Disclaimer: Don't own them. Wish I did. No money made, so please don't sue, even if you did, I don't have much besides two cats who are eating me out of house and home.
Thanks to Rona and Cindy for during their usual outstanding beta job and reminding me about the bane of my existence, punctuation! Any remaining errors are mine. I can't help myself, every time I see one of my stories I find just one more thing that must be changed.
Trishbsc
Jim took his eyes off the road for a minute and looked at the man sitting next to him. He couldn't believe that he had called Sandburg. But, this kid seemed to have some of the answers he needed when it came to his 'little problem'.
When Simon told him he needed him back at work, Jim knew there really wasn't any other option. He would have to get back on the job. Time was running out and they weren't any further along in the investigation. The only place where he was sure the switchman had been was at the lumber mill.
He really needed to find something to break this case open and maybe there was something left in the rubble, something forensics hadn't found. And his best shot at finding a clue to the switchman's identity was with the kid's help.
A half-hour later, he was having second thoughts. He couldn't believe the kid had brought a video camera. There was no way he was gonna tolerate that. However, at the sight of that bird flying to a nearby tree, the case had its first break, and he was glad that he had brought Sandburg along.
With a glint in his eye, he looked over at Sandburg and asked, "How good are you at climbing trees?"
Thinking fast, Blair answered. "I'm your man." As the two men headed across the field to the tree where Jim had spotted the bird landing, Blair wiped his sweaty hands on his jeans. He couldn't believe he had said yes. What had he been thinking? A moment later, he knew exactly what he had been thinking; he had taken a serious misstep by video taping the detective without asking permission and figured this was the best way back into the man's good graces.
This detective was his Holy Grail, the embodiment of his thesis, and also a stiff, up tight, pain in the ass. But, if spending time with him, watching what he could do, meant climbing a tree, he'd do it.
Blair looked up at the massive tree when Jim had come to a halt. Even if it meant climbing a really, really, really tall tree, his doctorate was worth it. Blair reached for the first branch and pulled himself up into the tree. His last thought as he reached for the next branch was oh, god, don't look down.
Jim moved around the back of the tree until he was standing underneath the nest. The least he could do was give the kid directions to the nest. Actually, it was the least he could do because if Sandburg hadn't agreed, it would be his ass that was up in the tree.
He looked up, watching the kid's progress. He could hear the grunting as Sandburg shimmied his way up the tree.
"Head ups, the branch under your right hand, Sandburg," Jim called up.
Once Blair was seated on the right branch, Jim raised his arm, pointing to a spot just a few feet above Blair's head. He called again, "It's right there in the crook of the limb."
He bit back a laugh as he heard the kid yell out, "Man, I'm not in the mood to have my skull ventilated by some pissed off magpie."
Sandburg was pretty agile. Jim watched as Blair reached out with one hand, straining to reach the magpie's nest without having to climb any higher.
He was ready when the kid yelled, "Heads up, heads up," as the nest was tossed down to him.
Jim smiled slightly as he caught the nest. Maybe this won't be so bad, the kid's definitely got gusts. He had volunteered to go up that tree without hesitation, Jim thought as he watched the kid work his way down. Jim reached into the nest and picked out some little leaves that were sitting on the bit of colored yarn in the nest.
The mantra, 'I hate trees', kept passing through Blair's mind as he worked his way back down to the ground. He had broken his arm falling out of a tree when he was a kid and hadn't been back up a tree since that day.
He was still a little wobbly upon reaching the ground. Blair looked up at the tree, still not believing he had climbed that high. The lengths he had to go to get his doctorate. He blew a sigh of relief as he joined Jim who was studying the blue piece of yarn from the nest.
He flipped the open front of his coat back and hitched up his jeans as Jim started to speak.
"The bomber was wearing a blue watch cap when he went into the mill."
Blair nodded, his brain immediately going into gear. "So maybe the hat was inside when the place blew and the bird found the pickings up in the beams where forensics missed them. I mean the nest isn't finished which would definitely suggest that the time frame could work there."
When Jim didn't comment, Blair stared at him. Seeing a look of shock and a little doubt, he said, "What? Part of your job is walking into a place and trying to figure out what happened there. So's mine. It's just my places are usually a few thousand years vacant."
He watched as the detective raised the yarn to his face as he had been talking. Blair saw the look of recognition cross Jim's face. "What? What is it?" He paused only long enough for air before adding, "You got something? What?"
He watched as Jim raised the yarn to his nose, breathing deeply
"Yeah, it's shampoo," Jim answered, but sounded a little doubtful.
"Aftershave?" Blair questioned.
Jim shook his head. "No, no no, it's more complicated. It smells like uh..."
"What"
"Jungle plants."
"Jungle plants?" Blair repeated.
Jim sniffed the yarn again to confirm in his own mind what he smelled. "Yeah, I'm sure."
"Well, that's not a common scent for most commercially produced shampoos," Blair comment. "It's probably one of those salon shampoos or a specialty stores unique shampoo. There's only a few of those in Cascade. Let's go."
"Whoa, whoa. What do you mean let's go?" Jim asked. "We need to get this into forensics. Have them..."
"Have them what? You think they're gonna be able to smell it? There probably is only a trace of the scent on that yarn. Not enough for modern instrumentation to detect, much less analyze. Nope, we do this the hard way." Sandburg set off back to where they had parked the jeep.
"Sandburg!" Ellison moaned, wondering just when it was he lost control of the situation. He was forced to jog to catch up to the young man.
Realizing he had the upper hand, for the moment, Blair said with a laugh, "Hey Ellison, this situation reminded me of an old joke. How do you catch a unique bird?
"Sandburg..."
Waiting a beat, the answer came all too soon. "Unique up on it. Get it? Now, how do you catch a tame bird?"
"Sandburg, this is your final warning. Unless you want to walk home..."
"Tame way, unique up on it."
"That's it, Sandburg. One more and I'm leaving you out here."
"Empty threat, I know of at least two salons that will custom mix shampoos and aftershaves for you. I can save you hours of legwork."
Jim stared at him for a moment, before commenting, "I suppose you would, with hair like yours. I'm sure you're familiar with beauty salons."
"Not the hair, Ellison. Only those with some, get to be rude. You are not one to comment on hair styles," Blair replied as he headed around the side of the jeep to reach the passenger side.
Jim climbed in the driver's side and closed the door. Thinking to himself, "This kid could be really useful, if he doesn't force me to kill him first."
The End!