Title: Survivor (ch 2)
Author: CSIphile
Disclaimers and everything same as the first chapter.
Author Note: ** Indicates a diary/journal entry from out dead girl.
Pushing open the door to the small dorm room, Nick takes in the piles of boxes stacked neatly on one wall. Moving closer he notes that all are marked with the contents.
"Looks like she was moving." Nick says to no one as Sara is talking with the Resident Advisor.
"According to the RA, she had dropped out of school." Sara says as she enters the room, causing Nick to jump slightly, taking a quick look around "she didn't say why, she just dropped and was moving home. She was an excellent student, well liked on the floor, volunteer, and was part of a sorority."
"What would motivate you to suddenly leave school?" Nick says as he moves closer to the window in question and leans over enough to view down.
"Lots of things make you want to run Nick." Sara says quietly and continues to look around. At the knowing tone in her voice, Nick turns to look at her, but she has already turned her back and is looking at the desk, fussing with the drawers. Nick is about to say something when Sara turns to face him, holding what looks like a journal.
"Maybe our girl will be able to tell us who killed her." Sara says waving the journal and then bagging it.
"Where did you find that?" Nick asks, curious as to how the day shift missed it. As far as he was aware, they had at least looked over the room.
"It was jammed up into a space between the drawers in her desk. I can't believe Ecklies' people missed it, especially since there was no suicide note. Grissom will love that." Sara says, anger at the day shift apparent from her tone.
Searching the rest of the dorm room yielded very little. Sara bags a few hairs and Nick prints the door handle, afraid of how many partials may be on it.
On the drive back to the labs Sara is quiet, not saying a word, a 180 degree turn from that morning when she was singing and dancing. "Something is bothering her" Nick thought to himself. "How do I approach this without facing the wrath of Sara?' He looked over at her questioningly.
"You ok?" He finally asks, deciding to take the direct approach.
"Hmm? Oh, I'm fine Nick, sorry, just thinking." Sara tells him with no readable expression on her face.
"Thinking about what?"
She finally turns to look at him, a sad look on her face. "Nothing in particular, I suppose. Just thinking that sometimes the choices we make affect more than just us. Our victim, Grace, had decided to leave school. Why? What brought her to that decision, to make that choice? What couldn't she control? Because in the end, someone made the choice that she was better off dead than alive."
Nick just nods at her, he can understand her thinking. He is actually surprised at the answer he received, he had been expecting a typical Sara 'Nothing' but was rewarded with a small glimpse into her thoughts. Didn't happen very frequently. When they get back to the lab, Nick heads off to do some background on the victim and see what prints he got off the door handle; and Sara decides to read the journal to see if they can get anything from that while Greg runs the hairs.
Taking a seat at the table in the break room, Sara slips on gloves and opens the thick journal to the first page, it looked to her that the girl had been keeping it for a while.Her suspicions are confirmed on the first page.
**I can't believe I am finally here. I have been looking forward to leaving Mom and Dad's house for years and now I am at college, on my own, even if they are only 20 miles away. My roommate is a little weird though, but we seem to get along. Oh so many things to talk about, classes start tomorrow, but today I have to finish unpacking…**
Sara has managed to read up to the summer between freshman and sophomore year before Nick interrupts her.
"Hey, anything out of the journal?" He asks and sits across from her.
"Nothing yet, but I haven't started this year. You get anything?"
"Not much. The prints were too smudged to be useful. Checked her transcripts, called some teachers, the sister came by to ID the body so I talked to her briefly. She was an excellent student, loved school according to the sister, Alison. She had no idea why Grace wanted to drop. According to Alison, Grace just called home one Sunday and said she was leaving school and asked if she could come live with her. Grace was supposed to move the day after she died."
"Curious, something happened obviously. Didn't you say she was in a sorority? Maybe they might know." Sara suggests.
"Good idea, I volunteer to go talk to them." Nick says with a huge grin on his face.
