Post by scorpii on May 4, 2006 11:59:56 GMT 1
[glow=red,2,300]Hey, I've written a new CSI:Hellevoetsluis story. I hope you enjoy it![/glow]
CSI: Hellevoetsluis
Episode 103 - Jewellery
Lisa was sitting behind her desk, feet on the table, letting the outside sun shine on her face. Mmm, the sun was nice. She wondered what she had to do. Mark had returned to her life, and she still felt weak inside when she saw him. She had thought she would never like anyone after he had dumped her, but she obviously did. He seemed interested too, but what did she have to do? Did she have to take the guess? Take the risk? She didn’t know. Difficult situation. She didn’t notice someone opening the door. The person who walked in looked at Lisa’s shoes and then at Lisa herself. He coughed. Lisa drew her feet off the table, taking a few pens on their way. The man who’d just walked in smiled.
‘John!’ Lisa said surprised. It was the sheriff.
‘Hey Lisa’ he said calmly.
‘Hi. How’re you?’
‘Fine, fine’
‘Okay. What brings you here?’
‘You and your CSIs have to reinforce the Oostvoorne CSI. You know where the Heveringseweg is?’
‘Yes, I do’
‘Good. Then you also know there are a few very expensive houses in that neighbourhood.’
‘I know’
‘And there have been a lot of break-ins. So you go and investigate the last break-in with their team.’
‘Okay John. But - they didn’t need us in their Caroline van Toledo- case, the here quite famous still unsolved one, so why do they need us now?’
‘They got reinforcement of the Rotterdam team on that case. But Rotterdam’s busy now with it’s own cases. You watch the news I suppose?’
Lisa sighed. ‘Okay, okay, got your point. I’ll go. C’mon, let’s go inform the rest’
John shook his head. ‘You’ve to inform them. I’ve got to go to my office; a guy from the mayor’s office is waiting for me. It’s about the budget.’
Lisa acted like she had to throw up.
‘Good luck. See if you can talk off more money for CSI. Some of our labs need new stuff.’
‘Okay, I’ll see if I can talk off more money for your toys’ John smiled. ‘But I have to be there in time. How do I look?’
Lisa laughed. ‘You look okay, John. Go talk off some more money now’
John grinned and nodded and walked out. Lisa turned to the window and watched outside. Oostvoorne… She hadn’t been there in a while… She had followed the news about the Toledo-case. That case was too awful to imagine. The burned body of a woman who worked for the pharmacy had been found inside her burned car at the Kruininger Gors. Then, later, the cops found out her house had been put on fire too. It was an awful case, but she didn’t know more than everyone else. The thing that made it more awful was that she knew people with teens who got their fluoride for their braces at the pharmacy and probably bought it from Van Toledo. Every case of course was awful but that case really was awful. But she had to find the others now. She turned around and walked through the door of her office. Hmm, the lab needed to be redecorated. Ah, she would talk about that later. She found Amy in the AV lab.
‘Hey Amy’ Lisa said while she walked in.
Amy looked up. ’Oh, hey Lisa. What’s up?’
‘We’ve to go to Oostvoorne’
‘The break-ins?’
Lisa looked surprised at her. ’How do you know about the break-ins?’
Amy smiled. ‘Come on Lisa, you really think I don’t know anyone? I’ve heard about it. How much have they already stolen?’
‘Dunno. We’ve to solve the last break-in, so their team can focus on the other houses. Or something like that.’
‘Hmm. I’ve been told they’ve avoided the alarm system and all cameras. You think it’s an inside job? Garden keeper or something like that?’
‘Dunno. I’ve only heard we’ve to go there. Where are Sam and Tom?’
‘No idea. Probably in the break room or something.’
Lisa nodded. ‘Could be. C’mon’
‘Okay.’
Both women walked to the break room to find it totally empty.
‘Where can they be?’ Amy wondered. Lisa shook her head.
‘I don’t know.’
At the same time, Tom and Sam both walked in.
‘Hey guys’ a very happy Sam said.
‘Hey Sam, hey Tom’ Lisa greeted them. ‘Why are you this happy, Sam?’
Sam laughed. ‘Nothing. I - it’s unexplainable. I’m just feelin’ good and I‘m a bit... weird.’
‘You’re just feeling good and weird?’
She laughed. ‘Yeah. Weird huh?’
Lisa laughed too. ‘Not as weird as having to go to Oostvoorne to reinforce their team on the break-ins.’
Tom looked up from the papers he was still going through. ‘Break-ins? Like those I saw on the news? In Oostvoorne?’
Lisa nodded. ‘Yup. Same ones.’
Tom groaned. Why did they have to go to Oostvoorne? He always avoided that town. He hated it. Not for the town itself, he did like that, but for some of the people that lived there. Three quarters of the population were normal people, but the other quarter was, well… let’s just say some of them thought they were better than everyone else. He used to have a girlfriend in high school that lived in Oostvoorne. She used to be bullied by other folks from her hometown, other kids that thought she ‘didn’t belong in Oostvoorne’. It was good that only a part of a quarter of the population felt that way. But it was still too much. Ah, well, he had to move on. He looked at Lisa.
‘What do we know about the case?’
‘Other than shown on the news and we’ve seen on it? Nothing’ she answered.
Tom shook his head and put the papers on the table. What did they have to do with a case they jumped in and had no info on?
‘C’mon’ Lisa interrupted his thoughts. ‘We’re going. Who drives?’
She looked around. Sam rose her hand in the air.
‘I’ll drive’ she said, weird as before. ‘Got to have something to do’
Lisa laughed. ‘I believe that.’ She tossed Sam the keys and all walked to one of the lab’s SUVs. Suddenly, Amy stood still.
‘Hey, ain’t it better when we go with two cars? Might come in handy’
Tom nodded. ‘Good idea Ames. Who taught you that?’
