double dipper

"Terrible thing to say, but at least it's a new case." Raitt was very sore, but gamely keeping up with Jenn.

"I know how you feel, believe me," Jenn said. "Great when these are the kinds of things that make a difference, isn't it?"

"They said it was a kid?"

"They think they can have an ID as soon as the turn him over."

Raitt took some comfort in that. "It would be nice if we could put this one to bed."

"I hear that. I hear Battle has had words with Melf about pulling us in with the MPs."

"Crap! Then we'd better solve it fast!"

Colavito shrugged. "Me, I'd do the job just the same. I'd rather work for Battle than Melf anyway."

They reached the tubes & Raitt pressed the button. "So would I, I just don't think military policing civilians is a good idea."

She looked him in the eyes. "So far, Stephen, we have ten young women down and two men. Only one guy was Air Force. We must look like the Keystone Cops from where Battle sits."

Raitt looked at the floor. "We just have to do better."

She gave him a grudging smile as the tube arrived. "Yes, we do."

The doors opened. Colavito stepped forward. "Please clear the elevator, official police business." She held up her ID to the surprised occupants. Raitt did likewise.

They thanked them, stepped into the cylinder and Jenn inserted her card in the slot and punched the "Wheel 5" button.

"I hate this fucking thing." A rare profanity from Jennifer Colavito.

"Really?" Raitt grinned. "I love it, I get a rush."

"Uh-huh, great."

Forty-four seconds later they were on Wheel 5.

As soon as the turned the corner they knew where the body was.

People love crime scenes. The general plan is to get as many people into the crowd as possible, form a circle just dense enough to make passing through the throng difficult and still manage to keep at least 20 feet away.

Doughnuts, Colavito called them. Raitt's generation had prepended "No nuts".

Raitt stepped up as Jenn had recently suffered in the tubes. "Make a hole, people, police officers coming through!".

The crowd responded as they usually did, the 'No Nuts Doughnuts" turning to see who was making such a disrespectful ruckus as a young man lay dead in the trees.

"Your key phrase is 'make a hole'!" Raitt had a fair bark to him when he chose to raise his voice.

The man in the middle was in his early 60s, a pleasant looking man, his hands good with soil and plants. He nodded curtly, clearly a bit shaken. "Morning, officers. Hakeem Jabali, I found him about 20 minutes ago. I didn't touch him or roll him over." He pointed at the base of the boy's skull. "He was long beyond help when I found him."

Colavito & Raitt looked at the figure on the ground. Colavito knelt for a better look at the body, her dark hair getting dirt in it as she pressed it against the ground to see the boy's face without moving him.

"You didn't touch him at all?"

Jabali looked at her. "Ummm..Didn't take his pulse, just looked at his skin color, and saw his blood's settled."

Colavito stood up and moved very close to him without getting in his face. Her voice was very low. "Nice thing you did for him, though, a decent thing."

Jabali almost whispered it. "Didn't seem right to have him bare-assed like that, I just pulled the pants up over his butt."

Jenn looked at him. "It's okay, I understand, so long as you tell me."

Jabali smiled at her gratefully.

Raitt hadn't risen. "Jenn?" He'd reached the young man's beltline.

"I know, Stephen. Mr. Jabali did the decent thing."

Raitt looked at Jabali with a small smile and a nod.

Jenn rejoined Raitt beside the body, both detectives shielding their mouths with their hands.

Raitt began. "He wasn't alone."

"No."

Raitt nodded. "I know. There was a girl."

"That it was. Girls in twos is big for safety and funtimes these days."

Raitt squinted a bit. "One does the boy the other does the deed?"

Jenn shook her head. "Dunno, usually it's 'sharesies'".

Raitt looked at the trunk of the tree, then at the base, in the dirt. "I'm looking at the dirt here and I'm seeing one girl, knees here and here .." He gestured with his hands. "I'm not seeing oral here, I'm seeing one set of prints fits him, the tree's awful handy ..."

"Hell, yeah, that's what I'd do." Jenn looked to her right. "See the big print?"

"Oh, shit."

"I know. One girl, one boy, one more for the other side of the ledger."

They rose together. Raitt took the lead again. "Ok, people, we need you to leave the area, and you need to go that way." He pointed back the way they'd come in. He turned and repeated his instructions to the people behind him.

"Stephen?"

"What?"

"They're right behind you."

The crowd was dispersing with the assistance of Hakeem Jabali.

Raitt turned slowly and saw the drag marks.

The crowd dissolved and Raitt & Colavito's eyes moved along the tracks, down the slope in the orchard, all the way to the greenhouse.