"Curtis, you're out!"
"What?" Sofia looked up irritated. She was out? Out of what? The case? Rock couldn't do that.
"You're out. We get a couple of addresses from the GPS, I want you to take your two officer buddies and check them out. Your boss agrees. Meanwhile Sanders and I will work on Frasier. I want you to find something fast so we can use it and make his lawyer understand his client will stay in prison because it's where he belongs. Understood?"
"Yes, Captain."
Sofia took the folder Rock gave her, picked up her kit and called Lynn. "Where are you?"
"Getting the cave man and the wheels in front of your door. Meet you there in thirty seconds."
"Okay." Cave man? Did Lynn and Kyle have an argument? She didn't hear her call him a cave man in a long, long time…the last time when they were a couple. Did they…were they…? What was with Dirk and Mandy?
"Okay, tell me what's going on?" She asked as soon as she slipped onto the backseat.
"Rock gave us a list with addresses we have to check, they're from the GPS of the Denali." Lynn said.
"I know that. I mean the two of you. What's going on with you?"
"What do you mean?"
"You called him a cave man, the last time you did it was when you were a couple. Are you back together?"
"Did you put something in your coffee? Something that messed up your mind?" Kyle turned and looked irritated at Sofia.
"It was just…it triggered a memory."
"Darling, I'm having a wonderful boyfriend, who makes me more than happy, why should I go back to Kyle?"
"You were in love with him once."
"A long time ago. Get this crazy idea out of your head and concentrate on the list. We have ten addresses, which one should we go to first?"
Sofia got her attention on the list and read the addresses before she entered them all into her notebook. Wild tree Street in La Cañada Flintridge. It's close to the highway 210, a perfect place to go to Angeles National Park and it's almost in the middle between Bouquet Reservoir and San Gabriel Reservoir."
"There's one address, that's closer to Bouquet Reservoir."
"Yes, I can see that and on the first look it makes more sense, but I'm sure he knew his way to the place, where he kept the women after he went there once. The address of Wild Tree Street is the second he ever entered in his GPS, the first one was his place in North Hollywood. He settled down, looked for a place to continue his mission, started working…there was no GPS in the other car…I wonder if he knew the addresses of all his clients, the list is way too short for the amount of clients he has. Or he used his cell phone, it has a GPS too…"
"You think the right address could be on there?" Kyle asked.
"It's possible. If we don't find anything with these addresses we can check the others. I call Brandon to write them down, cross check them with addresses from clients Frasier had. We have all his work documents, Brandon can rule out client's addresses."
"Okay, you call your sidekick, I get us to the destination and Kyle…just sits here and tries not to look too stupid."
"Bitch."
Sofia rolled her eyes and dialed Brandon's number. Something was going on between Kyle and Lynn and as soon as they solved the case, she'd make them her personal new case. With VIP status.
Sara was for the rest of the week on a sick leave. Her doctor wasn't convinced she was fit enough to drive her car nor let her walk without crutches. Which brought the brunette to a problem: boredom. With her lover at work, her parents-in-law in Vegas, her son at work and her daughter in New York she was all alone. Calling Don every five minutes and ask him to give her Susan was ridiculous, ruined his day and his vacation.
"A hooray to modern day communication." She took her cell phone and send a text message to Jules. Can you do me a huge favor when you have a minute? There was one possibility for her to give her being a sense.
At five to ten her cell phone rang. "What do you want?"
Like every time she smiled when she heard Jules's voice. It still made her feel like curl up on a couch, her head on a comfortable pillow and spill all her guts to her friend and feel good about it.
"Only one phone call."
"Did the doctor put you on a sick leave?"
"Yes, for the rest of the week."
"I won't call my mother and ask her to write you happy and healthy."
"I wouldn't ask for something like this."
"So what do you want?"
"Your kids. Can I get them from daycare? Everybody is gone, I'm home alone and I feel lonely and bored and miss children around me. You can make fun of me for that, the woman, who was afraid she's bad with children, was afraid of having her own child, whines and asks for children now."
