Chapter 2
Brass led Grissom and Catherine over to the young man at the side of the pool. "Gil Grissom, Catherine Willows from the Crime Lab, this is Mark Scott. He found the body. Maybe you ought to explain it Mark." Brass was trying hard not to grin, but he was failing miserably.
Mark shrugged. "Okay. We got a call...."
"We?" Grissom looked at Mark properly for the first time. Young with short blonde hair, baggy jeans with a couple of oil stains, sneakers, gray tee-shirt, damp.
Brass grinned again. "Try it with details Junior."
Mark grinned back at him. "Okay. I've been working at Hendersons Garage for the past week as a mechanic. Mainly vehicle retrievals. You know, car breaks down, we tow it in." Grissom nodded. "So this morning we got a call from a Mr Hopkins, who wanted a car removed from his pool. Apparently they get 9 or 10 calls like that a year. Go figure. Anyway, everyone else was busy, so I got the job. When I got here, the guy on reception, John, or at least that's what his badge says, he brought me up here, which kinda threw me a bit. I mean, no-one mentioned the pool was a rooftop job. But there's a pool, and there's a car in there, and I'm guessing it ain't a standard feature." Catherine couldn't hide the smile as she got the camera out of her field kit and started to photograph the scene. "Well I've never retrieved a car from a pool before, but I'd asked the other mechanics at the garage before I left, and they said the first thing to do is to work out where to attach some straps or ropes so you can lift the car out. So I got in the pool to take a look. I mean, I know this isn't a normal job, but I didn't know what else to do. Anyway, I dived down to check for an attachment point, maybe the front axle or something, and there's a dead guy in the driver's seat. That's when I called Brass."
"So where is Mr Hopkins?" asked Grissom.
"At work apparently," said Brass. "I've sent someone over to get a statement from him."
"And the doors to the apartment are fully locked and secured," said Mark. At the questioning look that Grissom shot him he added, "Well that's what John told me. Twice." Brass smirked.
Catherine pointed to a puddle of water by the pool. "Is this where you got out of the pool Mr Scott?"
"Yeah. In and out. And no I didn't touch the car. And call me Mark."
"So do we have a name for our vic?" Grissom asked Brass.
"Not yet." Brass looked pointedly at Mark. "If we had a licence plate number we could at least run the car through the database."
"Hey," objected Mark. "If you want the licence number, YOU get in the damn pool."
"You're already wet," fired back Brass.
"Oh, and you've suddenly forgotten how to swim?"
Catherine watched the exchange between the two men with barely contained amusement. Grissom looked faintly annoyed. He cleared his throat to get their attention. "So have we got a description?" Grissom crouched down by the side of the pool.
"Late 90's Lexus SC300, 2 door, blue with tinted glass, sunroof ...." Mark trailed off as Grissom turned to look at him with an eyebrow raised in disbelief. "What?" Catherine had to suppress a giggle.
"I meant the dead man," sighed Grissom. "What does he look like?"
"Oh him." Mark shrugged. "Scrawny white guy, black hair, mustache."
Catherine finished photographing the pool and surrounding area. "So, how did the car end up in the pool?"
Mark pointed upwards. "Looks like they've got a car park on the roof, and one of the barriers looks kinda bent."
Catherine looked up at the building. The building continued a couple of stories above the roof terrace, and there did seem to be a gap in a barrier. She started photographing the building. "Brass...."
"I've already sent a couple of uniforms up there to secure the scene."
"So our guy drowned after driving his car off the building and into the pool?" Catherine asked Grissom.
Brass and Mark exchanged glances. Grissom stood up and looked at the pair of them. "Probably not Catherine. I think there's something we're not being told."
"Our vic was shot," supplied Brass.
"How do you know he was shot?"
"Well the hole in his head is a bit of a clue," admitted Mark. "I figure if he's not dead, he's going to have one hell of a headache in the morning."