Amy smiled at Tom. ‘Myself. Oh, and by the way; Julia wanted to know how you were’
Tom only looked at her. ‘What did you say?’
Amy smiled mysteriously. ‘That she had to call you herself if she wanted to know’
Tom also smiled. ‘You are so evil’
‘No Tom, I’m not. I’m just the woman with the good ideas’
Tom laughed and stepped into the car Sam was supposed to drive. Lisa stood on the pavement, drawing a quasi-sad face.
‘Ah, I’m feeling so lonely now’ she said, unable to control the quasi-sad face and a smile uncovered itself.
‘Ah, poor Lisa’ Amy said. ‘Come on, you can sit next to me, in the front seat.’
‘Yippee!’ Lisa said, imitating a seven-year old, and she walked to the car in such a weird way Amy just had to laugh.
‘I think Sam’s not the only one who’s weird’
About half an hour later, they arrived at the crime scene, where the Oostvoorne-team already was waiting for them. Lisa walked over to the man that was obviously the leader of the Oostvoorne team.
‘Hey’ she said.
‘Hey. You guys the Hellevoetsluis team?’
Lisa nodded and shook his hand. ‘Yeah. I’m Lisa Adams, that’s Amy Luisant’ she pointed at Amy ‘that’s Tom Sapphire’ she pointed at Tom ‘and that’s Sam Jones’ she pointed to Sam. All walked closer to the man, who introduced himself to them.
‘I’m Charlie Lane. This is my team, Janie Pine, Christopher Leigh and Stephanie Stone.’
At the mention of the last name, Tom looked up.
‘Stephanie Stone?’ he repeated. If it wasn’t for the name, he wouldn’t have recognized her. The woman still had the curly blond hair he remembered, but she had changed a lot. She nodded at him.
‘Hi Tom!’ she greeted him happily. Still the same girl he remembered from high school.
‘Hey Steph. I see you have become a CSI too, just like me’ he joked.
‘Ah come on Tom, even you remember the people who used to bully me. By the way, thanks again for defending me against them. I wanted to do something good, just like you’
He nodded. ‘That’s totally true. You’re looking good now.’
She smiled. ‘Thanks Tom.’
Lisa found that enough of a talking and looked at Charlie.
‘So Charlie, tell me what we need to know about this case’
Charlie nodded.
‘Okay. Well, as you’ve probably heard in one way or another, in all the houses, the cameras haven’t noticed anyone entering the premises and they’ve also avoided the alarm system. We can’t figure out how this might have happened, with all security around here. We’ve got squad cars making a round here every hour at night, and still someone broke in. That’s why we’ve called you guys. It happened last night, I’ve got a detective interviewing the residents. ’
Lisa nodded. ‘Okay. We’ll start right away. Can I have your number if we’ve got any questions?’
Charlie smiled. ‘Sure.’ and he gave her his cell phone number.
Suddenly, Amy sneezed.
‘You’re not getting ill, are you?’ Lisa asked worried.
‘Nah, it’s just hay fever. After the grasses, the birch pollen are the biggest nuisance.’
‘Okay’
All grabbed their kits from the SUVs and all walked over to the house. Sam seemed impressed by the size of it.
‘Whoa, this house is huge!’
‘Something different from your apartment, isn’t it?’ Lisa smiled. She knew the neighbourhood; she knew the kind of people that lived here. Some of them were nice people, but most of them… All had money enough, most had more than two very expensive cars, most women around here went almost more often to the plastic surgeon than Michael Jackson had. She laughed. She instructed the others what to do.
‘Sam, you check the outer part of the premises for tire tracks and stuff like that. Tom, you check for fingerprints on the doorknobs and stuff. Amy, you and I will check the house for clues. Let’s solve this case, so we can move on!’
All nodded and went for their jobs. Sam looked for tire tracks in the outer part of the premises, Tom for fingerprints, starting with the fence leading to the driveway. These communities should be gated, he thought, just like in any other country. If it was only to track down all visitors. He noticed a guy in a long black coat walking towards him.
‘Hey’ the guy said.
‘Hey’ Tom said ‘Can I help you?’
‘Yes, you probably can. You’re from the HSPD CSI?’
Tom nodded. The guy flashed an Oostvoorne badge.
‘Detective Waters, Frank Waters. I’ve interviewed the residents for anything that could help this investigation.’
‘Ah, yes. I’m Tom Sapphire. Well Frank, I think you should talk to my sup, Lisa Adams. She’s inside. Just look for a woman with straight dark brown hair.’
‘Thanks Tom’ Frank said. ‘Hey listen, I noticed you talking to Steph. You know her?’
Tom smiled. ‘Well, you could put it that way. She was my girlfriend in high school’
Frank smiled too. ‘She’s a nice girl. You say you know her from high school? You went to the Helinium then I think? ‘Cause Steph went to the Helinium…’
Tom smiled. ‘Yeah, I did. You?’
‘Me too. If I recall it right, Steph was in VWO 5 when I graduated VWO. Which class have you been in?’
‘Well, I did VWO too, same class as Steph.’
Frank smiled. ‘Always nice to meet an old schoolmate. I’ve heard there was some kind of matter lately at the Helinium. You investigated it?’
Tom nodded. ‘Yeah, I did. Ugly case. Way to much victims.’
‘Hmm. Does that weird chem guy still works there?’
‘The weird chem teacher? You’ve had him too? Yeah, he still works there. He just got a bit older’
Frank laughed. ‘Don’t they all. Well, I guess I should find your sup now. See ya, Tom!’
