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He was supposed to be finishing paperwork on a stabbing from the previous night; endless reports were the least satisfying part of his job and he would rather be out in the field with a true sensation of accomplishment than buried under mounds of paper. Glancing up briefly, he watched the most satisfying part of his job walk past his office and begin a conversation with Catherine in the hallway. She was so lovely, and the most appealing thing about her was that she had no idea that she was lovely. He suspected that sometimes Sara didn't even really identify herself as a female; he thought she probably just sees herself as a criminal investigator first, a scientist second and a woman, perhaps fourth or fifth on her list of self-identity. He was aware that she was not comfortable with herself or her femininity; one of the reasons that she threw herself into her work and one of the many reasons he was so attracted her. While he stared, Sara and Catherine both hurried away with a purposeful gait. Catherine had just touched base with him a few minutes earlier regarding the second shooting, and he figured they were on their way to the scene. He leaned back in his chair, reveling in the welcomed distraction, and let his mind wander.
Sara. The sibilant name upon his lips brought him equal amounts of elation and perplexity, and after what had now happened with Teri, it brought him a small amount of guilt, also. Sara was the foremost reason that his feelings for Teri had started fading over time. He worked with Sara and saw her on a regular basis, which he could admit in the secrecy of his own heart, had stirred up the feelings he had for her once before when she had been his student. He could not act upon his emotions then, and he still could not. Sara was under his employ; an indiscretion between them, or any attempt at a liaison outside of work, was frowned upon by administration and, of course, society in general. This brought him great frustration, and he knew that his feelings for her were just going to become more and more fervent as time continued.
Teri's sudden death and the remorse that he had never admitted his feelings to her had been floating around his mind most of the night. It needled at him as he drank his coffee, shuffled through paperwork, attempted to have conversations with his colleagues; this regret was leaving him sick and hollow. He understood deep down why these thoughts were disturbing him so greatly, he just did not want to deal with the enormity of those emotions right now; it was just too soon and too impossible to wade through, like some unsolvable conundrum.
Grissom stopped himself at that moment, knowing that denial and avoidance never achieved anything beneficial. The truth was that he did not want to ever feel this remorse again. He never wanted to be sorry that he hadn't told another person how he cared for them, how much they meant to him and how much he enjoyed having them in his life. He did not want to regret having never told Sara how much he loved her.
He loved Sara. This overwhelming emotion finally put into words caused Grissom to put his head into his hands and he sighed heavily. How could this have happened? He couldn't be in love with anyone more unattainable that the lovely Sara; she was an unreachable universe because of their shared workplace and her somewhat reserved personality.
After pondering this whole situation, Grissom finally decided to just let it go for the moment and keep his feelings for Sara his own precious secret. He spun a ballpoint pen between his fingers sadly, trying to get back into the proper frame of mind to finish his reports.
*****************************************************************
Sara walked out of the morgue after speaking to Al Robbins concerning the autopsy on Maggie Peterson and searched around the floor until she found Nick and Warrick sitting at one of the computers used for analysis.
"Hey, what's up? Get anything on the trajectory pattern yet?"
"Actually, I was just about to show Nick what I found out. Wanna take a look?" Warrick asked, turning the monitor slightly to include Sara in the viewing.
"Sure," she said, hunching down a bit toward the screen.
"Now, these blue dots are representing the nine millimeter fragments found around the three victims on the south side of the restaurant. You can see the three bodies are in the seats at the table where we figured they were sitting by their bullet wounds and found fragments. The shooter had to be shooting in a south west direction when he shot these three. Now you see this green dot, here, which represents the thirty-two millimeter that was found near the north side of the restaurant by Teri. According to its placement on the floor and Teri's wounds, you can tell that someone had to have shot her in a south east direction."
The other two investigators understood immediately. "So, you're saying someone had to have been behind her, facing south. There's no way the first shooter could have done that. He was shooting from in front of her. For a bullet from his gun to have hit her, he would have had to shoot toward the north," Nick surmised.
