The third chapter of this story. Thanks to my beta readers Anne and Ash, they deserve as much credit as I do. Reviews and comments are always appreciated.
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The Denali rolled to a stop near the Marine Science building. O'Riley was waiting for the two CSIs in the lobby, alongside a professor in a white lab coat. He made the introductions.
"Professor, this is Gil Grissom and Sara Sidle from the crime lab. Grissom, Sara, this is Doctor John Strickland, head of the Marine Science department."
"Doctor Strickland, we understand there was a break-in tonight?" asked Grissom.
"Yes, we have a security system in place. I was alerted by campus security immediately after the incident."
Just then, a uniformed officer approached O'Riley. They talked for a few moments, before approaching the professor and the CSIs. "The missing guard isn't missing anymore. Uniform found him in the nearby park."
Grissom turned to Sara. "You take the body. I'll follow the professor and deal with the theft."
"Fun," Sara said, letting a hint of sarcasm into her voice. "Where is it?" she asked O'Riley.
"This way," the burly detective said. Sara followed him outside, while Grissom followed the professor up two flights of stairs and down several corridors. They stopped outside a room, which was marked with a bio-hazard warning sign.
"This is where we keep various toxins and venoms we study in our department. This is also where the theft took place," the professor explained.
Grissom began dusting the doorknob for fingerprints. He found none. He turned to the professor, who was now also wearing gloves. "Can you show me what was stolen?"
"Yes, well, I'm not sure if you are aware of the value of the materials we keep in here, Mr. Grissom! These represent millions in grant funding from various organizations-"
Grissom held up his hand, exasperated at the lecture from the professor. "I have a Ph.D. in entomology, Doctor Strickland."
The professor was surprised, to say the least. "Ah," he said.
"Yes, and I publish at least four peer-reviewed papers in various forensic journals every year."
"I see. Well, thank you for that information, Dr. Grissom." There was a new-found respect in Strickland's eyes.
The two entered the room, which was full of heavy-duty refrigerators. The cold steel gleamed under the beam of Grissom's flashlight.
"From which refrigerator did the theft take place?"
"That one." Strickland pointed to a smaller unit near the windows. Grissom approached it carefully before opening it. The professor, standing behind him, said, "Those shelves should all be full of glass containers."
"Do you know what was stolen, Doctor?"
"Oh yes. It was my personal project. Sea snake venom."
"How much of it was there?"
"Quite a lot, actually. At least two jars the size of the one in your hands," pointing towards the jar of red powder in Grissom's left hand.
The attention of both men went towards the window when they heard a loud thunderbolt. Seemingly out of nowhere, rain began falling from the sky. It kept getting stronger until the dull roar of falling rain could be heard inside.
A look of despair marked Grissom's features. "Moriarty got lucky tonight."
---
Outside, Sara was fighting to save the evidence from the dead guard's body. She had just finished taking her first photos of the body and the area when she felt drops hit her arm.
She realized immediately that they had only precious moments left before all their evidence would be lost. She took photos as fast as she could, while David and the other coroner's assistants rushed to wrap the body and put it in a body bag. Soon, she was bringing up the rear of a stream of people rushing for cover from the rain.
Sara found shelter under the building's entrance. She had been wearing a water-resistant jacket, but her hair and pants had been soaked in the deluge. All around her, people were all trying to dry themselves as best as they could.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Grissom approaching her. Discarding the jacket, she said to him, "We lost the evidence. Fibers, fingerprints, shoeprints, everything." She shook her head. "It's all gone. He got lucky, Grissom."
"Yeah." Their eyes both turned towards the park, with no words spoken between them. Thunder could be heard in the distance.
Sara broke the silence. "Did you find out what was stolen?"
"Yeah. Sea snake venom. Up to ten times more toxic than a cobra's."
"Sea snake venom? Definitely an unusual target. Where'd you find the postcard?"
"Inside the fridge, where the venom used to be. No writing on the back this time."
"Now what? Anything at the scene? Fingerprints?"
He shook his head. "No signs of forced entry and no fingerprints. Even Red Creeper can't find something that isn't there." He paused for a moment. "The body is all the evidence we have. Doctor Robbins will be the only witness we have."
"No cameras?"
"No. Sara, it's a research lab, not a nuclear weapons facility."
"I know." Sara looked at her water-soaked clothing with a touch of annoyance. "Mind if we stop by my place first? I need to change out of these. You do know where I live, right?"
Grissom's voice was full of innocence. "I think I do."
"Good. Can we go now?"
The corners of Grissom's lips twitched upwards. "Sure."
---
Grissom and Doctor Robbins both stood over the body of the dead guard.
"Name is Adam Hatch. Driver's license in his wallet. 25 years old, no medical problems as far as I can see," the coroner said.
"Cause of death?"
"Apparent gunshot wound to the chest. Entry wound only, no exit wound."
"You're holding out, Albert. I can tell."
"You know me too well. Ordinarily, if there's no exit wound, the bullet or at least bullet fragments, should be inside the victim. X-ray is over there," the coroner said.
Grissom looked over the x-ray of the guard's torso. "There's no metal anywhere in here."
"That's right. Remember the DB you found at the body farm two years ago?"
Grissom turned to face the pathologist, his mouth agape. "You think it's a meat bullet? Again?" He could never forget that case, both for professional and personal reasons. That was when I almost drove her to quit and had to send the plant as penance. How could I forget?
