Horatio Palmer's First Assignment

[Dragon's muse]

Welcome to the block!

Craft a scene/chapter/story with the following opening.

Marissa barely glanced up from her desk at the man in the door. "Whatever you want, now's not a good time."

[Horatio Palmer]

Marissa barely glanced up from her desk at the man in the door. "Whatever you want, now's not a good time."
“I’m Adam Byrd. I’m your new CSI”.
Marissa looked at the guy. Tall, lean, brown hair, green eyes- she liked the look of this guy.
“Adam, Adam, Adam” she repeated trying to remember meeting this guy. Suddenly, it came to her.
“Adam, yes- the new CSI from Frisco. Hi, I’m Marissa Antonelli. I’m the supervisor here at the crime lab. Listen Adam, I’m sorry, I’m just snowed under. I’ve got so much paperwork to do, you wouldn’t believe it. If you just go down the hall to Jack and tell him who you are and that I sent you, he’ll give you a tour of the lab and introduce you to everyone. Sorry I can’t be more help now but you know how it is”.
“Sure, I understand. I’ll go see Jack and I’ll talk to you later” said Adam.
Marissa was already back writing.

Detective Marissa Antonelli was born in Seattle. Marissa was a pretty lady- five feet ten, sallow skin, shoulder length black hair and blue eyes. She could have been a model but ever since she was a kid, she wanted to catch bad guys. She studied forensics in college and began working at the Seattle Crime Lab aged twenty three. No one could accuse her of not being dedicated. She’d often work late into the night, processing evidence, trying to nail a killer. By the age of thirty six she was supervisor at the lab. Now, here she was aged forty sitting in her office writing reports. She should have been out in the field or in the lab. The phone on her desk rang. There was a suspected suicide out in Greenwood and they needed someone to process the scene. This was the excuse Marissa had been looking for to get out of the office. She went down the hall and found Adam.
“We got a suspected suicide out in Greenwood. I’m going out to process the scene. You coming?” she asked him. She didn’t have to ask twice. They went downstairs and got in the CSI Ford Explorer and set off for the crime scene. They started talking.
“What brings you to Seattle?” she asked him. “Isn’t there enough crime in Frisco?”.
“This girl I met on the internet. Her name is Xsara and I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her profile on MySpace. Trouble was I was in San Francisco and she was up here. It was never going to work out long distance so I came to her.”
“That’s sweet. So why’d you want to be a cop?”
“I guess I grew up wanting a piece of the action from the movies”.
“No kidding. Me too. When I was girl, I always wanted to be Dirty Harry’s partner. You know, but not being shot and all that. I used to play games, just me and Harry running up and down hills shooting punks with cap guns. See, I used to pretend that my imaginary friend was Harry Callahan”. She was being really candid now.
“Cool. I used to pretend I was the new sheriff from High Plains Drifter. It was me and my bro just standing around squinting and drawing on each other with toy guns. Kind of the same as now”. Marissa smiled.
“Popeye Doyle or Harry Callahan?” she asked quite bluntly.
“What?” replied Adam.
“Who do you prefer, Popeye Doyle or Harry Callahan?”
“I think I’d have to say Popeye”.
“Too bad. I broke up with my last boyfriend because he said that. Still, I suppose I don’t have to live with you”.

The house was sealed off when they arrived. They parked across the street because of the several cop cars in front of the house. They spoke to the senior officer at the scene.
“He’s in the kitchen. We haven’t ID’d him yet. The neighbour found him. She saw him through the back window” the cop told them.
Marissa and Adam made their way into the kitchen. The situation was nothing they hadn’t seen before but it did have some unusual quirks. A youngish man was hanging by a noose from a beam on the ceiling. He was naked with a black hood over his head and his hands cuffed behind his back. He might have been assisted but that was what they were here to find out. They had to treat every suicide as a homicide until it was proven otherwise. They got to work processing the scene.
The entire scene was photographed. Adam went out to Marissa’s truck and brought in a stepladder. Marissa put a sheet out on the floor. Using his penknife, Adam cut through the rope suspending the vic and Marissa took the weight. They laid the man down on the sheet and cut open his hood. Marissa recognised the face. It was blue in spots and the ligature had bitten into his neck but she recognised the guy all right. She knew him as Andy Nichols, a guy who got off the charge of stabbing his wife on a technicality. It was big news only a few weeks before. The CSI team had worked the case. They had found his fingerprints on the knife used to stab his twenty nine year old wife. The cop that found the knife was young and over zealous. He barged into the house and found the knife. He hadn’t got a warrant. Unlucky. It made the evidence null and void. They didn’t have anything else on Nichols. They lost the conviction. The public were screaming for Nichols’ blood but there was nothing the cops could do. If this was a homicide they had motive already. If it was a suicide it could be guilt induced.
“Don’t you think it’s odd that he’s naked?” asked Marissa.
“Could be AEA” Adam replied.
“AEA?”
“Autoerotic Asphyxiation. I had a couple of cases of that back in San Francisco. The rope around the neck starves the brain of blood and oxygen making an orgasm more intense. The guy was probably jerking off. We didn’t find any ejaculate though.”
“Not surprising. His hands were behind his back”. Adam blushed.
“True. Good point” he said, embarrassed at his little mistake.
“If this was suicide, wouldn’t there be a stool or a chair or something around the body? He didn’t get up there by magic” said Marissa.
“Look at that chair over there. Why is it pointing out the way? It’s like someone was watching this guy hang. By the way, did you swab those two coffee cups on the table?”. Adam thought he was onto something.
“Yeah, why?”
“Why is there two? It looks as if someone else was in this room either just before this incident or during it”.
“It might explain why there was no stool around our vic”. Marissa knew they were onto something too.
“Dust the cuffs for prints. If we find prints, it might just mean that we have a murderer or that someone was only too happy to relieve this guy of his guilt. By the by, I noticed red lipstick on one of the coffee cups. I reckon our angel of mercy could be female”. Adam got dusting.
“I don’t think a female could have lifted this guy into position whether he was conscious or not. He must have agreed to do it” said Adam.
“That would mean it was an assisted suicide. It’s not murder, but someone’s still going to jail”.

