Old Friends
New Trouble
Seattle, WA
Wednesday 2:32 pm
Dr. Cambridge Parker stared out of her window, watching the drizzle soak the gray streets of Seattle. She was supposed to be listening to her patient and she was, sort of.. Jasmine Henry was a bored housewife with a shoe-obsession and a bad habit of boffing hot underage pool boys and foreign maids. Her sessions always consisted of a long list of that week's conquests and country club gossip. Cami didn't need to TiVo Desperate Housewives, she had the real thing.
They were somewhere between the sales clerk at Maceys and her plastic surgeon's new assistant when Gideon, her receptionist came in. Cambridge swiveled around in her leather office chair and steepled her fingers. "Yes?"
Gideon knew very well that Jasmine Henry was a self-absorbed attention seeker, so he did not look too upset. "I hate to interrupt you, but you've got a call on line one." Making note of her patient's put out look, Cami frowned, "Important enough to interrupt a session, Gideon?" The man quirked his lips, "It's Sara Sidle." Shock came first, then a cunning plan sprang to mind. "Jasmine, you'll have to reschedule with Gideon. This is a long time patient of mine. Very unstable." Her patient, a gossip glutton, arched her perfectly manicured eyebrows. "Is she dangerous?" Cami had to control a smile. "I can't say much, doctor-patient privilege you understand...but." She leaned forward, as though she was about to tell some secret. "Miss Sidle is an obsessive woman. She has risk taking tendencies and problems with authority." Jasmine, eyes wide, "What does she do?" Cami bit her lip to hold in laughter, "She harasses police officers and sneaks on to crime scenes to look at dead bodies." Jasmine let out a little squeak, "Is she a necrophiliac?" Cambridge sat up straight, "I've said too much. I'll see you next week, Jasmine."
When she was alone, she grabbed the phone and punched the button for line one. She leaned back into her chair and kicked off her high heels. "I just told a horny house wife that you're an obsessive necrophiliac adrenaline junkie with authority issues." There was a chuckle on the other side of the line. "That's me, well more or less." There was a pause, "How fast can you be in Vegas?"
Cami had known Sara for years. She was one of the few who really knew Sara Sidle. Not the stoic workaholic facade she hid behind, but the real woman. There was a tone in her friend's voice, one she hadn't heard in a very long time, that of desperation. "If I fly myself, three and a half hours. How serious is this, Wild Woman?" She could hear Sara's smile over the phone, a quick half grin that showed off the gap between her two front teeth. "Marti Gras, 1994." Cami sat up straight so fast she almost toppled over. "That bad?" Sara sighed and Cami made her decision. "I'll call you after I file my flight plan."
Cami would be arriving at seven o'clock. Cambridge Parker and Sara Sidle had met in their first semester at Harvard and had been friends since. It was the kind of friendship that stretched over time and miles. If Cami would have been the one who called, Sara would have gone just as quickly. Cami was just about the closest thing to family Sara really had. She loved her like the sister she'd never had.
So when she called Sofia at six, she was a little nervous. She was introducing Cami to Sofia. She hadn't done that...in years. It was the closest thing to "Meet the family" that Sara would ever have, because she sure as hell wasn't going to visit the California Women's Correctional Facility for a meet and greet.
Sofia was intrigued. When Sara said she was bringing in outside help, she'd thought that the woman had meant another CSI or perhaps an FBI agent. So as she waited with Sara at the commercial gate at McCarran Airport, she was curious. "This Doctor Parker is flying herself in?" Sara smiled, "Yeah."
Sofia jingled the loose change in her pocket. "So...are you going to tell me about this head shrinker or not?" Sara smiled and for the first time in a few days, the smile reached her dark brown eyes. "You have to see her to believe her." The gate opened and a few people came in. Sofia quickly ran her eyes back and forth over the small crowd. She immediately disregarded the carrot topped teenager and the bald man. She saw an older woman in a gray suit and dyed hair blonde hair that was just beginning to show it's roots. That had to be Doctor Parker.
