Author's Note: I'd like to thank Crazy Aunt Ella and phnxgrl for their reviews. This chapter starts about an hour after the last one ended. Enjoy!


Chapter 54

The CSI's had been working on sorting the evidence for over an hour when Crawford called to let them know that Eduardo Perez and Rafael Lopez were in custody. Russell finished the pile he'd been working on and stripped off his gloves. The others said they'd finish sorting and then help Hodges and Henry process it all. Russell was about to leave when he had a thought and asked Sara to process the apartment the men had been found at when the warrant came in. Russell grabbed a folder of photographs and evidence, as well as a tablet with Jesus Estobar's confession on it, and headed to the station.

It was time to find out why these men did the things they'd done. Uniforms had found Eduardo at Rafael's house while they were both sleeping. They were brought to the station in separate cars and placed in separate interrogation rooms to prevent them from formulating a story together. Russell stood in the hallway looking into both rooms. Both men seemed to be strong willed and defiant, staring at a wall of their choosing with intensity and anger. They didn't want to be here.

Ecklie walked up to Russell. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm trying to figure out which one will break first. Neither seems to be the talking type."

Ecklie put his hands in his pockets. "Yeah."

Russell turned to Ecklie. "Are Ms. Martinez and her daughter in protective custody?"

"Yeah. The Marshall Service collected them a couple hours ago. They're safe."

"Good, good. Because we may need to use the confession tape to break one of them." Russell's phone buzzed and he pulled it out to take a look. "Henry's done running their DNA samples. They match what we have from the evidence and crime scene."

"That's good to hear." Ecklie looked at Eduardo Perez. "I'll take him."

"Okay." Russell went into I2 with Rafael Lopez. "Mr. Lopez. I'm CSI Russell."

"Good for you."

Russell chuckled. "You think you're a tough guy, don't ya? Yeah. I've seen your type a lot. They think that because they have a friend in the next room that they're untouchable."

"You got a point there, old man?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I've got a point. Your DNA is a match to two DNA samples. One was found on a doorknob in the house where three people were murdered, and the other in the hotel room of the couple who were murdered in that house. Your friend's DNA was in both places as well. Now, your DNA in an abandoned house? That's not enough. Your DNA inside the honeymoon suite of the victims in that house? That's a lot more suspicious."

Rafael shrugged. "Must be a mistake. I know nothing about any triple murders. And I've never been to the Mediterranean."

"I never said they were staying at the Mediterranean."

Rafael's smug face fell. "I think… I, uh… heard about it on the news."

"Right. When was that story being reported?" Russell sat down and set the folder and tablet on the table.

"I can't remember."

"Probably because that information was never made public." Russell pulled a picture out of the folder and looked at it. "This picture is even more damning though. Take a look." He set the photo down.

Rafael looked away from the still. "Shit."

"Yeah. That's you and Eduardo coming out of the honeymoon suite at the Mediterranean. I'd say congrats on your wedding if the room wasn't already booked by Mr. and Mrs. Mason."

"What do you want?"

"A confession would be nice." Russell slid a pad of paper and a pen to Rafael. "Names, dates, where the bodies were dumped; I want it all. Eduardo is being asked for the same things right now."

Rafael shook his head. "He won't talk."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that. The one who cooperates first will be a lot more likely to be given some leniency at sentencing. That could mean less time or actually getting some privileges. Right now, you're looking at twenty-five to life in a Super-Max."

"You know what? What you have here isn't enough to put me away for that long. I'll take my chances."

Russell sat back in his chair. "You sure about that?"

"Yeah. I'm sure."

"I'm going to give you another chance to change your mind." Russell turned on the tablet. "Before you killed Jesus Estobar, he made a confession video." He hit play.

"My name is Jesus Estobar. This video is my statement against Eduardo Perez and Rafael Lopez. They are responsible for twelve murders over the last six months that I've known them. I know this because I have been an accomplice." Estobar cleared his throat.

"Turn it off." Rafael's shoulders dropped and his face was resigned. "I'll talk."

Russell paused the video. "Jesus knew of twelve bodies. The Masons and Jesus makes fifteen. Are there more bodies?"

"Yes."

"How many and where are they?"

"At least a dozen. We buried them a few miles north of Ely. I can take you there." Rafael picked up the pen and started writing. "I never cared to learn their names. I just remember where we killed them."

Russell could see that Rafael was writing locations down. "Why did you kill Jesus Estobar?"

"He was a snitch. I don't know how Eddy found that out, but he knew Jesus was a snitch and said we had get rid of him." Rafael gestured to the video. "Guess he was right. How'd you get that?"

"That's confidential."

"His girl had it, right? Eddy's gonna kill her when he gets out."

"I doubt that." Russell turned the page Rafael had been writing on around. "Is this all you know?"

"Yeah. Look, Eddy's gonna know I snitched on him. What can you do for me?" Rafael leaned forward, desperation on his face.

"That depends if you're able to lead us to the other bodies or not."