Ralph Curtin was the lab technician that processed the evidence. He was a young, short, squat guy in his mid twenties. He ran the DNA found on the coffee cup through CODIS. He got two matches. One of the matches was to Andy Nichols- not surprising. His details had been on the database since his arrest for the murder of his wife. Anyway, it was his house. The other was a little more surprising. The other name the computer brought up was that of a young woman by the name of Alison Keefe. She had been arrested on a DUI a couple of years ago and now she had placed herself at a crime scene around the time of a suspected murder. Ralph brought the results to Marissa in her office. She took a look at the sheet.
“Ralph, sit down” she said a little nervously. She called Adam’s cell phone number.
“Adam, get to my office now. This is important”.
Adam took no more than a couple of minutes to arrive. All the while Marissa sat deep in suspense filled thought.
“Adam, shut the door and sit down. Ralph, tell him the results” ordered Marissa.
“Ok, well, the DNA found at the scene belongs to an Alison Keefe, twenty nine. Arrested for drink driving two years ago”.
“What are we waiting for, let’s go pick her up” Adam said somewhat excitedly.
“There’s our problem. Alison is the daughter of Larry Keefe. He’s the DA. If news gets out that we’re investigating her for murder, it’s case prematurely closed. Daddy looks after his little girl and he’s got a little too much influence over certain judges that would ordinarily grant us search warrants. Remember the fuss over Alison being arrested for the DUI?” Adam obviously didn’t remember. He was in Frisco at the time. Ralph remembered but he didn’t acknowledge the fact.
“So far, we only have evidence that puts her at the scene. If we’re to have any chance of a conviction we need to build a case so strong that no lawyer in the world can burrow through it. Unless we proceed really quietly with this case, we’re not going to be let do our jobs. This police force is an old boy’s club. We’re going to have to hit them so hard and so suddenly with this case that they’ve no option but to let us bring in Alison. We discuss this only among ourselves. Is that clear?” Everyone nodded in agreement with Marissa.
She called an end to their little meeting. Adam and Ralph left her office while she stayed at her desk. Just what she needed- more work. Adam went down the hall towards the elevator. Ralph made a phone call.

It was nine thirty or thereabouts that night when Adam left the firing range, his weekly couple of hours done. He crossed the parking lot. He and everything in the parking lot was bathe in the orange glow of streetlamps. As he made his way towards his Mustang he felt as if there was someone behind him. He didn’t look round. All of a sudden he felt the crippling electrical pain of Tazer barbs in his back. He collapsed to the ground It took a few seconds for the current to stop. While he was on the ground his hands were cuffed behind his back and a black hood placed over his head. He was dragged to his feet by the scruff of the neck and a gun was thrust into his back.
“Walk” a venom filled female voice ordered him. She led him to a black Chrysler and shoved him into the back seat. The woman got in herself. Adam felt the prick of a syringe in his neck. He began to feel tired. A wave of warmth and sleepiness came over him. An order “drive” was the last thing he heard before he passed out.

It was ten fifteen by the time Marissa left the lab. There was nothing unusual about that. She stepped out of the elevator into the underground parking lot and made her way towards her Volvo sedan. He felt there was a presence behind her. She drew her pistol from the holster inside her jacket and turned. She was too slow. The Tazer hit her in the chest. The last thing she saw before being hooded was a woman in a head covering, black rubber mask. Marissa was cuffed and bundled into the car. The syringe did its job and she drifted away.

Marissa regained consciousness in an abandoned garage. She was lying face down but spread-eagled. She tried to move but her arms and legs were bound by leather straps to the Saint Andrew’s Cross she was lying on. The cross was flat like a table. She could only move her head but she knew she was naked. There was a red ball gag in her mouth and she hated the vile taste of rubber. She saw Adam across the room tied to a chair. He was gagged too. Ropes kept his torso from moving. There were shackles around his wrists and ankles. His wrist shackles were connected to a long chain that wound around a winch about fifteen feet above him. His ankles were each connected to chains only a foot long and anchored to the floor. She couldn’t see the man in the black latex body suit behind her. He was connected to the wall by a chain attached to his slave collar.
A woman appeared in front of Marissa. She was young and beautiful- late twenties maybe. Her skin was pale and unblemished and her perfect red hair cascaded down well beyond her shoulders. A diamond glistened in her navel. She was wearing a black leather bra with a short matching skirt and a cat of nine tails hung from a belt around her waist. She addressed the man in the body suit.
“I see our second one’s awake”. Marissa looked up into her deep emerald eyes and the redhead smiled back.
“Hi, I’m Alison Keefe”. It began to make sense to Marissa but she wasn’t able to say anything. Alison turned and walked a few paces away. Marissa saw the tattoo down the centre of Alison’s back. It showed a naked girl hanging by a noose from a tree. Alison sat down on a chair and put on a pair of black PVC thigh high boots. She loved the feel of the cool material closing around and enveloping her leg as she pulled up the zipper.
“Watch what I’m going to do to your friend” she told Marissa. Alison walked over to Adam and undid the ropes binding his torso and removed the chair so that Adam was left sitting on the floor with just his wrists and ankles bound. She went to a metal pillar supporting the roof and pressed a button on the side. Marissa could hear machinery moving. The chain connecting Adam’s wrists to the winch was pulled taut and Adam was dragged upwards by the arms, his legs still anchored to the floor. His arms were almost dislocated by the stretch but Alison stopped the winch just in time. He hung suspended and stretched and slowly he started to suffocate with his lungs stretched on the vertical rack. Alison took the whip off her belt and began to flagellate Adam. She laughed a cruel merciless laugh obviously gaining pleasure from every crack of the whip. His back became bloody and torn. He spent his last few minutes in agony. He suffocated before his brain released any endorphins.

