Chapter 5 – Fishing for Clues
After Dave, Lincoln and Randy left the gruesome crime scene they headed back to the Dollhouse to begin their investigation. The ride back was a quiet one, Lincoln occasionally would engaged in a quick chat with Randy, only to be ended abruptly as Randy kept his focus intently on the road. Dave sat speechless in the back of the vehicle watching the buildings they passed on the way back. He was attentively thinking about the case just assigned to him. From what he knew about the first crime he just couldn't fathom a connection to this recent one. Sure both incidents were unusual in the sense that both murderers died minutes later after the killing, but nothing made any sense.
After they arrived at the Kelencine building, the vehicle was parked into the underground garage and all three men stepped out and headed towards the elevator.
"I'm going to speak to Boyd about something, you two head over to the Morgue and examine Hunningbern." Randy instructed as he let the biometric scanner capture his palm print. The elevator doors opened and the men stepped inside. Randy pressed 2 buttons on the panel, the usual button that led to the main part of the Dollhouse and another button Dave never noticed before. The elevator began its descent and stopped sooner than Dave had anticipated it would, just a few seconds later. The doors opened and Dave was shocked at what he saw. This wasn't the floor that he and Lincoln usually got off on. This floor was comprised of a long, dark, metal hallway with dimly lit luminescence lights lining the floor. Dave noticed a sliding door at the end with caution signs and colors plastered on it.
Dave scratched his head. "What the hell...?"
Randy stepped out and turned towards the confused agent with a sneer.
"Authorized personnel only buddy." He said winking and headed down the hallway as the elevator doors closed and they continued downward.
"What was that?" Dave asked Lincoln confused.
"Huh? Oh that was one of the more 'restricted' areas of the Dollhouse. I don't even know what's on that floor. I heard rumors though, from Topher of course."
"What kind of rumors?" Dave asked curiously. Lincoln shook his head and leaned on the rail.
"Just you know, that some of the restricted levels of the Dollhouse hold their most deepest, darkest secrets and whatnot. You wanna know a really freaky rumor that Topher told me that I almost believe?"
"Yeah." Dave answered promptly, almost too quickly.
The elevator doors opened and Lincoln swiftly stepped out.
"You'll have to wait." He said smirking. He walked to the staircase and headed downward, Dave quickly went after him. They walked into Lincoln's office to begin their preliminary reports about the case they were just assigned. Lincoln sat on the small leather couch and worked on his laptop while Dave worked at Lincoln's desk. As Dave was typing up his report, he kept stealing glances at Lincoln, who was focused on his work. He kept thinking about the younger man's date with John yesterday. He wondered what they did that night. He then began to wonder what kind of boyfriend John was to Lincoln and how their relationship was weathering. He quickly shook the thoughts out of his head and continued to work. That wasn't any of his business.
After Dave was finished typing up his report, he decided to kill some time and do some browsing on the internet about Fringe Science while Lincoln still continued to work on his report. The things that he found were fascinating and shocking. This was the field that he seemed to have gotten himself into and was very curious about what was in store for him here at The Unit. He was excited and scared at the same time.
After about 10 minutes Lincoln stood up from the sofa and headed towards the door.
"Let's go to the mortuary."
"And that would be where exactly?" Dave inquired. He wondered it if was on some secret level of the building. He'd been here for 3 months but has yet to take a full tour of the place. All he knew is that there were 5 different levels of the fortress and he'd only seen 2.
"It's at the FBI building across the street." Lincoln answered.
Dave sighed and followed his partner to yet another unknown part of the Dollhouse he'd never seen before. After about a good 3 minute walk they reached a narrow hallway to a door with a hand scanner. Lincoln authenticated his identity with a hand scan and the door opened.
"You gotta be fucking kidding me..." Dave said as he saw what appeared to be a long, dark underground tunnel with rail tracks lining the ground. Sitting at the left of the tracks was what looked like some sort of small transport train.
"Yeah I know." Lincoln acknowledged as he led Dave onto the train. "This is how we 'sneak' our way inside the federal building without having to go through the usual checkpoints and avoid all the 'unauthorized personnel', you know, with us being a secret unit and all. This entire tunnel runs underground to the FBI building. We keep the mortuary there in case any other law enforcement agency needs access to the body(s). We can't house them here and remain a secret division of the FBI you know."
"Yeah I get it." Dave replied. All these secrets and protocols made Dave a bit uneasy. He just wasn't use to this. Being a FBI agent did entail that you keep certain things on the hush, but being an agent for The Unit require everything to be on the hush, something that Dave felt uncomfortable with.
Both men got into the tiny train that seated about 10 people with a little space left over for transporting other things. Lincoln fired up the electronic controls and the vehicle began to zoom down the tracks with high speed.
"Fun isn't it?" Lincoln said smiling.
"Sure..." Dave replied unemotionally.
After a minute or so, the train stopped and both men got out. There was another door at this end of the tunnel. Lincoln led the way up the steps and the door slide open. It was an elevator.
