"Who would have thought?"
Disclaimer – Nope.. after all my birthday wishes.. still not mine.
A/N – I've done a bit of an overhaul on this story (yeah, I know I have about 3 stories going on at once ::slap wrist::) I have tried to sort out some of the major weaving plotlines, hopefully for the better. The other chapters will go back up as soon as I've sorted them out. Oh yeah, and this was my first fic so bare that in mind when you read it. Beware the clichés, they're everywhere!
The bodies lay sprawled on the tarmac, a dark pool of blood seeping out from beneath them. "This is a little unusual." muttered Brass as he lifted the crime scene tape and led the criminalists towards the two prone forms on the ground. Sara flicked her torch over the bodies arching an eyebrow and glancing at the two men by her side.
"I have come to learnt that nothing in this job is usual." Grissom passed an objective eye over the scene and came back to rest on the woman at his side. Their eyes met for a brief moment before dropping his gaze back to the scene before him.
"Has the coroner confirmed yet?" He aimed at Brass once more.
"Yeah about ten minutes ago. The guy is Richard Wiesman, 39. His drivers licence was in his jeans pocket. The horse was stabled here and is known as Willow. He is not the owner and we can't find out who is until we get a look at the books. The woman who found them also has livery here but not for long and says she doesn't know the vic. I'm hoping to speak with the owner of the horse and the stable manager within the next few hours."
Sara wandered over snapping on a pair of latex gloves as she went and crouched down beside the mans body.
"He doesn't really look like a rider.. he's not dressed for it." Sara said over her shoulder while still eyeing the man's awkwardly placed body, his arm seemed to be pinned underneath his body his head turned the opposite way . She quirked her head to the side slightly and pulling out a pair of forceps from her pocket she moved to collect a stray hair from the lapels of his jacket.
"Don't make any theories yet, just go with the evidence." Grissom had moved over to the body of the horse and was carefully taking a swab of some questionable substance he had found. Sara frowned, he was treating her like a rookie again for no good reason. She huffed a frustrated breath and turned away again.
She glanced down at the report in her hand frowning uncertainly.
"I'm surprised no one heard the shots. The farmhouse isn't far and this liver temp places his TOD as 7 hours ago. It would have been 5pm. Someone should have been about." Something caught Sara's eye as she said this, and her gaze shifted to the upturned bucket nearby. She carefully lifted the footprint she found on the bottom of the bucket and examined it briefly before placing it aside and standing to retrieve her camera and take photos.
"Mostly people have left by 5pm which is why he was only found when this woman went to lock-up. She thought she was the last person there." Brass stood a few feet away watching their progress.
Sara nodded in comprehension as Brass made his way over to the yellow tape to disperse the crowd of onlookers on the macabre scene. She glanced back over to where Grissom, seemingly oblivious, was staring in contemplation at the ground. Things had been so tense between herself and Grissom recently that she was surprised to be working alongside him at all tonight, she had been paired with just about anyone else for weeks. She had hoped it would get easier as the weeks passed, yet the awkwardness still remained. Their relationship had always had it's difficulties but it had never been as bad as it was at the moment.
The same old excuses again and again were starting to get stale. The age difference, sleeping with the boss, all made it a very bad idea. Sara knew all this and wasn't surprised by his reaction. It didn't mean she thought it was right and her feelings ran deeper than that, but his apparently did not. As he had said, his job was more important to him than she was, and that wasn't going to change. She had come to realise after all this that some things, and some people in this case, never change.
She peered under a pile of tack near the entrance finding a couple of bullet casings, bagging them expertly she sighed, and quickly muttered something about getting samples back to the lab before scuttling away from his watching eyes. It always seemed strange to her that despite everything she could still feel the same as she always had after everything that had happened.
Grissom simply arched an eyebrow at her hurried departure and continued collecting samples of a foreign soil from the floor.
"What have you got Al?" Grissom stood a couple of feet back eyeing the covered corpse. Sara had chosen not to be present for the autopsy which was an unusual preference for her. Normally she liked to be involved in every part of the investigation and it surprised him that she had asked to take the victims garments instead. He deigned to put this to the back of his mind and turned his attention back to the matter at hand.
Doc Robbins pulled the sheet back from the pallid body. "I can tell you your cause of death for this guy. Not too difficult. He was shot, twice. First one entered the abdomen through and through exit wound in the lower back and the second was the one that killed him, entry wound in the chest, I recovered the bullet from the spinal cord, he would have died instantly."
"Stippling around the entrance wound indicates that the killer must have been between 6 inches and 2 feet from our vic." Grissom stared intently at the wound before looking back at Robbins. "There must be a second bullet at that scene that we missed. I'll have to go back and have another look.
"The results from the Equine necropsy should be back to the lab by later tonight."
Robbins handed the bullet to Grissom and watched as he examined it and absently thanked him before leaving the morgue.
"Anytime" he called to his retreating back.
Sara was busily examining the victims clothes and personal effects. The swab she was passing over the jacket turned a bright blue. She yawned widely and placed it to the side as Catherine entered behind her.
