Chapter 34 – Friction (Part 1)

Mac walked into the break room, where Hawkes and Lily were having coffee.

'Lily, you're getting field work today. Come with me,' he ordered.

'Great,' she left her mug on the sink. 'Catch up to you later, Sheldon.'

'Bye, have fun,' said Hawkes as he watched the other two leave.

They got to the scene ten minutes later.

'Flack, what do we have here?' asked Mac in a business-like tone.

'Neighbors felt a foul smell and called the cops. Victim is supposed to be one of the tenants; Vicky Morrison. Husband and kids are missing, already put an alert on 'em,' he informed, looking at his notes.

'Supposed to be? Are you losing your touch?' Lily spoke.

Flack hadn't realized she was there. 'It's pretty bad. I think Mac should handle it by himself.'

'Geez,' she shook her head in annoyance and opened the door, determined to go in. She gagged as she walked into the apartment, the smell being extremely nauseating.

'Are you okay?' asked Mac, covering his nose with a handkerchief.

'Ye – oh, fuck!' Lily had to look away from the body. There on the floor lay a female body with her face burned and missing the left ring finger.

'Start taking the pictures,' ordered Mac and she took snapshots.

'What do you want me to do next?' asked Lily after ten minutes of photographing the scene.

'Look around the house and try to find out if the rest of the family left out of their own free will.'

'Okay,' she inspected the kitchen and went into the bedrooms. 'There could be signs of a struggle, but I'm thinking they actually left in a rush,' she said, coming out of the kids' bedroom.

'Why?'

'Well, there was an empty suitcase on the parents' bedroom and although everything's a mess, it doesn't look ransacked, it looks as if somebody knew exactly where things were.'

'Right, and what about the living room?'

'There are drag marks coming from the kitchen – and yes, I took pictures. Are those fingernails stuck to the floor?' asked Lily, a bit grossed out.

'Yes, they're gonna tell us her identity,' Mac put one of the nails in an evidence bag.

People from the ME's office picked up the body, leaving the C.S.I.s with a pile of soot around where the victim had been. They took a couple of samples and dusted for prints in all the usual places before Mac decided they should go back to the lab.

'I'll take the evidence to the car, you go ask Flack if he has any more information for us,' said the detective as they were about to leave the building.

Lily walked to the homicide detective, who was in the lobby. 'Don, did something come up in the canvassing?'

'The neighbors didn't see the Morrisons for a week, then the rotten smell started; that's all I can give you,' he said.

'Okay, thanks. Let us know if you find the rest of the family or anything else.'

'Will do,' he nodded. 'I didn't know you had upgraded your status. You workin' as a CSI now, huh?'

'Took me by surprise too. Mac's waiting, so I'll see ya around.'

'Congratulations. I'll give you a call as soon as I know anything.'

'Thanks,' Lily left.

Once at the lab, they gathered all the evidence in the layout room.

'I'll take one of the nails to Adam while you put the soot throught the GCMS and run the prints and then we'll go to see Sid,' explained Mac.

'So soon? Autopsies usually take a long time,' Lily was confused.

'It's a slow day, Sid says he'll be done in an hour.'

'Okay, I'll let you know when I'm done,' she said and got straight to work.

Mac came back in, fifty minutes later. 'Any hits?'

'Fingerprints are a bust, they're not in any database. Soot is another story, though. There are traces of cooking oil consistent with the one in the Morrison's kitchen.'

'Did you take a sample of their cooking oil?' Mac sounded impressed.

'Well, no. But it matches the chemical fingerprint of the brand ... I did see the bottle,' she blushed.

'We'll go back and take a sample, now let's get to Sid's.'

Three minutes later they were at the morgue.

'Hey Sid, whaddya got for us?' asked the boss.

'Oh, hey. I see we've got company,' the M.E. smiled encouragingly at Lily. 'She's been dead for a week. COD is asphyxiation by smoke inhalation, though blunt force trauma came close second. The victim also presented lots of bruises and broken bones; some were a consequence of the struggle and others were older.'

'Domestic violence victim,' Lily pursed her lips.

'That's right,' Sid unclicked his glasses.

'And what about her face?' asked Mac.

'It was burned with something flammable, obviously, but it's nothing I've seen before. I took a sample and sent it to Adam.'

'I'm curious about the finger,' said Lily.

'Ah, yes. It was severed post-mortem with a serrated knfe mostly used in carpentry. What happened to it after being cut, however, is something you'll have to figure out,' answered the ME. 'One more thing: of the remaining nine fingers, eight had ripped fingernails; she fought hard.'

