Young Writers Society

Craig shuddered as he left the woman’s home. He knew this was wrong, he had a girlfriend. But he didn’t care. His only regret was the fact that he had chosen a night that it was storming to go and cheat on his girlfriend. Now he was late getting home and she’d wonder. Curse those criminalists

The town was quiet as he drove the small car home. It was starting to rain, the storm was moving in, and it was going to be bad.

Annie stood staring out the window of the small house. She had kept all the lights on, so he could find his way home. She paced nervously by the telephone, he still hadn’t called, but she tried to reason with herself. Maybe his cell phone had run out of batteries. She shuddered, despite her faded flannel gown. She hoped he was just caught in traffic, asking for a miracle, for it all to be all right. She didn’t want her suspicions to be right. She was really hoping she wasn’t right. And although she wasn’t very religious, she prayed he had a good excuse.

As a boom of thunder shook the house, she felt her hope dim. Her heart was growing colder as she waited for him. A storm not only brewed outside, but it brewed in her heart as well.

As Annie waited by the window, he pulled into the driveway. She rushed outside to hold him, just glad that he was still alive and not lying dead somewhere. But as she neared him, a new scent filled her sensitive nose. It was perfume. Her eyes flashed as she looked at him.

Craig saw her eyes go from warm and loving to hard and angry. A flash of realization filled the woman’s eyes. That was the disadvantage of dating a Criminalist: they noticed everything. And she knew.

The thunder rolled, a lightning strike struck nearby. Her love had gone cold, on this storming night. The storm raged on, blowing her hair wildly around. Craig tried to explain, to keep her there with him. But she was too angry to listen. The storm brewing in her heart was breaking free.

With and agonized shriek, she turned and raced back into the house. He sighed heavily and followed her in. he would convince her to forgive him, not that he’d stop. But he would have to be more careful, and make sure to check the weather from now on.

Annie ran down the hallway. She ran into the bedroom they had shared, knowing now what they had to do. She found her field kit that she always kept for emergencies. She then opened up the metal box and slipped on a pair of latex gloves. She walked to the dresser drawer. She knew he kept his pistol in there. “For protection” he had said when she objected. But tonight, she was glad it was in there.

Annie looked at her reflection in the mirror. She could barely recognize the woman standing there looking back at her. Her eyes were cold, her dark hair blown wildly around. “He will never do this again,” she whispered to the lady staring back at her. “This is the last time I wonder where he’s been.”

She stormed off to find him. He was waiting in the living room.

“Hey baby. Please don’t be mad, I can explain.” Annie slowly pulled the gun out from behind her back.

“No, you can’t explain. This is the last time I or any woman wonders where you have been.” Her voice was emotionless. She cocked the gun, aiming for his heart.

“You wont do it. You cant. Now common babe, put down the gun and we can talk. Just remember you’re a CSI. You look for people who kill. Now here you are, about to go against what you believe.” Her laughter was cruel and empty.

“I can hide the evidence. They will never find me.” And with that, she pulled the trigger.

Annie spent most of the night cleaning up the evidence. All traced of her were erased from the house. No one at the lab knew she had been dating this man, and that’s how it was going to stay. The pictures of her were taken. All of her clothes and possessions packed up until there was no physical reminder of her. She snuck out, making sure no one saw her, and drove off satisfied. The housekeeper would be coming early that morning. Then the lab would be called out. But no one would find anything, even her boss would never find any evidence.

Sure enough she got a call at around eight that morning. Her boss needed her out at a crime scene. Male victim, gunshot wound to the heart. She hung up the phone and let out a snicker. “This will be easier to get away with than I thought.” she told herself, preparing to put on the show of her life.

Annie arrived at the scene shortly after her colleague Neil. She had been pretty confident, but now that she was here, she couldn’t help but be a little nervous. Neil was a pretty good CSI. But she was sure she had gotten all of the evidence out of that house. She took a deep breath and stepped out of the car.

“Hey!” Neil called out good-naturedly.

“Hey. So, single male victim, gunshot to the heart?”

“Yeah. Coroners in there now. But this should be a pretty easy case. The weapons still in there, probably just a domestic dispute.” Annie laughed as she followed him into the house.

“So, want me to take the living room?” she asked as they looked at the body.

“Sure.” He flashed her a grin as he went off. She turned to Dan, the coroner, who was taking out the body.

“Hey Annie.”

