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| Scene Title | Harvard Blues |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Investigating the death of William Harvard finds a few answers, and adds a few more questions. |
| Date | July 9, 2009 |
Condo of William Harvard
It's been two days since the death of William Harvard, SCOUT Leader. The fire that started at the dining table did not spread as far all that far, so Harvard's death by burning does not make very much sense, unless you take into account the possibility that the female killer that is running around burning victims, mostly beyond recognition. Yet, this time she left Harvard in tact, perhaps thinking the fire would finish the job, or she fled due to the approaching sirens.
Already ruled out is the death by the blaze, since he had little burns on the exterior of his body, with most of the 'burning' being done inside starting with the heart. On the floor is the outline of where his body fell, and little else to tell you what may have occurred during the moments before his death. The only other curious finding from the coroners office was that his right foot was also burned, starting from the inside and working it's way out. Fire inspectors have completed their investigations, though they haven't given any sort of ruling yet as to how they think the fire started.
The arson investigators and fire chiefs wouldn't even let them come in until now, making sure they had what they needed and there were no hot spots left. Today is the first day they've allowed police officers fully into the crime scene. Elisabeth lifts the yellow tape at the door and leads Cassidy and Rebecca into the apartment. She's very quiet as she steps into Will's apartment for the first time in months. Her eyes slide across the mostly pristine living room and then into the dining room. She had dinner with him the last time she was here … a celebration of her acceptance onto the squad. In spite of their disagreements, she respected the man as an officer and as her boss. This…. really bothers her. Sucking in a deep breath, she slips her hands into latex gloves and says quietly, "I doubt there's much they missed, considering the circumstances around this, but… " It has to be done. They have to go through the apartment, dissect Harvard's life…. rule out the possibility that he actually knew the killer. Standard procedure.
For once Cassidy isn't wearing her coat, no that she left in the car this time. Her shoulder holster stands out against the white fabric of the button up shirt she's wearing today. The detective seems almost uncomfortable to be there, with the mumblng of her partner's mind not as strong. More emotions then anything. While it was a touch of a relief, she still felt like she needs to get back to him. Taking her own deep breath there is a sharp snap of a glove as she pulls her own on. "Yeah, lets get this done." The death of any law enforcement officer will effect you, cause you know any day it could be you. "Where do you want to start?"
There are a few things that automatically get done when Rebecca Nakano walks into a crime scene when that crime scene is a residence. She first looks to see if the door was busted into. There is no sign of forced entry, and the door was open when fire personnel arrived on the scene. That could only mean the killer escaped that way. So, she moves around, looking for a broken window or perhaps a back door that was broken into. Nothing stands out for her, which if there was something funny, it would stand out like a black eye.
She was nabbed by Liz and Cassidy on their way out, not that she wouldn't have come, but it's rather nice to be included, even if that means being included in the investigation of a crime scene that killed one of their own. "Everything points to the fact that whoever it was that was in here with him, he let them in. It doesn't necessarily prove that he knew them, but it makes you wonder if there's a link there somehow."
Elisabeth glances toward Rebecca. "Which is why although it fits the MO of the Humanis First serial killings, they're taking a damn close look at it. For Will to have allowed anyone actual entry to the place, he had to have at least recognized them, I think… he was intensely private about his personal life. And he was careful — being the face of SCOUT meant he dealt with some major ugliness on a regular basis. More than the rest of us deal with. And especially with anti-Evo sentiment in the precinct, he was the bulwark." She grimaces and admits VERY softly, "Though no one's saying so, there's some fear that it could even have been a cop. We need as much information as we can get."
Fishing out her handy dandy notebook and a pen from her back pocket, Cassidy flips it open and flps through som pages for a blank one. A click of her pen and she writes down Rebecca's observations. "So no forced entry? Person didn't shove their way in when the door was open?" Liz's words make her glance the detectives way. "God, I hope it wasn't a cop. Last thing we need is that. Morale is low enough with all the cop killings." She murmurs, moving to look overe photographs that might be in the apartment. Pausing she jots into her notebook. "So t could be friends, family… lover.. even the pizza delivery guy. They find his address book?" Always a good place to start for suspects.
"Looks like we can rule out pizza delivery guys, though we may take a closer look at Chinese delivery guys." Rebecca notes, nodding towards the chard remains of the dining table and the partially burned cartons which were toppled over. "We're going to have some trouble since this place was hosed down putting out the blaze, but I think perhaps we can at least get a good feel for what happened." She kneels down where there's a boot print. "Interesting. The bottom of his right boot melted enough to leave a rubber print behind." She runs her gloved finger across the surface.
"They weren't looking," Elisabeth tells Cassidy quietly about the address book. She heads further into the apartment to search out Will's desk and address book, speaking over her shoulder as she picks her way carefully through the living room. "I think Commissioner Lau called his parents personally. His brother's an EMT out of St. Luke's, last I knew." She shakes her head, glad she didn't have to make the visit out to his family herself. "The fact that the food was already on the table means he'd already come into the house and either closed the door behind him or left the person standing in the doorway," she observes. "If he'd ordered food, he'd have had the money in his hand when he opened the door, though. And if they'd attacked him right then, the food wouldn't be on the table, it'd be on the floor." She pauses, looking around with a faint frown. "It's still all pointing at someone he knows — either an acquaintance or a friend that he knew well enough to let them in. I just can't see him inviting a stranger of any kind into the apartment to stand there." She looks at Cassidy. "Did the uniforms canvassing the apartments around it say anything about neighbors hearing a struggle, seeing anything?" She left it to Cassidy to get the uniformed reports — she couldn't bring herself to read them quite yet. Besides, walking in blind can sometimes be helpful.
