"A person is, among all else, a material thing… easily torn and not easily mended." – Ian McEwan
As the rest of the team arrives back at the precinct, they exchange what they had learned over the past few hours.
"Abrams, Brittany... what've you got?" Schue asks.
"I spoke to Jake Puckerman again and we might have a person of interest," Artie begins. "What happened to Jake wasn't just a random act of violence. We believe that his understudy for the play had something to do with it."
"Ryder Lynn took Jake's place after he had to drop out due to injury," Brittany picks up. "Artie and I reviewed several tapes of Jake and this Ryder kid in the lead male role. Ryder's performance is mediocre at best compared to Jake's."
"So... Ryder may have crippled Jake to get his role..." Schue states in his usual monotone voice. "What's the connection?"
"Jake's ex-girlfriend, Marley Rose, took over the lead female role after Tina was killed," Dr. Abrams supplies. "According to Jake, Ryder is highly obsessed with Marley."
"Hmm... now this is getting interesting," Hudson says.
"We already passed the info along to Fabray," the liaison adds in. "She's running background checks on them now."
"Hudson and I didn't have much luck out in the field," Schue states.
"All of Berry's former co-workers basically all said the same thing; Rachel's life was Broadway and she didn't have any time for anything else," Hudson casually states.
"Lopez, Puckerman... you're up," Schue says.
"We checked out the first two crime scenes. Everything seemed pretty similar to the Jones crime scene..." Puck starts out. "However, we did notice something peculiar."
"The fire at Rachel's apartment was contained to only her bedroom," Santana picks up. "After going through the evidence and the report from the fire department, it appears that Rachel was attacked somewhere else."
"How did you come up with that?" Brittany inquires.
"Using old photos of Rachel's bedroom, there are no signs of any heavy or blunt objects that could've been used to cause the damage done to the back of her head," Puckerman answers. "Also, there were no traces of blood found throughout the other areas of her apartment."
"So there's a secondary crime scene out there," Schue says aloud as he takes in this new information. "So the question is... how did Rachel get back to her apartment before she was set on fire in her own bed?"
"Maybe someone of Ryder Lynn's stature moved her?" Brittany poses.
"The M.E. also told us that Ms. Jones had high levels of ketamine in her system," Puck states.
"Ketamine is a very powerful tranquilizer that's used to sedate horses, along with other animals," Dr. Abrams chimes in. "It's widely used in veterinarian hospitals and has a high value on the streets."
"Thanks for the PBS special," Finn jokingly states towards the boy genius.
"You think this is fucking funny, Hudson?!" Santana yells out as she abruptly rises from her chair. "3 women are dead! And the last one was still conscious, but was completely helpless to do anything as she felt her flesh burning off her bones!"
"Lopez... do you need a minute?" Schue says very sternly.
"Yeah, Will... I need a fucking minute," the fiery Latina retorts as she storms out.
As the team sits in silence and total shock, no one knows exactly what to say. Usually Agent Lopez is the definition of professional at all times because she's so great at compartmentalizing her feelings. No one had ever seen her snap like that before, especially not towards one of her own teammates.
"I'll go check on Lopez," Puckerman says as he begins to stand from the table. However, a milky-colored hand wrapped loosely around his wrist stops him.
"Let me..." Brittany pleads. Noah gives her a slight nod as she releases her grip from him.
The liaison then heads towards the back of the precinct where she saw the profiler running off to. Once she exits through the door, it's not hard to spot the only person sitting near the designated smoking area without a cigarette in her hand. There Santana sits on top of a bench, all alone and seemingly lost in thought.
Brittany carefully approaches her. "Hey..." she softly says, not wanting to frighten her best friend.
The Latina momentarily breaks away from her trance to acknowledge the blonde. "Hey."
"Mind if I sit?"
"Of course not."
"What happened back there, San?" Brittany carefully treads. "I've never seen you like that before. You're usually so stoic and impenetrable."
"I don't know... it's just something about this case," the profiler weakly replies. "Those girls... they're just so young, trying to chase a dream."
"I get that, but we've dealt with cases much worst before," Brittany states as she scoots just a little bit closer to the Latina. "What's different about this one?"
Santana looks down towards the ground below as she nervously fidgets with her fingers. She's a little surprised and taken aback when she feels the warmth of another hand covering hers.
"I saw her body up close; her face was barely recognizable. I could still smell her burnt flesh, even hours after the fire had been put out," the profiler shakily says. Brittany's grip on her hands tightens. "But then, to see the broken look on her fiancé's face..." she pauses as her voice begins to crack. "I couldn't imagine finding the love of my life - my best friend - like that."
