Chapter 7: Getting' Down to Business

Don followed Angie and the rest of his CSI team down the hall into an evidence room. The special tables that all CSI labs had, with the lighted surfaces for better spotting of evidence, were covered with evidence bags. Don could see that the evidence had been separated by the location of the shootings; the first was from the Emerald Room and the other was from the Python Room, a popular nightclub famous for heavy drug use. There seemed to be little evidence from the Python Room shooting on the table, and Don had to wonder where the rest of it was.

Don gave his attention to Angie, who had turned to face the New York team. Several people, including Jimmy and Cee, stood to Angie's right; Don assumed they were the rest of her team.

"What we know so far is that last night, around 12:30, shots were fired in the Emerald Room by Martinez and our second perp. Ballistics just confirmed that none of the bullets from the Emerald Room shooting, excepting the bullet that hit Detective Flack, came from Juan Martinez's gun. All of the bullets from our second shooting, at the Python Room, seem to be from the same gun as the Emerald Room shooting. We're looking for one guy. Hopefully, Martinez will be willing to cooperate; he's already lawyered up. Since you get to take him home with you, Mac, I'll leave it to you to try and negotiate."

"Right; Don, I want you come with me to interview Martinez, since you know him better than the rest of us. Lindsay, Hawkes, I want you two to help Angie's CSIs process all of the clothes and evidence that was brought in. Stella, Danny, the two of you will be helping Angie process the Python Room, since she said they haven't processed the scene."

"Danny, right?" Angie asked. Danny nodded, "Mac said you're good at digital recreations of crime scenes. I need you to do one for the Python Room, since our eyewitness statements are sketchy at best."

"No problem, I'll get right on that." Danny said with a serious look. Don smirked, Danny always liked being reminded at how good he was at his job; he figured it had to do with Danny's turbulent childhood. As the rest of his team disbanded to join the LA CSIs, Don followed Mac out the door. Jimmy was waiting for them.

"Hey Don, how's your arm?" Jimmy asked as he led them to one of the interrogations rooms, where Martinez was waiting with his lawyer.

"Eh, it's been betta to tell you the truth. But I'll make do. Were you at the Python Room?"

"Yeah, Christ it was a real bloodbath. Worse than the Emerald Room, by far. We've got fifteen DUAs and at least another twenty injured. Whoever this sick bastard is, he sure doesn't like nightclubs. We have patrols running surveillance on ten major clubs in the city. We're hoping we might catch this guy if he tries it again. Unfortunately, this is LA. There's a club on practically every corner and we just don't have the manpower to watch them all. Good luck with Martinez," Jimmy said, nodding towards the door to the interrogation room. "He's a wiseass."

"Unfortunately, we're well acquainted with Mr. Martinez." Mac said before opening the door and entering. Don followed him in and took the seat directly across from Martinez. He knew Mac was going to let him lead, so he thought about what he was going to say before he started the interrogation. Mac decided to slowly walk the perimeter of the room, in an attempt to intimidate Martinez.

"Why hello, Martinez, didya miss me?" Don said with a grin.

"No way I'd miss a cop. You follow me all the way out here just to bust my ass for those rapes I did in New York?" Martinez answered with a scowl. At this point Martinez's lawyer decided to interrupt.

"I'd like to state for the record my client is pleading not guilty to the charges of being involved in the club shooting. And don't say another word." She said, addressing Martinez.

"Yo, bitch. You were appointed to me, I don't need you. My cousin is gonna hook me up with a good lawyer, not some crappy court appointed lawyer."

"Wow Martinez, I'm amazed you know the meaning of court appointed." Don said sarcastically.

"Really funny; I've been through the system. I know what I'm doing. You gonna answer my question?" Martinez said with a nasty glare. "You follow me all the way out here for those rapes?"

"Nah, see, you're not worth the effort Martinez. A scumbag like you, we knew we'd see you again real soon; right after you screwed up again."

"Yeah right; so why'd you follow me to the club, dog?"

"Well, dawg, I just happened to be on vacation and I bumped into you." Don rolled his eyes at Martinez's question. "It's not lookin' too good for you, Martinez. We know you were involved and we wanna know who else you were with."

"Listen, dog, I didn't shoot nobody. I was along for the ride, and I saw you."

"Now see, I know you're lying Martinez, 'cause you shot me."

"Hey, you reached for your piece first, dog. It was self defense."

"Bullshit, Martinez. I hadn't even grabbed my firearm. And you were just hoping to take me down before anyone else found out you were in Los Angeles. Now since you brought up your cousin, why don't you tell us his name? I bet it was him you were 'along for the ride' with."

"No way, dog. Me and my cuz, we're tight see?" Martinez said, crossing his fingers at the expression. "I won't rat him out, no matter what." Don grinned.

"Now see, Martinez, you just did. You might not have told us his name, but you just as good as admitted he was with you at the club. Now why don't you help yourself out by telling us where to find him?" Martinez looked pissed at Don's statement, but shut his mouth and shook his head. He shot a look at his lawyer.

"What would he get in exchange for information on his cousin?"

"Absolutely nothin' but a nice warm and squishy feelin' inside for helping us out." Don said sarcastically.

