Morningstar Manor

Cassandra Clayton was one of those girls that absolutely everyone who counted knew. She was on the cheerleading team, did drama, dance and singing, was on the year book committee and was a student representative on the school counselling board.

And tonight would be her really big night because tonight was Prom Night and if she didn't shine it would be no fault of hers.

Smiling she left Madame Therese's establishment - it was far to grand to be called a shop and walked along the street, making mental notes of what she had done - hair, shoes, underwear, dress!

She smiled and paused by the Subway to peep into the bag, reaching in to push the folds of tissue aside so she could see the rich dark gold satin, the delicate beading. She turned so the beads caught the light then frowned as the bag jerked in her hand.

Behind her there was a muffled shout and she looked towards the Subway window, seeing the hole and the starring without comprehension. Just inside a middle aged man was sliding from his seat, red spreading across his chest and the waitress had just started to scream.

Chad was sitting in a plastic chair, scowling. He had notebook in his left hand and file open on the next chair. There was an angry slash across his cheek from where he'd cut himself shaving. Chad had been startled this morning, having thought he'd seen something in his mirror. It wasn't like him to imagine things like this and he couldn't seem to find any reason why the cases were piling up at the precinct. Maybe he needed to not work so much on this. Maybe he needed to unstress. Maybe he just needed a temporary distraction.

Icene had come into work on the Friday, straight from the scene at Riverwalk Park, she'd taken an hour's nap at her desk before the shifts had changed over, and was currently locked into her lab and working on the four casings they'd found. They'd found two rounds as well, through and through shots that had been quite a way from the bodies. Those had been found nearer dawn, and given the location of the bodies, the damage, and the distance from them to the rounds Icene was confident they'd both been shot at point blank range.

Rubbing tiredly at her eyes, and knowing she needed coffee, she headed for the staff lounge, hoping that someone sensible had made a jug.

There was a jug, and tea as well. It was well known that the field teams needed a little pampering when they came back from a job so some trouble had been taken to welcome them. Sally poured the coffee's and passed them around then picked up the tea pot. "Am I the only one for tea again? Damned if I don't give up making it."

"If it's better than the coffee someone was making last week, I might switch to it." Icene took a cup of coffee and slumped into a chair. "Does everyone have their assignments for today? Callum, can you take field I need to stay in the lab and work on last night's evidence."

"Sure," Callum grunted. "You made a list of what you want us to cover or shall we just double check? See if anything shows up by daylight."

"Go over everything, just in case, the tent should still be up, have them take it down and once you're done get the clean up crew in and re-open the site." Icene sipped at the coffee, "Sally, don't go making such good coffee, or you are never going to make field, we'll keep you in here." She smiled tiredly, "However, thanks, I do appreciate good coffee."

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Kendo and Bruce - those weren't their real names, but they thought they sounded cool - eyed each other as the footsteps crunching the gravel drew closer.

Just a bit of fun, that's all. The place was full of vagrants and while they didn't usually have much money sometimes they had other things. Things that could be taken. Things that could be played with then destroyed. People like that didn't matter, did they, or they wouldn't be sleeping rough and drinking out of a bottle in a bag?

They SHOULD have been home because it was a school day tomorrow but it was a long time since their parents had given up trying to tell them to do anything. Hanging round the park was much more fun.

Peering through the bushes, they saw a dark figure wrapped in a heavy coat shuffling closer and Kendo grinned at Bruce and they both took out their knives.

They wouldn't use them, not this time, not unless the old guy cut up rough.

They jumped out, shouting, pushing, demanding. "Come on, pop, what you got?" Bruce demanded, always the more aggressive. He flashed his blade in what little light there was and Kendo gasped excitely, "Go on, stick him!"

The well wrapped figure stumbled back and raised his hands. "That's right, pop," Bruce urged. "Hand it over."

Then Kendo saw it - the dark object gleaming in the steady hands levelled at Bruce's face.

The shots were shatteringly loud at close range and Kendo sucked in a breath to scream - but there wasn't time. No time.

Two more shots and a quick flurry of movement, then the two bodies were tumbled back into the bushes, stripped of cash, phones, iPods and trainers.

The figure shambled away, keeping to the shadows, and had reached the far side of the park before he saw the first lights and heard the first sirens.

Icene was aware that this interview was about as far from the event as she could afford to leave it. Already impressions and memories would probably be fading, and at best she could hope to corroborate the physical evidence they had, and maybe improve the storyline of the event.

