Chapter VI
A Meeting of Minds
"Ugh." Brass stared at them, "How can you eat Chinese at" he checked his watch, "3 AM?" Greg looked up, chopsticks halfway to his mouth, "Weakling." Jim only shook his head, "I think I'll stick to coffee, thanks." Sara, who had just arrived, handed him a paper bag. "Nick forgot to order mine sans meat, again, so I was at the deli on my way." She sent the Texan a glare and he smiled, "Meat is good for you, Sunshine." The mood of the gathering was oddly cheerful, as if they weren't going over a disaster that had stolen lives and left a gaping infected sore in the heart of Vegas. They all sat down and there was a moment of passing around files and notes. Grissom was at the head of the table, with Brass at the foot. Catherine was on Grissom's right with Warrick on his left, Nick and Greg came next and the table rounded out with Sara beside Greg and across from Sofia, who sat on Brass's right. Catherine swallowed her mouthful and cleared her throat. "First off the bat, Curtis gets a big shiny merit badge for risking life and limb for a little girl." Nick, who was closest to Sofia, clapped her on the back. "Nice one."
Sofia winced at the impact of Nick's congratulations and blushed at Sara's approving grin. "Does this shiny badge come with a dose of morphine?" If one forgot the case, and how could one do that, it was almost nice. Sofia sighed, stretched and winced at the movement, "Because being a hero hurts like Hell." Greg snorted into his cardboard carton, "Sara could have told you that." He got a fortune cookie thrown at him. That was, apparently, the end of Grissom's patience. "All right, let's get down to business here, please."
They all sighed and turned to the board that had the entire lay out of the scene on it, complete with pictures. Grissom started.
"Bus twenty-seven exploded at approximately 8 PM." Nick held up a finger, "Seven fifty-five and three-quarters, Archie and I pulled a tape from a nearby bank." Grissom nodded, "You've got the tape." Nick nodded, I've got it cued up to play on the TV." He pointed to where he'd rigged his laptop to feed into the television. The man did not look like he was thrilled to be the one presenting the video.
Grissom nodded again, "There were eight bodies on the bus, we recovered six before we had to abandon the bus." Greg looked up, "Bus was dug out and towed to the garage, Super Dave and I got the other two down to Doc an hour ago." The young CSI half-heartedly covered up his shudder. "Arson and Bomb guys are down with the bus now, they said they'd have their reports in by five." Grissom raised a brow. "What about the clothes I asked you to go through, Greg?" Greg shoved his free hand through his limp hair, "Ecklie pulled rank and ordered me to the garage." There was a round of grunts, groans and half-whispered oaths all around the table. Grissom only nodded, "All right, but the clothes, Greg, it could be important." The CSI I nodded and they continued.
Catherine and Warrick tag teamed the explanation of the scene. They had the assorted reports of the other CSIs and there would be a larger meeting with Ecklie at the big-boy seat later, but for now it was just the Graveyard shift and the Detectives. It was, in short, exactly how everyone liked it.
Brass sighed, "Well, while Sofie was playing hero," He smiled at the other detective, showing her that despite his words he was proud of her, "I talked to just about everyone there. No one saw anything, no one knows anything. One guy pissed himself when it happened, that's all I got."
Sara ran her fingers through her dark hair, "Wendy and the Days Tech are running everything right now. The bus company is cooperating fully, there is a camera on every bus that takes a shot of every passenger when they pay their fee. The camera stores the pictures to a remote server at the Transportation Bureau HQ for twenty four hours. They're going to hand over everything to us as soon as they download it."
Everyone looked at Sofia, the only one who hadn't spoken as of yet. "Sheriff is throwing me in front of the press tomorrow morning." She rubbed at the tension in her forehead. "Frankly I feel like crap and would rather go back into that building then talk to the press, but I've got to say something. Anything at this point would do. Because right now all I've got is some crack-pot's theory on the Illuminati working through Scooby Doo or some God-Awful insanity like that." She scraped at the bottom of her Lo-Mein, "Who wants to bet that damn redhead will be shoving a microphone in my face as soon as I walk out there?" Hands all over the table went up. Warrick grinned, "Better you then us there, Curtis." Sofia rolled her eyes. "My worry, though, is that by the time we get half a hand hold on this case, the Feds will take it over." Brass nodded, "Homeland Security is probably watching this like a hawk." Nick grunted something that might have been "Probably". Grissom scowled, "I would like to keep this in-house as long as possible." Brass shook his head, "Translation, he's still sore over the Strip Strangler thing."
Grissom's face was impassive, but it seemed to them that there was something more there. More than resentment for a case that had happened years ago. There was something personal flickering in his gray eyes.
Ponderings, musings and questions about Grissom's emotional state would have to wait, though, they had a tape to watch, a theory to tack together and in Sofia's case, a statement to prepare.
Author's Note: Oooh look, foreshadowing. Ooh look, I actually retained something from all those years of High School English. Three chapters today, it's Thursday and I'm in a good mood.