Chapter Twenty-One
Emily
A few weeks go by and we come up with an ultra sound date. Stella gets her life threatened by a Greek who wants the rare coin she found back for his own personal gain and I've been helping her secretly ever since because she's one of my best friends and when a friend needs my help I will help her.
Don was adorable though because the case after the one involving Stella he mentions that instead of Looney Tunes he is more of a Tom and Jerry kind of guy and I just about died after hearing that. I was collecting evidence and I had to stop because the thought of him watching it with our little boy as a toddler on the couch, under his arm, completely focused on everything happening in the show. Don was worried when I stood up and stopped working. Everything was fine though.
Now it's late at night and I'm with Sheldon and Don in a sort of tomb. Actually it's a basement that a house was over. I'm waiting for Hawkes to finish taking photos of the body and finding the estimated TOD. I'm putting batteries into a flashlight when Mac comes down.
"Mac," Sheldon greets.
"We know who this is?"
"This is Kevin McBride," I say as Don hands over the wallet. "Yeah, I know, it's not much of a resemblance."
"Who found him?"
"Couple kids were going freestyle on their bmxs earlier tonight, and one of them, a kid named Tony Shaw, landed right on top of our vic. He'll be the most popular kid in school tomorrow," Don says looking at me.
"God I hope if our kid came upon a dead body that he would tell us imediately, then his friends."
"His?" Mac asks.
"It's about ten weeks too early to tell just yet Mac. I just have this feeling that its a boy."
"You're pregnant?" Sheldon asks. I smile.
"Yes I am. Don knocked me up before the wedding, luckily I could still fit into my dress." Sheldon chuckles.
"Congratulations," He says. I smile and look to Don.
"Thanks," Don says. I squeeze Don's arm before crouching and looking at the injuries the victim has sustained.
"Based on this skull fracture here, COD is more than likely blunt-force trauma," I say as Hawkes nods.
"What did he get hit with, a blender?" Don asks me. I look at him and I roll my eyes, unable to keep the joy from the sort of joke in. "I'm just saying."
"Core temperature is 55 degrees," Mac says. "That would put his time of death at about 36 hours ago."
"Exactly, somewhere between 9:00 and 10:00 yesterday morning," Sheldon says. I start collecting evidence as Mac looks around. He walks up the steps and Don squeezes my shoulder before following Mac.
"The blood just cuts off mid-trail at this top step," Mac says to Don.
"So he was dragged down the steps from...?"
"Somewhere up here." I get all the evidence that I need to and since this is taking so long for Don, I fall asleep in the car. He carries me up to the apartment and I wake briefly to change but in the morning I go with Stella after a pretty heavy kiss from Don and telling him that I'll be working in the precinct since most of the team is going to be processing and I went to Kevin McBride's house.
"Looks like this might be the connection to your crime scene, Mac," Stel says into her bluetooth. "Somebody went to a lot of trouble."
"I got a cleaned-up blood trail," I say. She comes over.
"Remnants of latent blood indicate directionality, but then it abruptly stops."
"It continues down these stairs to the cellar where Kevin McBride's body was found. Looks like we've got two crime scenes and one body," I hear Mac say as she walks to the door and opens in. "Where are you, Stella?"
"I'm in the middle of the east river. Smack dab in the middle of the East River, with Emily."
"Show-off," I mutter, looking at the window with Lindsay, as Danny walks by.
"I came over with the coast guard."
"Oh, yeah?" I ask.
"They offered me a speedboat. What was I gonna say? Got a little info on our vic from Mac's cellar. Kevin McBride- he owns a house relocation company. Latest job was moving this house from Staten Island to the Upper East Side for a stockbroker named Franko Vladeck, who's been in Beijing for the last six months. I'm still trying to contact Franko."
"This house used to be over the cellar where Mac found the body, and from what I can see, all signs of a struggle are here in the living room," Stella says. "Now, this cleaned-up blood pool over here suggests that McBride was killed here, and then dragged into the cellar where we found him," Stella finishes.
"Right, and then this big, giant house was moved and nobody noticed a dead body," Danny says.
