Summary: Nick reminisces during Young Man with a Horn.
"Except for this one, on the west side." Nick pointed to the top of the map.
"Where Layla's body was found." Catherine leaned in to get a better look. "Le Chateau Rouge."
Nick straightened up. "I'll go check it out."
"Take Greg with you."
Nick nodded as he left the room to find the other CSI.
"Not taking the freeway?" Greg asked, as Nick passed the turnoff. Nick shook his head, ignoring the younger CSI's puzzled expression as memory washed over him.
Greg was silent for a moment, then turned his attention to his phone's web display. As he surfed, he occasionally read aloud his findings about the casino and its history, not noticing - or not minding - that Nick's thoughts were elsewhere.
"Nick, Warrick," Grissom handed the assignment slip to Warrick, who glanced at the address before returning his attention to their boss. "Officers responded to a 417, found a 420 instead. Guy tried to break up a fight between his ex-wife and her new boyfriend, and ended up dead." Grissom shook his head tiredly.
Warrick nodded. "We're on it. Pretty deep in the hood, but it doesn't sound gang-related." He glanced at Nick. "I'm driving."
Nick gave a small shake of his head and a good-natured smile of defeat as he followed his friend from the building.
"Not taking the freeway?" Nick asked, as Warrick passed the turnoff.
"No way, man," Warrick scoffed. "Faster to just stick to the surface streets."
Nick shrugged. He wasn't as familiar with this neighbourhood as Warrick was, but he trusted his friend's judgement. Nick slanted a sideways glance at Warrick, more worried about the other man's troubles at home than his ability to navigate the streets of Las Vegas.
"So, you think the ex-wife did it?" Warrick broke the silence before Nick could get too uncomfortable with his thoughts.
"Nah, my money's on the boyfriend." Nick wondered how much Warrick's problems with Tina were influencing his judgement.
"Oh, your money, eh?" There was a familiar edge of challenge in Warrick's voice.
Nick grinned over at his friend. "Yeah, my money. The usual?"
"Of course. Nothing less than a hundred." Warrick grinned back at him.
"Stokes, Brown." Detective Sam Vega nodded in greeting as he approached the two investigators. He flipped open his notepad as they ducked under the yellow tape. "House belongs to a Jasper Alvarez." He pointed to a rather agitated young man. "His girlfriend, Christina Lopez moved in a couple of weeks ago." Another hand wave, this time in the direction of a young woman with teased out brown hair and what Nick thought was far too much eyeliner.
"Neighbour called it in, right?" Warrick glanced at the assignment slip he had been given.
"Right. Mrs. Jamison." Vega gestured to an older woman standing just outside the tape, then glanced back down at his notepad. "Says she heard yelling, and called 911. She's seen his girlfriends come out bruised before." Although the detective tried to keep a professional demeanour, Nick could hear the restrained tension in his voice. "A few minutes later, she says she saw another man enter the house, then she heard a gunshot. Responding officers arrived six minutes after the call, found the vic, Oliver Lopez, already dead and the other two still arguing. The gun was on the floor in the middle of the room, hasn't been moved. Officers split them up; we're just waiting on you guys to process them before we take them in."
"I'll take the woman." Nick spoke as soon as Vega had finished. Warrick gave him a hard look, but he returned it with a steady gaze and even expression.
After a moment, Warrick relented with a small shrug. "Guess I'll get Alvarez."
"Hey guys." David Philips trotted onto the scene. "Sorry I'm late, traffic on the freeway is a mess."
Nick glanced over at Warrick and caught the other man's smirk, before returning his attention to David.
"Single gunshot to the chest. Looks like fairly long range." David motioned Warrick to help him turn the body, nodding to himself as he examined the dead man's back. "Entered through the chest, exited through the back. Bullet's right here." The assistant coroner extracted the bullet from the back of the shirt and handed it to Nick, who bagged and labelled it. "Ready for me to take him?"
Nick and Warrick glanced at each other for confirmation, then both nodded. "Go for it Super-Dave." Nick patted the man on the back, then turned back to the side of the room he had been processing before the coroner's arrival.
"They both have GSR on their hands. Higher concentration on the ex-wife. Looks like I'm ahead." Warrick grinned at Nick over the layout room table.
"I don't know about that. They were both in close proximity to the shot, so GSR doesn't mean much anyway." Nick frowned at the photo he was holding. "What about this burn on her hand?"
"Let me see that." Warrick reached out across the table. "You're pretty fixed on the boyfriend. Double or nothing?"
Laughing, Nick handed over the photo. "You're on." He flipped through the autopsy report, refreshing his memory on Robbins's findings. "Doc says the shot was fired from at least ten feet away."
Warrick glanced over to the overall shots spread out on one end of the table. "Signs of a struggle though."
"She could've gotten that burn," Nick gestured at the photo Warrick still held, "fighting her boyfriend for the gun."
"Or she could just be an amateur shooter, and the boyfriend tried to stop her. You know how women are."
Nick looked up sharply at Warrick's bitter tone. "Man, you need to let that go. They're not all like that."
"Giving me my own advice?" A ghost of a smile turned Warrick's lips upwards.
"When you need it, yeah." Nick didn't back down, his eyes locked on Warrick's. Neither of them looked up when the door opened and someone else entered the room.
"Guys, I got-" Mandy broke off as she noticed the tension in the room. "Is this a bad time?" The fingerprint expert looked worriedly between the two men, having heard rumours of a fight between them a few weeks earlier.
"No, we're fine." Nick looked away from Warrick, giving Mandy a reassuring smile. "What've you got?"
"Print from one of the casings still in the gun. Came back a match to Jasper Alvarez, the boyfriend." Mandy handed her report to Nick. "Also matches prints found in an unsolved robbery a few months ago, where the gun was stolen."
"Yeah, I did it. Bastard wouldn't let her alone." Alvarez glared angrily at Sam Vega. Confronted with the fingerprint evidence, he was now trying to justify his actions. "All that, and she still tries to stop me! I was just looking out for her."
"Sounds like she was looking out for you," Vega corrected. "Trying to save you from a jail sentence."
In the observation room, Warrick looked over at Nick. "Guess you were right after all."
"He didn't have as much GSR on his hands because her hand was over his, trying to stop him."
Warrick nodded, and pulled out his wallet. "How much were we up to?"
Nick chuckled. "Eight hundred."
"Man! You took advantage of my bias." Warrick shook his head, but he was laughing also, as he looked in his billfold. "I don't have that much on me. I'll get you later."
"No worries man, we're good."
"Nah, I always pay my debts." Warrick clapped a hand on Nick's shoulder briefly. "I owe you. More than just this, y'know."
Nick met Warrick's eyes, not challenging this time, but understanding. "It's what friends are for."
"Man, last time I was this deep in the hood, I was on a case with Warrick."
Nick felt Greg's sharp look as he spoke, sensed the younger CSI's uncertainty. It was the first time he'd said Warrick's name since the day his friend had died. It was the first time he had been able to think of his friend without the feelings of anger or sadness, but he knew that Warrick wouldn't mind; that he would be happy that Nick was able to remember the good times as well. He even had a brief vision of Warrick running a pool in the afterlife, betting on how long it would take Nick to get to this point.
Greg had taken Warrick's death hard, Nick knew. Glancing over at the sandy-haired CSI with a small sympathetic smile, he moved around the vehicle to approach the chain-link fence surrounding the old casino.