CSI: LOVE IS BLIND

CHAPTER 4: DISGRUNTLED GUEST

Chapter 4, the team interview their next suspect and finally find their answers, read and enjoy please.

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI or it's characters.

The team returned to the evidence, Hodges had finally identified the trace fibres as material from a black suit, likely transferred in an altercation with the host. Also finally they had found a match for the DNA from the pipe, it came back Carl Edwards, the talk show hosts guest for his last show. After calling him he came in willingly, he was escorted into the interrogation room and Brass and Catherine began talking to him.

"Tell me, do you smoke a pipe".

"Yeah, why?"

Catherine then pulled out the evidence bag with the pipe in it.

"Is this yours?"

Carl stared in surprise.

"Yeah, I thought I'd lost it, where did you guys find it".

"At the murder scene, where James Henderson was strangled to death".

Almost immediately Carl showed panic.

"Hey look, you can't pin that on me".

"You still wearing that same black suit, I'm sure if I take a sample from your suit it'll match the fibres we found on the guys jacket".

"Okay, yes, I fought with the guy but I didn't kill him, for God sake, I was angry but not angry enough to kill him".

Catherine then asked.

"Show me your shoes".

"Huh, oh, okay".

He then lifted his feet and showed his shoes, Catherine noted, size seven shoes with a tread pattern to match the ones found out the back of the TV studio.

Catherine smiled.

"We can place you at the scene, you admit to fighting with him, are we just supposed to take your word for it that you didn't kill him".

"Look, I'm telling you the truth, I had nothing to do with his death, I was angry at what he had said, I'm not the only one I'm sure".

Brass then spoke up.

"Yeah, you and just about everybody on the planet, if you want to give us something we can believe how about your fingerprints".

Carl sighed.

"Fine, fine, if it'll get you off my back and prove that I'm innocent then yeah, take my damn prints already".

They took his fingerprints and left him in the interrogation room, they began by analyzing the prints, they matched the pipe, it was definitely Carl's pipe also Archie had examined the CCTV footage further and saw that Carl did in fact get into an altercation with the victim but the victim was alive when he left the room, however as the CCTV always shorted out just before the murder occurred, however it was obvious to see that the killer's hair was black and that he was young, Carl's hair was black but he was middle-aged and had streaks of grey in it, also the fingerprints they had collected from him did not match the microphone cord print, Carl Edwards was innocent, they had to release him. Once he was released the team gathered in the break room and, while eating lunch Grissom spoke.

"Okay, we've gone through three suspects and each one of them has an alibi or has been cleared by the evidence, who have we not looked at, what have we not looked at?"

Catherine checked over her notes.

"We can rule out the janitor as the killer is young and he's at least sixty".

Sara read over the evidence list.

"So far the only things we've not got any positive match too is the hair from the microphone cord, the partial print on the cord and that unusual substance we found on the victim's neck".

Just then Hodges walked in.

"Not anymore, I've finally managed to identify said substance, it's a type of cleaning fluid specially designed for cleaning the lenses of video cameras".

That caught the attention of everyone.

They decided to attempt to talk to the camera man Bernie Caine, when they went to his house Brass knocked on the door.

"Las Vegas Police, open the door!"

There was a short pause and then Bernie Caine opened the door, he looked irritable.

"What".

Grissom spoke.

"Mr. Caine, we need to talk about the death of Mr. Henderson, is there any reason why cleaning fluid used for camera lenses was found on his neck, close to where he had been strangled".

Caine looked at Grissom, a brief flicker of panic crossed his face and he leaned forward, resting his hand on the wall.

"Hey, I'm not the only camera man on that show, any one of us could use that cleaning fluid, if you think that's good evidence, here's what I think about it".

He then spat on the ground and then slammed the door shut. Grissom simply smirked and collected the fingerprint that Bernie had left on the wall and swabbed the saliva to get a DNA sample.

"Plain sight, fair game".

They then returned to the lab and began to analyze the evidence. To their surprise Bernie's fingerprint matched the partial print on the microphone cord and his DNA was a match to the DNA from the hair sample, with this evidence they were able to obtain a warrant for Bernie's house. They returned and knocked on the door again, Bernie answered still irritable.

"What now!"

"We have a warrant, so, if you don't mind".

"This is harassment, fine, take what you need and get out!"

Grissom entered the house and began his search, soon he found what he was looking for, a bottle containing Bernie's cleaning fluid. Just then however he spotted something else, a video that looked as if it came from Bernie's camera, he collected it and they left the house and once again returned to the lab.

After careful analysis Hodges confirmed that Bernie's cleaning fluid was chemically identical to the cleaning fluid found on the victim's neck, finally Grissom walked over to the AV lab and Archie then showed the video. It has indeed come from Bernie's camera and showed James Henderson and Bernie arguing about what he had said during his last show, the argument got louder and then suddenly Bernie grabbed James' microphone off him, James shoved him and Bernie then grabbed James and strangled him with the microphone cord, definitive proof that Bernie Caine had murdered James Henderson, he had been caught by his own video camera.

End of chapter, next up the arrest of Bernie Caine and his final interview with police and then the aftermath. hope you enjoyed, read and review please.