Okay so I love this fanfiction so much I decided to start writing the third chapter!
And at 1:30 AM I might add. :D
Undercover Disaster
Keiko Fujiwara
Chapter Three:
Assessing the Crime Scene
With about ten minutes left of the flight, Vincent stretched his arms and then lightly shook Catherine's arm. She stirred in her sleep but then after a few shakes, she opened her eyes. "What time is it?"
"We're landing in ten minutes." Vincent replied as he put his pillow back into his carryon bag. "Just out of curiosity, which room are you staying at?"
"I believe that's none of your business." Evan stated with disgust.
"Evan, he wasn't asking you." Catherine said sternly. "Now, if I want my friend Vincent to visit me during our investigation, that's my business. Don't get this assignment into your head, Evan. We are NOT married, remember?"
Evan turned back around before he would say anything potentially regretful and Vincent smirked. 'Way to tell him, Catherine.' Catherine pulled out the notepad they were using earlier from Vincent's carryon and found a pen. She wrote down: Deluxe Room #4. You?
He took the notepad and pen and wrote: Deluxe Room #12…JT orchestrated it for me. He probably didn't see the point of paying for more than necessary.
Good…that means we'll be close in case…well…in case anything happens. I'm guessing we'll be on the same floor.
Vincent nodded in agreement and kissed her temple. In order for Evan to hear him, he loudly whispered, "I missed you, Catherine."
She knew exactly what he was doing. He was mainly getting on Evan's nerves and, in a way, she thought it was funny. Who knew Vincent Keller could be this bad?!
"Please fasten your seatbelts. We will be landing soon." The intercom said. Vincent reattached his seatbelt and whispered low enough for Catherine's ears only.
"Meet me in the Greenbrier gardens around eleven in case I don't see you before then. Okay?"
She nodded and smiled. "Thanks."
"No problem." He grinned. Before they knew it, the plane landed and it was time for everyone to exit and retrieve their luggage.
Evan and Tess started walking down the plane's aisle with Catherine and Vincent trailing behind. He carried both his and Catherine's carryons in one hand and played with her fingers with the other hand. She loved the feeling of Vincent constantly touching her whether it was a kiss to the forehead, a caress to the cheek or melting their fingers together; he didn't stop and she was grateful. It helped her keep sane and almost forget about her foreboding assignment. When they walked off of the plane, Vincent obviously stopped massaging her fingers and handed her bag to her.
"Thanks." She smiled while her fingers chose to linger on top of his as she took her bag back.
"You're welcome." He had the sudden urge to kiss her right then and there but knew she had to put on a cover and he couldn't destroy that in the public eye. All four of them grabbed their belongings and made their way to the Greenbrier bus station.
"Okay so Joe just texted me and we are supposed to go to the main building to meet Thomas Gilmore before going to our rooms." Tess said.
Evan and Catherine nodded as the bus finally pulled to a stop. Unfortunately, Vincent sat a few seats away from Catherine because, now, she needed to start putting on a façade with her fake husband.
Vincent watched as the three of them hopped off the bus about five minutes later and noticed Catherine giving him an apologetic look before following her coworkers. He waved, waiting for the bus started moving again. 'Deluxe room #12, here I come.'
~BEAUTY AND THE BEAST~
Catherine, Tess and Evan followed one of Greenbrier's staff members and were led into a room with a single desk. Before they received the chance to look around the office, a man walked in and began shaking their hands. "You three must be the detectives. I'm Thomas Gilmore."
"Actually, I'm a coroner. These two are the detectives." Evan said, pointing to Tess and Cat.
"Ahhh…Right. And, what names shall we call you?" Thomas asked, requesting the team to tell him their fake names.
"Regina Valmirez." Tess replied, "I'm supposed to be a maid."
"Right. Of course. I'll have you follow Abigail shortly. She's in charge of making sure the maids are doing their work properly."
"Sounds cool." Tess said.
"And you two?" Thomas looked at Catherine and Evan.
"I am Erik Davies and this is my lovely wife, Olivia Davies." Evan smiled, letting Catherine know just how much he was enjoying this little façade.
"Great! Now, before I let you meander to your housing, I would appreciate it if you could assess the crime scene."
