Disclaimer: I don't own CSI:NY.
Series: 'Kindred Spirits' – there's a full list on my profile.
Spoilers: Buzzkill. Everything in bold is dialogue taken from the episode - I know it can get a little irritating, but I just prefer differentiating between the two :)
Buzzkill
"I hate witnesses." Jess announced to anyone who would listen.
"Whoa. Calm down." Don grinned, handing her a cup of coffee on his way to his desk. "Did you go home last night?"
"Does it look like it?" Jess muttered darkly.
"What's up with you?" Don asked.
"I'm screwed." Jess answered. "That's what."
"Alright." Don moved his chair to the other side of her desk and sat down, taking her hands in his. "Take a deep breath, centre yourself and tell me what's wrong."
Jess closed her eyes, taking his advice, and instantly felt a lot of the frustration leave her body. "Thanks. That helped. And this is what's wrong" She nodded to the sheet of paper on her desk
Don picked up the sketch, only releasing one of her hands. "What's this?"
Jess smiled weakly. "The composite sketch of our killer."
Don stared at it for a few minutes. "Yep. You're screwed."
Jess rolled her eyes. "Thanks."
"What is your case anyway?" Don asked.
"Robbery at Club Prowl." Jess explained. "One dead man – Ted Barkley – who rushed the gunman, tearing his mask off. One woman – Brandi Parsons – who was shot in the back of the head."
"Club Prowl." Don shook his head. "Were you around for the big opening?"
"Yeah, it was about a week before you came back to work." Jess remembered. "I was in there a week later because it was the last place my vic went before she was murdered."
"Guess the Brass had a point, huh?" Don grinned. "Just not the point they were trying to make."
"You're on that dead model in Time Square, right?" Jess asked.
Don nodded. "Seemed a cut-and-dry electrocution; caught the guy who was pelting tennis balls at the billboard. He worked opposite the ad; fell of the wagon." He shook his head. "Blamed the shiny red light."
"Don, alcohol addiction is as bad as a drug addiction." Jess chided. "It can't have been easy; finally sobering up, getting a job and ending up opposite a giant ad for martinis."
Her own brother, Robert, was testimony to just how draining that fight could be and not just for the person involved. She'd just started the Academy when she and her other brothers had decided that enough was enough and started dragging him to AA meetings. She could still remember long hours, sitting outside motels in her car, waiting for him to come out, only to be met with the same dark expression and a simple statement.
"I hate you all for this."
Then, finally, one night, she'd been on her own. Jamie, Will and Matt had left, leaving her to wait for him. He'd come out, gotten into the front seat, turned to her with red-rimmed eyes and whispered three words.
"I need help."
Jess had burst into tears as he'd hugged her, sobbing himself, and they'd clung to each other in the dark, relieved that neither had damaged their once-close relationship.
She hadn't cried since, something that scared and empowered her all at once.
"But he didn't kill her?" Jess asked, realising she'd lost in memory a little too long.
Don, thankfully, didn't press her for an explanation for her sudden silence. "No. We're still trying to figure it out. She was in a fight before she died and they think that led to her death. Need to wait for tox to confirm. Stella and Lindsay found heroin lollipops in her purse."
"Motive." Jess concluded. "They find anything else?"
"A lot of diet pills and appetite suppressants." Don answered. "Why women insist on doing that to their bodies …"
"Well, she was about to wear almost nothing in the middle of Time Square." Jess pointed out.
Don snorted. "Don't know why you're backing her up." He muttered. "You already look like you could be a model."
Once again, it seemed as though the words slipped out his mouth without him realising, but unlike their conversation in the car, Jess let it go. "I gotta go." She said, reluctantly pulling her hand from his. "Danny's still at the hospital with our live victim and Mac's probably there as well. If I don't tell them about this soon …" She took the composite back and rolled her eyes. "It's not really gonna make much of a difference, is it?"
"No." Don admitted. "No, it's not."
When Jess reached the ICU, Mac and Danny were talking to a doctor. As she approached, he checked his phone and excused himself.
"We've got one dead guy, a woman clinging to life …" Danny was saying, disgust dripping from every word. "All that misery for $35000. It's pathetic, isn't it?"
Mac sighed. "If you're not going home, why don't you go and get something to eat?"
"Here's our killer." Jess announced, handing Mac the sketch. "It's all the information we were able to get from our witnesses."
Mac sighed. "So we just need to find everyone with two eyes, a nose and a mouth."
At that moment, the curtains around their witness were pulled back and a young man standing nearby hurried to her side. "Hey, beautiful. Just relax. You're gonna be okay. I'm gonna be waiting for you when you come back, okay?"
Suddenly, the beeping of the heart monitor she was hooked up to began to change and a nurse rushed over, pulling the young man out of the way. "Defib on monitor!"