"Right, which would have caused the bullet to enter the front of her throat and exit in the back," Warrick said. "The opposite of what we found."
"We have a second shooter," Nick and Sara announced together.
"Yep. I'm going to head back to the restaurant to see if I can find anymore evidence we might have missed the first time. Now that we know where the perpetrator was standing, I'm sure there's got to be something around there somewhere." Warrick stood up from his seat and stretched for a moment; he had been sitting at that computer for a long time. "You get any information about the woman in the hotel parking lot?"
"Yeah, I just left the morgue. Al said she was shot from behind from about the same distance as Teri and the bullet severed her spinal cord the same way also. You know, it's amazing the resemblance that woman had to Teri. There's just got to be something to that, I mean, what are the odds that two women, almost identical, die within a few hours of each other in the same manner?"
Nick pondered that for a few moments. "I'm just about to head over to ballistics and see what they found out about the other bullets. I wonder if they found anything else that would be useful."
"Meet you guys back here in a little while." Warrick headed out the door to get back to the restaurant. He had a sense of satisfaction that his theory of a second shooter had been correct.
*******************************************************************
Warrick arrived at the restaurant having already awakened the owner in order to reopen the building so he could gain access inside. He treaded carefully around the room with a metal detector he had brought with him and moved the somewhat bulky machine slowly over ever inch of ground that might have been overlooked. Viewing where Teri's table had been marked, he realized that there was a large palm tree about six feet behind it that was almost completely obscuring a hallway. He carefully restricted the detector to that immediate area and was rewarded with a beeping sound right behind the pot which held the tree. He knelt down and found the thirty-two millimeter casing that had not been found earlier. He searched through his evidence kit until he found the fingerprint brush and powder and proceeded to dust the end of the casing; it revealed a partial fingerprint.
Bingo, he thought, with a grin spreading across his face. He was hoping desperately that there were enough ridges of the fingerprint to put through A.F.I.S. in order to match it to someone. Partial prints were very tricky in that manner; sometimes there were enough swirls to match and sometimes, it fell just a bit short.
Upon further inspection of the area, Warrick found traces of gunpowder residue on the wall next to the tree. The shooter had definitely fired the thirty-two from the vicinity behind the palm tree and most likely exited the building from that adjoining hallway. This would explain why no witnesses came forward mentioning a second person, but that bit of information didn't answer the two most puzzling questions. Were these two shooters working together since the murders happened at almost the exact same time? Was it at all possible that these could have been two completely unrelated shootings?
Warrick followed the hallway and found it exited behind the restaurant in a dark parking lot and removed his flashlight in order to examine the ground and dumpster nearby. He didn't see anything else that might be helpful or out of place and discerned that there might not be anymore evidence to be found at the restaurant. Packing up all of his equipment, Warrick headed back to the lab, hoping Nick might have found out more about the rest of the bullet evidence.
*********************************************************
Nick entered the ballistics room and studied the technician's face very carefully to gauge how things had turned out. Apparently, there was good news; the second thirty-two millimeter bullet fragment found on the second scene matched Teri's bullet; the fragments had the same barrel pattern and, therefore, they both came from the same gun. The tech also explained that the casing from that same bullet had a partial print which might be able to help identify the shooter. Now Nick knew for sure that the murders were definitely connected.
"Terrible about those restaurant murders," the technician mentioned, trying to make some conversation. "I saw the news broadcast about that on the eleven o'clock news. They were just trying to have a nice dinner, those people. Such a shame, huh?"
Nick stopped dead at the man's statement and turned toward the technician, awareness of something really important in the tech's words becoming apparent on his face and his brain burning with a new idea. He grinned at the man and then rushed over to the door.
"Thanks, man. Really, for everything. Um, I gotta go check something; if anyone asks, I'll be back in a little while. Great job, really." Nick could not wipe the smile off his face as he ran swiftly out the door.
