Participants:
| Scene Title | Glow In The Dark |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Martin Crowley and Lashirah Lee spend some time together analyzing bodies and harassing Veronica Sawyer in the lab. |
| Date | March 24, 2010 |
It's been a busy day.
That's the first thought that can sum up how this particular Wednesday has been, and it's only going to get busier. With the flick of a switch, Company agent Lashirah Lee turns on slowly flickering rows of fluorescent ceiling lights in the subterranean laboratory levels of Fort Hero. Rows of morgue slabs are illuminated by the lights, three body-bagged corpses laying out on wheeled tables, with a fourth slab containing the waterlogged corpse of the man pulled out of the east river just earlier today.
With the lights on, the glow of Lashirah's computer monitors seem far more subdued, and the click of her shoes on the floor moves in rhythm to the motion sensor LED atop her computer, which activates the iPod dock between her two computer towers. The screen flicks on, flashes, and resumes play from the last track stopped.
A hammerdown of guitars and drums throbs out through the lab as she moves between the slabs of bodies, each one having a toe tag dangling off of them, one by one unzipping the bodybags to get a good view of them. Three Chinese men and one Caucasian, three dead from natural causes and nother from what — judging from the big split in his skull — Lashirah's first guess is going to be blunt force trauma.
Ahem. The sound goes unheard, and the dark haired researcher bobs her way in a serpentine pattern between the morgue slabs to the back of the laboratory where a biological freezer stands, lit inside to illuminate racks of blood and tissue samples. The door's opened, and from the bowels of the medical freezer… a bright neon-blue plastic cup of Slush-O is pulled out from within, completely with bendy red straw.
"I said, AHEM." Comes from the doorway a second time, where Assistant-Director Martin Crowley stands, eyes rolling and arms folded across his chest, a bright red folder tucked into one of them and brows furrowed, eyes angling a look towards the iPod that fills the lab with blaring music.
"Evenin' Agent Lee." Martin notes with a sigh.
Lashirah sighs softly and flicks her hand a certain way, the motion sensor reading it as a 'stop' command. "Evening it is." She looks again at the slabs, raising an eyebrow.
"Call it a hunch but… Triad problems lately?" She asks as she makes sure the sealed lid is still intact before sipping at the oh-so-good caffeinated beverage of choice these last few weeks. "Definitely not how I planned to spend my day off." She shakes her head. "Burglary, murder, possible kidnapping… and now something else on the tables."
"Ah," Martin wrinkles his nose, offering a disturbed look down at the corpses as he edges far away from them on his approach through the lab, "yes well— never a dull moment 'round 'ere is there?" His brows lift helplessly as he looks over the frames of his glasses to Lashirah, then lifts up the folder he's carrying to refresh his memory on the bodies. He stops at the furthest dead man from Lashirah, one brow lifting as he reads off the report. "Cao Lin-Shen, age 43. Found in a dumpster in Red Hook on the 20th of February…" he glances at the body and the sewn up split on his chest from the previous NYPD autopsy. "No discernible cause of death and— " Martin's lips creep up into a smile and he turns the page, moving on to the next body slowly.
"Ronald Ho, age 46, found on the sixteenth of March in an alleyway behind a restaurant in Chinatown. No discernable cause of death…" he adds a little sing-song quality to his voice there, moving down the line to the next body, flipping to the third page.
"Johnathan Han, age 30, found dead in a back alley in Little Italy." Then, with a raise of his brows, Martin closes the folder and adds in pointed fashion; "No. Discernible. Cause. Of. Death." With each verbally punctuated word he takes a step across the lab, moving over for Lashirah's Ultra-Violet light bar, a black plastic case with a glass front and a UV lamp inside.
"'Ow's this for discernible?" Martin asks as he flicks the purple glowing light on and walks over to the closest body of that belonging to Mr.Han. He lifts the light up and holds it up to the man's chest, revealing a luminescent green skeletal hand print on the man's chest, both dark brows lifted as he looks to Lashirah.
"Freaky, innit?"
