Chapter Two: Cow Manure and Bad Memories
Remi watched as the DNA tech, David Hodges, toiled over a blood sample. He seemed to be ignoring the fact that she was standing in front of him, waiting for him to at least listen to what he had to say. She rolled her eyes and looked at him, hoping that he'd notice her eyes baring into him. Apparently, he didn't, though, because she got sick of waiting and cleared her throat loudly. "Ahem, excuse me, Dr. Hodges..." she politely stated, hoping that, maybe, he'd just not noticed her there, and he wasn't being rude on purpose. She watched as he lifted his head from the microscope and caught her eye, finally, after making her wait almost forty seconds. "Um, hi. I'm Detective McGuire. I'm investigating the robbery at the casino with Detectives Sidle and Sanders...and well, we found this blood at the scene. Can you run it and try to get a match for me?" she asked politely.
Hodges shrugged and took the sample from her hand. "I can try, but right now I have Grissom's triple murder and a couple of things for Detective Ecklie's team to do. I'll page you, Sanders or Sidle when I get the results," he told her, with an annoyed smile on his face. "Oh, and don't be coy with me, Detective McGuire. You CSI's always talk down to us lab techs. But who gets the higher paycheck?" he asked with a huff, then went back to work. "Who's really more important to the lab, HUH?" she heard him mumble, as she rolled her eyes and walked away.
Wow, that guy needs to bend over and remove the stick from his ass. I wonder what his problem is...she thought as she found Greg, walking in her direction. "Hey Greg. Has Sara paged you yet?" she asked with a grin. He got more and more gorgeous every time she looked at him.
Greg shook his head and held out a piece of paper. "But, I ran into Jaqui on my way to find her, and she gave me our results. The print? She ran it through CODIS, and it belongs to Adam Killiam. He's an escaped convict--he was convicted of sexual assault...from Bangor, Maine..." he kind of stared at the words 'Bangor, Maine' for a second, remembering that Remi was from Maine.
Remi's eyes widened, and her mouth hung open for a second. "Did you say...Adam Killiam? Sexual assault...is there a picture with the little profile doohickey? Let me see Greg!" she reached for the profile of the robber, only to have Greg lift it over his head. "Greg! Come on!" she jumped up, an air of seriousness on her face. "Please? I really need to see that profile..."
He noticed the seriousness on her face, looked over beside him and noticed that the interrogation room was empty. He wanted to find out what was so grave about Adam Killiam, so he shrugged. "On one condition. If I give you the profile, you have to tell me who Adam Killiam is. If you want to tell me privately, we can go into the interrogation room..." he told her.
Remi rolled her eyes and glared at Greg. "I hate to tell you, Greg, but you kinda have to tell me either way. We're working this case together, and you know...we need to be on the same wavelength. So, give me the details or suffer the wrath of Grissom..." she winked. "I'm sure that's not a pleasurable experience...considering he seems to be a kinda scary guy when he's angry..." she joked.
Greg scoffed and lowered his arm, showing the picture to Remi. "Why did you freak out when I said his name, Remi? I don't want to pry, but we're like a huge family in this lab, so, you know, I figured it might be nice if we got to know a little about one another..." he told her. He flashed her a gentle grin, signifying that it was okay to open up, and that he wouldn't judge her, no matter what she said.
She shrugged and shook her head. "I'm fine, Greg. I juts thought the name sounded familiar from somewhere, that's all. I wanted to see if I was right..." she lied as she took the profile from Greg's hand. Adam Killiam, charged with sexual assault. Yeah, sexual assault. I remember it well...she looked at the picture and cringed. He still looked exactly the same...
Greg saw the slight cringe, although Remi tried to hide it. He was curious as to what Remi had to do with a sexual predator. Then...it struck him. The only way someone can inflict so much terror on someone with the mention of a name and a crime...is if the crime was committed on them. If his theory was right, Remi was Adam's sexual assault victim, and now her assailant was in the same town as she was again. He couldn't be sure, though. Maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe he was just imagining the terror in her eyes. He wouldn't have put it past himself at that point. Still, It was way too much to ignore, especially when she looked this distressed. He had to find out. Oh, that's right, damn it. Sexual assault victim's names are protected. That law sounded reasonable up until this point...he told himself, as Remi tore her eyes from the paper and looked to him.
She saw the concern on his face, and could have jumped up and hugged him. "So, are we gonna track this creep down, or what?" she asked. "Or, are we waiting for Sara?"
Sara walked down the hall and looked at Remi and Greg. "Not anymore. That substance you picked up from the shoe print, Greg? Cow manure..." she looked at the confused look on Greg's face.
