Willow grabbed her kit from the car and with dread followed Grissom into the vic's house. Living on the Hellmouth and in LA taught you that there was no such thing as coincidences and definitely no such thing as supernatural coincidences.
Katherine had mentioned that Benjamin McKim had been a frequent visitor to Joker's Wild Pawn shop and she just KNEW with her luck that Benjamin McKim was Giles' friend Benjamin that had pawned the missing necklace.
The necklace! God, her brain finally clicked into gear, how could she have been so stupid? The conversation with Giles came clearly into her mind as she thought about the missing heirloom.
{"And the heirloom was one of the things missing. Please don't tell me it opened portals to hell or something like that."
"No it doesn't open portals but it is a key ingredient for a spell. It's used to suck the life force out of the victim and in turn prolong the wearer's life."}
Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.
"You okay, Willow?" Grissom asked as he turned to see her lost in thought.
Willow plastered a smile on her face and nodded, "Sorry, I was trying to picture the Mitchell crime scene."
"That's good, but don't forget that each crime scene is unique even if they are seemingly connected. Don't make the mistake of coming into one with preconceived ideas, you might miss something important."
Willow took the mild reprimand with a slight nod, she'd rather be thought of as an over-eager achiever than tell him what was really on her mind.
The officer on the scene opened the front door for them.
"What do we have?" Grissom asked as he stepped over the threshold.
"Two vics. One vic shot, body in the kitchen by the back door and the other…" the officer pointed in toward the den.
"Why don't you take the one in the kitchen and I'll take this one."
Willow nodded and headed toward the kitchen. She knew Grissom would take the aging one which was all right with her since she suspected her theory on the spontaneous aging would prove correct. Her mind was racing as she carefully stepped through the crime scene. Why bother shooting when the necklace grabbed life's essence and prolonged the wearer's life? If it were her, she would suck all the life that she could and not waste it with a bullet.
Time to find out the five most important questions at a scene, who, what, why, where, how?
Willow smiled at the officer that was stationed by the kitchen. "Anyone touch anything in here?"
"No, ma'am. When we received the call Officer Baker and I searched the house being careful not to touch anything."
"Where you the one to discover this one?"
The young officer nodded, "I thought I heard a noise in here and came to investigate. That's when I noticed the stool turned on its side and the foot. I left to inform Officer Baker."
Willow smiled, "Could you show me exactly how you entered the room and where you stepped? Its to rule out any footprints or fingerprints I might find as yours."
With a look of concentration Officer Carter re-enacted his discovery of the victim for Willow. Willow watched his movements and interrupted him, "Did you ever find out what made the noise?"
Officer Carter nodded and pointed to the kitchen window. "The shade at the window was banging in the wind." His eyes widened as he noticed the window was now shut but the shade was where it had been. "I swear I didn't close it, ma'am. It was open when I left to get Officer Baker and no one's been in here."
"Thanks." Willow smiled and set her kit on the island table. She grabbed gloves and a camera before beginning her investigation. Her first step was to examine the body so it could be released to the coroner.
~~~~
Gil knelt down next to the aged body and took swabs. He hadn't heard back from his friend but Gil didn't believe in coincidences. If this was a genetic anomaly the odds that there were two of them in such a short time and in such a small geographical area were probably a million to one.
He needed to take his own advice about following the evidence, the only truth. He thought back to what one of his professor's had told him, "Eliminate all theories and whatever is left no matter how improbable is your answer."
The victim's skin was paper thin, almost like a dried husk. Gil carefully removed a thin layer of skin that was beginning to flake and placed it in an evidence envelope. It looked like the victim had not only aged but had dried out as well. This one was a little different from the Mitchell case.
Gil looked over his shoulder at the officer standing in the entryway. "What do we know about the victim?"
"His name is Geoff Daisani, approximately seventy-one years of age. He's retired but used to own an occult store. Family called it in when they couldn't reach him. They live in Maine. Brass told us to hold off notifying the family until a positive ID could be made."
"Do we know who the other victim is?"
"No, sir. As soon as we checked the pulse and verified that there wasn't one we called it in to dispatch. We didn't want to touch anything."
Gil contemplated the officer knowing that very few policemen understood the importance of keeping a crime scene pure. He was sure some of the prints found would belong to the officers on the scene.
Gil took a few pictures of the body and the surrounding area before turning to Officer Baker. "He's good to go."
He carefully made his way into the kitchen to check on Willow's progress. "What do you have?"
"Gunshot wound to the chest, point blank range." Willow pointed out the wounds on the body. "Haven't found the spent shells but I've marked the couple of bullet holes in the cabinet. I just finished up with the body and thought I'd dust for prints on the window. Officer Carter stated that the window was open and the shade banging in the wind is what caused him to enter the kitchen."
Gil looked at the closed window, "He close the window?"
"He says he didn't. He said that when he noticed the overturned stool and the foot by the island he checked for a pulse. He says he notified Officer Baker right away and that no one entered the kitchen. Of course that doesn't rule out that someone closed it from the outside."
"You seem to have everything under control. I'll leave you to finish up."
"Grissom?"
"Yeah?"
"The other body, was it the same as Mitchell's?"
"The victim aged beyond his years but the body was very dry. Like the moisture had been taken out of his skin."
"Mummified?"
"No, more like the body was very old. Past the century mark."