The Questions and Documents Lab had been quiet all day until Eric walked in. He had been looking for Cynthia Wells, but she was nowhere to be found. Instead there was an unfamiliar face. "Uh, excuse me, is Cynthia Wells here?" Eric asked the unfamiliar woman standing in front of him.
"Oh um, she's on nights now. I'm the new day shift tech. Name is Christina Green," she said with a smile.
Christina Green was the new questions and documents lab tech. She was fresh out of college with a Bachelor's Degree in Graphology from the University of Miami.
"Well, Miss Green I have a job for you. I need you to figure out if these scrolls here are real or not, and anything else you can find. Can you handle that?" Eric asked holding up the battered pieces of parchment.
"I think I can handle that." Christina took the two scrolls – in the evidence bag – and set them on the table. "I'll call you when I find out something."
"Thanks Christina." Eric winked at the new lab tech then went to find Calleigh and Horatio.
On his way to find his fellow colleagues, a part-time lab tech stopped him with some results. "Hey Eric I have something for you. "Aida Rodriguez said handing him the results. "The print you found on the letter came back with a hit in AFIS. A teenage boy named Jon Fog." Eric took the sheet of paper from her and studied it.
"He's nineteen years old, and has had priors of breaking and entering, robbery, and grand theft auto. How wonderful, and he works at a paper store. Thanks Aida this helps a lot."
"No problem… good luck with the case."
"Thanks." Eric took out his cell and dialed Horatio's number.
"Horatio." The Lieutenant answered.
"H, I got a lead on who the killer might be. Aida ran the print I found on the scrolls. AFIS came back with a hit. He's a nineteen-year-old boy named, Jon Fog. He's got priors for a B and E, robbery, and grand theft auto. Get this, he works in a paper store."
"All right Eric… run with it, and take Calleigh with you. Frank and I are about to question the three from the Seagrass. Keep me posted." With that he hung up, and went in search of Calleigh.
Meanwhile, over at the police department, Frank had just left finished escorting the three suspects to an interrogation room. "Was that Delko?" Frank asked walking up to Horatio.
"Yes, Frank that was. We have a break in the case. I told him and Calleigh to run with it while we question our three suspects," Horatio explained.
"All right, well the woman is getting nervous. I don't know if it's because she's nervous about being here or if she had something to do with the murders," Frank said shutting his police notepad.
"Okay Frank. I am going to call Mr. Wolfe and have him come down here. I'll take Miss Solley you take Mr. Castle and when Mr. Wolfe gets here he can talk with Mr. Rogers." Frank nodded and went to interrogation room three. Horatio followed suit but went across the room to Elizabeth.
"Miss Solley, I need you to tell me everything you have done in the past twenty-four hours, okay," Horatio said taking at seat.
Elizabeth stirred in her seat. She knew that hitchhiking was illegal, and she didn't want to go to jail for it. "Um… I was, I was traveling," she said nervously.
Horatio leaned forward resting his elbows on the glass table. "Ma'am, I need to know where you were going so I can verify your story. If you don't then I can't help you." Elizabeth started tapping her foot on the floor. She didn't know what to say. "Ma'am, I need to know."
"I was traveling to anywhere. I didn't really have a destination. I was walking along the road and I… I saw a man coming. I put out my hand and he picked me up. That's how I've been traveling." She looked down at her hands, and started picking at her nails; it was a nervous habit for her.
Horatio folded his hands. "You were hitchhiking?" She said nothing. "Miss Solley, if you help us in the investigation... I can make the fines go away, but I need your full cooperation. Can you give that to me?"
"Yes, yes sir."
Speed and Lauren arrived once again at the gas station. "I think this is a record of some sort. How many times can a CSI visit a crime scene in one day," Lauren said ducking under crime scene tape. "What is this? Stop number three?"
Speed laughed. "Yeah it's number three."
When they entered the building, the two noticed that the crime scene clean up had done their jobs. The water was gone and the blood was gone, but something was still off. Speed looked around the store again. He noticed what looked like tiny bugs crawling on the floor near the back of the store. He started making his way to the back while Lauren started the search for any surveillance cameras.
Speed knelt down took take a closer look. He shined his flashlight light on the moving crawlers. They were maggots. He set his kit down on the floor and opened it, but first took a couple photos. Speed grabbed a pair of latex gloves and some tweezers. He managed to pick up a dead one. He scrunched up his nose and grabbed a small jar, and placed a couple dead maggots in it before walking back up the front of the store. "You find anything?"
Lauren sighed. "No, I really don't think there are any security cameras in here. Where'd you go?"
"I saw something in the back and guess what it was…"
"More water and seaweed?" Lauren asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, something odd… to me anyway." Speed opened his kit again, and showed Lauren the jar of maggots. Lauren scrunched her nose up in disgust. "This case just keeps getting weirder and weirder," he added. Lauren couldn't agree more.
