Chapter Two

Keara's First Case

Nick and Keara got back upstairs. They made their way back to Grissom's office. They walked inside and Grissom was sitting at his desk

"Hey Grissom, we finished the tour of the lab," Nick stated.

"So, what do you think of this place?" Grissom asked Keara.

Keara smiled, "more than I expected. I can't wait to start."

"Good to hear. Nick, I've got a DB over on Mockingbird Drive. Take Keara, show her how to work a scene," Grissom explained and handed Nick the case file.

"You got it Grissom. Alright let's head on out," Nick took the file and he and Keara left Grissom's office.

They headed out to the parking garage and got into Nick's SUV. They buckled up and Nick started the engine. He pulled out of the space and they were on their way to the crime scene. The car ride was quiet for a while. Nick decided to break the silence.

"So, have you lived in Vegas for long?" Nick asked.

"I've lived here for about five years. I'm originally from Connecticut. My parents still live there, most of the year anyway. I go back to visit during the holidays," Keara explained.

"Wow that must've been an intense move. I mean, New England weather is much different than our weather."

"I actually adjusted pretty quickly. Don't get me wrong, it's hot as hell here. But there's hardly ever any humidity. Summers back east were horrible. Hot and sticky, I don't miss that."

"What about the snow?"

"I miss it, but I don't miss driving in it. Snow is pretty, but only when it first falls. Then it gets all brown and yucky. What about you? Judging by the accent I detect, you didn't grow up here either."

"You'd be right. I grew up in Texas. My family still lives in Texas, but I moved here after I graduated from college," Nick explained.

They finally reached Mockingbird Drive. Nick parked in front of house number 35. They both got out of the car and Nick walked around to his trunk. He pulled out two evidence kits and handed one to Keara. They walked up the driveway and went inside the house. When they got inside David was going over the body.

"Hey super Dave, what do we have?" Nick asked.

"Caucasian male, found an ID on him. Vic's name is Mark Osborne, he's 25. It looks like COD is blunt force trauma. We'll know more after the post," David replied.

"Thanks Dave," Nick stated.

David and the other coroners took the body away and Nick started to look around. He put down his kit, put on a pair of latex gloves and took out his flashlight. Keara did the same and followed close behind.

"When it comes to a crime scene, you need to be thorough. Anything you find could be a piece of the puzzle. Look over anything and everything that could potentially be evidence. Now, in this situation what do you notice?"

Keara looked around the room. "Broken lamps, broken furniture, looks like there was a struggle."

"Very good," Nick praised her and started taking photos of the scene.

Keara took out her flashlight and started to look around the room. As she walked through the room she came across a couple crushed beer cans, another broken lamp and a fireplace poker. She took out her camera and took photos of the objects. Then she took a closer look at the poker. There was blood and hairs on the tip of it.

"Hey Nick!"

"Yeah."

"I think I found the murder weapon."

Nick made his way over to Keara. He knelt down beside her, "good job Keara. Photograph it, collect the hairs and swab it for blood and epithelials. Then dust it for prints."

"You got it boss," Keara complied and got up to get her kit.

She took the photos and collected all the trace and DNA samples. After all of that she took out her print dust. She started dusting the fireplace poker. She was able to reveal a couple of partial prints. She took out her lift tape and lifted the prints. She took out a large evidence bag and bagged and tagged the fireplace poker.

She put the bag in her kit and continued to look around. She walked up to the fireplace. As she scanned the area with her flashlight, she spotted something on the floor. She took out a pair of tweezers and picked up the foreign object. Nick came up alongside Keara.

"What do you have there?" Nick questioned.

Keara shrugged, "not sure, it looks like a porcelain chip or something."

"No, no, I think that's a tooth. Great job, hopefully Greg will be able to get some DNA off of it," Nick said and handed her a small envelope.

Nick noticed a small amount of bloody saliva on the floor. He took out a swab and collected a sample. They finished working the rest of the scene. After the searched the house from floor to ceiling they left the house and got back into Nick's SUV. Nick started the engine and headed back to the crime lab.

"You did very well for your first crime scene. You've got a good am I," Nick said as he patted Keara on the back.

"Thank you Nick. Well, I also have a great teacher."

Nick blushed a little, "thanks, when we get back we'll take our samples to DNA. Then I'll show you how to run fingerprints."

"Sounds good," Keara replied with a smile.


They got back to the crime lab and headed straight to DNA. They walked into the DNA lab and Nick handed Greg the swabs, the hair and the tooth that were collected.

"So Keara, how did you like your first time out in the field?" Greg asked as he prepared their evidence for testing.

"It was good, Nick is a great teacher," she replied.

"Well, Keara here is a wonderful student," Nick added.

"That's good, very good. I'll have your results up in a few hours. There's a lot to go through," Greg explained.

"Great, thanks Greg. Come on Keara, we'll take the prints to the print lab," Nick suggested and they headed out of DNA.

They walked down the hallway and into the print lab. Mandy was at her post working on a few other cases.

"Hey Mandy, I need you to run some prints for us," Nick stated as he handed her the multiple prints.

Mandy sighed, "it's gonna be a while. Come back in a couple of hours."

Nick nodded, "all right, thanks Mandy."

"So what do we do now?" Keara asked.

"Let's head down to the morgue. The doc should know more about our victim by now," Nick answered.

They left the print lab and headed for the morgue.