Chapter 14
Stella had had no destination in mind when she had stormed out of the office, she had just started the car and driven out into the New York traffic.
Now as she studied the street she had parked on she wondered what had brought her to this particular house.
She studied the house, noticing a light in one of the windows and movement behind the drawn curtains.
She figured Aletheia's husband wouldn't be here yet, afterall it was still a crime scene and it had just been cleared that morning.
On the other hand, if it had been her she would have probably wanted to leave the hotel as fast as possible and get back home too.
For a moment she wondered if going in was a good idea, maybe he wanted to be alone.
She remembered the crime scene photos she had seen of the house, she didn't think that anyone should deal with that situation on their own.
She slamed her car door shut and made her way towards the house.
Tomas opened the door with a surprised look on his face.
He obviously hadn't expected any visitors.
"I know it's late Tomas. If you want to be alone I understand", Stella smiled apologetically.
"No it's alright. Come in, but I have to warn you, this place is a mess", he tried to joke.
Stella didn't know how to respond to that, so she just stepped in.
He ushered her into the living room. Stella noticed that he had started cleaning up, there were still pieces of a vase on the floor but he had put the chairs and the desk back in their right places.
"You want any help cleaning up?", asked Stella at loss on what else to say or do.
"Yeah sure", Tomas went over to pick up one of the lilies from the floor.
Stella went over and started picking up the pieces of the vase.
"Every moment I exspect her to come in the door", he said after a while.
Stella looked up from what she was doing. She didn't know how to answer him, or if he even expected a response from her.
"I can't believe that she's dead", he whispered.
Stella found her eyes watering again blurring her vision.
Why would someone put someone else through this?
She just felt so helpless. She couldn't even bring Aletheia's killer to justice anymore.
The only things that had made her feel useful had been taken from her. Her job was what she was good at, she couldn't do anything else.
She wanted to help Tomas and Lilian so badly. But she didn't know how to help them.
God, she didn't even know how to help herself, how the hell was she able to help someone else?
It wasn't until she saw the red liquid dripping of her hand, that she noticed the pain.
She dropped the piece of the vase on which she had cut herself.
"I need to use the bathroom for a second", said Stella walking out of the room without waiting for a reply.
In a way she was grateful for the opportunity to get her emotions back under control.
Back at the crime lab Mac was getting anxious. Over an hour had passed since Agent O'Connor had taken Stella away for interrogation.
What the hell did they want from her?
The other's were still gathered in his office.
Danny was downing one cup of coffe after another, while Flack was pacing from one end of the room to another.
No one could quite shake the feeling of helplessness that had taken a toll on them all when the FBI had taken over the case.
"We can't just sit here and do nothing!", exclaimed Aiden finally standing up out of Mac's visitors chair so fast that it fell over.
Looking at his team Mac reached a decision.
"Ok, they may have taken the evidence but we still know more about the case then they do. Let's get over this again", Mac stood up, happy he had found something to do that would take his mind of of Stella and the FBI,
"Who had a motive to kill Robert Norman and Aletheia Gerold?"
He threw the question out to the others to try and focus there attention onto something other than there annoyance at the FBI.
"No one had a motive to kill them both, that's the problem", Danny drowned the rest of his coffee, while in his mind he was going through all the evidence they had gathered again.
"Are we even sure these two murders are connected?", asked Flack as he finally stopped pacing. "They could be completly unrelated."
"That would be too big of a coincidence", Aiden walked over to a white board and wrote the names Robert Norman and Aletheia Gerold on it.
"And we don't believe in coincidences, we believe in evidence", quoted Danny.
"So do we have any evidence that connects this murders?", asked Mac.
"No just common sense. They knew each other and Robert Norman was a bit obsessed with her", Aiden wrote down the suspects they had in each case.
"So the director of her school and Robert Norman could both have had a motive, but if Robert Norman killed her then who killed him? If we assume the director killed Aletheia, then what motive would he have to kill Robert Norman?" ,asked Flack.
"Maybe Robert Norman was killed for revenge because he killed Aletheia", suggested Mac.
"Which would give the husband a motive", Flack walked over to the board and listed him as a suspect.
"You are forgetting that he has an alibi", Aiden said, taking the pen from Flack, wanting to cross him out again.
"Maybe he took an earlier flight home", argued Flack, reaching for the pen.
"There isn't any evidence that he did", argued Aiden back. It was then that one of the lab techs knocked on Mac's door interupting their argument.
The lab techs was a small woman with dark black hair twisted in a braid.
"I ran the trace on the dust you found on a victims clothes, sir", she said toying with the file in her hand. Everyone could see that she was uncomfortable with everyone looking at her.
"Thank you, Jenny", said Mac trying to force something like a friendly smile on his face.
"It's a special mix of concrete dust, it's not used very often especially not in New York. I looked it up and put in a list of all construction sites where it's currently being used", replied Jenny so fast that they had trouble understanding what she was saying.
"That helps a lot, thank you", said Mac looking at the small nervous looking woman while he took the file from her. Jenny just nodded and made her way back out of the office as fast as possible.
"What's up with her?", asked Flack watching after her.
"I think she's kinda cute", grinned Danny which earned him a smack on the arm of Aiden.
"She's new, but she's good ", murmured Mac looking through the file. "Where was the husbands buisness trip to again?", Mac looked up from the file.
"Chicago", replied Flack, "why?"
"Because I just found our evidence", Mac handed the file over to Aiden.
"This concrete is being used in the renovation the Chicago Midway Airport", exclaimed Aiden surprised.
"Let's say we pay the greiving husband a visit and ask him how traces of dirt from Chicago ended up on his dead wifes body", Mac walked out of the office with everyone else in tow.
Stella had finally found the bathroom.
She let the water run over her hand trying to clean the blood from the cut, but it wouldn't stop bleeding. She looked over to the medicine cabinet on the wall next to the sink and decided to find herself a band-aid.
Oh my god...
Stella looked into the cabinet, but instead of band-aid she pulled out a gun.
Not any gun but a Smith and Wesson 22A. The gun type that most likely killed Robert Norman.
AN: Ok I decided to make it to chapter afterall! I like the number 15 better than 14 ;) Anyway the end is ready, will post it today.