A/n: its been a while, but I finally finished editing. I would've edited sooner but. . . . well, im lazy.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Chapter 9

Brass had had a long night. After failing to get a hold of Alex Rivers, he had concerned himself with setting up an interview with a very distraught Liz Baldwin. She had insisted on a lawyer. This slowed down their investigation a little, but Brass wasn't impatient. Since it was a cold case, their crime scene had already lost any promise of new evidence. There was no rush.

Now, 3 and a half hours later, Mrs. Baldwin, her lawyer, Brass and Warrick were assembled in the interrogation room. Mrs. Baldwin fidgeted nervously as they began. She had calmed down since her big blow up in their last interview.

"Tell me about your husband." Brass said calmly. Unlike Liz and her lawyer, he and Warrick had not yet taken a seat, but then again, Brass rarely did. He found it slightly less intimidating to be on level with his suspects than it was to be standing.

"You mean my ex-husband?" she corrected.

"You divorced?" Brass asked.

"Almost 8 years ago. But I remarried." She added quickly making it clear she wanted no connection with him.

"Do you share custody?" Brass asked not really caring about her last statement.

"No, I got full custody. He sends support payments but that's it." She said.

"Do you see him often? Does he visit or anything?"

"I don't see how this matters." She said confused.

"It's okay. You can answer their question," her lawyer told her quietly.

"Fine, I don't really see him. He came around once. I can't remember the day, maybe sometime last winter, but he showed up on our doorstep." She said.

"Does he normally do that? Show up uninvited?" Brass asked.

"No, not usually. He used to pick Todd up from school and they'd spend a few hours together, but that stopped a few years ago." She said.

"Do you know why?"

"No. And Todd was really upset about it. Simon just stopped showing up and I'd get a call around 4 saying that he needed a ride." She said her voice starting to shake.

Her lawyer made an attempt to comfort her and once she had regained composure, they continued. Brass didn't know what had brought that on, but he wondered if it was something that could help them.

"Can you think of anything as to why he stopped spending time with his son? Job concerns? A girlfriend? Anything?" Brass coaxed.

"No. As far as I know he's had the same job forever. No! Wait I think he got a new one at some computer tech or office supplies job maybe a year and a half ago. But that was after he stopped picking Todd up." She said.

"He switched jobs?" Brass asked.

"Actually, I think he was fired for some reason. I don't know. Maybe Kyle would. They did work together for a while." She offered.

"Kyle?" Bras asked raising an eyebrow.

"My husband." She clarified.

"They used to work together?" Brass asked surprised by this new and possibly useful information.

"They were best friends until Simon and I divorced and I started dating Kyle." She said looking slightly guilty.

"They stopped being friends because Kyle was dating you?" Brass repeated.

"Maybe it was a little soon," she admitted.

"And what did Todd think of this?" Brass asked.

"He was opposed to it at first, but he's adapted. He loves Kyle now, though I hate to admit it, possibly more than his real dad." She said not sounding at all sorry about this.

Brass gave a small snort. It was obvious from Todd's answer that he loved just about everyone more than his real father. "Do you remember when his boss was killed 2 years ago? I think we interviewed you."

"Yes, I can't remember, did they ever find the killer?" but before Brass could respond, she realized what he was asking, "No! You don't think Simon- no! He would never!" she cried her voice getting higher.

"I'm not thinking anything yet. Did Kyle and Simon know Francis McKinney?" Brass asked not wanting to accuse anyone of anything.

"Well of course they knew him! He was their boss!" she cried, "If you think Simon had anything to do with that-"

"Calm down Mrs. Baldwin. Detective Brass isn't accusing him of anything." Her lawyer said trying to control her client.

"Simon would never hurt anyone! He's irresponsible, but he would never hurt anyone on purpose!"

"Mrs. Baldwin, we know that. We aren't accusing him of anything. We just want any information you might know regarding him." Brass said calmly.

