A/N: Thanks lots to everyone who reviewed! I'm sorry this wasn't up sooner; I've been sick and had to do lots of stuff for Rock Eisteddfod. On a higher note we made it to the finals! (But that means lots of rehearsing and less writing time :( )
He hadn't wanted to leave her, even if it was for work. Although she had stated over and over that she was fine he wasn't buying it. Lilly Rush was a woman who had obviously had a lot of practice hiding how she felt, because she was damn good at it, she could fool most people; but not him.
He had half an hour left before he would reach the crime scene; it was over the other side of town. To try and take his mind of Lilly he switched on the radio. Tracy Chapman's Fast Car filled up the silence.
You've
got a fast car
Is it
fast enough so we can fly away?
We've
gotta make a decision
Leave
tonight or live and die this way.
So
remember when we were driving
Driving
in your car
Speed
so fast I felt like I was drunk
City
lights lay out before us
Your
arm felt nice wrapped around my shoulder
And I,
had a feeling that I belonged
I had a
feeling I could be someone, be someone.
It made Scotty wonder if Lilly had longed for an escape route out of her life as she was growing up. Hell, he didn't even know how long she'd lived in Philly. She'd once mentioned a sister, three years younger, living in New York, but she made it quite clear that that subject wasn't open for discussion.
…I'd
always hoped for better
Thought
maybe together you and me find it
I got no plans, I ain't going
nowhere
So take
your fast car and keep on driving
He didn't really pay much attention to the songs closing lines his mind preoccupied with Lilly.
Half an hour later he had reached the scene. He knew that he was close when he saw the flashing red and blue lights. Cutting the engine, he pulled up alongside another unmarked car. He got out and walked towards the shimmering crime tape, ID held in his pocket, ready if presentation was necessary.
It wasn't and the officer in charge of securing the perimeter of the scene lifted the tap to allow Scotty access. Scotty murmured "thanks," to the officer before continuing over to where Stillman was waiting for him
A few firemen were still at the scene, mostly packing up their equipment. The scene was a mess. 'Evidence recovery is gonna be a bitch,' he thought to himself. There wasn't much left anyway. The building was old and like most of the buildings in this old area of Philly was made almost entirely of wood.
The stench of burnt human flesh entered his nostrils and he fought back the urge to gag. There was no other smell like it. Just like decomps, the scent clung to your clothes and body as though it didn't want to be forgotten.
"What have we got," Scotty asked when he reached his bosses side.
"Fire out here at this warehouse last night, which is nothing unusual, kids come out here and do this thing all the time," he answered, his gaze shifting from the scene in front of them to Scotty.
"What makes this one special then?"
"Found remains of a body over there," he said pointing over to there left where the majority of the damage had been done, "coroner's on his way. Bringing a specialist with him."
"Specialist? For what?" Scotty asked, still not exactly sure what they were doing here. Sure they were part of the homicide division, but their team didn't usually take recent cases.
"For the same reason we are here. Follow me."
Stillman lead Scotty over the right, where the damage hadn't been so bad.
"After they'd put out the fire one of the firemen noticed this," he said pointing to an open trap door in the floor. "That was a couple of hours ago now. After they were sure that it was safe up here, that none of the remaining framework was going to collapse, a couple of the officers went down to check it out."
Scotty followed Stillman down through the trapdoor and down a staircase. At the bottom of the stairs was a room that looked as though it was a basement of some sort. Lying almost in the middle of the floor were two skeletons, fragments of clothing still clinging to the bones that lay on the dirt floor.
"Any ideas on how long they've been done here?" Scotty asked.
"No, but the trapdoors not hard to miss. Could be the last few people who've used this placed never even knew it was there. We'll have to wait till the coroner gets here before we can know for sure."
"No need to wait," came a voice from above. The coroner was a tall man, with dark skin and seemingly darker eyes. His hair was grey and starting to thin on top.
"Haven't seen you in a while Dr. Hawkins," extending his hand to shake the coroners.
