Thanks to JennaTN for the review.
Here's Chapter 2. The characters thoughts are in italics. I own nothing. Please Read and Review!
"Hey Hodges," Nick said as he walked into the trace lab.
Hodges jumped and knocked a stack of papers off the table, "Geez, Nick. Did you have to sneak up on me?"
Nick raised an eyebrow at him, "Are you okay man?"
Hodges grabbed the fallen papers, "Yeah…umm…no…I'm not sure," he said while straightening the papers into a stack.
"What's going on?" Nick asked.
Hodges sighed, "My mom is moving back to Vegas and I might have led her to believe that I'm dating someone. Like seriously dating someone."
Nick chuckled, "Why would you do that?"
Hodges shrugged, "So she wouldn't worry about me and nag me about finding a nice girl."
Nick laughed and shook his head, "You realize that you need to tell her the truth right?"
"I could do that," Hodges said with a shrug, "or I could find a pretend girlfriend in the next couple of days."
"Why do you just tell her that you broke up with your non-existent girlfriend?" Nick suggested.
Hodges nodded, "That could work."
"Or you could just tell her the truth," Nick suggested again.
Hodges shook his head, "Nah, I like the 'I broke up with her cause she cheated on me' idea better."
"You're going to make the non-existent girlfriend you broke up with a cheater?" Nick asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, if I'm going to lie to my mom I might as well go all the way," Hodges replied.
Nick shook his head, "Whatever works for you."
"What do you have for me?" Hodges asked pointing to the evidence bag in Nick's hand.
"Catherine found a yellow substance on the vic's face," Nick answered handing the bag to him, "see if you can identify it between plotting lies to your mother."
"Will do," Hodges answered with a smirk.
"Uh-huh," Nick said as he turned and left. I hope that whatever Hodges plans on telling his mother doesn't blow up in his face. Who am I to judge? I'm not being honest with everyone myself.
"I think there's a million pieces of this glass," Morgan said as she picked another piece out of the carpet.
"Well, you can have fun putting them all together to figure out what it is," Greg said with a smirk.
Morgan rolled her eyes, "Thanks."
"I thought you liked puzzles," he asked as he picked up a cable laying on the desk.
"Not this much," she said as she picked up another piece of glass and looked up at him, "what have you got?"
"Laptop cable but no laptop," Greg said holding up the cable.
"I don't see a laptop case either," Morgan said as she scan the room, "might be downstairs."
"Yeah," he answered as he looked around the room.
"How do you think Vartann knows?" Morgan asked as she dropped another piece of glass in the evidence bag.
"I don't know," Greg answered with a shrug, "unless…maybe Catherine knows."
Before Morgan could answer Sara walked in, "Maybe Catherine knows what?"
"Umm…if she knows what is going on with Nick," Morgan quickly covered.
Sara groaned, "Are you two still on that?"
"We can process and gossip at the same time," Greg joked.
"You find anything downstairs?" Morgan asked.
Sara shook her head, "Nothing. No forced entry. Whatever happened it happened up here."
"Did you see a laptop downstairs?" Greg asked.
Sara shook her again, "Killer must have took it."
"Well she was a PI so either what was on the laptop was worth killing for or the laptop had information that could identify the killer," Greg theorized as he bagged the laptop cable.
"Or the fiancé did it and took the laptop to cover up the crime," Morgan suggested as she picked up another piece of glass.
"Yeah," Sara sighed, "I'm going to see if the Coroner is here yet. Are you two almost finished?"
Morgan picked up another piece of glass and glared at her.
Greg tried not to laugh, "It might be awhile. There's a lot of glass in the carpet."
"Okay," Sara said as she heard a noise downstairs, "that sounds like David," she said before turning and leaving.
Greg looked over at Morgan as she continued to pick up glass. He shook his head and walked over to help her. "What ever this was had to be kind of big."
"Yeah," Morgan sighed, "if Catherine and Vartann know, who else knows?"
Greg shrugged, "I don't know. Apparently we're not very good at keeping secrets."
"Great," Morgan groaned as she picked up another piece of glass. This is going to take forever.
"Hey, Doc. How was New York?" Catherine asked as she walked into autopsy.
Doc Robbins looked up from examining the body on the table, "Great. Judy and I hit all the tourist spots. The Statue of Liberty, Times Square, The Met…"
"Did you go to a Yankee's game?" Catherine asked with a smile.
"Had a foot long hotdog and a beer," he said as he put his glasses back on.
"Sounds like you had a great time," Catherine answered. At least someone is able to have a vacation.
"We did," he answered looking down at the body on his table, "unfortunately Mr. Ashton's great times are done."
"Well, other then the obvious gunshot wound to the head what else can you tell me?"
"He has an abrasion on his right arm," he said as he lifted Mr. Ashton's arm, "happened perimortem."
"Well, he was sitting at a desk and when we got there his right arm was hanging at his side," Catherine pondered, "maybe his arm slipped when he was shot."
"Could be," Doc Robbins picked up a an evidence bag containing a bullet, "pulled this from his frontal lobe."
Catherine took the bag from him, "Looks like a 9 mil. I'll take it to Ballistics. Maybe we'll get lucky. Thanks Doc," she said with a smile before turning and leaving. Just once I would like to get a hit in IBIS and it lead straight to the killer. It's ever that easy. Nothing is ever that easy.
"This is going to take forever," Morgan groaned as she and Sara spread the pieces of glass out on the table in the layout room.
Sara sighed, "Do you have any idea what it could possibly be?"
Morgan shook her head, "It could be anything. All I know is that it was thrown against the wall in Leslie Davis' bedroom. The carpet nor the wall were wet or stained so there was no liquid in it or on it. There was no blood on the carpet or glass. And according to the fiancé nothing is missing except her laptop."
"Maybe the killer brought it?" Sara suggested.
"Maybe," Morgan shrugged, "this is going to require a lot of time and coffee breaks."
"Perhaps you should get more sleep and you wouldn't need so much coffee," Sara smirked.
"I get plenty of sleep," Morgan replied defensively, "you know, when I'm not working."
"I've just noticed you've seen a little tired lately," Sara replied.
"Well, this job can be draining sometimes," Morgan reminded her. Oh my god, she knows. Does the whole lab know?
"Yeah, I know," Sara sighed again.
"If the killer threw what ever this is, maybe we can get some DNA off of it?" Morgan pondered.
"That would be great," Sara answered picking up a piece of glass, "where do we start?"
"Well, some of it has a bluish tint and some doesn't. So maybe if we sort it out by color it will be a little easier," Morgan suggested.
"I don't have a better idea so it works for me," Sara held up a piece of glass, "I'll take the clear."
"Guess I've got blue," Morgan said as she reached for two pieces of blue glass. It's gonna be a long night.
