Post by scorpii on Aug 30, 2006 19:56:00 GMT 1
Again, another RPG story... enjoy!
The Crime Lab – case 3: Daily Ritual
A man went jogging in the wee hours of the morning in Central Park. He then stopped to catch his breath. Something on one of the bushes caught his eye. He went over to it, full of curiosity. He picked up a stick just in case it was something else.
He went towards it. When he reached it, he poked inside the bush. A small dog leaped out from it and ran away. The man breathed a sigh of relief. Then an arm flopped out from the bush. The man gasped in horror.
Luke was already on the scene. Severed arms are always interesting, he thought.
He decided to wait for the coroner and his colleagues to know what he should look for in the surroundings. When he looked over the arm, he saw an interesting bite mark.
Not much later Sheldon arrived followed by Cali later.
When Cali arrived on the scene the area was already crawling with cops. There was police tape all around, people surrounding it trying to get a glimpse of what happened. I thought the zoo was the other direction, she thought disgusted.
She flashed her id as she crossed the tape and made her way over to where her colleagues were standing. Tentatively she looked around and made a note to check out some knife marks in a nearby tree.
"So, Sheldon, what can you tell us?" Cali asked the ME.
Meanwhile, in another part of Central Park…
Doreen came to the crime scene, holding her kit. She saw Detective Flack talking to some people. He noticed her and went over to her.
"Spill," she told him.
He told her that someone found the dead body of a woman. Apparently a jogger.
"No one else knows what happened to her except that she jogs here everyday?" she asked the detective. He just nodded in reply.
"Hmmm... This is gonna be tough."
Casey grabbed her kit and got out of the car. There were people everywhere, and she made her way through, showing her badge to people who gave her some dirty looks. She went under the caution tape and walked over to the detective and another CSI.
"So what do we got here?" she asked, putting her sunglasses on top of her head.
Doreen saw Casey arriving at the crime scene. "Morning, Casey," she greeted. "Nothing like a case to wake you up in the morning, eh?"
She and Casey walked towards the body of the dead woman.
"Dead female jogger. No one knows anything on how she died except the fact that she does her jogging here. I don't see any blood so maybe there's another cause of death," Doreen explained to Casey. "We may have to bring the body back to HQ and let Sheldon examine it. In the mean time, we should process this scene."
“Hey ladies, I hear we got a dead jogger. Who says exercise doesn’t kill?”
After the coroner cleared the body Sean checked for a wallet or purse. As he searched her pockets, it turned up some loose change, and an apartment key card for the Natalie apartments room 104, and the name Miss Kylie Henderson.
”Well, we got a name and an address. That’s always a start.”
"Great," said Doreen. She took pictures of the victim's things, putting a number card near each evidence.
"Casey, Sean, you two should come and see this," she said, putting on a pair of latex gloves and picking up a plastic bottle.
Casey put the woman’s belongings in separate bags and went over to where Doreen was.
"What is it?" she asked, also putting on some gloves and looking at the bottle. "Looks like a pill container."
"Pill container?" said Doreen. "Looks like we have to see what type of pills she was on."
She picked up her camera. "I'm gonna take some pictures of the evidence now."
After Doreen was finished taking pictures, Casey put the container in a bag and put it in her vest.
"Look at this," she said, indicating towards the scratches on the woman’s arms. "Looks like someone -or something- really wanted her dead."
"Or maybe she had a really cranky cat," said Doreen, raising en eyebrow.
She suddenly spotted something. A Pepsi coke can. "Could be the vic's," she said. "But I don't get it. Why would you take your pill with a carbonated drink? Isn't that dangerous?"
"Yeah, I thought so. The medicine and the sugar in the drink would mix and it would probably cause some serious damage. "
Casey walked over to the can and picked it up. "I'll dust it to see if there are any usable prints left."
"Then maybe that's her cause of death? Mixing those two together?"
With that Doreen took her camera and snapped pictures of the crime scene.
"Possibly."
Casey finished dusting the can and found a print near the bottom of the can. "I found one!" she said. She lifted the print and gave it to Doreen. "You think it's hers?"
"Considering you only found one print, I'm thinking it's hers."
Suddenly Detective Flack came over to them, saying that he'd just interviewed the woman who’d found the body. The CSIs decided to interview her themselves.
"Hi, I'm Doreen Messer from the crime lab with Casey Sanders and Sean Davis. Tell us; when did you find the body?"
