FIC: White Shroud (19/20) CSI:NY, T
Title: White Shroud, Chapter 19
Author: Zelda Ophelia (zeldaophelia)
Fandom/Character: CSI:NY; Stella, Angell, Flack
General info: Not mine; T.
Content: Some chapters include discussion of sexual violence.
Notes:Written for the csi_bigbang challenge. Big thanks to eternal_sadist for the beta. This fic can be considered a sequel to Titania Falling
Summary: When the flu bug hits the NYPD, the detectives and CSIs work to cover the caseload. Angell, Stella, and Lindsay confront the mystery behind a body in Union Square Park. Meanwhile, Flack, Mac, and Hawkes try to determine what happened at a Rangers game and Danny deals with a case of karma. Previous parts here.
"Mr. Slatton," Flack said as he entered the interrogation room. "This is Detective Taylor."
"Detective," Slatton said, shaking his hand. "Like I told the officer who brought me, I'm more than happy to help."
"We think you may have been the last person to see Jarrett Elliot alive," Mac said.
"Really?" Slatton shifted in his seat. "I-I didn't realize."
"That's why it’s so important for you to remember what you can about your last interactions with him," Mac continued. "Did he say anything about anyone?"
"No, he seemed happy," Slatton said. "We talked for a bit about Minnesota's season and about Kevin's prospects."
"What'd you do after that?" Flack asked.
"After we spoke?"
"Yes."
"Well, I went back to my seat."
"You didn't follow him into the locker room?" Flack asked.
"Of course not. Why would I?"
"For old times’ sake? You played in The Garden back when you were with the Rangers; you knew the way."
"Yes, I did know the way. Jarrett wasn't certain exactly how to get there, so I told him. Then I went back to my seat."
"You see, Mr. Slatton," Mac said as he leaned forward. "We have a hard time believing that was all that happened." He placed some stills from the footage of the hockey game on the table for Slatton to see. "This is you returning to your seat. Just as the players are leaving the ice. Jarrett Elliot was dead by then, his body about to be discovered. You didn't return to your seat right after you spoke with Jarrett."
"And you didn't stop at the concession stand, either," Flack pointed out.
Slatton shook his head slowly, reaching out to touch the pictures and sliding them closer to where he sat.
"Mr. Slatton?"
"It wasn't supposed to happen that way, Detective. It really wasn't."
"It was an accident," Mac said.
"Yes," Slatton nodded. "I was showing Jarrett down to the locker room, and we got started talking about the team at Minnesota and how the season went. And when we got there, he just kept talking about how leaving a year early was the best thing he'd done and how Kevin should have, too."
"And?"
"Kevin had offers last year; he was asked to go to training camp by more than one small team, but I wanted him to hold out for the draft. He was supposed to get the Hobey this year. He was supposed to be a first round pick. Instead-"
"Instead, Jarrett left the team, and everyone realized how much they depended on him," Flack said.
"And on my son!" Slatton said angrily. "If it wasn't for Kevin, they wouldn't have won a game. But instead everyone talks about how much Jarrett held them up, how important he was to the team. No one said anything about Kevin! About how important he was to the team. It was Jarrett this and Jarrett that. And then he started in on it, too, talking about how the team must have missed him. That boy's fame went to his head, straight to his head."
"So you killed him," Mac said.
"No, no. I didn't."
"Mr. Slatton-"
"I didn't mean to. Trust me, I didn't. He-" Slatton leaned forward, his elbows on the table and putting his head in his hands. "I just, I got so angry. I didn't know what I was doing. I don't know what I was thinking. I just grabbed the hockey stick and hit him. He-he grabbed his neck and started choking, and-and I realized what I'd done and I just ran."
"But you went down to watch the game."
"People were expecting me to be there. They'd have known something was wrong if I didn't."
"Why didn't you go for help?"
"Jarrett, he's young and healthy. I-I thought I'd just stunned him. I didn't realized he'd died until-"
"Until it was too late," Mac said.
Slatton nodded and whispered, "I still can't believe that he's dead. He- he was like a son to me."
