Chapter 14
Your Enemies Closer
"What do we know about Basderic's death?" Russell asked, after he returned from Sara's apartment, he had assembled his team.
"That the only reason any of give a damn about his death is because he now can't prove Sara's innocence?" Finn suggested coldly.
"He was found dead in his apartment in the early hours of this morning, bullet to the head entry point through the mouth." Greg said, reading from the preliminary report. The case had been kicked to the graveyard shift after Ecklie had been delicately made aware of their connection by a convincing Russell and a demanding Finn.
"Sounds like a suicide to me." Nick said,
"Doesn't sound like a suicide to me." Said a voice from the door,
"What do you mean?" Several voices said in chorus as Henry entered the layout room.
"Don't shoot the messenger but I'm not entirely sure he would have been capable, it's not impossible, just unlikely."
"Why? What have you found Henry?"
"His blood alcohol was point three one, several times the legal limit, and there was traces of flunitrazipam in it."
"He was ruffied?" Morgan asked curiously,
"How appropriate..." Finn replied, callously.
"I found it in the wine glasses that was collected from the scene, no DNA on the second one, but Mandy's running prints now." Henry continued,
"OK, thanks Henry..." Russell said distractedly allowing the timid tech to scuttle back to his lab, relieved to still be in possession of his head.
"It doesn't rule out suicide," Greg pointed out instantly, "High functioning alcoholics would be more than capable of committing suicide like that, it doesn't take much precision."
"It doesn't rule in suicide either, it just makes an already unlikely possibility even more unlikely." Russell said, flatly,
"What about the gun, where was it found?" Morgan asked, before either Greg or Nick could spark off a circular argument in response to Russell's words, as she rifled through the initial crime scene photos spread out on the table in front of them.
"In Basderic's hand, only his prints." Russell said, quietly, fishing out the shot she was looking for.
"Also not ruling out suicide." Finn said,
"There was never any real possibility of it being suicide. Basderic's a control freak and in this case he held all the aces, he wouldn't have killed himself while he was still enjoying deciding how to play them, and the killer seems to be making a statement with his death."
"How do you work that one out?"
"Look at it, the rohypenol, there was no need for that, the gun being clean of anyone but Basderic's prints, the twin wine glasses, I'm getting a sense of déjà vu here, I hope I'm not the only one..."
"None of that points to Sara." Finn breathed, stubbornly
"Look I know what you're doing and I know why, but we have to be objective here-"
"You can be as objective as you like, as far as I'm concerned Sara doesn't come in to this." Nick snarled, "You want to accuse her of two murders? She's barely holding it together as it is Russell this-"
"I agree that it's extreme, but she has no alibi and too much motive." He said quietly, though he privately agreed with Nick.
The look on Sara's face when he had informed her of Basderic's death, her terrified whisper of "when?" and the physical and mental collapse he had witnessed when she realised that she could not offer an alibi for the time of his death had more than convinced him that she was innocent. Still he needed his team right now as he was not sure of his own decision making at the moment and needed them to give him perspective.
"There's no way she did this." Nick growled,
"I know that, but we need more than you standing up and intensely informing the jury in court." Russell snapped,
"There's no way this will get to court." Morgan breathed, looking from Nick to Russell,
"Unless we find a very good reason why not, and soon, that's exactly what's going to happen." He continued, grimly, "Ecklie managed to talk him down with what Greg and Nick found at Basderic's apartment but he says it's entirely circumstantial, it doesn't prove he had anything to do with a set-up, never mind murder, he's still after Sara's blood, so heaven help us when he hears about this."
"I may be able to save you from your badge wearing vampire..." A voice said, from the door,
"Mandy, did you find something?" Russell asked, so desperately that, had she not, she would have been tempted to invent something for the sake of his sanity.
"I found two somethings." She said, with a satisfied smile, "The key card Nick and Greg found at Basderic's apartment, had prints belonging to three people, Sara, Basderic and your dead man...Well your first dead man, Taylor Wynard..." she gave them a moment to digest this before continuing, "On the wine glass found at your second dead man's house I found several useable prints, they belong to this woman." She placed a picture on the table before identifying her, "Laura Cox, she was arrested in 1982 for murder, the case got very complicated but the short of the long is that she's not in prison, you can pick through the report yourselves, I need coffee..." she told them, before leaving them to it.
"You're a gem Mandy." Russell called after her,
"You can even have some of my Blue Hawaiian." Greg added,
"No-one seeks your permission to drink that you know Greg." Her jubilant voice called back
"I recognise her..." Nick muttered, pulling the photograph towards him, his words the only thing that stopped Greg haring off to the break room to print the coffee pot,
"It's her." Greg said, looking and realising that he too recognised the woman in the picture.