Lashirah says, "wow" She stops, and tilts her head. "This body hasn't been treated with Luminol I'm guessing to show blood… that wouldn't glow green either…" She tilts her head. "Right. Three autopsies… of 'no discernible causes' with glowing Skeletor hand prints." She frowns, and looks at the split open skull. "So what's so funny 'bout him?""
Martin glances over at the waterlogged corpse, "Oh beats me I din' even look at 'is papers yet." The Brit mentions with a lopsided smile. "I just thought it was interestin', that the NYPD thought that they'd try and 'andle this themselves, an' then came craaaawlin' back t'us." Lifting his brows with an amused expression, Martin lays down the file folder on the side of one of the slabs, handing off the UV lamp to Lashirah. "There's very few abilities that leave permanent traceable marks on people outside of traditional forces. Most of the time you're dealing with something tha' effects the mind or the body in subtle undetectable ways."
Pursing his lips, Martin seems almost giddy like a kid in a candy store. "These three 'ere, I cross-referenced glowin' skeletal handprints through the Company archives, an' came up with— " Martin grins broadly, "get this— zero. Tha' means we're likely dealin' with a 'ole new power 'ere, somethin' we ain't never seen before. I've got the NYPD's autopsy reports 'ere. They did a full scan and blood work on the corpses," he takes out the papers for the three Triad members, "Tox screen an' all that. Seems they didn't even find the glowin' 'and prints until the third body came in, an' that's when they came t'us."
Rubbing a hand at the side of his cheek, Martin lifts his brows and slants a look at Lashirah. "I 'ope you're ready for the long haul, 'cause I want you to re-run all those lab tests 'an do a second string autopsy on these three for tomorrow's evenin' meetin'. If you don't 'ave time t'get to ol' drippy back there," he motions over his shoulder to the corpse from today, "tha's fine. But these three," a hand waves in the direction of the dead Triad members. "These three I want done up good."
Lashirah sighs. "Right. Who's around to haul in some chow in a few hours?" She asks as she digs out lab exam gloves. She then scrapes a bit of skin from the affected part of each man and puts it in a test tube for later examining. Then it's to starting up the blood and tissue work, so that those processes can be going before she starts on the slice-and-dice. "Oh, and do we know of any REALLY powerful telekenetics wandering around lately, by name? It seems that there's one who's not afraid to use it lately."
Grinning broadly, Martin reaches to his side and pulls out his cell phone, snapping it open with a flick of his wrist before leaning down and beginning to type in a text message. "I think Agent Sawyer is out on call still, I'll 'ave 'er pick up some Chinese— " Martin cracks a sly smile, "I feel like some 'Ot an' Sour Soup, 'ow 'bout you?" There's a crooked, impish grin on the grizzled director's face as he lifts his brows, slowly typing in the text message, then glances up to Lashirah.
"I can take a look, I heard Ryans' report. Agent Ayers is goin' t'scan through the database an' see what we've bagged over the years an' cataloged. If we find anything tha' matches, we'll 'ave it at the meetin'. I'm expandin' the search to Ferrokinetics an' Gravitokinetics too, jus' in case there's any doubt."
Grimacing as he glances over to the bodies and that Lashirah is actually getting right into work.
"I'll, ah— if you don't mind while you're all— " there's a wrinkle of Martin's nose, and he motions towards the door to the lab. "You— keep me abreast of what you find, yeah?"
Lashirah chuckles. "General Tso's Chicken for me. With some fried rice. have her get extra. This is going to take most the night." She isn't kidding and she knows it. Particularly as she has NO idea what could CAUSE glowing green handprints. Pardon, glowing UV reactive handprints.
Grinning mischeviously, Martin continues thumb typing on the tiny keyboard as he walks out of the lab, proud to have that one moment of investigative joy in revealing the luminescent hand prints, and finding even more joy in the message he leaves for Agent Sawyer. It's not as though he doesn't like her, but she's just so eminently easy to pick on.
V. 1 order of Hot & Sour soup. 2 General Tso's Chicken. 2 Fried Rice. Thx — Martin.
Yes, she's become his errand girl.