‘Bye Frank’ Tom felt he had found a new friend in the detective. He went on with his search for prints. He found a few on the fence, but those were probably the residents’. A bit away, Sam found nothing at all. She searched the most obvious half of the outer part of the premises, but nothing that showed her how they might have entered the premises. She saw an impression a few steps away. She walked over to it. But no luck at all, it was a few leaves looking like an impression. She couldn’t imagine how they would have entered anyway; too much trees. Unless they were on foot, but there seemed no chance for that, too much security. She had heard a rumour there was stolen for more then 200,000 euros. She couldn’t even imagine having 200,000, let alone having it in stuff that could be stolen. 200,000 euros, that’s two Hummers or two DB9s, or, about 15 regular cars. Damn, that was a lot. Inside the house, Amy wandered through the entry. She saw the alarm pad.
‘Lisa?’
Lisa looked up. ‘Wha?’
‘Pad. Shall I call Jonathan?’
‘Yeah, good idea. He can see if it’s tampered with.’
Jonathan Crown was a guy who had helped them many times if there was something with electronics in a case. He was an old acquaintance of Lisa, but since he cracked a case for them, they called him every time they need an electronics expert. Amy grabbed her cell and called him.
‘Jonathan Crown’
‘Hey Jon, it’s Amy. Listen, we’ve got a case with an alarm system. Is it okay if you leave your computer for a moment?’
‘Yeah, whatever. Where do I have to be?’
Amy told him the address.
‘Oostvoorne?’ he asked. ‘What the heck are you guys doing there? What’s the reason you left Hellevoet?’
‘We’re reinforcing the Oostvoorne team. C’mon, leave your comp for a few hours to crack the case again.’
‘Ah whatever. Be there in half an hour.’
‘See ya!’
She hung up. Good. She looked around again. It was weird. Carpeting everywhere, but no evidence for shoe prints. She heard someone opening the front door and she looked up. An unknown face looked around the door.
‘Eh, sir, you can’t be here. It’s a crime scene.’
He showed her a badge.
‘OVPD. I’m detective Frank Waters; I’m looking for Lisa Adams’
Lisa looked up. ‘Who’s looking for me?’
‘Frank Waters, OVPD’ Amy answered.
‘Oh’ Lisa came walking from the living room.
‘Hi’ she said.
‘Hey. I interviewed the residents.’
‘Okay Frank Waters’ Lisa said to the young detective. ‘Tell me what they said to you.’
Amy now found out why the name Frank Waters sounded so familiar to her.
‘Are you family of Jack Waters? Fingerprints guy in our lab?’
Frank smiled. ‘Ah. Jack’s my little brother. How’s he doing?’
‘Oh, he’s okay. Would you now please answer my question?’ Lisa sounded annoyed. Frank looked at her.
‘Oh, yeah, of course. Residents say they haven’t heard anything, but the mrs. found out her jewels were stolen. They were worth about 50,000 euros. So she called 911 that was about 8.30 this morning. They said their son came home last night around 2.45, so it must’ve happened between that time.’
‘Okay. Thanks Frank’ Lisa said a bit friendlier now. Now Tom also entered through the front door.
‘Hey.’ he greeted.
‘Have you found anything?’ Amy asked him.
‘Few prints, but I guess they’re the residents’. Humidity here keeps prints alive and well for at least half a day.’
‘Or night’ Lisa calculated. ‘Frank here told me the son came home around 2.45, and now it’s about 10 o’clock, so it could be they’re his or they’re the thieves‘.‘
‘Yeah’ Amy answered. ‘But maybe if Jon gets here, he can tell us if the alarm’s switched off and if it’s so, maybe he can tell us the time of that too’
‘Did I just hear my name?’
Jonathan entered the house.
‘Hey Jon’ Lisa said. ’There’s the pad.’
‘Okay’
Amy walked to the living where Lisa just came from. No sign of forced entry here, no visible footprints and again, carpet, just like in the entry hall. It was most obvious the burglars only were on the second floor, in the master suite, to steal mrs. Leigh’s jewels. She walked over to the kitchen and looked at the marble floor. Marble. Beautiful. She grabbed the ALS and looked for any shoeprints. But no luck. It seemed this house was cleaner than the hospital. The downstairs bathroom brought her no luck either. No signs of any forced entry, no shoeprints, nothing. When all the rooms downstairs were done, she went upstairs. She checked the stairs, but there was also carpeting and nothing that indicated someone with shoes worn outside walked here. Charlie had told her and the others to take off their shoes when they entered the house, ’cause the residents had asked for that. And nobody had been here; she knew that. She and Lisa had checked the hallway before Frank walked in. She hoped Tom had more luck with his fingerprint search, or Sam with her tread mark search. She checked the upstairs rooms, the bathroom, the son’s room, the daughter’s room, the guest room, saving the best for last. She decided she would check the master suite together with Lisa, making sure they wouldn’t miss any piece of evidence. She went downstairs again, to Lisa, Tom, Frank and Jonathan, who now was checking the pad. Tom had dusted it for prints, that much was sure. Tom held a few lifted prints in his hand, waiting for the other surfaces inside the pad to be dusted. Amy looked at Frank.
‘Frank?’
‘Hmm?’ he answered, indicating he listened.
‘Have you got the footage from the outside cameras?’
‘Eh… not yet’ and he walked out, probably to the residents, to ask whether he could have the footage. These houses were properly secured, alarm system, outside cameras, but that seemed no help at all in this case. Lisa had heard the rumours of other houses in this neighbourhood, where a break-in had happened. Seemed none of the alarms had been set off, or at least the burglars were in and typed in the code before it could go off. She had also heard none of the cameras had picked up any frame of something weird. It could be it was an inside job, but then again, who would work in all of these houses? She grabbed her cell and called Charlie.
‘Charlie’
‘Hey, it’s Lisa. Listen, a question popped up in my head and I wanted to ask it. Is there someone who works in all of the houses broke in?’
‘Good question Lisa, but we’ve asked ourselves the same thing too. Turns out nobody is.’
