Disclaimer: Don't own anything except the characters of the LA crime lab. They're all mine. You can't have them. Warning for language.
Chapter 3
Within a few hours, Vivian had contacted Captain Rick Marshall, her inside man at the LAPD. He had tracked down Elroy at the hotel he was staying in. He then took some officers down to pick ol' Marty up, and bring him in for questioning.
Since they had also obtained a warrant for his hotel room and vehicle, Tobias, Rebekah, and Greg went over to look through his stuff while Nick and Anthony were questioning him.
His hotel room was virtually empty, he must have packed very light. Lying on the bed was a pool stick case. Rebekah donned some gloves and picked it up. It had something in it, so she opened it, to reveal a pool stick, separated into two pieces. She carefully examined both halves, and glanced into the case. In the bottom, there was a small cube of blue chalk. "Hm…" she muttered to herself.
It was then that she noted that the bottom half was heavier than it should be, and if she tipped it the right way, something seemed to rattle inside.
"Hey guys! Check this out," she said as she held the stick it front of her, rattling whatever was inside.
"Whassat?" Greg asked.
"It's a pool cue." Greg gave her a look that said I know that, so she continued, "With something inside it."
After a bit of finagling, she found that the very bottom twisted open to reveal a hollow cavity, in which something was glinting in the light. Rebekah tipped it and dropped a metal skewer into her hand.
"HA!" she yelled in triumph. "Looks like a murder weapon to me. What say you, eh?"
Tobias nodded. "Nice. But we'll have to take it back to the lab and test it to be sure."
They continued sifting through the sparse items in the hotel room, finding nothing else of use, and moved on to Elroy's car. It was a junky old station wagon desperately in need of a new paint job. On the passenger seat there was a book with a scrap of paper stuck between some of the pages. On closer inspection, the book turned out to be a high school yearbook, and the paper, marking the page with Annette Pearson's picture on it, had scrawled on it "McInelly's419 W. Harcourt DriveLos Angeles"
Back at the lab, the skewer tested positive for blood, and positive for human. After a little experimentation, it proved to be an exact match to the puncture wounds in all the victims.
The interrogation had not been so helpful. When they had found out about the skewer, Tobias had gone to give the information to Anthony. When questioned about the skewer, yearbook, and address, Elroy had cleverly dodged everything they had. He said that the book had been in his car for some time, and his coming to LA had nothing to do with Annette Pearson. As for the address, he simply said a friend had suggested the bar before he came.
Then came the big question: What was he doing with a skewer with human blood on it? And technically, he had been carrying it as a concealed weapon, which he did not have a permit for. When presented with these questions, he immediately clammed up and demanded to have a lawyer.
A little later, they all met up in the break room.
"Well, even if he's not talking, we've got enough evidence to hold him," Anthony said as he dug a sandwich out of the fridge.
Rebekah suddenly looked up from her yogurt. "Mm…but why was there no other evidence of a bloody murder in or on his stuff? You know, like no bloody clothes or anything."
"Must've dumped 'em somewhere," Nick offered.
"Dumpster!" Tobias said suddenly, holding his can of soda up, in a salute of sorts. "We didn't check it. Didn't have a reason to at the time."
As if compelled by some silent order, Tobias and Rebekah abruptly got up, went to get their gear, and headed out to check the dumpster at the motel.
They stood in front of the dumpster, silently debating on how to go about their task.
Tobias turned to Rebekah. "You know, you're going to have to climb in there."
"What! Why me? You're supposed to be manly and…tough. You afraid of a little garbage?"
"No, but you weigh less, so it'll be easier to get you in and out."
"You just don't want to get dirty," she muttered as she walked up to the dumpster. How to get in there… She wasn't known for her upper body strength, so she was betting that she couldn't lift herself over the edge. She was pondering her nonexistent plan when Tobias crept up behind her and grabbed her just above the knees. She shrieked as he hoisted her up to where she could climb over the edge.
So there she stood, amid the garbage, while Tobias stood on the ground in front of her with a big grin. She narrowed her eyes at him before returning to the task at hand. She began pushing piles of trash aside, extremely thankful for her gloves.