"I was just taking my daily stroll around the park and then I rested on a bench. Something by the sides caught my eye and that's when I saw the body."
"Did you see anyone else around the area?"
"No. I didn't see anyone."
"All right. Thanks for your time."
The three CSIs walked away and back to their kits. "Well, that's a start."
Detective Brass pointed out to Luke where the jogger was. He decided to ask him some questions.
"Hello sir, Lucas Versteeg, I'm with the New York crime lab. Could you tell me how you discovered the arm?"
"Well, I saw some weird movements and heard strange sounds in the bushes. When I came closer a dog jumped out of it and soon after the arm fell out."
"A dog? Well that explains something."
Sheldon told Cali that some sort of big knife probably cut off the arm, presumably when the victim was still alive.
"Wow, that must have hurt. He must have seen it coming. Horrible to be treated like that."
Sheldon said the victim was probably female.
Luke got back and looked at the bite again. "Let me guess. Dog bite?"
Sheldon pointed out that the dental marks were human.
"Really? I...I...Frankly I've got no clue of where this is going."
The only remarkable feature on the arm was a ring, with some sort of Tribal sign on it.
Cali surveyed the ring with interest. It had a very cool but very scary design on it.
Leaving Luke to look at the arm and its evidence she went back to the tree with the strange markings on it. Upon closer examination they appeared to be carvings. The somewhat erratic lines appeared to form the same symbol as the ring sported.
After photographing it, she pulled out a magnifier. There were small objects embedded in the tree. One was a small piece of yellow glass with some sort of trace on it. The other was a tiny bit of metal, probably from whatever blade had carved this. Finally she saw that in some of the indentations there were bloody streaks. Maybe the arm was removed then the cutting implement used to mark the tree.
"Yeah, we really have no good leads." Casey said. "How'd she end up here? Was this the actual crime scene or just the dump site?"
She went back to the body and looked at the scratches again. "They aren't really that deep, so it could have been caused by a pet, but they look fresh."
Casey took out a swab and gently swabbed the area for any blood.
Sheldon couldn't understand the arm. It was definitely cut off while the victim was alive, judging by the skin and the blood, but where had the victim bled?
Sadly, the fun of that search was up to the CSIs.
"Human," Sheldon mumbled to himself after he had spoken to Luke. He stood up, leaving the arm to be collected by his crew, and slipped off his gloves.
"Contact me immediately when you find the rest of the body, I want to see this," Sheldon told Luke.
Doreen, Casey and Sean's case
"We’d better get this body back to Sheldon. He'll figure out how she died," said Doreen.
"My hunches are telling me that maybe, you know, this is just an accident."
She watched as the morgue attendants brought the body onto a stretcher. "But we have to get Sheldon to confirm that first."
Sean let the girls know he was off to check Ms Henderson's apartment. Then he left to meet a police officer at the scene.
The apartments were about 10 minute jogging from central park, spacious and modern probably with a rather large price tag. He got there and exchanged pleasantries with the officer. Then he began to look inside. Everything seemed normal; catalogues, DVD’s, CD's, laptop, and filled fridge. Sean bagged the laptop and had a skim through her mail. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, when he saw her notice board, "meet Shawn 7:30am CP" with a big circle. Hmm. We were called to the scene around 9 and CP could be Central Park. He bagged her address book too; it could come in handy. Sean began to search through her cupboards when he found 20 pill packets that matched the one found at the scene. Interesting, he thought.
Luke and Cali's Case
Cali headed back to the lab to investigate her findings. First she developed her photos of the markings in the tree. Using the computer she enhanced the shape and began a computer search.
While that search was running she sent the blood sample to DNA, then began on the glass fragment. There was a white powder on it. She carefully lifted and processed it. The results came back and she surveyed them with interest.
Cali called Luke on his cell to report, "I have that symbol running through the computer, nothing yet. But that yellow glass I found in the tree had traces of heroin on it. I'm going to have a tox screen run on the arm, see what comes up. How are you doing?"
Luke talked to Cali: "I actually know a little bit more about that ring. There was a name on the back: "Genisho". I did some research on the net, and it apparently is some kind of group that has meetings once in a while. Their website doesn't say much, except some hippie-stuff, like "You can choose to be happy" and "Let us be free". Here comes the good part: They have got a session in the centre of Central Park in an hour. Wanna come check it out with me?"
