Disclaimer: I don't own CSI!! Wish I did.... Any people in here just came out of my head; they're not based on anyone in particular. All musical pieces in here don't belong to me - they belong to their owners (how's that for a statement of the obvious?).

--------------CSI Lab-------------

Catherine walked into the evidence room as Grissom was examining the material from the last case. "Anything?" she asked quietly. Grissom shook his head in disappointment.

"I don't understand it! I should be able to find something, but I can't!" He slammed his fist into the wall in frustration.

"It's not your fault, Gil." Catherine reminded him.

"I know, but..."

Catherine walked over and looked at the piece of paper and read aloud.

"Morir! si pura bella!
Morir per mi d'amore,
Degli anni tuoi nel fiore,
Degli anni tuoi nel fiore fuggir la vita!
T'avea in cielo per l'amor creata,
ed io t'uccido per averti amata!"

Grissom looked up. "It's a quote from Verdi's Aida." He read from the translation:

"Dying, so young and beautiful!
Dying for love of me!
So young...
So young to give up life!
You were made in heaven for love
And I have killed you by loving you!"

Sara was strolling by when she saw them. "Watcha looking at?" she leaned over. "Ah, the Opera Killer strikes again..."

"Yeah, he kidnapped another woman about six hour ago. Left his last victim's body at the new one's apartment."

"Find anything?"

"Nope. Most serials get sloppy over time - overconfident. This guy improves. We still only have what we found from the first three scenes: a partial too smudged to be identifiable, some unidentified fibers, and that's IT! - well that and the Opera pieces... and pictures..."

"Excuse me?" The receptionist poked her head into the room. "A package just arrived for you all...."

Grissom sighed deeply as he walked out. A few minutes later, he returned, holding a package in his gloved hands. He opened it carefully, and several pictures spilled onto the white table - all featured a woman in a warehouse, bound and tied to a chair.

He dusted the pictures carefully, knowing that there wouldn't be anything. After asserting that it held no fingerprints, he scanned it into the computer and sent it to Archie for analysis.

Nick walked into the Lab around 7:00 that night, engrossed in the newspaper he was reading.

The Opera Killer Strikes

Over the last few weeks, a serial killer has begun terrorizing the Las Vegas citizens. Recently dubbed the "Opera Killer," this murderer preys on young to middle-aged women who live alone or with small children in the Las Vegas suburbs. He attacked for the fourth time last night, kidnapping another woman and leaving behind another body. Thus far, his pattern has been to leave the body of his previous victim at the house of the new one.

As of now, he has killed three women: Susie Wright, Alex Richmond, and Francis Bellmont. Early this morning/late last night, he abducted Susie Dickinson from her home in the Frampton housing complex. She was discovered missing when her 11-year-old daughter woke up and, after seeing the body of Francis Bellemont, called the police. At this time, the Las Vegas Police are doing everything possible to find Ms. Dickinson before she becomes the next victim in this latest string of murders. Continued on page A13

Nick entered the Break Room just as he finished reading the article. "So, since when is this guy a serial? When I left it was just two murders with interesting circs. Now he's a full-blown serial killer, front page, got a name... What, I can't leave for a week without you guys getting a wacko and calling me back?" he said, half jokingly.

"Well, I'm sorry to ruin your vacation Nick, but this guy keeps going, and he hasn't slipped up once yet. We need everyone we can get on this case. Judging by the last few murders, we have only two days, tops, before we find Susie Dickinson's body, and another woman disappears..."