THE MISSING THREAD

Nick and Phoebe were both thrilled to finally have the fingerprint results from the mirror of the West sister's bathroom. They belonged to a man named Brian Grafton; a nineteen year old who was in the system for numerous armed robberies and drug possession. His record was a little scarce for the last few years; Nick and Phoebe assumed that was because he was now old enough to be tried as an adult. And the punishments were a whole lot stronger then a few weeks in juvie.

Nick went to call Brass and let him know to pick up Brian Grafton and Phoebe went back to the lab to test the DNA sample on file with the one Nick had pulled from the bloody bandage in the trash at the West home. Though there hadn't have been enough to run a search, Phoebe was able to compare both samples. She wouldn't, and couldn't, match them perfectly, but she found that both blood samples shared three alleles in common. Alleles were portions of DNA that were distinctive to every person. Although the bulk of the population had similar alleles in similar places; they also had one or two that were extremely specific to that person; like fingerprints. The trick was finding the allele common to that one person.

Phoebe was out of luck, the two alleles that matched both blood samples were not uncommon. Even though they matched; it was nowhere near enough to prove they were from the same person.

Sighing, Phoebe leaned back in her chair and stared at the computer screen. She still had the victim's clothes to process but thought that after a good caffeine hit she'd be able to work better. She began closing the windows on the computer screen when she realized she'd forgotten to close the DNA results for Kim and Mary West. On a very high whim, Phoebe compared the DNA sample of Brian Grafton to the West sisters.

"Oh my God." She breathed.

xxx

Nick was on his way back from talking with Captain Brass when Phoebe came barreling out of the DNA lab with glee in her eyes. She was waving a piece of paper in front of Nick's face and babbling something about 'matching alleles' very excitedly.

Nick held both her arms to calm her down. "Whoa, Pheebs. Back up; what's going on?"

Phoebe drew a breath. "Ok, I compared the DNA of Brian Grafton with Kim and Mary West. I found thirteen alleles in common."

Nick was stunned. "What?"

"I know!" Phoebe replied excitedly. "He's definitely not their father or son. I'd say we found their long lost little brother."

Nick shook his head. "Why wouldn't they tell us about him?"

Phoebe shrugged. "Maybe they're ashamed. His record isn't exactly something to brag about."

Nick considered this. "Also explains why there are no pictures of him at the house."

The pair continued talking as they headed back into the lab. "I'll call Brass and let him know that we should talk to Mary West again." Phoebe was saying as the two of them past Greg Sanders as he was entering his lab.

Greg stopped in front of Phoebe. "Did you say Mary West?"

"Yeah, why?" Phoebe asked.

"She's at the morgue right now; I just came from there." Greg told her. "She came for her sister's personal effects or something."

"Greg, I love you." Phoebe said gleefully before taking off down the hall. She turned back to Nick. "You start on her clothes, I'll talk to Mary and get back to you, k?"

"No problem." Nick waved her off and looked to Greg, who was simply beaming. "What's with you?"

Greg turned to Nick. "She loves me." He grinned to himself, spun on his heel and headed for his lab. But not before Nick gave him a slap in the back of the head.

xxx

Phoebe arrived at the morgue, a file on Brian Grafton clasped in her hand, to see Mary West sitting out the front of Doc Robbins lab. She wore creased jeans and a dark green sweatshirt; her dark hair pulled up into a messy bun. She looked very tired and exasperated; a look that Phoebe saw daily from those who'd just lost family members.

"Ms. West?" Phoebe greeted her as she walked towards her. "I'm Phoebe Parker. I've been working your sister's case."

Mary got to her feet as Phoebe came over. "They won't give me Kim's clothes." She said frustratedly.

"I know; I'm sorry. That's my fault. We're still processing them for evidence." Phoebe told her honestly.

Mary sighed and sat back down. "Do you know who did this, yet?"

"We're working on it; I promise you." Phoebe sat down in a chair beside Mary. "I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of questions."

Mary simply nodded in reply.

