I am so sorry for the long wait, but real life is being really chaotic right now. Anyways. Here my new chapter

Disclaimer: See chapter 1

Chapter 7

Ryan and Nicole arrived at the crime scene soon. Ryan's hair was still wet from the shower; they had stopped at his place so that he could get himself a new shirt, as he had found that a big oversized hoodie saying 'I heart London' really didn't make him look like a qualified crime scene investigator. Now that he saw that Walter and Natalia were already there, he congratulated himself on his decision; Walter would have made fun of him for wearing a girl's hoodie, and Natalia would have surely recognized Nicole's favourite piece of clothing. He didn't need any questions.

Walter gave him a big grin when Ryan joined him, "Did Nicole already gave you a hard time, or did she leave the pleasure to me?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. One night she started to shim and shake, that brought on the Frisco Quake.(1) I don't even know what's so funny about it."

"You haven't seen the victim yet. While we don't know what the COD is, he was found under a pile of rubble from the house." Walter pointed at the ruin. "I'm inclined to think that an earthquake caused this."

"We didn't have an earth quake in ages."

"But Indonesia had."

Ryan tilted his head, "And does any of this here looks like Indonesia? No. So… you say we don't know the COD yet?"

"Tom's looking at it, but we had to take the rubble down first. Which was an awful lot of work. But you and Nicole decided to come late to miss all the fun. You're feeling better?"

Ryan nodded, blushing a bit as he remembered Nicole's lie from earlier, "Yeah, a bit. Thanks for asking. And sorry you had to do the dirty work alone. I had to shower and change."

"Don't worry, mate. Nice of you to come, anyways. There's a lot to do."

"Then let's get started."

An hour later, Ryan and Natalia stood in the autopsy room, looking at Tom who just put gloves on. They had left Walter and Jesse at the crime scene to collect any remaining evidence.

Now, Tom took a closer look at the head. "I can see a wound here. Your victim was probably knocked unconscious."

"Did the blow kill him?" Natalia asked.

Tom thought about it, "I don't think so. The wound is pretty shallow; I doubt it was enough to kill him. I'll make a mark of it so you can find out what was used." He looked up, quizzically. "You know what is weird about this wound, though?"

Ryan and Natalia both looked; then Ryan said, "It's on his front. He wasn't knocked down from behind."

"Exactly. And look at this." He pointed at the victim's hand. "Defensive wounds."

Natalia nodded, "Makes sense. He probably saw it coming, tried to fight… that's why the wound is so shallow."

Ryan murmured, "Or it could have been a girl. Has he got DNA under his fingernails?" As Tom smiled, Ryan added, "So, it was a fight. No other wounds?"

"Nope. But look at this." Tom pointed his flashlight at the victim's mouth. "Blood. I will confirm it later, but my guess is that this guy was unconscious from the blow, and then the rubble finished it. He might have drowned in his own blood."

Natalia made a grimace, "Not a nice way to leave. And very sophisticated. Who would take his time to bury somebody under a pile of rubble if they have a weapon they could easily use to finish him off? A few stronger hits to the head, and then that's it. Why the drama?"

"For drama's sake, perhaps." Ryan took the evidence bag that contained the Q-Tip with the skin cells from under the victim's fingernails. "I'll bring this to Valera."

Valera rolled her eyes, "I was just about to leave!"

"I was at home already and still came back." Ryan grinned. "Now, run this, please."

Valera sighed deeply, "Okay. Because Nicole asked me to do anything you want today." She took the Q-Tip out and cursed, "You know, I never thought there were so many differences between Q-Tips, but since they have the new ones…"

"We have new Q-Tips?"

Valera nodded, "Yeah. The firm had delivery trouble, so we got these ones instead. And they're crappy."

"I see…" Ryan hesitated, "Did Nicole tell you why you should do anything I want today?"

"Not really, no. When I asked her why, she said because she had to refuse a quickie." Valera eyed him, visibly amused, "I'm sure she's lying, because she would've never done that, but I wonder if you actually asked her. I mean, after all, you were at her place back when you had all those nightmares…"

Ryan grinned, "Actually she made the offer. But then she thought it was kinda unfair to Travers. I am of course heartbroken, but the fast processing of my DNA will comfort me in lonely nights to come."

Valera shook her head, "With all your banter, how will I know if you're getting together for real? No hit in CODIS."

Ryan nodded, "Okay. That's what I feared. Can you run it against the open cases?" Valera nodded. "Thanks…. So, you didn't tell Nicole anything about that case? With my uncle? What you found on the belt?"

Valera froze in mid-motion. This was the first time ever Ryan had spoken about it since the case. She then looked at him, "No, I didn't. I figured it was nobody's business but yours. You never wanted to talk about it, so I thought why tell her."

He nodded, "I told her today." He knew now that he could trust Maxine. "But I'm glad you didn't. Thank you."

She gave him a warm smile, "No need to." When her computer gave a beep, she turned away from him, only to frown, "You will not believe this. The DNA matches the deep freeze from this morning."

"What? Are you sure?"

"Could you stop this? Don't ask if I'm sure every time. I am, or else I wouldn't say it. The DNA is female, and a perfect match."

Ryan bit his lip. "So, we have a serial killer. And it's a girl. Nice change."

Valera grabbed her purse, "I'm outta here. Don't even try to make me run the sample again! Good night." In the door, she ran into Nicole. "No, no, no, I'm gone. Don't even ask me."

Nicole frowned, "Sometimes she is rather weird."

"And still you have a Valera shrine at home. So, the DNA from tonight's victim matches the DNA from this morning's victim."

"And I tell you, it's Mame."

"Nicole…"

"What? It's Halloween! Weirder things have happened on Halloween."

He grinned, "I thought you didn't believe in that crap."

"Yeah, but you gotta admit, it's kinda freaky. Now, if the next DB we get is shot, I'd worry about it."

Ryan tried to remember the song, "Right, the shooting of Dan McGrew. (2) Still, you gotta admit, chances are pretty high that we'll soon have the victim of a shooting on our hands. This is Miami, after all…"

"True that. So, is there anything we can do tonight? Any witnesses? Any nice tests Travers has to run?"

Ryan shook his head, "No, not really. And, to be honest, I'm really tired. I just wanna go home and sleep."

Nicole looked at him, "Are you sure you'll be alright?"

He gave her a smile, "I am. Don't worry. I actually feel a lot better now. I'll just go for an evening walk, do some grocery shopping, then I'll go home and sleep."

"Okay. If anything's wrong, if you need company, you know my number."

"I do."

(1) Verse 3 of Put the blame on Mame

(2) Verse 4 of Put the blame on Mame

Mhm. Nicole seems to think that anything possible on Halloween. But is it?