I apologize for the confusion with the last chapter, sometimes my brain works faster than my fingers and things don't come out as clearly as I would like. That being said, I tried to clear things up a little for you in this chapter.


"Hey Cath, check that out." Warrick pointed down the sidewalk as they followed the manager to Timothy Harkins' apartment. "Hailey Simms apartment is right next door."

"What're you thinking?" Catherine asked, used to the look of contemplation that came over Warrick's face when he was running a scene in his head.

He furrowed his brow. "I'll have to check with Nick on the location of those prints, but first blush I'd say that our boy Timothy comes home one night after one too many drinks, forgets which apartment is his, tries Hailey's door instead. I hate to say it Cath, but I don't think these cases are related."

"You're telling me that two neighbors die on the same night of completely unrelated circumstances."

Warrick shrugged. "Looks like it."

"That's just too weird," Catherine said with a sigh.

Warrick's phone chirped on his belt loop. He quickly checked to caller ID and smiled. "I was just about to call you, man. Tell me what you know about the prints from the door."

"I'll help you if you help me," Nick's voice replied.


Greg ran through the halls of the lab, grasping a sheet of results fresh out of his printer. Sure he could have paged any one of the CSIs on the case, but news like this he enjoyed delivering in person. He rounded a corner and nearly ran into Sara and Grissom. "Who cracked the case, once again? Me, that's who."

Grissom raised an eyebrow at the tech and Sara quickly moved to snatch the sheet from his hands, but Greg pulled it out of her reach.

"I just finished running the SART kit on Hailey Simms."

"Doc said that there were no biologicals present," Grissom said, his interest sufficiently peaked.

"I didn't think so either, but you know how I like to be thorough, so I took a closer look. Vaginal contribution matches our victim, obviously and I found a trace of what I can only assume is lubricant, sent a sample over to Hodges for confirmation."

Grissom was growing impatient. "How does this help us Greg?"

Before the tech could continue, Nick turned the corner and darted toward them. "Warrick confirmed it, the knife block was positive for blood. What'd I miss here?"

"Greg was just telling us, in his own special way," Sara shot Greg a playful glare. "How he broke the case."

Greg flashed her a smile before continuing. "Well this is where it gets interesting. Your guy may have been careful, but not careful enough. I found a few little swimmers in the mix. It's a small sample, but enough to test. So, I ran it against the DNA you collected from the assorted guys in Hailey Simms life and got a match."

Sara scowled as she skimmed the paper that Greg finally passed to her. "Eli Matthews. Why does that not surprise me?"

"Should be enough for a warrant for his house," Grissom said, reading over her shoulder. "I'll call Brass and head over there."

"Keep an eye out for one of Hailey's kitchen knives while you're at it," Nick commented.

Grissom raised an eyebrow. "You got a theory, Nicky."

"Yeah," the Texan said, crossing his arms. "OK, we know that Matthews and the vic had a previous relationship, from the sounds of it not a healthy one. He didn't go over there with the intention of killing her, he wanted to sleep with her."

"So where did things go wrong?" Sara wondered out loud.

"That I don't know," Nick confessed. "But I can tell you that it was a crime of opportunity. The indistinguishable void in the spatter on the counter is from the knife block on its side. My theory is, whatever happened he reached for the nearest weapon, knocking over all of the knives in the process. After he killed her he hid the block and shoved the rest of the knives into a drawer, hoping we wouldn't notice that one was missing."

"It's a good theory," Grissom replied thoughtfully. "Now we just have to prove it."

"And figure out what happened in that apartment," Sara finished.

"Believe me, I'm on it." Nick gave them both a nod and started for the break room to get some coffee to get him through the next few hours.

Grissom quickly excused himself to find Brass to attain the warrant, leaving Greg and Sara alone in the hallway.

The tech smirked and snatched the results back from Sara. "See, I told you that I would get you results. I think somebody owes me an apology."

Sara furrowed her brow at him, which only made his smile grow as he gave her a wink and started back toward the DNA lab.


Catherine threw her pen down in frustration. She and Warrick had taken up residence in the layout room to finish up the paperwork in their case. The muscles in her hand were beginning to cramp up as she logged in the remainder of Timothy Harkins personal effects to be picked up by his nearest relative once the police located him. "You'd think that there would be less paperwork for an accidental death."

"And yet, here we are." Warrick couldn't help smiling at her little tantrum. "Aww come on, look on the bright side. We may actually get out of here on time for once."

"That is if Grissom doesn't suck us into his case," Catherine replied, turning back to the paperwork with a sigh.