I lab I seemed to currently be frozen in the middle of the hallway was like any lab you would expect to be on TV or a movie. Usually when people are frozen or stuck in a single place, it's due to either amazement, shock, or most common fear. For me, it was a combination of the three. I was finally able to get my first job as a Crime Scene Investigator after college, sure it's been 4 years since I graduated BUT I'm finally here so thank you! After I graduated with a Bachelor's in Forensic sciences, I looked for a job in the crime lab. Apparently, Denver is Crime free because they don't need any CSI's! After I finally realized that I wouldn't be getting a job in Colorado, I started looking in other states. I finally found one in Las Vegas, Nevada or the graveyard shift. Supposedly their one of the best teams in the state, and Miraculously yours truly got the job, which explains why I seem to be frozen in the middle of the hall. You can do this Bridget, they didn't hire you for nothing!
More accurately, a guy by the name Grissom hired me. Just as I seemed to be able to shake my feet from the frozen trance they were in, I hear a man call at me. When I look up, I notice it's an older looking with graying hair. He's wearing a simple black shirt with a run of the mill suit jacket over it with a pair of jeans. This man starts walking towards me with a hint of a smile on his face, but I wasn't quite sure. The man finally got in front of me, I was able to notice the beard that he had going on and that his eyes seemed kind but indifferent at the same time.
"You must be the new CSI." The man asked, outstretching his hand towards me. I quickly accepted it before he pulled back.
"Yes, I am." For some reason, I couldn't seem to formulate more than a simple sentence in response.
"My name is Gil Grissom, and welcome to the Graveyard shift. If you will, please follow me to my office. We can talk there." Grissom started walking down the hall and I was within a few steps behind him.
"Thanks, sir… It's Bridget.." I managed to get out as we turned into an office, and the minute I looked at the walls and shelves I knew things would get interesting. There were different sorts of bugs every place you looked. They were in cases, jars, containers anything you could fit some sort of bug, it was there. I slightly turned my head to the left and directly in my eyesight was a tarantula of some sort in a container, moving. I bit down on my lip to keep from Screaming because I am absolutely terrified of spiders.
"It's my understanding Ms… Graves is it?" He raised a quick eyebrow like most people do when they hear my last name. "That this is your first job as a Crime Scene Tech." I lowered myself into one of the chairs that were in front of his desk and he took the one behind his desk.
"Yes, it is.."
"Let me give you a piece of advice I give to all the CSI's and I remind them of it constantly. In my life as a CSI, I've come to learn one thing. People lie, the evidence doesn't. Always follow where the evidence takes you, even if you don't like the path it's taking you on."
"Of course sir, I would never let it do anything different."
"Please call me Grissom. I have some paperwork to get on top of, so feel free to….." Grissom was interrupted by a knock on the door frame.
"Grissom, Just wanted to let you know I'm heading out to the 10-83 in the Casino bathroom." A deeper, younger male had told him. Grissom looked from me to over my head to look at the guy. I turn around to face the guy, my blonde/brown hair swishing and hitting me in the face slightly. The guy standing in the doorway is African American and roughly about six feet tall. His hair comes out into a shorter afro and his blue-green eyes stand out against his skin tone. He stuck his hands in the pocket of his jeans.
"Warrick, I'd like you to meet Bridget. She's the new CSI that will be joining us." I continue to look at Warrick as his eyes slightly assess me from head to toe.
"Are you sure we can trust her? I mean she looks kind of shady."
"Says the guy that's black and plus six feet," I muttered under my breath. I apparently didn't mutter it quietly because Warrick heard it but by the look on his face, He didn't look too upset. In fact, he was smiling with his eyes shining slightly.
"I like this girl Grissom, let's keep her around for a while she's can take what's given to her a dish it right back out."
"Good, take her with you on the 10-83."
"Nick's already there on the scene, though…."
"The rookie needs practice, plus do you want to make that end of the year bonus cut?" I looked back at Grissom quickly to see him look at this Warrick, almost as if he's challenging him in a way. I then directed my attention back to him as he had an amused look on his face.