She took of Marissa’s ball gag.
“I suppose your just itching to know what’s going on” said Alison. Marissa was still speechless. She had just witnessed the brutal death of a colleague right before her eyes and was in shock. Alison went behind her bound captive, unhitched the gimp from the wall and led him over to Marissa by the chain. She pulled off his rubber mask. It was Ralph, the lab technician.
“You bastard piece of shit” Marissa began to yell before she was stopped by a slap in the face from Alison.
“Ralph here is a very good friend of mine. He phoned me once he knew you were onto me and he helped me with this little operation of mine. Get the hooks and needles Ralph”. Ralph obeyed unquestioningly. Alison continued.
“When I was a little girl, I used to hear my Daddy telling my Mom about all the red tape that used to stop him being able to convict obvious criminals. Even at that young age I thought it was bullshit. When I left college, I became a journalist for the Enquirer. I saw killers getting off on technicalities for the most brutal rapes and murders. Then I got arrested on a DUI charge. The hypocrisy made me sick. Known murderers were walking the streets while I was in a jail cell for the night. I decided to do something about it. In the morning when I got out, I handed in my notice at the paper. I could live on my trust fund. I became a hooker for a little while just to get a look into the world of some of these sick fuckers. Then the Andy Nichols case got thrown out of court. The police couldn’t give his wife justice but I could. I met him in a bar and we got talking. We went back to his place and he told me he was into breathplay. It was a great opportunity. I told him I’d blow him as he hung there. He let me cuff him and put the hood and noose over his head. Then he stepped off the chair and I left him there. He deserved what he got and his wife got her justice”.
“Just like Magnum Force” mumbled Marissa. Alison beamed.
“Exactly! Good point. The death squad in Magnum Force tried to kill Harry Callahan because he was the only one that could stop their crusade. That’s why you and your friend are here. You two were the only ones that knew about that DNA report and so were the only ones that could stop me. Ralph shredded the report so the evidence is lost forever. To complete my little plan, now I must get rid of you. It’s nothing personal. I’ve nothing against you but your end justifies my means”.
“Why are you torturing us?” Marissa shouted.
“Just because I’ve nothing against you doesn’t mean that I can’t have a little fun before I kill you”. Alison cocked her head sideways and smiled.
She put the gag back in Marissa’s mouth and pulled the strap tightly behind her head. Marissa hadn’t seen the noose above her head attached to a winch, nor the chains that dangled from the same winch and stopped just inches above her naked prostrate body. A black hood was pulled over Marissa’s head and the noose was tightened, the knot behind her left ear. The darkness of the hood heightened all her senses. Her muffled breathing inside the hood was louder than it ever had been. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She felt the nib of a pen on her skin making circles at several points on her body. Then the pain started.
Alison donned a pair of medical gloves. There wasn’t any need but she loved the feel of the latex on her delicate hands. She pinched the first area where she had made the mark with the pen. She ran a needle through the flesh closely followed by a fishing hook. A muffled cry emitted from inside the hood. Again, Alison pierced Marissa’s flesh and ran another fishing hook through. It was a delicate procedure. If it wasn’t done right, the hooks would just rip out of her back. The hooks had to be in the right place too or else Marissa’s body would be off balance when she was lifted and some of the hooks might tear out then too. At first, Marissa’s pain was unbearable but Alison was so careful with her piercings and took so long that Marissa’s brain released the endorphins into her system making the last few piercings pleasurable. As she lay there, she found she was still terrified but in a comfortable dream like state.
The chains dangling above Marissa’s body were all connected to a single thicker chain that was itself connected to the winch. Alison began to connect each hook in Marissa’s back and arms and legs to one of the dangling chains. All Marissa felt was each piercing slightly stretching. She didn’t feel pain. She did feel a sort of happy light-headedness and also slightly turned on. That was the endorphins. Alison released her arms and legs from their bindings. She pressed a button on the wall. Marissa’s body began to rise towards the roof, her body being supported by the hooks and the noose. Her body was ten feet above the floor when Alison stopped the winch. Marissa was only barely aware of what was happening. Alison stared up at Marissa. It was a shame. She pressed another button. The carabiner with the chain and the hooks attached to it was released. Marissa fell downwards. The noose stopped her fall. Her neck was broken instantly. It was a sad end for one so pretty but her beauty was undiminished as she hung there. Even in death, Marissa Antonelli was beautiful.

Alison lowered both of the winches and released her captives from their deadly bindings. Her big black Chrysler was parked in a corner of the garage. Ralph grabbed hold of Adam’s head and Alison took his feet. They threw him into the trunk.
“She should be light enough to manage on your own. I’ll be right back”. Alison walked into the small grimy office just off the main floor of the garage. Ralph took hold of Marissa’s feet and hauled her to the trunk. He bundled her in. As he stood looking into the trunk catching his breath, Alison emerged from the office with a silenced pistol in her hand. Ralph didn’t see it coming. There was a spit from the gun and the bullet went through the back of the rubber mask and into Ralph’s head. He slumped over and fell head first into the trunk. Alison crammed his feet in. It was a tight squeeze. She could only barely close the lid. She went back to the office and took off her clothes and dressed in a black turtleneck and black pants. She went back to her car, started the engine and left the garage for the last time.

The sun was rising over the hills east of Seattle and the rays cast their first light over Puget Sound. Alison was heading to the airport. The early sunlight caught her hair bathing the interior of the Chrysler in a warm orange glow. She had everything she needed in a tan leather bag on the back seat. She would park up in the long term parking lot and leave the car there. The bodies would be found but not until she had long left Seattle. There was nothing left for her here. She’d go somewhere else- another city in another part of the country. She didn’t quite know where. There was always justice to be dealt everywhere. She thought to go to some place sunny. She’d heard San Diego was nice this time of year.

[Dragon's muse]

i have seen this and i will get to it Monday.

rose

[Dragon's muse]

Wow! Now that is one twisted bitch. Nicely done, save for the grammar and punctuation bits. However, i do feel the need to take a shower after reading it.

i'll get your next assignment posted this afternoon or tomorrow.

rose


Marissa barely glanced up from her desk at the man in the door. "Whatever you want, now's not a good time."
“I’m Adam Byrd. I’m your new CSI”. (Period should be inside the quotes)
Marissa looked at the guy. Tall, lean, brown hair, green eyes- she liked the look of this guy.
“Adam, Adam, Adam,” she repeated, trying to remember meeting this guy. Suddenly, it came to her.
“Adam, yes- the new CSI from Frisco. Hi, I’m Marissa Antonelli. I’m the supervisor here at the crime lab. Listen, Adam, I’m sorry, I’m just snowed under. I’ve got so much paperwork to do, you wouldn’t believe it. If you just go down the hall to Jack and tell him who you are and that I sent you, he’ll give you a tour of the lab and introduce you to everyone. Sorry I can’t be more help now but you know how it is”.
“Sure, I understand. I’ll go see Jack and I’ll talk to you later” said Adam.
Marissa was already back writing.

Detective Marissa Antonelli was born in Seattle. Marissa was a pretty lady- five feet ten, sallow skin, shoulder length black hair and blue eyes. She could have been a model but ever since she was a kid, she wanted to catch bad guys. She studied forensics in college and began working at the Seattle Crime Lab aged twenty three. No one could accuse her of not being dedicated. She’d often work late into the night, processing evidence, trying to nail a killer. By the age of (delete)thirty six she was supervisor at the lab. Now, here she was, aged forty, sitting in her office (delete)writing reports. She should have been out in the field or in the lab. The phone on her desk rang. There was a suspected suicide out in Greenwood and they needed someone to process the scene. This was the excuse Marissa had been looking for to get out of the office. She went down the hall and found Adam.
“We got a suspected suicide out in Greenwood. I’m going out to process the scene. You coming?” she asked him. She didn’t have to ask twice. They went downstairs and got in the CSI Ford Explorer and set off for the crime scene. They started talking.
“What brings you to Seattle?” she asked him. “Isn’t there enough crime in Frisco?”.
“This girl I met on the internet. Her name is Xsara and I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her profile on MySpace. Trouble was I was in San Francisco and she was up here. It was never going to work out long distance so I came to her.”
“That’s sweet. So why’d you want to be a cop?”
“I guess I grew up wanting a piece of the action from the movies”. (.")
“No kidding. Me too. When I was girl, I always wanted to be Dirty Harry’s partner. You know, but not being shot and all that. I used to play games, just me and Harry running up and down hills shooting punks with cap guns. See, I used to pretend that (delete)my imaginary friend was Harry Callahan”. She was being really candid now.
“Cool. I used to pretend I was the new sheriff from High Plains Drifter. It was me and my bro just standing around squinting and drawing on each other with toy guns. Kind of the same as now”. Marissa smiled.
“Popeye Doyle or Harry Callahan?” she asked quite bluntly.
“What?” replied Adam.
“Who do you prefer, Popeye Doyle or Harry Callahan?”
“I think I’d have to say Popeye”.
“Too bad. I broke up with my last boyfriend because he said that. Still, I suppose I don’t have to live with you”.