‘Okay. Thanks Charlie’
‘No prob’
She hung up and looked at Jonathan.
‘Well Jonathan? Have you got any clue?’
‘Someone seemed to have typed in the code at 2.43 this night’
‘Good. That’s the son’ Lisa said.
‘He didn’t turn it back on’ Jonathan said.
‘Hmm. Think the son has done it?’ Amy asked.
‘Dunno. Note we’ve to ask him’
Amy wrote that down.
‘Okay, you’re done Jon?’ Lisa asked.
‘Yup.’
‘Thank you’
Jonathan smiled. ‘No problem. Just buy me a drink, then everything’s okay with me’
‘Okay. Wednesday?’
‘Okay with me. See you Wednesday!’ and he walked out.
Frank walked in the same moment, almost bumping into Jon.
‘Got the footage!’ he said to Lisa. ‘Mr. Leigh had them already for us. By the way Tom, here you have the prints you’ve asked for’
‘Thanks’ he said.
‘Great’ Lisa said. ‘Put it in an evidence baggie, I’ll take it with me to the lab.’
‘Okay.’
And Frank was gone again. The three CSIs left went to the master suite, investigating the primary crime scene. First thing Tom noticed, were a few brown leaves, just laying on the floor near the closed window. He walked over to them and picked them up.
‘Look’ he said, turning to the two women. ‘Seems they’ve entered trough the window’
‘Yeah, and that’s the only thing we know. Mrs’ jewels are stolen, and they’ve entered trough the window. Wow, solved the crime’ Lisa said sarcastically.
‘Jeez Lise, goy out of the wrong side of the bed tomorrow?’ Tom asked.
‘No. It’s just… this stuff frustrates me. We’ve got nothing, except the why; that’s just money, the what; that’s the stolen jewels, the when; between 3 and 8 this night, a bit of the how; they entered through the window, we’ve got the where; this master suite, and no idea of who, except the son who probably just forgot to turn it back on.’
‘Looks like we’ve got a lot’ Amy said. ‘We have done cases with less.’
‘Yeah, but those times the motif was not just money. Those times we got some good suspects. Now we’ve got none, I at least can’t think of anyone who would want to break into houses in a whole neighbourhood ‘cause they don’t like them all. Okay, it is probably a group of pro’s, that’s for sure, otherwise we would have found something already.’
Tom nodded. ‘Lisa’s right, Ames. By the way, there’re no prints in this jewellery box. They probably wore gloves’ he pointed at a box standing on a little side table over by the window.
‘Damn’ Lisa said. ‘Okay. Tom, find Sam and go back to the lab. Take the footage with you and give it to one of the AV guys. Maybe they can find something on it.’
‘Okay’ he walked out, leaving Lisa and Amy alone at the scene.
Sam sighed. Why hadn’t she found anything yet? Okay, this was a though surface to find any prints, all the brown leaves laying on the ground. She was almost done with her search, just a few feet and then she was done. Suddenly, she noticed Tom walking to her.
‘Hey Tom’ she tried to sound happy.
‘Hey’ he said. ‘Found anything?’
She shook her head. ‘Nothing. I don’t know, seems to me we won’t solve this case. Lisa and Amy found anything?’
‘Nope, of course not. I’m afraid you’re right, but we must not give up. Lisa and Amy don’t give up, do they?’
‘No. But you’re not Lisa or Amy. You’re Tom.’
‘I guess you’re right. Come on, when you’re done we’ve to go to the lab.’
‘I’m done’
They took off to the lab. Back there, they walked to Jack.
‘Hey Jack’ Sam said.
‘Hey Sam, hey Tom’ he said ‘Got anything for me?’
‘Sure’ Tom said, dumping all lifted prints on Jack’s desk, including the residents’ ten-cards. ‘How’s this gonna take you?’
‘Damn’ Jack sighed. ‘Dunno, probably two to three hours.’
‘What if I say it’s top priority?’ Sam asked him.
‘It’s already top priority if you bring it to me’ Jack flirted with her. ‘No, seriously, with top priority it’s gonna take me two to three hours.’
‘Great. We’ll be back in two hours.’ Tom said. They walked through the building to the AV lab, where they found Pierre, one of their experts.
‘Hey Pierre’ Tom said to the guy.
‘Bonjour mes amis! Qu’est-ce que c’est?’
‘Well Pierre, here I have some footage from a break-in. See what you can make of it.’
‘Of course! Everything for mes amis. You want to stay and watch?’
‘Sure’ Sam said ‘But then you have to learn me some French’ she joked.
‘Ah Sam, Je ne suis pas française, you know that’ Pierre said ‘my parents are’
‘I know’ she said, ‘but I think French is such a beautiful language. Come on, learn me something.’
‘Okay’ Pierre put the DVD with the footage in his computer and meanwhile, he talked to Sam ‘What do you want to know in French?’
‘Shut up and see what you can find on that DVD’ Tom said to him.
‘Oh. Ferme ça et voir qu’est-ce que tu pouvais trouver dans ce DVD’ he joked.
Tom sighed. ‘Non, mon ami idiot, voir qu’est-ce que tu pouvais trouver dans ce DVD, ne traduit pas mes phrases!’
Pierre laughed. ‘Okay Tom.’ All watched Pierre’s computer screen, waiting for something unusual to show up. Sam was happy Pierre played the footage two times faster than the normal speed. The screen showed the different views the cameras had, six. One showed the front door, one the back door, two showed the gate and the two others showed the cars. Nothing unusual showed up for at least an hour, two hours on the screen, when suddenly three out of six cameras turned black. Back door cam, and the entry gate cams.
‘Pulled the plug out of them, I guess’ Pierre said.
‘You’d think so, if the plugs weren’t put in when I walked past them’ Tom said.
Pierre forwarded the DVD, ‘til the three cams got view again.
‘Someone plugged them back in’ he concluded.
