From CSI Las Vegas…
"Welcome back, Detective Holiday."
Sofia knew there would be some more comment, she had heard already most of them when she started her shift an hour ago.
"Funny, haven't heard that one, Sidle."
"Sounds like the good mood is still on vacation. What do you have for me, Detective?"
"A trophy for the funniest joke of the last- let me have a look – five minutes and a dead body. In case you're done with your jokes you could have a look at it and the surroundings. Otherwise you can waste your and my time with more jokes and give the killer more time to escape. What's your pick?"
"Gosh, you have a mood." Sara took her kit and walked past Sofia into the house. Two months of beach, sun and summer and Sofia was in a mood like somebody had forced her to stay a year in hell. Not Sara's problem. Her problem was right in front of her. A dead body, male, approximate thirty years, gunshot wound to the chest and one to the head. Execution style. A little souvenir from a gang? A wanna be mobster? Nothing was impossible in Vegas.
"Hey David." The coroner was already at the scene and it looked like he started his work a few minutes ago.
"Hello Sara, how are you?"
"Better than he is. Which shot was first?"
"First to the chest and to be sure he's really dead he got the one to the head. Looks like a .38. I can tell you more after the autopsy."
Sara took some photos of the body and the room.
"Are you here all by yourself?" David asked.
"Yeah, Greg will come later, it's a busy night."
"Tell me about it. Doc Robbins is out too, we've five dead bodies so far. Two of mine also died from a gunshot to the chest and got the additional one to the head. Do you think it's one killer or a gang?"
"Depends on TOD."
"This one died two hours ago, fits the schedule, the other two died three and four hours ago. One per hour, sounds like a mission to me."
"A deadly mission.
A deadly mission. She hoped the killer or killers had a schedule, a short one, and were done by now. With these information about all the other bodies it didn't surprise her when she got a call that Greg wouldn't help her. He had another case, another body.
"Nobody saw or heard anything."
Sara hadn't heard Sofia returning and flinched when the blonde spoke.
"Don't sneak up on me."
"Pay attention to your surroundings and you hear when somebody walks up the stairs. We don't have time for dreams. There's a killer on the loose. Or more than one, who knows?"
Pay attention and don't dream? What was wrong with the detective? This kind of attitude was new, this wasn't the Sofia she knew.
"Listen up Detective Curtis, I've no idea what has bitten you but if you have a problem with me, your job, the case or anything else say it now or leave me alone with your mood. I'm not interested in having you snapping at me for no reason. Say what you have to say, stay professional or shut up and swallow it." The eyes of the investigator met the blue eyes of the detective and stayed on them.
"I go on canvassing. Will you work alone?"
"Yes. Greg won't come, there was another body. Somebody keeps us busy this night."
"Not only this night. If I get something useful I give you a call." Said and left the room. So much for saying what was wrong. It wasn't like Sara was anxious to hear what bothered Sofia, all she wanted was doing her job without a moody detective standing behind her. The time of snapping and bitching was long over- at least Sara thought that.
Shifting her attention back to the room she was processing she pushed the thoughts of Sofia away. No time for that. She had to work the scene and in this case the scene was a two story building, a garden and if one of the officers found something that might be case related in the neighborhood, it was her crime scene too. A lot of work to do for only one person.
"Wow, is this the line up of the death?" Sara shook her head in disbelieve there were six bodies lined up next to each other. All with two gun shot wounds.
"There are more out there." Doc Robbins said in a matter of fact voice.
"Where? I didn't see them."
"You haven't found them yet."
"How cam you know there are more?"
"From left to right: 8pm, 9pm, 11pm, 1am, 2am, 4am. Call me suspicious but I've the feeling 10pm, midnight and 3am are still out somewhere. Not to mention possible 7pm, 5am and I'm sure you get the picture."
"I do." Sara had to swallow. Somebody was serious about killing every hour. And like Doc Robbins said, they couldn't be sure that John Doe 8pm was the first and John Doe 4am the last one. "Scary."
"Yours is 1 am, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"The first shot to the chest killed him, he got the second for whatever reasons. Its a .38, I removed two bullets, sent them already to Bobby. No GSR, it wasn't a close ranged shot. Before you ask, all the other victims died the same way."