"Absolutely." The three replied together.
"Right this way then." Thomas responded, gesturing the three of them to follow him. After several left and right turns and a few flights of stairs, they entered a 4-room suite marked off with caution tape.
"Please investigate quietly. The guests think this room is under construction. We don't want anyone to know about the double homicide. Now, Erik, was it?"
"Hmm?" Evan looked at Thomas.
"I left the bodies as they were because I didn't know what else to do with them. That's why it smells horrible in here. If you three need face masks, I can retrieve them for you."
"No. That will be quite alright." Evan replied. "Due to our professions, we're used to the smell."
"Right, then. One body is in the bathtub of the Master Bedroom and the other is…well…you'll see it almost immediately upon entering the Master Bedroom." He looked at his watch and added, "Well I'll leave you three for the investigation. If you do need anything, don't hesitate to use the room service phone and request for my assistance. Now, if you don't mind, I have a few things to attend to before the night disappears."
"Do what you need to do." Catherine smiled and Thomas left without another word.
"Alright…let's see the damage." Tess said as the three of them pulled on gloves. Evan, being the one with the least queasy stomach, made his way towards the Master Bedroom first; followed by Tess and Catherine.
"Oh my…." Evan's voice faded as his eyes observed the bedroom. "I think we may be here longer for a week…"
"Who would do this!?" Catherine exclaimed as her stomach started feeling nauseous. "This is horrible!"
Tess carefully walked into the room, step by step, and started taking pictures with her camera. "It's sickening but necessary for the report. The victim looks like his or her body parts were separated one by one."
Evan found a pale, partially decayed arm flopping over the bed and he prudently observed it. "It looks like whatever severed the body apart was a clean cut." He picked up the arm and brought it over to Catherine and Tess. "See the abrasion at the shoulder end? This was not an amateur, that's for sure. In order to make a cut this perfect, the killer had to be a professional—as if he or she has done this before."
"Tell me, can you tell whether or not the victim is male or female? I don't know about you, but unless we find the head or the pubic area, there's no way I'd be able to tell." Tess asked.
"I think I see the head…." Catherine interrupted and pointed towards the shelf above the bed.
"Ugh…it looks like the killer wanted to display it like a trophy! Gross!" Tess shuddered as Evan carefully removed the head from the shelf.
"Based on the decaying skin, I'm guessing this victim died about two days ago." He examined the head and looked as if he was going to throw up.
"Yo, Evan. You okay? It isn't like you to get sick on the job." Tess stated as she gave him a weird look.
"The victim…was a young girl…approximately the age of five." Evan replied as his face grew pale.
"Sickening! And to think the killer could still be at Greenbrier." Catherine stammered. "I think it is safe to say we shouldn't leave until we figure out who the hell did this!"
"I agree. This perp must be locked up ASAP." Tess nodded and Evan placed the head down on the bed.
"Alright…let's see victim #2. Hopefully, he or she won't be as horrible as this one." Tess stated and started her way towards the bathroom. Catherine followed but Evan stayed behind, collecting the body parts he could find, laying them on the rug as gently as possible.
Catherine heard Tess groan in disgust and said, "What do you see?"
"I think this was the girl's mother…It looks like her abdomen and throat were gashed as she was taking a shower. I wonder if she didn't think the person who killed her was a threat. See how she's still facing the direction of the shower head?"
"Yeah…I agree. Wait…what's that in the water?" Catherine asked, pointing to something bobbing up and down.
"Holy sh—is that what I think it is?!"
Catherine bent down closer to the object and gasped with repulsion. "Tess…this has just become a triple homicide. Jane Doe was pregnant…and by the looks of it, she was around six months."
"Sick! Alright, let's get outta here. I'm going to call Joe. See if you can reach Thomas and ask for a guest list. He should know what their names are." Tess stated and Catherine nodded.
As they made their way out of the bathroom, Tess said to Evan, "Whoever did this was brutal. The other vic isn't in too good of shape either…the worst part? She was about six months pregnant, making this a triple homicide."
"Good God!" Evan uttered under his breath. "Who would do such a thing?"
"I don't know but we're going to find out. That's why we're here." Tess answered. "Look, I'm gonna call the boss. Cat's going to see if she can get any identification through Greenbrier's records. Do you need me to get anything while I go outside to make this call?"
