girl?" Jess went on. It felt good to voice her fears, "I know nothing about girly girls. I'm a tomboy. What if my daughter wants to do ballet or something I can't teach her: I played football."
"Well, that's why there are classes out there," Lindsay laughed.
"But the fact you've already thought about that in your first trimester shows that you're going to be a great mom," Stella grinned. "This baby, boy or girl, is very lucky to have you and Don as parents."
"Thanks." Jess smirked, "So out of curiosity, how long does this morning sickness last?"
Don walked out of his kitchen with his non-alcoholic beer – one of the pleasures of being on call on the night of a game - over to the couch where Danny and Sheldon were watching the Giants' game.
"Ooo," Flack said watching Boss take a hit. "That's gotta hurt."
"Yeah," Danny agreed. "So…"
"So what?" Don said.
"Jess is pregnant," Danny went on.
"Yes, she is," Don stated
"So, are you going to give her that ring now?" Danny asked.
Don shrugged, "I'm not proposing because Jess is pregnant."
"Man you've had that thing for months: just ask her already," Sheldon chuckled.
"Yes, for God's sake stop being such a chicken," Danny agreed.
"Thanks for your opinions, but mind your own business and watch the game," Don ordered.
"Yep… chicken," Sheldon teased.
Don rolled his eyes, "I am not; just waiting for the right moment. We're still adjusting to the baby news. I'm not going to throw something at Jess that she's not ready for."
"Uh-huh," Danny laughed. "Chicken."
"Yes, Messer 'cause you know so much about women. Wasn't it your wife that called Jess to come over tonight and send you over here before and I quote she 'murders' you?"
Danny stuck his tongue out and turned his attention back to the game.
Jess unlocked the door to Don's place and walked in. She tossed the keys on the counter and stepped over to the couch where Don was still watching the game: now alone. She crashed next to him putting her legs across his lap and lay back. "Did you have fun?" Don asked.
"Yeah," Jess replied, "it was nice to talk to the girls."
"Good."
"Don," Jess started.
"Umm," he replied with his eyes glued to the TV.
"Have I told you how happy I am about all this?" Jess asked.
Don looked over at her. "You haven't but I knew you were," he stated. "I'm happy too you know. The day you told me I was going to be a dad, easily best moment of my life."
Jess beamed, "I'm also scared."
"Jess it's normal to be scared; I am too but we'll be fine. You are going to be an amazing mom," he assured her.
"What if it's a girl; I don't know anything about girls." Jess said.
Don laughed, "You know more than me. If we have a girl we will figure out the girly stuff together."
"Well what if it's a boy; I don't know anything about little boys either," Jess stated. "We can't have either!"
"Ah what's left?" Don chuckled. "Alien baby?"
"Now, an Alien baby I can handle," Jess mocked.
Don rolled his eyes, lifted her feet, and stood up. He reached out his hand for hers and pulled her up, "Let's go to bed, the Alien growing inside you needs its rest."
They walked hand in hand to the bedroom, but Don stopped and looked outside: a smile came across his face as an idea came into mind. "What's with the goofy grin?" Jess asked.
"Let's go out on the patio," Don suggested.
"It's freezing and I'm tired," Jess said looking at Don liked he had officially lost his mind.
"It's a beautiful night; come on," Don encouraged.
"All right but you're nuts," Jess said walking towards the door that lead to the balcony patio.
"Go ahead, I'll get you a sweater," Don said letting her hand go and walking into the bedroom grabbing a couple of things before joining Jess on the patio.
Jess leaned her arms against the railing; Don smiled she looked beautiful with her hair blowing lightly in the wind and the full moon shinning down. He walked over so he was standing right behind her and cleared his throat to get her attention.
"Hey, you were right it is a beautif…what are doing?" Jess stuttered out as she turned around to see Don down on one knee with a ring box open; her heart started to race.
"Will you…." Don started to ask but Jess put her finger against his lips stopping him mid question.
"Don't finish that because when you finish that question I want my answer to be yes, but I'm not going to be able to give you that answer now." Don stood up and closed the box and gave Jess a hurt expression. "I love you," Jess went on. "Look every little girl dreams about this moment, about how their guy will ask the most important question of their lives. And even I have thought about this moment once or twice. But nowhere in my fantasy is the man of my dreams proposing because I'm knocked up."
Don sighed. He took Jess's hand and pulled them down on the plastic chair so Jess was resting on his lap, "What if I'm not proposing because you're pregnant, but because I love you and want to marry you?"
"I know those are reasons too. But the baby is the reason you are doing it now at this particular time," Jess reasoned. "I promise when the moment is right, I'll say yes. When there isn't this big lot of pressure." She placed her lips against his, "Please don't be mad or hurt."
