A/N: Thank you all so so so so much for your reviews. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. You guys rock! I'm so glad you're enjoying the fic. And to all you Snickers, I hope your patience isn't wearing thin. But you'll be rewarded. Eventually. =P Well read on and find out what happens next!
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Chapter 4 – Rats!
"Coffee already? What, twenty four hours wasn't enough of a rest for you?" Sara said to Nick as she walked into the break room and saw Nick standing at the counter filling up his mug.
"Huh?" Nick replied, a little distracted. "Just a little tired, that's all."
"I heard you were with Kate yesterday after shift." Sara tried to sound casual as she poured hot water into a mug.
"You 'heard'?" Nick asked, a bit upset that Sara made his off-the-clock activities sound like gossip.
"Warrick said he saw you two driving off."
"We went out to dinner. To celebrate her solving the case," Nick responded, trying not to sound defensive.
"Uh-huh," Sara replied in a tone that clearly suggested she wasn't buying Nick's explanation. She bobbed the teabag up and down in her mug as she went to sit down.
"Hi, Sara," Kate greeted cheerfully as she walked in and almost ran into Sara.
"Hi," Sara said back, forcing a smile, before she quickly continued on her way to sit next to Warrick, who had followed Kate in and had just plopped himself down on the couch. Despite her best efforts to befriend Kate, Sara was beginning to dislike her more and more every day. Sara knew that was unfair, for more reasons than one. Kate was always friendly towards her, putting in a great deal of effort to try and become friends with Sara. And to make matters worse, Kate seemed to be a natural when it came to criminalistics. Sure, she asked a lot of questions, but she never compromised any evidence, she was always on top of everything, and she even solved the last case they worked on. There were absolutely no reasons, professionally or personally, to dislike Kate. Which was probably the reason why Sara disliked her. She seemed too perfect.
"You know what they say about jealousy," Warrick started to say as soon as Sara sat down next to him.
"I am not jealous," Sara quickly sniped, glaring at Nick and Kate standing by the coffeemaker.
"Hi Nick," Kate smiled as she grabbed a mug off the counter.
"Hey. You all rested up and ready to go tonight?" Nick asked as he reached for the coffee pot to fill Kate's mug.
"Thanks," she said as he finished pouring. "Yeah. Dinner last night was so good that I just zonked out as soon as I got home. I slept till almost noon."
"Well you better cherish whatever sleep you can get. It's hard to come by in this job."
Grissom walked into the break room, assignment slips in hand.
"What do you got for us boss?" Nick said eagerly, the caffeine already starting to kick in.
"Double whammy tonight. 419 on the Strip. The Hilton. You, me, Sara. Warrick and Kate, 419 downtown. Four Queens. Catherine's on her way there already. She's coming straight from Lindsey's school."
"Oh yeah, Lindsey's school play was tonight," Warrick said, getting up from the couch.
"She was Snow White. I stopped by Aunt Catherine's house this afternoon when she was getting ready. She looked so adorable," Kate said.
"Man, that kid's got some acting chops. Sleeping Beauty, and now Snow White?" Warrick said, impressed.
"Yeah, let's just hope she doesn't follow in the footsteps of her mother and move from the school auditorium stage to another kind of stage," Kate said as everyone headed out the door, groaning at her bad joke.
~~~
Grissom, Nick, and Sara arrived at their crime scene. Nick and Sara headed straight to Detective Vega. Grissom went into one of his 'modes' and started wandering around the room with his flashlight, slowly and silently, taking in the scene.
"Vic's name is Walter Beckett. Age 43, California license," Detective Vega filled in the younger two CSI's.
"Coroner pronounced yet?" Sara asked.
"No, you guys beat him. Should be here any minute," Vega answered.
"I'll go down to the front desk, see what I can find out," Nick said.
"Who found him?" Sara asked as Nick left.
"Housekeeping," Vega replied.
"Don't they usually come in the morning?" Sara's mind kept churning out questions.
"They have two shifts, morning and night."
"Hey guys," David said as he entered. "Hi Sara," he smiled when he noticed her.
"Hi David," Sara smiled back at the assistant coroner who had a crush on her.
David went to work as Sara stood over him and watched. "Rigor's already set in. Liver temp indicates TOD was about six or seven hours ago," he informed her.