"Alright then, come on Rook, dead bodies wait for no one. I have an extra kit in the Tahoe for ya…." I got up from the chair and began walking towards Warrick, but Grissom got my attention.
"Yeah?"
"G.K Chesterton once said "Science in the modern world has many uses; its chief use, however, is to provide long words to cover the errors of the rich" Go and cover those errors, and figure it out." With a final nod, Warrick and I walked out of Grissom's office. As we're walking down the hall side by side I open my mouth.
"What was with all the bugs in the office?"
"He has a bit of what we would call an obsession with them. Personally, I find it strange but to each their own I guess." There are no other words spoken for awhile as we head towards a the Tahoe he was referring to earlier. When we reach the vehicle, he is easily able to get into the vehicle but due to the fact the things REALLY high off the ground and I'm only about 5'4 it made for an interesting show. After I had to practically launch myself into the passenger seat, I closed the door and looked over at Warrick. I could tell from the look in his eyes that he was trying not to laugh.
"What? Never seen a short person get into the car before?"
"No, I have it's just," He chuckles slightly as he turns the ignition. "Hysterical when a woman such as yourself is determined to get into a car a few sizes larger than her."
"Is this how you treat all the new kids on the block?"
"Never heard of hazing Graves?" I narrowed my eyes as I hate it when people call me by my last name. For some reason, it just irritates the shit out of me.
"Ohhh Fraternity boy then huh?" I asked Warrick as he pulled the Tahoe out of the parking lot and started going down the road.
"Nahhh that was Nick, he was a Greek delta beta whatever ya call them. You'll meet him shortly he's a very… interesting character…" All I did was raise an eyebrow at him. Most men who I've met that were Frat boys in college well…. Grew up to be Frat Men. After that, I kept my mouth shut as he drove to the casino.
When we pulled up, the outside of the casino looked like any other on the Strip; except for the fact that squad cars surrounded the place and Crime Scene tape blocked off the front door. As both Warrick and I got out of the Tahoe, an officer called towards him.
"Hey Brown, Stokes said he'd be back in a minute, had to take care of something." Warrick nodded to the officer that was stationed on the right side of the front entrance. Before we headed towards the scene, Warrick reached into the back seat and grabbed a silver metal case and handed it to me.
"Your very own Kit; you'll grow to love it." He flashed a small smile as he shut the back door to the car and began striding towards the front door with me behind him. Both of us ducked under the Crime Scene Tape as we entered the building. As we began walking towards what I assumed to be the bathroom, there was a hint of copper in the air. Warrick spoke up before I could say anything.
"Smell that?" I nodded. "That's blood, and by the scent of it a lot of it." We reached the men's bathroom where different cops and technicians kept coming in and out. Before we actually entered, Warrick turned towards me.
"Your new here, and since this is what seems to be a particularly brutal scene, fingerprint both sides of the door handle for anything. The killer may have left a print. If your done with that, then move on to the inside of the bathroom." Warrick then entered the bathroom and left me at the entrance. I was mad for a second when he told me to stay away from the body then I realized he has a reason for doing so.
Sighing, I kneeled down on the ground and opened my kit, quickly finding my fingerprint powder and brush. I started on the knob on the inside of the bathroom and as I was working, I stole a peek down towards the body which wasn't much. All I was able to see was a body on the floor, laying in a pool of it's own deep crimson blood. By the right hand was some sort of gun, but other then that I couldn't see much because everyone was swarming around the body.
When I found nothing on the inside of the door, I picked up my kit and moved to the outside. Right when I had the brush hovering over the door knob, a rather distinct voice made it's way through the crowd.
"Any of Y'all seen Warrick?" The voice of someone from the south had cut through the crowd. I heard the responses of several officers go 'Yeah he went into the scene a few seconds ago, with fresh meat too.'
"He brought a rookie along? Should make for an interesting night." I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or what. Shaking my head, I turned my attention back on the doorknob where the brush had finally touched the knob. As I slowly let the brush glide over the knob and leave the fingerprint dust on it, I heard footsteps come up from behind me.
"You must be the fresh meat everyone's talking about." The same southern drawl from earlier had stated to what I assumed to be me.
