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dragonlord1776 helps Brass, our favorite detective detect the items he needs.
"Aren't you going to have to talk to Ecklie to get the winner three more days of vacation?" Brass asked as he took his envelope. "Or are you giving us some of your vacation days?"
"All will be revealed." Grissom explained with a knowing glint in his eyes.
"Now, everyone not on my team, go back to work, and good luck finding your items," Grissom finished as he put his glasses on and proceeded to look down at the assignments he was about to hand out.
"Yes, Mother," Brass mumbled as he headed to his office where a mound of work was waiting for him.
Brass sat down to open his envelope of items.
"A piece of cactus. That can't be too hard here in the desert," Brass chuckled to himself and then he froze when he read the second one. "Yeah, that's gonna happen," he finished as he grabbed his assignments for the day and headed out of his office.
Brass soon arrived at the Silver Bell Wedding Chapel with Officer Mitchell.
"Apparently, the groom is missing." Mitchell read from his notepad.
"Are you sure he's not just late? Where's the bride?" Brass asked looking around the front of the chapel because the door was open.
"Inside," Mitchell replied as he started to walk into the chapel.
Brass just blinked for a few seconds after he followed Mitchell inside.
There was a bride, a priest, and of all things, a horse. The bride was sitting on the horse that was munching on a prickly pear cactus that was to the left of the altar.
Brass walked to stand in front of the horse so that he could look up at the bride, "Can you tell me what happened here Miss?" he asked while taking out his pen and pad.
"Palmer. Melanie Palmer. And, yes I can," she replied as she patted the horse's neck. "Well, the wedding was scheduled for 5PM and I came early and found a note on the saddle. It said 'I'll be a little late,' but it been almost five hours now. That's why I called the police."
"Were you and the groom having any problems we should know about Ms. Palmer?" Brass asked calmly.
Why did he always get these cases? The newbies in town or the vacationers, he fought the urge to roll his eyes.
"No, we're in love…" Melanie began, but was interrupted by a knock at the side door.
Brass turned and the door burst opened with two men on a white horse.
Brass' jaw dropped for a second until he saw the gun the second man was holding to the groom's head.
Brass shifted around to the side of the bride's horse and back to Mitchell's side.
"You know, I would make a knight in shining armor joke, but some how I think it would fall flat at this moment," Brass whispered to Mitchell as he signaled for him to get his gun out while Brass moved to the other side of the Melanie's horse with his hands up.
He wanted to talk the guy down.
"Sir, why don't you put the gun down," Brass motioned for the priest to get behind him.
"I'm not doing a thing, cop. I'm marrying Melanie. I love her. And I know she loves me, not this bean counter," the man shouted tapping the tip of the gun against the groom's head.
"Come on, we can talk this out," Brass smiled hoping to put the shooter at ease.
"The only way this is working," the man said as he shifted his horse closer to Melanie, "is if she marries me right now. You, Priest," the man continued with authority, "get up there." He waved his gun toward the altar.
"Oh, Aaron. It's been over for months and you know it," Melanie yelled at him nudging her horse so that she was closer to his face.
"I know it's not, because Mickey here can't satisfy you like I can," Aaron said with a lascivious glance at Melanie's ample cleavage.
"He may have a point," Brass whispered to the priest. Aaron looked to be at least 6'5'' and he was all muscle and Brass was pretty sure that he could squash Mikey like a fruit fly.
"He satisfies me," Melanie said with a slight hitch in her voice. She tried to hide her glance at the muscles on Aaron's arms as he shifted his hold on the reins.
"Oh, really, then why are you drooling all over me," Aaron replied.
"Hey," Mickey squawked from his position on the horse. "You…you stay away from her," he stuttered.
"You shut up," Aaron stabbed him with the gun again. "Mel and I are negotiating, so pipe down." He leaned closer to Melanie.
Preparing to speak, Brass stopped when a noise caught his attention. It was the horse munching on the cactus again. Suddenly an idea formed in his mind.
"Act normal," Brass whispered to the priest as he inched toward the cactus plant.
Brass snuck around Melanie's horse and carefully pulled a chunk off and continued to move around until he was behind the horses near Officer Mitchell.
"Cover me," he whispered as he moved around so that he was behind Aaron, who was missing everything because he and Melanie were so caught up in arguing over Mickey.
