Participants:
| Scene Title | A Mark For A Hanging |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Felix and Rebecca visit Todd Marks' apartment to try and get a handle on why he hung himself. |
| Date | July 10, 2009 |
Apartment of Todd Marks — Bayside, Queens
Sometimes the unexplained, just cannot be explained. Sometimes, there's an underlying reason but it just takes a keen eye to see it. Sometimes, it's right there in front of your face. With this, it's clear to the coronor that this was a suicide. That Todd Marks took his own life and the case should be closed. Yet, apparently it bothered someone enough that Rebecca Nakano was called and asked to look into the scene, and to give her ability a workout off the record to see if hunches can be proven.
Walking into the apartment with Felix Ivanov, there's always a sense of forboding in the air knowing that a death occurred. That feeling always seems to be multiplied when that death is self inflicted. "I'm just going to walk around for a bit to see if I notice anything out of place." she says, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Turning her back to the agent as she walks on, she pulls out a bottle, popping the top and takes a couple of pills, chewing them down as she feels a migraine already coming aboard.
Felix is there to be general factotum, and wish he had a more useful skill for law enforcement, when it comes to the dispersal of powers. Not that his two haven't helped a bit in their day, really. The official ruling is suicide….but with what's been going on, Fel doesn't believe it. Not for a moment. He trails after her, mutely.
Rebecca wanders through the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom. It's all academic. Others have already scoured this place with a fine tooth comb, but she has been known to catch things others have missed. Her skill is not the interpret, but to notice. The medicine cabinet has already been cleared, the closet has been rifled through. Whatever happened to Todd Marks, was apparently not the result of anything that happened inside this apartment that was not already identified. She glances at the agent and picks up one of the kitchen chairs and sets it in the center of the living room. "I think I'm ready now. Just, keep an eye on me. These have been doing a number on me and I'd rather not have to be picked up off the ground today." she gives him a weary smile.
"I'm here with you," Felix says, encouragingly. "Should ….how close should I stand? You fall over when one of these takes you?" Hey, it's a stupid question, but better safe than sorry, right?
Rebecca shrugs. "Sometimes, it really depends. Just make sure I don't fall. I haven't had anyone actually touch me during one of these to see how it might affect what I see, but if I start to fall out of the chair, I'd appreciate the save." she gives a sheepish grin. She reaches down into her bag and extracts a ladder. She turns to face the entrance, then lifts the mirror and almost immediately she begins to see. Knowing how far back helps, as she is able to scan backwards, but once she starts to watch, there's no stopping and everything is real time.
Todd Marks enters his apartment in what can only be described as total and utter calm. Perhaps it's to be expected. Those about to commit suicide could possibly enter into a dissociative state. It could be that such a state is the only reason their emotions don't prevent them from going through with it. But still, experts would expect a look of grief and pain to be written all over the face of any man, woman, or child who is about to commit suicide.
The man walks into the bathroom and collects all the towels, soaking them thoroughly with water from the bathtub faucet. After wringing them out so that they do not drip, he carefully places them along the bottom of the apartment door, wedging them underneath it as far as they will go without leaking water into the hallway.
In a smooth motion, Todd walks from the front door, grabs the chair from his desk and places it directly below the ceiling fan. His belt is removed and slung around his neck and held taught before being wound around and knotted on a fan blade. Already, his face begins to go red. Then, in a move terribly uncharacteristic of suicides, he straightens his glasses. Only then does he kick the chair out from under him.
While others may struggle, as gravity and the make-shift noose cut off his air supply and proper blood flow to his brain, he remains completely still — placid. He reaches up and removes his glasses, folds them, and lets them fall to the floor. A grin plays upon his lips only for a moment before his eyes close. When they open again, it's fear and confusion, his eyes going bloody from petechial hemorrhaging. They widen and then slowly close, his face purple. His body goes limp.
Rebecca flips the mirror over, not allowing herself to get sucked back in. Her head immediately begins to throb, but she doesn't yet notice that small trickle of blood that begins to seep from her nose. This isn't the first time for the blood, but it's also not a common thing for her. Only when that first drop hits the white of her blouse does she realize. "Oh God.." she mutters, putting the back of her hand up to try and stop her nose from bleeding.
And Felix, without a magician's flourish but with the speed of one, has an actual cotton hankie for her, which he proffers wordlessly. His eyes are gleaming with that unholy curiosity - some people aren't cops for necessarily the right reasons, at least not all the time. But he doesn't press her to explain.
Being the person of detail that Rebecca is, this gift is nearly perfect for her. She takes the hanky and holds it to her nose as she begins to share the intricacies of the vision with Felix, starting from the moment that Marks walked into the room to when he adjusted his glasses and kicked the chair out from underneath him. "I'd almost say he was drugged, but then suddenly it was like he didn't want to be there. Could be someone with persuasion.." she begins to ramble now. With her head hurting and her nose bleeding, she's starting to lose her train of thought.
"That's what I'm thinking. Coerced somehow," Fel agrees, eagerly. "Some sort of remote telepathy, perhaps?"
Rebecca tucks the mirror back into her case and nods. "Something like that. Unless someone can preprogram someone like that and just let them go. Mostly, what we have is alot of speculation, I think. Unless we can match it up with another crime.." she stands and steadies herself. That vertigo she normally feels has seemingly passed, as she looks towards the agent. "Is there anything else we need to do here?"
"Well, it confirms we didn't miss anything on the physical level," Fel says, sounding a little hangdog.