Elisa finished the phone call with her mother, letting them know that she was alright before her father could hear the call over the police frequencies. He had been retired from the force for a little over ten years, but he still monitored the channels.
Once a cop, always a cop.
Her mother promised that she would pass along the message, but insisted that they were coming to stay with her for the day.
Elisa wanted to protest, but didn't.
She called Skyler, but other than checking to make sure that both she and Liam were okay, she requested that they stay there a few more days until she was certain that the danger had passed. She heard the concern in Skyler's voice, but Elisa was having enough trouble keeping herself together without having to share comforting words that she didn't have.
A blessed state of numbness had taken over now, leaving her feeling hollow.
She got to her feet, still clad in the clothes she'd been wearing for two day that were now blood stained, and joined Matt and Travis.
Thankfully, someone had covered the body with a spare sheet from her linen closet so that she wouldn't have to look at it.
Elisa sat on the couch, so that she wasn't facing the door. Unfortunately, that gave her a clear view of the courtyard, and Goliath's prone stone form.
Had it been enough, she wondered. Would he wake tonight completely healed?
Would he wake at all? She gave an involuntary sob, and covered her mouth to try to block the sound.
Matt hurried forward, and drew the room darkening curtains across the doors, effectively blocking off the view.
"Elisa," Matt said, coming to sit beside her. "Maria and the coroner are on their way, along with several other officers. We need to talk and plan before they get here."
Elisa blinked at him. "Plan?"
"Elisa," Matt said her name firmly. He didn't like being harsh with her while she was probably going through a form of personal hell that he only hoped to never have to go through himself, but they needed to get this right. "We can't hide the fact that there was a second body shot here tonight. There it too much blood, in two different places, and only one in the dead body. We need to figure out what to tell people before anyone else gets here."
"Yeah, okay," Elisa said.
Matt frowned at her. "Travis," he called over his shoulder, "How much time do we have?"
Travis joined them, choosing to stand rather than sit, however. "We still have about fifteen or twenty minutes before anyone gets here. They're all caught in the morning gridlock out there."
"Alright," Matt said, looking from Elisa's shock-y face to Travis. "Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to call Elisa's doctor at the Aerie Building and try to figure out a good plan to explain where Goliath went. I need you to help run interference with any officers that may come up before Captain Chavez gets here. As far as any of them are concerned, we got her just after Cross was shot, and we helped Elisa get her husband on a medical transport out of here."
Travis nodded.
"Cross?" Elisa asked. "That was Cross?"
Matt nodded slowly. He reached in his coat and withdrew a few folded pages and handed them to Elisa.
With slow, deliberate but still shaky hands, Elisa unfolded them. The pages were printouts of security footage still frames, and one was a close up of a driver's license.
Elisa tried to study the footage shots, but she couldn't see him well enough to identify him. Finally, she turned to the driver's license, and froze.
"Wait," Elisa said, her breath hitching. "Matt, this is the guy from the YMCA." She shoved the page at her partner. "The janitor who helped me get up after I slipped in that puddle."
Matt nodded. "He was also there on the night of the supposed break in," He reminded her. "Turns out, he had attempted to erase the security footage from that night, but our crack team of computer wizards managed to recall the footage." Matt jerked his head in the direction of Cross. "He broke the window, and then made the call, probably hoping that you would be a responding officer."
Elisa frowned, trying to puzzle all this out. She lifted one of the still frames again, and really looked at it.
"Where did you guys get this footage?" Elisa asked. "It's not from our cameras, and the angle is weird."
"It was given to us by someone who witnessed the vandalism from across the street," Travis said. "He'd been playing around with his new video recorder, and was walking around taking video of birds and stuff. When it got so late, he started walking around, and saw what was happening. He ducked into the basement stairwell of a business and recorded what he saw."
"That's why the angle is weird," Elisa said. "He was filming across and up."
Matt nodded. She may be a little out of it emotionally, but her detective brain was still working.
"When I talked to you earlier, I told you that I'd been in touch with Jason," Matt reminded Elisa. "He had sent me an email with an offer to help ID anyone if we found a suspect."
"Turns out," Travis said, "he was a lot more helpful than we'd thought he would be."
"The angle," Elisa said on a sigh.
"The angle," Matt confirmed. "We had trouble with identification, so we sent it to Jason to see if he'd recognize the guy. Since Jason looks at people from a different angle now from his chair, he recognized Cross right away. A few minutes later, we got the confirmation hit with the finger prints."
"Where did Jason know Cross from?" Elis asked.
"Cross has a younger brother," Matt said. "Big sports player. I guess he got hurt during a game, and Jason has been helping him recover from the injury."
Elisa frowned. Something about that sounded familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it…
"Who is his brother?" She asked.
Travis flipped through his notepad, "Christopher."
