C.S.I. CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION
"When Seconds Matter"
TEASER
FADE IN:
EXT. LAS VEGAS STRIP (STOCK) - NIGHT
Everyone is laughing. People are gambling and having a good time.
EXT. LAS VEGAS RESIDENTIAL - NIGHT
Nice homes. White-collar families. The streets slowly turn to ghetto on the shadier side of Las Vegas.
Here gangs rule the night, and the day. Police are arresting a handful of tough acting teenagers. In a house across the street, an older Latino woman is watching the news. A story comes on about a missing Las Vegas police officer.
A few blocks away is a high fence with a gate. City Property. Keep out. The fence is unkempt and has holes in it. There are a few patches, hasty, half-hearted repairs.
An access road leaves the ghetto and stretches into a light industrial area. It slopes down as the embankment around it rises. The road ends at a utility door set in concrete. It would resemble a bomb shelter, except it's covered with graffiti.
A newspaper page floats past, the main story: Fourth Day of Search for Missing Officer.
Four teens, including seventeen-year-old Mateo Sacilido, are adding to it. The Latino looks young for his age, and still innocent. Mateo is the only one not drinking beer, but they are all laughing at off color jokes as they spray paint.
Passing through the utility door...
INT. UTILITY TUNNELS - NIGHT
The tunnels go deep below the city. These tunnels are the real heart of Las Vegas. Without all these pipes and cables the modern-day Meadows would dry up and be consumed by the desert. Somewhere water drips. There's a steady hiss of steam from release valves.
A fat, happy sewer rat trots along the wall in search of its next meal. It stops, sniffing the air. Something delicious is in the air. It continues at a trot for a few more paces, then stops to rise up on its haunches and sniff again.
The rat drops to a gallop, chasing the scent. It slows as it comes to a dark liquid the color of chokeberries. The rat sniffs it before it starts lapping the liquid.
It's oblivious to the body that the liquid has run from. One arm of the body is been handcuffed to a pipe and is preventing the body from lying flat. The other arm is bent in an unnatural position.
The corpse twitches. The rodent freezes for a moment, listening for danger. There's no other sound. It starts to drink again. A soft moan escapes the body and the rat holds still.
The hand cuffed to the pipe twitches. The rat rises on it's haunches, sniffing. It slowly approaches the body. It sniffs at the hair coated with wet blood. It sniffs towards lips that allow ragged, labored breaths to escape.
Slowly the rat rises up on it's haunches, staring at NICK Stokes' bloody, swollen face. His eyes open. Rodent and man stare at each other.
The rat bolts.
CUT TO:
Opening credits.
FADE OUT.
END OF TEASER