"Okay. And all of them are John Does?"
"Yes. So far."
"My John Doe isn't the owner of the house we found him in. The house belongs to a couple that is since four weeks in Alaska on holidays. We sent them a photo of the man, they didn't recognize them and are on their way back home."
"Not the way you want your holidays to end."
"No. I assume you need some time for autopsy with all these bodies lined up. Can you give me a call when you found something?"
"Sure."
Sara left the morgue and went back to the lab. Six dead bodies and still counting. She hoped they weren't dealing with a serial killer. But what else could it be? Six dead bodies, they were all killed the same way, it had to be serial killer. Or more than one killer and they stuck to the time line for a reason she couldn't figure out yet.
"Hey, I have to cancel our date." Greg greeted her, obviously stressed out.
"We have a date?" Why didn't she know of it? This information was new to her.
"Breakfast date. Can t make it, I've a John Doe."
"With two gun shot wounds. One to the chest, that killed him and one to the head."
"Yes." He furrowed her brows. "How do you know?"
"I've the same John Doe. It appears like somebody killed people every hour. The same way all the time and there might be still some out."
"That's scary."
"Tell me about it. I need to get back to the scene, I processed only the room he was found in and garden and have the rest of the house to do. The next time you decide we have breakfast tell me earlier."
"Sara it s Friday." They always had breakfast together on a Friday morning, their own little tradition to lighten up their work. How could she forget?
"Oh? Already?" Usually she forgot the dates now she started to forget the days as well. That wasn't good. A sign of too much work. Unfortunately it didn't look like work would slow down any time soon.
"Yes. Not that it matters because we'll work the whole weekend."
"Like we did last week and the week before and before and before." When exactly was her last day off? Two months ago? And two days off in a row? Last year? No holidays, a lot of overtime, the city was crazy this year. It seemed like people came from all over the world to Las Vegas to get killed or kill somebody. Over six plus X bodies in a row for one night was even for their standards much.
"The city never sleeps."
"Neither do we."
He stopped and looked at her. "Are you all right?"
"Tired. And I need to go back to scene."
"I d like to invite you to dinner but I've no idea when I get home and have to be back here. We talk as soon as we get some air?"
"Deal." A conversation with Greg was the best thing she could do these days. Her friend was a reason why she managed to get to work every day even when she was tired. Even sick and tired of the job sometimes.
"Later."
"Later Greggo." Time to get back to her car and drive back to the crime scene. If she managed she could stop somewhere for a minute, get a coffee and something to eat. As soon as she was at the house she was stuck for several more hours. Without coffee and food.
Earthquakes usually didn't happen in Vegas and most times houses didn't spin around like a carousel. Right now Sara had the feeling both happened to her and the house she was in. The carpet trembled, the cabinet on the other side of the room looked like it was under water and she had the feeling her head was moving in circles on her neck. Something was wrong with her.
Suddenly a hand grabbed her shoulder and steadied her a bit.
"You should take a break."
Sofia. Sara wasn't sure if the detective caught her or simply tried to scare her again. Or tried to talk to her and Sara was too much lost in her spinning world.
"No time, I've the entire ground story to process."
"Sara, it s an secured house, nobody can get in or out and you've been working since fourteen hours."
"Since when do you care?" First Sofia was a bitch and now she cared? Was this a kind of brainwashing?
"Since you might mess up my crime scene."
Now that sounded more like the Sofia of last night.
"Why don t you put on some gloves and work the scene yourself, Acting Supervisor Curtis? Or did you forget every-thing?"
"That s what I've a CSI for. Do your job, do you right and everything is fine."
"Leave my crime scene and annoy some neighbors, will you?"
"I m done with my work."
"Good for you. Bye. Take your bad mood with you."
"You need a break. I want you to go home."
"Thank god it's not your decision what I do."
Sofia stared at Sara for a moment before she pulled her cell phone out of the pocket. A few seconds later she started talking: "Grissom, it's Sofia. I need you to tell your CSI on my scene she needs a break after fourteen hours. I don't want her messing up the scene because she can hardly keep her eyes open."