"Hop inside." Lincoln instructed. Dave got into the lift and Lincoln quickly followed. They rode the elevator upwards several floors before the doors opened to an empty, bright hallway. Lincoln got out and walked down the hall to a set of double doors. Dave walked slowly after Lincoln, noticing similarities in the building's look to the FBI building he worked in across town.
"So how does this work? I mean what if I see any former colleagues? Obviously I don't tell them I work for The Unit right?"
"Just say you work for the FBI, because technically you do. You probably won't run into anyone as we'll remain on this floor, but you never know. Just play it cool."
"I'm confused." Dave said in defeat and passed Lincoln on the way to the doors. He saw the "Mortuary" sign located on the wall. He opened the doors and walked inside. Dave hated to visit Morgues. He hated dead bodies in general but it was part of the job so he toughed it out. A few seconds later Lincoln casually walked in behind him.
Lincoln began scanning the body chambers, searching for the body of Margie Hunningbern.
"Alright the body should be here by now so...ah here it is!" Lincoln excitedly opened the door and slide the drawer out to reveal a corpse covered with a white sheet. He lifted the sheet and confirmed it was indeed Hunningbern's body.
"Alright let's get started." Lincoln said as he went over to prep for the autopsy. He put on standard white medical latex gloves and another gear to protect his clothes and to not contaminate the body. Dave started to become uncomfortable. He saw bodies before after autopsies and he didn't like the sight. He hadn't seen an autopsy be performed before so this was making him extra uncomfortable.
"It could take a while Dave..." Lincoln advised the older man.
"I'm fine." Dave answered. Lincoln nodded.
"I'm going to need help transporting the body to this table." Lincoln said. Dave went over and helped Lincoln moved the body from the chamber to a medical slab. Dave stared at the cold body as Lincoln got ready to perform the autopsy. Dave was very amazed that Lincoln was a licensed Medical Examiner. He was only 25 years old.
Lincoln was an exceptionally intelligent person and made no attempt to hide it. As a child, Lincoln was regularly labeled as a child prodigy. With the guidance of his equally gifted adopted father Dr. Walter Bishop, he excelled in academics and at the tender age of 14 He graduated high school. At the age 22, he was a licensed M.D.
"This is going to get messy pretty soon. I need to take some fluid samples and then we'll begin the cutting procedure."
"You're gonna cut her open? Wait, why is this required? I mean you guys said she had a heart attack. Isn't there some easier way to you know confirm that?"
"I want to do a thorough examination Dave. These are special circumstances you know." He replied. Dave stepped back and allowed Lincoln to continue. Lincoln extracted blood from the body and other fluids. After that process was done he picked up a cutting saw and began the autopsy.
After watching Lincoln perform the autopsy, he began to get increasingly uncomfortable. He would occasionally look away as he saw blood and bone. Lincoln would occasionally ask if he was OK and wanted to leave but Dave stuck it out. Lincoln tried engaging in conversation with him but he just couldn't focus on anything else but the corpse what was being mutilated in front of him.
"Wanna see her heart Dave?" Lincoln joked.
"What?" Dave replied traumatized.
"Here, her heart. Come take a look at it. It's fascinating."
"Hell no Linc." Dave said frostily.
Lincoln chuckled and continued to work. Dave couldn't get over how casual Lincoln was being at this point. He was slicing open a dead body for god sakes!
An hour went by until Lincoln removed his gloves and sighed.
"Yup. She definitely died of a heart attack. The toxicology tests will also provide us with some more information but all in all, a heart attack. She also looked like she was sleep deprived. Signs of exhaustion are everywhere."
"So what about the first killer Justin Gabriel? Where are the results from his autopsy?"
"I send an e-mail to Archives. They should be sending the report to us soon. In the meantime I'm going to go take these samples for testing. You stay here OK?"
"Wait, let me come with you." Dave volunteered, not wanting to be in a room filled with dead remains.
"You'll be fine. This won't take long." Lincoln smiled reassuring and headed out of the room with the samples from the autopsy. Dave stood there nervously. Hunningbern's body still remain on the medical slab, Lincoln forgetting to cover her with the white sheet. Dave couldn't help but glance at her from time to time. It felt so eerie staring at a dead body. Dave just couldn't shake the feeling. He had to get out of the room.
Dave ignored Lincoln's request and walked outside into the hallway. He looked around the empty corridor and began to reminisce about his days in the FBI. He loved it. Everything about his old job was a blast to him. In a lot of way he missed it very much, but this was his job now and he was committed 100%.
After a relaxing walk up and down the hall for a few minutes Lincoln returned. He was playing with his PDA.
"So...?" Dave asked.
"I put a rush on the toxicology tests. We should get the results later today."
"Really? Back in the FBI the earliest we got our results back was no less than 5 days."
"Well things work faster around here I guess."
"Yeah I'm beginning to see that. So I guess we should go and review the 1st murder and gather facts from that."
"Yeah. Archives sent over the case files to my office. Let's go review them and then re-interview those connected to Justin."
Dave smiled. "Sounds like a plan Linc."
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