That elicited a smile from Sara "Yea, I am sure you do, I think I better come with you, wouldn't want you to get distracted." She says in a light tone. She quickly makes note of the page she is on in the journal and slips it back into the evidence bag. As they are getting up, Grissom comes into the room, out of breath from running.
"Hey man, you ok?" Nick asks.
"Nick…the DA needs you right now. Somehow they managed to screw up the evidence in the Dawkins trial. They need you to review the evidence so you can go to court tomorrow and do damage control." He tells the younger man.
"Oh man, I am going to miss talking to sorority girls."
"Sorry for your luck." Sara says and tries not to smile at the crestfallen look on his face.
"Guess you get to go alone." He tells her and gets up, heading to the door.
"Not alone, I will be joining you on the case Sara." Grissom says smiling at Sara. "When you are done Nick, come join us."
"Oh that should be fun, good luck." Nick says and walks to the locker room.
"What was he talking about sorority girls?" Grissom asks her once Nick is gone.
"We were just about to talk to some of the victims sorority sisters." Sara says and fills him in on what little they had up to that point.
"Sounds like a good place to start. That and the journal. Getting anything there?" He asks as they head toward the Tahoe.
"Nothing yet, she wrote a lot, almost everyday, it's taking a while to read through. I haven't started this school year yet." She says while opening the passenger door and getting in.
Delta Gamma Delta Sorority House
After much confusion, and explaining who they were twice, Grissom and Sara manage to track down the sororities' President and are talking to her in the houses' enormous kitchen area.
"I don't understand." The girl was sniffles. "Grace was one of the most popular girls here."
"Miss Maxwell, can you tell us if she was having trouble with anyone? A boyfriend, co-worker." Grissom asks.
"You can call me Devanie. No, no one, she had broken up with a guy I guess about 8 weeks ago, I don't know why, they seemed to be doing great. Seemed to be an amicable break up. He's in our brother fraternity."
"What's his name and the name of the fraternity?" Sara asks.
"Kevin Lasho. He is in Sigma Tau Epsilon fraternity. Their house is on 3rd Ave." She says, almost ready to cry again. "I…. I just cant believe this happened, please let me know if anyone here can help."
"Devanie, who was the closest to her in the sorority? She made have confided in them more." Sara asks feeling sorry for the girl who looks honestly devastated.
"There was her big sister, Hope. They seemed pretty close, though lately they haven't really seen much of each other."
"Where can we find Hope now?" Grissom asks.
"Umm, I think she is in class, hang on a second." Devanie says and yells into the other room about Hope's schedule, the response comes back quickly.
"She is in government class for another 30 minutes. Uh, the Markham building, south side of campus." The disembodies voice replies.
"Thanks." Devanie says and turns back to Sara and Grissom. "You get that?"
"Yes, thank you Devanie." Grissom says as they get up from the table and leave, Devanie following close behind. Once they get to the front door Grissom opens it and lets Sara pass through.
"Please, whatever we can do to help, let us know. We all miss Gracie." The young woman tells them through tears.
"We will." Grissom says and closes the door behind him.
Twenty minutes later they found the building and armed with the room number and a description of Hope Masterson, they wait for the class to let out. Standing in the hall, Grissom watches Sara as she reads the bulletin boards, a smile on her face.
"Something interesting?" He asks her, approaching and standing a little closer than probably necessary. She didn't seem to mind the violation of her personal space.
"No, not really. Just being here reminds me of college. I loved my four years at Harvard." She smiles at him, a genuine one, filled with the memories of being somewhere she felt she truly belonged. "I never wanted to leave. I have never been happier in my entire life then I was there. You know…. really, truly feeling like you belong somewhere. I had never felt that before, and not really since." A distant memory clouds her eyes briefly and then its gone, Grissom isn't even sure he saw it.
"You don't feel like you belong here? In Vegas?" He asks, confused. He thought she liked her job and the people.
