Case 35: At The End Of The Rope
As JJ had predicted David hadn't been able to walk the next day and had spent it in bed being pampered and pleasured, moaning and mewling like a whore for most of it.
It was few days later when the next body was found on campus. It was a young girl handing from the library ceiling.
"Good God." David breathed, the fact that someone might take their own life more frightening to him than any massacre.
"Babe." He turned to his lover seeing the confusion on his lovers face. "You decided your going to commit suicide. You choose the library so you get a rope and come here, where do you go to hang yourself?"
He turned green eyes onto the brunette who was biting his lip in thought.
"I'd go to the upper level and use the balcony. And there isn't anything here she could have stood on to get up there. This isn't suicide this is an execution." They looked at each other in realisation, determination burning in their eyes.
They went about gathering the evidence. A tablet for Alex and JJ just spotted a letter peeking out from the bottom of the book shelf.
Just as they went outside David felt something. Anger, betrayal and sadness all spiralling together into a mournful cold that made him shiver.
"Don't worry Lisa." David turned to the red-head. "We'll catch them." The solider finished and David understood why he believed in ghost so much, when he could feel that.
"Is that what it's always like?" The blue eyed one asked as they walked towards the office they had set up.
"No, depends on the person, how they died, why they're still here." JJ shrugged before setting to work, they'd lost Dorian on the way to the girls from Psi Sigma Gamma.
The letter was soon revealed. 'To die, to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream.' David typed it into Google and found that it was from Hamlet before remembering that it was the scene within which the main character contemplated suicide.
They sent it off to Alex as well.
They were just leaving, wondering where to go next when they were accosted by a young girl in preppy clothing and big glasses.
"Detectives I'm Penelope Rivera, Lisa best friend. Someone said she committed suicide." She spoke looking at them with a lot less sadness then she should have.
"It appears that way." David answered. "I suppose you knew her quiet well."
"No!" She snapped suddenly looking furious. "We use to tell each other everything! The person I knew would never have done this! How could she be so….SELFISH!" She all but screamed at them. "She spent all her time in the library with Tess Goodwin! She was never with me!"
And there was the real reason, now they had their motive it seemed.
"Well thank you Penelope." JJ said with a smile and they left, her behind them looking for attention as she wrung her hands.
They walked off to find Miss Goodwin.
"Lieutenant Jensen! So good to meet you. I've followed your work since you've got here, I even went back to your cases in New Orleans." She looked completely fanatical as she spoke and JJ felt a shiver go down his spine.
"Really? Interesting." He showed no real interest towards her ,that made her frown. "Did you know Lisa Edwards?"
"Yes." She was still frowning.
"And how did she seem recently?" JJ pressed, not at all pleased about the girl's demeanour.
"Strange. She was always quiet but she seemed more detached. She'd spend hours sitting on that subway platform, watching the trains go past. Sometimes it felt as if she'd only get in a wagon if there were no students inside." Tess frowned.
"I tried to get her to talk but she wouldn't. But we weren't that close, we were class mates in Mr Harris' Movie History 101 and we got the subway together."
They left before Tess could turn to being fanatical again.
Soon enough they were at the Onion Street Subway Station. They found Lisa's portfolio and something shredded near by. There was also a copy Psychology of Death that made David chuckle a little. It was one of the many books scattered around the house.
Looking on the inside cover he found that the book belonged to Tess Goodwin and one of the titles was circled. Suicide by hanging: psychological roots and ramifications. There was also a red stain that resembled lipstick. David took a sample and bagged the book for now.
The portfolio contained an anti-bullying pamphlet with a phone number that JJ texted to Alex before they made their way to the station to finish up working.
He put together the shreds which turned out to be an essay for the girls class with some rather harsh comments on it and a stain that looked a lot like coffee that they gave to the lab techs to test.
They were wondering what to do again when they were called up by Alex and on the screen was a holographic style blue image of someone in a mask and a hoodie.
JJ found it all rather dull personally but was glad to find more evidence.
They also spoke with the guidance councillor who was something of bully herself, a royal obsessive bitch were the words David had used to describe her.
It was all rather petty in the end and once again JJ had to be stopped from committing murder, not that he'd be caught for it. Penelope Rivera, the victims supposed best friend, had decided to start bullying Lisa on Friendnet, hoping that Lisa would confide in her and they'd become closer. The Artist however had gotten in the way and told Lisa the truth so when the young red-head had confronted Penelope she had lashed out, knocking the young girl unconscious. She then decided to follow the movie they'd been watching in class and made murder look like suicide.
They all found it sickening and were happy to see her off, leaving them to find out who The Artist was.
The only clue they had was CK.
Suddenly JJ straightened up and started typing on his computer, looking up things on the chief and there it was. Cathy King, after all, how else could they have known the Chief had been the one to order the investigation.