"HEY SARA!" Sofia whipped around, and to her surprise a lean woman with jet black hair and a lopsided gin had grabbed Sara in a bear hug. Sofia grinned, if only the lab could see her now. The cold untouchable Sara Sidle being hugged in the middle of the airport. She was trim and clean cut, but utterly casual in faded blue jeans and a tank top. They finally broke apart the hug and Sara smiled, "Nice to see you, Cami." The woman held Sara out at arms length. "You look good, Sar, a little frayed around the edges, but good." Then she turned and looked at Sofia. Piercing green eyes cut through her and Sofia suddenly understood how Grissom's bugs must feel, living under glass. "And this must be the great Sofia Curtis." Sofia shrugged, "That's what my mother named me, well minus the Great part." They stared at each other, old friend and new girl friend. Sara stood to the side and figited as the silence stretched into the uncomfortable zone. Then Cami smiled, "Well she's definitely a step up from your last few finds." Sofia arched a brow, "Really?" The dark haired doctor grinned and threw her bag over her shoulder. "Yes. From what I've heard about you, you're quite a find, Detective." Sofia shot a look over at Sara, "Funny, I've never heard anything about you." Cambridge threw her head back and laughed, "Sara's very protective of me. Well, she's really protective of all the black mail material I have on her...Like the time she." The woman's words were abruptly cut off by Sara's hand over her mouth.
Sofia smiled at the two as she unlocked the car. In the middle of a dark and heavy case, seeing Sara so care free was worth more then Sofia could imagine. Sara sat beside her, in the passenger seat and Cambridge got in back. "So tell me why I dragged my ass down here, Wild Woman."
Sara nodded, and the car's mood went form light to somber in a heart beat.
Sofia watched the woman in the backseat. She listened and as Sara spoke, she took out a pen and paper from her bag and started taking notes. Somewhere in the middle, Sara paused. "Cami may have a practice of her own, but she loans herself to the FBI all the time. She watched Silence of the Lambs one too many times in college." The woman in the back scoffed. "Oh please, Wild Woman, you're the one who actually does this for a living!" Sofia over at Sara, "Wild Woman? Do I get to hear about this?" There was a chuckle from the back. "I dunno, I don't want to warp your fragile mind. Now, don't look back here unless you want to see me naked." Sofia, by automatic reaction glanced in her mirror and sure enough, the woman was stripping in the back. She jerked the wheel. "What the hell! This is a city issue car!"
Cambridge buttoned up her shirt. "Well I can't go in like this, besides, Sara told me that you once changed at a crime scene in front of like five guys." She grinned when Sara started swatting at her, and Sofia coughed.
Sara looked stressed and the case she was describing was one that would dig under her best friend's skin and fester for a good long time. Sara's dark eyes were tired and haunted. Cami saw other things though. She saw a little smile every time Sara looked at Sofia. She'd known Sara since they were eighteen years old and she'd never seen her go all gooey like she did when she looked at the blonde detective.
Knowing her for this long, she also knew that Sara wouldn't have called her unless she was sure she needed her. "All right, Sara. From what you've told me, I can give you a rough profile. We're looking for a woman, at least forty years old. She's educated, not as smart as me, of course, but she's definitely got at least one college degree. Now. Who's your suspect, Sara?"
Sofia chuckled and turned on her turn signal. "She knows you." Sara grinned, "Yeah." Sara twisted around in her seat. "Does the name Madison Daniels ring a bell?" The stockings that Cami had been pulling on ripped under her fingers. "You're joking." The raven haired woman in the backseat looked at Sara and then Sofia and back again at Sara. "Madison Daniels is a power player. She's one of the president's confidantes and, if you haven't noticed, she's running for the Senate." Sara only raised a single eyebrow. "She's a suspect."
