Chapter 2: "We Find the Defendant…"
Horatio came in early that morning, as he does most mornings. As he was headed for coffee in the break room, something caught his eye…or someone, rather. It was Gina in the DNA lab. She couldn't possibly have stayed here all night, could she have…he thought to himself? But as he looked closer, her tired eyes and pale color gave her away, as she pulled a sheet of paper from the DNA results printer.
She had to look at it twice. She then blinked a few times…did it say what she thought it said? Her eyes widened. Then as if she knew she weren't alone, she turned to see Horatio just entering the room, and she smiled perhaps the largest, cheekiest grin she had ever smiled.
She then handed him the paper, "We got him, Horatio!"
He glanced at the results…one in a billion match, "No Gina…YOU got him." And he touched her chin, as a tear of happiness began to roll down her cheek. "This was your win. But now I need you to do something else for me…I NEED you to go home and get some rest…OK?"
"OK," she sniffed as she nodded. She knew the case would still be there when she returned, and she was indeed weary from the night's sleep she had just lost. But it was well worth it.
Testifying against him was a little unnerving. But she kept Horatio's advice in the back of her mind, "Don't look at him, and you'll be fine." It wasn't the first case she'd testified on as a CSI. She had done it on several cases in NY, but none of them affected her like this case. But it was over now, and this monster was going to prison, as she heard the jury give their final verdict…"We find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree".
She gave a sigh of relief driving away from the courthouse when the call came in on the police radio. It was a homicide, but she didn't quite hear the address. The street sounded familiar though. She got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach when she realized just why the street name sounded familiar.
When she pulled up, she thought she would throw up. There were police cars, including two CSI Hummer vehicles parked in front of her sister's house. She sprinted up the walkway as she began whispering "no, no" louder and louder until she was screaming it, then sobbing it. Horatio stepped out of the house just in time to catch her around the waist just before she ran inside. Her momentum took them both to the ground, coupled with her knees giving out…as she sobbed at the realization that the homicide on the radio was her dear sister, Claire.