A/n: This is my second casefile. It picks up on the case Catherine was working in "Where Secrets Lie". Starts after "Empty Eyes", reference to that episode, but no actual spoilers. I know some of you have been waiting for this with baited breath. LOL I work hard to catch any mistakes, but if you see one, please let me know and I will fix it. Please review, I like to know what you think, and I usually try to reply to them.
Chapter 1
Catherine reached over and snagged the last Danish on the plate a mere second before Greg's hand got there. She winked at him as she took a big bite.
Greg gave her an injured look. "Ah c'mon Cath, my mom made me promise to start my day off with a full stomach. After all, as she says, I'm still a growing boy."
Cath raised an eyebrow at him. "Greg, you've already eaten three Danishes, if your stomach's not full yet, I doubt one more would get you there. How 'bout I call dear mom and fill her in on a few of your other appetites? I doubt she'd still be all that concerned with the state of your stomach."
"Huh, you'd do that to, wouldn't you? Fine, enjoy your Danish." He got up and walked over to the fridge. When he turned around he was holding a very large donut. Giving her a wide smile, he stuffed half the donut into his mouth.
Catherine shook her head, half amused, half disgusted. "Greg, you truly are amazing."
He winked at her and she looked away. Nick looked up from where he sat reading on the other side of the table. When he saw what Greg was eating, he gasped. "Hey! That was mine. Just for that, you're buying my lunch."
Greg opened his mouth to respond, but was forestalled by Grissom coming in. "Catherine, Nick, you guys have a 419 out in Seven Hills. Looks like there are two dead bodies." He looked over to Greg. "Greg, you and I have a burglary at a jewelry store downtown. Sara is taking a personal day, and Warrick starts his vacation today, so hopefully nothing else will come in. Sara did say to call her in if we needed to, but I hope that won't be necessary."
"Yeah, she should take a little time. That last case was really rough for her." Nick said as he stood. He looked at Cath. 'I have to stop by my locker, how 'bout I meet you at the car in say, ten minutes?"
"Sure." She turned to Grissom. "Hey, can I talk to you a minute?"
Grissom looked to the younger CSI. "Greg, why don't you go load the car, and I'll meet you there."
"Sure thing." Greg said as he scooted out the door.
"What do you need Catherine?" Grissom leaned against the corner of the table.
"I'm- I'm just a little worried about Sara. Don't you think she needs more than just one night?" Catherine crossed her arms. "I mean, considering how personally she can take some of her cases."
Grissom stared at her a moment. "Maybe you should talk to her if you're so worried. Any of us would have been affected by having someone die in our arms, but I've talked to her, and though she was upset, I don't believe it'll be something that'll affect her in the long run."
"Gil, you're not exactly in tune with the people around you. I'm just saying, she may be more upset than you realize." She walked towards the door.
"Cath, I really don't think that's the case, but if you're really worried why don't you call her and get together for dinner or something. I'm sure that once you talk, you'll see that there's nothing to worry about."
She looked back at him from the doorway. "I might just do that. In fact, I'll give her a call in the morning."
Grissom shook his head, watching as she walked away. Now he had to call and warn Sara. She wasn't going to be too happy about this turn of events.
Catherine and Nick walked up the front drive of a rather imposing house, more of a mansion really. The front lawn was suspiciously green, rolling down from the front of the house to the breakfront of trees that shielded it from the busy street. Nick whistled. "Man, I wouldn't want their water bill."
"I'm sure you'll find Nick, that no amount of watering would keep a lawn this green in our hot desert climate. No, going by the lack of bushes and flower beds, and the consistent green of the lawn, I'd peg this as artificial turf."
"Oh, well I guess that makes sense." Nick knelt down and felt the grass. "Feels real enough."
Catherine gazed around. "Yeah, well I guess they could afford the good stuff. I don't know. I realize that it makes sense on a certain level, but I have to wonder, if the lawn is fake, what else are they faking?" They continued up the drive, each lost in their thoughts.
Brass met them at the front door. "Hey guys, we've got two bodies. Male and female, the male is Jake Bass; he lived here with his wife, Rose Bass. She's not the female vic. Female vic has yet to be identified. The wife says she doesn't recognize her, and there's no ID on her." They followed him over to the bodies. They were both fully dressed, and lay a few feet apart from each other.
David was leaning over the male body. He looked up as they stood there. "Hey guys, looks like he was shot twice. Once in the thigh, bullet was a through and through. That wound probably wasn't immediately fatal. Most likely cause of death was a shot to the heart. We'll now more after Doc gets through with him."
Brass pointed to an object laying a few feet away. "Ballistics will have to confirm, but the murder weapon could be that .22.
Catherine looked from the vic to the gun. "Could be, odds are though if the killer left it here then it isn't traceable. Could even belong to the vic." She turned to David who was now kneeling by the female vic. "What about her?"
"The female is a whole other kettle of fish. She doesn't have any gun shot wounds." He indicated her head. Her hair was matted with blood. "COD appears to be a blow to the head, though I did notice a cut on her right hand."
"So, we have two vics, killed by two different means. Hey David? Do you have a TOD yet?"
