Title
"Man, this place looks like ground-zero," Nick said with a whistle.
Grissom parked the Tahoe as Nick said this and got out, his subordinate following him step for step. They both went around to the back to retrieve their kits, and then headed towards the half-collapsed building and the surrounding chaos.
Their beloved comrade, Captain Brass, intercepted them before they even reached the crime scene tape, and had already begun to fill them in on the preceding events.
"Used to be an old abandoned apartment building. Been in shambles for years."
Grissom listened to Brass as he squinted through the dust and construction equipment at the pile of rubble that was once the aforementioned building.
"The place use to be a major hangout for junkies. Use to bust a lot of'm out here." Brass continued as he began walking them along the perimeter of the scene. "Guy that owns the lot is Jack Trenton. That's him right over there."
In saying that, Brass pointed to a young, fit man with full, brown hair, wearing semi casual clothes, standing in front of a black SUV, and was making a valiant effort to bust a small pulsing blood vessel on his forehead by yelling with all his strength at the surrounding group of officers.
"The guy that's about to have a hernia?" Nick inquired humorously.
"Yea."
"What's his story?" Grissom finally asked.
"A long one," Brass quipped.
"And I'm assuming there's a dead body involved. Otherwise, we wouldn't be out here."
"Well, according to Jack; when the building collapsed, the state chased him down and he was ordered to send someone to clear the lot- hence the construction men. Then, after about a day, they come back to him complaining about some god awful stench."
"Decomp," Nick interjected.
Grissom nodded in agreement.
"So he tells the guys to deal with it and keep digging. Sure enough, they find a DB."
"Where did they find it?" Nick asked.
"In the basement."
"Did anyone touch anything?" asked Grissom.
"It's a construction sight……"
The sarcastic reply issued no reaction from Grissom, save for the 'no BS' stare that he always wore at his crime scenes.
"One of the construction men said they didn't go near the body. They stopped all activity as soon as they found it." Brass conceded.
"Thank you," Grissom said with a slight nod. He looked back at the furious landowner who was now struggling against the small group of cops in an effort to get across the crime scene tape. "Brass, can you hold him for us?"
"Sure thing," he said affirmatively, then promptly got in the guy's face and said, "Mr. Trenton! You're mine for the next 24 hours."
"What the Hell? I didn't do nothin!"
"Yea, yea, I know. Come with me."
In the mean time, Grissom was going to round up a couple uniforms and get them together with the construction supervisor so that they could figure out a safe means of getting to the body.
"Nicky…"
"Yea Boss?"
"I want you to go hunt down the man in charge of the construction sight. I'm going to gather a few of the officers. Meet me back here in five minutes."
"Can do," Nick said with an affirming nod. He started walking in the direction of the big yellow machines, then turned back as he walked, held up one hand with fingers spread out and, with a smile, called out over the construction noise, "Five minutes!"
Grissom hiked an eyebrow at Stokes' bizarre behavior.
About twelve minutes later, Nick and Grissom got back together with the construction supervisor and some of the upper ranking police and began discussing possabilities of how the two CSIs could get to the body.
"OK so there's the hole to the basement that the men dug out to begin with, but you say that's not quite stable enouph for us to climb down." Grissom said.
"Yes, but the structure itself is stable enough. I can have some of my guys dig you a safer path, but it will take a while." the construction boss replied.
"Well that's alraight. That'll give us time to get our gear together."
"Sounds good."
Nick interjected, "You're sure this is safe?"
"Oh, yes. Judging by the blueprints, it's plenty safe in the basement."
"But it's not full a gaurantee," Nick added skeptically.
"I'm positive you'll be safe."