A/N: Here's the next chapter. I appreciate all the reviews SO much, and I was very glad to finally be able to read them all after the software 'glitch' that this site had a few days ago. Thanks, everyone! I realize that Grissom and Sara don't appear in this chapter, but remember...they're sleeping. *shippy grin* They will be back next time, I promise! In the meantime, this chapter showcases some developments in the case. I hope everyone enjoys it!
Chapter 14: Name
Catherine sat at the head of the table in the layout room, with Warrick on her right and Greg on her left, staring at the empty spaces where the rest of the team should have been. She felt their absence keenly, especially since while both Warrick and Greg had been able to go home and catch a few hours' sleep, Catherine herself had been working continuously since everything had begun. She knew she had lost her edge well over eight hours ago, but she still pushed on, because right now she had to. She was about to go over what they knew with her small 'team,' both to fill them in on any new developments and to help her think clearly about how they should proceed.
"All right, guys, let's run through everything," she began tiredly. "We have three victims, two of them identified. All of them stabbed multiple times. The first one killed, Joseph Winston, was dumped in the desert. The second victim has finally been ID'd as Jessica Rosen, the owner of the house where the murders took place."
Warrick picked up the narrative, "Our third vic doesn't have a name yet, but she was also dumped. Her DNA links her, along with Joey Winston, to the blood-spattered crime scene at the Rosen house. That's all we know right now since dayshift was given that case."
"Greg, do you want review all the results from DNA for us?" Catherine prompted.
But before the lab tech could say anything, everyone's attention the enthusiastic voice of Nick Stokes saying, "Hey, guys," as he popped his head into the doorway. Then the rest of him came into view as he hobbled over to the stool next to Warrick on his crutches. Carefully balancing on his uninjured foot, he made it into the seat fairly skillfully, leaning his crutches against the lighted table. "So fill me in," he said eagerly, as if he had just stepped back in from a coffee break.
"If it isn't our crippled hero returning," Greg teased, a wide grin on his face. "So you finally got wounded in the line of duty, eh, Nick? What was it? You tripped down the stairs or something?"
"Shut up, Greg," Nick replied, picking up one of his crutches and giving the lab tech a good-natured, but fairly hard, smack on the shin.
"Ow!" Greg whined, but his smile remained.
Catherine looked at them, her exhaustion adding to her lack of patience. "Boys!" she chided. Then she asked, "What are you doing here anyway, Nick? I thought you were supposed to stay home and off that foot."
"I was, but I got bored."
"Five hundred channels and nothing on, huh, bro?" Warrick asked with a grin.
Nick grinned back. "Yeah, even my 'Super Sports Package' let me down. So, what did I miss?" He looked around, noticing for the first time the absence of two members of the graveyard shift, including the boss. "Where are Grissom and Sara?" he asked, frowning.
Having been gone from the lab, Nick was probably the only CSI who hadn't heard about Grissom's illness.
"Grissom's home sick," Warrick told him.
"Really?" Nick didn't remember ever having heard that Grissom had missed a day of work voluntarily. "What's wrong with him?"
"Mostly the flu," Catherine explained. "But he caught some kind of stomach bug, too."
Nick made a face, but his tone was sympathetic. "Wow, double-whammy, huh? That can't be fun."
"Yeah, he's in kind of bad shape," Warrick agreed.
"But where's Sara?" Nick repeated. "Is she sick, too?"
"No, she's just with him," Catherine said. "You know, watching over him?"
"I'll bet," the dark-haired CSI replied, his dimpled grin creeping back onto his face. "Anyway, what were you saying about the current case? It sounded interesting. And now that I'm here, I'd be glad to pitch in."
"How is your ankle doing, by the way?" Catherine asked.
"It's okay—it only hurts when I put pressure on it. I figured maybe I could help our around here, so I took a cab over."
"All right, Nicky," Catherine said, "you can work in the lab—but only because we're short-handed. I really think you should be home with your foot up."
"I'll be fine, Cath," he promised. "Just let me know what's going on."
She repeated the information, or lack of it, on each of the three victims, and then turned the floor back to Greg for the DNA results.
"All right," the lab tech began, "we processed over one hundred swabs from the crime scene. All of the blood from the walls and floor of the Rosen house belongs to one of our three victims—Joey Winston, Jessica Rosen, or the unknown woman found in the woods." He took a breath before plowing forward, "The swabs Catherine took from the sinks throughout the house also contained an admixture of the blood of the victims. Hairs recovered from the scenes belonged to the victims as well."
Hearing all that out loud didn't make the CSIs feel like they were any closer to finding the perpetrator. Nick glanced around at everyone, noticing how tired they all seemed, and then asked gently, "Do we have any evidence attributed to the killer?"
"Yeah, we've got shoe prints and tire treads, but nothing to compare them to yet," Warrick replied. "Brass checked with the DMV on the treads—forty-six cars registered in Nevada that could have left those tire marks. No ties between any of the RO's and any of the vics."