"Sara, I don't make fun of you for feeling the way you do. You should know me better."
"I do."
"You can't drive to the daycare center and you can't run after them when they run away. How about I call daycare and tell them you come around in a taxi and pick up Eric? One kid is enough in your condition and he'll love to have your full attention. Would that help?"
"You're an angel, did I ever mention this?"
"In fact you did. Okay, I call daycare and tell them you pick Eric up in one hour and then I have to go back to work."
"You're the best."
"And you're a perfect mom and the best godmother Eric could have asked for. See you tonight."
"Thanks doc." Sara smiled. One more hour and she had Eric with her, her little boy, her sunshine. Time to call the taxi company and order them here in forty-five minutes and have them take her to the daycare. A day with Eric, they could play, watch cartoons and eat ice cream.
The house on their list was set back from the street, tucked in between bushes and trees, shielding it from the other houses and the street.
"Welcome to the little version of Norman Bates' motel."
"The motel was in a rural area, this house looks like it's set in a little forest of its own." Kyle disagreed with Lynn. "It's not the Psycho motel."
"The Psycho motel is in the Universal Studios, you see it when you take the studio tour." Sofia got out of the car. "When you drive past in the little train Bates comes after you with a knife. Keep your guns in close range, you have to protect your CSI, officers."
"Don't worry, I take care of both of you, ladies."
"We all know Sofia is the one, who is best with her weapon, let her protect us." Lynn tried to open the gate but it was locked with a chain. "Somebody doesn't want any visitor nor the mailman come to their door. Who owns the house?"
"Jeffrey Beauchamp. Which is a faked name." Sofia answered.
"How do you know?"
"Think of the other two names Frasier created. They all had something to do with crime, real or fiction. This one is another mix, he borrowed the names of Jeffrey Dahmer and Charles Beauchamp, a serial killer of 'Criminal Minds'. It belongs to Frasier."
"I'm impressed. You have the time to watch TV with two kids and a fiancé?"
"We watch TV when the kids are in bed. It's our private battle, we watch crime shows and compete who finds the killer first."
"Nuts, you can't get enough of work." Kyle opened the trunk, got pliers and cut the chain. "After you, ladies."
"I wonder if he's hiding or having our backs." Lynn mumbled and went onto the driveway, that lead to a garage. "The garage is connected to the house. Sure this is place belongs to Frasier, Sofia?"
"Yes."
"If not we need to split, somebody has to get the back."
"I do it, you ladies take the front."
They waited until he vanished around the corner of the house before they rang the doorbell. No response. The door was locked, so were the windows. Thick curtains made it impossible to look into the house.
"Feel like kicking in a door?" Sofia asked.
"No, I'm not a TV cop, I'm a real cop and you're a CSI, we have other ways. Open the door."
The blonde smiled and got a little case out of her kit. To her surprise she could unlock the lock but the door didn't open.
"That's odd."
"Got a problem here?" Kyle was back.
"I unlocked the door and it's still closed. Something must be behind it."
"I can kick it in." He stepped two steps back.
"No! Wait. Was there a backdoor?"
"Yes. Does it matter which one we kick in?"
"Lets try the backdoor." Sofia had a bad feeling about kicking in doors.
"Okay. Shall I stay here?"
"No, I think if somebody was in the house, this person left already when we cut the chain and like I said, it's Frasier's house, he isn't here." They walked to the backside of the house and Sofia tried her luck with the lock there. Again she unlocked the lock and this time they could open the door. That Kyle and Lynn pushed her aside to enter the house first wasn't something that made her happy, but it was protocol.
"Gosh, this is a stinky place." Lynn said.
"And the opposite to all the other places. They were so neat and tidy and this is a mess. All old, look at the fridge, it must be twenty years or so." Sofia opened it and closed the door immediately. "The food inside is from the time when this one was modern."
"The bathroom and bedroom are empty."
"Any signs of the women?"
"No. I have a look into the garage."