"So, one, two o'clock," Sara deduced.
"Did housekeeping touch these curtains?" Grissom finally spoke.
"She said no. Just opened the door and saw the body from the doorway," Vega said.
"These curtains are open," Grissom said.
"Window faces west, body would have been in direct sunlight," Sara quickly realized. She walked over to the thermostat box on the wall. "A/C would've been on, this thing's set at 68 degrees."
"So," Grissom queried, "if you mix a 97 degree sunny day, a 68 degree air-conditioned room, and a liver temp of…"
"Eighty-seven point one," David chimed in.
"Eighty-seven point one," Grissom continued, "what do you get?"
"I don't know, but I'll tell you what I got," Nick said as he walked into the room. "I was down at the front desk when highway patrol called. They found an abandoned vehicle just outside of Henderson. Rental car, registered to a guest at this hotel.
"Walter Beckett?" Grissom asked hopefully.
"Yep," Nick confirmed.
"Good. You two go. I'll finish processing here," Grissom instructed.
Sara and Nick left.
"Uh, sir?" David timidly asked Grissom.
"David, you don't have to call me sir," Grissom laughed.
"Sorry, sir, uh, Mr. Grissom," David stuttered. "I was just wondering if you were going to answer your own question."
"Huh?"
"What do you get when you mix a 97 degree sunny day, a 68 degree air-conditioned room, and a liver temp of eighty-seven point one?"
"Why don't you tell me, David?" Grissom said as he followed Vega and the other officers out the door. "I'll see you in post."
"Um, okay," David replied, confused yet again by Grissom.
~~~
Nick and Sara found two patrol cars waiting near the abandoned rental car.
"It sure is dark out here," Sara commented.
"Well it is the middle of the desert," Nick quipped as he cut the engine.
"We cleared the vehicle, didn't pop the trunk yet. We were waiting for you," one of the officers said to them as they walked toward the car.
"Okay, thanks," Nick said. Nick opened the driver's side door and looked around with his flashlight. Sara went around to the other side to inspect the back seat.
"I got nothing, back seat is clean," Sara said, disappointed.
"Well that makes us 0 for 2," Nick replied back. "Nothing up here."
"Trunk?" Sara suggested.
"Trunk."
"Okay, we're ready," Sara told the auto detail guy. He effortlessly popped the trunk and stepped aside. Sara flung it open.
"Empty," Nick sighed. He looked around with his flashlight. "No visible blood. Got a strand of hair here. Hand me a bindle, will you?" He stuck out his hand towards Sara while still peering into the trunk but received nothing.
Sara had lost interest in the trunk as soon as they found it to be empty, and was now off in her own world, looking around the scene and formulating theories in her head. "Do you smell that?" Sara asked, ignoring Nick's request.
Nick bent down into the trunk and sniffed. "No."
"No, not in there. Out here."
She looked around with her flashlight until it came to rest on a big sewer grate in the dirt about ten feet from the car. Nick and Sara looked at each other. They slowly approached the metal grate, noting the smell was getting stronger.
"Could just be a dead animal," Nick said hopefully.
They reached the grate and both shined their flashlights inside. "I don't see anything," Sara said.
Nick bent down and attempted to lift the grate to get a better view, but was having trouble. "A little help here?" he grunted to Sara, who was standing right next to him but busy looking around.
"Oh, sorry." Between the two of them, they managed to remove the grate "Man, there is definitely a dead body in there," Sara said as she covered her nose with her arm.
Nick lay on his stomach and stuck his head into the hole to get a better view. "Yeah, I think I see something. Down the tunnel a little bit." He got up, dusted himself off, and started to climb down the metal ladder that led down into the sewer. "You coming?" he said to Sara when he noticed she wasn't budging.
"There are probably rats down there, right?" Sara asked.
"Uh, I don't know, maybe. Why?"
"I don't do rats."
"You don't 'do' rats?" Nick smiled.
"No," Sara responded resolutely.
"Sara Sidle, afraid of rats?" Nick teased.
"I'm not afraid of them. I just don't like them. They're fat, smelly, filthy, disease carrying creatures." Sara stood her ground.
"Relax," Nick said. It's not like Vegas has killer sewer rats. I heard that in New York City, people have seen rats over two feet long! But I'm sure these guys here are no bigger than a foot, foot and a half at the most," Nick continued to tease her.
