Every Second Counts

I was finally allowed to go back to work, and I couldn’t have been happier. I hated spending my entire day sitting on the couch watching talk shows and soap operas. I would much rather be either in the lab or at a crime scene, something that Kris was still worried about. “Kris, babe, you can’t stop me from going to a crime scene,” I told him after he had expressed his fears for what felt like the hundredth time in the past two days.

“It’s just, what happens if something like that happens again?” he asked, referring to the Montenegro case. “I don’t want to see you get hurt again.”

“That’s not going to happen again,” I assured him, but his face showed that he didn’t believe a word I was saying. “It’s not. That was a once in a lifetime thing. Besides, you and I both know that Parker will never let me go off on my own like that again, chasing after a suspect. He still feels like it was his fault that I went through everything, and he’s never going to let that happen again.”

“But, what if something does happen?” Kris questioned.

I sighed, tired of having this conversation with him. He should have known by now that I wasn’t about to budge from my point of view. This was my job, and I wasn’t going to change how I did it just because something went wrong last time. It was an accident, and I knew it was never going to happen again. “Kris, you telling me that you don’t want me going to a crime scene or going after criminals is like me telling you to stop playing hockey,” I told him.

He gave me a look of sheer confusion. “What?” he questioned. “How is that anything like you telling me to give up hockey? I’m not going to have some guy with a needle behind a corner ready to stab me and put me in the hospital near-death.”

“No, but you could have a guy that falls and his skate blade accidentally slices your neck open and puts you in the hospital near-death,” I argued. “I know you just don’t want to see anything happen to me, but Kris, I’m going to go back to work whether you want me to or not. Don’t make me try to choose between you and my work.”

“I’m not asking you to choose,” Kris said, shaking his head. “I know how important work is to you, and I’m fairly certain that you’d choose your work over me if I tried to make you choose,” he added with a laugh. “Just can’t you ease back into things? Please?” he begged.

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, but I’m going back to work tonight, and I’m going back fully. I’m not going to be delegated to paperwork at the lab. I refuse to do so. I’m a crime scene investigator, not a paper pusher.”

Kris sighed, knowing he was never going to win this battle, and I smiled to myself. “Fine,” he groaned. “Go back to work. Just please be careful.”

“I will,” I promised him, giving him a kiss before I walked down the stairs to my apartment to change for work. While I had been out of commission, I had been mainly staying at Kris’s place. I had thought about bringing up the subject of moving in together since I seemed to be spending more time at his place than at my own, but I never had gotten enough courage to actually say something about it. We were still a fairly new couple, only having been dating for about five and a half months, and I really didn’t want to make things awkward if he wasn’t ready to take our relationship to the next level.

I walked towards my apartment door, my key in hand, but when I went to unlock it, I found it was already unlocked. I knew it should have been locked, as I always locked my door when I left. It was something I was adamant about. I instinctively reached down for my gun, which wasn’t on my waistband, as I hadn’t needed it while I hadn’t been at work. Instead, I knew it was on the small table just inside the front door. I pulled out my cell phone, ready to call Davis if someone was inside while I slowly opened the door.

I glanced to my right to see my gun and holster still sitting on the table, and I quickly grabbed it, keeping the gun in my hand, ready to fire at any point. There were no lights on, and it didn’t appear as anything in the living room had been disturbed. I creeped towards the kitchen, my back against the wall, as if I were at a crime scene and I thought the perpetrator was still in the place. I quickly looked around the corner into the kitchen, only to find no one there. I did the same thing for the bathroom before I came to my bedroom. The door was slightly open, which wasn’t a big deal since I hardly ever closed my bedroom door when I left.

I kicked the door the rest of the way open, my gun still cocked in case there was someone in there, but I found no one inside. I opened my closet door to nothingness, as well. I rechecked all the rooms once again, but still found no one around. I shrugged it off, even though I knew I had not left the door unlocked, and I quickly changed my clothes, rushing to get out of my apartment and to the crime lab, even though I had nearly two hours before my shift started.

