Case 19: Innocence Lost
The day started with being called into the office before they'd even sat down at their desks.
"Morning Gentlemen." King greeted them, he tended to avoid them now after the Greene case. "I'm afraid your New Years won't be the happiest unless you get this done tonight. A young woman was found dead at a construction site on the outskirts of the financial district. I know you don't care for politics." If one looked closely they would see the Chief flinch. "But the mayor is having the area renovated and it's funded by Alden Greene so please, handle this carefully?" King finished almost meekly and they nodded their head, JJ grimacing slightly, that hadn't been one of his finer moments.
They set off without hesitation, Dorian rather miffed to be going back in the car but happily ran around outside the construction site once they arrived.
They were met with a powder covered Ramirez.
"Morning, the construction crew found the victim Gail Harding when they showed up for work." They both noticed as the officer paled. You two need to be careful. The whole place is a construction site, they covered the hole by the entrance when I fell in it but..."
"You fell in!" They spoke at the same time.
"Go take it easy Ramirez, we'll deal with it okay." David ushered him away as Ramirez mumbled his thanks.
Once inside however they stopped dead, their stomach's twisting as they looked at the twisted dead body that lay in the concrete.
There were some rather large jobs to be done as they worked on getting the victim out of the concrete and a platform scale that had disturbed dust, enough for a body to have been dragged across it. There was also a single thread from a plank of wood ready for Grace along with a powdery substance off the concrete mixer.
JJ gathered a torn piece of paper and went out into the car to put it together.
The paper lead them to the Stone Cold Motel and room #9 and were let into the room with minimal fuss.
"Well isn't this lovely?" Jones asked with a streak of sarcasm as they looked around the trashed room.
"Hum." JJ was a little busy looking at a mirror and bag that had a particular white substance that any good detective would recognise.
He bagged it carefully while his lover looked over an expensive credit card receipt and looked through the victim's purse.
"Hey, Babe. Looks like we're going to visit your new best friend." JJ looked up and saw the card David was holding. An access card for Grim News.
While David interviewed the motel owner JJ worked his magic and retrieved prints from the mirror and got the details from the receipt, sending them to his favourite geek.
Once in the car they drove first to the PD to deliver the evidence before going to see Rachel.
They were let in instantly and told the right floor and where to find her. They didn't even have to look for her as Dorian yipped and made a beeline for the reporter.
"Hello Dorian, what's happening now?" She asked as she fussed over the young pup.
"A girl named Gail Harding was found dead, would you know her?" JJ asked as he leaned back against the side desk, David resting his palms on the front of it.
"Gail, she was my personal intern." Rachel frowned as she looked up through not moving away from the black dog. "I sent her to investigate Greene Holding. Nobody in the company would talk to me after my report on the mental hospital. I thought they wouldn't suspect a ditz like her, maybe I was wrong." She heaved a sigh as she sat up straight, smoothing out her shirt.
"Maybe, can you do me a favour and stay away from this until the case is over?" Green eyes looked at her beseechingly and she sighed again before giving a reluctant half smile and nodding. The southerner grinned at her before placing the coffee he'd been carrying on the desk.
Rachel laughed and took a large sip of it happily, waving at them as they left, Dorian only just getting in the lift before the door closed.
They dropped by Al's hotdog stand and got lunch, plus one without a bun as a treat for the Staffordshire Bull Terrier at his feet who then ran straight to the park.
Not long after they returned to the lab they started typing up reports and waited until they were called up by Grace.
"Hello my lovely." And of course she was talking to Dorian. "Hi guys, I've got your results on the powder from the mirror, baggie and cement mixer. They're all cocaine and the cocaine is from nose breath." She told them and they nodded, their killer was a cocaine user.
"Did you get anything from that thread?" The brunette asked, knowing full well she had.
"The fabric as far as I can tell the thread is from a tartan patterned flannel, you'll have to go see Nathan to see weather it's relevant to your killer or victim." They thanked the lab tech before sliding away.
They made their way up to Alex who grinned at them.
"Got the owner of your credit card and found out that your victim used that mirror, still waiting on the other prints though. The last reading on the digital scale was 320lb, so your killer ways 140lb. Last but not least the credit card belongs to Derek Molina."
He sighed as they both continued to look at him.
"You both need to be on the internet more." Alex huffed out.
"Sorry Alex I spend my free time catching up on Game of Thrones and Magicians." JJ told him plainly before laughing as the younger's face lit up, the elder brunette snorting.
