Digging through the trash and untangling the wood: Part One
"We write our prayers on a little bomb
kiss it on the face and send it to God."
-The Death Song, Marilyn Manson
Carmen sank onto the bench in front of the row of lockers and vigorously towel dried her hair. She'd already shed her soaking wet clothes for dry ones and swapped her squeaky soaked runners in favor of a comfy pair of loafers.
Knew I should have taken a cab from the subway station, she thought, bending at the waist and wrapping her hair in a tight turban. Wouldn't be looking like a drowned rat if I had have.
The locker room door squeaked open and she glanced over to see Sam breezing in, a bright smile on her face despite the fact that it was coming down in buckets, thunder was practically shaking the building and the power kept flickering on an off. Not to mention she was drenched from head to toe and her shoes were squealing as she came across the tile flooring.
"Hey." Carmen greeted. "Hell of a day, huh? Good to see you didn't step in a gutter. You're so tiny you'd drown in it."
Sam grinned. All her life she'd graciously accepted the good natured jabs at her less than normal height. She stepped up to her locker, twirled the combination lock on it.
"What happened? I thought you'd get a ride in? Did Flack get called in early?"
"No. But there were no parking spots underground so we had to park on the street. This is all jut from walking from the car to the building." she popped open her locker and took out a towel and some fresh clothes and toed off her shoes and yanked off her socks.
Carmen noticed the way her friend grimaced if she moved to quickly and how she sat down very slowly. "Awww..." Carmen teased her friend. "What happened, sweetie? Did the big, bad homicide detective get too rough with you last night?"
Samantha just grinned and peeled off her wet top and towelled herself off.
"Guess you don't need these anymore." Carmen held up a brown paper bag of donuts.
"You kidding? I will always need those. They're my crutch."
Carmen spied something on the back of Sam's neck when the latter began drying her hair. She reached over and pushed Sam's hair out of the way and spied the large deep red hickey. "Fuck! You two abused each other!"
"He has no complaints." Sam said with a content sigh. "He is downstairs at his desk, happy and satisfied and in an extremely good mood this evening."
"Judging by your goofy smile, I'd say you're pretty damn satisfied yourself."
"Carm, there are no words. Where were you last night? I tried calling and got no answer. "
"You took time out of having wild, hot sex to call me?"
"He needed a break. I couldn't be to demanding."
"I went out for coffee." Carmen told her.
"Alone?"
Carmen didn't answer. She stood up and clipped her badge and gun to her pants.
Sam pulled dry shirt over her head and slipped into the cargo pants, buttoning and zipping them as she stood. She put on a pair of Doc Marten boots and as she bent over to tie them, she noticed something hanging in Carmen's locker. She reached in and puled out the familiar jacket. "Why do you have Tim Speedle's jacket?" she asked curiously.
"No reason." Carmen snatched the jacket back and hung up once agian and closed her locker.
"You went out to coffee with Tim? How'd that come about?"
"He asked and I said yes."
Sam put her foot on the bench and tightly laced her boot. "And?"
"And what?"
"And how'd you end up with his jacket?"
"I got cold." Carmen answered simply.
"Cold? It was eighty degrees last night. Oh my God... did you guys?"
"Get your mind out of the gutter, Samantha. You were the only one having having rough, kinky sex last night."
"I wouldn't say it was kinky. Mind you, the part with the ice cube was intense."
"I don't wanna hear it! Unlike you, I'm still sexually frustrated."
"Did you hear? Mac has me set up with a psychologist."
"When's that start?"
"When we get back on days Wednesday. Apparently, her name is Gus and she's originally from New Orleans and she's Mac's niece on his wife's side. She sounds great. I hope I like her. And vice versa. I'm not good with counselling sessions."
"You'll be fine." Carmen assured her as they left the locker room, Sam putting on her badge and gun as they went.
There was fifteen minutes before their shift began and they decided to head for the break room and grab a tea and have their donuts. They found Lindsay in there. Alone at one of the tables, looking forlorn and dipping her tea bag in and out over and over again. Sam decided to head over.
