CSI: The Hot Tub

Before I begin I want to thank my two favorite editors for their help, LadyCibelle and Techsan. Their editing and suggestions mean a lot to me and make my stories a much better read.

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Awhile back I wrote a story about CSI, (Crime Scene Investigators) Jim Lee and Bobbie (Roberta) Burke. The story was Titled: Who Did It? At the time Jim and Bobbie were just working buddies. Now they are more than a team; they are in a relationship. Neither is ready to commit to marriage or to even living together. They continue to date and have sex once in a while to rid themselves of their tensions. This narrative begins with Jim telling the story.

We were ridding ourselves of frustrations and tension one evening and, as we were both in the throes of passion, my cell phone started ringing. I said, "It can wait, I can't stop now, Bobbie. I'm about to cum."

My phone stopped ringing and Bobbie's started. "Not on your life, whoever is calling. I'm cumming, Jim, cum with me, Jim, cum with me."

They both closed their eyes and came. "Oh, shit, that was good," I vowed.

Bobbie looked up at me and smiled, "Always is. Guess we should call the office and find out what's up."

We both called the office on our respective call phones. After hearing my message, I told Bobbie I had to get home quick and clean up and would see her at the crime scene.

We didn't want everyone to know that we were sleeping together. We tried to keep our personal and work life separate, but weren't doing the best job of it.

Just so the readers know: CSI's in this part of Ohio were officers who worked for the Sheriff's Department. They attended special classes to become investigators. They were also loaned out to neighboring counties when necessary. About eighty percent of their time they were on investigations. The other twenty per cent, they were Sheriff's deputies.

Bobbie was the first to show up at the scene. I should say that she was the first CSI to show up. Police officers were already there, protecting the evidence. Bobbie took a quick look at the dead victim and then the ambulance removed him from the scene. A few minutes later I showed up and asked Bobbie what she found.

"Jim, the victim is a man around sixty who apparently drowned in his new hot tub. If you would like to go inside and talk to his wife, she found him in the tub. I'll see if there is any evidence in or around the tub."

"Sounds good to me. I'll talk with the wife and maybe we better talk to a few neighbors and see if anyone heard or saw anything." We agreed to meet back at the scene of the apparent drowning.

I talked with Mrs. Moore about finding her husband's body. She said that he was getting ready to get in their new hot tub, as she was leaving to go shopping. They only had it about three months. When she got home a few hours later she found him under the water. She tried to pull him up but he was much too heavy. She did manage to get his head above water but he was already dead. She ran in the house and called 911.

I asked her if I might be able to look around a little. It was just procedure. She said it was alright as I got up and strolled into the bathroom. I always checked for prescription drugs. It was a force of habit. I did find a number of bottles of different drugs in the medicine cabinet but most had Mrs. Moore's name on them. I jotted down all the info in my note pad.

I told Mrs. Moore that we needed to close off their patio for a couple of hours and go over any evidence that we might find. She asked me why we were doing all this for a drowning.

I explained to her that until an autopsy was done, the cause of death wouldn't be determined. It was just the regulations of the system. She wasn't overly happy about us being around but said she understood we had a job to do. About that time one of her daughters arrived and asked if it was alright for her mother to go home with her. I told her it would be a really good idea. We would lock up the premises when we were finished.

After looking around the house a little more, I didn't find anything out of the ordinary. I then went and talked to a number of neighbors on the Moore's right side. After gathering evidence, Bobbie talked to a few neighbors on the Moore's left. About a half hour later, we met back on the patio to discuss our findings.

Bobbie was busy swishing her hand around in the water. "I'd love to get in a hot tub and relax," said Bobbie smiling at me.

"Would that be naked or with clothes on?" I smiled. "By the way, was our victim naked or have a bathing suit on?"

"He was naked and before you ask, yes, it was pretty shriveled up from being in the pool so long."

We have been on so many crime scenes together that we did joke a little. We weren't being inconsiderate. We knew a man was dead and we took that part very seriously.

"I know we're not supposed to draw conclusions but what do you think so far? It does look like a drowning," I said.

