"Hello Mrs. Wilmington. Are you up to a few more questions?" Gil and Cath stood at the front-door of the Wilmington-family's house. In fact: ex-family, now cruelly reduced back to couple without children. And Mrs. Wilmington seemed old enough to not being able to change that state ever again.

How unfair, thought Cath. Only because such a goddamn kid-screwing fag... she stopped when Marcus' mother nodded wearily and led them to the living –room where they sat down around a low table.

It was an unspoken agreement that Cath would do the talking.

"Mrs. Wilmington we may have a name and we hope that maybe you have heard it before. Maybe Marcus mentioned him once?"

"I hope so. What is this name?" the woman was tense, the grief of the days past showed on her face in deep lines and dark shadows under her eyes. Her husband was nowhere to be seen.

"Caruthers. Maybe somebody in the neighborhood?" Cath and Gil watched intensely, anxious not to miss the faintest reaction on the woman's face. If there was anything left to shock the mourning woman, this name obviously did so.

"Caruthers? That can't be – I mean he's his teacher. It must be somebody else with that name."

"His teacher? Do you know his address?" Gil was alert.

"No... you must be mistaken. Mr. Caruthers is such a nice young man." The mother could not or would not believe that a teacher could have killed her beloved son.

"Then, give us the address of the school, we'll see if we can find him there." Gil stood and Cath followed suit.

Provided with the address they rushed off in the car, Gil calling Warrick to have him get a warrant and meet them at the school.

+++

They had to wait a while for Warrick to arrive.

"I had not realized you were having problems with gays." Gil stated after a long silence during their wait.

"I don't – " Cath protested. Ridiculous Gild would think she was that narrow-minded!

"Then, pray tell, what was that between you and Warrick?"

"That's personal, Gil. I'd like to keep it that way." Cath retorted.

"Catherine," Gil turned to face her, "It ceases to be personal the moment it starts to interfere with your job. This did."

"It won't happen again." Cath said curtly.

After another pause Gil tried again, "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

There was no response for several moments, then Cath started to speak: "We were at this bar and the guy in question so brushed me off, it really pissed me off. Then he was really scared and upset and I tell you, if I hadn't been there, Warrick would have hugged and comforted him. God! You should have seen how they looked at each other."

"Warrick has a protective streak, we all know that." Gil said calmly.

"Yeah." Her voice was nearly bitter, "As I stood there I thought that this ridiculous sissy with his polished fingernails had probably gotten so much more of his protectiveness than I – " Cath stopped and looked at Gil who slowly started to understand.

"Catherine, jealousy is a bad counselor. You'll have to accept that Warrick will not be able to give you what you desire from him. But it's not his fault. In fact it's nobody's fault." Gil told her gently.

"Gil, I don't know what came over me. I mean Warrick is not gay. He's bi. He told me so the same day he confessed he knew Angel. And we – we agreed in ... well, seeing each other when this case is over. I really don't know why I reacted like this."

"The two of you should talk." Gil nodded.

"You telling me this?" Cath sounded a little bit amused.

"Yes. Because I have obviously been waiting too long all the time."

"Waiting for what? Am I that late?" suddenly Warrick was there, looking into the open window at Gil's side, waving with the warrant. The man pretended to be fine although he clearly avoided eye-contact with Catherine. Warrick felt like an idiot for his inane comment about Eddie! But his pride kept telling him he had reacted that way because she had – somehow – attacked his way of life. Something he would not allow anybody to do.

He kept kicking his ass for admitting to her and Grissom he was not just the average straight guy next-door. He had trusted them to be open-minded enough to accept who he was. Obviously he had been mistaken. OK, lesson learned.


+++


Warrick stood in the observation-room and stared through the thick, mirrored glass. On the other side Caruthers was being interrogated by Gris and Catherine. They had taken Caruthers' fingerprints and Greg was processing them right now.

Warrick had agreed to stand back. He was too much involved emotionally and he knew that.

The door opened and Warrick's head spun around, hoping it was Sanders. But it was Nick.

"Hey, bro. It's getting intrusting. Greg's going to present the results now. It's a perfect match." Nick said, staring through the pane as well. Warrick nodded.

+++

"Mr. Caruthers, how do you explain your fingerprints on Marcus' bag?" Grissom asked calmly after Greg had handed him the clipboard with the results of the analysis.

The suspect was very nervous, and although he tried to appear calm, all his gestures betrayed him. He wasn't able to keep his hands on the same spot for a minute. Now he combed his hair with his fingers for the umpteenth time.

"I guess I checked his bag sometime in school. What do you expect? I'm his teacher." Caruthers said.

"A bloody fingerprint?" Gris arched one eyebrow.

"Maybe I had cut my thumb. How shall I recall completely unimportant incidents all of a sudden?"

"Not your blood, Mr. Caruthers. Marcus' blood. How comes the kid's blood on your hands? Don't you have gloves?" Gris kept poking.

"He's gonna break." Nick said.

"Yeah." Warrick agreed.

"I ... I didn't want this to happen! I went to that goddamn bar for cruising. Marcus must have seen me and he started to blackmail me. My God! They would probably kick me out of school, so I paid." Caruthers looked helpless.

"Blackmail? How much?" Cath asked.

"At first? Fitfty dollars. When Marcus saw how easy it was he came back and wanted more. And more. He told me about the notes he had taken. Names, places, everything. I kept paying for three months and he wouldn't stop..." Caruthers buried his head in his hands.

"That kid was a bastard, if that's true." Nick sounded incredulous.

Warrick did not answer. It was hard to believe that behind that sweet, innocent face was such an evil mind working.

"So you waited for a good opportunity and killed him. Covering it up as a gang-fight, since you have precise knowledge of the gangs in your school's area." Grissom ended.

"No!" Caruthers exclaimed.

"What then?"

"I learned Marcus was hooking. That night I waited for him to talk. I told him if he stopped blackmailing me, I would not tell anybody about his activities. He – he only laughed and said I had paid enough for a free fuck if I wanted to. Called me names and ... I lost it. I shoved him and he fell down the shoulder. And I threw stones at him. Yes, I hoped fervently to be able to cover it up." The man was shaking.

"Why did you take the books with you? Where are they now?" Gris asked mercilessly.

"I hoped his notes would be in there. I was too scared to search the stuff right there, so I took them with me. Later I decided to simply burn everything. I did not want to kill him. I thought he was unconscious. I thought without his notes he'd not be able to accuse me. I thought... Oh, God! I'm sorry!"

Brass arrested Caruthers and brought the man to jail.