This story is based on characters created by Anthony E. Zuiker for the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Remuneration, Part 16
by Cheers
Aware that the evidence was not about to examine itself, Warrick and Sara had set about looking over the clothes the victim in their case had been wearing. They felt a bit helpless when it came to Grissom. They both knew exactly what Grissom would have told them if he'd had a chance to speak with his team. Do the job. That's what they did.
Warrick had managed to identify the fabric pattern and color specific to the recliner the victim was found in. The pattern was called Golden Heartland, and was comprised of what the manufacturer called wheat yellow, real copper, deep brown, and burnt gold colored fibers. Sara had tracked down the retailers of this particular style of recliner in Las Vegas and had a list of seven stores still in business that had received shipments from the manufacturer's distribution center. The two CSIs would have to wait for business hours later in the day before they could find out how many of the recliners had actually been sold in Las Vegas and to whom.
At first glance, the clothing the victim had been wearing when found didn't seem to be leading them anywhere nearly as helpful. The clothes consisted of a size 15x34 blue oxford shirt from Lands' End, a Paul Dione navy suit, sized 38 regular, a JCPenney white t-shirt, size medium, Fruit of the Loom briefs, also size medium, a pair of navy dress socks, and a pair of black Nunn Bush wing-tip dress shoes, size 11-D.
The victim's wardrobe seemed to be filled with standard off-the-rack fare, indistinctive and untraceable. It wasn't until Warrick turned the suit jacket inside out and used the UV light to inspect the lining along the rear hem seam that he found what looked like numbers inked onto the fabric.
"Hey, Sara," he called to his partner.
Sara looked up from her inspection of the soles of the victim's shoes. "What have you got?"
"Take a look at this and tell me what you think," Warrick said, rolling the stool he was sitting on to the side so that Sara could step up and look at the markings he had found.
Grabbing the magnifying glass Warrick offered her, Sara bent down and looked at the indicated spot. "6-7-6-9," she recited, reading the numbers aloud. "The first number is offset from the rest. A laundry mark?" Sara offered looking up.
"Bingo," Warrick said.
In another room of the lab, Nick had been hard at work trying to help Grissom. Carl Paulson had arrived at the crime lab earlier that morning with an evidence bag containing a box of trash bags seized from Grissom's Tahoe. Nick had done a preliminary inspection of the garbage bag in which Shelly Danbridge had been found. After determining the size, shape, and brand of the bag, Nick had collected all the trace evidence he could find on the bag and labeled that evidence for further analysis. He had then sent the bag to Jacqui in the Fingerprint Lab to see if she could lift anything usable off of it.
The box of bags taken from Grissom's SUV contained the same brand as the one used to dump the victim in, but there was a chance that they weren't the same size or shape. Nick set about measuring a bag from the box taken from the vehicle so he could compare it with the findings he had from one found at the crime scene. What he found would go a long way toward implicating or exonerating his boss.
Conrad Ecklie sat in his office and read through the initial reports associated with the Danbridge case. As far as Ecklie could determine, there was a two hour gap of time that provided Grissom with ample opportunity to abduct the victim. Grissom's report of his whereabouts for the past twelve hours seemed damning. According to the estimated time of death provided by the coroner, the time frame of a possible scenario associated with the senior CSI fit the known facts perfectly.
Shelly Danbridge had been murdered less than four hours prior to discovery by Detective Paulson and Officer Mickelson. She could have been killed at any point after Grissom left the crime scene at the We-Store-It. A man Grissom's size could easily have subdued the girl, assaulted her, placed her somewhere secluded, gone to the crime scene at the storage unit, retrieved the victim after signing out at the crime scene, killed her, and then dumped the body behind the Albertson's on Ash.
Brass reported that Grissom had called using his cell phone. The number recall on Brass's own cell phone confirmed that fact. Although Grissom claimed to be at home when he received the page from the detective, Grissom could have been anywhere within the Las Vegas Valley when he called Captain Brass. Only nineteen minutes had elapsed from the time Brass received the call from Grissom until the CSI reported his arrival at the storage unit facility to dispatch. If Grissom had stowed the victim somewhere, it hadn't been far from the corner of N. Eastern and Hincle.
Conrad knew that trace evidence recovered from the victim's body and clothing would help them pinpoint where that secluded spot might be. When they found it, they would most likely find the place where the victim had been murdered.
The circumstantial nature of the timeline and the lack of any real hard evidence worked in Grissom's favor. Conrad was willing to wait for more evidence to implicate Grissom before pushing for more official action against the night shift supervisor. He didn't have to wait long.
Nick knocked on the door of Ecklie's office and waited to hear "Come." before entering. The day shift supervisor put down the reports he had been reading and looked at Nick expectantly.
"I have the preliminary results you asked for," Nick told Ecklie. With a sick feeling in his gut, he handed the CSI day shift supervisor the reports of his analyses.
