Lab and Field
Sara knew there was something she was missing. She could all but taste it. She had attacked the facts from all sides, trying to find that little weakness that would allow her to see inside the mystery. She had run the specifics through VICAP and had, of course, gotten about a thousand hits returned. Cult-esque killings, pseudo witches, pedophile killings, from New York to Hawaii, there was no pattern or anything anywhere strong enough to support a theory. Pictures were strewn out in front of her. The three girls looked alike. Blonde hair and blue eyes, that was obvious. An arm-chair Law and Order obsessed fan would point that out. Sara pushed her brown hair back behind her ears and tried to push her mind further. The three girls had, outside of looks, very little in common.
Nadine was a solid B student who was a star soccer forward and dabbled in poetry and drama. Her school was one of the better middle schools in the public district and she was an only child.
Molly had been a lack-luster student who, apparently, had no after school activities. She'd come from a large low class family. Her school had been a haven for gang recruiting and drugs.
The strangest one was Emmaline. She had been home schooled, sheltered from the outside world. The girl never wore pants or shorts and had never missed a day of church. Her family had been hard nose Baptists. The father had hammered the virtues of the Godly into their heads and frightened them with the fiery pits of hell. She had been last seen at the library, where she'd been found.
Sara frowned and decided to look at that angle. Thirty minutes later, she found herself at another dead end. The other two girls had never been to that branch of the Las Vegas Library. Sara put her face in her hands and let the layout table support most of her weight. The stool she sat on squeaked, but other then that the small room's only sounds were Sara's deep breathes and the hum the florescent lights.
That was how Warrick found her. He thought she might have been asleep but when his hands was inches from her shoulder, she spoke. "Don't." He smiled and pulled up a stool. "I thought you were asleep." She shook her head, "No, just..." Warrick picked up the photograph of Nadine Winters. "Brooding?" Sara straightened her spine and turned to look at the other CSI. "Something like that." Sara paged through the thin file of information. "There has to be something else, 'Rick, something that connects them." He shrugged, "Maybe not. It could just be that they are all blondes, Sara. Every killer doesn't have some dark and twisted plot. Like Hannibal Lector said, 'Simplicity'." Sara narrowed her dark eyes at the man. "Hannibal also ate people, Warrick." He smiled, "Yeah, but Hannibal escaped capture and in the book, he got the girl." Sara shuddered. "Okay, now that is just creepy. You. Back to the casinos, no more reading." Warrick chuckled, "Turn in my library card for a slot card?" Sara grinned, "Yes. Now don't you have a homicide of your own to solve?" Warrick stood. "Nah. Me and Nick solved that hours ago, now we're working this B&E. Easy stuff. Greg would be busting his butt on it, but Catherine shanghaied him earlier tonight. Know anything about that?"
Sara shrugged, "It's Catherine." Warrick grinned, "Yeah." He put a hand on Sara's shoulder. "Don't stress too hard over this, Sara, you'll figure it out. You always do." He looked at the pictures again. "Two schools and a library. Student hang outs, maybe it's a secretary or I don't know, a traveling author. Have you checked staff rosters and floating substitute teachers yet?" Sara shook her head. "Nope, but now that you mention it, I'm going to pull up the county's list of approved substitutes, see if the same guy did both schools in the last few weeks." Warrick smiled, "Good idea. Plus, you should call Catherine, see what she's chasing down. You never know about Cath, she might already have a suspect." Sara nodded.
Even if Sara had called Catherine, which she didn't, the woman would not have answered. Not because of their problems, but because she couldn't have heard her cell phone ringing if it was right up against her ear. Catherine was making her way towards the stage at the incredibly crowded Broken Innocence Concert. Greg, who was in his element, made his way through the black clad, tattooed and pierced crowd with ease and familiarity. The warm-up band, Delusions of Grandeur, was screaming about not being understood...or sex, Catherine wasn't actually sure. They made their way forward until they hit a wall. A bouncer with more piercings than Catherine had fingers on both hands. The silver-studded giant smiled and in a booming voice, welcomed Greg. "Yo, Greggo. Nice to see you." Greg, who had to crane his head back slightly to look the man in the eye, shook his head. "Not here for the show, Randall," He flashed his badge. "LVPD business." Randall frowned, "Let's get you backstage."
The backstage area was a maze of trunks, makeshift ply-wood tables and cords. Catherine's nose wrinkled at the smell, rubber and sweat.
The club's main dressing room had a handwritten sign slapped on it. Randall knocked on the door. "There ya go." They entered the room. Catherine wasn't sure what to expect, but the four men in faded jeans playing X Box was not it.
One of them looked up. "Yeah?" She looked at each face. "I'm Catherine Willows and this is Greg Sanders from the Las Vegas Crime Lab." One of the men, a blonde, stood up. "I'm Jake Toliver, vocals and front man, what can I do for you two?"
Five minutes later, Jake Toliver felt physically sick. "You think someone killed these girls because of our music?" Catherine raised a brow. "Well, isn't the image on your CD and promotional material of a little girl in a white dress in a coffin?" Catherine had the CD case in question in her hand. Jake took it and stared at it for a moment. "That's my daughter. I promised she could be on the cover of this one, Quinn's son, Daniel, was on our last one, Prodigal Son and I promised Veronica that she could be on this one." Catherine looked at the man, slightly shocked. "Our music, Ms. Willows, is about releasing anger and negative feelings in a positive way, it's an outlet. Our fans know that. We've never supported or encouraged violence. Ever." Each of the band's members had come to stand behind the man. A tall Latino man with a scorpion tattooed on his gleaming bald head looked at one of the pictures Catherine had brought. "Madre de Dios, what can we do to help?" Catherine sighed, "Your fans, have any of them ever seemed...extreme or particularly obsessive?"