As Santana finishes her statement, she finally looks up to see wide blue eyes staring back at her.
"San... you're crying," Brittany says as she turns her body more towards the Latina and uses her free hand to wipe away a stray tear. Santana leans into her touch as she closes her eyes.
"Sorry..." the profiler whispers out as she raises her right hand to wipe away the rest of her tears, keeping her left hand clasped with the blonde's. "I didn't mean to."
"I've never seen you cry before," the liaison whispers back.
Santana lightly chuckles. "I try not to make it a habit," she says as she finally opens her eyes. She looks over at Brittany, the glossiness still covering her eyes.
"Why... umm..." Brittany starts to say, but then stops. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Sorry... I'm making you uncomfortable," Santana assumes, looking away from the blonde again.
"No, it's just... no one's ever looked at me like that before," the liaison clarifies. "You always look at me so intensely."
"You're the only person I look at like that," Santana whispers as she slowly looks back up at the blonde.
Brittany is stunned for a moment, caught off guard once again by the Latina's bluntness. On the other hand, the blonde is really enjoying this vulnerable side of her best friend.
As Brittany takes a minute to look over the other woman's features, she can't help but be in awe of the beauty staring back at her. She can't stop her eyes from flickering back and forth between Santana's mocha eyes and her pouty lips.
Brittany's mouth falls partially open, but before she can say anything, she's interrupted.
"Hey guys..." Puck starts to say before he realizes that he may be intruding. "Umm... Quinn's on the phone; I think we finally got something."
"Okay... we'll be in in a sec," the blonde says, answering for both of them. Noah nods his head in understanding before heading back inside. Brittany then looks down and sees the contrast of her hand mixed with Santana's. "I guess I should give you this back."
"I guess so..." the profiler solemnly replies as she removes her hand from the blonde's. "I know this is probably inappropriate - and Sylvester would probably flip out - but... I really like holding your hand," Santana genuinely states.
"Yeah... me too," Brittany bashfully replies.
The liaison and the profiler then stand up from the bench and make their way back inside to join the rest of the team.
"Hey guys..." Santana says as she looks around at everyone in the room. "I'm sorry about how I acted earlier. It was completely unprofessional and rude. Will... I'm sorry for how I addressed you earlier. It was disrespectful and uncalled for," she sincerely states. Schue - stoic as ever - just nods his head, forgiving his agent for her minor lapse in judgment. "And Finn... I'm sorry for snapping at you like that. You didn't deserve that."
"Yeah, I did... I was being an ass," Hudson responds. "We good?" He asks as he raises his fist.
"Yeah... we're good," Santana replies as she connects her fist with the tall agent with the impish look on his face.
"Sorry to break up this little love-in we've got going on, but I believe Quinn has some news for us," Puck says.
"Thank you!" Quinn says through the speakerphone, sounding slightly annoyed. Everyone on the other end of the receiver just rolls their eyes, knowing that the analyst wasn't really annoyed. "So, like I was saying before the interruption... I've got big news!"
"Alright Fabray, the floor is yours," Schue says.
"Alrighty... I still can't find any connection between the first 2 vics and the last one, but I did find out some interesting info on the 2 people you asked me to look into," Quinn begins. "Marley's got a squeaky clean record, not even a speeding ticket. However, your boy Ryder is different story..."
"Baby girl, spit it out already," Puckerman says impatiently.
"Hasn't anyone ever told you that patience is a virtue?" Fabray playfully retorts. "Ryder is a foster kid. He became a ward of the state at 12."
"From the looks of it, he bounced around a lot of foster homes before he turned 18," Santana says as she reviews the PDF that Quinn had just sent to everyone's iPads. "Quinn... what happened to his parents?"
"They were killed in a house fire..."
"You don't say," Puck knowingly says.
"According to the police report, Ryder was spending the night at a friend's house," Hudson adds in. "It was ruled an accident."
"Looks like Ryder is becoming more of a viable suspect," Artie says, stating the obvious.
"What if Ryder wasn't at his friend's house the whole time?" Schue poses the question.
"12 year old boy sneaking out of the house... easy peasy," Puck nonchalantly says.
"You would know..." Santana smugly says. Noah playfully rolls his eyes at her.
"Let's think about this for a sec," Dr. Abrams cuts in. "What if Ryder snuck out and went back home... maybe even witnessed the fire?"
"Better yet... what if he actually started it?" Finn inquires. "That would definitely explain the obsession with fires."
"Fabray... did we find any connection with the ketamine?" Schue asks.