"I'm not," Don said. "You're right, this wasn't the right moment."
Jess made her way up the stairs to the penthouse and entered the main area where everyone was gathered, "Hey, why isn't there any light?"
"We're working on it," Don said glaring at Jess. He didn't like the idea of her being in the field since she was pregnant and it was dangerous; but trying to talk that into her head was like talking to a wall, a thick, concrete, stubborn wall. "According to the super, there hasn't been electricity here since Tomas Edison."
"Looks like he has been dead just as long," Hawkes said referring to the mummified body that he was examining.
"I have a better question," Stella said. "What are you doing here?" she asked pointing at Jess.
"Because she's stubborn, pig-headed, headstrong, bullheaded, and I can't think of anymore synonyms right now," Don ranted.
"Actually it's 'cause O'Bryan told me to get my butt over here. So here's my butt," Jess stated. "So what do we have?"
"A mummy," Hawkes stated.
"Mummification like that rarely happens in New York: too humid," Stella replied.
"Conditions in this room must have been desert dry," Mac stated.
"No evidence of microorganisms," Hawkes declared.
"Nothing to indicate the present of rodents or maggots feeding on the body." Mac added.
"Yeah, slow steady dehydration of the flash; perfectly preserved. Do we know who this is?" Stella asked.
"Only name listed as owner of the property is a Sam Harding. Word is he vacated the place 80 years ago," Flack said. "Place has been locked up every since."
"What about the 911 caller who said he was going to die?" Jess asked. "This is obviously not him."
"We searched the place twice and we didn't find anyone. The mummy is the only one here," Flack replied.
"So the question becomes how does a dead guy call 911?" Stella asked.
"You haven't talk to O'Bryan yet?" Stella asked as she and Jess moved away from the body and began to look around the house.
"Why would you assume that?" Jess questioned.
"Because there is no way O'Bryan would have sent you on this case if he knew," Stella reasoned. "Which brings me to my next question: if you haven't talk to O'Bryan, how come he is still assigning you to cases with Flack? You're off restricted duty, why hasn't he let you run solo again?"
"Because he doesn't know Ruby signed the form: I never passed it into him," Jess explained.
Stella raised her eyebrow to give Jess a questionable look. "I'm pregnant. I'm trying not to put myself into a dangerous situation. At least this way, I'm not conducting the investigation on my own. I'm walking into rooms that are already cleared and I don't have to walk into any tactical situation," Jess justified.
"You cannot predict which situation is going to be dangerous," Stella warned. "You have to tell O'Bryan."
"I was going to. This morning when I walked in the precinct, I was going to march into his office and tell him; before I had the chance, he was telling me about this case and I wanted to be on it. Maybe I'm being stubborn like Don says, but I just want one more case. One more before I come out of the field and sit at my desk for nine months."
"All right, but you be careful today and don't do anything stupid," Stella stated.
"Who me?" Jess smiled.
Don appeared around the corner, "Hey, guys, I figured out how our dead guy called 911."
Stella and Jess gave each other a knowing look that seemed to say this should be interesting and they followed Flack down the hall into a room that Jess could have swore wasn't there when she walked in. Inside was a broken skyline with a rope dangling down and Mac staring up at it. "Someone broke in," Mac stated. "And we are just finding this."
"My guys swear this room wasn't even here on the first go around," Don stated. "I don't know."
"So who calls 911, asks for help, says they're dying and then cuts out before help can arrive?" Mac asked.
"Maybe our caller breaks in sees the body, made the anonymous call to lead us to the Vic, then takes off," Stella suggested.
"So he pulls a B&E to rob the place then turns Good Samaritan. I'll remember to thank him before I'll toss his ass in jail," Don stated.
Jess laughed, "I don't think burglary was the motive. This place is full of antiques; he could have picked it clean."
"Whoever broke in was here for something else," Mac said.
Jess strolled down the hall of the lab she was looking for Danny, hoping he had identified their mummy, since they now knew that it could not have been Sam Harding; he had died thirty years ago from pneumonia and currently resided at Trinity. "Damn it," she heard a frustrated Adam say as she walked along the door of the Analytical area.
"What's wrong?" Jess asked.
Adam turned around from the glass he was getting prints from. "Nothing," Adam said.
"Want to try that again?" Jess stated sensing something was bugging him.
"Haylen is leaving," Adam blurted out.
"I thought this was her dream job," Jess replied. "She's only been here like three months."
"The FBI is here scouting her for a job at one of their labs," Adam clarified.
"What do you care?" Jess said, "You hate her."
"I do not," Adam objected.
"You were scared she was going to take your job," Jess pointed out. "So what's the problem? You want to be scouted by the FBI and leave us?"
"No," Adam laughed.