Brass moved quickly and quietly so that he was right behind Aaron's raised butt. Brass placed the cactus on the saddle, backed away, and took out his gun.
"Hey, Aaron, you're under arrest," Brass said loudly.
Aaron turned in shock and promptly sat on the cactus Brass had placed on the saddle.
"Shittttttttttt," he shouted as he fell forward onto Mickey. They both tumbled to the ground in a pile of legs and arms.
The horses were about to bolt but the priest stopped them with a loud, obviously practiced command whistle.
"Have to do that a lot?" asked Brass with a smirk on his face as he looked down at the now arguing two men.
"You've no idea," the priest replied with a smile.
Mitchell had quickly moved to stand over the two the men to make sure they did not get away.
"Like I said you're under arrest," Brass repeated walking smoothly over to them now, "So get up and you have the right to remain silent…" Brass continued.
"Wait," Melanie said as she got off of her horse with ease, "No one is leaving until I get married," she finished, with a stamp of her left heel, as she came to stand in front of Brass.
Brass rolled his eyes, "Fine, which one?" he asked pointing gun at Mickey and then at Aaron.
"Aaron, of course," Melanie said barely able to hide her excitement, "Sorry, Mickey," she continued as she grabbed Aaron's hand and pulled him up to the altar.
"Vegas," Brass grumbled, rolling his eyes, as he waited patiently while the couple got hitched and then he took Aaron to the station to be booked for brandishing a firearm and disturbing the peace.
Before he left he carefully wrapped a napkin around the piece of cactus that had solved the case and kindly asked the priest, "You mind if I keep this, as a souvenir?"
"It's all yours, detective and thank you," the priest replied with a gentle smile, as he took the horses back to their stable.
After the first part of shift, Brass stopped for a quick meal and then moved on to an arson incident at a local diner. Apparently an Elvis cape had started a small fire.
"Why do people always target the Elvis impersonators?" Brass asked Mitchell as they passed under the tape.
The damage had already been inspected, but Brass and Mitchell still had to get statements from the witnesses.
"The waitress standing over there pretty much saw everything that happened," Mitchell explained as he angled his head behind him near the front door of the diner. "I'm going to interview the rest of the patrons," Mitchell finished as he headed over to the opposite corner of the crime scene.
Brass approached the woman who looked to be around his age.
"Ma'am, LVPD," Brass began. "I'm going to need your explanation of what happened here, but first I need your name and contact information," he finished.
"Oh, sure," the woman said straightening from where she had been slouching against the diner's wall. "I'm Jessica Roberson," she began and then gave Brass her phone number.
"Thank you," Brass said scribbling the information down. "Now could you tell me what happened?" he finished.
"Well, Ben…" Jessica started and then paused, rubbing her ear, as she collected her thoughts, "Ben was having his usual steak and fries, when the Elvis guy came storming up to him. He seemed to be boasting about money and scholarships. They went at it for a minute or two before the manager went over to send them outside." She paused to catch her breath and noticed Brass gently tapping his pen against his notepad. "Ben and the guy kept arguing all the way to the back door…well, they were pushing and shoving each other and one thing lead to another…the guy's cape caught fire. Good thing Ben had good reflexes, but he ran out of here like no tomorrow before we could thank him…" she trailed off playing with a long lock of her auburn hair.
"Did you know the other man? Had you ever seen him before?" Brass asked jotting down some notes.
"No, but it seemed like they knew each other," the waitress said looking Brass in the eye.
"And the manager was able to keep this Elvis calm until the paramedics arrived?" Brass asked wanting to confirm what the arriving officer had reported.
"Yes, it wasn't very hard. He was really shook up," Jessica replied.
"How do you know Ben?" Brass asked tapping his pen against his notepad again.
"Oh, well, he comes into the diner all the time. He's a real gentleman," she replied twirling her hair just a little. When Brass unknowingly raised an eyebrow she added, "Well, and he does have a cute smile," she finished. "Do you always do that?" Jessica asked with a small smile gracing her lips.
"What?" Brass asked completely at a loss as to what she was referring to.
"That," Jessica replied pointing at his notepad.
"Um…yeah," Brass replied deftly putting his pen back in his jacket pocket.
Brass finally looked up at Jessica. She was a striking woman and she didn't have the layers of makeup like all the other women in Vegas seemed too.
"Nervous habit?" she asked with a grin.