Nick absorbed his colleague's last statement. "You guys think the murderer knew his victims? Like he chose them beforehand?"
"Grissom thinks so," Catherine responded, but she didn't elaborate.
"Does that happen a lot with serial killers?" Greg asked, his tone curious, but hesitant at the same time, almost like he wasn't sure he actually wanted to know the answer.
"Well, serials often pick out the types of victim they want," Warrick explained. "Not always an individual person. Sometimes they watch, follow, stalk, but they don't always interact with their chosen victim before they kill them."
Just then, the little group's 'powwow' was disrupted by a knock on the doorframe. They all turned to find a woman in a lab coat standing there; it was Jamie Cohen, one of the CSIs from days. "Sorry to interrupt," she said, "but I thought you might like to see these." She handed Catherine a folder. As the recipient began to skim through it, the newcomer described the contents to the others, "They're the photos and prelim on the third victim in your serial case, our mysterious woman from the woods. Sears and I are working the evidence and Brass asked us to keep you informed."
"Yeah, thanks, Jamie," Catherine replied, a bit distractedly. She passed the folder down to Warrick who started perusing it himself. "She was stabbed?" Catherine asked, looking for clarification as she turned back towards the dayshift CSI.
"Multiple times," the other woman explained. "No murder weapon found at the scene, but we did recover some fibers and a good cast of some shoe prints."
"Sneaker treads?" Catherine threw back.
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"We found the same kind of prints at both our crime scenes. Have you run them through the database yet?"
"No, I was just about to. But we do know they're from a size 11 shoe."
Catherine nodded. "Same as ours."
"Tell us about the fibers," Warrick said, closing the folder and looking up.
"Two were white, probably cotton. The third was gray velour. Sears and I got a quick look at it under the scope and it was trimodal, from car upholstery. I left the fibers in Trace, but they were pretty backlogged." Realizing that the evidence could be crucial to graveyard's case, Cohen suggested, "Do you want me to go back and run the fibers myself, or would one of you guys like to work on it? It'll be a lot quicker than waiting for the techs in Trace to get to it."
Catherine glanced around at her small group. "Greg, why don't you work on those fibers and shoe treads with Jamie?" She turned back to the woman in the doorway. "He knows his way around the Trace lab, but he might need a little assistance with the scanner and the shoe print database," she explained. "Greg's our shift's resident CSI 'wannabe'."
"No problem," Cohen answered with a grin. "I can show him."
"Thanks," Catherine said, then thought of something. "Didn't you say you were working with Sears on this?"
"Yeah. She's down in post with our 'Jane Doe.' She'll come down and give you a copy of the report as soon as Doc Robbins is done."
"We really appreciate you keeping us in the loop," Catherine offered, smiling tiredly.
"We all want to catch this guy, Catherine," Cohen replied firmly, "and there's nothing wrong with pooling our resources."
"Don't let Ecklie hear you say that."
"I won't. Come on, Greg. Try to keep up, huh?"
The spiky-haired lab tech jumped up from his stool and followed Cohen into the hall, eager to be actively involved in furthering the case. "Right behind you," he called.
"All right," Catherine said, facing the two remaining CSIs. "What else have we got?"
"Don't look at me," Nick asserted, his tone light. "I just got here, remember?"
"What evidence do we have that's still open?" Warrick wondered.
"Um…" She stared straight ahead, squinting as she tried to remember, but her sleep-deprived mind let her down. Glancing quickly through the original case file, the information came back to her. "Yeah, the art supplies," she blurted.
"Right," Warrick agreed. "Greg did all the DNA on them, didn't he?"
"Yes, all the blood on the brushes, palette knives, and paint sticks also belonged to our three victims."
"And there were no fingerprints found?"
"Just smudges," Catherine reminded him. "They were wiped clean."
"Art, brushes, blood?" Nick asked, perplexed. "What are you talking about?"
"Our killer fancies himself an artist," the other man explained. "He creates abstract 'paintings' with his victims' blood."
"Paintings?"
"Yeah, all over the walls and floor."
Nick grimaced, finding himself speechless for a few seconds. Then he muttered, "Twisted son-of-a-bitch."
Warrick nodded. "Yeah."
"Anything special about the art stuff you found?" Nick asked, his investigative instincts kicking in.
"That's what we don't know yet," Catherine pointed out. "Could you go research that with Archie, Nick? The brushes and the rest of the things are still in the DNA lab."
"Sure," Nick replied, starting to gather his crutches to get up.
"And, Warrick, I need you to do something for me. I'd do it myself, but right now your eyes are fresher than mine." Her tone was hushed and serious, as if what she was about to mention was supposed to be a secret.
"What is it, Cath?" he asked, leaning forward.
Nick sensed the conspiratorial mood and hung around to hear what Catherine had to say.
