Title:Last Drink Tonight
Author:Nicksfriend
Disclaimer:I do not own or have any sort of connection to CBS or the CSI franchise...wish I did though it would be nice to have a little extra cash.
Summary: A trip to a missing person is interrupted by a drunk driver.
Crime Lab
Hodges rounded the corner to see his boss, he glanced at his watch and noted that he was early . "Hey Grissom, how's Nick?" he asked as he spied the bags of evidence in his boss's hands.
"Hanging in there, Hodges, I need this evidence processed ASAP,can you get on it?" his pale face with bags underneath his eyes were sure signs that he was exhausted.
"Sure boss,what do you need done?" taking the bags from Grissom's hands.
"Give the video to Archie as soon as he gets here and there was a swab with some form of greasy substance, looks like lotion according to Sara and the clothing see if we can get a print off the scrub top and here," he pulled out the bag with the strand of hair," see if you get some DNA off this."
Before Hodges had a chance to say anything Grissom was already walking down the hallway, dialing a number on his cellphone.
"Brass." the man on the other end of the phone answered.
"Jim, Gil. I have a case I want you to look at, do you have time?" Grissom really wanted Brass's eye on this matter, make sure he wasn't reading things into a simple accident.
"Listen Gil, I'm at a crime scene right now, I was getting ready to call you guys in on this one, a nurse was murdered, looks like it might be right up your team's alley."
Gil stopped in the hallway, a second nurse from Desert Palm,that was odd,"What's her name?"
"According to her mail carrier, it's Tammy Langston. She works in the ICU at Desert Palm." he looked at his black notebook,where he had jotted down some notes.
"Don't let anybody touch anything, I'm going to send Warrick and Catherine over." Grissom directed, then suddenly hanging up the line.
"We won't touch anything that hasn't already been touched." he grinned and closed his phone, the murder scene was more than odd, the front door had been opened, not a stranger, a letter had been placed in the mailbox but if he was correct it had been placed there after the mail carrier had already ran the day before,nobody had seen anybody and the alarm was not set, she evidently had been taking a shower,but why would she open the door if she was in a towel unless it was someone she trusted.
Brass walked through the house, nothing disturbed, back door still locked, the shower still running, the water an icy cold now.
He looked at the carpet, it was wet from the shower to the door and it was if she was headed back to the bathroom when she got stabbed in the back,instantly killing her, she fell to the ground, the blood pool was dry, the towel now soaked in dry blood, the body smelled strongly of decomp, she had been dead at least twenty-four hours but he would wait for the coroner to give the actual estimate.
Brass carefully maneuvered back out the door, careful not to disturb anything, wanting to keep the crime scene untainted. He looked over at the mail carrier, he had a package for the woman, it needed a signature, but his curiosity was more towards who had sent the package.
He went to his air conditioned car to await the team to arrive, he knew it was going to be a long shift.
Desert Palm
Nick moved around in the bed the best he could with one leg immobilized due to the procedure he had done earlier in the day and the cast on the other leg. The pain medication wasn't helping his pain or his mood, the nurse was staring to get on his last nerve. She was acting as if she was his best friend instead of his nurse.
Rebecca came back into the room,"I got you your favorite ice cream, I know how you love ice cream." she sat the bowl of chocolate ice cream on his table and then reached over and raised his bed.
He looked at the frozen dessert and made a face,"Are you sure I like ice cream?" he asked as he pushed it away.
She wanted to be patient with her lover but he was starting to get on her nerves.
His head hurt and he had no appetite for frozen milk."Listen, I'm not hungry and I really want to see Nicole."
The name of woman ran through her, why would Joe want the red headed woman? "Listen, eat the ice cream."her voice more demanding, she pushed the bowl back towards Nick and handed him a spoon.
She turned to leave but she needed to ask Joe one more question,"Listen, I know you don't feel well right now and your memory isn't very good right now but I was wondering, do you remember the accident?"
"Bits and pieces," he answered as he pushed the lumps of melting ice cream around in the bowl.
"Do you remember who was driving the car that hit you that night?" she needed to know, she had to know, she needed to take care of this one last detail.
He quietened, giving the question some thought,"I don't remember."
She nodded, it would probably take a little longer for him to remember details,"Hey, I'll be back in a while, I'm doing a double today so I can take care of you."
Nick nodded as he watched the strange nurse leave, she was very odd. He knew one thing for sure,he didn't like chocolate ice cream, he pushed it back and hoped she wouldn't notice he hadn't eaten a bite.
Dallas Texas
Stokes Ranch
Judge Stokes made his way down the oak stairs, John and Elizabeth sat in the living room, their mother had taken a sedative to calm her nerves, the doctor had came out to see her and told them she needed rest.
"I spoke to the District Attorney, he is going to move forward with the case but we can no longer be involved." John informed his father.
