Chapter 1: One Hell of a Crime
"Grissom, we finished the arson case, turns out that, a mister Gary Layfeild was oblivious enough to leave his prints on a matchbook we recently found at the scene." Catherine said from the doorway of Grissom's office.
"Alright, good job Catherine." He replied not even looking up from his book.
She smiled and shook her head, typical Grissom, always preoccupied. She walked through the main floor of the lab and greeted a couple of different people, finally she made her way to her locker, where she met up with Nick and Warrick.
"Hey boys." She said opening her locker.
"Hey Cath." Warrick responded.
"Hey, oh I heard you got a print on that arson case?' Nick asked.
"Yeah, Brass nabbed the guy." She said.
"You heading home" Warrick asked.
"No still got hours on my shift, you two just getting here?" she wondered.
"Yep." Nick answered for the both of them.
They were about to add to the conversation, when Sara burst in…
"We got a new scene, I'm heading down there with Grissom, anyone else want a piece of it?" she said.
"Yeah, I'm game Nick said standing up and following her out the door.
It took a couple of minutes in the car but the three arrived, and stalled near the yellow crime scene tape, the pulled over and parked near the curb. The three teammates emerged from the car and walked beyond the tape. They were greeted by Brass.
"What do we got?" Grissom asked Brass.
"Patrol cop, got a call about a mysterious figure, off the side of the road, cop looked into it, and found this body." Brass said.
Sara began snapping photos, and Grissom examined the body and then turned to Nick.
"Have you ever seen anything like this?" he asked.
"No, and you've been working this job longer than me, and if you didn't this before…I just don't know what to say." Nick replied.
"Looks like he was slashed at the abdominals, and his intestines were poured out, and wrapped around his neck." Grissom said studying the body.
"Yeah, but where are his fingers, or his eyes?" Nick asked now more confused than ever. "But what's this pressed against his forehead?" Nick said grabbing it with tweezers.
"Looks like a coin, a dollar coin, with the face scratched out." Grissom said entranced by it. "Bag it and bring to the lab, see if Hodges can get something off it." He continued.
"Hey Grissom." Sara called for him.
"What is it?" Grissom said walking over to where she was kneeling.
"Look it, this guy was smart, I'll give him that. See these shoe impressions in the dirt, multiple directions, multiple shoes." She said.
"More than one attacker?" Grissom suggested.
"No, these look planted on purpose to throw us, he could have worn all the shoes here." She responded.
They took as many pictures of the body as were needed and okayed David to send it to the coroner's lab.
"I found no blood drops indicating that he wasn't sloppy with transporting the eyes or fingers, I got no extra fibers, and no weapon at the scene, our best bet is
what Doc Robbins can tell us." Nick said rejoining the team after doing a radial search for the body parts.
"Alright Nick, you did enough, go back with the pictures and the body. Me and Sara are going to stay behind and see if we can't find a single bit of evidence." Grissom said.
"Alright, catch y'all back at the lab." Nick said departing with some of the first call police men, though some stayed behind in case the killer returned to the scene.
An hour passed. "Get anything Sara?" Grissom said.
"Yeah, some bent grass, maybe a trail, it's not much to go on, but the only thing I found." She said shrugging.
"It doesn't seem to go farther, we can follow it, maybe get a real impression, though Nick took the others." Grissom said.
They walked about 5 feet and it ended, there was nothing, not a single clue or trace. Grissom's cell phone rang, it was Greg.
"Grissom, we have another crime scene." Greg said.
"Yeah, get Warrick and Catherine, I'm on a case right now." He replied into the phone.
"That's the thing; we believe that these two cases are connected." Greg said.
"How, we have barley any evidence here." Grissom responded.
"Yeah, we found a dollar coin lodged in this vics mouth the face of the coin scratched out, and there's something else, kind of disturbing." Greg started.
"What?" Grissom said.
"A bag full of bloody fingers, they look freshly cut." Greg said.
"Alright Greg, bad all the evidence you can and meet us back at the lab." Grissom said about to hang up.
"Wait, that's not the disturbing part, half his body his missing from the waist down." Greg said.
Grissom paused a moment and told his to get what he could and meet up with him again. This was the first crime scene that really rattled Grissom's thoughts. He didn't want to leave, but he knew there was no more evidence there. Him and Sara got in the car and departed from the bloody mess of a crime scene, and headed for the lab.
They met up with rest of the team at the lab; Grissom went immediately to sit-in with Doc Robbins on his vic's autopsy. He walked down the dark corridor until he came to the stairs. He walked down them and then made a left, opened a steel door and entered.
"John Doe, COD was a blow to the back of the head. The laceration to his abdomen was post mortem, as well as the cutting of his fingers, which we obviously matched to this vic." Doc Robbins stated as Grissom entered the room.
"Did you find anything when David washed him?" Grissom asked hopeful that they did.
"No, but he worked fast, he is now working on your guys other vic, the half-a-man." Doc Robbins said.
"What about his stomach contents?" Grissom pondered.
"Nothing, just water and day old bits of bread, probably a burger or sandwich. I'm sorry Gil, but I don't think we are going to get lucky on this case, go see David across the hall and see if he found anything else." Doc Robbins said finishing the conversation.
Grissom departed from that autopsy room, and walked across the hall. He opened the other door, and was greeted by David.
"Hey Grissom." David said examining the top half of the body.
"Hello David, did you find anything on this body that was unusual." Grissom asked.
"Just traces of silver and copper in his throat, probably from the coin lodged in his mouth." David responded.
"What was the initial COD?" Grissom asked.
"Well, it seems to be massive blood loss, from the leg wounds." David answered.
"Are you saying his legs were cut off, while he was alive?" Grissom said confused.
"Yes, that's what it looks like." David said continuing his cataloging.
"Alright, thank you David." Grissom said leaving that lab and heading back upstairs to see how the DNA traces came up on the coins.