‘I’ll call Lisa to dust the cams’ Tom said, while grabbing his cell.
CSI: Hellevoetsluis
Episode 103 - Jewellery
Lisa was sitting behind her desk, feet on the table, letting the outside sun shine on her face. Mmm, the sun was nice. She wondered what she had to do. Mark had returned to her life, and she still felt weak inside when she saw him. She had thought she would never like anyone after he had dumped her, but she obviously did. He seemed interested too, but what did she have to do? Did she have to take the guess? Take the risk? She didn’t know. Difficult situation. She didn’t notice someone opening the door. The person who walked in looked at Lisa’s shoes and then at Lisa herself. He coughed. Lisa drew her feet off the table, taking a few pens on their way. The man who’d just walked in smiled.
‘John!’ Lisa said surprised. It was the sheriff.
‘Hey Lisa’ he said calmly.
‘Hi. How’re you?’
‘Fine, fine’
‘Okay. What brings you here?’
‘You and your CSIs have to reinforce the Oostvoorne CSI. You know where the Heveringseweg is?’
‘Yes, I do’
‘Good. Then you also know there are a few very expensive houses in that neighbourhood.’
‘I know’
‘And there have been a lot of break-ins. So you go and investigate the last break-in with their team.’
‘Okay John. But - they didn’t need us in their Caroline van Toledo- case, the here quite famous still unsolved one, so why do they need us now?’
‘They got reinforcement of the Rotterdam team on that case. But Rotterdam’s busy now with it’s own cases. You watch the news I suppose?’
Lisa sighed. ‘Okay, okay, got your point. I’ll go. C’mon, let’s go inform the rest’
John shook his head. ‘You’ve to inform them. I’ve got to go to my office; a guy from the mayor’s office is waiting for me. It’s about the budget.’
Lisa acted like she had to throw up.
‘Good luck. See if you can talk off more money for CSI. Some of our labs need new stuff.’
‘Okay, I’ll see if I can talk off more money for your toys’ John smiled. ‘But I have to be there in time. How do I look?’
Lisa laughed. ‘You look okay, John. Go talk off some more money now’
John grinned and nodded and walked out. Lisa turned to the window and watched outside. Oostvoorne… She hadn’t been there in a while… She had followed the news about the Toledo-case. That case was too awful to imagine. The burned body of a woman who worked for the pharmacy had been found inside her burned car at the Kruininger Gors. Then, later, the cops found out her house had been put on fire too. It was an awful case, but she didn’t know more than everyone else. The thing that made it more awful was that she knew people with teens who got their fluoride for their braces at the pharmacy and probably bought it from Van Toledo. Every case of course was awful but that case really was awful. But she had to find the others now. She turned around and walked through the door of her office. Hmm, the lab needed to be redecorated. Ah, she would talk about that later. She found Amy in the AV lab.
‘Hey Amy’ Lisa said while she walked in.
Amy looked up. ’Oh, hey Lisa. What’s up?’
‘We’ve to go to Oostvoorne’
‘The break-ins?’
Lisa looked surprised at her. ’How do you know about the break-ins?’
Amy smiled. ‘Come on Lisa, you really think I don’t know anyone? I’ve heard about it. How much have they already stolen?’
‘Dunno. We’ve to solve the last break-in, so their team can focus on the other houses. Or something like that.’
‘Hmm. I’ve been told they’ve avoided the alarm system and all cameras. You think it’s an inside job? Garden keeper or something like that?’
‘Dunno. I’ve only heard we’ve to go there. Where are Sam and Tom?’
‘No idea. Probably in the break room or something.’
Lisa nodded. ‘Could be. C’mon’
‘Okay.’
Both women walked to the break room to find it totally empty.
‘Where can they be?’ Amy wondered. Lisa shook her head.
‘I don’t know.’
At the same time, Tom and Sam both walked in.
‘Hey guys’ a very happy Sam said.
‘Hey Sam, hey Tom’ Lisa greeted them. ‘Why are you this happy, Sam?’
Sam laughed. ‘Nothing. I - it’s unexplainable. I’m just feelin’ good and I‘m a bit... weird.’
‘You’re just feeling good and weird?’
She laughed. ‘Yeah. Weird huh?’
Lisa laughed too. ‘Not as weird as having to go to Oostvoorne to reinforce their team on the break-ins.’
Tom looked up from the papers he was still going through. ‘Break-ins? Like those I saw on the news? In Oostvoorne?’
Lisa nodded. ‘Yup. Same ones.’
Tom groaned. Why did they have to go to Oostvoorne? He always avoided that town. He hated it. Not for the town itself, he did like that, but for some of the people that lived there. Three quarters of the population were normal people, but the other quarter was, well… let’s just say some of them thought they were better than everyone else. He used to have a girlfriend in high school that lived in Oostvoorne. She used to be bullied by other folks from her hometown, other kids that thought she ‘didn’t belong in Oostvoorne’. It was good that only a part of a quarter of the population felt that way. But it was still too much. Ah, well, he had to move on. He looked at Lisa.
‘What do we know about the case?’
‘Other than shown on the news and we’ve seen on it? Nothing’ she answered.
Tom shook his head and put the papers on the table. What did they have to do with a case they jumped in and had no info on?
‘C’mon’ Lisa interrupted his thoughts. ‘We’re going. Who drives?’
She looked around. Sam rose her hand in the air.
‘I’ll drive’ she said, weird as before. ‘Got to have something to do’
Lisa laughed. ‘I believe that.’ She tossed Sam the keys and all walked to one of the lab’s SUVs. Suddenly, Amy stood still.
‘Hey, ain’t it better when we go with two cars? Might come in handy’
Tom nodded. ‘Good idea Ames. Who taught you that?’
Amy smiled at Tom. ‘Myself. Oh, and by the way; Julia wanted to know how you were’
Tom only looked at her. ‘What did you say?’