Rafael was set up in a police cruiser with a significant escort. Russell drove the crime lab SUV with Morgan, Greg, and Ibarra accompanying him. David was driving the coroner van and Doc was with him again. For a while, it looked like Rafael was taking them in circles, but eventually he got them to a spot that was very similar to the other site they'd found. He got out of the squad car and led them to the exact spot.

"It's down there. The path is to the right…" Rafael started to walk toward it, but was stopped by a uniform. "You guys can find it."

The CSI's took their gear down the path and started to dig. After a couple minutes, a fractured human skull was unearthed. Russell looked up at the group gathered at the top of the cliff and nodded. Rafael had taken them to the right spot. Their suspect was taken back to PD and the CSI's got to work digging up the rest of the remains. Henry was going to love it when they got the evidence from this site back to the lab.


When Russell returned to the lab at the end of the dig, he was dusty but happy that the case was coming to a close on their side. Eduardo Perez had called for a lawyer five minutes into his interrogation. Rafael was being kept away from him to make sure "Eddy" didn't kill him for talking and showing the cops the other dump site. Russell looked into Henry's lab. As expected, he was not happy about the million more bone fragments he was going to have to process and analyze now.

Sara was in Russell's office with Finn. "You have a visitor."

"Finn, what's going on?"

Finn was sitting on the couch. "Did Ecklie get back to you?"

Russell nodded and grabbed his briefcase. "I was going to show you this when I got back home." He pulled out the email and gave it to Finn. "This is what Ecklie says you'll need to do to come back."

Finn nodded as she looked over the page. "Makes sense."

Russell turned to Sara. "Did you find the murder weapons?"

Sara nodded. "Yeah, all three of them. Just like Finn said. Henry has them now and Mandy already dusted them for prints. We should hear back soon."

"Good." Russell turned back to Finn. "I wanna show you something. Think you can handle a trip to the morgue?"

Finn hesitated and then nodded slowly. "I think so."

They rode the elevator down to the morgue and put on the white lab coats while they waited for Doc or David to come out. Doc finally emerged to meet them and Russell quickly explained what he wanted to do. Doc asked him to give them a moment and went back into the morgue. A few minutes later, after he and David had cleaned up a little, he let them come in. David was standing next to the computer and printing out the results Henry was sending.

Russell looked over the sea of bones on the tables in front of them. "You helped us solve a case that has solved over two dozen missing persons' cases. Some of these victims will probably never be identified and no one even noticed they were gone, but now we know about them. You were a part of this."

"I didn't do that much." Finn walked deeper into the room.

"No, you're right. One CSI is not the whole case. We all work together to solve these cases with the evidence we can find. You- you don't see your contribution as a big deal, but it helped us know what kind of people we were looking for. And that- that is a big deal."

Finn nodded and looked around at all the bones on the tables. Hundreds of fragments were on the tables. All were labeled with a number. Some had been sorted into groups that belonged to a John or Jane Doe, some were lucky enough to have been linked to a name. Finn turned to look at another table and found parts of a skull. Someone had been hit in the head hard enough or often enough to have not just fractured the bones, but shattered them. Finn swallowed, her neck muscles tightening up as she hugged her arms close to her body.

Russell was watching her. "What are you thinking?"

"This could have been me." Finn walked toward Russell with her shoulders hunched, tears of fear threatening to fall. "Five months ago, one month ago; I could have ended up on one of these tables."

Russell nodded. "Yes, you could have. But you didn't. You're alive. You're here. You survived. And I'm glad you did."

Finn sighed. "I just keep getting hit with how close I came to dying. I guess I do need a therapist."

"I have a list you can go over when you want to. All are experienced at working with people suffering from PTSD. You'll be in good hands."

"Thanks."

Sara pushed open the door and came into the morgue. "Henry had the results for the murder weapons. He was able to get DNA from at least the last four victims on most of them. And Mandy was able to match fingerprints to each suspect. Eduardo was the crowbar and Rafael was the bat. They're being booked now. Separately."

"Good, good."

Sara turned to Finn. "I hear you're not a big fan of living with Russell."

"Not really."

"Well, I just happen to have a spare bedroom I've been thinking of renting out. If you'd like to be my first renter, it's all yours."

Finn smiled playfully. "What does rent look like?"

Sara leaned back in her chair. "After you've renewed your driver's license, I'll need rides to work until I can get my own car. And since you can climb ladders and step stools, you'll have to get things off the high shelves for me. We'll figure something else out from there."

Finn looked like she was mulling things over in her head, but then she smiled and stuck out her hand. "Deal."

"Good. Let me know when you want to move in." Sara shook the blonde's hand.

"Soon." Finn playfully punched Russell's shoulder. "Told you it was temporary."

"Yes, you did." Russell smiled as Finn walked out before rubbing his shoulder. "She hits hard even when she's joking."

"Yeah."

"Thank you, Sara."

Sara smiled. "No problem. You said I calm her. Let's see if living with me helps her get better quicker."

Russell held the door open so they could go back upstairs. "I have no doubt that it will."


A/N: That's it for this case. As I said before, I will be taking a week off to proofread the next case before I start posting it, and after that case I will post my adaptation of the series finale. Thank you for sticking with me and stay tuned!