The moment she walked into the lab, she knew something was wrong. She hadn't rushed in on account of how little she was able to accomplish. Without being able to touch any of the samples or other evidence, there was very little she could do other than compare charts.
"What's happened?" Her gaze flitted between her three mates, wondering which of them was going to break first and tell her what was happening. The fact Zack was in the lab said it all. He hardly ever came up there, especially as he had his own office in the morgue.
"The database got a match to foreign DNA Zack found on John Miller's body," Hadrian said.
She took a shaky breath. He didn't need to say anything else for her to know what the results were.
"I'm the match, aren't I?" Her voice cracked as she spoke and tears pricked at her eyes, even if she didn't want them to.
How was this happening?
She sank into her desk chair and took a deep breath. "I've never seen him up until yesterday."
"We know," Issac said softly, making his way over to her and placing a reassuring hand on her back.
"And Zack's confirmed the time of death. You were with one of us for most of it, and the small slither of time you weren't was too short for you to have gotten to Derby and back. Anyone with sense could see that you're not guilty."
"That isn't how the evidence looks," she pointed out. "And if we're not careful, the three of you are going to end up implicated as well."
"But we'd cover up your DNA, not reveal it," Zack pointed out.
"Except that's exactly what we've all been doing. Who outside this room knows about the first match?" She could see from their expressions that they'd all thought about that too. It was somewhat reassuring they hadn't completely lost it. "Exactly. The four of us, and the person who put it there. Those are the only people who know."
"It does look bad," Hadrian admitted.
"Of course it does. It implicates me in two murders and suggests the three of you are helping to cover it up. Add in the fact we're mates, and we're basically handing the prosecution all they need to get a guilty verdict and to end up with all four of us either in prison or searching for a new job and blacklisted by the High Council." Saying it out loud made it sound even worse than it already was. How were they supposed to deal with this?
"What do we do now?" Issac asked. He rubbed his hand gently up and down her back in a gesture of reassurance.
It wasn't quite enough to calm her, but it was a start.
"You have to report this. Today." She met Hadrian's gaze, trying to convey how serious this was with her eyes. "And you have to mention that this is the second time. We can explain that away with the fact I helped with Jenna's post mortem and we put it down to contamination. I was at the scene too, that offers another potential source of DNA." Her voice shook, but she managed to get it all out. It was important they managed to get the three of them cleared of any wrongdoing. They could worry about her later.
After a moment of tense silence, Hadrian nodded. "I'll call Richard and explain everything."
"You can't do that," Zack blurted. "We'll have to arrest Cassie..."
"I don't think Richard will do that," Hadrian responded. "He knows Cassie, and he knows the team. He'll probably see it the same way we do."
"It's a risk, but it's one we have to take," Cassie added. "It's either tell him now, or it comes out later and we have a bigger problem on our hands." She dreaded to think how bad it would get if they all started to think she was covering up the crimes she'd supposedly committed. The best thing for everyone was to be completely honest about what was going on.
"I'm sorry, Cassie, but I don't think you can work on anything related to the case," Hadrian said.
"Or any case," she added. "We can't have any of the others tainted by what's happening either."
A wave of nausea flooded through her at the thought of not being able to do anything useful. She wanted to help on the case and find the person behind this. She needed to understand why she was being set up like this. She hadn't come across either of the victims before and had no idea why they were chosen.
None of this made sense and now it was taking something she loved away from her.
"Do I have to leave the building?"
He shook his head. "I know you have private research you're doing. Can you work on that instead?"
Relief flooded through her. It might not be as helpful to the others as working on the case, but it would help in the long run.
"I won't touch any of the systems or databases either. If you want, you can lock me out of them?" she suggested.
Hadrian shook his head. "I don't think that'll be necessary. They all track who logged into them and when, we can use that to prove you haven't touched them."
She bit her lip. At least that was something. She hated the idea of being unable to use something she'd created. But this was what it had been designed for. She needed other people to have access to what she was able to do when she wasn't around. Issac could easily put information into the database, both as a new record and an old one.
"One of us should stay with you at all times," Issac suggested.
She swivelled around in her desk chair so she could look up at him. "Do you really think that's necessary?"
"It's the only way we can ensure you have an alibi. We've been lucky so far that you've been with us, we can't take any chances for when the next one rolls in," he said.
"You seem so certain there's going to be a next one." She tried not to let that fill her with horror, even if she knew it was likely. At the moment, she was their main suspect, and she knew she hadn't done it. Which meant the real culprit was out on the streets and ready to kill again. It would probably take them another week or so, but it would happen unless they figured something out.
"We just want to be safe," Issac reassured her. "We want to protect you."
"I know." She reached out and took his hand in hers, giving it a squeeze. "I'm sorry we're in this situation."
"It's not your fault," Zack said.
"We don't actually know that," she pointed out. "Presumably this person is framing me for a reason. Why would someone want to do that?" Revenge sprung to mind, but so did a whole manner of other reasons.
A thoughtful expression crossed Hadrian's face. She was tempted to prompt him into telling her what he was thinking, but realised it was probably better not to in this circumstance.
"Once we've finished looking into John Miller's life, we should start looking into Cassie's."
She sighed. "You're not going to find anything you don't already know."
"Unsurprising. But we might be able to find something if we're looking at it from the angle of who would want to hurt you like this. It's certainly worth a try."
"I'm nearly done with the body, I can probably start on that this afternoon," Zack suggested.
"Good. Let's get on with the day and hopefully, we'll be able to get Cassie's name cleared almost as soon as I've talked to Richard," Hadrian said.
She leaned back in her chair, not knowing whether to feel horrified about the latest turn of events, or reassured that her mates were doing everything they could to protect her and keep her safe.
She was going to settle for the latter. Anything else was going to be hard for her to process.