Disclaimer: All characters seen or mentioned on COLD CASE belong to CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer and are used without permission. Sueing me would be a waste of time, since there's nothing you'd get out of this, because I don't make any money with this story. The Burke museum and the Cole Collection belong to the aforementioned Burke Museum. I assume the Cole Collection contains corpses, but I'm not sure. Anyways, I'm in no way affiliated with the Burke Museum.
Thanks a lot for all the reviews. I didn't expect to get so many of them since I found so many spelling errors. Thanks for the info on the family, Snow Ivy. I will make them up then. Chaimera: I went to Wikipedia to check the spelling for "Eurydike/Eurydice" and once, it was written with a "k" and I liked that one better, so I choose it. Guess Wiki is wrong then. Thanks for the info.
Shoomoolan Cookies (tm) and all its related trademarks, associated firms and it's slogan "Shoo-shoo-shoomolan!" belong to me and my twisted fantasy. Don't feed the cookies to children and keep them away from fire. ;) (BTW, I'm so sorry for these, but I liked them so much, so I decided to keep them part of the story. Again, I apologize, since they are (I think), nothing that would ever make an appearance in CC.)
If you don't like the idea of Scotty/Lilly, you should definitely leave. No sex, and maybe a tiny bit of romance in this part ...
And, please – there is a description about the murder of a young girl. It's just a short part, but if you are ... well, if you tend to have bad dreams, you just should skip it. Just FYI. slapsherself Girl, you're talking to CC-fans. They are tough people, they can handle it. :)
ORPHEUS AND EURYDIKE
No. 3: The Huntress' Story
by Dare
It was a pleasant, little café, Scotty had to admit. And it took him about three seconds to find out why Eric Orson had chosen that particular kind of place:
"Here, Mr. Orson, your usual set of flatware and dishes; extra clean." The waitress smiled. "The usual?"
Orson nodded. "Yes, thank you, Grace."
Grace's look wandered over to Scotty. "And you?"
Before Scott Valens could stop himself, he said: "I have the same he has."
Grace hesitated for just one moment, then nodded. "Sure," she said and left.
Scotty was a good cop, he knew – and one of the reasons was that he could tell by the way people looked at him when he made a mistake. And he just made one.
Grace returned to bring Orson his flatware and dishes and with some astonishment, Scotty watched the man taking napkin – and then ...
... and then Eric Orson started to polish his fork with it.
Scotty just stared. Lilly had problems. Stillman did, and probably Jeffries and Vera too, but this man ...
I bet he carries disinfection spray, too, for all the door knobs.
Orson took the knife and polished it too, then he started to talk and Valens was thankful for the distraction.
"A girl, raped and then murdered in 1987. Her name is Diana Trent, eleven years old. Her body was found in the cellars of the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture." Orson placed the knife back onto his napkin. "Apparently, some students were categorizing some objects of the Cole Collection when someone stumbled over the body of the girl."
Scotty frowned at him. "Stumbled?"
Orson nodded. "Yes. Her corpse was among seventeen other corpses, whose owners lived in prehistoric New Guinea. No-one would have noticed, but there was one thing that distinguished her bones from all the others."
Grace returned and brought the breakfast: coffee without caffeine, butter on the basis of soynuts, sugar that didn't look like sugar but more like little tablets and Scotty's most favourite part: dark, stony, weird smelling cubes. He tried one, almost lost one of his teeth – and decided to never let those things get near his mouth again.
"What are those?" he asked, as he frantically waved for Grace who hopefully had some more edible in her fridge.
"Shoomoolan Cookies," Orson said. Probably those things were the most ordinary thing on this part of the planet – or on Orson's homeworld, where ever he came from, but over in Philly they were considered 'biological weapons'. If you threw those at a person, they would probablyhave to jump for their life -- or die because of anhole in the back of their heads in which the cookie still stuck."They are sugar – and fat free,contain minerals, vitamins and ginkogiloba. They are an European speciality."
"Yes?" Grace asked, when she arrived at the table.
Scotty stared at the cookies and said: "I want two big brownies."
Grace grinned. "Sure," and hurried away.
"How did you find out that the girl's corpse was different?" Scotty asked.
Eric Orson raised his gaze andsmiled for the first time since Scott Valens knew him. "Prehistoric New Guineans don't wear braces."
Scott Valens smiled back, but when he later found out how they learned about her rape, he felt like he would never smile again:
Someone had sent the girl's uterus to her parents.
"We tried to solve the case several times since 1987, but ... no success," Orson explained, while he and Valens walked back to the police station to grab the file.
"Why did you re-open it then?" Scotty asked. It was a difficult question, Scotty realized.
Orson's lips were one thin, grim line. "My former partner, Frederick Zimmer, was obsessed with this case. One month ago the apartement of an elder man was 'opened'. James Tanaka had been dead for over half a year. A neighbour noticed some strange smell and the police officers found the body." Orson took a large step over a puddle. "Frederick Zimmer lived just across the street – and when he came over to see what had happened, he found by accident a small heart-shape medallion on James Tanaka's shelves in the living room and identified it as Diana Trent's necklace."
"Why isn't Zimmer still working on the case?" Scotty asked.
"Zimmeris sixty-one years old and he wasn't exactly healthy. The Chief and Frederick had an argument some days later and you could hear them screaming on the other end of the city." Orsons shook his head. "Frederick stormed out of Rydell's bureau and was never seen again. Rydell sent him his things personally via mail. End of story."