"No, I just like checking the bathroom doors on the places I spend thousands of dollars on. Makes me feel secure." Southie had snickered slightly.
"Sense of humor, you'll love Graveshift just fineee. Name's Nick Stokes, and you are?" Oh my god, this is Nick, the Frat Man? Jesus, I think my karma just came back and bit me in the ass.
"Bridget Graves…" I offered as I paused with the brush. On the left side of the knob, was a partial thumb print on a otherwise clean knob. Bingo! I put the brush and powder down as I had grabbed the fingerprint tape. As I was doing this, I was well aware that Nick was standing a few feet behind me, watching me. After I collected the print, Nick had spoken up.
"A print, could be our killer's. Nice job Graves." Nick then stepped past me and proceeded to walk into the bathroom. When I glanced up, I noticed how tall he is. Is everyone here taller then me? I placed the print in the case, then put everything back in it and closed it on up. Since Warrick told me to go into the bathroom after I finished with the door, that's what I did. Once I got closer to the body, the smell of the blood hit me full on. The smell of blood was combined with the general smell of a dead body was really overwhelming. I powered through it as I began a walk of the perimeter, seeing if anything was out of place.
My eyes were slowly scanning the bright green walls of the bathroom and the side of the room where there was five sinks lined up in a row with granite countertops. I looked above the giant mirror that lined the wall and saw a window that was open. The window was about medium size, and just big enough for someone to fit through….
"Nick?" I called out, not taking my eyes off the window.
"Yeah?"
"Was this window open when you got here?" If I was looking at him, he would most likely have a puzzled look on his face.
"It was." Ok, now it's really going to bug me. I set my kit on the bathroom countertop. Bracing myself against the sink, I launched myself up on the counter. Once I was up on it, I got to the point where I was standing on the sink and just with my luck, I was now eye level with the window.
"Well look at the Rookie go…." I heard Warrick comment.
"What in god's name is she doing?" Nick responded back.
"I think she is in what we would call, the zone." I slowly tuned them out as I looked at the window and its frame for anything I could possibly find. On the windows closing mechanism in the middle of the frame, was a piece of fabric stuck in it. Barely able to contain my excitement, I bent down on the counter to my kit and grabbed my forceps and an evidence bag. I quickly but carefully grabbed the fabric and put it on the bag then hopped down off the sink counter. I glanced over at Warrick and he saw the look on my face.
"What did you find there?" I held up the evidence bag with the piece of fabric in it.
"Look's like someone got out through the window."
'Well I'll be damned, first night on the job and you'll already breaking the case open. Hey Nicky, check what the new girl found." Nicky? Seriously? I bent my head down slightly so Nick couldn't see me laughing at the nickname. I picked my head back up a moment later to see Nick making his way over here, and this is the first time I'm actually seeing his face and may I say, I DEFINETLY don't mind working with him. His brown hair was closely cut to his head where it was just the right amount of length to it. Nick's jaw was really pronounced, but that wasn't even the best part. His eyes, are just so freaking brown it's unbelievable. It didn't take me that long to get lost in his eyes, and now I just realized I'm properly creeping the crap out of him. I dragged my eyes away from his face, and then noticed the rest of him. With him as my co-worker, things should get very interesting.
I looked over at Warrick who was looking at Nick. Just as he was getting over to us, I help the evidence bag.
"What do we have here? Material from clothing, interesting. More and more keeps pointing to this being Homicide and not Suicide, but as Grissom always says Follow the evidence."
"Alright, what we have so far is the blood from the Vic, fingerprint's off the gun, a fingerprint from the bathroom door, and clothing material from the window. Things are getting a little crowded in here, so I don't see why three of us need to be at scene. Nick, did you already get witness statements from the person who discovered the body?"
"I got their statement. I also talked to the manager of the casino to see if he knew our Vic and he gave us a possible ID; 34 year old Paul Randall worked as a bartender here. Won't know till Doc Robbins does an autopsy though and we can get a positive DNA match. I'll take Graves here back to the lab so we can get a jump on processing the evidence." Nick took a sideways glance at me before looking at Warrick.