"We have to stop and shock her now!" A doctor called.
The man Mac and Danny had been talking to earlier rushed over as one of the nurses prepared the shock paddles.
Jess and Mac exchanged a concern glance as the doctor hesitated before finally leaping into action.
After an agonising five minutes that seemed to spread into twenty, the heart monitor returned to normal.
"Prep her for the OR." The doctor said to one of the nurses. "I'll be there in a few minutes." As he passed Mac, he muttered something and Mac gave Jess and Danny a nod before following him.
"What the hell's going on?" Danny asked quietly.
"I don't know." Jess admitted. "Who is that guy?"
"Paul Larkin." Danny explained. "Brandi's boyfriend. Poor guy seems distraught."
Jess frowned, though didn't say anything. If Danny's gut stayed true, Paul Larkin had something to do with what had happened.
Don't be ridiculous. Logic kicked in. You can't base that assumption on Danny's gut always being wrong. Why should you?
Casting one last look at the boyfriend, Jess followed Danny in the direction Mac had disappeared. They reached an office just as Dr. Moore left, brushing past them.
"We have a kidnapping." Mac told them quietly as they entered.
"What?" Danny asked.
"Dr. Moore's brother." Mac elaborated in the same tone, as Jess shut the door. "Get someone from your squad over to Charles Moore's medical office ASAP."
Jess nodded, pulling her phone out. A week and I've already got a hostage to deal with. That tactical training certificate really couldn't have come soon enough.
"Brandi Parsons can ID the shooter," Mac continued, looking at Danny, "so maybe someone in her circle can too. Let's interview her landlord, her family, her friends; see what they know."
"Her boyfriend, Paul, mentioned that her mother's on her way from Houston." Danny suggested.
Jess stopped halfway through dialling a number, her heart dropping to her stomach. That's why. "Her mother? Brandi Parsons doesn't have a mother; she died ten years ago. Closest family member I found is an aunt in North Carolina."
"I don't think Paul Larkin is her boyfriend." Mac stated grimly.
I knew it.
"I knew it." Jess sighed, vocalising her earlier thoughts. She was standing outside the AV lab, having explained to Hawkes the latest development. "She crashed when she saw him; Danny said she passed out in the ambulance as well as he was talking to her. Seems too much of a coincidence and …"
"Danny liked him and his gut's always wrong?" Hawkes finished knowingly.
Jess tried to glare at him, but gave up, nodding with a sigh. "Yeah."
"Don't worry." Hawkes patted her shoulder. "The rest of us go by that as well."
Jess chuckled and pushed the door to the AV lab open.
Danny glanced at as she joined them. "These are from the surveillance camera across the street to Club Prowl."
Pity the images are never this clear when we're looking for missing children. Jess narrowed her eyes, pointing at one of the men outside the club. "Paul Larkin was there early, scouting the place. I ran his name through the system; got nothing."
"We need to find the minutes right before and after the robbery and get a clear view of our killer and see if we can find out who he is." Mac told Danny. "He's our best chance of finding our hostage, Charles Moore."
Jess sighed, shaking her head. "There's no way we're gonna get that lucky."
"This is right around 11:15." Danny told them.
Sure enough, all they saw was a flood of people running from Club Prowl, 'Paul' – if that was his real name looking very worried – and then a frantic phone call.
"The shooter must have gone out the back door and called Paul." Jess commented.
Danny frowned. "Doesn't look like murder was part of the plan."
"Kidnapping probably wasn't either." Mac said.
"And if I fast-forward," Danny did so, "here's where Paul Larkin jumps into the ambulance and said he was Brandi's boyfriend."
Jess couldn't help wincing at the tone in his voice. I don't envy Lindsay needing to deal with him after this.
"God I hate manslaughter cases." Don stated, walking into the locker room.
"I know." Jess responded absently.
"I … What are you doing?" Don asked, cutting himself off.
Jess glanced at him in the mirror. "Making a sandwich."
"Funny." Don rolled his eyes.
"Well, what does it look like I'm doing?" Jess asked.
"Looks like you're putting on a Kevlar." Don answered.
"Then just maybe that is what I'm doing." Jess pointed out with a smile. "The brother of the doctor treating our witness has been kidnapped."
"Why?" Don asked.
"In an attempt to get the doctor to let her die." Jess said darkly.
"That's sick." Don said.
"Yep." Jess agreed. "I gotta go."
"Be careful." Don called after her.
"I always am." Jess responded, jogging out.
She met up with Danny, Hawkes and a couple of uniformed officers outside Paul's apartment, all wearing Kevlar vests.
Danny banged on the door. "NYPD!"
There was no answer and Jess stepped back to allow Danny to kick the door in.
"Paul!" Jess went in ahead of them, her gun ready in front of her. "NYPD! Come out with your hands up!"
