The graveyard shift CSI worked intently while the Las Vegas night began. Gil Grissom was in his office filling out paperwork and occasionally throwing a piece of meat to the feline in it's sturdy cage. Warrick Brown was in the AV lab intently studying a tape from the bank, the robbers had missed the hidden camera that showed the entire bank. Sara Sidle and Nick Stokes were attempting to make Greg Sanders tell them about the evidence they found at the scene. Catherine Willows was searching the halls with an overjoyed look on her face.

****

Grissom sighed, sometimes he thought that what Catherine had said was true, that he had the most boring job ever. He looked over the various papers arranged, sort of, on his desk. He grabbed a random one and started filling out the form. He glanced around his office and his gaze fell on the one thing that was not usually there, the feline involved in his current case. Bored he stood and walked over to the cage, he pulled on a pair of leather-like gloves and opened the ice-box sitting next to the cat's cage. The cat yowled slightly but didn't lunge, Sanders had given it something to calm it down. Grissom pulled out a piece of meat and tossed it into the cat's cage. He smiled as the cat sniffed it before tearing into it. He knew better than to believe that the cat would stay this calm, Sanders was talented but not talented enough to tame a creature that thought along the lines of the prehistoric cave lion trying to take out a full grown mammoth. Glancing at the clock then at the pile of papers completed he pulled off the gloves and returned them to where they had sat minutes ago, and headed out of his office to grab a cup of coffee.

****

The AV lab was dark, the only source of light was a flickering screen with Warrick Brown perched in front of it. He had been at this for at least an hour, and had several pages of notes. He grinned as he thought, 'Yeah, we have funding, we get the best when it comes to DNA research, or ballistics analysis, but when you enter the audio-visual lab, you get a dark room where you sit at a computer watching grainy black and white security tapes over and over until you can't move, and then you watch it some more.' He blinked and hit rewind and watched the few minute ordeal again.

~Several bankers stand at their posts depositing money into accounts, withdrawing money, a line of about 6 people waiting to deposit or withdraw their cash, the now deceased football player stands third in line. A man dressed in black walks in, as this is a small bank there isn't a security guard or he is out on break. He withdraws a dangerous looking pistol and holds it up. The bankers freeze but as the man obviously hasn't said anything yet the people in line appear clueless. About two seconds later the second man walks in, holding a large pale gray cat on a leash,~

Warrick glanced up, he had watched this section of the tape multiple times, commenting to no one in particular, "Well Sanders was right, the cat wasn't a leopard as the witnesses said, looks like a mountain lion, but who knows with this grainy thing."

He sighed and hit 'pause' the robber had just grabbed the cat by some sort of collar and was moving in the direction of the door. He stretched and decided he needed a drink, something cold. Yawning he got up and went out the door of the AV lab, leaving the light off.

****

Sara Sidle was leaning on the counter Greg on the other side. The sound of Greg's music was playing near silently for she had turned it down to the second lowest setting. Sara was watching Greg with an incredibly bored look on her face while Nick was sitting in Greg's chair watching him, slightly interested. Greg had a magician's hat on his head and a cape attached at his neck. He gave a dark look to a different area of the lab where the residential AV lab tech was watching with a soda in hand. He waved his hands around a second magician's hat and said some random words, including 'celery', 'fish sticks' and 'pig ears,' Sara and Nick exchanged glances before returning their gaze to Greg.

"Abra Kadabra! And Presto!" Greg had a grin on his face as he reached into the hat pulling out a paper, "and the results of that stuff you found on John Doe's shirt," he paused for a second, "I thought it was from a vehicle, it makes sense, but" he looked at the paper, "it isn't, so then I thought hmm. maybe sand, but no." Greg gave the general appearance that he would be rambling for an hour at least.

Nick decided to intervene, Sara had a glazed look on her face waiting for anything important, "So Grego, I can tell you lost another bet," Greg looked as if he was about to protest and Sara looked awake again, "but does John Doe have a name?"

Greg grinned, "Of course, well he has two, John, and Carl Salkiets, O'Riley is already out telling the family, they called in that he was missing three hours after he was found . anyways O'Riley said that if he found out anything you would be the first to know, well after Griss. of course."

"Finally got some useful info. out of you Greg, well now we need to know what that substance is." Sara added in.

After an hour or two of listening to Greg ramble on occasionally saying some odd word followed by 'Abra Kadabra'. Finally Sara and Nick got Greg to tell then that it was the same powder as was on the football player.

"Go ahead, I have two magical samples under these amazing comparison microscopes," Greg was still acting in the magician manner. Sara and nick cautiously looked into the two microscopes, "Now what you're looking at is basically amino-black."

"Wait," both Nick and Sara had glanced up at Greg, Nick was asking, "You mean fingerprint powder??"

"Yeah, and that brown hair, I thought it was human, but it was a hair off a fingerprint dusting brush, apparently it's camel. My guess your criminals know about forensics, checked for fingerprints and left some partials to try and throw you." Greg grinned.

Nick and Sara both looked equally shocked. "Hey Grego, come with us to the break room," Nick placed one hand on Greg's shoulder and slowly steered him out of the lab, " And tell Grissom that." Greg looked a mixture of worried and annoyed, Sara looked deep in thought and Nick told the AV lab tech. that the idea of making Greg dress and act as a magician was creative but annoying.

****

"Hey Sanders!" she paused as Catherine caught up to her, "Yeah that leash we found out that the person didn't scratch out the serial number, they covered it with metal and put a fake number on it. They really didn't want anyone finding out what it was, and as they spent so much effort covering the number, it's probably registered to the killers. I have one of the techs working on removing the metal so we can see the real serial number and perhaps recover a print."

"I was just about to page you, I was hoping to see that leash, and here you are. Well lead the way Cath."

They walked over to the lab where the low whine of the tool removing the top metal filled the air.

"Interesting no doubt," Sanders gazed at the leash, "I'll search the database for the serial number, hopefully Brass will have something to do tonight." Sanders smiled, she knew just how rare these leashes were, and how expensive. She herself had one in her field kit.

Catherine smiled as well, "So you think that we will be able to get something off of this?" She indicated the metal leash.

"There's always something." Sanders responded.

"S45L-325-06321" The lab tech stated as Sanders wrote it down.

"Thanks, photo it as well. Well I do believe everyone is meeting in the break room, might as well head there."

Catherine nodded and they headed to the break room. Sanders holding a Polaroid picture of the leash, and one of the serial number, as well as the paper she scribbled the number onto. The lab tech. finishing up and returning the leash to evidence after taking several more pictures.