"Well, it isn't exactly a secret. You did have a paper published on it, as I recall."
"Yeah, but..." His voice trailed off as he walked back to the autopsy table. "It's one of those things you expect to see only once."
"Well, I'll have to excise the wound tract to be sure, but it looks like you've got another one on your hands."
Grissom sighed. "I'd love to stay, but I've got more evidence to process. Page me when you've got anything."
"Sure," the coroner said, getting a handsaw ready.
---
Sara was waiting for Grissom inside the layout room, with the photos of the crime scene she had managed to take spread out before her. She looked up as he returned from the morgue. "Robbins tell you anything?"
Grissom treaded carefully, fully aware of what had happened back then. "No exit wound, and nothing metallic in his chest. He thinks it's a meat bullet."
He had Sara's full attention, and not for an entirely good reason. "Meat bullet? Like the case out in the body farm two years ago?"
"Right."
"Oh."
Like Grissom, Sara could never forget that case. When he said the lab needed me, I knew he was lying. Well, maybe not lying, just not telling the whole truth. It wasn't the lab that needed me; it was Grissom that needed me.
How I wish I could just rewind the past two years. And I thought things were tough then. They were positively easy compared to things now. Sara sighed. Why is remembering the past always so painful? It's not supposed to be this way.
Grissom could see the sorrow in Sara's eyes. Things have really gone downhill from then. We're both good at screwing up relationships, aren't we?
His voice broke Sara out of her reverie. "O'Riley tells us the guard was out on roving patrol inside the campus. No signs of forced entry anywhere in the building. No one heard or saw anything suspicious either. So, our suspect enters the building, enters the storage room, and steals the venom in record time."
"Not too difficult. Universities don't have the best security systems in the world. How does the guard end up dead?"
Grissom shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe he was out on foot patrol, when he sees our suspect out and about. Our suspect kills him to avoid having any witnesses."
"But no one heard any gunshots. Someone should have heard something."
He put a hand under his chin, rubbing it in thought. "Maybe not. Meat bullets are hand loads. If he reduced the powder load in his rounds and used a silencer, no one would hear a thing."
"No drag marks in the grass, and the body was found next to a concrete path."
"One shoeprint in your photos, though."
"Yeah, but we weren't able to cast it. It's useless."
"Maybe not. Have the photo sent to Archie, have him work his usual miracles."
"Looks like Moriarty isn't so perfect at all."
---
Grissom was back in his office, dealing with yet another mountain of paperwork. Just as he moved a folder to the pile on his right, he heard knocks on his door. Sara had come back from the AV lab, and she had brought the report with her.
Handing over the folder, she said, "Archie recovered the shoeprint. Ran it through the database, and it's a size 11 hiking boot."
Grissom read over the file. "Available at dozens of stores in Nevada alone. Beautiful."
"Beyond the shoe size, we have nothing. Again."
Grissom scratched the side of his head in frustration. Sara was pacing around the office, trying to work the energy off.
Sara wondered if she should bring up the whole promotion issue again. It was the latest thing between them that had bothered her, and it was something they had yet to discuss properly.
We really should talk about it without weaseling around each other. The problem then, of course, is that Grissom will retreat into that emotional fortress of his again just when I've succeeded in drawing him out just a little bit.
It's been pleasant to be around him these past two days. No, not just pleasant. It felt nice. Very nice, in fact. I've missed it, much more than I've admitted to myself before.
Why doesn't life have a rewind button? I'd certainly use it. A lot.
Sara saw that Grissom was also lost in thought. Looking into his eyes, she saw something she hadn't seen there before... sadness. They had lost some of the luster they once had.
It was a look, Sara knew, was mirrored in her own irises.
Out of nowhere, the insistent ringing of the fire alarm went off. Grissom instantly looked up; Sara turned around to face the door.
Sara was very tense. The last time the fire alarms inside the crime lab went off was when the lab blew up. She had managed to deal with that, but she still sometimes woke up in a cold sweat, the events of that day repeating itself in her mind.
It wasn't unique, however. It was just one of the many nightmares that conspired to deny her sleep.
People began filing out of the lab and the adjoining police station into the parking lot. Unlike the lab explosion when shock and fear had been the dominant emotions, today it was confusion. No one knew why the alarm had been activated.
Grissom was checking on the lab personnel when Brass called him over. The police detective was talking with Director Covallo. The administrator looked slightly shaken, Grissom noted.
Before Grissom reached the detective, however, the lab director went off in a separate direction. "What's going on? And what's wrong with Covallo?" asked Grissom, exasperated at the current state of affairs.
"Two questions, same answer. The director got a package with no return address; the sniffer got a whiff of explosives off of it. Bomb squad has been called and confirmed the package is a bomb; they just began defusing it."
"Any indications as to who sent it? Claims of responsibility?"
"No to both of those." Just then, the radio Brass had in his left hand went off. He spent a little under a minute talking to the person on the other end before turning back to Grissom.
"That was the bomb squad. They just defused the bomb. Guess what they found."
"I'm guessing it's not a box of chocolates, Jim."
"Afraid not. They found a postcard with a waterfall on it. Sound familiar?"
Grissom's gaze turned towards the parking lot. His eyes sought out his team, knowing the case had just taken a much more serious turn.
---
To be continued...