"Alexx, is there anything you can tell me about the body?" She asked breathlessly. Alexx stared down at the man that was John Laherty and gently turned his head to one side.
"Yeah, honey. I was just examining the strange pieces of plastic embedded in his left cheek. Almost as if somebody slapped him a good one with-"
"Press-on nails?" She supplied. Alexx chuckled softly and picked out a piece with her tweezers, holding it up so Keats could see it.
"So what's going on, Alexx?" Ryan appeared behind Keats' shoulder.
"Plenty. Death by asphyxiation and several lacerations on the cheek that suggest a fight prior to the murder. The marks on his neck match the sash of the robe found at the crime scene. I also found traces of Trileptal in his system. It's used for control of seizures, and in some cases even anger management."
"Anger management, huh?" Keats said, the wheels of thought turning quickly in her head. Ryan memorized the expression on her face, the look of knowing exactly what to do and how to do it.
"We haven't been able to get a hold of Janelle Watkins. The agency she was at said she had been missing for a few days. That's a possible sign of guilt." Ryan said.
"Or murder…I think I want to take another look at the crime scene. And someone should look into John Laherty's other life. Find out his family, career, that kind of thing." She said, a gleam in her eye. Ryan glanced at Alexx and she winked at him. Keats took off running to ask Dan Cooper to investigate John Laherty's records. Ryan stayed behind with Alexx and the remains of John Laherty.
"What's the matter with you, Ryan? Don't tell me that sweet girl is making you uncomfortable." She began to replace the body back in the freezer.
"Nah. She's just got something I want. She has that gut instinct that's always right. I'd do anything to have that gift." He said, rubbing his hand behind his neck.
"Ryan, I bet she's the one envious of you. She told me a little while ago that you made her nervous. She thinks you're incredibly smart." Alexx gave him a pat on the shoulder and he nodded, grateful for her indiscretion.
Ryan Wolfe grabbed his kit, watching Keats run into the house like a gleeful child. He shook his head and smiled for some reason. The intern was really getting to him. He set up his equipment in the living room and half-heartedly examined every inch of the same room he'd just seen only hours before. He heard a shuffling of feet and he looked up to find Keats as white as a ghost.
"I think I've found Janelle and I think I have a damn good theory." She said with her eyes as wide as saucers. Ryan took her lead and she showed him around to the other side of the house where the flowerbed was located in back. She leaned down and separated a few loose flowers, holding up a stiff, white arm with her gloved fingers.
"That would explain the dirt trail from the back door to the bedroom." Ryan said, feeling a strange sense of pride for Keats. He whipped out his cell-phone and called in for help.
"Keats, Horatio wants to take you back to the Lab." Ryan said after he hung up. Keats frowned and sighed, wishing she could be more than just an intern. The case was busting wide open in her head, but no one would believe her until she could gather all the evidence. With as much power as she had as an intern, the odds of that were not very high.
Horatio drove her back in his hummer, giving her a few tiny smiles that she supposed were his way of expressing a compliment.
"What do you think happened, June? I want to hear it from you before I can officially induct you into my Crime Lab." He said, his sunglasses pulled down to where she could see his eyes. Keats couldn't believe what she'd heard.
"What? But I haven't graduated yet…" Keats began talking some reason into herself before she was carried away by the possibilities.
"Naturally you'll only be working half-time until you've acquired your degree. But I have the feeling that you'll be a great asset to the team. So here's the catch: you have to prove to me that I'm right about you." He said as they pulled into the parking area of the Miami Dade Police Department. He gave her a challenging look and exited the vehicle.
"Give me something, Dan. I'm on a mission." Keats exclaimed, leaning into the computer. Dan Cooper gave her a boyish grin and pointed to an online file of a woman named Giselle Laherty.
"They were married at least five years before he even met Maria. They both worked at a local newspaper until he retired. He retired around the same time that he married Maria."
"Well, having to keep up two identities is like a job in itself, I suppose." Keats said, thinking heavily of what the presence of Giselle could do to her case. My case? That's a Freudian slip if I've ever heard one.
"They brought Giselle in for questioning ten minutes ago. I suggest you get up there and find out what you need to know." Dan said, gently pushing her out of the room.
When Keats made it to the interrogation room, a few detectives were patting themselves on the back and shaking hands.
"May I question the witness?" Keats asked, flushing from embarrassment. It was obvious that they had wrapped everything up and here she was seemingly trying to nail their leftovers. The detectives laughed in her face.
"What for? We have our murderer." The older one said, putting an apologetic hand on her shoulder.
"What do you mean?" Keats cried, wondering how they could close it up so quickly.
"The scratches on his face came from Laherty's first wife. Plus we found her fingerprints on Janelle, and a few witnesses claiming that Maria was with her mother the night of the murder." The younger one told her with a childish, 'I got there first' sort of tone. Keats shook her head vehemently.
"You've got to be kidding me. Maria is the murderer." Keats said, talking to no one in particular. She sank to her knees in the darkened hallway, knowing that this meant her opportunity to work with Horatio had gone. How do I prove that Maria was the true murderer?
"Listen, Mrs. Laherty, I know what it looks like. And I'm going to try my best to change things. I believe you're innocent and I intend to prove it. The best way for you to help me exonerate you would be to tell me the exact truth, leaving out absolutely no details whatsoever." Keats told a frightened Mrs. Laherty. Mrs. Laherty brushed away a few tears and nodded helpfully.
"Earlier in the day I ran into Janelle at the store. I hugged her and we chatted a bit and I told her that I had gotten some preserves from the Farmer's market in Tampa. I knew that she loved them to death so I offered to bring some over to her. You see, I always assumed that Janelle was our nurse on weekends when John was home and she worked for another family during the week when John was supposedly doing research for his 'great American novel.' Pretty foolish, huh? I had no idea that she was with John at his other wife's place.
Anyway, she thought about it for a bit and told me that I could stop by later and she gave me the address. I went by the house and peeked in through the front windows but I didn't see anyone, so I went out back. I knocked on the door for good bit until finally someone came to answer. But it wasn't Janelle. It was John. He swung the door open and we just stared at each other in shock for a minute. I couldn't believe it, at first. I thought he was having an affair with Janelle and I felt so betrayed. I started yelling at him and I slapped his cheek pretty hard. He slammed the door in my face but I kept screaming at him.
I said, 'John, how dare you cheat on me! Why would you do this to your own wife?' And I heard another woman's voice inside the house that definitely wasn't Janelle's. She started crying and yelling herself. She asked Janelle if it was true and I heard nothing for awhile. Then I heard the crying getting louder and I saw John go into the kitchen. I heard a few screams and I saw Janelle lying on the floor through the back window. I was so scared that I ran. I ran until my lungs felt like they would burst." With that, Giselle began sobbing as a few deputies led her off into their custody. She looked at Keats with her tear-soaked face one last time.
"Please don't let me take the heat for this." She pleaded. Her heart went out to this woman whose husband had cheated on her and inadvertently caused her to take the fall for his death.
"Don't worry, Giselle. I'll make sure you don't." Keats said, unsure that she would have any power over her fate. Keats began thinking about her original theory and a few scenarios that fit. She went back to the morgue a few times and re-examined every piece of evidence with a thorough ferocity. And then, an idea came to her.