Just A Little Bit of Romance
Chapter 1
Sara walked into the conference room, and Greg sat there awaiting her.
Grissom had assigned her to a cold case. Sara knew that out of Nick, Warrick and Greg, he was the one. The case was the death of a businessman who had been getting coffee in his office's private café. James Bradley was beaten to death in the shop. The shopkeeper was in the back room and there were no witness'. Dayshift Homicide had never been able to match the prints or the weapon to anyone. They had suspects, but none had been in or near the shop. Mrs. Bradley had been furious and she had every reason to be, she had two children. Five and a half years later, she demanded it to be re-opened. Claiming she had been receiving threatening letters from her husband's killer. It was brought to the attention of Grissom, who deemed it a 'Sara Case' and handed it to her. Seeing as how he had given it to her, she chose Greg and his wonderful abilities. Sara knew that Greg had a thing for her a few years previous, and she adapted to liking him. She was carrying the 'Cold Case' box marked Bradley, J 0121334. Greg opened the door, and said-
"Thought you would never get here." He smiled and held the door open for Sara. She smiled back and just loved gazing at him when he smiled. He had never once been hesitant to help her, she always found even the little things he paged her for back when he was still in the lab, were quite useful. They both loved taking break together, and she was always willing to accompany him, now that he was a CSI.
"You know I wouldn't pass up another chance to work with you, Greg" she laughed, and smiled. Although they had never actually dated, she had always wanted to, and he did as well.
"Ok, well fill me in," he said, as he thought about Sara and himself somewhere on an island together. He almost asked her to dinner the next evening, Grissom was always saying she needed a diversion, and hesitated, not knowing her feelings. "Cold case and you took it?" he said picking up the file.
"I didn't, Grissom did," she said looking at him. She had looked into Grissom, and he had not responded to her at all, so she thought of him primarily as her boss.
"Ok, let's get started then, James Bradley, 35 at T.O.D., beaten with chair, prints retrieved, no match. Remaining was his wife and two children. They were also printed. All suspects included the family, coworkers, and friends; anyone with a motive." He read aloud from the file. "Who wrote this a journalist?" he said sarcastically. "No CS I has obit-style crime scene and victim info writing" he waited for Sara to react, but kept going. He flipped through the pages a little way while Sara was surveying the evidence, and then said- "Dayshift Homicide, oh… Ackley" he then looked at Sara. She looked up and raised her eyebrows to signify that she agreed.
"Greg, this is the vic's jacket, there's no blood on the outside of the jacket, only coffee, and that's on his chest and legs. The coroner's report said he had 3rd degree burns to the chest and upper leg, but the other reports say that he was bleeding tremendously; don't you think a little spatter would have made it's way to the jacket? " She said, almost as if Greg had said nothing.
"The reports explain the coffee, but there's a print in the leg, his?" he said. "Sara, was this is accident?" Sara looked at him, knowing he had spoke to soon as he saw that not only was there a print, there was a hair, imbedded in the first wound of the chair, the skull. He looked at her and then froze, as if he had just discovered that this was no accident, this accident had escalated to a death and a clever one at that.