CSI: Across the Pond

“That’s much better,” said Frank as they walked into the dark room. Gerard stopped and closed his eyes for a few seconds to let them adjust to the low light. They walked over to a white board with a projection on it, seeing Tim drawing dots all over the board. He rewound the video a few seconds and watched it again, pausing it after two seconds had passed. Frank shook his head when he saw this, while Gerard tried not to laugh. It was difficult. Tim glanced back at them with his eyes but did not turn away from his work.

“Wow, you made it. I can’t believe Matt didn’t bite your heads off for dodging security,” he said in awe.

“Oh, he did," said Frank with a nod. “Something he didn’t realize is that we tend to bite back.” Tim let out a laugh.

“Nice. So, let me take a guess as to why you’re here. Either you’re helping me on this case, or you couldn’t resist coming to the floor. Which is it?” The two investigators smiled. At least this guy had a sense of humor.

“More than a little of both," said Gerard. "What have you got for us?”

“Video footage of the crime scene; I’m trying to map this guy right here,” he said, pointing to a dark-coated man walking along the sidewalk. “He’s one of our main suspects, supposedly.”

“Wait...what crime scene?” said Frank in confusion. Tim blinked a few times.

“The one with the shot cab driver; didn’t Matt brief you on this?” Gerard fought to keep his upper lip from curling into a snarl.

“No, he neglected to mention that.” Frank thought about backing away. When Gerard articulated every word that carefully, he was mad. It didn’t happen often. Tim shrugged in response.

“He’s testing you,” said a new voice.

“Hey, Dom,” said Tim with a wave. The man continued speaking to Frank and Gerard, completely ignoring his colleague.

“My advice: Do what he says. Play the game his way. It might get you somewhere.” He handed a CD to Tim before leaving.

“Who was that?” asked Frank.

“Dominic Howard. He’s pretty much Matt’s second-in-command. If he’s telling you how to get something out of Matt, you’d better listen. He doesn’t usually like to help us much.” He turned on another projector next to the first one and slid the disc into its DVD player. He paused it on the first frame and tossed a black marker to a very surprised Frank.

“See those two guys hiding behind the tree right there? Circle everything they touch. I’ll give you a different color marker once you’re done so you can track where they go.” Both investigators laughed in spite of themselves.

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” said Gerard, placing an arm around Frank’s shoulders. “You see, Frank here holds a record for video mapping. Best time and accuracy ratings from the ICSIA.”

“Three years running, and four before that. I didn’t do so well in ’03,” he added with a sheepish smile.

“You broke your good arm, Frank; what did you expect?”

“Anyway,” said Tim, trying to get the conversation back on track. “Let’s see what you can do.” Frank took a red marker in his left hand and held the black one in his right. Gerard counted backwards from three, and Tim pressed play on the DVD player.

Frank moved in a whirlwind that shocked both investigators watching him. The once-white board was suddenly covered in a seemingly meaningless collage of scribbles and moving lights. Gerard would later say he saw smoke rising from the board. He tossed Frank another marker halfway through the video, and he caught it expertly while tossing the spent red marker to the ground. This continued on for about thirty seconds.

“Wow,” said Tim when the video ended. Frank had gone through two more markers, and the board looked like a complete mess. But it was impressive.

“We told you so,” said Gerard, giving his friend a high five. Tim could only shake his head.

“Looks like I owe you lunch one of these days.”

“Convincing Matt that we’re more than capable of handling this case would be even better,” said Frank. “That was nothing.”

“Nothing? Please. You should come work for us sometime,” said another man, coming to stand next to Tim in order to admire Frank’s work.

“Guys, this is Brandon, Trace analyst extraordinaire.”

“I’m really a blood spatter analyst, but that’s not something I always get a chance to practice,” Brandon said with a shrug.

“Sounds like Mikey or Bob, doesn’t he?” Gerard asked Frank. Both of them laughed. Brandon and Tim looked confused, so the senior investigator stopped to explain it to them. Tim nodded in understanding. Just then, Dominic walked by and saw the board, then shook his head and continued walking. Gerard and Frank looked at the other two investigators with confused looks.

“What just happened? I thought I did pretty good!” Frank said indignantly.

“Don’t worry, he’s happy,” said Brandon in assurance. They weren’t convinced.

“Really, he is. If he wasn’t, he would have told us to get back to work or something. He’s so impressed he can’t speak.”

Just then, Gerard's cell phone rang. He answered it quickly, recognizing the number.

“Hey, Mike, how’re things back home?” He was lost for words as his brother began speaking. “Mikey...I-” He almost dropped the phone on the ground. Frank gingerly took it away from him and spoke to the shocked investigator on the other end.

“...I'm warning you, Mike, he won’t want to come back yet...I'll talk to him. I’m really sorry, Mike. Bye.” He closed the phone and placed it in his own pocket, leading his friend over to a chair to sit down. Gerard felt like a robot just going through the motions.

“What happened?” Frank sat next to his friend and looked up at the other investigators sadly.

“That was his brother on the phone. Their grandmother just passed away.”