"Not helping," Sara fumed.
"Okay, okay," Nick smiled. "I will go down first, secure the area of all rats, and then you can come down. Deal?"
"Fine."
Nick disappeared into the sewer. After a minute, he yelled up to Sara. "No furry friends in sight. Just a floater."
"Are you sure? About the rats?" Sara yelled back to him.
"Yes, I'm sure Sara, just get down here. Relax, will you? It's just a sewer."
"And hell is just a sauna," she muttered to herself as she carefully climbed down.
"Female, looks pretty young, mid-twenties maybe. And actually just a partial floater. Only her legs made it into the water," Nick informed her as she approached.
"Good for us, her upper body wasn't contaminated by the water," Sara concluded.
Nick shined his flashlight along the walkway and down the tunnel into the silent darkness, looking for any signs of evidence. "Yeah, hopefully all the evidence hasn't been washed away."
In the darkness on the other side of the tunnel, there was a splash in the water. Sara turned around toward the source of the splash and reflexively grabbed Nick's arm. "What was that?" she asked, terrified.
Nick smiled at the fact that Sara was actually afraid. "I'm sure it was just gas bubbles or floating garbage or something.
"Oh." Sara quickly let go of Nick's arm when she realized she had grabbed it. "Can we just call David now so we can get out of here?" Sara said huffily. "We need to get back to the lab."
"Alright, alright. Don't get your panties in a twist," Nick teased. "I'm gonna look around down here a little more. Why don't you go back up and finish processing the trunk of the car."
"Gladly," Sara said without protest as she quickly headed for the ladder.
After finishing up at their scene, Nick and Sara drove back to the lab. Their first stop was the DNA lab, to drop off their evidence to Greg. As they walked down the hallway and turned a corner, they almost collided with Grissom, mainly because his nose was buried in a case file.
"Hey, I heard you guys found another body," Grissom said, not apologizing for the near collision.
"Yeah, female," Sara said. "In the sewer."
"Hmm," Grissom pondered for a split second, then continued on his way. "Doc Robbins is posting our first vic," he indicated where he was rushing off to. "Let me know what you find out about the second body." He stuck his nose back into the file folder and immediately almost ran into someone else.
"Sure thing," Nick said as he exchanged glances with Sara, both of them wondering how Grissom could be so smart yet so scatterbrained at the same time.
"Hey Greggo," Nick greeted the lab tech as he and Sara entered.
"Come to give me more work?" Greg grumbled amidst a cluttered benchtop covered with evidence bags, swabs, and tubes.
"Must be your lucky day," Nick said.
"Nothing too exciting, just a hair," Sara informed him.
Warrick walked through the door with a handful of small evidence bags and envelopes. "Hey Greg, I need you to run DNA profiles on these samples," he said holding up the samples in one hand, "and cross-reference them with these," he said holding up the samples in his other hand. "And I need these," he pulled some envelopes out of his lab coat pocket, "run through the GC/MS." He dumped everything on the benchtop.
"You need, you need, you need," Greg muttered. "What about my needs?"
"You need to keep your job, don't you?" Warrick said. "Process."
"Thanks Greg," Nick smiled, patting Greg on the back.
"Yeah, yeah," Greg muttered back.
The three CSI's walked out and left Greg to do his work. Nick and Sara headed for the autopsy room to see their female victim.
"Hey David, what do you got for us?" Nick said as he and Sara entered the autopsy room.
"Prints came back Annette Santini, age 25. She had a non-gaming work card. Cocktail waitress at the Hilton," David informed them.
"Same hotel we found our first vic at," Sara realized.
"Cause of death?" Nick asked.
"I did find blunt force trauma to the head, but I don't think that was fatal. Cause of death was most likely asphyxiation. Bruising on her neck, petechial hemorrhaging, cyanosis of the lips."
"These her films?" Sara asked, walking over to the x-rays pinned up on the light box on the wall.
"Yep. She had quite a few fractures, new and old. Several healed rib fractures, probably a year old. Collarbone fracture, nasal bone, also pretty old. Fresh wrist and forearm fractures," David pointed out on the x-rays. "Bruising all over her arms indicated the fractures were perimortem."
"Did you collect a rape kit?" Sara asked, a little upset over what she was hearing. She hated seeing women like this, battered and abused.
