"Okay," Horatio commented carefully, "so Lydia Bell decides to host a murder mystery party with a fairytale theme in her uncle's house, the Chimera House. She, Serena Rivers and Jessie Bingham arrive together around four in the afternoon to set things up. Niall Brooks and Liam Jackson arrive together around six, Amanda Fields, Greg Hernaz, and Harry May arrive together around seven, as do Jade del Sannio, Chris Takamo and Shannon Woods. Sadie Pearlman arrives last on her own around half seven. She disappears and is found approximately twenty minutes later by Jade who calls the cops. Officers Mason and Gray respond to the call and then we are called.
"At some point between the cops arriving and us arriving Officers Mason and Gray are lured upstairs by Jade who is claiming she saw a shadow moving upstairs and heard noises. She then claims she left the cops upstairs only to return to find them unconscious and Chris Takamo fleeing the scene; this is when Detective Moon came upon them and found Chris running upstairs and Jade with the unconscious cops. Also, at some point, Shannon Woods met her end; her body was discovered in the pool by Detective Moon."
Horatio fell silent and looked at his team, they were now into the early hours of the morning, the group of costumed suspects were on their way to the police station and the bodies were with Alexx on their way to the morgue. "What else do we know?" he queried calmly.
"That someone wasn't as hungry as they thought," Ridley murmured as she produced an apple with a couple of bites out of it from the bin in a gloved hand. It was sticky and stained and had been hidden beneath several layers of trash.
"What has that got to do with anything?" Eric queried as he wrinkled his nose at the sight of it.
In the light and in familiar company Ridley was suddenly composed and confident again, it reassured Tim a little but he wondered how much effort it was taking her to be so composed and how much of it was simply an act.
Ridley stepped up to the fruit bowl and held the apple out and against the others, it was almost the same, large, plump, shiny and red, save for the bite marks, the brown stain from the air and stains from the bin. "It's fresh," she murmured, "and yet somehow it ended up deep in the trash with only two bites out of it." She gestured to the bowl and the table. "Fingerprints," she murmured, "and there's a barely rinsed wine glass in the sink, a little odd when the party had only started."
"Shall we start asking who couldn't decide if they liked apples or not?" Eric queried sardonically. "My money's on Snow White."
"Or test it for poison," Ridley suggested lightly as she slipped it into a bag for testing. "Maybe someone was taking the fairytales quite seriously tonight."
"Well we will know more once Alexx tells us the cause of deaths for our victims," Horatio murmured as he gave Ridley a slight flicker of a proud smile. "Meanwhile, let's get every inch of this house swabbed, searched and photographed."
"Hey Ridley what way does pairing up work in horror films?" Eric queried teasingly. "Who am I best going with to increase my survival chances?"
Ridley forced a faint smile to her face at the question as she saw Calleigh about to scorn. "Calleigh," she answered brightly. "The blonde female lead usually always survives, although," she shrugged lightly, "I hear Hollywood's being trying to subvert that trope lately; in which case you'll maybe want to stick with the potential lone male survivor."
"Hey Delko this isn't a horror movie," Tim remarked dryly, "it's a crime scene."
"Don't worry I'll protect you from the ghosts," Calleigh teased with a small smile at Eric.
Eric felt a slight flutter in his chest as he smiled back. "Alright."
"We can stick to downstairs, closer to the exit," the blonde added as she gave Tim a mischievous glance.
Tim rolled his eyes and gave a tired shake of his head. "I don't believe in that nonsense," he grumbled as he looked to his superior. "Will we go upstairs then H?"
Horatio hesitated as his blue eyes flickered from Tim to Ridley who had a frozen expression as if afraid of portraying some emotion on her face. 'Annoyance? Fear? Relief?' Horatio pondered. He could see the bloodshot look in her eyes and the slight tremble in her hands that she was trying to suppress. 'The lights went out,' he thought calmly, 'did she panic over it?' He looked to Tim again, giving him a serious, questioning stare.
