Sunday
Eventually, Angela had to take Gabriel to his car. He had work on Monday, and she had to go to her restaurant anyway. They kissed goodbye before he drove off,and they were meeting on Wednesday for another date. David drove off singing a song to himself, amazed that he might have finally found the woman for him. Angela was always a work-centric woman. She hoped David was okay with that.
Brenda slept like a baby. Fritz got to feeding Joel and making the coffee while Brenda dreamed about Twinkies. That's right, in her dreams, they were still a thing.
Craig woke up and Sharon was still asleep. Careful not to wake her, he put on some pants and went into the kitchen for breakfast. He started making pancakes when Rusty stumbled in.
"How was your night?" Craig asked him.
"The movie was cool."
"That's it. You didn't do anything afterwards."
"Promise not to tell Sharon."
"Assuming you didn't whack anyone, sure."
"My friends took me downtown to hangout and they bought some coke. I didn't do any. I just took a bus home. It kind of killed my night."
"Because of your mom."
"Yeah. I don't ever want to be near that stuff."
"Then don't. If they're your friends, then they'll understand and if they don't, get better friends. Maybe those girls you were hanging out with on Friday."
Rusty laughed about that. "Seriously, Brenda's obsessed with setting people up."
"Well, I'm glad. It's panned out well for me."
Sharon woke up, missing Craig. She heard his laugher and put on a night gown before she entered the kitchen. Craig was talking to Rusty and just finished making a giant stack of pancakes. Sharon slipped her arms around him and kissed his neck. His muscles feel so good, she thought as she pulled him towards her.
"Good Morning, Honey."
Rusty went for the pancakes, leaving the lovers be.
"My sons are coming this week if you want to meet them."
"Of course I do. My daughters are coming too."
"We can all go out to dinner. It will be nice."
"Sure." Sharon was a bit nervous about meeting Craig's sons and about him meeting her daughters. She never introduced them to a male prospect before. She always hid any dates she had, which weren't very many. What if his sons didn't like her, or thought her younger daughter was too weird.
"You sound nervous."
"I am. I've never introduced my daughters to a man in my life before."
"I will be on my best behavior, and I usually don't introduce my sons to women either, so they'll be equally confused."
"Well in that case," she turned for a kiss. "Time for breakfast."
They sat down and ate, discussing the weekend and where to sleep everyone.
"My house has plenty of room. Between the two of us, everyone will have a room. I was hoping we could share though."
"Share with you, you hog the covers."
"You hog the pillows."
Craig kissed her again.
"YUCK!" Rusty yelled at them.
"Maybe we should let him bring a friend to dinner too," Craig suggested.
"That would be nice."
Monday
Craig had a lecture to prepare. He finally had his theme worked out for his class. He was going to do classics and remixes. The Scarlet Letter & Easy A, Mrs. Dalloway and the Hours, etc. This should give him away of challenging his more advanced students, while reaching the students who may not be the most adept readers.
The first class actually went pretty well. He got some groans when he gave them the booklist, but he heard plenty of sighs of relief when they got the film list.
Sharon had a pretty standard day at the office. They had paperwork to fill out from her last case. No new bodies yet, so she was free to relax. She looked forward to a nice glass of wine and sitting back at her house
Rusty had girls texting him all day. He couldn't text during class, so they'd have to wait until lunch or when he got home.
Craig was at his house tonight. He had chores to get to, taking out the trash, cleaning, etc. He didn't like being apart from Sharon, but he wasn't sure if she was ready to move in with him yet. Patience, Craig.
There were divers in the Pacific Ocean looking for a car of a man that had been reported missing. He was wanted for tax evasion, tax fraud and a series of other crimes. Witnesses claimed to have seen the car go over the edge, but nothing yet. They did, however, find a big trunk that had been rusted shut.
They yanked it out. Maybe it was important. It was old and had been very eroded. They took pictures and the police had a man drill into the lock. They opened it, and it was a bunch of bones. They couldn't figure out anything else. The flesh was gone, no teeth, barely any hair. This was a mystery all right. They got Morales and Major Crimes
"I cannot tell you anything about that body," said Morales. "You need an anthropologist for that!"