"See if you can bring me two metal tables. It's going to be hard working here without my lab…and since there're other guests in this building, we can't exactly move the victims from the rooms."
"Right. I'll do what I can." Tess said. As she left, Catherine said, "You said the killer had to be professional, right?"
"Yes, and strong too. I've observed all of the abrasions and, there's no way a woman or scrawny man could have made them. The weapon had to be at least the size of a kitchen axe. To make these kinds of clean cuts without fail would be almost impossible unless the force was incredibly strong and accurate."
"I wonder…" Catherine thought, "Is it possible a butcher would have the strength and precision to make these cuts?"
"Now that you've brought that up, I found a foreign particle embedded into the muscle of victim #1's right arm. I'm guessing the child's right arm was the first to go. I've put the particle in a petri dish to be examined later but, if I'm correct, I'm banking it on being pig skin."
"So you're saying that whichever weapon was used, it wasn't entirely cleaned?"
"Exactly. Let's just hope it isn't skin from another victim elsewhere."
"Alright, well, I'm going to go see if I can find anything on the victims' names." Catherine stated, "Call if you need anything."
"Right."
As Catherine started making her way to the front lobby, she couldn't remember which rights or lefts to take and she was sure she was lost. 'Damn…Should have paid more attention on my way up here…'
Suddenly, a door opened and an arm shot out from it, covering her mouth before pulling her into a closet. She squealed into the perpetrator's hand until she heard a soothing voice whisper, "It's okay. It's okay." He released her and she turned around.
"Vincent, you've gotta stop surprising me like that!" she whispered loudly as she placed her hands on her hips.
"Sorry…I smelled blood on my way up here."
"You must have smelled the blood from the crime scene. It's brutal." She replied as she thought about the poor little girl and her mother. "Honestly, there are times I can't even fathom the cruelty in this world and this is one of those cases. It looks like Tess, Evan and I may be staying here for more than a week but we won't know for sure."
"Okay…what happened?" Vincent asked.
"One victim, a woman, had her head nearly severed from her body as well as her stomach. It appears from the way we found her in the bathtub; she didn't think the person who killed her was a threat. The other victim, the woman's daughter from what we gather, was literally chopped apart. There were body pieces everywhere, Vincent. It was sickening. This victim, from what Evan believes, was only five years old!"
Catherine noticed his eyes glowing with disgust and anger but she placed her hands on his face to calm him. "Vincent, calm down. It's okay! We'll find the perp. Got that!? We'll find whoever did this and lock him or her up!"
Vincent breathed slowly, sending the Beast back into dormancy. "Do you have any idea who the perpetrator is?"
"No…not really but we do believe the perp had to be a large man or woman to make the perfect abrasions on the little girl's body. We also think the perp could be a butcher…it would explain the precision of the cuts—each one perfectly straight. If the perp isn't a butcher by profession, we think his or her profession has to do with cutting in some way, shape or form."
"Do you want me to take a look at the crime-scene when your coworkers leave?"
"No…It'll be too risky…I'll suggest to Evan for your help. Besides, you have a stronger stomach than Tess and mine combined. I could hardly stand to look at either victim."
"Alright. In the meantime, I'll go back to my suite. Call me and tell me what Evan says. Okay?"
Catherine nodded and said, "I should probably get back to the lobby. I need to see if I can find Thomas Gilmore—the CEO of Greenbrier—and try to identify the victims."
Vincent brushed a few strands of hair from Catherine's face and muttered, "Be careful."
"I will." She smiled and they exited the closet. "Ummmm…Vincent…Do you know the way back to the lobby? I swear I'm lost."
"Yeah…" he replied as he took her hand before pulling her with him. She grinned even wider. No matter what she was feeling five minutes ago, Vincent was able to erase the nausea away and replace it with butterflies. After seven or so minutes of left and rights, they made it to the main staircase leading down to the main level.
"Thanks, Vincent. I would have never made it back down here without you." Catherine replied as their hands departed, knowing their façades couldn't be broken.
"No problem. Do you think you can remember your way back?"
She laughed. "I can try."
"I can wait if you want."
