Disclaimer- Me again! Lol, it's been a while. Just to verify, I don't own any part of CSI.
Chapter 1 – A festive callout
"What's going on? I, I don't understand. Why are you doing this?"
"Oh, that's simple. You deserve it."
"Wait, please, please!"…
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Grissom pulled his field kit from his car and sighed. Even he found it hard to accept that crimes were committed at this time of year, during the festive season. He pulled up the yellow crime tape and stepped underneath it. The responsibility of this crime scene was now on his shoulders, and it seemed to get heavier every time and harder with every case. He had noticed it a lot with recent cases but hadn't voiced his concern as he knew Sara would worry and that wasn't what he wanted. So, as normal he took on the burden and remained silent, rubbing his temples.
"I need a holiday." Images of walking hand in hand with Sara around a snowy Paris drifted happily into his head, but he had to forget them at least until after the case was solved. He looked up at the house he had finally reached, realising how deliberately slow he had been walking.
"Hey Jim." He called as he met Brass on the driveway leading up the steps to the front door.
"Hey Gil. You're gonna like this." He led Grissom into the living room. Grissom looked up and then around at the room in silent awe.
A big fir tree decorated heavily with lights and ornaments and which would have once sat proudly in the corner was now lying in a glass and tinsel frenzy, encompassing everything in its way. The ornate fireplace was covered in more lights with stockings pinned to the front. The rest of the room was decorated in a similar fashion, lights and tinsel wrapping themselves around every surface like boa constrictors.
"What do you think?" Brass asked holding back a snigger.
"That I feel like I'm standing in Santa's grotto." He looked around and frowned.
"You told me this was an unknown death. Where's the body?"
"Wanna take a wild guess?" Brass asked before tapping his foot next to an arm protruding out of the tree foliage.
"Killed by his own creation. Tragic." Grissom commented, suppressing a small smile.
"Jim, has anyone been in here?"
"Only the first officer. Why?"
"Because there are marks in the carpet that look like a struggle took place." He crouched down and picked up a sample of dirt from the carpet.
"And this?"
"That's not ours. My guy walked around the edge, he even had those bags on his shoes."
David arrived and glanced around the room in confusion. Grissom pointed at the tree and David replied with a bewildered stare. He knelt reluctantly by the arm and began to tug at the tree. Brass turned to Grissom, an eyebrow raised.
"Jim, you'd better help him out. We don't want two victims."
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Grissom joined David by the body once the tree had been removed safely from the room.
"What have we got David?"
"Caucasian male. Early 40s. Contusions to his face and a slight discolouration around the neck. There are no defensive wounds." He turned the body onto its side. "Blow to the back of the head, C.O.D could be blunt force trauma, but most likely strangulation, but I can't be certain. From liver temp I'd say he's been dead a maximum of 2 hours."
Grissom stood up frowning and studied the room around him again. He shook his head slowly and knelt beside the body again.
"Come on Gil, what's up? You've got the "something's not right" look on your face." Brass smiled.
"It's a relatively undisturbed room; there are marks on the carpet to suggest a struggle, a victim that has bruises on his face to suggest being beaten. Add to that the blow on his head, and no defensive wounds and the victim ending up squashed under a Christmas tree. Then yeah something's definitely not right. And these marks" Grissom pointed to the victims neck "these suggest he was strangled before his encounter with the tree. But these don't look like anything I've ever seen." He pulled out a swab and wiped it gently over the gold residue on the victim's neck.
"These marks are only on the front of his neck. He can't have been strangled just by a persons hands" he put his hands together to illustrate strangling "he would have thumb indentations where the windpipe is.
"Well maybe they used something? A rope?" Brass suggested.
"Possibly, but there would be ligature marks. These are very different. I can't see the murder weapon."
"Sorry to disappoint you Gil, but not all criminals are stupid. Some of them clean up after themselves."
Grissom replied with a sarcastic smile and looked across at the empty void where the tree would have been.
"Well I've found the cause of our blunt force trauma." Brass looked over and Grissom swung the torch beam over a shelf at head height, the corner of which was covered in blood. He photographed the shelf and began swabbing the blood.
"Er Gil? You wanna take a look at this."
Grissom walked over to Brass who was pointing to the cream carpet. At first Grissom couldn't see anything but after concentrating intently he bent down and picked up the tooth lying next to the sofa. He looked at the bindle thoughtfully.
"Who found him and his lumberjack routine?"
"A 911 call was logged at this address. A muffled voice, a shout, a lot of static and then a dead line."
"We need that recording Jim."
"Detective Brass?" David called out, still crouched by the body.
"Yeah?"
"I've found the victim's wallet." David walked across the room and handed it to Brass. He read it and gave a laugh of disbelief.
"Gil Grissom, say hello to Jack Frost."
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That's the first chapter, hope you're enjoying it! More to some soon! -x-
