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Note: I've done it; I managed to actually get the chapter up, as I promised. Enjoy and don't forget to review ;)
The officers were waiting in the corridor in front of nick's hotel room. Both were wearing uncomfortable expressions. They knew that they had screwed up and were in trouble now. They seemed to shrink further when O'Reilly approached them, Catherine, Grissom and Sara in tow. Warrick was still home, nursing his headache. While O'Reilly went to grill the two uniformed officers, the CSIs went inside the room.
The hotel room, showed no sign of any disturbance, the bed hadn't been used. Nothing suspicious. Nick had clearly left voluntarily. That confirmed the story of the guards that nobody had been to see him. Nick's duffel back was still lying next to the bed. Catherine sorted through it.
"No wallet in here either. He must have taken it with him."
"His car too." O'Reilly just came back up from the garage. "The garage attendant keeps log of all cars arriving and leaving. Nick left shortly after 11pm. He was alone, according to the attendant. He didn't remember anything else about him."
"We need that psychiatrist back here. Her assessment might have been wrong, but still she knows Nigel Crane better than anyone else we know."
"Already had someone call her, nobody picked up." O'Reilly said.
"I think we should drive by her place then. If Nigel Crane perceives her a threat because she is working with us, he might as well be after her. He could use her to put Nick under pressure and get him to play along with whatever he wants."
"Okay, you coming with me?"
"Yes. Sara and Catherine, you examine every inch of the room here."
They nodded and went back to work in silence.
"What wrong Catherine? You've been standing here for 10 minutes staring out the window." Sara asked.
"I'm sorry. I was just thinking back to something Nick said yesterday. He told me that given the chance he would kill Nigel Crane. I just hope he doesn't make a mistake."
"Nick couldn't kill Nigel. He's too much of a good guy." Sara was convinced. Yet a small voice inside her head had its doubts. On the job, she saw what human beings were capable off. She had seen "normal" people kill others in gruesome ways. It wasn't just drug addicts, psychopaths and hardened criminals who killed. No, friends, spouses and co-workers who had always seemed upstanding citizens killed their friends, lovers and co-workers. There were no assurances when dealing with people. But Sara wasn't willing entertain the thought about Nick's possible involvement in any crimes just yet.
While the processing of the hotel room yielded no additional information,
Dr Sharp lived at a quiet apartment complex in Henderson.
"Kelly Sharp, 41 years old, divorced for 8 years now. One son, he lives with the father in Delaware." O'Reilly rattled of as little as he knew. AS they had already expected, nobody answered the door. Having gotten the key from the manager, who had readily given it to them, when he heard that Dr. Sharp's safety might be threatened. At first glance noting looked out of the ordinary. Her house was as organized as her office.
"No signs of a struggle or break-in. I don't see any purse or wallet. Nothing to indicate that she didn't leave voluntarily." Grissom commented after having looked around the apartment. "But she was having company. Two used glasses on the couch table. " Grissom took one of the glasses and sniffed in the hopes of figuring out what had been in it. "Water, probably." Grissom would have liked to bag the glasses and their contents to take with them to the lab, but he knew that at the moment, they didn't have the legal base for that.
O'Reilly was meanwhile sifting through the contents of the desk in the study.
"Hey, Grissom. This is strange. There is almost nothing in there. No photographs, letters, invoice, bank statements, noting expect for a pencil sharpener and an empty notebook."
"She is very well organized, maybe she keeps these things at her office. Does this apartment complex have a parking garage? I think that Dr. Sharp had a guest and left with him or her. I want to know where her car is."
"No problem, we can check with the manager."
It turned out that Dr. Sharp's car was where it should be, in the garage. Both of them were slightly disappointed. Another dead end. There was nothing to indicate that anything was amiss. An adult spending a night away from home was not a crime. As long as nobody reported her missing and she was not wanted for questioning, there was nothing they could do. Officially there was no case here. They were just about to leave, when O'Reilly got a call from LVPD. They had a case again. But it was none that they wished to have. The owner of a motel had heard gunshots followed by a car speeding away. When he had checked out the source of the disturbance, he had found a body.