To his credit Tim did not flinch at the stare or show anything revealing on his face which he kept carefully deadpan but he knew what Horatio's face meant, he had guessed at Ridley's freak out and it would not be long before he demanded confirmation of it. Tim cursed several times in his head as he pondered over what to do. He recalled how Ridley had fallen out with him the last time and then there was the desperation in her eyes, that fear not of the darkness or a killer but of being alone with her thoughts. He filled with guilt, if he told Horatio he was betraying her again but if he didn't... He didn't want her upstairs wandering about but if he went up with just Horatio the redhead would definitely wheedle the truth out of him. He clenched his fists slightly before going back on his decision to see Ridley left downstairs in a more secure position. "You, me and Ridley?" he quipped calmly.
"Right," Horatio retorted smoothly with a nod.
The three headed out of the kitchen and back to the stairs. They headed up and processed each room painfully slow and mostly in an awkward silence. Ridley let Horatio and Tim do their CSI side of things, commenting in a flat tone about how she had found the cops and Jade and then Chris. Almost two hours trickled by before they continued on their journey, Ridley uncovered an old wooden door behind heavy, red, velvet curtains at the end of the corridor to the right. There was a table with a vase sitting in front of them and it was only out of curiosity that she found the door. It was stiff but unlocked and opened to reveal an old iron staircase.
"If the walls start bleeding I'm quitting," she muttered sardonically as Horatio took the lead. There was no light switch although the narrow passageway seemed too old for electricity, which was a little odd.
As they walked they noticed how the stairs were heavy with dust and were quick to create their shoe prints. There were no other prints, none left on the cobwebbed walls or dusty staircase and Tim felt it was highly unlikely they were going to find any evidence up here.
"I can't imagine they even knew about this place," he muttered, "and even if they did why would they come up here?"
"It's a good place to hide a murder weapon," Horatio mused.
"There was a bearskin in the parlour," Ridley remarked suddenly, "I didn't really register it but all the claws were missing, Eric took photos."
Horatio glanced over his shoulder slightly at the female detective, barely making out her face in the gloom; it was an odd greyish-white in the faint light of her phone's torch. "So Goldilocks maybe was attacked by a bear or at least part of one," he retorted coolly. He turned back to the top of the stairs where another heavy, old door blocked their way. He reached out and twisted the knob, it was so stiff for a moment he thought it was locked but then it creaked and with a rough shove he managed to make it give way. "Got any matches Tim?" he queried calmly as his phone's light danced over several objects, settling on the dust coated candle sitting with half its wax hardened about it and marring the silver dish it rested in.
"I have a lighter," Tim retorted as he tugged it out and headed up to the candle. A couple of clicks and a yellow flame sparked into life. He lit the candle and handed it to Horatio. "This is getting ridiculous," he grumbled.
They moved through the attic carefully, pausing to shine their lights over certain objects. The whole area looked like it had been trapped in time. Ridley flinched at the forms beneath white sheets that looked like they could be figures. She paused when she saw dark brown stains on one and dared to reach out a hand.
Horatio watched as Ridley's right hand started trembling before she could help it. He saw her jaw tighten as she tried and failed to stop the quivering. Yet she persisted, fulfilling his, Tim's and her own morbid curiosity. They all regretted it when she finally grasped the sheet and tugged it down sending a momentary cloud of dust into the air.
"Oh my God," she stammered as she stumbled back from the thing.
It was a mummified body; the clothes mostly rotted to tatters thought there were enough scraps to indicate some sort of dress with an apron. The hair had grown down past the waist though it was faded and thin, on her face, for the shape of the body indicated a she, was a stretched out, eerie grin with stitches at either side of it. In one hand a teacup was clutched, hanging down by the handle in a rigid grasp, it looked porcelain and was full of spider eggs and dust, and at her feet was a small skeleton body of some animal.
Ridley turned away in horror, giving the open a door a desperate glance. Was it closing? Her heart was pounding hard as she found herself stumbling towards it away from the form. A woman trapped in the dark, alone, forgotten, suffering. "Shit," she cursed as she tried to grasp the door handle and failed. She shook her head several times as if to clear the image from her mind.
"Detective Moon do you need to go downstairs?" Horatio queried calmly.
Downstairs, out of the dark, away from the prison. She nodded wordlessly and hastened down the metal staircase.
Tim watched her go with a worried stare before he turned his brown gaze on the body. "How long has this thing been up here?" he wondered aloud as he raised his camera. He took a photo, wincing slightly at the flash. He lowered his camera and brought up the photo on it. "Shit!" he exclaimed as he looked up from it in alarm.
"What?" Horatio demanded as he hastened forward.