"Which puts the movers at the top of my suspect list."
"Or somebody with a window of opportunity," I say. "Maybe our killer broke in before the house was in transit. There's no glass anywhere on the floor here. If this window had broken during the move, there would be pieces."
"So you think the killer cleaned up?"
"Maybe he cut himself and he wanted to take the evidence with him."
"All right, so let's say the house was secured. Killer comes in through the window. Movers return the next day, lift the house up on hydraulics, drive away. Kevin McBride's body is left behind until it's found."
"That all makes sense to me, except for one thing. If the house was locked up for the move, what the hell was Kevin McBride doing in here?" I ask. The boat stops moving at a dock and we get better equipment and we start processing more and more. Danny and Stella are taking pictures while Lindsay and I find things laying around that look suspicious. She finds an old carrot. I open the bag for her and she drops it in. I go to the stairs because something catches my eye and its a bullet.
"Hey, guys. Found this shell casing. The amount of soot on it indicates it was recently fired," I say.
"But Kevin McBride wasn't shot," Lindsay says.
"Should we be looking for another victim?" Danny asks.
"I'm going to go to interview. I'm better at that than this. I'll be back to process later." They all nod.
"I can't believe it," Kevin's assistant says. "This can't be happening."
"Can you tell me the last time you saw your boss?" I ask.
"Yesterday. I dropped off some papers for Kevin at the job site. He was doing a final walk-through before the move."
"What time was that?"
"I had a manicure in the morning and went there right after, so 10:00, maybe. I'm sorry," she says, crying even harder. I bring out a box of tissues from my car right next to me. I hand her one.
"Let's just, uh, step over here for a minute, miss." A uni says.
"What's her story?" Don asks me.
"Kevin McBride's secretary, Rita Mannetti. She came by to see why we were suddenly taking the house for a little detour."
"Well, I didn't get squat from the canvass of the neighborhood. No one saw anything out of the ordinary other than a 20-ton house being driven away. I'll run criminal history checks on the moving crew to see if anything pops up."
"I saw your sister last night," I decide to mention.
"You did?" He asks. "Where?"
"I was picking up food for us and I made a detour into Crown Heights because I was craving the pizza that we had there once, some party was going on, and a beer bottle suddenly collided with the windshield of the car," I smile. She's a funny girl.
"Sam?" I nod. "Guess one of her friends bailed her out 'cause my phone didn't ring."
"I didn't bring her in. I mean, she mentioned you and how you would be mad and then she asked if I was getting fat. I told her about the baby. We got a congrats from your sister."
"Why didn't you call me, Em?"
"It was the guys she was hanging with that were causing most of the commotion."
"Right. You know, I don't know why my sister does this stuff. My father's washed his hands of her, and I gave him a hard time about it, but I get it. I'm starting to think he did the right thing."
"I'm sorry, Don. I shouldn't have said anything."
"No, it's good. It's good you told me. Now I know who's ass to kick if you ever run into them again and something worse than a bottle hitting the windshield happens."
"Still. I understand though. My mom was the same way before she got worse," I mutter hoping no one but Don would hear. Don's eyes widen. "But hey, at least I'm done with that," I show him a strained smile and I reach out to grab his hand. "I love you, kay? If you need to talk, do it."
"I will. I love you too. Want a ride to the precinct?"
"If it means I get to spend more time with you, then yes."
I sit at my old desk and the only reason why I'm not here anymore is because of the pregnancy. Once I'm back, I'm going to be back here with Don. Or in the lab. I don't know yet.
I run background checks, and while I do that I periodically look at my husband's face then his left hand where his wedding ring is and I smile.
"You know, you should get a picture. It'll last longer," Don says, still reading the case file in front of him. I blush.
"Now why would I do that when I have the real thing in front of me almost all day every day and night."
"What if you're in the lab and you miss me?"
"I can call you and or look at your driver's license because I've got acess to that information."
"Did the DOL ever change your license and ID?" He asks me.
"They emailed me and said they did but I haven't gotten it in the mail yet. I should soon." I lean back suddenly exhausted.