"It's not the same Grissom. I love my job and I love the people, even though I started off on a bad foot. I can't describe it." She faces him, wanting him to understand.
"As long as you like being here. I don't want to think I brought you here to hate it." He tells her, concerned.
"No, Grissom. I could never hate it. Not with you here." She quietly tells him. Just as he is about to respond the class lets out and they both turn to the now open door, searching the mass of students. As the last of the students leave, Sara nudges Grissom in the side, indicating a girl who had just walked out. He nods and they approach her.
"Hope Masterson?" Sara asks.
"Yes" She says and looks at the two CSIs warily. Quickly they introduce themselves.
"Oh, yes. I am sorry. Not used to people waiting for me outside class."
"No problem." Grissom starts "We just have a few questions."
"Sure, anything."
"As far as you know, was anyone bothering Grace? Following or harassing her?" Grissom lead the questioning with Sara taking careful notes.
"No, no one."
"Had something happened in school?"
"No, she loved it here. It was her life." At that comment Grissom stole a quick look at Sara who had a look of understanding etched into her features.
"What about the boyfriend she just broke up with? Did he take it well?"
"He didn't have a choice. Gracie found out he was cheating on her and that was it, she broke it off the next day." Sara looked up at the younger woman, there was something in the tone of her voice.
Sara jumped in with a question "Do you know who he was cheating with?" Grissom just looked at her.
"No, I have no clue. If you will excuse me, I have to get to the library for study group. If you need anything else, please come by the house." She said and walks down the hall, not giving them much time to respond.
"It was her." Sara says with some confidence.
"What?"
"Grace caught her boyfriend cheating with her 'big sister', didn't you see the look on her face when I asked the question?" At his incredulous look Sara continues "She was fine until we asked about the boyfriend, then she started shifting and acting anxious. I bet it was her."
"Good. I think you are right." He says and turns away from her, heading down the hall to the Tahoe.
"You think I am…Grissom, you were testing me there weren't you?" Sara asks as she quickly catches up with him. All she gets in return is a grin
tbc…………..
Author: CSIphile
Disclaimers and everything same as the first chapter.
Author Note: ** Indicates a diary/journal entry from out dead girl.
Pushing open the door to the small dorm room, Nick takes in the piles of boxes stacked neatly on one wall. Moving closer he notes that all are marked with the contents.
"Looks like she was moving." Nick says to no one as Sara is talking with the Resident Advisor.
"According to the RA, she had dropped out of school." Sara says as she enters the room, causing Nick to jump slightly, taking a quick look around "she didn't say why, she just dropped and was moving home. She was an excellent student, well liked on the floor, volunteer, and was part of a sorority."
"What would motivate you to suddenly leave school?" Nick says as he moves closer to the window in question and leans over enough to view down.
"Lots of things make you want to run Nick." Sara says quietly and continues to look around. At the knowing tone in her voice, Nick turns to look at her, but she has already turned her back and is looking at the desk, fussing with the drawers. Nick is about to say something when Sara turns to face him, holding what looks like a journal.
"Maybe our girl will be able to tell us who killed her." Sara says waving the journal and then bagging it.
"Where did you find that?" Nick asks, curious as to how the day shift missed it. As far as he was aware, they had at least looked over the room.
"It was jammed up into a space between the drawers in her desk. I can't believe Ecklies' people missed it, especially since there was no suicide note. Grissom will love that." Sara says, anger at the day shift apparent from her tone.
Searching the rest of the dorm room yielded very little. Sara bags a few hairs and Nick prints the door handle, afraid of how many partials may be on it.
On the drive back to the labs Sara is quiet, not saying a word, a 180 degree turn from that morning when she was singing and dancing. "Something is bothering her" Nick thought to himself. "How do I approach this without facing the wrath of Sara?' He looked over at her questioningly.
"You ok?" He finally asks, deciding to take the direct approach.
"Hmm? Oh, I'm fine Nick, sorry, just thinking." Sara tells him with no readable expression on her face.