***************************************************
He was supposed to be finishing paperwork on a stabbing from the previous night; endless reports were the least satisfying part of his job and he would rather be out in the field with a true sensation of accomplishment than buried under mounds of paper. Glancing up briefly, he watched the most satisfying part of his job walk past his office and begin a conversation with Catherine in the hallway. She was so lovely, and the most appealing thing about her was that she had no idea that she was lovely. He suspected that sometimes Sara didn't even really identify herself as a female; he thought she probably just sees herself as a criminal investigator first, a scientist second and a woman, perhaps fourth or fifth on her list of self-identity. He was aware that she was not comfortable with herself or her femininity; one of the reasons that she threw herself into her work and one of the many reasons he was so attracted her. While he stared, Sara and Catherine both hurried away with a purposeful gait. Catherine had just touched base with him a few minutes earlier regarding the second shooting, and he figured they were on their way to the scene. He leaned back in his chair, reveling in the welcomed distraction, and let his mind wander.
Sara. The sibilant name upon his lips brought him equal amounts of elation and perplexity, and after what had now happened with Teri, it brought him a small amount of guilt, also. Sara was the foremost reason that his feelings for Teri had started fading over time. He worked with Sara and saw her on a regular basis, which he could admit in the secrecy of his own heart, had stirred up the feelings he had for her once before when she had been his student. He could not act upon his emotions then, and he still could not. Sara was under his employ; an indiscretion between them, or any attempt at a liaison outside of work, was frowned upon by administration and, of course, society in general. This brought him great frustration, and he knew that his feelings for her were just going to become more and more fervent as time continued.
Teri's sudden death and the remorse that he had never admitted his feelings to her had been floating around his mind most of the night. It needled at him as he drank his coffee, shuffled through paperwork, attempted to have conversations with his colleagues; this regret was leaving him sick and hollow. He understood deep down why these thoughts were disturbing him so greatly, he just did not want to deal with the enormity of those emotions right now; it was just too soon and too impossible to wade through, like some unsolvable conundrum.
Grissom stopped himself at that moment, knowing that denial and avoidance never achieved anything beneficial. The truth was that he did not want to ever feel this remorse again. He never wanted to be sorry that he hadn't told another person how he cared for them, how much they meant to him and how much he enjoyed having them in his life. He did not want to regret having never told Sara how much he loved her.
He loved Sara. This overwhelming emotion finally put into words caused Grissom to put his head into his hands and he sighed heavily. How could this have happened? He couldn't be in love with anyone more unattainable that the lovely Sara; she was an unreachable universe because of their shared workplace and her somewhat reserved personality.
After pondering this whole situation, Grissom finally decided to just let it go for the moment and keep his feelings for Sara his own precious secret. He spun a ballpoint pen between his fingers sadly, trying to get back into the proper frame of mind to finish his reports.
*****************************************************************
Sara walked out of the morgue after speaking to Al Robbins concerning the autopsy on Maggie Peterson and searched around the floor until she found Nick and Warrick sitting at one of the computers used for analysis.
"Hey, what's up? Get anything on the trajectory pattern yet?"
"Actually, I was just about to show Nick what I found out. Wanna take a look?" Warrick asked, turning the monitor slightly to include Sara in the viewing.
"Sure," she said, hunching down a bit toward the screen.
"Now, these blue dots are representing the nine millimeter fragments found around the three victims on the south side of the restaurant. You can see the three bodies are in the seats at the table where we figured they were sitting by their bullet wounds and found fragments. The shooter had to be shooting in a south west direction when he shot these three. Now you see this green dot, here, which represents the thirty-two millimeter that was found near the north side of the restaurant by Teri. According to its placement on the floor and Teri's wounds, you can tell that someone had to have shot her in a south east direction."
The other two investigators understood immediately. "So, you're saying someone had to have been behind her, facing south. There's no way the first shooter could have done that. He was shooting from in front of her. For a bullet from his gun to have hit her, he would have had to shoot toward the north," Nick surmised.
