Night Shift
Part 6
I don't know the amount of damage a pipe bomb can do, so I'm just guessing here. Nor am I all that sure on radio terms.
(Day after NS, pt 5)
A single police car was parked in the long driveway.
"It's okay, officer, we've got it from here," Sara told the policeman who waited next to his car.
"Here's yours," I handed Sara's case to her and we went into the darkened house. The body lay in the hallway. Sara already had her camera out and was taking pictures. I looked back towards the door and then down at the body.
"Shot twice once in the back, once in the head. Running away maybe?" I asked.
"Maybe," Sara said. I rolled the woman over carefully.
"No exit wounds. That should help, if we find a gun."
"I hate when you say that," I muttered.
"Take a look at this," I went up to the wall. Sara squinted at it through the gloom.
"I don't see anything," she said. I took a bottle of luminol out of my case and started to spray the wall.
"Got the nerd glasses?" I asked. She tossed a pair to me and put on one herself.
" 'SHE IS MINE'. What is that supposed to mean?" She asked.
"Ex-boyfriend. You want to take a photograph before it fades?" I smirked at her. She blushed at having to be reminded.
"You got enough luminol?" Sara asked me.
"What for?" I asked.
"To spray all the walls," she explained. I held up the bottle I held.
"Got me a whole bottle of the stuff," I replied, starting to spray the rest of the wall.
"Not if you're doing the whole house,"
"What! You've got to be kidd…ah crap. Fine, you'll be okay working here all by your lonesome?"
"Going to have more fun anyway,"
"Shut up, Sara,"
"I'm done downstairs. I was going to spray the rooms you haven't done yet," Sara stood in the doorway of the bedroom.
"Too late, this is the last room…and I got something," I put on the glasses again.
" 'AND SHE WILL BE AGAIN'," Sara read the blood on the wall.
"Not if she's dead," I muttered. I glanced at Sara as she stood looking at the wall.
"What?" She asked after a moment.
"You're the one with the camera," I said.
"You better not tell anyone about this," she threatened.
"Depends on what I get in return," I held up a few evidence bags.
"Looks like the lady of the house wasn't the only one here tonight."
"What did you find?" Sara asked.
"A used condom in the bathroom wastebasket and some grey hair on the bed,"
"You went through the garbage?" Sara shook her head.
"No, I tripped over it. The damn thing was just inside the door and the light don't work." I said.
"You still found it," Sara shrugged.
"Let's just hope Greg can get some usable DNA off it,"
"You done here?"
"The sooner I get out of the house of horrors the better. Stinks of luminol," I shuddered dramatically and Sara laughed.
The photographs finally developed we laid them out on the table, as the house was laid out. Sara had taken pictures of every room.
"Body in hallway, message on wall over victims head reading 'SHE IS MINE', condom in bathroom wastebasket, and a message on the bedroom well reading 'AND SHE WILL BE AGAIN'. Talk this one out," Sara instructed me.
&&&&&&&&&
Regina Tilson has decided that tonight she's going to have a quiet night in. She's wanted to read this novel for a long time; she just never had the time. She crawls into bed early with her book, starts to read it. She doesn't hear the door downstairs being opened, or the man making his way upstairs. She turns the page on her book and that's when the shadow falls across the page. She looks up and sees her murderer and she smiles. She hadn't expected her boyfriend to come over tonight; he had told her that he had other plans.
"Hey, babe," he sits on the edge of her bed and kisses her. They engage in a little foreplay and then have sex. Afterwards they lie in bed, but the boyfriend gets up and goes into the bathroom, taking off the condom and throwing it in the wastebasket and comes back out.
"Sorry, Reggie," he says to his girlfriend.
"I can't stay tonight," he tells her. She pouts a little, but she understands because he's always been this way. She gets out of bed and walks him to the front door, but her boyfriend had another reason for coming here tonight. He wants her dead. He pulls the gun out of his jacket pocket and points it at her. Trisha's eyes widen in surprise and then she laughs, thinking that he's joking.
