Chapter 1:
Grissom walked into Sheriff Ecklie's office, "Conrad I need a favor."
Ecklie stood, shook his hand then pointed to a chair, "After all the help you gave us solving the case of the missing co-eds I think you are due one. What is it you need?"
Grissom smiled, "I'm working on an idea for a few weeks in this semester. I want to talk about why some cases go cold and what we can do to 'warm' them up. I would like your permission to use one from the vault."
"Have a look around," Conrad told him, "But I want to approve anything you take out of here."
"Thanks," Grissom said. Grissom stood, once more shook Ecklie's hand and left.
Walking has been a problem ever since the accident, but the cane helped. He would stop more often then he used to - partly to say "Hi" to someone he knew but mainly because walking caused so much pain.
Grissom was leaning up against a wall rubbing his left leg when he heard his name.
"Gilbert. Odd seeing you here," Sara said, stopping just in front of him, "What brings you this way?"
Gil gave her a quick kiss on the cheek then told her what his plans were.
"Need any help?" she asked. A devilish smile on her face.
Gil raised his eyebrow, "Not from you. With no one else down there I may be tempted to try and finish what you started this morning."
Sara smiled, "That may be fun."
Earlier that morning an emergency call from DB had interrupted her plans for a very enjoyable start to their day.
"Not sure this damn leg could hold us up," Gil said.
Sara kissed him, "We'll pick up where we left off tonight. Love you."
Gil patted her bottom as she turned to go, "Promise?"
Sara giggled and nodded 'yes'.
Grissom walked into the room that was sometimes referred to as the "cold vault". An area where all the cases that went cold go to die, or lay in wait until some new evidence comes along to wake them up again.
He stopped at the desk and signed in, "Hi George. How's things?"
"You know," he said smiling, "Some days are better then others."
"Not much longer now," Grissom said.
"2 months, 3 weeks and 5 days," he said, "Then it's retirement for me and then the Mrs. and I am off to Maine."
"That's right," Grissom said, "You told me your son and his family are there."
"Spending time with the grandbabies and fishing," George said, "Two of my favorite things."
Grissom went to one of the computers and fired it up. The computer contained all the cases along with details of the case. Gil found one that he thought interesting and that he was fairly sure that Conrad would not mind releasing to him. After all the legalities were tended to Grissom signed out all the evidence on case #34782390.