"Hey now, what's this?" she said suddenly. Tobias leaned over the edge of the dumpster to see what she had found. She held up a white plastic grocery-type bag, which appeared to have something stained red in it. On closer inspection, it was a T-shirt, a grey one. It had blood stains on the bottom of the front, as though someone had wiped off their bloody hands on it. "The plot thickens."
She put the shirt back in the bag, and handed it to Tobias, who put it into a large evidence bag, and set it next to his kit.
"Um…let's see…" Rebekah muttered as she attempted to remove herself from the dumpster. She wound up sitting, teetering, on the edge, her feet dangling about three feet off the ground. She was going to just jump down, but she didn't want to get caught on the edge as she slithered down. So, she swung her legs forward, and vaulted herself into the air haphazardly, just as Tobias stood up from kneeling by his kit, and turned around to face her. Well, now he was standing right in her way, that wouldn't do at all… There was no time for him to move, and she certainly couldn't change course in midair. In the end, she collided with him, wrapping her arms around his neck, as he grabbed her around the waist. He stumbled back a few steps, then she looked him in the eye, grinned, and set her feet on the ground.
"Thanks."
"Yeah…uh, anytime."
Upon taking the shirt back to the lab, it was determined that the blood on the shirt belonged to the victim, Annette Pearson. And, from skin and sweat from the inside of the shirt, it was determined that it belonged to Martin Elroy.
"There's no way he's getting out of this now," Anthony said as he reviewed the evidence.
"Actually there is."
Everyone turned to see Vivian walk in, looking very distraught.
"What?" was the general cry in the room.
"He just escaped from county lockup. Killed two guards with a pen that was sitting on a desk. A friggin' pen!" she explained.
"What? How?" Sara asked.
"A quick jab to the jugular, and he was out of there before anyone even realized what was happening."
"Shit. That means he could be out there, right now, killing someone else." Greg said angrily.
"Wait," Nick said. "Who says he's going to kill anyone else? He's already got the one he was after. The one who started it all."
"Let's say I've got a feeling," Greg replied.
"He's probably right," Tobias pointed out. "I mean, there's still so much we don't know about this guy. How he finds his victims, how he chooses them, how he managed to find Annette Pearson, all kinds of stuff."
"OK, so how do we find him?" Vivian asked the assembled group.
"Well," Anthony mused. "It would be near impossible to track him, so—"
"Bait," Rebekah said suddenly.
Vivian shook her head. "Too risky."
"Aww, come on," Rebekah protested. "Just have some cops follow the lure, and nab him the second they see him."
Vivian looked straight at her. "No." She turned to address the group as a whole. "Now, it's getting late. There's no reason to have everyone here all night. So, some of you, go get some sleep. Draw straws if you have to." Then she headed back to her office to finish a massive pile of paperwork.
They did end up drawing straws, because no one really wanted to leave while there might be work to be done. Of the six remaining, it was decided that three would go, and three would stay. Rebekah, Sara, and Nick were sent off to get sleep, while the others remained at the lab, going over the evidence, trying to determine where Martin Elroy would go now.
After an hour or so, Tobias's cell phone rang. The display said that it was Rebekah's phone, but for some reason he felt uneasy as he answered it.
"Hello?"
"Hey Mr. CSI," a man's voice on the other end said. "Your little red-headed friend is just my type. Too bad for you." Then he hung up.
"Fuck!" Tobias yelled as he jumped up and headed for the door.
"What is it? What's going on?" Greg asked him.
"Bastard's got Rebekah," came the reply.
"What! How did he find her? How does he even know about her?" Greg continued to question.
"I have no idea. The guy's a frickin' nutcase."
"Where are you going?" Anthony asked.
"To Rebekah's."
"And what are you planning on doing when you get there?"
"I'll figure that out when I get there."
"I'll come with you," Greg offered.
Tobias turned to Anthony. "Send some backup or something, eh?"
Anthony knew there was no stopping the young man. "Will do," he said as they left.