"Nothing," Tim answered nervously as he realised the face staring in the background of the photo was just a doll's head. "Calleigh's right, this place...well it's probably too ideal for scary parties," he finished lamely.
"Well at least we know who has been haunting it," Horatio retorted a small smile.
Tim shook his head chidingly. "Not cool H."
"Tim was Ridley unnerved by the lights going off?" Horatio demanded suddenly.
Tim met his superior's stare with his best poker face. "I don't know, I wasn't with her, I was with you guys, remember?" Tim retorted, praising himself internally for not sounding like he had something to hide.
"Yes, she was on her own looking for the missing guests but then she joined you and Alexx by the front door." Horatio held Tim's gaze and gave him a serious stare. "Tim if she has given you any indication tonight that she is still unstable you need to let me know."
"Has she given you any?" Tim retorted heatedly.
"Yes," Horatio didn't hesitate to answer, "the whites of her eyes are showing, she's trying to hide the fact that her hands are trembling, and she fled here despite it being a crime scene. Tim, I'm ordering her off the case regardless of what you tell me it would just be helpful to know if there have been any other issues tonight."
"Why?" Tim queried numbly as he lowered his camera and frowned at the floor. "What does it matter if you're ordering her off?"
"She needs help and in order to help her it's good to know what triggers her, what upsets her most."
"Being alone with her thoughts and her memories upsets her most," Tim grumbled darkly.
Horatio nodded. "I know that," he said sympathetically, "but if she's unstable then she's dangerous on this case, and I appreciate she has done her best tonight and so far she has discovered quite a lot, she's still a great detective Tim and I will be letting her know that but if she's not one hundred percent she's only going to do the case and herself harm."
"I know," Tim muttered, "but if you could tell her I didn't blab this time but you figured it out and then asked that would be good."
"I will," Horatio assured.
Tim let out a heavy sigh. "When she found me and Alexx she was talking too quickly and then she started babbling about the dark, she admitted to me that she had held it together with that Chris kid but barely H, she started to lose it with me."
"Alright. Now let's get what we can out of this and rejoin Detective Moon."
It took thirty precious minutes and during them Ridley stood at the bottom of the staircase in the hall, rigid and huddled close to one of the electric lights hanging against the walls, her eyes darting about nervously at every creak and groan.
When Horatio and Tim came down the redhead was quick to take her to one side. "Ridley," he said gently, "I want you to go home, Tim will take you."
"What?" Her eyes went wide and Horatio felt a spark of guilt at the betrayal that filled her grey-brown gaze.
"Ridley it's not your fault," he assured, "but you can't stay on this case."
"No!" She started a protest as her angry eyes looked past Horatio to Tim.
"It wasn't Detective Speedle," Horatio said calmly, "I can see for myself that your hands are trembling, and you're frightened to the point of being unable to stay and process a crime scene correctly."
"I was startled," she snarled back moodily, "I wasn't expecting a mummy up there, were you?"
"No," he retorted, still calm, "but we're detectives Ridley; we can't afford to run from bodies like characters in a horror movie."
"She was trapped in the dark for hours," Ridley stammered out as she felt her eyes burn much to her chagrin, "I know what that's like, you don't! For hours," she repeated, "alone, suffocating, suffering, twice it's happened to me. Twice! So I'm sorry that I can't quite repress it but making me sit at home thinking about it won't help!" She glowered up at him hatefully, willing him to understand. "That's all I do at home, replay it all in my mind, over and over and over because I have nothing to distract me."
"One week," Horatio said sternly, "then we can talk about some part time work with Yelina and Frank."
She shook her head in defeat. "You have no idea what it's like," she choked out, "it still hurts sometimes, I'll get a sharp pang or just a dull ache that lasts for hours, they say it's a combination of the permanent scarring he caused and my own memories creating the pain. It's a vicious circle, I feel the pain and I'm instantly reminded of all the things he did."
"I am sorry Ridley," the redhead retorted sombrely. "You have done great work tonight and it won't go unnoticed and you will be kept informed of the case but you can't stay working on it. It's my fault; I pushed you too hard, too soon with this." He turned away from her and looked to Tim who was scowling behind him. "Take her home Detective Speedle, I will see you this afternoon to go over the results in the lab."
