Post by scorpii on Aug 16, 2006 20:05:36 GMT 1
Again, I tried to make a story from an RPG thread. Note that I just copied the posts and tried to make sure it all fitted and stuff, so know that I am not the only writer of it. In fact, I never even participated in the thread. But still, have fun!
The Crime Lab: Fire(d)?
Illnesses, leaves of absence, pregnancies and a crime wave on top of that had forced Crime lab supervisor Ann Newland to make some drastic shift changes at the New York Crime lab.
She had just called a briefing to introduce the new additions to the team, when the news about a school fire came in.
Introducing would have to wait. So she addressed the CSIs and detectives who where gathered in front of her:
‘The firemen just cleared the scene. It is now up to you to gather any evidence that wasn't destroyed by the fire.’
Luke Versteeg was driving as fast as he could to make it to the briefing, when he heard about the fire on the radio:
‘It has been reported that 4 students and 2 teachers died as result to the fire that broke into the Mayflower High school around 11 o'clock. The firemen successfully distinguished the fire and the crime scene investigators are on the case right now’.
This sounded like an 'all hands on deck' case, so he decided to immediately go to the school. Hopefully his supervisor, Ann Newland, wouldn't make a big deal out of the fact that he was too late for the briefing. He had a perfectly good reason anyway...
What a horrible sight: crying people and a school that look like a pile of debris. This case is gonna be a rough one.
Dr. Sheldon Hawkes, having arrived just in time for the briefing, looked up from his seat at the back of the room at the supervisor's words. He waited for the room to clear of CSIs and Detectives before making his own way out of the room.
He got to the morgue as quickly as possible, setting aside tables for the victims he was suspecting. He got the room ready, and he waited.
Doreen Messer arrived at the crime scene, her kit in hand. It's a good thing she brought it ‘cause she was on her way to a briefing before she was called to the school. People were gathered around the crime scene. Some were crying and she guessed that they were probably the family of the victims. She tried not to treat this case as personal as possible considering her past experience with her parents.
Head high, she walked towards the other detectives and her fellow CSIs.
Sean Davis Looked at the building. It was apparent that the fire had been bad and that so many people escaped, the grass on the outside of the school was littered with survivors sobbing, mourning. Sean was stunned, just as the next to him standing Detective Flack. It was the first time either of them had ever dealt with the death of a group of children.
Not knowing what to expect inside he psyched himself up to prepare for the inside of the school
J.D. Cooper had been briefed and he was on his way to the crime scene, it was his first fire and at a school it sounded worst.
He pulled his car up to the crime scene and saw the rest of the team and the scene of panic and chaos.
He grabbed his kit and put on his blue overalls and prepared to enter the remains to assess the damage and collect evidence.
J.D. also read out a list of victims he got from the detective:
Susan Granger, 42 Chemistry Teacher
Dr. Franklin Hutchinson, 45 Biology Teacher
Lisa Drake, 18
Harry Raver, 17
Max Kane, 13
Jessica Franklin, 14
James prepared himself for the sights he would see and asked the team:
'So, who wants to do a preliminary walkthrough with me?'
‘Let me introduce myself, my name is Luke Versteeg. You are J.D. Cooper I presume? Welcome to the team. I'll go with you’. Luke could see that J.D. was very ambitious and willing to do a good job on this case. He had confidence in him.
They both put on their protective masks and entered the school. Luke heard from Detective Flack that just recently the school was re-opened after a lot of renovation. What a shame! 750 students and 80 teachers, it could have been worse, but this just should not have happened.
The hallway was pretty much intact; Luke Versteeg could immediately see that the fire did not start here.
‘I believe there are still 5 bodies in the school, the youngest girl died in the hospital. The chemistry teacher is in one classroom together with Lisa and Harry and the biology teacher in a room with Max and Jessica. So the start of the fire most likely was in one of those two classrooms. Let's go there’.
After the CSI team arrived, Detective Jim brass walked up to Ann Newland.
‘Hi Ann, nice night to bring in some new reinforcements’, his voice sounding sarcastic.
‘So we got 6 victims so far, but the paramedics are still counting heads. We have 750 students and 80 teachers but we are still not sure how many people where inside that building when the fire started. The Fire squad released the first two hallways, but the east wing is still closed due to all the smoke, they have brought in some fans to take care of that, should take about an hour or so. I have got a couple of my men interviewing some of the teachers and students, but most of them saw nothing but some flames and a lot of chaos when they ran out of the building. I’ll keep you posted. And Ann, I hope you brought some coffee with, cause this is going to be a long, long night’.
J.D. and Luke began to survey the burnt out corridor, he assumed that the most damage would be from a science lab where the risk of fire is greatest and due to the combustible material.
They began to draw sketches of the scene and took photographs of the burn damage; J.D. spotted a fire extinguisher on the floor leading to the science lab, he examined closer and noticed it had been tampered with. He grabbed his kit and dusted for prints, he managed to pull a clear print off the top of the extinguisher. 'Did someone try to stop the fire but couldn’t?' He then examined the base and noticed something, he swabbed it and tested it: it was definitely blood.
He bagged the evidence and sent it to the lab and followed Luke as he moved to where the fire started...
‘All right, I just heard that the bodies have already been picked up. Dr. Hawkes is already working on them.’