::
"Hi, Ivy," Angell said as she entered the interrogation room. Maka followed her, taking a seat next to her and setting a folder on the table. "Thanks for agreeing to come down and help us out."
"It- It isn't a problem," Ivy said, fidgeting in her seat. She gave them a tense smile, one that didn't reach her eyes. "How can I help you?"
"I was hoping you could explain what happened at Aura the night of the grant celebration," Maka said.
Ivy frowned at them, glancing from Maka to Angell and back again. "I-I thought I already told her and the other detective."
"I know," Maka said, "I just have a few questions I'd like for you to clear up."
"Um, okay. What do you need to know?"
"What really happened?"
Ivy opened her mouth, then quickly shut it again, her teeth making a sharp clicking noise as she did. She looked away from them, down at her hands.
"Ivy?" Angell asked. "What really happened?"
"I-I don't remember."
"But you do remember waking up in Tripp Norton's dorm room, don't you? When his roommate got home the next morning?"
Ivy shifted in her seat. "I think it's best if I don't say anything."
But, Angell thought to herself, she didn't ask for a lawyer. She glanced over at Maka, who opened the folder.
"I did some research, Ivy," Maka said. "It turns out that you did your Masters degree at NYU as well. In the same lab, even."
Ivy nodded, her eyes wide.
"It was also cancer research."
"That's what Dr. Stoddard does," Ivy said quietly.
"Yes. And for your Masters degree, you researched the effect selenium supplementation had on the reducing the toxicity of chemotherapy drugs."
"We found that some chemotherapy drugs were more toxic to certain, hardy strains of cancer cells when patients were taking a selenium supplement," Ivy said. She glanced down at her hands. "I don't understand what that has to do with anything. I-I was poisoned, too, remember?"
"You understood the toxicity and effects of selenium, Ivy," Angell said, leaning forward. "You see, what we didn't understand was why your poisoning seemed to end, then pick up again. That's why you didn't get sick, because it stopped building up in your system."
"I-I guess I stopped drinking whatever it was in."
"Drinking?" Maka asked.
"Or eating, I guess."
"It's interesting you said drinking," Maka continued. "Because that's what was poisoned-- the lab's bottles of soda."
"Only you don't drink soda, do you?" Angell asked. "You stick with water while you're at the lab. We tested your water bottles; there wasn't any selenium in them."
"But," Maka said. "Your fingerprints were on the bottle of Mountain Dew."
"I have to move it, sometimes, to be able to get my water bottles."
"Detective Bonasera checked, Ivy; the placement of your prints wasn’t consistent with just moving the bottle. They were consistent with opening it." Angell mimicked the motions of opening a bottle as she spoke, showing the placement of her hands.
"I-I might have opened it to pour some soda for the guys. I do help them out with that on occasion, when they're busy in the lab but need a refill."
"Uh-huh." Maka nodded as she flipped through the papers in her folder. She came to the one she wanted, then looked up at Ivy and said, "After Detective Bonasera tested your hair for selenium, she tested it for something else. You tested positive for having ingested GHB about a month ago."'
"That was the night of the celebration, when everyone went out to Aura to celebrate your research group making it to the final round of the grant, wasn't it?"
Ivy wrapped her arms around herself, beginning to slowly rock in her chair.
"Ivy?" Angell asked.
"I told you," she said quietly, "I don't remember what happened."
"You remembered something," Maka said. "Didn't you? Otherwise Matt would still be alive, and Marcas and Jacob wouldn't be in the hospital."
"I woke up," Ivy said, looking down at her hands as she spoke, "and I wasn't at home. I didn't know where I was. My clothes, they weren't on right, and I was sore. Really sore, like I'd-"
She broke off, looking up at them with tears in her eyes. "It didn't take a genius to figure out what happened." She sniffed and looked away, shaking her head slowly as she continued. "A guy--I didn't know him, but he looked a bit familiar--came in and asked if I was Tripp's new girlfriend. And I left."
"Why didn't you come to the police and report it?" Angell asked.