"Put that away," she says. His stance doesn't change and after a moment she realises that he's serious, she turns and runs. He shoots her in the back and she goes down, but she's not dead, she's desperate to get away from him, crawling along the smooth wood floor. He stands over her, looking down at her pathetic attempts at escape. He pulls the trigger again, hitting her in the head. This time she lies still.
&&&&&&&&&
"What makes you think she knew him?" Sara asked when I was finished.
"You said there was no sign of a break in. She had to let him in or he had a key of his own. Either way she knew her killer." I said.
"And the DNA will tell us what we need to know," she said.
"Want to take a lunch break?"
"Are you paying?"
"I'll see what I can do," She smiled.
"Greg wants to know if you gave him the right hair sample," Sara came in the door of the lab I was working in.
"I gave him the ones I found on the bed," I looked up at her and saw Greg hanging behind her and both of them were looking at me very strangely.
"Are my jeans on back to front or something?"
"You didn't visit any relatives recently?" Greg asked.
"I don't have any living relatives," I replied. My mother had been an only child and both her parents had died when I was six. As for my father; well as you can understand I didn't want to have him as a relative.
"You're sure?" Sara asked.
"Yes, I'm sure." I said a little testily.
"What's going on?" Grissom stopped behind Greg. Greg jumped; Grissoms presence always seemed to make him nervous.
"The hair sample that Phoenix found on our victims bed belong to a male relative. Father or brother maybe," Sara explained. My eyes met Grissoms over the top of Sara's head.
"I don't have any brothers," I said.
"Go back to your lab, Greg, and don't tell anyone else about this until I say so." Grissom said. He came into the lab and Sara followed him.
"What else did you get?" Grissom sat down on a stool. I shrugged and stared at the table.
"Dead woman, shot in the back and the head. Messages written in blood on the walls 'SHE IS MINE' and 'SHE WILL BE AGAIN'. A condom in a wastebasket and hairs on the bed." Sara said.
"And the hairs are a match. Looks like he's spreading it around," Grissom said.
"Yeah, great," I muttered.
"Okay," Grissom said in a tone of voice that indicated he meant business.
"Sara you and I are going back to that house. You're going to work in here until this is finished." He looked at me.
"No, no way. I already changed cases once tonight because of him. I'm not doing it again," I argued.
"Phoenix, this is serious-" Grissom started.
"You don't think I know that! He's making this personal. No matter what I work on he seems to know. Who's to say that the next case I take on isn't one of his?" I asked. Sara was looking between Grissom and me, knowing something was wrong, but not sure what that was.
"I want to catch him as much as you. Probably even more. I'm not giving up just because it's him." I looked at him challengingly.
"I don't like it," he said.
"Neither do I. But I'm working this one, boss," I stood up and looked over at Sara.
"Okay, but I want you to keep your radio with you. Both of you," he looked at Sara as well.
"That won't be a problem," I assured him.
We rode in silence most of the way. Sara obviously knew by now that I wanted to get the murderer and that he was my father.
"He asked me to move in," I said out nowhere.
"What?" She looked away from the road for a second.
"Nick, he asked me to move in with me and I said yes. Don't know whether that was a good idea or not." I said.
"That's good," she glanced at me sideways.
"Means he's taking this seriously."
"I guess so. I mean I know we haven't been together that long, but I have a feeling about it. You know what I mean?" I asked.
"Vaguely," Sara stopped outside the house and climbed out and we went in together.
"More pictures?" I asked her.
"As many as we can get," she replied.
"You want me to just stand around holding the tripod?" I asked her. Sara was better at taking these photos than I was.
"If that's really what you want to do," she said.
"I can be your model if you. Do I have the body for it?" I struck a pose. That's me; when the shit hits the fan I become the clown and act like there's nothing wrong. She smiled at me.
