Grounds For Deception
A crime of passion, or just a cold blooded killer. Either way detectives Erica and Bailey need to work quick to catch whoever has turned life in New York upside down. With the help of two certain male detectives, solving the case should go down without a hitch. That is if they can keep their feelings away from the crime lab.
Chapter 1 – Tricks of the Trade
11.30pm - Brooklyn, New York
"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" The low English accent cut through her as Erica walked into the room. One quick swipe and she had surveyed her surroundings, looking for anything out of place. The living room seemed normal, apart from the dead body of course.
"Cut the small talk detective. What happened?" She smiled at detective Stu Bennett, waiting for him to fill her in.
"Vic's name is Christian Thomas. A neighbour found him, called 911 straight away." Erica stepped over the shards of glass on the wooden floor. A broken picture frame appeared in her sight, the heads of the people in the picture had been cut out.
"Have you spoken to the neighbours?" Erica set her case down and pulled on a pair of latex gloves. Stu pointed to the left, two uniformed officers were talking a young woman.
"Yeah, said she heard heavy footsteps down the corridor. Opened up to see who it was and saw the door kicked in."
"Guys, you better come in here." Erica carefully moved through the crime scene into the bathroom where Bailey stood, camera in hand staring into the mirror.
"Looks like some kind of map." Erica stared the image drawn on the mirror. A cross was drawn and a red dot with an arrow and the words 'you are here' written. 'Jump' was written alongside one of the lines.
"It's been drawn in lipstick." Bailey turned to Erica and watched as she methodically studied the mirror.
"Female killer?"
"Maybe, but anyone can get a hold of lipstick."
"Brooklyn Bridge." Erica snapped her finger and turned to Bailey.
"What?" Bailey stared at her friend as she pointed to the map.
"If we are here." Erica pointed to the red dot. "Then that's the East river-
"And that has to be the Brooklyn Bridge."
"Jump. Maybe something's in the river." Erica smiled. "And there's only one way to find out."
12.15 - Brooklyn Bridge
"Bailey, look at this." Crouching down to get a better look at the ground, the word 'Jump' was written with an arrow facing a side of the bridge.
"Same handwriting."
"High velocity blood spatter here." Erica's gaze was glued to the tiny drops of blood of the pavement.
"This message isn't in lipstick, Erica." Bailey held up the swab showing positive for human blood. She handed the swab over to Erica and continued photographing. Bailey examined the floor where the word was scrawled across the stone, taking snap after snap from different angles with her camera, as Erica explored the scene a little.
"Bailey! Over here!" Erica yelled to her friend and partner from the side of the bridge. Bailey stood from her crouching position and approached the edge; leaning over the railing to get a good look at what Erica had spotted "We've got another one."
"I'll get a pick-up from the lab. We're going to have to be quick with this one. God knows how long it's been in the water," Bailey pulled her phone from the holster hooked on her hip. Sliding the screen of her Blackberry up as she punched in the number for the lab.
"So ladies, what have we got?" CSI Supervisor John Cena stepped beneath the yellow tape securing the area. He was slipping on a pair of white latex gloves, flashing a grin and both Erica and Bailey. Bailey flicked through the pictures she'd photographed on her camera as Erica spoke to their boss, leading him through everything they'd discovered so far.
A crowd of civilians were beginning to form around the area, held back by uniformed NYPD officers. Bailey had never understood what was so interesting about watching a crime scene clean up. The general public just loved to stick their noses in, always wanting to be the centre of attention. It didn't matter that the poor son of a bitch floating in the water was someone's son? Someone's husband? A little girl's father?
Erica crouched down to get a better look under the railing of the bridge. Rushing back to her case she grabbed a print card to collect the fingerprint left behind whilst John spoke to Bailey.
"Have you called for a pick-up? We'll need to get the body out of the water before it's washed away by the current and any evidence is completely gone."
"I've done it," Bailey cracked a smile at him. He raised an eyebrow back at her. Erica smirked at the humour-filled tension between her boss and partner. Sometimes John still thought of them as rookies despite them being on his team for three and a half years.
"They're on their way," Erica told him "Shouldn't be too much longer. But we'll have to disperse this crowd. Think you can get some NYPD on that?" she asked, taking another swab of blood from the wall, pulling the cover over the top before placing it back in her kit for analysing back at the lab.
"Yeah, I'm sure I can manage that. Once you get the body out, get an I.D and update me. I want kept in the loop," he turned his back on the girls and left the scene, ducking beneath the yellow tape once more. A few words whispered to several police officers had them beginning to move people on their way, clearing the way for the body to be removed from the water and taken to the lab once the coroner arrived.
"Well what do we have here?" Erica had begun moving a few meters away from Bailey. She picked up a cell phone, the front smashed and the back cracked.
"Could belong to the victim or our killer." Bailey walked over to Erica who was studying the phone carefully gripped between her fingers.
"Yeah, we might be able to get some prints. Then I'll get Ste to go through the cell." She dropped the phone into an evidence bag and sealed it up, writing the date, time and location on the front of the envelope.