"Because I wasn't sure. I still didn't know what happened. Not-" She paused, taking a deep breath before she continued, "Not until I heard them talking, in the lab. I got out of class early, and they didn't know I was there."
"They were talking about what they did to you," Angell said.
"Tripp was saying it wasn't the first time he'd done it. He told Jacob he was using the miraculin to disguise the taste of the GHB. He was giving Jacob advice on doing this to other women, some girl that he's lab partners with or something like that. I- I couldn't believe it."
"Why didn't you come to the police then?" Maka asked.
"Days afterward? It would have been my word against theirs, and I couldn't remember what happened. That night was all a blur--it still is. And I had been drinking. Who would have believed me?"
"We would have," Maka said quietly.
Ivy scoffed. "Sure you would have. My word against three guys who are considered among the university's best and brightest."
"And who were seen leaving the club with you that night," Angell said.
"Would that have been enough?"
"Possibly," Maka said. "Possibly not. But it would have been enough to open up an inquiry."
"Meaning they still may not have gotten what they deserved."
"Did they deserve to die?" Angell asked.
"They needed to be stopped," Ivy said harshly.
"And since you knew about the effects of selenium and had access to it from your Masters research, you took things into your own hands," Maka said.
Ivy nodded. "There was a lot left over. No one was using it anymore and it was taking up space, so Dr. Stoddard asked me to make arrangements to get rid of it. He just meant for me to see if there were any other labs on campus that could use it. But he asked the same day I heard them talking, and it just clicked. That was what I needed to do."
Maka slid a legal pad across the table to Ivy. "Why don't you write it all down here?"
Ivy nodded, picking up the pen and starting to write.
"One more question," Angell said as they watched Ivy write her confession. "I get why you poisoned Tripp, Matt, and Jacob, but why Marcas? He left before you did and didn't have any part in this."
"But that's why. Right there," Ivy said, looking up from her writing. "He left. He left while I was in the bathroom. That was the only time I wasn't with my drink. If he hadn't left, they wouldn't have drugged it. They wouldn't have dared to. He should have stayed. He should have protected me."
Previous || Master Post || Next
Author: Zelda Ophelia (zeldaophelia)
Fandom/Character: CSI:NY; Stella, Angell, Flack
General info: Not mine; T.
Content: Some chapters include discussion of sexual violence.
Notes:Written for the csi_bigbang challenge. Big thanks to eternal_sadist for the beta. This fic can be considered a sequel to Titania Falling
Summary: When the flu bug hits the NYPD, the detectives and CSIs work to cover the caseload. Angell, Stella, and Lindsay confront the mystery behind a body in Union Square Park. Meanwhile, Flack, Mac, and Hawkes try to determine what happened at a Rangers game and Danny deals with a case of karma. Previous parts here.
"Mr. Slatton," Flack said as he entered the interrogation room. "This is Detective Taylor."
"Detective," Slatton said, shaking his hand. "Like I told the officer who brought me, I'm more than happy to help."
"We think you may have been the last person to see Jarrett Elliot alive," Mac said.
"Really?" Slatton shifted in his seat. "I-I didn't realize."
"That's why it’s so important for you to remember what you can about your last interactions with him," Mac continued. "Did he say anything about anyone?"
"No, he seemed happy," Slatton said. "We talked for a bit about Minnesota's season and about Kevin's prospects."
"What'd you do after that?" Flack asked.
"After we spoke?"
"Yes."
"Well, I went back to my seat."
"You didn't follow him into the locker room?" Flack asked.
"Of course not. Why would I?"
"For old times’ sake? You played in The Garden back when you were with the Rangers; you knew the way."
"Yes, I did know the way. Jarrett wasn't certain exactly how to get there, so I told him. Then I went back to my seat."
"You see, Mr. Slatton," Mac said as he leaned forward. "We have a hard time believing that was all that happened." He placed some stills from the footage of the hockey game on the table for Slatton to see. "This is you returning to your seat. Just as the players are leaving the ice. Jarrett Elliot was dead by then, his body about to be discovered. You didn't return to your seat right after you spoke with Jarrett."