"Sam..." Carmen warned as she went to make the tea, and listen in at respectful distance. "You be nice."
Sam gave her friend a reassuring smile and slipped into teh chair across from Lindsay. "Hey, Monroe." she greeted.
Lindsay stared accross the table in a mixture of surprise and apprehension. "Uh... hey..."
"Look," Sam began. "I know we don't each other and all that..."
"It's not that I don't like you." Lindsay quickly corrected. "It's just that I'm threatened by you."
"And I'm threatened by people who talk shit about me behind my back. But for the sake of the team and this lab, we might as well attempt to get along. I'm actually a pretty easy going, nice person. I just don't like people talking a lot of shit. And you've been doing a lot of that."
Lindsay nodded solemnly.
"I'll be nice if you will." Sam said. "Especially when we have to go to this joint counselling thing next week. Might as well go in positive, right?"
"Right." Lindsay agreed, a little more cheerfully.
"Just do me a huge favor. Keep your mouth off of me . And my brother. Especially my brother."
"Okay." Lindsay nodded.
Carmen gave Sam a look that clearly meant she thought her friend was off her rocker and brought the tea and donuts over. "Sam," she said as she sat. "That must have been really, really, really amazing sex."
Sam smiled and bit into her donut.
Lindsay perked her ears and widened her eyes in interest.
"What did she just warn you about, Monroe?" Carmen asked, finding the girl from Montana a little too interested.
"I just want to be part of the girl talk." Lindsay reasoned. "That's it. Feel like I'm part of it. It's fun. Up until you guys there's been no one here to have these talks with."
Carmen looked skeptical at first. But the other girl seemed so innocent and convincing in her explanation, that it was easy to be fooled. "Sam was used and abused by a certain detective last night. A couple times in fact."
"A few." Sam corrected.
Carmen narrowed her eyes over her mug. "You are a dirty, dirty girl. Bitch."
"So you and Flack, huh?" Lindsay commented more than inquired.
"That was established a while ago." Carmen said. "In fact, was it not you, Monroe that started it? So don't seem so surprised."
"And Carmen went out with Speed." Sam said.
"Just coffee." Carmen added quickly. "That's it. I swear on my mother."
Sam arched an eyebrow.
"Spread some of that sex around would you." Carmen told her.
"I had it last night, too." Lindsay spoke up.
"With who?" Carmen asked.
"Danny."
Sam nearly choked on a mouthful of tea. "That's weird." she said. "'Cause Danny phoned Don last night at three in the morning and said something entirely different."
"It happened afterwards." Lindsay explained.
Danny, grow some fucking balls, Sam thought.
"Am I the only one not getting any?" Carmen asked grumpily.
"Just say the word, girl." Sam enthused. "I doubt he'll say no. He's a man. When do they ever say no?" she checked her watch and frowned. "Shit! We were suppose to be in Mac's office five minutes ago for team briefing!"
"Remember Monroe." Carmen warned as they three jumped up and hurried out. "This stuff does not leave this room."
"You can trust me." Lindsay assured her.
Yeah, Carmen thought as she followed behind. Right.
"Well look at it this way," Danny commented as he, Sam, Carmen and Speed stood alongside a ripe smelling dumpster behind a low rise apartment building in Staten Island. "At least it stopped raining."
It was still thundering in the distance and cracks of lightning still cut across the sky every several minutes. But the wind had died down and the rain subsided for the time being. Now the air was thick and humid once again despite being two thirty in the morning.
The call had come in an hour ago. Normally the drive would have taken only thirty minutes, but with the flash flooding and the late night stragglers, it had taken twice as long. There were two bodies. One in the smaller of the dumpsters belonging to the ten story building, the other in a unit on the fifth floor. Mac had left it to the four of them to decide who did what. And that was exactly what they were attempting to do.
"So what happens now?" Carmen asked, sweating under her rain poncho. "We flip a coin or draw straws to see who goes where? Split into two teams?"
"Sam and I will take the dumpster." Speed offered.
