Thanks for the reviews. :)
A few hours after returning from the crime scene Grissom paged Sara and Greg, asking them to meet him in the conference room. They both arrived minutes later, files in hand. Grissom was sitting at the head of the table totally engrossed in the crime scene and autopsy photos. He didn't hear them enter the room and looked up startled when Sara dropped the file she was carrying on the table and took a seat to his left. Greg sat down tiredly in the seat to his right.
"What did you find at the scene?" Grissom asked, quickly getting to business.
Sara nodded to Greg, indicating that he should start. Greg cleared his throat and began, "We found a set of tire tracks, ran 'em and the results were inconclusive. We'll need a suspect's car to match. We found three sets of shoe prints. Matched two of 'em to the kids who found the body. The other set is from a pair of Justin boots-size ten. We also found two aluminum beer cans; pretty fresh…still had a little liquid in them. No prints. I gave the cans to Mia, she's working on getting DNA off them as we speak."
"Is that all?" Grissom asked, somewhat disbelieving.
"We went over that scene several times. There was nothing there," Sara defended. "If there had been any evidence, we definitely would have found it."
"Okay, I believe you." Grissom gave her a funny look.
"What did you find out in autopsy?" Greg inquired.
"Time of death was around one. The victim sustained some serious trauma; we counted thirty six deep cuts to her body…couldn't determine what was used—probably a knife, blunt force trauma to the head, her torso was covered in bruises, she had internal bleeding, her hand was cut off prior to her death. No sign of sexual assault."
"What's the official cause of death?" Sara asked, her voice cracking just slightly.
"Severe trauma. Doc couldn't decipher which injury was the exact cause of death…there were just too many factors."
The trio sat gravely quiet for a moment, all thinking about what the poor girl had experienced before she finally died. After a few minutes, Grissom cleared his throat and continued, "I recovered three blond hairs from the body, and skin from under her fingernails, they're in DNA. The vic was a brunette, so the hairs aren't hers. She had no defensive wounds, but she could have managed to scratch her attacker at some point. I talked to Brass an hour ago…he was on his way to inform the parents. He should be returning soon and then we get to question Cheech and Chong. He wanted to give them a few hours to sober up before we talked to them."
"So, we're at a standstill until the test results come back?" Greg asked.
"Yeah. Now can one of you explain to me Cheech and Chong?"
Greg tried to hide a smile, while Sara let out a small laugh. "You've never seen a Cheech and Chong movie?"
Grissom shook his head. "So, they're actors?"
"More like a comedy team. Their movies were all about smoking pot—real funny stuff," Sara replied.
"How is a movie about doing drugs funny stuff?" Grissom inquired, clearly baffled.
"You've obviously never been around any potheads," Greg cut in.
"I have a couple of their movies. You can watch them before you pass judgment on them," Sara said with a smirk.
"Will you be watching them with me?" Grissom asked, much to Sara and Greg's surprise. Greg and Sara looked at each other wide-eyed, before Greg quickly scrambled out of the room mumbling something about coffee.
Sara turned back to look at Grissom, who was looking at her expectantly, one eyebrow raised in question.
"Uh…I guess I could," she responded.
"Let me know when you have the time," Grissom said as he grabbed his files and left the room.
Sara, with brow furrowed, watched his retreating form with confusion and curiosity. After a moment she shook her head, grabbed her files and went in search of Greg.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
A few hours later…Meeting in the conference room once again, this time with Brass added into the mix, they filled each other in on any new information.
"How'd it go with the parents, Jim?" Grissom asked.
The captain let out a heavy sigh. "It was rough, it never gets any easier, you know. The mother was hysterical and the father…I don't think I've ever seen a man look so broken. The girl was an only child, straight A student, spent her free time doing charity work with her church. According to the father, she was very close to both parents—told them everything. She had a handful of friends from church and school, no boyfriends or crushes. I'm going to interview her friends this afternoon."
"What about the boys that found her?"
"They check out clean. They had been in Rachel visiting family for the past week; they got back to town at around 1:30 this morning. They snuck out after their parents went to bed, drove out to the desert, smoked some weed and went looking for flying saucers. There's no way they could have done this."
"What do you have, Sara?"
"I got your tox results, came back clean. The hairs you found were human, luckily one had a skin tag. Mia ran the DNA through CODIS. No match. The skin from under the vic's nails matched the hairs and Mia managed to get DNA off the beer cans which also matched."
"Okay. I got a page from Doc Robbins a little while ago. It seems he missed something during the autopsy. He sent me over some photos." Grissom passed the pictures around the table. "It wasn't hard to miss considering all the cuts on the body, but it appears that someone carved the word 'sinner' into her back."
"So, are you thinking this murderer had some kind of religious motivation?" Greg asked.
"I'm not thinking anything yet, Greg. We don't have much…and unless we can get any info from her friends, or until the killer strikes again…we have nowhere to go with the evidence we have. It's not like we can stop and question every guy wearing Justin boots and drinking Coors Light."
Brass let out a loud sigh. "Well, it's been fun, kids, but I'm gonna go grab a bite to eat before I go question the friends. Anyone want to join me?" Brass asked as he rose from his chair.
Greg shook his head, while Grissom answered, "No thanks, Jim."
Brass didn't even bother to ask Sara again, when he saw how absorbed she was in the case information laid out before her. He shook his head sadly as he walked out the door, thinking to himself that this was going to be one of those cases for Sara.
Grissom looked at the tired faces of Sara and Greg and said, "You two should head home, shift ended hours ago and there's nothing more we can do."
"Good," Greg said. "I'm so tired. I'll see you guys tonight." He gathered up his things and disappeared down the hall.
Grissom eyed Sara for a moment, who was still engrossed in the case file. "You should go home. Get some rest," he said.
Without looking up, she responded, "Yeah, I will. Just give me a few minutes."
Reaching across the table, Grissom closed the file she was reading and softly said, "Go home, Sara. You need to get some rest. I have a feeling that this was victim number one, this killer is going to strike again and the next scene will probably be even more horrific. I need you on this case and I need you rested and clear headed."
Sara ran a hand through her hair and let out a miserable sigh. "Fine."
"Hey, Gil," Sofia called, leaning in the doorway. Grissom and Sara turned to look at her. "You ready?"
Grissom quickly glanced at Sara before responding, "Uh, yeah. Just give me a minute."
"Why don't you just meet me at the diner?"
He nodded. "Okay." And with that she was gone.
Suddenly feeling the need to be anywhere but in Grissom's presence, Sara quickly gathered up the papers and photos and shoved them into the file. She scooped up the file, grabbed her jacket and rushed for the door.
"Sara," Grissom called when she was almost out the door.
She never stopped walking. "I'm going home, Grissom."
He watched he leave and felt like a fool. Of course she would misinterpret that little exchange with Sofia. Sofia had asked him to have coffee outside of work to discuss something to do with Ecklie in private. Sure Sofia was a flirt, but he had no interest in her. His interest was in the woman who had just rushed out of the room, seemingly hurt and angry. I've done it again, he thought. I'm trying to be more open to her and reach out to her more and I just end up hurting her again. When am I ever going to learn how to deal with her? Thoroughly disgusted with himself, he left to meet Sofia.