"And you didn't stop at the concession stand, either," Flack pointed out.
Slatton shook his head slowly, reaching out to touch the pictures and sliding them closer to where he sat.
"Mr. Slatton?"
"It wasn't supposed to happen that way, Detective. It really wasn't."
"It was an accident," Mac said.
"Yes," Slatton nodded. "I was showing Jarrett down to the locker room, and we got started talking about the team at Minnesota and how the season went. And when we got there, he just kept talking about how leaving a year early was the best thing he'd done and how Kevin should have, too."
"And?"
"Kevin had offers last year; he was asked to go to training camp by more than one small team, but I wanted him to hold out for the draft. He was supposed to get the Hobey this year. He was supposed to be a first round pick. Instead-"
"Instead, Jarrett left the team, and everyone realized how much they depended on him," Flack said.
"And on my son!" Slatton said angrily. "If it wasn't for Kevin, they wouldn't have won a game. But instead everyone talks about how much Jarrett held them up, how important he was to the team. No one said anything about Kevin! About how important he was to the team. It was Jarrett this and Jarrett that. And then he started in on it, too, talking about how the team must have missed him. That boy's fame went to his head, straight to his head."
"So you killed him," Mac said.
"No, no. I didn't."
"Mr. Slatton-"
"I didn't mean to. Trust me, I didn't. He-" Slatton leaned forward, his elbows on the table and putting his head in his hands. "I just, I got so angry. I didn't know what I was doing. I don't know what I was thinking. I just grabbed the hockey stick and hit him. He-he grabbed his neck and started choking, and-and I realized what I'd done and I just ran."
"But you went down to watch the game."
"People were expecting me to be there. They'd have known something was wrong if I didn't."
"Why didn't you go for help?"
"Jarrett, he's young and healthy. I-I thought I'd just stunned him. I didn't realized he'd died until-"
"Until it was too late," Mac said.
Slatton nodded and whispered, "I still can't believe that he's dead. He- he was like a son to me."
::
"Hi, Ivy," Angell said as she entered the interrogation room. Maka followed her, taking a seat next to her and setting a folder on the table. "Thanks for agreeing to come down and help us out."
"It- It isn't a problem," Ivy said, fidgeting in her seat. She gave them a tense smile, one that didn't reach her eyes. "How can I help you?"
"I was hoping you could explain what happened at Aura the night of the grant celebration," Maka said.
Ivy frowned at them, glancing from Maka to Angell and back again. "I-I thought I already told her and the other detective."
"I know," Maka said, "I just have a few questions I'd like for you to clear up."
"Um, okay. What do you need to know?"
"What really happened?"
Ivy opened her mouth, then quickly shut it again, her teeth making a sharp clicking noise as she did. She looked away from them, down at her hands.
"Ivy?" Angell asked. "What really happened?"
"I-I don't remember."
"But you do remember waking up in Tripp Norton's dorm room, don't you? When his roommate got home the next morning?"
Ivy shifted in her seat. "I think it's best if I don't say anything."
But, Angell thought to herself, she didn't ask for a lawyer. She glanced over at Maka, who opened the folder.
"I did some research, Ivy," Maka said. "It turns out that you did your Masters degree at NYU as well. In the same lab, even."
Ivy nodded, her eyes wide.
"It was also cancer research."
"That's what Dr. Stoddard does," Ivy said quietly.
"Yes. And for your Masters degree, you researched the effect selenium supplementation had on the reducing the toxicity of chemotherapy drugs."
"We found that some chemotherapy drugs were more toxic to certain, hardy strains of cancer cells when patients were taking a selenium supplement," Ivy said. She glanced down at her hands. "I don't understand what that has to do with anything. I-I was poisoned, too, remember?"
"You understood the toxicity and effects of selenium, Ivy," Angell said, leaning forward. "You see, what we didn't understand was why your poisoning seemed to end, then pick up again. That's why you didn't get sick, because it stopped building up in your system."
"I-I guess I stopped drinking whatever it was in."
"Drinking?" Maka asked.
