CHAPTER TEN
Brass had resumed his interviewing of school personnel as well as checking for resident sex offenders in the immediate vicinity of the school. The list of sex offenders was woefully short and thus far all leads were going cold. The last person for Brass to interview was a Hispanic janitor named Hector Gonzalez. Detective Vega also sat in to help translate if needed as the man had limited knowledge of English. The man appeared nervous to the point of tears as Brass hammered away with questions. He denied any knowledge or involvement with Heidi's murder, and tearfully saying through Vega he was incapable of such a thing. An officer knocked at the door to interrupt the questioning as Brass stepped out for a momentary conference. Jim re-entered the room with a stack of papers in hand.
"Mr. Gonzalez, I have in my hand documentation that you are wanted for indecent contact with a child in your native Mexico after running your fingerprints through our national and international databases, that your documents of legal residence here in the United States are forged, and that you have no alibi for the time of Heidi's disappearance other than you claim of being alone in your apartment. You are being arrested for illegally entering the United States, the possession of forged documents, and the suspicion of murder." Brass said in a loud and intimidating voice as he slammed the papers down in front of Hector Gonzalez.
"Senor, por favor, no se ingles," Hector struggled as Vega raced to translate what Brass had just said.
"Take this piece of crap into custody and read him his rights," Brass stated as he motioned to Detective Vega. He wanted to call Iris personally with the news that they now had a suspect finally. Heidi's funeral was later that afternoon and he wanted something positive to relay to Iris before he went at her insistence to represent their family.
Iris received Jim's call with a glad heart. This was indeed good news. It was circumstantial at best right now but for the first time a glimmer of light pierced her soul.
The promise they'd made to Heidi might now be realized.
Knowing Brass would be gone for some time to attend Heidi's funeral, she told her husband she was going to leave early herself to go horseback riding for a few hours. She wanted to clear her mind and get away for just a little while. Jim told her he thought it a great idea and encouraged her to do so.
Iris checked in with Sara who was chatting with Grissom in his office. Grissom asked her to sit down by Sara for a moment, and asked Iris as she did so where things were with the case. She excitedly shared the news of Brass taking Hector Gonzalez into custody but that something still nagged at her.
"Go ahead, Iris, share your thoughts," Grissom said.
"Well, I truly want to believe we've got the guy and initially it looks that way circumstantially. He's got a prior arrest for indecency with a child and is here illegally and can't give a corroborated account for his whereabouts for the time of Heidi's disappearance through the time she was found. Yet, in spite of all this, he doesn't strike me as having the intelligence to do this." Iris said in a rush.
"He could be just giving you that as a false impression, but what does the evidence tell you thus far?" Grissom persisted.
"We don't have any usable DNA to help this stand firm, no real trace evidence or fingerprints from the crime scene or victim, or what's the reason for the bird feathers found." Iris said as Sara nodded in agreement. "We just want to make this case will go to trial and a verdict reached with no reasonable doubt."
"Your investigation is not closed yet, so continue pursuing the evidence. The answer is still out there perhaps." Grissom said encouragingly.
"Sara, I'm going out early for a ride. Do you want to come?" Iris asked. Sara had taken on the new recent hobby of learning to trail ride with Iris and was coming along very well.
"Can't as I have a prior engagement," Sara said smiling directly toward Grissom. "But I will take a rain check on that!"
Iris managed a slight smile at that and told them she'd see them later.