"Well you haven't exactly been needing me much lately. Which in my line of work is a good thing." He turned and gestured at the woman who had followed him down the steps, unnoticed by Scotty and Stillman.
"This is Dr. Evans. She is a forensic anthropologist, the specialist I told you about."
Evans was beautiful; no other words could exactly describe her. She had dark brown hair that was pulled back into a ponytail and amazing blue eyes. She was tall with a figure that belonged in magazines and on catwalks, not in cold basements surrounded by death.
"Nice to meet you," said Scotty holding his hand out to her.
"Well I'll leave you to it Evans, I've got someone upstairs waiting to see me," said Dr. Hawkins.
As he'd left, Dr. Evans returned her attention to the two men standing before her. "I'll do a preliminary here then get them packed up and sent back to the morgue so I can't do a proper examination."
Scotty and Stillman stood back and watched as she put on her gloves and began to carefully exam to the bones. She didn't want the scene investigators down here to collect evidence until she had photographed the remains and collected the tiniest bones. They could help her load the larger ones, but she wasn't taking any chances with the hands and feet.
Forty-five minutes later, both skeletons had been extensively photographed and the smallest bones collected. She had been able to tell them that they had one male and one female skeleton, probably in their late teens to mid twenties. They were possibly both Caucasian but she wasn't able to tell for sure until she had them in the lab and was able to do accurate measurements. Although Stillman had been going in and out of the basement, presumably to call Vera or Jeffries about land records, Scotty hadn't left once in the last forty-five minutes. It seemed to be getting colder and he was relived when she told him she was ready for the investigators to come down and assist her in packing up the remaining bones.
Scotty smiled when he realised he recognized one of the CSI's coming down the stairs. Rachel Boswell. They had met only a few weeks ago after Lilly's disappearance, she had been one of the responding CSI's. He remembered her that she had cared enough to come and see him personally about the results because Lilly was his partner.
"Hey Valens, good to see you again." He smiled and extended his hand for yet another shake.
"It's good to see you too."
"How's Lilly doing?"
"Yeah, she's going good. Thanks for your help with that by the way."
"No problem. Well, see you later."
After about fifteen minutes later Scotty had finished helping Dr. Evans pack the rest of the remains into the coroners van.
"Thanks for that," she said smiling.
"Anytime." He noticed Stillman was off the phone and heading towards him.
"I've got to go. Please call me when you find out anything Dr. Evans," he said handing her his card.
"Please, it's Chelsea; and I'll call as soon as I know something that might help."
"Thanks," he said turning to face his boss.
"Ok we're going back to meet with Vera and Jeffries and headquarters. They've got records of the people who've used this space as far back as possible. But there's a few years they're still having trouble with because someone rented out the property."
They started walking back to their cars and Stillman started speaking again.
"You've seen Lilly a few times over the last couple of weeks, how's she been doing?" he asked.
"She's been fine. A bit bored, but other than that she's been pretty fine." Scotty answered wondering where this was going.
"Well we're going to be busy on this one and if she's alright I might consider trying to get her back in now. She's only off for a few more days now anyway."
"I'm sure she'd be happy to hear that," Scotty said feeling happy for her. She'd be better off working than sitting home by herself anyway.
"Well there will be conditions obviously. I'll call her back at the office and see what she thinks about it."
Scotty already knew what she'd think about it and really wanted to call her and tell her but knew he couldn't. They both left in their own cars, heading back to the station.
He was wondering whether this case was going to lead them anywhere at all. What if it wasn't anything at all? I mean, how long had those bones been down there? Was the body in the warehouse just in the wrong place at the wrong time or had it been put there and the building set on fire to try and cover it up? Did the two cases have any relation at all, other than being found in the same building?
It was always the way. So many questions, so few answers.
A/N: Hopefully the next chapter will be up sooner than this one was but I have my trial exams coming up (which happen to be counted in the final mark we recieve) and rehearsing and stuff like that.