Why does this bit always feel like I'm in a bad cop movie?
"They're gone." Danny concluded with a sigh, as all the rooms were checked.
"Yeah." Hawkes glanced towards the two beds. "Paul doesn't live here alone."
Jess nodded to the two officers, who left the apartment to stand outside. She knelt beside a tipped-over chair and pulled a rubber glove from her pocket, using it to pick up a piece of duct-tape. "Signs of a struggle. Charles Moore was duct-taped."
"Looks like it took the kidnapper more than a few tries to get him that way." Hawkes observed.
Jess nodded; these were definitely amateurs.
"Alright, we need to find out where they went and who's sharing this dump with Paul." Danny said firmly. "Alright?"
Neither argued; they knew Danny was taking this personally. Jess moved to the coffee table as Hawkes searched the computer and Danny rooted through the trash can.
"Everything's in Paul Campbell's name." Jess sighed. "Phone, credit card, cable … His room-mate doesn't exist. At least, not on paper."
"But he does electronically." Hawkes smirked. "I located the user's history, circumvented the security access to his email."
"Right." Jess shrugged. "No idea what any of that actually means; you got a name?"
"James Petty." Hawkes answered. "And he requested blueprints for every building surrounding Club Prowl."
A glance at the door told her that the officers had heard what had been said and Jess jerked her head towards the entrance, sending one of them to start a search on the name.
"Nice." Danny pulled out a box from the trash. "Could be our shooter-slash-kidnapper right there."
"Find something, Messer?" Jess asked as he reached for his tweezers. She watched as Danny pulled out a laptop and hooked up a strange sort of torch.
From past experience, she didn't bother asking, letting Hawkes and Danny work undisturbed until they concluded that the scrap of paper had come from a bill.
"At some point, they probably realised all the stolen cash couldn't fit inside the box so they dumped it out to find a bigger one." Jess said.
"And in the process, one of the bills must've ripped and got caught on the edge." Danny added. "Alright, so these guys are mailing the money somewhere."
"Smart move." Hawkes commented. "Not keeping cash on them or in the apartment."
Jess was no longer really paying attention. She was focused on the clear pouch stuck to the front of the box. There were traces of ink on it, presumably from the address. "If you can raise the ink from the pouch, maybe we can get an address."
Danny looked up sharply. "Whoa, what are you doing science now?"
Jess just chuckled and shook her head.
"You got 'em?" Don guessed when she got back to the precinct.
"Got them." Jess confirmed with a smile. "And Brandi Parsons is gonna make a full recovery."
"Good." Don nodded. "That's good."
"Isn't it?" Jess agreed. "What are you still doing here? I thought your case was closed."
"So did I." Don sighed. "Apparently she was killed by a jellyfish."
"A jellyfish?" Jess repeated.
"Don't ask." Don shook his head. "Just don't ask."
Jess chuckled and slipped her paperwork away. "Done."
Don gaped at her. "I've been sitting her for an hour and you're done?"
"Unlike you, I do it as I go along." Jess smirked. "And I'm off-shift."
Don checked his watch. "Me too."
"You sure you're finished?" Jess teased.
"Yes, dear." Don shot back, tossing his own paperwork into his out-tray. "I'm outta here; Rangers are playin' tonight."
"You know you've got no chance, right?" Jess asked, following him out the front door.
"Please." Don rolled his eyes. "Devils wouldn't know good hockey if it came up and bit them."
It was amazing the arguments they could have on the subject without any trace of venom or anger in their voices.
"Just remember who's ordering the pizza." Jess reminded him with a smirk.
"That doesn't make the Devils the better team." Don argued.
"No." Jess admitted. "But it does mean you should be nice to me."
Don opened his mouth to argue, then stopped. "Alright, fair enough."
A soft noise at her feet drew Jess's attention to the ginger cat that had trotted up to them and was winding its way around her ankles. She crouched down to scratch behind its ears; the cat belonged to an elderly woman who lived near the precinct and it wasn't uncommon for it to approach one of the officers or detectives for a bit of affection on their way out.
Don, however, usually moved away if he was there when it did.
"Aren't you allergic?" Jess asked.
Don shrugged with a smile. "Cat was running around when I picked up a suspect today; didn't sneeze once. I think they're getting better."
"Really?" Jess asked, a little sceptically as they continued on their way.
"Yeah." Don paused and pulled a face before sneezing loudly. "Never mind."
AN: Trivia question for a virtual brownie (I seem to have a lot of them lying about the place) – Scottie Thompson played Lia Ramsey – the ad executive who murdered Jenna Donovan. But she was also in NCIS. Without Googling it (I will allow finding a picture of her thought), who did she play?
Aside from that, review please! And give me ideas and/or requests for One Wedding and a Funeral please - I'm stuck!