The Flash: Repentance

Chapter IX

Barry is right. At the crack of dawn his phone rings.

He groans as he goes to fish it out of his jeans.

 
"Hey Joe."


"Hey Bar. Sorry for the early call, but I need you out here. A pretty cut and dry one, an accident with a live electrical wire. I'll give you the details when you arrive." Joe informs him

Barry ends the call and turns to Wenn, who's looking at him.


 "What?"


"Nothing, just admiring the view." She grins.


He crawls over and peppers her face with kisses.
She giggles and pushes him away. Barry flops on to his back dramatically and sighs,


"I hate to cut this party short, but that was Joe, duty calls..."



 Wenn jumps up, clearly her ribs aren't bothering her as much anymore.

"A crime scene? I'll come with you! I still have a lot to learn about handling crime scenes."

 
Barry smiles at her enthusiasm, "Alright, I'll go over to Joe's for a quick shower and clean clothes, then to CCPD to pick up my forensics kit and I'll meet you at the crime scene."

Barry flashes himself ready and before he runs out the door, Wenn feels him place a quick kiss on her lips.

"Barry wait! The..." But he's already gone, "...address." Wenn finishes.

She grabs her phone from her night stand to send him a text. But she finds he already sent her one, with the address. Smiling she texts him her reply.


She gets out of bed and gathers her clothes, which are scattered all over the floor after last nights 'activities'.

Barry may look like an innocent puppy, but he sure knows his way around the bedroom.

Her cheeks flush when she thinks about it.


After getting herself ready, she heads over to the crime scene.

Barry is already there.

Wenn walks over to him, "So what have we got."

"I don't know. I just got here myself." Barry answers.

Joe walks up to them.

"So, the guys from the power company were conducting repairs on the electricity wires over there. They swear they cut the power before they started, but apparently one of the wires on the ground was still live. Judging by what is still left of the clothes, it is a female. The guy who was responsible for cutting the power is pretty shaken up." 


 Joe turns to Wenn, "Maybe you can talk to him," he gets a bit closer "you know, work your 'magic' to calm him a bit so we can get a decent statement out of him."

Wenn nods, "I'll give it a shot."


She walks over to the electrician, who is visibly very shaken.

"Hello sir, my name is Wendy Anderson, I work with the CCPD crime lab. I know this must have been a horrible experience, but do you mind if I ask you some questions?"


The electrician shakes her hand "Keith, Keith Hannah. Miss, I swear, I turned it off. I..."


Wenn grabs the hand she just shook in both of hers. She feels a small but very clear stream of negative energy emanating off the man. She re-aligns the stream with a small positive charge and she sees the man relax a bit.

"It's okay," She reassures him. "Why don't we start with when you started work."

Keith nods, "We did the main preparation yesterday. I cut the power and we took down the two main wires. This morning we came here and I checked if the power was still off the wires. Just to be sure. And it was! I swear it was!"

Wenn squeezes his hand.
"I believe you sir. Then what happened?"

Keith continues, "I was up in the pole examining the damage and estimating the materials and tools we would need, when I looked down and saw this pretty girl walk by. I waved at her and she smiled up. I'm no creep, I just wanted to be nice."

Keith rubs his brow nervously with his free hand. Wenn can't blame the poor guy, he saw this girl get electrocuted and thinks it is his fault.

He swallows, "Suddenly there was a flash of blue light and a loud bang. I almost fell out of the pole. When I looked down, she, she, the girl was on the ground, burned and smoking and that wire was crackling with electricity."
Wenn ponders, a flash of blue light and a bang? Lightning striking maybe?

 "Did you notice anything in your surroundings?"

Keith shakes his head. "All I could see is that poor girl..." He swallows thickly.

"Okay sir, thank you." Wenn gives him a last reassuring squeeze.

She walks towards Barry who is examining the body and it's environment.
He is staring in to nothing.
Wenn puts a hand on his shoulder.

"You okay?"

Barry snaps out of his trance and gets up. 

"Yeah."

He walks back to the wire, crouches down and examines the ground.

"It doesn't make any sense."

"What doesn't?" Wenn asks.

He grabs her hand, "Look..." and he points at the wire.
"This is the wire that was 'live'. Yet the girl is about 2 meters away from it."

"Well, it has been raining all week, the ground is not just wet but completely soaked. I guess the wet ground carried the electricity over to her." Wenn theorizes.

"True. But if that were the case, how come the other electrician, who was also standing about 2 meters away from here, wasn't electrocuted? Plus, there would have been an arc flash trail on the ground, trailing from the wire to her. There isn't."

 Barry sighs, "We'll have to carefully go over every piece of evidence we collected. The poor girls parents and the electrician need answers."

He packs up his kit and gives the coroner the okay to take the body to the morgue.

"You'll get my report as soon as possible, Barry."

Barry shakes his hand, "Thanks Fred, it's a mysterious one."

Fred loads up and heads to the morgue.

Joe walks up to them, "So? We done?"

"We are here. Now we've got to figure this thing out." Barry answers him.

Joe looks at him, surprised. He was sure this was a shoe in.

"What do you mean?"

"Some things don't add up, Joe." Barry rubs the back of his neck,

"We're going to have to examine the evidence with a fine tooth comb."