Amy smiled mysteriously. ‘That she had to call you herself if she wanted to know’
Tom also smiled. ‘You are so evil’
‘No Tom, I’m not. I’m just the woman with the good ideas’
Tom laughed and stepped into the car Sam was supposed to drive. Lisa stood on the pavement, drawing a quasi-sad face.
‘Ah, I’m feeling so lonely now’ she said, unable to control the quasi-sad face and a smile uncovered itself.
‘Ah, poor Lisa’ Amy said. ‘Come on, you can sit next to me, in the front seat.’
‘Yippee!’ Lisa said, imitating a seven-year old, and she walked to the car in such a weird way Amy just had to laugh.
‘I think Sam’s not the only one who’s weird’
About half an hour later, they arrived at the crime scene, where the Oostvoorne-team already was waiting for them. Lisa walked over to the man that was obviously the leader of the Oostvoorne team.
‘Hey’ she said.
‘Hey. You guys the Hellevoetsluis team?’
Lisa nodded and shook his hand. ‘Yeah. I’m Lisa Adams, that’s Amy Luisant’ she pointed at Amy ‘that’s Tom Sapphire’ she pointed at Tom ‘and that’s Sam Jones’ she pointed to Sam. All walked closer to the man, who introduced himself to them.
‘I’m Charlie Lane. This is my team, Janie Pine, Christopher Leigh and Stephanie Stone.’
At the mention of the last name, Tom looked up.
‘Stephanie Stone?’ he repeated. If it wasn’t for the name, he wouldn’t have recognized her. The woman still had the curly blond hair he remembered, but she had changed a lot. She nodded at him.
‘Hi Tom!’ she greeted him happily. Still the same girl he remembered from high school.
‘Hey Steph. I see you have become a CSI too, just like me’ he joked.
‘Ah come on Tom, even you remember the people who used to bully me. By the way, thanks again for defending me against them. I wanted to do something good, just like you’
He nodded. ‘That’s totally true. You’re looking good now.’
She smiled. ‘Thanks Tom.’
Lisa found that enough of a talking and looked at Charlie.
‘So Charlie, tell me what we need to know about this case’
Charlie nodded.
‘Okay. Well, as you’ve probably heard in one way or another, in all the houses, the cameras haven’t noticed anyone entering the premises and they’ve also avoided the alarm system. We can’t figure out how this might have happened, with all security around here. We’ve got squad cars making a round here every hour at night, and still someone broke in. That’s why we’ve called you guys. It happened last night, I’ve got a detective interviewing the residents. ’
Lisa nodded. ‘Okay. We’ll start right away. Can I have your number if we’ve got any questions?’
Charlie smiled. ‘Sure.’ and he gave her his cell phone number.
Suddenly, Amy sneezed.
‘You’re not getting ill, are you?’ Lisa asked worried.
‘Nah, it’s just hay fever. After the grasses, the birch pollen are the biggest nuisance.’
‘Okay’
All grabbed their kits from the SUVs and all walked over to the house. Sam seemed impressed by the size of it.
‘Whoa, this house is huge!’
‘Something different from your apartment, isn’t it?’ Lisa smiled. She knew the neighbourhood; she knew the kind of people that lived here. Some of them were nice people, but most of them… All had money enough, most had more than two very expensive cars, most women around here went almost more often to the plastic surgeon than Michael Jackson had. She laughed. She instructed the others what to do.
‘Sam, you check the outer part of the premises for tire tracks and stuff like that. Tom, you check for fingerprints on the doorknobs and stuff. Amy, you and I will check the house for clues. Let’s solve this case, so we can move on!’
All nodded and went for their jobs. Sam looked for tire tracks in the outer part of the premises, Tom for fingerprints, starting with the fence leading to the driveway. These communities should be gated, he thought, just like in any other country. If it was only to track down all visitors. He noticed a guy in a long black coat walking towards him.
‘Hey’ the guy said.
‘Hey’ Tom said ‘Can I help you?’
‘Yes, you probably can. You’re from the HSPD CSI?’
Tom nodded. The guy flashed an Oostvoorne badge.
‘Detective Waters, Frank Waters. I’ve interviewed the residents for anything that could help this investigation.’
‘Ah, yes. I’m Tom Sapphire. Well Frank, I think you should talk to my sup, Lisa Adams. She’s inside. Just look for a woman with straight dark brown hair.’
‘Thanks Tom’ Frank said. ‘Hey listen, I noticed you talking to Steph. You know her?’
Tom smiled. ‘Well, you could put it that way. She was my girlfriend in high school’
Frank smiled too. ‘She’s a nice girl. You say you know her from high school? You went to the Helinium then I think? ‘Cause Steph went to the Helinium…’
Tom smiled. ‘Yeah, I did. You?’
‘Me too. If I recall it right, Steph was in VWO 5 when I graduated VWO. Which class have you been in?’
‘Well, I did VWO too, same class as Steph.’
Frank smiled. ‘Always nice to meet an old schoolmate. I’ve heard there was some kind of matter lately at the Helinium. You investigated it?’
Tom nodded. ‘Yeah, I did. Ugly case. Way to much victims.’
‘Hmm. Does that weird chem guy still works there?’
‘The weird chem teacher? You’ve had him too? Yeah, he still works there. He just got a bit older’
Frank laughed. ‘Don’t they all. Well, I guess I should find your sup now. See ya, Tom!’
