Catherine and Sara were at the latest crime scene. "Shame," said Sara as she looked at the corpse of the girl and flashed another picture. "Shame, shame, shame."
Just an hour ago, a body of a girl in her mid twenties was called in. The girl was nice looking, and she even carried that into death. She had lovely long brown hair and sparkling green eyes. She was found in her apartment bedroom. Her roommate had found her, lying dead on her bed. She was turned face down, and had been shot twice in the head, a double tap. Also, she looked as if she had punched in the face once.
Sara couldn't stand it. This wonderful girl that had everything going for her was murdered in cold blood. Who could do such a thing? Sara liked to thing of some of the murders over the years had been committed by and alien, as no human being could have possibly done the murders. This one qualified as an "alien murder" as well. On these cases, she set out to find the killer with a special vengeance. But this one, she just couldn't stand. She wanted the killer NOW. She worked extra hard, going over every quarter inch of the roof, finding a couple of partial prints, some fibers, and a mysterious metal fragment embedded in the girl's face where she was punched. Sara didn't know what it was, but she would find out.
Catherine was in the other room questioning her roommate, who was in tears. Apparently, the girl had been her best friend. The two had known each other since elementary school. It was interesting, Catherine noted, the murdered girl and her roommate looked so much alike. And they weren't related at all.
"Holly was my best and only friend in the whole world. We grew up together," her roommate sobbed, remembering her now deceased roommate, Holly Hartley. "And we always used to look like each other. I remember that sometimes we could pull off switching places, like twins. But it didn't always fool our parents," she remembered with a slight smile.
"I am so sorry Miss Jackie. I really am," Catherine comforted her. For some reason, her heart really went out to the roommate, Jackie Narther.
"I can't believe this. I really can't. She had it so well. She was studying at UNLV to become a doctor, and her boyfriend, Brad. Oh, How can this happen to Holly?"
"Tell me about her boyfriend."
"Brad? Oh he's great. He treated her like a princess, brought her flowers, cooked her dinner, but I never met him. He was perfect, by the way Holly described him. But the only thing is that he was only with her for a week."
"What's that?" Catherine said, motioning to an envelope on the table.
"I don't know what this has to do with Holly, but the day before she met Brad, I found $10,000 in the street. I'm so broke, and it's like it was sent from heaven. I picked it up, but I don't know what to do with it yet. I really need it, but I know that it's not mine."
"Ok. Can you give me the number and address of Brad?
The next day, Sara and Nick went to see Holly's boyfriend Brad. Catherine didn't cone because she was taking the night off to spend with her daughter, Lindsey.
"Hello. Brad Sateen? I'm Sara Sidle, and this is Nick Stokes, Las Vegas CSI's."
A man in his late twenties looked back at Sara. He looked halfway decent. But, Sara noted, if he really cared as much about Holly as Jackie described him, his eyes should be red because he should have been crying his eyes out over his girlfriend. Oh well, she thought, people have their own way of coping with death.
"You're here about Holly?" he said. Then he gave a nervous laugh, "Duh, of course you are. What else would you be here about?" He sighed. "I can't believe it. Holly. Of all people. I loved her. I did. I was even going to asker her to marry me soon. I even picked out the ring..." he trailed off. And then, coming out of a reverie about the past, he jerked to the present. "Oh! Sorry, come on in."
Sara and Nick walked into a nice small house very clan and modern. It also had many windows, which lit the place up nicely. It was a nice house.
"You live here alone?" Nick asked him.
"Yes, just me and my dog." At that precise moment, like it was timed, a cute little white dog came bounding into the room.
Jeez, Sara thought, everything is white in here. She and Nick took a seat on the white sofa. Brad sat opposite of them on a chair. Sara wanted to get this over with. "Let me get straight to the point, Mr. Sateen."
"Please call me Brad."
"Ok, Brad, can you thing of anyone at all that had an argument with Holly or an enemy, or anyone at all that could have possibly wanted her dead?
"No," Brad began. He continued to talk, but Sara wasn't paying attention anymore, she was looking at his ring. The other piece of the puzzle. Sara thought. Gotcha!
Ater their interview was over, Nick and Sara drove back to the station. They stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for coffee on the way.
"Nick?"
"Mmm?"
"Didn't Brad seem too prefect?"
"As a matter of fact yeah, he kinda did, now that you say it."
"Ok, it's not just me then. But did you notice his ring?"
"Nope. What about it?"
"Well, first of all, it was on his left ring finger. Does that mean he's married?"
"That's weird."
"Something's going on. He must have put it on after the murder. And another thing—the ring itself had a piece missing. And I found a metal piece embedded in Holly's cheek. I bet you anything the two fit perfectly."
Since shift was over, Sara worked overtime. She said goodbye to Nick and then headed off to get a warrant for Brad's ring. She really wanted this guy.
Catherine had personally visited brad for his ring the next night. She brought it back to Sara at the lab.
Sara eagerly took the evidence bag that held the ring and took it back to the evidence room. First, she took out the metal fragment she had found at the crime scene. The two were a perfect match. Then, to even further prove her new finding, she sprayed the ring with luminol. It glowed bright, nothing the presence of blood on the ring. She then swabbed the ring and took the swab to Greg so he could test the DNA. She was feeling really good about this one.
Hours later, the results came back. It was a match to Holly Harley's blood. Then a warrant was issued for Brad to be brought in for questioning.
Sara personally went to Brad's house to bring him in. This time, Grissom accompanied her.
When she pulled up to the house, there was a moving truck out front. Brad was jus in the process of carrying a box out to the truck. It sure looked like he was moving away. Just then, he spotted Sara. Then he did something that surprised her. He just dropped the box and took off running.
Sara was in pretty good physical shape, so she jumped out of her car and pursued him on foot. The two of them weaved in and out of neighbor's backyards, over fences, and through bushes. She knew that back at the car Grissom must be calling backup.
Just then, Brad lost his footing. He fell straight into the pool with a big splash. She dove in after him. She wrestled him out of the pool and pinned him down on the ground. He gave up the fight. Then, Sara knew she had him. It felt so good.
She radioed Grissom. "I got him."
"Good for you," was what she heard. She smiled.
The next day, Sara asked him the one question she was dying to know. "Brad, why did you do it? Youy went through the whole trouble of being her boyfriend, and then you killer her. Why did you do it?"
"Well," he began, "It all started when I saw her in the street. I had dropped ten grand in the street and I was going back to pick it up, but she took it."
Sara opened her mouth in horror. Not only was this a stupid reason to murder anyone, there was something else. "That wasn't Holly. That was Jackie, her roommate."