"Who are we talking about here?" Finn asked,
"She came forward with evidence pertaining to the case a few days ago." Nick explained, "She put us on to Basderic in the first place, he had manipulated her to get information about Sara."
"Who is she?" Morgan asked,
"She said that she was a friend, she wouldn't give us any names, now we know why...She wanted us to believe her information and knew we wouldn't if we looked up her file and saw this in it." Greg said thoughtfully,
"I think we need to have another chat with the mysterious Ms Cox and find out what she was doing drinking with the dead..." Russell said, quietly.
"Jesus!" Russell said, jumping as he walked in to his office,
"No, just me...Are you sure those mushrooms are medicinal?" she said, with a smirk, leaning against the desk and watching him carefully.
"Yes." He blustered before getting back to the more pressing matter, "What are you doing here?"
"What do you think?"
"I think you're running yourself into the ground to prove a point..."
"I'm not...You can't just bring me in a little and then leave me out in the cold."
"You are, you're exhausted, running on adrenaline."
"I'm fine-"
"Don't Sara." He snarled, knowing she was lying to him and not in a position to accept it as he usually did, "Are you trying to tell me you slept last night?"
"Would you?" she shot back angrily, before catching herself and saying, more quietly, "Look, I'm not expecting you to hand me my kit and send me back out into the field,"
"Good-"
"I just want to know what's going on...There's been too much in my life these past few days that I've had no control over, and no knowledge of...It's driving me crazy..."
"OK...OK, but first you tell me honestly how you are."
"I'm fi-"she caught herself again, with a rueful smile, "I'm dealing with it."
"Are you?" he said, softly,
"Yes...Gil's been wonderful and Catherine," she broke of here with a small laugh, "She drives me crazy but just when I get to the point where I want to throttle her, she does or says something that reminds me why I miss her so much...She's been amazing."
"I'm glad." Russell said with a smile, this he could believe, before he had sent her right back to square one again with his news about Basderic, he could see the difference that Catherine had made, she looked brighter and happier, whatever Catherine had done, as far as Russell was concerned, she was one miracle short of being a saint..
"Just...Please tell me, what's happening."
He considered her for a moment before saying, "We have a suspect, we found fingerprints on a wine glass in Basderic's apartment, we got a hit in AFIS..." he paused before deciding to find out how honest this woman had been and flicking open her file, showing Sara, "Her name is Laura Cox." Sara glanced at the file, her expression gave nothing away, "She said she was a friend of yours?" he pushed, gently,
"Yes..." Sara said, quietly, "Are you interviewing her?" she asked, softly,
Russell paused a moment and then said, "Yes..."
"We should go and watch...Kill two birds with one stone..."
Russell hesitated and then realised that, with or without approval, this is what she was going to do, "Fine, on one condition..."
"What's that?" she asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously,
"I drive." He said, smiling
Brass entered the interview room with Nick at his heels, the file of the woman sitting, staring calculatingly up at him, open in his hand,
"Laura Cox?" he clarified,
"Congratulations Captain, I can see that all those years of the fine education that this country provided you with were not completely wasted, you can read." She replied, drily,
"Yes, yes I can, and what I've read tells me that you're a murderer." Brass shot back without missing a beat, taking a seat beside Nick at the table opposite her.
"Not according to a jury of my peers."
Brass watched her through narrowed eyes, "Alright, OK, let's start with something simpler, what are you doing in Vegas Ms Cox?" he said, deciding to return to that point later,
She allowed the change of topic, moving with it easily as she replied in a heartbeat, "Why does anyone come to Vegas? To hide my sins."
"And what sins are they?" Nick asked, quietly,
"Don't play dumb with me, it doesn't suit you." She said, sharply, "I'm sure you know."
"Well you won't mind confirming it for me, even with my 'fine education' that gives me the ability to read it, I'm still not entirely sure I trust what I see on paper, the real thing's far better."
"That's a good way to be in this world, no faith in humanity, trust gone, I can see it in your eyes...Man after my own heart Captain..." she paused a moment before deciding, "I was referred to Desert Palms as part of an alcoholism programme recommended to me by my doctor...Patronising idiot...I agreed to go partly to get rid of him and partly because of the sheer irony of it...Alcohol programme in Vegas, the city that created so many of those problems trying to fix them..."
"Indeed...But you've been trying to fix some problems of your own, haven't you Ms Cox?" Nick said, quietly, finally managing to get a word in edgeways in the no-man's land of this war of wits.
She turned her gaze on him properly for the first time, and again he had that naked feeling of having her look straight through him to the secrets buried beneath layers of protective barriers, stripping them away with ease, she would make a phenomenal poker player, however all she said was, "I'm sure you have a theory, and I'm beginning to tire of playing cat and mouse Enlighten me."