While entering the classroom, Luke noticed that there was a heater on every table. ‘It would seem logical that any of these might have done the damage. Those things seemed so innocent when I was in school’. There were two heaters that looked rather interesting. ‘These two have caught the most fire at the look of them. ‘ Luke Versteeg tried to get prints of the heaters, but they were only vague or partial, due to the damage. ‘These definitely go back to the lab’.
Luke's phone rang: ‘Luke here. That's odd. Okay.’ Luke hung up. He turned to J.D.: ‘I just heard that the girl who died in the hospital, Jessica, wasn't a student at this school. Why the hell was she in this classroom?’
It seemed like this case would bring more questions than answers.
Doreen started inspecting the crime scene; trying to see if she could find any clue that led to the school being burnt. The other CSIs were doing the same. They were all searching the kitchen, some searching the labs; trying to see if any trace of something that started the fire. Suddenly she heard someone call out her name.
‘Detective Messer! You gotta come over here!’
‘Messer! Luke! I got something.’ Sean yelled down the corridor. ‘I got it.’
‘What is it?’ Luke asked.
‘The janitors closet, the lock has been forced’ Sean explained, pointing at the padlock busted on the floor.
‘It could have been the fireman’ stated Luke ‘J.D. go ask the fire chief’
As J.D. walked off to find the fire chief;
‘Are you sure he was the right choice? We had the chance to get Nick Stokes’
‘You let me worry about who I hire, Sean’ replied Luke.
Sean continued to look inside the closet, it was apparent that because of scorch mark that the fire had begun in here. The closet had the remnants of a handful of exploded gas canisters, numerous burnt bottles that had been burnt away at. Sean entered the room. As he did he snagged a burnt stick. As he did a body fell from behind the door, shocking both Messer and himself.
Luke Versteeg was busy looking for evidence in the school's cafeteria, when he heard something happening in the corridor. Luke walked inside the closet and saw Messer and Sean looking over the dead body. ‘God...I guess the body count is 7 now.’ Luke took a glimpse at the card that was on the dead man's shirt. ‘Jake Combs, Janitor’.
‘Can you guys investigate this part of the crime scene? It is useful that the body is still here. J.D. and I are practically done with the classroom and the ones nearby. The cafeteria and teachers lounge don't give us much either, so let's focus on this closet. The fire chief stated the firemen actually did break into this closet, but maybe there is some evidence that tells us somebody else has been in here. I'll be nearby. I'm keen to hear what the detectives heard from students or family members.’
Doreen Messer walked on over to Detective Don Flack who just finished talking to a student. This student was seating on a bench, a towel wrapped around her. She looked scared.
‘So what did you hear?’ she asked. Flack explained that the student said that she smelled a weird gas coming from the chemistry lab and when she went over to the lab, she saw a boy getting something from the janitor's closet and when the boy saw her, he took off.
‘Did the girl managed to see who the boy was?’ asked Doreen. Flack just shook his head indicating No. She sighed and nodded to him before staring back at the burnt school. Morgue attendants brought a stretcher out of the school and Doreen knew that that was the corpse that she and Sean found.
Sean began to process the closest bagging various bottles, rags and stuff, he checked the wallet of the dead man, confirming that he was Jake Combs.
‘Luke, I'm gonna take this back to the lab to start processing’
Back at the lab, Doreen began processing some of the evidence she found at the crime scene with Sean. Various items lay on the table. They checked the wallet, taking everything apart. They found a photograph of Jake Combs with his some people. Probably his family.
‘Poor lady,’ said Doreen, looking at the photograph. ‘She has no idea that her husband's dead, huh?’ she said to Sean.
Luke was in the morgue, where Dr. Hawkes had just explained to him what happened to the victims.
Susan Granger, Franklin Hutchinson, Lisa Drake, Harry Raver, Max Kane and Jessica Franklin all died of asphyxiation by the smoke or massive burns. Except for Jake Combs, he died of blood force trauma. Either someone hit him on the head, or something fell on his head.
‘Excuse me, are you Sue Franklin?’ Luke asked the woman in the police department. The woman looked awfully relaxed for a woman that just lost her daughter. ‘Yes, yes I am.’
‘My name is Lucas Versteeg from CSI. I am really sorry for your loss ma'am.’
She nodded.
‘Mrs. Franklin, Jessica was not a member of the Mayflower High school. Can you explain to me why she was in that classroom?’
‘No....she - Jessica - goes to the Decorah High school. She wasn't supposed to be there’. Mrs. Franklin suddenly had her emotions out of control. ‘I always try so hard.... but now I lost her. Mr. Versteeg...’.
‘Please, call me Luke.’
‘...Jess had a boyfriend on the Mayflower High school, Tim Bradley.’
‘What do you know about him?’
‘All I know is that he is bad news. Maybe Jessica was visiting him, I don't know. I don't understand why she was there, following lessons.’
Luke did not know what to say. ‘Ehm... we will do our very best to find out what happened to your girl, alright?’
Luke Versteeg decided to head to the lab where Doreen, Sean and J.D. were processing evidence, to lend them a hand and hear about their findings.
‘Any news about those heaters or the fire extinguisher?’
Hawkes looked around at the bodies filling up the morgue. He had just explained what the COD's appeared to be to Versteeg, but he felt like something was wrong. Specifically… Jake Combs.
COD had appeared to be blunt force trauma, and that fact was only supported as Hawkes continued his autopsy. The problem was the weapon.
The wounds and bruises on the man's body had a specific shape, round with a circle or something in the middle. Hawkes had made a mold, it was sitting on a table next to him, and all he had to do was give Versteeg a call to find out what it was.