"Took liver temp on them both, with that added to the fact that they're just entering rigor, I'd place their time of death four to five hours ago." Seeing the look of Catherine's face, he answered her unasked question. "There's no way I can tell at this time who died first. I'd say it was within minutes of each other. Maybe we can tell more back at the lab."
"Okay, thanks David. Give us a few minutes to go over the bodies for trace, then you can take them." Catherine turned to Brass. "Have you talked to the wife yet?"
"Just about to go and do that. You want to join me?" Brass swept his hand towards the kitchen where the wife was waiting.
"Um…" Catherine's gaze went from the bodies on the floor, to the kitchen door.
"Go on Cath, I've got the bodies." Nick said from his position on the floor.
"Thanks Nick." She looked to Brass
Brass nodded. "After you." She smiled and they walked through the door.
"Mrs. Bass, we know you've had quite a shock, but if you could answer a few questions, we might be able to get out of here a little sooner." Catherine watched the woman sitting at the kitchen table, her hands wrapped around a steaming mug of coffee. She was a petit woman with bright red hair and clear green eyes. She was dressed casually, but the kind of casual only money could buy. She looked like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, although there were traces of tears in her eyes. If she had cried, her makeup was unaffected.
"I just want whoever is responsible to be caught." Mrs. Bass sniffed.
"First of all, can you tell us where you were this afternoon?" Brass asked as he flipped open his notebook.
"What does that have to do with what happened here?" Mrs. Bass asked wide eyed.
Brass and Catherine shared a look. "Mrs. Bass, we have to be able to account for everyone's whereabouts. It's just a standard question we have to ask.
"Oh, well if that's the case, I went shopping, had lunch with the girls, and earlier this morning, I had a tennis game with some friends at the club."
"What time did you arrive back home?" Brass asked, scribbling quickly.
"Um, around nine. I didn't come straight to the… the room they were in though. I came in through the kitchen entrance." At this she indicated the door on the other side of the room. "I took my shopping up the back stairs, there." She pointed to the staircase on the opposite wall from the door. "I put up my purchases, and took a shower. I came down around ten and figured I'd find Jake in his office, but I found him before I got there. I had to go through the sitting room to get to his office, and that's when I saw them laying there."
"And you're sure you don't know the female vic?" Cath asked, leaning against the counter.
"No. All I can figure is that she was a client. Jake was a lawyer and sometimes he'd meet with clients here." She reached for a pack of cigarettes sitting on the table. With shaking fingers she lit one with a gold lighter, and inhaled a lungful of smoke. She held it in for a few seconds and slowly exhaled. She repeated this action twice more before looking back at them. "Is that all?"
"No ma'am, we're not done yet." Brass scratched his head. "When was the last time you saw your husband alive?"
She sniffed. "This morning, around seven." She stubbed out the butt of her cigarette in a crystal ashtray.
"Did he happen to mention his plans for the day?" Brass watched as she lit another cigarette.
"Um, he was going into the office to pick up some paperwork, but he said he was going to come back and work from home today. He does that sometimes, not often though."
"Did you happen to notice anything else out of place? Anything missing?" Catherine picked up the questioning.
"Now that you mention it, when I came in I noticed that a pair of vases that are normally in the kitchen weren't there. They usually sit on the mantle over there." She motioned toward an area of the kitchen that had been made into a sitting area. There was a flat screen television over the mantle, but the mantle itself was empty. "I thought maybe the maid had moved them to dust the mantle, and had forgotten to replace them."
"Do you think you could look around, see if anything else is out of place?" Catherine asked, gesturing around the house.
Mrs. Bass was quiet for a few moments. "Sure, why not. Anything to wrap this up."
She stood and moved toward the next room. In the dinning room she paused. "There… there should be a painting over that mantle. It's worth a good amount of money, but it's not by a well known artist. At least he's not well known in the States. We got that painting on our last vacation to Europe. A small town in Italy." She let her gaze travel around the room. "And a couple of statuettes that were bought at the same time. They're also missing."
By the time they'd gone through the rest of the house, she'd listed two more paintings, and three other small pieces of art. "I don't understand. Why not take my jewelry? Or the electronics? That stuff would be more easily sold. These works are worth a good bit, but you'd have to know something about them to know that. They're just not that well known. In a few years perhaps, but not now."
For her part, Catherine had a bad feeling about this. "Mrs. Bass, do you and you husband have any kind of surveillance on the house? Cameras, motion detectors?"
"We have cameras set on motion detectors focused on the doors and downstairs windows. If the detectors are turned on, then if someone opens a door or window it's caught on tape. I-I wanted privacy in the rest of the house."
"Mrs. Bass, I can't be entirely certain about this until I look at the evidence, but this may be the work of some people we've been trying to find. They've hit a number of places over the last few months. I assure you we're going to do all we can to put these guys behind bars." Catherine excused herself to go talk to Nick.
Catherine walked in to find Nick leaning over the female vic with a magnifying glass. "Hey, did you find something?"
"Well so far, nothing. On either victim. They do have surveillance, so maybe we'll find something on the tapes." He looked up at her from where he was kneeling.
Catherine shook her head. "I doubt it. Looks like those burglaries I've been investigating have escalated to murder.
TBC…