"No…that's alright. I'll call Tess or Evan if I get lost. Thank you though." She whispered into his ear. "I'm looking forward to 11 PM, Vincent Keller."
As she walked towards Thomas Gilmore's office, he stood there, dumbfounded. Did he just hear right? He smirked and started walking out of Greenbrier's main building. 'Evan doesn't even stand a chance!' he thought and pulled out his phone, mentally saying, 'I should probably call JT before he has a heart attack.'
~BEAUTY AND THE BEAST~
As Catherine waited for Thomas Gilmore to see her, she couldn't help but look out the window and watch the love of her life walk away from the building as if he were living life again. Seeing him walk freely amongst people without fear of Muirfield was almost unreal. She wished this kind of life would still be with him when they return home but she knew better. She knew he knew better as well but why should those thoughts ruin his fun?
"Mrs. Davies…?"
Suddenly Catherine shook her thoughts, remembering about her cover name and said, "Y-yes?"
"Are you alright?"
"Yes…Sorry…I was just thinking…"
"Abigail told me you wanted to see me?"
"Yes. I was hoping you could tell me the names of the victims. As a part of our job, we need to locate their closest family members and see if they know anything."
"Of course. Give me a moment to search our guest registry." Thomas replied, sitting at his desk.
"Take your time." Catherine said as she took a seat in one of the chairs in front of Thomas's desk.
A few moments passed and Thomas finally said, "There was a family of four staying in that room."
"Their names?" Catherine asked as she pulled out a notepad and pen from her purse.
"Right…Their names: Zachary Phillips, Lilly Phillips, Timothy Phillips and Colette Phillips."
"Thank you. I'm also going to need you to print out a list of all of the employees who had access to that room." Catherine stated.
"I'll have the list sent to your Deluxe Suite later tonight. It will be slipped under the door." Thomas said. "Oh, which reminds me. It would be advisable for your group to leave the crime scene before 10:30 PM tonight. That's around the time the guests will start returning to their suites before retiring for the night. You may presume tomorrow around 9 AM when the daily festivities begin again. I also suggest not working during the night hours due to the fact you and your coworkers are posing as guests. It wouldn't look too good if the three of you were working in that suite in the late hours of the night."
"Right. I'll deliver the message."
"Thank you, Mrs. Davies. I look forward to having you; Mr. Davies and Miss Valmirez join my wife and me for dinner tomorrow night at 6 PM. Have Miss Valmirez meet in my office at approximately 7:30 AM. I would like Abigail to show her what she'll be wearing as she works undercover."
"Of course. I'll be sure to let her know. Where would you like us to meet you for dinner tomorrow night?"
"The Main Dining Room and please dress formal."
"I should be getting back to the room now." Catherine replied before thanking Thomas for his time. She walked up the staircase and looked at her surroundings. There was no way she could remember which way to go.
"There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" she heard Tess holler across the hall.
Catherine ran to her partner and said, "I've got the victim's names. Zachary, Lilly, Timothy and Colette Phillips. Zachary and Timothy are unaccounted for so either they're dead somewhere else or they're involved with the murders somehow."
"Evan just called me about three minutes ago. He found two more bodies."
"Where?!"
"One was a little boy...around the age of nine…his wrists were sliced off so Evan thinks he bled to death. The other body was a man. Evan found his body underneath the Master's Suite's bed. It looks like his body was stuffed under there by the killer. Evan is looking for DNA as we speak. From the way the man's body was sliced and diced, it was sloppier."
"Another killer?"
"No," Tess replied, "Evan believes the man was trying to protect the little girl as he was being cut down…so…as he twisted and turned to protect his daughter, the cuts weren't perfectly severed. It's unfortunate his efforts were for naught. I told Joe not too long ago that it has become a quintuple homicide. He's sending Detective Philmore and Detective Wolansky as backup. They'll also be undercover. He's already spoken to Thomas Gilmore about sending more detectives."
"He has?" Catherine gave Tess a weird look.
"Yeah, why?"
"I just spoke with Thomas. He said nothing to me about the two other bodies or about getting more agents."
"Maybe he thought you already knew." Tess suggested as she shrugged he soldiers.