Hawkes looked from Combs, to Franklin, to Granger, to Hutchinson, to Drake, to Raver, to Kane, and back. He couldn't help but be reminded of his days a surgeon and all of the deaths he had almost prevented.
He bagged the mold and paged Versteeg; it was time to find the weapon.
Sean took one look at the mould; he knew what it was. He explained to everyone that he had seen the mould before from a case he worked on in. It was the base of a fire extinguisher, but there hadn’t been one in the closet. It was just canisters and other remnants.
On the crime scene pictures Sean noticed that something was missing on the shelf.
‘I’m going back to the high school’ he told them, ‘Luke, I need to talk to the head teacher to see if we can get an inventory of what the janitor had in his cupboard.’
‘Very well, Sean’.
Luke established that someone had tampered with the heater. Lara McKenzie from Prints paged him. She managed to put the fingerprints together. Luke got a paper from the school and found out to whom the heater belonged to. It was heater # 13, which belonged to, how surprising, table # 13. And which student belonged with that table? Tim Bradley, Jessica's boyfriend... It's time someone would have a talk with him.
Tim was still in the hospital because of some nasty burn marks. Luke and Detective Flack went there.
‘Tim Bradley? We have got some questions for ya. Was Jessica Franklin your girlfriend?
‘Not really y'know. I liked hanging out with her and all, but... She was cool.’
‘Could we maybe take your fingerprints? We'd like to check whether they match with the prints on your heater. The one that most likely burned the school down’.
Tim quietly agreed.
Flack mentioned that Tim wasn't in class that day.
Luke said: ‘But Jessica was. While you were ditching school. Was she covering up or something?’
‘I think I want a lawyer’.
Doreen studied the photos of the various evidence found at the crime scene, trying to come up with a solution. So far, nothing has hit her and she was starting to feel very, very frustrated.
‘Mr De Vos’ Sean asked.
‘Yes?’ replied the head teacher.
‘Would it be possible to get an inventory of what the janitor kept in his closet?’
‘Yes of course, here you go’
‘Thank you’
Sean returned to the lab, and started looking at what was on the list and what was in the pile, the only thing that didn’t seem to be there was a petrol canister.
We're gonna have to find this.
Sean picked up his phone and he phoned Luke.
‘Luke I think we have two separate fires, one in the janitors closet and one in the classroom. And I doubt they were accidents. I’m gonna start looking for this gas canister, might brake the case.’
Doreen went back to the crime scene, desperately trying to find a clue to the cause of death for Jake Combs.
After an hour of searching and coming up with nothing, she gave up and went back to the lab. She examined a piece of evidence and several photos and suddenly it hit her. Taking out her cell phone, she called Luke who was lead in this case.
‘I found something’, Doreen said excitedly.
She explained that she thought she knew where the missing petrol canister was.
Doreen made a picture of it on the school's yard, without realizing it was a petrol canister. This is not very weird, since it just looked like some sort of debris.
Luke, Doreen, Sean and J.D. were all going over the evidence together. Luke said:
‘This is my theory. Tim Bradley has some sort of grudge against the school and specifically against the janitor. He convinced his girlfriend Jessica to start a fire in the classroom, as a cover up for the thing that he was doing in the janitor's closet: killing Jake Combs. I think that when fire broke out in the closet, which was not Tim's initial plan, it did come out handy. We only need to find out why he did it.’
Doreen watched and listened from the outside as Luke, Sean and J.D. interrogated Tim. She was hoping that she could pick up anything that he's saying.
Luke, J.D. and Detective Flack were in the interrogation room, facing Tim Bradley and his lawyer.
‘Tim, we found evidence that you killed Mr. Combs. Your fingerprints were on the petrol canister.’
Luke was bluffing, because there weren't any useable prints on it. He probably was a little out of line here, but he was confident Tim killed him. ‘Can you explain that?’
Tim's lawyer, Julia Henderson said: ‘Tim, you don't have to answer this question, you know that right?’.
Tim didn't say anything. Detective Flack asked if he had a grudge against Jake Combs.
Suddenly, Tim let some tears slip: ‘He...he touched me.’ Was Jake Combs a molester?
Doreen jaw dropped. ‘He's a molester?’ she said aloud. She continued to listen to the interrogation.
Tim was really starting to break down. His lawyer patted him on the back with a look of pity on her face while the others exchanged surprised looks.
As Sean continued to search the scene, he saw something across the room. As he walked towards, it the floor underneath him gave way and he fell down to the floor below injuring himself quite badly.
Luke was still in the interrogation room with Tim Bradley. He was totally confused by the way this case was leading. ‘This might be uncomfortable, but could you tell me a bit more about what Mr. Combs did to you?’
‘He asked me if I could help him with something in that closet. Before I even knew it, he locked me in. He was pulling my pants down, dude! I don't know why Jess was in that classroom, okay?! When the fire started, I ran out, got the extinguisher and I used it.’
Luke asked: ‘Did you hit him with petrol canister?’
‘No man! I don't think so... I feel so bad about what happened to Jessica, much more than what happened to me. So please, get off my back!’
Luke left the interrogation room and closed the door behind him. He began talking to Doreen: ‘Can you believe this? Sexual abuse? I was so sure Tim started all this’.
Doreen looked just as confused as Luke was.
Luke's phone rang: ‘What? Okay, thanks’. He hung up.
Doreen asked what was going on.
‘It's Sean’.
Doreen was shocked.