The house was sealed off when they arrived. They parked across the street because of the several (delete) cop cars in front of the house. They spoke to the senior officer at the scene (delete).
“He’s in the kitchen. We haven’t ID’d him yet. The neighbour found him. She saw him through the back window,” the cop told them.
Marissa and Adam made their way into the kitchen. The situation was nothing they hadn’t seen before, but it did have some unusual quirks. A youngish man was hanging by a noose from a beam on the ceiling. He was naked with a black hood over his head and his hands cuffed behind his back. He might have been assisted ,but that was what they were here to find out. They had to treat every suicide as a homicide until it was proven otherwise. They got to work processing the scene.
The entire scene was photographed. Adam went out to Marissa’s truck and brought in a stepladder. Marissa put a sheet out on the floor. Using his penknife, Adam cut through the rope suspending the vic and Marissa took the weight. They laid the man down on the sheet and cut open his hood. Marissa recognised the face. It was blue in spots and the ligature had bitten into his neck but she recognised the guy all right. She knew him as Andy Nichols, a guy who got off the charge of stabbing his wife on a technicality. It was big news only a few weeks before. The CSI team had worked the case. They had found his fingerprints on the knife used to stab his twenty nine year old wife. The cop that found the knife was young and over zealous. He barged into the house and found the knife. He hadn’t got a warrant. Unlucky. It made the evidence null and void. They didn’t have anything else on Nichols. They lost the conviction. The public were screaming for Nichols’ blood, but there was nothing the cops could do. If this was a homicide, they had motive already. If it was a suicide, it could be guilt induced.
“Don’t you think it’s odd that he’s naked?” asked Marissa.
“Could be AEA” Adam replied.
“AEA?”
“Autoerotic Asphyxiation. I had a couple of cases of that back in San Francisco. The rope around the neck starves the brain of blood and oxygen making an orgasm more intense. The guy was probably jerking off. We didn’t find any ejaculate though.”
“Not surprising. His hands were behind his back”. Adam blushed.
“True. Good point” he said, embarrassed at his little mistake.
“If this was suicide, wouldn’t there be a stool or a chair or something around the body? He didn’t get up there by magic” said Marissa.
“Look at that chair over there. Why is it pointing out the way? It’s like someone was watching this guy hang. By the way, did you swab those two coffee cups on the table?”. Adam thought he was onto something.
“Yeah, why?”
“Why is (are) there two? It looks as if someone else was in this room either just before this incident or during it”.
“It might explain why there was no stool around our vic”.(.") Marissa knew they were onto something too.
“Dust the cuffs for prints. If we find prints, it might just mean that we have a murderer, or that someone was only too happy to relieve this guy of his guilt. By the by, I noticed red lipstick on one of the coffee cups. I reckon our angel of mercy could be female”. Adam got dusting.
“I don’t think a female could have lifted this guy into position whether he was conscious or not. He must have agreed to do it” said Adam.
“That would mean it was an assisted suicide. It’s not murder, but someone’s still going to jail”.

Ralph Curtin was the lab technician that processed the evidence. He was a young, short, squat guy in his mid twenties. He ran the DNA found on the coffee cup through CODIS. He got two matches. One of the matches was to Andy Nichols- not surprising. His details had been on the database since his arrest for the murder of his wife. Anyway, it was his house. The other was a little more surprising. The other name the computer brought up was that of a young woman by the name of Alison Keefe. She had been arrested on a DUI a couple of years ago and now she had placed herself at a crime scene around the time of a suspected murder. Ralph brought the results to Marissa in her office. She took a look at the sheet.
“Ralph, sit down” she said a little nervously. She called Adam’s cell phone number.
“Adam, get to my office now. This is important”.
Adam took no more than a couple of minutes to arrive. All the while Marissa sat deep in suspense filled thought.
“Adam, shut the door and sit down. Ralph, tell him the results” ordered Marissa.
“Ok, well, the DNA found at the scene belongs to an Alison Keefe, twenty nine. Arrested for drink driving two years ago”.
“What are we waiting for, let’s go pick her up” Adam said somewhat excitedly.
“There’s our problem. Alison is the daughter of Larry Keefe. He’s the DA. If news gets out that we’re investigating her for murder, it’s case prematurely closed. Daddy looks after his little girl and he’s got a little too much influence over certain judges that would ordinarily grant us search warrants. Remember the fuss over Alison being arrested for the DUI?” Adam obviously didn’t remember. He was in Frisco at the time. Ralph remembered but he didn’t acknowledge the fact.
“So far, we only have evidence that puts her at the scene. If we’re to have any chance of a conviction we need to build a case so strong that no lawyer in the world can burrow through it. Unless we proceed really quietly with this case, we’re not going to be let do our jobs. This police force is an old boy’s club. We’re going to have to hit them so hard and so suddenly with this case that they’ve no option but to let us bring in Alison. We discuss this only among ourselves. Is that clear?” Everyone nodded in agreement with Marissa.
She called an end to their little meeting. Adam and Ralph left her office while she stayed at her desk. Just what she needed- more work. Adam went down the hall towards the elevator. Ralph made a phone call.

It was nine thirty or thereabouts that night when Adam left the firing range, his weekly couple of hours done. He crossed the parking lot. He and everything in the parking lot was bathe (bathed) in the orange glow of streetlamps. As he made his way towards his Mustang, he felt as if there was someone behind him. He didn’t look round (around). All of a sudden (Suddenly,)he felt the crippling electrical pain of Tazer barbs in his back. He collapsed to the ground It took a few seconds for the current to stop. While he was on the ground his hands were cuffed behind his back and a black hood placed over his head. He was dragged to his feet by the scruff of the neck and a gun was thrust into his back.
“Walk,” a venom filled female voice ordered him. She led him to a black Chrysler and shoved him into the back seat. The woman got in herself. Adam felt the prick of a syringe in his neck. He began to feel tired. A wave of warmth and sleepiness came over him. An order, “drive (Drive,)” was the last thing he heard before he passed out.