"Are you getting enough nutrients?" Don asks as I hold my fast growing belly.
"I'm taking the vitamins everyday just like the doctor said I should." He nods. "And when Lindsay and I or Stella and I go out to eat I order milk so I can get some calcium and water so I won't get dehydrated. Stella is still curious as to why. I haven't told her yet."
"You can tell her pretty soon." I nod and I look at the time.
"All right. I promised Hawkes that I would meet him in autopsy. I'll be back." Don nods as I turn to leave.
"Hey Mrs. Flack." I smile when Sheldon calls me that.
"One day I'll get used to being called Mrs. Flack. Then I'll have to get used to Detective Flack. A uni will say Detective Flack and he or she will be talking to Don but we both turn and it's very confusing." Sheldon chuckles. "What's that?" I ask him. He's got a skull of some sort in his hands.
"You will find out as soon as we get to Sid." I nod. "Hairs you found in the nasal cavity are consistent with a Didelphis Virginiana, a Virginia Possum. The face of Kevin McBride was part of a little midnight snack," Sheldon says as soon as we get to Sid.
"I should've known. Those little beasts have complicated many an autopsy. You were right about COD: transection of the frontal lobe due to blunt-force trauma. Looks like the skull was impacted around 80 pounds per square inch."
"That's too much for a punch. Any idea what hit him?" I ask.
"It's difficult to determine. We lost our chance at a patterned impression on any soft tissue, thanks to our marsupial friend. But I did find indentations on the underlying bone fragments." Sid hands Hawkes the petri dish with the bone fragment. He looks at it. "Mind you, now that you've discovered the dining preferences of our oversized rat, he might be the cause of those as well." I chuckle and unconciously hold my stomach. Sid notices. "I also discovered lacerations on the vic's wrists. The color and inflammation suggests they were made right before he died. And recovered a bit of trace. I'm not sure what it is. All in all, this is sounding like a rather unsuccessful autopsy."
"Not so fast. The scratches and indentations on these bone fragments are inconsistent with our possum's teeth," Sheldon tells Sid.
I look at it and so does Sid. "Some type of a waffle or a grid pattern. Localized right at the point of impact," I say.
"Sid, I think we just found evidence of our murder weapon." Sheldon smiles.
"Good. And I think we found evidence of something else." Sid looks to me.
"What?"
"You want to tell the class or shall I tell you my observations?"
"Actually Sid, I want to hear your findings. You always find something interesting on a dead body. Let's see if you can do it on a live one instead."
"Well a few weeks ago, you became rather tired rather quickly. You threw up as well and still stayed at work. Your hands keep resting on your stomach which is the only thing growing apart from the breasts. You're pregnant."
"Damn, you're good."
"I haven't told you the interesting observation yet."
"Go on."
"You're at the end of your first trimester."
"Good job. I'm at ten weeks now. I'm a quarter of the way through it. But I have a feeling that I'm going to miss being pregnant."
"Some women love the feeling of being pregnant. Some hate it. When's the due date?"
"Some time at the end of May, early June."
"Congratulations. I hope that when the baby gets here you will bring him or her. I'm sure I'll visit you and the little one in the hospital but when you come back to work, be sure to bring him or her."
"I have a strong feeling that it's a boy." My phone dings. I look down and it's a text from Don.
'Gonna go see my sister and get some lunch, come with?'
'Of course. I'll meet you outside.'
"Is it Flack?" Sid says.
"Yes. We are going to lunch. I'll see you guys later." I meet Don outside and we leave the building to go to the bar Sam works at. Sam is sitting, drinking a beer when we walk in.
"Two o'clock in the afternoon?" Don asks, moving me in front of him so I can sit. He's looking after me. Sam laughs.
"Ah, come on. I work in a bar. Just, uh, call it a perk." Don doesn't say anything to her joke even though I chuckle. "Uh-oh. Someone's mad. All right, let me have it." She turns to us. "I'm ready. Just, uh what did I do, by the way?" She holds up her hands as a joke because we're cops.