"I bet you will." Bailey grinned at her partner; she knew something was going on with her and Stephen Farrelly. He was a field detective who specialised in digital forensics. This was one of his nights off, though no doubt John had called him wanting his input on the case.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"What's going on with you two?" Bailey stopped what she was doing and waited for an answer.
"We went for a couple of drinks last week, you know that." Erica smiled, purposely avoiding her question.
10am - Crime Scene Investigation Labs
"Cause of death?" Erica asked bluntly as she walked into the morgue, instantly greeted by Dr. Phil Brooks.
"Bullet straight through the heart."
"Do you have the bullet?
"Right here." He handed her a small evidence bag and she grinned. Firearms were her speciality and she couldn't wait to get to ballistics. If she could match the bullet, they may know what type of gun the killer used.
"I ran his prints though AFIS and there was no match."
"So he's still a John Doe."
"I also found this note inside the vic's mouth, I thought you might want to take a look." Phil handed her the note and waited for her reaction.
"Rare, medium, well done; what will our vic have done." Erica glanced back up from the note. "Meat packing district?"
"That's what I thought, but then I found this in his pocket. No ID, no wallet, no phone; nothing, just this." Handed to her was a card for Jimmy's Steakhouse.
"Okay, I'll take a picture of the vic and see if anyone there can ID him. And if he was there last night, we could be looking at our primary crime scene." Phil chuckled as Erica skipped off, obviously pleased that they now had a potential lead.
"What did Phil give you?" Bailey asked from her position leaning over the microscope in her lab. She was examining a slide of the blood taken from the scene at Brooklyn Bridge. Lifting her eyes from the eyepiece lens, she glanced at Erica who stood in the doorway, an envelope, a flashcard of fingerprints, a photograph and another smaller card in her hands.
"The vic was killed by a bullet through the heart, explains the blood splatter. No I.D though. Phil ran the prints through AFIS, came up without a hit," she stepped further into the lab "Did you get anything from the blood."
"Not much. The victim was AB negative, quite a rare blood type but we've hardly got a lead in a city of 8,000,000 people. You got the bullet?"
"Yeah," Erica shook the envelope.
"That's your speciality," Bailey laughed "What's the card?"
"Jimmy's Steakhouse, Brooklyn" Erica turned the card over and over in her hand, running her fingertips across the embossed writing on the black card "Phil found it in the victim's pocket; only thing he had on him. No wallet, no I.D, nothing."
"Okay, well we'll head down to Jimmy's and see what we can find," Bailey stepped away from the microscope and stripped her white lab jacket off, hooking it on the back of the door as they stepped into the hall "Oh wait! I forgot to drop the phone off to Ste. You could do that right?" she raised her eyebrows at Erica.
"I guess I could. You can't go down to Jimmy's alone though."
"I won't be alone. I'll take Stu," Bailey shrugged ignoring the pointed look she received from Erica.
"Be careful, don't rub him up the wrong way." Erica grabbed the phone in an evidence bag from the side and raised an eyebrow at her. "Let me know what you find out."
Bailey smiled and took the snapshot of their victim and sauntered off down the hall, pulling her cell out of her pocket to dial Stu's work number.
"Bennett!" he picked up after two rings.
"Good news. You're with me today," she heard the groan escape him from beneath his breath "Meet me at Jimmy's Steakhouse in Brooklyn, 20 minutes. Don't be late," she slid her phone screen down to end the call.
Erica walked into the lab a few doors down, immediately searching out Stephen. She sighed when he wasn't there. Setting the phone down she took a seat on one of the stools in front of the bench. On the desk she noticed some notes, she could tell they were Stephens by the writing.
"Yeh like going through me stuff?" The Irish brogue behind her caused her to spin around on the stool.
"Only when it has been left out for me to find. What is this?"
Stephen pointed to the notes in her hand. "CCTV, ah went through the tapes from the apartment. They've been tampered with."
"Great." Erica sighed and put the notes down. She had been counting on going through the CCTV tapes, and maybe catching a glimpse on the killer.
"What can ah do for yeh though?"
"Found this phone at the bridge, it's a little damaged but I figured if anyone could pull some information from it, it would be you." She smiled sweetly and spun back around on the stool. Picking up the phone she handed it to him.
"It's been examined already and I couldn't get any prints off it."
"Ah'll do me best lass, leave it with me." Stephen touched her arm lightly and she couldn't help the blush creeping to her cheeks.
"Erica, in my office now." Both Erica and Stephen turned to the door to see John looking less than impressed.
"Yes sir." Stephen smiled gently at her before she leapt off the stool and followed John to his office. Erica wondered just what the hell had gone on.
11am - Jimmy's Steakhouse, Brooklyn.
