Chapter 32
"Hey, Harvard, how about we take a break and get something to eat?"
Sara looked up and, rolling her shoulders, glanced at the clock.
"Sounds like a good idea. What do you want?"
"I asked Catherine to pick up a couple of fruit salads and put them in the fridge for us when she went out earlier."
"Gotta love a man who thinks ahead. Do you suppose there's any chance Greg's made a pot of coffee recently?"
"We can but hope. Let's go see."
They'd just exited the room, locking the door to preserve the chain of evidence, and headed for the break room when they heard their names being called.
"So, Gil, Sara, listen to this one!"
Jim Brass and Sofia Curtis strode down the wide crime lab corridor shoulder-to-shoulder, both grinning as they approached the investigators.
"What's up with you two?"
"We just got back from the airport," Sofia explained.
"McCarren?"
"Yeah."
"Because?"
"We collared a pickpocket."
"That required two detectives?" He looked at Sofia. "Does it tie in to the Johnson murder?"
"Nah, it was just too good to pass up on," Brass replied for her.
"A pickpocket?"
"Yeah, so Charlie Regan—do you know Charlie Regan?"
Sara shook her head while Grissom replied, "I don't think I've had the pleasure."
"Well, Charlie's kind of a frequent flyer, always petty stuff, so he's never away for long; he used to frequent the crowds on Fremont Street and the Strip, but surveillance cameras are getting better and better, so he figured he'd give his magic fingers a try at the airport."
"'Cause there's no security there?" queried Sara.
"Yeah, well, I didn't say that he was bright. So, anyhow, tonight, he's wandering around there and sees a crowd gathering. He can't see the front of the group, but he does spy a guy off to one side at the back who's intently watching what was going on. He's a lanky black guy with kind of a foreign look and the top of his wallet sticking invitingly out of his back pocket. Charlie works his way up to the guy and slick as can be has the wallet and starts to slip away. He's made it maybe twenty or thirty feet and thinks he's home free when a whoop goes up and he looks back to see his victim standing, pointing at him and yelling. Now Charlie is one fast little dude and he knows his way around the airport, so he takes off running, but the pigeon and this other guy take off after him. What he doesn't know is that the crowd was there to greet the Kenyan National Track and Field team, which is in town for an international meet. He walked up on a press conference. The second guy who took off after him was in the process of being interviewed when he picked this guy's pocket—he holds the world's record in the 300 meter. And the victim? He was the BIG star, waiting in the wings for his interview. He's the mile record holder. Poor Charlie didn't have a chance in hell outrunning these guys. Even with his lead, I don't think he got twenty more feet."
"And the kicker?" Sofia added, chuckling. "The crew filming the interview? They got the whole thing on tape."