Disclaimer: CSI not mine, Val the OC is mine.
A/N: Happy birthday Valerie! n.nv
Val: Aww, shucks, I'm blushing. -.-;;
"You must be the criminalists who wanted to speak to me," Michael York watched as Warrick and Val climbed out of the SUV and crossed the lawn towards him. "I wish I could give you more of a reception, but it's out of my hands. Unfortunately."
It was Val who recovered first. "Thankyou for allowing us to come over, sir. Especially at this hour."
The man gave a barely perceptible shake of the head. "It's alright. I hope I can be of some assistance." He lifted one hand and pointed to some chairs on the lawn in front of his wheelchair. "Please, feel free to sit down." Val and Warrick sat.
Michael York was a quadriplegic. There was no way he could have been the killer.
"I understood there was a problem with one of the houses," Michael said slowly. "What happened?"
Warrick cleared his throat. "We believe a serial killer is using the blueprints of the homes your company designed and built to murder people, Mr York."
Michael shut his eyes and heaved a wheezing sigh. "How?"
"Whoever the killer is," Val unrolled the blueprint and pointed to a spot on it, "They dig under the houses, and come up through a trapdoor in the floor."
"How many murders? How many times?" Michael seemed to sag.
"Six different houses." Val said softly.
Michael lowered his head as far as the brace on his neck would allow. He sighed again. "Pam and I designed those houses so people could dig their own basements if they wanted to. I had no idea that… that someone was using our houses for murder… I'm so, so sorry…"
"It's not your fault." Warrick said gently. Val looked sharply up at Warrick, then bit her lip and looked aside.
The man sighed wearily. "No… I suppose not." He took a breath, lifted his head. "You had some questions for me?"
"Yeah," Warrick nodded. "Do you know who might have access to the blueprints?"
Michael York frowned, and bit his lip. After a moment, he waggled his head in what might pass as a shrug. "Back when the houses were being built, it was just me and Pam, and we kept them under lock and key. But after the… after the accident…" Michael's eyes flickered down to the electric wheelchair he was strapped into, "I had to turn the blueprints over to another company. They don't build the houses anymore, but it's anyone's guess who might have access to them. Hell, anyone off the street could pull them off the internet if they wanted."
Val sighed, looking disheartened. Warrick put the blueprints back into the folder. "Thankyou for your time, sir."
Michael nodded. "Anytime. I hope I've been of some help."
Val smiled at him, but it was a sad smile. "We'll keep at it, Mr York. Don't you worry." She looked up at the house. "Is there someone taking care of you? Because if you need help…"
Michael York said wryly. "You sound like my nurse."
As if being summoned at a word, a young woman appeared in the doorway, and looked up at Val and Warrick.
"Funny," Val smiled, a little wider now, "You know, I used to be one?"
Michael laughed. "She's my daughter. She's been taking care of her old man for quite some time now." His eyes suddenly darkened, and his smile vanished. "Good luck catching the killer."
"Thanks." Val nodded. "And thanks again for your time." They both climbed into the SUV and drove off. On the horizon, the sun was slowly beginning to rise. End of the graveyard shift.
"This case is over," Warrick said sadly, concentrating on the road. "There's no way we can track down multiple copies of a house's blueprints. Even with a supercomputer… This case is over."
"Yeah, write 'Unsolved' in big red letters on this one." Val gave a disheartened sigh. "I hate leaving cases half done. No closure. For the victim's family… or me. I feel like I haven't done a good enough job."
"Hey, we did all that we could."
There was silence in the SUV for a while.
"Not really," Val said quietly, "There is one thing I think we should do before we give up."
"What's that?" Warrick asked.
Val looked sideways at Warrick. "Tell Julia Westwood's parents that we tried our best to find their baby's murderer."
-
Jackie looked fearfully from face to face. Grissom stood against the wall, watching the young woman's face closely. Nick and Sara sat at the table opposite the girl, both with the hands folded.
Sara's eyes narrowed. Jackie buried her head in her teddy again.
"You can drop the act now." Sara bit off the words. "It's over."
Jackie blinked at Sara, uncomprehending.
"You know, it should have clicked when I was talking to Dana," Sara smiled acidly. "She said you had the mental capacity of a ten-year-old. But here you are, acting like you're two or three. What, do you act older when you're with your friends?"
Jackie buried her head in her teddy bear.
Nick turned his head to look at Grissom, but the supervisor shook his head. Let Sara handle this for a while.
"You know what else Dana said?" Sara sat back and tried to look nonchalant. "She said she wanted to be an actress. She wanted to be discovered while working for Marcus."
"He hit Dana too." Jackie whispered.
"Oh?" Sara said in mock-surprise, "So he hit Dana, he hit you, he hit Tina… he hits everyone." Sara leant forward. "What's 'his' name, Jackie? Can you say his name, or are you too afraid to?"
Jackie whimpered and looked over at Grissom. "Why is she mad at me?"
"Say it," Grissom said. "Say his name, and she'll leave you alone."
"Marcus." Jackie whispered.
Sara smiled. "There, that wasn't so hard, was it?"
Nick pulled a tape recorder out from under the desk and pressed a button.
'Marcus.'
'There, that wasn't so hard…'
Nick looked up at Jackie, and pressed another button.
'But Marcus is mean…' Nick pressed fast forward for a second, 'And Marcus hits me a lot…' Jackie stared, childish fear etched on her face.
"Can I hear that one more time, Nick?" Sara smiled.
"Certainly, Sara." Nick tapped a few buttons, and the word 'Marcus' played side by side, then on top of each other. They sounded completely different.
"You know, none of this will hold up in court," Sara said, conversationally, "But I'm pretty sure that a jury will see the differences in your voice."