Tim nodded stiffly before stepping up to Ridley, he held out a hand which she predictably ignored before walking to the main staircase. They headed downstairs hastily and stepped out to a soggy, grey dawn. Tim felt it was all too appropriate as he got into his car and started up the engine.
The drive to Ridley's house was predictably awkward and silent. Ridley just stared out the window dully without a single word and didn't even wait for Tim to speak when he pulled into her drive before she got out of the car. He followed of course, more than a little annoyed that she was making him suffer her anger. He frowned when she stopped in the porch to turn back to him with a bloodshot glower. "Thanks for the lift," she said stiffly.
"Ridley don't take it out on me," he said tiredly, "I didn't tell Horatio on you but for the record he is right and you know that. If it was one of us instead you would agree we weren't fit for the case."
"Why did you guys want me down in Miami?" she demanded fiercely. "Did you think the sunshine would make the memories and nightmares magically vanish?"
"No," he answered with a taken back look.
"Well what then? Am I your New York mascot?" she sneered sardonically. "Here for show?"
"Ridley don't," he retorted crossly. "You know this is for your own good and you know we all want you back at work with us but you can't work in this state, it's dangerous for the case and for you."
"The memories are never going to go away," she spat out angrily.
"No but you will learn to deal with them," Tim assured, "and we will help with that. Look, just relax for a week, go to the therapy and make an effort and then you can do some work with Frank and Yelina like Horatio said."
She turned to her door wordlessly, tugged out her keys and unlocked it. When she stepped in and slammed the door in his face he folded his arms and scowled before shouting, "I'll pick you up at seven for the cinema but I'm not paying for popcorn now!" He stormed back to his car angrily, he was thoroughly fed up with the woman's attitude but he understood it and knew he would probably be worse in her situation. Still it was getting difficult to put up with her hostility and her frosty distancing of herself from him. 'One normal bloody date,' he thought as he started up the engine, 'that's all I want, why is it like pulling teeth out of a gator?'
As he drove off he was completely unaware of the fact that Ridley was now slumped up against her door with her knees pulled in against herself as she sobbed loudly into them.
It was closer to half seven when Tim finally reappeared at Ridley's house. He pressed the bell, scratching behind the back of his neck awkwardly as he waited for her. She answered looking a hell of a lot better than she had when he had left her off; it gave him a glimmer of hope. She was wearing a silk, pale blue shirt and a flattering, pleated, black skirt with shiny, black, heeled shoes and the carousel patterned scarf he had gotten her as a present. Her hair was down and poker straight and she had smoky eye shadow on, yet her gaze was grim despite the faint, forced smile she gave.
"Are you ready to go?" he quipped politely. He had made an effort too; well an effort for him, jeans, freshly washed ones, and a newish black shirt, hell he had even shaved, something he knew Eric was liable to tease him about relentlessly tomorrow.
Ridley nodded as she stepped out and closed the door behind her, taking care to lock it before she slipped the keys into her dark blue satchel. Tim rolled his eyes at the satchel, it had to be the most impracticable bag he had ever seen, you had to undo its two buckles every time to open and close it and even when it was closed it wasn't exactly sealed up, not the way a zipper bag was. Yet Ridley seemed to adore it but Ridley was widely known for her impractical outfits and accessories.
"How did today go?" she pried quietly.
"Well," he retorted wearily, "you were right about the apple, drugged, and it was Goldilocks who took a bite and found it really wasn't just right."
Ridley shook her head at the lame joke before she opened the passenger door and slipped into the car. Tim climbed in and started up the engine before continuing on. "We found her prints, Snow White's and Rapunzel's all present on the breakfast bar and the apple bowl. Snow White put the apples out and as Rapunzel confessed, when Horatio made it clear her ivy league future wouldn't be happening if she didn't start talking, she drugged the apple, just the one at the top because, and I quote, 'Sadie was a greedy pig and a man stealer' but it was just a sleeping drug, she wanted Goldilocks out for the count so she would leave Peter Pan alone. Yes, I know, totally screwed up."
"That's not what killed her though," Ridley murmured thoughtfully.
"Nope, it just made her vulnerable for the killer, we eventually found the bear claws, guess where."
"The pool," Ridley replied as her eyes widened slightly.
