Chapter 9
Mac slammed the heavy rucksack down harshly on the metal bench in Abby’s lab. Abby yelped as she awoke, started by the crashing.
“You couldn’t have shaken me?” she grumbled, rubbing her eyes as she stood.
“This was faster.” Mac smirked. “And it is a rush job.” She unloaded the swabs and prints, pulling the memory card from her phone and placing it gently in Abby’s hand.
“What you got?” she asked, sliding the memory card into the fitting slot and watched as multiple photographs popped up onto the screen.
“Blood, possibly Sarah’s and prints in blood, hopefully Ramirez’s.”
“When you said rush…”
“I defiantly meant it.” She nodded, handing the swabs to the scientist.
“I don’t get it.” Abby scratched her head, tussling her hair. “If Ramirez checked out of the hotel last week, how could this be her blood in the room is she was killed last night?” Abby asked, swinging her arms around as she difficultly balanced on her platforms.
“I got a copy of the hotel surveillance. I was hoping I could use your computer to search it to see if he came back in the last 24 hours.” Mac shook her jacket off and pulled her hair back from her head, wrapping the scrunchie from around her wrist over her dark hair.
“Sure, go ahead.” Abby nodded her head towards the dimmed computer next to hers, lifting the prints from the table.
“Thanks.” Mac moved to the computer and inserted the disc into the drive. “Let me see…” she mumbled to herself, fast forwarding the tape quickly. “Now if he came back, I think he may have done it at night. Less conspicuous.” She told, mainly to herself.
“Same blood type as Sarah.” Abby typed frantically.
“Oh!” Mac exclaimed, fingers locked above the keyboard. “Gotcha.” She grinned, freezing the frame. Mac zoomed in on the top corner of the screen, magnifying a pixilated image. “I guess I’ll just have to try out the new filtering program I have been working on.”
“Hmm.” Abby acknowledged, not looking at her friend but instead continued frenetically with her work.
“It uses many algorithms to clear up the pixels using the information on the neighbouring ones.” She explained, easily hacking into her own server and emailing the program to herself.
“Nice.” She chuckled, scanning the prints to the computer in a flash of light.
“It might take a while.” Mac mused, stepping back slowly form the computer and pushing herself onto the clean metal bench.
“Here.” Abby grunted, passing a Caf-Pow behind her, her eyes not leaving the buzzing screen.
“Thanks.” Mac steadily pulled it from her hands and sucked a long draw on the straw.
“Yes!” Abby cried, throwing her hands into the air in triumph. “It’s Sarah’s blood. I know that isn’t a good thing, but that’s more evidence against Ramirez.” She held her hands defensively towards the other woman.
“Thanks Abs.” Mac jumped from the table, landing gracefully on 2 feet and moving swiftly to Abby’s side. Nervousness rose in the pit of her stomach, and Mac didn’t know why. They had the bastard that had killed Sarah, but something was wrong. All the evidence was there and she knew in her gut he was the guy; a skill she had learned from Gibbs.
Still, she had a terrible feeling that something was going to go wrong. But she was unsure as to what and how it would affect them, or even if it was to do with this case.
“You alright?” Abby startled her, placing a hand on each of Mac’s arms and she pulled her from her thoughts.
“Uh, yeah.” She shook her head, focusing all her attention on her sister-in-law as she massaged her shoulder. “What about the prints?” she asked, checking on her own screen thoughtfully, squinting at the figure.
“Running them now,” she began as 2 prints silently appeared on the screen. “They match.” She grinned quietly, running two hands through her dark hair. “Ramirez is our guy.” She slouched, leaning her back on the metal bench Mac had recently vacated.
“Well, if this is him on the tape, then he made good time.” She hummed, manually assisting her programme. “Shenandoah Park is around 50 miles from the hotel, and I’ve got him here an hour and 15 minutes later.” She calculated. “That is easy time, even if he was held up in traffic. I mean, I could make it in half an hour.”
“Yeah, but we don’t all drive as recklessly as you.” Abby poked her tongue at the other woman, narrowing her eyes jokingly.
“Main suspect in a case with the same MO,” Mac brushed off the gestures, beginning to run down all the evidence. “A gang member with priors, motive- I’m thinking she exposed him in her book and he got pissed, her blood in his hotel room, his fingerprints in her blood and...” she paused climatically, slamming her fingers gently onto the keyboard. “Security footage placed him at the hotel hours after her death.” She grinned, pulling her hair from the bauble and letting the dark strands fall around her face. “I think we’ve got him Abs. and we couldn’t have done it without you.” She jumped forward, kissing the other woman gently on the cheek before pulling back and winking.
“Thanks, hun.” She smiled, her pale cheeks flushing with the complement. “Now scram. Go tell the guys and I’ll tell Tim.” She gently pointed Mac in the direction of the door.
“Alright. Thanks again.” She smiled slowly before backing out of the lab.
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