"You were trying to fix this..." Nick said, grimly, spreading graphic crime scene photos on the table in front of them,
"Problem solved?" Brass enquired mildly.
"You tell me Captain...We both know you had as much reason to want this man dead as I did." She said, watching him for his reaction.
"My fingerprints weren't found on a wine glass in his apartment." He shot back
"Pesky things these fingerprints..." she murmured softly, "They get everywhere...I had dinner in a fancy restaurant with a few friends the other day, I had the sea bass, lovely, in the meantime, my fingerprints ended up everywhere...Had there been a crime committed there, they would have 'incriminated' me in the same way and you would have hauled me in here for questioning about whether or not I noticed my waiter's choice of deodorant."
"What's your point?" Nick growled, also beginning to tire of her mind games.
"My point is that it doesn't prove in, my finger prints are as irrelevant as sea bass and waiters, it's circumstantial at best and probably less than that considering the fact I've already told you that I enjoyed the 'pleasure' of Mr Basderic's company..."
"Why didn't you drink any of the wine he had the 'pleasure' of serving you?" Nick murmured, changing tact.
"Weren't you paying attention earlier? I wasn't in Vegas attending a wine tasting event, for a trained investigator, you may want to brush up on your listening skills, they can tell you so much." She snapped, irritably.
"I don't think my listening skills are the problem here, I think it's your logic. Maybe you didn't drink the wine because you'd already spiked the bottle."
"Ah yes, the infamous 'maybe' loved by judges and juries in courts up and down the country." She snarled.
"Well you would know all about that wouldn't you Ms Cox? The ins and outs of judges and juries would have become very familiar to you after the time you'd spent in court with them following your husband falling victim to your problem solving skills." Brass said coldly, "What did you think 'hey, I got away with it once, shouldn't be too much harder second time around'?"
She turned away from him in disgust, shaking her head slightly, "You know nothing...Do you have any idea why I 'got away with it'? No, you couldn't because you could never understand what the judges and juries did..." she trailed off slightly, without leaving an opening for either of them to speak, her words as captivating as the mystery that surrounded her, a strange emotion shining in her haunted eyes, "It's a sad day isn't it Captain? When the world we live in and the system we're all caught up in allows him to die a victim, while I get dragged through it by the hair...I was the criminal, I who had suffered so much at his hands and still...That bastard didn't deserve so much as a funeral, never mind an investigation into his death...After all those years, I'd earned it, I'd earned the right to do whatever the fuck l I wanted to him and damn the consequences...He deserved it...It didn't take much to convince the jury of that fact...What he had done to me, I could have lived with...But what he had done to my daughter? Never...Once, when she was eight years old, he beat her, so brutally, that he fractured three of her ribs, he warned her that for every person she told, he would break one of her fingers, and rape me, making her watch...She walked around for two days in agony until a rib punctured her lung and she was rushed to hospital...He put his eight year old daughter in a position whereby she almost killed herself to protect me... I couldn't let her do that any more...I don't think you would have done that had it been your daughter but if you think you could, then you sit there, and you tell me that I murdered my husband and I'll tell you that I protected myself and my daughter and that my only regret is not doing it sooner..."
"...We'll need you to fill out a statement explaining your fingerprints and detailing the extent of your involvement with Mr Basderic..." Brass murmured softly, looking at this woman with new perspective and feeling physically sick that any man could do that to a child, to his child...
"Do you believe it?" Russell asked, turning quietly to Sara, who was frozen in the same position she had been in since the beginning of the interview.
"Which bit?" she asked, a trace of bitterness in her voice
Russell sighed and shook his head saying, "I don't want to believe it...How could anyone do that to a child?"
"I do believe it...Done with more ease than should ever be made public." She whispered, a strange edge to her voice.
"You OK?" he asked, picking up on this, domestic violence was always a sensitive subject with her, even he knew that, but there seemed to be more to it this time.
"Yes...In answer to your first question, I do...I don't think she's guilty."
"You seem pretty sure about that."
"I am."
"You seem pretty sure about her too..."
"I should be..."
"Why?" he asked, suddenly feeling concerned about the answer she might give in her current condition, and although it was not the one he had expected, it still left him staring at her, open-mouthed as she left the room, an intense feeling of horror settling on his stomach as he watched Brass handing her a pen and paper behind the two-way glass, only know fully understanding the extent of the woman's statement, Sara's words ringing in his ears,
"She's my mother..."
A/N: Hopefully this chapter was OK, I know that some people figured out who she was but hopefully you still thought that the reveal was well done...I think I might understand now why the writer's have kept her from us for all this time, I could not decide how I wanted to portray her so fingers crossed this came off OK, as ever, delighted to hear your thoughts, especially on this chapter! You're reviews are greatly appreciated.