Warrick had been watching all this in silence. It seemed that Mrs. Baldwin was the only one in hysterics, but didn't seem to be listening to a word Brass had been saying. Whoever Simon Colton was, they needed to speak with him. Warrick also made a note to ask about Kyle Baldwin. He wondered if she hadn't kept her maiden name after her divorce. He decided to ask.

"Well, I told you everything! I don't see anything there is left to tell." She said her voice becoming squeaky again.

"The day of the murder, was there anything unusual you might've noticed when your husband came home?" Brass questioned.

"Oh! So now you think Kyle murdered him? What is this? I can assure you neither one of them had anything to do with this." She said confidently

"We're just investigating all possibilities." Brass assured her.

"Well you could've done that 2 years ago instead of disrupting innocent people's lives with these ridiculous accusations!" She snapped standing up.

Brass rose to the challenge, "2 years ago, we didn't have the murder weapon that just happens to belong to your ex." He said sharply.

Liz Baldwin was speechless. Her eyes were wide with shock. Her lawyer tapped her on the arm and told her to sit back down. She and Liz exchanged a few words.

"Are we finished yet?" she asked shaken.

"Just one question," Brass said, "Did you take your husband's last name when you got married?"

"Yes, I did, what does that have to do with anything?" She asked quietly.

"Okay. We're done for now, but we'll need to speak with your husband for sure." Brass said ignoring her question rudely.

"Whatever we can do to help." She said half-heartedly. She stood and followed her lawyer out sullenly. She took one last look back towards Brass. Warrick couldn't place the expression on her face; she seemed more worried than afraid.

"So, what do you think?" Brass asked after their clients had left.

"I don't know man. She doesn't look guilty." Warrick admitted.

"I've seen better actors."

"You think she is?" Warrick asked.

"She knows more than she's saying." Brass said grabbing his jacket and preparing to leave.

"Basing this on anything?"

Brass shrugged and headed left down the hall while Warrick turned right to find Catherine looking for him.

"I found something interesting you might want to take a look at." She said. She had been going over the previously collected evidence again.

"So did I and I think we have a few more suspects." He said bringing her up to speed. He explained everything.

"I'll check the employees records. It's in the file. Our suspect, Simon Colton, is on there." She opened it to show him, "Filed 3 complaints prior to the murder and quit 6 months after."

"Sounds a little obvious don't you think?" Warrick asked.

"Maybe. But we need more than just an assumption to put this guy away. I want to get the coroner's report." Catherine said.

"Catherine, he was shot. It's pretty straight forward."

"And attacked with an unidentified weapon. We find the weapon, we find our killer." She reminded him, "And you are going to look for the records."

"I am?" he said not sounding surprised. It wasn't uncommon for Catherine to take the lead.

"You are. I'm going to work on our mystery weapon." She said smiling as she abandoned Warrick.

*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*

Catherine slit the manila envelope open and poured its contents onto the lit up table. She separated each picture from the others. Catherine looked at the photos taken of his shirt looking for any void as she examined the blood spatter. No hand prints, nothing unusual about it. Frustrated, she moved on to the pictures of the body.

There were quite of few pictures of the same middle-aged man with ghostly white skin. He had a wide gash starting at his right temple and ending just below his right cheekbone, a few more slashes across his face, a few around his neck and defensive wounds on his wrists and palms. He looked to have a black eye too. Nothing too unusual about the markings, though the unidentified weapon didn't look like a knife, or if it was, a blunt one.

She held up one photo on his face searching for anything they might've missed. She noticed some post-mortem bruising around his mouth maybe from being gagged or someone's hand covering his mouth. He also had what looked like a bruise on his unscarred left temple. She'd seen this before; this was a muzzle print from a gun.

Catherine lowered her magnifying glass. Their killer was left-handed! You couldn't cover someone's mouth like that and hold a gun to the right side of their head too, unless you held them far away from your body, which wasn't a natural or practical position.

Well, that narrowed the field a bit. Now, she had to check if any of their suspects were left-handed. Of course that wasn't enough to convict him or her and barely enough to hold anyone, but it was a start.

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