"Maybe…" but Catherine wasn't completely convinced. "By the way, you need to meet Thomas in his office at 7:30 in the morning. He's going to have Abigail show you what you'll be wearing.
"Okay…Thanks." Tess replied. "Come on. We still have work to do."
"You got that right." Catherine said, reluctant that Tess knew the way back to the crime scene.
~BEAUTY AND THE BEAST~
"…And that's why we can't work on this anymore after 10:30 PM." Catherine explained to Tess and Evan. "Oh, and we were invited to dinner…"
"Really? When? Where?" Tess asked.
"6 PM tomorrow night at the Main Dining Room and we're supposed to dress formally." Catherine replied. Speaking of dinner, she was starving.
"Okay…Luckily I packed that black dress I wore at the gallery opening several months ago." Tess replied. "Just wondering, if you two are supposedly newlyweds, why aren't you wearing wedding bands?"
Catherine was just about to say something like, "We decided not to wear them," but Evan intervened and replied, "Because they're still in my pocket and I haven't exactly had time to take them out. By the way, I'm going to need two more tables…Honestly; this is seriously a lot harder to examine the bodies without my lab. Besides, what're we going to do with the bodies while we leave for the night? We can't exactly leave them here."
"Well, there aren't freezers or anything…We can't even bring them to the local morgue because Mr. CEO is afraid of losing Greenbrier's reputation." Catherine stated, "I swear Thomas is either hiding something…He just looks really suspicious."
"Cat, he's probably just nervous due to the fact that his resort could be degraded if any guests found out about this murder." Tess reasoned.
"Yeah…maybe that's just it." Catherine replied. "Well, we still have about an hour or so until 10:30 so while Evan continues examining the bodies, let's rummage through their things and see if we find anything worth our time."
"Right." Tess affirmed. "I'll start with this luggage bag over here."
"And I'll start in the other rooms and see if there's anything in there." Catherine stated as she disappeared from Tess and Evan's sight.
It was definitely going to be a long hour.
~BEAUTY AND THE BEAST~
'Five minutes left until 10:30 PM.' Catherine thought as Tess knocked on the door, breaking her from her thoughts.
"Did you find anything?"
"No." Catherine asked. "You?"
"Actually, I did. I found a crumpled up piece of paper stuffed into a vase next to the master bed. It looks like it was a threat. See? It says: IF YOU SAY A WORD TO ANYBODY, YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WILL PAY A PRICE!"
"Why would they just crumple up a threat like that?" Catherine said, confused.
"I'm guessing Mr. Phillip didn't take it seriously and just hid it to hide it from his family."
"This is definitely going to be hard to figure out without equipment." Catherine stated, brushing her bangs from her face. "It's 10:30. We need to get going."
"Right. I'll tell Evan." Tess said before disappearing.
Catherine made her way back to the great room of the suite and waited for her coworkers to exit with her.
"Now that I've collected all of the girl's body parts and organized them as well as laid out the other three bodies, I think tomorrow I'll start sweeping for prints. If I find any, I'll take a picture of it with my phone and email it to the precinct so Joe can send them to the database for identification." Evan said as the three of them walked out of the room after taking off their gloves.
They grabbed their luggage and went down to the front lobby.
"Thank you for leaving in time." Thomas stated as he saw them exiting the main building.
"We'll be back at 9 in the morning." Evan stated.
"That'll be fine. Oh, and if you three need something to eat, don't hesitate to call room service." Thomas said before the three walked out of the building.
Five minutes passed until the bus showed up and they took it back to their suites. Tess was given Deluxe Suite #5 so, when the bus stopped, they hopped of the bus and headed inside the Suite building.
Catherine looked at her watch. 10:45 PM.
The moment they found their rooms, Catherine and Evan went into theirs as Tess walked a few doors down. "Have a good night you two!" Tess winked at Catherine before disappearing inside her room.
Cat glared at the empty Tess space until Evan broke her angry trance and said, "Shall we get ready for bed then?"
Catherine placed her luggage down on the luggage rack and thought quickly. "Ummmm…I think I might get some fresh air. I'm a little nauseous from the crime scene today so I think a walk outside might do me some good."
"Oh! Do you want me to join you?"
"No…I'd rather walk by myself. Say, question before I go."
"What?" Evan asked as he started untying his tie.