As soon as I walked into the crime lab, everyone looked up to see me. “I’m surprised you’re here only an hour and a half early. I would have guessed you would have been here at nine this morning,” Davis smiled at me. I forced a smile on my face, but my mind was still thinking about my apartment. While there was no evidence of a break in, and there was nothing taken or even touched, I still knew someone had been in there. I never kept my door unlocked, and even though I hadn’t been fully healthy when I had last been in my apartment, I knew I still would have locked it.

“Mara, what’s the matter?” Fiona asked, as she, Davis, and Parker all stared at me.

“I think someone broke into my apartment,” I stated, and all three of them began asking me why I thought that. I quickly told them what had happened when I had gone back to my apartment. “Nothing was even touched, but I’m telling you, I have a feeling someone was in there.”

“But, who would have broken into your apartment and not have stolen anything?” Fiona asked.

“Montenegro?” Parker asked, saying the one person that had come to mind when I had first found my door unlocked. “We still haven’t found him,” he told me.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know,” I replied. “I think it’s a good possibility that it could have been him. But, why would he have gone there? And, how would he have known that I lived there?”

“Well, maybe he’s trying to finish off the job that he started before,” Davis said bluntly.

“You think he’s trying to kill her?” Fiona asked.

“It’s a possibility,” Davis answered. “As far as how he knew you lived there, I cannot tell you that.”

“Do you think he’s following me?” I asked, suddenly feeling extremely paranoid.

“I don’t think he’s that stupid,” Parker replied. “If he was following you, he would be caught fairly quickly.”

“Parker’s right. I don’t think he’s following you. Besides, we don’t even know if it was Montenegro,” Davis said. “For all we know, it could be some random break in. Though, not touching anything is really throwing me for a loop right now if it wasn’t Montenegro. Maybe we should go check out your apartment,” he suggested.

“You can if you’d like, but Davis, I’m telling you, nothing was touched. There’s not going to be anything there that can point us to anyone,” I assured him.

“No offense to you or your CSI skills, but Mara, I’m sure you were fairly shaken up when you realized someone had broken into your apartment. You probably didn’t go over everything in there like you would a crime scene,” he said, and I shook my head, knowing he was right. “Let us go back there and take a quick look around.”

“Okay,” I sighed. “Do you want me to go back with you?” I asked.

Davis shook his head. “No, I think Parker and I can handle this one. You and Fi can stay here and work on the Deerson case. Fiona, will you please fill Mara in on that one?” he asked, and Fiona nodded her head. “Thank you,” he said. “We’ll be back soon,” he added, leading Parker out of the crime lab.

“Do you think it’s Montenegro?” I asked Fiona, sitting in the chair next to her, leaning backwards, looking up at the ceiling.

“I really don’t know, Mar. For all we know, this could have happened a while ago. I mean, we don’t know how long your door’s been unlocked. You’ve been staying with Kris all this time.”

I closed my eyes, knowing she had a point. We didn’t know how long my door had been unlocked. “So, this person could have been in and out of my apartment a million times for all I know,” I muttered.

“Let’s not think about it like that,” Fiona said. “Did you happen to tell Kris?” she asked me offhandedly, and I shook my head.

“No, and I don’t know if I want to,” I admitted. “He’s been freaking out about me coming back to work and going to a crime scene and getting hurt again. If he thinks someone’s been in my apartment, he’s never going to let me go anywhere without someone with me at all times,” I said with a laugh.

“You know, I think I’m going to have to agree with you right now about not telling Kris,” Fiona told me, and my eyes widened.

“Wait a minute, you’re agreeing with me about this?” I questioned, not expecting that.

Fiona laughed. “Yeah, I am. I’m not saying to keep it from him forever, but at least until we get all the facts. We don’t know if this is Montenegro or if it’s just some stupid childish prank. There’s no need to worry Kris if it’s nothing.”

I nodded my head. “I know. Now, talk to me about this case we’re supposed to be working on. I’ve been waiting far too long to get back to working, and I’m not wasting any time on this case,” I said, grabbing the folder from in front of Fiona and opening it up, scanning the file to try to catch up on all that I had missed since I had been gone.