"Oh my god," Elisa said, her mouth agape. "Chris? The kid who was trying to hit on me?"
"That I don't know," Matt shrugged. "But Jason was certain that was him."
"So, considering the timing," Travis said, "He may have seen you at the hospital when his was picking up his brother, then at his job the night you went to the Y to play with those kids."
Elisa closed her eyes and sank back in the couch, her head laying against the back of the cushions.
"Elisa?" Matt said abruptly.
"I'm still here, Matt," Elisa said. "Or, as here as I can manage. I'm just processing."
"No time," Travis said. "ETA of the others is now about five minutes."
Elisa opened her eyes. "Okay," She said on a sigh. She got herself upright once more. "For simplicity's sake, the only thing that's different is that Gol…" Elisa's voice hitched on her husband's name, but she took a breath and continued. "Goliath was shot, and he was transported to the Aerie Building through a private ambulance service for treatment. Did you already call Doctor James so he can verify?"
"Damn," Matt cursed, and grabbed out his phone. "I got caught up with the pictures."
Matt dialed, and stepped into Elisa's kitchen to talk to the doctor.
Elisa turned to Travis. "Wait… If that's Cross, why was he in uniform?"
Travis shrugged. "Probably just to get past security downstairs. It's a good recreation, but it's a costume. The badge looks like an NYPD badge, but it's plastic."
"And I called downstairs and told them to let you guys up," Elisa closed her eyes and bowed her head. "I don't know if I told him it was going to be you guys specifically, because I was preoccupied about my stupid car. Marco probably saw the uniform and assumed it was an officer I was waiting for."
Travis knelt down in front of Elisa. "It wasn't your fault, you know that, right?" he said softly. "This guy was just waiting for an opportunity to get to you. He probably had this planned, and it was just luck that he got past security."
Elisa nodded, not trusting her voice at the moment.
The tone at her door let her know that the elevator had arrived, and soon her place was swarming with officers, detectives, and the coroner.
A few minutes later, Maria arrived. She spent a few moments, redirecting everyone, and dispatching those who weren't needed elsewhere.
Once the extra people were out of the way, leaving only those essential to the case, Maria gestured to both Matt and Travis to follow her.
They made their way further into the room, and Maria gently sat down beside Elisa. "How are you holding up?"
Elisa shook her head. "I don't know. I don't really know much of anything right now."
Maria sighed and gave her a quick one-armed hug. "Did you call your parents?"
"Yeah," Elisa said. "I talked to mom."
"Good," Maria said, "At least you got to him before the radio chatter did. Are they on their way?"
"Yeah," Elisa said.
Maria nodded, then rose to her feet to stand. She motioned to Matt and Travis, and the three of them retreated further into the room, ending up beside the curtain covered doors. Conscious of the fact that there were other officers around, she lowered her voice. "What's the story?"
Matt sent a concerned look at Elisa, then spoke. "Goliath was shot when Cross entered the apartment. He was transported via a private ambulance service to a private medical facility at his wife's request, and is being treated by Doctor Bradley James. The ambulance arrived prior to the other officer's arrival, but his wounds were severe enough that transport couldn't wait."
Maria nodded. "I'm not sure if I should be concerned that you all are getting way too good at this or not."
"That's the public story," Matt said. "Since you learned of the clan, we've always told you the truth."
"Let's keep it that way, shall we?" Maria said briskly.
"Yes ma'am," Matt and Travis said at the same time.
"Where is Goliath at now?" Maria asked.
"Courtyard," Matt said.
Maria frowned. "He didn't actually make it back to the castle last night?"
"Maria," Travis said softly. "He wouldn't have made it. He almost didn't' anyway."
She blinked at him. "Meaning?"
"He lost a lot of blood and went unconscious," Matt reported. "In the time it took Travis and I to get him outside, he didn't have a pulse."
"Damn it," Maria said, sending Elisa a glance. "Please tell me…"
"I think we got his heart going again, just before the sun rose, but…" Matt drifted off, his uncertainty reflecting in his voice.
"We need to get Elisa out of here," Maria said, pushing her personal feelings aside.
"Captain," Matt said, surprised.
"This is a crime scene," Maria pointed out. "As much as I wish she could stay here, we need to treat it as we would any other crime scene, which means closing it off for the time being, getting her statement, and letting the NYPD do their jobs. I'm also going to add finding her a damn good clean-up crew."
"She's not going to want to leave," Matt pointed out.
"What she wants isn't in the cards right now," Maria said. "We can try to get her back in here around sunset, but for now, we need to get her taken care of. Matt, you take her to go pack a bag and change clothes. Travis, you make sure those clothes are bagged and tagged, like this was any other crime scene."
A pair of familiar raised voices came from the entryway, and Maria braced herself. "In the meantime, let me go try to calm Elisa's parents."