"All right, I'll finish up here you guys head on back. Nice work Bridget.." Warrick gave my shoulder a pat before walking off towards the body. Nick and I look at each other for minute before he speaks up.
"Let's get a move on then…" Together, we walked out of the crime scene and into the parking lot where we got into a similar looking car then the one I arrived in, except this one I swear is higher off the ground then the first one. WHAT IS WITH MEN AND THEM LIKING CARS THAT ARE HIGH OFF THE GROUND? He was already in the car when I was still struggling to get in.
"Need some help there?" I could just tell by the tone in his voice he was trying not to laugh. I don't respond til I get myself in the car and I shut the door. "I'm good, I'm good."
"Sure you are. You know, you might want to invest in some stilts. It would make getting into the car a lot easier." I looked over at him in the driver's seat and he had a slight smile on his face as he started the car.
"I see, poking fun at the new girl." I looked out the passenger window as the car began to slowly pull away from the building.
"Hey, if it makes you feel any better. I had it ten times worse when I joined." After that, I didn't really pay attention to anything he said as I just got lost in what was outside the window.
About 20 minutes later, I found myself in one of the labs. Running both the print from the door knob and the gun through AFIS to see if anything comes up. I'm sitting in front of one of the computers when a middle aged woman with short blonde hair in a dress shirt and pants rushing into the lab.
"Hey have you seen Greg?" The woman asked me. I must of have a look of confusion on my face cause she started to further explain herself. "He's about this high, lab coat on, most likely wearing some sort of weird shirt underneath the lab coat."
"Sorry, can't say I've seen him. To be honest I have no idea who your talking about."
"It's alright, you must be the new CSI then. I'm Catherine Willows and well, I'm looking for a lab rat named Greg. We'll chat later, right now I need something from him." She hastily waved goodbye as she rushed back out of the lab in search of this Greg. Just as she was leaving, the computer beeped, letting me know that the search had been completed. I got over to the computer and printed out the results. It was letting me know that the fingerprint on the knob belonged to 45 year old Izac Rinker. I set the results off to the side and had just put the other one through AFIS when Nick strolls into the lab.
"Got anything for me?"
"I actually do, here." I handed him the papers I just printed out.
"Huh, so the print on the knob belongs to the Casino Manager Izac. Funny cause I talked to the guy and he said he never went into the bathroom, let alone went near it. What about the print on the gun?"
"Sorry, haven't found anything yet." There was an awkward moment of silence between us before he cleared his throat. "Listen, about earlier in the car did I offend you or something? Because that wasn't my intention…."
"it's fine, believe me I get jokes and poked at all the time due to my height, you didn't offend me." I could have sworn he did a sigh of relief but I wasn't 100 percent sure.
"Good, besides we may poke fun at each other here but were all kind of a family. I'm going to give this info to Warrick and see if we can bring him in, if not we'll just go and talk to him. Call me when you get the results, and I just realized you don't have my number most likely." He paused for a minute as he grabbed a near by pad and pen and wrote a few things down.
"Here's both my number and Warrick's, as I said earlier give me a call when you get the results." He offered a smile before walking out of the lab. Well, that was weird. I took a few minutes to put their numbers in my phone while I waited for the results. After about another 30 minutes, we finally got a match but they matched our victim which was who The manager said it would be, Paul Randall. I picked up my phone and Called both of them but got their voicemails so I left a message on Warrick's phone telling him what the results were. As I hung up the phone, Grissom was walking by the lab and had stopped in.
"Bridget, heard you were progressing well with the Casino bathroom case? Stokes told me about the print matching the manager, nice work."
"Thanks."
"Since the technicians are working on the blood and the fabric you found on the scene and we're still waiting for the autopsy to be done on the Vic, go home and get some rest."
"Are you sure? I can stay here and…." Grissom held up a hand to stop me. "Don't worry about, Sara who you'll meet later can cover you if we need anything. Just keep your phone charged." He left the lab without another word. Well, I get to go home I guess. I checked my watch and noticed that it was close to one in the morning. Guess it's a good thing I can head on home them huh?