Title: Stalking Grissom
Author: DJ(aka phantomcsiwriter)….not me
Disclaimers, etc. in Ch. 1. Also in case anyone hadn't noticed, yes chapters 8 and up are where I methodically torture the readers until I lighten it up again. evil grin - hang in there guys, I promise it gets better.
Chapter 10
Sara made a few attempts at conversation with Grissom, but he was distant the entire drive so she finally gave up as they rode in silence the rest of the way.
Reaching the scene, they saw skid marks at the edge of the road, indicating that the driver had probably tried to stop just before hitting the guardrail and plummeting down the steep brushy hill.
As they carefully began their descent Sara stumbled, almost losing her balance and tumbling down the hill, but fortunately Grissom was there to catch her by the elbow and helped her regain her footing. "Careful" he said briskly as they continued their descent. When they reached the crash scene they both began snapping pictures of the scene from every possible angle until they were right at the body, taking a couple more pictures before beginning a preliminary investigation.
The victim was a young female, no ID found yet, but she appeared to be in her early 20's, as they looked at her motionless body under the wheels of the car. Surveying the evidence at the scene, it appeared that while the car had left the road and likely had a rough ride down the hill, it was not readily apparent as to how she ended up under the car, it didn't appear to have rolled or crashed. No holes in the windshield, or other apparent explanations for how she ended up there.
Finally allowing the emergency crews to do their job and remove the body, they ordered the car to be taken back to the garage at the lab for further analysis before the duo began their trek back up the hill, Sara keeping a few steps ahead of Grissom with her more agile form as she picked through the rocks and brush. "Whoa" she exclaimed as she slipped again, this time falling backwards into Grissom's arms.
"Not very light on your feet tonight are you?" he observed wryly before helping her back up.
"Guess I'm not, here you go first." She suggested, moving behind him as he was apparently more steady on his feet.
Grissom sighed as he looked at the younger CSI, and contemplated the options. Last thing he needed was to spend the evening in a hospital if she tripped again and broke something, thereby preventing him from being able to go home to lick his wounds in private as he wanted.
To her absolute shock and pleasure, he grabbed her hand as he began climbing the hill to make sure she didn't start tumbling backwards. She didn't argue by any means, if this got him to hold her hand she should play damsel in distress more often she thought as she savored the brief contact, missing his touch when he let go at the top of the hill. "Thanks" she said, her cheeks flushed, more from the excitement than the cold.
"Want to talk about what's going on?" She ventured conversation again as they drove back to the lab.
"No I don't" Grissom replied, wincing as he heard the harsh tone in his voice. "But thanks." He forced it to soften slightly.
They returned to the lab and went to work on the car, lifting several fingerprints and other trace evidence to run through the system before beginning to sift through the bag of materials that had been found in the car, carefully taking fingerprints off the beer cans and fast food wrappers. "Lot of cans here, be interesting to see what her BAC is?" Sara observed.
"Probably off the charts," Grissom agreed as he continued sifting through the floorboard. "Well hello Justin McFall," he whistled in surprise as he pulled a worn wallet that had been mashed between the seats.
"Whatchya got?" Sara came over to look, glancing over his shoulder at the wallet.
"A 20 year old with a bad haircut and a possible witness to this, let's compare prints first." Grissom said as he pulled the young mans print off the card to compare to those found in the car.
"His prints are all over the place." Sara finally said after several tests, "and most importantly they were on the seatbelt and steering wheel, not smudged at all, suggesting he was the last driver."
"Then lets take Brass and pay him a visit." Grissom suggested as he pulled out his phone.
TBC