Delia Herrera prided herself on keeping the home of Dr. Antonio Vargas and his wife Isabel in pristine order. She had worked for them for 10 years since she had moved to Las Vegas from El Salvador and they considered the sixty-something housekeeper part of the family. The large home was located in an upper middle class area of Vegas. Delia checked her watch. 7:30pm. Dr. Vargas should be finishing his surgical rotation at the hospital and be home in about an hour. Delia hadn't seen Isabel Vargas when she had returned from grocery shopping at 4:30. She assumed that Mrs. Vargas had gone out for the evening with friends as she often did when her husband worked into the evening. Most of the time she would time it so that she arrived home when her husband did. The couple had no children and had been very good to Delia. They treated her as more a member of the family than as hired help.

She had almost finished cleaning the master bath when she noticed the reflection of the door of the walk-in closet in the mirror. It was slightly ajar. No matter. She left her cleaning supplies on the counter and walked out of the bathroom into the bedroom toward the closet. She pushed on the door to close it, but was met with resistance. Thinking that perhaps something had fallen off an upper shelf, she tried to open the door to replace the stray item. As she did, the body of Isabel Vargas fell forward and landed face down on the carpet. Delia Herrera screamed and fainted.

Homicide detective Jim Brass was outside the Vargas home when CSIs Gil Grissom, Sara Sidle, and Nick Stokes arrived. Grissom was the first to speak, "What do we have, Brass." referring to the detective by his last name.

Brass led the trio to the bedroom where Isabel Vargas had been found and in a slightly caustic tone remarked, "Our vic is Isabel Vargas, age 35. Wife of Dr. Antonio Vargas. The housekeeper Delia Herrera, was cleaning the master suite and noticed a closet door ajar and tried to close it. When it wouldn't close she opened it to see if something had fallen on the floor, Mrs. Vargas fell out. She claims she fainted when she discovered the body. As soon as she came to, she called."

"Where is Dr. Vargas?" Sara queried as she surveyed the body, still lying halfway out of the closet.

"On his way home from the hospital, I sent a uniform to pick him up." Brass replied.

"Did the housekeeper, uh, Ms. Herrera, notice anything out of the ordinary?" Nick asked.

"She says she hadn't seen Mrs. Vargas since before she left for the grocery store around 2:30 and didn't see her after she got back at 4:30. She said it wasn't unusual for her to go out with friends until her husband came home from work." Brass informed them.

Grissom bent over the vic. He took note of ligature marks on her throat, her eyes showed signs of petechial hemorrhaging. Grissom considered the scene for a moment, "Nick and Sara, I want you to size up the outside of the house. Check for any signs of forced entry. Take pictures of everything. I'm going to call in Catherine and Warrick."

Knowing it was wiser to not ask Grissom why, Nick and Sara exchanged a brief look of surprise before beginning the task of surveying the scene.

"What do you have, Gil?" Brass inquired eyebrow raised.

"Brass, where do you put something when you've got company coming and no time to clean?" Grissom asked.

"I don't really see what my housekeeping abilities have to do with our vic." Brass began, then taking note of Grissom's expression, he continued, "Ok. So I'll play along. I'll take the closet for $300, Alex."

"If our killer was sloppy enough to put the vic in the closet, then he's sloppy enough to leave some of himself behind." Grissom looked like a kid in a candy store. "I love it when they don't realize we're smarter than they are."

Sara began to photograph the house, starting with an overall view to put the whole picture in perspective. Nick check each exterior door and window at the ground level for signs of forced entry. Sara took photos of each. They found nothing out of the ordinary. As they came back around to the front of the house and considered the garage door, they noticed that Catherine and Warrick had just arrived and were talking with Grissom. They joined the other three CSIs as Grissom was filling them in on what Brass had told them.

"The perimeter is clean. No signs of forced entry, no stray footprints in the soil under the windows." Nick recounted to the others.

"Ok. Thanks, Nick." Grissom nodded and then narrowed his eyes, "Catherine, I want you and Warrick to talk to the housekeeper. Find out exactly what time she last saw the vic alive. See if you can get a list of everyone who had regular access to the house, everyone who had a key or a garage door opener. When Dr. Vargas arrives, I want you go with Brass and talk with him. See if he can shed any light on anyone who might have wanted his wife dead. Verify he was at work."

"Ok, Gil. We're on it." With that Catherine and Warrick went in search of Delia Herrera.

With a very determined look on his face, Grissom continued, "Nick. Sara. You're with me." He turned on his heals and headed back into the house. Without a word the two younger CSIs followed Grissom back to the master suite.