Mind (the) Game

by Kelly Shade

  “Mhm.” Confirmed Ryan.

  “Okay, people, let’s go back to the office and close this case as soon as possible. Hunt is calling for the fourth time now and I don’t think I can talk with him if we don’t have a suspect or at least a lead.” Nick whined while looking at his cell and waved them to go to the cars.

  When they went back to the Station, Hunt was waiting for them at the office with his hands crossed in front of his chest and a grimace. When he saw Nick he lectured him for fifteen minutes how should he behave when he is in charge. Then Connor turned to the team with the words “The media is going to bury us if we don’t close this case fast. And by us I mean me, so do your job. No breaks, no sleep until you find the killer, understood?”

  Everyone nodded as if they were high school students in front of the principal. Hunt left the room with a fast pace.

  “The wife?” Jane asked impatiently as soon Hunt was out the door.

  “She should be here any minute.” Said Ryan.

  “What about the clients?” Jane continued and turned to Victoria and Ryan “Evans, Gray, you look at the files and check the alibies of the probable suspects.”

  Both of them nodded, Ryan sat in front of the computer, Victoria took the boxes with lawyer’s clients’ files the CSU had brought.

  The wife appeared at the door and the men froze when they saw her. The young big breasted blonde with thin figure was wearing a short red dress, huge sunglasses and high heels.

  “Mrs. Nelson I presume.” Jane walked towards her, reaching for a handshake.

  “Yes.” Said the woman calmly.

  “I’m Jane Blake and this is Nick Lee.” Jane introduced herself and Nick and gestured him that they should go to the interrogation room.

  Once in there, Jane was ready to question the wife but Nick appeared a little bit nervous around the woman. Blake poked him in the ribs with her elbow to look the woman in the eyes and asked.

  “How long were you and Silvester Nelson married?”

  “Four years.” Answered the wife coldly and added in an arrogant tone. “They told me you should catch the killer not waste time with me. I thought I’m here for you to give me some information about my husband’s death.”

  “Yes, we…” Nick started to explain.

  “You are number one suspect right now, so yes we are doing exactly what we have to do. Please, remove your sunglasses.” Jane interrupted.

  “I’m what?” squeaked Mrs. Nelson and took off the sunglasses. Her light blue lenses, the heavy makeup and arrogant gaze made Nick more nervous than before.

  “Where were you between five and six this morning?” asked Lee.

  “Home. Sleeping. The cameras and the staff will confirm that. I don’t know why are you doing that. I’m a grieving widow. I just lost my husband!” Answered Nelson with a pretended sad face.

  “Nick, would you check that for me while we have a girl talk?” whispered Jane loud enough to be heard by Mrs. Nelson.

  Lee agreed and walked out of the room.

  “Drop the act. I know you are not grieving. Your marriage was falling apart and I’m sure you think he had someone else.” Blake spoke calmly “Am I right?”

  “Okay. Yes, our marriage wasn’t very happy and yes we had our problems but I didn’t kill him.” Mrs. Nelson decided to be honest.

  “Did you hire someone to do it for you?” Jane continued coldly.

  “No. But I hired a PI to follow the bastard.” Admitted Nelson “I was going to catch him cheating and take everything he had after the divorce. I had been planning this.”

  “Name and phone number of the person you hired.” Said Jane and handed a piece of paper and a pen. Mrs. Nelson wrote the information and pushed it back to Blake.

  “I believe you didn’t kill him. I know you would take pleasure of ruining him.” Blake said “Anyways, tell me is there someone who hated your husband, someone with a motive?”

  “Silvester was a lawyer, everyone hated him!” Mrs. Nelson laughed.

  “Fair enough.” Puffed Jane “How did you two meet?”

  “I was engaged to another man and Silvester was my fiancé’s lawyer. The things didn’t work out and I fell in love with Silvester.” Said Mrs. Nelson with bored face.

  “Who was your ex?” Jane narrowed her eyes.

  “Silvio Vidal.” Said Nelson and added “I haven’t seen him in five years.”

  “Mhm,” said Jane and looked at the piece of paper “so the PI is Harold Maloney.”