It was an office day for her, she'd been in court this morning and now leaned back in her chair, the green silk shirt tucked neatly into charcoal grey pants, her hair held out of her way by pulling part of it back into a clip, although the rest hung loose down her back. Under her desk, black heeled pumps sat neatly to one side, and stockinged feet kneaded the carpet gently.

She looked up as one of her team knocked a little timidly on her door, and announced the arrival of her two witnesses. Almost immediately her feet went back into her shoes, and she suppressed a sigh as she stood up, a slight smile on her face. "Gentlemen, thank you for coming in to see me today, I hope it wasn't too inconvenient for you?"

Icene was kind of grumpy. A quiet day, followed by covering the front end of the swing shift, and now, just at the end of that, the call had come in. With a sigh, Icene had gathered the team, and briefed them quickly, then, in two Hummers they'd headed out for the scene. As was the case with most crime scenes, it looked like chaos, lots of people standing around doing not a lot as they waited for the right people to arrive. Icene was glad to see the body was still in situ, and immediately directed the team's photographer to start taking a thorough record of the scene and the victim. Icene then left the team to it, bagging evidence was their job, and headed over to where a familiar face was standing.

"Hi Chad, what have we got tonight then? Any sign of Dr Morrow's van?" Her tone of voice was cool, her expression bland, her eyes taking in as much detail as she could before the scene and surroundings were irrevocably altered.

Chad recognized her and smiled, though the scene was grim. He'd been patrolling, trying to get other witnesses to step forward while protecting the scene from possible contamination with the other officers on duty. He called over another officer and broke away from the main group, preventing anything to slip out for the rumor mill to circulate. "There's a mess on the sidewalk and a couple witnesses. Probably nothing usable, since it pertains to vehicle over person, but anything helps, right?"

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"Don't get me wrong," Larry was saying. "Anna is my soul - I adore her AND the kids but sometimes it's just so good to get out of the house. Thanks Del."

Del leaned back in the passenger seat of Larry's truck and looked out of the window. "My pleasure," he said. "I've missed you too. The Manor has some nice people but they aren't the sort I can go to a bar for pool with, if you know what I mean. Well, I could with Eris but ..."

"So, Anna wants to know when we get to meet this girl," Larry asked with a grin. "Not that we're nosy or anything - just interested."

Del chuckled. "No of course you're not," he said. "I'll ask. Maybe we could go out for a few drinks one night - if you can get a sitter."

"Yeah," Larry agreed then growled as an SUV pulled out ahead of them. "What am I? Invisible?" he demanded. "You mofo," he added as the vehicle braked and slowed. ( Read more... )

"...seventeen year-old, Caucasian male. According to preliminary paperwork, TOD was at approximately 4:40 p.m. on March the tenth, 2008. Liver temp. confirms. Body shows multiple fractures and abrasions concurrent with fall from bike. Autopsy set to determine COD, but most likely was due to severe head trauma." Greg, who had been dictating to a digital voice recorder, pressed stop and jerked his head in the direction of his assistant in forensic pathology. "Why is it so quiet in here? Can you put on a CD, or something?"

"Too dead for ya?" the man quipped.

"Ten points for originality, Gary. Just put something on. I don't care what, as long as it isn't that Dave Mathews crap you were listening to yesterday."

( Warning: Somewhat Graphic )

Icene was covering the front end of the swing shift again, and she'd been working on analysing some bullet fragments. With the answers coming clear, the fragments were from two different bullets, but the same size, and judging by the rifling marks and the way they lined up, most likely the same gun. Satisfied, she put the evidence away, printed and filed the report, then headed for the staff lounge for a coffee. She'd barely made it there when her cell buzzed to let her know new evidence was coming in. They gave her a brief run down, multiple vehicle RTA involving a teenager and a motorbike. The kid had apparently fallen off, causing the pile up. The bike was badly damaged, the kid dead.

Icene changed course, sighing with regret for the loss of another young life, and after hanging up called the lab team to the evidence room to gather up the new evidence, log it and get on with their analysis. The bike was truly mangled, at least one car had to have driven right over it, and it had been burned too. Icene set two of the field CSI's on the bike, she wanted to know everything about it. She called out to the scene to see if they could get the car that had gone over the bike too, and was pleased when they said it was already en route as it wasn't driveable. Leaving two more field agents to go over the car, Icene turned to the lab staff, they were already picking through the bags, pulling out evidence for their own analysis, and passing on evidence to others. "Are we all sorted? Anything for me?"

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