She hesitated for another moment before filling them in, "I don't know if Grissom is ready to share, but I think I need to tell you guys something." She took a breath. "Grissom thinks this case is related to a double murder he worked on fifteen years ago. He didn't realize it right away, but the blood spatter patterns from both scenes are very similar. In both cases there were multiple murders, in both cases the killer splattered blood all over the murder scene using what appear to be the artistic techniques of Jackson Pollock, and in both cases there were no suspects. Well, at least we don't have any suspects yet. I'm hoping that will change very soon."
"So they never caught the guy from fifteen years ago?" Nick asked rhetorically.
Catherine responded anyway, shaking her head. "No. Grissom worked the original case solo. I was assigned to it, but was pulled off almost immediately. There were only two murders that time, and both bodies were found in the house where our 'artist' left his work. Back then, there wasn't enough evidence to identify a suspect and the case was closed and left unsolved. This time the killer dumped two out of the three victims, and only one was discovered in the bloodied house. But Grissom seemed pretty sure that all these murders are related. And we know that serials rarely stop unless they're caught."
"Whoa," Warrick commented, taking it all in. "Is there anything besides the blood spatter that links the two cases?"
"That's what I need you to find out," Catherine told him. "The evidence from Gil's original case is in the layout room, and I pulled the old case file. Get acquainted with it, Warrick. Look closely, read over everything. Let's see if Grissom's hunch can be supported by the evidence."
"You got it," Warrick promised as she handed him Grissom's old file.
"If I finish with Archie first, I'll come down and give you a hand, Warrick," Nick said, hobbling toward the DNA lab to collect the painting tools. "If Grissom's right, we have to find a way to prove it, and maybe catch a serial killer while we're at it."
Warrick turned back to Catherine before leaving. "Why don't you sack out somewhere and try to catch a few hours' sleep? We'll let you know if we find anything."
"Thanks, Warrick. I just might do that," she replied with a weary grin. She sat there for a few minutes, trying to absorb everything, but her mind was too fuzzy. She exhaled deeply as she finally pushed herself up from the table and dragged herself from the room.
* * * * * * *
Catherine opened her eyes, finding herself lying on the couch in the break room. Sitting up with a groan, she squinted at her watch, but she couldn't get her eyes to focus. Giving them a few minutes to adjust, she was finally able to read the time off her watch face. Two hours…she wondered silently. I've been asleep for two hours?
She didn't know how she had managed it, being sprawled out in one of the busiest rooms in the lab, surrounded by glass walls, but she was glad for any rest she had been able to get. Briskly rubbing her hands over her face, she stumbled over to the coffee pot and filled a mug with some of the brownish liquid, which she hoped was halfway palatable. The odds were against it around there—unless Greg had made the coffee—but right now she was really only concerned with caffeine, and lots of it.
Looking around, Catherine spotted a bowl of fruit in the center of the table and grabbed an apple off the top. She bit into it and was about to sit down when she glimpsed Warrick speeding by the doorway. Having seen her, he stopped, backed up, and made eye contact. "Ah, Cath, there you are," he said, coming into the room.
"What is it?"
He was holding a folder and he tapped it against his other hand. "We've got a suspect," he explained, then amended, "or at least a name. Nick and Archie found out that those art supplies were professional-grade, specially made, and only sold at one place in Vegas. Since the supplies were new, Brass got a list of the buyers from the last month and ran them against that DMV list of owners of GM muscle cars. We got a match, a…" He glanced at the papers in his hand. "…Daniel Sampson. O'Riley went out to check his last known address, but no luck, so he and Brass are trying to track him down now."
"That's great," Catherine commented, suddenly feeling much more awake. "What do we know about this Sampson?"
"Not much. All we've got on him is a driver's license, but the photo is kind of old. And like I said the address listed here isn't current." He handed her the color printout of Sampson's license.
Looking at the photo, she saw a balding man with a round face and small, dark eyes staring out from behind thick glasses. There was something indescribably creepy and…off about this guy. Catherine would have noticed it even if she didn't know he was a suspect in a murder, in several murders. In her gut, Catherine knew he killed all those people; she could see it in his eyes, even in the slightly blurry printed-out image.
But how she felt about Mr. Sampson didn't matter. Catherine knew their job now was to find this guy and confront him with evidence that he couldn't refute.
"I'm gonna go back and work with Nick," Warrick said, knocking Catherine out of her focused study of Sampson's photograph. "We're still sifting through Grissom's old case. There's not much there, but we're going over it with a fine-tooth comb. And, oh yeah, I wanted to tell you that the evidence inventory seems to be missing. Do you know anything about that?"
"No, but Grissom would," she replied. "Go down and check with Nick again. I'll give Sara a call and let her know where we are on the case, and then I'll talk to Gil about that missing inventory list."
"Okay, see you in a few."
He left the room as Catherine pulled out her phone.
* * * * * * *