"You could catch flies with that." Her opening comment surprised Sara who hadn't noticed her entrance and spun to face her. Nearly losing her balance as a wave of dizziness overcame her and she leaned heavily on the table.
"You should wear a bell or something, so people know you're coming." She muttered regaining her composure.
Catherine chuckled quietly. "A little on edge today are we."
"A little" Sara admitted. "I have a lot on my mind is all "
"So fill me in, days off make me out of the loop."
"Dead man, dead horse, both shot. He has GSR all over him, COD came back as bullet lodged in his spine. No real surprise there." She pointed in the vicinity of the other corner of the table. "You could get started on the footprint comparison if you need something to do. The vics shoes are over here and shoes from a couple of the stable hands."
It was not long before Catherine had her match. "Matches our vic. Wonder what he was standing on a bucket for? Seems odd."
Sara looked up from her microscope and shrugged. "Could be any one of a million reasons. I have to get these blood samples over to Greg. They're probably just this guys and the horse but you never know."
As she left Catherine watched her friend lean on the doorframe for a couple of seconds before leaving the room. Alarm bells were starting to ring in her head. That's the second time in a very short period of time she's done that. Some impulse in her made her decide to scrutinize a little further. She would have to keep an eye on her. She thought as she quickly returned to her assessment of the various shoes on the table in front of her. There didn't appear to be much in the way of trace evidence except the odd bit of manure and hay in the trainer treads. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Sara dropped the samples off to Greg, and not in the mood for his playful banter, quickly made her way to the locker room. Where she sat on the bench. Her elbows on the knees and head in her hands. She just needed the quiet to sort her head out. She spent what must have been 10 minutes admiring the lovely linoleum flooring before Catherine's entrance jerked her out of her reverie. Having seen Sara enter and not leave again curiosity getting the better of her Catherine had decided to investigate and check up on the younger CSI.
"You're not looking so good today. You feeling OK Sara?" Before she could get any kind of answer. Sara was up and halfway across the room before being violently sick in the sink. "I'm gonna take that as a no then." she muttered before putting the two Styrofoam cups of coffee on the side and making her way to the other side of the room. "Maybe you should go home."
Sara splashed some water on her face and turned back towards Catherine.
"Its ok. I'm fine." She replied grabbing a couple of paper towels and drying her face before checking herself momentarily in the mirror.
"You're obviously not fine or else you wouldn't be …"
Catherine trailed off as a new thought entered her head. She kept silent for a couple of seconds looking at Sara as if she were a piece of evidence herself.
"What?" Sara turned back towards her. "It's nothing, I probably ate something nasty. I just need to get home and have a good nights sleep." She walked right past Catherine and straight out the door. There was something so determined in her stride that the other CSI decided it was probably wise to leave her to it rather
than attempt to reason with her.
Catherine breathed out resigned at having to spend the rest of the night working with Sara who was obviously not on top form. Not the best way to spend the evening. She wandered off to see if she could find Grissom, maybe he would have more luck than her. She strongly doubted this considering the icy nature of their relationship at the moment, but it was a more appealing idea if it worked than having to put up with Sara for the night.
Grissom's office was empty when she arrived. She poked around at a few things on his desk for a moment, but stopped when she almost dislodged a pot of something apparently alive. That was something she really didn't want to have to clean up. She moved it gingerly further onto the table and left the office hurriedly.
Spotting Nick across the hall in layout she meandered in peering over his shoulder at the jacket he was examining wrinkling her nose slightly at the smell. It had evidently not been washed recently.
"Hey Nicky, you seen Grissom lately."
"He said he was just finishing up a few things over in autopsy and would be back within a half-hour. That was about ten minutes ago."
Catherine nodded and looked down at her watch briefly. "You about ready for a lunch break?"
"Give me ten minutes to wrap this up and I'll be there."
When Grissom returned to the lab it was surprisingly quiet. Most people seemed to have taken a lunch break for which he was quite glad. He was lucky to find Bobby was still over in ballistics and had apparently taken an earlier lunch that day.
"Got a present for you."
Bobby took the evidence bag and pulled out the bullet cautiously. "Looks like lead alloy bullet, it's pretty well in tact. These are the bullets that go with Sara's casing's right?"
"Which casings?" Grissom furrowed his brow into a frown and Bobby attempted to amend the situation slightly. He had noted the thinly veiled anger in his supervisors features and hoped vainly that he hadn't made things worse for Sara with that comment.
"She uh, left them with me earlier, from your horse-man murder." Bobby paused before continuing in the hope he might be distracted a little. "Probably from a high calibre weapon, a 32. I think, I might be able to narrow it down some more once I've looked a bit closer. Just give me an hour or so and I'll run it through IBIS, see if we get any hits from there."
Grissom nodded tersely and marched out of the lab. Bobby bit his lip cringing slightly, he wondered if perhaps he should page Sara and give her some sort of warning. She was not in for a fun night.