"Maybe you should ask Nick that question," she said.
"Which room first, Ms Spielberg?" I asked.
"Kitchen," she replied.
"Dammit," she opened the back of the camera.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"No film,"
"Ever think of changing to digital? Never mind I'll go get it," We usually kept a spare roll in the Tahoe's just in case of something like this happening, I set down the tripod and went back to the Tahoe. I was digging around in the glove compartment when I heard it. A gunshot. I dropped the roll of film and reached for the radio in my jacket pocket. The other hand going to the holstered gun at my waist.
"This is Phoenix Matthews, requesting backup at the Tilson residence, Tropicana Avenue," I said into the radio.
"This is Catharine Willows, are you in danger?" Catharine's voice crackled back over the radio.
"Unknown, shot fired inside the house," I said nervously.
"We're on our way, three minutes," Catharine said. I could already hear the siren in the distance.
"Understood, I'm going back in there," I told him.
"Negative, wait until we get there," she said.
"Sara's in there-ugh!" I turned around and was hit in the face by something and went down hard. I must have blacked out for a few seconds, next thing I know the guys kicking me and then he has my gun pointed in my face. Sure, you're trained for this kind of thing happening, but it's a whole different call game when it actually happens.
"So you're the one he's after!" The man said.
"Drop the gun!" A voice yelled. A cop car's arrived just in time to save my ass. The guy looked to the cops and then down at me, after a long moment he cursed and threw my gun down and drops to his knees his hands folded over the back of his head. I push myself upward on one hand, I felt nauseous.
"You okay, ma'am?" One of the cops asks me. I nod, unable to get any words out for a few moments.
"My partner, inside," I gasp after a second.
"Got it. Danny, we got one inside!" He called to his partner who was just closing the back door of the cop car. The two cops went inside the house. While I balanced on my hand.
"Phoenix!" Catharine's voice over me. I look up at her and smile weakly, she crouched down next to me and handed me a tissue. I wiped it across my mouth.
"Thanks," I croaked.
"We're going to need an ambulance!" One of the cops called from the doorway of the house.
"Sara…" I whispered. I could see the worry in Catharine's eyes.
"Don't worry about Sara," she told me. I think I passed out then, must have been hit harder than I thought.
I really hate bright lights when I wake up and hospitals are filled with the damn things. There was a Velcro cast on my arm and it felt like something was wrapped around my chest, the paper stitches on my cheek itched. A nurse pulled the curtain aside.
"You've finally woken up," she said pleasantly.
"You have a visitor," she smiled knowingly and moved aside to let the 'visitor' in, probably Grissom coming to tell me I was an idiot. Instead Nick came in; he hugged me tight against his chest, being careful of whatever injuries I had.
"Before you bring her home. These are for you," the nurse came back holding a pill bottle and handing it to Nick.
"Take two every six hours." She instructed.
"Thanks," Nick said to her. He put his arm around my waist and led me out of the hospital; Catharine was sitting in the waiting room.
"How's Sara?" I asked her.
"No serious injuries. She's sleeping right now. Grissom wanted me to stay for a while," she said. He probably wanted someone babysitting me.
"Come on," Nick pulled me along towards the door.
"Grissom very kindly gave me the rest of the night off. So we're going home," he unlocked the door of his car and helped me in.
"Wake up," a voice said.
"Two minutes," I mumbled sleepily.
"We're home, Phoenix," the voice said again.
"Two minutes," I repeated.
"You can't sleep in the car," Nick said. I looked at him blearily.
"Don't want to sleep in the car," I mumbled. My eyes closed again.
"Then wake up and walk into the house," he told me.
"Two minutes!"
"You keep saying that. Come on," the passenger door opened and he helped me out. I leaned against his side and he did most of the walking. Whatever they had given me at the hospital was very strong. I moved in the direction of the couch, but he pulled me away from it.
"The bed's this way," he said.