"That's not a very enticing offer, Detective. Why should he help you if he won't receive any benefits?"

"Because otherwise he'll be takin' the rap for the club shootings."

"What! That's bullshit! There's no way I was at that second shooting, I was already in jail. And when Ramon hits that other club tonight, you won't be able to pin that on me either."

"Ramon, huh? For someone who thinks he can work the system, you're pretty dumb Martinez. And even though you can't be solely charged with these two club shootings, you admitted to the rapes you committed in New York, so it looks like you'll be heading back to good ole' NYC compliments of New York's finest." Don smirked at Martinez's shocked expression, before turning to the uniform by the door. "We're done here."

"Good work Don. I'll see if I can find something on 'Ramon'." Mac said as he opened the door to the interrogation room.

"I'm gonna go tell Jimmy there's another shootin' planned for tonight. Hopefully we can track this kid down before another bloodbath happens."

Don met up with Jimmy and relayed what he'd learned from Martinez. Jimmy called dispatch to give a warning out to the officers stationed at the local clubs. They were on their way down to the Coroner's Office when they ran into Danni. She looked pissed, but was busy holstering her gun and had already clipped her badge back onto her belt.

"IAB let you go?" Jimmy asked her, when she looked up.

"Yeah, after asking me the same damn questions about twenty times. But they deemed it a 'good shoot', so I'm back on active duty." She said, leaning up to give Don a quick kiss.

"Congratulations, beautiful. Wanna join us down in the morgue?"

"Don't mind if I do," she said with a laugh. When they got down to the morgue, they saw that it was more than a little overcrowded. Bodies covered every autopsy table, and several were still in their body bags from pickup. Danni led them over to a black haired kid with a mohawk, who was leaning over one of the bodies.

"Hey Monty! Whatcha got for us?"

"Danni, heard you were there for that first shooting? Was it wicked?" Jack asked.

Don stared at the guy. He had white face makeup, heavy eye makeup, and multiple face piercings. Don wondered if this was one of the lab techs.

"No, it was annoying; ruined my night off. Oh, Don, let me introduce you to Dr. Jack Montgomery, or as we call him, Monty." Don was shocked that that this kid, who couldn't be older than Don, was their coroner. "Monty, this is Detective Don Flack from the NYPD."

"Hello Detective, it's nice to meet you. Let's get down to business; your vics were all shot with a 9mm. No other obvious injuries beside those associated with gunshots or a stampede. Gunshot wounds were erratic and irregular, there doesn't appear to be a discernable pattern to the shooting; most likely your guy was simply firing into the crowd, and whoever got hit was shit outta luck. The vic we have here, a Mr. Tommy Bradshaw, was shot in the head, but due to bullet embolism, we have an exit wound just below his clavicle. Mr. Bradshaw here is all torn up due to the bullet acting like a pinball inside his body. Because of the caliber size, Mr. Bradshaw here isn't the only one whose body has drastic internal injuries. I sent up the bullets from all of the vics I've autopsied so far, but as you can see," Monty said waving his arm towards the piles of body bags, "We're pretty overloaded today."

"If you need some help, I'm sure Hawkes would be happy to help out. He works in the field now most of the time, but he used to be our coroner."

"Well, if he's up for it, I can use all the help I can get; we've got someone out sick and someone on vacation."

"Ugh, don't remind me. This is my vacation." Both Jimmy and Monty gave him sympathetic looks, but nodded as though they understood. Giving Monty a wave, they headed from the morgue back up to the lab to talk to Hawkes. Jimmy excused himself to go get a coffee while Don and Danni walked into the ballistics room. Hawkes was talking with Christian Jenkins, or Cee, the CSI who had taken Don's statement earlier that morning.

God, has it really been only 20 hours since the shooting? Some vacation…Don thought as he stepped around a chair to see what the two men were looking at. They were looking at photos of the bullets and the shell casings.

"Look, if you look at the bunter marks and the striations, you can see it's a Smith & Wesson. But this model is a Military and Police issued weapon only. So our perp was either issued, or got a hold of, a Smith and Wesson M &P 9mm, and is now using it to shoot up nightclubs. If we had the weapon, we could look up its serial number in the system, but right now, all we have to go on is a model."

"Not exactly," Lindsay said. She had been perusing files on a computer, with Danni at her side. Now she was grinning like a cat that'd gotten some cream. "This particular model by Smith and Wesson hasn't been released. S & W has only released this model to one particular group on the west coast; the LAPD narcotics division was given two shipments to test. S & W wanted to test the model's use and practicality in the field." Don was impressed, and apparently so was Cee, who let out a low whistle of appreciation.

"That's not all" Lindsay said, holding up a computer printout. "S& W released other shipments across the US, but only the LAPD shipment was given rounds with serial numbers matching those found at the scene and in our vics."

"Jesus, we're lookin' for a cop!" Danni said in shock.

A/N: Sorry for the huge delay. My best friend had a serious crises and I've been helping her deal with it. Anyways, the next chapter will be out soon; I've been trying to figure out how the case was going to work out. Reviews are always appreciated.