Both O'Reilly and Grissom knew what that could mean. It could be totally unrelated, but the description, while it was quite imprecise did fit Nick. Grissom had never felt that tense on his way to a scene. He fervently hoped it wasn't the second CSI who was killed. He had known that eventually Nigel Crane would kill Nick, but he had hoped for a longer window of time. Much time had already been lost, as they had learned about Nick being gone only six hours after the fact. Now he was en route to the motel tensely waiting either relief or … or, Grissom didn't know how he would and should react to Nick's death. He would probably fall back on personal condemnation for failing to solve the puzzle before it was too late. After he had called Catherine and Sara, he spent the rest of the drive in silence.
The motel was at the side of I-35. It was one of those cheap places were people came to cheat on their spouses, sell drug or get murdered. During his work as a CSI Grissom had seen his share of this kind of motel. What was inside was never pleasant, but few scenes had given him such an ill feeling before having encountered them. Catherine and Sara had gotten there just before him. They didn't say anything but their thoughts were fairly obvious. All of them where thinking about what they might find inside.
Relief flooded all of tem when they finally hot to look at the body lying by the window of the motel room. Relief was followed by puzzlement. The body lying on the floor of the motel room was clearly not Nick's, it was Nigel Crane's, shot in the chest. No Trace of Nick.
As every crime scene this room was speaking to them, it spoke of something horrible having happened. Bullet holes in the walls, blood on the cheap grey carpet. A blood trail let out into the parking lot.
Detective O'Reilly was out questioning the other patrons about what they had witnesses.
While Grissom was taking in the room in as much detail as he could, he heard a familiar, but not friendly voice from behind. He turned around and saw Ecklie, looking inappropriately happy.
"I thought I would meet you here Grissom. But remember this is my case. I'm running the investigation here. Go back to the lab, you might want to look at some applications for a new CSI." Ecklie was oozing with glee.
"There is no proof that Nick was involved in this, you know that Ecklie." Grissom sternly reminded him.
"What I know is that Stokes had good reason to kill Nigel Crane and that now that Nigel Crane is dead, Stokes has gone incommunicado. I think that tells us quite a bit, especially since he left voluntarily."
Grissom knew that an argument was futile, so he retreated. Ecklie already had Nick had Nick in mind as the culprit. Meanwhile the nightshift had other cases to work on, other killers to find.
~~
Nightshift had no choice, but to go back to these other cases.
Word about Nigel Crane's murder was all over to CSI lab. Few people actually thought that Nick would kill anyone, expect in self-defence, but the evidence was sure pointing in that direction. Everyone whether they were working the case or not knew what was going on. Within 20 minutes of Bobby Dawson's report, everyone knew that the bullet from Nigel Crane's body matched Nick's gun.
Grissom had retreated to his office in the hopes of getting a chance to mentally sort out the given information, when the sheriff called him again.
"Morning Grissom, I just heard that your case got out of hand. IAB will be investigating the case from now on. I expect you to comply with Detective Mahon."
"I will" Grissom assured the sheriff, already seeing the conflict of interest looming.
"Keep your people out of this. For now, we have kept it out of the media, but we can't keep that up forever. The evidence is sufficient to issue a warrant for Nick Stokes. It's just a matter of time." Grissom did detect a twinge of regret in the sheriff's voice, he wasn't sure whether it was because he was genuinely unhappy about having to arrest someone who had worked with the police, or whether he was just worried about the bad publicity a murderous law enforcement employee would generate.
Just after he had gotten off the phone with Sheriff Mobley, the aforementioned IAB investigator, Detective Mahon was already knocking on his door.
"Mr Grissom, I need the have a look at your records about Nick Stokes." Detective Mahon got to the subject without bother with the false niceties.
"What for?"
This morning, the DA has issued a warrant; he is being sought for the murder of Nigel Crane. We need to files to determine possible hiding places.
What we have is enough. His DNA at the scene, his gun was used, the tire tracks in front of the building match the model of his car, an eye witness saw a man matching his description get out of the car in front of the motel where Crane was killed.
This only proves that he was at the scene, not that he killed him. The tire tracks could belong to any number of cars.
Let's be realistic Mr Grissom. In any other case, this would be enough, even for you. You even have a motive. Mr. Stokes did threaten to kill Nigel Crane if he had the chance. Now, cold you please get my the files?" Detective Mahon made it clear that he was in charge. Grissom had no choice but to comply.