‘Bye Frank’ Tom felt he had found a new friend in the detective. He went on with his search for prints. He found a few on the fence, but those were probably the residents’. A bit away, Sam found nothing at all. She searched the most obvious half of the outer part of the premises, but nothing that showed her how they might have entered the premises. She saw an impression a few steps away. She walked over to it. But no luck at all, it was a few leaves looking like an impression. She couldn’t imagine how they would have entered anyway; too much trees. Unless they were on foot, but there seemed no chance for that, too much security. She had heard a rumour there was stolen for more then 200,000 euros. She couldn’t even imagine having 200,000, let alone having it in stuff that could be stolen. 200,000 euros, that’s two Hummers or two DB9s, or, about 15 regular cars. Damn, that was a lot. Inside the house, Amy wandered through the entry. She saw the alarm pad.
‘Lisa?’
Lisa looked up. ‘Wha?’
‘Pad. Shall I call Jonathan?’
‘Yeah, good idea. He can see if it’s tampered with.’
Jonathan Crown was a guy who had helped them many times if there was something with electronics in a case. He was an old acquaintance of Lisa, but since he cracked a case for them, they called him every time they need an electronics expert. Amy grabbed her cell and called him.
‘Jonathan Crown’
‘Hey Jon, it’s Amy. Listen, we’ve got a case with an alarm system. Is it okay if you leave your computer for a moment?’
‘Yeah, whatever. Where do I have to be?’
Amy told him the address.
‘Oostvoorne?’ he asked. ‘What the heck are you guys doing there? What’s the reason you left Hellevoet?’
‘We’re reinforcing the Oostvoorne team. C’mon, leave your comp for a few hours to crack the case again.’
‘Ah whatever. Be there in half an hour.’
‘See ya!’
She hung up. Good. She looked around again. It was weird. Carpeting everywhere, but no evidence for shoe prints. She heard someone opening the front door and she looked up. An unknown face looked around the door.
‘Eh, sir, you can’t be here. It’s a crime scene.’
He showed her a badge.
‘OVPD. I’m detective Frank Waters; I’m looking for Lisa Adams’
Lisa looked up. ‘Who’s looking for me?’
‘Frank Waters, OVPD’ Amy answered.
‘Oh’ Lisa came walking from the living room.
‘Hi’ she said.
‘Hey. I interviewed the residents.’
‘Okay Frank Waters’ Lisa said to the young detective. ‘Tell me what they said to you.’
Amy now found out why the name Frank Waters sounded so familiar to her.
‘Are you family of Jack Waters? Fingerprints guy in our lab?’
Frank smiled. ‘Ah. Jack’s my little brother. How’s he doing?’
‘Oh, he’s okay. Would you now please answer my question?’ Lisa sounded annoyed. Frank looked at her.
‘Oh, yeah, of course. Residents say they haven’t heard anything, but the mrs. found out her jewels were stolen. They were worth about 50,000 euros. So she called 911 that was about 8.30 this morning. They said their son came home last night around 2.45, so it must’ve happened between that time.’
‘Okay. Thanks Frank’ Lisa said a bit friendlier now. Now Tom also entered through the front door.
‘Hey.’ he greeted.
‘Have you found anything?’ Amy asked him.
‘Few prints, but I guess they’re the residents’. Humidity here keeps prints alive and well for at least half a day.’
‘Or night’ Lisa calculated. ‘Frank here told me the son came home around 2.45, and now it’s about 10 o’clock, so it could be they’re his or they’re the thieves‘.‘
‘Yeah’ Amy answered. ‘But maybe if Jon gets here, he can tell us if the alarm’s switched off and if it’s so, maybe he can tell us the time of that too’
‘Did I just hear my name?’
Jonathan entered the house.
‘Hey Jon’ Lisa said. ’There’s the pad.’
‘Okay’
Amy walked to the living where Lisa just came from. No sign of forced entry here, no visible footprints and again, carpet, just like in the entry hall. It was most obvious the burglars only were on the second floor, in the master suite, to steal mrs. Leigh’s jewels. She walked over to the kitchen and looked at the marble floor. Marble. Beautiful. She grabbed the ALS and looked for any shoeprints. But no luck. It seemed this house was cleaner than the hospital. The downstairs bathroom brought her no luck either. No signs of any forced entry, no shoeprints, nothing. When all the rooms downstairs were done, she went upstairs. She checked the stairs, but there was also carpeting and nothing that indicated someone with shoes worn outside walked here. Charlie had told her and the others to take off their shoes when they entered the house, ’cause the residents had asked for that. And nobody had been here; she knew that. She and Lisa had checked the hallway before Frank walked in. She hoped Tom had more luck with his fingerprint search, or Sam with her tread mark search. She checked the upstairs rooms, the bathroom, the son’s room, the daughter’s room, the guest room, saving the best for last. She decided she would check the master suite together with Lisa, making sure they wouldn’t miss any piece of evidence. She went downstairs again, to Lisa, Tom, Frank and Jonathan, who now was checking the pad. Tom had dusted it for prints, that much was sure. Tom held a few lifted prints in his hand, waiting for the other surfaces inside the pad to be dusted. Amy looked at Frank.
‘Frank?’
‘Hmm?’ he answered, indicating he listened.
‘Have you got the footage from the outside cameras?’
‘Eh… not yet’ and he walked out, probably to the residents, to ask whether he could have the footage. These houses were properly secured, alarm system, outside cameras, but that seemed no help at all in this case. Lisa had heard the rumours of other houses in this neighbourhood, where a break-in had happened. Seemed none of the alarms had been set off, or at least the burglars were in and typed in the code before it could go off. She had also heard none of the cameras had picked up any frame of something weird. It could be it was an inside job, but then again, who would work in all of these houses? She grabbed her cell and called Charlie.
‘Charlie’
‘Hey, it’s Lisa. Listen, a question popped up in my head and I wanted to ask it. Is there someone who works in all of the houses broke in?’
‘Good question Lisa, but we’ve asked ourselves the same thing too. Turns out nobody is.’
‘Okay. Thanks Charlie’
‘No prob’
She hung up and looked at Jonathan.
‘Well Jonathan? Have you got any clue?’