It was ten fifteen by the time Marissa left the lab. There was nothing unusual about that. She stepped out of the elevator into the underground parking lot and made her way towards her Volvo sedan. He (She)felt there was a presence behind her. She drew her pistol from the holster inside her jacket and turned. She was too slow. The Tazer hit her in the chest. The last thing she saw before being hooded was a woman in a head covering (delete), black rubber mask. Marissa was cuffed and bundled into the car. The syringe did its job and she drifted away.

Marissa regained consciousness in an abandoned garage. She was lying face down but spread-eagled. She tried to move but her arms and legs were bound by leather straps to the Saint Andrew’s Cross she was lying on. The cross was flat like a table. She could only move her head ,but she knew she was naked. There was a red ball gag in her mouth and she hated the vile taste of rubber. She saw Adam across the room tied to a chair. He was gagged too. Ropes kept his torso from moving. There were shackles around his wrists and ankles. His wrist shackles were connected to a long chain that wound around a winch about fifteen feet above him. His ankles were each connected to chains only a foot long and anchored to the floor. She couldn’t see the man in the black latex body suit behind her. He was connected to the wall by a chain attached to his slave collar.
A woman appeared in front of Marissa. She was young and beautiful- late twenties maybe. Her skin was pale and unblemished and her perfect red hair cascaded down (delete) well beyond her shoulders. A diamond glistened in her navel. She was wearing a black leather bra with a short matching skirt and a cat of nine tails hung from a belt around her waist. She addressed the man in the body suit.
“I see our second one’s awake”. Marissa looked up into her deep emerald eyes and the redhead smiled back.
“Hi, I’m Alison Keefe”. It began to make sense to Marissa but she wasn’t able to say anything. Alison turned and walked a few paces away. Marissa saw the tattoo down the centre of Alison’s back. It showed a naked girl hanging by a noose from a tree. Alison sat down on a chair and put on a pair of black PVC thigh high boots. She loved the feel of the cool material closing around and enveloping her leg as she pulled up the zipper.
“Watch what I’m going to do to your friend” she told Marissa. Alison walked over to Adam and undid (untied or unfastened) the ropes binding his torso and removed the chair so that Adam was left sitting on the floor with just his wrists and ankles bound. She went to a metal pillar supporting the roof and pressed a button on the side. Marissa could hear machinery moving. The chain connecting Adam’s wrists to the winch was pulled taut and Adam was dragged upwards by the arms, his legs still anchored to the floor. His arms were almost dislocated by the stretch but Alison stopped the winch just in time. He hung suspended and stretched and slowly he started to suffocate with his lungs stretched on the vertical rack. Alison took the whip off her belt and began to flagellate Adam. She laughed a cruel merciless laugh obviously gaining pleasure from every crack of the whip. His back became bloody and torn. He spent his last few minutes in agony. He suffocated before his brain released any endorphins.

She took of Marissa’s ball gag.
“I suppose your just itching to know what’s going on” said Alison. Marissa was still speechless. She had just witnessed the brutal death of a colleague right before her eyes and was in shock. Alison went behind her bound captive, unhitched the gimp from the wall and led him over to Marissa by the chain. She pulled off his rubber mask. It was Ralph, the lab technician.
“You bastard piece of shit” Marissa began to yell before she was stopped by a slap in the face from Alison.
“Ralph here is a very good friend of mine. He phoned me once he knew you were onto me and he helped me with this little operation of mine. Get the hooks and needles Ralph”. Ralph obeyed unquestioningly. Alison continued.
“When I was a little girl, I used to hear my Daddy telling my Mom about all the red tape that used to stop him being able to convict obvious criminals. Even at that young age I thought it was bullshit. When I left college, I became a journalist for the Enquirer. I saw killers getting off on technicalities for the most brutal rapes and murders. Then I got arrested on a DUI charge. The hypocrisy made me sick. Known murderers were walking the streets while I was in a jail cell for the night. I decided to do something about it. In the morning when I got out, I handed in my notice at the paper. I could live on my trust fund. I became a hooker for a little while just to get a look into the world of some of these sick fuckers. Then the Andy Nichols case got thrown out of court. The police couldn’t give his wife justice but I could. I met him in a bar and we got talking. We went back to his place and he told me he was into breathplay. It was a great opportunity. I told him I’d blow him as he hung there. He let me cuff him and put the hood and noose over his head. Then he stepped off the chair and I left him there. He deserved what he got and his wife got her justice”.
“Just like Magnum Force,” mumbled Marissa. Alison beamed.
“Exactly! Good point. The death squad in Magnum Force tried to kill Harry Callahan because he was the only one that could stop their crusade. That’s why you and your friend are here. You two were the only ones that knew about that DNA report and so were the only ones that could stop me. Ralph shredded the report so the evidence is lost forever. To complete my little plan, now I must get rid of you. It’s nothing personal. I’ve nothing against you but your end justifies my means”.
“Why are you torturing us?” Marissa shouted.
“Just because I’ve nothing against you doesn’t mean that I can’t have a little fun before I kill you”. (.") Alison cocked her head sideways and smiled.
She put the gag back in Marissa’s mouth and pulled the strap tightly behind her head. Marissa hadn’t seen the noose above her head attached to a winch, nor the chains that dangled from the same winch and stopped just inches above her naked prostrate body. A black hood was pulled over Marissa’s head and the noose was tightened, the knot behind her left ear. The darkness of the hood heightened all her senses. Her muffled breathing inside the hood was louder than it ever had been. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She felt the nib of a pen on her skin making circles at several points on her body. Then the pain started.
Alison donned a pair of medical gloves. There wasn’t any need but she loved the feel of the latex on her delicate hands. She pinched the first area where she had made the mark with the pen. She ran a needle through the flesh closely followed by a fishing hook. A muffled cry emitted from inside the hood. Again, Alison pierced Marissa’s flesh and ran another fishing hook through. It was a delicate procedure. If it wasn’t done right, the hooks would just rip out of her back. The hooks had to be in the right place too or else Marissa’s body would be off balance when she was lifted and some of the hooks might tear out then too. At first, Marissa’s pain was unbearable but Alison was so careful with her piercings and took so long that Marissa’s brain released the endorphins into her system making the last few piercings pleasurable. As she lay there, she found she was still terrified but in a comfortable dream like state.
The chains dangling above Marissa’s body were all connected to a single thicker chain that was itself connected to the winch. Alison began to connect each hook in Marissa’s back and arms and legs to one of the dangling chains. All Marissa felt was each piercing slightly stretching. She didn’t feel pain. She did feel a sort of happy light-headedness and also slightly turned on. That was the endorphins. Alison released her arms and legs from their bindings. She pressed a button on the wall. Marissa’s body began to rise towards the roof, her body being supported by the hooks and the noose. Her body was ten feet above the floor when Alison stopped the winch. Marissa was only barely aware of what was happening. Alison stared up at Marissa. It was a shame. She pressed another button. The carabiner with the chain and the hooks attached to it was released. Marissa fell downwards. The noose stopped her fall. Her neck was broken instantly. It was a sad end for one so pretty but her beauty was undiminished as she hung there. Even in death, Marissa Antonelli was beautiful.