Remi knew, though. She remembered him smelling really strongly of cow manure when he assaulted her. "Maybe he works on a farm or something? Because that much manure can only come from a cow farm..."
Sara shrugged and looked to Remi. "Your guess is as good as mine, right now..." she explained. But unfortunately, she didn't know that Remi was going by experience.
Remi walking into the office that she shared with Sara and sat down at her desk, turning her computer on. "I'll cross-check his name with all the cow farms in Vegas and in Bangor...see what I can come up with," she explained, as Greg loomed over her shoulder. "Do you like looming over people?" she asked.
Sara took this opportunity to embarrass Greg. "Only when he's got a thing for them..." she winked at Remi, causing a huge smile to spread across her face. "So you know, now that you're working with him, he's not going to leave you alone--ever. Believe me, I know from experience."
Remi laughed slightly, then looked over her shoulder at Greg, pulling a chair up for him to sit down beside her, two feet to her left. "Nah, I don't think that's it, Sara," she defended, as Greg turned red. "He just wants to see what's going on. This is his case, too, after all..."
Greg sat in the chair Remi pulled up, as Sara rolled a chair of her own over beside Remi and Greg. "That's true," she saw that Remi got her joke. "So, anyway...what, is there a cow farm database, or something?" she asked with a slight grin, looking at Remi's computer.
Greg shrugged and laughed a little. "You'd be surprised what you'll find on the internet. Go to Yahoo search and type in 'Cow Farms of Las Vegas,' and I bet you'll get a plethora of results, man..." he explained. "Then we can run the name through one of our databases and see if Adam Killiam worked there."
Remi followed Greg's instructions, but stopped with a slight laugh. "The last time I searched Yahoo was to look up information on a bunch of bands for a little web site in high school..." she shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I'll pick the search engine. MSN is much more reliable..." she winked at him.
He grinned, and for a second, as they looked at each other, both of them forgot that Sara was in the room. "Yeah, that's true..." Sara pointed out, breaking their concentration on each other, after realizing that it was there. "But aside from that, Greg, your plan is good."
~~
As Greg and Remi waited for Sara to return with the results of their search for Adam Killiam, Greg tried to probe a little deeper into the reason why Remi got so upset over the mere mention of his name. He pretended to be looking over the case file, but the whole time, he was watching her facial expression. She looked distressed, scared, hurt, remindful...she was remembering when she'd been assaulted by Adam Killiam. Greg's eyes narrowed to tiny slits on his face at the mere thought of anyone being so cold hearted, and having the ability to hurt someone so angelic. He stood up and walked over to her slowly, not wanting to scare her, since she looked a little jumpy. "Remi..." he spoke softly, to get her attention. "Do you want to talk?"
She looked up abruptly, to Greg's sympathetic eyes. "No, I'm okay..." she lied as she shook her head and forced a smile. "It's nothing I won't get over someday...thanks anyway, Greg."
He automatically knew that she was lying, but not wanting to make her mad, he sat back down and sighed. He may have stopped for the moment, but Greg was never one to give up...especially when someone like Remi was dealing with the problems that she seemed to be dealing with. He picked up the case file and searched through it for anything that could take his thoughts from Remi and the fact that she wouldn't say anything.
Just as he started reading, though, Sara entered the room, beaming with delight. ""Ahem...Adam Crandall Killiam, worked at a cow farm in Houlton, Maine until 1998 when he was arrested for sexual assault, then worked on a vegetable farm in the Vegas area when he got out in 2002..." she explained with a grin. "Who wants to go with Brass to bring him in for questioning?"
Greg raised an eyebrow. "Vegetable farm...what about the manure? It can't be five years old and still be stuck to the bottom of his shoe! Unless this guy has VERY poor hygiene..." he joked.
Sara rolled her eyes at Greg and tapped her head. "Think, Greg. Some vegetable farms use manure to fertilize their plants, right?" she asked him with a roll of her eyes. "So, I'm gonna go with Brass to bring him back for questioning. We can all question him..." she smiled. "Later guys..." she breezed out of the room.
Remi had been standing stone stiff ever since Sara had said 'questioning.' I have to see him again? Oh my God...I can't. I have to...say something. I'll tell Greg. No. I can't! I...she shook her head, then looked to Greg, who'd been watching her the whole time. "Ready to question the suspect, Greg?" she asked.
Greg wondered how she could have possibly thought he didn't see her battling with her mind. Still, he didn't want to pry too deep, so he nodded and they walked to the interrogation room together.
~~