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Chapter 4

The group had gathered around the oval dining room table and eaten most of the cheesecake, the strawberries, and the whipped cream Grissom had placed on the table. Their conversation had been light and humor-filled until Catherine asked Nick if he had a case for them.

"Another one?" Greg asked, groaning and raking his fingers through his hair. "Isn't it bedtime?"

Catherine, sitting next to him, punched him with her elbow, saying, "Oh, come on, Greg—it's fun reliving our time together. Nick's turn and then you come up with one."

With a grin, he said, "I've got to have coffee. Another of these and I'm out for the night." He held his wine glass up as he stood. "Who else?"

Grissom stood, walking to the coffee maker as four others voiced consent, and in a few minutes, everyone but Sara had coffee in hand. Grissom fixed his wife a cup of tea and brought it to the table.

"You okay?" He asked, placing a hand on her shoulder and then kissing her forehead.

She nodded, saying, "I can't wait to hear what Nick and Greg have to say—on with the unsolved mysteries!"

"Unsolved—not, one unpunished—the one that still gets under my skin wasn't unsolved—we solved it. But the Sheriff would not bring charges! So I'm cheating to say this is an unsolved case." Nick leaned forward, moved his empty plate and crossed his arms, saying, "A case we worked together—I think it was Sara's first year with us. And I don't remember another one like this one."

"A murder?" Asked Grissom as he stacked plates together.

"Oh, yeah. Remember Tony Candlewell? Killed in first class flying into Vegas."

Multiple groans, moans, and sighs came from everyone around the table as memories returned to the hours spent working on the case of a dead passenger in an airplane.

"I remember this one!" Sara said soberly. "We stayed in that plane for hours, it seemed."

"Poor guy had an infection—encephalitis—high body temp, horrible headache, add cabin pressure—that caused him to act out on the plane," Grissom said. "You are right—the sheriff would not agree to file charges on anyone."

"Five people," Nick said, "kicked Tony Candlewell to death—and got away with it."

Sara said, "They should have been charged with negligence for never asking Candlewell what was wrong with him."

Catherine objected, saying, "They were—were in an airplane, in the air—the safety of everyone on that plane was in danger. I don't know—I think I agreed with the sheriff."

"That's not an unsolved case—you'll have to come up with another one," Greg said.

"Yes," agreed Sara, "you need another one—all of us agree that one was solved—just never charged."

"Okay, okay," Nick said. "There's another one—still bothers me—it was the murder of the thirteen year old girl who had gone to gymnastics and never made it home." He looked at Catherine, saying, "It happened during one of those times when we were short handed." A nod toward Sara and Grissom, "That time when you two ran off to Paris and got married."

Everyone around the table laughed.

"Lara Matthews," said Catherine, "I remember the case. Even the tracker dogs couldn't find a scent."

Nick shook his head, saying, "The dogs found her scent and tracked her to a parking lot and that's where she disappeared. Next door was a dance club—over one hundred people had been in the club in twenty-four hours but because the club required a membership card to get in, we managed to track down all but a dozen of them."

Catherine said, "We never had a real suspect—nothing—nothing to indicate anyone in the club had any connection to Lara. We looked at the family and found nothing."

Leaning back in his chair, Nick continued, "Two months—nothing—and then her body was found by a man flying a remote control airplane—out in the western desert."

"She was wearing a Hello Kitty sweatshirt—I remember that," whispered Catherine.

Greg chimed in, saying, "I remember this—we went back to the club—the owners helped us get sixty-seventy men in there to check DNA."

"Right. She also had blood on a sleeve that matched one of the gymnastics instructors who said it came from a nosebleed a week before Lara disappeared. The DNA was male, so we went to the club. From members at the club we found one man who matched the DNA found on Lara's body but not completely—not enough—familial DNA. So we went to his male relatives—his father was dead but he had two uncles and they didn't match."

"When we found something that I thought would advance the case, it turned into a dead end," Catherine said. "Finally—wasn't it filed as a cold case?"

Nick smiled before saying, "Yes and no. After talking to the uncles, I learned their brother—and the father of the guy with the almost-match DNA—drove a city bus.

"I returned to the wife—the mother of the guy with the close match of DNA—and explained to her about DNA and asked if she had anything from her late husband. He'd been dead a decade so she didn't think she had anything—then she asked if an envelope would work. She gave me an old letter her husband had sent her years before. Can you believe Hodges got DNA from the stamp on the letter? I had DNA from a dead man and his son but the DNA found on Lara Matthews wasn't a match. Close, but not enough—had to be another relative."

Sara said, "So there were other children—with other women?"

Nodding, Nick continued, "Finally, I got with some of the bus drivers and a couple of them were helpful with several names. I found two women who admitted to having affairs with the bus driver and one of these women had two sons—one of them wasn't in Vegas at the time of Lara's murder. So, I called in a favor and got the one in Vegas stopped by traffic police and he agreed to a breathalyzer—and I had his DNA."

"Smart move, Nick," Grissom said with a grin.

Nick murmured a "thank you" at the compliment and then grinned. He said, "Almost a match—but wasn't." Shaking his head, he continued, "Somewhere there is another son who murdered this child but I have never been able to find the right one."

"Nothing from CODIS, right," asked Sara. "What about these genealogy websites? Everyone is sending DNA to find out who their ancestors were and if there are unknown family members who might be found with genealogy—have you thought of that?"

A sheepish grin formed on Nick's face. He said, "I paid for the son to do it last year—he's promised to call me if anything comes up. But so far—nothing."

The group at the table had listened intently to Nick's narration, forgetting their coffee as he talked.

After a long silence, Sara got to her feet and said, "How about a warm-up on coffee?"

"I'll get it," Grissom said.

"No, no, I need to stretch," she said as she walked to the coffee pot.

Leaning across the table, Catherine whispered, "Is she going to make it another month, Gil?"

"I hear you, Catherine," Sara called from the kitchen. "I think this boy already weighs more than Beth did at birth." With a giggle, she returned with the coffee pot. She said, "We know he's got a tiny cleft in his chin!"

Nick's face and voice expressed his amazement as he said, "How do you know that? Do you have a photo?"

Grissom took the coffee pot from Sara and refilled cups. He said, "It's all science, Nick, my boy. Technology, research, and fantastic reproductive biology—absolutely amazing what's being done now!"

Playfully tugging on his shirt, Sara said, "Sit down, Gilbert—sonogram, Nick—shows every detail—right down to the Grissom chin. But we don't know eye color yet. That's a surprise."

Brass cleared his throat loudly enough for everyone to look at him. His face lit up with a smile; he lifted his coffee cup in their direction, saying, "We have a mini-Sara so it's only right to have a mini-Gil!"

Catherine's head dropped to touch the table. "I'm not sure we are ready for another Gil Grissom," she mumbled to no one. Lifting her head, she said, "One more tonight—Greg's turn!"

A/N: While this one was not a case from an episode, we thought it was a good one. We've gotten some excellent suggestions for 'unsolved cases'-what is one case you'd like included?