By the time Catherine had run out of questions, it was time for the concert to start and a very subdued band left the dressing room. Catherine had, during her marriage with Eddie, met many musicians and singers. The guys of Broken Innocence were, despite their appearance, good people. The kind she wished Eddie would have been around more.
She and Greg made their way back through the crowd, who were now jumping and shouting along to the words of the band's first song,
"Love will be the death of you
While entangled in your world of two
She will reveal her true face
And leave you in cold disgrace"
The crash of cymbals and the scream of the guitar vibrated the fillings in Catherine's teeth. Greg was being Greg. His head was bobbing to the music and Catherine would swear that he was singing along.
"Her perfect looks and reputation
Have left your fragile life in devastation
Alone and broken hearted
You ponder how it started"
The sea of bodies was huge. It was hot, sticky and the mass of humanity was constantly moving. Catherine wondered just how much longer it would take until they reached the exit.
"Twist and turn in your lonely bed
Voices screaming in your head
In the eye of the midnight storm
Burning angels come to warn
Of how tainted tears cloud your eyes
As you give your final goodbyes"
The band launched into the fast and furious refrain and the crowd surged harder. Bodies bumped into her. One of them was at least six feet tall and two hundred pounds. He knocked her into a group of kids. One of them, a small blonde with bright green streaks in her hair, whipped around. "HEY WATCH I...MOM!"
Catherine's blue eyes went wide. There was her baby girl in a black halter top that showed more skin then it covered and skin tight black jeans. Her big blue eyes were surrounded by thick black eyeliner and her hair was streaked. "LINDSEY!" She grabbed her fourteen year old daughter's arm and pulled her along. Fury choked her words down as they shoved their way back towards the exit.
When they finally escaped the maze of bodies, she turned to stare at her daughter. "I can't believe you came to this concert after I specifically told you 'no'." Lindsey crossed her arms over her chest and squared her chin, "There was nothing wrong with that concert. I was HAVING A GOOD TIME!" Catherine glared at her as they marched to the Department issue Denali. "Well, I'm glad you were, because you are now grounded!" Greg, head down, eased around them and got into the driver's seat.
The entire drive back to the lab consisted of Catherine demanding an explanation and Lindsey giving it. In a somewhat sullen voice, the young girl told her mother how she had fooled her grandmother and had hitched a ride with friends to the concert. The more Catherine heard, the madder she got. The madder Catherine got, the more Greg felt for Lindsey. It had only been a handful of years ago since he'd been sneaking out to concerts himself.
With nothing else to do with her, Lindsey was banished to the break room until Lily could come and retrieve her. Catherine stormed off to do something, though Greg was not brave enough to find out what.
Lindsey poked around in the refrigerator. From her previous visits to her mother's workplace, she knew that there had to be soda somewhere. After rummaging a bit, she found a Diet Berries and Creme Dr. Pepper. Not her favorite, but she would have to make do. The bottle was half finished when someone, she didn't know who came in. She watched him from one of the couches. The man in the lab coat, he wasn't a CSI, started looking around in the fridge. "Where is it? Dang it. You'd think that since I put my name on it, people would leave it alone!" The man's complaints were stradaling the line between neurotic and whiny.
Lindsey looked down at her bottle and sure enough, on the label was the name DAVID HODGES in black sharpie. She quickly shoved the bottle between the cushions and put on her most innocent face. The bald man finally sighed and threw up his hands. He left the room without acknowledging her presence.
The next person through was a woman, a brunette in a lab coat. She too, went straight to the refrigerator. "Damn, Hodges must have already gotten his drink." She straightened up and half way through a gulp of water, she choked. Wendy Simms wiped her mouth. "Oh, hey there, Lindsey."
Lindsey had to roll her eyes. "Hey." The woman left quickly, and Lindsey sighed. Much like her mother, none of the lab people had time for her.
After about thirty minutes, another person came in. Lindsey vaguely remembered the face, but it was the name that she was most familiar with. "Hey Sara." The brunette turned and smiled, "Hey Linds, nice hair." Lindsey grinned. Her mother ranted about Sara almost as much as she did Lindsey herself. That kind of made her and Sara friends. Sara poured herself some coffee and sat on the chair beside the couch Lindsey was on.
Sara was surprised, to say the least, to find Lindsey in the break room. She took it in stride though. A grin worked it's way across her face when she noticed the top part of a bottle poking out of the couch cushions. "So you took Hodge's drink, huh?" Lindsey blushed and pulled the mostly empty bottle out into the open. "The bald guy? Yeah." Sara chuckled. "Wendy and Archie are going to be jealous. They usually try to get it." Lindsey nodded, "Wendy is the brunette, right?" Sara nodded.
Lindsey took another sip, "I thought so. You know, I think she's sleeping with my Mom." Sara felt the coffee go down the wrong pipe and she coughed and sputtered and gasped for air. Lindsey didn't pull the punches one bit. She was just like Catherine in that respect. "I...uh..." Lindsey smirked, "You are the second person I've caused to choke tonight."
Sara nodded, and was incredibly relieved when her pager went off. "I've got to go, Linds, Nick and Warrick keep a PS2 there under the TV...eh, yeah. Bye."
Lindsey watched the CSI leave. She wondered why her mom hated Sara so much, she was nice...and very fun to be around. Plus, she'd liked the streaks she'd put in her hair. Anyway, she was much better looking then Wendy.
Author's Note: The band names Delusions of Grandeur and Broken Innocence are used fictionally. I am not affiliated with any bands or other groups that go by these names and any similarities are coincidental.
The song lyrics used in this chapter belong to...well, I suppose they belong to me. The song lyrics are actually lines from a poem. Love, the poem, was published on a local level in my senior year of high school.
Wow...I used something that I can't be sued over. This is a new and interesting feeling.