Doreen, Casey and Sean's case
"Maybe it was an accident. We also have to wait for Sean to get back from the vic's home."
Casey peeled off her gloves and put them in her kit to throw away later. "I'm gonna go on back to the lab, you coming?"
"Yeah. I'm coming to the lab with you."
The two of them went back to the lab. Sean was still investigating. On the way, Doreen stopped by the autopsy room.
"I think Sheldon should have the COD of the vic by now," she said.
Luke and Cali's Case
"Wow, that's lucky," answered Cali. "I'll be there in forty. Where's it at?"
Luke gave her the directions and she put her work aside for when she got back. On her way out though she dropped the metal fragment off with an expert to find out everything they could about the possible weapon.
Doreen, Casey and Sean’s case
After processing all the links, Sean came up with three links. The name Shawn probably related to Shawna Dawson who was in the vic’s e-mails and phone book.
The pills where prescribed by Dr De Voss and appeared to be some sort of sleeping tablet,
and the company she worked for was named Pierce Auction Houses.
Luke and Cali’s case
Luke and Cali were in Central Park again. The group wasn't very hard to find. Around 15 people were sitting in the grass, making weird movements with their arms in the air.
"This seems...interesting."
The leader, a 40-something male, noticed the two CSI's.
"Hello friends. Would you like to join us?"
Luke smiled and said: "No thank you, we'll just observe for now if that's all right."
He turned to Cali and said: "Maybe watching what they do might give us more than asking them questions. Let's do that when they're done."
The two CSI's scrutinized every detail of the group during the hour-long session. Cali's eyes were drawn to a necklace that each one wore. They looked like yellow stained glass with the same symbol that kept appearing.
"Luke," she quietly addressed her companion, "Those necklaces are made from the same kind of glass as the fragment I found in the tree. It would be real easy to break or chip one in a struggle."
"Good thinking, Cal.", Luke said to his colleague.
"Maybe one of them is broken? Or does someone miss his or her necklace?
Luke decided to talk to the man that appeared to be their leader.
"Excuse me, sir. Luke Versteeg from the crime lab. We absolutely enjoyed your meeting, but could you tell us a little bit more about what your...believe is about?"
"My name is Timothy. Genisho is about embracing life at it purest. We think that you should be able to make yourself happy and erase everything that makes you unhappy."
"And with erasing, you mean killing?"
"No, no! We don't kill or destroy. Everything is totally appropriate."
"Good. Did you by any chance miss somebody at this meeting?"
"I missed Claire. She's a regular, she must be ill or something."
"Can you give us a last name? Location? No, we don't talk about ourselves much. Just about life."
"Okay. So everything is appropriate right? You don't indulge in sacrifices of any sort."
"Eh... people who practiced Genisho used to, but that's all old fashioned. Like I said, we don't kill.
"Okay, Timothy. You'll hear from us."
"Alright, so maybe there's a few of those old fashioned, sacrificial guys around," commented Cali. "Now where do we find them?"
Doreen, Casey and Sean's case
Sheldon said that he still needed to examine the body to know the cause of death of the victim. He said that this was tricky and that he'd need some more time.
Doreen and Casey waited for him to do so. Sheldon finally said that he was done examining the body.
"Finally!" said Doreen, smiling. "I though you'd never be finished with it."
"She never drank the Pepsi, or took the pills." Sheldon said. He pointed to a pan that held the victims stomach contents; it wasn't much. "Looks like she didn't want to throw up while she was running."
Sheldon had taken his time to determine cause of death; it was a tricky one. All of the obvious clues had been at the crime scene, but none of them had to do with the victim.
"Cause of death was asphyxiation, I found some fibres in her mouth, they're in there" Sheldon pointed to a tray. There were a few containers lined along it, one holding the fibres. He picked it up and handed it to Doreen.
"Now, you're fun begins," he said, smiling.
"That'll be my job," said Doreen, smiling and taking the fibres from Sheldon. "Thanks, doc."
She and Casey got to the lab, to process the fibres. Doreen examined the single fibre while referring to a book.
"Got it," she told Casey. "Cotton. See the colour?"
Casey peered into the microscope and said that all she saw was the colour purple.
"Exactly," said Doreen. "Someone used a purple cloth to choke her. I think we better question people around the park again."