"Remember when my friend, Vincent, offered his help for the crime scene?"
"Yeah…What of it?" Evan asked bitterly.
"I think it might be a good idea to ask for his help. Since he is a doctor, he may be able to help test for blood and what not. Besides, the more help, the faster we'll be able to get out of this."
Evan stood still for a minute as he thought over Catherine's suggestion, knowing she was right. "Fine…but I call the shots, got that?"
"Yeah…I'll call him and tell him while I'm on my walk." Catherine said and disappeared before Evan could say anything.
'Something's up…' he thought but decided against following her. He'd follow her another time when he wasn't so tired and hungry. 'I swear…I've seen that Vincent guy before…but I can't pinpoint where though.'
~BEAUTY AND THE BEAST~
Vincent stood in the center of the garden as he waited for Catherine to show up. 'She should be here soon…' Suddenly, he heard someone running towards him. He smirked, knowing exactly who the runner was. He spun around and caught her in arms.
"You better learn to slow down or you may hurt someone someday after running into him or her." Vincent chuckled as he released her so she could catch her breath.
"Sorry...I'm… a little…late…." She managed to say between her heavy breathing.
"I've only been here about three minutes so I think you're good." Vincent smirked as he offered his hand to her. "Ready?"
She smiled and took his hand, remembering her words when he asked her what she wished they could be doing if they were ever at Greenbrier together. "I see ourselves walking along the gardens hand-in-hand as we enjoy the vast beauty around us."
They strolled along the garden in the dead of night silently as they savored each other's company. Catherine wasn't worried if anyone would catch them being together. Besides, she hasn't met anyone as her fake identity aside from Thomas but he knows she isn't really who she says she is. Besides, even if someone saw them together, she thought it would be a good twist to the undercover story. Who hasn't heard of a marriage gone wrong? She could easily make up a lie that the man she "married" was different than the man she's "married" to now.
Vincent saw a bench in the distance and asked, "Do you want to sit down?"
She nodded and they slowly made their way over to the bench. As they sat down, Catherine wrapped her arms around his left arm and leaned her head against his shoulder.
"It's nice, you know?"
"Hmm?" Vincent looked at her.
"It's nice to finally spend time together without interruptions from JT and my sister, Heather."
"Yeah…it is." Vincent smiled. "So…did you get a chance to ask Evan about me working with you guys?"
"Surprisingly he said you could. I think it is mostly because there's so much he can't do without equipment and getting another person's medical opinion would help. Tess and I aren't very great in that department." She laughed. "I'm glad you'll be able to spend more time with me."
"Yeah…me too." He said.
Suddenly, Catherine's face changed expressions. "The crime…it's now a quintuple homicide, Vincent. I've never witnessed the aftermath of something so horrible before. Most of the crime scenes I've done weren't as gruesome as this one. An entire family was murdered."
"Do you think it was a random family?" Vincent asked.
"No…It seemed more personal…There was a note crumpled inside a vase. It was a death threat but I don't think the victims took it too seriously. At least the person, assuming it was Zachary Phillips, the father, didn't think so."
"Oh…"
"Hey…when you have a chance to, could you…uh…keep an eye on Greenbrier's CEO, Thomas Gilmore? I'm suspicious of him but Tess and Evan seem to disagree with my suspicions. I've learned to trust my gut though, and I just don't like the guy."
"Alright…If I have time to tomorrow, I'll follow him during a lunch break or something. Speaking of which, have you eaten yet?"
"No. I haven't." she replied as her stomach growled. "And obviously my stomach agrees."
Vincent chuckled and said, "I've got some food at my suite. If you want, we can go over there so you can have something to eat. Okay?"
Catherine nodded and muttered a thank you as they stood up to walk back to the suites. She just hopes she doesn't get spotted by anyone going into another man's suite when she's supposed to be 'married.'
~BEAUTY AND THE BEAST~
Keiko Fujiwara:
Well, there's chapter three!
I have to say, I did not like writing the crime scene AT ALL! It was sickening to my stomach just to include that! Soooo what do you think about Greenbrier's CEO, Thomas Gilmore?
Do you think Cat is right to have suspicions about him?
Please review! It makes me motivated to write more! :)