"Hey. What do we have?" Sara asked as she grabbed her kit, and walked towards Captain Brass from the Tahoe.
"419," Brass replied, indicating the way through the front door of the townhouse, "Rebecca Warbuck, aged 33."
Sara stepped into the hallway to be greeted by the lifeless body hanging from the stairwell in front of her.
"Husband found her when he got home from work." Brass informed her.
"Tough one" Sara commented as she looked up at the rope around the brunette's neck, suspending her in place.
Warrick and I enter the crime scene with David. Sara's shining her flashlight up to where the rope is fixed. My eyes fall over her for a moment or two.
We'd gone out for a couple of beers last week after a case, though I really don't think she understood what I was trying to say. Granted, she'd literally just broken up with Hank, and I didn't actually say anything outright to her… God, I don't know what I was thinking asking her out the second she breaks up with some guy! It just kind of happened. I don't know, I guess, when she started dating Hank I just felt a little… jealous.
It took me a while before I figured out what that meant. In fact, I almost choked on my coffee when the clue smacked me in the face while I was eating breakfast with her after shift a few weeks ago. Luckily she was too into telling me about this new article from the Forensics Journal to notice. Since then I've been kind of obsessing over it: When did this happen? Why did this happen? The more I think about it, the more I realise I've felt this way for quite some time and now every time I see her I think about how her lips would feel…
"Catherine?" Warrick snaps me out of my thoughts.
"Yeah?" I reply quickly, in a slightly higher pitched voice than usual.
"What do you think? Straightforward suicide? She could have tied the rope up there and just jumped over the railing."
"Could be," I acknowledge.
"I don't know you guys," Sara chimes in while looking up at the rope again, "The mezzanine up there looks a little close to the back wall for her to have come straight down here without catching herself there."
"No obvious sign of any other injury to the body," David said.
"Unless she dropped herself from the mezzanine?" Sara offers.
"Okay, Warrick, can you help David with the body? Sara you get the first floor," I tell them.
"You got it." Sara confirms and turns to go up the stairs. I can't help but take a quick glance at that ass as she turns around.
"Where's the husband, Jim?" I ask as I turn to Brass, trying to concentrate on the case again.
"He's right over here." He informs me and takes me to the victim's husband in the living room adjacent to the hallway.
"Mr. Warbuck?" The dejected man looks up at us from where he's sitting on the arm of the couch. "My name is Captain Brass, this is Catherine Willows from the Crime Lab. We'd like to ask you a few questions."
He nods his head but his eyes never leave the floor.
"What time did you get home?" I ask him.
"Around 9:30," he starts, his voice shaky and unsure, "I was working late at the site, finishing up some paperwork. I-I'm the site manager and the estate is getting ready to be signed off. I-I don't get time to organise it during the day."
His grey eyes search for forgiveness. "I should've just left it 'til tomorrow. If I'd have gotten home sooner…" He insists.
"There's no guarantee you could have prevented this." I advise him, honestly.
"What happened when you arrived home?" Brass asks, trying to get the increasingly desperate guy to focus again.
"I walked in the door and just saw her hanging there," he answers, getting panicky again. "I ran over and tried to help her but realised it was too late, so I called 911." He dropped his head into his hands dejectedly.
"So you touched the body?" Brass confirms.
He looks up at Brass with disbelief and says "What would you do if it was your wife?"
"You haven't met my ex-wife" Brass replies, dryly.
"Mr. Warbuck," I ask, softly, "Did your wife suffer from depression or do you know of any reason she might have…"
"No. Nothing like that!" He cuts in. "We were fine. Everything was fine." He assures me, looking to the floor again.
"Ok. Do you have any problems giving us your fingerprints and a sample of your DNA?" I ask. He looks at me questioningly. "To eliminate you as a suspect."
"A suspect?" He asks, horrifyingly, "I thought this was a suicide?"
"It's just procedure." Brass tells him. "We'll need to take your statement down at the station anyhow."
I look around and see the EMTs standing by the window across from the couch. "Hi guys," I say lightly, then realise I'm talking with Hank, the same Hank who lied to my Sara not one week ago.
"Catherine," He greets, "I am really sorry about…"
"Did you guys touch the body?" I cut in.
"Just felt for the pulse, that's all," The other EMT says as Hank looks down, defeated. "We haven't moved the body"
"Ok guys, thanks" I say, but not without shooting Hank a censorious look as I move back to the body David and Warrick are about to cut down.
"What have we got, David?"
"Hi Catherine, liver temp puts TOD at around 7:30pm but the body's not in rigor."
"She's been moved?" I realise.
"No defensive wounds that I can see yet," David continues, "I can tell you more later."
"Ok," I sigh, "Cut her down guys. Warrick…"
"I got the perimeter." He nods.
"Thanks, I'll check the mezzanine."
After dusting the entire length of the mezzanine railings, I still have nothing. "Sara," I yell, "Do you have anything?"
"I got a couple of prints on the railing here," she shouts down to me as she puts the powder back into her kit. "The rope here is tied around the other side and I can't reach it from here. Give me a second." She disappears only to join me on the mezzanine. I can see her sizing up the railing and begin to climb up onto it.
"Be careful." I warn as she starts untying the rope.
"I'll be ok." She assures me and focuses on the rope again. My eyes are drawn to her again. This time I can't tear my gaze away from her hips. I've never noticed just how sexy they are…
"Whoa!" Sara yells. I can see her losing her balance on the railing.
"Oh God!" I exclaim and just as she's falling I manage to pull her back onto the mezzanine and we both tumble to the floor.
"Ouch!" Sara cries out, cradling her obviously injured arm on the floor beside me.
"Way to go, Catherine." I chastise myself. "Idiot!"
"Sara? Are you ok?" I ask, hopefully.
"I'm ok," she assures me, "though my arm has felt better."
"Can I take a look?" I ask and reach out to her arm, to which she recoils and tries to convince me it's nothing and she'll be fine, but as she tries to stand up, she winces from moving her arm again. "Right, yeah, you're perfect." I say, my voice dripping with sarcasm - or at least I meant for it to be… She shoots me a look of 'say anything and die.'
"Ok, joking… not the way to go" I decide. "We should probably get you checked out at the hospital or something. I wonder if those EMTs are still around downstairs" I suggest, and look over the balcony.
"I'd rather have my arm chopped off than go there with him." Sara says bitterly.
I think I'm actually the dumbest person alive right now… "Oh God, I'm sorry, yeah." I hesitate. "Well, Warrick will be okay here. I can drive you."
"Catherine, I'm fine." She demands, with her lips pressed into the most adorable pout…
I shake my head. "No Sara, stop being so childish. I'll drive you to the hospital," I almost order her while I'm helping her up. "And I thought Lindsay could be a handful…" I smile at her.
She looks at me, defeated. Yeah, I've definitely won this round.