  “That’s right.” Confirmed Mrs. Nelson.

  Nick appeared at the door with a thumb up, which meant that Mrs. Nelson had alibied out.

  “You may go now.” Jane stood up, opened the door for the wife and added “But don’t leave town!”

  Blake went back to the office. Ryan and Victoria said, that the client list was long but most of the people on it had an alibi or had no motive, it was a dead end. Jane told Gray to call the PI in.

  While waiting for Harold Maloney, Blake took the files off of Evans desk and started examining them. There were many powerful people in Nelson’s list of clients. Most of them could have hired a hitman to kill the lawyer but no one really had the reason. Nelson won every case he was on. Blake thought it was better to look at the people, who lost the cases against the victim, so she told Ryan and Nick to do it since Victoria was off for coffees.

  After extensive search, calls and alibi confirmations nothing popped up. At least Ryan finally could find the PI’s location, and since they couldn’t reach him by the phone, the team headed to his address.

  “Are you coming with us this time?” Ryan asked with surprise when Jane headed to the team’s car instead of hers.

  “Yeah. I drank three coffees and I’m still dizzy. It’s better not to drive right now.” Explained Jane with irritation, sat in the back seat and slammed the

  door.

  Soon enough they were at the PI’s one story house in the suburbs. Harold Maloney, a short, skinny dark haired ordinary looking man, was standing on the doorway with a woman. When the woman saw the team’s car heading towards them, she walked to her parked car on the street and drove off quickly. Maloney, on the other hand, stayed calm at the door, waiting for them. After Nick introduced himself and the rest, Harold invited them in his living room and offered tea.

  “How may I help you, officers?” politely asked the PI, took out an electronic cigarette and added “I hope you don’t mind.”

  Ryan waved his hand in a sign it was not a problem and sat next to Nick and Victoria on the couch. Jane was walking around, looking at the PI’s belongings.

  “So you’re quitting smoking?” Blake turned to Nelson who was sitting on an armchair in front of the rest of the team.

  “Yeah. It is a bad habit. I almost lost my job once because of smoking those.” Answered the man casually.

  “What can you tell us about Silvester Nelson?” started Lee, took a sip from the tea and reached for the cookies on the table but Victoria kicked him in the shin and he decided it wasn’t time for eating.

  “Well, his wife was my client.” Said Maloney stirring his tea “But you already know that.”

  “Yes, we do.” Said Victoria and after Nick confirmed she can continue she said “How long you have been following him?”

  “For about a month.” Said Harold, left the cup on the coffee table, walked to the other room, what looked like an office, and went back with a stack of documents.

  “Here are all the photos I made.” Maloney said and gave them to Victoria, she spread the photographs on the table so everyone could see them.

  “Did you find something suspicious?” Gray joined the conversation.

  “Not really. I was hired to catch him with a lover, but he wasn’t cheating, the only meetings he had were with clients.” Explained Harold and puffed out the smoke of the e-cigarette, which was as if glued to his hand.

  “You have a hard time quitting, huh?” Blake teased.

  “Yeah, I do.” Irritably said Ma
loney “With what else can I help you?”

  Jane ignored the question and joined the others who were looking at the photos. Blake glanced at the time stamp of several photos and took the latest ones. All of the images were of Nelson having lunch with clients, Nelson walking alone to the café, Nelson doing his job basically. There wasn’t anything extraordinary.

  “Did you follow Silvester Nelson on the morning he was killed?” asked Victoria.

  “Yes, I followed him from his home to his work place. When he went in the building, I went to the coffee shop across the street. A little bit later the police came and I went home.” Said the man casually still puffing his e-cigarette.

  “Okay. It is time for us to go.” Jane said while carefully examining several photos. She stood up, but just before she headed for the door, Jane asked “Did you see this man,” she pointed at a not very tall young man on one of the photos ,” around with our victim often?”

  “Well,” Maloney took the photo from Jane and glanced at it “this man had lunch with Nelson several days ago, after that I’ve seen him two more times around the lawyer’s office.”