Alison lowered both of the winches and released her captives from their deadly bindings. Her big black Chrysler was parked in a corner of the garage. Ralph grabbed hold of Adam’s head and Alison took his feet. They threw him into the trunk.
“She should be light enough to manage on your own. I’ll be right back”. Alison walked into the small grimy office just off the main floor of the garage. Ralph took hold of Marissa’s feet and hauled her to the trunk. He bundled her in. As he stood looking into the trunk catching his breath, Alison emerged from the office with a silenced pistol in her hand. Ralph didn’t see it coming. There was a spit from the gun and the bullet went through the back of the rubber mask and into Ralph’s head. He slumped over and fell head first into the trunk. Alison crammed his feet in. It was a tight squeeze. She could only barely close the lid. She went back to the office and took off her clothes and dressed in a black turtleneck and black pants. She went back to her car, started the engine and left the garage for the last time.

The sun was rising over the hills east of Seattle and the rays cast their first light over Puget Sound. Alison was heading to the airport. The early sunlight caught her hair bathing the interior of the Chrysler in a warm orange glow. She had everything she needed in a tan leather bag on the back seat. She would park up in the long term parking lot and leave the car there. The bodies would be found but not until she had long left Seattle. There was nothing left for her here. She’d go somewhere else- another city in another part of the country. She didn’t quite know where. There was always justice to be dealt everywhere. She thought to go to some place sunny. She’d heard San Diego was nice this time of year.

[Horatio Palmer]

First Revision

Marissa barely glanced up from her desk at the man in the door. "Whatever you want, now's not a good time."
“I’m Adam Byrd. I’m your new CSI.”
Marissa looked at the guy. Tall, lean, brown hair, green eyes- she liked the look of this guy.
“Adam, Adam, Adam,” she repeated, trying to remember meeting this guy. Suddenly, it came to her.
“Adam, yes- the new CSI from Frisco. Hi, I’m Marissa Antonelli. I’m the supervisor here at the crime lab. Listen, Adam, I’m sorry, I’m just snowed under. I’ve got so much paperwork to do, you wouldn’t believe it. If you just go down the hall to Jack and tell him who you are and that I sent you, he’ll give you a tour of the lab and introduce you to everyone. Sorry I can’t be more help now but you know how it is.”
“Sure, I understand. I’ll go see Jack and I’ll talk to you later” said Adam.
Marissa was already back writing.

Detective Marissa Antonelli was born in Seattle. Marissa was a pretty lady- five feet ten, sallow skin, shoulder length black hair and blue eyes. She could have been a model but ever since she was a kid, she wanted to catch bad guys. She studied forensics in college and began working at the Seattle Crime Lab aged twenty three. No one could accuse her of not being dedicated. She’d often work late into the night, processing evidence, trying to nail a killer. By thirty six she was supervisor at the lab. Now, here she was, aged forty, writing reports. She should have been out in the field or in the lab. The phone on her desk rang. There was a suspected suicide out in Greenwood and they needed someone to process the scene. This was the excuse Marissa had been looking for to get out of the office. She went down the hall and found Adam.
“We got a suspected suicide out in Greenwood. I’m going out to process the scene. You coming?” she asked him. She didn’t have to ask twice. They went downstairs and got in the CSI Ford Explorer and set off for the crime scene. They started talking.
“What brings you to Seattle?” she asked him. “Isn’t there enough crime in Frisco?”.
“This girl I met on the internet. Her name is Xsara and I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her profile on MySpace. Trouble was I was in San Francisco and she was up here. It was never going to work out long distance so I came to her.”
“That’s sweet. So why’d you want to be a cop?”
“I guess I grew up wanting a piece of the action from the movies.”
“No kidding. Me too. When I was girl, I always wanted to be Dirty Harry’s partner. You know, but not being shot and all that. I used to play games, just me and Harry running up and down hills shooting punks with cap guns. See, my imaginary friend was Harry Callahan”. She was being really candid now.
“Cool. I used to pretend I was the new sheriff from High Plains Drifter. It was me and my bro just standing around squinting and drawing on each other with toy guns. Kind of the same as now.” Marissa smiled.
“Popeye Doyle or Harry Callahan?” she asked quite bluntly.
“What?” replied Adam.
“Who do you prefer, Popeye Doyle or Harry Callahan?”
“I think I’d have to say Popeye.”
“Too bad. I broke up with my last boyfriend because he said that. Still, I suppose I don’t have to live with you”.