Bobbie gave a first impression. "He undressed right here on the patio. He was naked. Doesn't look like foul play but we'll have to wait for the autopsy to come back. I have a couple of doubts. When I gathered his clothes, there were stains on his underwear. It looked like he had sex recently. I also noticed a couple of scratches on his back which looked like they were caused by fingernails. I took some samples of the water but any evidence there would probably be pretty filtered out. It looks like an accidental drowning but I have this gut feeling. I did find a ton of fingerprints all over the spa. I took samples of some that looked recent. I don't know if it will be of any help or not. I need to see the autopsy report. What did the wife have to say to you?" Bobbie asked, as she finished taking notes.

I replied, "She told me that she was getting ready to go shopping when her husband came home from one of the neighbors. He had gone over to borrow a movie to watch this evening. Apparently the Smith family has a lot of movies. She said he was going to go in the hot tub and relax for a while before watching the movie. She told me she was gone about three hours or so and when she got back he was in the hot tub. His head was underwater and she was only able to pull his head out of the water, but he was already dead. She called 911 then her daughter. She was a little shook up but still had her senses about her. I would have thought she would have been a little more shaken, but everyone grieves their own way. They had just celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary last month.

"I also talked to a number of the neighbors. They all said about the same thing, Mr. Moore was a nice guy. Most said that Edna, Mrs. Moore, ran a pretty tight ship. She is a nice woman and looked a lot younger than her sixty-two years of age. She belonged to the church women's groups and helped out at the school as an aide. Mr. Moore, or Wayne as they called him, retired early about four years ago. He helped a lot of the neighbors doing odd jobs for them," I said.

Bobbie asked me, "Did any of the women say he flirted with them?"

"No, they said he was kind of a happy guy and would say little flirty things but his wife was present or their husbands were there. No one ever said he made a pass at them. Of course I never asked any questions quite like that. Not every woman would tell you even if he did. Some would do the opposite and say he did even if he didn't; everyone seems to have a different opinion on the flirting issue. He seemed to be well liked. I guess the Moores have lived here over thirty-five years," I answered. "What did you find out?"

"I talked to the Smith woman and her husband, Carly and Bob Smith. They moved here last year. This is a pretty nice settled neighborhood. Most of the families are older, near retirement age but there are a few young couples. The Smith's are one of the younger ones, probably in their late thirties. Mrs. Smith was shocked to hear of Wayne's - Mr. Moore's - death.

"She started crying and said that he had stopped by earlier that afternoon to borrow a movie. One thing that bothered me was she said he borrowed the television series 'Mash', but I noticed it was on their counter when I left. I thought that was rather odd. I mentioned it to her and she hesitated and then told me that he had brought that one back and borrowed the second season. When I was looking around at the Moore's home, I never saw the movie, did you?" Bobbie asked me.

"No, I didn't see any disks whatsoever lying out. Well, that's about all we can do for now until we get the autopsy report back and some tests run on his clothing and the two beer bottles and the glass you found at the hot tub."

Bobbie kept looking in the hot tub. I knew she would have loved to get in one and feel those hot jets caress her body. I promised her that maybe after we got through with this case we could go to a motel that had a hot tub and she could lay in it as long as she wanted. It got me a big smile back from Bobbie.

We took all our evidence back to the precinct and started on our tests. Crime was rather light in our area, at the moment, so we had to run most of our own tests.

This looked like it would be pretty much a case of accidental drowning. We still went through all the motions until we had answers to most of our questions and our doubts.

I ran the test on his underwear and other clothing. Bobbie checked for fingerprints on the bottles and glass that were at the scene, and also the water sample from the tub. She was able to get about four distinct fingerprints off the tub. We'd have to try and match them up with someone.

There definitely were cum stains on his underwear. There was also a woman's secretions which must have transferred from his privates on to his Jockey shorts. We knew now that he had sexual relations shortly before his death. We also found strands of brunette hair on his clothing. I remembered his wife was in her sixties and wore a blond wig. More than likely she had grey hair under it. We probably would have to ask her about it.

