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Post by jaglady on Jan 9, 2009 20:11:11 GMT -5
Thanks, csikt. In the next couple of chapters, some folks get...
CAUGHT IN THE ACT!! HAHAHAHAHA!!
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Post by earthylady on Jan 9, 2009 22:18:22 GMT -5
Emmie and Ryan are getting along from the start and I know she just loves his hazel eyes. Rick really is a pain.
Glad that you are feeling better.
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Post by jaglady on Jan 9, 2009 22:21:05 GMT -5
Thanks, Earthylady. I'm glad to be better too. And if it weren't for the pics on this site, I wouldn't have known Ryan had hazel eyes. I always thought they were brown! (blushes)
(psssst! I updated the other story. ;D)
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ladytaz29
Rookie Officer
Caution..Must wear flame retardent materials..
Posts: 377
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Post by ladytaz29 on Jan 10, 2009 15:57:16 GMT -5
Rick is such a little.....weasel....(censor censor bleep bleep) Good job JL...
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Post by jaglady on Jan 10, 2009 17:01:21 GMT -5
Rick is such a little.....weasel....(censor censor bleep bleep) Yeah, if only he weren't so goshdarn cute.
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Post by jaglady on Jan 10, 2009 17:11:26 GMT -5
Chapter 9—Shadows of What Used to Be
Emmie and Ryan hovered over the lab’s laptop as Emmie diligently clicked the keyboard. “I went back there into the switching room and ran the traffic off each separate bank. Sure enough, it was all different from what ran through here. “Actually, I catalogued each bank, and it looks like each one except the first is really the same. The main computer system ran off the front bank, while the rear was sort of on a different frequency. Here’s some of what ran through.”
She clicked the keyboard again. A list of IP addresses descended down the screen. “Many of these are foreign addresses. Almost impossible to trace from here. Gonna have to get my old friends at the FBI and probably Interpol on these, especially the child porn.” She raised her eyebrows and shook her head. “There was one in here, though. I just thought it was some guys clowning around, or Halloween. Hold on a second.” She brought a picture to life on the screen. “I wonder if these guys were sober when this picture was taken. I don’t think they knew they were being photographed.”
Ryan’s eyes widened. “That guy in the middle! That’s O’Shay!”
She looked up at him. “Who?”
He looked at her. “The blonde guy? He's over the whole Miami-Dade PD. You’re telling me this came through our data bank?”
The details flew together in her head now. “It sure did. This isn’t part of the Bohannon case, is it?”
Horatio poked his head into the lab. “Mr. Wolfe. Miss Stockburne. Meeting in the breakroom.”
Emmie quickly shut off her laptop and folded the top down as she and Ryan stood up and followed their boss down the hallway.
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In the break room, Horatio stood next to her opposite a sea of CSI’s and labcoat-clad techs. “Everybody, I want you to meet Emmie Stockburne. She’s heading up the computer lab. She started this—“
“DAMN! WHO MADE THIS COFFEE?” a voice yelled from behind the partition. Horatio’s eyes widened as he was stunned into silence. There were some snickers as all eyes turned to the wall behind him.
Detective Frank Tripp walked out glaring into his half-full coffee cup. He stopped suddenly when he realized that he had interrupted something.
“Emmie, this is Detective Frank Tripp. I think he likes your coffee” the Lieutenant said with a grin.
Frank Tripp glanced at Emmie and then into his coffee cup. “Sorry. Hey. This stuff could walk around by itself!”
Emmie smiled. “Thanks. Comes from my Marine Corps days. Things just seem to go better when the commander has hot coffee at four in the morning.”
“And this is Calleigh Duquesne. She heads up Ballistics. This is Eric Delko, one of our CSI’s, and Natalia—“
Emmie and Natalia glanced at each other in disbelief. Emmie then narrowed her eyes at Natalia. Horatio sensed the tension but said nothing about it. Natalia’s eyes widened. It was evident to him that she and the cybertech certainly remembered one another.
“Please make Miss Stockburne feel welcome. She and Tyler will be covering the computer lab for the day shift. Thanks for coming.”
As CSI’s and techs exited the computer room, Horatio sidled up to her. “You and Natalia worked together at some point, I take it?”
Emmie looked at him with wary eyes. “Yes Sir. You know—“
“That she was an FBI mole? That’s all in the past. She’s come a long way since then.”
Emmie’s look softened. “Yes Sir. Also, I was going to ask you how soon Tyler could come back.”
“Why?”
“Well, Sir, based on Ryan’s and my findings and Tyler’s skill level, there’s no possible way he could have trafficked those sites.”
“Why don’t we walk back to the computer lab, Emmie?” Horatio suggested.