"Okay." Sofia walked into the bedroom. The bed looked used, there was dirty laundry all over the place. "How can he live in a mess like this when his other places look like they're a spot in a furniture store."
"Don't say split personality, his lawyer will jump at this chance to get him into a loony bin instead of prison." Lynn said.
"I'm sure he knew what he was doing, he was organized. This…maybe this his kind of man cave."
"It surely looks like a cave. No telephone line, the TV is old and not plugged in. How is your cell phone signal?"
"Perfect."
"So he used the internet via his cell phone. I didn't see a computer or laptop."
"No women clothes. I can go out and check the garbage."
"The garage is clean, no car, no signs of the victims. Maybe this is the wrong place."
"It feels so right. What about a basement?"
"There's no door and the floor doesn't sound hollow when I walk over it." Lynn stepped harder on the ground. "We can check, there's a carpet in the living room and bedroom." They went into the rooms, pulled curtains away. Nothing under it.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" The blonde got up, annoyed. She had been so sure this was the right place. It had to be. It was perfect it was…a trap door.
"Guys, look up, what do you see?"
Kyle and Lynn looked up. "This place has an attic." Kyle said surprised.
"Where's the hook to pull the ladder down?" Lynn took a look around.
"Forget the hook." He grabbed her hips and lifted her up, so could reach the little ring in the trap door.
"I can't grab it, it's too small, only my little finger fits in there."
"Take the nylon cord." Sofia got a nylon cord out of her kit, handed it up to Lynn, who got it through the ring and twisted the cord around her fist. When Kyle let her down the trap door opened and Sofia caught the stairs before they could hit one of her friends. A perfect team effort.
"Okay, lets see what's waiting in the attic." Kyle took his gun and flashlight out. "I'm going to be the cave man and go up first, any complains, officer?"
"A lot, but they're not important now. Sofia, I have your back."
"All right." Sofia waited until Kyle was half up the ladder before she followed him. The steps shook a little bit, crunched under their weight. It was possible to carry up a woman to the attic and down. Frasier was well build, he had the strength to carry them.
"Holy shit." Kyle let out when he got a first look around. He stepped off the ladder to let Sofia have a look.
"Oh shit." Her gut told her she was right and now her eyes told her, she was more than right. There was blood. A lot of blood. Most of it under a stretcher in the left corner.
"We need an EMT." Kyle was next to a woman, who was tied to a ring in the wall. She was unconscious, naked but seemed to be unharmed on the first look.
"She's dehydrated, we need to get her to drink." Lynn was next to him, checking the pulse and vitals. "Miss? Miss? Can you hear us?"
"EMTs are on their way." Sofia put her cell phone away, opened her kit and cut off the plastic straps so Kyle could lift up the woman and carry her down the stairs, Lynn's jacket over her body.
The blonde stayed upstairs in the attic. His torture room. The place they have been looking for and yet were so scared of finding it. There were four rings in the wall and where the rings were, the wall was made of stone, not wood. Four rings. He kept four women at one time here. Or he could. There was evidence of body fluid under the rings, did he keep the women here all the time? Tied like animals. No blankets, no glasses, no plates. He must have fed them because their bodies weren't dehydrated, there were so signs that told the blonde, the women were left alone for a long time. He must have come here twice a day at least, maybe more often. It was summer, it was war hot in Los Angeles, here, under the roof, it was even worse.
"She's still unconscious, he must have given her something. I can't remember the tox reports came back with anything." Lynn came back.
"There are some things he could have slipped them for the time he left them alone, like at night, to make sure they didn't scream and out of the system within a few hours. The day he killed them, he spent a lot of time with them, no need to drug them. Maybe the others. No, I hope he drugged them so they didn't have to see what he did to the other woman." She put on her gloves. "I need you to step away, you're containing the crime scene."
"Okay. Did you call for help?"
"Not yet."
"I tell them to send somebody when I call Rock. She might be in interrogation now."
"Hopefully she nails him and his lawyer. Tell Brandon to come over." She would need help. Especially when they wanted to use some of the evidence today.