Phoebe took out a mugshot photo of Brian from the file in her hand. "Why didn't you tell us about Brian Grafton?" She asked as she handed her the photo.

At first Mary didn't take it. Then she sighed and leant forwards, putting her chin in her left hand as it leant on her knee. She took the photo from Phoebe. "I didn't see the point."

"He's your brother." Phoebe told her. "You could've asked us to find him; tell him he'd lost a sister."

Mary laughed bitterly. "He wouldn't care." She said. "Brian fell in with this street crowd when he was a kid; smoking weed and stealing beer. He ran away from home when he was thirteen. My parents kept trying to sort him out; put him in all kinds of schools and programs. He just didn't show up."

"Do you know where he is now?" Phoebe asked.

Mary shook her head. "He used to call us every few months for money after our parents died. He didn't even show up to their funeral." She said sadly. "I haven't seen him in almost five months."

"Did your parents leave you a large inheritance?" Phoebe asked curiously.

"It's still being finalized." Mary said nervously, averting Phoebe's gaze.

Phoebe paused before continuing. "Ms. West, can you tell me why we found your brother's fingerprints on your bathroom mirror?"

Mary snapped her head towards Phoebe. "What? He was-he was in my home? In that bathroom with Kim?" She looked horrified. "Did he do this to her?"

Oh crap, Phoebe thought to herself. She probably shouldn't have gone into such great detail. She thought quickly and tried to repair what she'd done. "Ms. West, right now we're just-"

Mary was already on her feet. "I'll kill that little bastard." She said, slinging her bag over her shoulder and heading towards the exit of the morgue.

"No, Ms. West, you don't-" Phoebe started.

But Mary had already left.

xxx

Back in the lab, Nick was scanning Kim West's clothing. There were some CSI's who thought this was an almost pointless task. They thought that anything of importance on the victim's clothing would have been picked up on the scene or on the morgue by the Medical Examiner. The thing was, it wasn't the ME's job to search for evidence. And if everything wasn't checked thoroughly, a gigantic clue could be left undiscovered.

Nick was had scanned almost everything that Kim had been wearing and was finishing up on the maroon long sleeved t-shirt she'd been found in. There was a large blood stain over the heart of the shirt, which made sense since that's where the knife had gone through, as well as a cut through the shirt itself.

Lifting the shirt up to the light, Nick scanned it more closely. He could see something caught underneath the shirt collar. Grabbing a pair of tweezers, Nick plucked it off the shirt and held it up to his magnifying glass. It was a cream coloured thread, but not one that matched the material of the shirt. Whatever it was, it needed to be tested.

As Nick collected the thread into evidence, Phoebe came into the room. "Hey." She said, avoiding his eyes.

Nick looked up at her and saw the look on her face; the guilty look. "What did you do?" he asked immediately.

"I may or may not have done something bad." Phoebe admitted. Then she told him all about the conversation she'd had at the morgue with Mary West. "What if she kills him?" she asked nervously when she'd finished.

Nick waved a dismissive hand at her. "Pheebs, it's not your fault. You told her what you could and you're not responsible for what she does after the fact. Okay?"

"Yeah." Phoebe murmured inaudibly, looking down at her feet.

"Hey." Nick said louder so she looked up at him. "Okay?" He repeated.

Phoebe rolled her eyes. "Okay." She smiled. "Alright, so all the evidence we've got is pointing to Brian Grafton." She looked down at the clothes Nick was scanning. "How'd you do?"

Nick showed her the thread he found. "I'll test it against the bandage we found in the trash at the scene."

Together they confirmed that the antibacterial cream on Brian's leg matched the cream found on the bandage in the West home. So at some point, Brian was in that home with a bloody knee. Nick and Phoebe left the lab together and met up with Brass in the hallway. He walked up to them with a solemn look on his face.

"Hey Jim, what's up?" Nick asked as they came together in the hallway.

"I got bad news on your West case." He said dejectedly. "We just found Brian Grafton." Brass sighed. "He's dead."

xxx