Chapter 13
"Hawks?", Mac called as looking a round as he and Stella entered the morgue. But the pathologist was nowhere to be found.
Stella looked at the freezers and couldn't stop the memories of her last visit flashing into her mind again.
She saw her sister lying before her. She shook her head to make the memories go away, but she couldn't.
The urge to just run away was overwhelming, but she fought it of.
That wasn't a solution and would just make everyone more worried about her.
The news of her twin sister being dead had made the round the lab pretty fast. She didn't know if she imagined it, but everybody kept looking her with pitying eyes and she couldn't stand it.
"Let me guess, you're here about Mr Norman here", the sudden sound of Hawkes voice a few inches behind Stella, made her jump.
Stop it Stella! She scolded herself for reacting this way. Stop being this jumpy!
"Yes, what can you tell us?", asked Mac.
"Well, Mr Norman over here was lucky enough to get beat up, before someone put a bullet in his head", said Hawks indicating to the blue eye and the split lip.
"He also sustained a broken rib", he pulled the white sheet back to show them some more bruises on his chest.
Some part of Stella's brain told her that it was excatly what he deserved for killing her sister, but the CSI part of her brain was telling her that she couldn't be sure that it was actually him, who had killed her sister.
"TOD?", asked Stella. Mac looked at her, it was the first time she had spoken since they had entered the morgue and he wanted to make sure she was alright.
"I have to disappoint you, he's been dead for sometime now, so I can't be certained, but my educated guess is that he died roughly around the same time as Aletheia Gerold", Hawkes glanced at Stella worried. Was it wrong to mention her sister?
"I won't break down or run away, just because you're mentioning her name", snapped Stella.
Truth was she wasn't so sure, if she would break down, so instead she concentrated on her anger.
Why was everyone thinking she was so weak? Maybe because she was!
Stella pushed that thought away and took a deep breath.
"Here got a present for you", said Hawks ignoring her earlier comment. He held up a bullet. "See what you can make out of it."
"Thanks", Mac answered taking the bullet and looking at it closely.
"Looks like a 22, I think. I'm going to let balistics take a look at it and run it through the database" He looked up at Stella, who indicated to him that he should go ahead.
"I'm sorry for snapping at you", Stella offered after Mac left.
"It's ok", Hawks brushed it off. "We are all under a lot of pressure."
"That isn't an excuse", said Stella.
"Stella stop it! I don't mean this to sound like pity, but if it had been me seeing myself lying there dead, I would done a lot more than just running away and snapping at people."
"Thanks", murmured Stella.
Hawks reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. "It's what friends are there for, to blow of steam."
Stella smiled faintly. "I think I have to go after Mac now, before he organizes a search party."
"Good idea", answered Hawks stepping back.
"I had a little trouble with the FBI", explained Flack, when everyone was gathered in the lab.
"FBI?", Aiden questioned disbelieving.
"Yeah, wanted me to stop researching about Norman. Anyway my point being that it got me a little curious.
Why the hell would the FBI come here because of some nobody. So I made a few calls, called in a few favours.
Robert Norman isn't Robert Noman but Jake Simon. He was going to testify against the Russian mafia, so the FBI put him under witness protection."
There was silence in the room, everyone processing the new information.
"So that's getting us nowhere, because witness protection doesn't make you innoccent", said Stella.
"Yeah but it could mean that we have to put up with the FBI in this investigation", said Mac.
"Speaking of the devil", Danny looked at 2 men and a woman, who made their way over to them.
"Excuse us, but we are searching for Detective Taylor", announced the woman, her hair was pulled back from her face into a ponytail and she was dressed in a smart well tailored grey pinstripe skirt and jacket.
"That would be me", Mac answered stepping forward keeping his tone friendly. No need to make enemies before they found out where they stood. "What can I do for you Agent...-"
"Special Agent O'Conner, these are Special Agents Thies and Morgan and we are going to take over the investigation regarding the death of Robert Norman as well as Aletheia Gerold."
"What? You can't do that!", Stella looked shocked.
Mac put his hand on her arm to calm her down, he knew that it wouldn't do anyone any good if she put up a fight with the agents.
"And what jurisdiction do you have in this case", asked Mac.
"Robert Norman was under witness protection, that makes this a federal case and since Aletheia Gerold's death and Mr Norman's death might be connected, we will be investigating both cases", interupted the male agent who had been introduced as Special Agent Morgan.
Flack was please to be able to put a name to the agent that he had had the run in with earlier, but he still didn't like him.
"We understand that you want to lead the investigation of Robert Norman's death but Aletheia Gerold is our investigation", argued Mac.
"Not anymore, we have a warrant for all the evidence you have collected regarding the investigation", said Special Agent Thies handing over an envelope to Mac.
"They can't just take over the investigation!", Stella was pacing up and down in Mac's office.
"They can't!" Stella felt lost and helpless. She couldn't even help to bring her sisters killer to justice.
"They can't, can they?", asked Aiden looking over to Mac.
"Unfortunately they can", Mac walked behind his desk and sat down heavily in his chair suddenly very tired.
"But there has to be something we can do!", Danny looked at Mac hopefully.