‘It's okay. He fell through the floor in the janitor's closet, apparently there's a room underneath there. He's got some nasty cuts and bruises but nothing serious. He's in the hospital, he can't be on the job for the next few days.’
He saw that Doreen looked a bit stunned. Luke sighed, gave her a comforting touch on the shoulder and smiled. ‘Come, let's first check out the crime scene and then we'll go to the hospital right from there’.
‘Sure,’ said Doreen shakily. They packed their kits. Before leaving for the crime scene, Doreen brought a bowl of fruits for Sean.
Luke Versteeg and Doreen Messer where in the janitor's closet, again, and faced the hole that was in the floor. ‘Let's be careful where we walk. Let's go in, I can't wait to find out what is in underneath here.’ They both got in by a ladder. It was pretty dark, so they had to use their lights to see what was there. Most things were still intact. ‘There are a lot of pictures from Tim here. Was this the only boy he had his eye on?’ Luke found another hole in the ceiling. He pushed on it and felt some boxes up there. ‘This was probably his entrance to this place. We didn't discover it up there’.
Doreen said that she found something where Luke should take a look at.
It was a note. It said: ‘I love you forever Jake. You're the best. Tim Bradley’. There was a picture with it where they were all cute together in an amusement park. Luke said: ‘I don't know if Jake was a molester. Maybe he was Tim's boyfriend. I can't believe this, was this all a lover's quarrel instead of Tim being self-defensive cause Jake molested him? This is crazy!’
Doreen was just as confused as well. She mentioned that this might be the place where he kept all the stuff from their relationship. His wife could not find out, of course.
Luke and Doreen looked a little bit more, but they found no more useable evidence. ‘All right, let's go to the hospital now to see Sean. I hope he can tell us a bit more about what happened, or if he found anything else before he fell.’
‘Yeah,’ said Doreen. As she and Luke drove to the hospital, she leaned her arm on the armrest and looked outside the window. Luke said that she looked bothered and asked her what's wrong.
‘It's funny, isn't it?’ she said. ‘Funny how love makes people do things which they regret later. One moment it can be beautiful and happy and next -BOOM- it takes an ugly turn and leaves you in the dirt.’
Luke asked her if she's talking from experience.
‘I prefer to keep that information about 'him' to myself. But thanks for your concern anyway,’ she said, smiling a grateful smile to him.
They finally reached the hospital. Luke requested to see Sean and after a few minutes, they saw him lying on a bed; bandages all over his body.
‘Sean, are you OK?’ asked Doreen, placing the bowl of fruits she brought for him on the table. ‘You had us worried sick, you know?’
‘But I bet you're having the time of your life here; being nursed by some hot nurses,’ she added, smiling cheekily at him. Sean blushed red as his fiancée, who was a nurse there, passed by and blew a kiss at him.
Luke cleared his throat, saying that he has something to ask Sean.
‘Hey Sean, we were wondering whether you could tell us a little bit about what happened’.
Sean answered that he heard by knocking on the floor, that there was a room underneath there and that he fell through it.
‘So you didn't find anything else?’ Sean shook his head. ‘That's okay. God, this case has been going from arson to cover up for murder to self-defence and to a crime de passion.’
Luke and Doreen filled Sean in a bit and promised to keep him informed. ‘Maybe someone could jump in the next few days, maybe Cali.’ Doreen mentioned that we should probably not talk about work too long, since Sean couldn't be stressed out. ‘You're absolutely right, let's change the subject’, Luke said.
‘So, do you like fruits, Sean?’ Doreen asked, glad that they changed the subject. ‘Which one?’
Sean said that he liked apples, so Luke got one, washed it and gave it to Sean who took a huge bite from it.
Jim Brass picked up his office phone and dialled Luke’s number.
‘Hi Luke, its Jim, What’s this I hear about Mr. Combs molesting the Bradley kid? Anyway I dug up his file and guess what, he has a record, some tickets and small stuff, but the interesting deal is his ex wife got a restraining order against him, about 3 years ago. I called the head of the school and he didn’t know anything about that, so the story Tim is telling could be true, maybe you guys could find some kind of evidence of the assault in the closet in Tim’s Story?’
‘We will do our best. But there is a problem. We found evidence that Tim was willingly sexually involved with Jake Combs. I think we might just ask Tim some more questions’.
Luke, Doreen and Brass were in the interrogation room facing Tim Bradley again.
‘Tim, we found this card in the closet. It says that you loved Mr. Combs. Did you write this?’
‘Do not answer this’, his attorney said.
‘You know what I think’, Luke said. ‘I think you killed him. I don't know why, but the evidence certainly says you did.’
‘I had to write that card, okay! He was driving me crazy. He threatened to kill Jessica if I wouldn't come to his home, if I would not say that I loved him.
‘So this has been going on for a long while?’
Tim nodded.
‘How long?’
‘4 months or something. I couldn't tell my folks at home, they wouldn't understand. Jessica also wouldn't.’
‘Tim... Did you really not know why Jessica was in that classroom?’
‘...I do have an idea. I recently told Jessica about what Mr. Combs has been doing to me for the past months. I think she might have said something to him.’
‘You think that maybe he forced her to get into that classroom? To kill her?’
‘Could be...’
‘Tim. Did you kill him?’
Tim hesitated for a while, but then answered: ‘Yes, I did.’
Tim started crying again.
‘It's okay. You did it because of self-defence. It's okay’.
