BloodLines

chapter 2

Hi guys, here's the first chappie!! tell me what you think of it. I really hope you love it (fingers crossed)!! enjoy :D

Chapter 2

‘What are you listening to?’ Eva asked throwing her bag onto a chair and removing her denim jacket. 

The weather had deteriorated again sending heavy showers to obscure the scarce sunlight managing to get through the clouds.  Summer had consisted of barely a day or two of sunshine this year, and the temperatures had remained low, deliberately thwarting any attempts the teenage girls made at tanning.  The city of Erie had gotten the worst of the weather, remaining under a constant cover of cloud, even on the driest days.  Despite the grey skies, the city still looked beautifully picturesque.  Eva had managed to visit several museums and galleries and had also found time to walk around the Erie zoo.  Although the weather wasn’t what she was used to, she found the city more to her taste than Los Angeles.  Plus the fact that she had landed a job at the Erie criminal lab as the youngest medical examiner was in itself a major plus point.     

The blonde haired man she was looking at turned round with a grin, replacing the scalpel he was holding on the tray by his side.  ‘What? Don’t you like the Monkees?’

‘The Monkees?!’ she laughed incredulously, heading for the CD player, ‘Are you kidding? In this day and age?’

‘Well, they are classic,’ he replied with a shrug, turning back to the body in front of him.

‘Yeah exactly my point! They are ancient!’  She rolled her eyes and replaced the CD with the current trendsetter band, raised the volume a few notches and joined Matt at the table.  ‘So what have we here?’ she asked, slipping on a pair of gloves.

‘Sixteen year old female, found outside a nightclub last night in an alley.’  He pointed at the paperwork stacked nearby.  ‘The police sent it all through this morning.’

‘Goody!’  Eva looked at the young girl’s face.  Even after working three years as a crime lab medical examiner she hadn’t got used to the faces of the strangers that passed through her hands.  She always felt a bitter sorrow at their loss and almost felt as though she knew them.  Even while she worked she would sometimes chat to them as though they could hear her.  All the girl’s makeup had been washed away before the autopsy started, leaving her looking pale and very young. 

‘What do they think caused her death?’  Eva was still looking at her face.

Matt sighed.  ‘The guys in blue thought it was a drug overdose; they found some speed in her purse.’

Eva shook her head sadly and touched the girl’s face with her gloved hand.  ’Poor girl, you hadn’t even lived yet.  I take it they want a full examination even though they have no doubt already closed the case?’

‘Of course.’

‘Alright.’  She turned away to pick up a scalpel.  ‘Let’s get to work.’

Two hours later she put the scalpel down and looked at their handiwork.  No trace of drugs had been found in the blood samples, and no bruises could be seen.  Except for a sprained ankle the body appeared very healthy.  Matt had gone for coffee, announcing that the caffeine would help them figure out the cause of death.  Something niggled at the back of her mind but she couldn’t put her finger on it.  Gently she moved the girl’s head slightly, looking for any clues.  Not seeing anything unusual she was about to re-position the head when she noticed a small wound halfway down her neck, most of it concealed by the girl’s hair.  She pushed aside the swathe of dark hair to expose it and her eyes narrowed as two small puncture wounds were revealed.

Two small symmetrical holes, she frowned thoughtfully.  The girl didn’t have any piercings.  Maybe she had removed this one and the holes had healed?  Taking a thin wire from the table they usually used for gunshot wounds, she slipped it into one of the holes expecting it to be shallow, only skin deep.  To her surprise it went deeper than she had thought and it didn’t seem to be connected to the one next to it. 

‘What did you find?’

She jumped at Matt’s voice so close to her shoulder.  ‘Puncture wounds,’ she replied recovering her composure.  She showed him the marks.

‘Hmmm…what do you think? Piercing gone bad?’

‘I don’t know, the wounds are too deep and they don’t connect to each other,’ she explained pulling out the wire. 

‘Probably a botched piercing job,’ he shrugged nonchalantly. ‘It happens,’ he continued, moving away.  ‘My cousin had this piercing at the back of his neck, hurt like hell.  Turns out it had hit one of the spinal bones, and you could hear it rubbing when he moved his head,’ he shuddered at the memory.  ‘Anyway, he got it out pretty quick.  Nearly sued the tattoo artist who had done it.’

‘Your point being?’ Eva asked raising a slim eyebrow at her partner.

‘The point is people do stupid things all the time! More often in the case of my family.’ He rolled his eyes expressively as she chuckled.  ‘Maybe this kid fancied a piercing because everyone was getting one, it got infected or something and she had it removed.’

‘But why put it here, almost in her hair where no one can see it?’ Eva argued, unwilling to admit defeat.

‘I don’t know; kids are weird.  Maybe she was going to get her hair cut really short, or she didn’t want her parents to know, or she just wanted a special person to find it, and I don’t mean you.’ He looked knowingly at Eva’s uncertain face. ‘If you know what I mean.’

‘Surprisingly I do know what you mean and its gross!  Plus it’s weird coz I rarely run on your wavelength!’

‘You should try it more often, it’s an experience!’

‘Yeah, I bet it is,’ she agreed with a sarcastic smile.

As Matt tagged one of the girl’s toes for identification, Eva couldn’t stop thinking about the twin holes. Maybe Matt was right; she had to chill out more and besides kids were crazy nowadays, right?    

‘We need the medical examiner to testify!’ Sean said rubbing the back of his neck tiredly.  The strain was showing on his handsome face.

Nicholas twirled his pen thoughtfully.  The trial wasn’t going too well.  It had already been two weeks since that first day and he was realising how good the opposition were.  The attorneys Jack had employed were the best in the game, probably paid handsomely by his mafia connections. 

They had rolled out several arguments designed to nullify their opponent’s attacks.  The only thing they couldn’t explain was the nature of the injuries and why they matched the tools found at the defendant’s house.  Plus who better to take them through the victims’ last minutes than a medically trained witness?  Nicholas agreed with Sean, the district attorney’s office still had a card up their sleeves and it was time to play it. 

‘You’ve been summoned!’ Matt handed her the letter a few days later.

‘Summoned where?’ She glanced at the letter and blanched visibly.

‘Only the biggest trial this year! Way to go!’ Matt grinned across the table at her.

She swallowed convulsively, trying to speak past the large lump in her throat.  The bodies she had examined for this trial had been gruesome.  She could still see each mutilated face clearly and the memory of the smell still turned her stomach.  She had been glad when they had finally finished and handed their findings to the D.A’s office. 

Now they wanted her to state her findings in court?  What? Couldn’t they read?  Just great!

According to the letter she was still clutching in her hand one of the lawyers was going to prep her for her debut.  She shuddered and pushed the letter away; there was no way she was going anywhere near that courtroom.  No way no how!