Ok, you caught me. I am the WORST speller in the world. My world history teacher this year actually told me that I had the spelling mentality of a third grader. It's not my fault that I kept on spelling those as thoes. Right, but that's why I have spell check.
\*/*\*/\*/*\*/\*/*\*/\*/*\*/\*/*\*/
"Mr….Whittermeither?"
"Mr. Whitmhiter."
"Oh, sorry." Nick replied now a little embarrassed that he couldn't pronounce the neighbor's last name. "Mr. Whitta…"
"Please, call me John."
"Ok, sounds good to me. John, did you have good relationships with your neighbors?" Nick asked as he pulled out a pad of paper to record everything that the neighbor said.
"Good fences make great neighbors." John said motioning to the fence between his house and another.
"But there isn't a fence between your house and the one in question right now."
"Right, I didn't feel the need to put one up. The last people who lived there were rather old and didn't leave the house much. I knew that I would put up a fence one day." John paused, "Was the house was broken into?"
"Well, we aren't really sure what happened yet. We have someone working on it." as Nick said this he hoped that Sara really was processing the scene and not slacking off, like what he would have been doing. Wait, this is Sara he was referring to. She would probably be processing the doghouse if there was one on the property. "But John, did you know these neighbors in #76?" Nick asked using the house number.
"No one was living there. It has been deserted for about a year now. No one seems to want to buy it. There was a 'For Sale' sign up or a while, but then someone took it down."
"Yes, the sign was taken down because someone had bought the house, about five months ago as far as the records say. Sir, we have some evidence that suggests that someone was going to be moving into the house, if they weren't already living there. Do you work during the day?"
"Yes."
"Have you seen anything suspicious while you have been home? Like someone carrying out a giant thing of plastic wrap?" Nick couldn't believe that those words had just escaped his mouth.
John looked confused at this question. "Sorry, haven't seen anything like that. And I don't think anyone has been in that house for a while. I would have heard them."
Nick looked over at #76, and then at John's house. They were really close together and Nick certainly would have heard if someone was trashing the place inside. "What time do you work?"
"From four to ten everyday."
Nick sighed. The neighbor hadn't been home when the house was being ransacked, and in other words, would be useless in this investigation. "Thank you for you time. If we have any more question I'll contact you." Nick then turned and walked towards the house. The two officers were still stationed there and they were talking their head off. They didn't seem to notice that Nick had even walked by them. That was the one thing Nick hated, inattentive officers at a scene. There have been too many situations that have ended badly with preoccupied officers.
Nick entered the house and spotted Sara over by the hole in the wall. She seemed to be absorbed in the hole, and didn't hear Nick until he was right behind her. "Sara?" he whispered so he wouldn't startle her, but it didn't work. She jumped about three feet in the air and turned around and smacked Nick in the arm. "Don't you do that!" she screamed at him. All he could do was laugh.
Sara shrugged of his childish behavior and went back to looking in the hole. "What do you make of this?" she asked him after he had stopped giggling.
Nick leaned forward and looked in with her. The hole was huge first of all, and quite deep. Inside of the hole were three shelves showing that someone was planning on storing things in there. On the first shelf was a Ziploc bag with some white power in it. "I'll bet you anything this is a drug." Sara commented and then bagged the bag. On the second shelf was a hundred dollar bill and on the third shelf was a beer bottle. "I got one smudged print off that bottle. I'm going to see what Jackie can do with it back at the lab. I don't know about the bill though. It's wet."
Nick looked around for some tweezers and found them in Sara's kit. He took them out and then picked up the bill. It sure was wet and smelled funny. "Do you recognize that?" he asked Sara. She shook her head no. "Ok, can I expand on our theory?"
"Sure. Knock yourself out." she said shrugging.
"Ok, We have an abandoned house with an alarm system in it. Two bullets up stairs, but no blood, and a pool of blood under the couch downstairs. Oblivious neighbors, and a trashed downstairs and a spick and span upstairs. Now, I think we have some drug dealing going on." Nick held the bill up to his eye level and examined it. "Something tells me that there were more plastic bags and money too. What the hell happened here?" Nick wondered aloud.
"Oh, you think you've seen everything?" Sara said giving him a look, "Come see this." After he bagged the bill, she led him towards the back of the house to a door. Sara pushed it open to reveal a staircase leading down to what Nick guessed was the basement. "You ready?" she asked. Nick had no idea what she was going to show him.
Sara started down the flight of stairs and when she got to the bottom she turned around and looked back up at Nick who hadn't budged. "Oh, you want to me turn on the lights? Ok…." Sara turned to the side and flipped three switches. With the first switch, strobe lights turned on and began to illuminate the room in quick pulses of light. With the second switch, a disco ball in the middle of the basement light up. Sara smiled as she flipped the third switch, this one was he favorite. Flipping the third switch, the floor of the basement began to glitter as Christmas lights under a sheet of thick glass twinkled on and off.
Nick came downstairs with a wide-open mouth. "Clean second floor, trashed first floor, and a disco in the basement." Sara said proudly.
"I'm confused." Nick finally said.
"Join the club."
"What this club? I think I'll stick to those foam parties."
"And now I'm expanding our theory. An abandoned house with an alarm system in it. Two bullets up stairs, but no blood, and a pool of blood under the couch downstairs. Oblivious neighbors. A trashed downstairs and a spick and span upstairs, and a disco club in the basement. Drug dealings, booze and money. Am I missing anything?"
"Not yet."
"Right. Now all we have to do is figure out how this fits together."
"My favorite part." Nick said with a smile.
"I thought that was being back at the lab with Greg discussing the latest episode of Trading Spaces?"
"Not funny Sidle."
"Oh, I thought it was when I walked in on that conversation. I'll never forget your mortified look when you both realized that I was standing in the door way."
"Ok, can we just call a truce now? Can we get back to the crime? Did you lift any fingerprints off anything else upstairs?"
"Way to change the subject Nicky-boy. And yes, for your information, I did."
"I'm driving." Nick said forcefully as he turned and began to walk back up the stairs. Sara flipped the switch for the lights.
"I know your deep dark secrets Nick. You are watching TLC not for the shows on birds, but for the shows on designing. I think the least you owe me to shut me up is to let my drive."
"Like this isn't blackmail…" Nick said as he and Sara gathered up their kits and left the scene.