Luke said to Doreen outside the interrogation room: ‘I think Jake Combs forced Jessica to start a fire in the classroom, like a kamikaze mission. All we need to find out is how the fire in the closet started.’
TBC...
The Crime Lab: Fire(d)?
Illnesses, leaves of absence, pregnancies and a crime wave on top of that had forced Crime lab supervisor Ann Newland to make some drastic shift changes at the New York Crime lab.
She had just called a briefing to introduce the new additions to the team, when the news about a school fire came in.
Introducing would have to wait. So she addressed the CSIs and detectives who where gathered in front of her:
‘The firemen just cleared the scene. It is now up to you to gather any evidence that wasn't destroyed by the fire.’
Luke Versteeg was driving as fast as he could to make it to the briefing, when he heard about the fire on the radio:
‘It has been reported that 4 students and 2 teachers died as result to the fire that broke into the Mayflower High school around 11 o'clock. The firemen successfully distinguished the fire and the crime scene investigators are on the case right now’.
This sounded like an 'all hands on deck' case, so he decided to immediately go to the school. Hopefully his supervisor, Ann Newland, wouldn't make a big deal out of the fact that he was too late for the briefing. He had a perfectly good reason anyway...
What a horrible sight: crying people and a school that look like a pile of debris. This case is gonna be a rough one.
Dr. Sheldon Hawkes, having arrived just in time for the briefing, looked up from his seat at the back of the room at the supervisor's words. He waited for the room to clear of CSIs and Detectives before making his own way out of the room.
He got to the morgue as quickly as possible, setting aside tables for the victims he was suspecting. He got the room ready, and he waited.
Doreen Messer arrived at the crime scene, her kit in hand. It's a good thing she brought it ‘cause she was on her way to a briefing before she was called to the school. People were gathered around the crime scene. Some were crying and she guessed that they were probably the family of the victims. She tried not to treat this case as personal as possible considering her past experience with her parents.
Head high, she walked towards the other detectives and her fellow CSIs.
Sean Davis Looked at the building. It was apparent that the fire had been bad and that so many people escaped, the grass on the outside of the school was littered with survivors sobbing, mourning. Sean was stunned, just as the next to him standing Detective Flack. It was the first time either of them had ever dealt with the death of a group of children.
Not knowing what to expect inside he psyched himself up to prepare for the inside of the school
J.D. Cooper had been briefed and he was on his way to the crime scene, it was his first fire and at a school it sounded worst.
He pulled his car up to the crime scene and saw the rest of the team and the scene of panic and chaos.
He grabbed his kit and put on his blue overalls and prepared to enter the remains to assess the damage and collect evidence.
J.D. also read out a list of victims he got from the detective:
Susan Granger, 42 Chemistry Teacher
Dr. Franklin Hutchinson, 45 Biology Teacher
Lisa Drake, 18
Harry Raver, 17
Max Kane, 13
Jessica Franklin, 14
James prepared himself for the sights he would see and asked the team:
'So, who wants to do a preliminary walkthrough with me?'
‘Let me introduce myself, my name is Luke Versteeg. You are J.D. Cooper I presume? Welcome to the team. I'll go with you’. Luke could see that J.D. was very ambitious and willing to do a good job on this case. He had confidence in him.
They both put on their protective masks and entered the school. Luke heard from Detective Flack that just recently the school was re-opened after a lot of renovation. What a shame! 750 students and 80 teachers, it could have been worse, but this just should not have happened.
The hallway was pretty much intact; Luke Versteeg could immediately see that the fire did not start here.
‘I believe there are still 5 bodies in the school, the youngest girl died in the hospital. The chemistry teacher is in one classroom together with Lisa and Harry and the biology teacher in a room with Max and Jessica. So the start of the fire most likely was in one of those two classrooms. Let's go there’.
After the CSI team arrived, Detective Jim brass walked up to Ann Newland.
‘Hi Ann, nice night to bring in some new reinforcements’, his voice sounding sarcastic.
‘So we got 6 victims so far, but the paramedics are still counting heads. We have 750 students and 80 teachers but we are still not sure how many people where inside that building when the fire started. The Fire squad released the first two hallways, but the east wing is still closed due to all the smoke, they have brought in some fans to take care of that, should take about an hour or so. I have got a couple of my men interviewing some of the teachers and students, but most of them saw nothing but some flames and a lot of chaos when they ran out of the building. I’ll keep you posted. And Ann, I hope you brought some coffee with, cause this is going to be a long, long night’.
J.D. and Luke began to survey the burnt out corridor, he assumed that the most damage would be from a science lab where the risk of fire is greatest and due to the combustible material.
They began to draw sketches of the scene and took photographs of the burn damage; J.D. spotted a fire extinguisher on the floor leading to the science lab, he examined closer and noticed it had been tampered with. He grabbed his kit and dusted for prints, he managed to pull a clear print off the top of the extinguisher. 'Did someone try to stop the fire but couldn’t?' He then examined the base and noticed something, he swabbed it and tested it: it was definitely blood.
He bagged the evidence and sent it to the lab and followed Luke as he moved to where the fire started...
‘All right, I just heard that the bodies have already been picked up. Dr. Hawkes is already working on them.’
While entering the classroom, Luke noticed that there was a heater on every table. ‘It would seem logical that any of these might have done the damage. Those things seemed so innocent when I was in school’. There were two heaters that looked rather interesting. ‘These two have caught the most fire at the look of them. ‘ Luke Versteeg tried to get prints of the heaters, but they were only vague or partial, due to the damage. ‘These definitely go back to the lab’.
