Chapter Four:
She had waited, however impatiently, an entire month for this moment. Ever since Mac had told Rachael she could go out and do field work, she had been itching to get out, so when he'd told her to grab a kit and head out with Danny to a crime scene in Queens she pretty much ran to the Avalanche waiting in the parking lot.
By the time Danny had got to the vehicle, Rachael was leaning against the side with her arms folded to her body, tapping her right foot on the ground impatiently. "Finally! You took your time." She grinned.
Danny laughed "So you sure you ready for this, Garcia?" They both stepped up into the car and headed towards the scene that was waiting for them.
"Oh, yeah. I've waited a whole month for this. I'm more than ready."
XOXOXOX
Arriving at the crime scene, Rachael and Danny grabbed their kits and headed towards the small parking lot where the murder had taken place. Even though the weather was quite cold, the sunshine was still strongly filtering through the clouds; lifting her sunglasses from her face, Rachael felt a slight flutter inside her; not because she was overexcited to be out in the field but because of the tall figure heading towards her.
"Well, well, well, Mac finally let you out." Don Flack said with a smile as he held aloft the yellow tape for the two CSI's to pass under.
"Yes! Finally." She stopped herself from saying any more, knowing that she'd turn into a rambling lunatic otherwise. "So what've we got here?" Rachael was pretty keen to get working, hopefully proving herself invaluable to Mac. Maybe if she did a good enough job he'd still let her out when Lindsay returned after having the baby.
Flack hesitated a moment before producing his small, black notebook out of the purple silk-lined inside pocket of his black suit-jacket. "We got a Chloe Johnston, 21; lives in the block across the street, her friend found her this morning when she was heading out to work."
"Okay, let's go." Rachael turned to Danny who was standing to her right with a small smirk gracing his face. He wasn't sure he'd ever seen anyone as enthusiastic about being at a crime scene before.
"Sure thing." He led Rachael over to where the body lay crumpled on the floor. He crouched down besides Chloe's petite form, "Looks to me like blunt force trauma, something hit her hard."
Rachael scanned the surrounding area searching for something that could be their murder weapon. "Hey Danny, I got blood drops heading towards that skip over there."
"I think you'll find that that thing over there is a dumpster." Danny stood and stepped towards Rachael with a smirk.
She rolled her eyes "Don't mock me, Messer."
Flack walked to where the two were standing. "You found somethin' over here?"
"Actually yes, Rachael here found gravitational blood drops leading towards the, what was it...the skip, over there" Danny laughed pointing to the dumpster in the corner of the parking lot.
A confused Flack raised his eyebrows "The what?"
"She means a dumpster." Danny whispered.
"Oh, I see." Flack smirked. Rachael's stomach was doing back flips, she had seen that look from him several times before and each time it had the same effect on her. She cleared her throat and shook her head, trying to rid the thoughts that were swirling around inside the brain.
"Okay, enough of the teasing. So presuming that this is Chloe's blood, it looks like whoever killed her carried something over to the dumpster." She emphasized the word which rewarded her with a snigger from the two men standing at either side of her.
A light bulb went off in Danny's head, "The trail ends here" he peered into the dumpster they were now standing in front of, he pulled out a swab from his kit and took a sample of the crimson coloured smear he spotted inside. "Boom...I got blood inside."
Rachael tilted her head to one side and raised her eyebrows. "The killer coulda thrown the murder weapon in here."
Danny and Flack turned and smiled at each other before turning their attention back to Rachael still smiling. She knew what that meant, she was the newbie; so that meant she did the dirty work...dumpster diving.
"Yeah, yeah, I know what that look means, don't gloat." Turning on her heel she groaned and went back to the Avalanche the get herself ready.
Flack let his gaze follow her swaying hips as she walked back to the car. "She's hot."
"Oh yeah, but I'm married. You on the other hand are not." Danny grinned at his friend who was eyeing the pretty blonde in the distance.
XOXOXOX
Danny had headed back to the body, photographing her wounds and collecting any evidence he found. Flack had gone back to speak to the distraught friends who were still stood on the other side of the yellow tape.
Rachael studied both men as they worked whilst she walked over to the dumpster; Danny gave her a smirk as she passed him clad in the blue coveralls with her long hair now in a ponytail. She glared at him in return before turning her attention back to Flack; he turned and gave her a quick smile before once again attempting to extract information from Chloe Johnston's friend, Audrey Lewis, a tall redhead with enormous hazel-coloured Bambi eyes.
She couldn't deny that she was attracted to him; it was impossible not to be. After the first disastrous introduction she had taken it upon herself to start again. She'd found him at his desk in the precinct and made a point of apologizing for snapping at him and then proceeded to re-introduce herself. And that was it, she was hooked. Shaking her head at herself, she stood with her hands on her hips, now just how was she going to get into that thing?
Determined to somehow get into it unassisted, Rachael gripped the side of the dumpster, which was just about level with her chest, the smell radiating from it beginning to put her off slightly. No, she couldn't wuss out, she had to do this, prove to everyone that she could do her job.
Startled by a voice that had snapped her from her thoughts "You need a hand?"
Quickly turning to face the handsome detective that had been filling her thoughts just moments earlier, she felt a warm flush fill her cheeks as she turned back to where she had been facing, and it was then that she decided that there wasn't much chance of her getting in by her own strength. "Um, yeah, please."
