Hi all,

New story to keep you entertained during lockdown. I'm not anticipating this will be a particularly long story, but we'll see where it goes

x X x

Catherine shot a surreptitious look over her shoulder as she stifled another yawn, hoping not to be seen.

Unfortunately, Jim caught her eye and quickly finished up his conversation with the witness before ambling over to her.

"Hey," he greeted, casting his eyes carefully over the weary CSI. "So, most of the neighbours insist that they didn't see anything and don't know anything."

"Sounds about right." Catherine mused half-heartedly. "If this is a gang war, they won't want to be seen giving statements to the police." She nodded towards the group of handcuffed young men being treated by paramedics for minor gunshot injuries.

Whether they were the victims or the offenders in this particular battle remained to be established.

"Yeah, well that lady over there did give me something." He continued. "She says that she was in the back yard at the time when she heard a lot of shouting and gunshots. She didn't see any shooters, but caught a glimpse of a car driving off – a black Buick, and she got two letters of the licence plate."

"Well, we can get CCTV footage from the nearby streets, see if we can identify it from there." Catherine nodded towards the main road, where there were more likely to be cameras. "But even if we identify the other gang involved, I doubt they'll talk to us. They prefer to take matters into their own hands."

While she theorised out loud, Jim was watching her carefully through his narrowed eyes.

"Hey Cath," he licked his lips, lowering his voice so the nearby officers wouldn't overhear. "Is everything okay with you?"

"Sure, why?" She deflected casually, swinging her camera off her shoulder and lifting it to her eye to take a photo of the curious members of the public surrounding taped-off crime scene.

Jim nodded slowly, not surprised by the reflexive answer.

"You just seem pretty distracted lately." He stated knowingly. "Like maybe there's something going on that's keeping you awake?"

Catherine continued taking photos, but she paused long enough to flick her gaze towards him over the top of the camera.

"I'm fine." She snapped a little too harshly. "It's nothing I can't deal with."

"Okay. Alright, I get it." He held up his hands, accepting that, whatever it was, she wasn't going to talk about it now.

Deciding to leave her to her work, he made to leave, but first he took a step closer to her.

"By the way," he offered in his trademark deadpan voice, "those photos might turn out better if you take the lens cap off."

As he wandered off in search of more unhelpful witnesses to interview, Catherine's mouth fell open and she hurriedly checked the camera and seeing that he was right, she had indeed forgotten to take off the cap.

Rolling her eyes, she uncapped it and slipped the little black disc into her pocket. Talk about being distracted – she didn't look forward to explaining in her statement why the first five photos on her memory card were all black.

Trying to shake off the unsettling feeling that washed over her for making such a careless mistake, she lifted the camera to her face once again and aimed it at the crowd of onlookers for a second attempt.

This time, however, the only thing she got a photo of was the ground.

The first shot rang out just as she pressed the shutter, and then all hell broke loose.

She hit the deck, dropping the camera and fumbling for the firearm clipped protectively into her holster.

Somewhere behind her she could hear Jim barking instructions, as the black Buick cruised into the block and more bullets rained out from the barely-cracked windows. Police Officers and civilians alike dived for cover, with Catherine taking shelter behind a parked police cruiser.

Despite her trembling hands, she managed to get a grip on her gun and peered around the back of the car. A couple of the shooters had jumped out and were running towards the handcuffed gang members, their obvious targets.

She had been right that they had taken matters into their own hands, although she hadn't expected it to happen this quickly.

Folding her fingers firmly around the gun, she narrowed her eyes, levelled her aim and pulled the trigger...