Carmen was a little surprised that he'd decided that so quickly. And a little hurt that he didn't want to be paired with her. Maybe he's just awkward about last night, she thought. Or maybe he decided last night was as far as he wanted to take anything. She had not idea why she wold think of such things at a crime scene, or why she even cared about him at all.
"Thanks!" Sam exclaimed,shrugging out of her navy blue windbreaker with CSI:NY on the back of it in big white letters. "Glad to see I get a say in this! You're going in there. I can handled garbage and a DB on a normal day, but after its rained?"
"It's a small dumpster." Speed said. "And you're a small person. I'll never fit in there and you can fit in a shoe box."
Carmen and Danny chuckled.
"I get it all ready!" Sam rolled her eyes. "I'm the size of a twelve year old! Enough! I'm going to go and get my coveralls and my boots from the truck."
"Need help changing?" Danny asked.
Carmen elbowed him. "So what'll it be, Messer? You do overalls?" she shoved the camera in his hands.
"Guess I don't have much a choice." Danny said.
Speed gave Carmen a small smile before she and Danny headed off and she felt a little better about the silent treatment she seemed to be getting from him. He'd already admitted to being a very private person so she really shouldn't have expected differently.
Flack came out of back service door just as Carmen and Danny were heading into it.
"What's that on your neck, Flack?" Carmen shone her flash light on him and yanked the collar of his shirt down to reveal perfect human teeth marks. "Sonofabitch! What the hell is wrong with you two?"
"Think that's bad? You should see my back and my shoulders. I could barely stand my shirt on at first."
"You are a sick twisted human being." Carmen declared.
"Lucky bastard!" Danny called before the door swung shut.
Flack joined Speed at the dumpster.
"So?" Speed asked. "What we lookin' at, Blue?"
"Dead people." Flack answered matter of factly.
"No shit. Whose the one in the dumpster?"
"All I have for you..." Flack referred to his note book. "Female victim, early to late teens, wrapped in a sleeping bag, obvious signs of trauma to the body."
"You send someone in there to look?"
Flack sighed. "Would that not be disturbing the scene?"
Speed nodded. "It would."
"I know how crime scenes work. One of my guys looked in. I've been working them long enough to know not to let anyone touch anything. So relax."
"Who found it?"
"Homeless guy lookin' for a meal. Jumped in, fell on the body. Lost his breakfast, lunch and dinner. Said the only thing eh touched was the sleeping bag 'cause he wanted it for himself and that's when he realized it was a body. Covered it back up out of respect."
Speed snorted.
"Also touched her looking for a pulse." Flack added.
"A homeless guy with CPR skills, huh? What's the deal with the trauma?"
"Looks like two GSW's. One in the stomach, the other in the shoulder.
"Anyone see anything or hear anything?"
Flack looked at Speed in disdain.
"Right... right... everyone around here is deaf and blind. Got'cha."
"Did you change your mind, Tim?" Sam asked hopefully as she came back. Her coveralls were unzipped to the waist and the arms tied around her slender hips, revealing the simple black tank top she wore underneath. Heavy rubber boots and an NYPD ball cap she'd managed to talk one of the uniforms into handing over finished the look. She snapped on a pair of gloves.
"Uh... no." he said with a smile.
"You owe me." she said and placed one foot on the side of the dumpster, grabbed the top with both hands and pulled herself up. It took tremendous upper body strength and both men looked on in awe and appreciation. "What?" she asked, swinging her legs over the edge.
"You are one strong little shit." Speed said.
She flexed a bicep and jumped into the dumpster.
"Watch out for the puke." Speed called out.
"What?... Fuck! This is horrible! Fucking disgusting!"
"Quit bitching like a little girl." Speed said as he and Flack grinned at each other.
"I am a girl!" Sam reminded him. "It smells like shit! It's just plain fucking gross! I need my kit and a camera!"
Speed handed both over. "I'm gonna start out here. Trace and all. Shout if you need anything."
"I will." she said and continued to grumble and swear as she rummaged through the trash.