Bobbie said that Mrs. Smith had brunette hair. It looked like we might have to re-interview her again. Bobbie also found traces of a medication in his beer glass. We would have to match it against his stomach contents when we got the report from the autopsy. The beer bottles had his fingerprints and another set of prints on them. There were others but we figured they were so smudged that it was just the handling of the bottles through the stores stages of selling. The two sets of prints stood out. We knew the one set belonged to the victim. We needed to see if the other set belonged to Mrs. Moore.

Bobbie was shaking her head and making an odd face.

"What is it, Bobbie? Did you find something?"

"I sure did. Remember I was swishing my hand around in the spa? Well, it seems that the water sample has urine in it. Mr. Moore must have urinated in it, and I was swishing my hand around in the water. It was just a gross thought," she said.

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The next day we went to see the doc about the autopsy. He was nearly finished with it. He did have a lot of information for us. Mr. Moore died from water getting into his lungs. Basically he did drown. The doc said that he had a sleeping medication in his system. It wasn't necessarily an overdose but was more than the one tablet which most doctors would have prescribed, could have been anywhere from two to five of them. Of course they were crushed and some of it was dissolved.

I pulled out my list of medications that I wrote down from the Moore's bathroom cabinet and one of them matched the medication found in his system. It was his own medication, only he had taken more than one. The Doc said it would have been enough to put him to sleep. The only problem was that he had the water in his lungs. He had to struggle to try and get up before swallowing so much water. The doc said as pure speculation he was either held down with his head underwater or he was so disoriented that he just swallowed too much water before being able to recover.

We told the doc about the urine in the water. He kind of laughed and said either he was too lazy to get out or he pissed while struggling to get out.

The doc said as far as having sex, he could have. Any traces of semen were long gone due to the hot tub, but he didn't have any reserve built up in his system. So if he shot his load it was long gone. The scratches on his back were definitely made by fingernails. The doc was pretty sure of that.

The information didn't tell us much more than we already figured out. We would have to talk with the wife again and also Mrs. Smith. I suggested to Bobbie that she talk with Mrs. Smith and I would talk with the wife again.

I called ahead and let Mrs. Moore know I was coming. After all, we just needed more information right now. When I got there she acted very nice. She began telling me about their life together and how they celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary. She poured me a cup of coffee and continued telling me about her four children who were all in their thirties by now.

She had eight grandchildren with six of them visiting her regularly. She seemed to be a strong willed woman and would probably be alright. After listening to her for about a half hour, I told her I had some questions I needed to ask her. Some would be personal but I would do my best to keep my questions at a minimum. After she said she understood, I started asking her some questions.

"Mrs. Moore, did you give or do you know if your husband took any medication before you went shopping?"

"Why, yes, he asked me for one of his little green pills. He said they relaxed him."

"Are you sure you only gave him one? They found the contents of more than one in his system," I said.

"No, I crushed up one for him in his glass and I poured beer into it just like he asked me to do. You don't think he went and got more and took them, do you?" she asked. "He was always so forgetful."

"Did he get in the hot tub before you left to go shopping, Mrs. Moore?"

"No, he was just walking around the house. I poured his beer and set it on the counter before I left. I kissed him goodbye and told him I'd see him later." She was beginning to cry.

I reached over and handed her a couple of tissues. "Mrs. Moore, have you and Mr. Moore had sexual relations recently? I'm sorry I have to ask but he did have semen stains on his underwear." I didn't think it was necessary to tell her about vaginal fluid on them also.

"My God, that's awfully personal."

"Mrs. Moore, as I said, it is important. I just need to know approximately the last time you and your husband made love."

"Oh, alright, it's been about three years ago. I had nerve problems and could never feel it, so we just stopped doing it. I take a nerve pill and I guess it just makes me numb. Between that and the arthritis pill, I'm lucky to have any feeling at all. He still masturbated and that's probably the stains you found. Now, I've answered your questions so will you please leave?"

"I'm sorry for your loss, Mrs. Moore. I'll call again if there are any more questions. You have been most helpful at such a trying time for you." With all that said, I started to leave the premises.