~~
The team, minus Nick of course was assembled in the break room. Even Warrick had gotten back to CSI. They had all heard about Grissom's exchange with the IAB guy. Sara had taken the initiative. She firmly believed that Nick wasn't up to kill anyone, expect in self-defence.
"We don't know what has happened between 11pm last night and this morning. There are several possibilities, the evidence will tell us with which one we are dealing." Sara laid out what they knew so far.
"Which possibilities are you talking about?" Catherine asked.
"First there are two possibilities: Nick did kill Nigel Crane or he did not kill Nigel Crane. If the first is the case, we have to determine to circumstances, of the latter is the case, and we have to find who did it. In both cases we have to find out where Nick is right now. Officially we are not investigating that case, IAB and dayshift are, so whatever we do we have to do it discretely. We can't go back to the scene, but we can have a look at the pictures. I'm going to do that."
"I'm going to go back to the institute, finding whoever helped him could be the key to this. Who knows, maybe he wasn't working alone. That would explain why we haven't heard from Nick yet. Nigel Crane wouldn't be the first lunatic who finds a partner in jail. I'm going to go over the names of people that were recently released or used to work at the institute."
"You're going to need someone from the police, otherwise, they'll probably just stonewall." Sara had obviously been thinking about this before.
"Yes, I thought about that. I'm working this case with Brass right now. It's going nowhere. I'm sure he'll help me out with it." Warrick said.
"While you play in the field, I'm going to work my charms on Greg and Doc Robbins to get copies of the reports." Catherine said with a slight smile.
"You know that you are way out of line on this one. Whatever you do, remember stick to the evidence, it's all we have. If there is evidence that Nick is innocent you'll find it. But if the evidence says he did, that's what you are going to find and report." Grissom's words sounded harsh.
All, but Warrick, left the meeting sombre, but filled with new energy. It wasn't the happy or joyous kind, but a grim determination to uncover the truth. It gave them hope and the feeling of being able to do something, instead of standing by the sidelines as a friend was being convicted of murder. Warrick stayed behind.
"Grissom, I'd like to have a word with you."
"Sure, what's it."
"What do you think about this Grissom?"
"What do you mean? It's a case, it doesn't mater what I think."
"I think it does matter. We have feelings linked to this case, denying that they exists doesn't make them go away. None of us believes that Nick is guilty of murder, but you just sat here and didn't say a word, like you could just assume that Nick did kill Nigel Crane."
"Everyone can kill. None of us is an exception. If you look at well-known cases of serial murders, in most cases, all their acquaintances describe them as pleasant and quiet people. I think that Nick could have killed Nigel Crane. I don't like the idea any more than you do. But if that's the case, then we can't change that. Our job is to find the evidence, all the evidence nothing more and nothing less. I don't want to see anyone else professionally ruined because of this case. It's well within Ecklie's right to lodge an official complaint if you interfere with his investigation.
"I never thought, I'd hear that from you, Grissom. Since when do you care about professional consequences? It's Nick we are talking about here. I guess you are right, we don't know those around us. I definitely didn't know you as well as I thought I did." With that Warrick left.
Grissom was left sitting in the break room alone. He had not expected this confrontation. And as much as he hated to, he had to admit that Warrick was right in some ways. It was unlike him that he put his career in front of his people. But he couldn't help the feeling that their meddling in this case might just be a mistake. While he had stood up to the IAB guy, it was something different to actually interfere with another CSI's investigation. And while he thoroughly disliked Ecklie, he couldn't deny that he knew how to conduct an investigation. The things, which in his opinion set them apart the moist was bias. Ecklie was open to it, usually in the name of his career. Grissom wanted to avoid this mistake. This was part of the reason he wanted to stay out of the investigation now. Getting involved in it, would mean giving way to bias, in spite if his best intentions. Anger had been colouring Warrick's words, but he had a point. Grissom sighed. He had wanted to stay out of this case with the best of intentions, but as they said, the road to hell was paved with them. Nick was trying hard; too hard it seemed, to be a good CSI. He owed it to him to help the others in clearing Nick's name before he was arrested. An arrest even if Nick turned out to be innocent later on would lead to his dismissal from CSI. He was going to join the rest of his team. Grissom got up.