The three CSIs got back at the crime scene. Doreen was searching through the bushes for. Suddenly Sean called her and said that he found a purple cloth stashed deep in a rubbish bin.
"Great. We'll bring this back to the lab to check."
After going back to the lab to examine the cloth, Casey waited impatiently for the results of the fingerprint she found on the Pepsi can. AFIS found a match and the paper printed out from the machine. She found Doreen and Sean in another part of the building.
"Hey guys, I got a match to the fingerprint… I don't know if it'll help though,” she said.
Sean had processed the purple rag. Turned out he had found the vic’s DNA all over the rag, however the strange thing was, the rag turned out to be between 200 and 300 years old.
”I think it’s about time we paid her work place a visit,” said Sean to the girls.
”To the auction house we go.”
The three CSIs made their way to the auction house. An elderly man greeted them.
"Good day. I am the owner of the shop. How may I help you three youngsters today?" he said.
"Doreen Messer, Casey Sanders and Sean Davis. We're from the New York crime lab. A woman was found dead in Central Park. She worked here and died from asphyxiation," said Doreen.
"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that about the young lady," said the old man, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"But you see; we found this near the crime scene and we confirmed that this was the cloth used to choke her and that it was from here."
Doreen took out a photo of the rag and showed it to the shop owner. He took the photo from her and peered at it. "Yes, I remember this one. Antique. Really old. We only had one."
"We're wondering if you still keep records for customers who bought this rag."
"I'll see what I can do about it."
The old man went into his office. After a few minutes, he came back with a file in his hand and handed it to Doreen.
"This is all the information about the person who bought it."
"All right. Thanks for your help."
"My pleasure. Are you sure you don't wanna buy anything?"
"Umm... no thanks."
"Okay, alright."
The three of them walked out from the shop. "We'll take a look at this at the lab."
Luke and Cali's case
"I don't know if it's one of the old-fashioned people, but we can always ask."
Luke spoke with Timothy again, and while he did, he noticed that he also had a bite mark on his arm.
"How did you get this bite mark?” Luke asked.
"Oh, you know, a dog bit me yesterday. Really nasty animal."
"You mind if we take a picture of that?"
"Eh... that's okay, I guess,” Timothy said.
"Are you sure that there aren't people who still practice the old ways of Genisho?"
"Not that I know about."
Luke's cell phone went off.
He answered his phone, ended the conversation and turned to Cali: "Cal, we got a body."
Doreen, Casey and Sean's case
Casey looked through the papers they got from the shop. So far no one by the name of Kylie Henderson had appeared on the papers. She flipped to the last page, and the first name on the list was Miss Henderson. She highlighted the name and turned around in her seat.
"Hey guys, the vic's on the list,” she said.
"Great job, Casey," said Doreen. She looked at the paper over Casey's shoulder; Sean doing the same.
"Hmm... Looks like she bought it a month ago." She furrowed her eyebrows together. "I don't get it. What is her purple rag doing with her and at the crime scene? I don't see the connection."
"I don't see the connection either. Maybe the vic grabbed it from her apartment when she went jogging to use as a sweat-rag?"
Sean went to speak with the detective. “You got any leads on Shawna Dawson?”
The detective handed him an address.
As Sean was heading for the address his phone rang. It was his fiancée Louise.
"Okay Sean, I’ve got cake plans and flower plans. I need you to look through them"
“Okay I will tonight” replied Sean. “Later hon”
He got to the address to find Shawna in the front garden. He walked up to her and began to question her.
”Did you know miss Henderson?”
”Yes of course! We were best friends!”
”Did you arrange to meet her this morning?”
”No, why?”
”We found your name on a note at her apartment”
Shawna looked concerned. ”What’s this all about officer?”
”Well, we found your friend miss Henderson dead this morning, so were going to need to ask you some questions”
Shawna was shocked, but still she managed to answer. “Of course. Anything I can do to help”
”Do you know if she has a partner?”
”No she’s been single now for, uh… 5 months. Her ex left the country to work in Australia.”
”Has she been in any trouble?”
”Hmm not that I know of. Oh, wait; she did say that someone at work was causing her trouble. She said the girl was after her job.”
”You got a name?”
”Uh… hmm. Hailey Carrigar.”
”Okay. Thank you very much, ma’am. We'll be in touch.”
As Sean walked away, Shawna broke down in tears. It were real tears, not the kind you buy for a dollar 95 down at the kwicki mart.