Luke's phone rang: ‘Luke here. That's odd. Okay.’ Luke hung up. He turned to J.D.: ‘I just heard that the girl who died in the hospital, Jessica, wasn't a student at this school. Why the hell was she in this classroom?’
It seemed like this case would bring more questions than answers.
Doreen started inspecting the crime scene; trying to see if she could find any clue that led to the school being burnt. The other CSIs were doing the same. They were all searching the kitchen, some searching the labs; trying to see if any trace of something that started the fire. Suddenly she heard someone call out her name.
‘Detective Messer! You gotta come over here!’
‘Messer! Luke! I got something.’ Sean yelled down the corridor. ‘I got it.’
‘What is it?’ Luke asked.
‘The janitors closet, the lock has been forced’ Sean explained, pointing at the padlock busted on the floor.
‘It could have been the fireman’ stated Luke ‘J.D. go ask the fire chief’
As J.D. walked off to find the fire chief;
‘Are you sure he was the right choice? We had the chance to get Nick Stokes’
‘You let me worry about who I hire, Sean’ replied Luke.
Sean continued to look inside the closet, it was apparent that because of scorch mark that the fire had begun in here. The closet had the remnants of a handful of exploded gas canisters, numerous burnt bottles that had been burnt away at. Sean entered the room. As he did he snagged a burnt stick. As he did a body fell from behind the door, shocking both Messer and himself.
Luke Versteeg was busy looking for evidence in the school's cafeteria, when he heard something happening in the corridor. Luke walked inside the closet and saw Messer and Sean looking over the dead body. ‘God...I guess the body count is 7 now.’ Luke took a glimpse at the card that was on the dead man's shirt. ‘Jake Combs, Janitor’.
‘Can you guys investigate this part of the crime scene? It is useful that the body is still here. J.D. and I are practically done with the classroom and the ones nearby. The cafeteria and teachers lounge don't give us much either, so let's focus on this closet. The fire chief stated the firemen actually did break into this closet, but maybe there is some evidence that tells us somebody else has been in here. I'll be nearby. I'm keen to hear what the detectives heard from students or family members.’
Doreen Messer walked on over to Detective Don Flack who just finished talking to a student. This student was seating on a bench, a towel wrapped around her. She looked scared.
‘So what did you hear?’ she asked. Flack explained that the student said that she smelled a weird gas coming from the chemistry lab and when she went over to the lab, she saw a boy getting something from the janitor's closet and when the boy saw her, he took off.
‘Did the girl managed to see who the boy was?’ asked Doreen. Flack just shook his head indicating No. She sighed and nodded to him before staring back at the burnt school. Morgue attendants brought a stretcher out of the school and Doreen knew that that was the corpse that she and Sean found.
Sean began to process the closest bagging various bottles, rags and stuff, he checked the wallet of the dead man, confirming that he was Jake Combs.
‘Luke, I'm gonna take this back to the lab to start processing’
Back at the lab, Doreen began processing some of the evidence she found at the crime scene with Sean. Various items lay on the table. They checked the wallet, taking everything apart. They found a photograph of Jake Combs with his some people. Probably his family.
‘Poor lady,’ said Doreen, looking at the photograph. ‘She has no idea that her husband's dead, huh?’ she said to Sean.
Luke was in the morgue, where Dr. Hawkes had just explained to him what happened to the victims.
Susan Granger, Franklin Hutchinson, Lisa Drake, Harry Raver, Max Kane and Jessica Franklin all died of asphyxiation by the smoke or massive burns. Except for Jake Combs, he died of blood force trauma. Either someone hit him on the head, or something fell on his head.
‘Excuse me, are you Sue Franklin?’ Luke asked the woman in the police department. The woman looked awfully relaxed for a woman that just lost her daughter. ‘Yes, yes I am.’
‘My name is Lucas Versteeg from CSI. I am really sorry for your loss ma'am.’
She nodded.
‘Mrs. Franklin, Jessica was not a member of the Mayflower High school. Can you explain to me why she was in that classroom?’
‘No....she - Jessica - goes to the Decorah High school. She wasn't supposed to be there’. Mrs. Franklin suddenly had her emotions out of control. ‘I always try so hard.... but now I lost her. Mr. Versteeg...’.
‘Please, call me Luke.’
‘...Jess had a boyfriend on the Mayflower High school, Tim Bradley.’
‘What do you know about him?’
‘All I know is that he is bad news. Maybe Jessica was visiting him, I don't know. I don't understand why she was there, following lessons.’
Luke did not know what to say. ‘Ehm... we will do our very best to find out what happened to your girl, alright?’
Luke Versteeg decided to head to the lab where Doreen, Sean and J.D. were processing evidence, to lend them a hand and hear about their findings.
‘Any news about those heaters or the fire extinguisher?’
Hawkes looked around at the bodies filling up the morgue. He had just explained what the COD's appeared to be to Versteeg, but he felt like something was wrong. Specifically… Jake Combs.
COD had appeared to be blunt force trauma, and that fact was only supported as Hawkes continued his autopsy. The problem was the weapon.
The wounds and bruises on the man's body had a specific shape, round with a circle or something in the middle. Hawkes had made a mold, it was sitting on a table next to him, and all he had to do was give Versteeg a call to find out what it was.
Hawkes looked from Combs, to Franklin, to Granger, to Hutchinson, to Drake, to Raver, to Kane, and back. He couldn't help but be reminded of his days a surgeon and all of the deaths he had almost prevented.
