I do not own these characters…Jerry Bruckheimer and CBS do
Chapter 4
Dustin Green was leaning over the body of Mike Arnold with a thermometer held firmly in his hand. He felt for the hard ridge at the bottom of the sternum, then moved one inch down and one inch to Mike's right. Using a needlelike probe, he made an entry point for the thermometers spike. As soon as he finished removing the thermometer, he drew a red circle and initialized the entrance site. He looked up just as a striking blue-eyed blonde walked in followed by three laughing men.
"You must be Catherine. I'm Dustin, Dustin Green."
She shook his hand and nodded. "This is Warrick, Nick, and Greg." She said pointing at the muscular, African American on her right, then to the burly, Mahogany-haired man on her left, before her slender gloved finger landed on the energetic, boyish man who was standing slightly behind all of them. Their smiles faded as they shook Dustin's hand, they were all business now.
"Looks like a murder suicide, but you can never be too careful" Dustin said before stepping out of Catherine's way.
Catherine's authority filled voice filled the entire room, "alright, Nicky and Greg take the perimeter. Warrick and I will work in here."
The men set out at once; an angry Catherine was not something they needed. Nick and Greg strolled around the perimeter of the home. The lawn was a stone desert, no grass in sight until they made their way to the backyard. They weren't collecting anything yet, just trying to get a better sense of their surroundings before taking a closer scientific look.
"Okay Greggo, we're looking for shoe impressions, and any area of disturbance. We also have to make sure we print the doorbell, and the door handles." Nick instructed before heading back out to the front porch. He knew he didn't have to tell Greg what they needed to find anymore, he has been out in the field enough, but old habits die hard.
Greg set to work in the back; he was used to people telling him what to do. He knew it wasn't because they didn't trust him it was just because he was the new guy and they weren't used to him being out of the lab. Pulling open his kit, he grabbed his fingerprinting dust and brush and waddled on bent knees to the patio door. Using short, quick strokes he ran his powder-dipped brush against the pristine white plastic of the doors handle. He found multiple prints and some smudges, and was overall very happy with the outcome.
Nick was kneeling on the front porch dusting the cracked, yellow button for the doorbell. Just his luck, there were no usable prints. He sighed, frustrated with his lack of results, he just hoped that the others were faring better then he was. Sighing once more, he ducked down to print the screen doors handle, collecting two beautifully detailed prints. He found another print and a few smudges on the front doors brass handle.
Greg rejoined Nick in the front of the house. He informed Nick of his findings as they trekked down the concrete driveway. Their trained investigative eyes zeroed in on a disturbance in the tree-lawn grass. As they got closer they realized that it was a set of deep shoe impressions. Greg, in his newly excited state, rushed to his kit while Nick photographed the impressions. They carefully set up the solid frames making sure not to disturb the treads, and poured the dental stone, covering the entire tread.
The cast needed at least thirty minutes to set. Nick and Greg stared at it the entire time; they looked like two kids on Christmas waiting for Santa to come shooting down the chimney. After about thirty-three minutes Nick crouched down over the cast and gave it a few good taps. Upon hearing the tell-tale high-pitch sound he knew they were finished. He extracted them delicately from the ground and passed them to Greg. Greg cautiously picked them up from Nick's hands and gently laid them inside the cardboard box. Both satisfied with their collected evidence, they ambled back up the driveway and into the house.
"Hey Cath, we finished up outside. We found some prints and a few good shoe impressions." Nick informed her before asking if they needed any help.
"Ok Nicky that's great, Warrick and I will just finish up here. You and Greg take your evidence back to the lab and start processing, I will let you know when we're on our way back."
"Alright see you later." He said grabbing Greg's elbow and ushering him out the door.
A while later they were back in the cool air conditioned lab. They dropped their prints off with Mandy, and they were currently studying their shoe impressions. They had books of shoe treads open on the table in front of them, but they knew it could be a while before they found a match. The one thought that kept them motivated was the fact that with every turn of a laminated page, they got closer to finding their match. Hoping Warrick and Catherine found something probative; Nick opened another book full of possible shoe tread matches.