Pointiing the back of her pen at the cartons, shaking it a bit thoughtfully. "True." Stepping carefully, she moves to look over cartons and snatch any receipts she might find for bagging. The mention of the boot, she glances over at Rebecca. "That's just plain creapy really considering…" She trails off as her attention switches to Elisabeth, "Nothing…. Nothing at all. Most seemed surprised anything happened at all." She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "No unusual people were noticed either really. None that people thought stood out."
Standing, Rebecca walks over towards the outline on the floor. She stands there looking at it for a moment. "I suppose there's one thing I could do to find out for certain whether it was someone he knew or not." The thing she doesn't say is that those headaches she gets, they're not going away as easily as before. In fact, they're becoming more of the norm for her rather than just after a vision. She leans down to pull the mirror from her kit. "Going to want to get a view of the door, the table and this point here, so.." She walks over into the kitchen. "Here is probably a good spot." She glances over, giving a shrug.
She grabs a chair and turns her back towards the others and the vision comes and goes. She repositions the mirror throughout as if following the exchange, then suddenly snaps out of it, dropping her head. Without opening her eyes, or looking back. "He didn't know her. It was the same woman in the sketch that's being passed around for those serial killings. The burned victims. He opened the door for her, but she kicked her way in. She started the fire on the table, and they had a brief fight. He was about to put her down when he grabbed his heart and fell onto his side. She left right away."
Elisabeth watches Rebecca warily — the other woman's tremendous headaches are not unknown to her, and in truth…. her ability is one of the reasons that Liz asked her along. Because it could (and does) narrow down the list of suspects tremendously. Before she responds to the information, Elisabeth moves forward to offer a helping hand to Rebecca, keep her from falling on the floor and such. Her voice is tight when she speaks, "Don't suppose you get audio with that, hrm?" she asks softly. Considering that Humanis First is taking credit for the other hits, this seems a pretty cut-and-dried 'why', though.
Quietly making here way to Rebecca, Cassidy watchs her closely. She hates havng to have Rebecca use her abilities, but at times it seems to the the detective unavoidable. "Bloody hell. Another one of their bullshit jobs," the detective grumbles bitterly. A hand moves to rub agaisnt her forehead, but she catches herself before she does. Instead she busies herself writing again. "Okay.. so we've got a female going around burning people crisp and this time she royally screwed up by not completing the job." There is a small shake of her head. "Okay.. say we get Rebecca out of here for now so she can rest… Unless you guys can think of something else to check out. Crime scene is not going anywhere anytime soon. These bastards really need to go down."
Rebecca nods. "She kept talking about a mission. But it was like past tense. If she's Humanis First, I don't think she is any longer. Considering she has an ability, it may not have been her choice to part with them, but it seems she's not taking it very well, the fact that she has an ability. She distinctly said that she 'wasn't one of you', which I can only interpret to mean she's not 'evolved', though she clear is. I think we are dealing with someone rather unstable. Someone who hates those with abilities, but has one herself. A dangerous one. We might check those last burn victims to see if they were evolved or not. That could give motive." She slowly rises. "I think I'll be okay.." she starts for the door a tad unsteadily.
Elisabeth's eyes widen, though not with discovery… more like with alarm. Did the assassin somehow run afoul of Tyler Case, perhaps? Or did she develop her ability very recently? Interesting possibilities, both — the former being moreso to Liz's mind. "It's possible she's only recently had an ability erupt," she suggests aloud. "Which would tend to make me think … first, that maybe she's made an attempt on Will previous to this one, and second, that her ability may in fact be severely out of control — so the other deaths MAY not have been assassinations. We've got some possibilities here that have to be taken into account." She lets Cassidy help Rebecca and opts to leave Will's address book right here. If he didn't know her, it's not going to help them. "The forensics team will be here within the hour," she tells the other women, "to dust the whole place for prints and whatever." She sighs. "We're still almost nowhere with this, but maybe we'll get lucky."
Putting a hand under Rebecca's elbow so that she can help her out, Cassidy considers all this. "It's not unusual.. I mean the hating evolved and then finding your one. If she was Humanis First, that says her hatred could run pretty deep…" Trailing off she shakes her head. "Then to get an abilty. That would be a blow to anyone." She gives herself a shake and glances back at Liz. "Yeah.. looks like it's a waiting game. But sh's already fucked up once… means she'll do it again." Her eyes move to the outline. "Though I'd rather take her out before she takes out more." But the chances of that were pretty slim.
"If she truly believed that in what Humanis First believes… there could be more killings to come. Who knows what psychological effects getting an ability like this.. God.." Rebecca lets Cassidy lead her out, when Elisabeth's phone rings, it even vibrates for effect. If Liz checks who's calling, it would be from an 'Unknown Caller.'
Putting the phone to her ear as they walk out, Liz says into the instrument, "Harrison."
It would be an digitized voice. "You have your phone tweaked out quite a bit. I was afraid to do much more than give you this call, Detective Harrison. Seems that you're behind on the curve. But you still have two left that you could potentially save." Wade has already relayed this phone call through as many as seven additional phone calls, making it nearly impossible to track him, though he know it'll be tried regardless. "I'm afraid I just don't trust you to get the job done."
Pausing long enough to lock the door behind her while the other two go ahead, it's the voice on the other end that makes her stop dead. "Indeed," she agrees tightly. "Seems to be the norm lately. Is there something you wanted, Reed?"
"Only to let you know that I've found the second. Good luck, Detective." With that, he disconnects the call.
The rage that burns through Elisabeth is far more intense than it might have been if she hadn't been standing in front of the door of her murdered captain… and she'd like to think 'friend'. "You motherFUCKER!" she shouts in frustration. She barely manages to contain it enough to not throw her cell phone at the wall, heading after Cassidy and Rebecca with the news that she and Cass need to step up our own investigations to head off Reed with his targets.