Hey all, while I'm not new to the fandom this is the first fic I'm writing for it, so fingers crossed it turns out okay.
This story is set somewhere after season 6 but before Bobby and Athena head off on the cruise. It's an idea I've been toying with since last year, but only just had the time to get it down. It's essentially inspired by an episode of Nancy Drew but draws from a few other things like Jumnaji and Lost Girl.

I hope you enjoy it

Disclaimer: I do not own 9-1-1 or any of the aforementioned inspirations for this story.

Chapter 1: A Curious Caper

A black-and-white cruiser glided into the open brick courtyard of a sprawling apartment complex, its tires crunching over the loose gravel before coming to a halt beside a cluster of patrol cars. The engine clicked off and the sergeant stepped out, adjusting her sunglasses against the harsh morning light. She quickly scanned the scene — a familiar unmarked sedan, three additional cruisers, and the coroner's van parked in the shadows. The October air was dry and the crowd gathered around the entrance, restless. She nodded to the officers keeping them at bay and strode toward the coroner's van, where the medical examiner was stowing away their kit.

"Hi Lou Anne. How bad is it?"

The medical examiner, a plumpish woman with short hair pulled back glanced up and offered her a smile. "Athena. Nice to see you again. This one? Pretty clean, actually. I almost want to say natural causes."

Athena raised an eyebrow. "But you're not convinced."

The ME's lips pressed into a thin line. "There are a few... oddities. But I'll let the detective fill you in."

Their attention shifted as the coroner's assistants wheeled a stretcher out of the building. The figure zipped up in the black body bag seemed small in the harsh morning light. A flicker of unease washed over Athena, and she took a step back, watching as the body was loaded into the van. She turned her gaze to the apartment complex, a frown tugging at her lips.

"Where am I going?"

"Third floor. Vic is a Prof. Castro."

Beneath her sunglasses, her eyes widened in recognition. Without another word, she hurried inside. At the entrance of the building, she was greeted by familiar garlands of deep purple and dark green leaves, interspersed with tiny, glimmering orange lights and delicate silver spiders that dangled from the vines, their legs glinting in the light. Beside the main entrance, two tall urns filled with black branches stood as grim sentinels, wrapped in delicate cobwebs. A large Jack-O'-Lantern rested at the foot of each urn, looking a little less ominous with their flickering LEDs turned off. The entry hall continued the theme with fake cobwebs smattered against the walls and a string of paper bats hanging over the mailboxes and perched on the stool by the elevator was a now headless scarecrow.

Her face scrunched as she stepped into the comparatively pristine elevator. She punched in the floor number and closed her eyes for a second, taking a deep breath. The elevator's ding seemed louder than usual as the doors slid open, and she stepped out onto the third floor. Her eyes scanned the hallway, noting officers talking to neighbors, but her focus quickly zeroed in on a tall figure standing by an open apartment door. Detective Ransone was speaking quietly to a young woman, her face pale as she hugged her arms tightly around her chest.

He looked up as she approached and nodded to the young woman, gesturing to the female officer beside him who led her away. "Sgt. Grant, thank you for coming."

"Det. Ransone."

She glanced at the apartment number on the door and took a deep breath. "So you know why I brought you in on this then."

"I wish I didn't," she muttered. "What happened?"

He gestured to the door, and she stepped inside, taking in the familiar sea-green walls and tastefully decorated living room. Ceramic pumpkins rested on the coffee and end tables but that was as far as the autumnal decor went. Everything appeared to be perfectly in order, not a book or sheaf of paper out of place and the furniture was exactly as it was when she was last here.

"I was hoping you could fill in some blanks for me." He said as he took the lead, weaving through the hallways. "56-year-old, male, found dead this morning in his study by his niece, at approximately 7:50 a.m. No obvious signs of trauma. According to the ME, the preliminary exam indicates that he just stopped breathing. Heart gave out. No signs of struggle. First glance says he just sat down behind his desk and died."

Athena's brow furrowed, "And you're here because…"

"First glances don't always tell the whole story. He was perfectly healthy, had no history of heart disease or anything medically speaking, and wasn't on medication - no pills in the place either. And then there's the…."

