Chapter Five: Pulling it Together

About 12:15am :

"Alright Alexx, talk to me," Horatio said as he and Robin quickly walked inside the morgue.

"Alexx Woods? I'm Robin Elde, nice to finally meet you," Robin greeted.

"Good to know we've got some extra help on this case. Welcome aboard," Alexx said, smiling.

All three walked over to a couple of bodies laying on shiny, silver tables. Alexx pulled back the first sheet, revealing the cold, emotionless face of the young Sally Kirsten.

"As you can see…there's an exit wound right here, made by the bullet of a 9mm pistol," she pointed to a ragged tear in the girl's chest. "You probably already knew this, but the angle shows that our Sally was already in the niche when she was shot…sweetheart, you never had a chance, did you…"

Robin watched Alexx stroke the girl's hair, she was sort of confused at first, but soon realized that Alexx was simply treating her the way she should be treated--as a person, and not just some piece of a crime scene.

Alexx continued, "There's nothing special about the way the heart was cut into either one of the victims' shoulders, and it looks as if it was done with a normal Swiss pocket knife. The brand of eye makeup used on Sally's eyes was Clinique full potential mascara--No. 1, color was black."

"And the lip gloss?" Horatio asked.

Alexx pulled down the white cover off of the next victim's face, "Vicki's lip gloss is actually Maybelline lip polish--'high shine color'. Only thing connecting it with the mascara is that they're just inexpensive, convenience-store brands."

"Where was the body found?" Robin asked.

"Vicki's body was found huddled against a tree, hidden in a nearby park--spatter shows she was facing the tree when she was shot. The bullet, like it did with Sally, was directed right into the spinal cord."

"Did you get the time of death?" Horatio said, making mental notes of all he was being told.

"It might not be the most accurate, but judging from her liver temperature and the reported temperature of the area when she was found, the time of death was about eleven p.m., which was the same estimate for Sally's time of death nearly a day later," Alexx said, covering the body up again. "That was about all I could find for now. You'll have to check with Speed for the rest."

"Thanks, Alexx," Horatio said, nodding his head.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Robin. You take care," Alexx said sweetly.

"Thank you, I will," Robin smiled back.

* * * * *

On the way to the crime lab, Horatio thought out loud, "Okay, if we've got a murder in a park, chances are there were footprints or maybe reports of shots being heard."

"Yeah, but if it was that deep in the park, and that late at night, how good would those chances be?" she responded.

"That's what my good friend Tim Speedle is about to tell us," Horatio commented, entering the room.

"Horatio, finally! Huh? Who's this?" Speed said, looking at Horatio's company.

"Robin Elde, former CSI," she introduced herself.

"An old friend of Horatio's?"

She nodded, "Yeah, we worked together a little."

"Come check out what I've got here," Speed walked past Horatio, raising his eyebrows and slipping him a teasing glance.

"There were some matching cloth fibers found inside the bullet wound of each victim, indicating that a towel or rag was wrapped around the barrel in order to muffle the sound. Gun goes off, bullet pulls a piece of the material right along with it," Speed said, pulling up a microscope.

After looking through the microscope, Robin remarked, "So there were no reports of hearing gunshots?"

Speed nodded, "Right."

"Anything else? What about Vicki's clothes?" Horatio asked, remembering the blood difference on Sally's.

"Checked it, but it was her own. No extra clues this time. Also, there was hardly any evidence at all at the crime scene. I heard you say something about footprints when you were coming in…there were none. Not even prints from the victim! The ground was dry, no way for it to pick them up," Speed said, upset that he wasn't able to give them much info.

"Okay, we can still work with what you've given us. You have the photos from the crime scene?" Horatio asked.

"Uh-huh, here," Speed picked them up from a nearby desk.

"Great," Horatio stated. "Robin, we can stop at the hotel so you can unpack. We can take a look at the pictures while we're there too."

"Sure. Nice to meet you Mr. Speedle," Robin smiled.

"Just call me Speed!" he said, watching her step out of the lab.

**There ya have it, chapter five! Hopefully, I got all the forensics-y stuff at least half-way believable! Chapter six will be up soon, okay? Thanks for reading!**