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Emmie sat with Horatio and Ryan back in the computer lab. “As I was saying, there is no possible way that Tyler could have trafficked those sites. Not if he doesn’t have access to that switching room. Also, I noticed that the switching bays were in different stages of changeover from stacks to blades. I looked at your shipping records, and it looks like you still have a lot of blades and cables sitting somewhere in this building. At least that’s my hope. And I could sure use Tyler’s help in getting things back up to speed.” She smiled. “I didn’t think Tyler was capable of doing that either.”
Ryan nodded in agreement. “I ran the fingerprints. None were Tyler’s” he agreed.
Horatio smiled back. “Nice work, Miss Stockburne. Mr. Wolfe. I’ll give him the good news.”
“Oh, and one other thing. Tyler’s gonna have to work the Bohannon case” Emmie told him.
“Why?”
“Gold Tone Broadcasting? The company which owns WION?”
“Yes?”
“I have ties to their parent company.”
“Which would be?”
“Stockburne Holdings and Properties. I’m gonna have to recuse myself.”
Horatio nodded. “Yes you are. Well, maybe I better page him and see if we can’t get him in here right away.”
Emmie pursed her lips. “Also, Ryan and I found this.” She raised the screen of her laptop. “I’m told this had something to do with the Bohannon case?” She hit the refresh button, producing the picture of Scott O’Shay and some unknown acquaintances arm in arm, wearing only diapers, oblivious to any camera.
“I wonder if we’re not all working the same case” Ryan noted.
Horatio narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “And this picture came through our system?”
“Yes. Unknown IP address. I can try to trace it, but I wonder whether that would be a good idea.” She looked at the picture thoughtfully. “There’s more, Sir.”
“More?” Horatio wanted to know.
“Some of these websites had to be accessed with a credit card number.” She clicked the keys again. “I did find one number that came up again and again. The card belonged to a Timothy Speedle, deceased for three years now.”
The Lieutenant’s eyes now widened in rage.
She watched him carefully. This wasn’t good. “You know him?”
He nodded his head with a resolve. “Yes. Yes I do. What else can you tell me?”
“Who else knew this computer system inside-out?”
He immediately yanked out his phone and pressed the speed dial. “Delko. Horatio. I think it’s time we have a chat with Mr. Cooper.” He then snapped his cell phone shut. “Miss Stockburne, don’t touch anything else in that switching room until Tyler gets in. You are completely off this case until I say otherwise. And I do mean completely.”
She nodded her eyes warily. “I understand.”
As Horatio walked out, Emmie turned to Ryan. “Ryan, everything okay between you and Internal Affairs? I didn’t get you into some kind of trouble, did I?”
Ryan now turned away from her. “No. Everything’s okay. Hey Emmie, keep me posted on this. Good work.” He stood up to leave as if in a hurry. “Call me if you find out anything else.”
She nodded after him. “See you, Ryan.”
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ladytaz29
Rookie Officer
Caution..Must wear flame retardent materials..
Posts: 377
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Post by ladytaz29 on Jan 10, 2009 23:26:43 GMT -5
Cooper stepped into the cow patty field this time...
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Post by earthylady on Jan 11, 2009 6:48:43 GMT -5
Interesting interaction between Emmie and Natalia Cooper has messed up really big time. Awaiting more!
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Post by jaglady on Jan 11, 2009 13:25:30 GMT -5
Thanks, everybody. Trust me....
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Post by jaglady on Jan 11, 2009 13:33:04 GMT -5
A/N: You can hear and see "The Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins (Top Gun Soundtrack), by going to YouTube and typing "Kenny Loggins+Danger Zone" in the search bar.
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Chapter 10—The Danger Zone Revisited
“We really didn’t need to come in on our day off, did we, Eric?” Calleigh said.
Eric sat down on the floor of the broadcasting van and snapped on his latex gloves with a resolve. “No, but there’s a lot more to this case than I thought. We have to see what’s under this counter. We keep turning up dead ends. Besides, there’s nobody in the lab today, and we won’t keep getting interrupted. This panel pops off. Want to get that end?”
Calleigh quickly snapped on her latex gloves and helped Delko pull the white panel off the front of the sound board, helping him gently place the panel on the floor. Delko shone his flashlight at the switching components and studied the chart. “There’s the backup generator over there” he noted, looking at the white metallic wall in the back. “Yep. Right here, Cal.” He pointed up under the last two slider switches. “Something else was hooked up under there. See those scratches? And those two wires hanging are probably the two wires that should be hooked up.” He immediately took pictures of the discrepancy.
Calleigh nodded. “This backup generator is 270 volts. The primary electrical supply is 208 volts.” She moved closer to the three-prong outlet. “And I think I see where our killer attached the wires. There’s some copper fragments hanging out of that outlet, Eric. Is the power turned off? I’ll collect those and see if we can get something off them.”
“Mark Wycoffe said the power went out for about one second before the backup generator kicked in” Delko said.
“Maybe a second was all it took.”