"Domestic disturbance call from last night," she completed with a nod.

They entered a study, its dark, heavy drapes pulled back to let some light in. The sea-green walls peeked out between towering bookshelves, packed with volumes on history and antiquities. A large wooden desk dominated the center of the room, its surface almost spotless except for an unfinished glass of wine, an open bottle, a notebook, and a pen. The detective placed a gloved hand on the head of the leather armchair behind the desk.

"This is where the niece found him."

Athena nodded to the two crime scene techs in the room and adjusted her holster as she strode in. She looked up to see the detective watching her intently. "Your turn."

"The call came in around 8. The neighbours heard screaming and crashing. It scared them because the occupant, Prof. Castro was the quiet sort. Polite, but kept to himself. I got here by 8:10 along with Officer Williams. We came up together but didn't hear anything."

She walked around the desk, her eyes moving up to the chair where the professor had been sitting. "The professor answered the door. He looked put together. Did seem a little nervous but there was nothing about his clothes or appearance that suggested he'd been involved with a scuffle. He allowed us to come in and take a look around. There was no one else here, not even a pet. And nothing seemed to be out of place, no broken glass, no upturned furniture, no drag marks. We asked about the noise. He apologised and said it might have been his new home theatre system. It was new and he didn't understand the controls, was apparently watching a war documentary. So he pulled the cord out and was waiting for someone to take a look. We didn't find anything out of the ordinary so we left."

"And you bought his story?"

Athena hmmed as her eyes traced the room before refocusing on the chair and once more looking at the detective. "I don't think he was being completely honest, but there was nothing to suggest otherwise."

One of the techs stepped up to them, adjusted the camera around his neck. "Hmmm… that fits with everything we found. The only thing out of place were the books by the door which the niece dropped when she went to help him."

The detective nodded and pulled out his phone and held it up for her. "And then there's this…"

He showed her a picture of the man she had seen the previous evening, faint stands of grey peeking through the neatly combed-back brown. His face was a little paler but other than that he looked like he was leaning back in his chair, sleeping. The only thing different was the dark incomplete, curvy triangle with a vine curled around it on his forehead.

Athena's eyes widened, "He definitely did not have that when I saw him."

"Well, according to the ME it's not a fresh tattoo."

"How?..."

"We sent it back to the lab to check if we get a hit on it and it connects to known perps or gangs," said the tech. "There's one more thing you should take a look at." Adjusting his hat he drew their attention to the desk, barely touching the surface with a gloved finger pointing out a faint line of a dust void was visible, just in front of the chair. "He was working on something before he died."

"A laptop maybe?"

"We didn't find one. It's not in the living room and we haven't processed the bedroom, but if he was working on it before he died it might have been taken."

Athena's lips curled to the side as she stepped closer and leaned forward, her eyes tracing the void. She took a step back and traced the shape in the air. "The space, it's a little big for a laptop, and the shape is off, this looks more like a square."

The tech looked down at it and hummed. "You're right Sergeant. It is too big. Maybe it was a briefcase or a box? He was into antiques." He nodded toward the bookcases. Athena walked over to the nearest shelf, her eyes clocking books on Greek, Roman, Indian and Middle Eastern history, along with others. There were also books on antiquities and anthropology. There were books whose titles she couldn't read.

She walked along the line of shelves, her eyes tracing the titles until they fell on Ancient Games, The Book of Games: Strategy, Tactics & History, The Best Boardgames of The Ancient World, and Chess: Origins & Evolution. The shelf directly opposite the desk housed an array of objects, like little figurines and one that mirrored a Rubix cube. In the centre was an antique chess board with intricately carved pieces, set up in the middle of the game, and below it another circular stone with divots and small pieces of stone around it.

She blinked, trying to recall what she had seen the previous evening. "What about a board game?"

"A board game?" the detective asked, raising an eyebrow.

"There was one on the coffee table yesterday. It looked simple enough. I think he was playing on his own," She explained.

Her eyes shifted toward the notebook on the desk and she hurried over, pointing to it and silently asking the tech for permission. He leaned over his kit and pulled out a pair of gloves, handing them over. She slipped them on without question and flipped through the notebook. It was blank, there was no trace of any writing, no indications of torn pages nor impressions of a pen.