Bailey parked the car outside of Jimmy's Steakhouse. It was a small restaurant, two dingy looking windows on either side of a black painted door. The front was covered with a tatty looking awning which at some point in time had been white and black stripes. She sat in the car, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel as she waited on the familiar black car pulling up behind her. She spotted it first in her rear-view mirror. She tutted and got out of the car, straightening the hem of her black wool-blend trousers and made sure her navy blue blouse was tucked in to her trousers. The cuffs of her shirt reached down to her elbows, allowing her enough room to move freely whilst examining a crime scene.
Bailey checked the her gun was holstered and hooked on the back of her belt as she approached Stu's car, watching the 6ft 5" detective remove himself effortlessly from his car and stand over her.
"You're late," she sniped at him, narrowing her eyes.
"Timing were you boss?" he cocked an eyebrow. Bailey fought the smile that threatened to take over her lips. Animosity had to be the strongest of feelings felt between the two detectives. Neither one agreed on anything and when forced together on cases, both butted heads constantly. He straightened the collar of his shirt as he pulled on his black suit jacket and shut the car door "What are we here for?"
"Phil found a card for this place on the vic when he did the autopsy. It was the only he had on him. I've got a photo of the victim to show the owners, hopefully we'll get an I.D because AFIS turned up zilch."
"Right. And why do you need me?" he asked as they walked towards the entrance.
"Erica's chasing up a smashed phone she found at the crime scene, might help us I.D the victim. So I need some back up in case I get into trouble and a big, strapping guy like yourself is just what I was after," she tugged the door open, stepping inside ahead of Stu.
It was quiet inside, a few customers sat huddled in red leather booths, eating plates of steak and chips, some varied with plates of salad. Stu and Bailey stepped up to the counter, Stu's eyes were already surveying the place; making sure he could see all the exits.
"Can I help you?" a chubby looking guy appeared behind the counter dressed in a greasy looking white wife-beater covered by an open blue shirt and a pair of loose black trousers. He was beginning to go bald and had a cloth thrown over his left shoulder "You want something to eat?"
"Actually we're here on business," Bailey interjected "I'm Detective Bailey Easton and this is Detective Stu Bennett; we're with the crime lab," both Stu and Bailey showed their badges to the man behind the counter "Are you Jimmy?"
"That's me. What can I do for you Detectives?"
"We'd like to know if you know this man?" Bailey held up the photograph as Stu spoke to Jimmy "He was probably more alive that last time you seen him," the man didn't seem to have a problem understanding Stu's English drawl.
Recognition washed across Jimmy's features before he shook his head and his eyes met with the two detectives. "No, sorry. I never seen him before in my life."
Stu leaned across the counter, pressing his large palms against cheap plastic top "You might want to take another look because I'm betting on it that you know him. I'll haul you in right now for perverting the course of justice buddy. I am really not the mood for games," Bailey placed her small palm on Stu's large arm and he glanced over his shoulder at her, an imperceptible nod occurring between the two.
"What Detective Bennett means to say is could you please take another look at the photograph?" Bailey batted her eyelashes at Jimmy instantly feeling a wave of disgust come across her. She held up the picture once more and allowed the owner to take a look as Stu growled lowly in his chest from behind her.
"You know, I do recognise him. It's Evan Jacobs."
"And that means so much to us," Stu barked at him. Bailey ground her teeth together wishing the big oaf would just keep his cool so they could get what they wanted and leave "Would you care to elaborate?"
"I've seen him around. He eats in here during the week. Has a thing for one of my waitresses Carly."
"Can we speak to Carly?" Bailey averted her eyes towards the back of the restaurant where Jimmy had come from.
"She's not here. It's her day off."
"Do you happen to have an address for Carly?"
"She stays in Crown Heights, Montgomery Street," Jimmy spoke quickly "Apartment 12B I think. Can I ask what this is about?"
"You can ask. It doesn't mean we'll tell you," Stu placed his hand on Bailey's lower back and ushered her towards the door without so much as a backwards glance to Jimmy. The door slammed shut behind them, the glass ricocheting slightly from the force which Stu had pulled it closed.
"What the hell was that?" Bailey turned on Stu, removing herself from his grasp with ease "Well?" she raised an eyebrow, folding her arms across her chest which caused her breasts to push up and out, drawing Stu's eyes to them for a brief moment.
"That was police work Bailey. We don't disclose anything we don't..."
"I know! I am a police officer in case you forgot. There was no need to be rude to him."
"We're here to do a job Bailey. There are two bodies lying on tables back at the morgue. If you can't deal with that, if you cannot accept that we need to be a little bit harsh to get the job done then maybe you are in the wrong job."
Bailey's mouth opened and closed several times before she closed it firmly, glared at Stu harshly and turned on her heel, walking towards her car and slamming the door closed behind her.
If he thought he was going to get away with speaking to her like that then he had another thing coming. But she wouldn't let him know he'd pissed her off. He could go fuck himself before that happened.
A/N – Hi guys, so another fic. This one is part of the Do Not Cross series, along with Signed Sealed Delivered and Undercover Lover by xFindTheEnigmaWithinx (Check my page for the link). This has been written between me and Karen, it's kind of a CSI/Wrestling crossover if you will. Be sure to let us know what you think. Lou x