‘Someone seemed to have typed in the code at 2.43 this night’
‘Good. That’s the son’ Lisa said.
‘He didn’t turn it back on’ Jonathan said.
‘Hmm. Think the son has done it?’ Amy asked.
‘Dunno. Note we’ve to ask him’
Amy wrote that down.
‘Okay, you’re done Jon?’ Lisa asked.
‘Yup.’
‘Thank you’
Jonathan smiled. ‘No problem. Just buy me a drink, then everything’s okay with me’
‘Okay. Wednesday?’
‘Okay with me. See you Wednesday!’ and he walked out.
Frank walked in the same moment, almost bumping into Jon.
‘Got the footage!’ he said to Lisa. ‘Mr. Leigh had them already for us. By the way Tom, here you have the prints you’ve asked for’
‘Thanks’ he said.
‘Great’ Lisa said. ‘Put it in an evidence baggie, I’ll take it with me to the lab.’
‘Okay.’
And Frank was gone again. The three CSIs left went to the master suite, investigating the primary crime scene. First thing Tom noticed, were a few brown leaves, just laying on the floor near the closed window. He walked over to them and picked them up.
‘Look’ he said, turning to the two women. ‘Seems they’ve entered trough the window’
‘Yeah, and that’s the only thing we know. Mrs’ jewels are stolen, and they’ve entered trough the window. Wow, solved the crime’ Lisa said sarcastically.
‘Jeez Lise, goy out of the wrong side of the bed tomorrow?’ Tom asked.
‘No. It’s just… this stuff frustrates me. We’ve got nothing, except the why; that’s just money, the what; that’s the stolen jewels, the when; between 3 and 8 this night, a bit of the how; they entered through the window, we’ve got the where; this master suite, and no idea of who, except the son who probably just forgot to turn it back on.’
‘Looks like we’ve got a lot’ Amy said. ‘We have done cases with less.’
‘Yeah, but those times the motif was not just money. Those times we got some good suspects. Now we’ve got none, I at least can’t think of anyone who would want to break into houses in a whole neighbourhood ‘cause they don’t like them all. Okay, it is probably a group of pro’s, that’s for sure, otherwise we would have found something already.’
Tom nodded. ‘Lisa’s right, Ames. By the way, there’re no prints in this jewellery box. They probably wore gloves’ he pointed at a box standing on a little side table over by the window.
‘Damn’ Lisa said. ‘Okay. Tom, find Sam and go back to the lab. Take the footage with you and give it to one of the AV guys. Maybe they can find something on it.’
‘Okay’ he walked out, leaving Lisa and Amy alone at the scene.
Sam sighed. Why hadn’t she found anything yet? Okay, this was a though surface to find any prints, all the brown leaves laying on the ground. She was almost done with her search, just a few feet and then she was done. Suddenly, she noticed Tom walking to her.
‘Hey Tom’ she tried to sound happy.
‘Hey’ he said. ‘Found anything?’
She shook her head. ‘Nothing. I don’t know, seems to me we won’t solve this case. Lisa and Amy found anything?’
‘Nope, of course not. I’m afraid you’re right, but we must not give up. Lisa and Amy don’t give up, do they?’
‘No. But you’re not Lisa or Amy. You’re Tom.’
‘I guess you’re right. Come on, when you’re done we’ve to go to the lab.’
‘I’m done’
They took off to the lab. Back there, they walked to Jack.
‘Hey Jack’ Sam said.
‘Hey Sam, hey Tom’ he said ‘Got anything for me?’
‘Sure’ Tom said, dumping all lifted prints on Jack’s desk, including the residents’ ten-cards. ‘How’s this gonna take you?’
‘Damn’ Jack sighed. ‘Dunno, probably two to three hours.’
‘What if I say it’s top priority?’ Sam asked him.
‘It’s already top priority if you bring it to me’ Jack flirted with her. ‘No, seriously, with top priority it’s gonna take me two to three hours.’
‘Great. We’ll be back in two hours.’ Tom said. They walked through the building to the AV lab, where they found Pierre, one of their experts.
‘Hey Pierre’ Tom said to the guy.
‘Bonjour mes amis! Qu’est-ce que c’est?’
‘Well Pierre, here I have some footage from a break-in. See what you can make of it.’
‘Of course! Everything for mes amis. You want to stay and watch?’
‘Sure’ Sam said ‘But then you have to learn me some French’ she joked.
‘Ah Sam, Je ne suis pas française, you know that’ Pierre said ‘my parents are’
‘I know’ she said, ‘but I think French is such a beautiful language. Come on, learn me something.’
‘Okay’ Pierre put the DVD with the footage in his computer and meanwhile, he talked to Sam ‘What do you want to know in French?’
‘Shut up and see what you can find on that DVD’ Tom said to him.
‘Oh. Ferme ça et voir qu’est-ce que tu pouvais trouver dans ce DVD’ he joked.
Tom sighed. ‘Non, mon ami idiot, voir qu’est-ce que tu pouvais trouver dans ce DVD, ne traduit pas mes phrases!’
Pierre laughed. ‘Okay Tom.’ All watched Pierre’s computer screen, waiting for something unusual to show up. Sam was happy Pierre played the footage two times faster than the normal speed. The screen showed the different views the cameras had, six. One showed the front door, one the back door, two showed the gate and the two others showed the cars. Nothing unusual showed up for at least an hour, two hours on the screen, when suddenly three out of six cameras turned black. Back door cam, and the entry gate cams.
‘Pulled the plug out of them, I guess’ Pierre said.
‘You’d think so, if the plugs weren’t put in when I walked past them’ Tom said.
Pierre forwarded the DVD, ‘til the three cams got view again.
‘Someone plugged them back in’ he concluded.
‘I’ll call Lisa to dust the cams’ Tom said, while grabbing his cell.