Royal Grimm

1x04: Lonelyhearts

There she paused for a while thinking... but the temptation was so great that she could not conquer it. - Bluebeard

Nick, Hank and Aurelia were already working at the precinct when Wu approached them. "Got a call from a guy, says he found a barely clothed woman on the bridge and hit her while she was running. Seems to be still breathing, shame I can't join you." Hank and Nick just looked at each other and sigh before grabbing the paper in Wu's hand with the location. Nick then turned to Aurelia, "You want to come along?" Aurelia looked up at him and thought for a second before agreeing and walking along with them.

The trio went to the bridge, and saw that the woman was now dead. Hank went over to get some information from another officer, after a couple minutes Hank returned to Nick and Aurelia. "The driver of the car is Leroy Kent. Says he's driving home from work, drives onto the bridge, sees the victim running. She runs right in front of his car. Says it happened so fast, couldn't do anything."

"Get an I.D. on the vic?" Nick asked and Hank shook his head, "No wallet, no purse. Looks like she just got out of bed." Nick thought of other options, "Did Mr. Kent have anything to drink?" Hank answered that Kent did drink, but was not drunk.

"Were there any witnesses?" Aurelia asked to Hank and then he nodded, "Driver said there was one other guy. Told him to call 911, but he didn't stick around. I got guys out doing a canvass now."

The trio then walked over to the ambulance where Mr. Kent was sitting with a bandage on his head. Nick approached him, "Mr. Kent? How you feeling?" The man looked up at Nick and immediately asked, "Is she dead?" The three just nodded. "At first I-, I thought she might be okay. I mean the guy said she was still breathing."

"The guy who told you to call 911?" Aurelia asked and Kent nodded, explaining that the guy just appeared when it happened. "Where did he go?" Nick asked further and Kent answered he had no idea. "Any idea what he looked like?" Nick continued but Kent said he didn't get a good look.

One of the CSI officers approached the trio and tells they're done with the body and that they could now take a look. They approached the crime scene and saw the woman's body on the ground. "Barefoot and ready for bed, but still wearing makeup?" Hank wondered.

"Maybe she wasn't alone." Nick reasoned and pointed at her arm, "We got some glass here." Hank then started to think, "Windshield didn't shatter, and the headlights are still intact. This didn't come from the accident."

Nick then checked over the rest of her body. "There's no cuts or abrasions on her feet. The guy said she was running. She couldn't have run too far."

"Wonder where she was running from." Hank said and Aurelia continued, "Or what she was running from."

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The trio headed over to the morgue where the woman's body was brought to. Nick and Aurelia sat with Harper while she's examining the body. "Notice the pupil is fully dilated, filling the eye completely?" Harper asked and both of them nodded. "There's usually dilation after death, but I've never seen anything like this before."

Nick and Aurelia just stared at the body before moving away slightly, "You get a tox report?" Nick asked and Harper nodded, "Preliminary says she had a few drinks, not a lot. Alcohol was .06" Nick nodded and continued, "Well, what about drugs?"

"So far, none of the usual suspects. Finding the unusual's going to take a little more time." Harper answered. "Any sign of sexual assault?" Nick asked and Harper turned back to the body. "No, but there was something interesting. No crush on the lungs."

"What does that mean?" Aurelia asked, and Harper explained. "She was asphyxiated, but it wasn't a result of the accident." Nick looked confused, "Someone suffocated her after she was hit by the car?"