"You almost got hooked up on a drunk-and-disorderly last night." Don leans his left side against the bar and rests his right hand on my waist, holding me and letting it touch my stomach, where the baby is.
She laughs. "Aw, come on, Donnie, a drunk-and-disorderly? That's what me and you used to do, every other Friday night after dad would fall asleep and we'd sneak out of the house. Besides my sister-in-law was there."
"We were kids then, Sam. Come on. This kind of thing is serious. Okay? You hearing me?"
"Yeah, I hear you. Hey, you remember when dad used to drive us out to the shores over labor day weekend?"
"You're changing the subject."
"There was no air-conditioning, and a busted radio and just that one walkman between the two of us. And we would each take a headphone and listen to that song, you know the one song over and over again. What was that? Come on, Don. I know you remember."
"I don't remember."
"And dad would be yelling, 'would you two shut that thing off?!' "
" 'Family time.' " Don impersonates.
" 'We're making memories here.' " They say at the same time. Their dynamic is so brother and sister like and I love it, when they get along. They laugh at the memories flooding their heads.
"But, Samantha, listen to me. No more free passes. Okay? No more using my name to get out of jail."
"Donnie, I only asked her if she got knocked up by you, okay? I wasn't asking for any kind of favors. Okay. Yeah, ay, I promise. I will only ever use your name if I need to borrow money." She laughs, as do I. "I'm kidding. Okay? You need to learn to laugh a little more, 'cause you're never keep this girl with this grumpy mad-dog thing going." Don chuckles. "How's the baby?" She asks, taking another sip of her beer.
"Good."
"Now how are you?"
"Exhausted. It's getting better. I'm starting to gain my energy back and I'm starting to get fat as you so kindly put it." She blushes, embarrassed.
"Sorry 'bout that."
"It's just fine. I am getting fat."
"No you're not. I was drunk and I shouldn't have said it."
"Sam, it's okay. I'm pregnant. Not actually fat. Now I'm going to change the subject, got any food here?"
"Want a.. nevermind you're pregnant, you don't want a beer."
Don and I head home after I finish running tests with Danny on the murder weapon. We finally get a match and it's common, sadly.
I go back to the lab the following day.
"Hey Seattle," Danny says, coming up to me. I put my hand on my mouth when I see and smell the coffee he's holding.
"Oh God." I turn and I walk quickly down the corridor and to the bathroom. On my way I pass Don and I don't glance back. I go into a stall and in there I proceed to throw up.
"Danno, Danno! A few of my boys found this in a dumpster two blocks from the crime scene," I hear. Must be the murder weapon. I hear footsteps. "Em, you good?" I hear.
"Fine. That coffee smelled horrible." I flush the toilet and I rinse out my mouth with water and then brush my teeth. I come out and we walk toward Danny.
"Remind me never to drink coffee around you when you're pregnant."
"I don't get it though. I've been drinking coffee this entire time and smelling it and this is the first time I've thrown up because of it."
"Huh."
"This is great," Danny says when we walk back out.
"Also, I spoke to couple cops over on Staten Island. They did, in fact, receive numerous phone calls about a guy jumping out of a moving house."
"All right, so Tanor Sommerset was telling Stella the truth? At least about his little trip." I see Lindsay become rather irritated.
"Oh, come on! You've got to be kidding me! Whose stupid idea was this?" She asks.
"Yours," I say. She glares at me.
"Hey, I've seen something like that before."
"Yeah, they're QR codes. They're popping up everywhere. They're the newest thing."
"No, no, no, no, no- that card and the border. I saw a whole stack of 'em. The bar, Em."
"You're driving," I say.
"What do you mean she got fired?" Don asks, irritated.
"She was a little too fond of kicking one back during her shift, you know? She hasn't worked here for weeks."
"I got them," I say getting the QR cards. "You ready?"
"Yep. Thanks."
"Hey! Twice in one week? Come here." He kisses her on the cheek and they hug. "How lucky am I?" She turns to me. "Mom and baby are with you too," She pulls me in for a hug and I smile.
