Chapter 5

In the staff room, Jayne was sat drinking a glass of orange juice talking with Ryan.

"So why Miami?" Ryan asked after they'd talked for a while.

"This job. I was visiting family in Florida and a friend told me about the opening so I applied."

"Wow, that was lucky. Jobs like ours don't come up very often."

"How did you get your job on the team?"

"The one I replaced was killed in the line of duty."

Jayne's face looked terrified, "killed?"

Ryan realised that he'd just worried the new recruit, "sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. From what I can gather, his gun malfunctioned in a shoot out at a jewellery store. Apparently he didn't keep his gun clean. On my first day here, the first thing Horatio did was check my guns."

"I don't have my gun yet, I'm not entirely sure what's happening with that yet."

"I'm sure Horatio will have that sorted soon. Have you ever handled a gun?"

"Oh yeah, whilst I was in the British Army."

"The Army? You don't seem the type," Ryan seemed very surprised.

"Well, the Royal Army Medical Corps. We don't go into the field, just treat personnel on campus. But we were trained in combat just in case we were needed in the field. It's Army regulations."

"I'm sure you'll get your firearm soon."

They were interrupted by Eric walking in.

"Morning Eric," Jayne cheerfully greeted her colleague.

"You seem to be in a better mood."

"Hang on a minute, have you two met already?" Ryan was a bit confused.

Eric laughed, "yeah, me and Suze bumped into Jay last night at the beach."

"Jay?" Ryan was even more confused.

"That's my nickname," Jayne laughed, "everyone calls me Jay except my dad and stepmum. They call me Jayne."

Eric grinned with amusement, "are you ready for your first day Jay?"

"I most certainly am, Eric," Jayne finished her juice and rinsed out her glass.

"We have a DB on South Beach. Female Jane Doe."

"Well let's go," Jayne exited the room, "see you around Ryan."

"Bye," Ryan replied.

Before Eric left the room, he whispered towards Ryan, "I'll be watching you," then smiled jokingly towards his colleague.

Ryan just stood with his arms folded and smiled, "you'll be coughing it up later."

"We'll see," Eric left Ryan alone in the room.

At South Beach, Frank was stood waiting for them to arrive.

"Jeez Eric, you took your time didn't you?"

"Nice to see you too Frank," Eric approached Frank with Jayne following behind him, "Frank, this is Jay Horwell. Jay, this is Frank Tripp, homicide detective."

"Hey Jay, I take it you're Natalia's replacement?"

"Erm I guess so."

"Is Alexx here?" Eric asked Frank.

"Yeah she's with the body. I have two witnesses but I don't think you'll get much out of them."

"Why is that?"

"They're both deaf. I'm trying to get a sign language interpreter but it's proving difficult."

Jayne looked towards the witnesses, "let me talk with them."

She walked over towards the two ladies sat with officers. Jayne signed hello to them and started to talk to them using her hands. Eric looked on stunned. After a few minutes, Jayne said thank you to them both and came over to talk to Eric and Frank.

"They are sisters, both of them were born deaf. They're Janice and Sonia Chase. They were walking their dogs along the beach when the dogs suddenly ran off in the direction of the dead body. They both saw a man running away from the body. White male, about six foot, possibly in his thirties and clean shaven head and face. He was wearing a white top with no sleeves and blue denim trousers."

"Trousers?" Frank questioned.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting I'm in America now. Pants, blue denim pants," Jayne had to remember that some English words have different meanings in America and visa versa.

"That accounts for a quarter of the Miami population," quipped Frank.

"The perp also has a big spider tattoo on the left side of his neck."

"That does narrow things down," Frank stood corrected.

"They certainly have a very good memory," Eric stated looking over at the women.

"When one of your five senses doesn't work, the other four are more in tune than normal, like the body compensating for the loss of one of the senses. In their case, their sense of hearing is gone so the other senses are stronger than normal. It the body's natural instincts to defend itself. The memory can also be stronger than normal which is another way of the body compensating for the loss of one of the senses."

"Wow, how do you know all of this?" Eric was impressed.

"My dad is deaf. That's how I know sign language. Right, so where is this scene we have to process?"