"Thinking about what?"
She finally turns to look at him, a sad look on her face. "Nothing in particular, I suppose. Just thinking that sometimes the choices we make affect more than just us. Our victim, Grace, had decided to leave school. Why? What brought her to that decision, to make that choice? What couldn't she control? Because in the end, someone made the choice that she was better off dead than alive."
Nick just nods at her, he can understand her thinking. He is actually surprised at the answer he received, he had been expecting a typical Sara 'Nothing' but was rewarded with a small glimpse into her thoughts. Didn't happen very frequently. When they get back to the lab, Nick heads off to do some background on the victim and see what prints he got off the door handle; and Sara decides to read the journal to see if they can get anything from that while Greg runs the hairs.
Taking a seat at the table in the break room, Sara slips on gloves and opens the thick journal to the first page, it looked to her that the girl had been keeping it for a while.Her suspicions are confirmed on the first page.
**I can't believe I am finally here. I have been looking forward to leaving Mom and Dad's house for years and now I am at college, on my own, even if they are only 20 miles away. My roommate is a little weird though, but we seem to get along. Oh so many things to talk about, classes start tomorrow, but today I have to finish unpacking…**
Sara has managed to read up to the summer between freshman and sophomore year before Nick interrupts her.
"Hey, anything out of the journal?" He asks and sits across from her.
"Nothing yet, but I haven't started this year. You get anything?"
"Not much. The prints were too smudged to be useful. Checked her transcripts, called some teachers, the sister came by to ID the body so I talked to her briefly. She was an excellent student, loved school according to the sister, Alison. She had no idea why Grace wanted to drop. According to Alison, Grace just called home one Sunday and said she was leaving school and asked if she could come live with her. Grace was supposed to move the day after she died."
"Curious, something happened obviously. Didn't you say she was in a sorority? Maybe they might know." Sara suggests.
"Good idea, I volunteer to go talk to them." Nick says with a huge grin on his face.
That elicited a smile from Sara "Yea, I am sure you do, I think I better come with you, wouldn't want you to get distracted." She says in a light tone. She quickly makes note of the page she is on in the journal and slips it back into the evidence bag. As they are getting up, Grissom comes into the room, out of breath from running.
"Hey man, you ok?" Nick asks.
"Nick…the DA needs you right now. Somehow they managed to screw up the evidence in the Dawkins trial. They need you to review the evidence so you can go to court tomorrow and do damage control." He tells the younger man.
"Oh man, I am going to miss talking to sorority girls."
"Sorry for your luck." Sara says and tries not to smile at the crestfallen look on his face.
"Guess you get to go alone." He tells her and gets up, heading to the door.
"Not alone, I will be joining you on the case Sara." Grissom says smiling at Sara. "When you are done Nick, come join us."
"Oh that should be fun, good luck." Nick says and walks to the locker room.
"What was he talking about sorority girls?" Grissom asks her once Nick is gone.
"We were just about to talk to some of the victims sorority sisters." Sara says and fills him in on what little they had up to that point.
"Sounds like a good place to start. That and the journal. Getting anything there?" He asks as they head toward the Tahoe.
"Nothing yet, she wrote a lot, almost everyday, it's taking a while to read through. I haven't started this school year yet." She says while opening the passenger door and getting in.
Delta Gamma Delta Sorority House
After much confusion, and explaining who they were twice, Grissom and Sara manage to track down the sororities' President and are talking to her in the houses' enormous kitchen area.
"I don't understand." The girl was sniffles. "Grace was one of the most popular girls here."
"Miss Maxwell, can you tell us if she was having trouble with anyone? A boyfriend, co-worker." Grissom asks.
"You can call me Devanie. No, no one, she had broken up with a guy I guess about 8 weeks ago, I don't know why, they seemed to be doing great. Seemed to be an amicable break up. He's in our brother fraternity."
"What's his name and the name of the fraternity?" Sara asks.