His father did not respond, he walked over to the bar and poured himself a glass of scotch and sat down by the fireplace, the cold winter air seemed to be making the house a little cooler and the heat from the fireplace helped to warm him, though he knew it was more of the shock that his son had been raped as a child,what else had she done that night and what prevented her from killing him like she had killed the other forty-nine small boys?
Elizabeth sat on the huge sofa, still in a state of shock herself,her brother had been raped by a crazed lunatic and her father was acting as if nothing had happened.
The room sat silent for several minutes, then Judge Stokes voice broke the moment with one statement,"This is over, we are to never talk about it again. Understood?"
"Dad, won't Nick be called as a witness?" John asked, concerned what this might do to his brother,no matter their differences in the past Nick was his brother and he loved him very much.
"No, I've talked to the DA myself and we aren't going to bring up Nick's name, ever again, regarding this matter." His voice firm and authoritative.
Elizabeth was now in tears, her voice trembling as she spoke,"Pretend it didn't happen? Alter evidence? What else are you going to ask us to do to protect the name of Stokes? Dad, you and mom left Nick that night to go to a dinner in your honor, a dinner to celebrate the name of Stokes,you abandoned my brother to hob nob with the rich and you just want us to forget what happened to our little brother, just like that?"
"It's complicated Liz,you don't know what this would do to your family. I promise I will get help for Nick, the very best psychologist but I will not destroy my family name for one child!" her father still not looking at his children, his focus directed on a burning log in the stone fireplace.
Elizabeth's anger was brewing inside ,at her parents obvious denial of what had happened to her brother.
John stood in shock, this man could not be his father, to allow Nick to suffer and not be able to deal with it the way it should be dealt with, the evidence was the evidence, regardless of how it made his parents look, they had left his brother with a total stranger.
Judge Stokes turned to proceed back up the stairs to be with his wife,"Do not discuss this matter with your other siblings,that is an order." and with those words he was gone.
John and Elizabeth stood, staring at each other, both thinking the same thing,what was their father hiding?
Tammy Langston's House
Warrick and Catherine entered the house, the body of Tammy Langston. lying on the living room floor, the water in the shower could still be heard in the background.
"Looks like she knew her attacker." Catherine spoke to no one in general, just making an obvious statement.
Warrick was still looking at the door,"I talked to the officer, he said the door was untouched until he broke it open to enter."
Catherine nodded, her flashlight looking around for any clues in the very stuffy room, the heat of the room was twice that of outside.
She looked around at the blood pool, it had dried, a sign that the victim had been dead for more than twenty-four hours.
Warrick noted the warmth of the room to and walked over to the air conditioning, the temperature was set for fifty, that was odd, then why was it so hot in the room?
Catherine looked around,"Did they want to cook her too?"
"No, actually I think they were thinking the opposite and blew a circuit breaker by setting the air too low, it probably ran for hours attempting to keep it this cool but it probably shorted and threw the breaker." his hand attempted to turn on a light, but there was no electricity.
Catherine was watching Warrick and she shrugged,"Guess we need to check the circuit breaker in the garage to see if we're right."
Warrick nodded as he approached the body, unable to move it until the coroner arrived, but at that moment entered David.
"Hey guys what do we have?" a usual smile on his face.
"We were waiting for you to tell us." Warrick quipped, loving to irritate the man, but he had respect for his profession, he just wanted him to move a little faster.
David looked over the body, "Single stab wound to the midline of the chest through the back, probably bled out quickly. He pulled out the thermometer and stuck into her liver,"Liver temp is probably not correct due to the heat of the room and I'm sure it was hotter before the door was opened, so I would estimate it more than twenty-four hours."
"Can we roll her?" Catherine asked as she watched David remove his thermometer.
"Sure." both hands moved to the side and he flipped her face up.
Warrick and Catherine were now standing over the body,both looking rather stunned.
"I know her, she took care of Nick, she almost killed him with a mistake a few nights ago but Rebecca caught it." he shined his light down on the pale face of the woman.
"Who's Rebecca?" Catherine asked.
"She took care of Nick by giving him narcan for the overdose of Valium Tammy had allowed, if I hadn't walked in and called out for a nurse, Nick would have coded." he explained.
"Tammy must have felt a lot of guilt, she resigned her position at Desert Palm." Brass walked into the room carrying with gloved hands a letter addressed to the administration at Desert Palm, it was giving her resignation.
"You didn't open that?" Catherine asked, "That's a federal offense."
"Actually, it opened itself so I took the opportunity to read it, it was in the mailbox with the flag up. I took pictures." his eyebrows went up and he gave her a smile.
Catherine took the letter and read it for herself,"Looks as if Tammy was feeling some remorse for her mistake."
"But what killed her?" Brass added.
"Not what, but who." Warrick still with flashlight in hand starring down at the body.
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