"So it looks like there may have been a fight of some sort." Greg pointed to a laptop computer on the floor, face up but its screen clearly cracked. He bent down to examine it some more. "There are a few keys missing from the keyboard and it looks like there was music playing and it had stopped when the computer was thrown." Greg touched the enter key of the keyboard with his gloved hand. Instantly, the heavy Metal sounds of Metallica's Enter Sandman filled the air. Greg quickly pressed the key again, pausing the music.
Morgan shook her head and laughed, before turning back to the crime scene.
"The gun is here, on the couch. That's consistent with Nathan Dobson shooting himself. It looks like it would be within arms reach." She paused for a second, thinking. "But if you have just tried to commit suicide and it didn't work, why not try again? He was obviously not injured enough to be incapacitated, judging from his journey to the sink."
"Could be shock." Greg replied. "But something does seem off. Lets go find Officer Lang and see if he can give us a more thorough retelling of the events."
They walked out into the bright sunshine and found Lang, sitting in his squad car, door open and writing on his notepad. The Officer looked up nervously as the two CSI's closed in on him.
"Excuse me, Officer Lang." Said Morgan, as Officer Lang stood up. "We have a few questions about the events of last night. Would you be able to walk us through as much as you know? No detail is too small."
The Officer nodded."Yeah, I can do that." He said, nodding his head again as he looked up at the sky, trying to recall as much as he remembered.
"At approximately ten pm, a 911 call came into dispatch that there had been a shooting at this residence. The caller was Martin Smith's mother. Apparently Martin had come in to the house and found the deceased female. Her name is Sheila Keller. He also found Nathan Dobson bleeding from a gunshot wound. He ran down a few houses and fetched his mom. She came over and helped Nathan to the sink and got him a towel. She then called 911 from the premises. The police and paramedics came, taking Nathan to the hospital. The female was pronounced dead at the scene. "
"Where was Martin at the time of the murders?" Asked Morgan.
"I do not believe he has been asked. We are having difficulty getting him to talk. He is pretty shook up."
"Where are Martin and his mother right now?" Asked Greg.
"At the police station."
"We are going to finish up here and I need to process Martin and his mother for any evidence. Can you ensure that they have not had a chance to go home or dispose of their clothing? " Greg paused. "I think it is too late to get gunshot residue off of them. Surely they have washed their hands by now. " Officer Lang grabbed his phone from his suit pocket and started dialing.
Morgan walked over to Greg. "We also need to get the clothing from Nathan. I'll go to the hospital and gather the evidence from him now." Greg nodded to Morgan and handed the vehicle keys to her.
"I'll finish processing here and will get the evidence to the local police department." He nodded a quick goodbye as Morgan left.
Greg finished processing the scene, loaded the evidence in Officer Lang's squad car and the two of them drove back to the small police station located just off the main road. On the way there, the young officer filled Greg in on being a police officer in a small town.
"There are a few officers that work the area. It's a large area, with small settlements here and there. I live in Luning, about forty five minutes away. This is my first murder that I've worked on since I've been on the force. We usually have smaller cases, such as robberies." The Officer looked over at Greg. "My first case as a detective was actually the motel fire."
"What happened with that anyway?" Asked Greg.
"A few kids rented a room to try to make meth. Lets just say it didn't go to well."
"Wow." Said Greg. "Small town like this, and they were trying to do something that sophisticated in plain view?"
"Oh yeah, kids are the same wherever you go. Sometimes they just don't have the forethought. But it is good for you though. Instead of the old motel, you get to stay at the Sheriff's house. He and his wife are just the nicest people. The wife is a fantastic cook." Greg listened with amusement as the Detective rambled on about the Sheriff's wife and her cooking as the officer pulled into a small restaurant.
"Are you hungry?" Asked the Officer. "Decent take out here."
After a quick lunch, Greg spent the next little while putting the evidence in a small office and then touched base with the Las Vegas Police Department. He was just finishing up the call when Officer Lang came back into the room. Greg noticed the worried frown on his face as the Officer shut the door behind him.
"Is everything okay?" Asked Greg, suddenly worried about Morgan. He hadn't heard from her since she left. A warning chill ran through his body.
"Well," Said Officer Lang pausing. "I was just down in our little interrogation room, listening to Martin and his mother. I think there is more to the story than what I've heard. I was speaking with another officer and it sounds as though Martin may be more involved than I'd originally heard. Apparently when the responding officers arrived at the house, they put Martin and his mom in a squad car to secure the scene. Martin was heard repeatedly muttering, "I can't believe what I've done."
Greg's eyebrows shot up. "I'm just hearing this now? Did anyone do a basic GSR test on Martin or his mom when they came to PD?"
The officer shook his head. "I went down and asked. Apparently nobody thought of it." He shook his head. "Small town. We really don't get these kind of things happening here."
Greg shook his own head. Great. He thought. Something's not right here. All officers go through basic crime scene training and retraining. I'm having a hard time believing that story. Immediately he fished his phone out of his pocket to call Morgan. Suddenly he really wanted to speak to her.