"And it's not because you're afraid," Grissom volunteered. "You use completely different pitch all three times. I'm pretty sure if we record you again, you'll say 'Marcus' completely differently."
Jackie continued to stare at the tape recorder in Nick's hand. "Why are you doing this?" She whispered, close to tears.
"Because you lied to us," Sara said simply. "So, what else, I wonder, are you hiding? Maybe you weren't such a good friend to Tina Evelyn as you said you were. Maybe you're the one responsible for her 'disappearance'."
Jackie shook her head frantically. "I didn't do anything!" She said, nearly sobbing. "But Tina made me promise!"
"Did Tina also tell you to call the police?" Nick asked.
Jackie froze, her eyes widening.
"Yeah," Sara said, "We analysed your voice patterns against the voice of the anonymous caller who tipped off the police about the missing model." Sara smiled acidly again. "You are a very good actress. You could pull off any role you wanted if you got 'discovered'." Her smile vanished. "You even fooled me."
Jackie looked from Sara, to Nick, then to Sara again. With a sigh, she gently placed her teddy bear on the table, making sure it sat comfortable… then picked it up and threw it against the wall with a screech. Nick, Sara, and Grissom all stared, stunned. Jackie turned back to face Nick and Sara.
A cold, venomous expression had replaced Jackie's childlike visage. She sneered at Sara.
"Congratulations, CSI's," Jackie laughed bitterly. "You've done something no-one has ever done before. Caught me out." She laughed.
Nick stared, open-mouthed. Grissom frowned over his glasses. Sara looked disgusted.
"Yeah, alright," Jackie shrugged, no longer acting like a little girl, "I called the police. Tina running off was the best thing that ever happened to me. You know why? Because Marcus," she sneered at Grissom, stressing the word, "Will finally be put behind bars. Where he belongs." She sat back in her chair and stretched herself languidly, as though bored. "You have no idea what kind of a relief this is," she smirked, "I don't have to play pretend anymore." She looked skyward, "Tina, I'm sorry, but you know I'm going to have to come clean about what happened." She turned and smiled politely at Sara.
Sara scowled, and opened her mouth to speak. But Nick butted in.
"Explain your fingerprints on the cocaine bag."
"Oh, puh-lease," Jackie rolled her eyes, "You can't work that out?"
"You'd better get some clothes on," Sara said.
"I am wearing clothes," Jackie said, feigning confusion, before turning and heading for her trailer. In the carpark, she removed her high-heels and ran across the asphalt. She hid behind one of the cars, and watched as Brass and Grissom went into Tina, Dana and Jackie's shared trailer. After only seconds to think on it, Jackie turned and ran to Marcus' trailer. Using the key under the mat, she unlocked the door and slipped inside. Once inside, she hunted quickly for Marcus' stash. Once she located it, she opened one of the bags, took a pinch of cocaine, and sprinkled it on the glass table. Even a blind man couldn't miss that. She closed up the bag, hid it under the magazines, then hurried outside, remembering to replace the key under the mat as she went.
Then she put her heels back on, and tottered up to the trailer. "Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't know there was somebody in here!"
"I guess I hadn't thought about the fingerprints," Jackie admitted wryly, "But whatever floats your boat."
"Brilliant." Sara said, blank-faced.
"But why?" Nick frowned. "Why go through all this… just to get Marcus arrested?"
Jackie laughed. "You criminalists were looking for Tina. You were looking at Marcus for the drugs, and the abuse, and the lies. Well, you were right. That's why Tina's gone. Because Marcus lost his temper." She sneered every time she said his name. "But you never looked at any of us, did you? Not really. I mean," she smirked, "If you were, maybe you would have noticed me."
"You wore a mask," Grissom interrupted smoothly. "You became the persona you had created in order to fit in with the other models. But you not only fit in, you blended in. You fooled everyone."
"Damn right I did," Jackie laughed. "And you three bought it all. Hook, line and sinker." She smirked. "And Dana thinks no-one cares what she thinks. She may be a 'backwards Canadian', but anyone with eyes can see she has a brain. That was her downfall - reading all those books." Jackie shook her head sadly. "Me? Hell, I could even fool my own father if I tried."
"Let me get this straight," Nick said, frowning. "You're the one that moved the drugs so we'd arrest Marcus. You're the one who called the police to report Tina's disappearance. And you're the one who knows exactly where she is."
Jackie smiled condescendingly at Nick, as though he were a dog that had just learned a new trick.
"Why all the lies?" Grissom frowned. "Why hide behind a façade?"
"You're the scientists," she said smoothly, "You figure it out." She made her face devoid of any emotion, then subtly lifted the corner of her lip slightly, half-raised an eyebrow… a face that seemed both unreadable and arrogant; a blank-faced sneer.
Sara sucked in breath suddenly.
Jackie's self-imposed mask vanished behind a seemingly genuine smile. "She's figured it out," she laughed at Grissom and Nick. "But then, it wasn't that hard for her." Jackie smiled at Sara. "After all, you were the one looking the hardest."
"Who are you?" Sara asked.
Nick and Grissom exchanged glances. What was Sara talking about?
"You mean you can't figure it out?" Jackie put on her baby voice again and blinked large Bambi eyes. "You don't know who I am? Don't you trust me?" She smiled and giggled. "Tina trusts me. She's the nicest person ever!" She suddenly smiled a smile somehow more predatory than Samantha's… and three times as dangerous. "Of course," she sneered. "Everybody trusts poor little Jacqueline Connors." The way she stressed the word sent shivers up all three CSI's spines.
Suddenly, it clicked. The drugs. The lies and deception. The blank-faced sneer.
"Like father, like daughter." Jackie smirked, and her face was a mirror of Marcus Vincent.
A/N: Wow! Two cliff-hangers in one chapter! Read and review! And wish Val a happy birthday (12th of Feb) while you're here. lol.