"Oh, Detective, I forgot to mention that just before I left to go shopping, Carly Smith, our neighbor, called. She said Wayne forgot the movie he went after. She said she would drop it off later after her kids got out of school. Wayne was in the bathroom at the time. That's probably when he took his prescription pills, forgetting I had already got him one."

"Mrs. Moore, did Carly Smith ever drop off that movie?"

"I don't think so. I haven't seen it lying around," she said.

"Thanks again for all your help. I'm sorry we had to bother you but we want to make sure about his death."

She gave me kind of an odd look as I left and went back to my office to fill out my reports. I knew that Bobbie was talking to Mrs. Smith. It would be interesting to see what she had to say.

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Bobbie came back to the office. She was shaking her head. "Boy, do I have a story for you," she said. Then she proceeded to tell me about her talk with Mrs. Smith.

"To begin with, I knocked on Mrs. Smith's door. She came to it and when she saw me she put her hands over her mouth and started crying.

" 'I didn't mean for it to happen; it just did.'

" 'What just happened, Mrs. Smith? Do you know something about the death of Mr. Moore?' I asked.

" 'My God, no, you said it was a drowning. I've never even seen his spa yet. I thought you came back to ask me what happened. I figured you had found out that I had sex with Wayne.'

" 'Yes, we did. We knew that Wayne had sex before getting in the spa. We figured you might be able to shed some light on the subject. May I come in and you can explain exactly what happened.'

" 'Please come in. The kids are at school and Bob is at work. Bob won't find out about this, will he? I love him and don't want to lose my marriage. It just happened; I don't know why I did it. I haven't been with another man since Bob and I got married over fourteen years ago. Please tell me that you won't be telling Bob. It will never happen again, I promise.' She had tears in her eyes.

" 'Look, Mrs. Smith. I can't promise you anything. I'm here to try and shed some light on Mr. Moore's day before he died. You are part of that day. I will just turn in my report and it will get filed. Unless there was foul play, this report will just get filed away. Let's start at the beginning. How did you get to know Mr. Moore so well?'

"'We moved here last year. The neighbors are great. Wayne started coming over a few times a week to help my husband fix different things. You know, like plumbing or electrical things. He would always compliment me, saying how pretty I was and things like that. If he came over in the evening, he would always tell me how cute I looked in my pajamas. He always made me laugh. I was always flattered by the way he talked to me. He never said anything dirty or nasty, just nice compliments.'

" 'Bob on the other hand always said stuff like I couldn't cook or was a bad housekeeper. I guess he talked like most men do about their wives. Wayne would always reply with positive things. I remember one day he was joking with Bob and told him that I must do something right; after all we had four kids. It was a little embarrassing but the way he said it, it was still funny.'

" 'Wayne and Bob both collected movies and would swap movies or shows a lot, so I saw quite a bit of Wayne. He would always say he hoped he would catch me in my pajamas or bathing suit. He made me feel special. It means a lot to a woman to get attention like that. Bob would always joke about Wayne looking at me and how he would probably want in my pants and things like that. Bob was a pretty jealous man but I guess he figured Wayne was just an old guy and wasn't worried about him.'

" 'So, we were all pretty good friends. Edna, Wayne's wife, is really nice but she hardly ever came over. Usually it was just Wayne and Bob and of course me and the kids.'

" 'Carly, let's get to this particular day. What happened the day of Wayne's death?'

" 'I'm sorry; I was just trying to give you a little background. I'm so nervous; you see Bob's sister is my best friend. You know how women confide in each other. Lisa, Bob's sister, was the one I told my secrets to. I told her how Wayne always talked nice to me and Bob didn't seem to care. She told me to be careful, even old men liked sex. Of course I laughed it off and so did she. Now I need to tell someone this secret about having sex with Wayne and I can't tell Lisa."

"Carly, tell me. That's why I'm here."

"I have to tell you, Jim, that Carly was so nervous. You would have thought she wanted to talk to a priest or something. She really wanted to get this off her chest. I was feeling kind of sorry for her. She wasn't the only woman to have a quickie affair. Well, she finally got around to her story about having sex with Wayne."