To See or Not to See
June 20th, 2004
Catherine bent down to the girl's level and noticed the blank stare of her brown eyes. Catherine smiled.
"What did you see?"
"The safety being removed from the gun, the bullet entering the chamber, a count of three and two separate guns firing," the girl replied firmly.
"What's your name, sweetheart?"
"Livvie Jallarico."
"Well, Livvie, my name is Catherine," she answered, taking the little girl's hands in her own.
"Catherine Willows. Mommy described you to me."
"Does your mother know you're in here?" Livvie nodded.
"My ears are better than any one else's," she said, her face and unseeing eyes turned towards Catherine's voice.
"Honey, you can't see, can you?" Livvie glanced down then resolutely back into Catherine's eyes, or as well as she could. They held a 'stare down'.
"I'm blind, if that's what you mean," Livvie finally said. Grissom took to her immediately.
"Where did you hear the shots?" he asked, well aware of the heightened senses when one is incapacitated. Livvie straightened in importance.
"Can you describe where I am?"
"The edge of the dance floor," Grissom began, guiding Livvie's hand to the polished wood, "off to the left." Livvie nodded, moving around the tables. Her hands moved over the cloth at one of the tables near the back.
"This is where I sat," she said, standing facing the head table. She turned around.
"One shot came from the back, over there," she said, pointing to a table to the right, "and the other came from two tables that way," she added, pointing to the right. Catherine thanked Livvie and walked her back to the door. She returned to the group.
"She's blind," Sara stated, moving over the right table that Livvie pointed at.
"That doesn't mean she's not credible. Because she can't see, her hearing is much better than yours or mine," Grissom answered, moving in the opposite direction. Catherine watched Sara's face grow red in embarrassment and gave her a reassuring smile before heading up to the victims. The coroner's assistant, David was leaning over the bodies.
"COD?" she asked wearily.
"Gun shot wounds, all of them." He was leaning over the blond girl and Catherine had to close her eyes for a moment to convince herself that it wasn't Lindsey.
"From the looks of it, a bullet went through the mother into the daughter and through the farthest man into the boy," he said, pointing out two through and throughs in the wife and groomsman.
"Parents protecting their children," she supplied.
"It doesn't matter though," he said, pointing out two head wounds, one in the girl and the other in the boy. Catherine shook her head in disgust.
"Why the children?" she asked, more to herself than David, who shrugged.
"Most of the victims bled out. Abdomen and chest shots."
"Thanks. Do me a favour and put these autopsies first?" David nodded and set about waving the paramedics to zip the victims in body bags. Catherine stood up and faced the empty room…
But in her mind, it wasn't empty.
This one's a tad screwed up, I know, but I need Livvie! I swear!
Thanks for all the awesome reviews. They really are motivational to make me write more!
Kavi Leighanna