In a World They Forgot

When the Lights Go Down

   We saw the flashing lights of the cars before we were anywhere near the crime scene. Greg drove carefully through the suburban streets and I spotted the people in the windows of their houses, peeking through blind and peering around the curtains, curious about what was happening. It was human nature to be nosey, I guess, especially when something out of the ordinary happened. Unless you were one of us, murders were only ever something on the news.

   I pulled on my CSI jacket and climbed out of the van as soon as Greg pulled hard on the handbrake. I tied my dark hair up and then snapped the latex gloves over my hands, waiting for information as Greg unloaded the tool cases from the back. Captain Brass approached us, a sombre expression on his dark face. “Captain Brass, this is our new CSI, Miki Romani.” Greg glazed over the introduction quickly.

“I wish we could’ve met in a better situation Miss Romani.” Brass said, glancing over his shoulder at the house that was taped off.

“What happened?” I asked, curious as to what needed to be done to have half of LVPD swarming a silent Vegas street.

“Family. All four of them completed gutted.” Brass sounded disgusted, and with good reason.

“Gutted?” I asked, convinced that I’d heard the man incorrectly.

“Like a fish. Even some of my best men have had to walk out of that house.” Brass said, gesturing to three officers who were leaning by a forensic van. “The top floor is the worst. It’s a bloodbath, so be careful.” He walked with us towards the front door and then stopped to speak to an officer whilst me and Greg stepped through the detailed oak door.

   “Do you want me to handle upstairs?” Greg asked as I looked around the hallway which was covered in broken glass and droplets of blood.

“I can take blood and guts. I’ll be fine up there.” I told him, smiling reassuringly at him before stepping on the first of the steps.

“If you’re sure.”

At the top of the stairs, Nick was already examining the blood covered bathroom. The whole place looked like something out of a Wes Craven flick and even I had to cringe at the state of things. It was like the killer had decided to redecorate the whole house in crimson red.

“Hey newbie. You good up here?” He stood up and greeted me.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. What the hell happened?”

“Looks like someone thought that the décor was out of date. The bodies are in the bedrooms still. Coroner can’t bag them until we’re finished.” Nick explained quietly, pushing open the door to the master room. I could see the body of a man in the middle of the floor and seeing his insides on the outside almost made me gag. I had to take a deep breath and swallow hard. “You sure you’re okay here?”

“I’ve just not been to a scene like this in a while. I’ll be fine in a minute.” I explained, nodding slowly.

“Okay, well, how about we take separate ends and meet in the middle? Try and wrap this up early.” He said, bending to swab some of the blood in front of my feet.

“Sure thing.” I nodded, making my way to the room on the far left, which was a laundry room by the looks of things and was probably the least touched room in the house. Aside from a broken window and the rock which had broken it, most of the place was clean. I took some fibres from the clothing pile just in case, but I doubted that the killer had even been in this room. He probably smashed the window to distract the family from the actual break in.

   I moved to the next room; another bloody bathroom and set to work.

   “Hey Miki, I need your opinion on something.” I stood up and peered around the door, spying Nick holding something in his hands.

“What is it?” I asked, slowly walking closer to him, my eyes fixed on the object.

“I was hoping you could tell me.” He handed me the fragment and waited for me to examine it.

“It looks like the tip of a shuriken.”

“They’re the Japanese throwing stars, right?”

“Yeah, but I’ve never even heard of them being at a scene. I mean, they can be deadly enough, but they’re hardly practical. Where was it?” I handed it back to him to bag it.

“I found it embedded in the wall behind the bed.” Nick showed me the tiny indent in the plaster. “This isn’t the murder weapon, right?”

I shrugged. “If it is, then we’re looking for someone trained. A shuriken couldn’t mutilate a body to this extent though and if you only found the tip in the wall, then where’s the rest of it?” Our eyes fell on the bed and Nick walked over to the headboard, shining his torch down the back.

“Hey, give us a hand Miki.” I moved to the other side of the bed and pushed with all my might, helping to move the bed a few inches from the wall. Nick shone the torch down there again and crouched low, his arm fishing around for something. He pulled out the rest of the weapon and showed it to me.

“Any blood on it?”

“None that I can see.” I passed him the bottle of luminol and waited patiently for him to spray it on the metal. “Nothing. It’s clean.” He stood back up and looked at me, confusion clouding his dark eyes. “Why would he throw one of these things into the wall?”

“Mind tricks? Maybe he wanted to scare them first.” I glanced back at the body on the bed. “Let’s face it, the guy we’re looking for isn’t exactly going to be an everyday civilian.”

“Just an everyday sociopath.” Nick said, shaking his head before dismissing me to return to the other rooms.

   I reached the final room before Nick had finished in the adjoining room. “Hey, Nick, I’ll meet you in here.” I pushed the door open and stepped inside before his warning reached me.

“Miki, wait!”

   Thoughts stopped rushing through my mind and my breath caught in my throat at the sight that lay before me; a sight that I tried so hard to block out, but my eyes were fixed to the spot and I couldn’t look away, no matter how much my mind screamed at me to do so. Finally I found my feet and fell backwards out of the room, hitting my back against the sturdy bannister as the shock and horror set in.

   Nick appeared and glanced into the room, pulling the door closed behind him and swallowing hard himself. I kept my eyes on the door though, still able to see what lay behind it. His questions were nothing but faint mumblings to me and I barely felt his strong hand on my back as he turned me around, forcing me to look in the opposite direction. I was breathing hard and fast, my eyes threatening to well up as my whole body shook.

“Greg!” I saw the spiky haired CSI appear from a room on the right on the ground floor. “Get Miki out of here.” The Texan’s voice was gently, almost cracking as he gave the command.

   As for me, I could barely feel the change in hands on my back or the support Greg gave, helping me down the staircase. It was until the cool night air hit my skin did I even come back to my senses and double over, vomiting in the petunia patch.