"Or eating, I guess."
"It's interesting you said drinking," Maka continued. "Because that's what was poisoned-- the lab's bottles of soda."
"Only you don't drink soda, do you?" Angell asked. "You stick with water while you're at the lab. We tested your water bottles; there wasn't any selenium in them."
"But," Maka said. "Your fingerprints were on the bottle of Mountain Dew."
"I have to move it, sometimes, to be able to get my water bottles."
"Detective Bonasera checked, Ivy; the placement of your prints wasn’t consistent with just moving the bottle. They were consistent with opening it." Angell mimicked the motions of opening a bottle as she spoke, showing the placement of her hands.
"I-I might have opened it to pour some soda for the guys. I do help them out with that on occasion, when they're busy in the lab but need a refill."
"Uh-huh." Maka nodded as she flipped through the papers in her folder. She came to the one she wanted, then looked up at Ivy and said, "After Detective Bonasera tested your hair for selenium, she tested it for something else. You tested positive for having ingested GHB about a month ago."'
"That was the night of the celebration, when everyone went out to Aura to celebrate your research group making it to the final round of the grant, wasn't it?"
Ivy wrapped her arms around herself, beginning to slowly rock in her chair.
"Ivy?" Angell asked.
"I told you," she said quietly, "I don't remember what happened."
"You remembered something," Maka said. "Didn't you? Otherwise Matt would still be alive, and Marcas and Jacob wouldn't be in the hospital."
"I woke up," Ivy said, looking down at her hands as she spoke, "and I wasn't at home. I didn't know where I was. My clothes, they weren't on right, and I was sore. Really sore, like I'd-"
She broke off, looking up at them with tears in her eyes. "It didn't take a genius to figure out what happened." She sniffed and looked away, shaking her head slowly as she continued. "A guy--I didn't know him, but he looked a bit familiar--came in and asked if I was Tripp's new girlfriend. And I left."
"Why didn't you come to the police and report it?" Angell asked.
"Because I wasn't sure. I still didn't know what happened. Not-" She paused, taking a deep breath before she continued, "Not until I heard them talking, in the lab. I got out of class early, and they didn't know I was there."
"They were talking about what they did to you," Angell said.
"Tripp was saying it wasn't the first time he'd done it. He told Jacob he was using the miraculin to disguise the taste of the GHB. He was giving Jacob advice on doing this to other women, some girl that he's lab partners with or something like that. I- I couldn't believe it."
"Why didn't you come to the police then?" Maka asked.
"Days afterward? It would have been my word against theirs, and I couldn't remember what happened. That night was all a blur--it still is. And I had been drinking. Who would have believed me?"
"We would have," Maka said quietly.
Ivy scoffed. "Sure you would have. My word against three guys who are considered among the university's best and brightest."
"And who were seen leaving the club with you that night," Angell said.
"Would that have been enough?"
"Possibly," Maka said. "Possibly not. But it would have been enough to open up an inquiry."
"Meaning they still may not have gotten what they deserved."
"Did they deserve to die?" Angell asked.
"They needed to be stopped," Ivy said harshly.
"And since you knew about the effects of selenium and had access to it from your Masters research, you took things into your own hands," Maka said.
Ivy nodded. "There was a lot left over. No one was using it anymore and it was taking up space, so Dr. Stoddard asked me to make arrangements to get rid of it. He just meant for me to see if there were any other labs on campus that could use it. But he asked the same day I heard them talking, and it just clicked. That was what I needed to do."
Maka slid a legal pad across the table to Ivy. "Why don't you write it all down here?"
Ivy nodded, picking up the pen and starting to write.
"One more question," Angell said as they watched Ivy write her confession. "I get why you poisoned Tripp, Matt, and Jacob, but why Marcas? He left before you did and didn't have any part in this."
"But that's why. Right there," Ivy said, looking up from her writing. "He left. He left while I was in the bathroom. That was the only time I wasn't with my drink. If he hadn't left, they wouldn't have drugged it. They wouldn't have dared to. He should have stayed. He should have protected me."
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