"Okay, so if there is a camera system in here I can't find it," Lauren said shining her flashlight up to drop ceiling. No cameras were present. She sighed. "I guess we're going to have to look harder."
Within about twenty minutes, Speed and Lauren had search the store up, down, left, right, and every which way. They couldn't find anything. Speed was about to call Calleigh when Lauren spotted something odd on the counter by the cash registers.
"Wait, hold on, Tim." Lauren turned her little flashlight back on shining it at the ninety-nine cent items. As she walked closer she saw a little black dot. "Tim, I think I found one." She picked up her camera and photographed it. Setting the camera down Lauren put on a pair of latex gloves and pulled at the small black device; it was in fact was a camera. "Oh, my, gosh, it's really a camera." Speed shut his phone and walked up behind Lauren.
"He probably didn't want anyone to notice the surveillance. These cameras are new to the market. Some of them are even smaller than this." He took the camera from Lauren and placed it in an clear evidence bag. "Now the question is how are we going to get the tapes if the man who was killed is the only one who knew about them."
"Well, look at you Mr. Speedle. Reading up on the newest technology are we? I'm very proud of you honey," Lauren said patting him on the back as both of them laughed.
Now that Speed and Lauren knew what they were looking for, they recovered three more cameras and had located the surveillance tapes. The owner had built a secret room off the back of the building where the records, TVs, and tapes were stored.
"Let's get these back to the lab," Speed said grabbing the evidence box they had put the videotapes in.
Back at the police department, Eric and Calleigh were questioning Jon Fog, the prime suspect in Bob Franklyn's murder. Of course he denied every bit of it.
"Jon, where were you earlier today?" Eric asked holding onto an evidence bag. I held the scroll. Calleigh was standing next to him.
"I was working, dude. Check with my boss," the nineteen year old said nonchalantly.
"We will. What time was that at, Jon?" Calleigh asked setting a folder on the folder down on the table.
"7:00a.m to 4:00p.m," he retorted.
Calleigh and Eric exchanged looks, knowing that if his alibi checked out, putting him at the scene would be near impossible.
"It's true. Here, call my boss CSI Duquesne," Jon added giving flashing a cheesy grin as he held out his cell phone to her.
"Mr. Fog, give us a moment please," Calleigh said in her polite southern accent. "Eric can I see you outside for a sec?" Eric followed her out.
"What's up Cal?" Eric asked letting the interrogation room door shut.
"Something about this boy isn't sitting well with me. I know he said he was at work, but I just have this feeling he's involved. We need to find a way to hold onto him. His prints were on the note Eric." Calleigh searched her friend's eyes for anything that told her he believed her.
"Maybe Cal, but his place of work is a paper store. He could have touched the parchment when he sold it to the actual killer," Eric explained. He wanted to believe her and he too felt something odd about this teenager. Proving it would be the challenge.
A woman cleared her throat. "Excuse me, Calleigh I have the DNA you found on the nail," said DNA analyst Maxine Valera. "Is that the suspect?" she added handing Calleigh the file.
"Yes it is Valera," she answered with a sigh as she looked at the results. "What do we got here?"
"Well, the suspect in there doesn't match my results. In fact the results aren't even male."
Calleigh looked at the DNA results. "It's female," she said shocked.
"And CODIS got a hit it looks like," Eric said reading the bottom of the paper. "Heather Gabby… look at this she's nineteen, and her record is the same as Mr. No-it-all in there.
"Well, hope everything works out. If you need anything I'll be in DNA," Valera said and walked away.
Eric looked at Calleigh and she looked at him. "Well, let's see if Jon knows her," Eric said heading back into the interrogation room.
Calleigh felt her cell phone vibrate. She had received a text message. It was from Lauren saying that she and Speed had found the surveillance system, and were bringing the tapes back to the lab.
"Jon, do you know this person," Eric asked setting the sheet down in from of the suspect.
Jon looked down and shook his head no. "Nah man, I don't know that chick. She looks like a whack job," Jon said.
"Are you sure Jon? Take a look at her again." Eric knew he was lying.
Calleigh walked up and whispered in his ear, "Lauren and Tim found cameras and are bringing the tapes back to the lab."
"Jon, come on if we find out you're lying then we can't help you. Two other CSIs are on their way back from the crime scene with surveillance video. Are you going to be on it?" Eric asked forcefully.
"Nah man I told you. I had nothin' to do with that man's murder, and I never even seen her before."
"Well, Jon we have your fingerprint on this scroll. We're holding you for now," Calleigh said calmly.
A uniformed police officer took Jon from the interrogation room and escorted him to holding.
"We'll get him Eric. We need to bring in this Heather girl. Frank's busy so I think I'm going to go grab Virginia. I believe she's still here."
"Yeah, I just saw her right before I came down here."
"Okay, well let's go get this girl and see what she has to say about our little friend Jon and our victim."
"All right, and I hope Lauren and Speed find something on those tapes."