"Good 'cause the FBI is highly overrated and we rock," Jess said.
Adam rolled his eyes, "All right, now get out because I have work to do. If I keep talking to you, I won't have a job here."
Jess grinned and left Adam to finish dusting the sky light for prints and made her way to the AV room where Danny, the person she was looking for at the beginning was. "Hey,
Danny," she greeted walking in. "Got an ID yet?"
"Just got it," Danny said, as the computer announced there was indeed a match. "Our mummy is Walter Jones." Danny typed the name into the system and did a search on him.
"According to these articles, Jones was a player back in the day. One of the first venture capitalist; he could have been bigger then Rockefeller Vanderbilt if he hadn't gone and gotten himself murdered."
"Looks like a lot of people might have wanted him dead," Jess stated reading the articles over Danny's shoulder.
"Oh, yeah. I found court records for nineteen lawsuits against him. One of them was filed by an inventor named Sam Harding," Danny went on.
"The owner of the penthouse," Jess remembered.
"Apparently Jones put up seed money for Harding's invention business. It sounds like the deal eventually went south because Harding filed a suit in 1923 for patent infringement, but it was dismissed. Jones comes up missing shortly after," Danny elaborated.
"Harding had motive to make that happen. So when he lost in court he took justice into his own hands and stabbed Jones," Jess reasoned.
"I think we just solved an eighty-six year old murder," Danny grinned.
"Not bad for a half days work," Jess laughed.
"It will take us the rest of the day to tie up the unanswered questions," Danny replied. "Who broke into the penthouse and who made the 911 call? Why did you say no?"
"What?" Jess asked confused.
"Why did you tell Don no when he proposed?" Danny repeated.
"First of all, I didn't say no I just didn't let him finish the question; and second of all, how is this any of your business?" Jess snapped.
"Because, he is my best friend and you are being stupid and stubborn," Danny retorted.
"Am not," Jess argued. "I'm pregnant, so Don did what he believes is right and he tried to propose. I don't want this," she said putting her hands on her stomach, "to be the reason we get married."
"That's not why he asked," Danny told her.
"Really? Isn't Lucy the reason you proposed to Lindsay?" Jess pointed out.
"The first time, not the second time," Danny replied. "But we are not talking about me. I know Don didn't proposed because you're knocked up. He bought that ring eight months ago; I know because he dragged me to every jewelry store in town to get back for me dragging him when I was looking for a Valentine's gift for Linds. He was going to ask you back in May, but then everything happened and he figured proposing after your best friend dies…not the best time. He's been ready to marry you for eight months. The baby is just something else to add to the equation."
"He bought it in May," Jess replied trying to wrap her mind around the information
Danny had just told her. "In May?" she repeated. Danny nodded. "Why didn't he just tell me that? Why did he let me go on and on about it being about the baby?" Jess asked more to herself then to Danny.
"Because he's Don," Danny simply replied.
Don and Jess met Mac and Stella back in front of the penthouse. "There is no way this guy…" Don said.
"Richard Lawson," Stella said identifying the 911 caller.
"Okay, well there is no way Richard Lawson can still be in there, we searched that place twice." Don stated.
"Except there is no evidence that he ever left," Mac said.
The foursome walked up and began to search the penthouse again.
Don walked down the ladder after searching the attic. "Clear," Don shouted. Stella turned from the closet she was looking in as the lights flicked on. "Power is back on," Don said.
"Yeah, it took long enough," Stella laughed. "There is no sign of Lawson here anywhere."
Don shrugged as he and Stella walked out of the bedroom and back into the library where Mac and Jess were. "We've searched every room, closet, crawlspace, any place a person might hide or a dead body could be stashed. Nothing," Don said walking around the giant mat of an angel on the floor.
"And no possible of escape," Stella said stepping onto the ornate floor piece.
"There is no evidence Lawson ever left," Mac said.
"Do we rule out vanishing into thin air?" Jess asked.
"I'm with Jess 'cause he's not here," Don replied.
Mac looked at the wall his expression hardened with concentration. "Flack, you said on the first search of the apartment no one found the utility room," Mac commented.
"Yep, it's like it popped up from nowhere," Flack smiled and started to hum the theme from The Twilight Zone.
Mac rolled his eyes, grabbed a utility knife and walked over to the wall. He started to cut.
"There is concrete behind this wall," Mac stated. "Pretty damn thick."
"Why would you have concrete interior on a 25th floor New York apartment?" Stella wondered.
"There might be hidden passages between these rooms." Mac said.
Stella looked at the wall and stepped forward. "Stella, look out," Jess called as a knife blades came swinging down from the ceiling. Stella dove out of the way just in time and the knife swung back into the ceiling.
"You okay?" Mac asked.
"Yeah," Stella replied a little shaken since she was almost impaled by a bed of knifes.