"You need to be less Oscar the Grouch and more Mary Poppins." Speed said.
"Speedle!" she yelled. "Fuck you!"
"How do you put up with that?" Speed asked Flack.
"Not as easy as it looks." the detective replied.
"I can hear you two!" Sam informed them.
"Guess it helps when they're devastatingly beautiful." Speed said.
Flack grinned. "It doesn't hurt."
She was in there for nearly forty five minutes. Taking pictures and looking for trace. Evidence of any kind really. Something that would be helpful. Tossing garbage bags out of the way and fighting back a state of constant nausea at the smell of rotting food and household waste.
The vic was young. Sam pegged her at no later than eighteen. Long, silky raven hair with fire engine red chunks throughout. Heavy, dramatic, and severely over done makeup. A powder white face with scarlet red lips and heavy black liner and layers of mascara. A simple black baby doll nightie with red stitching along the straps and the hem and neck line.
Two GSWs. Sam examined without moving the body as much as possible, not wanting to risk the wrath of the MEs office. The most startling discovery was the fact that the vic's eye lids had been cut off. With a clean, sharp line.
Now that's creepy, Sam thought, shivering at the way it looked as if the girl watched every move she made. She snapped off several more pictures. Was lost in her own little world, ear phones of an I-Pod in one ear, listening to Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake. As macabre as listening to music at that moment seemed, it took her mind off the horror at her feet. There was a loud bang on the dumpster, followed by someone standing looking over the edge to her left.
"What ya got?" Flack asked.
She jumped, nearly falling over the body. "Don!" she yelled. "You scared the shit out of me!"
"What? You thought the DB was sitting up to talk to ya?" he teased, amused at the reaction he'd gotten.
"If she sits up and talks, I am so out of here!" Sam declared.
"What's the verdict?" he asked. "Give me something. Anything."
She grinned.
"I meant about the body. Get your mind out of that twisted little place its in."
"Female." she said. "Fifteen to twenty years of age. Caucasian. Wearing a La Perla nightie and Jimmy Choo heels. Very nice, Jimmy Choo heels."
"Samantha... focus.. I need you to focus for five seconds." Flack said as he wrote eveything down.
"Defensive wounds to the forearms. Visible trace under the nails. Blunt force trauma to the head."
"Fatal?"
"Doesn't look major. Glancing type blow. Two GSWs. One to the upper left abdomen, the other to the right chest. I'm guessing the chest was first and the one to the stomach killed her."
"Tell anything about the weapon?"
"A gun."
Flack sighed heavily. "Anything a little more specific?"
"You're asking a lot here, Don. I'm knee deep in garbage and rats and you want me to look at the wounds?"
"Get to work, Ross." he said.
"That's it, pull rank." she snorted. "Okay... from what I can see, it was a medium calibre... entrance wounds approx half an inch in diameter. There doesn't appear to be any exit wounds. No GSR present so it wasn't fired up close and personal. There's barely any blood and she's on top of the garbage..."
"Rape dump?"
"Most likely. "And there's something really bizarre."
"What's that?"
"Her eye lids have been cut off."
Flack felt his chest tighten and his heart speed up. "Can't be Clay Dobson." he commented a loud. "He's dead."
Sam stood up in the dumpster. "Who?" she asked.
"Clay Dobson. Sick twisted serial rapist and murderer that got his kicks cutting off his vics eyelids. Died a year back."he didn't feel like going into Mac being accused of throwing Dobson of a twenty story roof and the subsequent IAB hearing. Because that would somehow lead to Dean Truby and the stolen drugs and the memo book and Flack was not prepared to tell her about that yet.
"Probably some sick copy cat." Sam reasoned. "Will you call the ME for me? She's ready to go. And be a sweetheart and help me out of here. I promise not to get your suit too dirty. You look mighty handsome tonight, by the way."
He took the kit from her as she climbed up onto the edge of the dumpster."Keep your mind on the job." he said took her hand and helped her down. "You smell like death." he informed her.
Sam sniffed his shirt. "You don't. You smell pretty damn good."
