Morning had finally arrived and Rivka glanced at her alarm confused as she hadn't heard her phone ring and she checked to see that there was no missed calls or anything. "For once I might actually have a day to myself," she mused. As she was making a smoothie she heard the door and chuckled knowing the knock. "It's open Hawkes," she called out and he walked into the kitchen and she smiled. "I think for once we'll get lucky. I actually got to have a coffee," she mused.
"Don't hold your breath. They conspire against us," he reminded her and she nodded. As she made her smoothie and Hawkes helped himself to a cup of coffee they were both alerted to their cellphones and Rivka grabbed her's first.
"This is Bayar," she greeted formally. She knew it was the Crime Lab and was curious who was on the other end. Most of the time it was Jo or Mac calling her in and it wasn't uncommon to hear from Mac on her days off from the place.
"Rivka you have got to stop being right next to your phone," Mac teased.
"We both called it a conspiracy theory," Hawkes explained as she placed her phone on speaker. "We're guessing that an ME and a CSI are both not coming into work today?"
"You're correct about the ME part. Rivka's needed as we're down a CSI and Lab tech," he explained and she groaned into her smoothie mug. "Don't blame me for calling you in. You usually like being the on call child," he responded.
"Normally I do. Yet for once I had a normal day planned," she responded with a smile. "We'll be in shortly. We're taking the subway," she warned and Mac made a quick sound of acknowledgement before they grabbed their coats and walked to the elevator and down to the subway. "So much for normalcy."
"No kidding. By the way, Mac tells me that we're going to be seeing your family on Friday." She nodded at that and Hawkes smiled at that before looking at her. "Why haven't we met them before? Everyone's said it but I know you haven't answered."
"I love my family. I do. It's just that they love to judge me quite harshly. So I didn't want them to give their passive aggressive commentary around you guys. I don't want you to get caught up between what they do and how I respond normally," she responded. Hawkes chuckled at that and she smirked. "Know how me and Flack get into our little sarcastic comments thing?"
"Yeah trust me the entire lab waits for those moments."
"Picture that times 10," she responded and Hawkes looked at her. "Oh yeah. My parents are savages. Also don't be surprised if the question about what grade I'm in comes up. I know my aunt moved in with my parents shortly after I moved out."
"Why would she ask about grade though? Doesn't she know you're a CSI?"
"Nope. My parents barely acknowledge the fact that I'm in the work force and working with the boss at a young age. I mean Mac already has my Detective First Grade Exam set up. I got bumped to second because of all my majors and how I spent every summer earning hours as a third grade," she responded as they got onto the subway. "Sorry that was quite the word vomit to throw onto you," she chuckled nervously.
"No it wasn't. It was nice to finally get to hear something about your life before being a part of the Crime Lab and then how you're already up to the status you're at," Hawkes answered looking at her. As they arrived he walked with her up the street. "So your parents don't talk about your work."
"They talk way too much about me and marriage. But I turn them away all the time," she responded honestly knowing where the question was going and he looked at her. "What?" He chuckled and pointed to his head looking confused.
"No offence I get asked if I'm going to hear about that more often than I'd like to admit," she answered as she walked in and grabbed her lab coat from Jo. "Where am I heading first?"
"Sid wants you down in autopsy. He was going to start the incision but realized that we hadn't translated the writing yet. I'll be joining you," Jo informed looking at her. As they walked down with Hawkes and into the autopsy area, Sid was waiting. "We brought her down finally. Despite it being her day off."
"We are sorry we called you in," Mac chuckled as he poked his head out the door as he was with Sid.
"Meh. I knew I was going to be called in. It's how it always works," she admitted to Mac before he pointed to the writing. "Did we get pictures already?" He nodded showing them to her and she sighed in relief. "outher at haba schelch gah CSI yehudi. im art yakul." Mac looked at her shocked. "In Hebrew it means Make your daddy proud CSI Jew. If you can," she explained.
"So we're dealing with someone that knows you."
"They know me and I don't know them," she responded honestly. She then glanced up at the face. "COD?"
"Execution," Sid answered as he rolled the body to the side and pointed to the gunshot wound to the head with Mac. "They did it from behind so then we wouldn't focus on that."
"They wanted me to see the message so they wanted us to think it was a torture to death. But looking at how clean the message is, this was post mortem," she responded and Mac nodded. "I'll look into anyone my family may have gotten into confrontation with when they first immigrated."
"Good. Also see if you can't get anything about their past."
"Good luck. Paper records and I have to get past them to begin with," she responded.
"News flash. They can't say no to you while you're working," Mac reminded her. "Especially not if you have a warrant."
"If I get a warrant, want to take a road trip?" Mac looked at her and she smirked. "Trust me. You'll want to be present for this road trip," she responded and he chuckled knowing what she was getting at now. "Yeah me saying it might still be taken as a joke. Two first grade detectives with me assuring it's the real deal? They might actually listen."
"Get your warrant and make sure it does say we have access to the house and the paper records," Mac answered and she nodded walking up the stairs to go make some calls. "That kid is going to go places once she gets her feet on the ground."
"It still amazes me she's a second grade detective at her age," Jo answered and Mac looked at her. "I mean that politely of course. She's a good kid and knows how to walk around here and get answers. She's like Adam in the sense of smart as a whip."