"Brody." Came the clipped tone as she answered the phone.
"Where are you?" Greg practically growled.
"What's going on? What happened?" She could hear the frustration in Greg's voice.
"We've had a few issues pop up here, but I haven't heard from you in a while and was getting worried. Did you manage to get Nathan's clothes?"
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line, just long enough to inform Greg that she did not get the clothing.
"Greg" She paused and took a quick breath. "It was all gone." She paused again. "Everything."
"What do you mean, everything? Did you check in the ambulance bay? Did you check the emergency room?" He barked, more frustrated at the way this case was turning out than at Morgan.
"Greg, I followed the route the ambulance took. The ambulance driver said he gave all clothing to the ER. I went into the ER and they said the ambulance drivers never gave it to them. I have torn apart not only the ambulance, but the ambulance bay and where they sanitize the ambulance. I have scoured the ER and then I went up to the Operating Floor and scoured there. I found absolutely nothing. Literally not a stitch of clothing." Morgan was talking at a fast speed, mirroring Greg's frustration. "The whole bloody staff were really accommodating and some even helped me search, but I found nothing at all."
Greg sighed. His report about this case was going to be a mess. "Well things aren't much better here. Meet me at the police station and I'll fill you in."
Just over an hour later, Morgan arrived at the police station, finding Greg in the small office that would double as their temporary work space as well as evidence locker. She walked in, handing him a lukewarm coffee in a Styrofoam take out cup.
"I stopped for a quick coffee, figured you'd need one as well. What's going on here?"
Greg filled Morgan in on the new developments regarding Martin Smith's possible confession.
Morgan stood up and walked over to the door of the small room, shutting it. She walked back over to her chair, sitting down heavily. She was silent for a few seconds. Leaning closer, she whispered, "Do you think people are not telling us something?"
"I'm not one hundred percent sure. It's either that or it really is a small town with an inexperienced police force. I'm not sure which one to believe."
"I'm going to go out on a limb and start with the cliche. Is Martin part of one of the prominent local families?"
Greg shook his head. "Nope, his parents live near the poverty line as ranchers. Nathan's family is the same way. As for the female. It was only Sheila and her mom. Sheila's mom worked at a Magnesium plant until it closed down. They are on public assistance. Sheila was still in high school"
He lowered his voice and continued speaking. "I went and processed Martin and his mom. The mom's story hasn't changed at all, but now Martin says he was hanging out with the two of them for about thirty minutes before the shooting."
Morgan's eyes widened. "But that changes everything! Martin could be the shooter!"
"Yeah." Greg agreed shortly. "The police never treated him as a suspect until I started asking questions. He was even allowed to go home before coming to the police station to give a statement. I've questioned him and have taken GSR tests of his hands and clothing. Too much time has passed. Any GSR trace will be explained away in court. The only good thing about the lack of GSR evidence is that it would probably not be prevalent anyway. The two had a small collection of guns on the premises. I found a small gun locker in a closet. Apparently they liked to go to a small makeshift shooting range in the desert. They had gone shooting earlier in the day."
Morgan moaned and rubbed her hands over her eyes. "This is brutal."
Greg just shook his head. "We just have to follow the evidence. Which means we have to get as much as possible. I have asked Catherine for a warrant to get cell phone records from the three of them. In the meanwhile, we can start to do our preliminary crime scene notes and tomorrow someone will be coming up to collect all of our evidence and bring it back to the Lab. Catherine wants us to stay here until we she can get a warrant for Martin's parents' car as well as speak with Nathan in hospital."
The two worked until early evening, until Greg's cell phone rang. Looking over at it, he was puzzled by the number he didn't recognize.
"Sanders." He said cautiously.
"Oh, hello!" came a friendly female voice from the other end. "My name is Carol, the Sheriff's wife. You two are staying at our place for the next day or so. I was just starting to make dinner and I was wondering if the two of you be able to join us."
Surprised, Greg relayed the message to Morgan. She gave an affirmative nod.
"Morgan and I would like that very much." Greg talked for a minute longer before finishing up the call.
"We'll be having lasagna." He said to Morgan with a smile. "Officer Lang told me she was quite a good cook."
"I've eaten nothing but coffee and a stale bagel from some diner on my way back from that hospital. Lasagna sounds great." Morgan paused and leaned in, "But with all the local weirdness going on, you don't think she's trying to poison us, do you?"
Greg looked pensive. "I hope not. But with this case, I can't be 100% sure."
Greg and Morgan had no trouble finding their temporary evening headquarters and at six pm sharp. A woman who looked an awfully similar to Martha Stewart opened the door with a nervous smile. When she looked at Morgan, her smile dipped briefly, worry dancing over her eyes suddenly. She ushered the two of them in.
"I'm Greg Sanders." Said Greg, extending his hand. "This is Morgan Brody." Carol shook their hands with that same worried smile. Morgan noted that Carol was literally wringing her hands in some sort of distress.
"It's wonderful to meet you both. We don't get company much up in Gabbs. I am so happy to have you two in my home." Carol smiled but then her smile dipped. "But, um, I'm afraid I've made a little error."