"Right, which would have caused the bullet to enter the front of her throat and exit in the back," Warrick said. "The opposite of what we found."
"We have a second shooter," Nick and Sara announced together.
"Yep. I'm going to head back to the restaurant to see if I can find anymore evidence we might have missed the first time. Now that we know where the perpetrator was standing, I'm sure there's got to be something around there somewhere." Warrick stood up from his seat and stretched for a moment; he had been sitting at that computer for a long time. "You get any information about the woman in the hotel parking lot?"
"Yeah, I just left the morgue. Al said she was shot from behind from about the same distance as Teri and the bullet severed her spinal cord the same way also. You know, it's amazing the resemblance that woman had to Teri. There's just got to be something to that, I mean, what are the odds that two women, almost identical, die within a few hours of each other in the same manner?"
Nick pondered that for a few moments. "I'm just about to head over to ballistics and see what they found out about the other bullets. I wonder if they found anything else that would be useful."
"Meet you guys back here in a little while." Warrick headed out the door to get back to the restaurant. He had a sense of satisfaction that his theory of a second shooter had been correct.
*******************************************************************
Warrick arrived at the restaurant having already awakened the owner in order to reopen the building so he could gain access inside. He treaded carefully around the room with a metal detector he had brought with him and moved the somewhat bulky machine slowly over ever inch of ground that might have been overlooked. Viewing where Teri's table had been marked, he realized that there was a large palm tree about six feet behind it that was almost completely obscuring a hallway. He carefully restricted the detector to that immediate area and was rewarded with a beeping sound right behind the pot which held the tree. He knelt down and found the thirty-two millimeter casing that had not been found earlier. He searched through his evidence kit until he found the fingerprint brush and powder and proceeded to dust the end of the casing; it revealed a partial fingerprint.
Bingo, he thought, with a grin spreading across his face. He was hoping desperately that there were enough ridges of the fingerprint to put through A.F.I.S. in order to match it to someone. Partial prints were very tricky in that manner; sometimes there were enough swirls to match and sometimes, it fell just a bit short.
Upon further inspection of the area, Warrick found traces of gunpowder residue on the wall next to the tree. The shooter had definitely fired the thirty-two from the vicinity behind the palm tree and most likely exited the building from that adjoining hallway. This would explain why no witnesses came forward mentioning a second person, but that bit of information didn't answer the two most puzzling questions. Were these two shooters working together since the murders happened at almost the exact same time? Was it at all possible that these could have been two completely unrelated shootings?
Warrick followed the hallway and found it exited behind the restaurant in a dark parking lot and removed his flashlight in order to examine the ground and dumpster nearby. He didn't see anything else that might be helpful or out of place and discerned that there might not be anymore evidence to be found at the restaurant. Packing up all of his equipment, Warrick headed back to the lab, hoping Nick might have found out more about the rest of the bullet evidence.
*********************************************************
Nick entered the ballistics room and studied the technician's face very carefully to gauge how things had turned out. Apparently, there was good news; the second thirty-two millimeter bullet fragment found on the second scene matched Teri's bullet; the fragments had the same barrel pattern and, therefore, they both came from the same gun. The tech also explained that the casing from that same bullet had a partial print which might be able to help identify the shooter. Now Nick knew for sure that the murders were definitely connected.
"Terrible about those restaurant murders," the technician mentioned, trying to make some conversation. "I saw the news broadcast about that on the eleven o'clock news. They were just trying to have a nice dinner, those people. Such a shame, huh?"
Nick stopped dead at the man's statement and turned toward the technician, awareness of something really important in the tech's words becoming apparent on his face and his brain burning with a new idea. He grinned at the man and then rushed over to the door.
"Thanks, man. Really, for everything. Um, I gotta go check something; if anyone asks, I'll be back in a little while. Great job, really." Nick could not wipe the smile off his face as he ran swiftly out the door.
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