Alex was lying on her bed, covered by Bobby, enjoying herself thoroughly (Bobby's hand slid up her hip to cup her breast), though not really going far (they were both still fully clothed), when she heard her phone ring.
She drew out the last kiss, then reached over and grabbed her cell phone. "Eames," she said.
"Alex, Luke Masters just turned up dead," Deakins said over the line.
Alex repositioned herself out from under Bobby. "When? Where?"
"At his office, they just found him about an hour ago."
"Ok, we'll be right there." She flipped the phone shut and turned to Bobby. "Masters just turned up dead at his office. We need to get over there. From the sound of it Deakins is already there."
He nodded and got up off the bed. "I need to stop by the office on the way there."
"It isn't exactly on the way, Bobby?"
"I know, but it's important. Berlin Phil was faxing my their audition score sheets from their violin auditions 5 and 6 years ago."
"Ok, fine, but you run like lightning. We need to get there before that new kid from CSU does something else stupid. He's already contaminated one crime scene and then proceeded to analyze the evidence he left behind…"
Bobby slowed from his action and got a disgusted look on his face. "Oh yah, I remember that…"
"Come on, hurry up!"
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Bobby came bounding down the stairs with a big pile of papers, jumped in the car, and Eames sped off back towards the crime scene. "Well?" she asked.
"Gimme a minute, I can't read that fast," he said, perusing the pile of papers.
She continued to navigate traffic in silence while Bobby eagerly flipped through the pile of papers. "There's a note here. 'Tapes to follow.' Wonder what that means…" He continued flipping through the papers looking for Mark Jones's sheet. He didn't find it. What he found instead was one that read 'James Karaka.' "Eames, there's no sheet for Mark Jones in these… but there is one for James Karaka. These are his audition score sheets. One from the conductor, holy shit, it was Claudio Abbado… uhm, one from the Concert Master, 3 from other violinists, and 1 from the Board of Directors. Man, he did not do well…"
"Does it say why?" she asked.
"Oh yah, there are at least 5 pages of notes from each person, it'll take me a while to translate them all, but from what I gather he didn't do well at all… intonation, serious comments about his bow arm and vibrato- well, that could be explained by nervousness… I don't know, I'll have to take a closer look when I have time… But there's a big marking at the end of each form- 'No finals'… didn't make it past his original audition."
"Poor guy."
"But you know what this means, right?"
"It means that James Karaka's time line matches that of Mark Jones' where Jones fails to exist."
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Eames pulled up to the outside of the office of Luke Masters. She and Goren got out of the car and went towards Masters' office.
"Detectives," called Deakins.
"Hey, Cap," Eames called over to him. Once they had finally reached him, they looked down and surveyed the body of Luke Masters. "He was shot in the chest?" she said, looking down at the body on the floor. Bobby bent down to poke and prod at the wound.
"Through the back. In the back, out the front," Bobby said. "That's a familiar MO…"
Alex immediately began to scan the room. "Papers are stacked neatly. Place is clean and orderly. But what's missing?" she asked Bobby.
"Care to share with the rest of the class?" Deakins asked.
"MO matches the violin vics- we think it was the same guy," she said absent-mindedly as she perused the room.
"You sound like Bobby," Deakins said with a grin.
"Well, it seems to work," She answered before turning back to her partner. "Why here? Why not at home?"
"I don't know- maybe he considered this his home? Everything precious to him passes through these walls, maybe that's the significance."
Alex nodded. "Sounds about right…"