"Why am I not surprised you're here?" Don asked when he saw Sofia. "I shouldn't have called you. Sorry Sara to ruin your night out."
"Don't worry, I offered her to come here. There's no way we can keep her away from interrogation, not her mind at least. And if you hadn't called her, she would be very, very mad. You did the right thing, Don." Sara turned to Sofia. "Why don't you go with your detective and talk to the suspect while I make myself comfortable in the waiting area?"
"The coffee there is horrible - as you know. Take the break room, Greg has his coffee hidden there and the cold drinks machine is always stocked. Eat your dinner, there's no need for you to be hungry and wait for me."
"We both had a Snickers on our way to here, we can both wait until you're done and continue our dinner together. On our balcony, after a walk with the dogs." The brunette blinked at her lover. "And now go and get the guy."
"I will. Thanks." The look Sofia sent the brunette said more than the words she just said. She was grateful for her understanding lover and there were no words to explain how much she loved Sara. And if there weren't too many people around, she'd pull her lover into her arms and kiss her. Another thing that had to wait until they were home.
"Okay, tell me about the suspect in custody."
"Herman Shadner, age thirty seven, from Glendale. He's an unemployed actor, who likes to pretend he is somebody important of the show business. We checked everything he gave us, all lies. Oh, and the CIA is after him, they want him to work for them because he can fit in everywhere."
"Really? Sounds..."
"Like he's nuts? Yeah. We ordered the department shrink to watch us talking to him. He has no medical record, but a sealed juvenile file. I try to get it open, so far the judge isn't cooper-ative. We need more than a possibility."
"We get the judge more if he's the killer."
"If he's the killer we won't let him walk." Don opened the door to interrogation for Sofia. At the table in the middle of the room was Herman Shadner. When he lifted his head, Sofia saw, he looked exactly like the man on the identikit picture. Kayla and Darren did an amazing job.
"Mister Shadner, I'm detective Flack, this is CSI Curtis." Don greeted the man, sat down and waited until Sofia sat down too. "You know why you're here."
"You...you work for the CIA! They want me in their special secret project. Tell them, they can't have me, I'm an actor. A good one."
"The projects you named, nobody knows anything about you. You're not listed as an actor."
"Because I don't want the CIA find me. It's like...I'm a secret service agent. I need to stay out of sight."
"Are you working on any movie at the moment."
Shadner nodded, bent over the table and whispered. "I'm working as a doctor, a beauty doctor. My job is it to find the secret of beauty. Real inner beauty."
"Sounds like a fantasy."
"No! It's a documentary. They film me all the time."
"Who films you?"
"NLATV. They've their cameras everywhere." Carefully Shadner pointed over his shoulder to the security camera. "This is one of them."
"That's the police camera, it's there for your and our security."
The smiled mildly like he had to talk to a child. "Of course. So you're a detective?"
"Yes."
"What was your last role?"
"I'm a real detective, not an actor."
"Of course, I'm a real doctor too." He blinked at Don. "And you?" He looked at Sofia. "Now, you look like you were a model before. I bet they have you here for the audience. Didn't we work together last year?"
"I'm a CSI and not an actress." Sofia responded calm. "Since when does NLATV follow you?"
"A long time, I'm their star."
"You seem to have a headache, do you want a pill?"
"No!" He jumped up like he was threaten by somebody. Immediately the officer in the room pushed him back down on his chair. "I don't take pills anymore!"
"Okay. What do you mean with anymore? Did somebody force you to take some?"
"They told me, it's part of my role, I've to play an ill man and need to take these pills. Placebo, they promised but they made ...they made strange things with my head." Shadner's voice was a little bit whiny now, like a child, that had to go to bed. The anger was gone within a few seconds.
"Not a good movie, I guess."
"No. Crap."
"What about her?" She placed a photo of Ellen on the table. "Did you ever play with her? She's an actress." Before the man could reach for the photo it was written all over his face, he recognized Ellen.
"So beautiful from the outside." Softly the man stroke the photo. "A real beauty. But from the inside just ordinary."
"How do you know? You can't look into a person."
"I had a look, like I said, I'm looking for real beauty. She...I thought she was the one...but she is nothing special. Like all the others."
Sofia looked for a second at Don. He had a look inside Ellen? And she was like all the others? Were there more victims? "How can you look inside a person, doctor?"
"You open them. It's not that difficult, as a doctor it's easy. You open her, look for the inner beauty."
"How does the inner beauty look like?"
"When you see it, you will know. She." His finger tipped on the photo. "Had no inner beauty. Only organs and blood, bled like a pig...I played a butcher once and the pigs didn't look so different from her or the others."
"So in order to find inner beauty, which is your job, you cut her open two nights ago?"
"Yes. What a disappointing night."
"Where did you find her?"
"She was at this club for actors, she was the star there and the only one who wanted to be a successful star like I am. We talked, we danced and then I told her, I can make sure her inner beauty will be seen by everybody. Unfortunately there was no inner beauty, so I left what she had for the world to see."
"You sliced her open like a pig." Sofia had to fight to stay calm. This man told her about the murder like he talked about a script. Like he didn't end a life of a human being.
"She had the inner beauty of a pig."
"She was a human and you murdered her."
"No, I don't play a killer, I'm a doctor. Read the script."
"There is no script." The blonde got up. "We heard enough."
"We did." Don got up too. "You will play a prisoner for the rest of your life, Mister Shadner."
"First I have to finish this project, after that you can call my agent for new offers. I'd like to go now, the CIA might be here soon."
"You will stay here."
"No, I won't." Mister Shadner got up. When the officer grabbed his shoulder, the man turned and punched him into the face. Immediately Don was with his colleague and together they managed to wrestle the man down, cuffed his hands and feet.
"Get our doctor in here, he's nuts. And then lock him up, he's under arrest for the murder of Ellen Gable. And for assaulting an officer." Don held his head for a moment. His left eye made contact with the fist of the man before he had cuffed him. Painful and annoying.
"Sorry, I should have..." Sofia started.
"No, you're the CSI, you're not supposed to stop suspects, that's what the cops are for. Come on, our job is done. We can have a look at Greg, he took the clothes of this guy and we need to find out his address. I bet we'll find a scalpel with Ellen's blood on it."
"You will find it, for me, this is the end. We have the killer, Greg and you can wrap up the case. We do have a confession, we don't need the rest, but it would be good to have it, just in case. But that's your call. I will go into the break room, see my girlfriend and take her and her dinner home. I let her wait long enough. The next two days are my days off. You need to finish without me, detective."
"We will. Good call, LT." Don squeezed Sofia's hand for a second. "You did a great job. Acting like was a doctor, playing his game."
"He suffers from hallucinations. To make him talk, I had to get into the movie in his head. My bet is, he's off the meds, or never took any meds, and went crazy. Our doc will know what to do." Sofia smiled at doctor Luria, who came out of the observation room and heard the last words.
"I have an idea about what he has. Good job, Sofia."
"Thanks. Make sure you have at least two officers with you when you talk to him."
"I will."
"And now it's time for the nice sides of life. I see you later, Don."
"Yeah. Have a nice evening - what's left of it."
"We will." Sofia smiled and walked to the break room. Time to get out of here with Sara and start their vacation. As soon as she was with her lover, she'd switch off her cell phone and wouldn't answer the landline. The next two days L.A. had to fight without her.