Her breath caught in her throat as she felt Don's hands on her hips lifting her up onto the edge of the dumpster, letting go when she finally got her footing. She gripped the side of the thing, determined not to fall out, not to let her now slightly weakened legs get the better of her.
Danny laughed to himself at the scene that had just unfolded before him. He made his way over to Rachael and Flack. "You got anything yet?"
Rachael pulled a disgusted face at the things she was digging about in to hopefully find the murder weapon. "Uh, no; not quite yet."
She looked up at a very amused Danny, "You know, another pair of hands in here wouldn't hurt..."
"Aw, come on, Rach; you're doing a great job, you don't need me."
She stopped what she was doing and raised an eyebrow at Danny. "Wow, nicknames already, huh, Mess?"
Getting back to the task that had been delegated to her Rachael began to feel nauseous at the smell which was rapidly getting worse. She moved a large black bag and uncovered a bloody baseball bat, smiling triumphantly and her findings. "I think I may have found what we are looking for."
XOXOXOX
Rachael headed towards Danny in the lab concentrating on the evidence that had been collected in the parking lot. "Hey, what do you need me to do?"
Danny looked at her and smiled. "Well, at least you got rid of the smell." He sniggered. "I'll let you take the baseball bat, seeing as you found it."
"Yeah, you'd better. I had to shampoo my hair four times so I deserve to process that." Rachael laughed taking the bat from the evidence pile. She matched the blood to Chloe Johnston and pulled several prints which were running through AFIS. She hated this part; the intolerable waiting. Hopefully they would get something.
Danny peered over the top of his glasses hearing Rachael sigh, deciding to take this as an opportunity to ask a few questions, he cleared his throat. "So, you and Flack, huh?"
Rachael lifted her head, surprised at what Danny seemed to be saying "What about me and Flack?"
"Oh, I dunno; you looked pretty cozy at the crime scene." Danny pushed.
She couldn't help but laugh, Flack and her, she was pretty sure there was no way he would be interested in her. "Danny, please; I don't know what you think you saw but we are friends, co-workers no different to you and me, or to Adam and me."
The screen next to Rachael beeped; she had a match grinning successfully over at Danny. A) because they had a suspect and B) she had completely dodged his interfering, she knew where he was heading with the questions.
"Danny, we have a suspect. Thomas Butler, has a rap sheet as long as his arm"
"Okay, I'll call Flack to bring him in."
XOXOXOX
A few hours later Rachael found herself heading to the interrogation room with Danny by her side "So you wanna do this?"
She gave him a lopsided smirk. "I certainly do"
Danny had spoken to Mac, and practically begged him to let Rachael 'chat' with the suspect; of course he'd said yes, from what he had heard she'd been pretty good at getting a confession out of suspects back in Miami so he himself was heading down to see her at work.
Mac appeared alongside Flack heading towards the interrogation. "Okay Rachael; Don will be in there with you and Danny and myself will be behind the glass if you need anything."
"Thanks Mac, I'll be fine." She said then turned to Don "After you."
Rachael walked into the room, exceptionally confident; they had everything to convict Thomas Butler of killing Chloe Johnston.
She sat in the seat opposite him; he reeked of beer and looked like a scumbag with his shaved head, many tattoos gracing his thick neck and his dark, evil eyes glaring at her whilst at the same time showing no emotion. "Damn, NYPD detectives just get hotter and hotter. How 'bout you let me take you out sometime?"
Rachael glared back at him with her own emotionless stare, the guy repulsed her, but she wasn't going to show him anything and chose to ignore his proposition. She shoved a picture of Chloe in front of his face. "Why'd you kill her?"
"Naw, never seen her before. I dunno what you talking about" His voice sounded cold and his thick New York accent came through with aplomb.
"Really?" Rachael let the corner of her mouth tug upwards in a sardonic manner, "Then how come your DNA was under her fingernails and your prints were on the baseball bat that killed her?"
Butler shrugged his shoulders "Maybe you planted 'em."
"Nice try Mr. Butler, but you know that won't cut it; so why don't you just confess and tell us why you did it, huh?"
Thomas Butler's eyes blazed. "Bitch owed me money, she deserved it."
Rachael emerged from the room, pleased with herself. She walked towards Mac and Danny who had both been watching her in action. "Nice work, Garcia."
"I just wish they were all that simple." She sighed; Danny excused himself from the pair and headed towards Flack who had left the same room Rachael had just been occupying.
"Danny said you did a great job today, and you did very good in there."
"Thanks Mac." She wearily rubbed her face "I gotta say, I love working in the lab but field work...I dunno, it's just more satisfying."
"Well, hopefully we can let you out more often."
They headed back to the lab, Rachael had to admit; today had been great but she was very much looking forward to spending her day off the following day shopping with Stella.
XOXOXOX
Nikki A/N: Hey, well as promised chapter four with plenty of Flack in it :D So once again thanks to everyone that's reviewed, added to faves and alerts. Would really love to see some more reviews though, pretty please!!! Thanks again, Nik :D
Mary A/N: Hola! Phew, chapter four already, can't believe it! Many thanks to everyone who read/alerted/reviewed, but we really would love, love, LOVE more reviews, so press the wee button? Cheers!