AN: The plot thickens...
Disclaimer: I've said it before, but I'll mention again that I don't own the Chicago Cubs or any part of their organization, minor league teams included. I did do a little research to find the actual places where the Cubs have minor league teams, but I don't own any of them. And just for the heck of it since I'm doing a disclaimer here, I don't own CSI:NY, and that means anything seen on the show including characters, plot points, and/or character traits belong to people other than me. Anything not seen on the show is mine and I'm proud of what little I can claim. :)
Kaile woke to the loud thud of files being dropped near her head on the desk. Opening her eyes she looked blearily at what had unceremoniously disturbed her slumber. "What the hell?" she muttered.
"Rise and shine." Kaile wearily brought her head up to see Scagnetti sitting on the edge of the desk across from hers with his arms crossed. She bit back a nasty retort when she saw a reflection of what her own face probably looked like at that moment. Scagnetti looked like he had gotten about as much sleep as she had last night, maybe less.
Groaning at the soreness from sleeping at her desk, Kaile sat back in her chair and rubbed the back of her neck. "I repeat, Scags, what the hell?"
"You know, they say that sleeping at one's desk isn't a good idea, but it's not the sleep that's the problem, it's the waking up." He raised his hands in a placating gesture at Kaile's look. "Okay, okay…so, the files. I combed through NCIC and came up with some interesting stuff." He picked up the first file on the top of the stack. "I've got stuff going back over a decade. Oldest is Penelope Moore, age 20, deaf, stabbed multiple times out in Idaho. Only mutilation to the ears was that the murderer pulled out her earrings and took part of the ear lobe with them. But we'll get back to why I still think that's connected," he said, placing that case file down on the desk where Kaile's head had been just moments before and picking up the next one on the stack. "Next is Sylvia Gray in Tennessee, also deaf, also stabbed, and the real ear mutilation starts." He repeated his previous restacking and picking up of another file, though this time he picked up two. "Then we have Emily Cook and Tricia Elliot in Iowa. Same story as the rest."
Something about the list of locations, Idaho, Tennessee and Iowa, was sounding familiar to Kaile though she couldn't figure out why. But it all became clear as Scagnetti listed the next victims. "Then we've got three more women, all deaf, all stabbed, killed in Chicago or the surrounding suburbs."
"Whoa, hold up." She stared down at the stacks of files then back up at Scagnetti. "Those first three states you mentioned, the victims wouldn't happen to have been killed near the minor league teams of the Chicago Cubs, would they?"
"Now you've got it," Scagnetti confirmed, sitting again on the desk across from Kaile's. "In order from single A right up to the majors and the rest of that stack goes on to Arizona and California and wherever else Jim Munson played until finally culminating here in New York."
"Okay, wait, this can't be right." Dear God, she hoped it wasn't right. "We checked Jim's alibi yesterday when we were talking to him. Not only was he out of town at games when our vics were killed, he was pitching on the days the ME put the times of death. He couldn't be involved." Making sure of that was the whole reason she had spent the night at her desk. After her disastrous talk with Dominic she had wanted to clear Jim Munson completely, so she had spent hours looking through the lives of their two vics and trying to find some way they were connected besides being deaf and having dated Jim. Nothing had popped up, but she hadn't given up hope. At least, she hadn't until now.
"Oh, he's involved, the question is just to what degree." He held up a hand before Kaile could object. "I took the trouble to check and just like with our New York vics, Jim Munson was pitching out of town every single time one of these victims was killed." Scagnetti stood up and put his hands in his pants pockets. "So, he didn't do the stabbings himself, but the fact that he was out of town with thousands of people witnessing his alibi every single time means that there is something going on here, Kaile. The idea I can't shake is that he hired someone to murder these women and to make sure that the killings happened while he was out of town so he couldn't be a suspect."
"No, that's not possible." She got up from her chair and began pacing behind her desk. She was thankful in that moment that her desk was off in a corner and that all the desks near hers were unoccupied at the moment. This was not a conversation she wanted anyone else overhearing. "Jim would never hurt anyone, either himself or through a hit man. It's just not possible," she said again.
"You're going to have to accept the possibility," Scagnetti told her.
Her eyes flashed as she turned to face him. "You've told me before that I had to accept something and I didn't believe it then, and I don't believe this now."
Scagnetti flinched slightly before crossing his arms. "And just like that time, you're too close to this. You need to take yourself off this case."
"The hell I do." She took her jacket off the back of her desk chair, put it on, took her sidearm out of one of her desk drawers and placed it back at her waist.
"What do you think you're doing, Flack?" Scagnetti asked indignantly.
"Questioning a material witness because that's all he is at this point. You've as much as admitted that he couldn't have killed these women and so far we don't even know if he knew these other ones. The only way we can know that is if we ask him." She came around her desk and started to head out when Scagnetti grabbed her arm.
"I'm not going to let you ruin our case just because you know the guy." It wasn't a side of Scagnetti that came out a lot, but he could be as serious as the next guy and she knew he wouldn't back down.
