Tuesday night
It has been a hot day today, with the temperatures over 120 degrees and sleep was almost impossible to catch if you didn't sleep in front an AC.
The graveyard shift was back in the ring, ready to take up with whatever the night might bring to them. Usually on days like this there was plenty of work to do, people snapped much more easily with the heat. And it seemed like this when Grissom entered the room with a lot of papers in his hand.
"Catherine, there's 419 in Henderson for you, take Warrick with you. Nick, you go to the Bellagio, somebody tried to rob one of the shops, Sara, a 419 in the desert, take Greg with you."
"What about you?" Catherine asked.
"I've got a possible 419 at Lake Mead. It was a crazy hot day, people died like crazy."
"They all had crazy help for dying too, I guess." Greg mumbled and followed Sara. "What do you want me to do?"
"Get your kit, I'l drive."
"M'kay." He knew there was no point in argueing with the brown haired CSI. He got his kit and came down to the Denali.
"I like cases in the desert." Greg said. "Does that sound weird?"
"No more than all the other things you usually say." Sara grinned.
"Hey be nice to me, I'll be out with you in the desert, watching the stars above us…it would be like a date."
"If you're ideal idea of having a first date is being in the desert, next to a db, I'm very happy I never went on a date with you."
"Maybe the db isn't on my list for first dates, but the deserts and the stars are."
"So, who is she?"
"Who?" Sara could feel her coworker and friend flushed.
"Yeah, who do you have in mind for your hot desert date? Do I know her?"
"Uhm…what makes you think…"
"Greg, I'm an investigator, I know some things. Who?"
"Not your business." Greg tried to sound definitely to avoid further questions. Sara just started laughing.
"No worries, I'm gonna find out later."
"Mind you own business."
"You are my business, Hon." She send him a grin and his face became even redder than before. If she didn't know better, she'd think she was Greg's date but they were beyond that point.
"Did you manage to get any sleep?" She tried to change the topic.
"Barely, it was too warm and my AC is broken. You?"
"A couple of hours, I had to be back in the lab by three, Wendy called with the DNA results of my last case."
"Any luck?"
"At five I signed, sealed and delivered all boxes downstairs, case is solved and closed. A bad girl will be in jail for a few years."
"That was fast."
"Well, stupidity is useful for us. You don't rob a jewely's shop and go to the next one to sell your goods only 24 hours later."
"No, you should be smarter."
"Yeah, she saved me a few hours. We had enough evidence to get her for the robbery tonight but this way it was even faster. I love cases like that."
"Let's see if we can repeat that with this case." Sara saw the blue and red lights of police cars and slowed down. Time to find out what was waiting for them in the desert.
With their flashlights and kits in their hands Greg and Sara walked over to the officers.
"What do we have got, detective?" Sara asked.
"DB, male, Caucasian and uhm…have a look for yourselves." Sofia Curtis, the former CSI and now detective, was on scene.
Sara raised and eyebrow. Normally the blonde was never short of description of a crime scene and being a former CSI, she was quite good at it.
Greg and Sara walked slowly over to a naked body, which was visible under big lights, trying not to destroy any evidence and traces.
"What is that?" Sara couldn't take her eyes from the dead body. Yes, he was a male, yes he was Caucasian and he was...what the hell was he? Was he even human?"
"Sara, do you also see wings on his back?" Greg asked cautious.
"I freaking fucking do." Sara bent down to the upper body of the man. She was very tempted to touch what she saw. It looked like feathers.
"Eagle." Sara mumbled.
"What?"
"These feathers look like they belong to an eagle."
"What is a man doing with feathers of an eagle on his back in the middle of the desert?"
"Don't they say everything is possible in Vegas?" Sofia was suddenly behind them.
"As far as I know, even in Vegas you don't breed birds and human."
"Some of the Show Girls…" Greg started and stopped as soon as he got Sara's glimpse.
"Coroner is almost here, I just called for him."
"Good. Who found him?"
"A guy who wanted to see some kind of asteroid. He's with one of the officers." Sofia took another look at the body. "Do you think he fell from heaven?"
"Are you kidding me?" Sara looked at the detective in disbelief. Could she really believe the man flew from whereever to here and dropped dead?
"There're no traces of tires anywhere, I checked it already. No boot marks so far."
"How long have you been here, Curtis?"
"Half an hour before you guys arrived. Wanna give me some trouble for securing the crime scene and looking for evidence?" Sofia's voice was too sweet to be kind, Greg could feel a chili running down his spine. Was a fight between Sara and Sofia about to start? If so, he didn't want to be in the middle of it. He knew the relationship between the two women were difficult, a time ago, they seemed to get along fine now but Sofia's voice sounded dangerous to him.
