Criminal Case: Grimsborough

Chapter 9: Burned to the Bone-Part 3

At the station, Jones and Marie walked into the office silently and when Grace was passing by she got shocked looking at the state they were in. She then asked them in disbelief, "What happened to you two?"

Jones and Marie then looked down silently and Jones told her, "Marie and I had a bath together; courtesy of Salvador Cordero and The Viper gang."

Grace then lead them towards the medic lab so she can clean and heal any wounds they got. Once they were there, Grace had them dry their hair thoroughly, then she applied antiseptic on their feet, their legs and even on Jones' chest where the knife cut him, then she applied gauze and bandages on their wounds. Nearby, Nathan and Alex were watching as Grace healed and patched up their friends.

As they were watching, Nathan said to Alex, "I just don't understand how those two always end up in so much trouble. First it was during the Dan Brown case where they got chased, then Marconi kidnapped Marie after it and held her hostage for a few months, then Marconi kept her with him during that one case and now this."

"The Industrial Area has not been nice to them these past few months, I can tell you that," Alex said as Grace handed them fresh uniforms while their other ones get cleaned.

After they were dressed in fresh uniforms and they thanked Grace for helping them, they went back to their desks. Jones then began breaking out in a sweat and said, "I just realized something Marie, there are no new leads to this case! And if King finds out that we've been "loitering around" as he calls it and not to mention that humiliating bath we got from Cordero, he's going to have our hides!"

Marie then looks at Jones and says to him, "Now calm down Jones we already know one thing, our killer wears sport shoes, right? Well, you might've been too angry to notice, but when those gang members were dunking us I only looked for a second before I was dunked again and I noticed that Cordero was wearing a pair. So that's one more and when we were talking with Joe he was wearing a pair of trainers too."

Jones then got frustrated and said, "Damn! Does everyone in this town wear them?! This is no help to us at all!"

Jones then got to thinking that since Joe hates The Vipers so much he's surprised he was wearing the same shoes as them. Jones then suggested that they go and see how Joe is doing. It will not only get them out of the office for a little bit, but also clear their minds after that humiliating act. Once they got to Joe's store, Joe got shocked at the state they were in but Marie looked at him as if she was saying don't ask.

Marie then asked him if he knew about the death of one of The Vipers' members, but the store owner scoffed and said, "A Viper member is dead, so what! They're all worthless scum anyways! You should be celebrating not investigating! You know what, I've a had enough of you two. Just do whatever the hell you want while I go on my cigarette break."

Jones then told him that Chad's killer set him on fire with a cigarette butt, but Joe told him that lots of people smoke and it isn't a crime. Marie then said to him, "It is a crime if you kill someone with it. Now if you don't mind Mr. Stern, we would like to have a look at your counter." And Joe just scoffed and stepped outside while Marie and Jones looked around the store's countertop.

After searching, Marie found a smashed CCTV surveillance tape and once Joe was back inside the store, Jones told him angrily, "You could've told us you had a CCTV camera Joe!"

Joe then said to him he used to have a CCTV camera, but The Vipers kept on breaking it so he stopped trying to fix it. He told them that they can throw the tape away since they found it, but Marie bagged it  and said to him, "We'll try and fix it instead."  And soon they left the store and headed back to the station.