Race Against Time

An officer led the cuffed victim's brother into the interrogation room. I stepped into the observation with Jo. The suspect sat down calmly, his eyes cold. His name was Vincent Sabatini. I recognized the last name from my grandfather.
"Now, Mr. Sabatini. You were found in your sister's apartment closet, in our crime scene", Mac said.
"Mi rifiuto di parlare inglese ad un poliziotto", Vincent spat in Italian. I rested my hand on the ledge, studying him.
"You speak Italian?" Jo asked. I nodded.
"I'm half-Italian. I speak it fluently as my second language", I replied.
"What's he saying?" Jo asked.
"He says he refuses to speak English to a cop", I replied. Jo tapped the window and Mac stood up and walked out of the room. After a moment, he gestured to me and I followed him in.
"Ciao, mi chiamo Isabella Pacino", I said, smiling.
[Hello, my name is Isabella Pacino]
The fear flashed in his eyes when I mentioned my last name and my fluency in Italian radiated.

"Non sto parlando con un Pacino", he said nervously. I smiled pleasantly and watched him.
[I'm not talking to a Pacino] Sick to say, I enjoyed watching people squirm.

"Proviamo di nuovo. Perché eravate in casa Hillary Sabatini?" I said.
[Let's try this again. Why were you in Hillary Sabatini's apartment?] He glared at me. I glared back, resting my folded hands in front of my mouth and leaning forward. We stared at each other for a long moment before he finally raised his hands up.

"I was kicked out of my apartment and Hillary gave me a place to stay until I got back on my feet", he finally said. I leaned back.
"See? Now, was that so hard?" I asked. This was the first time my Italian heritage came in handy in interrogation.
"I hid because I knew it would look bad if I lingered", he replied.
"How long were you there before we found you?" I asked. My gut told me he didn't have anything to do with his sister's death.
"An hour, maybe. I heard footsteps after I found Hillary dead and I hid in the closet. I didn't see nobody, I didn't touch anything but to see if my sister was alive", he replied.
"We're going to need to collect DNA and prints from you for elimination", I said, standing up.
"Anything that can help you catch my sister's killer", he replied.

"Grazie per essere così cooperativa", I said, shaking his hand and smiling slowly.
[Thank you for being so cooperative] His eyes widened. I walked out of interrogation.
"I didn't know you were bilingual", Mac said. I chuckled.
"Quad, actually. Not including English. I speak Spanish, Italian, Gaelic, and French", I replied.
"Be careful with yourself, Isabella. I might not let you go back to Wilmington", Mac joked. I laughed as I walked to the lab. It was time to finish on those tests to see if I could finally find a murder weapon. I dropped lethanol on one of the Q-tips I had collected from the carpet and smiled when it turned blue. It had just tested positive for blood. I ran another one through DNA and got a match to our victim.

Collecting three always paid off. I ran the blood through GCMS and drummed my fingers while I waited.
"What are you waiting on?" Lindsay asked. I looked at her.
"Trace on a blood spot I found on the carpet at the crime scene. This could be major, this might not be", I replied. I randomly started thinking about how unusually cool the apartment was when I had walked in.
"You know what would be the most ingenious murder weapon?" I said randomly.
"What?" Lindsay asked, chuckling.
"Ice. It disposes of itself and it can be lethal and untraceable", I replied. GCMS ticked and the trace in the blood came up. I examined it. Lindsay nodded.
"I can see your point", she replied.
"Carbon dioxide?" I said, confused. I ran it again, getting the same results.
"That can't be right", Lindsay agreed. I ran it one more time. Same results. I printed the results and walked up to Mac. I wondered how carbon dioxide could get in the blood unless it had been tainted.

"The trace on the blood spot I found in the apartment came back as carbon dioxide. I ran it three times and kept getting the same results", I said, handing him the paper. Mac looked surprised.
"There's a million and one ways it could've gotten in there", Mac replied. He handed the paper back to me.
"I'll look it up and see what I can come up with", I said, walking off. I leaned against the table on the lab, using my personal favorite search engine to look up carbon dioxide uses. The lab tech, Adam walked in.
"Hey, Mac said you might need some help in the brainstorming department", he said. I nodded, grateful.
"Yeah, this is much harder than I expected", I replied.
"That's what she said", Flack said, walking by. I rolled my eyes.
"Not like you'd be responsible for that", I called.
"Ouch, so much for Southern manners, Rambo", he said. I rolled my eyes again. First Lady Antebellum, now Rambo.

