Lex Talionis
Chapter 25
Catherine pulled the Denali to a stop just behind Jim's Taurus. The area surrounding Grissom's car had been roped off as per Brass' instructions and both slipped under the tape while pulling on latex gloves. Brass bent to peer into the front of the car while Catherine remained at the back, examining the trunk.
"Maybe we should have called Sara and had her meet us here." Jim said as he checked the back seat. "She's got a set of keys for this thing."
"I'd prefer not to tell her about this until we know what we've got." Catherine told him. "There was a spare set of keys in Gil's desk; I brought them with me." She moved down the side of the car to join him. "There's some blood on the trunk lid; how much can you see there?"
"The way they were talking on the phone I was expecting a lot but there are just a couple of smears on the door and it looks like there's some marks on the driver's seat that could be blood; it's hard to say from here." He pointed to a crack in the dashboard. "Does that look new to you?"
"It must be." She looked through the window, studying the interior "Gil would have had it repaired as soon as it happened; you know what he's like about this car. Can't see anything else out of the ordinary; of course, we don't know what's in the trunk yet."
Brass walked to the back of the car and stared at the trunk, hoping his friend wasn't inside. "Give me the keys and then move away." He held out his hand.
She walked back to join him. "I can do this, Jim, it's my job."
"Catherine, we have to know one way or the other whether he's in there and, if he is, you do not need to see it. Now, hand over the keys."
Silently, she placed one hand on Jim's arm and handed the key ring over with the other. He waited until she was far enough away before carefully inserting the key in the lock and raising the trunk lid. Brass wasn't aware that he was holding his breath until it escaped in a gush.
Catherine watched as he leaned into the open trunk and pulled out a gym back on top of which was a torn t-shirt stained with fresh-looking blood.
"It's clear, Cath." He called over as he picked up the shirt for a closer look. Catherine returned to the back of the car and looked inside, seeing nothing else out of the ordinary.
"Thank God for that." She commented as she examined the bag, sorting through the other articles of clothing as she went. "Spare clothes." She took the t-shirt from Jim. "That tear looks pretty recent; I wonder where the rest of it is."
"The real question is where the blood came from in the first place." Brass stated as he watched Catherine lower the shirt into an evidence bag.
"Hopefully we'll have the answer to that soon." She stood and put the gym bag back into the trunk before closing the lid. "I'm going to process the outside of the car and then get the truck out here to tow it back to the lab. We'll leave the interior until then."
"While you're doing that I'll have the airlines check their passenger manifests, maybe Gil caught a flight out somewhere. I'll also stop by security and see about getting a copy of the video from the cameras. With some luck, we might just be able to shed some light on what happened out here."
Catherine and Nick were supervising the unloading of the Mercedes when Conrad Ecklie found them. He'd searched the entire lab before thinking to check the garage and the delay hadn't improved his mood.
"There you are!" Ecklie stormed up to the pair. "Catherine, you want to explain to me why Grissom was given access to the lab after I left strict instructions that he was not to even enter the building?"
Annoyed at the intrusion, Catherine barely glanced over her shoulder at him. "What? When?" She looked at her watch. "Shouldn't you have gone home by now?"
He ignored her last question. "The same night I issued the memo about his suspension, someone logged into the system using the administrator's password and there's only one person that would have done that." He impatiently explained to her. "Do you want to explain to me now, or later, when I involve the sheriff?"
"Conrad, I don't know anything about that and we're rather busy here so could this perhaps wait until I'm free?"
She moved forward to direct the reversing tow truck into the garage. Ecklie looked up, finally recognizing the vehicle that was being brought in.
"Isn't that Grissom's car?" He stepped closer for a better look. "What's it doing here?"
"It's being treated as a crime scene." Catherine watched as the driver lowered the car to the ground and Nick began unhooking it. "It was found abandoned at McCarran; the keys are still inside."
Ecklie was confused. "Well, where's Gil?"
"He's missing, Conrad. No one's seen him since this morning and he's not answering his phone."
"Hang on." Ecklie raised one hand to stop her continuing. "One of my supervisors, who I might add, was recently assaulted and left for dead, is missing and no one thinks to let me know? God Catherine, I'm used to Gil treating me with contempt but I really expected more from you."
