Karen Rose - Count to Ten

"Your friend Carmichael. She was following you last night."

"Dammit," she said, scanning the page. "It's not the first time she followed me to a crime scene. It's like she has radar or something. 1 wonder when the woman sleeps."

"/ wonder where she was hiding. I checked the crowd. I should have seen her."

"She seems able to disappear. If she saw us, she would have hidden."

Reed started the engine. "How'd she get the story in this morning's edition?"

One side of her mouth lifted wryly. "The Bulletin goes to press at one a.m."

"You know this from experience."

She shrugged. "Like I said, it's not the first time. Looks like she's got a couple big stories on the front page. The fire is above the fold and me tackling DuPree yesterday afternoon is below." She made a hissing sound. "She named Penny Hill. Dammit."

He'd seen that. "You were able to inform the family before they found out?"

She looked glum as she read on. "The son, yes. Not the daughter."

"It says the authorities were unavailable for comment."

"Which means she called me on my office line while I was at the scene. She's a real piece of work." She sighed. "The neighbors talked, after I asked them not to."

"Some people like to see their name in print."

"Hopefully you do, because you're in the article, too." She busied herself adding cream to her coffee, using the box on her lap as a tray. "Stay still, cat," she muttered when the box shifted. "Says here that you're decorated. So dish, Solliday."

"A few citations, like yours. Next stop is the lab so we can get rid of that cat."

Mitchell patted the box. "Poor kitty."

"Dirty kitty." Reed pulled out into traffic. "That cat reeks."

She laughed. "He does have a certain… bouquet. What, don't you like animals?"

"Clean ones, yes. My daughter has a puppy. Big muddy paws all over everything."

"I always wanted a pet." She said it almost wistfully.

"So get one."

"Too much guilt. I tried goldfish once. Kind of a test. I failed. I pulled a thirty-six hour shift and when I got home I was so tired I forgot to feed it. Fluffy ended up floating."

He had to smile. "Huffy? You named a goldfish Fluffy?"

"I didn't. My friend Dana's foster kids did. It was a kind of a group effort. Anyway, all my friends have pets so I just play with theirs. That way I can't hurt anything." She sipped her coffee, quiet for so long that he turned to look at her. Immediately she straightened her back, as if she'd realized her thoughts had drifted. "Penny Hill's son said he'd drive up to claim his mother's body. He'll be here tomorrow morning."

"What about Hill's daughter? The neighbor thought she lived in Milwaukee."

"The son said his sister got divorced recently and moved back to Chicago."

"Do you have her address?"

"Yeah. She's about a half hour from here."

"Then let's drop off Percy and pay her a visit." Mitchell sighed. "I just hope she doesn't read the Bulletin ."

Tuesday, November 28, 12:10 p.m.

Manny Rodriguez looked both ways before throwing the newspaper in the garbage outside the cafeteria. Behind Brooke, Julian swore softly. "You were right," he said.

"I saw him with the newspaper at the end of first period. You want to fish it out?"

Julian lifted the lid. "This is the Bulletin . Yesterday was the Tribr

"Both are available at the front desk," she said.

"Well, whatever he cut out was front-page news. You go eat your lunch. I'll check to see what Mr. Rodriguez was reading. It could just be an article about sports."

"Do you really think so?"

He shook his head. "No. Did you have any issues with him today during class?"

"No. He was actually very quiet. He didn't say a word, even when we started talking about the signal fire in the book. It was like he was bothered by something."

"I'll talk to him. Thank you, Brooke. I really appreciate your help in this."

With a frown Brooke watched Julian walk away. He didn't seem very worried by any of this. Maybe I'm just green , she thought. Maybe I'm just making a big deal out of nothing . But she didn't think so. She wondered what other items Manny collected. She wondered if Julian would have Manny's room searched. If he didn't, he should. I would .

"Brooke? Is something wrong?" Devin was coming out ot the catetena.

"I'm just worried about Manny. He's clipping newspaper articles about arson."

Devin frowned. "That doesn't sound good. Did you tell Julian?"

"Yes, but he doesn't seem very concerned. What does it take to have a student's room searched?"

"A valid concern. I'd say yours qualifies, Brooke. Talk to the security dean. He'd want to know something like this."

Brooke considered Bart Secrest, the dour-faced head of security. He made her nervous. "Julian might think I'm going around him."

"He'll understand. Let me know if you want me to go with you to talk to Bart later. Bart looks mean, but he's really a cream puff."

"A cream puff." She shook her head. "Sour cream maybe."

Devin just grinned. "Talk to Bart. His bark is far worse than his bite."

Tuesday, November 28, 12:30 p.m.

Jack's team was at Penny Hill's house when she and Solliday got there. Instead of Jack's normal smile, she was met with a scowl. "Thanks a lot, Mia."

She blinked at him. "What?"

"What were you thinking, dropping a damn cat off at the lab?"

Mia's lips twitched. "He's evidence, Jack."

Jack's scowl deepened. "You ever try to bathe a cat?"

"Nope," she said cheerfully. "I'm bad with pets."

Behind her Solliday chuckled. "Just ask Fluffy the goldfish."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Next time you drop off a live animal, call first, okay?" He motioned them to follow him. "Cover your feet. We think we found something."

CSU had gridded off the kitchen and Ben was sifting through debris near the stove. Ben looked up, sweat running lines through the grime on his face. "Hey, Reed. Detective."

"Ben." Solliday looked around with a frown. "You find anything?"

"More egg fragments, just like the other house. I sent them to the lab to see if there were any pieces big enough for prints. And then there's the floor. Show, 'em, Jack."

Jack stopped near where they'd found Hill's body. He ran a gloved finger along the floor and showed them a finely ground dust, dark brown.

Mia immediately sensed a change in Solliday as he grabbed Jack's hand and held it up to the light. "Blood," he said, then looked back at Mia. "Or it was. At temperatures of this fire, the proteins begin to degrade. It was too dark to see this last night."

"There was a lot of blood," Jack said. "It soaked through the seams in the linoleum."

Mia stared at the floor, in her mind seeing Hill's body as they'd found it, curled up in a fetal ball, her wrists still bound together. "So he shot her, too?"

Jack shrugged. "Barrington could tell you for sure."

"You find any prints in that blood?" she asked.

"No." Jack stood up. "We haven't found any prints anywhere. He probably wore gloves. But…" He led them to the front door. "Look here."

The doorknob had a brown smear. "He came out this way with bloody hands," Solliday said. "It's consistent with the neighbor's story. He heard tires squeal, then saw Hill's car tearing down the street."

Jack tapped the air above the newel post. "Now look here."

Mia got close to the wood, then looked up at Solliday. "Brown hair caught in the wood grain. They fought here."

"Just like Caitlin," Solliday murmured.

"We'll bag that and take it in," Jack said "The brown hair has gray roots, so I'm thinking it's your victim's and not the killer Sorry."

"I wouldn't think she'd be strong enough to knock his head into the newel post," Mia agreed as she pushed at the front door, checking out the tree-lined front porch. The evergreens had been badly burnt but neighbors had told her that the trees had been full and thick. "You didn't find any evidence of forced entry on the back door, did you?"