"Then come with me, but you can't stop me from going." They stared at each other for a few more moments until Scagnetti let go of her arm.
"Fine." He turned and picked up all of the files he had brought. "JD took copies of these files to the lab to see if the CSIs could find anything useful in them that I missed. He'll call me if they find something and maybe we'll have more to ask Mr. Munson about."
"Fine." Kaile responded, echoing his word and his tone. She turned and headed out of the precinct, not looking to see if Scagnetti followed her. It was probably better that he did come. If the worst happened, he could be the one to snap the handcuffs on. Then at least she could tell Dominic that she wasn't the one to arrest one of his oldest friends. Not that that would really be enough to keep Dom from being ticked at her and possibly never speaking to her again.
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"Hey, Dr. Hawkes." Sheldon looked up and smiled in greeting.
"Good morning, Detective Deveraux. You pull an early shift?"
"Kind of," JD replied, shifting the folders he held under his left arm. "Scagnetti found something on our case with Kaile Flack. He must have been up all night. Anyway, he asked me to bring copies of the files to the CSIs on the cases, but I can't seem to find them. You haven't seen Alexis, Xavier or Scott, have you?"
"No, but then I haven't been here long. I just got in and I had a message on my desk from Lindsay asking me to meet her in her office this morning." He looked over to the office in question and noticed Lindsay putting her phone back on the hook. "And it looks like she might finally be free. Why don't we kill two birds with one stone and both see her? She should know where your missing CSIs are." JD shrugged and followed.
"Oh, good, you're here," Lindsay greeted Sheldon as he pushed open the door to the office. Her eyes narrowed and her face tensed just a touch as she took notice of who followed Hawkes in. "And Detective Deveraux, good timing. You, Scagnetti and Kaile were my next call."
Sheldon raised an eyebrow. Lindsay didn't often break out this tone. JD looked pale and he didn't even know what the problem was yet. "Uh, is there something wrong, ma'am?"
Hawkes stifled a grin even before Lindsay shot back with "Don't call me ma'am." That was a trait she had picked up from Mac and something the family teased each other about all the time. "What the hell were you three doing yesterday? Do you know how many calls I've taken already this morning from people wondering why we arrested a member of the New York Yankees? Why wasn't I or any of my CSIs notified about you bringing in Jim Munson?"
Sheldon's ears perked up. He had only casually met Jim Munson a couple of times, but he was a close family friend of the Messers and nobody in the family took that lightly.
"We didn't arrest him, ma'am, I mean Detective Messer. I don't know who's telling you that, but we just brought him in for questioning because it turns out that he knew both of our victims. And I was just coming to notify our CSIs and go through some new information with them," JD finished, holding up the stack of files he had been carrying.
"I know you didn't arrest Jim, but word travels fast and it tends to get twisted as it goes down the line." Lindsay folded her arms over her chest. "I don't appreciate my lab being out of the loop, Detective."
"Understood." His unstated ma'am hung in the air.
There were a few moments of silence. Sheldon wondered at the attitude of his longtime friend and colleague. Sure, nobody liked to get blindsided and the added angle of a family friend being involved was going to put her in a bad mood, but he would have thought it would take more than that to get her like this. Danny was much more likely to have this kind of reaction.
"You can leave the files here," Lindsay finally said. "Xavier will be in later and I have Alexis and Scott out on a call."
JD acquiesced and put the stack on her desk. "It's a list of cases around the country that Scagnetti thinks are connected to ours because they fit our specific signature. He hoped that the CSIs could find some forensics in the files that might help us. We'll be following up on the suspects in these cases and seeing if there are any connections to New York."
"Good. Keep us informed and we'll do likewise, Detective." Deveraux nodded and headed out of the office. Hawkes waited until JD got onto the elevator before raising an eyebrow at Lindsay. "What?" she asked defensively.
"That wasn't like you, Linds. What did the poor kid do?"
Lindsay Messer sighed and sat down in the chair behind her desk. "Ana called last night to give a heads up so we didn't bother Ella with questions. She said she didn't know specifics because Ella wasn't talking, but she thinks Ella and Deveraux had a falling out."
Now Hawkes understood. For any of them, messing with one of the kids was about the worst thing you could do. "And you're worried that something like this could push Ella back into the shell she's been in for years," he stated as he sat in one of the chairs in front of her desk.
"Well, yes," she admitted. Sighing, she picked the top folder off the stack. "But I'll have to worry about my daughter later. If Scagnetti is right, this looks like we could have a serial killer on our hands."
"I'm happy to help," Hawkes offered, leaning forward to take a few of the files. This kind of paperwork he could cope with much better than what he usually had to deal with. "Answer me one thing though."
Lindsay looked up from her file and raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Trying to hold back a smile, Hawkes asked, "Have you told Danny that Deveraux might have broken Ella's heart?"
Lindsay rolled her eyes. "What, do you think I'm stupid?"