"Uh huh." Tim nodded. "No blood on them of course or prints but Alexx was able to make a match, most of the marks were for show, the ones at the throat killed her. Jade found the body but Shannon probably found the killer depositing the evidence."
"And they choked her," Ridley commented quietly.
"Yep, but here's the problem, no one's hands seem to match the ones that strangled Shannon, so we're a bit stumped," he confessed with a sigh. "And as for the mummy upstairs, Alexx is still working on that but Snow White, after she woke up from her very dramatic fainting, says she has no idea of any history of anyone going missing in the house. No one knows anything about the slashed tyres, power cut or moved furniture either and Chris and Jade are blaming each other for our unconscious cops. I think they're all guilty."
"No." Ridley shook her head. "It's wrong."
"What's wrong?" he quipped calmly as he turned off the main road to the right.
"We went about it wrong," she paused and added angrily, "I mean you guys went about it wrong."
"Gee thanks," Tim retorted sarcastically.
"Well you're assuming the only ones in the house were the ones on the list," she pointed out.
"Oh?" Tim gave her a thoughtful look before pulling up to the cinema.
"It would hardly be the first party to have uninvited guests," she continued dryly. "Although you guys clearly don't need my help on this I suggest finding out who might have been invited then uninvited or who the group knew who would have a problem with Sadie."
"Come on Ridley," Tim chided as he picked a parking space close to the brick building, "stop taking this so personally."
"Wouldn't you?" she retorted angrily.
"Yes, okay, I would," he admitted grudgingly as he held her fiery glower, "but you know it's not like that. I want you on the case, we all do but you freaked out more than once and it's not good."
"The power went out and I was alarmed, I admit it but what do you expect? I've seen Calleigh freak out at ants!" Ridley retorted angrily.
"Ridley let's not do this tonight," Tim protested.
"Why because you want to go to the cinema and pretend things are normal?" she snapped viciously as she continued to glare at him. "Well they're not Tim! I can't date you," she choked out, "I want to but I can't because every time you get too...close to doing something all I can feel is him inside me and it makes me sick."
Tim turned away from her, pressing his right hand down hard on the steering wheel as he stared out at the cinema coldly. "I know," he confessed, "and I'm doing the best I can not to...to take things too far."
"I know Tim," she murmured softly, "but it's not fair to you, it's been six months, you need a girlfriend who can give you everything."
He glanced back at her sharply with a look of hurt. "I'm not just looking for sex you know," he retorted defensively.
"I know," she assured, "but it is a basic need and you can't pretend you don't have urges, everyone gets urges. And I...I don't know if I'll...well if I'll ever be able to deal with that normally again and I'm not going to make you wait forever to find out."
"I can be patient Ridley."
She shook her head. "It's not just that, it's all this business with my job as well, if I'm going to persuade Horatio to let me back I need to make an effort, without distractions."
"So I'm just a distraction now?" he retorted angrily. "Thanks a lot Ridley."
"No, that's not what I meant," she babbled awkwardly as she bowed her head.
"Ridley I waited three months for you to come down here, I had women trying to date me but I turned them down, I waited for you because I like you, we have fun together and I'm willing to keep making the effort but not if you aren't. I'm happy to take things slow, I think I've made that clear the three months you have been here but if you're going to just give up then I will too because it's draining me now. Look we're at the cinema so make the decision, we can get out of the car and try to have a good night together or I can take you home and we can just be friends."
Ridley filled with embarrassment as she felt the tears trickle down her cheeks. She wanted to be with him, of course she did, she loved getting noodles with him and bundling up in one of his shirts, she adored the small, rare smiles he gave her, and the fact that he was willing to watch old detective movies with her even though he despised them. This was Tim, the same Tim who had gotten her a giraffe teddy to keep her company in hospital because he remembered her telling him they were her favourite animal, the same Tim who had gotten her a scarf to hide her scars when her necklace was broken because he knew how important it was to her to keep that part of herself hidden, the same Tim who had flown from Miami to New York to bring her to Miami for Christmas because he didn't want her to be alone over the holidays. Yet she knew it was unfair to keep him with her when she couldn't give him what he needed and deserved, what it was only natural for a girlfriend to give, and it was far too complicated with them sharing jobs, she couldn't help resenting him over her being kicked off the team, hating him for being able to go to work whilst she had to sit at home. It just wasn't right or fair.
"Take me home," she said miserably.