Disclaimer: See previous chapters
Ten Minutes to Closing
Chapter 3
Stella and Sid stood in morgue, waiting for their colleagues to catch up with them. Lindsey and Danny followed a few minutes later.
Sid spoke to the CSIs, "Now that we're all here, let's see what we've got. The victim, Joshua Bennet, was stabbed twice with the knife still in his chest. The first one hit a major artery and punctured his lung. He died few minutes later. The second appears not the have hit anything vital, and the knife was left in the wound, so it wouldn't have bled as much as the first. Now let's get the murder weapon out."
Sid pulled out the knife and gave it to Stella. She bagged it to process later. Sid suddenly noticed an odd, spongy pink substance in the wound. He picked it up with tweezers and gave it to Lindsey, who would figure out what it was.
"Thanks, Sid" Stella said. The three of them went out into the hallway. She handed Danny the knife, which was stainless steal, and had a blue, plastic handle just like most of the knives in the seafood or deli areas. "You process the murder weapon. Linds, you do trace on this. I'll run with the shoeprints Danny found."
They each headed off in a different direction.
Danny took a good look at the knife in his hand. He lifted several prints from the handle. There were at least two different sets of prints on it, maybe more. Danny ran them through AFIS, but came up empty. He then checked for a match with fingerprints taken from the store employees, Jess, and Dylan. There were still some unknown prints, but they were most likely to be from other employees. He also sent a sample of the DNA found to Jane, but knew he'd have wait for her to process it. Then, Danny called Stella to tell her what he found.
Stella frowned at the shoeprint on table in front of her. It looked exactly like the three or four others Danny found, expect for the size. It was from a slip resistant shoe, probably coming from an employee. But why would they all wear the same type of shoe. She'd need to talk to the workers at the store again. Suddenly, a cell phone ringing loudly broke the silence, followed by her pager.
Lindsey glanced at the report in front of her. It claimed the red stuff she found was cocktail sauce, which didn't mean much without context. She moved on to the odd pink stuff Sid found. It had a very slimy texture and smelled a bit like …fish? Wasn't the kid who the body a seafood clerk? Things did not look good for Frankie's little brother. Lindsey quickly paged Stella.
Stella answered her phone, "Bonasera"
"Hi" Danny answered. "The prints on the murder weapon came back to Dylan and Jess. We should have Flack bring them in."
"All right. I need to get a few questions about these shoeprints answered anyway." Stella hung up the phone to call Lindsey.
"Monroe" she answered professionally.
"What did you find from trace?"
"Cocktail sauce and Wild Alaskan King Salmon. You to have Flack bring in Dylan."
"I all ready am." Stella filled Lindsey in on what Danny and she had found.
About an hour later, Flack and Danny stood in the interrogation room with Dylan Mala. He looked some different without his store uniform on. He wore torn denim jacket, a faded Led Zeppelin T-shirt, and a well-worn Red Sox hat that been signed by Curt Schilling. The hat served to keep his long, curly blond hair out of his eyes. Stella stood, watching from the other side of the one-way glass.
"Any idea why your fingerprints on the murder weapon?"
"No. But I'll bet they aren't the only ones." Dylan was getting impatient. "Anyone in seafood or deli could grab one of the knives. I use it to cut and skin fish."
"We also found cocktail on your boss. Wanna tell us how it got there?"
The young clerk shrugged, "I knocked over a jar earlier that day. He was there just in time to threaten to fire me if I didn't shape up."
Flack considered this, "You sure it wasn't an accident? Maybe meant to scare and it just got out of hand?"
"You think I did this?" Dylan didn't want to believe it was happening again. "I know my brother went nuts on one of you CSI guys. But that doesn't mean I'm like him. I hated the fat man, but I wouldn't hurt anyone just because of that." His clear, blue eyes seemed to be pleading with them to believe him. Dylan was fighting the urge to yell, scream and beg them to listen. If they did their jobs right it would prove his innocence.
"One more question." Danny spoke up. "Do you know why all the shoeprints in the freezer are the same?"
"We're supposed to wear slip resistant overshoes that don't really work. Everyone in the seafood and deli departments has a pair." Dylan found this question a little odd. "We keep them at the store."
"Thanks." Danny and Flack allowed him to leave. Stella stepped into the room.
"I'm not sure I believe him."
"Well, I do." Danny thought about it. "Why not talk to him yourself if you doubt him?"
"Oh that'll go well. 'Hi, I'll Stella, the one who killed your brother. Did you stab your boss?' That would get him to confess."
"Good point. So where do we go from here?"
"Back to scene of the crime. I want to get those overshoes and figure this out." Stella answered. "I'll stay here and try to match rest of the prints, and also wait for DNA results from the knife."
A/N: I would have finished earlier, but it's hard to type with a large, frightened dog under your desk. She ran in my room because thunderstorms scare her. Anyway, I know Stella would have probably gone with them but you'll see why I left her there next chapter. Also D/L and Danny getting himself in trouble next chapter. Please R&R. Thanks.