This couldn't be real. With wide open eyes and an open mouth Sara stared at the blonde who handed her phone to Sara.
"Sara, it s Grissom. Go home, you were supposed to go home two hours ago."
"You re still in the lab too."
"That s not the same, Sara."
"It fucking is." She switched off the phone and almost threw it on the ground. He sent her home. Because this moody stupid bitch of a police detective asked him to do so. Great. Precious. She didn't want to think about why he did what she wanted, didn't want to waste another though to it and she did it anyway. Ignoring his demand was one way to handle the situation, not the best because when she ignored an order from her supervisor and Ecklie got this information somehow - and Sofia was a good source for Ecklie - she was in trouble. Without Grissom by her side.
She dropped the phone on the floor, started packing her kit and the evidence she had found, not looking at the blonde.
"It s better."
"Why don t you start your own talk show when you know what is better for other people?" Sara snapped, grabbed her stuff and left the room. A huge crime scene, a killer on the loose and the detective felt like playing Oprah Winfrey. What did she do wrong to deserve all this?
Because she had only four hours of sleep Sara didn't call Greg for a dinner, ate an apple on her way to the lab and put a yogurt in the fridge in the break room for later. There was no time for more food, she had a hot case to close. To get the newest information about her dead body her first stop was the morgue where she found not only the six dead bodies of the last night but also four more. All killed with the same M.O..
"This looks like war."
"This looks sad. Ten perfectly healthy young man between twenty and thirty-five, all could be still alive if they hadn't been killed." Doc Robbins handed Sara a folder. "I sent you the results of the autopsy to your email account, these are the results of the other bodies You will see they were all killed the same way, the same caliber."
"I'll see Bobby about the bullets. Where they all killed every hour?"
"Yes. And no, there weren't new ones so far. Yesterday he or they killed between 8pm and 5am, lets hope he or they wont start tonight again."
"Hopefully. Thanks Doc." She left the morgue and met Greg and Cath in one of the layout rooms.
"Which one of the John Does is yours?"
"2am."
"9pm." Cath put her crime scene photos on the table. "I read the reports of all ten vics, all of them were killed in houses that belonged to people who weren't in town. All ten carried no ID and so far none has been reported missing. Tox came back clean for all of them."
"I spoke to Doc Robbins a moment ago and he said they would be still alive if they hadn't been killed. Did Bobby find anything on the gun?"
"No. Did one of you find prints at the scene?"
"No." Sara shook her head.
"No. No fingerprint, no shoeprint, nothing that could lead me to the killer. There was hardly any evidence at all. The house looked like any other house, it was clean and if there hadn't been the body on the floor it wouldn't be special at all."
"My body was on a stone floor." Sara compared her photos with Cath s. "Yours too. Greg?"
"Yes. That s smart, they leave less traces on the stone floor. It's dry, you don t carry a boot print inside and if you make a little mess you can clean it up. Although there was no blood at my scene. I checked."
"Only the little blood pool from the wounds, nothing that looked out of place."
"Why does the killer or killers know which house is empty? You can t just drive by, look which is house is dark and kill a man in there."
"And why doesn't fight the vics back? There are no defensive wounds. Is this a kind of cult?"
"Could be. But usually they kill themselves at the same place and not all over the city."
"Maybe the destinations are a symbol. When we draw a line there could appear a symbol." Greg got a map of the city and made little crosses where all the bodies were found.
"Who do you tell when you go on holidays? Where you go, how long you will be there?" Sara asked Cath.
"My mom."
"Anybody else?"
"You guys. The paper boy so he won t bring the paper, Lindsey tells her friends. Do you think all these people have one person in common?"
"Somebody pulled the trigger of the same gun ten times last night. This isn't a coincidence."
"The crime scenes are all over the city, they can t have the same paper boy." Greg connected the crime scenes and got nothing that came close to any kind of symbol.
"I run a check on what they could have common when I m back. It s time to go back to my crime scene. Sara checked her watch. There were a few more hours of processing waiting for her, maybe the solution was there and she only had to go there, collect it and solve the case. Sometimes things are easy. Most times they weren't.