Chapter Three:

The Garden

Warrick

Warrick Brown leaves Nick to investigate the book room. He was more interested in the small bedroom just on the opposite of the library. He walks there through the hall. The floor creaks under his weight. A noise jars his attention as Chatherine arrives.

"Hello?" she calls out to the shop. "Anyone here?" Warrick was in no hurry to process the room, so he took it upon him to go down stairs and greet Catherine and catch her up on things.

"I thought this place was supposed to be empty," she states the same thing we all expected.

"This place was supposed to be abandoned years ago," Warrick confirms for Catherine. "Don't look like it now, though."

"Where is everyone?" she looks around seeing none of the CSI's that were supposed to be here.

"Nick was upstairs in the library, I was going to the small bedroom up there when you got here. Greg was in the alley out back, and Sara I haven't even seen her."

"Well, I think I will handle the girl there on the floor," Catherine says motioning to the dead girl.

"The coroner hasn't arrived yet," Warrick informs.

"No problem, I just won't touch her," she smiles pulling on a pair of gloves and starts photographing her. Warrick walks back up the stairs and into the small decrepit bedroom on the left of the library.

Again it doesn't look disturbed. Everything looks just like it should have been. The bed was made sloppily the books were on the shelf where they belonged and even the little crystal figurine dragon's on her nightstand were still there and intact.

Warrick was very entranced with the crystal dragon figurines. He takes one up in his hand and looks at the delicate glass sculpture. Looking at it deeply and seeing that perfect flaw in the center there was like looking through his life. Perfect to the outsider's view flawed from his.

Setting the beautiful delicate glass creature back on the nightstand he looks around the very poorly decorated room. There was only one bed with springs popping out. He thought it was sad that anyone would sleep on such a worn out piece of junk. The walls were rotting and termite eaten, obviously eating through the painting that hung on the wall. The color had faded lone since from too much exposure to sun and to the elements from the open broken window.

Then he saw the blood from one of the broken windowpanes. He picks up his camera and shoots a picture before looking out the window to the fire escape. His eyes widen as he sees the great drop, but he wasn't worried. He collected the entire broken pane he could find and put them in evidence bags. Once the panes were collected he crawls out of the window and follows the blood up the fire escape to the roof. One metal runner at a time he climbs to the top unbeknownst to what he will find up there.

To his surprise and pleasure he finds a complete garden at top. He looks around bamboozled as he walks through the tall forest-like garden on the roof. Fern leaves and twigs, he walks through the small crowded path until he finds the edge of the building. He look downward down at the storefront before looking over through the vast amount of pipes on the roofs of buildings silhouetted by the neon lights of the strip.

He had never even known this place existed until tonight, and yet he's not sure it even exists now. His nerves were peaked and he was watching everything. Whimpering catches his ear and he looks around for the person wining out.

Something catches his brown eyes and he moves towards the shadow in the corner.

"Hello?" he calls out to the frightened child.

He kneels down to eye-level of the crouching kid and offers his hand like coaxing a puppy out of a box.

"It's alright," Warrick says softly to the small kid.

"Please don't hurt me," the child whimpers.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Warrick tries to assure him. "You're safe now."

"They'll be back," he cries pulling back from Warrick's outstretched hand.

"Who'll be back?" Warrick asks starting to fear him.

The kid didn't answer though.

"You're hurt, you need to go see a doctor," he says calmly to the still quivering child.

"No, no doctor, no, not seeing, no," he jabbers incoherently. "Please, stay with me," he pleads.

"Alright," Warrick answers and sits next to him reveling in the sounds of the hooting owls and the breeze rustling in the garden atop the store front roof.