This is my first CSI fic, so be gentle. I own no characters except Rachel, Michelle, Caroline, Kenneth, Seth, and Mrs. Davis. The rest belong to some guy….in some place.
"You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life, Oo-ooh, see that girl, watch that scene, digging the Dancing Queen." Rachel belted out the words as she drove her car into the parking lot. She parked the car, took the keys out of the ignition, and got out the door.
It was a bright sunny day, so Rachel felt confident about her first day of work, maybe a little bit TOO confident, but this was normal for her- she was a born Drama Queen.
She continued to hum the song as she stepped through the doors of CSI headquarters. Once inside, she paused for a minute, taking in the bleak, dark, mechanical-looking place.
"Someone needs to re-decorate." She mumbled as she walked up to the front desk. "Excuse me." The receptionist turned her head.
"Yes? How can I help you?"
"I'm here to see a Mr…." She paused to look down at a scrap of paper. "…Gil Grissom. Do you know where I can…?"
"Oh hold on." The receptionist clicked the button for her headset phone and began to speak into it.
" You're looking for Grissom?" Rachel spun around. A guy, probably mid-thirties (and VERY cute) stood in front of her.
"Um, yea, I am." She replied, "Do you know where I can find him?"
"Sure, follow me." He walked down a hallway and motioned for her to follow.
The receptionist hung up and looked around. "Hello?"
Rachel followed this guy very closely, she did not want to get lost in here, so many people around, her confidence immediately dropped like a lead weight.
"So you're new here?" The guy spoke.
"Yea." She replied, still looking around.
"My name's Greg Sanders." He smiled at her.
Rachel blushed, "Rachel Mathieson."
They reached a door. "Here it is." Greg opened the door for her. There were two men arguing in the room. The balding man seemed very angry, but the man with a beard and glasses seemed calm.
The bald man finally stormed out, giving Rachel a dirty look as he left.
"Love you too, pal." She mumbled sarcastically.
"That's Ecklie. Nobody likes him." Greg responded.
"But nobody has a choice. He works here, whether we like it or not." The bearded man approached Rachel, "Gil Grissom, nice to meet you Miss Mathieson"
"Rachel." She responded, shaking his hand.
"Rachel." He nodded," Well, I see you've already met Greg, so let's go. Our crime scene awaits."
Their crime scene was a strip club. Rachel had been in a strip club before, but she didn't like it. At all. Too many bad memories, and nothing good came from places like these.
" I can't go in." Rachel said.
"What do you mean, you can't go in?" Greg asked
Rachel looked at Grissom, and he understood. "Alright, Greg and I will check out the inside, you can look in that alleyway over there. Remember, we're looking for the girl's body along with the evidence."
" How could I forget that?" She half-laughed as she walked backwards into the alley.
Grissom saw the sobbing girl over at one of the tables. "Greg. You look around, I'll talk to our witness."
"Gotcha." He walked off.
Grissom approached the blonde girl. "Are you Caroline Davis?"
The girl dried her tears somewhat. "Yes. I'm Michelle's sister." She started to sob again. "I hope she turns up soon."
"We'll do our best." Grissom replied. "Now, I know this may be difficult for you, but can you tell us what happened?"
Caroline sniffed. "Well, we had just come from the award ceremony. She won employee of the month for the sixth time in a row."
"Where did she work?"
"Lightning House Music Productions. Sh-she was a receptionist."
"Go on."
"Well, we decided to come here to celebrate, but Kenneth left, he had a-a headache."
"Kenneth?"
"Kenneth Lampart. Michelle's husband. Anyway, he went home. After about an hour here, Seth showed up, and he and Michelle, well, they went into the bathroom to have a 'Private Party' if you catch my drift."
"So Michelle was cheating on her husband?"
"Yes. But, oh god, don't tell him, it'll break his heart!"
" What happened next?"
" Well, I saw Michelle and Seth go to the bathroom, and…and…" Caroline burst out crying, "She never came back!"
Greg checked out the hallway. On the wall there was blood spatter, and a blood trail on the floor leading towards the exit. He was about to take a picture of the blood drips when he saw a box and a shoeprint on it. He knelt down to it, and used his dust-print-lifter to take the print. He then resumed taking photos of the blood drips.
The first thing Rachel noticed was the tire tread. It was up on the sidewalk, like somebody pulled over. She lifted the print.
Rachel could smell something, and her nose pointed her in the direction of the dumpster. It wasn't a normal dumpster smell, it was different. She looked down and saw blood drops leading towards the exit door, or maybe from?
She looked back at the dumpster and pushed the lid off. "Whoa!" She coughed at the horrible stench. She couldn't see anything on the surface, but whatever the smell was could be underneath. Rachel hoisted herself up and leaned over to get a better look.
Too far! Rachel leaned too far, and fell in! "Ah!" She squealed as she fell headfirst into the dumpster. What she saw, would most likely scar her forever.
"GREG! GRISSOM! Get me out of here!" She screamed and flailed her legs around.
At that moment, Greg came out the exit door, still following the blood trail. He heard Rachel scream and ran to help her out. He pulled on her legs and she clung to him once she was out.
"Deadbodydeadbodydeadbodydeadbody…" She repeated rapidly.
"What?" Greg couldn't understand her.
"DEAD….BODY!" She yelled.
"Oh." He said. He walked over to the dumpster and cleared away some of the trash to reveal the body of a 26-year-old woman. Michelle Lampart.
"Upside- you found our vic." Greg turned to Rachel, then sniffed her. "Downside- you're gonna' have to take a REALLY long shower to get rid of that smell."