STRING

Nick and Phoebe went back to the West household and started searching downstairs. They'd searched upstairs where the bathroom was the night before, but they hoped that maybe they'd find something new on the first floor; something that could break their case. Phoebe started in the kitchen. She took all the knives she could find into evidence as possible murder weapons. She wandered into the living room, scanning various photos of the sisters with their parents.

In the home office, Nick was searching over papers on the desk; careful not to disturb anything too much. The computer was off and cold and the keyboard had an undisturbed coat of dust on it; meaning it hadn't been used in probably the last day or so. Nick sat in the desk chair and inspected the drawers. He didn't find anything helpful. He leaned back and sighed. Then something caught his eye in the wastebasket. He picked up the bin and reached inside. He pulled out what looked like a piece of bandage with a definite blood stain on it.

"Hey Pheebs!" Nick called, getting a swab from the pocket in his vest and wiping it over the red stain.

Phoebe appeared at the door. "What've you got?" she asked, her eyes falling on the bandage.

Nick showed her the suddenly bright pink swab. "Blood."

xxx

Nick and Phoebe took their new evidence back to the lab. Phoebe went to work on the knives while Nick ran blood comparisons. After about a half hour; Phoebe went to see Nick in the blood analysis lab. She flopped down on a chair next to him looking discouraged.

Nick looked over at her and read her face. "Knives didn't pan out, huh?"

"Not only did none of them test positive for blood; none of them are even the right size of the wound." Phoebe muttered. "And I checked on our fingerprints; they're still running a search."

"It's been like two hours!" Nick said incredulously.

"I know." Phoebe sighed. She glanced at what Nick was working on. "You find anything?"

"Blood's male." He told her simply. "But it's degraded with some kind of anti-bacterial cream; probably from whatever kind of injury the bandage was covering. Point is I can't run DNA."

"Sorry if I'm interrupting." David Phillips said from the door to the lab. He had a brown paper bag in his hand.

Nick and Phoebe turned around. "Hey Super-Dave." Nick greeted him. "What's that?"

"Doc Robbins told me to bring them to you. They're your stabbing victims' clothes." David held out the bag.

Phoebe got to her feet and took it. "Thanks Dave."

"You're welcome." He smiled. "Oh, and Catherine gave me this." He removed a sheet of paper from under his arm. "Your fingerprint results."

Nick took them from Dave. "Catherine?"

"She said something about needing the…ah, well…I won't repeat it, but she was annoyed." David said anxiously.

Phoebe grinned. "Thanks Dave." Dave smiled and left the room.

Nick looked to Phoebe. "He likes you."

"Course he does." Phoebe replied with a smile.

xxx