“Hey!” she greeted as she took out her camera and started snapping pictures. She barely used any film, what she used it on wouldn’t be anything helpful. They would never find out that she was the killer.

“Man, it looks like this wont be such an easy case.” A few hours later, Neil joined Annie in the living room.

“Nothing in there?”

“Nope.” He started surveying the floor. He leaned down and took a closer look at a spot.

“Hey, Annie, I think you missed something!”

“Darn!” she said to herself. She forgot about that small cut she had gotten.

“Hey, Annie, you still with us here?”

“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t get much sleep.” As if to prove a point, she let out a large yawn.

“Why don’t you go back to the lab and I’ll finish up here.”

“Yeah, sure.” As she drove off, she tried to figure out how to get rid of anything connecting her to this case.

Neil shook his head as he watched Annie drive off. There was something wrong with her; he just couldn’t put his hand on it. He shrugged and walked back into the crime scene. He figured she’d tell him when she was ready.

He knew something was wrong. Annie’s breath came out in shakes with this knowledge. She would have to be more cautious, and most definitely put on a better performance. But for now, she had to figure out how to get rid of any evidence connecting her to this case. A plan formulated in her mind as she headed towards a large lake she knew of.

Fifteen minutes later, she stood looking out over the quiet lake. Not many people knew of this hidden beauty. She wouldn’t have known of it either if it weren’t for the fact that she worked a case here once with Neil.

Neil. Annie’s mind kept wondering back to the handsome man. She hated the fact that she was working this case with him. It wasn’t that she didn’t like working with him. Normally she would have been pleased to work a case with him. But this time, it was different. She was the killer. And it hurt her to lie to Neil.

She sighed as she chucked the bagged blood sample into the sparkling water, staring blankly as she watched it sink slowly to the bottom, never to be recovered.

Neil clenched his fist in frustration. Five hours of hard work had recovered little evidence. All they had was a gun, a blood sample, and a few hairs he had discovered in the couch. He put away the little he had and walked out. He needed to get back to the lab. He wasn’t going to find anything else if he stayed.

Neil arrived at the lab to find Annie resting in the break room.

“Hey.” She looked up as he spoke. A smile crossed her face.

“Hi. Get anything?”

“Nope. Looks like this might not be such an easy case.”

“You didn’t get any evidence?”

“ I got some hairs from the couch and we have the blood sample and the gun.”

“Oh, cool.” She yawned. Killing someone and hiding the evidence was hard work.

“Annie, you need to get more sleep.”

“I’m fine.” She insisted. Neil didn’t believe her, but he let it slide. He plopped down next to her on the couch.

“Hey. Don’t you have a case?” Greg, their boss had walked into the room.

“The killer left very little evidence.” Explained Neil.

“Well, keep working on it.” Greg quickly left the room.

“I guess he’s right. We need to get back to work.”

“I’ll get the samples to James.” Annie quickly volunteered. She needed to make all evidence “disappear”.

“Ok. I’ll see what I can get off the phone records.” Uh-oh, she forgot about those. She forced a smile as she walked off. As she reached the DNA lab where James worked, she looked around before quickly heading to the bathroom.

The sound of the toilet flushing echoed through the bathroom, masking the sound of the door opening. As she walked out, she ran into Crissy, another colleague.

“Oh, hey Chris”

“Hey. How is the case going.”? When she mentioned the case, Chrissy noticed a flash of panic in the younger woman’s eyes.

“Oh, it’s not going. The killer left next to no evidence.” Annie paused for a moment. “Hey, Chris. Did you ever wait up all night wondering where a man has been?” Chrissy looked at her strangely.

“Annie, didn’t you and Drew break up a year ago?”

“Yeah. I’m not talking about me or anything. Just for a case.” Annie lied on the spot. Chrissy looked at her suspiciously but didn’t press the issue.

“Yes, lots of night with Brad.”

“Did you ever, you know, feel like doing something about it? Like say killing him?” Chrissy raised an eyebrow.

“Once in a while.”

“But you didn’t?”

“Obviously”

“What kept you from doing it?” Chrissy shot Annie a weird look.

“Um, I don’t know. It’s against the law! Geesh Annie, what is up with the questions?”

“Oh, nothing. It’s just for a case.”

“Oh. Ok.”

“Thanks Chrissy.”

“Yah.” Annie walked out, leaving Chrissy there to wonder about what the young woman was up to.

“Hey, Annie, I just got off the phone with the detective. We’re meeting him over at where our Vic worked.” She followed him out to the parking lot.