"I was just about to," David answered.
"Thanks David, let us know what you find out," Nick said, indicating they were through. He noticed Sara looked upset and wanted to get her out of there before she got too emotional. "We should hook up with Grissom, see what he found on the first vic," Nick suggested to Sara.
"Yeah," Sara replied, distracted, as she turned and walked swiftly out the door without saying another word.
Nick, Sara, and Grissom spent the next several hours in the layout room examining lab results and evidence they had collected. By the end of shift they realized they had nothing, not even a lead.
Grissom sighed as he tossed some photos onto the table and leaned back in his chair. "Why don't you two go home, get some rest," he said to Nick and Sara. "Come back later with a clear head."
"Yeah, good idea," Nick agreed as he got up from his chair. Sara didn't budge, continuing to stare at the scene photos in front of her.
"Sara," Grissom gently scolded, knowing full well she had heard him.
"I think I'm gonna go take a look at this shirt again," she said, holding up a photo of a bloody shirt. "I think we missed something." She got up, completely ignoring Grissom's instructions.
"Sara," Nick almost begged, knowing his pleas would be useless. He hoped Grissom would step in and say something, since she usually listened to Grissom more than she did Nick. He didn't, however, and he let Sara leave. Nick looked at Grissom, who merely shrugged. Nick sighed, upset at Sara for being her stubborn self and upset at Grissom for not trying to stop her. He headed for the locker room, knowing that talking to Sara would be useless at this point.
He ran into Kate in the locker room, who was grabbing her things to go home.
"You guys solve your case?" Nick asked.
"Yep, slam dunk," Kate replied cheerfully.
"Then the night wasn't a total loss," Nick said bitterly.
"Tough case?" Kate asked, her cheerfulness slightly dissipated by Nick's gloominess.
"Yeah," Nick sighed. "We've got absolutely nothing. Grissom sent us home to clear our heads, Sara won't give it a rest."
"Wanna grab breakfast? To 'clear your head'? My treat this time." Kate offered.
"Sure," Nick replied. He needed someone to cheer him up; he knew Kate would.
They drove to the same diner where they had breakfast after Kate's first night at CSI. They sat in the same booth and ordered the same thing. They made small talk about their cases until their food arrived.
"So," Kate said as they ate. "Tell me about yourself," she said to Nick.
"What?" Nick smiled, surprised at Kate's question.
"Well, you know so much about me, but I don't know anything about you," she pointed out. "So spill," she said with mock severity.
"Okay, what do you want to know?"
"You were born, then what?" Kate smiled.
Nick proceeded to tell Kate his life story, about Texas, his big family, growing up into law enforcement, his brief stint on the Dallas police force, his start as a criminalist, and his move to Vegas.
"Wow," Kate said after Nick finally finished. "What a fascinating life," Kate smiled.
"It was, at times, I guess," Nick said.
"Can I ask you something?" Kate said tentatively.
"Shoot."
Kate took a deep breath and paused for a second before asking. "Are you and Sara…" she couldn't finish her question.
"Are Sara and I what?" Nick asked, pretty sure what Kate was getting at but wanting her to actually say it.
"You know," Kate continued, still not having the courage to spit it out.
"I know what?" Nick countered, continuing to tease her.
"Nick!" Kate exclaimed, frustrated.
Nick laughed. "Sorry." He just looked at her, still not answering her question.
Kate gave him a look back, waiting for his answer.
"There is no me and Sara," he finally said.
"Oh," was all Kate could say.
"Why would you think that?" Nick asked. His question was an honest one; he had no idea where Kate would have gotten the idea.
"I don't know," Kate seemed shyer all of a sudden. "It's just the way you two act around each other. Like you're two peas in a pod sometimes, even when you're on a case together."
"I hate peas," Nick joked as he scrunched up his nose.
Kate smiled, but then her face was serious again as she continued. "You guys are always thinking the same thing, always on the same page. So I just thought…"
"That's just how we are," Nick explained. "I guess it's why we work so well together. I don't know, I guess I never really gave it much thought. We're just good friends, that's all."
Kate played with the scraps of food on her plate. "So…" she said.
"So," Nick said. "As you now know, I am completely available," he smiled, mimicking the phrase she had used the other day to inform him of her single status.