'They were all across the kitchen floor,' explained Lily and Sid looked down.

'You've got the clothes for us, Sid?' asked Mac before the doctor gave him the bag. The cops thanked him and went upstairs again. Lily had to process the victim's clothes while Mac took care of some administrative issues.

While examining the victim's sweater Lily came across a foreign hair so she took it to Adam.

'Sorry Adam, but I bring you more work,' she showed the tech the bag with the hair.

'That's okay. The results came back on that nail stuck to the floor, it belongs to Vicky Morrison, your missing tenant,' he gave her the sheet with the results.

'Thanks. Would you mind putting a rush on this hair?'

'Sure.'

'Thanks, you're a sweetheart,' Lily left Adam's lab and grabbed her phone.

'Flack,' he answered.

'Don, how close are you to finding the Morrisons?' asked Lily, skipping all niceties.

'Still lookin'. Why?'

'The victim was Mrs. Morrison. I've emailed you a picture of the rest of the family, let's put it in every billboard and paper, a'right?'

'Have you talked to Mac yet?'

'I'm two inches from his office.'

'Look, I'll be at the Precinct in five minutes, call me if you change your mind about putting their faces everywhere.'

'Sure. And Don, don't second-guess me,' she ended the call.

Lily went into Mac's office and informed him of the situation. He agreed on releasing the picture as long as it was said they were probable victims and not that the husband was a suspect. Forty minutes after releasing the photo, a patrol car was picking up the Morrisons from a diner in New Jersey and taking them to the 12th Precinct. When the family entered the station, the kids were taken to a room by a woman from CPS and the husband was led to an interrogation room.

'So how are we gonna play this?' asked Flack as a uniform escorted Mr. Morrison to room number three.

'Well, he liked to hit his wife ...' Lily pointed out.

'Do you think you're ready for interrogation?' asked Mac, understanding what she'd meant and she nodded. He now spoke to Flack. 'Would you have her in that room with you?'

'Yeah,' he nodded emphatically.

'Then you two can take it. I'll be watching,' sentenced Mac.

'Thanks,' Lily smiled and she walked to the interrogation room with Flack.

'You ready?' asked the detective, twisting the doorknob.

'Bring it on,' she entered the room, Flack following after ten seconds. 'I'm Officer Stewart and this is Detective Flack.'

'Why am I in an interrogation room?' asked Mr. Morrison.

'We have some delicate information to discuss with you and we thought it'd be better to do it somewhere quietly,' answered Flack.

'Am I under arrest?'

'Not that we know of, should you be?' retorted Lily.

'Of course not!'

'When was the last time you saw your wife, Mr. Morrison?' asked Flack.

'Dunno. Why? Where is she?' he answered roughly, not really caring.

'At our morgue,' Lily blurted out. 'We found her dead in your apartment this morning. We're sorry for your loss.'

'Dead? How? Why?' the husband looked at Flack for an answer.

'I haven't read the autopsy report, but I'm sure my partner could respond to all your questions.'

'Of course. Mrs. Morrison died of smoke inhalation a week ago, we still don't know why, though,' explained Lily.

'Smoke? Was there a fire or somethin'?'

'I don't think you would want to know the details,' advised the woman.

'I'm not weak, I'm a man. What the hell happened to my wife?' he directed his attention to Flack, who had been standing behind Lily the whole time.

'Your wife was burned to death, Mr. Morrison. Do you have any idea who could've done it?' said Lily harshly.

'No.'

'Could we ask you some questions?' Flack requested his permission and the man nodded. 'What do you do for a living?'

'I'm a carpenter, why?'

'Why were you and your kids in Jersey?' asked Lily.

'We were on vacation.'

'Without your wife?'

'She had to clean the house.'

'The whole week? Couldn't she have cleaned it after your vacation?'

'No.'

'All the evidence points to you as the murderer,' Flack piped in.

'It wasn't me.'

'Now, maybe there's a good explanation. All our evidence is circumstancial so if you explain it satisfactorily, you wouldn't have to go to trial,' explained the detective.

'Are you kiddin' me? I've seen people get convicted with less,' Lily contradicted the other cop.

'I'm sure this isn't enough for a conviction, Mr. Morrison,' Flack assured him.

'I've been in more trials than you and lemme tell ya, he's going to jail,' Lily defied Flack.

'That's not true.'

'Don't be a moron! Of course I'm right!' she turned to Mr. Morrison. 'Don't listen to him, you're going to jail unless you can explain this.'