TBC...
The Crime Lab – case 3: Daily Ritual
A man went jogging in the wee hours of the morning in Central Park. He then stopped to catch his breath. Something on one of the bushes caught his eye. He went over to it, full of curiosity. He picked up a stick just in case it was something else.
He went towards it. When he reached it, he poked inside the bush. A small dog leaped out from it and ran away. The man breathed a sigh of relief. Then an arm flopped out from the bush. The man gasped in horror.
Luke was already on the scene. Severed arms are always interesting, he thought.
He decided to wait for the coroner and his colleagues to know what he should look for in the surroundings. When he looked over the arm, he saw an interesting bite mark.
Not much later Sheldon arrived followed by Cali later.
When Cali arrived on the scene the area was already crawling with cops. There was police tape all around, people surrounding it trying to get a glimpse of what happened. I thought the zoo was the other direction, she thought disgusted.
She flashed her id as she crossed the tape and made her way over to where her colleagues were standing. Tentatively she looked around and made a note to check out some knife marks in a nearby tree.
"So, Sheldon, what can you tell us?" Cali asked the ME.
Meanwhile, in another part of Central Park…
Doreen came to the crime scene, holding her kit. She saw Detective Flack talking to some people. He noticed her and went over to her.
"Spill," she told him.
He told her that someone found the dead body of a woman. Apparently a jogger.
"No one else knows what happened to her except that she jogs here everyday?" she asked the detective. He just nodded in reply.
"Hmmm... This is gonna be tough."
Casey grabbed her kit and got out of the car. There were people everywhere, and she made her way through, showing her badge to people who gave her some dirty looks. She went under the caution tape and walked over to the detective and another CSI.
"So what do we got here?" she asked, putting her sunglasses on top of her head.
Doreen saw Casey arriving at the crime scene. "Morning, Casey," she greeted. "Nothing like a case to wake you up in the morning, eh?"
She and Casey walked towards the body of the dead woman.
"Dead female jogger. No one knows anything on how she died except the fact that she does her jogging here. I don't see any blood so maybe there's another cause of death," Doreen explained to Casey. "We may have to bring the body back to HQ and let Sheldon examine it. In the mean time, we should process this scene."
“Hey ladies, I hear we got a dead jogger. Who says exercise doesn’t kill?”
After the coroner cleared the body Sean checked for a wallet or purse. As he searched her pockets, it turned up some loose change, and an apartment key card for the Natalie apartments room 104, and the name Miss Kylie Henderson.
”Well, we got a name and an address. That’s always a start.”
"Great," said Doreen. She took pictures of the victim's things, putting a number card near each evidence.
"Casey, Sean, you two should come and see this," she said, putting on a pair of latex gloves and picking up a plastic bottle.
Casey put the woman’s belongings in separate bags and went over to where Doreen was.
"What is it?" she asked, also putting on some gloves and looking at the bottle. "Looks like a pill container."
"Pill container?" said Doreen. "Looks like we have to see what type of pills she was on."
She picked up her camera. "I'm gonna take some pictures of the evidence now."
After Doreen was finished taking pictures, Casey put the container in a bag and put it in her vest.
"Look at this," she said, indicating towards the scratches on the woman’s arms. "Looks like someone -or something- really wanted her dead."
"Or maybe she had a really cranky cat," said Doreen, raising en eyebrow.
She suddenly spotted something. A Pepsi coke can. "Could be the vic's," she said. "But I don't get it. Why would you take your pill with a carbonated drink? Isn't that dangerous?"
"Yeah, I thought so. The medicine and the sugar in the drink would mix and it would probably cause some serious damage. "
Casey walked over to the can and picked it up. "I'll dust it to see if there are any usable prints left."
"Then maybe that's her cause of death? Mixing those two together?"
With that Doreen took her camera and snapped pictures of the crime scene.
"Possibly."
Casey finished dusting the can and found a print near the bottom of the can. "I found one!" she said. She lifted the print and gave it to Doreen. "You think it's hers?"
"Considering you only found one print, I'm thinking it's hers."
Suddenly Detective Flack came over to them, saying that he'd just interviewed the woman who’d found the body. The CSIs decided to interview her themselves.
"Hi, I'm Doreen Messer from the crime lab with Casey Sanders and Sean Davis. Tell us; when did you find the body?"