He bagged the mold and paged Versteeg; it was time to find the weapon.
Sean took one look at the mould; he knew what it was. He explained to everyone that he had seen the mould before from a case he worked on in. It was the base of a fire extinguisher, but there hadn’t been one in the closet. It was just canisters and other remnants.
On the crime scene pictures Sean noticed that something was missing on the shelf.
‘I’m going back to the high school’ he told them, ‘Luke, I need to talk to the head teacher to see if we can get an inventory of what the janitor had in his cupboard.’
‘Very well, Sean’.
Luke established that someone had tampered with the heater. Lara McKenzie from Prints paged him. She managed to put the fingerprints together. Luke got a paper from the school and found out to whom the heater belonged to. It was heater # 13, which belonged to, how surprising, table # 13. And which student belonged with that table? Tim Bradley, Jessica's boyfriend... It's time someone would have a talk with him.
Tim was still in the hospital because of some nasty burn marks. Luke and Detective Flack went there.
‘Tim Bradley? We have got some questions for ya. Was Jessica Franklin your girlfriend?
‘Not really y'know. I liked hanging out with her and all, but... She was cool.’
‘Could we maybe take your fingerprints? We'd like to check whether they match with the prints on your heater. The one that most likely burned the school down’.
Tim quietly agreed.
Flack mentioned that Tim wasn't in class that day.
Luke said: ‘But Jessica was. While you were ditching school. Was she covering up or something?’
‘I think I want a lawyer’.
Doreen studied the photos of the various evidence found at the crime scene, trying to come up with a solution. So far, nothing has hit her and she was starting to feel very, very frustrated.
‘Mr De Vos’ Sean asked.
‘Yes?’ replied the head teacher.
‘Would it be possible to get an inventory of what the janitor kept in his closet?’
‘Yes of course, here you go’
‘Thank you’
Sean returned to the lab, and started looking at what was on the list and what was in the pile, the only thing that didn’t seem to be there was a petrol canister.
We're gonna have to find this.
Sean picked up his phone and he phoned Luke.
‘Luke I think we have two separate fires, one in the janitors closet and one in the classroom. And I doubt they were accidents. I’m gonna start looking for this gas canister, might brake the case.’
Doreen went back to the crime scene, desperately trying to find a clue to the cause of death for Jake Combs.
After an hour of searching and coming up with nothing, she gave up and went back to the lab. She examined a piece of evidence and several photos and suddenly it hit her. Taking out her cell phone, she called Luke who was lead in this case.
‘I found something’, Doreen said excitedly.
She explained that she thought she knew where the missing petrol canister was.
Doreen made a picture of it on the school's yard, without realizing it was a petrol canister. This is not very weird, since it just looked like some sort of debris.
Luke, Doreen, Sean and J.D. were all going over the evidence together. Luke said:
‘This is my theory. Tim Bradley has some sort of grudge against the school and specifically against the janitor. He convinced his girlfriend Jessica to start a fire in the classroom, as a cover up for the thing that he was doing in the janitor's closet: killing Jake Combs. I think that when fire broke out in the closet, which was not Tim's initial plan, it did come out handy. We only need to find out why he did it.’
Doreen watched and listened from the outside as Luke, Sean and J.D. interrogated Tim. She was hoping that she could pick up anything that he's saying.
Luke, J.D. and Detective Flack were in the interrogation room, facing Tim Bradley and his lawyer.
‘Tim, we found evidence that you killed Mr. Combs. Your fingerprints were on the petrol canister.’
Luke was bluffing, because there weren't any useable prints on it. He probably was a little out of line here, but he was confident Tim killed him. ‘Can you explain that?’
Tim's lawyer, Julia Henderson said: ‘Tim, you don't have to answer this question, you know that right?’.
Tim didn't say anything. Detective Flack asked if he had a grudge against Jake Combs.
Suddenly, Tim let some tears slip: ‘He...he touched me.’ Was Jake Combs a molester?
Doreen jaw dropped. ‘He's a molester?’ she said aloud. She continued to listen to the interrogation.
Tim was really starting to break down. His lawyer patted him on the back with a look of pity on her face while the others exchanged surprised looks.
As Sean continued to search the scene, he saw something across the room. As he walked towards, it the floor underneath him gave way and he fell down to the floor below injuring himself quite badly.
Luke was still in the interrogation room with Tim Bradley. He was totally confused by the way this case was leading. ‘This might be uncomfortable, but could you tell me a bit more about what Mr. Combs did to you?’
‘He asked me if I could help him with something in that closet. Before I even knew it, he locked me in. He was pulling my pants down, dude! I don't know why Jess was in that classroom, okay?! When the fire started, I ran out, got the extinguisher and I used it.’
Luke asked: ‘Did you hit him with petrol canister?’
‘No man! I don't think so... I feel so bad about what happened to Jessica, much more than what happened to me. So please, get off my back!’
Luke left the interrogation room and closed the door behind him. He began talking to Doreen: ‘Can you believe this? Sexual abuse? I was so sure Tim started all this’.
Doreen looked just as confused as Luke was.
Luke's phone rang: ‘What? Okay, thanks’. He hung up.
Doreen asked what was going on.
‘It's Sean’.
Doreen was shocked.
‘It's okay. He fell through the floor in the janitor's closet, apparently there's a room underneath there. He's got some nasty cuts and bruises but nothing serious. He's in the hospital, he can't be on the job for the next few days.’