'How do you let her treat you like that?' he spoke to Flack with indignation in his voice. 'You listen to me, little bitch, you treat men with the respect they deserve. Cunts like you should be dead,' there was a lot of hatred in his speech.

'Was that what you said to your wife while you set her face on fire?' asked Lily with a deathly calmness. 'Is that what you think? That we should all be dead?'

'The bitch didn't do what I told her. She thought she could do whatever she wanted. But not in my house.'

'Guess what, Frank? Women aren't slaves anymore. So what did she refuse to do this time?'

'I told her to put more oil while doin' the fuckin' fries! Is that so difficult to do?'

'And because she didn't put enough oil while cooking, you threw it on her face and lit her on fire?' asked Flack, trying to understand.

'Hell yeah I did. But then the fuckin' bastards start screamin' "mommy, mommy" so I grabbed them, packed a few things and left the bitch burnin'. That would serve 'er right!'

Lily stood from the chair and walked 'til she was behind Frank Morrison to whisper in his ear. 'You're a real tough guy, aren't you? What I don't get is why you had to cut her finger off.'

'I sold the ring,' he explained.

'And what did you do with the knife?' asked Flack.

'Threw it through the window.'

'You threw a bloody knife through a first floor window? You're way more stupid than I thought,' Lily shook her head. 'But I guess you didn't care if somebody else got hurt.'

'Sit tight, Mr. Morrison. We'll have an officer arrest you pretty soon,' informed Flack as the two cops left the room.

'Good job,' Mac met them outside. 'You're a good team.'

'Thanks,' Lily was relieved they'd gotten a confession.

'Rookie here is pretty good,' joked Flack.

'You kindness is touching, really,' she shook her head. 'We have to go for the knife now, don't we?'

'Yeah,' agreed Mac. 'Flack, you free to come with us?'

'Sure. I'll be your chauffeur.'

They arrived to the crime scene shortly. The cops checked the bushes on the façade of the building but didn't find the knife so they went to the first floor, where the murder had happened to see if it was still on the sort of balcony that the small window had. Mac could see it, but it was too far for him to reach it.

'Why don't you try from downstairs?' he asked the other cops.

'I'll go ask the landlord for a ladder,' Lily turned around.

'He's visiting his family in Armonk for a couple of days,' said Flack, remembering what the neighbors had told him.

'Okay, somebody on this block must have one. I'll look for a cooperative neighbor.'

'There's a faster way, you know?' said Mac.

'What?' Flack wanted to collect the knife as soon as possible so that he could get to the piles of paperwork waiting for him.

'The window's not that tall, you could lift Lily.'

'C'mon, Mac! I don't mind fetching a ladder, seriously,' she wasn't too thrilled by the idea.

'I won't drop you, promise,' the detective was eager to go back to the precinct.

'A'right. But if I die, you better not come to my funeral, Mac.'

Once back outside and under the window, Lily placed her gloved hands on Flack's shoulders before stepping on his entwined fingers. He lifted her a bit as she rose.

'Do you see the knife?' he asked, focusing on not dropping her.

'Yeah, give me a second and for God's sake, don't drop me.'

'Never,' he answered back, his eyes staring into one of the buttons of her white shirt.

She carefully lifted her hands from Flack's shoulders and opened the evidence bag before reaching for the knife. After sealing the bag she put her left hand back on his shoulder and jumped down, unintentionally rubbing her upper body against his face.

'Could've sent a warning, you know?' Flack had been taken aback by the swiftness of her action and by having her breasts thrust into his face.

'Sorry, really wanted to get down,' she blushed.

When Mac got down, they were both silently looking at the ground. 'See? It was easier,' the boss pointed out.

'Flack's gonna put in for hazardous pay, though. 'Cause lifting this much weight wasn't on the job description,' she joked.

'What are ya talkin' 'bout? You're thinner than ever,' he answered back.

'You know you don't have to woo me with compliments, I'm pretty sure next time you'll go get a ladder.'

'Yeah, well, I'm not liftin' Messer.'

Fifteen minutes later Mac and Lily were at the lab and the knife had been logged, processed and stored. Before going home, she stopped by his office.

'Can I have a quick word?' she asked and he nodded. 'Thanks for taking me out on the field today.'

'You earned it. And you did a good job today.'

'Thanks, Mac. Have a good night,' she smiled and left. It was nice when your hard work was recognized. Besides, finding a killer was always exhilarating.

I'm sooooooooooooooooooo sorry it took me this long to update. I'm halfway through the next chapter so I'll post that one quite soon. Once again, I apologize to whoever is reading this. As usual, thanks to sparkyCSI for being awesome.