"Couch's closer," I mumbled. I could hear him laugh a little.
"Doctor said you should go to bed, you're not going to disobey doctors' orders, are you?" He asked.
"Doctor's no' here,"
"No, but I am and if you're not going to walk to the bed then…" he lifted me in his arms and started carrying me towards the bedroom. I snuggled into him and I was probably asleep before he even put me down on the bed.
"Wake up, Phoenix," Nick's voice brought me back to startled consciousness.
"What?" I asked.
"You were having another nightmare. You okay?" He asked. I nodded before curling into his side and putting my Velcro casted arm across his stomach.
"Yeah," I mumbled and went right back to sleep.
"Feel better?" Nick looked up at me from where he stood over the cooker.
"I feel like someone's been using me for a punching bag and I have a herd of elephant's tap dancing in my head. Other than that I'm just peachy," I said sarcastically. Did I mention I don't like waking up? He just nodded, smiled and brought a glass water and two of the pills over to me.
"Take these, breakfast will be ready in a minute," he said. I sat down at the table and swallowed the tablets and half the glass of water and watched him as he continued cooking.
"Coffee?" I asked. He turned around to look at me, a spatula in one hand.
"Not with those pills," he told me. I groaned loudly.
"You couldn't have told me that before I took them?" I asked sarcastically. He just smiled and turned back to his culinary masterpiece.
"Here you go," he brought two plates over to the table and set one in front of me.
"Thanks," I said. Bacon, eggs and sausage, just the thing to warm up your arteries on a cold evening.
"You gonna feed it to me as well?" I grinned at him, forgetting about the paper stitches there. He had cut up all my food in small, easy to eat pieces.
"I could, but it's probably good for you to do that yourself right now. Wouldn't want anything to happen to you," he said, digging into his own breakfast.
"Says you," I muttered.
"Didn't you just wake up?" He asked.
"Yeah, why?" I glanced at him.
"You're in an unusually good mood, that's why," he said.
"I'm probably stoned because of those pills you just gave me," I shrugged one shoulder. He shook his head laughing, that smile of his flashing across his face again.
"I've got to go in a few minutes," he said as he cleared the table.
"Go where?" I asked dumbly. The look he gave me was half amusement, half apologetic.
"To work. Grissom called just before you woke up, he wants everyone who can come in tonight." He said.
"Give me a minute to get changed then," I stood up.
"Except you," Nick told me.
"Because I'm injured, right?" I asked. His answering shrug was enough answer.
"Well I've still got one good hand and eye," one of my eyes was slightly blackened from where the guy had hit me yesterday. Nick looked undecided so I rushed to convince him.
"You said Grissom wanted everyone to work. So I should go to,"
"I don't think he meant you as well," he said.
"Maybe not, but I'd prefer to be doing something other than sitting here by myself doing nothing. Besides if I work in the lab all night it means that he can send the rest of you out to do some real work," I was doing everything to persuade him. I sure as hell didn't want to stay here on my own.
"Okay," he eventually agreed.
"I'll be right back," I graced him with a smile. I could afford to be gracious now that I had gotten my on way. I managed to get my knickers on; but you try putting on a pair of jeans when you can only use one hand. For a few minutes I was like a rabbit hopping around the place with the waistband of my jeans in one hand and I still hadn't even tried to put on my bra. But like all people who think that they're so independent I wasn't willing to give in without at least putting in a good effort.
"AHHHHH!" I screamed.
"Niiiiicccckkkkk!" I howled. I could hear running feet and Nick skidded to a halt in the doorway.
"What!" He said.
"I can't get my jeans on," I replied.
"Is that all? I thought you were after losing a limb or something," he came over and zipped up my jeans for me.
"Sorry," I mumbled.
"Need help with the rest?" He asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"Wait, what about the rest of my stuff. When are we going to bring it over?"
"Already done. Warrick brought it over last night," he told me, trying to get the back of my bra closed.