The house was sealed off when they arrived. They parked across the street because of the cop cars in front of the house. They spoke to the senior officer.
“He’s in the kitchen. We haven’t ID’d him yet. The neighbour found him. She saw him through the back window” the cop told them.
Marissa and Adam made their way into the kitchen. The situation was nothing they hadn’t seen before but it did have some unusual quirks. A youngish man was hanging by a noose from a beam on the ceiling. He was naked with a black hood over his head and his hands cuffed behind his back. He might have been assisted but that was what they were here to find out. They had to treat every suicide as a homicide until it was proven otherwise. They got to work processing the scene.
The entire scene was photographed. Adam went out to Marissa’s truck and brought in a stepladder. Marissa put a sheet out on the floor. Using his penknife, Adam cut through the rope suspending the vic and Marissa took the weight. They laid the man down on the sheet and cut open his hood. Marissa recognised the face. It was blue in spots and the ligature had bitten into his neck but she recognised the guy all right. She knew him as Andy Nichols, a guy who got off the charge of stabbing his wife on a technicality. It was big news only a few weeks before. The CSI team had worked the case. They had found his fingerprints on the knife used to stab his twenty nine year old wife. The cop that found the knife was young and over zealous. He barged into the house and found the knife. He hadn’t got a warrant. Unlucky. It made the evidence null and void. They didn’t have anything else on Nichols. They lost the conviction. The public were screaming for Nichols’ blood but there was nothing the cops could do. If this was a homicide they had motive already. If it was a suicide it could be guilt induced.
“Don’t you think it’s odd that he’s naked?” asked Marissa.
“Could be AEA.” Adam replied.
“AEA?”
“Autoerotic Asphyxiation. I had a couple of cases of that back in San Francisco. The rope around the neck starves the brain of blood and oxygen making an orgasm more intense. The guy was probably jerking off. We didn’t find any ejaculate though.”
“Not surprising. His hands were behind his back.” Adam blushed.
“True. Good point.” he said, embarrassed at his little mistake.
“If this was suicide, wouldn’t there be a stool or a chair or something around the body? He didn’t get up there by magic.” said Marissa.
“Look at that chair over there. Why is it pointing out the way? It’s like someone was watching this guy hang. By the way, did you swab those two coffee cups on the table?”. Adam thought he was onto something.
“Yeah, why?”
“Why are there two? It looks as if someone else was in this room either just before this incident or during it.”
“It might explain why there was no stool around our vic.” Marissa knew they were onto something too.
“Dust the cuffs for prints. If we find prints, it might just mean that we have a murderer or that someone was only too happy to relieve this guy of his guilt. By the by, I noticed red lipstick on one of the coffee cups. I reckon our angel of mercy could be female.” Adam got dusting.
“I don’t think a female could have lifted this guy into position whether he was conscious or not. He must have agreed to do it.” said Adam.
“That would mean it was an assisted suicide. It’s not murder, but someone’s still going to jail.”

Ralph Curtin was the lab technician that processed the evidence. He was a young, short, squat guy in his mid twenties. He ran the DNA found on the coffee cup through CODIS. He got two matches. One of the matches was to Andy Nichols- not surprising. His details had been on the database since his arrest for the murder of his wife. Anyway, it was his house. The other was a little more surprising. The other name the computer brought up was that of a young woman by the name of Alison Keefe. She had been arrested on a DUI a couple of years ago and now she had placed herself at a crime scene around the time of a suspected murder. Ralph brought the results to Marissa in her office. She took a look at the sheet.
“Ralph, sit down.” she said a little nervously. She called Adam’s cell phone number.
“Adam, get to my office now. This is important.”
Adam took no more than a couple of minutes to arrive. All the while Marissa sat deep in suspense filled thought.
“Adam, shut the door and sit down. Ralph, tell him the results.” ordered Marissa.
“Ok, well, the DNA found at the scene belongs to an Alison Keefe, twenty nine. Arrested for drink driving two years ago.”
“What are we waiting for, let’s go pick her up.” Adam said somewhat excitedly.
“There’s our problem. Alison is the daughter of Larry Keefe. He’s the DA. If news gets out that we’re investigating her for murder, it’s case prematurely closed. Daddy looks after his little girl and he’s got a little too much influence over certain judges that would ordinarily grant us search warrants. Remember the fuss over Alison being arrested for the DUI?” Adam obviously didn’t remember. He was in Frisco at the time. Ralph remembered but he didn’t acknowledge the fact.
“So far, we only have evidence that puts her at the scene. If we’re to have any chance of a conviction we need to build a case so strong that no lawyer in the world can burrow through it. Unless we proceed really quietly with this case, we’re not going to be let do our jobs. This police force is an old boy’s club. We’re going to have to hit them so hard and so suddenly with this case that they’ve no option but to let us bring in Alison. We discuss this only among ourselves. Is that clear?” Everyone nodded in agreement with Marissa.
She called an end to their little meeting. Adam and Ralph left her office while she stayed at her desk. Just what she needed- more work. Adam went down the hall towards the elevator. Ralph made a phone call.

It was nine thirty or thereabouts that night when Adam left the firing range, his weekly couple of hours done. He crossed the parking lot. He and everything in the parking lot was bathed in the orange glow of streetlamps. As he made his way towards his Mustang he felt as if there was someone behind him. He didn’t look around. Suddenly, he felt the crippling electrical pain of Tazer barbs in his back. He collapsed to the ground It took a few seconds for the current to stop. While he was on the ground his hands were cuffed behind his back and a black hood placed over his head. He was dragged to his feet by the scruff of the neck and a gun was thrust into his back.
“Walk” a venom filled female voice ordered him. She led him to a black Chrysler and shoved him into the back seat. The woman got in herself. Adam felt the prick of a syringe in his neck. He began to feel tired. A wave of warmth and sleepiness came over him. An order “Drive,” was the last thing he heard before he passed out.

It was ten fifteen by the time Marissa left the lab. There was nothing unusual about that. She stepped out of the elevator into the underground parking lot and made her way towards her Volvo sedan. She felt there was a presence behind her. She drew her pistol from the holster inside her jacket and turned. She was too slow. The Tazer hit her in the chest. The last thing she saw before being hooded was a woman in a black rubber mask. Marissa was cuffed and bundled into the car. The syringe did its job and she drifted away.

Marissa regained consciousness in an abandoned garage. She was lying face down but spread-eagled. She tried to move but her arms and legs were bound by leather straps to the Saint Andrew’s Cross she was lying on. The cross was flat like a table. She could only move her head but she knew she was naked. There was a red ball gag in her mouth and she hated the vile taste of rubber. She saw Adam across the room tied to a chair. He was gagged too. Ropes kept his torso from moving. There were shackles around his wrists and ankles. His wrist shackles were connected to a long chain that wound around a winch about fifteen feet above him. His ankles were each connected to chains only a foot long and anchored to the floor. She couldn’t see the man in the black latex body suit behind her. He was connected to the wall by a chain attached to his slave collar.
A woman appeared in front of Marissa. She was young and beautiful- late twenties maybe. Her skin was pale and unblemished and her perfect red hair cascaded well beyond her shoulders. A diamond glistened in her navel. She was wearing a black leather bra with a short matching skirt and a cat of nine tails hung from a belt around her waist. She addressed the man in the body suit.
“I see our second one’s awake.” Marissa looked up into her deep emerald eyes and the redhead smiled back.
“Hi, I’m Alison Keefe.” It began to make sense to Marissa but she wasn’t able to say anything. Alison turned and walked a few paces away. Marissa saw the tattoo down the centre of Alison’s back. It showed a naked girl hanging by a noose from a tree. Alison sat down on a chair and put on a pair of black PVC thigh high boots. She loved the feel of the cool material closing around and enveloping her leg as she pulled up the zipper.
“Watch what I’m going to do to your friend.” she told Marissa. Alison walked over to Adam and untied the ropes binding his torso and removed the chair so that Adam was left sitting on the floor with just his wrists and ankles bound. She went to a metal pillar supporting the roof and pressed a button on the side. Marissa could hear machinery moving. The chain connecting Adam’s wrists to the winch was pulled taut and Adam was dragged upwards by the arms, his legs still anchored to the floor. His arms were almost dislocated by the stretch but Alison stopped the winch just in time. He hung suspended and stretched and slowly he started to suffocate with his lungs stretched on the vertical rack. Alison took the whip off her belt and began to flagellate Adam. She laughed a cruel merciless laugh obviously gaining pleasure from every crack of the whip. His back became bloody and torn. He spent his last few minutes in agony. He suffocated before his brain released any endorphins.