"I'm sorry, Conrad." She turned her attention from the car and ran through the morning's events.
"And no one has any idea where he is?" Ecklie asked. "Not even Sidle?"
"No, the guys have been out all day looking around. I was trying to keep it quiet in the hope that he'd just turn up at home but then we found the car."
"You should have called me, Catherine." He shook his head. "I take it were getting the security footage from the airport."
"Yes, Brass is getting it now. I'll have Archie start on it as soon as it arrives."
"Good." Ecklie bent to look in the Mercedes windows. "Do you need a hand processing?"
"No, Nick and I can handle it. Sara's out covering that robbery with Swing and I've got Warrick and Greg covering everything else just now."
He gestured towards the car. "Does Sara know about this yet?"
"No, I'll speak to her as soon as she gets back. Hopefully by then, we might know a bit more."
"Okay, I'll let you get on with it." He walked towards the door then turned back. "If you do need help let me know and please, keep me informed this time, alright?"
"Thanks, Conrad." She smiled over at him. "I'll let you know what we find."
They confirmed that the blood on both the car door and t-shirt belonged to Grissom, all the prints that they'd collected were either his or Sara's and there was no unidentifiable trace evidence found in or on the vehicle. In short, there was nothing to say that a third party had been anywhere near the Mercedes.
Catherine and Nick stood at the bench in the garage and looked over the two items they'd discovered inside the car; Grissom's wallet and cell phone. The phone had been turned off and was found inside the glove compartment whilst the wallet was located in the center console.
"Where the hell would he go without his car, phone or wallet?" Catherine looked at Nick for an answer but all he could do was shrug.
"He probably had some cash on him but Griss never carries much, he usually puts everything on his cards." Nick opened the wallet again. "And it looks like there all here except the one he gave Warrick at the restaurant."
Both looked up as Sara almost charged into the garage.
"Why the hell didn't you call me?" She demanded as she came to a stop in front of Catherine.
Understanding Sara's anger, Catherine tried to explain. "There was no point until we knew what we had; you couldn't have done anything anyway. At least now I can tell you that we're fairly sure no one else was involved in Gil's disappearance."
She watched relief flood Sara's face.
"We found his wallet and phone locked inside the car. There was some blood but not enough to point to anything life-threatening."
"There's nowhere else that you can think of to look, Sara?" Nick asked as he bagged Grissom's belongings.
Before she could answer, Catherine's phone beeped. Pulling it out she, read the screen. "Archie's ready for us."
Entering the AV lab, all eyes were drawn to the large screen, currently displaying a paused image of the rear of the Mercedes. The picture quality was grainy but clear enough to make out the shape of one person sitting in the driver's seat.
Catherine perused the rest of the room before taking a seat. "Where's Brass?"
Archie turned to answer. "He got a call from one of the security guys he'd spoken to at the airport. After he left to bring this tape back here, this guy kept searching and found footage of Grissom from another camera. Brass is on his way back with it now but I thought you'd like to see what we've got so far."
Sara moved to take the seat beside Catherine as Nick stood behind.
"Okay." Archie started. "Griss drove in to the car park just after 10am. He was definitely alone and there's no sign of any following vehicles on this tape."
Audible sighs of relief were heard from both Sara and Catherine.
"For the first twenty minutes or so he just sat in the car. The cameras too far away to see details clearly but, every so often he picks something up, looks at it and then puts it down again; we're pretty sure it's his phone."
"That must have been when we were calling him every couple of minutes hoping he'd answer." Catherine said as the tape fast-forward to the next cue point. She watched as the figure in the car leaned to the right and obviously put the item into the glove compartment, slamming the door before sitting upright again.
"And that's when he turned it off." Nick pointed out.
Archie continued his narrative as the tape moved on. "He stays in the car for another ten minutes but, unlike before, it now looks like he's getting agitated."
"You know, we don't think he actually knew he was being followed when he left the restaurant." Catherine said. "He was in pain, he had a headache and he'd just left an argument, I'll bet you anything he was sitting in that car getting more angry each time that phone rang."