"So what's up, kid? What are you doing here?"
"I work here, remember?"
"Take a walk with me." I stand back and sit on the stool. "You just look me dead in the eyes and you lie to me like that? It's that easy? I know you don't work here anymore, Sam. Your boy just told me you got fired two weeks ago for drinking on the job."
"Okay, so now you know. Good for you. Look, it's not a big deal."
"Oh, it is a big deal. What's going on with you, huh? When did you become somebody who spends all day drinking in bars, and all night hanging out with dirtbags in Crown Heights?"
"When did you start to care?" I hear them argue softly but still audibly.
"Want something to drink?" The bartender asks me.
"I'm okay. I'm sure we are leaving soon."
"No water or a beer or something like that?"
"Pregnant and on the job so no beer. I've got water in my purse any how. Thank you though." Don and I make eye contact and I get up and walk away, saying my good byes to Sam.
"I didn't lie. I just forgot to mention it," Rita says in the interview room. Stella called to ask me to talk to Rita and get more information out of her. She got a manicure and she had the fish eat dead skin off of her and leave the healthy skin behind, and she told me exactly what happened that the day the victim became a victim.
"So mention it now. What happened?"
" I know it looks bad. But I'm innocent. I wouldn't kill him."
"Then why'd you scratch him?"
"He saved me. I wore a pair of cheap heels. That's all that happened."
Mac walks into the precinct and right up to my desk. "You know your job is pretty complicated Emily. You work here, you work in the lab. It's all jumbled. How do you ever figure it out?" He asks.
"I go where I'm needed the most and I felt that I was needed here. I was needed in the lab last week and I am needed here this week."
"Good answer. Come with me." I get up and I shoot Don a look. Weird. "We are going to find the other half of the picture that Sid found in the vic's hand."
"Ah, I thought I was in trouble for not being in the lab a whole lot."
"Well I understand that it's going to take a while to ween you out of the precinct and into the lab. Especially when they're so close together. And your pregnant, there's really no arguing with you when your horomones are awry."
"You got that right. Sadly, but yes."
We get to the house and we stand under it and he checks the floorboards for the other half.
"The floorboards. That's what tore it from Kevin's hand."
"These old victorian homes always used douglas fir as flooring. The softer the wood, the more moisture it absorbs."
"So when the house was on the barge in the river, the wood expanded. Trapped the card."
"Emily." I reach up and I use the tweasers to pull it out of the floorboards.
" 'I'll tell her if you don't.' "
"Kevin McBride could have been the one who had the secret." Mac looks to me. "Will you work on this?"
"Of course."
And that's what I do. I focus on the hard drive and I find every thing normal and some abnormal things. Like chats between him and a user named Lola57.
"Mac. Okay. I found a jackpot of deleted files in Kevin McBride's computer, including correspondence related to previous affairs. Although as far as I can tell, he's been, uh, 'monogamous' with lola57 for the past two months."
"We know who lola57 is?"
"No, not yet. I subpoenaed the user name information, but, uh, for now, she's still a mystery. But I did recover this." I hand him the iPad and I sit on the edge of his desk. "He e-mailed that photo to Lola57 a week before he died."
"It's the same picture as the one on the postcard."
"Right, and what's interesting is Lola57 cut off all communication right after he sent that photo."
"Maybe she didn't like what she saw."
"Well, whatever it was, Kevin didn't go quietly. He kept trying to contact her. She never responded."
"She found out he was married. Maybe his wife found out about the affair?"
"And I know how: Lola sent the secret card 'I'll tell her if you don't.' Sounds like motive for a murder."
'Go apologize. You know that's what she wants.' I text Don as I wait for the nausea to subside.
'But what do I say?'
'Play her the song she was talking about at the bar. She'll love it.'
'Okay. Are you sure it'll work?'
'No but I'm sure you need to apologize. You were a bit harsh.'
'She's my sister, Em.'
'I know and I know you feel the need to protect her still. Let her make her own mistakes and be a bit more gentle with her.'
'Okay. I love you. Thank you.'
'I love you too. Good luck.'