Delko moved closer. “Nope. This backup generator is in two parts. There’s your 500 volts. When the main supply overloaded, the backup took over. It looks like first Derrick Bohannon got 208 volts. One half of the backup kicked in, and then the other. Derrick Bohanon got a double dose.” He turned around and reached for his fingerprint kit. “This thing’s been driving me crazy, too.” He grinned at her. “Besides, this way I get to work with you without getting interrupted.”
“Calleigh smiled at him. “Somebody here really knew this system. Mark Wycoffe suggested Paul Galloway’s stepson, but right now we don’t have enough to get a warrant. Eric, we’ve got to find that wire.”
Delko nodded. “Besides, Mark had a lot of holes in his stories. How should I really know what happened? We better get Emmie or Tyler to listen to the tape from that show and find out whether anything turns up. That case file should be in the computer lab.”
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Emmie breathed deeply and enjoyed the darkened silence of the empty crime lab. Perfect atmosphere for some Saturday maintenance in getting the computer lab back up to standard, she figured.
First order of business. She started up the main console and searched the internet for The Silver Palm. From what she could gather, The Silver Palm was a historic resort with a five-star restaurant, hotel and spa. Upscale, even by Miami’s standards, Emmie noted. No prices for the online menu or the wine list. In other words, if you had to ask, you couldn’t afford it.
Emmie shook her head in disbelief. It sure seemed like Rick was going through a lot of trouble—and money—to entertain a new, low-level team lead, she thought. Highly unlikely he would do this for anyone else in the lab. He already knew about her family and her political ties. That had to be the only reason. Curious, though, as to who would be picking up the tab.
Laying that thought aside, as she prepared to clean and catalogue the equipment, Emmie took out her old CD of Eighties dance tunes. She slid the homemade disc into the soundboard’s main controls and snapped the hatch closed. Horatio allowed her to play her music while she worked, so long as nobody else minded. As ”Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins blared through the lab’s overhead speakers, she adjusted the volume and felt her energy rise, biting her lip, closing her eyes, and putting her hands on her desk, bobbing her head. For just a few minutes she was an energetic, carefree, unattached young Marine back in Quantico, surrounded by single girlfriends and all those guys in uniform who would fight for her attention. Military life had not yet thrown her so many curve balls. As the music’s energy and the memories quickly took over her system, she swayed her arms and her upper body, and eventually began to pop her shoulders in time to the music, giving up the stresses of the last year and giving in to the memories of a simpler time.
As they walked into the darkened, quiet hallway, Delko looked at Calleigh.
“Somebody’s playing music in here! Sounds like the computer lab” Calleigh said with a smile.
They walked warily and stopped at the glass wall to see Emmie completely lost in her music, still bobbing her head and swinging her shoulders, her back turned toward them. They looked at each other and smiled.
Delko suppressed his laughter as he put up one hand. “Wait here.” He crept up behind the bobbing, nodding, swaying computer tech and stood just inches behind her with a smile. Just as she suddenly turned around, he mimicked her moves. Her eyes widened and she shrieked, surprised and embarrassed. She started to turn, but Delko reached out and quickly grabbed her hand.
“No, come on. That’s good!” he insisted, trying to dance with her. Calleigh smiled at them through the glass. Emmie finally wrenched away from his hand and hit the soundboard’s kill switch with a SLAP! The computer lab went silent as she leaned on the console and covered her face, turned away from him.
“Eric! That’s embarrassing!” she almost yelled through her hand. “God! Who else saw that?” She sweated as she could feel her face flush.
Delko laughed. “Just me and Calleigh. Oh, come on! You’re good! Bet you can’t Salsa like me, though!”
Calleigh walked in. “So, you like Top Gun, huh?”
Emmie nodded with an embarrassed, tired smile. “Yep. That was part of my life.” She grabbed a Kleenex and wiped her eyes as she came down from that beautiful high and recovered from the embarrassment. “God, what a great first week. First I moon Ryan, then this.” She sat down and shook her head, catching her breath. “So you two got the same idea, huh?”
“We came to take a look at the Bohannon file. Maxine Valera said she ran a cross check on the uknown male’s DNA to see if she couldn’t find any close relatives.”
Emmie pointed to the stack of case files on Tyler’s desk. “It’s over there. I’m not allowed to even touch it. Conflict of interest.”
Calleigh walked in as Delko picked up the case file and read through the new DNA analysis. He raised his eyebrows as he looked at her.
“What is it?” she asked, sidling up to him.
“Seven common alleles.”
“Who?”
Delko shook his head. “We better call H. He’s not gonna believe this.”
Calleigh read the results over his shoulder. She raised her eyebrows. “This is about to get really messy.”
Emmie looked on as Delko whipped out his cell phone and informed Horatio of his findings.
“Calleigh, what can you tell me about a place called The Silver Palm?” she finally asked.
Calleigh smiled. “The Silver Palm? Nice place. I can’t even afford to park there. If I had that kind of money, I’d love to go to their spa one day. Why?”
Emmie shrugged. “Just curious.”
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