  “Okay, thank you for your time.” Jane said and headed out.

  “Do you think he may be the killer?” asked the PI.

  “We can’t give any information on an ongoing investigation, sir.” Said Nick firmly and went after Jane.

  They all got in the car and drove to the station.

  Hunt was waiting for them in the office.

  “Tell me you have a lead!” he said when Jane, Ryan, Nick and Victoria went in.

  “I do have a theory.” Said Jane and jumped in her chair.

  Hunt and the others went to her desk. Jane showed him the photos from the last days of Silvester Nelson and pointed at the young man she asked the PI about.

  “Do you know who that is?” Jane asked the team.

  “I’ve seen him before but I don’t know where. Why, who is he?” asked Ryan thoughtfully.

  “He is Silvio Vidal.” Jane said and leaned back waiting for reactions.

  Nick and Ryan looked at each other questioningly, Victoria looked completely puzzled but Hunt’s expression showed he remembered the name.

  “The one you went to, the one of Morse’s people, the one that my wife investigated years ago… FBI didn’t find anything. Curtis Barrett and Tyler Smith personally confirmed Vidal is clean.” Said Hunt with clenched fists.

  “Maybe he is clean,” sighted Jane “but he has a motive.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Gray while typing something on the computer.

  “Mrs. Bimbo, our victim’s wife, was once engaged to Vidal but when she met Silvester Nelson, who was his layer at the time, she broke the engagement.” Jane spoke slowly enjoying her success.

  “Okay, it makes sense but we don’t have any evidence. Besides, the relationship was years ago. I don’t know. I don’t buy it.” Said Nick and also collapsed in his chair.

  The team went quiet, thinking. Victoria, like Ryan, was searching for something in the victim’s laptop and she had more success than the great hacker.

  “Look, Nelson won a case against Vidal a week ago. Silvio Vidal has to pay half a million to another company for dropping the prices in his stores too low which is against the competition law.” Chirped Victoria happily “So he wasn’t a client and he definitely has a motive, right?”

  “Well done, Evans!” said Hunt with half smile. “Now, I want you to find concrete evidence. Until then, you don’t touch Vidal, understood?”

  “Yes.” Nick nodded and after Hunt went out he turned to the team “Okay, people, let’s get this over with.”

  “Look,” Ryan raised his hand to draw their attention “I hacked several cameras around the law firm building and guess what.”

  “What?” Nick rolled his eyes.

  “You gonna love me, man.” Ryan said excitedly “I found where he dropped the gun.”

  “Nice job, Gray!” Nick cheered up, went to Ryan and peeked at the screen “I’ll send team to search the area. You are awesome!” he said happily and got the phone.

  “Since you don’t need me anymore, I think I’ll get some fresh air.” Said Jane.

  “I thought you stopped smoking.” Teased Ryan.

  Blake glanced at him, realizing that this was the first time she had looked at him since the awkward morning they had together. Now she knew for sure it will be very difficult for her to work with him.

  “Call me if you find something.” Said Jane who already was with her handbag on her shoulder.

  Blake walked out and headed to her favorite bench in the nearby park. She still felt dizzy and kind of off and she decided that one more coffee with do the magic to wake her up. With the paper cup and a cigarette in her hand Jane sat down, thinking. Trying to clear her mind from thoughts about Ryan and the night before. She had to focus on the the case. Wasn’t it too easy? Or maybe after Morse everything felt easier than it was. Something was off and Jane couldn’t understand what. For a moment she thought maybe she lost some of her abilities. Jane felt she couldn’t concentrate and the dizziness was killing her. What was happening? Blake remembered that she couldn’t hypnotize the man in Chile. She hadn’t tried it after that but this was her first unsuccessful time. Could it be because of the fall or the injuries she had?

  Jane’s phone rang in time for her to see that the cigarette butt was on fire.

  “Ouch!” Blake whispered, shook her hand to cool off her burning finger, and searched for her cell.

  “Did you find something?” Blake said coldly when she picked up. It was Ryan who was calling.

