AN: Hey finished school till fall, the horrible class is done and passed. I'll update more now I just had to work really hard to pass that class (any time I had free time all I wanted to do was watch TV), I'd already failed it once. Also I wasn't sure where to take the story, I had an angle but it was boring, so I've got something a little more interesting now. Thanks for the patience.
Chapter 14
Carrie sat down again while they waited for the doorway to be cleared. "My head," She said as she shifted the ice. "You sure you're ok?" She asked Al for the third time.
"I'm fine but that was really stupid," Al said for the sixth time. "Really, really stupid,"
"I saved you," She smiled at him.
He was sitting opposite from her and looked very, very angry.
"Don't get mad, you know I can pull off angry longer than you," She said.
Al grumbled.
They watched as the front door to the apartment swung open Nina and Roe were the first ones though much to the displeasure of the bomb squad.
"Are you ok?" Roe said pressing a hot coffee into her hands, "Triple espresso just the way you like it, lots of sugar,"
A paramedic pulled Carrie away and sat her down on a stretcher they had prepared outside. They started the usual tests while the bomb squad gathered their equipment to do a sweep of the apartment and then the locked door.
"Hey are they done with the door?" Carrie asked Nina in a whisper.
"Just about finished," Nina said she was standing in front of the apartment door and had a clear view down the hallway.
"I'm gonna be sick," Carrie said slipping off the stretcher. The female paramedic tried to offer her a bag but Carrie dashed off into the apartment and down the hallway in time to see the door opening, they had removed the hinges and pulled the heavy door away.
Most of the room was empty but there were signs it held much more at one point, Carrie looked around taking it all in, she guessed it was the room used to hold all the C-4 but since it was used to blow up the apartment only a small amount remained in tiny pieces on the floor like the person had been assembling the bombs in a hurry.
Carrie waited for the bomb team to deem the room safe before stepping in. She did a three sixty of the room and found several black and white photos. She grimaced as she picked them up they all contained images of her during the past several weeks. She put them in an evidence bag and let the crime scene unit do their job. Al was shouting orders at everyone. "Do a whole sweep of the apartment! Don't miss anything!"
Nina smiled at her as they walked back to their cars. "Well it appears you are indestructible now,"
Carrie pulled some ash from her hair, "Hardly just very lucky," She watched Al trudge back to the car. It was not good news for her. He was always over protective of his team. It was always his responsibility to make sure that the team was safe, they had survived but the officers outside the door hasn't been as lucky as they had, the whole team, especially her would be under lockdown for a long time.
Back at the station they all sat or stood around Al's desk. "Where are we in the case? We keep getting knocked back," He sounded tired.
"Literally," Roe joked. All eyes shot to him, he coughed, "Sorry not funny. I uh did follow up on the Candy lead again. It's kinda a dead end. Candy says that Rotovi and Richards were cousins or some distant relation so Richards gave his struggling relative a job, and eventually some money to pay off the gambling debts. Rotovi repaid him by sleeping with his wife, stealing from him, and using the money to buy a boat that he planned to run away with Laural on. Now going off what Candy said, and I'm kinda thinking she's an expert in this. Laural would have never left if she even loved him the first place. I told her about Rotovi's death, and she said that Richards owned all sorts of property in the area was trying to retrofit the whole block. That's about all she knew but I did look into who owned the property. Now he didn't own that building but he was trying to buy it,"
"So Rotovi is out as being a murderer then, we're really just left with Cartell or Richards," Nina said.
"Assuming he didn't hire a hit man," Al said.
"Not likely the murders happened by someone close, the signs of struggles were low so they were either overpowered quickly or they knew who killed them. I got the results back on the Autopsy results from Rotovi, there were no drugs at least anything that would have killed him in his system. So I'm thinking that he knew his death was coming, and was hiding out. Someone found him and killed him," Joanne said.
"What about the chemicals in the tub?" Carrie asked.
"Just something to speed up the decomposition process. Sulfuric acid, aka drain cleaner and a lot of it. If I had to say I think that the murder went over there to kill him but needed it to look like it was earlier, maybe the murderer didn't plan on killing him," Joanne said.
"So now we go over the camera footage of everyone in the area at that time right?" Nina asked.
"Yes, pay special attention to anyone who Rotovi may have known," Al said.
"Ok I'll go sic Roe's girlfriend on it," Nina said.
Roe gave her a confused look, "She's not my…"
"It's ok we know all about it," she teased him.
"She's not my…" Roe tried to defend himself after Nina left but a glare from Al shut him up.
"Is there any way to get a warrant for Richards' house?" Al asked.
"Not at the moment but Richards lawyers are finally releasing a statement of what he claimed happened that night. You should be able to speak to him after but you won't get many chances so be very prepared" Joanne cautioned.
"So both had similar marks but if the second murder wasn't intended, then he shouldn't have had the same item to make the same marks unless both murders were unplanned and they carry all the same items on them," Carrie said. She thought back to the bruises on the neck.
"Or that they were common household items, like bedsheets," Joanne said.
"Was it?" Roe asked.
"No but it's the same idea a tie maybe? Start out by choking them then going in for a real kill with something stronger like a wire. Maybe the murderer has one hidden in a watch," Joanne suggested.
"What about the same idea but done in a tie? I mean we know he's not squeaky clean so he'd want to protect himself but he never carries a gun, and body guards can't follow everywhere, especially if you were going to murder someone," Carrie said.
"Like wired tie? That sounds about right actually the cause of death was suffocation but the wire marks were not as obvious as they should have been if the wire was directly placed on the neck. The marks are about the width of a tie. Sounds like we have a murder weapon," Joanne said.
"What about the fact that she was poisoned twice?" Al asked.
"It wasn't exactly poison but there were chemicals that shouldn't have been there. Well we know the first time was just muscle relaxers I think Cartell might have been trying to take her away somewhere. The blowfish poison, maybe Richards was trying to kill her but didn't use the right amount. It is very toxic and a small amount will kill you, I still think she just ate sushi the day before she was known for eating it," Joanne said.
Al looked at his team relived they finally had a lead that lead to Richards but they would have to be very careful in the questions they asked him, one wrong move and Richards would stop the questioning. "Let's get ready for our interview,"