"We can just play nice and hope that they involve us somehow", Mac sighed running his hand through his hair. He was just as frustrated as everyone else.
Flack had stormed off in the hope of finding someone who could give them the case back.
"Detective Bonasera, we would like to ask you a few questions", said Special Agent O'Connor, walking into Mac's office.
"What kind of questions?", asked Stella.
"Aletheia Gerold was your sister, wasn't she?", O'Connor was tapping impatiently with her foot on the floor.
"Yes she was", answered Stella, wondering just where the agent was heading with her questions.
"So we would like to interview you", commented O'Connor as if she was speaking to a three year old. Stella looked questionably.
"Well can't you ask her the questions here?",asked Mac, he wasn't comfortable with the idea of letting Stella go with the FBI agent, when he didn't know what they had in mind.
"It's ok Mac, I can handle", she said following O'Connor, going with her was the last thing she wanted to do, but she wanted to proove Mac that she could handle herself, that she didn't need him to look out for her.
A few minutes later Stella was even more confused and uncomftable.
O'Connor had taken her into one of the interview rooms, and she sure as hell didn't like being on this side of the room.
She felt like she had done somthing wrong. O'Connor and Thies choose that moment to enter the room. Thies sat down oppostite of her, while O'Connor stood behind him. Stella frowned.
What the hell was going on?
Stella would have like to just stand up and walk out of this room, telling them that they couldn't treat her like a suspect, but remembering Mac's word that's the only way to get something on her sisters case was to play nice with the FBI, she decided to play along.
"Stella Bonasera, right?" asked Thies her voice friendly. The tone of his voice set off alarm bells inside Stella's head. She had the sudden feeling that she was being set up. Detective Bonasera, she wanted to correct, but bit her lip and just nodded.
"Aletheia was your sister?", asked O'Connor, who's voice was anything but friendly. Stella looked between the two agents. What was this? Good cop, bad cop?
"Yes, she was", said Stella resisting the urge to snap at her.
"So you had a twin sister and you want us to believe that you never knew she exsisted?", asked O'Connor,
"Yes",Stella tried her best to keep her voice neutral.
"We know you grew up in an orphanage, but you know, both of you in the same city, maybe you accidently ran into her shopping or something?", commented Thies.
"No sorry, I think I would remember running into myself while shopping."
"So it's just a coincidence that she was murdered, on your only free day in what, 3 weeks? Oh and what about the fact, that there was no real trace evidence?", asked O'Connor.
"So the fact that there wasn't any evidence is evidence that I killed her?", snapped Stella.
How dare they come in here and accused her of murdering her sister.
"Did you?"; asked O'Connor again.
"What?", asked Stella. This was unbelievable! She felt like she was stuck in a bad movie.
"Everyone would understand-", started Thies.
"No! This is stupid! I would have never killed her!", Stella stood up so fast that her chair fell over.
"So you knew her?", asked O'Connor.
"No!"; Stella's anger grew and she had to fight the urge not to punch one of the two agents in front of her.
Mac would just love it if she was arrested for striking a Federal Officer.
"You know it will be easier if you just tell us the truth", said Thies trying his friendly tone once more.
His voice grated on her nerves making her want to throttle him.
"I'm telling you the fucking truth! I didn't know her and I didn't kill her! This is stupid! What do they teach you in Quantico? How to piss people off? Why would I kill my sister?", Stella was angry to say the least, the fact that she was digging her fingernails into her palm was the only thing that kept her from seriously hurting one of them or maybe both.
"Jealousy", said O'Connor glaring at her while she bending over the table to get closer to Stella, who was pacing up and down in the room.
"Jealousy?", Stella stopped pacing. This was a joke right? She had never heard anything this stupid, she was just waiting for someone to scream april fools.
"Yes, jealousy, she had everything you didn't have. A husband and daughter, a family. Come on you must have hated her!", O'Connor walked over to her.
"She was leading the perfect life, while everything you have is your job. You must have wondered if she was better than you. Why did your parents give you away and not her?"
Even though Stella had asked herself all these questions before, having someone voice them, was 100 times worse. She would have never killed her sister, never!
"Maybe you weren't good enough! So you killed her, so you wouldn't have to look at her and be reminded that you are a failure!", O'Connor was glaring at her, just waiting for her to make a wrong movement.
"Stop it!" Stella couldn't take it anymore. "Yes, of course I asked myself these questions! I still do! Happy now? But I didn't kill her! So stop wasting time! You should be using your time to look for her real killer! But no that would be too difficult wouldn't it?" Stella was walking towards O'Connor, who backed up as far as possible.
"It is so much easier to go around accusing everyone, right? If you can't let me do my job at least do your fucking job!", with that Stella stormed out of the room.
She had stormed out of the lab and ended up in her car , but didn't know where to go.
She didn't want to be alone. She didn't want to talk about what happend in there, she just needed someone there, to feel that she wasn't alone in this.
The first person that came to mind was Mac, but after she told him her feelings for him, she couldn't handle facing him now.
So that option was off. She drove out of the parking lot with no destination in mind.
AN: I hope you all like this chapter! Please tell me what you think! The story is almost over, just wanted to warn you, I think there's just one long chapter left.