  “Yep. Didn’t you hear Nick, I am awesome.” He said happily and when there was no reaction on Jane’s side he continued “The gun was there. Bradley is checking for DNA right now but we are pretty sure we will find Vidal’s on it.”

  “Okay.” Said Jane and hung up.

  Blake headed back to the station but instead of going in the homicide office she went downstairs to visit Barbara Bradley in the lab. The chubby, curly haired woman jumped out of horror when Jane crept in the morgue.

  “Damn, Jane!” screamed Barbara.

  “Hey, how are you?” asked Jane politely as if nothing happened.

  “Still sobering up after last night. It was a crazy party!” laughed Bradley and added in a whisper “Where did you and Gray go, huh?”

  “Home, why?” Jane said casually as if she didn’t get the hint.

  “I knew you would end up together!” Barbara said with a smile.

  “We are not together. I think you misunderstood me.” Jane said with a straight face even though she really wanted to share, she wanted to talk about her and Ryan with someone but she changed the subject “Well, what did you got? Is Vidal the killer?”

  “Most definitely!” chirped Barbara “I got a partial fingerprint on the trigger, it’s his. Silvio Vidal is your killer.” Added Bradley and when Jane turned around to go she shouted “Go get him, girl!”

  “I will!” laughed Jane and waved Bradley goodbye without turning.

  Blake hurried to tell the others. She climbed the stairs quickly, went in the office where everyone was waiting around the phone ready for good news.

  “It’s him. Bradley confirmed!” said Jane while breathing fast, she wasn’t in good shape after Chile, even the stairs could leave her without breath.

  “Great! Let’s go get him!” said Nick and hurried through the door. He was happier than everyone else.

  Ryan and Victoria went after him but Jane headed to her desk. Gray went back to her.

  “Are you coming?” he asked and tried to meet her eyes but she looked through the window.

  “No, I’ll skip.” Said Jane “I’ll wait for Vidal here.”

  Ryan nodded with disappointment, didn’t say anything and went out.

  Chapter 7

  What if he’s not?

  Jane waited at the Station for hours. It was dark outside, the night had fallen and the other offices were empty, e
verywhere was quiet. The team was after Silvio Vidal but Blake didn’t feel in shape to be with them and capture the killer of the one of the best lawyers in LA – Silvester Nelson. She was enjoying the silence, somehow sleeping in her office chair was making her feel much safer, than at her motel room. Blake knew it was an illusion, if Morse wanted to find and kill her he would do it anywhere but she liked to imagine she was protected here and to have a good night sleep.

  Sitting in her chair with legs on the desk, Jane was almost asleep when she heard sounds from downstairs.

  Jane recognized Silvio Vidal’s voice arguing with Nick Lee. As far as she could hear Vidal wanted his lawyer to arrive and Lee was trying to explain, that they will call him first thing in the morning.

  The elevator’s familiar ring made Jane stand up and walk to the interrogation room and soon enough Vidal showed up in handcuffs, held by Nick and Ryan. Victoria Evans was almost running behind them, far too excited for that late hour.

  Blake welcomed them with a smile, opened the door and waved in sign that they should go first. Just before Victoria was about to walk in, Jane hurried in front of her and made a hand gesture, showing that she should wait outside.

  “Hello again, Silvio!” smiled Jane at the young dark haired man sitting on the suspect’s chair with his head down.

  Ryan and Nick sat comfortably on both sides leaving Jane to sit right in front of Vidal.

  “Hello, Jane Blake!” Silvio lifted his light brown eyes and smiled. His smile was charming but kind of sad. “I’m guessing your dream came true?” he asked.

  “What dream would that be?” Jane said with surprise.

  “To lock me up for a murder I didn’t do.” Silvio said still smiling.

  “Huh, so you’re saying you did not kill Silvester Nelson.” Laughed Jane and continued before Vidal could speak “The man who stole your fiancé and later won a case against you?”

  “I admit his actions made me mad, but I didn’t kill him.” Silvio said humbly.

  “Okay, Mr. Vidal. Where were you at the time of Mr. Nelson’s murder?” Nick couldn’t listen to their conversation anymore and decided to go straight to the protocol questions.