"Now, I didn't have any hits on any thefts of ketamine in the area, but..." Fabray draws out, "... guess who used to work at a vet hospital while putting themselves through school?"
"Let me guess... Ryder Lynn?" Brittany ponders.
"Ding ding ding... tell the pretty girl what she's won," Quinn happily announces.
As the team shares a subtle laugh, Brittany catches Santana's eye. The Latina shoots the blonde a wink, causing her to shyly duck her head and tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"Is there anything else, Fabray?" Schue questions.
"Not at this time sir," the tech analyst replies.
"Alright... good work Quinn," Schue uncharacteristically states, calling the blonde by her first name. "Keep it up."
"Will do, sir... Fabray out!"
"Okay... we need to double check Ryder's alibi for the night of Tina's murder," Schue says. "We also need to find out his whereabouts on the other 2 vics."
"We should also go back and gather the same info on Marley as well," Puckerman adds in. "Everything we have on Ryder is circumstantial. The only real link we have between him and at least 2 of the vics is through her."
"He's right," Schue agrees. "You guys work on establishing a timeline. I'm gonna go update Lt. Beiste and get a couple of uniforms to sit on both subjects until we're ready to move."
As Schue exits the room, the group chats idly amongst themselves until there's a knock on the door.
"Agent Lopez?" one of the officers say as Santana acknowledges them. "There's a Samuel Evans here to see you."
"Okay, thanks... send him back," the Latina replies.
"Who's this Evans guy?" Brittany wonders.
"He's Mercedes' fiancé," Santana says as she steps out of the room to see the blonde-haired man being escorted towards her. "Hey Sam... what's going on?"
"Hey Agent Lopez," he greets back. "I found this at my apartment last night... it belongs to Mercedes," Sam says as he retrieves a red laptop from his knapsack and hands it to the profiler. "I thought that maybe you guys might find something useful on it, like something that might help the case."
"Thanks, Sam... I'll have our tech look through it and get it back to you as soon as possible," Santana says as she places her iPad down on the nearby desk to take the laptop from the man.
"Okay... I'm gonna go now," Sam says as he turns around to leave. However, something on Santana's iPad catches his attention. "Why do you have a picture of Marley?"
The question catches the Latina off guard. "Wait... you know Marley Rose?"
"Sort of... she's more of an acquaintance," Sam replies. "I only knew her because of Mercedes."
"She was a friend of Mercedes?" Santana inquires.
"You could say that. I think Mercedes was more of a mentor to her," Sam responds. "They actually went to the same school, but graduated in different years. I know Mercedes was upset about having to let her go..."
"What do you mean?"
"Marley's like this really talented songwriter so Mercedes talked to her producers and they ended up hiring her to write a few songs," Sam begins. "But, I guess the first song she demoed for them didn't go over so well; they said that it didn't really 'flow' with the rest of the album. So... they let her go. Mercedes was heartbroken."
"By any chance... do you know how Marley took the news?" Santana questions.
"No, I don't..." Sam replies. "I think she was supposed to meet up with her sometime this week, y'know... to break the news to her."
"I wonder if that night was last night?" Santana mumbles to herself. "Well, thanks again Sam. I'll be in touch."
The blonde-haired man shoots the profiler a small smile before turning around and heading back towards the exit. Santana immediately heads back to her team to share this new information. As she makes it to the bulletin board where all of their potential leads are attached to, she takes the photo of Marley and places it towards the top, right in the center of everything else.
"Marley Rose... she's the key."
"Care to elaborate Lopez?" Puck says.
"Marley was working with Mercedes on her debut album... until she was fired," Santana clarifies.
"How recent?" Schue questions.
"Earlier this week," the Latina responds. "It wasn't Mercedes' call, but I hardly doubt that would matter to Marley. She's the puzzle piece that links all 3 victims together."
"That might also explain why there was no forced entry at any of the crime scenes," Brittany keys in. "But... what about Ryder?"
"Maybe he's involved; maybe not..." Santana answers.
"Maybe they're working together," Hudson adds in.
"Either way... we need to speak to both of them now," Santana sternly states.
"I'll have Beiste pick them up," Schue responds. "In the meantime, everyone get your gear... I'll call the warrant in on the way."
As everyone nods their heads in understanding, Brittany catches Santana's attention, holding her back as the rest of the team files out of the room.
"Nice catch, San..." Brittany softly says as she gently rubs the Latina's arm.
"Thanks, Britt."
Author's Note:
Hey guys! I know what you're thinking; 2 chapters in 2 days… you're welcome ;)