"Promise me you'll shower when you get back to the lab." he said.
"No. I am going to reek like this all day just to bug you. You know," she took her kit and headed off to join Speed. "a bigger man wouldn't mind."
Flack smirked and took out his phone.
"Neighbours heard some fighting," Angell began as she led Carmen and Danny into the severely vandalized apartment on the fifth floor. "There were two women screaming and a male voice. The screaming stopped and right away there were what sounded like fire crackers going. Four in quick succession."
"Whoa..." Danny shook his head at the sight before them. Broken glass, scattered and smashed personal belongings. Heavy blood patterns on the walls, ceiling and floors. A lone female body in a black lace nightgown hiked up around her waist and panties askew, lying in the middle of a rapidly drying blood pool. "I've seen a lot of tossings but this has got to be the worst." he said.
"What time did the call come in?" Carmen asked.
"Shortly after one." Angell replied. "We would have been here sooner, but this rain is slowing everything down. And that's saying something because Flack drives like Dale Earnhardt."
"High velocity blood spatter." Danny commented, taking in the scene.
"There is no way that all this blood came from one person." Carmen said.
"Maybe the girl downstairs was killed here." Danny suggested. "Dumped afterwards. Only swabbing and DNA comparisons will tell that."
"Are you trying to hint at something?" Carmen asked.
"I'm pulling rank. I'll do overalls and the body. You do trace and fingerprints."
She saluted him playfully. "Yes, sir!" she sat her kit on the ground and snapped it open and put on a pair gloves and grabbed her flashlight for her initial walk through. "I've got a partial print on the window sill and the glass itself." she announced. "And lots of smearing on the ledge and gravitational blood trail leading to here from the vic."
Carmen peered out the window. Saw Sam in the dumpster. "Hey!" she called down. "Miss Thing!"
Sam glanced up. "Hey!"
"Think your vic was tossed out this window. Is it possible she fell straight down and landed on her back like that?"
"I guess. Get one of them Bendi things from the truck and toss it over and see!"
"How about I just toss Danny over?" Carmen suggested.
"I heard that." Danny complained.
"What's your COD?" Carmen asked Sam.
"GSW!"
"Same here. All right. I'm gonna go down and get one of those dummies and drop it."
"I don't think Flack or Speed would like that too much." Sam said.
Carmen laughed heartily and stuck her head back in the apartment. "Be back, Messer. Got an experiment to run."
"Get swabs and take prints yet? What about photos?"
"Done, done and done. I know what I'm doing. Relax."
"You know," Danny said. "I'm starting to think our two vics are connected.'
"Wow, Danny." Carmen shook her head. "Your powers of deduction are incredible."
"Shut up and get to work." he grumbled.
"Weird thing, huh?" Angell commented as she took the elevator with Carmen. "The two vics being connected."
"We won't know that until we do the tests to confirm it." Carmen said. "And I've seen weirder.'
"So..." Angell cleared her thraot noisily. "You and the new girl Ross are pretty tight."
"We are. Why?"
"Just curious." Angell said. "So what's the deal with her and Flack?"
"The deal?"
"They actually dating or just sleeping together or what?"
Carmen just snorted in disgust and shook her head.
"I'm just curious." Angell defended herself.
"Sure. Look, I already know about your crash and burn with Flack so cut the shit. You wanna know? Ask them. Its not my place to talk about it."
"Flack's all ready said a lot. About how he feels about her."
"Than that's all you need to know." Carmen said. "Personally, I'm sick of all the petty, immature bastards getting in their business. If they're happy, and they seem disgustingly happy, what the hell is it to any of you? And I'm warning you right now, don't try and wreck things for them. They both deserve to be happy. Don't fuck it up with some jealous bullshit."
Angell glared at her. "Is that a threat, Devine?"
"If you need it to be."
The elevator doors opened at the main floor. Angell stepped past Carmen with a foul look.
Bitch, Carmen thought and headed for the truck. Angell didn't want to mess with her.
Not when it came to her best friend.
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