"But she needs more field experience. She got her second grade classification over the summer. When she graduated from Criminology this year, I also had her write the second grade detective exam. Flack and I had been her mentors for a year and she already demonstrated enough prowess in the field to get bumped up a rank. She's taking her first grade after another few months as long as her progress still goes forwards. I want her to have some respect from the higher ups."
"You aren't thinking?"
"I know. I watched the entire 12th Precinct Homicide Division look at Detective Bayar all because of her nationality. She's Israeli by birth. She was raised in America and sure as hell knows how to act like an American," he explained.
"So this isn't just about her skills. It's about," Jo began and he nodded. "I never would have thought we'd have an ethnic barrier with her." Mac shrugged and nodded before watching as Flack came down. "So what do we have?"
"Meet Aswari Bayar," he introduced pointing to their victim and then revealing an ID. "Travel records say he came here for business a week ago but never left and once we showed the victim's picture customs verified his identity."
"Bayar? As in Rivka Bayar?"
"As she's openly said she has no idea what's going on. She was raised in America so maybe something from Israel is following her," Mac answered. "Regardless we will ask her when she comes back downstairs about that," he informed before seeing her walk down with her cellphone just being hung up. "Well?"
"DA says it'll take a day or two but they will get us that warrant to search my parents place and go through all the records," she informed and Mac nodded looking at her. "Any ID on our John Doe yet?" Flack handed over the card and as she looked she pursed her lips. "Name's the same as mine but I don't know it. So unless there's secrecy in my family, which I wouldn't be surprised at, I don't know anything about him."
"When's the dinner again?"
"What's today?"
"Thursday," Mac answered.
"Tomorrow," she responded looking at him. "Yeah no my parents didn't mean next week. They meant this week," she warned and he chuckled before sending a notice to the group chat. "Wise idea. Now onto Mr Bayar here. We need to learn what business he was doing."
"I'll get that for you. I want you to head up to the lab and work with Lindsay and process some of our evidence," Jo answered and she nodded heading upstairs not even hesitating. She looked on in amazement as Rivka kept walking. "I mean I know we should be pulling her from the case but."
"Rivka's openly said it. She has no idea about who this Aswari Bayar is. We'll hopefully learn at the dinner tomorrow night," Mac answered looking on as he walked upstairs and saw Lindsay and her working on different pieces of evidence.
"The hair is in the system being traced through CODIS and AFIS. Hopefully one of them gives us a ping," Rivka informed as she glanced back at Mac and was looking at a sample that Hawkes found. "Whoever this was, they were good. They knew what they were doing."
"So probably had military background," Mac answered looking at her. She nodded and then looked in the microscope again and frowned. "What's wrong?"
"This fiber. Hawkes said he thought it was a piece of the weapon. It's not very elastic based and stiff, but it can't be a piece of a weapon," she responded motioning him to look. "I think we're looking at a piece of clothing," she responded and he examined it closer as well and then nodded. "I'll need EDNA's help this time. If I know the fiber's main components I might be able to narrow it down," she responded.
"Have you ever worked EDNA?"
"Once," she responded and Mac chuckled going with her and the dish over to the machine and as he placed the dish into the microscope they watched as it came to life. "I know all fibers have some sort of biological origin so hopefully EDNA finds it."
"Should be able to," he answered before he saw a sample dropped and he grabbed it and placed it under the microscope letting her look and she shook her head. "Not that."
"So we aren't dealing with a titanium encasing," he responded putting it in the slot to have EDNA return it to it's proper spot. He then watched as another was dropped and he let Rivka continue the search this time. "Not steel of any kind," she informed.
"You do know you can also ask EDNA for certain samples right?"
"Aluminum," she decided and he chuckled showing her how to get the sample she wanted and as it spat out, she took it over and smirked. "We got it. Whatever this is, it's aluminum. I don't think a murder weapon can have aluminum."
"It can, but we need more information," Mac answered.
"I think I can give you some," Danny answered walking over. "That piece of shrapnel you found in the warehouse Miss Bayar?" She looked at him expectantly. "It came from a piece of a tire rim. We found a serial number on it. Take a guess who it belongs to."
"A rental car company?" Danny smirked and nodded at Rivka's quick intuition. "Let me guess. The car we're looking for was rented out to Aswari Bayar," she commented as an afterthought and he looked at her impressed. "I'm not dumb. Aswari's dead and we don't have much so far."
"Correct. But we need more information on Aswari himself. Why was he here?"
"I can head to customs with Detective Flack and see if I can't get the documents," she responded.
"No you let Flack handle customs. I have a better idea for your intelligence," Mac answered looking at her and she tilted her head. "Flack reported that Aswari was only going to be here for a week. That's not long. So he wasn't here on vacation while on business. He was here strictly for business. Start pooling through police, FBI and Interpol records for him."
"You think he's a fugitive?"
"Not him. But he was here to give a report," Mac responded and she nodded at him. "We'll let you know about what we get from customs." She nodded and as Flack and Mac got into the car he sighed looking at Flack. "I have this feeling Flack, that despite her knowing nothing, we've just thrown Rivka to the wolves."