Lindsay, Danny and Mac were called to a scene first thing Monday morning. Lindsay appreciated being able to get out of the lab.
When they got to the scene they ducked under the tape.
Lindsay glanced over when they were sounds of a commotion. A woman had tried to get under the tape but one of the cops was trying to restrain her, her arms were flaying around, while he was trying to hold her still. It clicked in Lindsay's head.
"Hold this." Lindsay handed Danny her kit and walked over.
She waved a hand to get the woman's attention.
"Are you deaf?" She signed.
The woman nodded.
"Do you sign?" Lindsay asked.
The woman nodded again.
"Let her go." She instructed the officer.
"Detective?"
"She's deaf. She needs her hands free to talk." Lindsay informed him. "Let her go."
He released her.
"I'm L-I-N-D-S-A-Y M-O-N-R-O-E. I'm a detective with NYPD." Lindsay introduced herself. "What's your name?"
The woman quickly spelt out her name.
"J-U-L-I-E L-E-W-IS." Lindsay repeated to make sure she got it right the woman nodded. "Do you know that man?" Lindsay inquired.
"Yes. He's my boyfriend S-C-O-T-T A-D-A-M-S."
Lindsay signalled for her to wait.
"Flack." Lindsay called he walked over. "We got an ID on the body and this is his girlfriend."
"Detective Flack." Don introduced himself.
The woman looked to Lindsay.
"This is Detective F-L-A-C-K." Lindsay spoke out loud as she signed. "This is Julie Lewis, that's her boyfriend Scott Adams."
"I'm going to need ask her some questions. Can you help with that?" Flack inquired.
"Sure." Lindsay replied. "We need to ask you some questions. Why don't we go over here?" Lindsay told Julie.
"Did you know Lindsay could sign?" Danny asked Mac.
"Yes." Mac replied. "It's in her personnel file."
"Any chance I could read it?"
"Just ask her." Mac suggested.
"Ms Lewis is Mr Adams deaf too?" Flack asked. Lindsay relayed his question to Julie then translated for Flack.
"No. His sister Maggie is. Scott taught ASL at the local deaf centre. That's where they met. Julie is an administrator there." Lindsay explained.
"When was the last time you saw him or spoke to him?" He asked.
"Yesterday. We had lunch with Maggie and then Scott was going out with some friends. He usually calls to say goodnight around 11, but he didn't last night. I just thought he forgot the time. I came to walk to work with him."
"How does that work?" Flack asked.
"I'll explain relay to you later." Lindsay told him. "Next question."
"Where do you live?" Flack inquired.
"Two blocks away." Lindsay gave the response. "They walk to work together every morning. He's usually waiting at her front door when he wasn't there she thought she meet him here."
"Did Mr Adams have any enemies?" Flack asked.
"Not that she knows of."
"I'm going to need the names of the people that he went out with last night."
Lindsay told Julie. She took Flack's notepad and pen and handed them to Julie so she could write down the information.
"Since when do you sign?" Flack asked Lindsay.
"Since kindergarten." Lindsay replied. "I have a friend Marcy who is hard of hearing and it was only going to get worse as she got older so she was learning to sign. So I learnt with her. I have all my certificates."
"Does Danny know about this?"
"No." Lindsay replied. "Never came up."
"If I give her my card in case anything comes up…"
"She'll call you through relay, she'll type a message and the operator will tell you what she said. Then the operator will type out your response for Julie so she can read it." Lindsay explained.
"I'll arrange for some to take her home and find out if she would like us to call anyone."
TBC