'Nothing. I did what you said and nothing happened.'
'I'm sure she was listening. Did you call her?'
'Yeah. But I'm going to leave her alone for now.'
'That seems like your wisest option.' A ding on the iPad draws my attention to it. The user information. Yes! I look at it.
"Oh no," I say. "That's creepy. Baby," I start, rubbing my belly. "You do not want to see this. Oh man," I walk out. "Mac," I say coming into the A/V lab. " I just got back the user information for Lola57."
"Who is it?"
"You're not going to like it Mac." I hand him the iPad. He looks up at me and I was right. He doesn't like it. He hands it back and I show Sheldon as Mac walks out.
Turns out it was the wife who murdered the vic. She found out about Lola57 and she killed him. It was a sad turn of events but she did the deed and now she has to be punished. And Lola57, was their daughter.
Mac calls me into his office.
"Close the door." I do, then I sit in a chair across from him. "So we need to talk about your pregnancy."
"I wanna work in the field up until I give birth."
"There are going to be some limits on that. You can collect evidence and talk to certain people as long as someone is a.) with you with a loaded gun and b.) knows there is no, and I mean no, violence or sharp objects or guns. Nothing that can harm this baby or you." I nod.
"I can live with that."
"No raids, no arrests unless absolutely unavoidable or if the former rules apply, no testing guns, no heavy lifting, no driving places, no extensive exercise when you reach five and a half months. None of that. If you feel that you can't work in the field at any point, you're off until you get back from maternity leave, got it?"
"What if that day I just don't feel good but the next day, I'm fine?"
"You're off field and in the lab until you get back from maternity leave."
I nod. "Yes sir."
"Don't mock me. That was a game your sister used to play. You aren't your sister." I laugh.
"Okay Mac. Are you finished with your rules?" I ask. He nods. "Thank you for worrying about me so much."
"It's my job since your father died and you moved to my part of the country." I smile.
I head home while Don is still at work. It gives me a good chance to clean while I still easily can. My stomach is growing bigger and my breasts are huge. While this is still going on, I feel like I should use these knockers to my advantage and get Don to do stuff for me around the apartment in the later months. I'm going to have to go on maternity leave a week or two before the end of May. I'm excited but another summer alone in the house. This is going to be my second summer alone out of three. At least I'll have a baby to take care of and I'll still be getting paid.
My phone rings, bringing me out of my thoughts. It's Don.
"You took the car home right?"
"Yeah."
"Can you pick me up? I'm in Brooklyn."
"Oh of course. I'll be there in twenty minutes. What are you doing in Brooklyn?"
"Sam."
"Did something happen?"
"No, I'm following her right now though. I'm trying to see what she's been up to."
"Okay. I'll let you get back to that. Where in Brooklyn?"
"Crown Heights."
"Got it. I'll be there in a bit. I love you."
"I love you too."
I get there and I wait outside of the car for Don. He walks out of the building and he looks torn.
"You and Sam gonna be okay?"
"We're stubborn."
"Knew that babe. You gonna be okay?"
"Yeah." I smile and I wrap my arms around his waist. "Hey Em," I look up at him. His hand is on the back of my head and he presses his lips to mine and then again for a shorter amount of time. "Thanks." I nod once and I kiss him again. "Hm," He pulls back. "Your breasts are huge." I blush. My entire face becomes hot and I know all of it is red. "If I knew that this is happening I would have gotten you pregnant a bit sooner." My face becomes even hotter and I rest my head against his chest.
"Great, now I'm embarrassed."
"Don't be. It's just us out here. Let's go home though." His hips thrust gentley into mine. Oh man.
"Let's."
A/N: Oh my God! It's been literally months. I have no excuse. Though I did say I would update this month in my bio on my profile. So you're welcome. I have no idea when I'm going to get the next chapter up. I've just been really lazy or really busy. I have up to chapter 50 written. Well not chapter 50 yet. But I'm still debating on if I want to cut this off and start it up again when the season ends and the next season picks up. You're going to love what I've written though. The pregnancy is literally my favorite.