After the meeting, Cross approaches Garcia. “Why didn’t you mention the coffee cup DNA test?”
“It’s too early,” Garcia tells her. “If it’s a match, it will be self-explanatory, and if not, it won’t matter. I should have told you I was not going to bring it up. Thanks for recognizing my cue.”
“Commander may not be too happy if he finds out.”
“Oh, believe me, I know.”
Garcia is tired and stressed, so he leaves work a bit early. Upon getting home, he finds Rosa has fixed a nice dinner of steak fajitas and salad, one of Garcia’s favorites. She even has a frozen margarita ready for him.
“I figured it was a stressful day for you,” she says.
“Yes, now just need to wait and see what happens,” says Garcia.
“Forget all that now, let’s have a nice family dinner and relax tonight,” Rosa tells him. “We have your favorite for dessert, chocolate chip ice cream.”
It is just what Garcia needs. A good homecooked meal, margarita, family conversation, and most delicious of all, chocolate chip ice cream. For a few hours, Garcia is able to let go of his concerns.
The DNA
The next day, Garcia is anxiously awaiting the DNA results. The minutes and hours tick away with no call from Cross. What is taking so long? I told her it was for the Candy Man Killer; it should be top priority.
At 11:00 am, Ricci is not at his desk and Garcia can’t wait any longer. He picks up the phone and calls Cross. “Cindy, what is taking so long?”
“Juan, it is a priority, but we still have lots of other cases, other homicides. Our analysts are busy and doing the best they can. We should have a result late this afternoon.”
“Alright, but when you know call me on my cell phone, okay?”
“Yes, I’ll call you on your cell.”
The wait is excruciating for Garcia. I hope it doesn’t match. Please don’t match, I don’t want it to be Mike. What if it is? What if it isn’t and Marshall finds out?
Garcia finally leaves the office and goes for a walk. He stops at Marie’s Café, about five blocks from the station, grabs a newspaper, and sits down. He only orders a diet Coke. Too much anxiety to eat anything right now. After another hour or so of reading and fiddling, Garcia walks back to the office. But he is too stressed to do any significant work.
Once Ricci returns to his desk, Garcia picks up his notebook and leaves, heading to the detective lounge. Garcia doesn’t want to receive the phone call from Cross with Ricci within hearing distance. He doodles some sketches in his notebook to pass the time while waiting for the call from Cross.
At 3:15 pm, Garcia’s cell phone finally rings. It is Cross calling.
“Hello Cindy, what have you got?”
“We have a result, Juan. The unknown DNA from the cup matches our Candy Man Killer DNA.”
“Oh my god!” Garcia blurts out. He feels immediately nauseous and can feel his heart rate jump up. His face feels flush, and his breathing becomes heavy.
“Are you okay Juan?”
“Yeah, yeah….., I’m…fine,” he responds between breaths. “I just…..can’t believe it.
“Well, it’s true, we have a match.”
“Cindy, can you excuse me for a minute, I’ve got to go…..I’ll call you right back,” says Garcia just before he presses the red disconnect button on his phone.
Garcia rushes to the bathroom, trying not to be obvious to anyone who might see him. He feels the urge to vomit and can feel the heat in his forehead and cheeks. He even feels like he is shaking a bit. Garcia enters a bathroom stall and leans over the toilet. He is resisting the urge to empty his stomach and starts to take deep slow breaths to calm himself. After a few minutes, the urge to vomit starts to subside. He leaves the stall and walks to a sink where he begins to splash cold water on his face. He cups his hands, allowing them to fill with water, then drinks the cool water. It feels so refreshing and further helps calm his nerves. After about 10 minutes of deep breathing, Garcia starts to feel normal again. He still has a pit in his stomach, but at least he feels as though he can function. Garcia finds an interview room not being used and calls Cross from there.
“What happened?” asks Cross.
“I’ll explain later. Can you bring the report over and meet with me and Sgt. Pennington?”
“Sure, I know this is priority one. I’ll head over now. See you in about 30 minutes”
Garcia takes a few moments to further calm his emotions. His visceral reaction to the news is as a friend and colleague to Ricci. He had hoped he was wrong in his suspicion. After another twenty minutes of thinking it through, his disappointment is now turning to anger. How can a well-respected homicide detective ever think cold-blooded murder is an answer to his misguided anger? This will blemish the entire department. We will all suffer from this.
Garcia calls Sgt Pennington to tell her he has important critical news about the Candy Man Killer case and needs to meet with her and Cindy Cross in Pennington’s office in about 10 minutes.
“Should I get the Commander in here?” she asks.
“No, I need to meet with just you and Cindy for now. You’ll understand when you hear what I have to say.”
“Alright, I’ll be waiting.”
Garcia waits in the lobby for Cross to arrive. He does not want to see Ricci, as he is not sure how he will react, and does not want to give anything away. They still need to confirm the DNA from the cup is indeed Ricci’s by getting a swab of known DNA from his mouth. Garcia is not sure how the Sergeant, or Commander, will want to approach this.
At 3:55 pm, Garcia meets Cross in the lobby. “Do you have the report?”
“Yes, it’s right here in this folder. What’s going on Juan?” Do
