A/N: New chapter! Short chapter but longer one next...Moving forward...
A Return to Vegas
Chapter 5
Within minutes, they learned Dave Spencer was not at home; his wife was and appeared happy to see Jim Brass.
Lena Spencer invited them inside the two story house before asking why they were looking for her husband. She said, "He's fishing—or he's riding around in his boat—I never see many fish!" Waving them into a bright living room, she said, "Sit, sit anywhere!"
She was small, white-hair, blue eyes and bright white teeth, dressed in shorts and a tank top, with a body of a runner, arms of gym muscle and in constant motion.
The house was immaculate; Sara noticed the plants, lush and green and free of dust, growing in pots and climbing on frames to the ceiling. A modern art print of a palm tree nearly covered a wall. Furniture crowded the room, two large sofas, three overstuffed chairs; a big screen television on another wall and a stack of magazines on a low table. No sign that a man lived here.
They sat in chairs listening to the non-stop chatter of Dave's wife who seemed to be ready for visitors, arranging coasters, offering water, tea, coffee, beer, before going into a lengthy explanation of her husband's absence.
Sara did not remember accepting a drink, but tumblers of water seemed to magically appear beside them. As if on cue, all four lifted the glasses and drank as Lena continued to talk.
"Dave loves that lake—spends more time out that than he does here. Says he can sit there and watch the sky and be entertained for hours. I pack him a lunch with plenty to eat. Most days, he gets back home around dark." She continued, seemingly without a need for air, for another fifteen minutes.
When Lena paused in her monologue on fishing and the drastic decline in water levels at Lake Mead, Brass managed to ask "Lena, do you know if Dave kept his service revolver? These guys are trying to do some fancy computer things with some old guns and if they could borrow his—well, it'd make their work easier."
Lena answered quickly, "He does—has three of them. You are more than welcome to take them." She moved to a massive cabinet and opened a drawer, dug around in the back and brought out a shoe box. "He doesn't take care of them—can't remember when he's used one."
When she lifted the top off the box, two guns were wrapped in cloth; both had trigger locks. A third cloth came up empty.
"I know he has three," Lena said. "One was the first gun he carried—the newest one is missing." She passed the box to Brass who gave it to Chris.
"You're sure he won't mind if we take them?" asked Chris.
"He won't—let me get the keys." Lena said as she left the room.
They could hear her rummaging around in the kitchen and reappeared with two keys on a ring. "You know, I bet he has one with him—he was talking about carrying one in his fishing tackle."
Brass chuckled, saying, "Is he planning to shoot fish?"
She laughed and waved a hand. "Oh, Jim, you know how he is."
Jim did not know how Dave was but agreed with his wife and took the keys she offered.
Before they left, she offered to serve more drinks and food. When they refused, she followed them to the vehicle, talking all the way.
As they drove away, Sara said, "She's lonely—that house was so clean you could eat off the floor."
"I think you're right," Brass said. "And I don't think Dave is really fishing—probably sitting in a bar somewhere."
Grissom said, "Do they have kids?"
Brass answered, "I don't think so—never heard him talk about kids—and no photos of family in that house."
Almost unconsciously, Sara reached over and placed her hand on Jim's shoulder. After all these years, he had photos of Ellie in his house and, when Anthony and then Libby had arrived, he had added their photos next to Ellie's.
Driving back to the lab, they were caught in heavy traffic and spent the time talking about possibilities which came back around to selling guns as a profit-making part of law enforcement. They talked about what to do next; the guns would go to the forensics lab for testing. If testing showed the ballistics did not match, their search would turn from physical evidence to a digital search.
When traffic began to move, they switched to other topics.
Grissom and Sara invited Brass to go with them to Catherine's to pick up the kids and have dinner with them.
Brass chuckled, saying, "I don't have any Fruit Loops." The cereal had become the expected treat to the Grissom children, secreted in his pockets for them to find.
"We'll stop at a store on the way," Grissom said with a chuckle. "We may have Fruit Loops for dinner."
They found Maxine sitting in the conference room with Allie and Josh—and David Hodges who jumped up when they entered the room.
"Gil! Sara! I heard you were in the building!"
As he headed to them, Sara stuck her hand out. "Hello, Hodges!" She grabbed his hand in a handshake, leaned back a bit as he moved in and managed to avoid a hug. "Looking good, old guy—back in the lab, I hear."
Quickly, he lost interest as he turned to Grissom who managed to avoid a hug by extending one hand and placing the other on Hodges' shoulder. He said, "How are you?"
Hodges never heard words from either of them as he launched into an extended dissertation of his life in minute details while his eyes roamed from Sara to Grissom. Details included discovering his skills were better suited for lab work and had recently become day-shift supervisor of trace lab techs. Grissom nodded politely; Sara bit her lip to keep from laughing as she caught the eye-rolls of the others at the conference table.
Maxine managed to state, "Hodges, we need to finish up here—soon."
As was his nature, he took four minutes to profusely apologize and take his leave. Grissom followed Hodges to the door, silently urging him out. Before closing the door, Grissom said, "We can visit later."
"Yes! Certainly—perhaps dinner one night," said Hodges as he walked backward down the hall.
Grissom closed the door, leaning against it, and shook his head.
Managing to keep a straight face, Sara said, "Some people never change."
A/N: Hodges! Thanks for reading and thank you for your kind comments! Love to hear from readers.
And more to come!