"No, I was only wondering how long you were waiting for us. I know you knew what you're doing."
Greg sighed quietly. Thanks for giving in, Sara. The danger was gone, there would be no fight.
Also to his relief he saw David, the assistant coroner coming over.
"Sorry I'm late. The wife took me out for dinner."
"Hell I bet she wasn't pleased you had to leave." Greg grinned in sympathy.
"Oh, she was fine. I have to tell her every detail later…" David took a look at the body and froze. "She'll love this story. What is that?"
"A bird – man." Greg said simply.
"Looks like." David took a closer look at the wings. "Eagle?"
"That's what I guessed." Sara said.
"How can he have feathers of an eagle?"
"That's our job to find out, Super-Dave. Body temperature?" Sofia didn't want to rush but it got cold.
"Oh, yes." David got his thermometer and took the liver temperature. "From the temperature I'd say he's around ten hours dead. That puts him in the heat of the midday sun. I can tell you more after the autopsy."
"COD?"
"I can't see anything so far. Sara, Greg, can we turn him?"
"Absolutely!" Both of the CSI wanted to see how the feather ended up on the dead man.
Carefully they moved the body.
"Oh my goodness." Greg starred at the back of the man. It looked like the feather really grew out of his back on both sides.
"I thought it might be a costume." The young CSI shock his head.
"Whatever it is, it's extraordinary." David waved to two men with a stretcher. "I'll take him to Doc Robins."
"We're gonna try look for evidence." With one last look at the man, Sara and Greg started to look for evidence. As Sofia had told them, there were no boot prints, no traces of a car stopping by, nothing. It really seemed like the man dropped from heaven.
Greg walked to the man who found the body to ask him a few questions.
"Maximum ride."
"Whoa." Sara jumped. "Fuck, Sofia, don't do that." Sara had wandered too far from the crime scene, and was almost a few hundred yards away from it, desperate to find something that could tell her how the man got there.
"Easy Sara, I'm here to watch your back. You shouldn't leave the scene without telling anybody. If it wasn't for your flashlight, I wouldn't know you're here. Which also means, anybody else can see you from whereever."
"Make some noise the next time."
"Sorry."
"And what do you mean by maximum ride?" Sara got up and stretched her back. There were no signs of cars, trucks, horses, people or anything taht could have carried a dead body to the scene. On the other hand, it was windy in the desert today, traces were most likely gone with the wind, a few minutes and the sand would have looked like nobody had been here before. That's why she took off, hoping to find a hint somewhere in a sheltered place.
"It's a science fiction or fantasy story by James Patterson. The main character, Max, is a girl genetically altered with bird DNA. She has got wings and can fly. I read one book of the serie, it's usually not my genre but it was interesting."
"Like you said it's fantasy, we're in reality. Do you really thing there's something like..."
"Human birds?"
"Yes." Sara sighed. There are no such things like human birds, that was crazy. She was sure, Doc Robins would find an easy and logical explanation for everything. All Sara had to do was to find out how and who put this man here.
"I know you're a scientist through and through but don't you ever doubt?"
"No I don't. If I would, that would mean evidence isn't real, isn't telling the truth. But evidence never lies."
"Says Grissom."
"Every scientist will say that."
Sofia cocked her head. "I believe in things above our science."
"You're chasing demons on a full moon night?"
"We both had a werewolf case, remember?"
"A genetic…" Sara began.
"I know. I'm just saying, sometimes things can be…more than ordinary. Come on, let's get back, you're too far away already. If the wind had blown away every trace at the scene, it would have it here as well."
"Shall I watch your back?" Sara offered and continued when Sofia looked blankly at her. "Just in case a vampire flies along and decides to have you as a midnight snack."
"Believe me, Sara, I'm more scared of you behind me than a vampire." Sofia grinned.
"I won't take that personally."
They walked in silence back to the scene.
"Got anything?" Sara asked Greg.
"Nothing. No traces, nothing. The man couldn't help neither. He saw the db, called it in and stayed a few yards away, in case he had to chase away coyotes. He said he never touched the body. He guessed when somebody fell of the sky, he'll be dead."
"He was right – whoever the man ended up here."
"Do you think he might be…"
"Greg, if you start to talk about fantasy book or movies or both, talk to Sofia. Maybe the two of you can go and hunt a gremlin."
"I love that movie." Sofia laughed. "You know at the end of the rainbow there's a leprechaun with a pot of gold."
"Only in Ireland. Greg, let's go back to the lab and see what the doc has for us."
"I'll follow you guys."
"Now that's Sofia, is worse than having an angel of revenge on our tail."
"Bite me, Sidle."
"I am not a vampire."