"I was just taking my daily stroll around the park and then I rested on a bench. Something by the sides caught my eye and that's when I saw the body."
"Did you see anyone else around the area?"
"No. I didn't see anyone."
"All right. Thanks for your time."
The three CSIs walked away and back to their kits. "Well, that's a start."
Detective Brass pointed out to Luke where the jogger was. He decided to ask him some questions.
"Hello sir, Lucas Versteeg, I'm with the New York crime lab. Could you tell me how you discovered the arm?"
"Well, I saw some weird movements and heard strange sounds in the bushes. When I came closer a dog jumped out of it and soon after the arm fell out."
"A dog? Well that explains something."
Sheldon told Cali that some sort of big knife probably cut off the arm, presumably when the victim was still alive.
"Wow, that must have hurt. He must have seen it coming. Horrible to be treated like that."
Sheldon said the victim was probably female.
Luke got back and looked at the bite again. "Let me guess. Dog bite?"
Sheldon pointed out that the dental marks were human.
"Really? I...I...Frankly I've got no clue of where this is going."
The only remarkable feature on the arm was a ring, with some sort of Tribal sign on it.
Cali surveyed the ring with interest. It had a very cool but very scary design on it.
Leaving Luke to look at the arm and its evidence she went back to the tree with the strange markings on it. Upon closer examination they appeared to be carvings. The somewhat erratic lines appeared to form the same symbol as the ring sported.
After photographing it, she pulled out a magnifier. There were small objects embedded in the tree. One was a small piece of yellow glass with some sort of trace on it. The other was a tiny bit of metal, probably from whatever blade had carved this. Finally she saw that in some of the indentations there were bloody streaks. Maybe the arm was removed then the cutting implement used to mark the tree.
"Yeah, we really have no good leads." Casey said. "How'd she end up here? Was this the actual crime scene or just the dump site?"
She went back to the body and looked at the scratches again. "They aren't really that deep, so it could have been caused by a pet, but they look fresh."
Casey took out a swab and gently swabbed the area for any blood.
Sheldon couldn't understand the arm. It was definitely cut off while the victim was alive, judging by the skin and the blood, but where had the victim bled?
Sadly, the fun of that search was up to the CSIs.
"Human," Sheldon mumbled to himself after he had spoken to Luke. He stood up, leaving the arm to be collected by his crew, and slipped off his gloves.
"Contact me immediately when you find the rest of the body, I want to see this," Sheldon told Luke.
Doreen, Casey and Sean's case
"We’d better get this body back to Sheldon. He'll figure out how she died," said Doreen.
"My hunches are telling me that maybe, you know, this is just an accident."
She watched as the morgue attendants brought the body onto a stretcher. "But we have to get Sheldon to confirm that first."
Sean let the girls know he was off to check Ms Henderson's apartment. Then he left to meet a police officer at the scene.
The apartments were about 10 minute jogging from central park, spacious and modern probably with a rather large price tag. He got there and exchanged pleasantries with the officer. Then he began to look inside. Everything seemed normal; catalogues, DVD’s, CD's, laptop, and filled fridge. Sean bagged the laptop and had a skim through her mail. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, when he saw her notice board, "meet Shawn 7:30am CP" with a big circle. Hmm. We were called to the scene around 9 and CP could be Central Park. He bagged her address book too; it could come in handy. Sean began to search through her cupboards when he found 20 pill packets that matched the one found at the scene. Interesting, he thought.
Luke and Cali's Case
Cali headed back to the lab to investigate her findings. First she developed her photos of the markings in the tree. Using the computer she enhanced the shape and began a computer search.
While that search was running she sent the blood sample to DNA, then began on the glass fragment. There was a white powder on it. She carefully lifted and processed it. The results came back and she surveyed them with interest.
Cali called Luke on his cell to report, "I have that symbol running through the computer, nothing yet. But that yellow glass I found in the tree had traces of heroin on it. I'm going to have a tox screen run on the arm, see what comes up. How are you doing?"
Luke talked to Cali: "I actually know a little bit more about that ring. There was a name on the back: "Genisho". I did some research on the net, and it apparently is some kind of group that has meetings once in a while. Their website doesn't say much, except some hippie-stuff, like "You can choose to be happy" and "Let us be free". Here comes the good part: They have got a session in the centre of Central Park in an hour. Wanna come check it out with me?"