"What the hell was that?" Flack asked.
"The three of you move towards the door and be careful," Mac said. Once everyone was a safe distance away Mac picked up a large lamp and dropped it on the tile Stella had stepped on causing the blade to fly down again but this time it stayed down, "Pressure trigger," Mac explained, "after the weapons done its job the pressure is taken of the trigger and it retracts."
"Keep the pressure on the trigger and it doesn't reload for the next unexpected victim," Stella stated walking around to look at the weapon and notice dried blood. "We got out murder weapon."
"This whole house is a murder weapon," Jess stated.
"Harding was an inventor. This room, maybe this entire house, was his greatest invention," Mac said.
"All right, I got it," Jess said clicking her cell shut and walking over to where Don was talking to the tenant from the apartment blow the penthouse. She waved him over.
"Excuse me," Flack said and made his way over to Jess.
"That was Mac," she said holding up the cell. "They found Lawson in a secret room; he was burned badly and Hawkes thinks he died from pulmonary edema."
Don nodded. "Did you notice any water leaks while we were up there?" he asked.
"No," Jess laughed. "If the place hasn't had power since Edison, don't you think the water would have been shut off too?"
"Maybe," he said pulling out his cell and hit Mac's number. "Hey, Mac, do you recall seeing any water leakage in the penthouse?" he asked.
"No, why?" Mac asked.
"Well, Angell and I are here with a downstairs tenant who's complaining about a water leak coming from above her," Don explained.
"A leak," Mac repeated. "The water has been shut off for years."
"Huh," Don replied. "All right we'll look into it."
"Wait," Mac said connecting the dots with the conversation he had just been having with
Danny, "I think Paula Davis, Lawson's girlfriend, is trapped up here somewhere."
"We'll be right up," Don said.
Jess sat in the bench in the locker room; it had been a long day. Don walked into the locker returning from the hospital, they had found Paula Davis in the water room just in time. "Hey," Don greeted joining Jess on the bench.
"Hey," Jess returned. "Paula going to be all right?"
Don nodded, "The doctor seems to think she'll make a full recovery."
"Arg!" Jess groaned stretching her arms out. "I'm so beat."
Don smiled, "Well let's go home."
"I'm going to talk to O'Bryan first," Jess replied.
"Speaking of," Don said. "I had a chat with Stella today. She told me you're worried that you'll lose your spot at homicide because you'll be out of the field for some time."
Jess shrugged, "O'Bryan will have to get a tentative replacement and I'll be losing experience in the field while I keep my desk warm. It's not an unreasonable fear."
"O'Bryan is not going to give your spot away. You know that right?" Don asked.
"I guess," Jess replied. "Why didn't you tell me you brought the ring months ago?"
"Ahh…I see you've been chatting with Danny," Don laughed.
"Our friends have big mouths," Jess grinned.
"I didn't tell you, because I shouldn't have proposed last night. I knew you weren't ready. It's not a big deal," Don replied. He took her hand and kissed it, "I don't think it's fair you have to go on desk duty. I know how much you are going to hate it."
"You're changing the subject," Jess pointed out. "And I am going to hate it, but that's reality and there is nothing we can do again it."
"I can keep my desk warm alongside you," Don suggested.
"I'm sorry," Jess said. "What are you suggesting?"
"You have to go on desk duty; the baby is growing inside you. It's not fair to you that I'm still out in the field. This is my baby too and I can't do the other stuff."
"The other stuff…you mean getting fat, morning sickness, and pushing him/her out of me," Jess grinned.
"Yeah that stuff," Don said. "But I can do this."
"You're serious," Jess grinned.
"Of course I am," Don said.
Jess leaned over put her hand on his cheek and placed her lips against his. "You are the sweetest man," Jess mumbled against his lips.
"Let's go talk to O'Bryan," Don said standing up and pulling her with him.
"You're the sweetest man," Jess repeated, "but not at all practical." Don gave her a confused look. "I'm touched that you are willing to remove yourself from active duty for me, but we're having a baby; we're going to need the money that goes along with overtime. If you're not on active duty, then there's no overtime."
"And we need the money," Don said knowing all too well their financial situation.
Jess nodded, "Plus I think it would be better if you keep any time you're planning to take off for when the baby comes."
"You're right," Don agreed. "But it was still sweet."
Jess laughed, "It was." she said. "Don?"
"Yeah," he answered.
"This is the moment," Jess replied.
"Now?" Don questioned. "In a stinking, sweaty old locker room: this is the moment you've been waiting for?"
"Yes," Jess said positive that she was making the right decision.
A/N: Thanks to all those who voted on the poll...I'm going to close it Saturday Feb 6th so please keep voting. Results will be up once I close it.