"And now you try to solve this case?"
"Rydell ordered someone to fill in Frederick's job and – well, they sent you," Orson concluded. "You did quite a good job over in Philadelphia and Rydell wants this case to be gone. Diana Trent some kind of infamous ghost that keeps haunting our division and pops up every other year when Frederick got any weird ideas."
Orson took something out of the pocket of his coat and handed it to Scotty. "Besides the pictures of Diana Trent's brother and her parents, we found this in the necklace."
Scotty look down at the object. "A little bit to obvious, don't you think?" he said and waved with the business card.
"Well, no. Greenwood Technologies closed down in 1999 and Mr. obvious-business-cardEdward Sykes is already dead. We are currently trying to find out if Sykes has any relatives and where his colleagues and his former boss live."
"Any luck?"
"Yes. Charles Greenwood. Runs Greenwood Computers down Victoria Street. Our first visit today," Orson said.
Greenwood Computers was a small, shabby shop lead by a young, skinny man with thick glasses and a baseball cap that said:
Reality is where the pizza comes from.
Scott Valens almost smiled; Lilly would have liked this.
The man saw first Orson who had disinfected the door knobbefore he touched and opened it, whileScott Valens who watched the ruins that used to be working computer systems with a mixture of suspicion and fascination.
"Yes?" Charles Greenwood asked.
"My name is Scott Valens and this is Eric Orson. Seattle Police Departement," Valens said with well-trained routine. "Charles Greenwood?"
"Yes?"
"We'd like to talk with you about Edward Sykes. He worked for your previous company, Greenwood Technologies," Orson explained.
"Ah ... what do you want to know?" Greenwood looked from one man to the other. He was probably afraid that the officers would take his computer with them and discovered all the X-rated movies there the internet was famous for.
"Everything."
Later that day, Scotty sat in his apartement and loosened his tie. Greenwood knew nothing of importance about Edward Skykes. Sykes had designed the webpage for Greenwood Technologies until it's untimely end in 1999. He was a punctual man who didn't talk much, had some kind of spartan style when it came to graphics. Possibly no family, but on the other hand since he didn't talk to anyone ...
There was something else that hadn't left his mind: Diana Trent was an "infamous ghost" -- that was how Orson had addressed her: as "infamous". She way people at the office and Rydell himself talked about her made Scotty think about some kind of legend.
She was probably quite well-known among people who were interested in cold cases. And Scotty was among the few chosen ones that had had the great privilege to know one of the greatest minds when it came to those kind of unsolved tragedies.
When he came back from all those thoughts and reality swept over him he looked down at his hand and found his phone there.
He dialed blindly – waited for three beeps and then: "Hello? Olivia, not now," a female voice snapped.
"Hi, Lil."
"Scotty?"
"Yeah. Uhm ... how are you doing?" Scott asked.
"I'm fine – besides some cat that's trying to murder me," Lilly quipped. "Is everyone's treating you nice? How's you new partner?"
"The chief is an ex-marine, my partner has so many neurosis I lost count of them and on my first morning – let's just don't talk about it." He sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. "Anyway, maybe you could help me? I've got a small problem."
"What is it?"
"The first case I'm going to solve here – it's seems to be some kind of legend. They found the corpse of a little girl named Diana Trent. Do you know her?"
"Have you met Frederick Zimmer?"
A-ha. I knew she knows something about it. "No, apparently, he retired. His old partner is my new partner. I just – do you know that Zimmer tried to solve Diana Trent's case time and again?"
"Yes. Lost his reputation on the entire thing – no-one knew why he was so passionate about the girl. What did you find?" Lilly asked.
"A necklace that belonged to the girl with a business card of a dead man inside. We're currently checking his colleagues, friends and family if he had that. But – the reason I called is ... well ..."
"If I know something about the case that's not in the files."
Scotty could almost hear Lilly's smile. "Yes."
"I have to phone some people, but maybe I'll find something," she said.
Scotty heard her suppress a yawn.
"Are you all right?" he asked, concern colouring his voice.
"I'm fine – it's been a long day. Oh, besides, tomorrow your substitute will arrive," she said. "When Vera heard about it, he said 'That'll be fun' and then, he broke the pen he held."
"Poor guy – must be really missing me," Scotty said.
Scotty could just imagine Lilly sitting there, rolling with her eyes. "Well, yeah – you sort of grow on people, like my cats."
"Hey!"
The laughter died down and then, she said: "Well, it's not the same."
"I concur. It's not the same."
They sat there in silence ... and Scott cursed himself for not having more courage to tell her about certain things. That he really liked her. That he was worried about her. That her new partner better looked out for her.
But he didn't know if those words were a burden for her – and God knows, Lilly Rush had enough burdens for two lives.
"I'm going to bed now. It's late," Lilly said on the other side.
"G'night."
"Good night." A small pause. "And don't forget the sightseeing pictures."
"I won't," Scott Valens told the beep on the phone.
End #3
Becky Greenleaf, Fate's Fiddler, Lilmissbubblz, peach-fan14, Mellie Erdmann, Joutsensydn, Snow Ivy, Chaimera, Cady, pealee, lil smiles, ArodLoverus2001, givemecookies, Tiantian Wang, Julia, Abby909, steph, Annica, Evangelina Lilly: thanks a lot for all the reviews. (I hope I haven't forgotten anyone – if that's the case, I'm terribly sorry.)