Doreen, Casey and Sean's case
"Maybe it was an accident. We also have to wait for Sean to get back from the vic's home."
Casey peeled off her gloves and put them in her kit to throw away later. "I'm gonna go on back to the lab, you coming?"
"Yeah. I'm coming to the lab with you."
The two of them went back to the lab. Sean was still investigating. On the way, Doreen stopped by the autopsy room.
"I think Sheldon should have the COD of the vic by now," she said.
Luke and Cali's Case
"Wow, that's lucky," answered Cali. "I'll be there in forty. Where's it at?"
Luke gave her the directions and she put her work aside for when she got back. On her way out though she dropped the metal fragment off with an expert to find out everything they could about the possible weapon.
Doreen, Casey and Sean’s case
After processing all the links, Sean came up with three links. The name Shawn probably related to Shawna Dawson who was in the vic’s e-mails and phone book.
The pills where prescribed by Dr De Voss and appeared to be some sort of sleeping tablet,
and the company she worked for was named Pierce Auction Houses.
Luke and Cali’s case
Luke and Cali were in Central Park again. The group wasn't very hard to find. Around 15 people were sitting in the grass, making weird movements with their arms in the air.
"This seems...interesting."
The leader, a 40-something male, noticed the two CSI's.
"Hello friends. Would you like to join us?"
Luke smiled and said: "No thank you, we'll just observe for now if that's all right."
He turned to Cali and said: "Maybe watching what they do might give us more than asking them questions. Let's do that when they're done."
The two CSI's scrutinized every detail of the group during the hour-long session. Cali's eyes were drawn to a necklace that each one wore. They looked like yellow stained glass with the same symbol that kept appearing.
"Luke," she quietly addressed her companion, "Those necklaces are made from the same kind of glass as the fragment I found in the tree. It would be real easy to break or chip one in a struggle."
"Good thinking, Cal.", Luke said to his colleague.
"Maybe one of them is broken? Or does someone miss his or her necklace?
Luke decided to talk to the man that appeared to be their leader.
"Excuse me, sir. Luke Versteeg from the crime lab. We absolutely enjoyed your meeting, but could you tell us a little bit more about what your...believe is about?"
"My name is Timothy. Genisho is about embracing life at it purest. We think that you should be able to make yourself happy and erase everything that makes you unhappy."
"And with erasing, you mean killing?"
"No, no! We don't kill or destroy. Everything is totally appropriate."
"Good. Did you by any chance miss somebody at this meeting?"
"I missed Claire. She's a regular, she must be ill or something."
"Can you give us a last name? Location? No, we don't talk about ourselves much. Just about life."
"Okay. So everything is appropriate right? You don't indulge in sacrifices of any sort."
"Eh... people who practiced Genisho used to, but that's all old fashioned. Like I said, we don't kill.
"Okay, Timothy. You'll hear from us."
"Alright, so maybe there's a few of those old fashioned, sacrificial guys around," commented Cali. "Now where do we find them?"
Doreen, Casey and Sean's case
Sheldon said that he still needed to examine the body to know the cause of death of the victim. He said that this was tricky and that he'd need some more time.
Doreen and Casey waited for him to do so. Sheldon finally said that he was done examining the body.
"Finally!" said Doreen, smiling. "I though you'd never be finished with it."
"She never drank the Pepsi, or took the pills." Sheldon said. He pointed to a pan that held the victims stomach contents; it wasn't much. "Looks like she didn't want to throw up while she was running."
Sheldon had taken his time to determine cause of death; it was a tricky one. All of the obvious clues had been at the crime scene, but none of them had to do with the victim.
"Cause of death was asphyxiation, I found some fibres in her mouth, they're in there" Sheldon pointed to a tray. There were a few containers lined along it, one holding the fibres. He picked it up and handed it to Doreen.
"Now, you're fun begins," he said, smiling.
"That'll be my job," said Doreen, smiling and taking the fibres from Sheldon. "Thanks, doc."
She and Casey got to the lab, to process the fibres. Doreen examined the single fibre while referring to a book.
"Got it," she told Casey. "Cotton. See the colour?"
Casey peered into the microscope and said that all she saw was the colour purple.
"Exactly," said Doreen. "Someone used a purple cloth to choke her. I think we better question people around the park again."
The three CSIs got back at the crime scene. Doreen was searching through the bushes for. Suddenly Sean called her and said that he found a purple cloth stashed deep in a rubbish bin.
