CSI: Across the Pond

Mikey and Jade returned about twenty minutes later. Jade immediately set to work, while Mikey sat outside and smoked, an unusual habit for him. Eventually, Gerard came out to see if anything was wrong.

“Gerard...I don’t think I’m ever going to eat meat again,” he said in a low tone. His older brother frowned.

“Why? I thought you loved sushi.” Mikey took a long drag on the cigarette and tried to calm his nerves.

“You would agree with me if you’d just endured a twenty-minute lesson on the meat industry.” He stopped and rethought his words. “I’ve got nothing against vegetarians, really. But I think it was a little overkill. If you’ll excuse the pun.” Gerard smirked in spite of himself, then left him alone and went back inside the lab. He helped Davey start processing some of the evidence, letting Jade take over anything picture-related. He couldn’t help but feel a stab of guilt as he handed a stack of photos to the other investigator. It just wasn’t the same without Frank’s comments and jokes.

Just as Davey had predicted, Hunter and Adam arrived about two hours later to help with the case. Gerard was slightly disappointed that they didn’t have crazy hairstyles. It had to be a side effect from working the night shift.

One thing he noticed that didn’t disappoint him was how well they all worked together. He had seen teams of ten or more that were less efficient than their four people. He suddenly felt out of place, as if they didn’t really need him there at all. His brother finally came back inside and immediately asked Davey what he could do to help. Gerard wasn’t sure what to do; normally he had no trouble taking charge of the situation, but at the moment he seemed to be completely lost.

His phone rang and startled him out of his almost catatonic state. He answered it quickly and stepped into the waiting room so he wouldn’t disturb the other investigators’ work.

“Gerard?” He smiled.

“Hey Frank.”

“You’ll never believe this. I was going over some videos from the scene of a murder that happened recently, and I found something really strange. I can’t say for sure, but I think some of the shots were edited.” Gerard’s eyes widened.

“Matt could get into some serious trouble for that.”

“I know. I wasn’t really sure what to do, though, so I called you. You know the rules better than any of us.” Gerard smiled. That was an understatement.

“Call the ICSIA and let them know. They’ll have a better idea of what to do. Besides, I don’t have the book in front of me right this second.” He heard Frank’s light laughter and smiled again. The A/V analyst thanked him and hung up.

“Gee, is anything wrong?” Mikey asked as he looked around the corner at his brother. Gerard decided not to say anything about the phone call. It would be better not to worry Mikey right now. He shook his head.

“Good,” his younger brother said with a nod. “We need your help with something.” Gerard smirked and followed him down the hallway. It was about time.
-
A sharp knock on the hotel room door woke Gerard from his sleep. He rubbed his eyes and stood, trying to keep his balance in the dark room. He dragged his feet as he walked down the short hallway to answer the door. When he finally opened it, he received a shock.

“Move,” the dark-haired man standing there muttered, pushing past him and stumbling into the room. Gerard stared at him with shock.

“Frank? What are you doing here?” he asked. Frank collapsed on the closest bed, falling asleep almost instantly. The senior investigator was confused, but shook his head and closed the door. He would wait until morning to find out what was going on.

Several hours later Gerard opened his eyes once again. He saw Frank sitting on the other bed and watching TV, lazily holding a cup of coffee in one hand and the remote in the other.

“Glad to see you’re up,” the A/V analyst said monotonously without looking at him. Gerard frowned and sat up sleepily, trying to suppress a yawn.

“What are you doing here?” Gerard asked. Frank drank his coffee thoughtfully.

“Story later. Coffee now,” he said firmly. Gerard shook his head.

“Frank, there has to be a reason why you came all this way in the middle of the night.” He received a blank stare in response and decided not to push the subject further. No doubt Frank would tell him in time.

Gerard hadn’t quite mastered the skill of driving on the other side of the road, so he and Frank decided to leave early and walk. Their steps were slow and in perfect unison, and both stared at the ground ahead. Gerard wanted desperately to know what Frank was thinking, especially what had been so wrong that he had left England, but he knew he couldn’t put his friend in that kind of awkward situation. It wouldn’t be fair.

“Gerard?” Frank said slowly just before taking another sip of his coffee. The other investigator waited patiently for him to speak. “Have you ever gotten to the point where you really, truly wanted to kill someone?” Gerard’s eyes widened. He didn’t like where this was leading. Despite this, he considered Frank’s question.

Yes. Yes he had.

“Matt,” he whispered. “When I found out he had kidnapped that kid after everything else he had done, I did. I wanted him to die.” Frank nodded affirmatively.

“Looks like I’m not the only one, then. I finally found out what the story was with those videos I found.” He stopped in his tracks and sat down on a bench, sighing deeply.

“Matt was testing us,” he finally said. Gerard joined him.

“Dominic told us that a long time ago,” he said with a frown. Frank shook his head, still unable to make eye contact with his friend.

“No, I mean he was literally testing us. The ICSIA recently gave him administrative privileges, and he decided to use them to their fullest extent. He was giving the two of us performance evaluations this entire time.”

Gerard wasn’t sure what to say, so he took a sip of coffee to help fill the void of sudden silence between them.

“That explains why he was being such a jerk. Did he set everything up?” he asked incredulously. Frank nodded. The senior investigator felt his blood begin to boil.

“Do you feel as angry and stupid as I did when I found out?” Frank asked. Gerard nodded, pale lips pressed into a firm line. “That’s not even the worst part. No one else was in on it, not even Dominic. Matt had everything planned with outside sources, and he was trying to see if this technique of evaluation would work. So he figured, what better way to test it than on two unsuspecting investigators trying to catch a murderer?”

“You mean to tell me we’ve been spending the last six days wasting precious time as part of Matt’s little experiment?” the senior investigator said incredulously. Frank nodded silently. “He should be arrested. Better yet, we should be arrested for not figuring it out sooner!”

“Calm down, Gee,” his friend muttered, glancing around at the people passing by. They were receiving a few concerned looks from the Scottish citizens, but most of them just glared. One girl stopped walking and stood in front of them.

“Are you guys okay?” she asked with the slightest accent, sounding worried and crossing her arms in front of herself. “Sounds like you’re having some problems.”

“We’re...we’re fine, really,” Frank said, suddenly uncomfortable. They had no clue who this girl was.

“You don’t sound fine,” she said as she sat next to Frank with a slight frown. She was unconvinced.

“It’s a long story,” Gerard said, hoping to ward her off. They really just wanted to be left alone.

“I’ve got time.”

“Unfortunately, we don’t,” Frank said quickly, suddenly standing. “We have to be at work in just a few minutes.” It wasn’t entirely true. They weren’t on a set shift yet, but letting this girl know that was the last thing they would do. She stood up as well and shrugged.

“Well, my name’s Laura, by the way. I come by here the same time pretty much every day, if you ever decide to tell me what’s up.” She continued walking down the sidewalk, and both investigators stared down the road after her. She was strange.

Gerard suddenly took out his phone and called the crime lab, telling Adam they wouldn’t be showing up until later, if at all. The two investigators took off after Laura at a brisk pace, suddenly deciding to accept her offer. They did need to talk after all.