A/N: Nemi Jade - glad you enjoyed the laugh, even though it was unintentional. That's what I get for being half British, half Native, and all Canadian; plenty of sass and sarcasm to go around.
Chapter 8The DEA went after Sandoval with a vengeance but even that took time. The end result was that Savannah wound up spending a lot of time at the labs, always under someone's watchful eye. If she did go anywhere, it was with an armed escort, even to her counseling sessions and self-defense classes.
By the end of the week Savannah was ready to scream in frustration. She hated the feeling of constantly being watched and wished she could get away from it all but knowing it was necessary for her own safety. She wanted to help out at the lab, or at least do something useful, but she couldn't do much because she didn't have any training that was useful. So the end result was that she was bored out of her skull a lot. Things had gotten so bad she had started reading Horatio's science books as a way of passing the time. What had scared her was how much of it she actually understood.
Finally Fate kindly showed Her hand.
Savannah was sitting in the Observation Sector of the autopsy room and chatting with Alexx, who was on the floor, when the aids brought in a new body.
"Oh jeeze," Alexx said, lifting the sheet to see the face.
By now Savannah was so used to seeing dead bodies, or DB's, she didn't even flinch. In a fit of boredom one day, she had sat through several autopsies with Alexx. This one, though, had her raising an eyebrow. "What happened to him?" she asked.
"Looks like someone took a blunt object to his face," Alexx replied.
"Huh. Ouch," Savannah said, watching as Alexx gently probed the victim's face.
"Going to be a bugger to identify him. Feels like half a dozen bones in his face are broken," Alexx commented.
"Glad I don't have to do that," Savannah said, studying the video image of the victim. The more she studied, the more she began to wonder if maybe, just maybe, she could put his face back together. She would need to see an x-ray of the skull for reference points, but it would be an interesting challenge. "Hey, Alexx?"
"Yeah, sugar?"
"I know you probably will anyway but would you mind doing an x-ray of his face after you clean it up?"
"Sure. What do you have in mind?"
"I don't know but I think, I think I can put this guy's face back together. It would be an interesting challenge for me," Savannah said.
"That's quite a challenge but you're welcome to try, by all means. It might make it easier to identify him if prints and DNA come up empty," Alexx said, smiling.
Once Savannah had the x-ray and Alexx had cleaned the blood off the victim's face, she set to work with charcoal and pastel. Alexx didn't hear a peep out of her for the next half an hour, except when she asked two questions.
"Are those eyeglass dents on the bridge of his nose that I'm seeing?" Savannah asked.
Alexx took a closer look. "You're right, sugar. This fellow wore glasses and had been for some time."
"What color are his eyes?" Savannah asked a little while later.
"See for yourself," Alexx said, opening one eye.
Savannah studied the image on her screen and said, "I'd call it at…. mmm… dark green."
"Good call."
A short while later, Horatio appeared. "What do we have, Alexx?" he asked, standing beside the M.E. and studying the victim on the table.
"Blunt force trauma to the face and head," Alexx said. "Practically every bone in his face is either broken or fractured. Even his jaw has been broken at least three times. Somebody used this man for a punching bag."
"Suggesting a lot of rage," Horatio said.
"And no hands, meaning no prints," Alexx said, lifting one of the victim's arms, which was missing a hand at the wrist point. "Lack of blood in the area says they were cut off after death."
"And unless his DNA is in the system, identifying him is going to be very difficult," Horatio said. "Which is what someone may have wanted."
"Well, what someone may have wanted they ain't gonna get," came Savannah's voice. She flashed them her drawing pad and said, "You might actually have some luck with this."
"Don't tell me you managed to reconstruct his face," Alexx said, grinning.
"Okay, I won't," Savannah sassed back.
Horatio chuckled and said, "Bring it down and lets have a look." Savannah did as bid and when he and Alexx saw the drawing, both were very impressed.
"You got this just from the x-ray and seeing his current state of face?" Alexx asked incredulously. Savannah nodded. "Sugar, this is damn good," she praised, giving the girl a hug, causing her to blush.
"She's right; this is good, very good in fact, and will help a lot," Horatio said. "What I will do is have a copy of this sent to Frank, who is investigating the case and see what turns up. In the mean time, I have a challenge for you. How would you like to do another facial reconstruction of another victim, this one a floater?"
Savannah's face lit up at the prospect. She had found out, when doing the sketch, that she liked the challenge a lot. "I'll need the autopsy photos and the x-ray of the skull," she said.
"You shall have them," Horatio replied.
Horatio not only gave Savannah the floater, he also gave her two more cases, complete with x-rays and autopsy photos. What he didn't tell her was that all three had been formally identified and he would be comparing her drawings to the actual photographs of the victims. And, as a bonus challenge, the third case was nothing more than a skull that had been found several years ago. The victim had been identified but the challenge for Savannah was to try and recreate the face with only the skull for hints about coloring and facial shape.
Four hours later, Savannah handed Horatio the files. Then she went, with an escort, to get something to eat. Meanwhile, Horatio took the drawings to the Layout Room. With Ryan, Eric, Natalia, Calleigh, and Alexx watching, Horatio put the pre-death photographs of the victims up and, one by one, put the drawings beside them.
"Why isn't this girl working with us as a forensic artist?" Alexx demanded, comparing the drawings to the photos.
In all three cases, Savannah had been dead on. With the exception of the skull case, the other two drawings were in color and matched the faces in the photographs. The skull case had been done in charcoal but it was very, very close to the actual photograph of the victim.
"Alexx is right, H. We really could benefit from having Savannah's talent with the lab," Eric said, also clearly impressed.
"Horatio!" came Frank's excited voice as he barreled into the room, waving a file. "We got a hit on the beating victim."
Horatio opened the file studied the contents, a growing smile on his face. He placed the photograph up with the other photographs then he placed Savannah's drawing next to it. Savannah had been dead-on again, right down to the fact that the victim had worn glasses.
"That girl is good," Frank said, very clearly impressed.
"Do we have any room on the budget to hire her?" Ryan asked.
"But what would the department heads say?" Calleigh wondered.
"Let's find out," Horatio said.