"Great. We'll bring this back to the lab to check."
After going back to the lab to examine the cloth, Casey waited impatiently for the results of the fingerprint she found on the Pepsi can. AFIS found a match and the paper printed out from the machine. She found Doreen and Sean in another part of the building.
"Hey guys, I got a match to the fingerprint… I don't know if it'll help though,” she said.
Sean had processed the purple rag. Turned out he had found the vic’s DNA all over the rag, however the strange thing was, the rag turned out to be between 200 and 300 years old.
”I think it’s about time we paid her work place a visit,” said Sean to the girls.
”To the auction house we go.”
The three CSIs made their way to the auction house. An elderly man greeted them.
"Good day. I am the owner of the shop. How may I help you three youngsters today?" he said.
"Doreen Messer, Casey Sanders and Sean Davis. We're from the New York crime lab. A woman was found dead in Central Park. She worked here and died from asphyxiation," said Doreen.
"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that about the young lady," said the old man, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"But you see; we found this near the crime scene and we confirmed that this was the cloth used to choke her and that it was from here."
Doreen took out a photo of the rag and showed it to the shop owner. He took the photo from her and peered at it. "Yes, I remember this one. Antique. Really old. We only had one."
"We're wondering if you still keep records for customers who bought this rag."
"I'll see what I can do about it."
The old man went into his office. After a few minutes, he came back with a file in his hand and handed it to Doreen.
"This is all the information about the person who bought it."
"All right. Thanks for your help."
"My pleasure. Are you sure you don't wanna buy anything?"
"Umm... no thanks."
"Okay, alright."
The three of them walked out from the shop. "We'll take a look at this at the lab."
Luke and Cali's case
"I don't know if it's one of the old-fashioned people, but we can always ask."
Luke spoke with Timothy again, and while he did, he noticed that he also had a bite mark on his arm.
"How did you get this bite mark?” Luke asked.
"Oh, you know, a dog bit me yesterday. Really nasty animal."
"You mind if we take a picture of that?"
"Eh... that's okay, I guess,” Timothy said.
"Are you sure that there aren't people who still practice the old ways of Genisho?"
"Not that I know about."
Luke's cell phone went off.
He answered his phone, ended the conversation and turned to Cali: "Cal, we got a body."
Doreen, Casey and Sean's case
Casey looked through the papers they got from the shop. So far no one by the name of Kylie Henderson had appeared on the papers. She flipped to the last page, and the first name on the list was Miss Henderson. She highlighted the name and turned around in her seat.
"Hey guys, the vic's on the list,” she said.
"Great job, Casey," said Doreen. She looked at the paper over Casey's shoulder; Sean doing the same.
"Hmm... Looks like she bought it a month ago." She furrowed her eyebrows together. "I don't get it. What is her purple rag doing with her and at the crime scene? I don't see the connection."
"I don't see the connection either. Maybe the vic grabbed it from her apartment when she went jogging to use as a sweat-rag?"
Sean went to speak with the detective. “You got any leads on Shawna Dawson?”
The detective handed him an address.
As Sean was heading for the address his phone rang. It was his fiancée Louise.
"Okay Sean, I’ve got cake plans and flower plans. I need you to look through them"
“Okay I will tonight” replied Sean. “Later hon”
He got to the address to find Shawna in the front garden. He walked up to her and began to question her.
”Did you know miss Henderson?”
”Yes of course! We were best friends!”
”Did you arrange to meet her this morning?”
”No, why?”
”We found your name on a note at her apartment”
Shawna looked concerned. ”What’s this all about officer?”
”Well, we found your friend miss Henderson dead this morning, so were going to need to ask you some questions”
Shawna was shocked, but still she managed to answer. “Of course. Anything I can do to help”
”Do you know if she has a partner?”
”No she’s been single now for, uh… 5 months. Her ex left the country to work in Australia.”
”Has she been in any trouble?”
”Hmm not that I know of. Oh, wait; she did say that someone at work was causing her trouble. She said the girl was after her job.”
”You got a name?”
”Uh… hmm. Hailey Carrigar.”
”Okay. Thank you very much, ma’am. We'll be in touch.”
As Sean walked away, Shawna broke down in tears. It were real tears, not the kind you buy for a dollar 95 down at the kwicki mart.
TBC...