"Threats work quite well on him," he said.
"Figures you'd do that," I muttered.
"If it works…" he shrugged.
"Ready to go?"
"Yeah,"
"Phoenix you're injured, you shouldn't be here," Grissom said as I came into the break room with Nick.
"He tried that," I jerked my thumb at Nick.
"Didn't work for him either," I smiled sweetly at Grissom. He rolled his eyes and muttered something about stubbornness.
"Catharine, Warrick, you got anything?" He asked.
"We went over the whole house again with a fine tooth comb. We got nothing other than what Phoenix and Sara found last night." Warrick said.
"We left the photographs in number three lab," I told him.
"We've been looking over them again; see if we could find anything you missed." Catharine said.
"And?" I asked. I wasn't taking this personally, I wanted for him to be caught as well. She shook her head and turned to Grissom.
"I thought you were going back to the job Nick and Warrick took last night," she said.
"I was waiting for Nicky to come in. No one who's working in the field tonight works alone." He said.
"Catharine, Warrick I want you to keep working this,"
"We're all over it, Gris," Warrick assured him.
"Nick's coming out with me. Phoenix you work here tonight," Grissom said.
I stared at the pictures spread out in front of me. So far I had nothing to show for four hours of going through them again. Warrick came in.
"Find anything new?" He asked.
"Got me a whole lot of nothing," I said.
"Where's Catharine?"
"Right behind me," he stepped aside as Catharine caught up to him.
"What's up, Phoenix?" She asked.
"Gotta use the bathroom and I need a little help," I replied. She nodded and off we went. I hated having to depend on others for their help, but I had no real choice.
"Want to grab something to eat?" Greg stuck his head half an hour later.
"Let me guess; Grissom told you to keep an eye on me?" I said.
"Nope, it was Nick," he shrugged.
"Might as well, I'm not getting anything done here anyway," I stood up and everything went black.
"Wha-?" I jerked back to full consciousness. Greg crouched over me.
"You okay?" He asked.
"Yeah," I sat up.
"What happened?"
"You fainted," he replied. He helped me up.
"Probably need to eat something," I said.
"You want to lie down for a while?" He asked. At first I shook my head, but then changed my mind.
"Yeah, just for half an hour," I replied. I walked slowly to the break room, feeling like I was going to pass out again. He kept pace with me all the way, making sure I didn't keel over on him again. I lay down on the small couch in the break room and went to sleep after making Greg promise that he'd wake me in half an hour.
Greg didn't keep his promise, that was my first thought on waking two hours later. Grissom sat in a chair watching me.
"I think you should go home," he said. I shook my head as I sat up.
"I'd prefer to be working, boss," I said quietly.
"I know your mind is ready to work, but your body still has to catch up. I've asked Warrick to give you a lift back to Nick's house and Brass has agreed to leave a black and white outside to keep a watch until Nick gets back." Grissom said.
"I don't need to be babysat," I complained. Grissom smiled a little.
"Maybe not, but it would make me feel better," he said. I knew he was just humouring me.
"Just give me a chair and work to do and I'll be fine," I argued.
"Not tonight," his voice was firm.
"Fine," I whined.
"But I want to know when you find him,"
"You'll be the first to know," Grissom promised.
"I wish I got service like this. A car right to the front door and great company as well," Warricks voice broke through my reverie.
"What?" I looked at him.
"Never mind," he said.
"You got your phone?"
"Right here," I held it up for him to see.
"Call if you have to. Grissoms orders," he said. I got out of the Tahoe.
"Grissom just loves his little orders, don't he?" I asked, just a little bit sarcastically.
"He believes in watching out for his people," Warrick corrected me.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll see you later," I walked up to the front door and put the key in the lock. The headlights of the Tahoe dimmed as Warrick pulled back out of the driveway. I slammed the door behind me and then locked it. That's the last thing I remember.