Cami pulled on her business jacket and straightened her collar. "She's a suspect. You're accusing her of brutally murdering three girls?" Sara nodded and Cambridge Parker blew out a dramatic breathe. "There is a thin line between genius and insanity, Sara and being out in the desert heat has pushed you over it. You want me to profile a case under the table and off the books and then you want me to do a psych profile on a woman who could be president within the decade.
Sofia winced, when the woman put it that way. It did sound like her girlfriend had passed Grissom up in the race to Crazy Town.
Sara shrugged, "Pretty much." There was another elaborate sigh from the back. "It's a good thing that I love you."
Officer Adam Murphy knew he'd screwed up. He was still on Graveyard patrols in the middle of nowhere. Mess up just a little bit and suddenly you're a bad cop. As far as he was concerned the high and mighty Detective Curtis could take a long walk off of a short pier. So now between her and the Geek Squad Bitch, he was doing grunt work that was usually set aside for out-of-the-academy-green rookies.
There were advantages to working this God-awful assignment though. One of them was named Casey Roper and his hands were currently cupping her pert lace encased c-cup breasts under her khaki uniform shirt.
Her clever hands were busy unbuckling his heavy belt. He was in the process of backing her fine ass up against a tree when she let out a yelp and tripped backwards. He held in his curse and bent down to help her back up. Halfway down, he froze. "Oh fuck me." Her witty reply was cut off when the young officer saw what she had tripped over, a little girl's leg.
They had ordered Chinese and locked themselves in one of the many conference rooms at the PD. Between the gruesome facts of the case, Sofia found herself hearing about Sara's "wild" college days.
Cami expertly wielded her chopsticks and scooped the noodles into her mouth. Then she jabbed at Sara. "So we were in Denver and I was skiing, Sara here said skiing was too tame and got herself a board. We rode up the lifts and were all ready to go down the beginners course." At that point Sara was slinking down in her chair, face red, as her friend continued. "And Sara sees this blonde snow bunny going down the experts course. Of course Sara being Sara, she starts after her, and me knowing that Sara is about as accident prone as a Kennedy cousin on the snow, go after her. Long story short, we spent the rest of our vacation in the lounge She broke her left arm and my tail bones never been the same since." Sofia took a sip of her cola and gave Sara a long look.
Sara pretended to be interested in her vegetarian plate, but her gap-toothed grin won out. "And I got her number too." Cambridge threw a napkin at her, "Yea, she signed it on your cast, Wild Woman."
Their evening, as enlightening as it had been, was cut short when Sara and Sofia's pagers had gone off. The twins had been found,quite dead, at Lake Mead. Sara ran both of her hands through her hair and stood up. "Lets go." Cami smiled, "I'll see you around."
The ride to Lake Mead was over an hour long, the drive there was mostly quiet, but Sara never let go of her hand. When they saw blue lights, both women squared their shoulders and Sara leaned over and gave Sofia a small kiss on the cheek. "She likes you, you know." Then she was out of the car, kit in hand and Sara was gone, replaced by CSI Sidle. Sofia blanked her face and Detective Curtis followed her colleague.
Her calm face lasted for all of a minute. Then she saw Adam Murphy. Sofia looked over at one of the other uniforms, "Please tell me he didn't find the bodies. The uniform scowled, "He and Officer Roper litteraly fell over the bodies."
Sara was already ducking under the crime scene tape and was half way to the bodies. Sofia could see the flashbulbs through the trees. The uniform frowned, and Sofia followed his eye line. The dark semi-circle hickey on Casey Roper's neck hadn't gotten during the line of duty. Sofia gritted her teeth and counted to ten. Could this case get any worse?
Author's Note: Owch. I really do give this Officer Murphy a hard time.So theres the new charecter I've been yaking about for a while. Well, I'm tierd and grumpy and think I should go to bed now. Hope everyone enjoyed the last couple of chapters, I would love to hear feed back on them. Now, I think there's a bed calling my name...well, screaming my name.