"Okay! He's a famous start up CEO and entrepreneur. And he funded his current company with capital that came straight from... Greene Holdings!" He finished and JJ groaned.
"Rachel may have been right then but for now let's go see this guy." The Inspector told them and got the needed info from Alex who made a squeak as his hair was messed up.
Derek Molina explained how Gail had gotten into partying and drugs indirectly but it was of no real use and neither thought they'd met their killer yet so they went back to the lab and hoped Nathan had something from the body.
"Hey guys." The man grinned at them surprisingly. "Have to say this is the first time I've had to use a hammer and chisel in an autopsy." The detectives found themselves laughing, yeah, you could tell they'd been doing this for a while.
"Luckily the rest of it was easy enough and I had plenty of help getting her out. The concrete was poured on when she was alive and filled her airways but she was already passed out from alcohol, cocaine and more."
Both detectives winced at that.
"Anything about our killer?" David asked.
"No."
"No. That's not like you." JJ spoke with a smirk, looking at the elder man as if he knew he was holding something back.
"Well, I did send some of the rubble to Grace." He grinned at them as he started sewing up the victim.
"That's more like it. Thanks Nathan." They grinned before taking a quick look through the victim's clothes to discover that she didn't wear tartan, so the killer did.
Once they got downstairs they were called by the Chief.
"Jensen, Jones, in here." They did as they were told and stood shoulder to shoulder before their boss. "How is the case? Any leads? Anything… concrete?"
Both detectives snorted.
"Nice Chief." Jones smirked.
"So far the killer wears tartan, is 140lb and uses cocaine." JJ filled him in.
"We're not sure were to go next, but we know we don't have all the players yet so the plan was to re-interview the few we have." Not that they'd actually talked, they just knew they would.
"Maybe I can help then. Philip Rockwell, a business executive at Greene Holdings, requested a word with you saying it is in regards to Miss Harding's death." King couldn't resist shooting his newest detective but the red-head merely nodded.
"We'll get on it."
And they walked out, running into Ramirez.
"Sir, Sergeant. I looked a little into your victim."
"Wait, since when do you investigate out case Ramirez?" David asked with an amused smirk, arms folded across his strong chest and hip cocked to the side.
JJ thought he looked more gorgeous than usual, it always made his blood burn when he stood like that.
"I…Well, I wanted to be useful. Anyway, Gail Harding was seen by many people sitting on a bench just outside Greene offices, she was waiting for a while." Ramirez said excitedly.
David tipped his head to the side and his lover had to look away or risk jumping him.
"Nice work Ramirez." The officer grinned and nodded, very pleased with himself as they left.
JJ sent Dorian up to Grace and once in the garage he climbed into the driver's side and drove then not to the square but to David's house.
He found himself dragged inside and pushed against the wall, lips attacking his skin, hands unbuttoning his shirt and his lover travelled down, working to bring him to blissful oblivion that left him trembling.
"Fuck Babe." David pulled him into kiss. "I don't what the hell that was but feel free to do it any time."
JJ chuckled and gave his agreement.
"Come on, we still have work to do."
They both sighed and freshened up before setting off to where they were suppose to be.
Philip Rockwell put on thinly veiled mask of sadness as he suggested Derek Molina was their killer and tried to point fingers away from Greene holding which is exactly what this was about.
He did allude to a drug habit on Derek's part however, which could be useful.
Searching around they found a set of car keys tossed in trash, thankfully high up.
With a little look on the computer they found out that the key was a VM City Cruiser.
"We should send it to Alex."
"Maybe." David looked at his lover curiously as he dialled something on his phone and put it to his ear.
"Hey Rachel, I've got another favour to ask. You said that the cars Grim News uses are VM City Cruisers, do you have one missing?" There was a minutes pause. "There is, does it have GPS? They can be tracked from the building?" There was another pause. "Thanks Sugar."
The red-head grinned at his brunette lover and lead him roughly five blocks away to a dingy alley and pressed the unlock button.
The car beeped and it's lights flashed causing the elder to laugh, kissing the other quickly before he went to call it in, leaving the brunette to search the car.
JJ easily saw the Grim News logos on the car and found several long hairs on the headrest that were mixed in with Gail's shorter brunette hairs.
It was a quick enough investigation with all the evidence together and a few more interviews and they actually managed to get everything done for the Grimsborough PD New Years party for those not on duty.
Not that they spent more than an hour there before they returned home, spending many long hours in bed together.
