Follow the evidence | [rp for detmeganwheeler and det_nichols]
9:45pm, Chelsea.
The brownstone of noted Fortune 500 CEO James Payton was swarming with NYPD officers and personnel. Squad cars blocked off part of the street, blue and red lights whirling, silently punctuating an otherwise serene neighborhood like exclamation points. Uniformed officers lazily guarded the building's entryway. One smacked his gum and another made a transmission over his radio.
"Major Case is on the way," he said.
Past the uniforms and into the brownstone itself, CSU technicians were carefully going through the normally posh place, which looked like a tornado had hit it. Among other things, couch cushions were overturned, books and framed pictures littered the walkways and a vase of red roses had been smashed.
"What about the bedroom - the actual scene?" one of the just-arrived techs, a young guy named Jackson, asked another.
"The M.E. closed it off," the other tech, a woman named Lewis said, sounding annoyed.
"I heard it's a murder-suicide - that Payton guy offed his wife and then himself," Jackson said, "'least that's what it said over the radio. Sounds open and shut. Why they need Major Case?"
"Who knows," Lewis said, "Cox is off on a warpath about it, though."
The master bedroom upstairs was the actual scene of the crime. On the bed was the pajama-clad body of Anna Payton. There was a bullet in her head and another in her chest. At the foot of the bed, on the floor, was the body of James Payton, who was wearing a suit. A gun was beside his body and he had a gunshot wound to his temple.
At the moment, however, it appeared another crime was on the verge of taking place. A few feet away from the dead bodies stood Julianna Cox, hands on her hips, giving the riot act to Dale Stuckey, one of the newer and notably more thoughtless CSU techs.
"I don't care how many episodes of CSI you've watched, Stuckey, or how sure you think you are," Cox exclaimed, " What in the hell would possess you to touch evidence with no gloves - or at all - before the investigating detectives arrived? You're lucky I'm not Liz Rodgers. She doesn't have the authority to fire you, but she has the ability to make you wish you were dead."
Stuckey's hands were up in surrender and the look on the M.E.'s face told him not to bother going over what he'd already tried to explain before - that it looked like a sure deal - murder-suicide - and that's why he'd acted. Instead, he started to weasel his way out of the room, nearly backing into the detectives who'd just arrived as he did so.
"Get out, Stuckey," the doctor warned once more as the tech scrambled to the door.