They closed the box back up and called UCLA to see if they could get someone to look at it.
All Sharon's team had to go on was an old box. They didn't have an age, gender, when the body got thrown in. "See if we can figure out anything about the box itself." Manufacturer, when it was sold, who bought it? They would also need to run tests on the box, but they needed the remains to be done first. Since there was nothing to do until they got an ID or something on the box, they all went home.
Tuesday
They would need to wait for the anthropologist before they tried to get a DNA sample and even when they did, there might not be any hits in the database.
Finally, a woman arrived. "Sorry, it took so long, but I have been working in DC. I just flew in." This was Dr. Wick, man was her voice annoying. "So you have remains for me?"
They took her to the morgue.
"Who contaminated them?"
"The divers didn't know it had a body. They opened the box and shut it when they saw these bones."
She examined them. "This woman was about 30 years old when she died, caucasian, had at least one child."
"You can tell all that from bones?" Provenza was impressed.
"Yes. Our bones reveal our whole life stories."
"Can they reveal who killed her?" Cause I would love to go home.
"In due time."
They still didn't know when she died. Daisy said at least 10 years ago, but it could have been much longer. They started with missing persons 10+ years with her approximated height and weight.
Way too many hits. They needed a visual to narrow it down. Dr. Wick took pictures of the remains and had them sent to an artist at UCLA. Maybe he could make a face for their victim.
Well, until then, there was still very little for Major Crimes to do. They went home at 5PM.
Craig was at home, working on his lecture for Wednesday.
He got a phone call. It was Craig Jr. "Hey what's up?"
"Just checking in, Dad."
"Well, I'm just writing a lecture for class. Hopefully, your night is more fun."
"Not really. I broke up with Stacy."
"Again?"
"She cheated."
"Again?" Not that Craig was surprised.
"I'm done this time."
That's what you said the last two times.
"I mean it this time."
"Well good. You'll find someone better." Look at me! I did.
"Well aren't you the optimist?"
"I am now."
"It must be that Sharon. She's a bad influence."
"Getting me to smile. I know right."
"We'll see about that. See you on Friday, Dad."
Wednesday
They finally had a face. She was pretty, dark hair, blue eyes, a cute nose, but they still didn't know when or where she went missing from. They narrowed it down to LA, but they couldn't get a hit. They had 1000 almost matches, but none actually looked right. Maybe she wasn't reported missing.
They had to send a sample to a lab in Iowa for the DNA test. It was going to be a complicated test, given the destruction to the bones and it might not even work. Dr. Wick did x-rays of the remains to try and figure out what happened to her. Was she stuffed into the box alive? With all of the damage, Dr. Wick had trouble telling.
Major Crimes was boring. The media went crazy over "The girl in the box," but the police literally had nothing to go on. Chief Taylor came in, expecting an update and he got zilch. No cause of death, no ID and nothing on the box. It was a generic trunk, often used for props. They couldn't trace this one. They needed DNA or else it was all over. They held off on releasing the sketch. If they did, the killer might run before they got any information. If the DNA didn't work, they'd have to reconsider.
Thursday
Rusty decided to invite Lucy (one of the girls from the charity event) to dinner on Friday. She happily accepted.
Craig's son, Mark, flew in early. He needed a break from his firm. He worked like a dog. They loved him, but he needed to be out of Chicago for a bit. He and his dad went to a bar and did some shots.
"Meet a girl yet!"
"No. Too busy."
"Don't wait until it's too late."
"Coming from the guy who took over 20 years after mom left to find someone."
"Hey!" He playfully punched his son's arm.
Mark was glad to see his father happy. Hopefully, Sharon would turn out to be as great as his father claimed. Even if she was half as great, that would be pretty good.
Craig was happy to see his son finally settled in at a job. He was always changing majors, traveling, taking forever to grow up, but he was a successful lawyer now, a big shot even. Now, time for him to think about settling down, find Ms. Right, start a family. Well, more whiskey for now