“I’m driving.” Annie rolled her eyes as she hopped into the passenger’s seat of the car.

Before they knew it, they were at a large office building. One Annie had seen before when she had picked up Craig. Brian was already waiting for them.

“Took you long enough.” Said Brian, the detective they had been working with

“Lets go get this over with.” Annie walked into the revolving glass doors. They got the office number from the front desk and rode up to the eleventh floor.

“Hello. I’m Brian and this is Annie and Neil from the crime lab and we are hear to ask you some questions about Craig Arden.” A stiff looking man had met them in the office area.

“Can you tell us which desk was Craig’s?” asked Annie. The man pointed to a corner. “I’ll go take a look at it.” Annie walked off to leave Neil to question the man.

“Did Craig have a girlfriend?”

“Yeah, I know he was seeing some chick. Um, I think it started with an A. I can’t remember. I think he has a picture of her on his desk.”

“Do you know how their relationship was?”

“I think he was a player. He usually had a different babe every day come calling.” Over at the desk, Annie was busy with evidence.

A picture of her sat at the corner of the desk. Annie quickly took it and stuffed it in her purse. She then proceeded to flip through her ex lovers date book. Anger grew inside as she read the names of several women, scheduled for dates. All while she herself had been with Craig. She was glad the man was dead.

“Hey. Got anything?” her head snapped up.

“Nope. Nothing. Just a date books with some names. Looks like our victim was quite the player.

“Yeah. That man just said he also had a steady girlfriend.”

“Did he mention a name?”

“No, just said he thought it started with and A.”

“So basically we still have nothing.” She stated.

“Hey, James. You got those samples back yet?” Neil walked into the lab.

“What samples?”

“The one’s from out homicide. The ones Annie gave you.”

“Um, Neil, I didn’t get any samples from Annie.” Neil looked at him, confusion evident on his face.

“Oh.” He turned and went down to the AV lab, where he had the phone from the victim.

“Oh my God.” His heart stopped as he read the records. “Oh please no. This cant is right.” But it was confirmed as he listened to the recovered message.

“Hey babe, its Annie. I have to work late, so I’ll be home late. See you soon.” A tear gathered in the young mans eyes as he pieced together the pieces.

“Hey Neil, what’s up?” He turned to Rick, another CSI he worked with. “Neil, did something happen?”

“She killed him.” Rick looked at him confused.

“Who killed who? Neil, what’s going on?” But Neil had already gotten out his cell phone.

“Hey, Brian, its Neil. I have our killer. Yeah, meet me at the lab.” he brushed past Rick, not even trying to conceal the tears that were falling. Concerned, Rick followed Neil out.

“Neil, what happened?”

“God, how could I have been so blind?”

“What happened? Neil, tell me.” Neil took a shaky breath.

“Well, you know the case we were working on, with the dead man with the gunshot wound? Well, there was just about no evidence. The little we had, I sent with Annie. Today, I went to James to see if he had the results. She never gave them to him.” Rick looked at him in shock.

“Annie? That doesn’t sound like her at all. Why wouldn’t she give James the results?”

“Its worse. I checked the phone records. And you know who called? Annie.”

“WHAT? Neil, what are you trying to say?”

“Annie killed him.” Rick’s eyes grew wide as he processed this information. Before he could say anything, police cars pulled up to the building. Brian got out.

“Well, who is it Neil?”

“Hey, what’s going on?” Annie asked as she saw the police meeting in the lab. Neil turned at her, his eyes angry and hurt. She looked around confused.

“You have the right to remain Silent…” She stood in disbelief as she was read her rights. Of course Greg, Chrissy, and James had come out to see what the commotion was. As it was explained, Greg turned to Annie.

“Annie, please tell me this is all a big misunderstanding. Please tell us this isn’t true.”

Her eyes grew cold. She knew she was screwed, why lie now.

“I killed the bastard. I was Tired of wondering where he was all night. So I killed him.” She started to cry as they led her away. Not because She was under arrest, but because of the look on Neil’s face. He Looked at her coldly.

“You should have known you could never get away with it.”

Well, please, tell me what you think. I would love to actually have people who don't have to say its good read it. So far, the only people I can get to read it is friends and family, and well, you just can't get a grip on how good it really is with that. (Although my english teacher did say it was good. But still...) I know my grammer probaly stinks, but I am really more interested in what you think of the quality of the writing, not the grammer.