"Which could explain this." Archie slowed the tape and they all saw the driver pull back his right arm and then slam it into the dashboard of the car. The Mercedes shook from the force.
"Ouch, that had to hurt" Nick winced in sympathy. "I'm guessing that's where the blood came from."
The video went to the next cue, showing Grissom now out of the car and opening the trunk. They watched as he pulled out the t-shirt and held it to his knuckles, before ripping a piece off and using it to wrap around his hand. He then returned to the driver's side, tossed the keys inside and slammed the door closed. Archie paused the tape.
"That's it." He told them. "He left the car park and there's no other activity around the car until the cops found it. Hopefully, the second tape will give us some idea where he went."
It was as he stopped talking that he realized Sara hadn't said a word while the tape was playing and was still staring blankly at the screen in front of her. "You okay, Sara?"
She blinked, and shifted her attention to the AV tech. "Yeah, fine. How'd you go with the laptop?"
"Good." Archie shot Nick a concerned look before continuing. "I managed to bypass the security Grissom had set up using the software we've got here." He got up and retrieved the computer, placing it down in front of Sara. "As soon as you see what's on it you'll understand why he had it so well protected."
She turned it on and they waited as it ran through its start-up routine. When the desktop appeared, Archie pointed to a folder named Lepidoptera. "That's the one you're after."
Both Sara and Catherine gasped when they realized they what they were looking at: copies of almost everything they had on Grissom's case plus all the files relating to the Debbie Marlin and Vincent Lurie murders.
"Oh my God" Catherine ran her hand across her forehead, feeling her own headache start. "How the hell did he get all of that?"
"Don't look at me." Sara threw up her hands in self-defense. "I had nothing to do with it."
"I know that, Sara, I wasn't accusing anyone." Catherine assured her. "Ecklie said someone logged into the system on the same night his memo came out; you and Greg had that hit-and-run, Warrick was out all night and Nick and I spent most of the shift with Jim." She thought for a moment. "That was also the night that Grissom went out for a drive. Maybe Conrad was right; maybe Gil did come in that night. I mean, who else could it have been?"
Nick turned quickly to look across the hallway towards the trace lab. "Oh, I could probably come up with a suspect for you."
Brass entered, a video cassette held in his hand. "Suspect in what?"
"Have a look at what Archie found on Gil's computer." Catherine said, moving slightly to let Jim get a closer look at the screen.
Brass quickly scanned the list of files in front of him; he leaned against the table and shook his head. "He's trying to work the damn case, isn't he?"
"It looks that way." Catherine turned to Archie. "Is there anyway you can find out what he's been doing with these files?"
"All I can tell you about them is when they were last accessed. Anytime he's saved something lately it's been to the E: drive, so he's using some kind of portable storage." He held up a finger. "I can tell you that he's set up a diversion to bounce his personal email to another address but I have no way of getting into that without a court order."
"Which we have no hope of getting." Brass pointed out. He held out the new tape for Archie to take. "Here, maybe we'll have more luck with this."
Jim opened his notebook as the tech started the video. "Apparently, Gil's on here twice. First at 10:53 am then again at 11:19."
Archie sped through the footage until it neared the first time Jim had mentioned. They all watched as Grissom, right hand still wrapped in the torn t-shirt, made a call from one of the public phones inside the main terminal.
"Well, if nothing else, at least now we know he's definitely safe."
Moving forward to 11:19, the aspect shifted to a camera outside the building. The camera angle was awkward, positioned more to cover the line of cabs that sat outside the door than the people waiting for a ride but it was enough to show Grissom sitting on the a bench against the wall. As they continued to watch, a large white SUV pulled up, almost out of frame, and Gil stood and moved towards it. They saw him speak through the lowered passenger side window then open the door, hand his crutches to someone and get in. A few seconds later, the vehicle drove off.
Archie rewound the tape and paused on a shot of the SUV. "I'll see if I can clean it up enough to make out what kind of car it is."
"There's no need." Brass told him as he stared at the image on the screen. "It's a Lexus 570. We may not know where Grissom is but I know who does."
TBC