Author's Note: By the way, since this is set somewhere in season 10 or so, Eric and Calleigh are back together in this fic. Not married or anything, just back doing their season 8 thing. I'm assuming/hoping TPTB will let them and all the HipHuggers out there have their happiness sooner or later and finally just let it alone. Sigh.

III

Murder or Suicide?

Murderers will try to recall the sequence of the events, they will remember exactly what they did just before and just after. But they can never remember the actual moment of killing. This is why they will always leave a clue.

- Peter Ackroyd -

"Has Wolfe said anything to you?" Walter asked Calleigh as they walked together toward the ME building.

"No," she answered, leading the way inside toward the morgue. "And I didn't want to bring it up. He's been doing so well..."

"Yeah," he said. "It must be weird, though. He stopped having to go see Dr. Karishma for check-ups a long time ago. It must have been a shock to see her again at the scene of a suicide of all things."

"Tom seemed a little doubtful when I talked to him," Calleigh said. "As if he wasn't completely convinced it was a suicide."

"What's there to doubt? The guy OD'd on his depression meds. Open and shut."

"You know Tom," Calleigh said, grinning. "When he gets a hunch, he just runs with it until he hits the truth."

They entered the autopsy room together. Dr. Loman had Mark Warren laid out and ready for them. He was busily printing the body as he waited for them.

"Hi, Tom," Calleigh greeted sweetly. "Is this Mark Warren?"

"Indeed it is," Tom answered. "Dr. Mark Warren."

"Like Ph.D. doctor or like you doctor?" Walter asked.

Tom looked at him wryly. "MD. He was a neuropsychologist."

"Just like Jay," Calleigh remarked offhandedly. "They must have met at work."

"So, did you find us a cause of death?" Walter asked.

Tom gave them a mischievous look. "Take a guess."

Calleigh glanced at Walter amusedly. He looked back at her exasperatedly.

"Overdose?" Walter asked dully.

Tom smirked. "Strike one."

"No?" Calleigh repeated, surprised. "Really?"

"Really really," Tom said. "Dr. Warren here drowned. In his own vomit."

Walter's face screwed up in disgust. "Ugh. Hell of a way to go."

"So he overdosed, had second thoughts and decided to call for help," Calleigh thought out loud. "Fell, was too overcome by the combination of the drugs and the wine to move, threw up where he was and drowned in it. Sound right?"

"Just about," Tom said. "But there was another interesting thing I found. I analyzed his stomach contents. I found a whole lot of wine, but no pills or pill capsules."

"Horatio said he found white powder on the table at the scene," Walter pointed out. "So our vic must have crushed up the pills and put them into the wine. He wanted them to be easy to swallow, probably."

"Wait, there's more!" Tom quipped.

Calleigh raised her eyebrows at Walter. "There's more," she said seriously.

"He sustained a blow to the back of the head, probably giving him one nasty concussion," Tom said.

"Could he have gotten that from falling off the sofa or something?" Calleigh asked.

"According to my findings, the wound went through at least an hour's worth of healing before he died. And I also found wine in his lungs," Tom told them.

Walter frowned. "So he aspirated the wine after he threw it up."

"Strike two," Tom replied. "The wine in his lungs was never digested. It came right from the bottle. He would have been choking all over it, but it kept coming. As if he couldn't stop it."

"Or someone was helping it along," Calleigh said softly.

"So this really could have been murder?" Walter asked confusedly.

"That's your job to find out," Tom pointed out mildly.

::|+|::

Eric looked up when Calleigh walked into his fingerprints lab. The usual twinge in his heart squeezed when his eyes met hers. He smiled at her.

"Hey, beautiful."

She beamed at him. "Hey, handsome. Is that the wine bottle from the Warren case?"

He nodded. "I only found a couple prints on it, but they're running now."

"Well, here you go," she said, handing over the ten-card Tom had made for Mark Warren. "These are from our victim."

"You think it's murder or suicide?" Eric asked, taking the paper from her and scanning it into the computer. "The whole lab seems to be split in half."

"With each piece of evidence we dig up, it looks more and more like murder," she told him. "I'm reserving judgment."

He chuckled. "Good call."

The computer beeped. She stood next to him to read over his shoulder.

"Fingerprints on the wine bottle are not a match to our victim," Eric read, his brow furrowed in confusion. "None of them are. He never touched it."

"A little hard to kill yourself with something you never touched," Calleigh remarked dryly.

The computer beeped again. Eric's frown deepened.

"There's only one person's prints on this bottle," he told her. His brown eyes were concerned as he looked at her.

"They match Ryan's friend Jay."

Author's Note: Oh dear, Jay's looking guiltier by the second! Did she do it? Keep reading to find out! And remember, reviews are like dark chocolate-covered pretzels in September (or November!) :P