She bit her lip as she looked up, eyes wide."This was open last night, he was writing notes in it."

The other CSI tech, a young woman with long blonde hair, pulled back into a ponytail called for their attention. "This shelf is full of games I've never heard of. He could have been studying them. Some of these are pretty old."

"And a lot of people play chess on their own."

"Except, this wasn't chess," Athena interjected. She swiped her hands over her eyes and hmmed… "I don't think I've ever seen it before but it was old, and I didn't see a box."

Her eyes flicked to the bottle the tech was sealing up. "There was no wine bottle outside but there was a plate in the sink."

Detective Ransone stepped around from around the desk. "Okay, so he finishes dinner, the police show up because apparently, his TV is too loud. He packs up his game - which he was playing by himself and making notes about while apparently watching a documentary - sets up in here, opens a bottle of wine and continues playing. And at some point gets a tattoo and dies? That has so many holes in it. And where is this game?"

The CSI tech placed his camera on the desk and walked over to the chair. "If I had to Occam's Razor it, I'd say our perp took it. Or you know, maybe a ghost did it," he said with a smile.

Athena gave him her patented disappointed stare and shook her head. "Nick…"

"But why a board game?" Rasone wondered out loud. "And where does the tattoo fit into it?"

"Maybe he always had it but it was covered up. I'll check the bathroom for makeup or something he could use to hide it," said the blonde tech as she picked up her kit and left the room. Nick nodded and squatted down by the chair, leaning in close before crouching on the ground looking under the table then shooting back up.

"If we follow the theory that he was poisoned. It's possible that he aspirated blood, which potentially sprayed out over the board and they took it to hide the evidence."

"The only problem with that is that our DB was clean, he had no trace of blood on him."

"And we doused the chair and carpet with luminol. Nada. So that leaves us with the second option…"

"They were after the game."

Athena and Detective Ransone stepped out of the building together, sharing sombre expressions. The sun continued to shine brightly outside unaware of what had transpired inside. The coroner's van was gone and most of the crowd had dispersed with just a few stragglers hanging back. There was a stillness in the air and both of them seemed to take a moment to breathe it in, as if sifting through their own unsettled thoughts.

"What do you make of all this?" Athena asked, glancing sideways at him.

Ransone shifted his weight, bracing himself against the sleek, midnight-blue hood of his car, his fingers tapping thoughtfully along its edge. "Honestly, I think people have killed for stranger reasons."

"So you think it's murder?"

He hesitated, looking down at his shoes for a moment as he spoke. "I don't know yet. I need to wait on the autopsy, the tox screen, and the full crime scene report before I can make that call."

Athena lingered a few steps away, studying his expression."That's not like you, Lou. You usually have a sense about these things."

A wry smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he straightened and rapped his knuckles lightly on the car's hood. "Except I can't make any sense of this one. Too many pieces just don't fit. Nick may have been joking, but that symbol could be linked to some cult business. And it is the time of year the crazies come out."

Athena folded her arms, a small, skeptical smile forming as she narrowed her eyes. "Oh, don't you jump on that train. I get enough of that from my husband's team."

He let out a low chuckle. "Aren't you the one who tasered a guy trying to eat another guy?"

She tilted her head, a glint of humor softening her gaze. "That was a full moon, totally different circumstances."

They shared a brief, quiet laugh before Ransone's expression turned serious again. He leaned down, one hand gripping the edge of the open car door. "I'm going to talk to his colleagues, see if anyone can shed light on what he was working on — or what game he was playing."

"Lou…" Athena's voice softened as she stepped closer, her gaze following his as he looked back at the building.

He nodded knowingly. "Keep you in the loop, I know… Athena, I hope you know you did your job. There was no reason for you to be suspicious."

She glanced down, letting the moment hang between them before meeting his eyes with resolve. "I know. But a man died. And if this is foul play, I'd like to help catch the perp that did it."

"So I guess I'll be seeing you at the university then." He closed the car door with a solid, reassuring thud.

"You know it, Detective."

Thanks so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Would love to know what you think.

Till next time...