She took of Marissa’s ball gag.
“I suppose your just itching to know what’s going on.” said Alison. Marissa was still speechless. She had just witnessed the brutal death of a colleague right before her eyes and was in shock. Alison went behind her bound captive, unhitched the gimp from the wall and led him over to Marissa by the chain. She pulled off his rubber mask. It was Ralph, the lab technician.
“You bastard piece of shit!” Marissa began to yell before she was stopped by a slap in the face from Alison.
“Ralph here is a very good friend of mine. He phoned me once he knew you were onto me and he helped me with this little operation of mine. Get the hooks and needles Ralph.” Ralph obeyed unquestioningly. Alison continued.
“When I was a little girl, I used to hear my Daddy telling my Mom about all the red tape that used to stop him being able to convict obvious criminals. Even at that young age I thought it was bullshit. When I left college, I became a journalist for the Enquirer. I saw killers getting off on technicalities for the most brutal rapes and murders. Then I got arrested on a DUI charge. The hypocrisy made me sick. Known murderers were walking the streets while I was in a jail cell for the night. I decided to do something about it. In the morning when I got out, I handed in my notice at the paper. I could live on my trust fund. I became a hooker for a little while just to get a look into the world of some of these sick fuckers. Then the Andy Nichols case got thrown out of court. The police couldn’t give his wife justice but I could. I met him in a bar and we got talking. We went back to his place and he told me he was into breathplay. It was a great opportunity. I told him I’d blow him as he hung there. He let me cuff him and put the hood and noose over his head. Then he stepped off the chair and I left him there. He deserved what he got and his wife got her justice.”
“Just like Magnum Force.” mumbled Marissa. Alison beamed.
“Exactly! Good point. The death squad in Magnum Force tried to kill Harry Callahan because he was the only one that could stop their crusade. That’s why you and your friend are here. You two were the only ones that knew about that DNA report and so were the only ones that could stop me. Ralph shredded the report so the evidence is lost forever. To complete my little plan, now I must get rid of you. It’s nothing personal. I’ve nothing against you but your end justifies my means.”
“Why are you torturing us?” Marissa shouted.
“Just because I’ve nothing against you doesn’t mean that I can’t have a little fun before I kill you.” Alison cocked her head sideways and smiled.
She put the gag back in Marissa’s mouth and pulled the strap tightly behind her head. Marissa hadn’t seen the noose above her head attached to a winch, nor the chains that dangled from the same winch and stopped just inches above her naked prostrate body. A black hood was pulled over Marissa’s head and the noose was tightened, the knot behind her left ear. The darkness of the hood heightened all her senses. Her muffled breathing inside the hood was louder than it ever had been. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She felt the nib of a pen on her skin making circles at several points on her body. Then the pain started.
Alison donned a pair of medical gloves. There wasn’t any need but she loved the feel of the latex on her delicate hands. She pinched the first area where she had made the mark with the pen. She ran a needle through the flesh closely followed by a fishing hook. A muffled cry emitted from inside the hood. Again, Alison pierced Marissa’s flesh and ran another fishing hook through. It was a delicate procedure. If it wasn’t done right, the hooks would just rip out of her back. The hooks had to be in the right place too or else Marissa’s body would be off balance when she was lifted and some of the hooks might tear out then too. At first, Marissa’s pain was unbearable but Alison was so careful with her piercings and took so long that Marissa’s brain released the endorphins into her system making the last few piercings pleasurable. As she lay there, she found she was still terrified but in a comfortable dream like state.
The chains dangling above Marissa’s body were all connected to a single thicker chain that was itself connected to the winch. Alison began to connect each hook in Marissa’s back and arms and legs to one of the dangling chains. All Marissa felt was each piercing slightly stretching. She didn’t feel pain. She did feel a sort of happy light-headedness and also slightly turned on. That was the endorphins. Alison released her arms and legs from their bindings. She pressed a button on the wall. Marissa’s body began to rise towards the roof, her body being supported by the hooks and the noose. Her body was ten feet above the floor when Alison stopped the winch. Marissa was only barely aware of what was happening. Alison stared up at Marissa. It was a shame. She pressed another button. The carabiner with the chain and the hooks attached to it was released. Marissa fell downwards. The noose stopped her fall. Her neck was broken instantly. It was a sad end for one so pretty but her beauty was undiminished as she hung there. Even in death, Marissa Antonelli was beautiful.

Alison lowered both of the winches and released her captives from their deadly bindings. Her big black Chrysler was parked in a corner of the garage. Ralph grabbed hold of Adam’s head and Alison took his feet. They threw him into the trunk.
“She should be light enough to manage on your own. I’ll be right back.” Alison walked into the small grimy office just off the main floor of the garage. Ralph took hold of Marissa’s feet and hauled her to the trunk. He bundled her in. As he stood looking into the trunk catching his breath, Alison emerged from the office with a silenced pistol in her hand. Ralph didn’t see it coming. There was a spit from the gun and the bullet went through the back of the rubber mask and into Ralph’s head. He slumped over and fell head first into the trunk. Alison crammed his feet in. It was a tight squeeze. She could only barely close the lid. She went back to the office and took off her clothes and dressed in a black turtleneck and black pants. She went back to her car, started the engine and left the garage for the last time.

The sun was rising over the hills east of Seattle and the rays cast their first light over Puget Sound. Alison was heading to the airport. The early sunlight caught her hair bathing the interior of the Chrysler in a warm orange glow. She had everything she needed in a tan leather bag on the back seat. She would park up in the long term parking lot and leave the car there. The bodies would be found but not until she had long left Seattle. There was nothing left for her here. She’d go somewhere else- another city in another part of the country. She didn’t quite know where. There was always justice to be dealt everywhere. She thought to go to some place sunny. She’d heard San Diego was nice this time of year.

[Horatio Palmer]

Thanks for pointing out the punctuation. It's normally something I'm tough on myself about. I was a little confused up until now about periods inside quotation marks so thanks for clearing that up. I hope the first revision is OK.

Horatio