Two hours later, Grissom was examining the pictures that Ecklie's crew had taken in the motel room.
Grissom, you got a minute, it was Catherine standing in the doorframe.
Sure.
"I've got the reports. DNA, Doc Robin's report and the evidence list. No chance getting the trace report from Hodges. But I'm sure he would be happy to give it to you."
"Uh", Grissom was puzzled. "What did you find?"
"Not much. But there was something interesting. According to Doc Robbins' report Nigel Crane was shot in the chest at an upward angle. The shot wasn't immediately fatal, he slowly bled to death. At first I was thinking struggle, things getting out of hand, but then he wrote that the shooter was at least 5 feet away from Nigel Crane. I input that into the ballistic simulation software. At the given distance and angle, our shooter is about 5"5 tall. Nick's what 5"11, something like that?"
"Interesting. Look at the wall. 3 Bullet holes. Bad aim. Also there is one bullet that hit at wall, just a few inches above the floor. The shooter wasn't aiming at Nigel Crane here. They were aiming at a third person."
"Nick has been trained to handle a gun. Catherine pointed out what they both knew.
What does DNA say?"
"The DNA under Nigel's fingernails is Nicks, so he did struggle with him. The blood in the clothes is Nigel's, but Greg did good work, I didn't even have to ask for a copy of the report. He swabbed all blood spots on the shirt and found Nick's blood on it as well. The blood trail we found is from Nick, as is the blood on the handprint. The prints are his. He wanted us to know that he was there. He didn't kill him."
"No, according to the evidence he didn't and he wasn't alone." Relief showed trough Grissom's voice, in spite of his effort to keep the emotions out of it.
Look at the picture of the room. Nigel Crane was sitting next to the TV; he was hit in the chest, while facing to window. The shooter must have stood between him and the window. The blood trail from Nick starts at the bed. The largest pool of it is there. Indicating that he was injured and at first didn't move. Had he moved to the window, there would be blood there as well? We are looking for someone, 5"5 tall and not an experienced shooter."
"If Nick has been injured than he night need medical help within the next few hours. Greg should test the bullets from the wall for residues of blood. If we find Nick's DNA on one of them, we can prove that he was shot. That would go a long way towards clearing him or at least proving self-defence. This should be enough for the DA to retract the warrant for murder. Problem is that since it's not our case we can't officially intervene. Someone need to talk to Ecklie about this"
Grissom spread the pictures from the room on the desk. He closely looked at each on of them, not saying anything. Catherine watched him intently.
"What are you looking for?"
"I'm trying to estimate the amount of blood he lost. That will give us an indication of the type of wound and about his next step. Look, there is a rather significant blood pool in the bed. The wound must have bleed strongly." Catherine wondered how coldly Grissom could talk about a co-worker and friend nearly bleeding to death.
"The trail is thin, only spots. I'm thinking that circulation to the wound was restricted, to prevent bleeding."
"That would mean we are dealing with an arm or a leg injury." Catherine shuddered at the thought that Nick might be bleeding to death right now. She couldn't fully understand Grissom's detachment. Either he was truly lacking empathy in that regard or it served as an elaborate, long practised defence mechanism.
"I think I should go talk to Ecklie." Catherine got up.
Catherine met Ecklie in the corridor. "Ecklie, I need a word with you. It's about Nick."
"I thought as much. Listen, it's my case."
"I know and I respect that. But please, just listen for one minute." Catherine hated to beg, but if it was going to work, she was all for it.
"I'm listening."
"I took the liberty to use to data from the autopsy report and recreate the shooting using the ballistics software. This is what I got." She handed Ecklie the printout, showing the extrapolated position and height of the shooter. Ecklie didn't say anything.
"I also looked at the blood pattern on the floor. Nick was probably shot while sitting on the bed. He stayed there for some time before he left. Look, I'm not saying that Nick wasn't somehow involved in that, but I think we know that he didn't commit murder"
While Ecklie was certainly very driven and open to occasional bias, he knew evidence when he saw it.
"Okay, I'm calling the DA about the warrant."
Note: Thank for getting this far. I know there was a lot in there. Next chapter, which focuses on Nick's perspective of the events, should be done by tomorrow night.
