Follow the evidence | [rp for detmeganwheeler and det_nichols]

[dr_julianna_cox]

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

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[dr_julianna_cox]

"Detective Wheeler," Julianna managed a small smirk, then glanced over at Zach's turned back with a mixture of amusement and uncertainty. "Nichols." She looked back at Wheeler while the woman's partner surveyed the various packages and bottles on the floor - perfumes, a tissue box, several prescriptions including one for depression issued to James Paxton. "Don't worry," Cox told Wheeler, "I plan on filing a complaint with Stuckey's supervisor. Not that it'll help get to the bottom of what happened here..."

At Nichols' question, the doctor went back on the defensive. "They were all ready, like Stuckey, to wrap this up without a thorough investigation. Paxton's a Fortune 500 CEO of a company that just laid off a bunch of employees amid a fair amount of controversy." She shrugged. "I called for Major Case." Moving back over to Anna Paxton's body, Julianna motioned with a hand. "The wife was moved post-mortem, as you can tell from the streaks of blood on the sheets. She was also--in case the brain matter on the bed didn't make it obvious--shot at close range."

[detmeganwheeler]

Wheeler went to the bed, looking at the woman's body. "She was posed, made to look... as pretty as she could, given the situation." She looked at the body of the husband. "But then, why isn't he in the bed? He kills her first, lays her out nicely... Why walk away and shoot himself?"

She looked back at the M.E., cocking her head a bit. "It's a bit odd, but... Why call us?" She had a feeling it hadn't been just to drag them down here. There had to be something that seemed off, beyond the staging. Wheeler had to admit that she couldn't quite piece that together yet, but the man could have had a million reasons. Still, something had bothered the doctor enough. Maybe even just a gut feeling. Those... Well, those were worth looking into, at the very least.

[det_nichols]

"C.E.O. who a bunch of people would have a lot of reason to kill, not to mention anyone who just didn't like him. Major Case sounds more like we're talking it seriously." Nichols finally seemed to notice Cox and nodded at her.

"Small wonder he was depressed," Nichols squats down to look at the dead man, trying to get into his head somehow. "Did you get a chance to ask...what was his name, Stuckey? how the body looked when he found it? Or would that kind of memory be too much to ask."

[dr_julianna_cox]

"Stuckey says the gun was in Paxton's hand when they arrived, before he moved him. Claims he was face-up, but the blood spatter--without detailed analysis--only shows us that he was shot close to where his body was found." The medical examiner looked back at Wheeler. "Paxton had been under a lot of pressure, and yeah, he was depressed...but...it doesn't necessarily mean suicide. In addition to what you just said - why shoot his wife at close range? Why...trash the house?" She frowned, looking over at Paxton's body. "Look at the damage one CSU schmuck did. If there is someone else who actually committed the crimes - well he just got a little help, didn't he? I'm not about to risk..." As if she'd just remembered that she was addressing Wheeler, Julianna stopped, abruptly.

[detmeganwheeler]

"Stress doesn't always mean suicide," Wheeler agreed. She looked over the wife's body more closely, looking at the wounds on the woman's arms. "Especially a murder-suicide. I don't know much about the guy, but that takes a particular kind of person." Paxton could be that kind of man, yes, but that had yet to be proven. She glanced over at Julianna again. "I'm glad someone had the brains to consider all the angles. It might turn out that this was just a murder-suicide, but she'd rather spend time invesigating it and have it be that than write it off and come to find out that it wasn't, that there was something more here.

[det_nichols]

"Why kill her at all? Especially to lay her out carefully and then just let yourself fall where you may." Nichols stared at the dead man a little longer before standing. "Seems...off." The choice to begin pacing the room wasn't an active one, but rather something of habit, half to get his mind working more actively, half to pick up important details that wouldn't stand out from his original entry. "Who called it in anyway? Not someone worrying why this kids didn't show up for a lesson or why the dog was barking."

[dr_julianna_cox]

"The housekeeper came by to get her paycheck," Cox explained. "According to the uniforms I overheard when I arrived, she was supposed to have received the check last week. Paxton told her he'd have it for her today if she came by after he was home from work. She came, no one answered, she let herself in, saw the way the place was and called the cops."

[detmeganwheeler]

"Definitely something off," Wheeler agreed. She listened to the explanation of how the crime scene had been found, looking back at the woman on the bed. "Why pose her at all? If the husband did it... he wouldn't pose her and not be close to her when he died. If someone else... Maybe he was supposed to see it? The posing done to shock him?" But if it were a message to him, why shoot him? Wheeler frowned, considering the circumstances.

[det_nichols]

"If it was for him, why make it pretty?" He stops for a moment to glance around the layout of the room. "Kill a spouse to shock a spouse. Make them hurt from it. Not to let them into the pretty little world the posing makes." Looks around. "But this is just speculation until we get more facts."

[dr_julianna_cox]

Just then, a CSU detective came in to the room, holding a bag of evidence with a gloved hand. Inside the evidence bag was a piece of paper.

"Case closed," the cop, a guy in his 30s named Morris, said, holding up the bag. "Suicide note. Found it in an envelope that had fallen under the table in the entryway."

"Doesn't mean he wrote it," Cox said, on the defense almost immediately. "Or that he wasn't forced to write it or that someone didn't deliberately drive him to it." She was tired of the 'case closed' attitude she'd been seeing all evening, but underneath that, there was a hint of something more.

[detmeganwheeler]

Wheeler looked over at the detective. "Probably is," she conceded, "but we want to check all angles. We'll take a look at that, get an expert to check the note, look for inconsistencies." She looked at Julianna, not about to remark on her quick defense, even though Wheeler had to admit she didn't like the idea of the case just being announced closed because of a note. That left too many questions still. She wanted to examine every angle, just in case.

"Killing the wife could have been meant to drive him to suicide," she replied. She looked at Nichols, "I'm not willing to call this closed yet."

[det_nichols]

Nichols looked at the CSU who was so quick to call case closed with something that wasn't exactly annoyance so much as a quiet exasperation at someone so willing to jump to a definite confusion. A note didn't mean anything except that there was another angle to be explored, so he nodded at Wheeler in silent confirmation he wasn't done just yet.

"What does the note say? Is it as illogical as the rest of scene?"

[dr_julianna_cox]

The other officer read the note out loud, holding up the evidence bag to the light. "To whom it may concern (family, friends) - I'm sorry. The wills are taken care of. James."

"That's all?" Julianna raised her brows.

"I've seen more concise notes in my time," Morris shrugged. "Some of them not even written on paper."

[detmeganwheeler]

"To whom it may concern?" Wheeler repeated, arching an eyebrow. "If you're going to start it that way, I'd expect a long, detailed list of how he'd done it and why. Justification, explanation. Not... that." She frowned, thinking this over. If anything, the note made her more sure that this wasn't what it looked like.

[det_nichols]

"Sure, concise, for a man who's desperate. But a desperate man doesn't take the time to pose his wife perfectly and just let himself fall where he did." The pacing that had stopped starts again, and his conversation appears to be mostly aimed at himself. "Besides, we're talking Fortune 500 CEO, ever met one who didn't have an ego the size of a planet? He would have known exactly who he wanted to talk to and why and would have had one last statement that made an accounting or at least some attempt to be memorable..."

[dr_julianna_cox]

The CSU cop shrugged. "Maybe he was just a bad letter-writer. Isn't that what those CEO guys have secretaries for?"

Julianna glared. "Thanks, Morris. If CSU's done photographing this room, would you mind telling my guys that they can come move the bodies?" She paused and glanced at Nichols and Wheeler. "Unless the Major Case detectives aren't done with them yet."