He saw that Doreen looked a bit stunned. Luke sighed, gave her a comforting touch on the shoulder and smiled. ‘Come, let's first check out the crime scene and then we'll go to the hospital right from there’.
‘Sure,’ said Doreen shakily. They packed their kits. Before leaving for the crime scene, Doreen brought a bowl of fruits for Sean.
Luke Versteeg and Doreen Messer where in the janitor's closet, again, and faced the hole that was in the floor. ‘Let's be careful where we walk. Let's go in, I can't wait to find out what is in underneath here.’ They both got in by a ladder. It was pretty dark, so they had to use their lights to see what was there. Most things were still intact. ‘There are a lot of pictures from Tim here. Was this the only boy he had his eye on?’ Luke found another hole in the ceiling. He pushed on it and felt some boxes up there. ‘This was probably his entrance to this place. We didn't discover it up there’.
Doreen said that she found something where Luke should take a look at.
It was a note. It said: ‘I love you forever Jake. You're the best. Tim Bradley’. There was a picture with it where they were all cute together in an amusement park. Luke said: ‘I don't know if Jake was a molester. Maybe he was Tim's boyfriend. I can't believe this, was this all a lover's quarrel instead of Tim being self-defensive cause Jake molested him? This is crazy!’
Doreen was just as confused as well. She mentioned that this might be the place where he kept all the stuff from their relationship. His wife could not find out, of course.
Luke and Doreen looked a little bit more, but they found no more useable evidence. ‘All right, let's go to the hospital now to see Sean. I hope he can tell us a bit more about what happened, or if he found anything else before he fell.’
‘Yeah,’ said Doreen. As she and Luke drove to the hospital, she leaned her arm on the armrest and looked outside the window. Luke said that she looked bothered and asked her what's wrong.
‘It's funny, isn't it?’ she said. ‘Funny how love makes people do things which they regret later. One moment it can be beautiful and happy and next -BOOM- it takes an ugly turn and leaves you in the dirt.’
Luke asked her if she's talking from experience.
‘I prefer to keep that information about 'him' to myself. But thanks for your concern anyway,’ she said, smiling a grateful smile to him.
They finally reached the hospital. Luke requested to see Sean and after a few minutes, they saw him lying on a bed; bandages all over his body.
‘Sean, are you OK?’ asked Doreen, placing the bowl of fruits she brought for him on the table. ‘You had us worried sick, you know?’
‘But I bet you're having the time of your life here; being nursed by some hot nurses,’ she added, smiling cheekily at him. Sean blushed red as his fiancée, who was a nurse there, passed by and blew a kiss at him.
Luke cleared his throat, saying that he has something to ask Sean.
‘Hey Sean, we were wondering whether you could tell us a little bit about what happened’.
Sean answered that he heard by knocking on the floor, that there was a room underneath there and that he fell through it.
‘So you didn't find anything else?’ Sean shook his head. ‘That's okay. God, this case has been going from arson to cover up for murder to self-defence and to a crime de passion.’
Luke and Doreen filled Sean in a bit and promised to keep him informed. ‘Maybe someone could jump in the next few days, maybe Cali.’ Doreen mentioned that we should probably not talk about work too long, since Sean couldn't be stressed out. ‘You're absolutely right, let's change the subject’, Luke said.
‘So, do you like fruits, Sean?’ Doreen asked, glad that they changed the subject. ‘Which one?’
Sean said that he liked apples, so Luke got one, washed it and gave it to Sean who took a huge bite from it.
Jim Brass picked up his office phone and dialled Luke’s number.
‘Hi Luke, its Jim, What’s this I hear about Mr. Combs molesting the Bradley kid? Anyway I dug up his file and guess what, he has a record, some tickets and small stuff, but the interesting deal is his ex wife got a restraining order against him, about 3 years ago. I called the head of the school and he didn’t know anything about that, so the story Tim is telling could be true, maybe you guys could find some kind of evidence of the assault in the closet in Tim’s Story?’
‘We will do our best. But there is a problem. We found evidence that Tim was willingly sexually involved with Jake Combs. I think we might just ask Tim some more questions’.
Luke, Doreen and Brass were in the interrogation room facing Tim Bradley again.
‘Tim, we found this card in the closet. It says that you loved Mr. Combs. Did you write this?’
‘Do not answer this’, his attorney said.
‘You know what I think’, Luke said. ‘I think you killed him. I don't know why, but the evidence certainly says you did.’
‘I had to write that card, okay! He was driving me crazy. He threatened to kill Jessica if I wouldn't come to his home, if I would not say that I loved him.
‘So this has been going on for a long while?’
Tim nodded.
‘How long?’
‘4 months or something. I couldn't tell my folks at home, they wouldn't understand. Jessica also wouldn't.’
‘Tim... Did you really not know why Jessica was in that classroom?’
‘...I do have an idea. I recently told Jessica about what Mr. Combs has been doing to me for the past months. I think she might have said something to him.’
‘You think that maybe he forced her to get into that classroom? To kill her?’
‘Could be...’
‘Tim. Did you kill him?’
Tim hesitated for a while, but then answered: ‘Yes, I did.’
Tim started crying again.
‘It's okay. You did it because of self-defence. It's okay’.
Luke said to Doreen outside the interrogation room: ‘I think Jake Combs forced Jessica to start a fire in the classroom, like a kamikaze mission. All we need to find out is how the fire in the closet started.’
TBC...