"Kevin Lasho. He is in Sigma Tau Epsilon fraternity. Their house is on 3rd Ave." She says, almost ready to cry again. "I…. I just cant believe this happened, please let me know if anyone here can help."
"Devanie, who was the closest to her in the sorority? She made have confided in them more." Sara asks feeling sorry for the girl who looks honestly devastated.
"There was her big sister, Hope. They seemed pretty close, though lately they haven't really seen much of each other."
"Where can we find Hope now?" Grissom asks.
"Umm, I think she is in class, hang on a second." Devanie says and yells into the other room about Hope's schedule, the response comes back quickly.
"She is in government class for another 30 minutes. Uh, the Markham building, south side of campus." The disembodies voice replies.
"Thanks." Devanie says and turns back to Sara and Grissom. "You get that?"
"Yes, thank you Devanie." Grissom says as they get up from the table and leave, Devanie following close behind. Once they get to the front door Grissom opens it and lets Sara pass through.
"Please, whatever we can do to help, let us know. We all miss Gracie." The young woman tells them through tears.
"We will." Grissom says and closes the door behind him.
Twenty minutes later they found the building and armed with the room number and a description of Hope Masterson, they wait for the class to let out. Standing in the hall, Grissom watches Sara as she reads the bulletin boards, a smile on her face.
"Something interesting?" He asks her, approaching and standing a little closer than probably necessary. She didn't seem to mind the violation of her personal space.
"No, not really. Just being here reminds me of college. I loved my four years at Harvard." She smiles at him, a genuine one, filled with the memories of being somewhere she felt she truly belonged. "I never wanted to leave. I have never been happier in my entire life then I was there. You know…. really, truly feeling like you belong somewhere. I had never felt that before, and not really since." A distant memory clouds her eyes briefly and then its gone, Grissom isn't even sure he saw it.
"You don't feel like you belong here? In Vegas?" He asks, confused. He thought she liked her job and the people.
"It's not the same Grissom. I love my job and I love the people, even though I started off on a bad foot. I can't describe it." She faces him, wanting him to understand.
"As long as you like being here. I don't want to think I brought you here to hate it." He tells her, concerned.
"No, Grissom. I could never hate it. Not with you here." She quietly tells him. Just as he is about to respond the class lets out and they both turn to the now open door, searching the mass of students. As the last of the students leave, Sara nudges Grissom in the side, indicating a girl who had just walked out. He nods and they approach her.
"Hope Masterson?" Sara asks.
"Yes" She says and looks at the two CSIs warily. Quickly they introduce themselves.
"Oh, yes. I am sorry. Not used to people waiting for me outside class."
"No problem." Grissom starts "We just have a few questions."
"Sure, anything."
"As far as you know, was anyone bothering Grace? Following or harassing her?" Grissom lead the questioning with Sara taking careful notes.
"No, no one."
"Had something happened in school?"
"No, she loved it here. It was her life." At that comment Grissom stole a quick look at Sara who had a look of understanding etched into her features.
"What about the boyfriend she just broke up with? Did he take it well?"
"He didn't have a choice. Gracie found out he was cheating on her and that was it, she broke it off the next day." Sara looked up at the younger woman, there was something in the tone of her voice.
Sara jumped in with a question "Do you know who he was cheating with?" Grissom just looked at her.
"No, I have no clue. If you will excuse me, I have to get to the library for study group. If you need anything else, please come by the house." She said and walks down the hall, not giving them much time to respond.
"It was her." Sara says with some confidence.
"What?"
"Grace caught her boyfriend cheating with her 'big sister', didn't you see the look on her face when I asked the question?" At his incredulous look Sara continues "She was fine until we asked about the boyfriend, then she started shifting and acting anxious. I bet it was her."
"Good. I think you are right." He says and turns away from her, heading down the hall to the Tahoe.
"You think I am…Grissom, you were testing me there weren't you?" Sara asks as she quickly catches up with him. All she gets in return is a grin
tbc…………..