"No," Brass replied starting to get a little hot under the collar. "Anything else I should know?" Brass asked clearing his throat.
"Not that I can recall," Jessica stated, not bothering to hide her smile as she smoothed her hair down.
"Alright, well thank you for your time and Officer Mitchell will be taking you down to the station for an official statement." As he was walking away she added loud enough for him to hear…
"I much prefer your butt to Ben's smile though," she finished boldly.
Brass turned slightly and smiled at her. She smiled back.
Brass headed over to Mitchell, "Find anything?" he asked.
"From what one of the cooks says it seems they were fighting over this postcard," Mitchell responded holding up a postcard from the Liberace museum.
"You've got to be kidding me," Brass mumbled as his eyebrow went up his forehead. It was his second item.
"What's that Jim?" Mitchell asked.
"Uh, nothing, Mitchell," Brass coughed. "Did you find out the other guy's name?" he asked as he looked at the postcard in Mitchell's hand.
"Yes," Mitchell replied handing the postcard over to a CSI, "His name is Joe Elliot. The paramedics took him to the hospital," Mitchell replied.
Brass nodded motioning Mitchell to continue the witness interviews, "I'm gonna go check out the back," Brass said.
Apparently Ben Harms had run out the back of the restaurant. No one had been able to find him at home or work.
Brass was passing the dumpster when he heard an unusual noise…was that crying?
Brass pulled out his gun and said, "LVPD. Stand up with your hands above your head."
"Please don't shoot," a man's voice said as he noisily got to his feet.
"Are you Ben Harms?" Brass asked his head tilted to the side because the sound had been crying. And Harms was the culprit of it.
"Yes," Ben responded involuntarily wiping the back of his hand across his wet eyes.
"Sir, come out of the dumpster nice and slow," Brass responded moving to the front of the dumpster.
"Mitchell I found our suspect," Brass yelled to Mitchell never taking his eyes off of Ben.
Soon Ben and Brass were in an interrogation room.
"What's with the postcard?" Brass asked as he slid a photo of it across the table to Ben.
"Liberace sent it to me before he passed away," Ben replied picking up the photo, "I was a big fan."
"Why were you and Joe fighting over it?" Brass asked.
"He won a scholarship from the Liberace Foundation over me in school. He's some big hot shot now," Ben replied. "But I guess he never got a signed postcard." Ben shrugged putting the photo back on the table, "He wanted it for some reason."
Brass shifted in his seat figuring there was a little more to it than that, so he continued to listen rather than comment just yet.
"He got the life I wanted. Talent. Fame. Fortune. Why would he want a lousy postcard when he can get whatever he wants?" Ben continued rubbing his hands through his hair.
"What do you do, if you don't mind me asking," Brass interrupted.
"I'm a music teacher," Ben replied.
"That's great," Brass said, "You're helping others. That's a wonderful gift. You got a wife? Kids?"
"Yeah," Ben smiled.
"Does Joe?" Brass asked quirking an eyebrow.
"Not sure, but he's got a big a career," Ben finished shrugging his shoulders.
Brass leaned forward and looked piercingly at Ben, "Well, I think you just answered your own question. You've got a great life, who cares if you didn't win a scholarship?" Brass finished getting up from his seat.
"Once you fill out the police forms, you can go home. Hug your wife and kids and just be thankful," Brass finished as moved to leave the interrogation room.
"Thanks, Detective," Ben said with a smile and Brass half turned to him and nodded.
"Can I get my postcard back?" Ben asked, the shy excitement apparent in his crocked smile.
"Sure," Brass said. "As soon as all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed in the case file," Brass responded with his hand on the door handle to the interrogation room.
"Thanks," Ben said his crocked smile becoming a full one.
"It's my job," Brass said with a small smile.
"So how did you get a piece of cactus?" Catherine asked, her head resting on her hand as they all sat in the break room.
"Long story," Brass chuckled leaning back in his chair.
"But you didn't get a Liberace postcard," Greg practically whined, slouching with both elbows on the table, "I would have loved to keep that.
"You would," Brass said quirking a smile at Greg, "but you can always get one. It is just down the road."
"I know," Greg said. "But it would have been fun to say you got it for me," Greg finished with a smirk.
Brass snorted, "Well, I didn't. So I guess that means you guys are stuck with me for a few more days this year," he finished with a small, contented smile on his face as he looked at them.
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