"Want to make yourself useful and help us out with uses on carbon dioxide?" I asked.
"As thrilling as that sounds, I wouldn't be much use", he replied.
"When you were poking fun at me for swabbing that spot on the carpet three times, I found out it tested positive for our victim's blood and it has traces of carbon dioxide", I said.
"Million and one uses for it", Flack said.
"Thank you for clearing that up", I replied dryly. I scrolled down, my eyes scanning for something useful. I laughed aloud, finally reaching something useful.
"I marvel at how the mind works sometimes", I muttered to myself.
"What'd you find?" Adam asked. He had been flipping through books.
"Yeah, Rambo. Care to share with the class?" Flack teased.
"What was the most ingenious murder weapon either one of you have come across?" I asked. By the looks on their faces, they didn't see what I was coming up with.

"I'd say the Wolfkiller from a Native American case I worked a while back", Flack replied.
"I agree", Adam said.
"I think the most ingenious weapon would be ice. Untraceable and disposes of itself. dry ice would account the carbon dioxide I found. The blood would mix with the water and it would melt", I said, turning the screen and pointed to the dry ice use with my pen.
"It could possibly sever the artery in the ear", Adam said, seeing my idea. Flack stared at me.
"I'm strangely scared of you now", he said. I rolled my eyes.
"I think if we cross-referenced all ice sculpture companies that delivered to Hillary Sabatini's apartment in the last month, we could get something", I said.
"It's New York. She lives in Soho. Do you know how many events go on there?" Flack said.
"Well, considering I'm from Wilmington and this is the third time I've ever been to NYC in my twenty-nine years of life, I'm going to have to go with no", I replied.

"There's a lot", he said.
"Yeah, I gathered that, Sherlock", I replied dryly. I stacked my papers and looked at Adam.
"It also might not be an ice-sculpting company. Dry ice isn't that hard to get your hands on. Hell, it's probably sold at grocery stores", Flack said. I gave him a look.
"Then let's get to work, shall we? Or are you going to shoot down that idea too?" I said.
"You've got some serious balls to be talkin' to someone like that", he said. I laughed.
"Puh-leeze. I had to get up so high somehow", I replied.
"I thought getting up high had a height requirement", he joked. I raised my eyebrow.
"And now you're calling me short? You're not getting off on the right foot there, are you?" I said.
"Eh, I always poke fun at the new people. You're the only one who's called me out though", he replied. Adam cleared his throat, shuffling out.
"It's cuz they're probably too intimidated to. I'm not intimidated by you at all", I said, crossing my arms in front of my chest.
"Or you're just a really good actress", he replied. I rolled my eyes.
"I've come up against actors and big time musicians and didn't break a sweat. I think I could handle some tasteless jokes from an N.Y.P.D detective", I said.

"My jokes are tasteless? I'll admit they're dry, but that's just hurtful", he replied, pretending to be hurt. I rolled my eyes again.
"Act your age, not your shoe size", I teased as I walked out. My work was definitely cut out for me.
"I'll admit, I can be a real heel", he joked. I had to giggle at the pun.
"You get right to the soul of things, don't you?" I replied, sticking out my tongue.
"Act your age, not your shoe size", he mocked. I whacked him with my paperwork and walked up to Mac.
"It's awesome how criminal minds work these days. Killers now work harder and harder not to get caught and sooner or later they make a mistake", I said, handing the Internet results to him.
"Carbon dioxide is the main component in dry ice. You might have just found our murder weapon", Mac replied, studying the paper.
"Well, I had ideas, but Sherlock over there shot them all down", I replied.
"Just being real", Flack said. I rolled my eyes again.
"You two get on this lead, show the picture of Jay Maxwell around to see if anyone's seen him. Keep me updated", Mac said, patting my back.
"Looks like we got our work cut out for us, Rambo", Flack said, patting my shoulder.
"Touch me again and I'll rip off your arm and slap you with it", I replied, walking off.

"I'm almost a foot taller than you and most likely weigh twice as much as you. Who do you think would win that battle?" he asked.
"The MMA fighter who is the daughter of a Marine. Seeing as you are most likely not a woman, that just leaves me then, don't it?" I replied. He chuckled, shaking his head.