He'll Make A Mistake

Eric looked down at the body and felt sick. You never really got used to the violence, the blood, the sheer horror. You just got used to blocking it out, to doing your job because it needed to be done. He was worried if people got used to it, hoped he never would. There was a difference between being indifferent to murder, and between not letting it affect your work.

This one was nasty. She lay sprawled on the bed, throat slashed like all the others, arterial blood sprayed across the bed sheets, the wall and the floor. It had spread into a pool on the floor. There were a few broken pieces of glass, a shattered picture frame and some debris on the floor.

'Signs of a struggle,' he said out loud and photographed it, taking photos of all the debris and the fragments of glass.

'Unusual,' Ryan said from behind him. The other CSI set his kit on the floor and looked around. 'He usually cleans up better than this.'

'Maybe he was interrupted,' Eric said. 'What are you doing here?'

'Heard it on the scanner,' Ryan said absently. 'Thought you might be needing some help in the field or in the lab.' He took another look around and grimaced despite himself. The smell of blood was heavy in the air and it made him feel slightly sick.

Eric smiled despite himself. 'You really have no life to go to, do you?'

Ryan returned the smile. 'Right, because you would have done differently.'

'I didn't say that.' Eric photographed the bed. 'Let's hope he was interrupted. Maybe he forgot something.' He saw Ryan's expression and said, 'He'll make a mistake eventually.'

'Eventually is too long,' Ryan said grimly. He looked up as Horatio came in.

'I couldn't agree more,' Horatio said. 'But why are you here, Wolfe?'

'He has a scanner,' Eric said, grinning. 'Unfortunately, the man has no life.' He quickly went back to taking photographs as Ryan gave him a glare.

'Still, we could probably use everyone we can get,' Horatio said.

'Where's Calleigh?' Ryan asked, pulling on sterile gloves and taking out a few swabs.

'She got another call-out,' Horatio said. 'You can cope here, can't you.' It wasn't a question. Eric and Ryan nodded. 'Good. I have to go and explain to our wonderful superiors why it is we haven't caught this murderer.'

'Good luck with that,' Ryan said with sympathy.

'Ditto,' Eric said. 'Get this blood pool, Ryan.' He moved out of the way. Ryan crouched down and took a few swabs of the blood. 'You okay?' he asked.

Ryan didn't look up. 'In what respect do you mean? If you mean, am I going to throw up, the answer is yes I am fine. If you mean, am I seriously frustrated by this case, then the answer is no I am not fine. Very not fine.'

'Ryan,' Eric said, pausing in his photo-taking. 'We will catch him. I know this is your first serial killer case and trust me, I felt exactly the same my first case. I still do. But getting angry isn't going to help catch him. Just try and keep cool okay?'

Ryan put the swabs away carefully. 'I'm sorry.'

Eric took the photo. 'Don't be, you got nothing to be sorry for. I'd think less of you if this didn't make you mad.' He gave Ryan a reassuring grin. 'Right, that's this room all photographed. You want to finish processing in here whilst I start on the other rooms?'

Ryan nodded. 'Sure.'

'I'll go photograph the kid's room,' Eric said.

'Kid? She had a kid?'

'Yeah,' Eric said quietly. 'Not here. A neighbour says she always spends the last weekend of the month with her grandparents. But all rooms must be processed.'

'Right.' Ryan didn't look up.

'So, I'll go photograph.'

When you've done that, you can dive the dumpster.' He saw Eric's expression and smiled. 'I did the last one. Your turn.'

'Fine, fine,' Eric said. 'But you can process the bathroom since I did that last time.'

'Fair enough.'

They continued working. Eric worked through taking the photographs whilst Ryan followed with swabs and so on. It took them hours.

Eric walked into the bathroom and said, 'I'm going to dive the dumpster. You almost done?'

'Gotta process the bathroom,' Ryan said, packing away more evidence bags. 'You go, I'll finish up in here.'

'Okay.' Eric waved a hand and left.

Ryan looked around the bathroom. It wasn't as clean as most of the bathrooms the serial killer had left behind him. There were blood drops of the floor and a few smears in the sink. He swabbed them and finished processing. He looked around and frowned as he noticed the bathroom rug moved out of place. He walked over to the bathroom cupboard and opened it.

There was a girl crouched inside. She looked up, terrified, her face stained with tears. Seeing him, she pulled herself further back into the cupboard, whimpering softly.

Ryan looked at her with mounting horror and sudden, terrible misery. A child. The woman's child. He felt sick.

Okay, this won't be updated for a couple of weeks since I'm going away and won't have internet for a while. But I thought since I'd done these chapters, I might as well post them up. Hopefully, over the next couple of weeks I'll be able to finish it. 